Elysium, a Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Chapter 16

Percy

Oh shit. Percy thought.

"Almost finished sir." Zoe said, not looking up. "I'll be ready in a few minutes."

"Take your time. Mr. Jackson will wait for you. After all, you are his responsibility. Mr. D, said, sending a pointed glare in Percy's direction, before turning and leaving, abandoning Percy to his fate. After a moment of silence, he slowly walked over to an empty chair at the table, and sat down to wait.

And wait he did. Seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours. He tried to count the holes in the ceiling, but kept getting distracted by things going on in the hallway, or out the window, and losing count, while Zoe kept on writing and shuffling through her papers. Percy sat, waiting, with his feet up on the table. Stupid hair. he thought, flipping it out of his eyes, before returning to his counting. A few seconds later, it feel back into his eyes. Goddamn it. Stay the fuck over there. he said to himself, before flipping it again. Seconds later, it fell back neatly into place over his eyes.

Suddenly, she slammed her stack of papers onto the table, shocking Percy out of his reverie, causing him to jump a foot into the air, and slam his elbow down onto the table. "Fuck!" he cried.

She snickered.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." Percy said. "You almost done?"

"I will be in a minute" She said, still having not properly looked up at him. "I'm Zoe Nightshade, by the way, in case you didn't hear Mr. D. say it a hundred times. And you are?" She asked, and Percy smiled. He was going to have fun with this.

"I know. We've met." He said with a smile, while Zoe's head shot up like a bullet. "Although I'm surprised you forgot about me so soon. I didn't think you were such a light weight." He teased.

Her eyes narrowed, and she glared at him suspiciously for a moment. Percy met her unflinching glare with his own steady gaze, staring into her volcanic eyes. He'd never seen eyes that dark before. "Percy. Nice to see you again." She said at last, her glare softening into a smile.

"Nice to see you too" He smiled, before sitting up straight in his chair. "Well, shall we get this tour started? Unless you're not opposed to ditching?" Percy asked with a slight smile.

"On my first day? Not a chance Perseus." Zoe teased as she stood up to leave.

"Gah. Never should have told you that." Percy muttered to himself as he left, for the third time since he met her.

Unfortunately, she heard him. "Too late for that" She laughed melodiously. "Now are we starting the tour or not?" She looked at him teasingly, smiling and leaving an unspoken challenge for him.

"Whatever her majesty commands." Percy responded sarcastically, rolling his eyes. But he was smiling too.

Jason

Jason was practically shaking with nervousness. After Reyna cornered him, it hadn't been very difficult to figure out what she wanted to talk to him about. So here he was, standing outside on the soccer field, waiting for her. What's taking her so long? He wondered to himself, surveying the empty fields of grass surrounding him, while the sun beat down on him from the cloudless blue sky.

She's probably trying to blackmail us with this. Part of his brain thought.

Shut up. He thought back. Reyna's not like that.

She's one of THEM. The other part argued

But she's not Annabeth, Jason countered. The nagging doubt in his mind offered no reply, leaving Jason to simmer in his own thoughts. Eventually, Jason found his way over to the trees lining the edge of the soccer field, and sat down to wait for Reyna under the shade of a one, out of the California sun.