Finally Back

Thirteen|| "George! Martha!"

Connor
My plan to restore Travis's memory was not working. I wasn't going to give up. I couldn't. The world was at stake. I bet Travis got a restraining order against me. I wouldn't blame him. I wouldn't stop bugging him yesterday. To be fair he would've done the same. Was I going to do it again today? Yes, yes I was. Just maybe a little different.

I had just successfully stolen Riptide from Natalie. Part one of my plan was complete. Now back to Travis's room. The teacher wasn't in the room. Talk about luck. I casually walked in. In the corner of my eye I saw Travis groan. I swiftly approached him smiling.

"Go away." He said earning an eye roll from me.

"Just hold this pen for a while." I said holding out Riptide.

"No."

"Please?"

"You're weird."

"Travis, take the pen."

"I said no."

"I'll go away if you hold the pen."

"Promise?"

"Promise." I said crossing my fingers behind my back.

"Fine." He said snatching the pen.

He held it for five minutes. No result. I didn't understand what was going wrong.

"Well I've held your dumb pen. Now go away." He said handing me back the pen.

"Something should've happened by now." I said rubbing my eyes.

"Yeah, you should've gone away." Travis said sitting back in his seat.

"No I mean, you should be fixed." I said twirling the pen in hand.

"You promised you'd go away." Travis hummed.

"I lied."

He looked utterly surprised and offended. It was quite funny.

"Don't give me that face we lie all the time." I said while thinking.

Maybe it was the way the pen was handed.

"Here just hold it one more time." I said shoving the pen towards him.

"No." Travis said moving away from me.

"Travis, you gotta work with me." I said trying to get the pen to at least make contact with him.

"Just leave me alone!" He snapped shoving me into a kid.

The kid wasn't too happy with that. He shoved me right back into Travis. You think with my Hermes kid's skills I would've landed smoothly, but I'd been two years since I've really accessed my awesome genes so I ended up tripping over a desk.

My hand thrusted forward for the impact and I accidentally shoved the pen right into Travis's left eye. It didn't actually pierce his eyeball, it just poked it extremely hard.

"WHAT THE HECK!" He screamed holding his eye.

"Whoops?" I nervously laughed.

"Just go away!" Travis said sitting back down.

With perfect timing the teacher entered the room.

"Excuse me but what are you doing in here?" The teacher snapped.

"The real question is why aren't you here? You were gone for at least ten minutes. Care to tell your class where you were?" I retorted.

She seemed kinda shocked. Guess that wasn't the reply she expected.

"Exactly. Now I'll let you're behaviour slide and you let me leave. Wouldn't want the principal knowing you randomly leave your classes without supervision." I said exiting the room quickly.

I sprinted down the halls. Sure my act was great, but so fake and unconvincing at the time. I'm surprised the teacher even let that slide. She probably was a bad teacher. All I know is that my dad really is looking out for me.

I have no idea what to do now. How am I going to help Travis if he won't even let me near him? This was like Mission Impossible.

Natalie passed me in the hall. It took me a while to recognise her. Her hair was dyed a dark green. She pulled it off fairly well. Minus the fact that she looked like the world hated her. She saw me and scowled. She really was hung up on the fact I stole Riptide. Why was she so stuck up on that pen? I've never met someone so protective over a writing utensil. Even Percy wasn't that hung up on Riptide, and it was his. Yet again, he didn't have to worry about anyone taking it. It always returned to him.

"It's not her fault she's hung up on the pen."

I looked around to see who was talking to me. The only people insight were some popular girls ditching class.

"Down here."

I looked down to see snakes. I couldn't really be startled. I knew them. I was really relieved to see them. Finally, someone who knew what was going on.

"George! Martha!" I smiled.

"Son of Hermes, your father says hi." Martha said.

I hoped no one was seeing this. The Mist was slightly weaker, but not by much so there shouldn't be a problem.

"I miss dad." I said.

"He misses you, too." Martha replied.

"Shut up, we don't have much time. Our absence will be noticed." George said hitting Martha with his tail.

"Right. Right. We're here with advice from Lord Apollo." Martha said.

"Don't worry we'll skip the haiku." George said making me sigh in relief.

"The reason why it isn't working is because of who hands it, not how." Martha said putting emphasis on certain words.

"But Percy isn't here." I said.

"Not Percy."

"Then who?"

"Who handed it to you?"

"I'm so stupid." I said slapping my forehead with my hand.

"He speaks the truth." George said only to get hit by Martha's tail.

"Now that you've gotten your answer, we'll be on our way. Lord Hermes will like that we had time to spare." Martha said and they started to fade.

"Tell him I said hi." I said before they vanished.

I now knew why Natalie was so possessive of that pen. She was supposed to have it. She didn't know it consciously, but deep inside her she did know. That's why she couldn't explain why she needed it. In her mind she just had to have it for an unexplained reason.
Now I know how to save Travis. It was going to be just as hard as my first try. I knew what I had to do. How I was going to do it? That was the problem.

I headed towards Natalie's class. Hopefully, I could slide in without trouble. I passed the girls who were ditching class. They weren't that good at whispering.

"Look it's that kid who was talking to those pencils."

"He even named them."

"Who names their pencils George and Martha?"

"What a weirdo."

They all looked at me and snickered before walking in the opposite direction I was headed. I choose to ignore them. Even thought it was tempting to say "Mortals." and roll my eyes, but I didn't want to cause trouble. At least I know the Mist was still working.

I readied myself to enter Natalie's first hour. I had to think of a perfect entrance and lie. Not a problem for a Hermes kid. Once I had the perfect one, I put on my signature smirk and opened the door.