¹On This Spring Day, percy jackson & the olympians

013.

ON THIS SPRING DAY
━━━━━ chapter thirteen

━━━━━ AJ WAS HAVING the second worst time of his life. The actual worst time of his life was the day his Home Economics teacher suddenly grew ten feet tall and started on about family and the importance of having a good family and being the bridge between people ( it all freaked AJ out, so forgive him for not remembering, especially considering its been years ). And then he ran home to find his aunt spewing nonsense about nine people and the earth taking back.

               It's been years, and he doesn't really like to remember his life before Camp Half-Blood. It wasn't exactly a fun time. ( See as: not fun at all. )

               Anyways, to say this was coming close to that was something. A week had passed since Annabeth Chase had returned from the Labyrinth alone. Alone, alone. No one with her. No Tyson, no Grover, no Percy. And especially no Violet.

               He already disliked Annabeth enough, but this really just tipped it over the edge.

               AJ was one of the half-bloods posted at Zeus's Fist when Annabeth made it back. At the first sign of a familiar face, people let out a sigh of relief. And then they noticed how little people made it back.

               No one said it, but they all wanted to know where everyone else was. They all exchanged nervous looks when Annabeth escaped the Labyrinth by herself, eyes puffy and lips peeled. That familiar sting came back as AJ listened through Annabeth's explanation about what went down.

               They had met Hephaestus, they were given a task for him to help them, then an explosion went off. Violet and Percy hadn't made it out. Annabeth had. She ran all the way to Hephaestus, explained to him what happened, and he lent her a metallic spider that would lead her back to Camp Half-Blood.

               Annabeth was huddled in the infirmary for two days. AJ heard Lee complain the whole time how it was hard to keep the daughter of Athena from leaving. ( "She keeps insisting she's fine!" the son of Apollo snapped. "She's clearly not, with how high her blood pressure is right now!"

               "Just let her leave." AJ waved his hand dismissively. "She's gonna keep trying to leave until you let her." )

               ( Lee didn't like AJ's attitude, to say the least. Because of that, AJ was posted to help any of the two days Annabeth was in the infirmary. Luckily. )

               They kept asking Annabeth questions, but she kept deflecting. "What happened to Percy?" one of Lee's siblings would ask.

               "And to Violet?" AJ added, knowing Michael would never ask.

               Annabeth winced. "I—I don't know. Lee, if you just let me leave—"

               "Not a chance, Annabeth!" Lee snapped, giving her a hard look. "Not until me or Michael clear you."

               She scowled at him.

               That sting never really left, if AJ was honest with himself. Not from the moment his family moved from California to Virginia. It was like something was haunting him, waiting for the perfect time to strike. This deep, heavy feeling on his chest; this feeling of monsters ( mythological or not ) closing in around him. And the feeling only became worse when he met Annabeth.