haunting ＊ percy jackson

i. what a great start to summer (not)

To say that Percy was eager for the school year to end would be an understatement. He'd like to say that it was purely due to excitement, but truthfully, it was mostly because he was feeling uneasy. The school year started pretty alright for the most part. Sure, the school itself kind of sucked, and Percy found himself longing for his friends more often than not, but it wasn't terrible. He had a new friend — Tyson, who Percy just couldn't help but like — and he had kept his promise of keeping in touch with his friends from camp... sort of.

Things had started great, with weekly IMs, and pictures sent in the mail, but a few weeks ago, right as May was nearing its end, that had stopped. Percy didn't know why, all he knew was that one week everything was fine, and the next Amos was telling him that they should stop their weekly calls.

"It-It's not bad," Amos said unconvincingly, looking guilty as he glanced off to the side like someone was telling him what to say. "I'm really sorry, Percy. Annabeth and I talked and she said it'd be better if we put things on pause for now. As soon as you get back we'll explain everything, I swear. We- I just can't right now."

Admittedly, Percy hadn't taken that very well, arguing with his friend before ending the call abruptly out of anger. He was really hurt by the whole thing. In his mind, things had been going perfectly between the three of them. Sure, they missed and worried about Grover, but the three demigods had never let that hinder their friendship. If anything it made them stronger. Their friendship and their weekly calls had been one of the only bright spots in the otherwise bland existence his life had been since starting school. To find out that things not only hadn't been fine but that they were bad enough for his friends to abruptly cut contact without warning stung.

There was also the fact that it was Amos giving him the news. One of his best friends, the first friend he made at camp. That part probably hurt him the most, not to mention the sharp burst of resentment and jealousy he felt at Amos' explanation. Annabeth and I talked, he had said. Part of him, an embarrassing, envious part of him, couldn't help but focus on those words. It was one thing to find out that something strange was going on with his friends — something they wanted to keep him in the dark about — it was another to discover that they were hanging out without him, plotting and making plans that left Percy out of the loop. He knew it was childish, but Percy couldn't help the bitter train of thought his mind had followed. I should be the one he talks to about things. I was his friend first.

Percy had felt a similar childish jealousy when he had received a picture of Amos in the lake, learning how to swim. On the back of the polaroid, in scratchy handwriting that Percy had glared at for what felt like ages, was Ethan's handwriting, saying that he was the one who had taken the picture. I'm the son of Poseidon, Percy had thought, borderline pouting at the image, Why didn't he ask me to teach him?

Needless to say, he had begun to realize he had a bit of an issue. When he talked about it with his mom, she simply shook her head at him, like there was some secret she knew that he was oblivious to. "It'll make sense," Sally Jackson said, smiling at her son lovingly. She brushed a piece of hair out of his face, "Just give it some time. You'll figure it out." Percy still wasn't completely sure what she meant by that, but he was beginning to think he might be able to put together the pieces of the puzzle. (And if he found himself staring at that picture of Amos more often than was probably normal, well that wasn't anyone's business).

So yeah, the last month he had been forced to spend in school, cut off from all his friends from camp and plagued by strange dreams of Grover, had been pretty miserable. Percy was more than ready for it to be over. He felt a bit bad when he thought about Tyson and what he'd do in Percy's absence, though. Tyson was homeless, a community service project for his prep school, which prided themselves on how generous and progressive they were. (It was a grim fact in and of itself, that they had only taken Tyson in to make themselves look better. It made Percy think about just how many other kids like him were out on the street). His hope — which he hadn't exactly discussed with his mother, but that he was sure she'd agree with — was that while he was at camp, his mother might be able to watch out for his friend. A part of him did feel guilty for the fact that he would essentially abandon Tyson for the summer, but it wasn't as though Percy could miss out on camp. Besides the fact that his friends were there — friends that he fully intended on interrogating as soon as he returned to figure out what they were hiding from him — camp was also the only safe place for him; he wasn't exactly trying to lead monsters back to the apartment he shared with his mother.