FINDING A HOME | PJO

/ fourteen /

Lava rock wall.

Nancy had vowed to stay away from it. She told herself it was crazy ridiculous and that she'd ignore its entire existence. She reminded herself this as she reached for the next handhold and sweat tickled her forehead.

"Hey, Spitfire!"

She pressed her eyes shut. Why did she let him talk her into this? Camp was already a million degrees in summer due to its. . .agricultural aspects, climbing a lava rock wall was nowhere near what she'd prefer to be doing right now. 

Luckily, Nancy had been able to scramble up halfway before any lava-action, and she wasn't going to stop now. 

"Hey, Spitfire, that's cheating!"

"Shut up, Adrian!" Nancy called down, not sparing him a glance. He was trying to distract her so she could get the "real experience." It wasn't going to work; she planned to get to the top before the walls had any chance to collide and the rock wall became an actual lava rock wall. 

"You got her to go up there?" She could hear Percy's voice as he casually strode up, watching her from beside Adrian. But Nancy didn't look, she focused on finding the next indent. This wasn't the first wall she'd climbed--it was always easy at first, but got increasingly harder as one scaled higher and higher.

"I did," Adrian was saying, proudly. He lowered his voice then so she couldn't hear, but Nancy was trying to shut him out anyway.

It'd been almost a week since Atë had claimed her at the campfire. She was beginning to make friends and branch out (or, in some cases, tell off a couple of Aphrodite girls) and Camp Halfblood, impossibly, was starting to feel like home. More than her own house--with locked and slamming doors on every turn--ever had. Nancy was still staying in the Hermes cabin as she was the only one Atë had ever bothered to claim, but her mother's name had been added to the 'To Be Built' list, and Annabeth already promised to do what she could to get it bumped up.

Truthfully, though, Nancy thought she'd be resenting her mother. She thought she would've turned Annabeth's offer down--because why would she want to live alone in a tribute to an evil goddess? 

But the past few days had been the most peaceful of her entire life.

Nancy had been treating the hours of them like delicate, fragile antiques, like she was treading on thin ice and the illusion would shatter at any moment.

The realization that this was how things would be staying hit her only that morning, as she was pulling on a fresh, bright orange t-shirt. As Adrian saw her off at the Big House's door when she made a call to her parents to tell them that she was okay and that she wouldn't be home for a while. 

It was a foreign feeling that she was beginning to recognize as happiness. Real, genuine contentedness that seemed impossible only a month ago. Nancy was going to have to get used to having such a consistent feeling that wasn't negative.

Even when the inevitable clash shook the wall beneath her as she climbed, even as lava, and to her surprise, giant boulders ("No one told me there were boulders!") rained down above her and she dodged frantically, there was that fond feeling in her gut Nancy couldn't deny.

I found a home, Nancy.

Had she, maybe, found her own?

"Jump down, Spitfire! I'll catch you!"

"Yeah, right!" She yelled, holding her head high so he wouldn't see her grin. The lava and boulders had finally stopped as the two walls separated, her fingers were aching for relief. "I'd rather go to Tartarus."

Adrian snickered.

"No, you wouldn't," Percy called up. "Literally. Not a great place."

"Come on, Nancy!" Adrian spread his arms out wide. "I have endless luck, remember? I'll definitely catch you!"

Nancy thought it over for a moment. Her feet hurt, her hands hurt, she was uncomfortable, and it was only a matter of time before the lava decided to pour down once more and the wall went full earthquake-mode.

Did she want to let go and have Adrian catch her?

Nah. Nancy grunted as she reached for the next handhold, then the next, and finally found herself at the top. There was a flat platform where she dropped to her knees to savor her victory and catch her breath. She could hear Adrian cheering from below, despite his failures in convincing her. Percy was laughing good-naturedly, and campers were milling about like ants in an anthill.

Nancy closed her eyes and breathed in deeply.

She'd never asked for a home that required you to wear bright, flashy orange shirts and homemade necklaces, she never imagined meeting a son of Tyche and that told her she had fiery hair and a fiery temper, Nancy never would have seen herself sitting at the top of a lava rock wall smiling so widely without really knowing the reason.

The Nancy of five years ago, three years ago, two weeks ago, a couple of days ago, never imagined she'd be here.

But in that moment, in the moment she was on top of the world--on top of her world, there was no way she could doubt it.

Nancy found a home. 

a / n

grace: so i have to wrap this thing up.

grace: powerful. it's gotta be powerful and satisfying. what to do, what to do. . .

grace: omg. t i tl e dr o ps

lolll i'm such an idiot XD 

and now, on october 12th, 2020, we say a heartfelt goodbye to nancy bobofit's short story, finding a home. i will be truthful, i am not sad to see it go. i love it, it was fun to write, but i'm honestly relieved to just mark it as completed and move on lol. hopefully you enjoyed and the excessive title drops were satisfying enough, even after i left this thing for a couple of months :')

for present readers, future readers, and past readers (huh??): thank you for reading!! it was fun to have you along for the ride, or in the past readers' case, the nonexistent one. ily!!!

yours in demigodishness and all that,

- grace <3