𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐓! [pjo]

X; time traveling

━━━hazel's pov

.・゜゜・───・゜゜・

Sometimes Hazel felt like she was intruding on Cal and Percy. She sat behind them in the boat, and watched them mutter to each other, watched Percy kiss her forehead, watch her lay down, and put her head in his lap. She watched Percy brush hair off her forehead. Her heart clenched. Hazel liked to think that if what happened hadn't happened, she and Sammy could've had that. She glanced at Frank, and for a second, though maybe she still could.

    Then the boat shuttered, and Hazel felt sick.

Frank held his ski bag across his lap. It passed over Hazel's knees like the safety bar on an amusement ride, which made her think of the time Sammy had taken her to the carnival during Mardi Gras...She quickly pushed that memory aside. She couldn't risk a blackout.

"You okay?" Frank asked. "You look queasy."

"Seasickness," she confessed. "I didn't think it would be this bad."

Frank pouted like it was somehow his fault. He started digging in his pack. "I've got some nectar. And some crackers. Um, my grandmother says ginger helps...I don't have any of that, but—"

"It's okay." Hazel mustered a smile. "That's sweet of you, though."

Frank pulled out a saltine. It snapped in his big fingers. Cracker exploded everywhere.

Hazel laughed. "Gods, Frank...Sorry. I shouldn't laugh."

"Uh, no problem," he said sheepishly. "Guess you don't want that one."

Percy wasn't paying much attention. Cal was fast asleep, her head in his lap.  Percy kept his eyes fixed on the shoreline. As they passed Stinson Beach, he pointed inland, where a single mountain rose above the green hills.

"That looks familiar," he said.

"Mount Tam," Frank said. "Kids at camp are always talking about it. The big battle happened there, at the old Titan base."

"Were either of you there?"

"No," Hazel said. "That was back in August before I—um before I got to camp. Jason told me about it. The legion destroyed the enemy's palace and about a million monsters. Jason had to battle Krios—hand-to-hand combat with a Titan if you can imagine."

"I can imagine," Percy muttered.

Hazel wasn't sure what he meant, but Percy did remind her of Jason, even though they looked nothing alike. They had the same aura of quiet power, plus a kind of sadness like they'd seen their destiny and knew it was only a matter of time before they met a monster they couldn't beat. Hazel understood the feeling.

She watched the sunset in the ocean, and she knew she had less than a week to live. Whether or not their quest succeeded, her journey would be over by the Feast of Fortuna. She thought about her first death, and the months leading up to it—her house in Seward, the six months she'd spent in Alaska, taking that little boat into Resurrection Bay at night, visiting that cursed island.

She realized her mistake too late. Her vision went black, and she slipped back in time. Their rental house was a clapboard box suspended on pilings over the bay. When the train from Anchorage rolled by, the furniture shook and the pictures rattled on the walls.

At night, Hazel fell asleep to the sound of icy water lapping against the rocks under the floorboards. The wind made the building creak and groan. They had one room, with a hot plate and an icebox for a kitchen. One corner was curtained off for Hazel, where she kept her mattress and storage chest. She'd pinned her drawings and old photos of New Orleans on the walls, but that only made her homesickness worse. Her mother was rarely home. She didn't go by Queen Marie anymore.