❛𝟎𝟎𝟗❜
They were pretty miserable that night.
They camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers. They'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but they didn't dare light a fire to dry their damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. They didn't want to attract anything else.
"Give it here," Juliet asked Grover and Percy for their jackets, the boys handed them over with confusion that soon cleared up when Juliet's palm glowed a golden hue. "I can't do much, I have limited photokynesis. enough to dry up some clothes so that we don't catch a cold."
Percy wanted to talk to her, but Juliet just ignored him as she gave him his dry jacket and turned to Annabeth, helping the girl warm up. They decided to sleep in shifts. Percy volunteered to take first watch. Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.
Juliet sat leaning by a trunk, her headphones pulgged in as she was playing around with her phone in her hand. Percy decided to approach her, he needed to make amends, and Grover was digging his reed pipes in his side to push him to the girl.
"Hey," Percy said, joining her by the side, her raybans were off showing her blue eyes as the met his. "Hey," She replied back.
"I just, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for all the stuff that happened, and I know you were trying to help me but I just-" He tried to explain to but Juliet cut him off a slight smile on her lips.
"Stop ranting, All you had to say was sorry." Percy zipped his mouth but gave her a thankful smile, one which she returned before sighing and staring up at the sky.
"Why do you wear the sunglasses?" Percy blurted out the question before he could stop himself.
"It's fashion statement, you wouldn't know," She smiled back sarcastically making him deadpan before she actually replied, "Dad gave them to me, after my last quest, After the siren attack I'd bled too much through my ears and eyes nearly loosing both my senses, My father fixed me up but he fixed me up too good, now I get sensory overload too quickly so too protect myself." she gestured to the earphones too as Percy nodded.
"Apollo seems really close to you, I thought gods don't mingle a lot with their kids?"
"Dad's different, he likes his demigods visits us a lot. He's willing to take responsibility of us, and he's just been for me when I needed a parent so I'm attached to him."
"What about your mom?" He didn't want to pry but he wanted to know more about her, where she came from, what she did, he wanted to know if her life was as messed up as his.
"She's a medical social worker for the UNICEF, she's always off the globe, so I don't see her much." A moment of hesitance before Juliet continued "She's not like other mortal parents, it's the fact that we carry the lineage of an amazing greek warrior, she just expects much more from me."
In other words, Cordelia Alexander was disappointed in Juliet, she had been since forever. Everything Juliet did was never enough, never enough to live up to the name of Alexander. Cordelia had hooked up with Apollo not for love but rather to conceive a child for greatness. She had wanted a son but had been disappointed with a daughter.
She'd cursed Apollo, accused him of duping her, of not delivering wha was asked for. Shunned her daughter for never being the son she had imagined, left her in New York and hadn't seen her face since her wedding with Adam Summers. It didn't matter though, she had Apollo, he'd taken over her after mom left and Adam had moved her to New York taking care of her better than Cordelia ever did.
"And your step dad?" Percy questioned, he remembered Juliet telling him about him when they drove by her house in queens.
"He's a military Pilot, Dad doesn't like Adam, call's him an airhead," She rolled her eyes fondly with an amused smile, "But Adam is cool, he takes me out with him travelling and he cooks really good pizzas, I like spending time with him. What about you? You told me you had a stepdad too, don't know why you call him smelly though,"
Percy scrunched up his nose, Juliet wanted to coo a little at how cute he looked but held herself back as he continued in a snappy tone, "Gabe isn't like your stepdad, he's a total loser, an alcoholic, gambler and an abuser who did nothing but mooch off my mom."
Juliet let him calm down from his anger in silence before spoke up lightly, "Sally sounds really nice, she feels like really one of the best mom's ever." She really did, Juliet had never heard about a person as warm and loving as Sally Jackson.
"Yeah, I miss her," Percy told her, his gaze fixed on his hands, sadly.
"When this quest is over, you'll have her back with you." Juliet spoke in a promising way, she didn't make many promises but she could feel it, feel that Percy would have his mom back, and Percy believed her too. Juliet was close to never wrong, he'd learnt it the hard way.
"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" he asked her changing the subject. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me—"
"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."
"Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. Sure she can be a little overbearing, but I guess that's just the sheltered part of her. She's been so in tune with camp she forgot a life existed out of it." She sighed before continuing, "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."
"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took." Juliet snorted, pushing at his shoulder playfully.
"Don't duh me, dude," Juliet said. "The Fur—The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy, Grover told me about it ... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."
"They seemed plenty aggressive to me." He spoke in a tell a tale way and Juliet gave him, 'listen to me,' look. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"
"Asking about me," Percy said.
"Maybe ... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is it?' They seemed to be asking about an object."
"That doesn't make sense."
"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt...." She looked at him like she was hoping for answers, but Percy didn't have any. He thought about what Medusa had said: Percy was being used by the gods. What lay ahead of him was worse than petrification.
"I haven't been straight with you," He told Juliet. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back my mother."
Juliet sighed. "I know that, Percy. But are you sure that's the only reason?"
"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."
Juliet gazed at the sky. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth. I'm not as brave as you. And I'm not good at reading emotions like Grover. But, I'm pretty great at figuring the actions and how they'll work out in the future. You're glad your dad is alive You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done. It's not that weird to impress your godly parent, really, I do everything in my dad's name."
"Yeah? Well maybe your precognition and observation works differently. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks."
Juliet pulled her feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Percy. Whatever."
"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west."
Juliet looked at the night sky. "I've got money to at least last us 2 days of food, anyways How about I take first watch, huh? You get some sleep."
He wanted to protest, but by the side Grover started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and Percy turned away, his eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, He was asleep.