I met Percy Jackson on the first day of hel- high school I mean high school. Our encounter wasn't anything interesting; he needed a place to sit during lunch, I need someone else's company other than my idiotic cousin Max's. Our exchange went something like this:
"Yo, do you mind if I sit here?"
"It's a free country, pull up a chair."
"I'm Percy."
"Alec."
Thus our beautiful friendship was born. By beautiful, I mean slightly disturbing and confusing. Let me elaborate. My first impression of Percy was that he was laid back. The dude never really gave a fuck about anything. Insult him? He'd brush it off. Throw his shit across the room? He would go pick it up like nothing happened. I always thought he was a pushover. I asked about it one time and his response was: "I've been through worse." No one could really get a reaction out of Percy. The guy was a freaking statue.
I didn't think anything could get to him. That is until Jack Stewart thought it would be funny to push around Max and call him names. I don't think I've ever seen Percy so pissed. I tried to pull him away, I mean I respect the dude for trying to stand up for my cousin and all but Jack was the fucking captain of the god dam wrestling team. He was ripped and could probably kill us with just his thumb. Percy was a tall, thin dude who looks like he never lifted a weight in his life. He wouldn't survive. He. Had. No. Chance.
I gave up when I saw there was no getting through him. I tried. It's your funeral. I would not be involved in this. Not for Percy. Not for my cousin. I may sound like a dick but you know what? I happen to like my face unshattered. Percy walked straight up to Jack and yanked the guy right off of Max. It was like Jack weighed nothing, minus the fact he was well over 200 pounds. Percy then proceeded to slam Jack into the wall of lockers and threatened him. Saying if he ever caught him hurting someone else again he would do so much worse. He let Jack down and started to help Max up. Jack was completely dumbfounded. He got over it quickly as he was ready to punch Jackson back. I yelled at Percy to watch out but Jack was already swinging his massive fists towards the back of Percy's head. Turns out, I didn't need to warn him. Percy fucking Jackson steps aside, dodging the punch. He grabbed Jack's arm and swung Jack's humongous body over his shoulder. This time, Jack was too dazed to get back up. Percy looked at Max and me, who were staring at him in awe, and gave us the stupidest grin ever.
"We should probably leave before any teachers catch us." He said. Then all three of us ran to the exit, leaving dazed Jack behind. Sadly, we were caught and Percy was suspended for about two weeks after the incident but he didn't seem to care.
"At least I'm not expelled." He said like he has been before.
When word got out that Percy beat the ever-loving shit out of Jack, the entire school started paying more attention to us. Well, they mostly cared about Percy, but Max and I became popular by association.
I've ask Percy how he was able to pull that off and he just shrugs it off said it was instinct. That couldn't have been some instincts. No, Percy must have been trained or something, but he's never mentioned anything like that before. That's when I realized I didn't really know who the hell Percy Jackson really is. Over the course of freshman and sophomore year I tried to figure the guy out but I usually, always get to a dead end. Annoying isn't? Percy would sometimes cut class and come back an hour or so later and look like hell. Max asked about it but Percy never really gave much of a response.
Then a week into junior year the dick disappears right off the map with no warning or anything. He was gone. Poof. Bye-bye. Hasta la vista suckers. Max and I thought maybe he caught the flu or got suspended again. After about a month with no word from him, Max and I decided to investigate. We've been to Sally Jackson and Mr. Blofis' place before. The place was almost like a second home. We paid the Jackson-Blofis house a visit. Sally greeted us and let us inside. She asked how school was going, if we've given any thought to the colleges and careers we wanted to do. We were going to ask about Percy but before we could, the doorbell rang. Sally excused herself and went to go answer the door. We heard her opening and her talking to someone. A female voice, who was unquestionably depressed, spoke.
"We still can't find him. I don't know where else to look. We found three more recruits but the guy that was supposed to lead us to that stupid Seaweed Brain..." the girl's trailed off as she started sobbing. You could tell Sally let her inside as her sobs were getting louder. A blonde stepped into view. A very hot, crying blonde that is. Even Sally had tears in her eyes. When the girl's stormy gray eyes met ours, her gaze hardened. She quickly wiped away the tears, pretending that it never happened.
"My apologies. I didn't know that there were guests over." I was going to respond when Max cut me off. Proving that my cousin is the stupid guy ever.
"Why are you crying? Did you lose something?" The girl didn't respond. She looked away from us and faced Sally.
"Sorry for interrupting. I'll take my leave. I'll keep you updated Ms. Jackson." Before she could leave though Sally pulled the girl into an embrace.
"He'll come back to us, don't worry. He'll have to come back. Pray to the gods that he will." The girl hugged Sally back. She pulled away looked much more determined than before.
"He's going to come back. I'm not going to give him a choice." Sally smiled and the girl left. Sally returned to the table we were seated at and gave us a sad smile.
"She lost her... dog awhile ago. She's pretty upset about it." It was so obvious it was a lie that I wanted to laugh at her. But the thing is, Sally has never had a reason to lie to us before. So whatever she's hiding must be really important. Finally, I asked the question we came here to ask.
"Where's Percy?" Sally gave us a tight smile.
"He's off at camp. Not sure when he's going to be back." Again you could tell she was lying but I didn't press it. I nodded to Max and thankfully he got the message.
"Thank you, Sally, we have to go now though. Lots of homework to do."
"Oh yes! Sorry I didn't mean to keep you here long." She walked us to the door but before she could bid us goodbye. Max asked if she'll let us know when Percy comes back. Sally nodded then quickly said goodbye and close the door. But before she could, I could see the tears rolling off her cheek. Max and I walked home quite for the first five minutes.
"She's not telling us something." Max said disrupting the silence. I didn't respond. I didn't need to. We made a silent agreement to not bother Sally Jackson about Percy's whereabouts again.
Percy didn't show up again until Max and I started our senior year. I was just talking to Alyssa, a very pretty girl that was interested in, when Max shouted, "Alec! Alec! Look! Isn't that Percy?" The minute he said Percy, I lost all interest in Alyssa's story about her summer. I looked where Max was pointing and sure enough, there was Jackson, walking towards us, acting as we just saw him last week.
"S'up guys?"
"Hey, Percy-" Max started but I cut him off.
"What's up? You disappear for a fucking year and you say what's up?" Percy just grinned sheepishly, not saying a word. I gave Percy a look over, at first glance he didn't look like he changed much. He still has that uncontrollable messy black hair, those weird sea blueish green eyes, and that stupid childlike smile. I looked a bit closer to see that this was not the same Percy I met in freshman year. He was taller, got some lean muscles, and he also has a tattoo on his forearm. His aura is what changed immensely. Percy always had that aura that said: I've been through what most kids haven't. Now it screamed: I have seen and been through things that people should never have to go through! Percy looked... broken... It's a bit unnerving. What was so bad that it broke Percy?
"Nevermind man, your business is your business. How've you been?"
After that Percy resumed being the most popular guy around. He was nice to everyone, protect freshies from upperclassmen bullies, and basically had most girls fall for him, not that he ever went out with any of them. According to him, he has a goddess like girlfriend. Things were good... for about a month. Percy, Max and his boyfriend Victor, Alyssa and her friend Vanessa, and I went to the mall to grab some grub. We were all laughing, telling each other stupid joke while eating our food of choice.
"So Mr. Patterson fell over..." Percy stopped telling his story and squinted. I turned around to see what he was looking at. Behind me was a drop dead gorgeous blonde with an orange shirt and shorts walking towards us. Percy put down his burger and got up from his seat.
"Annabeth?" He muttered before leaving to go meet the girl. Everyone stared at them now, completely forgetting about our previous conversation. Percy reached the girl and they hugged.
"Hey Alec, wasn't that the girl at Jackson's house last year?" Max asked me.
"Yeah, I think it is." The couple was talking about something and Percy nodded then gestured to us. The girl nodded. And they both walked back over to us.
"Hey guys I got to go, this is my girlfriend Annabeth. Wise girl, these are my school friends. Not a great introduction but I don't care. You guys have to leave. Now." Right as he said that the building began to shake. It started out small and slowly was getting bigger by the second.
"What the f-"
"An earthquake! Yup, you guys should go." The blonde, Annabeth, said.
"Right! Are you-"
"How stupid can you be?" Vanessa said. "Everyone knows that it's more dangerous to be outside during an earthquake." Percy's eyes narrowed at the brunette. He looked like he was going to pounce on her. Annie had to block her protect boyfriend, then proceeded to glare at Vanessa.
"Look, do you see that?" She asked nodding her head towards the ceiling. "How would you like a chunk of that making you into a pancake? Hmm? I didn't think so. Now leave." Her voice got dangerous low towards the end, even scaring Vanessa herself.
"Ok, ok but what about you two?" Victor cut in.
"We'll be fine." They both said. "We're going to see if anyone needs help." Finished Percy.
"But we can h-" Max began only to have Annie interrupt.
"No, you can't. You have to go." The building began to shake even more violently and that was our cue to leave. I was almost out the door when I turned back to Percy and Annie who just charged back into the crowd of screaming people. We all made it out and surprisingly the earthquake wasn't as strong outside as it was inside. After a while, we decided to just head home. As Max and I drove home listening to some Nirvana he muttered something.
"What?" I asked as I turn the music down.
"Did you his sword?"
"What?"
"Percy, he just took a sword out of his pocket." I quickly glanced over at him to see if he was serious, and to my surprise he was. He looked so conflicted.
"Dude are you actually serious right now?"
"Why would I make this up?"
"Well I mean, there's some plot hole in your story. You can't just take a sword out of your pocket. Plus why would Jackson be holding a sword?"
"Ugh nevermind, forget I asked." Max sighed slumping in his seat. And the conversation died. Max never brought Percy's 'sword' again up until about a month and a half later.
I was on a date with a beautiful redhead, Dorothy Anne. We just left the movies and I
thought it would be romantic to take a stroll through the park. Romantic it was until I spotted Max, Percy and some other dude running towards us.
"Run! Fucking run!" My cousin yelled as soon as he saw me. I wasn't sure if this was one of his pranks or what but then I saw Dorothy speed down the pavement leaving me in the dust. Did I mention that she was on the track team?
"What the hell are we running from?" I called out, joining in on this marathon.
"I don't even know what the hell it is!" Thanks, cuz, very useful.
"Percy!" shouted the guy that I was unfamiliar with. "Fountain." He pointed in the direction the small man-made water source and Percy just understood. He stopped in his tracks and turned to face whatever was chasing us.
"Is- is that a fucking bull?"
"I don't know what the hell it is but it wants to kill us!" Then the fountain exploded. The pipes just burst all of a sudden and the water directly hit the bull. Then Percy started charging at it, with a baseball bat?
"Grover!" Percy yelled as he was sprinting towards the bull, "Get them to safety, I got this!"
"Percy-"
"Seriously! I've done this twice already!"
"I pray to the gods you're right. Come on follow me," He took us to a Jamba Juice. Yup you heard me correctly, a Jamba Juice. It was well after closing time, but it looked like this Grover person knew who the owner was. We sat down and I was hella exhausted, I don't I have ever exercised that much in my life.
"What was a fucking bull doing in the middle of New York?" I asked no one in particular. "I'm calling animal control and-"
"There's no need, Percy's got in under control."
"Right, an inexperienced high schooler is better suited to wrestle a bull rather than trained professionals. Come on Max, back me up here." Max was useless, he just sat in the corner looking a bit shaken, contemplating over life.
"It's fine Alec, Grover's right. I had under control." Percy's voice popped up making me jump.
"Jesus Christ dude, don't creep on people like that!" I looked over to Percy who was standing in the doorway. He looked a bit jacked up but wasn't too bad of shape. His hair was even more of a mess than usual and he held a horn in his hand?
"Animal control, they uh got rid of the...the creature?"
"Told ya Perc was ok." The man with the goatee said.
"And who are you again?" I asked turning to the brunet.
"Grover Underwood," he proclaimed, sticking his hand out. "I'm a friend of Percy's from camp."
"Right." I said returning the handshake.
"Hey, Max? You ok?" Percy veered his attention to my cousin, who hasn't moved since we got here. Max quickly snapped out of it (I see you pay attention to Percy but not me?) he gave a pathetic excuse for a smile and told a lie that we have all said once in our life.
"Yeah...I'm fine."
The Jamba Juice employee gave us some free smoothies and we were all on our way. Grover and Percy went one way, Max and I went the another. After fifteen minutes of no communication, I spoke.
"You know I never imagined getting chased by a bull." I laughed. No response. "Yeah I get what you mean, I'm a bit startled myself." once again I was met with silence. "Oh come on dude, it wasn't that traumatizing. It was almost exhilarating." I looked over to Max to see he was just numbly walking beside me like some sort of zombie, not gonna lie it freaked me out a bit. Just a bit.
"Dude?"
"Alec, look I'm not ok right now. I just saw something that I'm sure I wasn't suppose to see, ok? I keep telling myself it's a trick of the light or some stupid shit like that but I know what I saw was real. That alone is fucking terrifying."
"The hell did you see dude?"
"A half man and half bull." He said in all seriousness. I didn't reply. I honest to god wanted to laugh, but when Max looked up at me, his brown eyes filled with fear. I...I didn't know what to say. So I just said ok and the rest of our journey was in silence.
Throughout the rest of the school year, shit just got weirder. I mean, it wasn't mostly normal, as normal as Percy Jackson could be that is. He still disappeared at times and water acted differently around him. And every once in awhile, someone from Percy's camp would show up, always at the worst of times and Percy would disappear with them. I've asked about his camp, I thought it was interesting, the people I've met so far from there were cool in a strange way. Though if we could at least visit we could meet some more cool peps. But Percy immediate shot that down.
"The camp's...very private. You can only go there if you are recruited, and well um have ADHD or dyslexia...it's really a prestigious camp."
So ok whatever but lately Percy's weirdness started to spread to Max. He got really paranoid and refused to leave the house unless he wanted to. He took an interest in Greek Mythology after we talked about it in English once, and now it's his new found obsession. Also, he stopped hanging around Percy and sorta began to fear him. Percy was hurt, of course, but he was mostly confused to as why? And well, so was I. But we left him alone. Our trio was down to two. And when Percy disappeared, duo down to uno. How fantastic.
Things got a bit more confusing when I convinced Max to come with us to a concert. I was actually surprised that he agreed to go. I expected him to downright refuse especially when I mentioned Percy and his girlfriend were going too. So there we were, standing along with a bunch of other teenagers, squished together, singing terribly along with the musicians. I was nice to see my cousin let loose a little even though I knew that tomorrow he would most likely crawl back in his shell. The band finished playing their last song and introduced a new band. I don't remember their name honestly, shit went down when the three ladies appeared on stage.
Percy quickly grabbed Annabeth and threw her over his shoulder, he turned to us and said that we needed to leave now. I was all like ? and Max stood there petrified.
"Come on! We need to leave before they start-" But it was too late. The three women standing on stage began to sing. I didn't know the song but the way they sang it was enchanting. Annabeth began to thrash around to Percy's arms and Max started walking. I don't understand why he was walking away; didn't he want to stay? I was so beautiful that I could drown myself in their music. Percy grabbed my arm and forced me to move. We were running to find Max who lost himself in the crowd. Percy started panicking and changed his plan. With a struggling blonde on his shoulder and a tight grip on my arm, Percy ran as far as he possibly could from the venue. I was pretty dazed and the further away we were from the music the more clearer I felt. We were a bit far from the concert now, far away enough where you could barely make out the music. We stopped at a bus stop where he placed Annabeth in my arms.
"Don't let her go, don't let her near any water. She's strong but you can't let her go. Just make sure she's safe." and with that, Percy ran right back in the direction of the concert.
"Where are you going?" I called out to him.
"To find Max!" He yelled back before disappearing. Percy was kidding when he said Annie was strong. I don't know how he managed to trap her in with one arm, I could barely contain her with two!
"This would be so much easier if you stopped moving." I muttered. She didn't respond with anything understandable. It sounded like she was talking in another language. After a few minutes of sitting in a vacate bus stop with a tossing and turning in my arm, (not how I originally pictured holding a cute girl before) she stopped. I sighed, relieved that she was done throwing a tantrum but then Annabeth suddenly jabbed me in the ribs. The pain caused me to loosen my grip a little and Annie broke free. The blonde took off running.
"Wait! You can't just- Jesus fuck." and I chased her down. I've mentioned before that I don't run much right? The girl had speed man. I knew that there was no way I would catch up to her but I had to try. Percy told me to keep her safe, and I can't let him down. I've gotten to know Annabeth and she was cool, but right now she was freaking possessed. I'm thinking someone slipped her something? Anyway back to the chase. Haha, Chase. You know? Annabeth Chase? Oh forget you, I'm hilarious. So we ended up on a beach. Annabeth was running towards the water and I could see her jump right in
"Annabeth! Stop-" And a blur ran right past me depositing a dripping wet Max at my feet. I saw Percy go in right after his girlfriend vanishing into the depths of the ocean. I turned to my cousin who was sitting on the ground with his knees pulled up to his chest.
"What the hell happened to you?"
"A fountain."
"Um?"
"God I'm so stupid."
"What?"
"The only reason I said I would go to the concert was because I needed to ask Percy something and god I wouldn't have gone if I knew I might have died." He buried his head in his knees signaling that he was done conversating. I stood there on the beach waiting for Percy and Annabeth to emerge from the water. After a few minutes, I began to panic. I knew Percy could hold his breath for a pretty long but it was getting to the point where it was damn near impossible for him to be alive. For them to be alive.
"Should I go look for them? Or should I call someone? Who would I call? The police? Maybe-" I was cut off by Jackson coming out of the water with Annabeth in hand, completely fine and completely dry.
"What... in the... everloving fuck?" I started at them perplexed. The just stepped out of the ocean, and the only bit of water on them was underneath their eyes. I think whatever they slipped Annie, they must have slipped me some too.
"Schist Seaweed Brain! We're both dry."
"Aw crap. Look there's a logical explanation for this-"
"Oh yeah right," Max spoke up. He looked up from his knees and glared at Percy and Annabeth. "Every since you came back, weird shit has been happening and it's always around you. Those...those creatures started showing up after you came back. And I can't get them to go away. So I wanted answers, then...then those things started singing telling me they'll tell me everything, rescue me from this nightmare and suddenly I can't breathe? I ended up in the fountain! I just… I don't… ugh…" So now I'm pretty positive that we were all slipped something.
"How did you hear their song?" Percy asked, confused. "You're a mortal you couldn't possibly-"
"He can see through the mist Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth aspirated, placing her head in her palm. "It would explain why he hear it and how he could see them. He probably just started seeing them because of exposure to you." You could actually see the gears turning in Percy's head and could practically hear the click when he understood. Me, on the other hand, I was still confused as fuck.
"Wait what? Mist? What?" Percy stepped in to explain.
"Do you remember that time in English when we briefly talked about Greek Mythology?"
"Um yeah? You knew almost everything about it because of that weird obsession that you have with it."
"Well, it's not actually a myth…"
"Great job explaining Perc, you just gave me another reason to believe that you're on drugs."
"That… that would explain those things and the minotaur, and your… your sword and the water…" Max cut in. Ok, he has completely lost it, I'm the only sane one here. Annie knelt down to where Max was on the floor. Looks like she sympathized with him. He's gone batshit crazy.
"Yes Max, everything you saw actually happened. Those things were sirens, they sing to hypnotize to you and cause you to drown yourself. You are born with sight, meaning you can see through the mist. The mist is the barrier that hides everything that happens in our world from your world. There's not many with this gift, like Alec here. He doesn't understand what's happening because he can't see it."
"But how…?"
"Long story short," Percy intervene, "the gods moved from Greece to New York. They have children with mortals making demigods, like Wise Girl and I. Son of Poseidon," he said gesture to himself "Daughter of Athena." He pointed to Annabeth. "We have a certain scent to us and monsters want to kill us. We don't want to die so we're forced to fight them."
"That about sums it up," Annabeth said. She looked over at me and sighed, she turned to her boyfriend and asked, "What about him? He can't see but he knows now."
"Well I could manipulate the mist, I'm not as good as Thalia but…" Percy glanced at me then to Max and back to me. "I don't think that would be a good idea."
"And why is that?"
"Look at him Annabeth," He asked gesturing to my cousin. "Besides you and I, he will have no one that knows about us. He's freaked out by this and we won't always be around. Who knows when the world will need saving again?" He joked, his laugh a bit forced. "He's going to need someone who will have some understanding of what's going on. So I say we explain a bit and leave them be."
"Gods sometimes I really hate you," Annabeth turned to me and stared me down with those intimidating gray eyes of hers. "You have to swear on the River Styx that you will never share this information with anyone other than Max and other demigods."
"I...I swear."
"No, you have to say it."
"Say it?"
"Yes say it"
"Ok, I um swear on the River Styx."
"Good now sit down, this will take a bit." Annabeth went into more detail about what Percy said earlier, the Greek gods were real. It was interesting and stupid and unbelievable. And I hung onto every word. That's when the mysterious Percy Jackson became less of a mystery and more of a what the fuck. So moral of the story, if strange things start happening and your friend disappears in the middle of it, chances are, you're friends with a demigod.