The New Faces (A Percy Jackson Story)

3 Years Later in California

The New Faces

Chapter 18

3 Years Later

Payton/Jill's POV:

I'm walking up the hill from my bus stop to my home when arm just starts to ache from the weight of my guitar. I put it down and sit on the side-walk. I live in a little hilly area of California near the San Francisco Bay. I live in apartment 9 of my building and I'm 14 years old and I've lived here my whole life. I pick up my guitar and start-up the hill again, once reaching my apartment building I pull my key out and open the front door. I go up stairs and yell, "Dad! I'm home!" A man with black hair and bright blue eyes looks at me and says, "Well, you don't have to shout you know!" I roll my eyes and head to my room. I put my guitar on my bed and my book bag by the desk. I look in the mirror and see a black-haired girl with blue eyes, wearing a 'vote Whig' shirt, jean jacket, dark wash boot cut jeans, a black leather belt, cheap gold earrings, a silver ring with a red gem in the center, and an elephant necklace on her neck. I smile at my reflection and decide to go for a bike ride. I run out of my room and lean over the chair my dad is sitting in; he's a truck driver so he's gone a lot but when he is here its nice. I whisper in his ear, "I'm going for a bike ride." He nods and says in a loud whisper, "OK, why are you whispering?" I laugh and give him a kiss on the cheek.

I run to the garage/parking space and grab my bike. I petal down the road for a little while till I see my friend, Hazel, its hard to miss her with all the hair that she has, its thick and brown curls are hard to miss. She and her brother live closer to the Bay but sometimes she goes for a walk so I stop to say hi. She sees me and immediately stops walking so that I can pull in front of her without her getting hit. I hop off and say, "Hey, where you been?" She smiles and says, "I'm going to a boarding school now, I'm actually walking there now." I smile but can tell that she is lying through her teeth I don't say anything though she has a rough past I know that so I don't push her to tell me.

"Can I walk with you then?" She nods and we start down the road. We talk for a while then Hazel stops. I look at her, her face has gone pale and she looks frightened.

"What's wrong Hazel?" She sometimes has seizers and I didn't want her to have one in the middle of the street so I take a step closer and say again, "Hazel are you ok?" She looks at me and yells, "Duck!" I don't do anything but she grabs my arm and pulls me down. I scream because the tree behind us caught fire. I look at Hazel and then behind me. There was a thing that looked like a dragon with three heads. My eyes get wide and say to Hazel, "Hop on!" She looks at me confused and then it registers, I want her to get on the back of my bike. She hops on the book seat and I hop on and start pedaling down the hill we are on, straight towards the bay.

We go over the bridge and tell Hazel, "Is it still after us?!" She looks back and from her shriek of terror I take that as a yes. I pedal harder and thank god it was all down hill cause other wise I would already be out of breath and most likely dead. We start over the bridge and I start to be out of breath. Hazel jumps off and starts running I keep going and we mostly stay out-of-the-way of flying fire bombs. Hazel pants, "Let me pedal you need a break," I nod hopping off and Hazel hops on. I jump on the back and we keep going till I catch my breath. Then Hazel stops the bike, we are still in site of the monster and I tell Hazel, "Come on we need to keep Where are you going!?" Hazel had run off towards the tunnel I hop on the bike and pedal after her barely missing a fire bomb flying past my head. I see that she is shouting at a boy standing in full armor and she points at the monster, I hope, and he jumps. He opens the door and she runs to me. She starts to grab my arm but I say, "Where are we going?!"

"Somewhere safe," She tells me. I nod not wanting to bike it any farther. We get to the door and the bulky guy motions for us in. He shuts the door behind us but we keep running down the tunnel inside the tunnel.

We reach the end of the tunnel and we are in an open valley with a large wall with towers, something that you would see in a story book of a princess' kingdom. The boy takes off his helmet and says to Hazel, "Who is this?" pointing to me. I look at him and say, "Payton Jill Geneva! Who are you? Where am I? What was that thing out there? Why am I here, and when can I go home!?" The boy looks me over and says, "Is this the girl, Hazel?" Hazel nods; the boy looks me over again and says, "Doesn't look so special." Hazel gives him a look and he shrugs. From his accent he sounds Canadian and he is obviously Asian. I look him over and say, "Well, not like you look like much either!" He rolls his eyes and says, "Yup," to Hazel like I hadn't said a thing. I really don't like it when people did that to me but I bottled my anger and said to Hazel, "So um should we keep moving because I don't think a door will hold in that thing." As if on cue a fire bomb goes off behind us.

I hop on my bike and head down to the wall. Between the wall and me however is a river, which I have to stop at. Hazel comes up from behind me and says, "Yeah, this is the little Tiber." I nod not really caring about the name of the thing. I hop into the thing and practically get swept away. I yelp and jump back out. The ever helpful boy looks at me and snorts as if my almost getting sent down the river was amusing to him. There were a large number of people on the other side of the river and I know that I just embraced myself in front of all of them but I was really tired, so I pick up my bike and start marching through the river. I reach the other side and see that everyone is staring at me, "What!" I yell exasperated. A girl in purple robes and black hair comes up to me and says, "What indeed." I stare at her and am about to say something when Hazel grabs my hand and says, "You must be tired I'll take her into the camp." She says half to me half to the girl. After the adrenalin rush ends I feel like I'm about to pass out. I keep my bike next to me though not wanting to lose it. Hazel walks me into a small building and tells me to lie down, I do. I close my eyes and sink into a deep tired sleep.