Fortunate Son of the Sea God chapter 2
Chapter 2: The Grey-Eyed Girl
Annabeth P.O.V
It wasn't very often that Annabeth didn't look forward to going to class.
She had an architecture class to go to at Columbia University, a private Ivy-league college in upper Manhattan. Annabeth graduated at the top of her class back in San Francisco and was given a chance to get a degree in architecture from the highly distinguished university.
Normally, Annabeth is eager to leave her bland apartment off-campus and walk to her classes. Today was an unfortunate exception due to a huge anti-war protest going on all throughout the borough of Manhattan. Angry protestors were marching all over the streets with signs decorated in drawings of peace signs and phrases like: "Make love not war" and "Get the Hell out of Vietnam". All Annabeth could do was let out a sigh as she observed the protestors from her window. She really hadn't given much thought to the war in Vietnam. She was so focused on her classes at school and trying to keep up with her dad. Annabeth felt cruel for leaving him by himself in California to take care of her adopted brothers. Even though he insisted that he had everything under control whenever they wrote each other, she still felt that he could use some help.
Annabeth eventually pushed those thoughts aside; she NEEDED to make it to class on time. She quickly gathered up her materials for class that included her textbooks, her pencils, and her father's dagger that she kept hidden in her book bag for good luck. After taking a deep breath, Annabeth pushed open the door to her 2nd story apartment and after locking the door behind her; she started the long walk to class. Her class starts at 10:30 and she looked at her watch and it read 9:45, she would make it on time as long as she could find a way through the angry protestors outside. After making it to the front door of the lobby, Annabeth pushed open the door and immediately took in the smell. It smelled of a myriad of things that combined together to create that signature New York smell that you either loved or hated.
After taking in the smell, Annabeth started making her way over to the college. The protestors she saw outside her apartment earlier must've moved to a different street that made her take a sigh of relief. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with them especially since she had a class to be at.
Unfortunately for Annabeth, her day was about to take a turn for the worst.
No more than a few blocks away from campus, the protestors were gathered in masse in the streets. That wasn't even the worst part, a line of police officers and military police soldiers cut off the street that Annabeth was walking on. The tension between the crowd and the police was only getting worse the more Annabeth looked on. There was no way that she would be able to muscle her way through the crowd and she seriously doubted that the police would just lower their guns, smile, and let a random college student pass by their perimeter.
Annabeth quickly started analyzing her options, she could risk the back-alleys but that could be more dangerous especially alone. She could try reasoning with the police and the crowd to try and ease the tension. Before she could give it much more thought, the yelling from the crowd started getting even louder, it wouldn't be much longer before this escalated into a riot and that would keep her from getting to class even longer.
Quickly, Annabeth started maneuvering her way through the crowd as quickly as she could, she didn't have time to think anymore, she had to act quickly. After receiving some a few unwanted elbows from some of the sweaty protestors, she made it to the front of the mob.
Annabeth glanced around the police officers for someone who looked like they were in charge of the others. She noticed a man standing in the middle that gave off the feeling of being in-charge so Annabeth tried to get his attention.
"Excuse me officer?!" she asked as loudly as she could.
The officer kept his gaze focused on the crowd and Annabeth realized that he wore a completely blank expression on his face, as if dealing with protests like this was a routine thing.
"I have to make it to a class?!" Annabeth continued as she scooted herself closer to the middle of the line where she could face the head officer. "Can you please let me through?" she pleaded. "I'm not one of them," she assured the officer as she pointed her finger at the crowd signaling that she wasn't among them.
The officer remained silent and simply shook his head at Annabeth then motioned for her to go back the way she came.
Annabeth started to become more frustrated with the policeman; she made it clear that she wasn't a hooligan like the people behind her.
Just as she started to open her mouth to give the guy a piece of her mind a male voice spoke out from behind her.
"Yeah, let the princess on through, she won't start any trouble, she has to make it back to her castle to kiss her Prince Charming!" the voice shouted from behind.
Everyone started busting out laughing, Annabeth could feel her cheeks getting warm from the embarrassment, and she was going to KILL whoever said that.
Annabeth quickly spun around to face the crowd, and as soon as they saw the anger in her gray, stormy eyes, the laughter quickly subsided.
"Which one of you idiots said that?!" Annabeth demanded with a fiery expression in her eyes.
It wasn't long before a black-haired teenager made his way to the front of the crowd. In any other situation, Annabeth probably would've avoided talking to the guy. He was definitely around Annabeth's age but that's where the similarities ended. He had green eyes and had on a mischievous look that spelled nothing but trouble. He wore a stained New York Knicks shirt, faded blue jeans, and a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor's.
"You demanded my presence, your highness?" he said with an evil grin.
Annabeth angrily made her way over to the boy and elbowed him right in his family jewels. He let out a groan before collapsing onto the pavement.
Annabeth stood over him and gave him a look that could've killed if it had the chance.
"Don't you ever call me that ever again," Annabeth growled.
The guy rolled over to face Annabeth and she noticed that his face still had the grin on it.
"How about…Your Majesty?" he asked with a grin.
Annabeth let out a scream of pure anger and reared back with her foot to kick the punk but before she could make contact the little devil brought his hands down and caught her foot, which completely caught Annabeth by surprise.
In one swift movement, he grabbed both of her legs and pulled them out from under her bringing her down to the concrete right on her ass.
She let out a scream of frustration and frantically started trying to punch the guy as much as she could. He simply absorbed them and gently pushed her on the shoulder to where she was now laying on her back. He crawled on top of her and pinned both of her arms to the ground.
"I'm gonna kill you!" she managed to yell through gritted teeth.
The guy merely laughed the threat off.
"Well you wouldn't be the fi-" was all he managed before a scream from the crowd broke the silence.
The guy looked behind him at the crowd and noticed a man with a bottle that was filled with a brown liquid and had a flaming rag sticking out of the top.
Annabeth's eyes got wide; she had read about those weapons in her history class, the Finns used them against the Soviet's before World War Two.
"MOLOTOV!" shouted the lead officer as everyone took cover.
The man hurled the flammable cocktail at the police and it collided with a police car causing it to burst into flames.
Annabeth instinctively tried to shield herself from the fire and realized that the guy on top of her was protecting her from the flames with his own body.
After the flames died down a bit, the police started advancing on the crowd. They started throwing tear gas canisters and the crowd tried to resist.
Before Annabeth could get a read on what was happening amid the chaos. A canister of the gas landed next to her. The mystery man covered his eyes and face but it was to late for Annabeth as her vision starting getting blurry and she had a harder time trying to breath.
She cursed herself for not thinking quickly enough about the gas, usually she is very good at thinking quickly when she needs to, but she's never been in a riot before so that made things more difficult.
"Use your shirt and cover your face!" the mystery man demanded.
Annabeth complied and pulled up the collar of her shirt to cover her face.
"Unless you 'd enjoy jail, I suggest we get out of here!" the guy said.
Annabeth was still caught up in all the events unraveling around her and just stared blankly as the police continued to advance.
The guy let out an exasperated yell and pulled Annabeth up off the ground and motioned towards a nearby alley.
The two sprinted over quickly dodging tear gas and the occasional rubber bullet.
Annabeth had never been this scared before except for all those times she had spiders crawl in her room when she was little.
After putting some distance between themselves and the riot, Annabeth and the mysterious stranger came to a stop panting heavily.
"You…you protected me…from the fire," Annabeth managed to say in between her deep breathing.
The mysterious stranger, who was hunched over trying to catch his breath, looked up and managed a smile, this one was more sincere and not as evil as the one earlier.
"Just an instinct I guess," he said with a shrug.
Annabeth then noticed something strange, the guy had protected her from a huge fireball, he should've been scorched head to toe but he looked completely fine as if nothing happened.
"Well…thank you I guess," Annabeth muttered appreciatively.
She looked at her wristwatch and noticed it was still intact, it read 10:25.
She would have to hurry if she wanted to make it to her class on time.
She started making her way towards an adjacent street hoping she wasn't too far away from the school after the riot.
"Hey!" the stranger called from behind. "Aren't you forgetting something?!" he asked.
Annabeth suddenly came to an abrupt stop; she forgot her backpack! It held all her books and supplies and most importantly her dad's knife, which she mentally slapped herself for not thinking about earlier. That knife would've come in handy.
"Uhhh…" was all she could manage.
That brought another chuckle from the stranger, "Here, I think you'll need this…your majesty."
Annabeth turned around to pummel the guy when she realized he was holding her backpack.
She snatched it out his hands, "Thank you…but don't call me your majesty ever again," she snapped.
The guy raised his hands as if he was surrendering, "Then what can I call you…wise girl," he said with a smirk.
"Annabeth, my name is Annabeth," she said.
"Name's Percy, it's a pleasure," Percy said in response. He lowered his hand to shake mine, I reluctantly obliged to the gesture.
While they were shaking hands, Annabeth made the mistake of looking at those sea-green eyes. She just stared at him for what felt like an eternity before Percy let out a cough to end the awkward silence.
"Going somewhere?" he said with a grin.
Annabeth felt herself fall back into reality and remembered that she had a class to go to, she felt her cheeks become red from embarrassment.
"Oh… yeah, I should be going," she said with a clear blush.
Annabeth turned around and took off running out of the alley way and into the streets.
While running to class, Annabeth started thinking about what the hell just happened. How did Percy protect her from the fire without getting burned? How did he know she had to be somewhere? And how the hell did he get her backpack?
Annabeth's thinking was interrupted when she accidentally ran over some guy in a wheelchair.
"I'm so sorry sir!" she apologized. She helped the poor man get back into his wheelchair.
"Oh, don't worry about it," he said with a friendly smile.
"As a matter of fact, I'm very glad that I ran into you, do you mind if we have a brief, little chat?"