FINDING A HOME | PJO

/ seven /

a / n

oof. that's all i have to say. oof.

sorry for the late update. feel free to go back to the last chapter for a refresh, and thanks for sticking with me ❤️

Why did she care so much?

She didn't.

A voice in her head laughed. Yeah, sure.

Nancy wrung her hands in front of her. She tugged on her shirt. She ran a hand through her short hair. Her hands always had a mind of their own when she was emotional. It was a good way to monitor how she was feeling, but Nancy glared at her pale fingers and shoved them into her pockets.

She desperately tried to walk casually behind the grumpy satyr, but even the thought sounded stupid. You couldn't do something casually if you were desperate.

Several times she opened her mouth, as if about to speak, but it quickly closed. Nancy wanted things to be okay, she just wanted to settle things with Grover.

Now, she was walking into the Mess Hall. A few people turned to get a good look at the new demigod, but Nancy kept her head down and rushed to the Hermes table. She was too embarrassed to notice it was overflowing, or that Percy and Annabeth were watching her closely.

Grover stomped over to his own table and plopped down with crossed arms. Nancy avoided his gaze and snuck a glance at Percy, who was already looking her way.

He furrowed his brow and looked between Nancy and Grover multiple times. Annabeth did the same next to him, though she seemed to come to a conclusion quicker.

"You're late," Connor noted from next to her.

Nancy glared at him. "Thank you, for that valuable piece of information."

Connor smirked and shrugged. He pointed to the empty table in front of her. "You're gonna need food if you want to eat. Come on, I'll show you."

"Show me what?"

Connor stood without answering her. Nancy sighed, stood as well, and followed him all the way across the Mess Hall once again. She kept her head down as she passed each table, but she didn't miss when Percy got up from the Poseidon table.

As she filled a plate with food, Nancy watched him come up to the bar himself. Connor noticed as well and greeted him.

"Hey Perce! What's up?"

Percy smiled, but he didn't take Connor's outstretched hand. "I'm not falling for that, Connor."

Connor lowered his hand. "Hey, you never know! One of these days, I'm gonna get you."

"Sure." Percy shook his head. "By the way, are you and Miranda together?"

Connor wrinkled his nose and stared at the son of Poseidon. "Uh, no. What gave you that idea?"

Percy shrugged nonchalantly. "She's been looking at you all morning."

Connor turned rather quickly to look in the direction of the Demeter table. While he was occupied with that, Percy moved to the fire pit with his plate and began dumping some food in. A plume of smoke rose into the air. Nancy watched curiously as he wasted his food.

"A sacrifice," he explained. "For the gods. And I'm asking them to hurry up and claim you." He dumped the entire portion on his plate into the fire then, seeing as he already had a serving back at his table.

"So how'd it go?" Percy said. "With Grover, I mean."

As he stepped aside, Nancy reluctantly pushed a third of her scrambled eggs into the flames. She sighed.