Just Read.

Sadie

Now that everything was over and done with, I was relived. Sure, we had worse coming. It was just the calm before the storm, I knew that. And I was going to enjoy it.

I remembered, when we first arrived at New York, Amos had mentioned something about other gods in Manhattan… Naturally, I had to check it out! It was the middle of winter, and snow was softly falling on the pavement of the busy streets. So far, I'd found nothing out of the ordinary, but I was keeping an eye out.

"Sadie! Sadie, there you are! What are you doing here? You know Amos said not to come to Manhattan!" Carter scolded, coming up behind me.

I groaned, "Carter! C'mon, have a little fun, a little adventure! Aren't you curious as to why we can't be here?"

"Adventure?" Carter asked angrily, "Adventure? I've had enough adventure to last a lifetime, thank you very much! Now, c'mon, we should go home."

"You can go if you want to, but I'm staying. You can't make me leave." I retorted hotly, not stopping, not turning around.

Carter followed behind in pensive silence for a while, "Fine. But there's no way I'm leaving you here alone."

"Fine," I continued walking, completely ignoring him. We went for a while not finding anything of interest, and I was just about to suggest we turn back, that there wasn't anything here at all, when I heard a girl's voice calling in the distance, "PERCY! PERSEUS JACKSON! DO YOU HEAR ME? PERCY!" The voice sounded desperate and fierce, like this Percy guy was everything to her. Overreaction.

I was about to shrug it off as some overprotective mom, when I saw the girl. She was tall, maybe around 16 or 17, tan and athletic looking. She had curly blonde hair piled in a ponytail, but it was falling out. Her eyes were a startling gray, like storm clouds.

Now, nothing about this prospect impressed me. It's not why we stopped. We stopped because her strong, athletic figure was slumped and overtired, because her curls were limp and lifeless, because the dark circles under her eyes indicated that she had not slept for some time. Her gray eyes were tinted red, and darting around like a scared animal. But our biggest clue that she might not be so normal? She was gripping a knife, looking like she was ready to impale someone.

"Hey, Sadie. Look over there! See that girl?" Carter whispered to me, eyes glued to the girl. I rolled my eyes. No, I completely missed the knife-wielding maniac.

"Yeah, I see her. Think she might be something?" I whispered back.

"Defiantly. Let's go check it out," he led the way over to her.

Didn't want to be here? Mm-hmm, looks like it.

"Hey, umm, I'm Carter and this is Sadie." Carter said as he approached the wild girl, introducing us.

"That's great, but look, I'm a little preoccupied right now so if you could just…" she trailed off and attempted to sidestep us.

"Look, we're trying to help you here, so if you could let us, we'll find this Percy guy and then we can all just get on with our business." I put in, because I wasn't going to just stand there and let Carter be pushed around when we were trying to help this chick! She's bloody annoying.

She eyed us suspiciously. If it were anyone else, I would have stepped closer, looked her in eye right back, and said, "You want our help or not?" But she wasn't ordinary. I practically crumbled under her gaze. I looked in her eyes and saw millions of secrets swirling around in the storm clouds, as if she was drawing them from me. It was cowardly and stupid, but my eyes went down and down until I was looking boldly at her trainers. Brilliant.

I don't know what she would have said or done, but luckily or unluckily Carter stepped in. (I'm thinking it was more lucky.)

"Sorry, but she is right. We want to help. We can, I'm sure. Don't mind Sadie, she's a little… impulsive."

I glared at him, and noticed she had shifted her gaze to him as well, but it seemed softer than the one she gave me. Of course, because he's Carter.

"I don't mind impulsive. Most of the time. I was just thinking… she reminds me of a friend of mine." She turned to me again, but it was much less threatening. Almost… curious, like she was studying me.

"Who? Percy?" I jeered, trying to regain my composure.

Her expression visibly darkened, but a hint of laughter flickered across her secretive eyes. "No, but close. Very close."

"So, will you accept our help?" Aww, Carter! Why does he always have to take the diplomatic approach!

Her eyes flickered between us, impassive and revealing nothing, like all the secrets and intelligence were just building up and would remain in her head forever.

"Yes. Yes, I think I will."

Alright, the next chapter will be in Annabeth's POV. What will happen next? Read to find out! Break's over tomorrow, so I won't have much time to write, but I'll try. (Review really encourage me, hint, hint)

Peace, Love, & Life

PLKBerry