Thanks everybody who is awesome! That means that u guys reviewed/followed/favorite! I really appreciate the support!
Cookies, HaileeStoll0330, zap, and Daughter of the Gods, thanks for the reviews. They are taken to heart! 3
Alley Girl From Asphodel, HaileeStoll0330, Lady Loophole, Maineoo8, maddymoop, and . .life, stitch is fluffy, thank you all for following! I can't believe that all that many people actually love the story!
Anyways, tell me, does it feel good to lose the playoffs for soccer when the game went all the way to PKs (penalty kicks) and you missed even though you spent two hours practicing with your coach the night before?
I'll answer that question. No, no it doesn't. Are there any soccer players out there that can relate? Or are there even any soccer players out there? Please tell me.
Anyways, Back In Time will start again!
Storytime!
Luke's Pov
As ecstatic as I was to see Thalia again, I think we were all caught up in our age problem. I was fourteen again. That was a horrible year. I think everyone was reverted back to the age based on how old the others were. For example, since Thalia is five years older than Percy, she's twelve and he's seven. Also, she is about seven or six years older than Jason, who is five. Yeah, it works with everybody. I'm two years older than Thalia, and seven years older than Annabeth. Even with Thalia's age setback, she's still older than everyone except me.
Chiron finally got our attention.
"Hazel, will you please calm down! You will get an apple in a moment."
"NO! I don wanna apple. I wanna choc-late."
"Okay, fine." Chiron sighed. I knew that there was a reason he didn't teach young kids.
"I wanna choc-late NOW!"
"In a minute, my dear."
Hazel started to cry, not getting her way.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Hazel started to throw a temper tantrum.
"Somebody just give her the chocolate already!" Thalia yelled.
"We don't have any chocolate!" Percy screamed back as Hazel got louder.
"FINE!" I threw Hazel the chocolate bar I stole from the last convenience store I visited. "Eat it and be happy!"
She took one look at it and wrinkled her nose. "I DON LIKE ALMONDS!"
We groaned as she started to cry again. Finally, Chiron gave her some hot chocolate, and she sniffled, happy again.
"So," Chiron summarized. "You kids need to find Circe, who is most likely in the Sea of Monsters again, and defeat her to get your age back."
"Sounds easy enough." Thalia and her ego at age twelve.
"Not really," Annabeth spoke up. She's so cute again at age seven. "Circe is really powerful! And she has magic!"
"We can take her!" Apparently, I have a huge ego, too.
"Yeah," Jason sounded like he was gonna agree to disagree. "But she has magic. We need a good plan. Offense."
Everybody immediately argued.
"No!"
"Defense is better!"
"Yeah, what he said!"
"What if she has better offense?"
Through all of this, I noticed Percy, covering his ears, sinking down in the corner.
"You alright, Perce?" I crouched down to get eye-level with him. He avoided eye contact.
"Please," he wimpered in his high voice. "Don't- not again!"
I gave him a look of confusion before I noticed the bruises and scars that riddled his arms and legs.
I came to conclusions.
He must have been abused by Gabe when he was younger.
He ignored me, shaking in the corner.
It was then that I realized the true horror of this spell. Olympus's heroes were reduced to nothingness.
Line Break
Thalia's Pov
After we all got clothes from the Aphrodite Cabin (our size) we left for the ship.
Because Luke and I were the oldest, we were the supervisors. And the most coordinated. And the most skilled. I could go on and on.
But the kids were the worst. I remember Annabeth at seven, she was alright as kids go, but these small children were horrible!
They were loud. Annabeth was quiet, but they were noisy, Hazel being the worst. Seriously? A four-year-old? I would get paid for babysitting, at least! No, wait, nobody would hire me….
There's a reason I grew up fast.
"SHUT UP!" I finally yelled after Jason and Percy got into an argument. Jason was pushing Percy around because Percy wouldn't talk. Darn it, Circe! I hate her. She turned Percy into a pushover passive kid who didn't talk and was scared of everything because of Gabe. She turned my brother into a jerky boss who liked taking charge (like me). She made Hazel the worlds-most-loudest four-year-old. Frank even, was big and arguementative. Discarding his previous soft-teddy-bearish attitude, Frank was large and in charge.
As we tried to get everybody on the Argo 2, they ran, chasing each other and screaming "Jason's it!"
After everyone calmed down (as much as possible) and got on the ship, Leo couldn't drive it anymore.
"Why not!" I complained.
"I can't reach the steering wheel. Kinda like you can't reach the ladder anymore." He joked according to my earlier attempt to grab the hanging ladder of the suspended in midair Argo 2. Eventually, Luke had to pull it down.
I glared at him until he scampered off to find books to stack for him to reach the wheel.
When I went back outside, I groaned in frustration. The kids had started to play tag, this time with Hazel as the one who was it. Since she was slow, everybody just stayed away from her. After a minute, when she couldn't get anybody, she sat down and started to-once again- cry.
Luke was the one who appeared, and he went over to comfort her, but it just made it worse. We shared a look of helplessness, but before we could ask if anybody else could come along, Leo managed to start the ship, and away from camp we flew.
Line Break
Thalia's Pov
A few hours in, and I was ready to give up. And that's coming from me.
Percy was huddled in a corner, Jason in the other. Jason had picked on Percy, and Percy accidentally lost his temper and soaked him with a wave from the sea… which was 20,000 miles below. We were way too high.
Frank had been doing tricks near the edge, pretending to fall overboard to make Hazel cry.
Leo was still in the engine room, having stacked up five boring architecture books that Annabeth had brought along. Each book was at least 2,000 pages long. She was in the engine room, too, complaining to Leo and describing why each book was needed and why she needed them nice and organized.
Piper was in her room, putting on makeup and fixing her appearance. Who knew she was that girly at age five?
Nico was in his room, too, sulking around or sleeping.
Luke and I were in the makeshift living room, laying on our backs on the comfortable couches.
"Why us?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" he turned to face me.
"They're so…"
"Annoying? Obnoxious? Loud? Arguementative? Crazy? Young?" he listed.
"All of the above." I stated grimly.
"I'll bet you wish you'd get a break, huh?"
"How do you deal with them?"
"Well, I have experience with my brothers."
"Everybody I knew was either too young to have personality, Annabeth, or my age. Or older."
"Frustrated?"
"Very."
We sat in silence for a while.
"I wish I hadn't come."
"Then you wouldn't have seen me!" he joked.
"Yes, because I live to just see you occasionally."
"Totally."
We smiled at the ceiling.
Our peaceful moment didn't last long. We heard laughing and then crying, so we both sighed and left the room to see what the kids were up to.
Jason had left his corner to face Frank, who was hitting Jason. Jason was hitting back.
"Hey, hey, break it up!" Luke and I pulled them away from each other.
"Why did you leave your corner?" I questioned Jason.
"I got bored."
"I didn't tell you that you could leave."
"I don't care."
"Oh, you're gonna!" Luke stopped me from attacking my brother.
"Why did you hit him Frank?" Luke asked.
"He told me that I was weak!"
"So you hit him?"
"Yeah!"
I rolled my eyes. "Boys! Why can't you all just get along!?"
"Apologize." Luke commanded.
"Who?" Jason and Frank asked in unison.
"Both of you." I glared at them.
"Sorry." Frank muttered.
Jason folded his arms.
"Jason," I threatened.
"Fine. I'm sorry."
"Good." Luke said. "Now, both of you, go to the table."
"Percy," I called.
He flinched. "Y-yes?"
"Go to the table. We're gonna eat soon."
He nodded quickly and scampered off.
"Hazel?" Luke played hide-and-go-seek with the giggling four-year-old. "Do you wanna eat?"
"No!"
"Okay, then, I'm going to go leave, then. Tell the monsters hello for me!" with that he disappeared, and Hazel realized that she was going to see monsters unless she left.
She ran up, crying to me, and hugged me tightly. "Don't let the monsters get me!"
I awkwardly patted her on the back. "I won't. Now go up to dinner, m'kay?"
She nodded quickly and ran off to join the others.
Luke emerged from behind a crate of barrels, and came up to me.
"Wait…" I asked in sudden horror. "What are we gonna eat?"
"Mac N Cheese." He smiled. "Every kid loves that."
"Where are we getting it?"
"I packed a few meals."
I breathed out a sigh of relief. I didn't want to have a bunch of hungry toddlers to take care of.
We left to find Nico, Piper, Annabeth, and Leo.
Line Break
Leo's Pov
I didn't want to leave the engine room, especially not for something as small an issue as eating, but Thalia made me.
When we got to the room, everyone was talking. Mac N Cheese was distributed to everybody, and even Hazel ate it! I guess no kid hates Mac N Cheese.
"I'm tired," Nico said, his mouth full of food.
"Okay, bedtime!" Thalia ordered.
After much complaining, and Nico falling asleep, face in food, Everybody was ushered off.
This will be a night of no sleep. I would be driving the whole time.
Line Break
Luke's Pov
Thalia and I took the watches. Since neither of us could sleep because of the noise Leo kept making, we stayed up all night.
"Aargh!" Thalia groaned, frustrated. "Couldn't he be any more annoying?!"
"He could be hitting on you." I suggested.
She face palmed. "Don't remind me!"
I laughed.
She smiled and shook her head.
I realized that that was the first time I had seen her smile in years. I missed it.
But her smile was replaced with a look of shock and concern as we heard a crash and a bang coming from Frank's room.
We took off to see what happened.
When we go there, we found Frank snoring on the floor, still asleep even though he had fallen out of bed.
"Oh for the love of-!" Thalia started cursing, and stormed out of the room. Our moment was ruined.
I sighed and helped Frank get back into bed. He wasn't heavy compared to what he weighs at his real age, and how much older I am. I didn't realize how strong I was at fourteen. I tucked him in like I would a son (weird comparison but true)
I understood Thalia's frustration. When we were first with Annabeth, neither of us knew how to deal with kids. But I learned when I had to fit in at camp with my half-brothers. Thalia never got that.
She never got a lot of things, now that I think about it.
At least my mom and dad tried. At least my brothers didn't die. At least I didn't die. At least at least at least.
I pondered this as I trudged back. Thalia and I had traveled together for years… have we changed so much since then? I mean, sure, I totally betrayed everyone I knew and loved, but I sacrificed myself to defeat Kronos! I lived to see another day. Thalia felt the most betrayed by me, and who can blame her? I discarded our friendship by poisoning her and fighting her to the death. She joined the Hunters. I lived. Both were changes not meant to happen in a normal life.
Wait. Scratch that. We wouldn't have met in a mortal world.
Both changes wouldn't have happened if we were normal demigods. By that I mean no prophecy.
I wonder where we would be now, at this age that we were transformed into, if there was no prophecy. We would probably be together. Not that I've thought about that a lot. Definetly not. Right?
I realized that I had been staring at Thalia, already having reached the room that we took watch in.
"What?" she asked, annoyed.
"Um, nothing. Just… thinking about how hard Frank sleeps." I quickly made up an excuse, which wasn't hard with my ADHD mind. My mind took another turn, and I started noticing her more. The way she arches her eye brow when she's mad. When she glares with her intense electric-blue eyes. Her smile. When I can make her laugh.
Oh, no.
I think that my opinions have finally changed. Or maybe they have always been this way before, and I just haven't realized it until now. This changes everything.
I like Thalia Grace.
BOOM! Bombshell. Fwooooooooshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…
ANYBODY SEE CATCHING FIRE? I DIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDD! No spoilers, but it was way better than the first one, and it was really like the book.
Wow, so anybody hate Thuke? Cuz it might happen.
Opinions, anyone? Thanksssssssssssssss.