The Last Olympian: Apollo's Daughter

So Much For Normal

The end of the world started when a pegasus landed on the hood of my mom's car.

Up until then, I was having a great afternoon. My mom had come all the way from San Fransico to New York to be closer... and it was a bonus that this meant I could see more of Percy outside of camp. She had quit her job at the SFPD, had been offered a job at the NYPD but turned it down, and was now doing what she truly loved: Working as a Vet Tech at a clinic on 83rd Street. She was finally happy and it made me happy.

It was nice having her here. I'd miss going back to Texas with Will every fall but we promised that if we survived this year he'd come and spend Thanksgiving with me and my mother, then go back home for Christmas.

But I'm getting sidetracked.

We were currently on a private strip of South Shore with Percy, his mom Sally, and Paul Blofis, who was now happily married into the Jackson family. 

Percy and I had offered to drive to the small store a few blocks away to get some more graham crackers for the s'mores (Blue marshmallows of course) we'd be making later into the evening. Seeing as Percy had apparently gotten hungry on the drive there and ate them all.

So we had climbed into my mom's steel grey Jeep Wrangler and were now driving down the bumpy beachside road. Percy leaned on his elbow out the open window, one hand on the steering wheel and the other hanging lazily in the ocean breeze.

He was wearing dark navy blue swim trunks and a white surfer-style tank top with a hammerhead shark logo over the right side of his chest. His messy ink-black hair rustled gently in the warm August breeze and his camp necklace hung around his neck. A small seashell I had given him had been tied between two of the three camp beads. Seeing it made me smile.

I reached my hand over, gently tangling my fingers in his jet black hair as he drove us down the beachside road. He smiled and glanced over at me before returning his eyes to the hot asphalt. "What?" He asked with that grin of his.

"Nothing," I said looking out my open window at the vast ocean. "This is just," I paused, my own smile growing as I relished in the calm and normalcy of this moment. "Nice. Very, very nice." I concluded.

Percy chuckled and removed his hand from the breeze so he could take the wheel and switch hands. His once occupied hand rested on my knee, giving it a gentle squeeze. I smiled, leaning back against my seat. This moment felt almost too good to be true. 

"What are you doing?" Percy asked with a smile as he watched me turn over the shoulder of my seat and fumble around with a bag in the backseat.

"Living in the moment silly!" I said with a wide smile, pulling out a bright yellow ukulele that had been hand-painted with crisp white paint. There was a painted sun that rimmed the soundhole, the headstock had two small dolphins painted at the top. On the curve of the body written in greek was the name of my father: Apollo. On the back painted in black was a prayer of music. I strummed gently on the nylon strings.

We drove for a few minutes listening to the soft strums, the laughing gulls, and the calming crash of ocean waves. 

"Oh! Let's stop at that outlook! It looked really nice on the drive in!" I pointed off down the road to the sign that pointed to a small empty sandy parking lot. 

"What about the store?" Percy asked, his dark brows knitting a bit.

"Oh, come on! We have plenty of time before we actually need the graham crackers, which I remind you we wouldn't need to go get if you hadn't gotten hungry." I said with a smirk. Percy chuckled and nodded, turning the wheel and pulling into the parking lot.