Note: Constructive Criticism is always appreciated!
WARNING: one BBC Sherlock reference in here. Won't make much difference if you don't see it, though.
To Percy, the world was still spinning, and didn't realize he was sitting down until the setting before him only tipped. Annabeth was sitting next to him, while Rachel was across, looking ready to lose her cookies.
Percy was fearing he'd do the same if he opened his mouth.
Annabeth was the first to recover. Still a bit tipsy, she found a trash can under her seat. Rachel immediately took advantage of a place to vomit, Annabeth graciously pulling back her - now short - glossy hair. The moment she sat up for breath, Percy took the can for himself.
Tears were streaming down Annabeth's face. She remembered, when she was little, that she would get very, very carsick; she would start to cry. Not by her own accord, of course, but it rarely happened as Annabeth got older. She supposed, now, these were one of those rare times.
Once Rachel and Percy were done spilling out their insides, the three looked around. They were in a compartment of sorts, with a closed shade covering a window. The seats, velvet red, were plushy and bouncy. On the opposite of the window was a sliding glass door, with a simple lock handle. Annabeth was the first one to open it and take a good look outside. "It's a -um, a corridor. With-" Annabeth made sure she was seeing this correctly. "More rooms. I mean, compartments. I mean, cells. Where are we again?"
Rachel rolled her eyes. "You forget, we all have no idea. You're the smart one, figure it out."
"You're the oracle, give us something."
Annabeth seemed surprised at what she had just said. Percy had a complete blank face, wondering how he, Annabeth, and Rachel had known this. Rachel was the oracle-but there was no reason why eleven-year-old Percy and Annabeth would be exposed to this knowledge.
Knowledge.
Annabeth snapped her fingers. "Oh! Wait-no-wait-yes!"
"What? What is it?" Percy asked, jumping up.
She rolled her eyes. "That question was really unnecessary, Seaweed Brain. Did you really think I wasn't going to tell you?" Percy was about to make a sassy comment, but thought better of it. Annabeth smirked. "Lu-Kronos said he can have a certain amount of control over time, right? That means, with time, comes age. He fast-forwarded time for us! Giving us memories that comes along with it!"
"That doesn't explain why we're ten years old-" Rachel started, but was cut off by a very annoyed Annabeth.
"We're eleven, actually."
"Whatever. We still have all those memories, and yet we're eleven. He let us keep those memories, and gave us our tween bodies? How does that make any sense?"
Percy opened the window shade to look outside. "Hey, you two. Why are we at a train station?"
The two girls stopped bickering and looked outside. It was the weirdest train station any of them had ever seen.
In America, train stations were completely outside in the cold, while this one was completely covered in dull orange bricks. The support beams had weird symbols scratched on it, including the protruding signs on the top.
"Hey, this looks. . .almost familiar." Rachel said faintly.
Percy, eyes still fixated on the station, said, "What?"
"Yeah. Yeah. This looks like that big train station in England."
"You went to-right. Rich dad. . ." Annabeth said aloud.
"Only, only there's no platform 9 and 3/4." Rachel said quizzically. "Hey, there's one of those train conductor-y show-you-where-to-go guys. We could ask him." She pointed at a chubby man in a red and black suit, silver buttons lining down his middle on his coat. His black pants dirtied by train grease and pulling luggage around all day. He straightened his sleek hat so the red band aligned with his-somehow perfect-hair line.
Percy apparently thought it was a good idea to come and talk to him, so he straightened up and Annabeth pulled him down again. "Are you kidding me? Kronos put us here, apparently prepared with bags and everything." She pointed up, where, surprisingly enough, three large roll-away suitcases lay. "We don't want to interfere with this timeline, Percy. We could be ten years in the future, for all we know! We'll, we'll just have to pretend to-"
"-know what's going on." Rachel finished Annabeth's sentence without meaning to. She looked frustrated with herself. Eyes turning up, she blushed. "We should check the suitcases."
Annabeth stared at her for a second, but regained her senses soon enough. Percy beat her to the rack above their heads and got the two on his side down. Rachel retrieved the suitcase on her side as Annabeth waited to inspect each bag.
Percy felt that it was extremely heavy, but its hard leather didn't make him loosen his grip. Metal rings hugged the case, and the feel of new leather still imprinted on his hands as he saw what was written on the case-
Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
DRACO DORMIENS NUNQUAM TITILLANDUS
"Hogwarts?" Annabeth asked. "That's the name of a school?"
"A magic school." Percy said, acting completely serious. A small smile played on his lips. Annabeth nearly had playfully hit him, but something held her back.
Rachel stared at the suitcase with furrowed eyebrows. She had seen that multicolored emblem somewhere, but where?
"Why are we not trying to figure out-"
"Shut up, Percy, or you'll lower the whole IQ of whole train."
"Shall we get to opening them?" Rachel asked impatiently. Without waiting, she clicked the trunk in front of her open as the other two did the same.
As she saw the inside of the casing, a smooth, engraving titled, "Rachel Eliza Dare" in fancy print, the same color as the velvet surrounding it. She traced the print with her thumb, wondering if the mistake was on purpose or not.
"Percy," Annabeth said, snapping Rachel out of her trance. "This one has your name on it."
"Huh? Oh, yeah, it does. Uh, this one has yours." Percy stopped and glanced at it. "Hey, I didn't know your middle name is Eta!"
"Give me that!" Annabeth slammed shut the case and pulled it towards her, with a great amount of difficulty. Pushing Percy's case to him, she opened it up again and frowned. "Eta is not my middle name."
"Eliza isn't mine, either."
"Where'd they get Barry?" Percy said in disbelief.
"Guys."
"I mean, my real middle name isn't even close to that!"
"What's your middle name?
"Guys."
"Oh, um, ya know, nothing spe-"
"GUYS!"
"What?!" Both Rachel and Percy said at the same time.
"I have noticed two things that you have failed to obviously see." started Annabeth. "One of which, what is in your trunks, and second is what's happening outside."
Percy, who had been getting tired of sitting, jumped to look out the window.
Rachel looked down to the contents of her luggage.
They both gasped.