Through Annabeth's Mind: Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief (Annabeth's POV)

15) I'm blinded by cheeseburgers

An amazing start to our quest; walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monsters and blown up by lightning, and it was raining on top of everything else. Most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.

So there we were, Grover, Percy and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.

Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror.

"Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

Percy looked shocked too, as if he was reliving the explosion over and over. I, on the other hand, tried to forget about it and move on. Someone had to keep going.

"Come on! The farther away we get, the better."

"All our money was back there," Percy complained. "Our food and clothes. Everything."

"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—"

"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?" he cut me off.

"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."

"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."

"Shut up, goat boy," I said, annoyed.

Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans . . . a perfectly good bag of tin cans."

I sighed.

He should have got off the bus, I'm sure Grover and I would have found a way out. I've trained enough to be able to take care of myself. Right? I slowly approached Percy.

"Look, I . . ." my voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."

"We're a team, right?"

Yeah, I guess we are. The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Percy except a glint of his shiny eyes. I hesitated.

"It's just that if you died . . . aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."

"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" he asked.

"No . . . only short field trips. My dad—", I faltered. Only Chiron, Grover and Luke knew about it. But I thought that after Percy risked his life for us, I could maybe open up a bit with him.

"The history professor."

"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home."

I started panicking a bit, but I wanted to get it off my chest, I needed to tell someone.

"At camp, you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not," I said, doubtfully.

"You're pretty good with that knife"

"You think so?" I cautiously asked.

"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."

The corners of my lips moved upwards by themselves. Maybe Percy wasn't that bad, after all. I thought about the dream, which was more like a nightmare.