Disclaimer: I do not own any characters of Percy Jackson and the Olympians series! (but I wish I did)
Chapter 1, My Date Turns Into a Rescue Mission
So, it all started like this. It's been a few months since the end of the war, and Annabeth and I have been both staying in New York during the school year. She's been going to this nice boarding school, called Tolary Academy, and I'm going to Goode High School for my sophomore year. Luckily, Tolary really isn't that far away from where I live, and it's not like camp where you're not permitted to leave the grounds without permission.
Finally, it's Friday, last day of the week. I'm hoping that I don't get nearly barbequed by Kelli the empousa again, like I almost did last year. I want to be in a good condition when I meet up with Annabeth tonight for our date. Yes, I said date. Me and Annabeth have been dating for a couple of months now. We haven't exactly told our parents yet. (the godly type, my mom already knows. She probably expects us to get married or something) we're sure they already know, especially Annabeth's mom.
We're kind of putting it off though. I mean, we know our parents are mortal enemies. Her mom is Athena, the Goddess of Knowledge, and my dad Poseidon, is the God of the Sea. When they find out, it will probably go something like this:
In Olympus-
"Dad, and um, Lady Athena, well… Me and Annabeth –"
"That's incorrect grammar Perseus; it should be Annabeth and I."
"Okay, Lady Athena. Well, Annabeth and I have been dating for the past two months so…"
"Percy, why would you ever date a daughter of Athena? I mean, really, she's a know-it-all, she'll always be saying, "Percy that's wrong" and "What, I'm right" and "oh, well I'm better at that." Really, Percy? And look at those eyes; they're so cold and grey, like her mother's. Believe me when I tell you that I'm sure she could pull off that stare Athena gives me that just is so…"
Just then I see it, the horrible stare that Athena is giving me. It's like those eyes just dig into your soul only to tear you sheet by sheet of your life force, and guess what? Annabeth is giving me the exact same stare!
"Annabeth, why are you staring at me?" I say.
"Oh, uh sorry Percy, force of habit."
"Perseus, Annabeth dear, I know it would be wrong to say that you couldn't date each other. It would only make you two angry at us… So, I have to say that I… Approve of your relationship,"
She said it like it hurt.
"But, mark my words Perseus, if you ever do anything to hurt my beloved daughter, you will rue it for all time. I know where you're Achilles Heel is Perseus! And I also know you will hurt my daughter eventually, whether or not you meant to, just like that wretched brother of yours, Theseus! He broke that poor girl's heart, Ariadne, the current wife of my brother Dionysus. If you harm my daughter, I will impale you through your weak spot in you back with your own sword, Anaklusmos, and I will personally, send you down into our uncle's realm, and you will be sent to Tartarus to be punished for eternity!"
And that's where I think I would faint.
That's why we've never told our godly parents. So anyway, now I've just got up out of bed in my mom's apartment, I'm dressed and ready to go, and now I'm off to eat breakfast with my mom and Paul, my stepdad, before we both go to Goode. I know, kind of weird to go to a school where your stepdad is one of your teachers, but hey, I've never been to a school for two years in a row before. So, I walked down to the kitchen, to see Paul reading the paper at the table, and my mom cooking blue pancakes.
"Hi Mom, did you sleep well?" I asked
"Yes, honey, I slept pretty well. I haven't had any morning sickness yet." She replied. See, my mom's pregnant with a girl. Or at least, we think it's a girl. She's only about 4 months pregnant. My mom's thinking of naming the baby Lexi if it's a girl or Jake if it's a boy.
"I bet you're excited for this weekend Percy." Paul said.
"Yeah, I can't wait. Me and Annabeth have a date tonight. We're going to the movies."
"What are you seeing?"
"This one movie remake. It's in 3D. Annabeth thought we should go see it because it's about my namesake, Perseus. I forget what it's about, some kraken or something?"
"Percy! You should know the tale better than that!" my mom exclaimed as we all started eating our pancakes and hash browns. "Perseus was a son of Zeus. He was alive when the gods still lived in Greece on the real Mount Olympus. He had to save Princess Andromeda, whose parents had chained her to a rock to be devoured by a kraken. He set after a way to kill the monster. He went to the three gray sisters to – "
"Ugh, I remember them from the cab we took when I met Tyson. Their eye fell on the floor of the cab and they we all, 'Give me the eye!' 'No, give me the eye!' 'If you give me the eye I'll tell you what you seek.' 'No, don't throw it in the river like Perseus did!' 'I thought that was Theseus.' Oh, they we so gross and they almost ran us over a cliff! I thought I was going to be killed in a car crash before I turned sixteen!"
"Well anyway, as the Gray Sisters remembered, Perseus went to them to seek help. He then found Medusa's lair – "
"Ew, she was so creepy and hideous! Plus, she could still turn people to stone even after I sliced her head off with Riptide. I'm glad you got rid of it after you turned Gabe to stone. That thing was so creepy!" I commented.
Then it was Paul's turn. "Wait, who's Gabe?"
"Ugh, Gabe Ugliano. Mom never told you?"
I then saw a motion from Mom to stop talking, but I continued on anyway.
"Gabe was Mom's husband before she met you. She turned him into a statue with Medusa's head and then sold it after my first quest to find Zeus's lighting bolt and help my dad out. Gabe constantly drank, smoked, and held poker games. He was always talking trash to Mom, and he even hit her a few times. Oh, I would love to slice his lifeless statue to rubble!" I said crushing my cup of orange juice, not even noticing that I made the kitchen faucet explode getting water everywhere.
"Annabeth said that the only reason my mom stayed with him was to cover up my demigod scent with smoke and beer so that I would smell human and hopefully that would keep the monsters from killing me."
"Sally, why didn't you tell me any of this?" Paul asked.
"Well, I think it's time for you two boys to head to Goode!" she announced happily. "See you after work Paul." She said giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"But-"
"Bye Percy, have a good day at school."
And now, Mom left Paul asking me a bunch of questions in his car as we drove to Goode High.
"I just don't understand why Sally wouldn't tell me about any of this."
"Paul, we waited months to tell you about the truth of gods and goddesses. It's not exactly easy to tell someone about this. We expected you to either faint, say we were joking, or say we were sick and take us to the hospital,"
"Yes, well, you'd think she would've told me that she had an abusive drunk ex-husband."
"Okay, we're here." So now we go to school.
Math, my first class of the day. I hate math! It's terrible on my eyes, seeing as I'm dyslexic. If you think English words are bad enough, you ought to try Arabic numerals with fractions. It's murder on my eyesight.
"Mr. Jackson, please come up to the board and solve this problem I have written. If -11 + 12 – a = -4, what does the variable a equal?"
It felt like he had just asked me what the square root of a milliliter is. How in the world am I supposed to be able to figure that out, let alone read it?! So I thought about it and started writing on the board. –ll plus 11 equals 0, plus one more equals 1. Then I have to figure out what 1 - -4 equals. Let's see… 1-1-0, minus 4 more equals -4, so the answer to the variable a equals 5! So, I wrote that down on the board. Then the class gasped.
"Mr. Jackson?"
"Yes Mr. Bueller?"
"Do you have a problem with English? It seems that you have written your number sentence using Roman Numerals and used Latin for your explanation."
"Great," I thought. "Just great."
Four Classes Later
Lunch! Despite the cafeteria food, it's still my favorite class of the day. (If it counts as a class, because I'm pretty sure that learning not to eat chunky milk doesn't count as education) I had just gotten my greasy pizza, chocolate milk, and ice cream bar, when I sat down. I felt something tapping my foot under the lunch table. I looked down and I heard a voice:
"Percy, It's me."
Then I saw a shimmer and then someone came into focus.
"Annabeth! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at your school? Our date doesn't start for three hours."
"I snuck out seaweed brain. Look, we have to go, Grover's in trouble."
And just like that, we were out of Goode High and on the side of an alley, walking to catch a cab. Once we were in the cab, I got an explanation.
"So, what do you mean Grover's in trouble? Isn't he still searching schools and finding half-bloods?" I asked.
"I've been having dreams Percy, of Grover. I can't really make out any of them, except for the fact that he found a demigod, is bringing her to camp, but he's having a lot of trouble and needs our help. Apparently, the demigod is attracting a lot of monsters."
"Do you think she's?"
"She might be a daughter of the big three, but I don't know anything yet. She might just be a daughter of Athena who started studying in the library about mythology once she was claimed. If you know what you are and are unarmed, monsters attack you all the time. They know you're an easy target. That's how it was when I was little, before I found Thalia and Luke."
I thought back about what I know about when Annabeth was traveling all alone. She was young, scared, and always being attacked. I started to feel sorry for this little girl, even though I don't know her.
"So, are we going to help him?" I asked.
"Of course we are. Do you think I'd take you out of class early if we weren't? Grover's our best friend."
Finally we came into view of Half-Blood Hill. Annabeth reached over and to pull out some cash to pay the driver. Then once we were out, we headed into camp.
As usual, we saw Mr. D. and Chiron playing another game of Pinochle. I'm sure that Chiron was winning.
"Ah, hello, Percy, Annabeth." Chiron said. "Shouldn't you two be in New York right now? You should be in school."
"Oh look, it's Peter Johnson and his girlfriend Annabelle. I bet they're playing hooky to play with the pegasi." Mr. D. said annoyingly.
"Actually, Mr. D. we're here on important business. We think Grover's in trouble." I said.
Just then, I saw something glowing. It was Chiron's portable Iris Messenger. He uses it to communicate with the gods, goddesses, half-bloods, ect. It was saying, "Message for Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase. Please deposit one drachma,"
"It looks like you two have an Iris-Message. Go, on, deposit a drachma." Chiron was saying.
So I deposited one drachma.
"Peeeercy, Annabeth! You got my Iris-Message!" Grover bleated out.
"Yeah, G-man. What's the problem? Annabeth thought you were in trouble."
"Yes, I am. Look, I got a half-blood here, her name's Amelia, 11 years old. Look, she's already been claimed, and she's attracting monsters everywhere! She's unarmed! We're at a Best Western Hotel right now in Utah. It's going to take a long time to get there. She lived all the way in Hawaii! I'm sure Percy won't be happy if she gets hurt!" Grover explained.
Just then I heard a familiar voice. "Hello, maid service." Then Grover opened the door and a young woman walked in. She had bright red hair. No, it was made of fire. The girl I guessed to be Amelia screamed and ran behind Grover.
"Oh, don't worry Amelia Pearson. I'll get rid of you quickly. I still need my revenge after that brother of yours sent my trainee into Tartarus."
I felt a shiver down my spine. That was Kelli, the empousa I met last year that nearly got me expelled. What did he mean "that brother of yours sent my trainee into Tartarus"? I sent Kelli's trainee to Tartarus, but is Amelia a daughter of Poseidon? Grover did say I wouldn't be happy if she got hurt.
"Empousa! Amelia, jump out the window. You should be able to land in the outdoor pool, then run!"
"Grover, but –
"Just do it, it's not like your dad's going to let you drown."
Just then, Amelia jumped out the window and dove into the water, and I heard a splash, while Kelli lunged at Grover, using her hand to swat away the Iris Message.
"I think we have to go help Grover." Annabeth said.
"Me too. What did he mean, 'It's not like your dad's going to let you drown'?"
"Well, I think you two should go see Rachel for your… Oh, I forgot, Rachel's not here. She wont be here again until this summer." Chiron said.
"Actually, Chiron, the girl came here this morning. Apparently, today's one of those, oh what do you call it? Teacher meeting days? She came here to see if anyone needed their fortune." Mr. D. explained.
"Oh, really. Good, then. You two, go and see Rachel for your prophecy, and I think it's best, by the circumstances, that Percy lead the quest." Chiron said.
"Wait, why is that?" I asked as we left, but Annabeth continued to drag me to Rachel's.
Oooh. So, who do you think Amelia's dad is? Please review! Just click on the button below! Comments and constructive criticism are asked for!