NEVER BE THE SAME . . . percy jackson

eight: the start.

BROOKLYN WOKE UP to someone aggressively shaking her.

"Literally, fuck off, Percy," she mumbled, rolling to her side. "I'm not sneaking to the beach with you. I'm tired of driving you because you're too fucking young to drive."

She had a moment of solace before a voice that was clearly not Percy's told her, "well, your boyfriend can't go with you to the beach because he's been missing the entire night and he left me a message telling us to go to the city."

At that, Brooklyn was more awake, turning to her back and sitting up, slowly opening her eyes to see Annabeth Chase. "Of course he fucking has," she muttered, shoving her blanket off of her. "I make him leave me alone for one night and he goes missing."

Despite their animosity, one of the corners of Annabeth's lips pulled up. "So you don't know anything."

Brooklyn grabbed her phone and saw a message on it. She played it out loud, rolling her eyes when he said at the end, "right, you're probably not on your phone because you're probably gonna sleep for the next eighteen hours. I'm calling Annabeth. Fuck you, Brooks."

"I don't know what he's planning," she rubbed her eyes, "but I guess we'll find out. How much time do I have to get ready, your Highness?"

"About the time it takes to get everyone else to the vans," Annabeth said, bristling at the nickname. "I've already told all of them, if that helps."

"Wonderful," Brooklyn muttered, sending Annabeth a mock salute before standing up, walking over to her dresser. When she blinked, she saw black and gray and the red lines wrapped around her arm before blinking again and she was back to the real world. "Hey, if I could get dressed, that'd be real great."

"Right," Annabeth sighed, obviously done with her. She left the cabin with a wary look at the statue.

After getting dressed into a cute white top and a skirt, Brooklyn threw on sunglasses and grabbed her spiked baseball bat and left her cabin, only to be sitting in a dreary white van for hours. She was miserable, but at least everyone else in the van was as miserable as her. They played some car games, but it wasn't enough to alleviate their misery by a whole lot.

Eventually, though, they stopped for good, and Brooklyn got out of the van first because she was sick of being in there with all of those shit smelling demigods. Seriously. Can you, like, not?

Then she saw Percy and walked toward where he was sitting, because she hated being surrounded by everyone else and because he smelled nice. Clearly Annabeth had the same thought, because they were both walking toward him.

But he was only looking at Brooklyn, which would've made her feel smug if his expression wasn't so . . . weird. He'd never looked at her like that before. Like she was his anchor or something.

"What's up with you?" she asked him.

"What do you mean?" Percy countered.

"You're looking at me funny."

"It's, uh, nothing." He said, but she narrowed her eyes. He was so hiding something. Before she could interrogate him, he turned to the rest of the group. "Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."

Chiron shook his head. "I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."

"But you're our leader."

He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."