Chapter 1: A Son Of Apollo Starts Sobbing
Percy's POV
Camp Half Blood, my second home. Camp Half Blood, my life for these past 16 years (well apart from my whole New Rome thing). Camp Half Blood, the only place where I'm safe from people trying to kill me, well most of the time anyway.
I can't believe I'm leaving it again, voluntarily this time. I just need a new adventure in my life. I've been to college in New Rome, trained to teach, taught at a high school for a couple of years, while coaching swordsmanship at camp in my free time. It's fine, and it's normal, but I need some excitement now. I probably shouldn't want that- I probably should be happy with my kind-of normal life that demigods seldom get, but I just need something exciting to happen.
Which is why I'm going back to Mako, this time on my own, and I'll be teaching at the local high school. It may be a normal life again, but at least it's a change of scenery, and I'll be more comfortable to swim as a merman. People at camp know, like Chiron, the Seven, and some other demigods, but I don't always like to swim as a merman in front of them. I've grown much more powerful now, as a demigod and a merman, and now I can control when I turn, so I can get wet without turning, but it always feels like people are scared of me now, even my own friends. We never talk as much, and it always seems a little awkward, especially after Annabeth's death. The only people who don't change around me now are Will, Nico and Grover.
I'm currently on my way to say goodbye (for now) to Chiron. He's been great to me all these years, and I'm going to miss his guidance and advice.
"Percy! Are you coming to teach us later? Can you and Nico fight again? It's so cool when you do! Please!" I'm stopped by some of the younger campers coming up to me. They're all great, I love being able to teach them. Sometimes it's kind of awkward at the school I teach, because some campers are in my classes, and they usually accidentally call me by my first name, and I lost my train of thought there, great.
"Sorry, I'm going to be going away for a while guys. I got a job in Australia to teach, but make sure to IM me if your new coaches do something wrong, or if you see any adorable Solangelo moments that I can't miss." I reply. They laugh at the last part.
After laughing, one of them says, "Wait, you're leaving us? Is there a camp in Australia you'll coach at?"
"No," I say, "It's too far away from the gods to then have any demigods there, well apart from me of course."
"That's so sad, it would have been fun to have a load of Australian demigods in one place."
"I agree." I say when Chiron comes up to us.
"Shouldn't you all be preparing for capture the flag?" He asks. They rush off to their cabins to either train or strategize. I can guess which cabins are doing what. "Good luck for your journey Mr Jackson, you will be missed greatly at camp."
"Thanks Chiron, I mean it, but it's not like I'm leaving forever. I'll be back all the time to visit."
"Oh I know, but whenever you go, no matter how long, every single person at camp misses you, even though they can be intimidated by your power from time to time."
"It means a lot to hear that, especially coming from you."
"I mean it Perseus. I mustn't keep you from the rest of your goodbyes then. I hope to see you in the near future." With that, he leaves and goes back to his business, probably getting ready for capture the flag today.
Time to move on to my next goodbyes, which are for my close friends. Frank and Hazel are in New Rome preparing for their wedding (even though it's 2 years away yet), so I'll IM them after I've said my goodbyes at camp. I walk to the infirmary first to see Will and Nico- my tied OTP (with Frazel), then I'm going to go and see Leo and Piper. They're holding up well now, it's been a year since Jason died in a mass shooting in San Francisco when he was visiting camp Jupiter. I can't believe he died from a mortal attack, not something mythological. It just makes it worse for everyone, but even demigods die in mortal situations from time to time.
I walk into the infirmary and see Nico and Will straight away, with Will busy as always, and Nico near him 'helping', with both of them blushing, a lot. Even though they've been married for 4 months, 13 days, 20 hours and 17 minutes (not that I keep track of that), all they do is blush around each other. "Will? Nico? Do you guys have a minute?" I ask.
"For you Perce? Always. What did you want to say?" Will replies.
"Well, I just came to say goodbye for now, since I'm leaving for Australia today."
"I can't believe we forgot! Neeks and I were planning to throw a leaving party for you of sorts, just with us, you, the rest of the seven, and a few others. How could we forget?!"
"I reminded you yesterday." Nico says quietly, inaudible for Will to hear, but I heard it.
"It's fine, I just want to leave quietly, I'd rather it this way."
"Are you sure?" Will asks.
"I'm sure. It's been weird with everyone for these past years. We never talk as much, they never seem comfortable around me, I don't feel comfortable to use any of my old powers around them now, let alone turning into a merman. I wish they could see that's it become who I humanly am now, it's such a huge part of me that I could never let go of it, not the power, but the feeling, the tail, swimming in the ocean as a merman. I wish they could understand that."
"I understand Percy," Nico starts, "As soon as people found out who my father was, they would avoid me, ignore me, and even cower away from me in fear. There I was, a 10 year old, new demigod, who had just lost his sister, and who needed a place where he felt like he belonged for once, but I almost never got that feeling. Until you were so persistent in making me happy, I couldn't help but have a crush on you and idolise you. Then Will came along and made me feel the same way, but magnified a thousand times. I guess my point of this is that I understand how you feel, and I'll stand by you and support you no matter what, just like you did for me." At some point during this, Will started sobbing.
"That was beautiful Neeks." He manages to say in between sobs. He then hugs me and Nico, much to Nico's displeasure. "I'll stand by you too Percy."
"I'm going to miss you both so much, make sure to IM me all the time." I say after breaking from the hug.
"We will," Nico says, "And make sure to not get into too much trouble while you're gone. You may be an adult now, but trouble seems to follow you wherever you go."
"I'll try, but I can't promise anything." I say with a smirk and a wink.
"Still the same old Percy Jackson."
We hug again and I head to Cabin 9 to see Leo. Our friendship isn't the same as it used to be, but I do need to say goodbye to him.
Once I get there, I nock on the door. There's no response, as per usual. It's so loud in there that they never hear it, I don't know why I bother to be honest, I guess it's just me making an effort to be polite. I walk in and see Leo busy working on something, not that I'm surprised. "Leo? Got a minute?" Ever since Annabeth died, Leo's become much more withdrawn then he was before, he doesn't say anything about it but I know he blames himself because he made the phones we were using that ended up giving off a signal to monsters. He never forgave himself for that one mistake.
"Percy? Sure, but I don't have long. I'm working on a new celestial bronze rifle- this time it should be able to shoot a lot more efficiently than the last one I made."
"That's great, that'll eventually be a much better way to defeat monsters. I just came to say goodbye for now- I'm leaving for that job in Australia today."
"You're going back there? After what happened to you? I mean, I wouldn't if I were you but I guess that's your decision though."
"What do you mean 'after what happened to me'?"
"You know, the whole becoming a merman thing."
"Oh, that. Anyway, I hope the rifle goes well." This is what I mean about it being weird with most people, they just don't get how much the merman is a part of me now.
"Thanks, and make sure to visit us all the time." Leo says, then goes back to work. I guess I should have really expected it to be like that, but one can hope to be pleasantly surprised from time to time.
Well, that went well.
It's time to say goodbye to Piper, I hope this one goes well, or at least better than Leo's goodbye. I walk to Cabin 10 and nock on the door. At least in this cabin, people can hear when someone nocks.
I'm greeted by the lovely Drew Tanaka when the door is opened. "Hey Drew, is Piper here? And please save any remark about her, I really need to talk to her."
"Well, nice to see you too. Piper's here, and I'll be off." She says, and leaves.
"Drew's being nice as always then?" I ask.
Piper laughs, "Yeah, it never changes really. What did you want to say? It sounded really urgent. Oh wait! I remember, you're going back to Mako today right?" Huh, she remembered.
"Yeah, I just wanted to say goodbye to you before I go."
"Are you sure you'll be alright there? I mean, some pretty bad stuff happened last time you went, and it's been different for everyone ever since you came back."
"I'll be fine, thanks for your concern. I need to go now, I'll come back to visit."
"Bye Percy, I hope to see you soon."
Again, that went so well. Why don't they get it? They don't understand that me becoming a merman was my own decision, and it isn't a bad thing.
One last person to see, Grover. He's still been my best friend throughout all of this, and I'm going to miss him so much. I wish he could come with me, but he has a role here that he has to fill.
I meet him along camp's border. As soon as we see each other, we just hug. "I'm really going to miss you Grover, are you sure you can't come with me?" We both laugh.
"Man, I wish I could, but you know I can't. IM me almost every day, and no matter what, we're going to stay friends right?"
"Of course, no matter how far away we are, we'll still be best bros. I've got to go, but I'm IMing you as soon as I land in Australia."
"You better."
On the plane...
So, I'm terrified to say the least. I know Zeus isn't going to try to kill me, but that doesn't help my fear of flying. I'll be alright once we start flying over water, but the first hour is going to be absolutely terrifying. That's the only word I can really use to describe what I'm feeling at the moment- terror.
I get Premium flights because I need to be comfortable even if I am scared out of my mind. I also get to board first, which means less time waiting in a queue contemplating whether I should get on the plane or just swim there. I'll probably tire myself out too much if I swim all the way to Mako, so I'll just fly to the airport and drive there. I'm not going to die, and most of the flight is over water anyway, so if we do crash, I'll end up swimming there anyway.
I've probably thought about this too much, anyway, time to get on the plane.
I've realised that I hate queueing so much, there's even a long queue for the premium passengers. I don't get why the British people love it so much- seriously, it's like their favourite and only passtime is queueing to spend money. When I finally get to the front, the passport desk lady checks my passport and luggage allowance (I have a big case in the hold and one of the small ones with me).
"Ok Sir, you're all clear to get on, and have a nice flight!" She says in one of the fakest tones I've ever heard.
"Thanks." I say, and I then walk through a tunnel thing to get to the plane. This is one of my first times in an airport, getting on a plane for a long distance flight- the only other time was when I last went to Mako. I usually prefer to vapour travel nowadays, but I have to conquer my fears, even if that does mean flying on a commercial airline for I don't know how long. My thought process behind this was- Zeus probably wouldn't hurt a bunch of mortals just to try and kill me, so that gives me confidence I guess.
I get at least 5 more "Have a nice flight!"s once I get on the plane and start to find my seat. I put my case in the cupboard thing above my head, then take my seat- I'm row 4 seat C. A girl who looks like she's just started college comes up to me and politely asks, "I'm sorry for bothering you, but could you possibly help me lift my case up?" She sounds like she's from England.
"No problem." I reply, then proceed to lift her case to put it in the cupboard.
"Thank you so much, and I seem to be in Row 4 Seat B." She says, and then she starts to blush a little, and I don't really know why.
I then realise I'm blocking the entrance to the row. "Oh, sorry. Here," I step aside and let her past into the seat. "Sorry about that." I can be such a Kelp Head sometimes.
"Don't worry, it's absolutely fine, thank you for helping me lift my case. I hate air travel sometimes- I'd always prefer to go by boat, but I guess for long distance journeys it's the only way you can go. You probably think that's weird, right?"
"Not at all- I feel the same. I never feel comfortable on a plane, I always feel like it's going to crash any second, but that's why I'm travelling by plane, as well as the fact that it's the only way I could go, to face my fear. And I've started rambling, sorry."
"I don't mind, it's nice for someone to have a similar outlook as me. I think it's really cool that you're facing your fear by the way."
"Thanks, I'm Percy."
"I'm Pearl."
In Australia...
The plane journey was a lot better then I thought it would be, the plane didn't crash, and Pearl kept me distracted, so I didn't get scared at all! Well, for most of it anyway.
She was really nice, she told me that she grew up in England (like I thought) in a small coastal town, and she stayed there for almost all of her life, but she's lived in New York for a year. She's been in college for a year, and she's taking a year abroad in Australia, then she'll be going back to England, unless she really likes it here.
She asked me about my life as well, she didn't just talk about herself the whole time, so I told her that I was born in New York, lived there for most of my life, but I've travelled to Europe quite a lot, mainly to Greece and Rome. Then I said that I trained to become a teacher, taught in a local high school for a couple of years, then took a job in Australia and here we are.
I'm glad I got to end up sitting next to her, it made the plane journey much more enjoyable than it would have been if I were sat anywhere else.
I wonder what's going to happen now I'm back in Mako, I wonder if ther'll even be more mermaids. Or Cleo, Emma, Rikki and Bella might still be there. Well, I guess I'll find that out once I get there.