The Forgotten Olympian |BOOK 1| PJO X HP | Alexandra Marine

Chapter 14 - Alex - Bunking Classes Before They Begin

Remember what Paul said about me going to Goode High School? Well, I was excited. So excited that I'd packed all my books, a large suitcase full of clothes, a pair of shoes other than my clean squeaky new looking sneakers, and of course, I'd read each and every one of the books I'd gotten to study. I'd gone through extra books about AP Calculus and Economics.

But I didn't have the time to remember all of that. Not with me falling into eternal sleep and waking up at God knows where and then being chased by human looking- snake-haired monsters that were mainly after Percy but didn't mind having Alexandra for Appetizer as well.

The snake haired ladies were starting to annoy us. They should have died three days ago when we dropped a crate of bowling balls on them at the Napa Bargain Mart. They should have died two days ago when Percy ran over them with a police car in Martinez. They definitely should have died that morning when I sliced off their heads in Tilden Park.

No matter how many times we killed them and watched them crumble to powder, they just kept re-forming like large evil dust bunnies. We couldn't even seem to outrun them.

Panting, we reached the top of the hill.

"How long has it been?" asked Percy.

"Maybe two hours," I answered, panting still, but the trident was read yin my hand.

Percy, even with his toughened skin that seemed to have come from nowhere, was starting to feel completely worn out. It was thanks to him that I wasn't dead either. He had done me the favour of carrying me once in a while when I passed out.

I looked around. Farther west, San Francisco Bay glittered under a silvery haze. Past that, a wall of fog had swallowed most of San Francisco, leaving just the tops of skyscrapers and the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Percy frowned. The city had some connection to Annabeth—the only person he could remember from his past. Apparently, his memory of her was frustratingly dim. The wolf had promised he would see her again and regain his memory—if he succeeded in his journey. As for me, she promised family, she'd promised I'd see Mom, the only person I could remember. If Mom was real, then so was Annabeth.

He looked towards the shore. "Maybe we could drown the gorgons. We're best at sea," he said.

"Yeah sure," I said, "But the shore is at least two miles away. We' d have to cross an entire city. Also, I don't feel like we should leave."

"Lupa told us to trust our instinct."

"I can feel it. It's here."

He frowned. A moment later, he sniffed the air. And then he turned purple. I turned around. A hundred yards down the slope, something rustled through the woods—snapping branches, crunching leaves, hissing.

Gorgons.

"God, I wish they couldn't smell," Percy muttered.

I smirked. "Maybe you just stink too much," I said, holding my trident at the ready as we scrambled to the west side of the summit.

"Hey," Percy exclaimed defensively. "If I stink, then you do too. You're my sister."

"Half," I corrected. It was too steep to descend. The slope plummeted eighty feet, straight to the roof of an apartment complex built into the hillside. Fifty feet below that, a highway emerged from the hill's base and wound its way toward Berkeley.

"Great. No other way off the hill," Percy said. Cars went in and out through the hill.

"Wait!" both of us exclaimed at the same time. "Tunnel!"

But we had nothing that would serve as a parachute or a sled. That left us two options: jump eighty feet to our death, or stand and fight. Both options sounded pretty bad.

Percy cursed and pulled his pen from his pocket.

Right next to him, a familiar voice came. "There you are!" I jumped sideways, and Percy stumbled along with me, almost falling of the edge. I gave him a supporting push to front my my long trident.

It was the smiley one—Beano.

Okay, her name wasn't really Beano. It was Stheno, but that's what Percy and I could figure out real quick with the dyslexia and all.

She was still wearing her green Bargain Mart employee vest over a flower-print dress. She had rooster feet, and bronze boar tusks sticking out of the corners of her mouth. Her eyes glowed red, and her hair was a writhing nest of bright green snakes.

The most horrible thing about her? She was still holding her big silver platter of free samples: Crispy Cheese 'n' Wieners. Her platter was dented from all the times we'd killed her, but those little samples looked perfectly fine. Stheno just kept toting them across California so she could offer us a snack before she killed us.

"Try one?" Stheno offered.

Percy fended her off with his sword. "Where's your sister?"

"Oh, put the sword away," Stheno chided. "You know by now that even Celestial bronze can't kill us for long. Have a Cheese 'n' Wiener! They're on sale this week, and I'd hate to kill you on an empty stomach."

"That's nice of you," I said, eyeing the monster, my trident almost close to her neck. "But I think I'm going vegan after all of this."

"Stheno!" The second gorgon appeared on Percy's right so fast, he didn't have time to react. Fortunately she was too busy glaring at her sister to pay us much attention. "I told you to sneak up on them and kill them!"

Stheno's smile wavered. "But, Euryale... Can't I give him a sample first?"

"No, you imbecile!" Euryale turned toward Percy and bared her fangs.

Except for her hair, which was a nest of coral snakes instead of green vipers, she looked exactly like her sister. Her Bargain Mart vest, her flowery dress, even her tusks were decorated with 50% off stickers. Her name badge read: Hello! My name is DIE, DEMIGOD SCUM!

"You've led us on quite a chase, Percy Jackson," Euryale said. "But now you're trapped, and we'll have our revenge! Starting with your sweet sister here-"

"The Cheese 'n' Wieners are only $2. 99," Stheno added helpfully. "Grocery department, aisle three."

Euryale snarled. "Stheno, the Bargain Mart was a front! You're going native! Now, put down that ridiculous tray and help me kill this demigod." She pointed at me "Or have you forgotten that he's the one who vaporized Medusa?"

Medusa? I looked at Percy, and he shrugged.

"Look, ladies, we've been over this. I don't even remember killing Medusa. I don't remember anything! Can't we just call a truce and talk about your weekly specials?" Percy suggested.

Stheno gave her sister a pouty look, which was hard to do with giant bronze tusks. "Can we?"

"No!" Euryale's red eyes bored into Percy. "I don't care what you remember, son of the sea god. I can smell Medusa's blood on you. It's faint, yes, several years old, but you were the last one to defeat her. She still has not returned from Tartarus. It's your fault!"

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