The Greatest || Percy Jackson

"What the-" BEEEEEEPP

Maddox woke up so the sound of explosions on the TV. She sat up and turned it off, enjoying the silence afterword. She was bored and she didn't know what to do.

Maddox walked into the kitchen, longing for a snack of some sort. Her gaze fell on a pack of pepperonis sitting on the counter. The pack was slightly open, and the pepperonis inside looked a bit wilted, but Maddox didn't care. She grabbed a handful and popped a few into her mouth, savoring their salty, spicy flavor. She munched on them absentmindedly, smiling to herself, fully aware that pepperonis were irresistibly addicting.

After finishing her impromptu snack, Maddox ascended the stairs to her room with a sense of purpose. The soft, pale pink of the walls was nearly obscured by a chaotic collage of pencil drawings, each page meticulously taped and pinned in an overlapping frenzy. The room was a sanctuary for her creative spirit, the vibrant disarray a testament to countless hours spent lost in art.

She took a seat at her desk, the cool wood inviting her to translate her emotions into a drawing. With a sigh, she reached for her notebook, hoping to capture the rush of feelings swirling within her. Yet, as she flipped it open, the pages stared back at her, stark and unforgivingly blank.

For two long hours, Maddox sat there, the silence stretching out as she wrestled with her thoughts. The emotions she was experiencing—an intricate mix of excitement, confusion, and anticipation—felt too overwhelming to distill into words. The recent events in her life seemed so far removed from her usual reality that translating them into shapes felt nearly impossible. The normal flow of inspiration eluded her, leaving her grappling with an intangible sense of disconnection.

A knock on her door jolted her out of her thoughts.  She sighed and got up from her seat at the desk, having gotten nothing done, and walked over to the door. She opened it a bit, peaking outside before fully opening the door to her dad.

He held a bottle of beer in his hand, and his eyelids were half closed. Obviously, he had had ten too many beers and was fighting the battle of staying awake to finish another.

"There's a scrawny kid at the door," he deadpanned.

Maddox furrowed her eyebrows. A scrawny kid? Why was there a random scrawny kid at her door. Her steps echoed down the stairs as she made her way to the door.

In the living room, her two brothers, Garrett and Russel, wrestled each other for the remote to the TV.

She opened the door, prepared to question the person who had called. She stopped when she saw that the person at the door was her friend from Yancy Academy; it was Grover.

She was ready to greet him, but before she could get any words out, he cut her off.

"Listen, Maddox," he said, looking and sounding urgent, "We have to go. Percy is already in the car—"

"What?" she inquired, "Hold on, Grover, slow down a bit."

"I'll explain it all in the car, I promise, but right now, we have to go."

"I haven't packed—"

"No packing, just leaving."

"Grover—"

"Just come on!"

Grover gripped Maddox's hand and dragged her out the door and toward a car outside. When Maddox looked more closely, she saw Percy in the passenger's seat, and a gorgeous lady (who was assumed to be his mom) in the driver's seat.

Grover threw open the rear door and practically dove into his seat, beckoning for Maddox to follow him.

Maddox's eyes landed back on her house, her only real home, even if it wasn't a great one. Everything always smelled like smoke and alcohol, but it wasn't the worst. She then looked back at the car before jumping into it herself, slamming the door shut behind her.