You Only Live Once ➳ Percy Jackson

▹chapter 9

Heroes aren't always the ones who win. They're the ones who lose, sometimes. But they keep fighting, they keep coming back. They don't give up. That's what makes them heroes.

- Cassandra Clare, City of Heavenly Fire

So here we are, Annabeth, Percy and Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank.

Grovers eyes full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once." I was pretty much in shock myself. Shock, that's a small word for what I was feeling honestly.

Annabeth kept pulling us along no matter how tired we were, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."

"All our money was back there, our food and clothes. Everything." Percy reminded her.

"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight-"

"What did you want me to do? Let you all get killed?"

"You didn't need to protect us. We would've been fine."

"Sliced like a bread," Grover put in "but fine."

"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth. Grover looked like he was about to cry over a lose of his 'perfectly good bag of tin cans' as he put it

After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to me and Percy and looked at him.

"Look, I...I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."

"We're a team, right?" She was silent for a few more steps.

"It's just that if you died ... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be our only chance to see the real world." She said looking at me

"You both haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" he asked us.

"No ... only short field trips. My dad-"she started "It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home. It's our home."

"At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not." I spoke up, sensing she didn't want to talk anymore. Her dad was always a touchy subject

"You're pretty good with that crossbow," he told me

"You think so?"

"Yeah, you are great with it."

I was about to thank him but I was interrupted by a weird sound.

"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried.

After a long night of tripping and cursing and feeling totally miserable I could smell food. We kept walking until we saw a one open business, which was the source of the the good smell. The neon sign that was hanging above the gate I couldn't read, it looked like: ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM. Backyard was full of cement garden gnomes and all others statues.

"The lights are on " Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."

"There has to be a snack bar," I said.

"Yeah" she agreed.

"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird." We ignored him. But I had to agree that something here was giving me creeps. I was just to damn hungry to care.