Chapter 19: Time to Plan a Reunion!
later....
Percy's POV
At the moment, I'm getting together everyone for our reunion: Rikki, Emma, Cleo, Bella, and I. As I don't have a phone, and I don't want to IM them in case they're in a public place, I'm going to vapour travel to each one individually and organise their visit. First up is Rikki, who's on her book tour at the moment, so hopefully she's still somewhere in Australia and it's not the middle of the night wherever she is.
When I vapour travel, I travel a few metres away from her, just in case there are a load of people around and they can see through the mist. So it looks like I'm in a room full of her artefacts, which means she'll be doing a book signing today. I can't see her around here at the moment, which means I'll have some time to talk to her before she does a signing, or she's already left. I hope it's the first one.
To find this out, I walk over to a guard and ask, "When is Ms Chadwick coming down for the next signing?"
"Can you not read the sign by her table?" Well, he's rude, "The next, and last signing is at 3:15pm, that's in around 10 minutes."
"Thanks for the help." I say as I walk off to a quiet spot so no one can see me disappear. I vapour travel up to the terrace where Rikki will be. I hope that that guy from the airport isn't with her, he really annoyed me when I saw him. He's probably looking after the artefacts, or guarding the outside of Rikki's door. I know for certain that he'll be up to get her when it's time for the signing, so I want to be gone by then. Rikki is sat at a table on a balcony at the moment, using her powers on a small glass of water. "Hey Rikki, miss me?"
She nocks the glass over in shock, spilling all of the water, "Percy? You scared me! And you almost make me break this glass!" I give her a moment to get over the shock until she says, "It's great to see you here though."
"It's great to see you too, but where is here exactly?...."
"We're in the Barossa Valley at the moment, it's a wine growing region of Australia. What brings you here then? I'm sure you wouldn't just visit out of the blue. Is everything all right on Mako?"
"Well, not really, but that's not why I'm here. I'll tell you about that later, it'd be easier if I showed you. As for why I'm here, I was wondering if you were up for a reunion on Mako soon? Just you and me and Cleo, Emma, and Bella?!
"Do you know what? I'd love that, it's been too long since we've all been together. Have you got an idea for when yet?"
"I was hoping to do this as soon as possible, so do you have any time off from your tour soon? I could vapour travel you to Mako so you don't need to book flights or anything. Oh! I almost forgot, my students are doing a research project at the moment, and a group of them are using your book as part of their research, which actually gave me this idea, anyway, I was wondering if you could talk to them about it, maybe give them some more information about the artefacts?"
"I'd love to talk to some of your students about my book. I have next week off the tour, starting on Monday."
"Perfect, I'll pick you up on Monday then. You have a signing in a few minutes, and I have to arrange this meeting with everyone else, so I'll be off before anyone sees me up here."
"See you on Monday Perce."
Next up is Cleo, who I've kept in touch with the most since I left Mako, you know, because she's my cousin. She's visited me about once a year in New York which has been pretty fun. Will, Nico, and Grover have met her a few of those times as well. I know she's in Sydney, working as a dolphin trainer. I seriously don't know how she's doing that job without revealing that she's a mermaid. I hope she's at her work, I love talking to dolphins. I vapour travel to a few feet away from her, and I see that I'm in a marine park. This must be where Cleo works, and I have to say, it seems a lot bigger than the one on Mako. "Cleo? Hey!" I say once I walk over to her.
"Percy? Hi! What are you doing here?"
"Well, I wanted to arrange something with you. I've had an idea for you, me, Rikki, Emma, and Bella to meet up on Mako again, as a reunion."
"That sounds great! Why the sudden idea? Oh, and when are you thinking of this happening?"
"Why I had the idea is a long story, but I'm teaching on Mako at the moment, so that's why I'm back there. As for when, are you free for the week on Monday? I'll vapour travel you to Mako, so you don't need to book any transport there."
"Pretty soon huh? But I'll get some time off of work for it, I'm sure they won't need me too much, just as long as I'm back over the weekend, that's when we get a lot of people in the park, so they need as many staff members as they can get."
"Of course, no problem, you guys wouldn't need to spend more than a few days here. I have spare rooms at my house as well, so there's no need to book a hotel, though how many hotels are there really in Mako?"
"True, now I should probably get back to work, I don't want my boss shouting at me, and I would invite you to train some of the dolphins with me, but I think they're going to go a little crazy around you, so I probably shouldn't."
"Yeah, remember that time on Mako when me going to a show kind of made the dolphins crazy? I got a job out of that at least, and though I'd love to talk to the dolphins, I don't want you to lose yours. I'll come to get you on Monday."
"See you Monday then, I'm looking forward to it."
Zac's POV
"And he just disappeared? Even though Mimi was using her moon ring to keep him there?" Ondina asks after we told everyone what happened with Mr Jackson.
"Yep, that's what happened, and before you ask, we're just as confused as you guys." Mimi says.
"Do you think we can trust him then?" Evie asks.
"I think we can," I start, "But we need to know for sure, so I don't want us to ask him for help yet. We need some sort of proof that we can trust him yet."
"Well," Carly starts with an idea, "Mr Jackson knows that mermaid you guys met earlier this year, right? He said he's going to try to arrange her to come and talk to our class, so why don't you guys just ask her about him, and if we can trust him?"
"I mean, it's worth a try, he said she was an old friend of his, so she'll know his secret as well, if he knows hers, which he probably does." Cam says.
"That's actually a good idea!" Ondina says.
"What? You think I'm incapable of having ideas?"
"No, you have plenty of ideas," Ondina pauses before saying, "You're just incapable of having any good ones."
"Like you had a good idea going towards the virus."
"Guys, stop, let's just move on," Evie says, "So, when Rikki comes to talk to us, we'll ask her about Mr Jackson and see if we can trust him. Maybe we can find out who, or what, he really is as well.."
I hope our plan will work this time, but who knows how many chapters the author will write before Rikki and her friends come. I just hope Mr Jackson invites them as soon as possible.
Percy's POV
I've arranged Monday's visit with everyone, and they all seemed excited to see each other again. I can't believe that none of them have met up with each other in at least 5 years, they were so close, and they all share something amazing, I can't believe they've lost touch with each other. I hope that'll change after our reunion. I also hope they have some advice on the virus, because I honestly have no idea what to do at the moment. I wish I could just stop it easily, and I would if I knew how. If I stop it, who knows what it'll do to me, but I don't care about that risk. I don't care what happens to myself, just as long as it saves everyone else.
Once I'm at my house, I use Haze to train for a while, fighting monsters to get my thoughts together. Actually, now that I think about it, it wouldn't be so bad if I got a phone, I mean, I can fight the monsters, and it means I can distract them from demigods in America as well if I'm making them come all the way here. It's not so much of a bad idea after all. I'm going to get a phone, and then it means it's easier for people to get in touch with me, though I'm not going to get social media or anything like that: text and call is good enough for me. Hey, I wonder if Gods can use phones, not that I want to get in touch with them that way, but it'd be cool to know. I mean, monsters aren't going to attack them if they know they're immortal, so I guess they could use one.
That Friday...
Since I have no classes today, I'm going to go and get a phone at lunch, and I'm going to ask Isabella to come with me, because I think she'll know more about phones than I do. To be honest, I know nothing about what phone I need, I'm out of touch with that aspect of society. I know how to use one anyway, I had that supposed demigod safe on for a while. Getting a phone will also mean that I can keep in touch with everyone so much easier as well, so I can keep in touch with Cleo, Emma, Bella, and Rikki when they leave after our reunion.
I go over to her classroom just as her class is finishing and everyone is coming out of the room. I knock on her open door and walk in, saying, "Hey Isabella, do you have a moment?"
To which she replies, "For you? Always, what did you need? Also, I thought you didn't teach today."
"Um, well, I don't teach today, but I wanted to ask for your help with something. You see, I know I have this whole no-technology thing, but I was wondering if you could come with me to help me pick out a phone."
"Of course I can, thanks for asking for my help! Why the sudden change of heart though? I thought you were so against it."
"Well, I was thinking, and as long as only a few people know my number, it won't be too bad, (there's no way I'm telling any parents about it), and it'll be easier to arrange things with my friends, and it'll be way easier to contact people. I'll be able to face any of the consequences that come, hopefully anyway."
"Plus, it's not like people are going to kill you for using a phone, there won't be many consequences for you to face." Oh yeah, she doesn't know that monsters attack me when I use electronics.
"Yeah, good point. So, where do we go, and what phone do I need?"
She laughs, "Just come with me. What's your budget for the phone?"
"Whatever I need to spend for a good phone, this is something I need to do, I don't mind how much I need to spend."
"Ok, but I'm not going to let you fall into the trap of brand new apple phones. They're just as good as the previous ones, but for twice the price. Let's just go to the phone shop and we'll see what their best deal is at the moment."
"I'll just follow whatever you're doing, I literally know nothing about this."
Later.......
Isabella managed to negotiate an IPhone 8 with unlimited data, texts, and calls for $214 a month for a year, and then $94 after that for me. I was just going to take whatever offer the store gave me, but Isabella managed to get the price down for me, which was so cool of her to do. "Thanks for helping me with that, I would have had no idea what to do."
"You keep saying that, and it was honestly no problem. I've already put my number in your phone in case you need anything. It hasn't got too much charge on though, so you'll need to charge it when you get back to your house." Charge my phone, got it, "I've downloaded WhatsApp for you already, which is a messaging app that uses WiFi and mobile data, so it's free to use when you're out of the country. Then you have all the apps that came with the phone, and no social media, as per your request."
"Well, I guess you better get back to class, it was really great to spend time with you, and now I can arrange something without having to stop by your classroom."
"I don't mind when you stop by.." She looks away from me for a moment, "Anyway, I should get back, like you said. I'll see you Monday, or at the weekend, if you wanted."
"I have some of my old friends from Mako coming on Monday, you could come meet up with us at some point, I'll text you when I know more about it. Wow, it feels so weird to say that."
She laughs, "Bye Percy, see you soon." she says as she walks off towards the school. She's such a good friend, I'm glad I met her that first day at school. She's really helped me to get to know the other teachers at the school, and to settle in.
AN:
So, there is a clear majority in which book I'm going to write next, and that will be option B: The Third and Final Instalment of the I'm a Mermaid series! Now, I do have a title for it, but that would give away too much about the ending for this book, so until we get to the end, nothing will be revealed about the last book in this trilogy.
It's also been a while since I've done this, so here is a bonus scene that will be deleted 3 days after I publish this chapter.......
The scene has been deleted