Chapter 2
For the most part, I enjoyed being at Camp Half-Blood during winter break. There weren't as many demigods as in the summer, but more than during the school year, so camp didn't feel abandoned or chaotic. The rules were more laid-back, too. Chiron and Mr. D let us sleep in, gave us more free time, and even suspended curfew a couple times, likely because we were still recovering from the battle with Kronos. Mr. D was as lenient as I'd ever seen him, though I knew it wouldn't last.
One of the best parts of winter break was getting to know the other demigods better. With fewer people around and extra time, I bonded with a few of them, especially because I had so much extra time without Annabeth. We passed the time with snowball fights or watching movies in the Big House, which helped take my mind off her when things got tough.
That's not to say every day was exciting. There were slow days, especially when the weather kept us inside or we were too tired to do much. Those were the hardest, when I couldn't stop thinking about how much I missed Annabeth.
When I arrived at camp at the start of winter break, the Aphrodite campers began orbiting around me as if they had an advanced radar that could detect heartbreaks or any other kind of relationship problem. I remember one conversation I had with an Aphrodite camper named Ava about a week after arriving at camp. We had become good friends since then.
"What do you think it was?" she had asked me as we sat in the Big House looking out the window, watching the snow peacefully fall across the valley.
"I don't know." I said.
"Sure you do." She replied confidently. "You don't have to tell me, but you can't pretend like you don't know why it happened." She gave me an encouraging smile.
"I feel like I don't know. One moment we were doing good, and the next things just started falling apart."
Ava looked at me, empathetically nodding as I tried processing exactly what had happened.
"Things were . . . different. I don't know why, especially after everything we had been through together. I really thought things would only get better. That's what I really wanted"
"Have you told her that?"
"What? No. We said we wouldn't talk to each other for a while. And besides, I don't even think she cares anymore."
"There's only one way to find out. I know it hasn't been that long, but there's the saying 'absence makes the heart grow fonder.' Perhaps time apart will help the two of you realize how important you are to one another."
"I don't know."
"You will when you feel it. If things don't work out, just remember that there are plenty of other girls out there who would be beyond interested in dating you." Her cheeks got slightly red as she said that. "But between you and me, I think you and Annabeth are great together. Maybe some distance is all you need."
"Maybe." I mused.
That's when I got the idea to call Annabeth through Iris message. Ever since then, and up until I actually went through with it, I had been a nervous wreck. Not sleeping that much, not eating that much. I missed Annabeth but was also worried about what she would do if I tried reaching out to her. Ava and some others were nice enough to periodically give me encouragement and advice, but even with outside help I had a hard time knowing what to do. I had never been in a breakup before. And more importantly, I had never been separated from Annabeth in this way before.
But that was in the past, and Annabeth said she would be here in about a day, and we would talk and get back to normal as it should be.
The morning after my talk with Annabeth went smoothly. After classes, most of the campers and I were on the first floor of the Big House, where some were playing cards, others arm-wrestling, and a few just relaxing. I was chatting with a kid from the Hermes cabin about which god was most powerful, and he argued, in hilarious detail, how Zeus could zap the ocean with his master bolt and wipe out everything in Poseidon's domain. We both laughed, and I realized it was the first time I'd laughed in almost three weeks—it felt good. I tried explaining why his scenario wasn't possible and how Poseidon could easily defeat Zeus, but after I laid out the facts, he lost interest, and the conversation ended.
"Hey, Percy!" A small group of campers approached me shortly after the Hermes kid left. "We've been thinking about you recently. We were wondering if you'd want to come with us the archery range before lunch and hit a few targets"
Me and Archery go as well together as Dionysus and being sober, everybody knew that. There was another thing that everyone knew about too, which was probably the reason why I was being invited.
The one downside of being at camp over winter break was the lack of excitement. With fewer campers around, things got boring fast, and any drama—whether it was a fight or a new relationship—became instant gossip. So, when the "breakup of the century" between Annabeth and me spread, it brought a lot of unwanted attention. I went from being well-known to being the center of whispers and glances, especially from the Aphrodite cabin.
At first, the extra support from people who barely knew me was nice, but it quickly got overwhelming. Their comments about my tired eyes or weight loss, though well-meaning, only reminded me of how much I missed Annabeth. It made me pull back, avoiding people and activities.
But the group inviting me to archery were old friends, and after my talk with Annabeth, I was feeling surprisingly optimistic. So, I thought, why not?
I'd been at Camp Half-Blood during winter before, but I still couldn't get over how different it looked with snow inside the boundary. Mr. D had been generous with the snowfall, though not excessive. As the small group and I stepped out of the Big House, I took in the beauty of the camp. A pristine blanket of snow covered the strawberry fields, and the distant evergreen forest displayed a striking mix of white and green. The sun shimmered on Long Island Sound, and the crisp air made me feel alive. Despite knowing I'd probably fail at archery, I carried the optimism I'd felt since the morning.
We'd been shooting arrows for a while when I finally stepped up, eyeing the range scattered with targets, the closest just ten yards away and the furthest over 150, all surrounded by trees that made the shots even harder. I cautiously grabbed a bow from the rack, and the campers instinctively stepped back before awkwardly pretending they hadn't. I didn't blame them—I really was that bad. Clumsily notching an arrow, I aimed at the nearest target, pulled back, and released. The arrow veered wildly off to the right and fell short, nowhere near where I intended.
"I can't even shoot an arrow more than a couple feet." I mumbled to myself in frustration. One of the demigods I was with, from the Apollo cabin, came up to me.
"There's one thing that you're doing that's causing most of the problems." He started. "You have to make sure the front of the arrow is resting firmly on the bow before you let go. When you just fired your bow I noticed the arrow was sideways and not lined up correctly. I'm sure if you give it another shot you can get pretty close to the target."
He patted me on the back as I reached for another arrow. I breathed in and notched the arrow. I looked at the target in front of me and then back at my bow, doing my best to make sure the arrow was resting against the bow before releasing. Everything was lined up. I closed my eyes right before releasing the bowstring.
Thwump!
I opened my eyes and saw the arrow protruding right out of the center of the target. I stood there dumbfounded at what I was seeing. My mouth gaped open in amazement as I looked to my left to see if anyone was just as surprised as I was. But none of them were acting impressed.
"Did you guys see that? I actually hit something!"
They looked around awkwardly trying to avoid my eyes. Before I could ask why they didn't think this was a reason to celebrate, I heard a familiar female voice just a few feet to my right.
"No you didn't Seaweed Brain. I did. Yours is even further from the target as the first one you shot."
I turned around and saw none other than Thalia Grace.
She stood there with an exquisite bow in her left hand and a playful smirk on her face. She was wearing her usual outfit: a silver parka, black skinny jeans, and black combat boots. I noticed that her hair had grown since the last time we had seen each other. Her jet-black hair hung down almost to her shoulders in curly strands. There were a couple scratches on her face, one on her nose and another on her cheek that somehow complimented the splash of freckles on her pale face. The black eyeliner brought out her clear, blue eyes. They were wide and glowing with amusement. Her smirk turned into a smile when I gave her a disapproving look.
"Oh come on! You have to admit that was funny." She laughed as she wrapped her arm around me.
"It's good to see you too, Thal." I said as a big smile crept up on my face. It really was good to see her. And it was pretty funny. Almost as funny as Zeus frying the entire ocean in one zap. The campers I was with started gathering their equipment. We waved at each other as they began walking back up to the Big House "Growing your hair out long?" I asked, noticing her black hair that was now down to her shoulders.
"Thought I could use a change," she smirked.
"Not bad," I smirked back. "What are you doing here?"
"Yeah, the Hunters and I decided to take a break. I thought things would calm down after Manhattan, but we've been just as busy. Kronos left behind plenty of monsters—Laistrygonians, dracaenae, even the big ones. We've been nonstop for a while. After some rough run-ins, we figured we could use a breather behind the camp's magic barrier."
I inspected her face. "Is that how you got the scratches?"
"The one on my nose. The other one was from running into a tree branch. Hey! It's not funny! It really hurt." She gave me a disapproving face.
"I'm sorry. It's just you out of all people to get injured by a tree." Thalia realized what I was getting at and cracked a smile.
"I guess being a tree doesn't make you immune from them." She noted. "You look like you've been running around with us. Your eyes look like a racoon with how dark they are."
"Yeah, I uh. . ." I tried to think of a quick excuse. I hadn't needed to have an excuse on hand recently, given the fact that everyone knew why I didn't sleep that much. I didn't want Thalia to know, at least not yet. At this point I just wanted to talk with one person who either didn't know or didn't care about my relationship problems with Annabeth. "I've been staying up late . . . practicing underwater basket weaving." Stupid! I thought. Literally anything could have been better.
Her electric blue eyes peered deep into mine for just a split second before saying, "Well, you do you. After saving the world you deserve some time to do whatever it is you're into. Even if that's underwater basket weaving in the middle of the night." She gave a warm smile.
"It's really good seeing you, Percy. I gotta get back to the Hunters. I think they're still getting settled in the cabin. I was going to come say hi when we were done, but when I found out you were down here doing archery, I knew I couldn't miss it." She started turning around towards the cabins when she stopped herself and looked back at me. Her demeaner had slightly changed, I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. "I really want to hear about your basket weaving sometime."
Concerned. That's what it was. It was so subtle I felt like I would have missed it if I hadn't known Thalia as well as I did. I stood there as I watched her walk towards Artemis's cabin. She was concerned about me. I thought back to all the other campers who had butted themselves into my problems the past couple weeks. They weren't really concerned. Sure, they had wanted to talk to me about it, maybe spend some time with me to get my mind off things. But the more I thought, the more I realized that pretty much everyone who had tried helping me wasn't motivated out of concern for me, but rather out of their own self-interest in getting some gossip and entertainment. Even Ava from the Aphrodite cabin had been pretty nosey about the specific details of my relationship with Annabeth.
I wished Thalia would have come sooner. To have someone who really knew me and genuinely cared. It would have been so nice being able to talk with her. The way she had looked at me made me feel warm despite the winter chill. That warmth I was now feeling was something I had been wanting to feel again for a long time.
Before she got too far away, she hesitated and turned back. Her eyes met mine with a depth that belied the casualness of her tone. Her smile was soft and inviting. "And, um . . . Percy? Maybe there's some things I can share with you too."
Thalia's words caught me off guard. I nodded without thinking and smiled because I didn't know how to respond. I felt like what she was saying was deeper than what she was letting on. What she was referring to was a mystery in my mind. But I knew I wanted to hear whatever she had to say. It seemed important, and whatever it was, it felt like it mattered, to both of us.
Author's Note: Hey guys! Just a quick heads up that I'm holding off on author's notes until I'm done uploading the revised chapters. Once that's all set, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled rambling. Thanks for sticking around, and hope you're enjoying the story!
-pjowriter27