σɾɳιƚԋαʂ (ρʝσ x ɱαʅҽ σƈ)

I Almost Get Stoned

Theo's POV

I'll just say it right now; the gods certainly know how to fuck you over.

I'm out living a normal life? HADES SENDS AN ODONTOTYRANNOS ON MY ASS!

I manage to get away from said Odontotyrannos? ZEUS BLOWS OUT MY TIRES!

I just took down 3 monstrous hags who were trying to kill my friends in a bus? ZEUS BLOWS UP THE DAMN BUS!

Which brings us to where we are now: Annabeth, Percy, Grover, and I walking through the woods of New Jersey, smelling like the Hudson, and let's not forget the fact that it's fucking PISSING RAIN!

Grover: Three Kindly Ones. All three at once.

Annabeth: Come on! The farther we get away, the better.

Percy: All our money was back there. Our food and clothes. Everything.

Annabeth: Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—

Percy: What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?

Annabeth: You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine.

Grover: Sliced like sandwich bread, but fine.

Annabeth: Shut up, goat boy.

Grover: Tin cans...A perfectly good bag of tin cans...

Theo: I'll buy you as many tin cans as you want when this is over, alright?

Grover nodded.

We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.

Annabeth: (to Percy) Look, I...I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave.

Percy: We're a team, right?

Annabeth: It's just that if you died . . . aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world.

Theo: Wait. You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were 7?

Annabeth: No. Only short field trips. My dad—

Percy: The history professor.

Annabeth: Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home. At camp, you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not.

I could've sworn I heard a hint of doubt in her voice.

Theo: I'd say you were pretty good.

Annabeth: You think so?

Theo: (smirks) I mean, how many people could say they rode on a Fury's back and lived to tell about it?

She chuckled, and I think I might've seen her blush as well.

Annabeth: You know, maybe I should tell you...Something funny back on the bus...

Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill toot-toot-toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.

Grover: Hey, my reed pipes still work! If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!

He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff. Percy ended up slamming headfirst into a tree while I trip on rock and fell on the ground.