016

360 18 4
                                    

Summer sucked.

Nothing was going right this summer. First there was Tantalus who made it his life's purpose to torment children. And then on top of that there was Tyson. Esmeralda didn't mind Tyson, she just didn't like the memories he brought back for her. To really top it all off, she was starting to see less and less of her brother because Charlie was one of the only campers who didn't mind Tyson. Therefore Tyson was always in the forge working on something of his own or helping the older  Beckendorf sibling. Percy had asked her to compete in the chariot race with him and Annabeth to get her mind off things. At first she declined because she hated to idea of participating in one of Tatnalus' events. However she gave in after a while because she was bored and had no one to practice with or talk too.

The sun was high in the sky and the trio had set up by the lake to work out ideas for their chariot. Esmeralda laid on her stomach with her arms propped under her chin. Annabeth sat next to her trying to sketch different parts of the chariot, Percy sat in front of her paying no mind to either of them and watching the water ripple gently as the nymphs playfully swam around.

Annabeth started to point at her diagram, "... so this would be the shaft that connects to the wheel hub which-"

"English Annie, English." Esmeralda rubbed her eyes.

Annabeth huffed, "see this long thingy?" She circled it with her pencil as Em nodded and laughed a lightly, "it connects to this long thingy."

"Much better." Em glanced over at Percy, he was already looking at her and quickly turned back to the water when she noticed.

In reality Percy had been watching her for a minute now, still shocked by how much she'd changed since he last saw her. She twisted the ends of her hair around her fingers as she spoke. "Something wrong?"

Percy shook his head in denial. "This is getting boring."

"Well maybe that's because you're not helping." Em said.

"Neither are you,"

"Yeah but at least I'm pretending to be interested."

"Hey," Annabeth shoved her shoulder.

A small group of campers walked past them, whispering among themselves. Em payed no mind until one of them spoke up. "What a nice day, but I think I need some sunglasses for my eyes..." she looked at Percy as the other two girls giggled behind her. "Oh sorry, eye."

Percy turned red, both from embarrassment and anger. The girls looked to be about sixteen, most definitely from the Aphrodite cabin.

"Oh fuck off." Em said, "don't you have something better to do then pick on people smaller than you."

Their smiles fell, "who are you to be talking," the middle girl sneered. "It's funny that you even show your face around here, death breath."

Em rolled her eyes, she was used to the snarky remarks already. "I'd watch your mouth if I were you. Also you have no reason to be making fun of other peoples siblings when those are yours." She pointed the a group of girl sitting by the volleyball court watching the older campers play. They'ed swoon every time a guy came within five feet of them.

The girl looked at Esmeralda, mouth open as if she was going to say something. She clearly couldn't find a comeback to respond with so she huffed and flipped Em off before turning around with her sisters trailing behind her.

Em sat back down as if the whole conversation hadn't happened.

Percy stared at her in disbelief. "Why'd you do that? I thought you hated Tyson."

★ 𝟐 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒅 ★ p. jackson Where stories live. Discover now