Snowfall

Be Heard

Alright, I'm good now. Let's see how many of these I can throw up in a day.

Percy was amazed. Camp had so much, how could anyone possibly get through all of it in a day? There was the arena, the pegasi, the lava wall, things he hadn't even thought existed. And don't even get him started on the Greek Gods! Figuring out that they were real after your teacher blew up on you and another one became a centaur made it not so surprising but that didn't mean the blow still wasn't there.

One thing that had intrigued him a lot had been the story of Thalia's pine. Thinking that a girl of only twelve years, his age, had died for her friends was scary yet amazing. She was a legend and he would've loved to meet her. Though, by now she would be seventeen and probably hate him like the rest of camp.

Despite all that, sitting up by her pine was a comforting thing to do. It allowed him to be away from all the hatred that for some reason came along with his newbie status and to just watch the world go by without him.

Percy sighed, leaning against the trunk of the tree. "You sound like such an amazing person," he murmured, closing his eyes and pressing his cheek against the trunk. "Though you probably would've hated me. Everyone else does."

He sighed, thinking of how much better it would be if he actually had a friend here (other than Grover, since he couldn't participate in the camper activities) when he heard a voice from above him. "Why do they hate you?"

Percy yelped, scrambling to his feet and backing away from the tree, looking up in surprise. There was a young girl, about his age, sitting in one of the branches. Her hair was black and spiky like she had gelled it, and her eyes were a sharp electric blue. "When did you get here?" He gasped.

Thalia grinned, dropping down onto the ground. Percy noticed how her landing didn't make any noise, despite the multiple pine cones and other various forest litter scattered across the ground. Actually, looking at it, her feet hadn't landed on the pine cones, they'd gone through the pine cones. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. "My god."

"It's not very polite to not introduce yourself," she taunted, stepping closer. He then saw that her skin was unusually pale, in fact, all of her was. It looked almost . . . transparent, sort of flickering, like she was a ghost.

"P-Percy," he said. "Percy Jackson."

The girl grinned. "Well, nice to meet you, Percy. My name's Thalia Grace."

His jaw dropped again, his eyes growing even wider. "What?" He yelled. "That's impossible!"

Thalia just shrugged. "I thought so too, but obviously not. You speaking with me through my tree sort of drew my spirit out, I guess."

"But . . . why come out for me?" Percy asked. "Why not Annabeth or Luke?"

"I don't know," she frowned. "I would've if I could, but for some reason, you're the first one I can actually talk to. I can, you know, come out of my tree for other people, but they can never see me or hear me. You can."

"You don't know why?" He said.

"Isn't that what I just said?" Thalia grinned, bouncing closer, even so that she was practically brushing against him. "You don't listen very well, do you?"

"I've been told I don't," he said nervously, not very comfortable with how close she was, even if, as he observed, she was going straight through him. Literally.

"Yeah, I can see," she laughed. "You never answered my original question."

Percy thought back to what she had first asked him. Why did everyone hate him? "I don't know," he said. "I just arrived here and it was as if that somehow made me the target of everyone's hatred."

"Are you claimed?" Thalia asked, looking him over. "I can't tell who your parent is by looks."

"I'm not claimed," he said. "Do you think that's why?"

"Perhaps," she said. "It would make you an easier target. Did you do anything to make them hate you?"

"All I've done that they know about is killing the minotaur," Percy said, a slight blush appearing on his face.

Her face lit up with wonder. "That was you I saw? I would think they would get a hero's welcome!"

"Obviously not," he sighed. "It only seemed to have made it worse."

"So, maybe they're jealous of you," Thalia mused. "That makes sense. Bullying is a way to cover up envy."

"So I'm too good, that's what you're saying," Percy replied. "That sort of makes me feel better, but it really doesn't."

"Nice to know my compliments help," she said cheerfully. "If only I could actually touch people. I would love to beat the shit out of whoever's picking on you."

"You would do that?" He said, astonished. "But you just met me."

She scoffed. "So? You seem like a great person. You don't deserve this hate."

A wide smile stretched its way onto Percy's face. Thalia smiled back, and he took notice of how beautiful her smile was, especially with how close she was to him.

Neither had the chance to say anything to each other, though, before someone else entered the scene. "Percy!" Annabeth called, running up the hill towards him. "There you are!"

He stepped around Thalia to answer Annabeth, not feeling comfortable with walking straight through her, and he noticed that she had this look of anguish on her face. When Annabeth reached the peak of the hill, she even stepped halfway into him as if trying to hide herself within his body. It felt odd but he didn't say anything. "Chiron wants to talk to you," Annabeth said.

"Alright," Percy answered. "I'll meet him at the big house in a minute."

"What even are you doing up here?" The daughter of Athena asked, her eyes sweeping the area. Thalia edged further into him even though Annabeth had no sight of her.

"I like to come up here," he said. "It's a nice place to come and relax."

"I agree," Annabeth sighed. "I like coming up here and talking to Thalia. I like to think she can hear me from within the tree, even if I know that would be impossible."

"Annabeth, no," he heard Thalia say quietly, stepping out from within him and raising a hand as if to rest it on Annabeth's shoulder, but it just went right through. Thalia looked heartbroken and Percy looked at her with sorrow. Annabeth seemed to notice his depressing gaze.

"Why do you look so sad?" She asked, stepping forward and through Thalia. The daughter of Zeus cringed, fleeing back towards her tree and tucking herself into the branches.

"It's nothing," Percy said. "Go on back. I'll come down soon." Annabeth didn't look very convinced but she left anyway.

He looked to Thalia, who looked back sadly. "It's painful, knowing that they think that of me when I'm right next to them," she muttered, looking down.

"I can tell them if you really want," Percy offered.

Thalia shook her head. "No. It's better that they didn't know."

"If you're sure," Percy said. "Now, I need to go. Sorry I couldn't stay longer."

"Wait!" Thalia shouted, running up to him as he began to turn. He looked back over his shoulder. She hesitated before continuing. "Could you, maybe, come back and talk to me?" She asked slowly. "It gets lonely up here."

Percy's face broke into a grin. "Yeah. Yeah, I can do that."