Percy POV
Here we go again. Another summer in the same old town, on the same old island, with the same old people. Now, I know what your thinking. Why are you complaining if you can go to the beach every day while drinking nice cold lemonade with your buddies and checking out girls in swimsuits? Well, after doing those exact activities every day for the past seventeen years... it gets pretty boring.
Now don't get me wrong, I love Riverside! It has incredible sandy white beaches with water so clear that you can see the fishes that swim around you. There's also the strip where you can find whatever you need in life. I'm completely serious. Even if you need bright green polka dotted slippers, it will be there. My Mom runs the sweet shop. It's one of my favourite places to go to since I can eat whatever I want for free!... Until I reach my limit. I'm not the only one addicted though, the whole island seems to never get enough of my Mom's sweets. Most of the time, she runs out of things to sell before closing. It's always hectic at the store so I help my Mom out sometimes during the week if it gets too crazy. She won't hire anyone else to work there though. I'm pretty sure it's because of my Dad.
My Dad died when I was pretty young. I was 6 when his boat was destroyed in the worst storm Riverside has ever seen. He was a fisherman, but he would help my Mom out in the store every day. His shifts were in the mornings anyways so he really didn't mind. I woke up to the sound of him leaving the house so, being the rebellious kid that I am, I followed him to the beach. I loved watching my Dad fish. He always had this huge grin on his face whenever he caught a huge load, and the rising sun would shine on his sea green eyes making him look ten years younger than what he actually was. I would watch him behind this extremely large yet smooth rock, but now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure he knew I was watching him. I was never really good at being stealthy.
Anyways, the sky started to change from light blue to an ugly almost black looking colour. The clouds looked as if they were growing larger and that's when I heard the thunder. I saw the panic in my Dad's eyes when he saw how large the waves were becoming. My Dad's boat was then set on fire by this huge lightning bolt. At this time I ran out of my hiding spot yelling for him to jump out of the boat and swim back to shore. Just then, I noticed the largest wave I have ever seen in my entire life heading towards my Dad's boat. I could tell he noticed it too from the look on his face. As much as I wanted to deny it, I knew what would happen next. It was too late for my Dad to swim back to shore, especially since his boat was a good 400 metres away. I could tell that he knew it too since he turned around and mouthed "I'm sorry Percy, I love you" And before the wave engulfed him, he gave me one of his amazing winning smiles.
My Dad's death was the hardest thing my Mom and I ever had to endure. I had nightmares every night for years of that awful day. They aren't as frequent anymore which is good, but when it does happen, I wake up screaming and feeling sick to my stomach. My Mom says I look a lot like him. She says that we have the same untamed hair, sea green eyes, and winning smile. When I look at myself in the mirror, I can see that she's right... And I hate it. Just looking at myself makes me sick. I've been trying for 11 years to get rid of that horrible memory, and it doesn't help that whenever I look at myself, I see my Dad too.
As I sat on the beach thinking about my Dad, I feel a bucket of water just splash onto my head. I jump from the sudden sensation of cold water and turn around to see my best friend Grover laughing hysterically on the sand. I gave him my best death stare as he just continues laughing while repeating "You should have seen your face!" Grover has been my best friend since the first grade and yet he still acts like a first grader.
Once Grover has recovered from his laughing fit, he asks me "So, we're finally free from the awful hell that is high school for exactly two months. What do you think we should do with all of our spare time?" "Not really much to do when you've done everything there is to do on this island like 500 times" I responded. "Not true. You see, there is one activity that we haven't done 500 times" "And what might that be?" I asked unamused. "Why, get you a girlfriend of course!" exclaimed Grover as he looked at me like this was such an obvious answer.
Let me get one thing cleared up. Living in a small town like Riverside means that there aren't that many people around. Which causes everyone to know who everyone is, what their hobbies are, where they live, and what they do for a living. This doesn't open up many opportunities to meet new people, so long story short, I know every teenage girl on this island and NONE of them call out my attention. I mean sure, girls try to flirt with me a lot, but I never return the favor since well... None of them are my type. Now, don't ask me what my type is because to be honest, I'm not quite sure myself. I'll just know when I meet her.
"Look G-Man," I said "I've already told you this before, I don't want to date any of the girls on this island. None of them are interesting to me." "Oh come on Perce!" Grover complained "You should at least give one of them a shot!" "I did! Don't you remember? And that backfired badly!" "Oh yeah..." Grover said, suddenly remembering my first and only relationship I've ever had. I'd rather spare the details, it wasn't a pretty picture. "But, I still think you should at least try to find someone. I just don't want you to feel like your a third wheel when I'm with Juniper." "I don't feel like a third wheel around you guys!" I honestly didn't. Grover and Juniper's relationship never bothered me, well, unless they started making out in front of me... Then we had a problem.
"Look," I said, wanting to finally close this subject "as long as she's not from this island, I'll consider dating her." "Whatever Perce, I give up!" Grover yelled as he waved his arms in frustration "Oh, I almost forgot! I saw your Mom today and she asked me if you and I could go to the airport to pick up some supplies she ordered in." "Ok sure, let's go now. On the way we should pick up Jason, Leo, and Nico. My Mom always has like mountain loads of heavy boxes whenever she has a shipment come in so we're going to need all the help we can get."
While driving to the airport, Grover suddenly laughed to himself "What?" I asked, curious to know what in the world Grover was thinking in that crazy head of his. "Well, I was just thinking, wouldn't it be funny if you find your future non-islander girlfriend at the airport?" I laughed "I highly doubt that will happen G-Man. The chances of that would be one in a billion." Besides, I thought to myself, who would want to vacation on this island?
Author's Note:
So I made this chapter a lot longer than my first one. I hope you liked it and the next chapter will be coming soon! Please feel free to review my story since I am new at this whole writing thing.
Thanks for reading! :)
