𝑳𝑶𝑵𝑮 𝑳𝑰𝑽𝑬 || 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚 𝒋𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒙 𝒐𝒄

middle school dance: military style

The Friday before winter break, Percy's mom packed him an overnight bag and a few deadly weapons. You know, just cool mom stuff.

Annabeth and Thalia were outside Percy's apartment. Grover had contacted them in need of assistance, so Sally was going to drive to Bar Harbor. Percy stepped outside and looked at the two and asked, "Where's Maisie?"

Annabeth crossed her arms. "Good to see you too."

"Sorry, Hi," Percy amended. "Where's Maisie?"

Annabeth pointed. Maisie was feeding a random duck a ways down the street.

"Is he always like this?" Thalia stage whispered to Annabeth.

Percy ignored them. They all piled in Sally's car. Percy sat in the passenger seat while Maisie sat in the back in the middle. She was forced to sit there by the other girls since she was the smallest, but she really wished she was on the end. Annabeth and Thalia were leaning over and talking quietly to one another behind her back. Not 'talking behind her back' as in talking about her, but literally talking behind her. She felt she was intruding on their conversation just by sitting in between them.

She felt a little out of place with Thalia being added to the group. She didn't really bond much with Thalia over the summer. Maisie figured it was herself that was being weird about it though.

It was an eight-hour drive from New York to Bar Harbor, Maine. Sleet and snow pounded the highway. Between the blizzard and the thought of what they were about to do, the demigods were too nervous to talk all that much. Except for Percy's mom. She talks more when she's nervous. So does Maisie.

Maisie sat forward so Annabeth and Thalia wouldn't have to talk abound her and focused on chatting it up with Sally.

Percy wanted to throw himself out of the car when Sally started explaining every embarrassing baby story about him that she could think of.

By the time they finally got to Westover Hall, it was getting dark. Thalia wiped the fog off the car window and peered outside. "Oh, yeah. This'll be fun."

Westover Hall looked like an evil knight's castle. It was all black stone, with towers and slit windows and a big set of wooden double doors. It stood on a snowy cliff overlooking this big frosty forest on one side and the gray churning ocean on the other.

"Are you sure you don't want me to wait?" Percy's mother asked.

"No, thanks, Mom," he said. "I don't know how long it will take. We'll be okay."

"But how will you get back? I'm worried, Percy." Percy hoped he wasn't blushing. It was bad enough he had to depend on his mom to drive him to his battles.

"It's okay, Ms. Jackson." Maisie said. "I'll keep him out of trouble."

Percy snorted when his mom did not look reassured by Maisie saying that.