Daughter Of Lightning - Book 1(Percy Jackson x OC fanfic)

CHAPTER 34

(Ella's POV)

It’s funny how humans can wrap their mind around things into their version of reality. According to the L.A. news, the explosion at the Santa Monica beach was caused when a crazy kidnapper fired a shotgun at a police car & accidentally hit the gas main that was ruptured during the earthquake.

This crazy kidnapper (a.k.a. Ares) was the same man who had abducted Percy & three other adolescents in New York & brought us across country on a ten-day odyssey of terror. Poor Percy wasn’t an international criminal after all. He’d caused a commotion on that Greyhound bus in New Jersey trying to get away from his captor (& afterward, witnesses would even swear they had seen the leather-clad man on the bus-"Why didn’t I remember him before?"). The crazy man had caused the explosion in the St. Louis Arch. After all, no kid could've done that.

A concerned waitress in Denver had seen the man threatening his abductees outside her diner, gotten a friend to take a photo, & notified the police. Finally, brave Percy Jackson had stolen a gun from his captor in Los Angeles & battled him shotgun-to-rifle on the beach. Police had arrived just in time. But in the spectacular explosion, five police cars had been destroyed & the captor had fled. No fatalities occurred.

Percy Jackson & his three friends were safely in police custody. The reporters fed us this whole story. We just nodded & acted tearful & exhausted (which wasn’t hard), & played victimized kids for the cameras.

"All I want," Percy said, choking back his tears, "is to see my loving stepfather again. Every time I saw him on TV, calling me a delinquent punk, I knew... somehow...we would be okay. And I know he’ll want to reward each & every person in this beautiful city of Los Angeles with a free major appliance from his store. Here’s the phone number."

The police & reporters were so moved that they passed around a hat & raised money for four tickets for a plane to New York.

I knew Percy was reluctant to travel through my dad's domain. I kept telling him that it'd be fine & that dad wouldn't do anything as long as I was there. But it was still hard for him to board the flight. Takeoff was a nightmare for him & he didn’t even unclench his hands from the armrests till we touched down safely at La Guardia.

The local press was waiting for us outside security, but we managed to evade them when Annie & I lured them away by turning invisible, shouting, "They’re over by the frozen yogurt! Come on!" then rejoined the boys at baggage claim.

We split up at the taxi stand. Percy told Annie, Grover & I to get back to camp & let Chiron know what happened. We protested, it was hard to let him go after all we’d been through. We turned to leave. Grover & Annie walked ahead while I trailed behind them. We were a few feet away when a voice called out.

"Nora!" We stopped. I turned around to see Percy running towards me. He ran so fast that he crashed into me making us both fall to the ground with him landing on top of me.

I winced a bit from the impact because my ribs still hadn't healed completely. I saw Grover & Annie staring at us in confusion.

Percy quickly got up apologising over & over again. I calmly told him that I was fine.

"What's up, Perce?" I asked. He hesitated.

I look back to see Grover & Annie still standing there. I motioned for them to go on without me. Grover nods in understanding, but Annie looks at me, her eyes silently asking if I'll be okay. I nodded giving her a reassuring smile. She smiled back & went after Grover. I turn back to Percy to find him already looking at me.

"I know this sounds stupid..." he starts.

"But you wanna know if I'll come with you to Olympus, right?" I finished.