Because my other story, "There's Someone Outside The Window", seems to be quite successful, in terms of the 764 views as of now, I've decided to upload this story too. I've heard it when I was way younger, and I'm not sure who was the one who wrote the original ghost story, but I'm retelling it in terms of PJaTO and HoO Characters. I hope you like it! This work is unbeta'd, so any mistakes made are mine.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything Percy Jackson related, as I am not Rick Riordan. First thing first, the gender is already wrong.
The Photograph: (Don't) Look For Me
As he was hurrying to school, he saw a photograph lying on the ground, innocently. Curious, he stooped to pick it up. There was a girl in the photo, smiling at the camera. The blonde had a bag slung over her shoulder, holding her left hand up in a victory sign. She was hugging a copy of "A Tale of Two Cities" with her right arm. Her stormy grey eyes sparkled with intelligence and humour, glittering with life.
The school behind her was the school he went to, and the two boys in the background looked familiar. Turning it around, Percy realised that aside from there were three names there, except that two of them were just initials. The third name was scrawled in a different handwriting. Annabeth Chase.
He decided to find that girl. Then he realised that he was going to be late for school if he did not start running, so he shoved that photo into his pocket and bolted for school.
During recess, he went to the library to ask the librarian if he knew her. Frederic Chase, the man who have worked at the library since before Percy had started attending the school, was a surprisingly smart person who is slightly overenthusiastic and has an almost photographic memory. He was capable of recognising everyone who had been to the library at least once, and, judging by the fact that the book she was holding was identical to the copy he had borrowed from the library to complete his reading assignment, she must have been to the library before. On top of that, they share the same last name, so they could be related. He was pretty sure the librarian had a son, Malcolm, who was attending the school. He was Percy's senior by a year.
However, Frederic denied having ever seen the girl before. He told Percy that no one by the name of Annabeth Chase had ever attended the school in the eleven years he had spent tending to the library. He was also certain that the girl in the photograph was not related to him, although she resembled his wife a lot. A little puzzled, Percy left the library looking at the photograph and wondering exactly why this girl would take a picture in front of their school if she never attended it.
As he retrieved the books he would need for his next class from his locker, someone asked, "What are you thinking about?" He looked up. It was Bianca, the girl whose locker was next to his. She was popular in the school, and she knew almost everyone.
Without thinking much about it, Percy showed her the picture of the girl. "Do you know her? Frederic says that no one by the name of Annabeth Chase has ever attended this school, but the book she is holding is obviously from our library. And the school behind her is obviously this school."
Bianca studied the photograph for a while, before shaking her head. "She looks really familiar, but I don't think I know her. I am pretty sure that she does not attend this school either. When was this photograph taken?"
"I don't know," Percy admitted. A hand landed on his shoulder, startling him into almost dropping the photograph.
"What are you looking at?" Jason Grace, the annoyingly friendly guy from the football team, looked over his shoulder to see the photograph. The grease monkey who likes to follow Jason around snatched the photograph from Percy.
"Wow," he commented after a while. "Is this your girlfriend? Dude, why didn't you tell us? I thought we were the best of friends!"
Percy felt himself flush as he grabbed the photograph back. "No," he snapped. "I don't know her, I picked this photograph up on the sidewalk." As an after thought, he added, "And you aren't my best friend, I tolerate you because Jason likes having you around, for some reason."
"Hey," Leo gave an outcry of mock rage. "Since when was I degraded to 'someone Jason likes having around'?"
Percy ignored him in favour of asking Jason if he knew her.
"No," Jason replied. "Say, if she is not your girlfriend and you don't know her, why are you so obsessed with finding her?"
"I'm not!" Percy protested immediately. "I'm just curious about who she is!"
"Sure," Jason said, giving him an understanding look. Leo seemed to have recovered from the blow to his ego and was smirking, giving Percy a wink when Percy glared at him.
That night, Percy took a break from his homework and stared at his bedroom ceiling. His thoughts wandered aimlessly and eventually led him to the girl again. He straightened up and looked at the picture, placed on his pencil case. Alright, maybe he was a little obsessed, Percy admitted silently, but she looked so familiar…
Someone seems to be calling his name from outside the window. Pushing his chair back, Percy got up and looked out. It was already dark, with the exception of the street lamps, which was few and far between. There did not seem to be anyone there. 'I must be hallucinating,' Percy decided. As he moved to close his windows, he heard his name being called again. There was an extra shadow near the lamp directly opposite his house. There was a girl standing there, outside the gates leading to Jason's house. She was waving at him. She looked so familiar, as if… Suddenly, he felt the need to go downstairs to greet her.
As he hurriedly put on a jacket, he paused and looked at the picture, feeling compelled to take it with him. Grabbing it, he ran downstairs, remembering to turn off the lights, as his parents were not home - they were at the cinema. Again, he had no idea why he would want to do that, but he obeyed his impulses.
Locking his house door behind him, he looked across the street. The girl was standing there - Annabeth Chase. She smiled at him. He hurried across the street to get to her.
He was almost there when a car came out of nowhere. Literally. It was just there, suddenly, and Percy had no time to react. He did not fully register the impact, not even when he was knocked photograph flew out of his hand when he let go.
The last thing before the blackout was that there was no one by the lamppost.
The photograph fluttered down and settled on the sidewalk.
"Bye, Thalia, be back soon!" Jason called as he unlatched the gate and walked out. He stopped, looking at the photograph on the pavement. Bending down, he picked it up.
There was a girl in the photo, smiling at the camera. The blonde had a bag slung over her shoulder, holding her left hand up in an "Okay" sign.
She was indicating that it was alright to go ahead and take the photograph? Jason was not too sure, but he thought that he had seen her before. Or at least, have heard of her before. He noticed that the three people in the background looked really familiar, although he could not recall exactly who they were. Turning the photograph around, he inspected the names written there. Three sets of initials and a name. Annabeth Chase. He had heard it yesterday, Jason was sure. Someone had asked about her, right? Was it Leo? Or… Jason shook his head.
There was something, just out of reach. He just could not recall it. Being frustrated does not help, Jason knew, so he decided to just sit this out and hope the pieces will fall into place by themselves, even though he hated knowing that he should know something, but was unable to recall anything but small fragments that does not make sense. For example, the green-eyed boy waving at her in the background of the picture. He was not even able to tell how he knew that that boy had green eyes, he just knew. There was also the constant feeling that something is off, really wrong, about this.
As he walked to school, he contemplated whether he should try to find the girl in the picture. Maybe she could explain why he felt as though he was missing something really important.
AN: Alright, I'll let you guess what really happened. Please review and tell me what you thought of this story! As of now, there's no sequel planned, but who knows?