Annabeth forgets what she liked about the cave. It used to be one of her favorite secret places, but now it's like a tomb. A damp, hollow shell devoid of the happy memories. She can watch the storm from the giant mouth, listen to her teeth chatter, and pray she doesn't see any spiders. She knows that if she does see any eight legged creatures, she will run out of the cave screaming like a madwoman and face a storm that could kill her. She closes her eyes and tries to think, but all she can concentrate on is the wreck she left behind.
In one day, she managed to cut class, steal and vandalize Percy's stepdad's textbook, break Octavian Augur's nose, betray her mother and Chiron, steal a boat, and run away three times. Even by troublemaker standards, it sounds bad.
Maybe everyone's right. I have been acting out. She used to be the girl who could do no wrong. The smart one who kept her friends out of trouble. The girl who was going places.
"Annabeth's bound for Harvard or Yale," Athena used to brag. "She studies so hard she collapses from exhaustion."
Of course, she did her share of mischief. She played pranks, questioned authority, sneaked out of camp to be alone with Percy or their friends. She broke the no-couples-alone rule a hundred times over to make out with her boyfriend. One of their favorite spots was here, this craggy beach and cave. They'd ditch camp, jump into the dinghy, and speed across the sea, laughing and joking the entire way. Annabeth feels a little warmer as she thought of his tanned arms around her, canoodling in the sea cave.
Percy was like a god on the ocean. He'd always been attracted to water. He swam like a fish; he rapidly picked up the ropes of sailing (pun intended). His absentee father, Poseidon Filo, ran Neptune Inc., a company that built sailboats, submarines, and diving equipment. As a side job, Poseidon owned a chain of marine biology laboratories and aquariums that served as research centers and sanctuaries for marine life. He was rich, powerful, and handsome.
Annabeth remembers when Percy first told her about his dad. They were thirteen, back for the summer, and just discovered this beach. Percy and Annabeth didn't even have the Pax back then; they'd taken a canoe from camp without permission and got overturned. They barely hauled themselves and the canoe to shore when a storm churned up the ocean. They agreed that it would be best to wait in the cool cave. For an hour, the two friends huddled together, too chilled to be embarrassed by the physical intimacy. Percy started talking about his father to pass the time. It had been a huge step for him to trust her with information like that.
"He runs a fancy marine company down in New Zealand. Subs, boats, scuba gear. He's got an aquarium chain. He's so rich he owns private islands." Percy laughed bitterly. "And he didn't even send one lousy child support check."
"What a jerk." Annabeth knew some background on the guy. He left before Percy was born and never contacted them again. Sally always had a soft spot for him, but Percy resented him for walking out. Still, a part of him wondered if his big, strong father would be proud of a screw-up with ADHD, dyslexia, and six expulsions.
"Yeah. You know, he met my mom on a beach. Montauk, in New York. She took me there a few times. She said she saw him come out of the sea; he'd been diving or something, and he was just… what did she call him? Dazzling."
"Dazzling?"
"Yep. Mom says he was kind, handsome, and strong. He had my hair and eyes. Sometimes she says I look just like him." Percy didn't sound too happy about that.
"I got my mom's eyes." Annabeth sighed. She barely saw her mother. She sent cards and presents, but they never spent time together. When Annabeth pressed Malcolm for more information, he reluctantly told her that Athena never wanted to have kids. He was an unplanned pregnancy when their parents were in the middle of graduate school; Annabeth was a last ditch effort to save the marriage and keep the marriage alive. Annabeth's sense of failure quadrupled.
"They spent one summer together," Percy continued. He looked at her face, and his voice faltered. Annabeth was curious to hear more, but she wanted Percy to be comfortable. She tried to give him her best "I'm an understanding listener" look, but it probably looked more like an awkward stare. "At Montauk. He had to go home after summer, but he came back sometime in the winter. They, well, patched things up. Nine months later I was born.
"Mom says that they were in love, but he had to go do 'important things.' He told her who he was and what dating him meant. It was a secret. She doesn't even have a picture of him. But this winter, she told me his name, and I decided to look him up. Guess what I found."
"He's rich and a deadbeat."
"Well, that. Like a billionaire. All these years my mom's been working double shifts and scraping by, and we could have had a mansion in New Zealand. But that's not even the worst part.
"He's married. I mean, not just now, he was married when he met my mom. When they had me." Percy dug a fist into the sand. " guess that makes her my stepmom. She's the reason he left my mom. They were having an affair. I wanted to hate her when I found out. But she's not even that bad. I mean, she kind of seems like a snob when she talks, but she's kinda cool. You'd even like her."
"I would like her?"
"Amphitrite Filo. Some big shot oceanographer and researcher. You'd see her in these nature documentaries. She's the reason my dad opened the aquarium and research centers. Her dad was a rich guy who started the boat business. Apparently my dad didn't have anything until he married her, and then he took over the company and made it big. I mean, he has a Wikipedia page and everything."
"That's impressive. Why haven't we heard of him before?"
"He's mostly in New Zealand. But I guess he had time to vacation in New York and meet my mom." Percy looked ready to cry. "Mom deserved a way better guy than him. After he left, I showed up and messed up her life."
"Percy, don't say that." Annabeth wasn't great at emotions, but she knew how he felt. "Your mom loves you more than anything. She'd have given up a long time ago if she didn't think you were worth it."
"Maybe her life would've been easier if she had."
"Don't talk like that." Annabeth turned on her bossy voice. "Your mom's done everything she could to give you a good life. She didn't go through all that to have you question her judgement. She loves you, and you're not a bad son. Yeah, you have issues, but guess what? Everyone does! At least you have your mom." Her voice caught on the last sentence. Percy suddenly looked embarrassed. His ears tinged red.
"Sorry, Annabeth, I didn't mean to-"
"Forget it." She pushed Athena out of her mind. "Anyways, your dad sounds like a piece of work."
"He is." Percy instinctively snuggled closer to her. Their skin was riddled with goosebumps. All they had on were shorts and camp t-shirts, not very good for staying warm. The wind had died down, but rain continued to steadily pour. Little rivulets snaked back to the sea across the beach.
"I wasn't supposed to look him up."
"Then why did you?"
"I couldn't help it. I was too curious. That's probably why Mom never told me." He sighed. "When I looked at the part about his family on Wikipedia, I kept looking for something about my mom. Or a past relationship. Anything that says he recognizes me. He knew she was pregnant."
"That was really wrong of him."
"I don't exist." Percy sniffed. "According to Wikipedia, I don't exist. My mom doesn't exist. And even if we did, my mom was just the other woman. The lady he cheated on his awesome wife with." His eyebrows furrowed angrily. "My mom's the best person in the world. I just can't understand why she'd do anything with a married man."
"Percy."
"How could she? She knew he had a wife and kids at home. She'd never do something like that! She always tells me to respect women, especially after Smelly Gabe, but now I find out that she was the other woman!" Percy hugged his knees. Annabeth wrapped her lanky arms around him. He struggled at first but surrendered to a friend's embrace.
"Your mom was really young back then. Everyone makes…" Annabeth was going to say mistakes, but she didn't want Percy to think he was one. He probably already felt like a failure.
"Hm?"
"When you're young, you make all kinds of decisions," Annabeth amended. "Some good, some bad. And you have to live with the consequences. Your dad walked out, and you and your mom had to pay for it. Your mom dated him, and she got you. I think we know who the real winner was."
"Who?"
"Your mom, Seaweed Brain. She had you." Annabeth wanted to shake some sense into him. She thought of her mother, who regretted having children and getting married. Part of her always wondered what life might have been like if Athena stuck it out for her kids. Would she have run away? Would she have found Camp Half-Blood? Would she have even met Percy?
"Huh." Percy never heard compliments like that. He hugged Annabeth. The rain diminished to a light shower, then stopped completely. Faint glows of sunlight peeked through the receding clouds.
"Come on, we gotta get back before someone notices we're gone." They left the cave and hauled the canoe back to the water. As they climbed in, Percy looked back longingly at the beach and cave.
"Can we come back here?" he asked wistfully.
"Yeah, if we can get away." Annabeth threw him a paddle and stabbed the calmed ocean. They hurried along the shore, hoping no one would notice that a canoe and two campers were missing during the storm.
"Thanks for listening." He accidentally splashed her while lifting his oar. She yelped and scooped up a handful of cold Atlantic seawater to toss at him. He giggled like a kid.
"Yeah, whatever, Seaweed Brain."
"I'm sorry about your mom. And your dad. And your stepmom."
"Yeah, I get the point."
"They missed out on a real winner," he said sincerely, without a trace of sarcasm or anger in his voice. His sea green eyes bored into her back. For a minute, Annabeth wanted to forget rushing back to camp and bask in his gaze, but that would look stupid. She paddled harder. When they got back to camp, Chiron was waiting for them, grateful to see them alive but incandescent over their disappearance. He put them on kitchen duty for a week.
Annabeth wakes up from her reverie. The storm has passed. The beach is dark and moist with rainwater. The sky remains grey, so light and refulgent that it looks like a white screen dome over the earth. The sea undulates peacefully. Annabeth wonders what time it is.
She leaves the cave and walks across the beach. The last time she was here, Percy was with her. They were dressed in wetsuits, with flippers and goggles, to go diving in the deepwater reef beneath the dark peacock green waves. New England isn't known for coral reefs, but it does have coral- coldwater or deep sea coral that forms colonies so far beneath the surface hardly any sunlight filters through.
Olympus's coldwater reef is a local secret. In the bay beyond Camp Half-Blood, a hidden ecosystem of hardy polyp colonies house hundreds of species of algae, fish, plankton, plants, and crustaceans. The reef stretches beyond Camp Half-Blood, however; it arcs around the camp, Olympus Harbor, the giant sea cliffs, past Percy and Annabeth's special beach, and out into the unknown. It's one of the only reefs in Northeast America, but almost no one knows about it because the locals don't want a bunch of marine biologists swarming Olympus and slowing down the fishing industry.
Marine biologists like Percy's father.
Annabeth sighs. She hasn't come back here since Percy disappeared for this very reason. She's tired of getting lost in memories. They only add to her grief and guilt. Just over a month ago, they were together, stressed but happy with each other. She remembers he was happy after finding some rare crab species. He planned to come back for a photograph. Annabeth promised she'd look it up. They started making out and headed to their little cave to…
"No more," she says aloud. Only the trees rustle, sprinkling water everywhere, in response. Annabeth crosses her arms and stares at the horizon yet again.
Maybe she should let him go. Let the memory of Percy Jackson slip beneath the sea he loved, like the sun does every night. Stop obsessing over the past and look to the future. Concentrate on getting out of this stupid town. She already had a brush with death today, one she does not wish to repeat, no matter how miserable she feels.
At least I don't want to die.
She's ready to say goodbye. She's ready to lay down her burden. It hurts like hell- she gets the feeling she'll never be able to truly remove the handprint the green eyed boy left on her heart- but she can't keep getting in trouble, agonizing over the hole he left and taking it out on everything else in her life. She can't keep screwing up; even at her lowest point, Annabeth knows that Percy wouldn't want her to ruin her future because of him.
What future now? Maybe it was already too late.
She's about to get back in the Pax and head to Camp Half-Blood when she sees it.
A flash of white bursts out of the water.
Light glimmers off its smooth, rubbery skin. It makes an arc before falling back into the sea headfirst.
Annabeth barely comprehends what she just saw before another one- grey, bigger, with a faint iridescent glow coming off its wet skin- leap out of the waves before diving back in.
Dolphins. A mother and calf- the mother light grey like the clouds, the calf white as a pearl- jump in and out of the sea, performing somersaults and clicking to each other. Against the sky, Annabeth can glimpse the silhouettes of more dolphins. A pod.
She starts crying. Just when she is about to give up, he sends her a sign. Percy, that Seaweed Brain, always waiting until the last minute.
A childish wonder overtakes her. She's never seen a pod of dolphins this big before. Her fingers ache for a camera, her phone, anything to mark this moment. Still, maybe the pressure to take a good photo would spoil it. The best times are not captured in momentos but in the hearts and minds living in the moment. The white dolphin squeals affirmingly as it catapults back into the deep blue.
The mother dolphin who has tiny rainbows glimmering on her skin swims close to the calf. Together they dive and surface, flipping and chirping. Annabeth sighs. She feels so close to Percy. Closer than he's ever been.
"Just look at them!" She can hear him babbling ecstatically like a little kid. She sees him dancing around the beach, alternating between clapping his hands and cheering and rapidly snapping pictures, promising to take notes later.
She prays that he's thinking of her too, wherever he is. Come back to me. If you can send a sign, please find a way home.
Please forgive me.
Are the dolphins a sign of forgiveness? She doesn't know. But she knows that Percy sent her a sign. And that's enough for now. That's more than she could ever ask for.
Annabeth sits on the beach, contentedly watching the mother-calf duo explore the shallows while their pod swims in the distance. The sun is setting, and the world is going dark when the pod gives a final click and the white dolphin, flanked by her mother, dives beneath the surface for the last time. Annabeth huddles on the cold sand, feeling grateful and abandoned. The wind is whimpering again. The sky is indigo. She can't see any lights, even from town. Once again, she's alone.
Annabeth digs out the survival pack Percy placed in the Pax. A sleeping bag, some blue jelly beans, a bag of chips, bottled water. Her stomach grumbles. Annabeth wants to ration the food and water, but she inhales them. She hasn't eaten since lunch, which was… at least six hours ago. She once again realizes how easily she could have become dehydrated and died. Once again, Percy's thinking inadvertently saved her life. He always knew how to survive on the sea. She's not sailing home at night, so she'll spend the night on the beach. The music can wait until tomorrow.
Percy sent a sign. White dolphin… come back… forgive me.
