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—JUDITH was never sure what to think when the mail came in and there was a letter from Percy. He had Iris messaged her once, at the start of the year, and she told him to never do it again as it made talking with him even more excruciating. She thought he'd get the hint and just cease all contact, but then a few days later, a light blue envelope came in with the mail, containing horrific penmanship ( coupled with her dyslexia, it was a miracle she could even read it ). Surprisingly, however, writing with the son of Poseidon was easy.
She could answer his questions on her own time, could ignore certain ones that she didn't feel like discussing, could wait to respond for however long she liked. Honestly, she didn't hate talking to him this way.
Her mother — who was home for the school year — had asked about the exchange and Judith had the urge to tell her it was just some acquaintance from camp. But then, she realized, her mother would press her for more details, because no one talked to an acquaintance this much. So she'd used the word 'friend' to avoid more questions — though she was still reluctant to think of him in any way that wasn't a nuisance. But even she had to admit that when the mail would come in and that signature baby blue color wasn't there, Judith couldn't help but feel a little disappointment riddled with hurt.
At one point during the year, Judith was bombarded with a school project and got tired of writing responses so she stopped sending letters. Then, about a week later, a collection of envelopes came in, all desperately telling her to send something back so Percy knew she wasn't killed by monsters. Instead of writing, all the girl did was send an amateur drawing of her fighting off a monster with the words 'not dead' scrawled underneath.
After continuing to do this in response to all his letters from then on, Percy started to send them as well, telling her his fridge was covered in her messy artwork. Judith kept his art in a pile on her desk, held down by a skull paperweight. And no, she did not look at them every few days, she didn't!
One day, an actual letter came in and she was worried he would want to return to the writing. But he was only asking for her help with a distress call he'd received from Grover. This particular call didn't seem as alarming as when he was trapped on Polyphemus' island so Judith was on the fence about even agreeing to it. But then Thalia was mentioned and Judith hopped on the idea, wanting to see the spunky daughter of Zeus again.
Judith's mother was going to be called to base in Texas soon anyway so Judith thought it was the perfect time for a road trip; she didn't want to be alone with Dexter any longer than she had to. He seemed perfectly okay with that plan, as well.
Living in Maine, Judith was last to be picked up in Ms. Jackson's car when the day arrived. Being the last one, she was smushed in the back with Thalia and Annabeth, both girls greeting her with an uncomfortable smile. They had been in the car much longer than Judith, and she was thankful that it was only a thirty minute ride that she had to endure like this. All the girls had some muscle on their bones so it was a tight fit.
