Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson series or any of it's characters. I only own the plot.
AN: BOOK TWO! I am so proud of this and so excited to have gotten to this point, I haven't ever finished a story besides one shots before. This is number two in the High School Trilogy, number one being THIRTY FIVE CHAPTERS! I hope you all enjoy this one as much as the last, we'll see where this thing goes. Depending on when I post this (I finished March 14th of 2018), I might be either in the middle of finals or it's summer or I'll be starting my Senior year of high school. I started this journey the start of my Freshman year for a friend who actually has not read this. But now I'm doing it for myself and for all of my fans. I love you all, I hope you enjoy.
Annabeth's POV
Packing up camp was almost easy, there wasn't enough collected in either my cabin or at my parents to make a real difference. I could put it off and say my goodbyes, it never really felt real. But packing up the apartment was different. It felt like I didn't have enough time and way too much all at the same time. "Where's my interview outfit?"
"Already packed in the bag with all the nice outfits. The car is packed so all of your clothes and decorating stuff is in the back, bed sheets are the first thing and I already talked to your roommate so the aesthetic matches." Piper literally had a clipboard and was going around to all our rooms to make sure we were right on schedule. "All of your summer stuff is packed up and in your closet but ready if you ever need it, your dad sent over a bunch of gift cards, because he knows you won't take money directly. Also there's a..Magnus here to see you?" I would have laughed at how much she was acting like an assistant if I wasn't so surprised by her words.
I took a deep breath and followed her down to living room, almost tackling Magnus when I saw him. "Hi. I'm panicking, how's your life going? How's Alex, did you finally get the nerve to ask her out or is she still waitlisting you? I might be having a mental breakdown."
"I'm dead Annabeth. The house is doing awesome and Alex stopped waitlisting me as you so kindly put it, we're dating and the fact that I basically arrested his dad did nothing to damper our relationship. So that's good." Magnus shrugged. "Anyway, about that mental breakdown of yours. I think it's spreading because even I'm getting stressed with the way everyone is running around." He ran a hand through his hair as he dodged a spear that Clarisse was running around with trying to find Chris so he could turn it into it's magic item and not a deadly weapon. "You Greeks are weird."
"SAYS THE DEAD NORSE!" Nico shouted from the kitchen where he was trying to prepare snacks for the road while people kept poking in and taking what he got done. He walked in with a fork, shoved it at his boyfriend and said, "Try." When he got approval, Nico ran back into the kitchen to defend his work. "CECIL, YOU ASSHOLE!"
I pressed my face into his waiting hug, trying to breathe normally. "Percy is with his mother getting the rest of our stuff that Sally is going to bring over with him. She wanted to say goodbye to everyone too since she basically adopted them. I think she actually adopted Nico..."
"As nice as it is to meet whoever you are, we need to bring all of your stuff down to the car from the room so..." Piper was clearly trying to shoo him out because he was distracting me from our task, but he offered his superhuman strength for boxes. "Well. As long as you don't break anything or drag in a monster..."
"Alex is coming to pick me up, but he's not coming inside so I promise no monsters." He laughed as I made a swipe at him, making a comment about how he should be nice to his boyfriend. "You know I adore him, but there is no way in Hel that I am ever going to be nice to him. Unless I get something out of it..." Considering the fact that he did decapitate Magnus the first time they fought together, it wasn't that surprising that their entire relationship was just who could push the other farther until they had to make up. Or out. More often or not it was the later.
After finally realizing I should tell Piper who Magnus is, she warmed up to him a little. She was especially interested in how little Annabeth was like growing up. She wasn't disappointed exactly, more like annoyed that there wasn't that much to tell. "I can't believe you guys didn't see each other enough to give me little details. Percy loves her too much to tell me anything..."
Speak of the devil, he pulled in with his mom right as we finished loading up the car. As fun as the sports cars were when we first got them, they weren't really practical. Hephaestus had thankfully charmed them to switch to SUVs when we wanted them too. Even though there was still room left once they were done putting in Annabeth's stuff, not all of Percy's stuff was going to fit. Even though she was definitely going to go with them anyway, it was the perfect excuse for Sally to help them move in and make sure Percy didn't screw up the "perfectly organized" plan Piper had created for him.
"Thanks for being here man, Annabeth probably would killed someone if you didn't show up. The guys in her life need iron skin." They fistbumped as I rolled my eyes like they were following a paddle wheel. "Come on, Wise Girl. You love us more than we annoy you which is why I'm not dead yet."
"You aren't dead yet because I made sure you didn't do anything too stupid. And by some miracle, you survived being in an active volcano." I poked his chest as he just laughed, letting him open the passenger door for me. I waved goodbye to Magnus who was disappearing into an alley with Alex, dangerous grins on their faces. I could accept that. I turned to look at him as he buckled in. "Are you ready to say goodbye?"
He reached over so his hand was on my knee, already pulling out of the parking lot behind the line of buses that were loaded with the friends flying away to different parts of the country. Different parts of the world. "This isn't goodbye, it's just see you later. You know we can't get rid of any of them, Rachel is going to be calling because she's struggling with the language…" He ignored my laughing and the fingers twisting into the curls at the nape of his neck. "Clarisse needs to call me Prissy at least once a day, Nico loves me no matter what he says and he's not going to be able to handle everyone on his own. Jason is going to call to say goodnight…" He went on to explain in great detail how all of our friends were going to be badgering us. "So really, we won't miss them at all."
"You're going to cry as soon as we get out of the car aren't you?" He nodded slowly as he pulled into the airport parking lot. I unbuckled so I could reach over and kiss him on the cheek, ignoring the wolf whistle from the motorcycle next to us. Leo could kiss what he got a glimpse of.
The first to leave was Nyssa who only had one bag that wasn't already flown via Hermes express to Massachusetts. She was the quiet one in the group, always ready to help with projects and math problems. She saved her voice for when she was watching sports games or was defending herself in schools, calling people out for things she saw and wasn't going to take. "You, hermanito, make sure you don't blow up the shop room. I might teach there one day for fun." If we were a cartoon, Leo would have looked like one of those squeeze popper toys.
"I love you, go show everyone who's boss on campus." Leo kissed her hair before backing away to let Calypso get her hug in too. The only other one who had a special goodbye with her was Thalia who had almost recruited her the Hunters, but they both agreed she was more of a city person than a "live in the woods and play with wolves" person.
Nyssa was crying as she finally reached me in the line but it was silent ones that rolled down her cheeks and disappeared. "Thanks for being a good opponent in capture the flag games, it was fun to beat someone challenging for a change." I laughed and drew her in for a quick hug, pulling away soon after. She waved goodbye as she headed off towards TSA, smirking at the poor TSA worker as they tried not to look shocked from the image that probably popped up on their screen.
Travis was next because they were going to the same airport in Boston, they were going to be on the same plane in fact and we made sure their tickets made them seated as far apart as possible. We didn't want the plane to crash before they got to the airport, at least there Nyssa could fix it before someone noticed. He bro hugged everyone which made us all laugh, "You are all bros now because I can't call good people…" He grinned crookedly as Katie whacked his arm before throwing herself into his arms. She was saying goodbye to everyone too because she had a flight a few hours after his took off to Indiana. Iris and Hermes made sure they all got flights on the same day so it didn't drag out goodbyes. "Come on Kit Kat, I need to say goodbye to Connor." She refused to let go, only pulling Connor into the pile too.
From New York there were five cars going in five different directions. The white van that Chiron had sent to carry the people flying off was returning to Camp Half-Blood, Argus smiling knowingly as he nodded his goodbye. Rachel was saying goodbye to Reyna quietly against her car, nuzzling her girlfriend's cheek gently to get her to smile as she probably made some poetic comment like, "I want to see your smile in the corner of my eyes for the whole trip." She was heading to Portland Maine for Art school and refused to let anyone get her a flight. "I don't get to sing like Mrs. O'Leary on planes. Besides, most air travel has been ruined for me." She had glared at Percy at that point, making me laugh as I tried to compare the girl who almost crash landed a helicopter to the one before me. Being the oracle suited her; and not just so she couldn't date Percy.
"I will call and text and visit, I promise. I'm going to miss all of you, I hope high school won't be too boring without me!" Rachel blew sarcastic kisses to everyone and climbed into the driver's seat of her Subaru. It was hard to even get her her license as she had never driven before she appeared at camp and Percy was the one to teach her for the most part.
I watched her disappear into the busy streets and turned only to find Clarisse red faced, almost like she was trying not to cry. I smiled as she hugged Frank tightly before hugging me too. "Don't let Prissy talk you into anything stupid, remember I'm the reason he calls you Wise Girl and don't let him forget why." I let her try and break my ribs, trying not to cackle as Percy engulfed her in a hug that she relaxed into only slightly. She couldn't let her tough girl image disappear, but she actually liked Percy. If only because it was fun to tease him. I grabbed Percy's hand tightly as Chris and her fought over who was going to drive to their first destination on the road trip they'd planned, turning to our own car. NYU, you are so unprepared. But maybe so were we.