Chapter 30 - Girls' Day

The weeks passed in a blur after that. Leo's ship was quickly becoming a marvel. The engine was working and we could get a couple feet off the ground now. Everything was coming along slowly. It was a warm March day. I was excited. Percy's mom, Sally, and I had our spa day tomorrow. It was the start of spring break. And most importantly, I was on a train to meet up with Rachel. We were going to dinner, then a movie, then she said I could crash at her parent's mansion. It was going to be a great weekend.

The train stopped and I got off, shouldering my bag. I walked a little bit into the crowd, then I saw her. Her red hair was unmistakable. She had changed out of her Clarion Ladies Academy uniform and into jeans covered in designs that I could tell she had added. Rachel liked to draw on just about every surface she could find. I grabbed her up into a quick hug. We hadn't seen each other in person since January.

"Hey! Good to see you again, Owl Girl." Rachel said, grinning like crazy. Then her face got serious. "Before we head off, I wanted to update you on Percy."

My face went pale. I could feel the blood leaving my face, my body quivering in…. Fear? Excitement? Nervousness? Some combination of those things.

Rachel took a deep breath. "I don't have anything helpful, I'm afraid. I've been having visions, though." I could tell she was shaken. She looked nervous, scared, even. If it was something that could scare Rachel, the mortal who had plunged into the Labyrinth without hardly a thought about it, well, I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

"Let's head to the restaurant, first, ok?" I decided, though what I wanted to do was say something more like "Percy. Percy now. Where Percy?"

She nodded, looking grateful. We went to a nearby diner and got some burgers and fries. Rachel had a milkshake, which she was sipping as she continued to tell me about her visions.

"I've seen Percy, in visions. But nothing good, nothing that could help you figure out where he is."

I bit on my milkshake straw in frustration. When I could talk again without wanting to scream, I said, "Ok… So what have you seen?"

"He stumbles into a brick courtyard, like ruins and stuff. There are red wood trees behind him."

The Wolf House, I thought.

"He's holding his sword, and he looks rough but ok. Then the vision changes. He's holding an old woman and running across some traffic."

Ok… I thought I remembered something like that from a myth, but I couldn't think of why Percy would be carrying an old woman while playing real-life Frogger.

"Then, he's in a boat with two other kids, sailing. One is a big Asian boy, the other is a petite black girl. I've never seen either of them but they were both wearing purple shirts like Jason's. The boat says 'Pax' on it."

Latin for Peace, I thought.

"I see him standing on a glacier, that wild look in his eyes he gets when he's fighting."

I smiled at that. Rachel and I both agree that Percy got this wild look when he's fighting, but Percy always denied it. Rachel shrugged. "That's all I got." She studied me. "You've got some ideas from just that little bit, didn't you?"

I smiled at her and nodded. "We know he's in the Roman camp, or heading there. The first vision? That's the Wolf House. Jason said all Roman demigods start their journey there. Sort of like Half-Blood Hill. It makes sense he's there. I'm not sure why he would be carrying an old lady, but I remember something like that from a myth. The boat? It's a Roman boat, so probably, it means he's gotten accepted by the Roman demigods. Those two in the boat are probably from the Roman camp. I'm not sure about the glacier, but at least he's alive in all the visions. That's something."

Rachel looked troubled but nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."

We sat in silence for a while, as I tried to pull out every scrap of information from what Rachel had told me.

"So, what's new with the Argo II?"

"The oars are working and we can get a bit into the air. Like, five feet. Which is an improvement. We're working on the interior right now, then once everything is good inside we're going to add a sail on top. We think that might give us the power we need. We hope so. Leo and I are trying to find ways to get more power out of the engine, so we can actually fly into the air. Overall, for a group of demigods who've never built a boat, we're doing pretty good. Leo could probably take up a career in building cruise ships after this."

Rachel grinned at me. We kept discussing the happenings at Camp until it was time to head to the movies. We had picked a comedy - our lives were too dark right now to want a drama. It was nice to have a night out with my friend, like everything was fine and the world wasn't going to end in a few months. I only had to kill one monster during the movie, which wasn't bad for me.

The next morning I woke up in Rachel's room. We had spent the night laughing and talking, eating ice cream together and having a great time. By the time I got dressed, Rachel was up.

"Hey, our chef is making brioche french toast today." Rachel said it so casually. "Want breakfast here, or did you have plans with Sally?"

I shook my head. "Breakfast sounds great, thanks!"

We went downstairs to the kitchen and I saw Rachel's parents already sitting at the table. Rachel's mom smiled at me, "Hello Annabeth. I'm glad you could spend the night."

I smiled at her. "Thanks, Mrs. Dare. I had a great time."

Rachel and I took seats at the table as the Dare's personal chef came over.

"Is French toast alright? Is there anything you'd like on it? We have berries, whipped cream, bananas, peaches, and nuts."

I smiled at him gratefully. "I'd love some berries, thank you Andre."

"Bananas and nuts for me." Rachel said. "And thanks Andre."

He smiled and nodded at us both. Andre seemed to appreciate that Rachel and I always tried to treat him like a person, rather than just a commodity as many of the Dare's guests did.

Mr. Dare nodded at me. "So, how's school going?" Unlike Percy, Rachel's parents had always approved of me. Probably because I did well in school and had career aspirations and their daughter wasn't considering dating me.

I spread my napkin on my lap, to the approving eye of Mrs. Dare, and said, "School's going really well, Mr. Dare. Thanks for asking. I'm taking a 3-D design class this semester that's really cool. I'm doing this project where I get to pick any block in New York and re-design it how I'd want it. It's really fun."

Mr Dare smiled at me. "Someday, when you're a full architect, you'll have to come to work for me. I'd love to see some of your designs for New York, and maybe make some of them happen."

I blushed and ducked my head.

"Wouldn't that be fun, seeing something you designed become real?" Mrs. Dare said, a little too enthusiastically.

Rachel was grinning at me. She knew I had already seen a lot of my designs become real on Olympus, but I had to admit, designing modern stuff for New York would be really cool.

"Perhaps you could apprentice to one of my architects this summer." Mr. Dare mused.

I smiled politely at him, "Thanks Mr. Dare, but I still want to go to camp this summer. I'd miss my friends too much."

He looked disappointed.

"Really, dear, they're only teenagers once." Mrs. Dare chided. "Annabeth can surely apprentice to one of your architects when she's in college."

Mr. Dare nodded at the idea. "Yes, good. Have you begun looking into colleges, Annabeth?"

We continued breakfast, with the Dares grilling me about my plans for the future. It was odd, thinking so far ahead into my future. While I loved to plan, two-year plans were really the only ones I did for my future, since there was no guarantee I survived each year, let alone five or ten years into the future. But after I got packed and I excused myself to head out, it got me thinking. The Dares had a car take me to the Jackson residence, and the whole drive there I let myself really think about the future. If I could have anything, what would it be? I thought about a little apartment that Percy and I would share. We'd spend our days like normal mortals, going to work, coming home, and snuggling on the couch watching corny movies. It seemed strange to think of, but comforting too. I wondered if it would even be possible. I thought of a different future - Percy and I living at Camp the rest of our lives, acting as trainers for future demigods. Teaching them to fight and defend the world from more threats and monsters, comforting them when friends and siblings didn't return. That didn't fit right either. Both futures felt odd, not quite what I wanted. And it hit me why - both futures accepted only part of us - the mortal, or the godly. I wanted a future that included both. Something that didn't shy away from either aspects of my life. I didn't know what that future looked like, but I was sure that I could make it happen. I smiled to myself and leaned back in the car, watching the buildings pass by.

When I got to the apartment I made sure to thank the driver. He smiled and drove off, leaving me in front of the building. I walked up to the Jackson's door and knocked.

"Annabeth!" Paul said when he opened the door. He grinned at me. "Come in, come in!"

I stepped inside and took a deep breath. It smelled homey, comfortable. I hung my backpack on the hook by the door, the one that used to be Percy's. During my weekly visits it had gradually become my hook. Sally came into the room and pulled me into a hug. They were both finishing breakfast, so we went back to the kitchen. As they ate I caught them up to date on everything happening at camp. They both laughed at the story I told of Leo accidentally closing himself off into the boys' bathroom on the ship because he forgot to cut a doorway before nailing the wall shut. After breakfast was done, Sally and I said our goodbyes to Paul and walked out of the apartment to go to our spa day.

As we walked to the spa, Sally and I told each other some of our favorite stories of Percy. It felt nice having someone to talk to about him, someone who loved him as much as I did. Sally told me a great story about when Percy was a kindergartener. She had tried to hide all of his Halloween candy in the closet but woke up in the middle of the night to find he had managed to somehow climb the doorframe and get onto the closet shelf. He was sitting there, eating candy in the dark, and she got so spooked by something in her closet she nearly called the cops. It made me laugh. In return, I told her about one of his first days at Camp, when we started to suspect who his godly parent was. He had made all the toilets explode, dousing Clarisse and I and shoving us against the back wall with toilet water. Sally laughed until she doubled over. I hadn't thought it was that funny, but when she straightened she said, "And somehow, even after he doused you in toilet water, you still decided to date my son?"

I grinned at her. "If only that was the only time he doused me in toilet water! Last September, we were fighting this giant under the meat packing district. We were trying to find a way out and Percy decided the best way would be to make the sewers explode all over us, then use the sewer water to push us out of the cave."

She laughed at that. "That's how you know it's true love - he sprays you with toilet water multiple times and somehow you still like him!"

We grinned at each other. We had arrived at the spa.

"Ready for a day of relaxing?" Sally asked me, opening the door.

"Definitely." I agreed.

Sally Jackson and I spent the day together - first the spa, then we went to eat and just walk around together. We talked the entire day. She seemed to love every story I could give her about Percy, even if it was scary. I knew how she felt - having something new, some new scrap of information, felt like it was worth its weight in gold. In return, she gave me enough embarrassing childhood stories of Percy that I was certain I'd be able to blackmail him for the rest of his life. We were heading back to her apartment when I saw the monster - a drakon. I hate drakons. I'd been learning to fight them since I first got to camp almost a decade ago. Still not a fan. They are huge, lizard-y creatures. Think of a dragon, but no wings. Well, sometimes they have wings, but this one didn't. This one didn't have arms either - just a giant serpent. It had a huge neck frill, though. It was a steely grey color, blending in well to the buildings at night. Only it's eyes stood out - bright orange. I glanced at Sally. She was clearly able to see the monster, but didn't run screaming.

"Stay back." I told her. I wanted to give her more instructions, but the monster was sniffing the ground. Catching my scent, it roared in the air and looked straight at me. I ran at it, whipping out my cap as I ran. The monster lunged and I jumped into the air. I landed directly on it's head as it created a monster-mouth-sized pothole in the asphalt where I had been standing. It roared and, before I could stab it, took off, the force nearly throwing me over its back. I managed to grab onto the neck frill and straddle it like a pegasus. It slithered its way across the street with surprising speed.

I heard Sally Jackson call out "Annabeth!" behind me but I was too busy to respond. I was holding onto the monster's neck frill with all of my strength. Suddenly, I felt the monster tilt forward. I was riding it straight into a subway entrance. We smashed through the turnstiles, police and mortals running after us. I would love to know what they thought was happening. Perhaps I was riding a horse into the subway? Or a kiddie train, like at the mall? I wasn't sure. But they weren't running away from the monster, which is always annoying when it happens. Now I had to worry about the mortals getting eaten as well as where the drakon was taking me. Oh, and I had to find a way to kill it.

Could I kill it? The last one Percy and I had fought could only be killed by a child of Ares. I had no idea if this was a similar situation. With my luck, this thing would only be able to be killed by a child of the Muse Calliope on the Autumn Equinox when the moon was full. I decided not to think about the possibility as the monster launched itself onto the subway tracks and took me through tunnels. I gripped my knife and tried to look around for a weak spot on the monster's head without losing my grip. It was getting hard - my hands were sweating as I held on and I couldn't hold on very well with the hand holding my knife. Suddenly, the monster stopped its race, throwing me over its head.

I landed with a hard thunk and, despite wanting to lay there, rolled to my feet. I looked to see what had stopped the monster - lights from the subway coming straight towards us. Great. The monster desperately tried to turn around but couldn't - it fit snugly in the tunnel. It didn't appear to have a "reverse" function. I ran for the wall and hoped there was enough space between the train and it.

I could feel the train thunder past me, nearly pulling me along, yanking my hair out of its ponytail. Then green goo splattered all over me along with the dust as the monster got destroyed by the subway. When the noise quieted and I felt safe to look around I could see the train stopped several hundred feet from me. My apologies to all the commuters taking that particular train. It wasn't a usual stop, so I assume you all know you hit something, but I have no idea what else you thought. I ran down the tunnel away from the stopped train, hoping the next subway wasn't coming soon. I found an emergency exit and was able to pick the lock. Luke had taught me, for fun, when I was little, and I still found it a handy skill. I ran up the stairs and found myself on the street, covered in monster dust and goo.

I looked around and got my bearings. I was near Times Square, which was good. It was now well after dark but in Times Square, me covered in monster goo and dust was unlikely to be anywhere near the strangest thing out right now. I didn't have my cellphone on me - it was back at the Jackson's apartment in my backpack - and I thought I looked a bit too messy to attempt to borrow a phone. I decided just to head back to the apartment and Paul could call Sally from there. I found a subway (not the one I had just stopped) and got on heading towards the Upper East Side - towards Percy's apartment. As the adrenalin left my body I realized how tired I was. I hadn't eaten since lunch with Sally - we had meant to find somewhere to eat on the way home, but then a drakon happened. I barely realized in time that we were at my stop. I got off and staggered to the apartment. I heard raised voices inside. I knocked and the voices went silent. Footsteps as someone came to the door. I heard a little squeal, then Sally Jackson flung open the door and yanked me into a hug.

"Thank the gods! Annabeth, I was so scared! That monster was huge, and you just -"

"She's been pacing around the living room the same as when Percy -"

"And you didn't come back -"

The voices of Sally and Paul kept overlapping. I didn't hear a lot of what was said, but I was sure of one thing - they both truly cared about me. Loved me, even. Not just because I was Percy's girlfriend, but they loved me for me. I hadn't realized that before. That felt weird, and really nice. Paul joined our group hug. Belatedly, I thought to warn them.

"I am COVERED in monster gunk." I muttered, trying to pull out of the hug. Sally tightened her grip around me.

"It doesn't matter. You're safe. That's all that matters."

I stopped trying to pull away and leaned back into the hug.