Heroes of New York

ONE - CRASH

CHAPTER ONE

~ Percy Jackson~

      My mother looked so peaceful in her indefinite sleep that part of me - despite the fact that I missed her dearly - wanted her to stay like that. Without worries of me, or my demigod life and whatever other weird things I attract. But of course, as she would have said to me, she wouldn't be a mother if she didn't worry constantly.

     I sighed and took her hand. I couldn't remember how long it had been this way. Weeks? Months? The police had told me they were looking for someone for me to live with until my parents came to, but it seemed to be taking forever. Or maybe that was just my ADHD.

     I wasn't there when it happened, I'd been called back to camp for an important counsellor meeting, but my mom and Paul had been driving home late from a restaurant they had gone to for a date night.

     It was late October, and it was dark out already but they had been on a small, well-lit road and Paul was a very good driver but that didn't seem to make a difference. Without warning, a car had whipped around the corner, drunk driver at the wheel, and sped towards my parents. They had attempted to move out of the way and brake, but the other car had been moving too fast and hit them head-on.

     As luck would have it, the other driver was completely unharmed aside from a slight concussion from hitting his head against the dashboard. He had - however briefly - snapped out of his drunken stupor and realized what he had caused. He called the police and an ambulance out to help them, instead of what most drivers would do - leave.

     The drunk turned out to be a fairly wealthy businessman named Arthur Cartwright, who paid for the damage plus medical care, and offered to help with finding a relative for me to stay with. He also said that if I ever needed anything, that we should call him and he'd sort us out, though I figured we never would.

     I glanced up at the clock, noting that it was almost the end of the hospital's visiting hours. I had school tomorrow - my last year of high school before I went to college, most likely in New Rome - so I would have to get home earlier than usual.

     I stood up from my chair next to the hospital bed. Pushing her hair away from her face, I kissed my mother's forehead before releasing her hand and heading toward the door of the room. We were the only ones in there, her roommate having been released earlier that day.

     Paul's room was two doors down the hall, in with another coma patient, and I alternated days to sit in with them. I walked through the mostly empty hallway towards the stairs, and took them down to the lobby, seeing as I still couldn't stand elevators.

     As I passed the front desk, a blonde nurse called out to me.

     "Percy? The authorities notified us. They think they've almost found someone for you to stay with. They're just checking out their background. Supposedly they'll call you to the station when they've tracked whoever it is down. They didn't say much else, though, confidentiality and all."

      "Thank you, Jess," I smiled slightly at her. She was a few years older than me, but we talked often. She was a pre-med student, and did her volunteer hours here - of course, when she wasn't with her boyfriend, who was studying law at the university.

     We said our goodbyes, though we both knew I'd likely be back again soon. I left the building and hailed a cab to my mom's - my apartment.

☤  ☤  ☤  ☤

     I sat at the desk in my room, finishing homework from the week before. It was relatively easy, but I had Iris-Messaged Annabeth anyway, just to check it over.

     After the Giant War, Annabeth had headed to Boston to look for her missing cousin and then she was going to go finish high school in San Francisco where her dad was. She would be pretty close to Camp Jupiter, but that didn't stop me from planning to constantly batter my best friend with Iris-Messages.

     The rest of the Seven were scattered across the country for the school year as well, having been told by just about everyone to take a break and relax with family or friends. Despite being mostly separated, we Iris-Messaged often and had agreed on dates during the school breaks to meet up.

     On the plus side, I've had a lot of free time (seeing as I don't have any chores, no counsellor responsibilities, and - the most depressing - no one to waste time with) and I've caught up on everything that I'd missed.

     The Hephaestus, Athena and Hecate cabins had joined forces to figure out a way to make monster-proof technology. As it turns out, all it takes is a few lines of computer code - and because of this nearly every demigod is required to have basic hacking skills - to get rid of the signal tech sends off to monsters, but the campers decided to add a few tricks and accessories to the phones and laptops anyway.

     We called them Deltas, seeing as most now had deltas engraved on the back (courtesy of the Hephaestus cabin) and as a tribute to Annabeth's previously lost Daedalus laptop, which her mother magically retrieved for her as a 'Welcome back from Hell' present. My own 'Welcome back from Hell' present had been a minor amount of protection from monsters, and although it wasn't quite as cool as Annabeth's, it was still just as useful.

     I pulled my phone out and went to Netflix, though I found that I had run out of things to watch. In the past two months, I had watched every interesting movie or TV show on the site, plus read half the books in the Athena cabin and most of the novels in my apartment, what with having my dyslexia sort-of fixed as a gift from another god for doing a short quest. It was a pair of glasses that 'corrected' my reading, but if I took them off I still couldn't read. Incredibly useful if you ask me, especially when I'm trying to get back on track with school.

     Sighing, I put the phone back in my pocket and reclined in my rolling chair. I closed my eyes, wondering if sleeping would still be possible when I had stayed up this late (two AM already?). Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), it seemed it was entirely possible as I began nodding off at the desk.

     Soon, I fell asleep, my dreams full of darkness and blood and battle as usual. But, recently, there had been one sound playing over and over in the background. Brakes squealing, tires screeching, people screaming, glass shattering, and then silence.

     The sound of a car crash.

Sorry, quick note, hi. I apologize if I messed something up in the hospital scene, I don't quite understand how the US healthcare system works... So sorry. Also, I realize that this first chapter was mostly background info but the next one will have more stuff happening and even so, this is just the beginning, so nothing's gonna be super exciting for a bit. Also, please let me know if you find any spelling/grammar mistakes, I'll fix them once I update the next chapter. Thanks!