My old fanfic stank so much. I was new to writing fanfics, and I was so excited to just get started. I deleted it and I don't feel any remorse about it, that's how bad it was.
But I'm back with a better story-line and a better OC. Everything matches up with the timeline, but this has no correlation to the actual series, or Trials of Apollo. Every important main character (that is still alive) is in Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter.
Except Calypso.
There will be references, though, and not just to PJO or the other books.
The storytelling will be strictly in 2nd person POV.
I DON'T OWN PERCY JACKSON!
Friday, August 15, 12:30 pm*
The girl sat in the back of the cab and stared blankly ahead. A thousand thoughts were swimming in circles around her mind.
'Why is this city so suit-and-tie?'
'Can I remember my address?'
Those were the top two that were the first to come to her head. She and her father, who sat next to her, were only going to be in New York for about 6 months. It was odd for an International Traveling Sales Representative to be staying in one place for that long. Though she had to say, New York was definitely not in the top 10 of her favorite places. In her life, she'd spent the past 4 years, 4 months, and 14 days traveling the world.
Everything was hustle and bustle. Huge crowds reminded her of those large balls of fish in the ocean from the Planet Earth documentary; they moved in the same direction, the same place, and all at the same pace. Either you were in the group, or you were food for the sailfish.
The cab jerked forward as the driver slammed on the brakes to avoid running over a man who was paying too much attention to his cellphone.
"Hey, I'm walkin' here!" The pedestrian shouted at the taxi in a yankee accent. The driver returned the comment with the birdie. They had moved to Manhattan, just near the Queensboro Bridge to rent an apartment for the next six months; then they'll be off to the next city/state/country that her father's agency wanted to drop them.
"So, Alice, what do you think of Manhattan, so far?" Her father asked her, breaking the awkward silence.
"It's too big." She answered simply. Ever since her father started taking her on his trips with him when she turned 10, they'd stayed in small towns. Alice would attend some schools, if they were there long enough, and learn the language and cultures before moving to the next ones. She had a few favorites that she didn't want to leave behind, including: Chaumont, Haute-Marne in France, Sapphire, Queensland in Australia, León, Spain, and recently Fujisaki, Japan. Now that Alice was in the big city she didn't really feel like she was at home.
Her red hair was in an bun that was tied together by a black ribbons; the bun was impaled by a pair of gold-tinted Japanese metal hair stick with glittering glass cabochon, which was engraved with owls, and had blue and black kanzashi beads that hung from the sticks. She wore a deep purple, off-the-shoulder Bardot top that she got while in France. From Spain, she wore a sequined, black Chiffon Tulle tennis mini skirt with black legging underneath. Lastly, she had Lynette Black French Lace Sambag shoes on that her father got her for Christmas (or Boxing Day, in Australia).
"Oh, come on." Her father nudged her playfully. "You don't know what adventures might be around the corner. I know you don't like big cities, but you've got to give this place a chance. At least for the next 6 months, then we'll be out of here. Besides, we'll be having your 14th birthday here." He flashed a white-toothed smile at her. His dark burgundy hair was combed back, as always. He wore a casual blue polo with light khaki pants with black loafers.
Alice stayed silent for a moment and allowed her deep blue eyes to scan the rapidly moving scenery. "Okay." Her first experience in a bustling city was when she and her dad were visiting Hong Kong for a week. They got separated in the crowds and either no one cared to help her, spoke English, or even just kicked her to the side. Literally, a man kicked her away when she tried to ask for help. She was so young and terrified. Now whenever she was in huge crowds she would get panic attacks much faster.
"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First." The taxi driver announced to the backseat. They had stopped outside of an apartment building. Though the proper name for these buildings would be called tenements. It was a six-story brick apartment with a bunch of windows. The iron fire-escape blocked the view from most of the windows, but Alice wouldn't want the view of another person's apartment either. The taxi driver took their luggage out of the cab trunk while Alice's father paid the man.
'From John F. Kennedy International Airport to East 104th Street, that's $62.23.' Alice calculated in her head. '1 Euro (European currency) equals $1.14 of the US Dollar, so that's €54.63 in France. In Japan, it's ¥6789.61 (yen), since every yen is 0.0092 to the US Dollar.'
She always tired to remember the currencies of the countries she had visited previously, in case they ever had to go back. It made her good at calculating money. But she still had a C+ average in math. That was because it was hard to keep track of which units of measurement she had to use for different countries.
Her father walked with her until they got inside. The landlord directed them to the back for her dad to sign some paperwork. Her father stopped before going inside the room. He turned toward Alice and handed her the apartment key.
"Why don't you take up the bags?" He said giving her a smile. "You can pick out your room this time."
"Okay." Alice, again, said simply. The apartment key was dropped into her hand and she got into the elevator. Their apartment was on the 5th floor. The doors opened to a narrow hallway, with only 5 doors on each side in a zig-zag pattern. Alice walked to the end of the hall and unlocked her apartment. Inside, there wasn't much to write home about.
The furniture was crammed into the room like an overstocked consignment store, and all of it was covered by sheets that you would see in haunted houses. There were solid wood pieces and peeling vinyl; there were floral lamps, coffee tables and and a random assortment of chairs. The walls were a bland grey. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls in some places, revealing what used to be a bleach white color. The once shining, oak floor creaked under her feet as she rolled their luggage into the front room. To her right, Alice saw a hallway leading to three doors, possibly the bedrooms and bathroom. A simple wooden table was in the center of the kitchen. A full size fridge and cabinets lined the walls.
"Achoo!" Alice sneezed as the dust piled into her nose, though there wasn't much of it. People often told her she sneezed like a kitten; soft and much less volume was used than how other people sneezed. She proceeded to carry her backpack and wheel her suitcase into the farthest room at the end.
It was small, with only a creaky bed pushed into a corner and desk that laid under the window leading to the emergency fire escape. Even with the glass blocking out the late summer heat, the street noise was heard loud and clear. The bed itself was just a mattress, a pillow, and a comforter on a wooden frame. At least it was clean. A closet door was open just crack, showing nothing but darkness. In the corner that was opposite to the bed, was a three-self bookcase squatting and collecting dust and cobwebs. It seemed strong enough to hold some weight.
"I have a place to put my manga, I guess that's okay." Alice said casually to herself. Alice proceeded to start hanging her clothes in the closet.
Friday, August 15, 5:45 pm
"Hey, Alice." Alice's father called out to her from the kitchen. Alice looked up from one of her manga volumes.
"Yes?" She called back.
"I'm ordering takeout from Sushi Lemon Life, do you want your Rainbow Roll?" He asked. Alice smiled. The Rainbow Roll has always been her favorite, ever since she and her father discovered sushi; it was salmon and tuna with white fish on top and rolled in white rice.
"Yes, please." She answered. She put her bookmark in her manga and climbed off the bed. After she had cleaned up her room and put everything in its place, it didn't look so bad. The only two downsides were that she could still here the traffic jam outside and there was no air vent in this room, so she'd have to keep her door open to keep the air circulating. But there wasn't an air vent in her father's room either, so it wasn't worth whining about.
Before she walked out, she paused to look in the mirror that she hung up. She stared intensely into her reflected eyes, two blue orbs with the left eye strangely unable to contract. Her right eye contracted and dilated just fine. Alice sighed and walked out to the front room. Her father had just finished getting off the phone and was now sitting on the couch. "Hey." He greeted. "Edge of Tomorrow is on." He pointed to the somewhat old model of the TV.
Alice smiled and sat next to her father. She was really particular about her sci-fi genres, since barely any of them kept her attention. But Edge of Tomorrow made it work. It was the scene where William (Tom Cruise) was waking up multiple times and being called "Maggot!".
"I wouldn't be able to stand that." Her father commented. "But it would be cool to have time-travelling powers."
"Well, it's not really time-travel that he's using." Alice replied. "It's mainly influenced by the Multiverse theory."
"What's that?" Her father asked.
"It's a theory that suggests if you do use "time-travel"," Alice explained with quotation marks. "You're actually stepping into another universe. It would be more prevalent if your actions caused something. Like if someone were to go back and stop JFK from getting assassinated, they would actually be going into a dimension where that event never occurred and it would be a whole different world."
Alice's father looked at her and smiled. "I'm still surprised you're my daughter. You're way too smart to be mine."
Alice frowned slightly. She never knew her mother. All she knew was that her mother left her on the doorstep of her father's hotel room.
She decided to change the subject. "So which school will I be going to?"
"I didn't enroll you this time." He admitted, a forced tone in his voice. "You're staying home."
Alice looked at her father in mild bewilderment. He usually enrolled her in schools when they were staying in one place for 5 or more months. They were going to be staying in New York for 6 months, the same amount of time they had spent in Japan.
Before she could ask why she wasn't being enrolled in school, there was a buzz at the front door intercom device. "Room 237*, a sushi delivery guy says that he has your food."
"Oh, good." Her father got off the couch and walked to the door. "I'm starving."
"I'll get it." Alice said abruptly.
Her father stopped just as he reached for the door knob. He looked at her for a moment, before shrugging. "All right." He gave Alice the change and went to use the bathroom.
Alice walked out of the apartment, glad to be out of there because it was quite stuffy. She went over to the elevator and pressed the ground floor. The ride down was uneventful; it wasn't until she paid the delivery guy and went back into the elevator that someone shouted, "Hold the elevator!"
Alice swiftly put her foot in front of the closing doors to let the person on, since her arms were filled with sushi. A pair of crutches were carrying a very mature looking guy with curly brown hair, brown eyes, Caucasian skin and a wispy beard.
"Thanks." The guy's voice broke(?).
As the elevator ascended, Alice realized that the guy didn't press any floor button, and he seemed to be flaring his nostrils with a confused look on his face. He was side glancing at her and overall he was making her uncomfortable. The elevator ride began to slow down when Alice side glanced at him, only to realize that he was now looking straight at her.
Something was odd about him.
"So, uh, you new to the building?" The guy asked.
"Yes." Alice said simply. She didn't bother looking at him, hoping that her lack of engagement in his attempts at conversation would make him get the hint.
"..." He looked around awkwardly, thinking she would keep talking. "What's your name?"
"Alice." She answered quickly.
"...Are you from around here?"
"No."
The elevator finally reached her floor and she got out, relieved that she didn't have to talk to him anymore.
"See yah." He nodded his head, but Alice didn't respond and walked to the apartment. She felt his eyes watching her as she went into the unit.
Monday, August 17, 5:30 pm
Alice had gotten up, showered, and ate breakfast. She remembered she wasn't going to school, but she still got up early, at about 8:30. Her father had already left for his business meetings.
She decided to finish unpacking and then play some video games. She was nearly complete with one of the new books she had picked up, anyway. She also continued practicing her Ocarina*, much to the complaint of one of her neighbors.
When her dad returned home, it was around 5:40 pm. Alice was sitting on the recently dusted couch, wearing a simple white t-shirt and Bermuda jean shorts. Her hair was pulled into a simple ponytail. She was reading one of her mangaka that she had received from Japan.
"Hey, guess what?" He asked, placing his brief case on the couch.
"I give up." Alice said, "What should I be guessing?"
"Our new neighbors just invited us over for dinner." He said cheerfully.
"Which ones?" Alice placed her manga down on the coffee table and sat up.
"The Jacksons." He answered, while taking off his suit's jacket. As he was going into the next room, Alice could see a familiar red mark on his shirt.
'Work was probably stressful today.' She guessed. "Did Phyllis do her research on everyone in the building?"
"Yes, and the Jacksons have no connections." Her called out from his bedroom, changing from his business attire and getting into more semi-casual clothing for the dinner. "But the son oldest son of the family, Percy, has a bit of a history."
Alice searched her memory for any recollection of a 'Percy Jackson'. When he was 12, he was declared missing and was accused of kidnapping his own mother by his first stepfather. However, after a months of going across the country, it turns out both his mother was kidnapped by someone else and Percy was the one that was kidnapped and it all ended with a gunfight on a beach in California. Now his previous stepfather was gone without a trace and his mother remarried.
"Apparently, Percy has been through a lot." The redhead's father surmised as he came out into the living room. He wore a simple blue pollo with jeans and his brown shoes. "But still be careful with him."
"I always keep Rosebud with me." Alice reassured him. "I never leave without her." She grabbed her jacket and straightened out her shirt.
"That's my girl." Her father smiled brightly his daughter's preparedness. "Now let's go meet the neighbors."
The date: Friday, August 15, 12:30 pm is a reference to a song called Kagerou Daze.
Room 237 is the room from the Shining where all the bad shit went down.
The Ocarina is actually a real Chinese instrument, but it was only made popular by LoZ's Ocarina of Time.