Hurricane ~ L. Valdez

2.1- The Jackson Kids Reunite

     When Leo Valdez started a project, he delivered. My boyfriend had built the Argo II to be simply amazing. He had worked tirelessly and words couldn't describe how proud I was of him.

     I was walking around the ship with Annabeth, who seemed to be just as nervous as I was. At least her and Percy had left off on good terms... I had no idea how my brother was going to react to me.

     Annabeth and I checked that the "We come in peace" flag was flying from the mast. She reviewed the plan with the rest of us... and the backup plan... and the backup plan for the backup plan. Annie liked to come prepared.

     She was even able to get Coach Hedge to take the morning off in his cabin and watch reruns of mixed martial arts championships to keep him from running around in gym clothes waving a club and yelling "Die!". That probably wouldn't be the best entrance.

    I was trying very hard to fight the panic building in me. We had tried to give the Romans a heads-up. Leo had sent a holographic scroll to alert our friends inside the camp of our arrival. Leo had also wanted to paint a giant message on the bottom of the hull—WASSUP? with a smiley face—but we had all vetoed the idea.

     We began to descend through the clouds, and one hand gripped Annabeth's as I took my place next to her on the deck. I sent Leo a wink as he rushed around like a madman, checking his gauges and wrestling levers.

      One fun thing about Leo is that he took the statement 'go big or go home' to the next level. Not only did the ship have a wheel, but also a keyboard, monitor, aviation controls from a Learjet, a dubstep soundboard, and motion-control sensors from a Nintendo Wii.

     He could turn the ship by pulling on the throttle, fire weapons by sampling an album, or raise sails by shaking his Wii controllers really fast.

     Have I mentioned that my boyfriend's ADHD? He flipped a switch, ran to check something across the deck, and then ran back across the deck, stopping to give me a chaste kiss atop my head.

      Piper was pacing back and forth, practicing her charmspeak. She kept murmuring to herself, fiddling with her fingers as she did.

      Then there was my brother Jason. He was standing at the bow on the raised crossbow platform, and looked about as stressed as he ever got (which isn't much as Jason was infuriatingly calm 24/7).

     He had an interesting clothing combination that included a Camp Halfblood shirt with a toga and a purple cloak over it. We had strategically placed Jason where he was, hoping that his familiar face would keep our ship from getting blown out of the sky.

      I looked down, swallowing the panic in my throat. Percy was somewhere below us right now. Oh dear gods. Would he be happy to see me? Angry at me? Would he even remember who I was?

I squeezed Annabeth's hand. I could tell she was stressed, and she probably had more racing thoughts then I did. The curse of being an Athena kid was that she was able to plan from every angle, but she could also see the downfalls in every plan.

Suddenly horns sounded from below us. We had been spotted. I looked down, in complete awe of Camp Jupiter. The valley was at least twice the size of Camp Half-Blood. There was a small river snaked around one side and curled toward the center like a capital letter G, which emptied into a beautiful blue lake. Directly below us the city of New Rome gleamed in the sunlight. She

Jason had spent many nights before we went to bed describing the landmarks of New Rome, and I was able to recognize some of them below us: the hippodrome, the coliseum, the temples and parks, the neighborhood of Seven Hills with its winding streets, colorful villas, and flowering gardens.