FREE FALLING | percy jackson

iii. one goat, two goat, three goat

PERCY JACKSON

Percy led Hana further through the camp and Percy purposefully walked a step in front of the girl so he wouldn't have to look at her because she was seriously distracting with the entire Aphrodite blessing thing she had going on. Even before the blessing, the girl was pretty, no doubt about it. But she was a different kind of pretty than the other girls he knew. She wasn't the kind of pretty that was all up in your face and over the top. Instead, she was the kind of pretty that makes people do double takes because it caught them by surprise to see such a pretty girl. The kind where it seems like the whole world stops just at the sight of her. Because you look at her and wow, you couldn't unsee it. That is certainly what happened to Percy the first time he saw her with Rachel. But now that she had Aphrodite's blessing, it was like everything about her was magnified, every little movement caught his eye and it was driving him crazy.

Hana was a slim Asian girl who stood just below his nose. Her posture was tall, like she was constantly reaching to be just a little bit taller and her bangs always covered a little bit of her eyes, no matter how often she brushed them out of her face.

But, even as distracted as he was since being next to her, talking to Hana was so easy. It felt like they had been friends for longer than just a day. Not even, since nine in the morning. So when he was laughing with her as she offered her hand and did a formal curtsy like he was a few moments ago, everything felt like he didn't have a terrible prophecy above his head that determined the result of doomsday.

"M'Lady," she said, giggling as he took her hand when they were still sitting at the campfire.

"Thank you, M'Lord," Percy replied, in an equally formal way that would have been totally embarrassing if it wasn't just the two of them.

Then Hana looked away, she did this often, Percy noticed, when she was trying to hide a smile or a laugh. But in reality, it made it more obvious but Percy didn't say that outloud.

When she regained her composure, Hana asked, "So, do I get a fancy pen-sword too? Or am I expected to fight off monsters with band instruments?"

Percy pretended to think for a minute, "I think you were pretty good with the band instruments."

Then, Percy felt a small jab in his side and Hana looked at him seriously, "That's the wrong answer."

He grinned at her, "I'm only joking, Hana. Calm down."

Hana ignored his comment and that brought them to the present moment with Percy walking to the arena, purposefully walking a step in front of the girl.

"So what kind of weapon do you think would fit me best?" Hana asked, "I'm thinking maybe a sword, something similar to yours I would think. After all, I was so good with it at Goode—"

"—You lit the place of fire," Percy interjected.

Percy didn't notice the way her face dimmed a little bit, "Yeah what happened with that? I thought the monsters were supposed to turn into golden dust."

He shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe she just wanted to make a scene or something. And don't worry by the way, my mom has got to have some sort of way to convince Paul to let me back and I'll make sure you get cleared too."

Yet, Percy wasn't sure, despite his confident claims. In all honesty, Percy didn't know how his mom was going to explain what happened to Paul. Afterall, they wanted to tell him about Percy's godly parent later, when his mom's and Paul's relationship wasn't so new. He and Hana kind of blew the cover of being at least somewhat normal when they ran from the fire. Doing the most suspicious thing they possibly could've done.