𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍° ! percy jackson

𝐢𝐢.𝐢 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐲𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐞 (𝐩 + 𝐚)

Was it a rare occurrence for Percy to have a nightmare? Not really. But for a satyr to be running in fear from a monster in a bridal shop behind wedding dresses as it called Grover "mine" was definitely strange.

But Percy relented and went on with his day, because he could finally see the people he'd been missing—or person, really. Aurora Miller was waiting for him at camp, and Percy was determined to make it till the last day of school. He missed his friend—yes, Aurora was his friend. Crazy, right?—more than he would like to admit.

Social studies finally came around, and while he was being forced to draw latitude and longitude maps, Percy opened his notebook and stared at the photo inside: a cute—no, beautiful. No, gorgeous. There were really no words that could describe her, although Percy's vocabulary was extremely limited—girl with strawberry blonde locks and stunning hazel eyes rimmed with gold standing in a colorful garden with a crown of daisies in her lightened hair.

Over the spring, Aurora had spent one singular day outside of Camp Half Blood, and she had met her mother, Persephone, in the New York Botanical Garden. All she and her mom did was talk and eat fresh fruit and grow flowers. It didn't sound like loads of fun to the son of Poseidon, but it made Ro ecstatic. She had told him the story over a short Iris Message in May, and Percy wished he was a photographer or artist or something, because the look of joy on Ro's face was something else. It made Percy's heart happy. 

But like, why wouldn't he be happy? He wouldn't have been a good friend if he didn't support his friends' successes. For example, Grover, the goat in the dream, was following his legacy of finding the great god of nature, Pan. Annabeth Chase, Aurora's friend that got on Percy's nerves all the time, was giving her family a chance. And they were happy. It wasn't just Aurora. Come on, be for real. Aurora got on his last nerves, let's admit it, okay? But she was still perfect in every way, despite how much she loved to make his life miserable. And they were friends, she had finally conceded last summer, and so he would do anything she wanted so she could maintain their relationship. Seeing her happy, like seeing anyone else happy, made Percy glad.

Aurora had emailed Percy the picture in the spring, along with a photo of her view from the Central Park Tower overlooking New York, with the caption: No one pushed me off of this building. Take some notes, Shark Boy.

It was a gibe at Percy's biggest mistake of pushing Aurora off of the St. Louis Arch, in hopes of saving the girl's life. She had told him that she would never let it go, and Percy was afraid that she actually wouldn't. He shouldn't have doubted her, though. Percy responded with the hopes of her being safe in the monster-infested city, to which Aurora stated that no monster would dare attack her when the Queen of the Underworld was with her daughter.

Percy printed the picture of Aurora out and stuck it in his notebook, just to remind himself that she was real and a demigod like him and that Camp Half Blood hadn't just been his imagination. It was hard to remember who he truly was when he had a D- in Algebra (what the fuck was the point-slope formula anyway?) and was bullied constantly. The only upside was the fact that his mother, Sally Jackson, was no longer in an abusive relationship with Percy's long-gone stepfather Gabe, and the thought of returning to camp.

Percy wished he could talk to Aurora at that moment. She always knew what to say to him, even when she herself didn't know what to do. Her touch was like a thousand whispers, and instantly put him at ease.

Percy was about to close his notebook when Matt Sloan, his school's biggest bully, reached over and ripped the photo out of the rings.

"Hey!" Percy yelled in protest.

Sloan stared at the picture and his eyes got wide. "No fucking way, Jackson. Who is that? Goddamn, she's hot. She couldn't be your—"

"Give it back!" Percy's ears felt hot.