OH, CHÉRIE!¹ percy jackson

008

❛008❜

SHE BLAMED IT ALL on the gods. because really, who else was there to blame? ivy blamed them for the monster attack. blamed them for the blown up bus. but most of all, she blamed the gods on the fact that her most prized possessions were now destroyed. her tears of sadness hid in the rain that continued to pour over them. any other day she would have been angry, but right now she is too tired for anything other than crying.

so there they were, annabeth, grover, percy and ivy, walking through the woods on the new jersey riverbank, the glow of new york city making the night sky yellow behind them and the smell of the hudson reeking in their noses.

grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "three kindly ones. all three at once."

ivy was still in shock. the explosion of the bus windows still rang in her ears. now that the adrenaline rush was coming down, her arm was beginning to throb in pain. but annabeth kept pulling them along, saying: "come on! the further away we get, the better."

"all our money was back there," ivy said tiredly. "our food and clothes. and– and my backpack with my notebook. everything."

annabeth squeezed her right hand, given that the other one had a thick burn stripped on it. the daughter of athena sent her a smile, she knew how much those items mattered to her.

"well, maybe if percy hadn't decided to jump into the fight–" annabeth complained.

"what did you want me to do?" percy defended himself, flailing his arms around. "let you get killed?"

"you didn't need to protect us, jackson. we would've been fine," ivy said.

"sliced like sandwich bread," grover put in, "but fine."

they shloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.

after a few minutes, ivy fell in step next to percy. "look, i..." her voice faltered. "you coming back for us... that was really brave, i appreciate it."

"we're a team, right?"

she stayed silent for a few more steps. "well, it's if you die... other than the fact that it would be really shitty for you, it would mean the quest was over. annabeth would be upset that she didn't get the chance to see the real world."

the thunderstorm had finally let up. the city glow faded behind them, leaving them in almost total darkness. she couldn't see anything except for percy's intense sea green eyes.

"that backpack you had, it was important to you..." percy let his statement hang in the air.

ivy cleared her throat, "it used to be my dad's. other than my knife, it was all i had left of him. but that was a long time ago."

"so you've been at camp since you were seven?" she could tell percy was starting to piece her past together. but he wasn't commenting on it, which she was glad about.

"yeah. i go to boarding school because my dad would've wanted me to get an education, and it didn't really work out for annabeth to live at home," ivy rushed to change the subject. "i mean, camp half-blood is our home. we train and train. and that's all cool and everything, but for some people like annabeth. the real world is where there's an actual fight waiting for them. where they think they'll learn whether you're any good or not."