Well, it's Short but Sweet! I've never written Percy's POV before but I've read the books enough times that hopefully I've got his narrative voice pretty accurate! I couldn't be bothered to go upstairs and get my book so I have no idea how canon compliant it is, but it's fanfiction so that's kind of the point..? Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! Please comment! Find me on X/Twitter @/wyliesdemigod 3
"I can't believe you're hanging out with - with that." Annabeth muttered darkly, glaring out of the window, and I felt Tyson tense uncomfortably on my other side. We were squashed in the back of a taxi, backpacks on our laps and an uneasy tension in the air. Any joy I would've felt at seeing her again - and a bigger sense of relief than I would admit to anyone - was dampened by her unwelcome mood towards Tyson. I had been excited at first to introduce her to my new friend - but she seemed hostile towards him. Like yeah, he wasn't the nicest to look at, but he had just been a massive help in the gym, and she could see he wasn't a threat in any way to us. Her attitude just didn't make any sense to me, and I felt nervous to ask Annabeth any questions about how her year had been or otherwise.
Tyson was bouncing his leg anxiously next to me, and I tried to send him a reassuring smile before responding to Annabeth.
"He's my friend!" I whispered angrily at her, feeling defensive over Tyson. He hadn't had it easy at school, or in life generally, and so it was hard not to be sympathetic for him, even if he was seven foot tall and I struggled to look him in the eye. My mom had always taught me not to judge a "book by its cover", and I was surprised Annabeth wasn't following that philosophy herself. Surely she'd know as demigods, our often dangerous lives leading to tricks and lies, that things - or people, in this case - aren't always as they seem.
"It doesn't matter now. But you know he won't be allowed at Camp, right? What are you planning on telling him, Percy?" She still didn't look at me as she fired off questions, her voice low and fast, and that made me more frustrated than what she was saying. We went around a tight corner, making us all fall half on top of each other, which was about as awkward as it sounds. Once we'd untangled from each other, my elbow out of Tyson's ear and Annabeth's hair out my eyes - and probably broken the sound barrier at the rate of our driver - I plucked up the courage to respond.
"We don't need to go to Camp - just back to my mom's place. We'll be okay there. I'm sure you can stay for dinner too - it's lasagna night." I offered.
"I love your mom's lasagna, Percy!" Tyson said. I felt that didn't make the lasagna sound more appealing to Annabeth, but she barely acknowledged that he had spoken. At least she actually looked at me the next time she talked though - even if I didn't like what she had to say.
"We're not going back to your mom's place," she began slowly, and my first reaction was to immediately protest. Who was she to tell me where to go? But the serious tone of her voice and genuine concern in her eyes made me shut up and listen - yeah, even I was surprised I could do it, but she looked fierce and still had her dagger in her hand, so you can't blame me for being a little nervous. "We can't go back - it's too dangerous, especially after what just happened. You don't the monsters to come back with your mom around, do you?"
I nodded in reluctant agreement. I could see she had a point, but I didn't want to go back to Camp just yet, and I had been really looking forward to that lasagna. I think we were even planning to have garlic bread.
"I should Iris-message someone at Camp, let them know we're coming… I think I'll call Silena," Annabeth was saying, mostly to herself this time. I cast my mind back and remembered Silena as the head councillor of Aphrodite, who commanded a calm sort of leadership in her cabin. It seemed an odd choice though, especially as they hadn't seemed particularly close last summer - maybe dynamics had changed at Camp. I'm guessing Luke's betrayal had thrown everything off-kilter in the pecking order at Camp, as he had sort of been our unofficial leader.
"Why not Grover, or Chiron?" I asked her. Tyson frowned in the corner of my vision, and I felt kind of bad for excluding the big guy from our conversation. He wouldn't know what an Iris-message was, but Annabeth didn't seem to keen on involving him. In fact, her quiet tone of voice felt almost purposeful, although it may have just been because of our mortal cab driver. I wondered how she knew to catch a mortal taxi, having not left Camp Half-Blood since she arrived at age seven - maybe that's part of how she'd got there in the first place, although I doubted it. From what I recalled it had been a rough journey, although the image of her as a child, yelling directions at the driver with her knife in the back of a taxi was funny for a split second before it was sad.
Annabeth looked out of the window for a minute before she responded to me. The taxi felt slightly less uncomfortable now that we'd started talking, but it was still kind of awkward. I drummed my fingers nervously on my knee, all our legs pressed together in a row, Tyson's taking up a considerably larger space than mine and Annabeth's.
"Camp's changed a lot in a year." She said, her voice wobbling slightly but her face displaying no emotion. Then, she turned her head quickly, her eyes betraying no sign of vulnerability, her voice taking on a more commanding and determined tone. "I've used all my drachma. Have you got some in your bag?"
Before I could even respond she grabbed my rucksack, putting hers on my lap in return. I was tempted to look inside it but knew better. Tyson started playing with her I Heart New York keyring, and Annabeth rifled through my bag, no doubt frustrated at how unorganised it was, mumbling an Ancient Greek curse as she dug deeper to find the coin. She dug one out - I breathed a sigh of relief that there was one there and I hadn't lost them all to the school vending machine - and moved to give my bag back to me, before something else caught her eye, and a small smile crossed over her face before she became expressionless once more, save for an arched eyebrow and a spark of mischief in her eye. It was funny how even after almost a year apart, reading her micro-expressions came back almost naturally.
"What is in your bag, Percy Jackson?" She said, pulling out a piece of paper that I recognised just from the back of it. My face burst into a blush, no doubt as red as our school jackets, although there was no reason for it. See, Annabeth and I had emailed each other a few times over the last year, as she'd finally gone back home to give her dad, stepmom and step-brothers another chance. I'd send her some normal kid movie recommendations, as promised, and she gave me a review each time. Then, her dad had taken her to Disneyland for her birthday, and she'd send me a picture of her in front of the castle, wearing Mickey ears and holding churros. I'd printed out the picture and put it in my sketchbook - the castle looked like a cool thing to draw, and it helped to have a reminder of last summer, and Camp with me. I looked at it sometimes on a difficult day, like when the bullies or school had been a bit worse, and thought about how when I got to Camp in the summer everything would be easier.
"Oh, that old thing?" I said weakly, and Annabeth put the picture back in the bag before throwing it triumphantly back at me, taking her own bag back. "I, uh, I forgot that was even in there. We - we got a new printer and were testing it out..?" I trailed off at the lame excuse, Annabeth no doubt seeing through it. Tyson seemed oblivious to my embarrassment, and chose this moment to finally speak up, saving me from my misery, pointing out a bird or something outside the window that I pretended to be interested in, but I could still feel Annabeth's eyes on the back of my head. I forgot that she did that - just, stared at me sometimes. I guess I can't complain, Grover had told me that I do it too sometimes, but it was still like I had some sort of sixth-Annabeth-sense for when she did that.
"We can get out here, thank you." Annabeth said to the driver, and I frowned in confusion.
"Um, Annabeth -," I began, and the driver looked confused too. She'd stopped us in the middle of nowhere - I hadn't even realised how far out the main city we'd gone. Then Annabeth handed him a wad of mortal cash, and he looked like Christmas came early, shutting up immediately.
"Have a good day!" He said, and sped off once we got out the car.
"Well, now we're stranded in the middle of nowhere. Great." I looked at Annabeth in annoyance. "What are we doing?" She rolled her eyes at me.
"Look, Thalia's tree is just behind you over there, like 50 yards away."
"Oh, Pinecone Face!" I cracked. Annabeth's glare told me she didn't appreciate the joke, and Tyson again just looked befuddled.
"Anyway, I'll call Silena before we go to Camp - can you help me out with this water?" Annabeth asked, holding the drachma in one hand and a spray bottle from her bag in the other. She looked on edge despite there being no one else around, and I could tell Tyson had picked up on her mood. I didn't really understand how to make the rainbow, but I held out my arms like some second-rate magician and somehow it worked. I felt kind of self-conscious doing it in front of Tyson, but I figured he'd seen enough in the gym to realise we weren't normal kids at this point. He seemed pretty entranced by the rainbow anyhow, and it was nice to get some recognition, as Annabeth seemed sort of distracted and wasn't looking at me again.
"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering and show me Silena at Camp Half-Blood!" She proclaimed in one breath, and I looked over my shoulder at Thalia's tree. I could see some figures on the other side of it, and it looked like they were fighting. I assumed it was some sort of training exercise, and even with the distance I could hear Clarissa yelling at her team mates. I'd missed camp, but the daughter of Ares - not so much. The feeling was probably mutual. We hadn't been the closest of friends - or friends at all, for that matter - and I felt that relationship wasn't prone to change anytime soon, unless she'd magically grown a new personality over the last year.
"… it's got pretty bad, Malcolm and the others will be relieved you've returned." I heard Silena's voice through the shouting and bird calls, and turned back to see her face through the hazy mist, Annabeth listening intently and Tyson staring in wonder. I reached up to close his jaw and tuned in to the conversation.
"Well, we're not far off now," Annabeth was saying. "I'm sure we can help out."
Silena didn't look so sure. "I think you'd better be quick. And Percy -" she turned to me now, and I felt a bit squeamish under her gaze. Aphrodite's children were known for their beauty, but her piercing gaze felt more accosting than attractive. "Don't expect a warm welcome back from Clarisse, she's been in a mood lately and seeing you again…"
"Thanks, Silena, I feel so loved." I quipped as Silena smiled at me apologetically. Annabeth punched me in the arm, and not as lightly as I would've liked.
"We'll come now Silena." She promised, putting her bottle back and pulling out her dagger. "I'll make sure he doesn't get into too much trouble."
"And have you decided about..?"
"I'm not sure yet." Annabeth and Silena casted twin glances of concern at Tyson, who was oblivious to their judgement.
"He's my friend. I'm not coming without him!" I butted in fiercely, and Silena looked at Annabeth knowingly.
"I guess that settles it then." She said, and Annabeth glared at me again. She'd done that a lot and I'd only been with her for about an hour. It was great to see her again.
"See you soon!" Silena said, and closed the Iris-message.
"Get out your sword," Annabeth told me and marched off towards the tree. Tyson and I followed in her wake, and I uncapped Riptide, handing him my rucksack, and hoping that our welcome back wouldn't be as bad as the journey there.
At least I hadn't carried around a picture of Clarisse all summer - and I'd get to see Grover again.
Can you tell I can't write dialogue! This was so much better in my head. And longer. Oh well!