¹𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐄𝐋 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑 ━ 𝗽. 𝗷𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀𝗼𝗻

010

⋆ ˚｡⋆ʚ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐄𝐍 ɞ⋆ ˚｡⋆
─── ❛ the ride of love ❜ ───

NOTHING WENT WELL.

once they were down, grover and isabella started to freak out.

"he's dead."

"totally dead."

"nobody's dead!" annabeth screamed. her two friends fell silent, but their eyes had the same expression, worry.

"i mean, that lady really gave weird vibes." the brunette said, playing with her ring.

"yeah," grover said. "we shouldn't have left him alone."

annabeth rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"he's fin—"

SPLASH!

a loud noise kept the three friends' attention.

they hurried to see what happened just to be surprised by the sight of percy coming out of the water completely dry, as expected.

the girls and satyr ran over to their friend. "perrr-cy!"

percy turned and got tackled by grover's bear hug- or goat hug. "we thought you'd gone to hades the hard way!" he said.

annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see him. "we can't leave you alone for five minutes! what happened?"

"i sort of fell."

"percy!" now was isabella's turn to scream at the boy. "six hundred and thirty feet?"

her eyes met his, blue and brown irises facing each other. she let out a sigh and hugged him only to be shyly hugged back.

when they separated a final look was given.

behind them, a cop shouted. "gangway!" the crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. she was saying. "and then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing chihuahua—"

"okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "just calm down. your family is fine. the medication is starting to kick in."

"i'm not crazy! this boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." then she spotted percy. "there he is! that's the boy!"

shit.

percy turned quickly and pulled isabella, annabeth and grover after him. they disappeared into the crowd.

"what's going on?" annabeth demanded. "was she talking about the chihuahua on the elevator?"

he told them the whole story of a chimera, echidna, his high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.

"whoa." said grover. "we've got to get you to santa monica! you can't ignore a summons from your dad."

before isabella could say anything, they passed another reporter doing a news break, and they almost froze in their tracks when he said. "percy jackson. that's right, dan. channel twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious new jersey bus accident three days ago. and the boy is believed to be traveling west. for our viewers at home, here is a photo of percy jackson."

they ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.

"first things first," percy told grover. "we've got to get out of town!"

somehow, they made it back to the amtrak station without getting spotted. the four friends got on board the train just before it pulled out for denver. the train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the st. louis skyline behind them.