We Olympians (A Percy Jackson AU) || BOOK 1

Chapter 29 || Thalia

"I have a crush on Percy."

"What?!" both Thalia and Annabeth exclaimed, their eyes wide with shock.

Nico's face turned redder as he looked away, tears brimming in his eyes. "There. Now you know. Now you probably think I'm some gay freak who--"

"No, Nico... No," Annabeth said, trying to get close to him, but Nico swatted her away.

That's when Thalia sighed, realizing she had to go 'comforting big sis' mode. She sat down next to him.

"Nico, why do you think we'd think that?" Thalia asked softly.

Nico sniffled, his eyes puffy from crying.

"Because... Because I like Percy. Because I'm gay."

"There's nothing wrong with being gay!" Thalia exclaimed. "It's a natural thing and it doesn't matter if you're gay, bi, or straight! We're all human and we shouldn't be ashamed for being something others aren't."

"But..." Nico looked at Annabeth. "Aren't you mad at me? Disgusted?"

"No!" Annabeth shook her head. "I'd never be disgusted with you and I'm not mad! I get it. If I were you, I'd feel the way you feel. But it's okay, Nico. Everything's fine. You've done nothing wrong!"

"I had a crush on Percy," Thalia finally said, even though she swore she'd never admit it. Well, she lied.

Both pairs of eyes whipped onto her and she winced at the attention.

"What?"

"I had a crush on Percy," Thalia spat. "Had."

"So what I'm hearing..." Annabeth stood up. "Is that we've all literally had some sort of crush on Percy."

"Yep," Nico and Thalia agreed, their heads down.

"What the actual f**k?" Annabeth finally asked.

"Thalia, Nico, Annabeth!" Sally poured the spaghetti down on the plates. "Dinner's ready!"

They all raced to the table, sucking in the noodles. Paul had joined them, talking with Sally. Thalia could feel the discomfort on her face. It wasn't like they had no right. Sally was like a mom to them, and seeing your "mom" with another man is strange. Plus, it was a teacher from their school. But it wasn't like they could do anything about it. Paul was her husband.

But a thought that kept lingering in Thalia's mind was, Why didn't Paul tell Sally that Percy was back?

Did Percy tell him not to? Did Percy even know Sally was married to Paul Blofis? Where was Percy? But a lot of the thoughts were of Annabeth and Percy kissing. It just felt like fate to Thalia. As if it was supposed to happen regardless of what happened in the real world. After dinner, Annabeth, Nico, and Thalia all raced up to their room.

"Hey, can I use your laptop?" Annabeth asked.

"Uh... sure?" Thalia frowned, looking at her best friend weirdly.

Annabeth was typing some random shit onto the keyboard and Thalia peered over her shoulder curiously.

Search: Percy Jackson

"Why are you searching up Percy?" Thalia asked.

"Because if Percy disappeared, there's gotta be something online! I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner!" Annabeth said, pressing the search button.

PERCY JACKSON DECLARED MISSING ON MARCH 26, 2005

Percy Jackson, a twelve-year-old boy in Manhattan, New York, has mysteriously disappeared. There was no trace of what happened. The only assumption officials can make is that he was kidnapped. Folks, look around for a boy with messy black hair and sea-green eyes. Several people have spotted this boy walking around a local elementary school in the past and claim they have nothing to do with the disappearance.

Suspected witnesses are claiming they saw a man with a bunch of tattoos and his "gang" holding a boy up by the collar. The one thing they all said that they saw was the boy had sea-green eyes. All said they hadn't seen it very clearly and assumed it was just their imagination, as a boy named Peter Johnson was killed a week before Percy Jackson disappeared. Assuming it was just the hallucinations of the aftermath, they left him alone. Some even claimed in their "hallucination", they saw a knife being drawn.

"So... that's the only thing you could find?"

"Well, we know something," Annabeth said. "Percy was attacked by a gang on the day he disappeared."

___

As Thalia walked into school that day, she couldn't get the thought of Percy being attacked by a gang out of her mind. She wasn't sure if this was just her mind trying to fit everything together, or if it was the truth, but she suspected the attack to be fake. Because if Percy was actually killed on that day, he wouldn't be standing there in high school. And if Percy was kidnapped, there wasn't any way that Percy could be standing there with them.

She was so focused in on her conversation that she bumped into a boy walking by. He had a scar with blue eyes and blonde hair. The moment their eyes connected, she could sense that he had a new understanding of something and he just gave her a look before walking away. She frowned, obviously confused. He was looking at Annabeth and Nico the same way. But what surprised Thalia the most was that he walked straight out of the school.

It was morning! Not the end of the day! What was wrong with this dude?! Thalia shrugged, opening her locker. She felt her eyes widen at the note.

Meet me at midnight if you wanna have a chance at being friends again. Follow the directions on this slip of paper and I'll hopefully see you there. ~ Percy

"Annabeth! Nico!" she called them over and they peered down at the note.

"So... we're gonna sneak out at midnight to go see Percy?" Nico stared at both of them.

"I mean... do we wanna be friends with him or not?" Thalia asked.

"I don't see why not." Nico shrugged.

"I guess we'll go... but I'm not sure why the seaweed brain wants us there at midnight... Something's weird."

"Well... we'll take any chance we've got," Thalia said.

And for some reason as they were walking to class, Thalia thought she could see the boy with blue eyes and a scar staring at them from behind the stairwell.

Boy, was it creepy.