Percy, the asshole, left Grover and Y/N.
Grover had dashed off to the bathroom as soon as the bus let out, again making Percy promise to wait for him. Y/N got distracted by the bustling of people and got a bit lost in the waves of people. And Percy, ever the gentleman, neither kept his word to Grover nor stuck with Y/N.
Y/N was a bit irritated at that, but she was going to need to lose them eventually anyways, so it wasn't that much of a loss. The location of Camp Half-Blood written on the business card had been committed to memory, but for now, she was going to find out what was going on. She at last found a map of New York City on some sort of tourist stand and stuck it in her backpack after finding her desired location.
Funny, she was supposed to be avoiding from the wrath of the gods and all that fun stuff, but there she was, standing in the lobby of the Empire State Building— after waiting in a huge line of tourists to get some fast food.
She walked up to the guard at the front desk. "Hello, sir. I need to go to the six hundredth floor."
"That's not a thing, kid," he said, not looking up from his book.
"Sir, I am centuries years old," she said extremely calmly. "I'm Y/N, and I request an audience with the Olympians."
He looked a bit scared, but it turned apologetic. "Olympus is closed right now. Strict orders."
She eyed the keycard on the desk. It looked almost ethereal in itself, shimmering and glowing like a golden ticket. It'd be so easy to steal... but Athena would likely be disappointed in her, and kick her out again if she were there.
"Well, thank you," she said, shortly before exiting the building.
Now that she was back on the streets, she didn't know where to go next. It seemed to just dawned on her where she was. The cars were loud, honking angrily and people were bustling around. Olympus was never this way, she remembered. There was always soft singing and the sound of nature, and the beings were always gracious.
Suddenly, Y/N was reminded about how little she knew about the world, but she picked a direction and began walking. If you look like you know what you're doing, nobody will question you, she remembered. This was the first time she was truly alone. Y/N felt colder now than when she'd visited the Underworld.
She was homesick to say the least, and the people here didn't look keen on helping her find her way around. Panic rose in her chest, scratching up her throat, crushing her lungs.
An older woman stopped her brisk walk to help the random child. "Sweetheart, are you lost?"
"Are you lost?"
Y/N looked up glaring and flushed, embarrassed. "No."
The boy in front of her was short and yet taller than her with sparkling dark oak eyes but light, sun-washed hair. He raised an eyebrow. "Well you seem lost."
She was, but there was no way she was going to admit it to this rude boy. Mimicking him, she responded, "Well I'm not."
She had wandered away from Aphrodite as they'd gone on a little field trip into the country of Greece and found herself in a secluded part of the city.
"What are you doing anyways?" He crossed his arms and tossed a pebble into the stone fountain depicting Poseidon with several oceanic animals.
"Merely visiting," she said shortly, admiring a little dragonfly sitting on Poseidon's foot. She wondered if they knew that their magnificent statue of the old sea god was terribly inaccurate.
"I am Alexander by the way. You're going to want to remember me," he beamed, his obvious narcissism showing through.
Y/N eyed him with a curious look. "And why is that?"
He grabbed another stone from the ground and tossed it in his hands. The strange boy looked right into her soul, smiling matter-of-factly.
"I'm going to be a hero."
"No—uh—thanks," Y/N quickly exclaimed before walking away as quickly and calmly as possible.
After a few blocks, she moved up against a building to catch her breath and allow people to walk past her as she reached in her pocket to open up the map. It took her a moment to, first of all, figure out where she was and then find that on the map. As she was scanning the tiny street names, a light shimmer caught the corner of her eye. She followed the glowing trail on the map, leading to the eastern part of the map. Squinting, she read the names under the end point. A small label appeared under it.
Camp Half-Blood.
She supposed this was Athena's kindest way of telling her that her fleeting moment of freedom was over.
-
It was dark but also warm and calm as Percy and his mom sat outside their cabin in Montauk. The ambiance of the rhythmic crashing of the ocean and the crackling of the fire was lulling him to sleep.
"This girl—Y/N, is it?" Percy's mom started. "You said she started at Yancy after winter break for the second semester?"
"Yeah, what about her..." He asked, his cheeks beginning to burn.
"She seems nice," Mrs. Jackson said simply.
Percy turned his stick to roast the other side of his marshmallow. Experts knew that the best campfire marshmallows are cooked over the low flames and hot coals, slowly to brown the outside and melt the inside.
"She is. She's cool too. It's like she knows everything but not in a snobby way. Dunno why she's friends with me—seems like she could be popular or whatever. But she's really nice to like everyone," he said, warmth spreading across his body before remembering he had gotten himself kicked out of Yancy.
It was likely he'd never see her again even if they tried to stay in touch outside of school. He had given her his landline phone number of the apartment, and Y/N had promised she'd call over the summer. However, he wasn't sure if she'd remember to.
Percy had only known Y/N for a semester—five months— but for some reason he had a feeling that she was someone you'd want to know forever. He wondered if he gave off that sort of atmosphere too.
His mom prepared herself another s'more, smashing her own perfectly cooked marshmallow between graham crackers and chocolate. "You should invite her to do something over the summer. I'd love to meet her."
"I'd like for you to meet her too. I think you'd really like her."
Sally Jackson just smiled her motherly, all-knowing smile.
After a moment, Percy finally got up the courage to ask about his father, which was always in the forefront of his mind whenever they went to Montauk.
"He was kind, Percy," she said softly, her eyes misting over as she gazed at the fire. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."
Percy sighed and nestled further into his seat. His mother always said the same things when she talked about him, but Percy never got tired of hearing the wistful recollection of him.
"I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."
He wondered how she could say that. How could anyone be proud of a dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years? What would his father say if he saw him now?
Percy pressed on, "How old was I? I mean... when he left?"
"He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin." She glanced nostalgically from the campfire to the small cabin and back to the fire.
"But... he knew me as a baby," he inquired.
"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."
Percy tried to align this information with what he already knew, but he could've sworn he remembered something about his father. Maybe a warm glow... a smile? Because of that memory, he'd always assumed that his father had known him as a baby even though his mom had never blatantly said so.
He tried to process this new information in stride but he clenched his fist around the marshmallow stick in annoyance. He'd never even met him. His father had known his mother was going to have a baby, and he didn't even have the guts to stick around.
He felt stupid for letting someone who he has never even met control him so much, but he was angry at him for leaving on that ocean voyage and leaving them behind. With the way his mom talked about him, it made him long for that fairytale life with that kind guy preserved in his mother's memory.
Instead, they were stuck with Smelly Gabe.
___
1529 | unedited
i know this chapter was shorter than the other ones, but the natural break in what i have planned is right there,, sorryyy
also, i'm just kind of slowly revealing more and more of y/n's past bc she's pretty cool if i do say so myself
and idk about y'all but alexander is my bby rn