A Chance Encounter

"Bianca, check this out!"

I turned to my little brother. "What, Nico?"

"Frankie—you know, the bellhop guy-just gave me a platinum card for a whole new floor of games! Let's go check it out!" Nico grinned at me and held up the plastic Lotus Casino card.

"Keen! I promise, I'll be there in a minute."

Nico pouted. "Why, Bianca? Come on, everyone else is busy."

I gestured to the young man standing next to me. "This fellow wants to talk to me for some reason. But it shouldn't take too long, should it….." I trailed off. "What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't say. But it's Percy. Percy Jackson."

I surveyed the boy from head to toes. He seemed about my age, with dark hair and green eyes. He seemed nice enough, but I wasn't sure why he would want to talk to me.

Nico sighed. "Fine. Go hang out with your boyfriend, I don't care."

I glared at him. "Nico! He's not my boyfriend; I just met him."

With a smirk, Nico said, "Surrrre." He bounced off, hopefully to bother someone else.

"I'm so sorry about that. If you don't have any siblings, thank your mother, Percy. So, what did you want to ask me about?"

The boy glanced furtively around him. His emerald eyes darted back and forth. What did he have to hide? It's not like there was anything wrong with this place. It's the sweetest building I'd ever been in. Sweet. That was a word I had picked up from a kid last week. I liked it, and used it whenever possible.

"Nothing much," Percy said. "Come on, let's play a game. You have your card, don't you?"

"Of cours-" I started to say, but Percy was already walking over to a skeeball game machine. He inserted his card, and handed me a ball.

I rolled the ball up the ramp, and was pleased to see it land in the forty point slot. "Neat-o!"

Percy looked at me a little funny, but didn't say anything. "What?" I demanded. "What's the matter?"

Once again, Percy merely replied, "Nothing." When I placed my hands on my hips, raising my eyebrows, he quickly said, "Well, uh, I just wanted to talk. You looked kind of cool."

"Cool? Percy, it's got to be over eighty degrees in here! I just asked them to turn up the air conditioning a few minutes ago."

He laughed, but his brow furrowed. "So, Bianca. That is your name, isn't it?" When I nodded, he continued. "How long have you been here?"

"At the Casino?"

"Yeah."

"It's been a while. We were some of the first kids in here at first. Then, all of a sudden, it keeps getting busier and busier. Now there are people everywhere. A social worker brought us here…three weeks ago? Maybe more?" Why was it so hard to remember all of a sudden?

"Oh Hades."

"What was that?" I asked. That was a saying I hadn't heard before.

Percy suddenly turned hard of hearing. He rolled the last ball up the skeeball ramp. The high scores screen popped up, and Percy started to enter our names. I'd had a lot of practice over the last few weeks, and it had apparently paid off.

A new screen appeared, with a space to enter the date. Percy frowned at it, then turned to me. "This sounds strange, but I can't remember the year for some reason."

"You can't remember the year?"

He shrugged. "Call it temporary amnesia. Anyway, what is it?"

I thought for a second. Again, why was this so difficult to remember? Thinking at all seemed to hurt my head. "I-I don't…."

Then the answer popped into my head. "1940," I said confidently. "It's 1940."

Even to this day, I've never seen anyone turn so pale so quickly.

"Percy, are you alright?" He looked like he was about to pass out in front of me.

He swallowed hard, then said, "Yeah. I'm fine. I think I need something to eat. Excuse me, Bianca."

Then, without a goodbye or a 'wanna-meet-back-here-in-twenty-minutes', Percy was gone, disappeared into the crowd.

"Wait!" I cried, but if Percy heard me, he didn't turn around. Why had he looked so terrified?

"Tut tut, Bianca, dumped on your very first date. Well, we can't all be as good looking as moi."

I whirled around to look into the face of a certain irritating ten year old. "Nico, be quiet. We were just playing a game together."

"You know sis, all the experts say that denying the problem just makes it all the worse."

"Nico, would you like to reach your eleventh birthday?"

"Love it."

"Then I would suggest you knock it off in the next four seconds."

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you. Are you ready to go to the new floor now?" He handed me the little platinum card.

I glanced around one last time, but didn't see Percy. There was something odd about him, and I wasn't sure what.

"Bianca?" Nico was tugging on my wrist.

"Nico, don't do that. Yes, I'm ready to go." I allowed him to lead me to the elevators.

Stop thinking about him, my brain told me. But he had looked scared—dead scared. And he was scaring me, too.

Just then, the elevator doors opened. I gasped as I saw the array of games, rides, and flashing lights that lay ahead of me.

Percy Jackson could wait, I decided.

"Come on Nico, it's playtime!"