Thanks to all that reviewed last chapter. You truly have no idea how much I appreciate it :) This chapter is short, but I wanted to post it before my midyear finals hit their peak and I have no time left to write. Please note that all dialogue so far in this story is Rick Riordan's, from TTC and BOTL respectively. Enjoy and review if you wish.
I disclaim.
A month goes by, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare develops two theories.
One, that this Percy whoever is merely a figment of her already overactive imagination, just another one of her unreal visions, and she never actually met him- she was merely hallucinating. The more she thinks about it, the more she realizes how likely it is. The thought depresses her.
Her second theory is that he is real, is out there somewhere, and has all the answers she needs. But this is so unlikely that she prefers not to dwell on that hope.
Another month goes by, and those green eyes of his begin to pop up in her dreams now and then. She tosses and turns in paint-splattered sheets and fights his face out of her mind even though she knows it's not going anywhere.
Three months. Her parents are now convinced that she is mentally disturbed- as if that wasn't already the case- but Rachel has almost convinced herself of this too. Her dreams are haunted by monsters more horrific than she's ever imagined, and it would almost be okay if the monsters were confined to her dreams, but they're not. She sees them in real life, too, and while suffering through a torturous therapy session her mother forced her into, she stares out the window and wishes she could talk to that boy instead.
Four months pass, then five, and Rachel has almost resigned herself to the fact that even in the unlikely event that Percy Gotta-go is a real human being, the odds are she will never see him again anyway, so it's best to forget and go on with life as usual. So she goes through her routine and copes with the monsters by painting them onto a canvas and out of her memory.
If only she could do that with the boy.
Six months now. She climbs the steps of Goode High School- a school she selected, not her parents, thank God- for freshman orientation in June, and turns around to ask a teacher for directions to the gym and instead catches a glimpse of the face she's tried so hard to forget.
From the moment Rachael Elizabeth Dare sees Perseus Jackson climbing the steps of Good High, she feels hope for the first time since December.
She also feels a sprig of annoyance, because after all the last time she saw him he did try to kill her a mere thirty seconds before she saved his life.
In her split second of joy and shock she loses sight of him, and a kindly teacher with salt-and-pepper hair points her in the direction of the gym. Quickly she races down the linoleum-floored hallways, green Converse squeaking against the tile, and bursts into the gym. Her eyes scan the bleachers, and she pushes her way through the masses of future freshmen.
Finally, she spots him again, that black hair and goofy grin, and she yanks on his arm and whips him around to face her.
"What are you doing here?" she asks, because a figment of her imagination has no place in her future high school, of all places.
The boy's eyes widen in terror, as if he's facing those skeleton things from Hoover Dam again, she notes with amusement, and he speaks three words.
"Rachael Elizabeth Dare."
She's shocked he remembers her name but even more shocked that he's actually standing in front of her. The first thing that comes to her mind is that she needs answers, and she needs them now.
"And you're Percy somebody. I didn't get your full name last December when you tried to kill me." A full name would be nice, Rachel decides, because Gotta-go really is a ridiculous surname, and she can't very well keep thinking of him as 'the boy.'
"Look, I wasn't-I didn't-" he sputters out, face red. "What are you doing here?"
A bit of disappointment springs up in her because someone this dense can't possibly have the answers to all her questions, but it disappears just as quickly because he exists and he's here and that's enough for Rachel.
"Same as you, I guess. Orientation," she replies.
"You live in New York?" the boy asks.
Yep. Definitely too dense. "What, you thought I lived at Hoover Dam?" She narrows her eyes at him. Whoever this kid is, he's slowly slipping lower and lower from her daydreamed standard.
Some kid shushes them, and her green-eyed glare intensifies because she's waited six months for her answers and not only is the boy who was supposed to provide them incredibly obtuse, he wasn't even paying attention to her anymore. She follows his gaze to see what's distracting him and Lord have mercy not again.
Dressed in the Goode cheerleading uniforms are two of the most hideous creatures she's ever seen, with bronze legs and donkey's legs and sickly white paper-think skin and fangs like a serpents'. And- and they're looking right at him, and smiling in away that makes Rachel wants to vomit and scream in terror at the same time.
She allows herself three fleeting seconds of panic, ignoring the snickers of her future classmates, before realizing that it's about time she saves Percy whoever's life again.
From this moment on, Rachel Elizabeth Dare realizes that's about to become quite the repeating pattern.
"Run. NOW!" she hisses in Percy's ear, and she doesn't wait for him to follow before she takes her own advice and gets the heck out of there. Rachel ignores the frowns and reprimands of disapproving teachers and the grumbles of pushed-aside kids as she tears her way out of the gymnasium and down the hall, searching for an unlocked classroom to hide in. She ends up busting her way into the music room and crouching behind a giant bass drum she hopes is monster-proof.
Minutes later Percy appears in the door, looking just as breathless as she.
"Get over here!" she shouts in hushed tones. "Keep your head down!" The boy obeys- finally he does something right- and squats down beside her, behind a set of bongos.
She hears the pounding footsteps of the cheerleader-zombies and hopes this black-haired-green eyed boy has as much courage as she remembers.