Later Life - 1 : A New Camper (Heroes of Olympus)

1 | Other Friends

[ANNABETH]

I was happy I had new friends. I had more than just demigods for friends now. If my demigod friends got in danger, I had to go save them. Even though loyalty wasn't my fatal flaw, it didn't mean I didn't care about my friends. But having mortals as friends was more wonderful than I thought it'd be. They had worries and troubles, too, but compared to what I had in my life, it was nothing. They had worries about clothes, their little brothers, their hair (okay, fine. I don't like my hair, either. But that's because there's this thing about dumb blonde and I'm a daughter of Athena!), and their crushes.

Anyways, my mortal friends that help me have a normaler life: Becky Stinton, a girl who cared about her clothes the most, Kristina Bummerman - or Kristy, as we called her - who thought all her bad luck came from her last name (she was extraordinarily like Piper, the prettiness and the bad luck), Jack Sumer, who liked history and loved that his last name was 'Sumer', the earliest civilization, located in Mesopotamia, Billy Cranis, who loved food and insisted his last name was as special as Jack's because it needed just a few changes to become 'cracker', and Michael Rogers, a tall, blonde guy with sparkling blue eyes, who reminded me of Jason but never could get his aura.

I didn't mention Piper or Jason to them, of course. In fact, I didn't mention anything about my past. I reckoned it was the safe way. They were curious about it, but I shrugged it off everytime.

I was at my small house in London, England. I had decided I should try studying in England. Though it was very dangerous for me since London was very far away from Camp Half-Blood, Chiron agreed that I had grown into a powerful demigod, and I didn't need as much protection as I had needed a year ago. Besides, Percy could travel by the sea fast, so could Jason in the air, and Frank could change into a horse (of course, Chiron was originally a horse, so that really didn't count much as an advantage), and we were the seven; we were always here for each other.

It's been a month since I left Camp Half-Blood. Only a few monsters attacked me till now, and it wasn't that hard to get rid of them. Everytime Percy Iris-messaged me (which was nearly everyday), I told him I was doing great, but the truth - I kind of missed camp and my friends. I considered going back. Percy was in camp, too, not in Sally's house. Jason, Hazel, and Frank were in Camp Jupiter, and Piper and Leo were in along with Percy, though Piper visited Camp Jupiter a lot to see Jason, as I heard from Percy. So basically - everyone of the seven except for me were in camp. After a week of rest, everyone had come back to camp to start their activities. I was the only one out of camp, in England, studying with mortals.

Today, Billy, Jack, and Michael were having a boys night and were going to watch the new Spider Man movie. The girls - Becky and Kristina - were going to have a sleepover. They invited me, too, but I rejected politely. I didn't want to miss Percy's Iris-message, and I wasn't that much of a fan of sleepovers, either.

As if on cue, an Iris-message came from Percy.

"Hey, Wise Girl." he grinned his signature grin. He was in Cabin 3, sitting on his bunk bed with Leo next to him.

"What's Leo doing there?" I asked.

"I needed company," he said. Leo gave him a mischievous look. "And Leo thinks you'd need some super-sized McShizzle to cheer yourself up."

I stared in amazement at Leo.

"How'd you know I needed cheering up?"

"Uh, you did?" Percy said, not sure who he was talking to.

"Yup, you know it. The great Leo Valdez."

I chuckled.

"What's up, Wise Girl?" Percy asked me. I tried to say, "Nothing" and shrug it off like usual, but I saw Percy's worried eyebrows and snorted.