Hello! So this originally started out as a free write I did in Language Arts class, but as you can see it has blossomed into much more! I don't know how often I will work on this but I will try my best to post as often as I can. Enjoy the story!
Olive yawned and sat up slowly in his bed. He looked out the window and immediately shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight. He looked over at his alarm clock, which was sitting on his nightstand right next to his phone. His eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw the time. It was 9:30 in the morning, nearly an hour after he was supposed to be at work.
"Ahhhhhh shoot!!" He exclaimed loudly, quickly throwing his covers aside and standing up. Unfortunately, in all the panic, he became entangled in the sheets and promptly fell flat on his face. He slowly stood up, groaning while muttering curses at his clumsiness. He looked at his clock once more, confused as to why the alarm had not gone off when it was supposed to. He shrugged and continued to get ready.
He walked over to his dresser and rummaged through the messy drawers for something to wear. When he couldn't find something he would feel satisfied with, he looked at the laundry basket by his bedroom door and thought, 'So this is what it's come to...'.
He walked over to the basket and began sorting through, sniffing each shirt to test how bad it smelled. He picked up his favorite shirt from the bottom of the pile and sniffed it, only to rip it away from his face in pure disgust. His face twisted in a gross expression as he fought his gag reflexes. He then threw the smelly shirt across the room, where it landed on his pile of other clothes he had no room for in the laundry basket. He called that corner of his bedroom the, "Forbidden Zone".
After he was finally dressed (he had settled on a grey polo he found at the bottom of one of his dresser drawers) Olive made his way to the kitchen, where he found his roommate staring at him judgingly. He gave the latter a light glare. "Why didn't you wake me up?"
His friend chuckled and said, "You didn't do the dishes last night, now we're even." Olive rolled his eyes dramatically and gave his friend a playful look. "Haha, very funny Allen. Now," He made a gesture towards Allen with his hand "You will make me a cup of coffee." Allen looked at him and chuckled darkly, "Your Jedi mind tricks do not work on me, silly boy."
The two friends doubled over laughing hysterically. Olive clutching his stomach and catching his breath, looked at Allen, who was wiping tears of laughter from his eyes, and said "No, but seriously, can you make me a cup of coffee while I grab the mail? I'm sort of in a time crunch." Allen eyed him suspiciously, "What's in it for me?" Olive sighed, "Fine, I swear I'll do dish duty for a month!"
Allen smirked at him, "But you couldn't even remember to do them last night? Olive rolled his eyes and groaned. "Oh, just shut up." Allen put a hand on his chest in mock offense, "You wound me, Olive." Said man walked away towards the door laughing, "Good."
Olive stepped inside the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby and waited for the door to close. When he was on the main floor, he walked up to the front desk and asked the clerk for his mail. The clerk nodded and turned towards the row of mailboxes on the wall behind her, opening the one belonging to Olive and Allen. She looked inside, then back at Olive. "Hey, Ollie, did you order another Amazon package? You know you're supposed to let me know beforehand, so I can make room for your other mail."
Olive looked at her in confusion, "What are you talking about Kate? I rarely ever order packages." He walked behind the desk and peered into his box, and sure enough, there was a brown package with the signature blue amazon prime tape. He looked at Kate, "Mind if I look at the label? Maybe there's a return address." She shrugged, "Sure. Just don't open it unless it's addressed to you."
He turned the package over and found the label. Olive squinted hard at the package, having trouble reading it due to his dyslexia.But sure enough, it read, 'Olive Clark'. Olive scoured the label for some sort of return address, but alas, there was none. He turned to look at Kate, puzzled. "That's so weird. It's addressed to me, but it doesn't say where it's from." She gave him a wary look, "Best not to open it. Who knows what's in there." Her eyes lit up with an idea, "Hey! I know, maybe Allen ordered something and used your account on accident?"
Olive looked at her, then back at the package, then back at Kate. He promptly smacked his forehead, "Oh yeah! That makes a lot more sense. I'll take it up to our apartment and ask him about it." He looked at Kate and smiled, "Man, what would I do without you, Kate?" She saluted while smirking, "You wouldn't last a week, Ollie." He laughed and walked back towards the elevator, carrying the mystery package in his arms.
On the elevator, he reached for the button pad, looking for the button with his floor number, 4, on it. When he found it and pressed it, he looked up at the floor queue, which, strangely read 5. He clicked the button again, realizing that the button didn't light up like it usually did. He pressed it again. No light. "Strange..." He murmured quietly to himself.
"Umm are you ok?" He jumped, startled at the sudden voice. Olive whipped his head around to see a young boy with dark brown hair and sea green eyes.
Olive sighed in relief, "Yeah, at least I think so. The button that goes to my floor seems to be broken." The boy tilted his head in confusion
"Weird. Well, I forgot to ask at the front desk, but do you know what floor apartment," He squinted at a piece of paper in his hand, "403 is on?" Olive's eyes widened in surprise, then squinted his eyes suspiciously. That was the apartment he and Allen shared.
"Why? Are you looking for someone?" The boy nodded and looked at the small piece of paper he was holding again.
"Uh, yeah. I'm looking for someone named Olive Clark. Tall, about 18 years old. I was told he lived here." Olive glared at the boy, "Why do you need to speak to him?"
"Well, uh, you see, he's in danger. Someone sent a package to his apartment. I came to warn him about it." The boy looked nervously at Olive and gulped. "I also came to invite him to come to a, uh, summer camp." Olive looked at the package in his arms, and suddenly he felt sick. Whatever in this package was probably meant to harm him. He looked back at the boy and sighed.
"Well, congratulations. You found him." He gingerly set the package on the floor and held out his hand for the boy to shake, "My name is Olive Clark. Now, what's this about my being in danger?" The boy smiled and shoved the piece of paper in his pocket. He took Olive's hand and shook it. "Percy Jackson, nice to meet you, Olive. As for the danger," He pulled out a pen, which confused Olive until he uncapped it and it morphed into a sword. Olive's jaw practically fell to the floor when he took his sword/pen and stabbed the package.
When Olive looked closer at the package, he could see something small crawling out of it. He looked at the boy, now known as Percy, with raised eyebrows. Percy chuckled and said, "Monsters." Olive looked at Percy incredulously, "Monsters?" He shook his head, "What am I saying? I mean, you just uncapped a pen, which isn't, a pen? Then it turned into a freaking sword!" He sighed, "Allen better have my coffee ready when I get back." He smacked his forehead and said, "Ah shoot! I completely forgot about work! Miss Dodds will have my head for being late!"
Percy's eyes widened, "Whoa, hold on. Did you just say, Miss Dodds?" Olive nodded, "Yeah, she's my boss. Why?" Percy started clicking the button for the fourth floor rapidly "Former evil math teacher. No time to explain. We need to get to your room as soon as possible." He looked at the floor queue, which now read 4. He sighed in relief when the doors opened. He grabbed Olive's wrist and dragged him down the hall. "Hey! What are you doing?!" Olive shouted in protest. Percy looked at him again with a serious face, "No time to explain, come on."
Olive yanked his wrist away, "Yeah, I got it. But my room is the other way." He pointed to the closest door, whose number read 409. Percy sighed and grabbed Olive's wrist again, this time sprinting down the hall until they reached his room. He looked at Olive, "Room key?" Olive checked his pockets, but to his dismay, his key wasn't there. He looked at Percy, "Nope, must have fallen out somewhere. Just knock on the door, Allen is home." Percy nodded and began pounding on the door.
The door opened to reveal a confused Allen, "Hey, Ollie...." He looked at Percy, "Um, who are you?" Percy said nothing and just pushed past Allen into the room, walking over to the window and chucking the package that was still in his hand as far as he could. Allen looked over at Olive, "Care to explain?" Olive shrugged, "He saved me from a monster package. Said he needed to explain something in here." Allen sighed, "Ollie, maybe you shouldn't go to work today."
Suddenly, Percy whirled around to face Allen, he looked distressed as he murmured quietly to himself. Olive only caught bits of what he said. He heard, "Two...Not good... Alecto... Chiron..." Percy inhaled deeply and let out a breath, "You two might want to sit down." Olive shrugged and sat down. He then looked at Allen, who was staring at him with raised eyebrows. He gave him a nervous smile and glanced back at Percy, who had stopped pacing and was now looking at them impatiently.
"Alright, I'll give you a quick run-down of what I'm supposed to tell you. Number one, you both are demigods. As in half god. Greek, to be specific." Allen looked at Olive with a face that said, ok, is this a prank or is this kid crazy? He sighed and turned to Percy, who looked so nervous that he might explode at any minute. Percy lightly glared at Allen and continued,
"Number two, you both need to come with my friend, Grover-" He motioned to the doorway, where to Olive and Allen's surprise, stood a young man with a Rasta cap and- Hold up, hooves? - waved shyly at the two. "-Immediately." He finished. Allen looked at Percy suspiciously and said,
"And why, exactly should we listen to you?" Olive sighed,
"Listen, Al', I know you don't like this, but he saved my life earlier. Give him a little credit." Allen let out an annoyed huff and rolled his eyes, "Fine, but if something happens to us, don't say I didn't warn you. Olive smiled and turned to Percy,
"How long will we be gone?" Percy shrugged uneasily and said, "Not entirely sure, but you should probably pack a bag or two." Olive nodded and got up to pack, Allen following in suit. Then, Allen abruptly paused, turning to look at Percy,
"So, will you explain the whole 'demigod' thing soon? Cause I'm really, confused."
Percy chuckled and nodded, "Of course, and don't worry, I was confused at first too." Olive, who had finished packing, walked back into the room and looked at Percy with wonder, "You mean, you're a, a demigod too?" Percy nodded, then widened his eyes as he looked out the window,
"Crap! Uh, what's-your-face who isn't Olive, you better pack in like, five minutes. We have to go." Allen nodded and dashed into his room, returning three minutes later with a surprisingly small backpack. Olive looked at him strangely, then realized that the bag he was carrying was the small emergency kit Allen had insisted on keeping in their apartment. Olive looked at Percy, who was tapping his foot nervously. When Allen walked in, he jerked his head up in relief. Allen quickly walked over to the kitchen island and grabbed the apartment keys.
A few minutes later, they were all speed-walking to a white van that was parked in the visitor's lot of the apartment building. Allen, noticing the van, grabbed Olive and hissed, "I told you!" Olive rolled his eyes and gave him an annoyed glance, "Relax, lots of people own white vans." Allen glared at him and huffed, "Fine, but I'll say it again, don't say I didn't warn you."
Olive glanced one last time at the apartment building that he had called home for most of his life, and nearly fell face first into the pavement when he saw his boss climbing- no- flying up the side of the building, peering into every window she passed. He barely had time to register what he had seen as Percy had grabbed his arm and yanked him into the van, Grover quickly closing the door behind him. Percy turned to the front of the vehicle and yelled frantically to the driver, "GO! DRIVE!"
The driver, a tan-skinned blond-haired boy nodded and stomped the gas pedal. The van lurched forward, causing Olive and Allen to fall back onto the floor of the van. Allen, who had also noticed the fact that a woman was flying up the side of their apartment building, stared slack-jawed out the window. After a few minutes of silence, a head of raven hair poked out from the side of the passenger seat. Olive heard the noise of someone unbuckling their seatbelt.
A boy with pale olive skin and dark brown eyes which had dark circles underneath them looked at Olive and Allen with curiosity. He cleared his throat and said,
"I'm sure that you are very confused right now, but an explanation will have to wait until we get to camp. In the meantime, you too can be quiet-"
"Nico," The blonde boy scolded. The gothic looking boy, now known as Nico, rolled his eyes and sighed in defeat.
"Fine. Whatever you say Solace." He looked Olive and Allen in the eyes and spoke,
"Introduction time. My name is Nico Di-Angelo, sunshine over here," He said whilst gesturing to the blonde driver, "Is Will Solace. I'm pretty sure you already know Percy and Grover." Olive nodded and smiled at him,
"Well, uh, my name is Olive Clark, but you already knew that. And this is Allen Rodes." Nico nodded and opened his mouth to say more, but was interrupted by Will saying,
"We're here." He quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door, Nico following in suit. Once all six boys were out of the van, they started walking up a grassy hill, passing by a big tree. At the top, Olive was amazed to see a climbing wall, but with actual lava flowing down the sides. He saw a large pavilion where teens and kids sat at long tables and ate.
The group kept walking and eventually they stopped in front of a house with a lovely front porch. The porch had an old-timey looking rocking chair on it that swayed lazily in the light breeze. Percy turned around to face Olive and Allen and said,
"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."