"Stupid trees," I growled, whipping my nose with one hand and hitting a fir tree branch with the other. I'd been walking through these woods for an hour
"Now, NOW you come out with it!?" I yelled at the sky, which just echoed my question back at me. I grumbled and kept walking. I tried to cross a creek but slipped on one of the rocks and fell on my butt, somehow I managed to.
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" I slapped the water and started crying, again. I was mad that I kept crying and mad that my "dad" just plopped in my life via lightning and didn't even have the decency to tell me face to face and that those kids had rummaged through my bag, which had my only processions in it. Most of all, I was angry that I still didn't know who my mom was. Couldn't she drop a note or be all "Hey Zeus, here's my cell number, please give it to our daughter when you claim her. Thanks!" No! Jack squat! I buried my face in my arms, I just wanted to wallow here in this creek, letting my underwear get soaked. I'm not sure how long I sat there, but cicadas started buzzing and the sun was dipping into the west when I heard someone yell in the distance. I shot my head up and looked where the voice came from.
"This way, I think I heard something!" I didn't bother to process whose voice it was, I jumped out of the water and ran. They were the last people on earth I wanted to see. My clothes were soaked from the creek water; I wished I had remembered my jacket. My tennis shoes were slick and I fell a lot climbing up a rocky hill.
"Kori! Kori, come out!" I think it was V's voice, but I couldn't really tell. I kicked off my tennis shoes and peeled off my socks and shoved them into my bag before jogging up a steep incline. I stopped at the top of the mossy hill and dug my toes into the soft dirt. I heard a twig snap and fell flat onto my stomach to hide. I was expecting Saph and V to burst into the clearing, but it was a boy. He was about 6 foot and had short, blonde hair and was wearing a purple t-shirt. He was maybe in his early twenties; he brandished a polished bronze sword. He wore a serious expression on his face, which was pretty. Not in the girl face was, but like those bronze Greek statues in museums. I wanted to pull out my Prismacolor pencils. He had the most gorgeous blue eyes.
"Jason!" A beautiful Native American young woman burst through the bushes. She had layered dark chocolate hair with scattered braids and tanned skin. She wore just jeans and a t-shirt and looked like she could have walked straight out of an Aeropostle ad. Was everyone here just naturally gorgeous?
"Any luck finding her?" She held a bronze knife in her right hand. They were looking for me? I didn't even know them!
"No, I thought I heard something but she's not here." Some bushes rustled and a twig snapped and both of them ran towards it. When I was sure they were gone I sat up. What was the big deal? Sure, I ran off. But shouldn't they be glad? One less problem child to deal with. I continued walking for a long time, I was starving. I already ate the kit-kat that was in my bag, which my metabolism had blown through in hardly any time. Stupid fast metabolism. The sky was starting to darken, had I really been out here all day?
"Korinna! Korinna!"
Uhg! Can't they just leave me alone?! They were getting closer, and fast. I looked around for a hiding place. The only place to hide was a nearby tree. I'm pretty sure I beat the average squirrel's time shimmying up a tree trunk. Just as I sat on a wide branch, Percy, yet another pretty girl with curly blonde hair and that Jason kid burst onto the scene.
"Kori!" Percy yelled. I felt a twang of guilt hiding from them, but then I remembered this afternoon and I was suddenly glad that I wasn't on the ground.
"Has anyone heard from Piper and the girls?" The girl with princess curls asked. She had stormy grey eyes. The boy known as Jason shook his head.
"No one's seen Korinna. What does she even look like? What if I walk right past her and didn't even know it!" He raked his fingers through his blonde hair. The girl rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh.
"Yes, Jason. You'd walk right past a girl in the middle of our woods at dusk. Totally."
"Annabeth!" Percy scolded. Jason looked a little hurt; it was hard not to laugh at him though. I liked that girl's sass. After a few minutes of bickering, they moved on to another area. I was pretty comfortable where I was so I decided to relax for a bit, my feet were tired and my shorts were still wet and were becoming very, very uncomfortable. I think I must have dozed off for a bit because the next thing I knew it was night time. The violet sky was alive with shining diamonds and it was almost as bright as day with the silvery light from the moon.
Wow, the stars out here are gorgeous. I thought wistfully. Last time I had a good view of the stars was when I lived in a little town on the U.S-Canadian border. It was beautiful out there, but my foster parents were awful. They treated me like some ugly, dirty puppy they took in out of pity to brag about what "wonderful" people they were. I didn't hear anymore yelling, so I guess they quit looking for me. Part of me was a little sad that they stopped searching but the rest of me was relieved. I scooted out more on the limb to get a better view of the sky. I took a deep breath of the sweet night air when I heard a whooshing noise. I jumped back into the cover of the leaves, I almost fell out of the tree! I twisted the silver ring on my finger and a celestial silver dagger appeared in my right hand. Leaning forward, I saw something that looked like a wet sheet of ink on the face of a rock. Then a hand reached out from it! I about wet myself! Could things get any weirder around here!? But then a figure stepped out, the inky sheet dropped like a curtain and disappeared. I scootched a little farther out to get a better look. A boy about my age wearing an aviator jacket stood in the moonlight. He had coal black coarse wavy hair and thick eyebrows. He had a little bit of wiry stubble, somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if he wasn't Italian. He had a strong jaw line and cupid bow lips. He looked up at the sky and put his hand against an oak tree. He had long, curled eyelashes that protected his glossy obsidian eyes. I itched to pull out my ink set. I scooted closer out as he started walking below where I was hiding. I didn't notice the branch start to crackle until it was too late. The boy heard the little snapping and looked up.
"Wha-" The branch cracked and I screamed as I fell, but I think I hit my head on the way down because I don't remember hitting the ground.
My head was pounding when I woke up. I moved to sit up when I heard someone say
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." I turned my head and immediately regretted it. It felt like someone set my neck on fire. I hissed in between my teeth.
"Told ya'" I opened one of my eyes and saw it was the boy from the woods. I furrowed my eyebrows, he was doing that fake-suave thing guys do to be cool.
"Where am I?" I groaned, sitting up. I was under a toupe and cream colored quilt on a worn leather sofa in a cluttered living room. Grape vines twirled around the walls and I was oddly disturbed that a living room vineyard didn't disturb me.
"You're in the Big house, you shouldn't of ran off. You're lucky I caught you." He leaned forward, crinkling his forehead. His skin looked like it would be olive, but it looked like he and the sun weren't exactly friends. I frowned at him and looked at the coffee table and grabbed a red hardback book at the top of a hefty stack. I opened it and pretended to flip through it. He looked a little confused and opened his mouth to say something when I threw the book at him.
"OW! What was that for?" His voice cracked a little as he grabbed his shoulder.
"Yeah right! You "caught" me." I said with air quotes. His face turned a little pink and lowered his brow.
"Hey! I didn't have to carry you back here! I could have left you!"
"Did you ever think that that's what I wanted?" I said swinging my legs over the edge of the blue couch. I tried to stand up, but felt a wave of nausea and fell back down. The boy rolled his glossy eyes. Yup, everyone here was pretty, even if they're annoying. The boy reached down by his boots and held out a plastic water bottle that had something that looked like apple juice. I raised an eyebrow.
"It's nectar. It'll make your head feel better, you got a bad cut." He pointed to his eyebrow, I touched my face where he pointed and winced. I reluctantly took the nectar from him and unscrewed the cap. I took a swig and almost spat all over the quilt. It tasted like junior mints! The kid snickered a little bit, I shot him a glance.
"No no, I'm not laughing at you. It's just always great to see the first reaction." I took another drink, but he stood up and grabbed the bottle.
"If you drink too much you'll burn to a crisp." I thought he was kidding at first, but his expression said otherwise. So I slowly took the bottle from my lips and gave it back to him. He screwed the cap back on and sat back down in the wingback chair. It was a little awkward.
"So, where's everyone else?" I was honestly expecting a giant lecture when I woke up, not that I wasn't happy.
"Well honestly they're waiting for me to tell them you're awake, be right back." He said standing up, he walked to the front door and before he walked out he turned and said,
"Oh, and don't think about running out. I think you've caused enough trouble for the day." The screen door creaked closed as he walked out. I almost threw another book at him.
"Stupid" I scoffed under my breath as I got up. I needed to get all my stuff together. I checked my pockets and with a sigh of relief felt the python's teeth were still there. I looked around and saw my bag by where the boy had been sitting moments before. I grabbed it and saw my sketchbook right next to it, opened. OH MY GOSH! Are there no boundaries in this place?I picked it up and saw some of the pages were wavy from my slip in the creek. I grumbled and cursed under my breath while tying my shoes. I shoved my sketchbook back into my bag and crept into the next room, it was a kitchen. In the back there was a scuffed, wooden door and I made a mad dash for it. It was still night, probably 8 or 9 so no one was around. I ran down the porch and jumped down the stairs when I felt a pair of hands catch me around the waist and pulled me back onto the porch. But my legs tangled with their jean covered ones and we fell backwards. I hit the back of my head against their nose and heard them yelp. Moaning, I turned around and saw it was the pretty boy. Again.
"You?" I pushed myself back up off of him. He rubbed his nose and cursed under his breath.
"I told you not to run off." He said sitting up.
"Yeah, I don't take direction well. Especially when they go through my stuff." I growled, turning on a dime back to the stairs. He grabbed my wrist though.
"No, you're staying right here until they get here." I couldn't shake my wrist from his grip.
"No! Lemme go!" The air began to feel metallic and heavy. He noticed.
"Oh no, uh uh. You're not gonna shoot any lightning bolts at me, Kori." My face felt hot. How did he know my name?
"How'd you know my name?" I grunted, trying to tug my wrist from his hand.
"First page of your sketchbook." He said a little too calm.
"Oh yeah, you went through my bag you jerk!"
"Hey! I only got it out so it could dry! I was helping you!" He was starting to lose his cool.
"And my name is Nico, just in case you wanted to know." I huffed my bangs out of my face. I've had enough of his attitude. I grunted and kicked him in his shin. He cried out and let go of me to grab his leg. I didn't waste any time and sprinted down the stairs. I thought I'd made it home free when I heard his heavy footsteps behind me. I kicked my speed up and ran harder. I was almost to the front of the camp when he caught be by the strap of my bag. I almost fell on him again! Nico wrapped his free arm around the front of my shoulders (curse tiny body types!) while I flailed my legs wildly.
"Lemme go!" I grunted, there was a roar in my ears and heard the air crackle around us. He started walking backwards to a column and thunder roared and dark clouds rolled in.
"Oh no, not today." I turned my head to see him put his hand on the stark white column and a curtain of black ooze appeared from it. I could hear wind howling and echo- y wails come from it. My eyes grew wide.
"No, No! I am NOT going in there!" a flash of lightning zapped the ground, just inches from us.
"Oh yes you are!" he grunted, pulling me in. It was dark and cold and felt like being stretched in a taffy maker. If the nausea wasn't enough, there was wailing and screaming in the nothingness. It was like shutting off all the lights and projector in a movie theater while a slasher flic was on. The noise stretched and there was a light, like we were coming out of a tunnel. We fell out into the light onto a creaky wooden floor. My head was spinning when I heard someone say,
"Ah, there you two are."
