The Events of Olympus Resort | A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Chapter 25

Annabeth POV

At this point, I'm pretty much convinced I ruin everything. I'm like the ticking bomb of teenage girls–a lit fuse just waiting to explode.

When I woke up this morning, I noticed that one of my earrings was missing. I searched everywhere: outside my room, under my pillow, under the sheets. I even searched through my dirty clothes. Nothing.

After I got over the initial shock that I had lost it, and the acceptance that I probably wouldn't find it, I was reminded a lot of that time when Helen lost her earring and threw a fit––of how envious I'd been of her and that stupid earring. The memory just made me even more aware of my loss. My dad had gotten me one of the most beautiful pairs of earrings I'd ever seen, just as he had done with my mother when they were together, and now I'd gone and lost one of them.

I don't know why these things even surprise me anymore. My life has just been a series of things floating in and out, appearing and disappearing. It's just a matter of time before I lose everything that means something to me.

Ughhh.

Right now Percy and I are on our way to my dad's bonfire event down by the beach, and I've got to admit, I'm super excited. It makes things a million times better to know that Percy will be there with me every minute, and that our friends will be there as well.

Beside me, Percy looks radiant, his eyes glowing green in the evening sunlight. As he walks, he holds my hand with one hand and holds his phone up to his ear with the other.

"Mutan whats?" Percy dumbly says into the phone, which makes me laugh.

Percy is currently on the phone with his best friend Grover from back in New York. Percy's told me all about Grover––from his girlfriend Juniper, to his undying love for some instrument called the reed pipes, to the fact that he wants to be an environmental science major in college. When I heard that, I thought that Grover would be the perfect person to get some advice from (regarding our current situation with the resort's secret pipelines to the ocean), so Percy and I decided to give him a call before we got to the bonfire.

"Organ whats?" Percy asks again. "You know what Grover, I'm just gonna put you on speakerphone. I feel like Annabeth will have a better chance of understanding you than I will." Percy pulls the phone away from his ear and presses the speakerphone button.

"Hi Grover!" I say.

"Annabeth?" Grover asks. "Oh my gods, it's so good to finally meet you!" He pauses. "Over the phone that is... Percy will not shut up about you! Considering how much he praises you, you'd think you were a plate of Sally's famous blue chocolate chip cookies!"

"Grover!" Percy interjects, his eyes wide, obviously mortified.

I laugh. "Man, that must really be a compliment," I say. "I hear Sally's cookies are to die for."

"Oh trust me they are," Grover moans. "Anyway, I was just giving Percy the rundown of all the things the resort might want to cover up dumping into the ocean. It's super common for big corporations to get lazy financially and cheat out of disposing their waste properly, so oftentimes it just ends up in the water."

"But even if they don't care about the environment, aren't they concerned about the people around here?" I ask him. "I mean, we literally go swimming in the water here every day."

"The pipes would go out really far," Grover explains. "They would go for miles and miles into the ocean until they reach far enough that the contamination wouldn't reach the resort at all."

"Jesus." I say.

"Yeah," Grover says. "Unfortunately, it's not uncommon, but that doesn't make it any less harmful to marine life."