YAY! It's up! After many long weeks of thought and many days of writing, my story baby is born! And if I don't say so myself, she's healthy and happy. A few more chapters have been written, and she is growing fast, fed by my keyboard.
Please comment, constructive criticism appreciated and welcomed.
Thanks for reading!
IMPORTANT NOTE: In this story, the prophecy Rachel made at the end of TLO was not made and does not exist. Also, this story takes place ONE YEAR after the events of TLO.
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I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel. New York red lights are just too long sometimes. It was a crowded Monday morning on a cloudy June day and I had somewhere to be. I checked my watch. I was late to pick up Annabeth! Finally, the stoplight let up and a yellow light went up on adjacent lane, followed by a red one. I drove fast, crawling around the sleepy drivers in their Hondas, Fords, and the occasional sports cars. After a few more lights and a close call near central park, I drove up to Annabeth's apartment. She was renting this place with her dad for the year to watch over the Mt. Olympus rebuilding.
I got out of the car and locked it. Thankfully, I was a friend of the doormen, whom had let me in many times the last year to visit Annabeth, so they let me leave my car outside the building for a few minutes while I picked her up. They let me in and I pressed the button on the elevator and waited for it to arrive. I heard one of those really annoying elevator dings and the doors opened. A guy in a suit walked out, holding a briefcase. He gave me a dirty look as he passed by; like I was one of those teens you saw smoking outside. The nerve of that idiot! All the people in Annabeth's apartment seem to think all teens are up to trouble or something.
I the elevator let me out on the 8th floor. Walking down the green-carpeted hall, I counted the house numbers until I found hers. I went to her apartment and rang the doorbell. A few seconds later, Annabeth's dad showed up in front of door.
"Hello Percy!" greeted Mr. Chase, looking at me from over his glasses. He wore a red flannel robe and holding a cup of coffee. He doesn't work on Mondays, so I guess he slept late.
"Hi Mr. Chase. " I replied kind of uncomfortably.
"Annabeth will be out in a minute" he told me to break the silence.
"Sure"
I shifted my weight from one foot to another. After a few more moments of random waiting, Annabeth came out.
"Percy!" she called out, hugging me. She stepped back. "I'll get my stuff, just a sec"
She looked really pretty today. Her hair was in two braids; she wore a brown tank top and denim shorts. She looked at me for another quick second and smiled. Then she turned back into her apartment and pulled out a duffel bag and the old backpack she used to keep her books.
"Grab this, will you?" she told me, handing me the old backpack. It was purple with random pins and patches on it, you could see the marks where the corners or her big architecture book pressed into the sides of it. I swung it over my shoulder and followed Annabeth down the hall.
She walked ahead, her braids swinging as she walked. After a few seconds she stopped and turned towards me.
"I missed you. It's been over like what, 2 weeks now?" she asked, hugging me.
"Yeah, sure" I replied. "Lets go now. My car is waiting, and were gonna be late."
She then turned around and picked her bag up again and continued down he hallway.
"Ugh, so happy to get out of school! I miss everyone at camp, Grover and everyone. I've been talking to Chiron recently, and he says a good amount of the new kids stayed at camp over the year. He's expecting more to come in, with what the satyrs posted at the schools say. And they finished building the last cabin!" she informed me happily, pressing the button on the elevator.
"I'm just hoping my Dad doesn't decide to spring a brother or sister or something. I don't really want to take responsibility for anyone. I mean, it would be like, finding out you were, well I don't know, but it seem weird. Too much…well lets not hope it happens." I told her, switching her backpack onto my other arm.
"Yeah, no one wants another seaweed brain running around." She said sarcastically. "Plus I don't think it would be that bad, I mean, we get new kids at Athena often. It's not that bad. Wouldn't be cool to have someone else to talk to in your cabin to talk to?" she asked.
"Isn't it kind of weird to think about my dad, you know, having children with other women?" Annabeth giggled. "Oh lay off, you are a weirdo Athena brain-child, so you wouldn't know." I teased.
"I guess so. It doesn't seem to bother anyone else at camp." She countered, getting out of the elevator and walking out to the car.
"They probably think it, or thought it, at one point." I told her, opening the car and letting her into the passenger seat.
We closed the doors and threw her stuff into the back seat. I started the car and began to drive. I drove down the street and noticed that flecks of rain started to pepper the street and splatter on my car window. Dammit! I hoped this wouldn't affect the traffic. As we drove, Annabeth asked me questions about school, my grades, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She was now going to be at camp this summer full time as the new oracle.
I, in turn, asked her how the gods were enjoying the new Mt. Olympus. We had went to a gala there to celebrate the finishing of building. It was really fancy, with all the gods and minor gods, and all the half-bloods who protected Mt. Olympus from invasion by Kronos last summer. Luckily, I didn't have to be forced into a suit or anything, because everyone wore ancient Greek clothes. I had to wear this weird draped thing, but it was better than standing under the hot May sun crammed into a rented tux that was itching in all the wrong places.
Annabeth said that they were, and she was getting weekly updates and praise from her mother. I put the radio and the windshield wipers on to prepare the long drive over the bridge that was brimming with cars from New Jersey commuters trying to get into the city. It was a fun drive, we still had plenty to talk about, like who we missed most at camp and what kind of new stuff we would be doing.
After we got off the bridge, I got onto the quieter, smaller road that led to camp. It was really raining now, and getting hard to see. I did notice though, that there was a car a little behind us. It looked shiny, a Lexus or something.
I drove for a little while more when I heard Annabeth give a small yelp. I asked her what was wrong, and she silently pointed to a dark shape on the side of the road. It didn't take me too long to figure out that it was some sort of monster was trying to get to us. Quickly I drove over to the shoulder of the road, and pulled the keys out of the ignition. Then I took Riptide out of my pocket and uncapped it. Annabeth saw me doing this and pulled out her knife. We piled out of the car and approached the monster.
As I got closer, I didn't need to see it. I could smell it. The stinky smell kind of like a barn full of cows. The minotaur! I couldn't help but see a hint of irony, how I had to kill this same monster so many years ago. It brought back memories. Bad and good ones. We approached it, but it was raining really hard so it was hard to see. I sent the fist blow, a hard hit to it's waist, but I missed, and ended up only grazing his fur. It launched a parry with its big fist, but we got out of the way just in time. Annabeth slipped, and fell and hit her knee. She yelped, but I couldn't bend down to help her. I bent low, under the Minotaur's line of vision, to confuse it and gave it a big stab in the belly. It disintegrated, and I bent down to help Annabeth.
She was holding her knee. I lifted her hand gently, and it looked skinned, only slightly bleeding. I wiped it with the edge of my shirt. I noticed now that our clothes were plastered to our skin with wet. I felt my cargo shorts, heavy and wet, chafing my legs.
"Ugh!" said Annabeth, pulling on her shirt. "Lets get back to camp to get cleaned up."
We got up and walked over in our squeaky wet flip flops to my car. Before we could get to the door, I saw a person running towards us. Annabeth looked at me quizzically. Why would someone be running towards us now?
The person got closer, and I saw it was a guy. He got closer and closer. I saw he has curly-ish blonde hair and plain clothes.
"WAIT! Wait, Wait, Wait!" he yelled over the splattering rain. He walked closer to us. "What the hell was that? That, that thing! That thing you guy were fighting! You!" he turned towards me. "You had like a sword! A sword! A big glowing sword thingie! And, and, you like, stabbed it and it vaporized! What in the name of holy Jesus was all that?!" he asked us feverishly.
Annabeth looked at me with a look of pure confusion and terror. I knew she was wondering the same thing. How the freaking hell did he see us do that stuff?