𝙩𝙪 𝙢𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨 - p. jackson [₂]

𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒙𝒍𝒊𝒗.

―✧―

𝐈 𝐆𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐓 𝐁𝐔𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐀𝐒 𝐈 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐌𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓.

leo had apparently decided — without any of our consent — that his three legged mahogany table would be a good replacement for our adult chaperone.

he had laminated buford's tabletop with a magic scroll that projected a pint-sized holographic simulation of coach hedge. mini-hedge would stomp around on buford's top, randomly saying things like 'cut that out!' 'i'm gonna kill you!' and the ever-popular 'put some clothes on!'

it was funny at first, but not when he stomps outside my room way too early in the morning and yelling, "drop and give me twenty, cupcakes!"

buford the three-legged table scuttered away to man the helm at my glare.

i slumped in my chair, making a face at percy's blue pancakes.

"i know," annabeth muttered, "the blue look is killing my appetite too."

"hey!" percy complained.

"it's not the blue pancakes," i shook my head. "it's the blue pancakes. i don't understand how you eat them."

percy shrugged to himself, pouring maple syrup on them.

"you're drowning them!" i complained.

"hey, i'm a poseidon kid," he said. "i can't drown. and neither can my pancakes."

annabeth sighed heavily, taking another bite of her cereal as she stared at some wall like she was in the office.

to our left, frank and hazel used their cereal bowls to flatten out a map of greece. they looked over it, their heads close together. every once in a while frank's hand would cover hazel's, just sweet and natural like they were an old married couple, and hazel didn't even look flustered, which was real progress for a girl from the 1940s. until recently, if somebody said gosh darn, she would nearly faint.

at the head of the table, jason sat uncomfortably with his t-shirt rolled up to his ribcage as our best medic, piper, changed his bandages.

"hold still, you big baby," she muttered. "i know it hurts."

"it's just cold," he muttered, but i could he was in pain.

piper, jason, and annabeth had gone to ithaca to... i'm not sure what, exactly. i was sleeping. but they'd met juno, who was a big help (note the sarcarm), and jason had ended up getting stabbed.

the gladius blade had pierced him all the way through. the entrance wound on his back was an ugly shade of purple and it steamed. that was not a good sign.