Double Life - Sequel to The Other Side

3

Percy's POV:

The gods had sent up away, and to some sort of camp while they figured out what exactly we were going to do.

The gods somehow teleported us there or something, because we got there in a matter of seconds.

When I got there, I was stunned. The place was beautiful. There was a beach, cabins, strawberry fields.

"Wow." I said.

A blonde haired boy with a scar on his lip walked towards me. "Do you know where you are, Percy?" He asked.

I looked around, then shook my head. "Don't think so. Why? Have I been here before?"

Annabeth made a strange, sad noise, and a beautiful tan girl with multi-colored eyes and a feather in her hair went to comfort her.

"Yeah." The boy said, as we all walked into a large building. "This is the big house." He said. "It's were we have camp councilor meetings. All of these people either lead a cabin, or are close to you."

"Who leads my cabin?" I asked.

"You do, Percy." Said another voice. I turned to see a young looking guy with a small beard and goat legs.

"I'm sorry, who are you guys?" I asked.

"I-I'm Grover." Said the satyr. "And this is Jason. We're your friends."

I looked at them both. I couldn't think of any time I'd ever seen their faces. They were completely unrecognizable. Complete and total strangers to me.

Grover lead me to a seat next to Annabeth, sitting around a ping-pong table that had various types of food on it. Everyone else took a seat, and the Centaur from before came into the room in a wheelchair. How he did that, I have no idea, but I decided it would be much easier not to ask.

"I believe you can all guess what today's meeting is about." He said, glancing meaningfully at me.

The boy from earlier, Leo, I think his name was, spoke up. "So how are we going to jog his memory?" He asked.

"Maybe we should just wait for Dionysus." Said Jason. 

"No," Annabeth pitched in. "We can't just sit on our hands until that god decides to help us. We can at least try to get him to remember."
"Very well then," said the centaur. "All in favor of waiting, raise your hand." Two hands went up.

"That's settled then. Now, how to help Percy."
Annabeth struggled for something in her pocket. "I have a few pictures." She said, finally managing to get them out.

There were three. The one she showed me before, one with me and six others, some of which I now knew, others, I didn't. The last picture is the one I picked up first.

"Is that you?" I asked, pointing to the small blonde girl in the photo.

"Yeah. When I was about eight." Annabeth replied.

"You're so small." I said with a grin.

"Well yeah, what did you expect?" She asked.

"Nothing! I just can't imagine someone so tough ever being that small." I replied. There were chuckles from the other councilors.

"Shut up." She said grumpily.

"It's cute." I said, which brought a small smile to her face.

"Who are those people with you?" I asked.

"The girl's name is Thalia. She's a hunter, for the goddess, Artemis, and your cousin. And the boy, his name was Luke. He-he died a few years ago."

"I'm sorry." I said. "Were you two close?"

She had a strange look on her face. "Yeah." She replied. "I suppose you could say that. He did make some...bad choices in his life, but in the end, he died a hero."

I nodded. "Did I know him?" I asked.

She nodded. "For a brief time."

I picked up the group picture and realized everyone in it was also in the room.

"Can you name anyone in this?" Annabeth asked. Everyone watched me expectantly.

"Well," I began. "There's you and me. And then, him, I think I heard his name, Leo, right?" Leo nodded, with a goofy grin on his face. "And then, that's Jason, but I only know that because he told me outside." I looked at the girl with the feather in her hair. "Your a child of Aphrodite, right?" I asked.

That seemed to shock them. "Yeah." She said. "How did you know that?"

"I-I don't... Lucky guess? Maybe just your eyes, or..." I stammered. It really was just a guess, but it felt like a little more than that. There wasn't really a way to explain it...

"Keep going." Annabeth encouraged me. "Her name is Piper. Do you remember anything about her?" She pointed to a young girl with big, bright Hazel eyes.

I looked up at the girl from the photo. She smiled a little nervously to me. "Hi, Percy." She said. The girl seemed sweet enough, so I smiled back.

I thought back, trying to remember her, but it was no use. "I'm sorry. I just don't really recognize...well, any of you." Annabeth sighed, looking sad, but still determined. I looked her over curiously. Nothing about her was at all familiar. "You said something before. When we were walking into the throne room."

She looked up at me.

"You said that I'm your boyfriend." I continued.

Everyone else was silent, watching us.

"Yeah." Annabeth replied. "Yeah we've been through a lot together."

"How?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"We seem pretty young to have been through very much." I replied.

She laughed a little, and once again gave me a strange look.

"What?" I asked.

Annabeth shook her head. "Nothing." She replied. "Absolutely nothing."