Bookmark (New and Improved)

Percy XXX

Leo slumped forward, fingers drumming on the table, chewing his lip. He swung his legs, hardly able to sit still as Jake and Nyssa studied the diagram he drew of the Argo II, along with the notes he scrawled on the side. They were going back and forth on what adjustments should be made and while Leo knew he should be providing his own suggestions, he found himself becoming too fidgety and unfocused.

I should be searching for clues on the ingredients by now... he thought, feeling a nauseating combination of guilt and uneasiness.

His emotions couldn't be helped, despite his best efforts he still found himself feeling anxious about the others finding out his plan. It wasn't so much as them stopping him that made him unnerved, but how they would react once it was done. If he had felt the way he did when he found out Annabeth and Percy were hiding things, he couldn't imagine how terrible they'd feel when they will find out he died and that he planned on doing this from the start. And planned it right under their noses too.

Gods. They're going to kill me. Leo slowly realized with a sinking feeling. No minutes on a video scroll was ever going to fix the damage he will do. They're going to kill me, bring me back to life, and kill me again.

But it was worth it. It was worth it, Leo told himself firmly. He'd rather them be angry then any of them dead.

He felt his stomach twist itself into knots. He was going to do this, no turning back. Drumming his fingers faster, Leo missed Nyssa's question and the way she narrowed her eyes in annoyance.

His own eyes glanced around the room before landing at Cabin Ten's bench.

Aphrodite looked so out of place, sitting in an elegant pink dress with a chain seashell belt (if there's one thing they shared, Leo guessed Piper and Aphrodite had the same sense of humor), surrounded by a bunch of orange-shirted kids. He was honestly surprised she hadn't given them her usual extreme makeover, instead she held her forehead, eyes were darting from teen to teen, struggling to keep up with what everyone was saying.

"And then she said-"

"She headbutt her in the stomach like a bull! Bobby pins and extensions went everywhere! And-"

"My neighbor had a whole colony of squirrels living in his attic, he tried to remove them himself but-"

"Mom! Mom! Listen to this! So there's this boy in my class-"

"-But she said-"

"So I told them 'His beard his obviously penciled in'. I mean he's always been-"

"Mom!"

"Mother!"

"MOM!"

The Cabin Ten children were all yelling over each other, trying to get their mother's attention. A few were eagerly waving their hands.

Finally, the goddess lifted her hands up.

"Children, children! One at a time, Mother can't hear you all when you're talking at once."

Obediently, the teens went quiet, save for a couple of grumbles and someone complaining 'I was getting to the best part'.

Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, the goddess squinted at one of her daughters. "Now Lily, what was that about the man with the squirrels?"

Said girl's face lit up. She flashed her siblings a smug smirk before recounting her story in more detail. The others listened, fidgeting as they impatiently waited for her to finish. After a while, a couple gave up and began to add their own commentary, others soon joining them. It wasn't long before they all started talking at once, going back to square one.