When Two Worlds Collide | pjo & fhdw ✔︎

Chapter 3

chapter three - a n n a b e t h

I was curious to see what they were going to say.

"Yep, got enrolled today," the girl tucked her hair behind her ear.

A smile stretched my face as I turned to Percy. "Last I checked, there weren't any vacancies at this school. Isn't that why Piper hadn't been able to attend?"

"We're a special case," the boy replied with a steely gaze.

"How many years did you skip?" Percy raised his eyebrows. He wasn't in the mood for demigod business.

The boy raised his eyebrows. "One."

"I'm Kendra Sorenson, and this is my brother, Seth." She nodded to the younger boy next to her. Her fingers fiddled with her drawstrings.

k e n d r a

"Annabeth Chase, and this is Percy."

This is my chance, I thought.

"It'd be nice to have someone to show us around." I smiled.

"Of course," Annabeth said, "but I'm afraid we have a club meeting after school. Sorry. Maybe next time."

"Oh," the bell rang.

I felt weighed down. We barely made any progress and no doubt they noticed us spying. We blew it. "Now what do we do?"

"Now what do we do? Are you kidding me? Did you see how blatant you were staring?" Seth retorted.

Okay maybe I hadn't done so well at the whole spying thing, but he didn't get the right to yell at me.

"Well maybe if you hadn't–"

"Hadn't what, Kendra?"

"Well maybe if you hadn't sat there quiet most of the time, we'd have something to report back!"

Seth looked irritated. "Whatever, nothing we can do about it now." He abruptly swung open the gym door into a sea of kids.

As we walked down the hall, Bracken met up with us.

"How'd it go?"

I sighed. "Tell you later."

As a group, we bumped into Annabeth and Percy. Literally.
Seth tripped her on accident.
I think. And if he did it on purpose, that was impressive. Picking out a single foot in a crowded hallway? That's hard.

Bracken reached down to help her up. A feeling of jealousy flirted around in my stomach, but I knew I shouldn't feel like that because he wouldn't ever cheat.

As he clasped her hand, I saw a feeling of confusion cloud his face for a second. I realized that he's only trying to read her mind. I relaxed and let out an inner "thank god." 

By the time she got up, the hallway was mostly empty.

"Bracken," he said and shook hands with Percy. Bracken's the only teenager who'd shake hands with another kid.

Annabeth let out a small snort and clamped her hand over her mouth. "Bracken, like the fern."

"Yes." Bracken straightened and dusted himself off. He tried to look bigger. "Like the fern."

Annabeth's eyes widened and st first I thought it was Bracken, but I looked behind me and saw a cheerleader—wait scratch that—a cheerleader in a tattered uniform with flaming hair, fangs, two really weird legs, and red eyes.It felt like my eyes were working overtime. Bracken was also staring at the incoming creature.

"Di immortales, it's Kelli," Annabeth hissed while ruffling in her bag for something. Percy yanked the fire alarm before he pulled Annabeth into a corner to shelter her from the stampede.

I was still trying to process this as we ducked into an alcove.

"Paul! Tell my mom that I'll be home late!" Percy yelled at the last teacher that ran by.

Percy started walking towards the creature with a ballpoint pen positioned in front of him. Like that would ever protect us. I felt my spirits drop.

"We're screwed," groaned Seth.

Just then, it transformed into a sword. Annabeth yanked a dagger from inside her bag and ran to join Percy.

I whispered to Bracken. "What do we do?"

His face was grim.

"We fight."

p e r c y

As we ran at Kelli, I realized that, number one, those students hadn't left the building yet and, number two, they're going to see us attacking a defenseless, innocent cheerleader.

I couldn't think about that and stay alive at the same time so I just resigned to the fact that I'll have to transfer. Again. It was enough to make me feel sick.

As I approached Kelli, she hissed and made honking noises—her form of laughter. Two more empousai were trying to corner the students that were in the corner.

Annabeth laughed. "This all you got?"

Kelli narrowed her eyes. The other empousa started hissing.

"Remember the locker room? We defeated you there." Annabeth continued. "You're going to need a couple more friends to take us out."

"Oh and remember Bob? Back in Tartarus?" I picked up.

Annabeth casually pushed me, just enough to seem friendly.

"Of course, how could I forget? You know how Bob was going to pick us up from school today? We forgot to tell him we had a NHS meeting. That means he'll be here any minute."

I knew what she was doing.

"You're lying. Titans do not pick up mortal children." Kelli adamantly said while she snapped to keep her other team in line. Good, they were nervous.

"Are you sure?" Annabeth asked in a sing-song voice. "We did defeat your patron twice."

Kelli leaped at Annabeth, aiming to stab her in the stomach. Annabeth deflected it, but the claws left a gouge on her right arm. She winced but continued parrying and slashing at Kelli, gaining only a little just to be knocked back down. Kelli was a senior empousa, one of the hardest to defeat.

I helped Annabeth up and then assumed a back-to-back stance. I thought about the mortals. The empousa might either ignore them or eat them.
Flip a coin.

"Di Immortales!" I muttered. This was no time to play games. I lunged for Kelli and right before my sword would've punctured her, she disappeared in a burst of fire. She got away.

I ran over to where the group of mortals was. I was shocked to see Bracken fighting with what? A pearly unicorn horn?
Kendra and Seth both had a sword out, although they looked a bit heavy in their hands.

It actually reminded me of when I used an unbalanced sword.

As we ran to help, I noticed how only the horn seemed to do any damage. By the time we reached there, Bracken gave up trying to fight and resolved to just defending the two kids.  While Bracken entertained the one empousa, Annabeth stabbed one while the monster was turned. Noticing this, Bracken took his chance and finished the empousai he was currently fighting.

Before I could say anything, Annabeth marched right up to Bracken. I got nervous. He was clearly taken aback too.

In that moment of confusion, she snatched the horn.

Bracken's eyes fumed. But his forced smile stayed on his face.

"Give it back."

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