𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘, percy jackson

𝐗𝐈𝐈𝐈. a massive leap of faith

CHAPTER THIRTEEN ——
A MASSIVE LEAP OF FAITH !

┊͙ 🪽 ˖ . *. ⋆

( "got any blue jelly beans left?" )

       TOWARD THE END OF THEIR second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, they passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis.

Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked to Parker like a huge shopping bag handle stuck on the city. "I want to do that." Annabeth sighed.

"What?" Percy asked.

"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?"

"Only in pictures."

"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."

Percy laughed. "You? An architect?" He didn't know why, but he found it funny. Just the idea of Annabeth trying to sit quietly and draw all day, it seemed to him more like a career Parker would pursue.

Her cheeks flushed. "Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."

Parker laughed. She hadn't said much to Percy after their brief conversation when Annabeth was asleep, despite sitting directly next to him on the train. "I could picture it. You're smart, Annabeth, I think you'd make a great architect." She said.

Annabeth smiled in return. Percy got déjà vu back to Yancy Academy, where Parker seemed to find the utmost joy in raising her hand to share the correct answer to a question, directly after the teacher called on him and he had given the wrong answer. It happened more than you would think.

They pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told them there'd be a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.

Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he said, "Food."

"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth said. "Sightseeing."

"Sightseeing?"

"The Gateway Arch." She said. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?" Grover and Percy exchanged looks while Parker was already by her side.

Percy wanted to say no, but he figured splitting up wasn't the greatest idea. Grover shrugged. "As long as there's a snack bar without monsters."

The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. The four threaded their way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. Percy didn't find it all that thrilling, but Annabeth kept telling them interesting facts about how the Arch was built, Parker wasn't insulting him, and Grover kept passing him jelly beans, so he was okay.

Percy kept looking around, though, at the other people in line. "You smell anything?" He murmured to Grover.

He took his nose out of the jelly bean bag long enough to sniff. "Underground," he said distastefully. "Underground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."

But something felt wrong to Percy. He had a feeling they shouldn't be here. "Guys," he said. "You know the gods' symbols of power?"

Annabeth had been in the middle of explaining something about the construction equipment used to build the Arch to Parker, but she looked over. "Yeah?"