I would love to say it was the smell of Sally Jackson's cooking that woke us the next morning, but that would be a lie. It was Estelle's crying. Poor thing seemed to know her brother was leaving and she did not like that one bit. I had never heard her scream that much.
I stumbled into the hall, banging into Grover.
"Ow!" I muttered. "Your horns are big now - watch it!"
"Sorry!" He bleated. "Didn't see you there."
Percy turned on the light behind me, then slipped into his parents room. The crying stopped almost instantly and he reemerged with Estelle in his arms.
"I feel so guilty to leave her." He admitted, stroking her hair.
"You need to go, Percy." Sally was behind him, yawning hugely. "Make sure everything is ok in New Rome, at least. Then come back if you want to finish your summer here and the Norse gods don't kill us all."
"Good pep talk Sally." Paul seemed to mean it as he stumbled into the kitchen.
Percy glanced at me and I could tell he wanted time alone with his mom. I grabbed Grover and dragged him into the kitchen, where Paul was prepping coffee.
"Not enough time to go back to sleep, I'm afraid. Want to help me with the pancakes?" He asked me.
"Sure. After coffee." I agreed.
"I gotta go try to contact Juniper." Grover explained. "I promised I would before I left again. She hates how much I've been traveling."
Paul and I waited in silence until the coffee was ready. I was sipping my cup when he broke the silence.
"Thank you. For… teaching me about these Greek gods, never making me feel like the weird one in this family -"
"You? The weird one?" I stared at him in shock. "You are kidding, right? You are seriously so normal, Paul. You haven't broken or exploded or otherwise destroyed even one national monument."
He laughed at that, then shook his head. "Seriously. I'm going to miss you. I hope you know that."
I stared at my coffee, unsure of what to say. "I'll miss you too, Paul." I decided to just be honest. "I'll be back when I can. You have been so kind and understanding."
He smiled and reached over to squeeze my hand. We finished our coffee and got to work on the pancakes. Soon, Sally, Percy, and Estelle joined us in the kitchen, which meant we had far too many cooks. I noticed both Sally and Percy looked like they had been crying, so I gave Percy a big hug. We finished the cooking as Grover returned, and he also looked like he had been crying. This was going to be a rough day for us all.
"This is not goodbye." I announced as we sat down. "Just a 'see you later'."
"Just a quest send-off." Paul decided, making all of us wince. "Ok, not a quest send-off. Vacation send off?"
"Vacation send off." We all agreed. We spent breakfast discussing our plans, promising Sally and Paul we'd be safe a million times, and assuring them we had everything we would need.
We were clearing off the table when Paul announced, "Percy, we have one last gift for you. Close your eyes." Paul placed something in Percy's hands, then said, "Ok. Open."
Percy held up a set of car keys. We turned to stare at his parents.
"You're giving me the Prius?" Percy asked, shocked. "You know what happens with demigods and cars. Now you've got two demigods and a satyr - this is probably getting destroyed."
"Eaten by a dragon would be my guess." Sally said with a grin. "Yes, Percy we are well aware. But we want you to be safe. So take the car. If it makes it to California you can use it to visit Annabeth's family on the weekends."
"And if it does get eaten by a dragon -" Paul added with a grin, "Try to come up with a cover story for the insurance, ok?"
Percy gave them both tight hugs, then ran down to the car, totally leaving behind all his luggage. Sally smiled at me, then gestured for me to follow her. We went back to her bedroom and she handed me a tiny box, wrapped in silvery paper.
"Open it." She insisted. I did so, carefully, as it was clear this was a special gift. Inside was a delicate silver bracelet studded with ocean blue gems. "It was my mother's. I only have a couple of things from her."
"Oh - I shouldn't -" I quickly put the lid back on and tried to give it back. "You should give this to her namesake, Estelle." I insisted.
Sally lifted up her hands, clearly not going to take the gift back. "I kept a few items for Estelle. But Annabeth…. I want to give you something to show you that you are truly a part of this family."
I stared at her. It was such a huge gift - not the bracelet, that was very small, but that I was really a part of this family. "If you are sure…."
She nodded. "Completely sure. Here - let me put it on you." She opened the box and took out the bracelet, carefully placed it around my wrist and did up the clasp. It was lovely - but more than that, I couldn't believe that she would really give me something so important to her.
"Thank you." I whispered, unable to trust my voice.
She wrapped me in a tight hug. "I'll miss you so much, Annabeth. Please call when you get a chance."
"I will. I promise."
When we had both composed ourselves, we went to join the boys, who were already taking the luggage and deadly weapons down to the Prius.
"Careful with that!" Grover bleated as Paul hefted a sword.
"Sorry!" But then he grinned, "I gotta take sword lessons, this seems fun!"
"Happy to teach you some when we get back to New York." I promised, carefully removing the weapon from his hands.
We got everything tucked away into the Prius.
"Just like old times!" Grover bleated in excitement as he jumped into the backseat of the Prius. Our luggage was in the trunk but Grover didn't seem to mind that he would be sharing the back seat with a selection of deadly weapons.
Percy grabbed me up and spun me around until I was dizzy. Then he grabbed my face. "We did it. We actually did it. We graduated -"
"And saved the world a couple times." I reminded him. He kissed me well and we got in the car.
"Photo!" Sally insisted. I could tell she was having a hard time not crying, though I'd assured her we'd be back to visit before the school year officially started. But I wanted to get away, have some fun with my friends. If Magnus failed and the world ended, well, I wanted to spend my last days with Percy and Grover, just like old times.
We took several photos, not complaining even though I was fairly certain Sally Jackson had taken so many photos of us in the last month I was surprised her phone had any memory at all. Then, we finally headed off. As we drove away, I saw Percy continue to glance in the rearview mirror until long after we couldn't see his parents.
"They'll be ok."
"I know." Percy said sadly. "But I'm going to miss them so much. I'm going to miss Estelle's first steps and first words and -"
"Do you want to try going to school in New York?"
He flashed me a grateful smile. "No - I want to be with you in California. I want to be safe and -"
CRUNCH. We both glanced back at Grover, eating his way through a can. "Sorry, guys! You know I eat when I get nervous." We all laughed a lot at that. It felt so good to have the three of us together again, for another big adventure. Grover said he'd head back to Camp this summer - he wanted to spend the time with Juniper. I wondered how often he'd come to visit, if ever. Change was hard, for all of us. We'd officially outgrow Camp Half-Blood. How crazy was that? After all the times we assumed we'd die…
I took in a little breath. It might've been more of a gasp.
"You ok?" Percy asked.
"Yeah." I managed. "Just… sad to leave home, you know?"
Percy tried to put his hand on mine, but the car swerved, so we decided against that. I checked our map.
"First stop - Hershey, Pennsylvania. Home of the Hershey bar."
"Yes!" Percy and Grover announced happily.
Personally, Percy and I found the museum interesting - I loved seeing how chocolate is made from growing the plants to harvesting and transport to mixing it all and making the shapes. Percy loved that it was a little ride. Grover, however, found the animatronic cows welcoming us to the factory offensive. He got happier when he saw all the cool chocolate we could try.
They had chocolates from around the world, make-your-own candy bar stations, and free samples. Percy and Grover decided to see how much stuff they could pack into their 'Stuff Your Own Reece's Cup' - and it was a lot. We left with way too much chocolate, but could you really blame us when they have so many varieties to try? New life motto for demigods - Eat chocolate today, some gods could end the world tomorrow.
We got back on the road, hoping to make it to Cleveland by night. We did end up making to Cleveland, but much later than we had hoped, thanks to some roaming emposai. By the time we got to Cleveland, we were tired and just grabbed the first hotel room we could find.
We flopped onto the beds and before I knew it, Percy was snoring. I rolled my eyes and caught Grover doing the same. He started laughing.
"Tell your dad thanks for helping pay for this." Grover bleated.
I shrugged. "It was actually more my mom."
"Really?" He said, sounding shocked.
"Yeah. She's trying to be a better parent. Something about sending me on a suicide quest reminded her she hasn't exactly been Sally Jackson."
Grover grinned, then turned serious. "Have you heard from them?"
I shook my head. "I'll text them a photo from today before we leave. I'd like to be on the move before I send any kind of message."
He nodded, then stared at the sky. "Reminds me of that place we crashed with Luke and Thalia."
"The one that Luke, ah, 'snuck' us into?"
He gave a small smile and nodded. "I…. kinda miss him. I mean, the him we knew back then."
"Me too." I agreed, remembering that night. We were exhausted and sick of sleeping on the streets. Luke had managed to use his Hermes skills to unlock a hotel window. It felt so similar to this one - I was pretty sure the bedspreads were the exact same. I remember Thalia helping brush out my hair after my bath - my first real bath in weeks. Luke had raided the mini bar and we'd feasted on tiny cans of Pringles and Oreos while Grover taught me some more star constellations.
I sighed and looked over. Grover was asleep. I wiped the tears from my eyes and went to go see if I could see the stars. Since Tartarus, any chance I get, I try to see them and remind myself just how much I have. How much I am so grateful for.
"Hello." I whispered. The stars did not respond, but maybe they still appreciated being greeted every now and then.
The next morning, we found an iHOP and ate plenty of pancakes and coffee. We felt way more ready to take on the day.
"Where to now?" Percy asked as we pulled away.
"Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame, right here in Cleveland." I decided.
Percy grinned. "Doesn't seem like your kind of place, Wise Girl."
"The architecture's amazing!" I protested. "It was designed by I. M. Pei and was finished in 1995 -"
"Ok!" Percy agreed with a laugh. "So Grover and I will enjoy the inside of the building while you enjoy the outside."
The inside of the museum was cooler than I thought it'd be. The first level had an exhibit on how rock music and social justice intertwined, which Grover and I found fascinating. Percy, getting rather bored with our discussion, borrowed my cap in case of monsters and moved on to the next exhibit. We spent a while just checking everything out, but then we got to the second floor. It was a huge "garage" where we could try out instruments! Grover immediately hopped on the drums and started pounding away. It did not sound good, but it was marginally better than his pan pipes, so I gave him a big thumbs up.
Percy had been wanting to try to play guitar, but with all the world-ending and trying-to-graduate stuff, he hadn't gotten a chance. He checked out all the available guitars before landing on a blue one (of course). He wasn't very good, but he looked happy. I snapped plenty of photos to send to Sally and Paul when we had a chance. Percy and Grover insisted I try some instrument, so I tried the piano. I wasn't very good, but hey, it might be something fun to try in the future. You know, if the world doesn't end from the viking apocalypse. Sorry, sorry, I'll try to stop reminding you all about the world ending.
Eventually, Grover and Percy decided that the problem was that they weren't playing loud enough, which was the point I decided we should head to the next floor. That floor had the official "Hall of Fame", which was pretty cool, and we got to see a little movie with clips of some of the inductees, which we all thought was awesome.
We were eating some sandwiches in the museum cafe when Percy stretched back and announced, "Well. I have to say - best museum trip ever. And no monsters!"
