Cursed

A Crazy Girl Ruins My Day

I hadn't meant to cut the date short.
My girlfriend, Annabeth, and I were on a date to Florida- even though we live in New York. My friend Blackjack took care of that.
We were trying to take a break from having just won a battle against Kronos, the evil Titan king.
Anyway, we were walking along the beach, one of my favorite places seeing as my dad is Poseidon (yes, like the god), when I heard Annabeth behind me.
"Percy! Hang on!"
I turned around to see Annabeth bent over trying to get her sunglasses that had fallen off her head. She looked great, the sun catching in her curly, honey-golden hair.
I waited for her to get her sunglasses back on her head. The wind was blowing and it was a beautiful morning in late August.
"So, have you seen your dad recently?" Annabeth asked, looking out to the sea.
"Not since the end of the war, why? Have you seen your mom?" I asked in return.
Her mom was Athena, goddess of wisdom.
"Nah, I was just wondering."
I looked at her. She was avoiding my eyes.
"You have seen your mom!"
"Yeah," she smiled at me. "Maybe you do have a brain in that big head of yours!"
"HEY! That's not cool!" I protested.
"You must have some smarts if I find you attractive." She winked.
I smiled back at her and reached for her hand.
"So," I ventured into the sensitive subject of parents. "What'd she say?"
"Um... nothing too important. I don't think." She looked troubled.
"Let me rephrase; what exactly did she say?"
"'Tell him to prepare.' Whatever that means." She tried to make it seem like a light topic, but we both knew it was something to worry about.
I thought about it some more. It didn't really make much sense to me either, but I shook it off.
"I don't know. But we'll figure it out later. Right now, we're taking a break. We're just a couple on a date." I told her, still trying to convince myself.
"Right. Just a couple on a date."
We walked along for a while longer then decided to go to a seaside store for a snack. We found a small shop and ordered sodas.
We were sitting on picnic tables facing the gulf when there was a loud shout and clanging, like pots and pans being dropped. It had come from the shop we'd just been in.
Annabeth and I turned and locked eyes. She sighed and brought out a knife that had been concealed in its sheath on her belt loop. I brought out my weapon: a pen. I uncapped Riptide and it sprang into three feet of Celestial Bronze.
"I'd been hoping for a little break at least." Annabeth muttered.
We both knew, demigods never got a "little break".
Together we took off in the direction of the shop. When we burst into the store, it was not what I'd been expecting.
There was a girl, small, skinny and scraped up, jumping around stabbing a hellhound with forks, knives and other kitchen utensils. The cashier was shouting and customers were staring, shocked.
I heard a little kid ask, "Why is that girl hurting the puppy?"
The first thing that went through my mind was,
"Demigod," Annabeth whispered the word for me.
"Or she could be some insane-"Annabeth gave me her Percy-why-are-you-such-an-idiot look, "Yeah, she's a demigod."
I stood there for a minute then I thought up a plan whether or not it was a good one- pretend she was someone I knew.
"Hey!" I shouted. "Get over here! It's time to get going!"
The girl ignored me, her brown curls flipping around as she dodged a swipe of the hellhound's claws.
I remembered my first fight with a hellhound. Well, I didn't really do anything but get clawed up, and I had been in armor then. Something told me this girl, whoever she was, had been fighting monsters a long time.
Annabeth looked confused, but I guess she realized what I was planning or had her own plan because she walked up to the cashier and apologized,
"I'm so sorry. My sister sometimes has trouble controlling herself. We'll be leaving right away, sir."
The man huffed but nodded. He turned to the crowd reassuring them that everything was being taken care of.
I went up to the girl, snatched a fork from her and threw it at the hellhound. Then I grabbed her wrist and took off running. I knew that the fork I threw wouldn't affect the monster at all. I also knew (from experience) that hellhounds could run pretty fast, so we only had a few seconds at best to get away.
I shouted at Annabeth, "Blackjack!"
Thank the gods, she understood. While I ran to her, dragging the girl along, she did her best taxi cab whistle and soon a black winged horse came to a stop in front of us.
Annabeth leapt on quickly.
"Hurry! Get on!" Annabeth screamed from on top of Blackjack.
The girl didn't hesitate at all as she mounted. When I was getting up, I turned and I saw the beast- which was the size of a rhino- charging towards us. Foam and drool was spilling out of its slobbery mouth. It was steadily getting closer.
Blackjack just whinnied and said, Where to boss?
Oh, yeah, I can talk to horses.
"Yeah, you think you can get us to camp?" I quickly asked, my eyes still on the beast lumbering toward us.
Yeah boss! Though, who's the new girl?
"Uh, Blackjack we're kinda in a hurry!"
For the first time he seemed to notice the hellhound.
Let's go!
I held on tight as we launched ourselves over the ocean, leaving a very disappointed hellhound howling in the dust.