➳
Four months later
It was the last day of school before the Christmas holidays began and Lilia Monroe was late.
The clock struck nine, signalling the start of first period as she reached her locker.
Shit.
Shoving her things in her locker as fast as she could, Lilia slammed it shut, swinging round to run. But instead, she swung straight into something causing her to fall.
A pair of green eyes stared down at her through a mess of black hair.
"Are you okay?" The boy asked, concern swirling in his eyes. He held out his hand to help her up. She took it groaning with embarrassment.
"No. I'm really late for class." She sighed as he pulled her back up to her height. He looked down at her sheepishly. Now that she was back on her feet she took a moment to take in his appearance. Since the boy was taller than her, she had to look up at him. A mess of black hair fell around his face, almost covering his eyes. They were a sea green unlike any she'd seen before.
"Sorry." He coughed awkwardly.
"It's okay..?" Her voice trailed off as she realised she didn't recognise him.
"Percy. Percy Jackson." He replied, as if reading her mind. "And you are?" He smiled more at ease.
"Lilia Monroe." Despite the fact she was now even more late she couldn't help but grin back.
"How come I've never seen you around?" He smirked.
"I've only been here since September. Plus it's a big school." She shrugged back.
"Funnily enough, I started in September as well." The two laughed. It was a shame she hadn't met him earlier in the year, they would get along well.
Percy checked the time on his phone before looking back up. "We should probably get to class." He laughed slightly.
"Right yeah. See you around?" She smiled kindly.
"I'll take your word for it." He smirked before heading off to his class. Lilia went the other way, no longer caring to much about how late she was.
➳
As soon as she arrived at the boundary, she instinctively made her way towards the Apollo cabin, praying her best friend would be there.
She walked in, a couple campers were sat around, she didn't recognise any of them from when she had last been here. She pulled back the familiar curtains of the bed in the far corner of the cabin, but her heart sank slightly as she found it empty.
"Lil?" A soft voice came from behind her.
Celia Jones stared at her, various emotions crossing through her eyes before she leapt forward pulling the blonde girl into a tight hug.
"It really is you. I can't believe you're here. How are you here?!" Celia cried quietly into her hair.
"I missed you Cee." She giggled, slightly teary eyed, as she breathed in her familiar, sweet smell. She pulled away and took in all of her friend. Her warm brown hair that glowed red in the sun, her beautiful honey brown eyes. The red blush across her tanned cheeks. The only way to describe Celia Jones is as the sun itself. Along with all Apollos children, they radiate light and warmth.
"I missed you more. Don't ever leave again." Celia said with a pleading voice.
"I'm not planning on it." She replied.
Lilia was about to fill Celia in on everything when a loud splash sounding from the lake pulled the two girls out of their conversation.
The two friends ran out into the cold winter air, trying to see what was happening and as they reached a small crowd of campers they saw a yellow bus floating amongst some broken canoes.
But what really caught Lilia's eyes, was who had just emerged from the crashed bus.
She froze, her eyes widened and locked onto the familiar figure.
"Thalia." She breathed out quietly.
"Oh you have missed so much." Celia replied with a whisper.
➳
Percy's pov
Percy had never seen camp Half-blood in winter before, the snow surprised him.
"I'll introduce you to Chiron, Zoë have you met-" Grover began to say.
"I know Chiron." Zoë replied. "Tell him we'll be in cabin eight. Hunters, follow me."
The hunters walked away, and Apollo said goodbye to the campers before leaving as well.
"Who's Chiron. I don't have his figurine." Nico asked.
"Our actives director. You'll see." Percy replied.
"If those hunter girls don't like him, that's enough for me. Let's go." He grumbled.
The second thing that surprised him was how empty camp was. He spotted Charles Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin stocking the forge outside the camp armoury. The Stoll brothers Travis and Conner, from the Hermes cabin, picking the lock on the camp store. A few kids from Ares cabin were having a snowball fight and that was about it. Not even Clarisse seemed to be around.
The Big House was decorated with strings of red and yellow fireballs that warmed the porch but didn't seem to catch anything on fire. Inside, flames crackled in the hearth. The air smelled like hot chocolate. Mr. D, the camp director, and Chiron were playing a quiet game of cards in the parlor.
Chiron smiled when he spotted the three of them in the doorway.
"Percy! Thalia! And this must be-"
"Nico Di Angelo. He and his sister are half-bloods." Percy said.
"You succeeded then." Chiron let out a sigh of relief.
"Well..."
His smile fell. "What's wrong? Where's Annabeth?"
"Oh no not another one lost." Mr D said bored like.
"What do you mean another one lost? Where's Annabeth." A new voice from behind the three of them came.
"Oh great Lisa Moore has made a return to camp." Mr D rolled his eyes. The campers turned to see two girls with matching looks of dread across their faces as they waited for someone to reply. A few stared at her, eyes wide.
"It's Lilia Monroe. You know that Mr D." The girl glared. It was her, the girl Percy had crashed into at school. Why was she here? How come he'd never seen her here before?
"Lilia. Good to have you back, I'll speak to you in a minute, but for now I need to get Nico here settled." Chiron said blankly.
Percy watched as Lilia nodded slowly, before turning towards the door. As she did so her eyes caught Percy's. They widened slightly in recognition then with furrowed eyebrows she'd turned and walked away.
Just then, Grover trotted into the room, grinning like crazy. He had a black eye and red lines on his face that looked like a slap mark. "The Hunters are all moved in! And why did no one tell me Lili was back?" He said flaying his arms.
Chiron frowned. "The Hunters, eh? I see we have much to talk about. And as for Lilia, she just arrived." He glanced at Nico.
"Grover, perhaps you should take our young friend to the den and show him our orientation film."
"But... Oh, right. Yes, sir."
"Orientation film?" Nico asked. "Is it G or PG? 'Cause Bianca is kinda strict-"
"It's PG-13," Grover said.
"Cool!" Nico happily followed him out of the room.
"Now," Chiron said to Thalia and Percy, "perhaps you two should sit down and tell us the whole story."
When they were done, Chiron turned to Mr. D.
"We should launch a search for Annabeth immediately."
"I'll go," Thalia and Percy said at the same time.
Mr. D sniffed. "Certainly not!"
They both started complaining, but Mr. D held up his hand. He had that purplish angry fire in his eyes that usually meant something bad and godly was going to happen if we didn't shut up.
"From what you have told me," Mr. D said, "we have broken even on this escapade. We have, ah, regrettably lost Annie Bell-"
"Annabeth," Percy snapped. She'd gone to camp since she was seven, and still Mr. D pretended not to know her name.
"Yes, yes," he said. "And you found a small annoying boy to replace her. So I see no point risking further half-bloods on a ridiculous rescue. The possibility is very great that this Annie girl is dead."
"gáidaros." A muffled voice scoffed from behind the door. However she must have said it slightly louder than she intended as Mr D pulled the door open with an eyebrow raised at the two girls stood before him.
"If you'd be so kind as to keep the insults to your self Lola Murphy." He said with a slight glare. "You were told to wait outside. You've been away to long, forgotten how we run this place." Mr D rolled his eyes again.
"I don't care. I know I've been gone for a while, but I'm not going to let you sit there and abandon any hope of finding Annabeth." She cried out. The other girl, who Percy now recognised as one of Annabeth's friends Celia Jones from the Apollo cabin, held her hand comfortingly.
"No one is giving up on her." Chiron said sternly.
"We'll tell that to Mr D! She's the smartest girl I know, she wouldn't get herself killed that easy!" Lilia raised her voice slightly.
Chiron didn't try to make the two girls wait outside this time.
"Annabeth may be alive," Chiron said, but everyone could tell he was having trouble sounding upbeat. He'd practically raised Annabeth all those years she was a year-round camper, before she'd given living with her dad and stepmom a second try.
"She is very bright. If... if our enemies have her, she will try to play for time. She may even pretend to cooperate."
"That's right. Luke would want her alive." Thalia said.
"Then she'll have to be smart enough to escape herself."
Percy sat up from the table, he wasn't the only one to react to that Lilia and Celia were at the door scowling at him.
"Percy." Chiron's voice was full of warning. Percy knew Mr D wasn't someone to mess with, he was a God after all. But Percy was so angry, he didn't care.
"You don't care that you've lost another camper! Percy shouted. "You'd love it if we all disappeared."
"You have a point?" Mr D yawned.
Any sense of reason left Percy's head as he glared daggers towards Mr D.
"Yeah! Just because you were sent here as punishment, doesn't mean you have to be such a lazy jerk. This is your civilisation to, why don't you try helping a bit!" Percy growled across the table.
The room went silent, besides the crackling of the fire. Mr D's eyes burnt into Percy's as he opened his mouth, most likely to curse him into smithereens. But he was cut off by Nico Di Angelo storming into the room closely followed by Grover.
"So cool!"
Nico gushed over Chiron being a centaur and Dionysus being a God, for a good few minutes before Chiron turned to Percy.
"You and Thalia go inform the other campers we'll be playing a game of capture the flag tomorrow evening."
"But we don't have enough-" Thalia frowned.
"It's tradition." Chiron interrupted. "A friendly match whenever the hunters visit."
"Friendly." Lilia scoffed, Thalia nodded along.
"Run along now." Chiron nodded towards the door.
"Oh right. Come on Percy." Thalia said, dragging him out the big house. Lilia and Celia followed behind.
"You've already got ares on your bad side do you really need another immortal enemy?" She sir trudging through the snow.
"Sorry. I couldn't help it, Everything's just so unfair."
Thalia stopped by the armoury and looked toward the valley where her pine tree stood with the fleece still hung over it.
"Percy everything is unfair, sometimes I just wish.."
She didn't finish her sentence, a grave look across her face.
"We'll get her back. I just don't know how yet." Her tone was sad. Lilia sniffed from behind the two reminding them they were still there.
"I remember you." Thalia said quietly. "You were at the border when it happened, when I- you know." She said frowning.
Lilia nodded guilt clouding her eyes. "It was my fault, I reached out for you. I-I wasn't quick enough." She hung her head slightly.
They fell silent again, an understanding of loss was held between the group of demi-gods.
They looked up. Over at the basketball court, a few of the Hunters were shooting hoops.
One of them was arguing with a guy from the Ares cabin. The Ares kid had his hand on his sword and the Hunter girl looked like she was going to exchange her basketball for a bow and arrow any second.
"I'll break that up," Thalia said. "You circulate around the cabins. Tell everybody about capture the flag tomorrow." She said facing Percy. She nodded towards the two girls before heading off to the courts.
Celia told Percy she'd go to Apollo cabin and let her siblings know. She said goodbye to him and hugged Lilia before wandering off.
"It's you." Percy said matter of factly.
"Yes." She replied quietly.
"I didn't know you were-"
"Half god?" She smirked slightly.
"Well yeah." He laughed a bit.
"I could say the same for you." She countered with a raised eyebrow.
"You know now that I think about it, Annabeth's mentioned you before. It's just no one calls you Lilia."
"Glad to know I wasn't forgotten in the three years I was missing." She snorted, but her eyes fogged slightly as she said it. Missing, Lilia had disappeared from camp three years ago and no one understood how, not even Chiron could contact her.
"Aphrodite child if remember correctly." Percy raised an eyebrow, trying to distract her, he saw that she was bothered and something about her made him want to help.
Of course she was a child of Aphrodite, he could see it now. When he first met her she'd had some kind of aura about her, that drew him in.
She nodded. "And what about you. Who's your parent." She asked looking up at him.
"Poseidon." He said scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. Her eyebrows raised and she stopped walking.
"You're joking." She asked, her mouth slightly ajar.
"Uhm no." He coughed awkwardly, slightly embarrassed at the attention he was getting. No one had been shocked by his parenthood for atleast two years now and so he's forgotten how it was.
"Next, you'll be telling me hades broke the agreement aswell." She said dramatically.
Percy laughed. "Come on we better tell the campers about the game."
The two walked on telling the few campers in each cabin. They reached the Aphrodite cabin and stepped inside. When Percy first saw the Aphrodite Cabin last year he had to do a double take.
From the outside it looked like the rest of the cabin, with a few design differences, but the inside was bigger. Someone years ago had bribed a child of Hecate to enchant the inside.
There was a long corridor, with four rooms on either side and three bunk beds in each, belonging to the campers who only came during summer.
At the end of the corridor was a large sitting area, with beige lounge chairs and a little wooden coffee table. There's a flight of stairs leading up to a second floor, where the year round campers live.
The year round campers in the cabin had their own rooms, Percy hadn't been in them but he assumed they were nice considering their entire cabin felt like a mansion.
Lilia and Percy walked through letting the campers know about the game. They reached the top of the stairs and Silena Beuregard wales out of her room, her eyes widened and she ran to Lilia, pulling her into such a tight hug she began to turn red.
"Oh my gods! Your door was open, I saw your bag on your bed and I didn't know if it was real. But you're here you're really here!" The two siblings laughed.
"We actually came here to say there's a match of capture the flag against the Hunters tomorrow evening." Percy interrupted the giggles. "You guys don't have to play I know you don't normally-"
Silena's smile instantly dropped and was replaced with a scowl.
"I'll do it."
Percy raised his eyebrows. "Right I don't know whats going on, but I'm sensing you guys don't like them?" Percy said looking between the two girls.
"It's not us that have the problem. It's them." Silena replied.
"They're convinced we only care about our looks, they think we're all dumb because our mother is the goddess of love." Lilia rolled her eyes.
Percy left the two siblings talking about Battle strategy, and made his way back to his cabin for the night.
➳
AN-
I started writing this when I was thirteen and never finished so in honour of the new Percy Jackson series coming out I thought I'd try. I'm hoping to get through the entire series and write a cute little romance between Percy and Lilia. If you've read this far already, Thank you so much, it means the world!
I'm new at this and don't claim to be the best writer in the world so if you have any tips or corrections please feel free to say, nicely, I'll most likely cry otherwise.
I really hope everyone enjoys! 🤍