Max: Heyo, TheAngelWarrior here! Me and my friend Marie have decided to grace you with an amazing PJO story! ;D
Marie: Hola mi amigassss (I take French but Whatever) it's RenagadeArtist here like Max said I go by Marie :D
Max: Okay, so this is our story and before we start, I'd like to say that we DON'T own PJO and I own Lara, while Marie owns Jaycee! C:
Marie: I don't techniqually own anyone that is considered slavery I believe.
Max: *awkward silence* Okaaaaaay then... On with the story! Enjoy! R&R
Lara's POV
I panted heavily as I tore through the dense woods, the sharp twigs snagging at my exposed flesh. I could hear the terrifying beast gaining on me, the snapping of its mighty teeth and the 'ba dum, ba dum' of its paws smacking the solid earth.
My breath came in ragged gasps while my sore, bare feet continued to dash along the tough dirt. My arms seemed to weigh a ton as they swung back and forth by my sides. I felt like collapsing right there on the stop, but if I stopped now, I knew the monster would surely catch me.
The constant running remained for a few more minutes. Then I skidded to a quick stop. There, only inches away from me, was a huge canyon. My spirits dropped instantly as the wild snarls ripped through the air. The wind whipped my hair around my bruised face as I considered each outcome. Either I stay here and get mauled by some strange monster or jump and possibly plummet over a hundred feet to my death. I didn't like either option. At all.
The growls grew louder and louder, as did my heart which was hammering in my chest. I don't know if I decided out of fear, or possibly pure adrenaline, but I backed up quite a ways, and prepared myself to jump. I could hear the beast clearly now, not very far at all. My feet immediately began to run, faster and faster. I heard the monster throw itself out of the trees but I didn't slow.
Yards, only a few yards left. Now feet... and inches... I felt my feet launch off of the edge of the cliff, the large teeth snapping only centimeters from my back, and the wind picking up as I free-fell to my death...
I bolted upright in bed, breathing heavily. A sheer layer of sweat coated my forehead as I flopped back down against my pillow. That was the fifth time I'd had that dream this week, it always happened the same way... I would be running through a forest, some weird thing would be chasing me, I'd end up at a cliff, jump, and wake up just in time to miss out on whether I died or not.
I sighed to myself as I threw the covers off of my body and swung my legs over the side of the bed. With a yawn, I stretched my arms out - almost cat-like - and stood sleepily.
After brushing my teeth, I dressed in a comfy t-shirt, pair of blue jeans with multiple scoff marks, black one-star converse, and lastly I threw on my favorite gray, zip-up jacket. I raked a brush through my long, curly, dirty blonde hair as I trotted down the stairs and into the kitchen. Dad had already left for work, even though it was a Saturday, but my faithful border collie, Lassie, was lying on the sofa, waiting for me like every morning.
I smiled at her and whistled softly as I quickly filled up her dog bowl. I then looked up at the digital clock on the oven. It read 5:30 am. With a sigh, I waved goodbye to Lassie as she pranced over to her food, and started towards the door. I grabbed my small backpack - filled with everything and anything I needed - and slung it over my shoulder as I walked out the door.
After making sure the front door was locked behind me, I turned away from my house and reached around into my pack, pulling out my IPod. I immediately plugged in the two earphone's, shoved the IPod itself into my pocket, and pulled my hood up over my head as I continued to walk; a certain destination already in mind.
I reached a familiar house in a few minutes, and walked around back. Once there, I made sure the backpack was hanging around both shoulders before gripping the tree firmly with each hand. I easily swung up onto the next branch, and the next one, and the next until I reached my best friend's bedroom window. I saw her still in bed, her normally silky black hair a ruffled mess. I sniggered to myself as I pulled out my lock-picking set and got to work on the lock.
Twenty-six seconds. It was a new record. I quickly shoved the windows open and climbed into her room silently. With a smirk, I tip-toed over to my friend's side and shook her violently.
"Wakey, wakey, Jaycee!" I whispered-yelled, "Rise and shine! A beautiful day awaits!" I couldn't help but laugh at the last part.
Jaycee let a terrified scream escape from her lips as she tumbled ungracefully out of her cozy bed and onto the floor in a heap of blankets.
"Lara!" she shrieked in a tone mixed with fear, confusion, and downright anger. "What in the whole wide messed up world is your problem!" she added as she carefully detached herself from deep purple bedding and stood up, smoothing out her black hair, ruffled tank top and Soffee shorts. She threw a viscous glare at me and rested her hands on her hips.
A howl of laughter ripped from my throat at the sight of Jaycee falling to the floor and leaping back up again in a matter of seconds. I held my stomach as I continued to laugh, my eyes beginning to water.
"Lara Croft you are so going to get it." she said in a deadly calm voice, which I could barely hear over my laughing. And then, with stealth like posture, she jumped up from the mahogany floor and pounced, letting out a viscous lion-like attack call.
It was then that I felt my feet being knocked out from under me, by, that's right folks, a very irritated Jaycee! Even while I was being pinned to the ground, my best friend glaring from on top of me, I couldn't keep from laughing.
"You... should'a... seen... your... face!" I managed to choke out, erupting in another fit of laughter.
Jaycee's face slowly broke into a small and malicious smirk as she cocked her head to the side. "BILLY!" she shouted in the direction of the door. Suddenly a good sized bull dog came bounding into her room and ran over to us.
"Get her, boy!" Jaycee shouted as she jumped off of me and onto her bed. Suddenly the look on my face changed from laughter, to confusion, to realization and finally to fear as the fifty pound dog jumped onto my stomach.
"Eeeeeeek!" I shrieked as Billy the bull dog hopped atop of me, Jaycee already in the clear and sitting on her bed. My scream eventually down-graded to a quieter and more playful shout.
After being licked to death by Billy, Jaycee finally called him off and he gracefully hopped up beside her. "Okay! Billy! That's enough!" Jaycee told the dog with a smirk.
As I sat up I inspected her with narrowed eyes, yet a smile played on my lips. By the redness of her cheeks, I could tell she had been laughing. "Hey, just be grateful my dad is still away on business, or he would be very unhappy with you." Jaycee said darkly, I knew she hated talking about her dad for many reasons. Many reasons I'd rather not discuss.
"Yeah, lucky." I agreed with a grin, hopping to my feet. Then I jerked a thumb towards the door, "But isn't Esmeralda here, you know, since you are only thirteen?" I smirked at her as I walked forward and scratched Billy on the head.
"Nah, she'll be here later though." Jaycee stated in a bored tone. She then turned to me questioningly and asked, "So why did you so rudely break into my room?"
I shrugged, a smile tugging at my lips. "Well, considering this," I gestured to the scene before us, "happens almost every morning..." I chuckled when I caught Jaycee's glare. "Okay, okay, but did you seriously already forget?"
Once I met Jaycee's confused and still half-asleep expression, I laughed and punched her lightly in the shoulder. "The bonfire, remember? At Ole' Man Looker's Ledge tonight?"
"Ohhh," Jaycee said in realization, "well, you know you shouldn't expect me to remember these things at..." she trailed off, looking over at her clock, "6:00 in the morning!" she finished in a 'duh' tone. She then stood up and walked over to her dark mahogany dresser and thrust open the first door, yanking out a pair of blue jeans and dark green shirt that complimented her pale skin tone and then her black signature north face.
I plopped down on Jaycee's bed, next to Billy, as she ran into the bathroom with her clothes in hand. I patted Billy on the head as I waited for my friend.
Oh, and Ole' Man Looker's Ledge - since you probably have no idea what we're talking about - is a ledge, formally owned by Liam Looker, overseeing the Chesapeake Bay with dense woods at our backs. And it has quite the scenery, if I do say so myself. If you need a visual, just picture the ledge which Bella jumped off of in the New Moon movie, (I can't believe I'm making references to Twilight) but there's a huge fire pit in the center, surrounded by a few, old tree trunks we use as benches.
Anyways, back to the story. Jaycee came out of the bathroom dressed and her hair in a neat braid down her back a few minutes later. When she walked out, she saw the backpack on my back and smiled. Walking over to her closet, she pulled out a draw string sac, then grabbed her favorite purple pocket knife off her dresser and tossed it in. "Hey, you want food, missy?" Jaycee asked playfully.
"Yes, that'd be great actually." I replied with a smile, hopping onto my feet as I followed Jaycee out of the room. We walked to the top of the stair case, looked at one another and smiled. We each sat on the two parallel rails and slid all the way down, jumping off before we hit the bottom banister, laughing fervently.
"Time for food!" Jaycee shouted, being the eater she is, and ran into the grand kitchen. The kitchen had beautiful granite counter tops and an island with dark cherry wood floors and cabinets. It was filled all of the latest appliances including the help.
"Hey, Monsieur!" Jaycee greeted the cook as he came bustling into the kitchen. "Bonjour, Miss Jaycee!" he responded in his thick French accent "What can I do for you and Miss Lara?" he asked with a smile.
"Can we have brownies for breakfast!" Jaycee cried sounding very childish. I laughed at her typical response.
"Why of course! And I just made a fresh batch today!" he said, handing over two plates.
I took mine gratefully and replied with a polite, 'Thank you', before following Jaycee to the huge kitchen table. We both sat down, opposite from each other, and began to dig in.
A few minutes later, once the brownies had been devoured and the orange juice Monsieur had gotten us was downed, I spoke, anxious, as I jumped from my seat and headed for the front door, "Let's go mark out the path, it's been a while since the last time we've been there and I'd rather not get lost tonight."
"Alrighty!" Jaycee shouted as she raced me to the garage. When we got there she entered the code and watched as the mechanically doors slowly opened revealing about four expensive sports cars. Jaycee walked over to her black and purple mountain bike as I asked,
"Hey, is my bike still here from last time?" I stood on my tip-toes and tried to see over the many cars.
"Yeah, it's right over there." Jaycee replied, pointing towards my right. I quickly walked over to mine and unchained it. "Now, let's go!" she shouted excitedly as she jumped on hers and raced down her long driveway, passing her spacious front yard and large fountain.
I rolled my eyes as I watched Jaycee whip down the steep hill, squealing the whole way down. I laughed as I mounted my own, gray in color, mountain bike, and took off after my friend. I soared past her once on the street and laughed bizarrely, tilting my head backwards. I heard Jaycee laughing behind me as well and I purposely slowed so that we could ride next to each other.
After about ten minutes of joking back an' forth, laughing, and temporary races, we reached the thick tree line. I skidded to a quick stop, as did Jaycee beside me. I then dismounted my bike and turned back to Jaycee with my hands on my hips.
"We go on foot from here." I told her, a smirk coating my lips.
"Here, let's leave the bikes right here." Jaycee said gesturing to some thick underbrush and pushing her bike over to it. She then took out her pocket knife and cut some low branches off a nearby tree throwing them onto the two bikes. "Just in case." she added when she saw my confused expression. "Come on let's go to the fire pit to make sure it's good for tonight."
"Right." I agreed, starting into the forest where we normally entered. The thick woods were comfortingly familiar; they were a place I'd always go when I was feeling lonely. I smiled to myself as I realized that our former path was still barely visible.
"That makes this a whole lot easier," I nudged Jaycee and pointed to the worn out path, "Just remember to scoff your feet a lot, that should help define it a bit."
Jaycee nodded from behind me as we continued to walk, kicking the dirt every so often. But while we moved forwards, I couldn't help feeling as if we weren't alone, that we were being watched...
Jaycee and I finally burst through the thick forest and arrived at our destination. Jaycee ran out to the edge that overlooked the bay and sighed in content. "I missed this place." she stated with her back still turned towards me. She stood there for a couple minutes with her eyes closed as the wind whipped the loose hairs around her face. She then turned around silently still smiling, until she was facing me. "Isn't it so beautiful?" she asked then shook her head and turned to the fire pit.
"Yeah, beautiful." I murmured, taking in a deep breath of the sea-salt scented air. I was quickly snapped out of my reverie by the sight of the poor looking fire pit. "Hey, Jace," I called, using her nickname, "collect some dry leaves while I get some twigs?"
"Sure." she replied shortly, skipping into the woods, followed quickly by myself.
A few minutes had passed and we were unloaded our findings into the pit. I clapped my hands together loudly, whipping the dirt from them. Once Jaycee was finished I smiled up at her and nodded back towards the woods.
"C'mon, let's go get ready for later."
Me and Jaycee headed back up the mountain trail we'd made later that night. It was pretty dark and I have to admit, a bit spooky. Jaycee kept looking towards the wood skeptically with shifty eyes. She glanced at moi, and I looked back at her questioningly.
"I swear someone's following us." Jaycee said in a paranoid voice. I rolled my eyes and shook my head at Jaycee and her paranoia. Suddenly there was the loud cracking noise of a twig and I had a pretty good feeling of what was going to happen next.
"RUN!" Jaycee yelped out and took off a top speed, therefore confirming my theory. I sighed as I took off behind her, a little on the grateful side that we didn't need to spend any more time in the woods then need be.
We reached the bonfire in a matter of minutes and I watched as Jaycee fell to the ground gasping and laughing at the same time. "Sorry," she said, "you know I'm so paranoid!"
I shook my head, a smile tugging on my lips, as I bent over and rested my palms on my knees. "You know, Jaycee," I said, "if there ever was a scary monster out there - which there isn't - I think that your constant running away from mythological creatures would finally pay off!"
Laughing lightly, I walked over to the fire pit and kicked the dry leaves and twigs into the center. I swiftly pulled out a pack of matches - that I probably wasn't supposed to have - and yanked it against the pack. It quickly caught fire and I tossed it into the pit. As the fire cackled and burnt the leaves, I turned to Jaycee with a grin. "You brought the marshmallows?"
Jaycee held a bag of jet puffed marshmallows above her head with a victorious smile. "Of course!" she laughed. "I suspect you got the chocolate?" she questioned and was answered with the presentation of my unopened box of Hershey's. "Sweet!" Jaycee exclaimed as she sat on an old, dry log. I then sat down on a log of my own across from her.
"And hey!" she continued, "You don't know that there aren't any monsters out there! Because once, I read a book about the human mind," Jaycee was cut off by an incredulous look from moi, "What? I was bored!" she defended, startling a chuckle out of me. "Anyways, so they said the mind only processes what humans believe to be true. So there could be mythological monsters out there and we could just mistake them for a bear or something." She ended with a triumphant smirk. "So ha!"
I rolled my eyes and pulled out the box of graham crackers from my bag as well. "Of course, Jace," I said in a mocking tone as I grabbed the twin longer twigs I had picked up for roasting our marshmallows. "Whatever you say..." I laughed and tossed one of the two twigs to Jaycee. Then I motioned for the bag of marshmallows, "Gimmie!"
Jaycee pelted the bag at me, and to my embarrassment, knocked me backwards off the log. While she giggled uncontrollably, I got back on the log and threw a marshmallow at Jaycee causing us both to laugh even harder. After Jaycee and I stopped giggling, she walked over and grabbed two marshmallows for roasting. "Good aim," she giggled again.
"Right back at ya," I replied with a grin.
Several marshmallows and chocolate bars later, Jaycee asked, "So you don't believe in anything outside of reality? Like no supposedly made up creatures?"
I shrugged. "I don't know," I murmured, popping another marshmallow onto my twig before sticking it back into the flames. "I mean, I don't think so..." I sighed and brushed a loose curl out of my face. After the marshmallow was a pretty golden brown, I tugged it off the end and stuck it in between two graham crackers and a piece of chocolate. "What about you?" I asked as I took a bite of the chocolaty marshmallowy goodness. "Do you really believe in all that stuff?"
Jaycee contemplated this for a second then nodded. "Yeah, I mean I suppose. It's a better explanation as to why my mom left." A pained expression crossed her face and I knew this was a touchy subject for her. Ever since she was little her dad told her that her mom left because she had better things to do. I knew that his explanation always made Jaycee think neither of her parents truly loved her, which was truly sad.
"I mean I'd rather believe she left because of some ancient prophecy or she was some important woman who had to keep unimaginable creatures from the world and not because she didn't love me. You know what I mean?" Jaycee asked, and I nodded in sympathy.
What happened next neither of us expected, and you probably didn't either. But suddenly, Jaycee let out a shriek as two hands came down on both of my shoulders. Can you guess what I did? That's right folks, I screamed too…