Beginning Notes

FoxHound98: Well we all know that you are going make Max Cassies little puppy dog a second charater. Eh this is not a good fics.

I have a simple life hack for that. I call it: Just Leave. If you don't like my fic, leave. There's no point in wasting your time reading it without enjoying it, and it's definitely useless to comment on how stupid it is if you don't have any good advice on how I could improve.

So please, to any of you who are somehow still here, and have no satisfaction in reading this- or any other fic for that matter, whether that be mine, or someone else's- just leave. Simple as that. Thank you.

Sorry about all that. Anyways, just as I'd promised: here's another chapter this week. Hope y'all enjoy, OC's belong to sketchywolf, the rest to Rick Riordan.

Cassandra

This sucks, is the first thing that comes to Cassandra's mind.

She, Max, Percy, Annabeth and Grover are stuck in the middle of nowhere, not even near LA, with no stuff, since everything exploded, and no shelter.

'Well, this is just awesome,' she complains.

'Cas...' Max tries, but doesn't finish. He probably thinks about this the same, but just doesn't want it to get in the way.

'Okay, maybe we should find somewhere to eat,' Percy suggests.

'But we don't have any money,' Annabeth reminds him.

Cassandra sighs. 'Or any idea where we are.'

They walk around for what feels like hours.

That's until they get to a two way-street, and on the opposite side, is a weird little shop, with neon signs, and the smell of food.

'Guys,' Max says, pointing at it, but everyone was already looking at it, since, you know, big neon signs attract quite some attention when you're in the middle of nowhere.

'What does it say?' Percy asks.

'I don't know,' Annabeth says.

Cassandra squints at the bright letters, but she can't make anything of it.

She and Max had never really been that great at reading, but she didn't know it was this bad.

'Aunty... something, something, something, garden, something,' Max tries.

'Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium,' Grover says. 'Honestly, I know you guys are dyslexic, but five words can't be that hard?'

'We're dyslexic?' Cassandra asks, but saying it out loud makes her feel stupid. Grover's obviously right, she couldn't even read a damn sign. 'Yeah, okay, that makes sense.'

Max is already starting to cross the street. 'Come on, it smells like food.'

Percy and Annabeth start to follow him, but Cassandra is a little hesitant. It just seems weird to just walk into a weird shop that sells gnomes, saying it smells like food.

She looks at Grover, who doesn't seem set on going there at all either.

'I don't know guys,' he says, but the others don't listen.

'Let's just... stay sharp, and make sure nothing happens, something seems sketchy about that place,' Cassandra tells Grover, before crossing the street herself.

When she gets closer to the shop, she realises that her stomach is growling, and that it actually does smell like food.

No, Cassie. She tells herself. She promised Grover to stay sharp and keep a lookout for the others. If she lets herself get brainwashed too, Grover might not be able to help all of them.

'Snack bar,' Percy says.

'Snack bar,' Max and Annabeth agree when they get there.

'They've gone mad,' Cassandra whispers to Grover.

'Yeah, this place is weird, I don't think we should go inside,' Grover says. 'Guys, it smells like monsters, let's not go inside- great. They just went inside.'

He looks at Cassandra with a worried look.

'Well, they're definitely not going to notice the monsters if we don't point them out to them, c'mon.'

She takes Grover by the hand, and drags him inside.

There are statues everywhere, and of everything: a chicken, an old man, a child and a dog, even a satyr.

That apparently creeps Grover out, because he bleats and says: 'That looks like Uncle Ferdinand.'

Cassandra raises an eyebrow at him.

'Hello?' a woman asks.

She is wearing a long, black dress, and her whole head is covered by a veil. Even her face was unrecognizable.

This makes Cassandra even more suspicious. Of course there are very religious people that cover a lot of their skin, but who covers everything except their hands?

'My dears, it is too late to be walking around alone. Where are your parents?' the woman asks.

'Uh, we... um,' Max stutters.

'We're orphans,' Percy says.

'Orphans?'

'Uh, yeah, we were on a field trip, for the orphanage, but the bus, um, it crashed, and we needed to find gas station to call help,' Cassandra says, playing along with the lie.

'Oh, darling, that's horrible. Come on, there is a dining area in the back of the warehouse, I bet you are all very hungry. Maybe you could eat a bit, while I try to find my phone so you can call for help, yes?' the woman says.

'Yeah!' Percy says, already making his way to the back.

'Guys...' Grover tries again, but to no avail, since the smell of food is very strong here.

Cassandra has to drag him behind her again, for he is whimpering, glued to the spot.

'Cassandra, we need to leave, something here feels very off,' he says.

'I know, my gut is screaming for me to leave, but there's no way they'll want to leave, can't you smell the hamburgers?'

'No, all I smell is monster. Cassandra, we need to leave. Now.'

'Agreed.'

But when she looks around her, the others are already out of sight.

'Where are we?' she asks Grover.

'I don't know, you we're the one dragging me around.'

'Yeah, well... I... I kind of don't know where I went,' Cassandra admits. 'Did you remember how we walked? Because I honestly didn't.'

'No, I was focused on all these creepy statues. Why does it look like they're screaming?' Grover asks anxiously.

'I don't know, maybe that's Aunty Em's thing, beautiful statues that scream.'

'Yeah, but look, they're all life-size. And really realistic, and look like they're afraid for their lives.'

It's silent for a while, wile they both think about what Grover just said.

'Wait a minute... What was the myth about that monster turning people to stone?' Cassandra asks.

'You mean Medusa?'

'Yeah, that one!'

Cassandra thinks about it for a moment.

'Medusa... Medusa... Medusa...' she says, as if repeating it will make the myth come back to her.

'She turned people to stone by looking at them, because she was so ugly,' Grover explains.

'Medusa... Me- Oh my gods.'

'You think...?

'Medusa, Aunty Em, M, the letter. And all these creepy, screaming statues. You were right Grover, we shouldn't have come here in the first place.'

'We've got to go warn the others before-'

A loud crash is heard from a room to their left.

'... It's too late,' Grover finishes.

'Damn, I should have listened to my gut. Come on!' Cassandra yells, and runs through a corridor, hoping it will lead them to their friends.

'Don't look at her!' she can hear Annabeth shout.

Another crash.

'Wait!' Grover hissed.

'What?'

'You can't just run in like that, you don't know where she'll be.'

'Right, but what-' Cassandra is about to ask, when she sees something shimmer in her peripheral vision.

She turns to look at it. In the hand of the statue she's now facing, is a little mirror. The girl was probably checking her hair or her makeup before she was petrified. What a coincidence.

Cassandra walks over to the statue, and tries to take the mirror, but it's firmly stuck in the hand of stone.

'Maia!' says Grover, but before Cassandra can figure out why he said that, he's kicking off of the ground, and flying towards the statue.

He kicks it at the hand, and it breaks on the impact. Cassandra lets it crash to the ground and then picks up the mirror from the broken pieces of stone.

'Let's go!'

Grover stays as high as possible, and sniffs the air every few seconds, probably navigating his why by smell.

Cassandra follows the sound of his flapping shoes, and keeps her eyes steady on the ground.

Grover sniffs the air again, and says: 'Here.'

Then Cassandra turns around, and looks in the mirror, holding it a little above her shoulder, so she can see what's going on behind her.

The mirror is old and rusty, but she can clearly see the scene:

Percy is waving his sword around at Medusa like a madman, his eyes shut tight. Max is standing still, ready to punch anything that comes near him, and Annabeth is nowhere to be seen.

What if she'd been turned to stone?

Then suddenly, a voice behind her says: 'Pssst, Cassie!'

Cassandra spins around to see... no one?

'Who are you?' she asks.

'It's me,' Annabeth says, appearing in front of her eyes out of thin air.

'How... How did you do that?'

'Magic hat, makes you invisible.' she holds up the hat for Cassandra to see. 'It was a gift from my mum.'

'Oh.' Cassandra thinks back to all of her and Max's birthdays, when she'd asked her dad if Mummy would ever come to wish them a happy birthday. 'I don't darling, but I do know that your mother is proud of how wonderful you two have become. You're the light in my life.'

'Anyway, we need a plan, because I can't hurt Medusa without going right up to her, and looking at her, and that would turn me to stone,' Annabeth continues.

'You got anything?'

'Well, in the myth, Perseus defeats Medusa by cutting off her head, but I don't see how that's going to work right now.'

'He had a sword and a glass ball, or a mirror, or something like that right?'

'Yeah, but I don't think-'

Cassie interrupts her by holding up the rusty mirror she'd found. 'Let's recreate the myth then.'

'Awesome! Okay, you and Grover create a diversion, so I can get this to Percy.'

Cassie hands the mirror over to Annabeth, who turns invisible immediately.

'C'mon,' says Grover.

He flies away, and starts bleating: 'Bahahaha! You murdered Uncle Ferdinand!'

Cassandra closes her eyes tightly and runs after him, hoping she won't trip over anything.

'Over here snake-face!' she yells

'Ah, so that's where my other two darlings went, open your eyes my dears, there's nothing to be afraid of,' Medusa answers.

Her voice is so soothing and mesmerizing, that Cassandra almost feels tempted to listen.

'But what if I'm blind, and can't open my eyes, that would be a very rude thing to say,' Cassandra says.

'Well, then I guess I'll have to kill you in another way,' Medusa hisses, her voice very close now.

Cassandra knows that if Medusa attacks her with those sharp talons she saw, there's no way to defend herself.

But suddenly Medusa shrieks. 'AAAAH! Get off me you nasty goat, or your fate will end the same way as your uncle!'

Cassandra has no idea what is going on, and therefore doesn't realize Medusa will turn to her again when she hears a thud and Grover groan. The impact shocks her, and so do the talons, sticking in her shoulder. She screams, and tries to hit Medusa- even though she knows it will do very little harm- but it's no use, since she can't see her opponent.

Then someone yells: 'Cassie, duck!'

Medusa must also be surprised by this, for she loosens her grip, and Cassandra practically falls to the ground. She hears the SSHHINK! of a sword slicing through something, and then a thud, as what she expects is Medusa's head hitting the floor.

'Don't look at it directly, even her severed head can petrify you,' Annabeth warns.

'Hey, can I open my eyes again?' Max asks.

'Yep!' says Percy.

Cassandra also opens her eyes.

Percy is holding a weird shaped lump of cloth, Annabeth is visible again, Grover is getting up from a pile of rubble, and Max is running over towards them.

Cassandra tries to get up, but winces at the pain stabbing her shoulder.

Max helps her up. 'C'mon, let's get out of here. I've seen enough creepy statues to last me a lifetime.'

'Percy, what are you-' Annabeth says, but Percy interrupts her.

'I'll be back in a sec.'

'Where's he going?' Max asks.

Annabeth and Grover shrug.

They all wait for a few minutes, until Percy comes back with a box. He puts the head in the box, and fills out a delivery slip.

'Percy, I don't think they're going to like that,' Grover says.

Cassandra leans onto Max for support and reads over Grover's shoulder:

The Gods

Mount Olympus

600th floor

Empire State Building

New York, NY

With best wishes,

Percy Jackson.

Cassandra manages to let out a laugh. 'Nope, they definitely won't.'

End Notes

Gods, it's been so long since I actually read The Lightning Thief. And I'll honestly admit that I kind of forgot why they needed to "take a bus to Los Angeles". Yeah, sorry, been listening to the musical a lot lately. If you haven't, my advice is: go waste an hour on listening to those musical songs, it's worth it. And you can trust my word for it, because I'm not a full on musical-geek, so when I say that some musical songs are worth it, I mean it.

Also, should I change the chapter names from chapter 1, chapter 2, to insert funny name? I mean, they won't be as funny as Uncle Rick's (I'm no writing master), but I can do my best.

Anyways, go check out my beta lovelylittlelion on Archive Of Our Own, and I'll see y'all in the next chapter. Byeee :)