Callie Jackson; The Return

Chapter XXIII

Percy's POV

We walked down the hill, or well, I did. Callie rode on my back. I hailed a taxi to pick us up. I opened the door for her, set her down, then climbed in and sat down beside her. The driver kept glaring at us. Probably thinking 'why are two teenagers coming from a strawberry farm?!'
"Percy." Callie whispered. "I don't like this."
"What's wrong?" I asked, trying to stay calm. I couldn't let her slip away from me again.
"The- the driver." She mumbled, wiping her hands on her jeans. "He creeps me out. He just doesn't fit."
"It's ok." I whispered, trying to make her stay calm. "Just, don't try to fight him ok? I'll deal with him if he is a monster." I couldn't doubt her. We were the most powerful demigods in a millennium, and we didn't know her blessings yet. Monster sensation could be one of them. She nodded. We rode an hour whispering to each other and giggling. Finally we got quiet, after a harsh look from the driver. She suddenly slumped against the window.
  "Callie!" I yelled.
  "Hey shut up, would yeh?!" The cabdriver yelled back at me.
  "I'll give you an extra five dollars if stop telling me what to do!" I snarled back. "My sister just packed out back here!" He grinned, then turned around and continued driving. Callie have a sudden jerk up, awake, and grabbed my wrist.
  "Percy, we have to get out of here. Now." She said out loud, very seriously.
"Not so fast, Sea children!" The driver yelled. He swerved off the road and down a very steep hill. His skin was turning a nasty shade of green, his grin now a toothy, fanged smile. Callie grabbed my wrist and opened the door.
"What in Hades are you doing?!" I yelled at her.
"No time to explain! She yelled back, the wind pushing her braids into her face. "Just grab my hand and don't let go!" I took her small, sweaty hand and gripped it tightly. She jumped out of the car, and before I could resist, pulled me out too. But we didn't plummet to the ground. Instead, we soared up the hill, came back down, and fell. We fell on our backs, rolling down the hill. I jumped up, unsheathed riptide, then turned to her. She was face down in the grass, sprawled out. I ran over and bent down.
  "You ok?" I asked.
  "Uh, yeah. I think." She said, flipping over to sit on her butt.
  "So, I know what that was, but just to make sure you do, what was that?" I asked, cracking a smile.
  "My gift from Zeus, remember? I can fly for a little while, apparently only when in an emergency." She said.
  "Oh, right! Totally knew that. How do you know it was only useable in emergencies again?"
  "Well, we fell after we were close to the ground and safe, right?" She said, looking at me.
  "You're like an Athena kid, ocean girl."
  "No." She said flatly.
  "Water queen?" I asked.
  "Nah." She said, grinning.
  "H2O princess?"
  "Defiantly not."
  "Sea-"
  "Shut up!" She said, pushing my arm and laughing.
  Slowly throwing my hand out to help her up; She took it and pulled. She stood, wiped the dust from her camp shirt, and started walking with me. We made it up the hill, then looked for the apartment building. It wasn't very far; maybe 4 blocks north.
  "So what happened when I was gone?" Callie asked in a hushed voice.
  "Not much, just moping about you." I said. She looked sad.
  "Sorry." She said, her sea green eyes, the same as mine, looked full of sadness. They seemed to be swirling, just like the sea does.
  "Did you seriously just apologize for being stabbed by a poison knife? It wasn't your fault sis."
  "I know, but I feel bad cause I caused everyone so much pain."
  "Don't. You're here now." I said, pulling her braids like someone would do the ropes of a horse drawn carriage. We reached the apartment and started up the stairs.
  "Race you!" She yelled, and took off running upwards.
  "No fair!" I yelled after her. I caught up to her and unsheathed riptide. She caught my eyes.
  "Really now?" She said, tapping something on her wrist. He dagger formed in her hand.
  "Woah! I said. "How'd you get that?!"
  "I don't know." She admitted. "It appeared right after I got out of Tartarus."
  "Oh." I said. "Ready? The first move is yours." She nodded and swung. I knew she wouldn't purposely hurt me, and I wouldn't hurt her at all. We fought for a while, dodging and blocking each other's attacks. She was walking forward in battle. She swung fast, sweating and panting. I hit the wall. She held her knife to my throat.
  "I guess you win. You're really good, you know. Some more training and you'll be amazing." I said. Finally, a mortal walked by, her dagger still at my throat. They screamed. It was a child. She was probably about a year older than Callie, a brunet boy with coal black eyes. He ran up the stairs and shut an apartment door.
"Do you think?" She asked.
"Yep." I said. "He saw through the mist." We hurried up the stairs, then reached our door.
"Ready?" I asked. She nodded vigorously, bouncing on the balls of her heels and smiling. I knocked. The door slowly swung open. Paul was standing there, in a button down shirt and khakis, his hair combed down.
  "Oh, um, hey Percy. We were about to go to a school assembl- oh my god! Sally! Sally, come here!" He had saw Callie. Mom came running, holding her high heels in her hand.
  "What's wrong?" She asked, looking up at him. "Oh Percy! We were about to leave, there's food in the- Callie." She said, stopping mid-sentence. She ran over and held her in a tight hug. They were both crying. Paul and I looked at each other, then went to hug with them. We had went to our knees. After about 2 minutes we got back up, went inside. Paul called, saying that they couldn't make the assembly. "Family business." He told them. Callie and I sat down on the couch with mom hurrying after us to ask Callie questions. She gave us a giant blue cookie a piece then started.
  "How?" She whispered.
  "I don't know." Callie said back, munching on her cookie. Mom dropped the subject.
  "So when you stay here, you'll need to stay in Percy's room, at least for now. We're have you a room cleaned out in a couple weeks."
  "Alright mom." She said, hugging her. "Thank you."
  "You're welcome sweetie." Mom told her. The twinkle in moms eyes were brighter than ever. "You can stay here anytime."
  "Actually mom." I said, butting in. "We wanted to stay here and go to Goode."
  "That's wonderful!" Paul said. "I'll enroll you tomorrow. And I'll try to see if you can get on the swim team Percy!"
  "Thanks." I told him.
  "I want to be on the swim team!" Callie bursted out.
  "Oh, uh, I don't think girls are allowed." He said.
  "She's great though!" I said. "We're children of Poseidon."
  "Alright then." Paul said. "I'll see if they can make an exception."
  "Yay!" Callie said. We sat around eating cookies and watching tv with mom and Paul until midnight. This had to be the best night ever. No worrying, no monster fighting, and I'm with my family. Like a normal teenager.