I wake up. I go over to Percy's bed. "Percy." I shake him. "Percy." I repeat over and over again and keep shaking him. "Oh my gods, you're annoying." Percy sits up. "What did I do?" I say. "You won't be quiet." He says and throws a pillow at me and laughs. I throw it back at him and then I laugh. I sit next to him and turn on the TV. "Man, the news is so boring." I say. I hold out the remote and I'm about to change the channel when Annabeth comes on with a news reporter. "What's she doing on the news?" I ask. "Annabeth Chase, you had something to say?" The news lady says. "Yes. My sister, well, half-sister. She's gone. I can't find her anywhere. Her name's Olivia Trane." Annabeth says.
"And your sister. What does she look like?" The news lady says. "She has blonde hair and grey eyes. I don't know exactly how to describe her." Annabeth says. Then my dad comes on the screen. "Olivia? I saw her! That's my daughter! Some lunatic boy dragged her away!" He says. "Percy Jackson?" Annabeth asks. "Yeah, whatever." He says. "Percy wouldn't do that!" Annabeth says. Annabeth pushes my dad out the screen view. I see tears coming down her face. "Just please help me find my sister. If you see her, contact us or the police or something." Annabeth says. The screen turns blue and big letters at the top say: Missing. It shows one picture of me and then a picture of Percy. Then our names. I cut off the TV. "Annabeth doesn't care about me." Percy laughs. "This is bad." I say. "Why?" He asks. "Well Annabeth's worried. And my dad is out telling people you're a lunatic." I say. "Oh yeah, come on. We should go." Percy says. We get our stuff together, pay, and then leave.
We keep our heads down. I start thinking about Annabeth. A tear slides down my face, and apparently Percy notices. "It's gonna be okay." Percy takes my hand. A person walks in front of us. Percy and I look at her. She's half-woman, half-snake. From the waist up, she looks normal, then look down- she has snake trunk for legs. "That's not good." Percy says. "Hi. We were just leaving." I say. Percy and I start to walk around her. "Olivia Trane." She says. "Who?" I ask. She lunges at me and I fall backwards. I press a button on my ring and turn it into a sword. Percy clicks his pen and it turns into a sword. He swings it at the monster and she turns around. I get up and swing my sword at her. She lunges at Percy at they both fall to the ground. She takes out a knife. "Say good-bye, Percy Jacks-" She begins, but I stick my sword in her back. She explodes into yellowish colored dust all over Percy, me, and the road. "Oh, that's nasty." Percy says.
I pick up her knife that dropped to the road. I hook it to my belt. I press a button and put back on my ring. Percy makes his sword go back into pen form and puts it in his pocket. "Dracaenae." Percy says. "Wow." I say. "Thanks." Percy says. "What?" I ask. "For saving me." I say. "Oh, it was nothing." I smile. I wipe off some of the dust off of my clothes and Percy does the same with his. We start walking. "Okay, so how'd she know me?" I ask. "Maybe she knows you through the voice." Percy says. "Why did she want to hurt us?" I ask. "We're demigods." He says. "But why us?" I ask. "The son of Poseidon and the daughter of Athena, together- unguarded by anything. To monsters, it's like yelling, 'Come get us!'" He says. I laugh. "So where are we gonna go, if we can't go back?" I ask. "Well, I don't know. First, we need to figure out what the 'prize' is." Percy says.
"So you're sure you don't know?" Percy asks. I stop walking and close my eyes. A prize? A prize. The prize. I think. I try to remember any prize. I open my eyes and start walking again. "I won a fish at a carnival that I snuck into one time." I say. "I don't think something evil wants your fish." He says. "Good, because I had to flush him when I was 12." I say. Percy laughs. "Okay, so, then no. I have no idea what prize it's talking about it." I say. "Okay, anything else that you forgot to tell me yesterday?" He asks. I close my eyes again, remembering my dream. I'm definitely not telling him about the part about him. "Oh! It said I had to bring it the prize at the Empire State Building on the Summer Solstice. What's that?" I ask. "Man. The Summer Solstice is the first day of Summer. June 21st." Percy says. "What's today?" I ask. Percy shrugs.
I check my pocket for my phone. I open my phone. "Today is... June 15." I say. "6 days." Percy says. "I'm guessing that's a bad thing." I say. "Well unless we can figure out and get the prize before then, then probably, yes." Percy says. I fix my beanie. "Did it say anything about what would happen if you did get it? Anything bad? And are we even sure it's evil?" He asks. "No it didn't. I don't think it's evil, but I think it's planning something bad. Like... as revenge." I say. "On what?" Percy says. "I don't know." I say. "Okay, so.. what did the voice sound like?" He asks. "A man, definitely." I say. "I guess it was kind of deep." I say. "A deep, man voice. I don't know who it is." Percy says. I take out an apple from our backpack from yesterday. "Want one?" I ask Percy. He nods and I hand him one. We eat them. I put the backpack back on.
"Let me carry it." Percy says. "No." I say. "You've been carrying it, forever. Come on, Olivia. It's okay." He says. "No." I say. "Yes." Percy says. He starts trying to take the backpack off of me. "No." I laugh. "Yes, Olivia." He laughs. I start walking faster. "Oh, come on, Olivia." He says and catches up with me. "No." I say. He tries again and doesn't succeed. So he holds the the top hand-strap as we walk. "Come on, dude. Let go." I say. "Then give me the bag." Percy says. "No." I laugh again. He stops holding the hand-strap and steps in front of me. "Move, Percy." I say. "Give me the bag." He says. I try to walk around him but he blocks me. He puts his arms around me and spins me around. I giggle. I end up right in front of him. He smiles at me and I smile back. "I think we should go, it's getting late." I say. We start walking again and then he gets the backpack and laughs. "Yay." He says. "I'm carrying it in the morning." I say. "We'll see about that." He says.
We walk and then I see lots of trees. "Want to sleep in the woods, tonight?" I ask. "You sure it's safe?" Percy asks. "Safe? If you wanted safe, you should've stayed at Camp Half-Blood." I say. He laughs. "I'd love to be eating that awesome camp food, but I guess it's fun to just hang out with you, you know?" Percy says. "But what happens when this is over?" I ask. "It'll still be fun to hang out with you." Percy says. We start walking towards the woods. We put our stuff down. "You okay?" He asks. "No, actually. I have a question..." I say. "What is it?" He asks. "When it's over, what happens to us?" I ask. He stays silent for a second and does something completely unexpected- he kisses me. "I don't know the future, but we can live in the present." Percy says. "And what do you want in the present?" I ask. "I want to be with you." He says.
I smile. "So that's a yes to being in a relationship?" Percy asks. I nod. I hug him. I climb up in the tree and he tosses me a blanket. He settles below the tree while I settle on a branch. "Do you think Annabeth will be mad when she finds out?" I ask. "No, but if she is. We probably won't see her for a while anyway. We don't have to worry about that yet." He says. "Right." I say. "Grover will be happy." I say. I check my phone. "Speaking of Grover." I say. 10 messages from GROVER. I check each one. "He text you?" Percy asks. "Ten times." I say. All ten saying the same thing: WE'RE ALL WORRIED. WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU WITH PERCY? PERCY LEFT HIS PHONE. WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU OKAY? OLIVIA, TEXT BACK. YOUR BEST FRIEND IS WORRIED. WHERE ARE YOU? "I'll text him back tomorrow." I say. "Night." Percy yawns. "Night." I say. I go to sleep.
