𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒌 𝑪𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 / 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚 𝑱𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔𝒐𝒏 x Oc

I

He pointed at the Zentau who was busy sorting his cards in his hand. Melanie glanced at Annabeth before drawing a new card and discarding an old one. The paper on the old cards that had been played many times, were already somewhat yellowed and needed to be replaced, but there was still a certain smell in the air that reminded the girl of old books from libraries. She loved the smell. While the new boy, to whom she still hadn't looked up, looked at those present appraisingly, Melanie ran her index finger over the rough sides of her card before laying it out again. She spreads her cards in a perfect fan on the table. Mister D. cursed quietly when he saw what Melanie had laid out. A few more cards and she would have reached 1000 points again and won. Yet again. Melanie pulled again, her expression remaining unchanged throughout the whole thing. It was quiet again for a few moments until an unknown voice shouted:

"Mr. Brunner!"

 Melanie raised an eyebrow and looked at Chiron, but he gave her a reassuring smile and waved a hand. The Latin teacher in disguise turned and smiled at the new boy. His eyes had that mischievous glint the campers sometimes got when they trained with him. Of course, if Melanie moved out of her comfortable bed, that was a given.

"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle." Chiron sat the new boy, who Melanie now knew as Percy, in a chair next to him so that he was sitting on the short side of the gaming table. Percy placed the Minotaur horn on the table next to him. Mr. D looked at him with bloodshot eyes and Melanie looked up from her cards for the first time. Her eyes searched for something interesting. Her look pointed at something or better, someone.

In her field of vision sat a boy her age. He had black, uneven hair. But what Melanie found interesting were his eyes.

Melanie could see the water in them. The ocean as it is and lives. Magical and frightening at the same time. The sea-green eyes were wild like the ocean in a wild storm, yet they radiated a calming nature, like the gentle waves on the beach.

Percy, feeling eyes on him, averted his puzzled gaze from Chiron, whom he knew as Mister Brunner, and directed it to the girl a little further next to him. The ash-blond curls, half-pinned with an antique-looking hairpin made of gold-plated grape vines, were the first thing he noticed when Percy entered the room. She was his age, wearing the same bright orange shirt as every other camper he had seen, with the words Camp-Half-Blood on it. Around her neck she wore a leather necklace with 7 differently painted balls on it. A belt fastened her slightly looser jeans and she wore black and white sneakers. 

But he had never been able to see her eyes before, as the girl always carefully focused her gaze on the game in front of her and seemed to completely ignore its existence. But her eyes, god her eyes, he felt like he was falling into a deep abyss of violet. Golden lights danced around in the abyss as golden points of light seemed to dance in the eyes. Percy could stare into those eyes forever, looking at the girl next to him. It was as if he was enchanted. A part of him wanted to stay close to her, like a lost part of him that he had found with her. But then there was also a sensible side of him that said: "You've just seen her. You don't even know her name. So why should she be a lost half of you?"

Before Percy could think about it any further, Melanie lost interest and went back to her cards. With a graceful movement and the rustling of leaves, she laid out again and reached a full 1000 points. The room was silent. Everyone looked first at her, then at the table where the old, played cards lay and back at her. Mr. D let out a dissatisfied sigh and sorted his cards again while Chiron patted the girl, who to him was his own niece, on the head. Melani looked up with a small but still recognizable smile. Her eyes wandered to her best friend, who was also blonde, and who smiled proudly at her. "So," Percy started again after a few moments, drawing attention to himself. Every pair of eyes, excluding those of Melanie and Mr. D, flew to him. Melanie, who pushed back her chair and offered her seat to Grover, looked at the still thoughtful Mr. D. Chiron followed her gaze.