Pegasus and the Mirrored Ones

Chapter 22

Emily's POV:

[TW: swearing below]

Shit. Shit shit shit. I really shouldn't have done that. Typical of me to go all selfless main character on people I barely now. Ughhhh sometimes I really hate my life. Soon the demigods will come for me demanding why, and how, I protected Annabeth from a very enraged son of Vulcan. Or Hephaestus, whatever.

Meanwhile I was staying in my old apartment and trying to think of a way to stop the situation from escalating further. I slammed my head onto the wooden table in the kitchen. I looked down and saw a crack running down the surface. Fffffffffffuck.

I wonder what the demigods are doing. Probably bonding over their sad lives.

Leo's POV:

We were most certainly not bonding. On one side of the room Annabeth was sitting cross legged, still shaken from the turn of events. A part of me was filled with self hatred, but the other? It wanted the other 6 to fear me. Guilt dropped into my stomach like a heavy rock. Oh gods, Emily. She must have taken the brunt of my rage. I ran out of the room to find Cameron sitting on the kitchen table swinging his legs. I envied his happy-go-lucky expression and slightly resented his for it.

"Hey Cameron," I said cheerily.

"Hola soy Dora." He said simply, "The only Spanish I ever knew."

"Oh um okay? Do you know where Emily is?" I said nervously.

"Yes."

"Oh good. Where is she then?"

"Nunya." Again with the one word answers.

"I'm sorry what?"

"She doesn't want to talk to any of you lot."

"What do you mean?"

"You really are clueless are you? She doesn't want to talk to demigods."

"Is she at least in New York?"

"Yes, now go away."

I left Cameron, feeling confused. Where was Emily if she wasn't at home but in New York? I wandered upstairs into my room, and sat on the bed. Eventually my eyes began to close and I fell onto my side asleep.

Annabeth's POV:

Emily hadn't come back after she 'saved' me from Leo. It wasn't like Leo to react like that, so I knew that Emily had somehow either manipulated him or was mind controlling him. Cameron refused to tell us where she was; only that Emily didn't want to talk to us. Typical of her to be the centre of attention. Nobody cared that I had nearly died. Nobody cared about anything other than darling Emily now. Hopefully when I go down for breakfast, Emily will have left a note saying that she wasn't continuing the quest with us.

I ran down the stairs eagerly. Annndddd just round the corner, talking animatedly to Caedmon was the one and only Ms Jacobs. Of course I had to jinx it.

At the sound of my footsteps Cameron and Emily turned around to face me. "Annabeth!" Emily smiled, trying to be all friendly and caring. "How are you?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Fine, thanks."

Cameron groaned. Emily patted his arm gently. "Don't worry you'll be fine."

I was confused until I saw the calendar taped to the fridge. There in Emily's neat cursive were the dreaded words 'SCHOOL YEAR BEGINS'. She even underlined it! Fuck my demigod life.

Percy's POV:

Great. Just great. Not only did we have to go through all that drama with Leo and Emily yesterday, but today we had our first day of school. I was even more determined this time to not blow the school up and to last at least a day there. At least there would be Paul there. And all of my demigod friends would be there too. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as it seemed.

I noticed that Emily kept on wringing her hands and fingering a sliver bangle on her left wrist. She was dressed differently too, with a beige knitted jumper and baggy white trousers. A twisted silver pin pushed some of her hair to the side. Annabeth kept on glaring at her, twisting her Yankees cap.

The seven, Cameron and Emily walked in silence to school. My heart started beating quickly as I scanned the area for any monsters disguised as cheerleaders. I breathed a sigh of relief: no monsters.

Emily walked through the open door and towards the school reception. She cleared her throat. "Hello we're the new students. Can we have our timetables please?"

The receptionist had a tight brown bun on the top of her head and thick black rectangular glasses. I wondered how girls could create hairstyles like that, and how they had the patience. Does it not hurt having your hair slowly being pulled out?

I mentally slapped myself. No daydreaming Percy! We have school to do. I focused on the receptionist's sharp voice. She eventually handed our timetables over and asked if we needed a buddy. We all shook our heads. If we had to navigate this maze, then we'd navigate it together. Wow that was a cringey sentence.

I glanced at my timetable. The words danced along the page I could identify that my first class was English. We split up, with Annabeth, Cameron, Emily and me trying to find the English corridor. After what seemed like hours of wandering we arrived at the correct classroom with minutes to spare.

Cameron opened the door to see Paul getting ready to teach the class. His salt and pepper hair was smoothed down and he wore the aquamarine and silver tie that I had bought him for Christmas. He turned to see the four of us trying to enter the classroom at the same time. He grinned at me and Annabeth. "Percy and Annabeth! Nice to see you two. Who are your friends?"

Emily and Cameron introduced themselves and Paul guided them to their seats near the windows. He placed me and Annabeth nearer to the front so we could see the board clearer.

Somehow I managed to remain focused and at the end of the class, I walked up to Paul. "So," Paul said. "Where have you been? Your mum was confused to receive a message from your camp director that you weren't coming home." Of course Paul still didn't know about my life at CHB and my active role in saving the Gods' lazy butts on a daily basis. We talked about random things with Annabeth. As the bell rang signalling for the next class Paul grabbed my arm. "Why don't you and your friends visit your mum after school? We can use it as a chance to know your friends better?" I nodded my head and said a quick "See you later," before dashing off to my next class.

I didn't even know what my next class was.