Till the End

Chapter 10

Piper POV

Fun was not a word that Piper would usually use to describe school. But she was having quite a lot of it right now. Piper always knew she wanted to become an actress. On stage was where she belonged. Unlike Jason.

Looking at Jason, Piper needed to use all of her willpower to not laugh. Theatre class first period together meant that she could watch him embarrass himself at the same time that she could enjoy herself doing what she loved.

The teacher-Ms. Mel-had ordered everyone to draw a card from the basket that she had passed around. Each card had the name of an animal on it. Ms. Mel had then ordered everyone to spend a minute acting as their animal.

Piper had gotten a penguin, something that she had imitated with ease. Jason was up right now, trying to be a giraffe.

"Aaand time," Ms. Mel said. "Good job Jason!"

Jason beamed at her and then trotted back to his spot next to Piper. He turned and beamed at her.

"I did pretty good," Jason said. "I might try this acting this out for reals. I could make the big bucks."

Piper couldn't help herself and let out a laugh at this point.

"What?" Jason asked. "I was good. Even Ms. Mel said so."

"Want me to be honest?" Piper asked.

"Sure!" Jason said.

"You looked like a constipated cat," Piper said.

"No play can go on without its constipated cat," Jason said with a smile.

Piper smirked and playfully punched Jason's shoulder.

Theatre class breezed past her after the first exercise. Before she knew it, the bell signaling the end of the period was ringing. Piper knew how the saying went: 'time flies by when you're having fun.

"Feels like it literally flew," Piper said with a sad smile, knowing she'd be back off to regular, old, boring school.

"Yeah," Jason said walking up to her. "Talking about class, right? I didn't know what would come out of it, but it was actually pretty fun for my first time trying it."

"Then why not audition?" Asked Ms. Mel.

Piper looked around. Everyone other than them had left already.

"Excuse me?" Jason asked.

"Audition," Ms. Mel replied. "For the fall show."

"I should?" Jason asked.

"Of course!" Ms. Mel said. "If you're having fun now, you'll have even more fun being a part of a show. And we could use people at all skill levels. Even if… they're on a completely different level than everyone else."

Jason looked over at Piper.

"No matter how it turns out, it'll still be fun, right?" Piper said.

"Then I'm in!" Jason said.

"Wonderful!" Ms. Mel said. "And you must be auditioning too, Piper? Or should I say, Miss McLean?" She added with a wink.

"So you know him," Piper said, smiling ruefully.

"Of course," She replied. "And I must say that I'm quite the fan."

"Yeah, I will be," Piper said.

"That's good," Ms. Mel said. "With talent like yours, you'll be able to easily follow his footsteps."

"Thanks for the compliment, but I'll have to work hard to get anywhere near him," Piper said.

"And I'm sure you will."

"That was strange," Jason said.

"I know," Piper said. "They canceled the first day after only one period. Wonder what happened."

"Yeah."

Piper glanced around. Pools of people had flooded out after first period but nearly no one was left on or near school grounds. The only ones left looked like they were about to leave as soon as possible. And yet, still no sign of Annabeth.

"Have you seen Percy?"

"No," Piper said. "Who's Percy?"

"The guy I told you about," Jason said. "Hacked his schedule."

"Oh," Piper said. "Considering that I've never seen him, I don't think it's likely I have."

"Oh," Jason repeated. "I guess I should have known that."

"How about Annabeth," Piper asked. "Have you seen her?"

"No," Jason said.

Piper frowned. It wasn't like Annabeth to be late. Something must have happened.

"Should we go look for them?" Piper asked, making to walk back into the building.

"Why would they still be in school?" Jason said. "They probably left before us."

"Oh, yeah," Piper said. "I was just worried about Annabeth. She has a knack for finding trouble."

"So does Percy," Jason said, smiling. "He should be fine though. As long as he doesn't get shot, he should be okay."

Piper smiled. "You shouldn't joke about that," she scolded. But it secretly made her feel a tiny bit better.

Jason pulled out his phone and showed it to Piper.

"I sent Percy a text," Jason said. "Just send Annabeth one too."

"Okay," Piper said before quickly pulling out her phone and sending a text to Annabeth.

"Now what?" Piper asked.

"I have nothing much to do," Jason said. "You?"

"My shift at work starts after school normally ends," Piper said. "So I'm free until then."

Jason smiled. "I don't know about you, but I'm in the mood for an adventure."

"I might just take you up on that."

XXXXX POV

He wasn't conscious. But then again, he wasn't not conscious either. He was there, but not there at the same time. It was a strange sensation. An indescribable one. He opened his eyes. White. All around him. Everywhere he looked all he could see was white. Were his eyes really open? He thought on it for a second, but couldn't come to a conclusion. Perhaps... was he even alive? Maybe he was dead. But why? How? Who? Who was he? Questions swirled around his head. Many of them, unanswerable.

He looked down. He didn't see his legs. He tried moving forward. Much to his surprise, he did. Slowly but surely he found himself trudging through the endless white dreamscape he found himself in.

He tried again to think. Memories? He didn't have any that he could remember at the moment. There was nothing he could do. The more he moved, the more things stayed the same. But he trudged on. He thought of sitting down. Just waiting for the end. But he couldn't. Some unimaginable force seemed to be pulling him forward. He had nothing to do and no reason to resist so he trudged forward.

By the time that something happened, he had lost track of time. He was tired. Very tired. He didn't know how. He still didn't have a body he could see. All he could see was white. For all he knew, he could have been standing in place the whole time. Step after step was grueling, with no visible progress being made. As he felt himself about to give up a pang hit him sending tremors all over his body. His dreary body now stood tense, ready for anything to happen. He expected to feel something again. Maybe even see something. Not to hear something.

"Stand up," A voice called to him.

He looked around.

"Who's there?" He asked desperately.

"Me," The voice said back soothingly. "Don't worry. You're safe now."

He started to open his mouth to speak but stopped as he saw something start to materialize a couple hundred feet away from him. A pretty teenage girl with curly red hair shimmered into existence. He looked down as he saw legs, a torso, and arms materialize on him. He stood in shock for a second before looking back up at the girl. She smiled at him. As if compelled by the same invisible force, he found himself taking off towards the girl in the distance. As he neared her he was able to make out more about her. He had never seen her, but felt as if he knew her.

He reached her and inexplicably threw his arms around her. She reached around his back and embraced him.

"Don't worry, I've got you," She said.

He found it hard to speak. Somehow he opened his mouth and croaked out "Who are you?"

"I'm me silly," She exclaimed. "Rachel!"

"Rachel," He repeated.

"Don't worry, everything will be alright," She continued. "You just need to wake up."

"Wake up?" He said.

"Yeah," The girl, Rachel, said. "Everything will be alright. So wake up, Percy."

The name rang in his head. Percy. Who was Percy? Was he Percy? Slowly memories started flooding back to him. His mom, Jason, his friends, Annabeth. And most importantly, Rachel. His childhood friend Rachel. The one that played with him and Jason. The one who always made him feel happy. The one who he had countless memories with. The Rachel he liked when he was little."

"Wake up, Percy," Rachel repeated.

"Okay," He replied.

Percy opened his eyes.

He was in a hospital room. It was cheery with many decorations in it and sunshine flowing through the opened windows. He turned and looked to the side to see Rachel standing beside his bed, gently peeling an apple.

"Rachel," Percy muttered.

"Hey Percy," Rachel replied. "Finally awake?"

"Yeah," he said feebly.

"Well its too soon," Rachel said. "You need some more rest. Go back to sleep and once you wake up, I'll have this apple ready for you. They were always your second favorite behind blueberries."

"Yeah," Percy said.

Rachel leaned over and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Sleep now."

"Okay."

Percy slowly opened his eyes. It wasn't as bright as before. It was probably evening. Percy looked up to see a panicked Jason, Annabeth, and another girl leaning over him.

"Percy!" Jason cried. "You're finally awake. Thank god. I was so worried. Do you know how I felt when I got the call from Annabeth that you got hospitalized?"

Percy grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that."

"You better be," Jason said. At this point, I can't let you out of my sight without you injuring yourself. Sally would have your neck."

"I know," Percy said.

"Next time, don't do this," Jason said pulling Percy into a hug.

"I dunno, the service here was pretty good, you can't blame me for wanting to try it again." Percy joked.

"Shut up," Jason said with a smile.

Percy took a good look around the room. He glanced at Annabeth. She was chewing on a nail worriedly. She looked like she had something to say, but didn't want to. Percy made a mental note to talk to her later.

He continued scanning the room. On a small table next to them was a platter of nicely peeled and sliced apples.

"Where's Rachel?" Percy asked Jason.

Jason frowned.

"Percy... who's Rachel?"

AN: Hey guys, It's been a while. I guess I say this every time, but life's pretty busy. Thankfully I finally finished school and am on summer break. So I was finally able to finish this chapter. With this one I think this story's introduction has been reasonably concluded. I have introduced most of the major characters in this story and the plot will start thickening. If you want to think about this story as a couple of mini-arcs then I would have finished the introduction up to now and arc one would be starting. I have the story planned out until the end of arc one so far and afterward there will probably be another one or two arcs and then a conclusion.

That being said we got a bit of Jason and Piper this chapter and the introduction of Rachel. Bonus points for whoever gets the reference about the theatre teacher's name. Anyone who knows can answer in the reviews. Reading reviews is honestly the biggest push factor in my writing now so review if you want :) Anyways thanks so much for reading and keeping up with this story up till now and see y'all next time - Atomic Rush.