𝓕𝓲𝓷𝓮 𝓛𝓲𝓷𝓮 // Clarisse La Rue

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓣𝔀𝓮𝓷𝓽𝔂 𝓣𝔀𝓸

Clarisse had left on the first of December. To visit her mom, she said. Florence tried to be happy for her, it was wonderful Clarisse was going to visit family, she was one of the only year rounders who had a family to go back to. But Florence couldn't help but feel an ache in her chest when they didn't spar together the next morning, or the day after that. There wasn't a word for what she felt in most languages she knew, the only word she could find to encapsulate her feelings was in Carrie's language: saudade.

She was familiar with saudade, she felt it in regards to a multitude of people. She felt saudade towards the people who she'd never see again: her father, Mabel, maybe a tiny little bit towards her aunt. Towards the other demigods out in the mortal world, living a life she couldn't, Annabeth, Carrie, Heather, Drew and her other siblings and now Clarisse was out there too.

Camp felt empty without her friends. Sure she loved Silena, but without everyone else gone the absence of Mabel seemed to hang over them every time they laughed, smiled, cried or screamed. So when the opportunity came to get out in the mortal world even if only for a few hours she jumped on it. It was a simple mission. Nothing could go wrong, right?

So the Friday before winter break Florence got on a train to manhattan. She was picked up on the train station by Percy's mother, a woman named Sally Jackson. Sally Jackson took Florence into a hug and Florence instantly melted into it. She barely knew this woman and yet she already felt safe. It was strange, but welcome.

Sally Jackson was the kind of person no one could dislike, she had something maternal about her Florence had never witnessed before. For the early years of her life she'd grown up with only her father, and later on there was her aunt but there wasn't that much kindness in her, much less a maternal instinct.

She got into the backseat of Sally's car with Annabeth and Thalia beside her. They were attending the same boarding school in Brooklyn and Thalia and kept an eye on Annabeth for Florence. Annabeth and Thalia had both asked Florence to join them at school multiple times.

But Florence couldn't do that. You see, war was coming and she'd have to be ready when it did. Maybe when this was all over she could go to a regular school, get her diploma, go to college. But that was only if she survived and she had to train her hardest to make sure she did. Now she had to be a soldier, maybe she'd have time to be a teenager later.

It was an eight-hour drive from New York to Bar Harbor, Maine. Sleet and snow pounded the highway. Annabeth, Thalia, Percy and Florence hadn't seen each other in months, but between the blizzard and the thought of what they were about to do, they were too nervous to talk much. Except for Sally, she talks more when she's nervous, Florence guessed.

By the time they got to Westover Hall, it was getting dark, and she'd told Annabeth, Florence and Thalia every embarrassing baby story there was to tell about Percy. Florence made a mental note to memorize them just in case she ever needed to blackmail Percy.

Thalia wiped the fog off the car window and peered outside. "Oh, yeah. This'll be fun."

Westover Hall looked like an evil knight's castle. It was all black stone, with towers and slit windows and a big set of wooden double doors. It stood on a snowy cliff overlooking this big frosty forest on one side and the gray churning ocean on the other.

"Are you sure you don't want me to wait?" Sally asked.

"No, thanks, Mom," Percy said. "I don't know how long it will take. We'll be okay."

"But how will you get back? I'm worried, Percy." She said and Florence felt a pang of jealousy in her chest. Ms Jackson was a good mother, what a rare thing it was.

"It's okay, Ms Jackson." Annabeth smiled reassuringly. Her blonde hair was tucked into a ski cap and her gray eyes were the same color as the ocean. "We'll keep him out of trouble."