The Return of Evil | A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

=19= BELIEVE AND DO IT

=PIPER'S POV=

Pain. Unbearable pain. The kind of pain that makes your whole body go numb. Then it was gone, as swift as the wind.

I groaned and tried to open my eyes, but all I managed to do was a soft whimper. I felt a mattress below me, and my head rested on a pillow. Wait. But that was impossible. Had I gone to the infirmary for some reason? I didn't feel like I was in the Aphrodite cabin. There was no stench of designer perfume, not even a squeak of obnoxious chatter surrounding me. But if I wasn't at camp...

Where was I?

Suddenly it all came back to me- Hazel's terrified scream, Tartarus' breastplate, Percy's face swirling amongst all the others, the bright light that had engulfed my vision and brought me... Here. Wherever here was.

"Miss Mclean?" An unfamiliar voice simpered. "Miss Mclean, can you hear me?"

Slowly, I lifted one eyelid, then the other, expecting to be greeted by some sort of horrific monster- but what I found was a gray-haired lady in her sixties staring impatiently at me while holding a brown clipboard.

The woman obviously wasn't a demigod, or if she was, she hid it well. Her graying hair was pinned up in a bun and she was wearing a white nurse's uniform, complete with a name tag that read: Wilma. Wilma had piercing blue eyes and had skin that looked like it hadn't been in the sun for weeks.

She stared at me, as if expecting an answer.

"Miss Mclean, you were supposed to be in class thirty minutes ago." She said it as if she didn't really believe that I should even go to class.

"Uh..." I started, not really knowing what to say. "Can I ask you a question?"

Wilma looked bewildered at the request. "Oh Miss Mclean, you don't need ask for my permission. If anything, I should be asking for yours."

"Um, okay then..." I said uncertainly. "Where am I?"

At this, Wilma immediately rushed to my side and started checking for any injuries, particularly on my head. When she didn't find any, she sighed in relief. Then she turned to face me, her blue eyes filled with confusion. "Are you sure you're feeling okay, honey? You know the name of the school- after all, you've already been going here for over a year."

I searched the woman's face to see if she was joking. Her expression didn't change as she stayed dead serious. Panic started growing in my mind as I my eyes flashed to Wilma's uniform.

Right next to where the elderly lady's name tag was, another title was stitched in fancy script, a name I had swore I would never look at again.

Not feeling any better, I slowly raised my gaze towards Wilma's eyes. "Riverside High." I stated, trying to focus on how many age spots dotted Wilma's face. "We're in Riverside High right now, aren't we?"

Please don't say yes, I thought, trying not to relive the horrible memories that haunted that place. Please don't.

Wilma chuckled, oblivious to my tone of voice. "Oh thank god. I thought I was going to get fired by your father again."

"My father?" I didn't remember my father working at this wretched school. Or, for that matter, at any other place except his movie sets.

"I was lucky Tristan let me come back last time." Wilma chirped as she began helping me out of the bed.

"But my dad doesn't work here." I said. "He works in Hollywood."

The nurse turned to face me as her face scrunched up in confusion. But then her cheery smile quickly returned as she began humming the tune of some song from the 1990's. "My dear, you must have taken some brain damage when you fell from that tree. Everyone knows that it's your mother who works in Hollywood."