𝑻𝑶𝑮𝑬𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑹 ⁽ᵖᵉʳᶜʸ ʲᵃᶜᵏˢᵒⁿ ˣ ᵒᶜ⁾

𝘽𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙄 𝙙𝙤, 𝘼𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙖. 𝙄 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪

PERCY

Percy was staring at the waves when Lana, Annabeth and Tyson found him.

"Percy, are you okay?" Lana immediately asked, grabbing hold of both his arms with a concerned expression on her face.

"We heard you calling for help!"Annabeth rushed out.

"Me, too!" Tyson said. "Heard you yell, 'Bad things are attacking!'"

"I didn't call you guys," Percy said. "I'm fine."

Lana didn't appear to believe him, her eyes doing a once over him before they fell onto the four yellow duffel bags at his feet. "Where did you get all of these things?"

"But then who..." Annabeth drifted off.

The black haired demi-god shook her head. "What's going on?"

"Just listen," Percy said. "We don't have much time."

He told them about his conversation with Hermes, purposefully leaving out all mentions of Lana and Luke. He figured that that was the last thing Lana wanted to hear right now. By the time he was finished, he could hear screeching in the distance—patrol harpies picking up our scent.

"You spoke to my dad? Did he say anything about me?" Lana said in disbelief. Annabeth rubbed her arm soothingly, looking at Percy with a stern look.

"Percy can answer all of your questions later, Lon." Annabeth's gray eyes looked at each other. "We have to do the quest.

"We'll get expelled, you know. Trust me, I'm an expert at getting expelled." Percy scoffed. He turned towards Lana, his hand reaching out to touch her smooth skin. "Is that what you want?"

She allowed his hand to grasp hers. "This is my way to win back camp's trust. By saving it. It's not like anyone wants me here anyways."

"Besides, if we fail, there won't be any camp to come back to."

"Yeah, but you promised Chiron—"

"I promised I'd keep both of you far away from danger. I can only do that by going with you and Lana! Tyson can stay behind and tell them—"

"I want to go," Tyson said.

"No!" Annabeth's voice sounded close to panic. "I mean...Percy, come on. You know that's impossible."

Annabeth's eyes flickered to Lana's, pleading her to agree with her. Percy wondered again why she had such a grudge against Cyclopes. It made him remember how Lana first felt when she met Tyson and she wasn't the most welcoming person. That's surprising coming from the sweetest and most loving girl he knows. There was something neither of them were telling him and it made him suspicious, but it also made him upset. Lana and him don't keep secrets from each other anymore. Or at least he was beginning to think so.