The clerk gave Percy a look after walking out of the store, the boy just having bought a plush panda pillow; but Percy didn't care, he'd walked all day and was ready to plop down and sleep. He walked another ten minutes or so before reaching a park he'd walked past on the way to the store, to take a nap in a tree that seemed good enough; it was huge and wouldn't get Percy in any trouble. Hopefully, no cop or civilian would be able to see him up among the leaves and more importantly none of the monsters that randomly had been chasing and screaming at him since he left Lupa. Percy burped after taking a swig of his special blueberry Fanta soda he'd just bought, that for some reason had just called to him. Looking above curiously, his eyelids grew heavy, staring above there seemed to be a constellation that reminded Percy of a small girl.
The morning hadn't started well for Percy, already running from yet another weird thing at dawn, the sun barely on the horizon. Percy looked back at what seemed a ghost as he ran, it looked like a floating greenish civil war soldier, but weirder still it kept on shouting, "YOU SHALL PAY NORTHERNER! AT THE HANDS OF A CENTURION! GREEK SCUM! ".
"Percy was seriously confused by the ghost's words, centuri-what, greek scum, but he didn't have time to think about it; he ran as fast as he could through the park looking ahead to some shops he could maybe hide in, till he tripped and fell into the park's pond. Percy opened his eyes and immediately panicked, was his panda pillow ruined? To his surprise, Percy found that not only was his panda pillow fine, but he was dry, he was even able to breathe and see well in the filthy pond; in fact, he felt quite nice in the water. He looked up to surface, seeing the ghost on the edge of the pond's surface shouting, "DIRTY GREEK TRICKS", looking around before continuing on in his now false chase of Percy into the town streets shouting, "I SHALL HAVE YOUR HEAD".
Under the pond floor Percy breathed deeply and closed his eyes, he needed to think, what the hell was going on, and more importantly where the hell should he go. He sat up, opened his eyes and began to assess his situation. Ok, he was seemingly a healthy male teenage boy, who he thought was named Percy Jackson, he'd been trained by a giant wolf named Lupa who sent him south with no help to find who knows what. He was somewhere warm, definitely America. He also had no recollection of anything before Lupa, except for some vague nagging memories of someone he couldn't quite remember. The only things he had were his filthy clothes, his precious panda pillow, and his wallet. Thankfully the wallet had some thirty dollars, of which only nine now remained, but looking down at the pitiful cash he saw something else too, it was an old movie ticket from IMAX in Manhattan, NYC, to a film called Ponyo. And the dreams came flooding back in: a laugh, a pair of beautiful yet terrifying gray eyes, warmth, a hurricane level of yearning, and finally a name. Mumbling, Percy began wording the familiar foreign word, "anna-, Anna-, -beth, Annabeth, YES, that was it, Annabeth!", that was the name of the girl he knew, the bubbles of her name floating to the surface./p
Percy was a loyal person and knew he should continue on looking for the place Lupa had sent him in search for, but this yearning came like unrelenting waves in a storm, and his best chance to find Annabeth is in Manhattan; where he assumed they went to go see a movie. Percy had to figure out where he was and get to new york, to find this girl; he already knew inside he would go to the ends of the earth for this person.
"Percy began walking along the streets to the nearest gas station buying a map, a donut, and a medium coffee, taking half his money. There were a few other people besides him in the station, a few guys complaining about deadlines, a woman eating a cold baloney sandwich with some coffee, and the cashier bored in his chair. The woman finished her sandwich and came walking up to Percy, who was finishing planning his route from here in walnut creek, California to Manhattan in NYC, she sat across from him at his little table, waking him to her presence. At first glance, she seemed of no danger, a tan, black-haired, woman in her early 40's, native American maybe. "So kid, you look a bit young to be going out on your own, what's going on", she asked in a sincere voice, almost like a family member would.
Percy really didn't feel like lying to this woman so he tried to be as honest as he could, "I'm… well… I'm heading to New York City to, um, find some family, I'm a bit stranded at the moment".
She leaned her cheek on her hand, took a sip of her coffee, took a moment to calmly and just as kindly say, " Well kid, new york city is a long way away, anyhow my name's Joslyn Mclean, what might your's be"?
Percy had expected some rant on his parents or something along those lines, not some nice introduction like school pals. His surprise and relief was obvious as he stumbled a bit saying," Well my name is Percy Jackson, ma'am".
"Well Percy you sure do have a new york accent, so how's about I give you a lift as far west as Martell, California. You seem like a good kid and I'm on my way home after truck driving up and down the coast for two weeks", she said in a generous tone that somehow calmed Percy, a charming almost magical voice./p
"If it's not a bother, well then thank you so much, ma'am, you're very kind", Percy said walking out with her to climb into the massive truck. Soon enough looking out at the rising sun Percy dozed off peacefully, feeling safe and reassured for the first time in a long time.
"HEY KID, YOU'VE GOT TO GET OUT NOW", Joslyn shouted in a tired yet kind voice of a mother in some way.
"Wha-, what's going on", Percy asked drunkenly from his peaceful hour and a half of sleep as he realized what was happening and slowly climbed out of the truck.
"Take care of yourself Percy, I've been where you are now before, finding myself, but don't get yourself killed out there kid, here's ten bucks, buy some water before heading out into the mountains and dessert", she said before giving him a kiss on the cheek and then walking away. Percy took her advice and started walking into the truck station for water before heading out east through the mountains to New York City.