Somewhere Only We know - Ch. 1
This is an idea I've wanted to do for a while now but I haven't had much time, what with exams coming up and life generally getting in the way (cliche Ik). Anyways, I've come to the realisation that with my other story: The Remnant, writing from the perspective of two linked characters is extremely difficult for a first time writer with not much time on their hands so I have decided to write this as a way to practice writing and pump out chapters whilst still being able to focus on my education. It will be a PJO story containing perzoe (my favorite ship), a bit of perlia action, and a different take on how the story could have gone whilst maintaining the world that Rick Riordan has built. All characters, world, and major plot elements belong to Rick Riordan, the original author of PJO.
I woke up with a start, my skull bashing against the car roof as my mum drove over a particularly large pothole. The roads weren't particularly good in Maine it appeared. I groaned, groggily rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, stretched my back, and took a good look around before my eyes came to rest on the black-haired, blue-eyed, punk daughter of Zeus in the seat next to me. Our eyes met, and we both quickly looked away, blushing furiously.
I hadn't seen Annabeth or Thalia since last summer and, though mine and Annabeth's reunion had gone smoothly enough, what with all we had been through the past two years, the way me and Thalia had separated at the end of the holidays hadn't done our relationship much good. We bonded when I found her under the pine tree on my morning run and helped get her acclimatised to camp, however as soon as she had settled in, her gratefulness warred with her rebelliousness and natural aversion to showing weakness; resulting in Thalia defaulting to being - well - Thalia. In short, she had ghosted me for a week, walking the opposite direction every time she saw me coming, and had made every attempt to avoid any and all contact with me for as long as she could possibly get away with it.
And now here we were. Me, Annabeth, and Thalia, crammed into my mum's blue Prius as we had been for the past eight hours, being driven by my mum to a new boarding school in Bar Harbour, Maine. I had checked out almost immediately, the gentle lull of the car's engine and a burning desire not to hear any more of my mum's embarrassing stories about me had put me to sleep almost as soon as we had set out from New York. Evidently, we were nearing our destination as Thalia had decided to zap me awake with a miniature bolt of lightning. Or maybe she had just decided it would be funny to see my reaction. You could never tell with Thalia.
I peered out the windscreen at the gloomy landscape outside, and I was just about able to make out the black stone turrets of Westover Hall in the distance. Turns out Thalia had been being nice after all. Now, I know what you're thinking, and I couldn't believe it either: Thalia Grace? Nice? Impossible. But as hard to believe as it was, it also appeared to be the case. Although she had decided to zap me as opposed to - oh, I don't know - tapping me on the shoulder like a normal human being. So I guess that must count for something.
My mum and Annabeth - who were occupying the front seats - were busy laughing at the mortifying (for me) tale of how I had once had an accident on the Teacher's lap in elementary school, much to my chagrin, by the time we pulled into the icy car park outside the two great, wooden door that marked the entrance to the school. We pulled to a halt and my mum twisted around in her seat in order to address me. "Are you sure you don't want me to wait?" She asked, the lines on her forehead creasing as she furrowed her brow, looking at me with worry.
"No thanks mom," I said. "We could be a while and it would look suspicious for you to be sitting out here for too long. We'll be okay."
"if you're sure." she said, looking at me doubtfully.
"Don't worry Ms Jackson," Thalia piped up from beside me. "I'm sure that, between us, me and Annie can keep Kelp Head here out of trouble."
My mum didn't seem too reassured by the daughter of Zeus' words, but with Annabeth's agreement and my pleading eyes, she finally relented.
The three of us stood gazing up at the facade of Westover Hall, as my mum drove off into the dawn behind us. The wind nipped at our legs and sliced through our jackets. To me, the whole place looked frighteningly similar to the grainy video of Count Dracula's castle that my English teacher showed me a year or two ago. It was made of all black stone, with towers, slit windows and the aforementioned great doors that stood before us. The whole place was perched on the edge of a snow-blanketed cliff, with a beautiful pine forest on one side, and the vast, churning seas of my father's domain on the other.
Once my mom's car was out of sight, Thalia turned to me and whispered: "Your mom is so cool Percy!"
"She is pretty cool," I agreed. "What about your mom? Did you manage to reach out to her?" I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth. I watched as Thalia's face turned thunderous, and she glared at me with an intensity which would've sent even a god, quaking with fear.
"None of your fucking business, Percy." She spat, continuing to glare at me. "In fact -"
"We should probably get inside," Annabeth interrupted. "Before it gets too cold."
With a huff, Thalia spun around and marched towards the door. I thanked Annabeth silently with my eyes, grateful for her probably saving my life once again, this time from becoming fried Percy at the hands of Thalia. She grimaced at me, before hurrying after her friend, with me warily following behind.
As Thalia approached the doors to the building, they swung open with a comically loud creeekkkk. We stepped into the enormous entry hall, snow billowing and swirling in around us as we paused to take in the surroundings. We now stood in a room that looked like it was taken straight from a 1990s game cover artwork, with a large fire crackling merrily along one of the walls of an otherwise thoroughly menacing room.
"Wow," Thalia breathed, staring in wonder at all the weaponry and banners that adorned the walls. War memorabilia lined multiple display cases, all stood against the sides of the entryway. And many guns, swords, pikes, spears, and shields of all ages hung like gruesome halloween decorations. I mean, I know Westover was meant to be a military academy, but the principle must've been a fanatic in order to have collected so much stuff.
Without any warning, the doors slammed shut behind us, sealing us into the halls of Westover.
"O-kay then," I said. "I guess we're staying for a while, might as well check out the place." I let out a nervous chuckle, my habit of cracking jokes under stress betraying my true feelings to the other two. Cautiously, we moved down the hallway, thoroughly examining every corner and shadow - as if a monster might leap out at any second.
"I don't like this," Annabeth said, nervously glancing around. "What could've made Grover send the distress call?"
"Nothing good." Thalia replied, looking disinterestedly around up ahead. "Anything less than a monster and goat-boy would've been able to handle- arrrrgggghhhh!"
Me and Annabeth span to face our stricken friend, as I moved, I reached into my pocket and grabbed Riptide. In my haste, I accidentally flicked off the cap whilst the pen was still in my pocket, causing it to nearly instantly expand into the celestial bronze xiphos I knew so well, nearly taking off my own leg in the process and tearing the right leg of my pants to ribbons. Nevertheless, I assumed my battle stance and surveyed the scene before me. Thalia was on the ground, sitting on her backside staring up at a suit of armour which was standing over her, atop its pedestal. I quickly put two and two together (I found that even I could work out that much) and quickly doubled over laughing.
"You had a-" I gasped for breath. "You had a run in with a suit of armour Thals?" I was nearly on the floor by this point, and I looked up just in time to catch Thalia's face heat, and a scowl work its way onto her face. She hurriedly scrambled to her feet and took a threatening step towards me, completely ignoring Annabeth who was in a similar state - a bit unfair if you ask me.
"You ever breathe a word of this to anyone, and I swear to the gods Kelp Head, I will run you through with my spear." she hissed, motioning dangerously with her canister of mace which she must've pulled from her jacket pocket.
Before I could retort with a well-thought-out, clever reply; a sharp voice cut across our conversation, making us freeze with shock and fear. "Just what do you think is going on here?" it rang out, echoing round the vaulted roof. We turned to face the speaker and were surprised to find a man and a woman walking stiffly towards us, stopping just close enough to make me start to feel uneasy. They both had grey, close cropped hair, and wore matching, military-style uniforms with red thread. The woman, who appeared to be the spokesperson for the duo, was glaring at my sword, still clutched in my right hand. "Young man, I'll have you know we do not allow ball games of any kind here at Westover Academy. I must ask you to put your baseball bat away and if I should see it again I will have no choice but to confiscate it and destroy it." At her words, the man beside her seemed momentarily startled, before his eyes narrowed dangerously at my weppon. It appeared he wasn't fooled by the mist as the woman had been.
While I was stuck pondering this new development, and Annabeth was still regaining her composure, Thalia stepped towards the woman and snapped her fingers, causing a glazed expression to pass over her face. "Don't you remember ma'am, we're exchange students who just arrived here on the bus. Our principal emailed you about it last week. We're Thalia, Annabeth, and Percy, in eighth grade." she said, gesturing at each person in turn.
The man looked at us with scepticism written all over his face and I stared at Thalia in disbelief. Now we'd probably get punished for lying and for trying to sneak in. However, to my amazement a look of hesitation appeared in the man's two-tone eyes. and he looked, puzzled, at his collegue.
"Ms Gottschalk, do you know these students?" he asked.
I snickered. Despite the danger, I found it hilarious that there was a teacher named Ms Got Chalk.
"I - I," the woman, now Ms Gottschalk, stuttered, comprehension seeming to find its way into her eyes. "Yes, Thalia, Annabeth, Percy: how was your trip?"
Before any of us could answer, the sound of footsteps came rushing up the hall. Craning my neck over the teacher's shoulder, I was surprised and relieved to see the familiar face of my best friend Grover.
"You made it!" he bleated upon reaching our position, causing me to cringe, thinking he'd just given away what he really was. However Ms Gottschalk just beamed at him.
"Ah Grover, just the man for the job" she said. This seemed to cause Grover to swell slightly, almost preening at the praise. "Can you show our new exchange students the dorms and then to the gymnasium? We still have lots of time for this party."
Her words caused Grover's face to fall slightly, and he looked confusedly over at us. Quickly realising that she required an answer, he stammered out a reply and half-guided, half-dragged the three of us down a corridor, leaving Ms Gottschalk and the - still unnamed - male teacher to head in the opposite direction.
As we hurried along, I caught up to Thalia and grabbed her attention by flicking her in the ear. She responded by throwing a bolt of lightning at me, which thankfully missed, and then looking at me attentively.
"How did you do that?" I hissed, gesturing behind me as I did so. "With the teacher," I added, prompted by the confusion evident on her face. "How did you manage to convince her we were exchange students?"
"Oh, that," she said, smirking at the jealous tone in my voice. "I just manipulated the mist. Hasn't Chiron shown you how to do that yet?"
An uncomfortable lump formed in my throat. Chiron was head trainer at camp, but he'd never shown anything like that to me. Why then, had he shown Thalia? I was shocked out of my reverie by Annabeth, who asked Grover:
"So goat-boy, what's with the distress call? What's the emergency?"
I was shocked by his reply.