GRAMMATICAL ERRORS ARE NOW FIXED.
And off we go.
Note: I don't usually write in first-person, so bear (bare?) with me.
Sorry if the spelling is slightly…off. I have to type this out on my iPod. I miss my laptop. :'(
This is going to be one hell of a long chapter for me, I hope. I also hope I haven't created a Gary-Stu. DX
Title: Oh Dear
Summary: When you accidently blow up half your school with a hurricane, you know you aren't normal.
I stared at the reflection in the mirror, frowning. The rest of my hair was fine, but one strand refused to stay in place. After tugging it for a minute, I started to feel damn stupid, and gave up, striding out of the house, the strand of hair still sticking obstinately out of my forehead.
Of course, with my luck, it started to rain. Should've taken the car. Wrapping my arms around my self, I thanked all Gods that may or may not exist that I didn't live far from the school. Besides, I thought, ever the optimist, at least I don't hate rain...
You may be wondering who I am, what I look like, or even what gender I am. My name is Jakob Cilliani. I hate my last name. With a passion. Obviously, I'm male. Have you ever met a girl with the name Jakob? I am just taller then average, a couple of inches shorter then six feet, with black hair which usually hangs straight until the nape of my neck, where it curls slightly. However, it's now plastered to my head, giving me an appearance I liken to a drowned rat.
Damn rain.
I thought it wasn't meant to rain in Australia. That it was meant to be like, always hot and dry, droughts and stuff like that. Evidently not. In the two years I've been here, I swear it's rained more then it hasn't. It's like I have my own personal storm system following me. According to the people who've lived here longer, it wasn't always like this. Apparently, they were in the midst of a drought. I come, and it starts to rain. Continuously. Australia's now probably the rainiest place in the world. (How do you like 'dem apples, Edward?)
The sky was still a bruised grey colour when I walked through the gate, but it had at least stopped raining. I was soaked through, but oh well. The bell, a nasally whining sound that sometimes gave me a headache, sounded, as the teenagers who had taking shelter under trees and covered areas dashed into the classrooms.
Shaking my head just outside the door of the room, kind of like a dog, I expelled the excess water and walking into the warmer classroom.
Travelling under the ocean in a large bubble of air is creepy. Annabeth leaned back in her bubble chair and tried not to think too much about the millions of litres of waters around her. Oops. Too late. She sat gingerly, holding herself still, not trusting Percy when he said that it wouldn't burst.
Said boyfriend was lying on a bubble-bed, eyes closed, snoring. The bubble sped along on its own accord, safe passage granted by Poseidon.
With her eyes still closed, Annabeth thought back to the conversation that had led her to enter this disturbing form of transport at the Long Island Sound, eight hours ago. It was by far the safest way to travel to Australia, safe passage guaranteed. And not many monsters lived in the bottom of the ocean.
Chiron had called them to the Big House early in the morning. Annabeth, who was used to getting up early in the morning, was the only one properly awake. Nico was dozing in a chair, snoring softly, and while Percy's eyes were open, they were glazed, like he wasn't actually seeing anything.
"Thanks for coming here, so early," Chiron said, rolling into the room in wheelchair form. Annabeth nodded, Percy grunted, and Nico didn't say anything at all.
"The satyr's have found another demigod," he continued, his eyes resting on Annabeth. "They don't know about this one. He smells…different. They know he is certainly quite powerful. Possibly a child of the big three."
"So I'm guessing you Nico, Percy and I to go find this person," Annabeth asked. I hope he's not in 'Frisco.
"I'm awake!" Nico said, bolting upright.
Chiron forced down the urge to roll his eyes.
"Correct, but this person isn't in the country. Actually, he's over the other side of the world."
"Where?"
"Australia."
Nico whistled slightly. True, it was far away, but Annabeth had always wanted to go to Australia, anyway…
"When do we leave?" she asked Chiron.
He pursed his lips. "At midday."
She nodded, and then went over to Percy, whose eyes were now closed, and tried to wake him. It didn't work.
"Just leave him there," Chiron said, as she readied to kick him. "We'll wake him later."
She shrugged. "C'mon, Nico."
And with that, she walked back to the Athena cabin, and lay down in bed, falling back asleep.
At the much more decent time of nine, the alarm clock woke her. Hastily throwing on some clothes, she packed weapons, clothing, books on architecture and the small celestial bronze knife that Luke had given her.
She opened the door and came face to face with Nico, who had his fist poised to knock.
"Oh, good. You're up." His tone was brisk and he looked a lot more lively then he had three hours ago. "Chiron wants us down by the beach."
"Let's go then."
Together, the two walked down to the beach, past the barbecue pit, the dining pavilion, and past the target range where some Apollo kid was shooting arrows into a target and then into the forest.
Finally, the trees thinned out and they found themselves on the beach, which was deserted save for Chiron and Percy. And there, splashing in the waves was Mrs. O'Leary.
"AROOF."The hellhound bounded out of the surf and knocked Nico into the sand.
"Oof," he said, spitting out a mouthful of sand, "Get off of me, you dumb hellhound."
Rolling out from underneath her, he turned around.
"Well?" he said. "Can I get going?"
"Yes, Nico. Just be careful."
Nico grinned, white teeth flashing against his olive skin. "Aren't I always?"
Using the shadow that Mrs. O'Leary cast, he bent the darkness into a doorway, disappearing into the shadow.
"So, how are we getting there?" Annabeth asked Chiron.
It was Percy who answered. "Through the ocean."
"How?"
He didn't answering, instead grasping her hand. Annabeth tried to ignore the jolt of electricity that leaped up her arm. Still holding her hand, he wadded out into the surf.
When the waves were at waist height, he let go, starting to swim.
"Follow me," he called back to her.
They swam until Annabeth could no longer touch the bottom. From here, Percy dove into the Sound, pulling Annabeth down with him. They sank a couple of meters until it got dark and Annabeth started to find it hard to breathe. At that point, Percy spread his arms, and a multitude of bubbles travelled from the surface, swarming around and merging into a gigantic bubble. Finally not able to take it any longer, Annabeth breathed in, finding only air. More bubbles joined as the main one became bigger and bigger.
"Are you okay?" he asked. She nodded.
And that was how they came to be at the bottom of the Atlantic, headed to another country on the other side of the world.
Annabeth sighed, and wished she could have gone with Nico. It would have been less creepy. Slightly.
The first class of the morning was Maths. I was actually kind of good at Maths. At least, the equations didn't float off the page too much. Certainly, I liked it better then English. At least in Maths there is only one right answer.
It finished pretty quickly, and after we were given homework and the bell rang, I hurried through the halls to the next class, which happened to be history. This one, I liked much better then most subjects, except for P.E.
When I plonked myself down in the back row, bag dropped to the floor, I looked to the front of the class. I was one of the last there, as most of the seats were filled. However the teacher had yet to arrive.
Have you been to school recently? If you have, then you'd know what a class of thirty sixteen-year-olds are like when they are left alone. Paper planes flew through the air, people poked each other with pencils, and girls giggled and talked at texted on their phones.
I, meanwhile, put my head on my arms and tried to block out the noise. The constant patter of rain in the background was making me sleepy.
"Alright, that's enough," an unfamiliar and female voice rang out over the general hubbub in the class. I lifted my head from my hands and peered with interest at the teacher.
She was tall, and athletic looking, with a deep tan and blonde hair. She was pretty, and had very intense looking grey eyes, slightly lighter then my own. She only looked slightly older then we did. Under her arm was a silver laptop, a Greek symbol inscribed on the lid.
"My name is Miss. Chase," she said, in a brisk tone, setting the laptop down on the table. "You can call me Miss. Chase." Her lips quirked.
"It appears that your other teacher has fallen ill, and the school has seen fit to call me in as a replacement." She had an American accent, but it wasn't as annoying as the ones I heard from Americans on T.V. I had lived all my life in Manhattan, until a couple of years ago, and it was curious now to hear someone with the accent I probably had when I first arrived.
She said a couple more things, and then instructed us to open the thick textbook we always had to carry to class, but never used.
"What do you know of the Greek Gods?" she asked. "You, in the back, the one with black hair."
Crap, that's me. "Err, they were Gods?" There were some snickers around me. "They lived on Mount Olympus, and only came down to, like, hook-up with mortals?" I said.
"Yes, you're correct Mr…?"
"Cilliani."
"Mr. Cilliani."
She explained to us about the gods, and I found myself enthralled, until the bell rang again. I jumped slightly in my chair. Fail.
"Homework is to research and find which god or goddess best suits you," she said, "Class dismissed."
We all filled out of the room, me last, and I was about to disappear out the doorway when Miss Chase said, "Wait, Mr. Cilliani."
I grimaced. "Jakob, please. I hate my last name."
She smiled briefly. "Jakob. Can you come and see me after school, Jakob? I have something to ask you."
"Uh, okay…" I said, wondering what she could possibly want.
"Thank you," she said, smiling again. "You may go now."
Without answering, I turned and strode out of the classroom.
Once Jakob had gone, Annabeth's smile slid off her face like melting candle wax. She had no doubt that that boy was a demigod. She also didn't doubt who the boy's father was.
Closing the door firmly behind her, she sat down at the desk and pulled out a mobile from her pocket. She didn't detect any monsters, so she figured one call wouldn't hurt.
She thumbed speed dial number one, waiting for the person on the other end to pick up.
"Hello?" he said.
"Percy, I think I've found you a half-brother," she said without preamble.
"Really?" he said, turning around to stare out the drizzle covered window. Percy was posing as a P.E. teacher, wishing he didn't have to take a job. Nico didn't have to, why did he? But there was no point arguing with Annabeth. For a girl, she was damn crafty. He rubbed his left temple with his spare hand. He'd only had one class that morning, and they had been horrible. He wondered if he had, three short years ago, been such an asshole kid.
"I'm going to talk to him this afternoon, but yeah, I'm pretty sure. He looks like you, kind of."
Percy pondered this. "What's his name?"
"Jakob Cilliani."
"Do you know what class he has next?"
Annabeth didn't answer, and he heard the rattle of the laptop keyboard in the background. That blasted laptop. Percy didn't know what she liked more: The laptop or him.
"Uh, you're in luck," she said. "He has P.E. and then Chemistry in the afternoon."
"Okay, thanks. And Annabeth, I love you."
She sighed over the other end of the phone. "I love you too, even though you annoy me so much I want to kill you at times." He smirked.
Disconnecting, he stood there, still gazing out the window. They had only started saying 'I love you' to each other a couple of months ago, and every time it was like an electric shock.
The rest of lunch passed quickly. Percy wished he could have spent it with her, but—he was slightly embarrassed about this—he didn't know where she was. He also wasn't going to call and ask her.
So, he just sat there by the window. He'd opened it, and the fine drizzle felt good against his skin. Finally the bell, rather nasally, rang. It didn't help his headache. Did demigods get headaches? Who knows?
Walking out of the staffroom, he strode towards the MPS, or Multi-Purpose Shelter. This was where the students had assemblies every Friday, and where the P.E. class was held. This school was certainly different from the ones in America. He probably didn't even look the legal age to teach, but the Mist was a powerful thing, and when you learned to bend it to your will, a number of things were possible.
Most of the MPS was blue floor, with different coloured lines running across it. In the front was a stage with a few rows of chairs. It was in the middle of this stage, on the edge, that Percy perched. A couple of minutes later, the MPS started to fill with chatter. Sixteen-year-olds, both boys and girls, walked over to him, figuring he was the teacher. There were about twenty of them, and they were all lean and athletic looking.
The school used iPod touches for small things like emails and the roll. Percy pulled the one for this class out of his pocket and tapped the appropriate app. The screen displayed a list of names with a large checkbox on the side of their name. In the top left corner was a box labelled Send to Administration.
With a sigh, and still nursing a slight headache, he called out the first name on the list. "Alissa Brown?" he called.
"Here."
"Imogen Camp?"
"Here."
"Scott Carrey?"
"Away, Sir."
Sir, Percy thought, smiling. Perhaps this wouldn't be such a bad class.
"Jakob Cilliani," he said.
"Here, sir."
Percy looked up at this mysterious teenager Annabeth was sure was a demigod. He was standing at the back, behind most of the other students. He had black hair much like Percy's, and dark grey eyes. He also had the signature brooding look. Or perhaps he was just unhappy. He did look like a son of Poseidon.
"Greg Homer?"
"Present."
After mailing the roll to the office, he put the iPod down and jumped from the stage.
"Right," he said, rubbing his hands together. "Let's party."
I ran my about one-thousandth lap in that period. Usually I like P.E., but today it royally sucked.
Stupid teacher. I glared at him. Why did I have to have another new teacher? I actually liked the old one. I'd had some hopes that he'd be okay, judging from his age, but obviously not. Even the girls who now ran passed me didn't seem to think much of him anymore, despite the giggling about his 'hotness', before.
Finally, he said, "Stop." We moved to the side of the MPS, taking water bottles out of bags and flopping down onto the ground. I panted as I gulped at the water. Admittedly, I felt better with every sip, but I was still quite content to sprawl on the ground, my back leaning against a wall.
"You did well today," Mr. Jackson, as he'd introduced himself, said. "But do you want to know why I did it?"
I bit back several snide remarks, and I was pretty sure the others beside me did too.
"No sir," said Imogen.
"I wanted to test how fit you all are," he said. "C'mon, lighten up. I promise we won't do this again next week."
At that point, the bell rang, and Mr. Jackson dismissed us without homework, which partly made up for all the laps he had forced us to run.
The next lunch passed quickly, considering it was only twenty minutes long, and then it was time for Chemistry. Ah, how I loathed Chemistry, with its stupid little symbols, and its atoms and it's incredibly complicated formulae. Most of the time I didn't end up with what I was meant to. Often, it looked—and smelt—completely different. Today was no exception. The words and diagrams floated around in my vision even more then usual, and I ended up with something black that smelled like the inside of a sewer.
Finally, the day was over, and I was just about to walk outside into the rain when I remembered Miss. Chase. Groaning, I walked towards the Science staffroom. She wasn't there, but she had a note on her desk that said Gone to the MPS, please meet me there.
Shrugging my shoulders, I walked back out and down the corridor. At that time, I didn't even register that the school was utterly deserted, nor did I see the thing that watched me with red eyes as I walked into the MPS.
In the corner were Miss. Chase and Mr. Jackson. Hugging. Making out.
Awkwaaaaard. I thought, clearing my throat uncertainly. They broke apart, and Miss. Chase blushed slightly.
"Oh, Jakob, I didn't expect you'd come so soon," she said, moving away from my other teacher. I personally found this whole situation awkward to the point of laughing. Later, of course. Now it was just awkward.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Do you're parents know you're here? I don't want them to worry…"
"My parents are dead," I said quickly.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Her tone sounded sincere, but there was something in her eyes, it looked oddly like…triumph…
"Jakob—"
Whatever she had been about to say was lost in the horrible screeching roar that filled the MPS. The back wall exploded, rubble and dust filling the east side of the MPS.
When the dust cleared, a most horrific looking monster stepped over the chunks of concrete. It was about six feet tall, scaly, and had a grotesque head from which startling red eyes glared. It hissed again. I may have uttered something that sounded like Eep, as in front of me Mr. Jackson and Miss. Chase drew weapons from their pockets.
"Annabeth," Mr. Jackson said. I looked around the find this mysterious Annabeth before realising that that must be Miss. Chase's name. "I'll take him from one side, try to distract him with some water. Gods knows there is enough of it around. You go the other."
And then the monster spoke.
"I want…him," it said, in a horrible nasally voice. And then it pointed. At me.
Eep.
Annabeth and Mr. Jackson approached it warily, one on the north side, one on the south. But this monster wasn't stupid. Instead, it scuttled straight forwards, through the gap that they had made, towards me.
Mr. Jackson ran backwards at a fantastic speed, leaning in to strike the monster on its calf. It swatted him away, faster then I thought possible, into a wall, which buckled under his impact.
Annabeth learned from his mistake. Instead of attacking it from the side, she jumped on its back and unsuccessfully tried to stab it in the neck.
"Die, foolisssssh demigod," it hissed, shaking her off as though she was no more then a fly. She flew through the air and hit the ground, hard. It continued to advance towards me, and I stood there, paralysed, looking with horror at the thing that approached me. It was just a few feet away from me when it was hit in the face by a gigantic blast of water. Coughing and spluttering, it reeled back, hands flying to its face.
It ignored me, running quicker then I thought it could towards Mr. Jackson, who had his palms open. Water smashed through the plastic window panes swirling around him and was forced up into the things face. It was as if he was controlling the water, or something…
But it learned from its lesson. It jumped, high into the air as the water washed by underneath, and landed right in front of him. He raised the bronze sword but the monster was too fast. It swatted him so hard he flew through the wall, smashing a hole in it, and disappeared into the rainy night. It was seriously raining now.
I looked behind me, where Annabeth was lying face down on the floor. She was either unconscious or worse…
It advanced once again towards me, grinning and uttering a crackly hiss I realised was laughter.
Closing my eyes, I prayed to someone, anyone, that I would survive this.
On top of all this, I still had a headache, and it was getting worse.
And suddenly, the pressure was gone, and so was the monster.
Water and wind whipped together into a hurricane, sweeping up chunks of rubble and other materials. The monster was swept up into it, howling as it went around and around. It hit a huge blue chunk of wall and decapitated into chunks of yellow dust whipped away into the hurricane. The rest of the MPS gave a groan, parts of it breaking off and swirling into the hurricane.
It was starting to terrify me, as I could feel parts of other buildings being smashed into the hurricane, and I didn't know how to stop it.
Suddenly, Mr. Jackson was right beside me, yelling in my ear to be heard above the hurricane.
"You have to let it go!" he was yelling. "Just let it go!"
I did as he said, and the hurricane dramatically lessened, parts of other buildings ricocheting around, smashing windows and into concrete. I tried to let it go more, and suddenly it was gone, pieces of building materials raining down around us. Mr. Jackson raised his finger to the sky, and the rain diverted to him. He spread his palms, and a dome made of water surrounded us. Pieces of debris that would otherwise have hit us were diverted around.
Finally, the debris stopped falling, and Mr. Jackson let the water go.
It was properly dark now, all lighting swept away by the hurricane. I could see though, by the light of the starts, that a huge circle of nothingness was around us, and I was at the point of it.
Suddenly, I felt enormously tired. I dropped to my knees, breathing heavily.
"Percy," I heard Miss. Chase say. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," he said back. "He…saved us." He sounded amazed.
I could feel the blackness pressing around me, and I knew what was going to happen.
With a slight smile, I collapsed into unconsciousness.
Wow. That was huge for me.
Leave me some love, yo! It's not often I write such long chapters.
On a more serious note, I know that my characters are slightly OOC. I apologise. I am trying, I promise.
Note: Just curious, did the books ever mention if Percy was left or right handed? I have no idea.
Well, thanks for reading!
-SFM