A/N: Enjoy the story!
Disclaimer: Ughh, my parents got my present wrong AGAIN! They said it was too much work to go to San Antonio to ask Rick for the rights to PJatO. *sighs* :D
I took a deep breath, praying to the gods that my plan to hide my knife would work. Mia looked at me questionably, probably wondering why the heck I was nervous about security, but she shrugged it off.
I slowly approached the conveyer belts, hesitating about my plan. Should I try the Mist first? Yeah, I should. It wouldn't be as suspicious as my second plan, I thought to myself.
"Ma'am, can you please take off your shoes and jacket? You also need to put your suitcase on the conveyer belt," A very impatient man awoke me from my daze.
I did as I was told and took off my shoes and jacket, placing them in the plastic bin. I lifted my suitcase and set it next to the bin, biting my nervously as I thought about my dagger.
The man motioned for me to walk through the metal detector while I eyed my leg, praying to the gods to let me have a peaceful flight and for the Mist to work. I took a deep breath and walked through it, closing my eyes, waiting for the dreaded ringing.
It started beeping like crazy. I guess Celestial Bronze is very detectable. Who knew?
"Miss, can you please step out? Ashley here will have to pat you down," he said while motioning to a young girl next to him. The man's voice was as hard as steel.
Did I really look like a rebellious teenager who carried a gun around to kill people? Monsters yes, people no. Well, I did want to kill Hera. But she isn't human.
"You don't need to pat me down," I tried to say in a demanding voice while snapping my fingers in front of their faces. I attempted to imitate Thalia, giving them her famous death glare.
They both had a look of confusion on their face, probably wondering why they suddenly changed their mind.
The woman, Ashley, spoke first. "Yeah, we don't need to pat you down. I don't even know why we were going to anyway. You can go," she said while looking to the man for approval.
He slowly nodded his head, unsure, as he narrowed his eyes.
I grabbed my shoes and jacket from the bin, lifted my bag from the conveyer belt, and waited for the man that checked my bag to let me go. He motioned for me to go and I hurriedly left, not wanting for them to change their minds, and found Mia waiting for me over by the crowded seats. She had a look of disbelief on her face.
"H-How did you do that? Are you a witch or a wizard or something? You snapped your fingers and they just suddenly changed their minds and everything!" she whisper-yelled, probably extremely confused by what she had just saw.
I bit my lip and came up with an answer off the top of my head. "Uhh, the thing was broken so it beeped for no reason and I just snapped my fingers to emphasize that."
She shook her head,not even bothering to argue with me. Mia was used to my excuses. I had made a lot when she asked me about anything relating to the gods.
I followed her while she looked around for empty seats in the incredibly packed airport. We were swarmed by crowds of frantic people running to catch their flights.
I looked at the time on one of the huge screens that showed the flight information. It read: 5:57 AM. Thirty-three minutes until my flight, eighteen minutes until Mia's.
We were both exhausted, having spent about two hours in the airport. For some people that may seem long just for weighing bags and going through security, but this was JFK airport. In New York. It was insanely huge and crowded, and you could get lost really easily.
Mia and I were still running around looking for seats. People were giving us dirty looks, as if we were two teenagers just looking for trouble. The only thing we were interested in looking for were some stupid seats.
"Forget it Annabeth, we're just wasting time. Let's just sit on the floor or something," she said while setting down her suitcase and sitting on it. I was about to protest, but shut my mouth and followed her example.
So we just sat there, sitting on our suitcases, probably crushing our presents, but we were tired and neither of us really cared. I fidgeted around, needing to move, my ADHD acting up again. I settled with playing an architecture game Hermes had designed just for me. Yeah, yeah, I know, you might think that that would attract monsters, but Hephaestus made a tiny chip to put into your phone that would let us use phones without a single monster coming near us. I silently thanked Hephaestus for that, and thanked Hermes also for creating phones and my special little game.
I snuck a look at Mia and saw that she was occupying herself by reading a brochure for what seemed to be a ski resort. It was funny how she would be spending her Winter Break skiing while I was going to be staying in sunny California.
My thoughts were interrupted by a woman's voice.
"All passengers boarding the plane to Denver, Colorado please report to gate B6. I repeat, all passengers boarding the plane to Denver, Colorado please report to gate B6."
Mia and I got off our squished suitcases and lifted them up, searching with our eyes for her gate.
Mia started muttering the gate numbers as she passed them by, frantically looking for the right one. I squinted, trying to spot anything except for people's heads.
"I found it! Gate B6!" Mia announced proudly.
She quickly stepped into the line before it got too long. It seemed like a quarter of the whole airport was going to be on that one plane. I guess people really like skiing. I stood by the line, wanting to say goodbye one last time before she boarded the plane. The line was moving surprisingly fast. In just a few minutes, Mia was already showing the woman her ticket and boarding pass. The woman then attached a tag to her suitcase. Mia looked at me, held out her arms, and enveloped me in a hug. I was surprised at first, but mirrored her action.
I didn't really hug people that often. I had some…trust issues, I guess you could say. But, for some reason, I felt like Mia was someone I could rely on. In a way, she was like Silena. They had surprising similar attributes.
The people behind us line were getting pretty frustrated, so we let go.
"Bye Annabeth! Have a safe trip! Good luck with your parents!" Mia said while heading to the plane.
"You too! Good luck!" I called after her.
She looked back and grinned. She gave one last wave, and head off. The last I saw of her was her bright blonde hair flying around as she ran.
I sighed and sat down on a now empty seat since a bunch of people had left. I still had fifteen minutes to go. While waiting, I checked my seat number about three million times, not wanting to accidently forget it and having to sit by someone annoying again.I fished around in my pocket for my boarding pass. I examined it closely, trying to once read something in English normally, without having the letters mixed up because of my dyslexia. I managed to comprehend what it said, though. Seat D8.
I hope I'm not by some idiot, I thought to myself. These past few times I had been on a plane, I had ended up sitting by an extremely chatty old lady, a busy businessman, or an annoying little kid who wouldn't stop asking me questions.
I mean, it would be nice to have a normal person sit by me for once. Don't I have enough bad luck? Well, if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't even be here right now…
Don't get me wrong, I wanted to see my Dad, but I'd spent the last three Christmases with him already. If I didn't have bad luck, I would be in a cozy apartment right now, cuddling up by the fireplace with Per-
Thankfully, my pessimistic thoughts were interrupted yet again by the woman's voice.
"All passengers boarding the plane to San Francisco, California please report to gate B9. I repeat, gate B9 for the flight to San Francisco."
I got up hurriedly, wanting to be first onto the plane. I wouldn't have to be crowded in the aisle while placing my bag in the overhead compartment, and I could enjoy a few seconds of peace before the person that sat next to me arrived.
Fortunately, I was up there first. The woman raised her eyebrows at me but shook her head muttering something about "irresponsible teenagers" while she checked my boarding pass. She then tied a tag around my suitcase and motioned for me to go on. I walked into a weird looking hall type of thing with my suitcase rolling behind me. I heard someone behind me, sounding like they were running to catch up to me. I looked behind me, confused, and my eyes settled on a guy about my age, maybe a little bit older, smiling at me.
I arched an eyebrow, wondering why he wanted to walk with me. I can assure you, I'm not interested in anyone these days. The only person I am interested in is halfway across the country and probably has no idea who the Hades I am. The guy finally caught up to me and I narrowed my eyes. He put his hand out for me to shake, but I just looked at skeptically. His face dropped a bit, but he was still smiling.
"Hey, my name's Jake, and I just wanted to say, I couldn't help noticing how beautiful you are. I was, like, seriously staring at you the whole time."
Oh gods. Is he seriously saying this right now?
A/N: Weird ending, right?
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QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is Annabeth OOC? (Out Of Character) TELL ME!