Yeah, It Really is Me -a Percy Jackson fan fiction

I wake up in the morning feeling like... I want to die

"Okaaay everyone," I say loudly to wake everyone up, "get up now."

A car with the windows down passes by on a nearby road blaring Kesha through the speakers.

Gem opens her eyes first. "Ugh, I hate that song. What time is it?" She groans.

"I don't know, Gem," I reply with a fake annoyed, kind of playful tone.

"It's three A.M." Estelle informs us after sitting up and yawning.

"Really? How do you know?" Gem questions.

Estelle holds up her wrist and sure enough, there is a (very expensive) shimmering blackish-blue watch with little diamonds spread out randomly probably meant to look like stars.

"Where'd you get that?" I ask her.

Estelle shrugs. "Chaos gave it to me a few weeks ago. He said, 'You are probably one of the more responsible ones. Ima let you keep the time.'"

"Oh. Okay. Well cool." Well then. Apparently I'm not good enough for Chaos. Lmao.

"It's for real only three A.M.?" Nico whines. He sits up then falls back down on his blanket and closes his eyes.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Gem says to him smiling.

"Do we have to go now?" he says groggily.

"Yes. Now get up," I demand.

"Ugh." Nico stands up and hands his blanket to me.

I smile sarcastically. "Thanks."

He rolls his eyes. "No problem. Did you guys sleep with those damn veils on?"

"Yeah," Gem answers. "If someone had come by during the night, it wouldn't have been good if we weren't wearing them."

Nico nods. "Okay, true." He rubs the sleep out of his eyes.

We get packed up and everything. I put the blankets back into my bag and we decide to wash the veils. I mean, we washed them a few times at Camp Jupiter, but I feel like we need to again. Even though I'm pretty sure you don't have to wash a magic veil because it's magic and doesn't really get dirty. But whatever. We use the bit of water we have from our water bottles and some body wash I keep for traveling. I also take the time to wash my face and so do my friends. The water makes me feel alive and awake—like I'd found something I was missing. Odd, yet not odd at all. I had water on planet Soahc/Chaos all the time. I don't know... This just feels different in some way.

I yawn and splash more water on my face. (I didn't sleep at all for I was on watch all night. I spent most of my time reminiscing (can't believe I'm still on Earth), thinking about what I'm going to do in the morning (I still don't have a clue), and watching the stars (or, as much of the stars as I could see in the heart of Chicago). Honestly, I'm kinda surprised that we didn't get mugged or something. Maybe something about the black veils made people think twice before coming near us. Although, I probably would have ended up 'accidentally' killing them if anyone had tried...) When we're done with everything and our disguises are dry, we mentally prepare ourselves to shadow travel to Camp Half-Blood. My favorite place in the world. (Note my sarcasm.)

"You guys ready?" I ask my friends.

"Sure," Nico says.

"Yeah, of course you are. You get to see Will," I point out.

He refuses to look at me and shows no reaction to what I'd just said. He just keeps smiling like he was before.

"I don't want to go back..." Estelle tells us.