LUCKY | PJO [p. jackson]

05

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Aeroplanes were amazing.

Enid had never experienced anything like it. To be in Los Angeles one second and then in New York, hundreds of miles away, only five hours later was jaw dropping. It used to take Enid and her father a good hour to travel to the local markets, but this... it was incredible.

The others didn't seem to agree, however —especially Percy. He had his hands clenched around the armrests for the entire journey, flinching hard at every shake of the plane, and he even turned a pale shade of green at one point — Enid had just passed him the paper bag provided by the airline and continued to gawk out the window at the tiny world below. If Zeus chose to blast them out of the sky, Enid knew she could die again utterly fulfilled in that moment.

Once they touched down in New York, it felt like a whole new quest in itself trying to avoid the media. In Los Angeles, Percy had given a very heartfelt speech to a crowd of reporters about how much he was looking forward to  reuniting with his step-father after being held by a gun-crazed kidnapper for so long: "All I want is to see my loving stepfather again. Every time I saw him on TV, calling me a delinquent punk, I knew... somehow... we could be okay." It was a performance worthy of the Muses, but despite being complete nonsense, it had still raised them enough money for four plane tickets.

Now, they were stuck with the consequences — the New York local press wanted the same heartfelt story. Luckily, with Annabeth's cap of invisibility and a deceptive shout ("They're over by the frozen yoghurt! Come on!"), the teenagers had been able to sneak past the crowds of cameras to join the blonde at baggage claim.

The taxi stand is where they said their farewells. Despite wanting to go with Percy and finish the quest together, their leader had insisted they go back to Half-Blood Hill whilst he ventured into Olympus to face Zeus alone.

"We can't let you go by yourself," Annabeth tried to reason. "Zeus could incinerate you on the spot!"

"Or he could incinerate all of us and then no one would ever know the truth," Percy insisted. It was a very difficult point to argue. "You three need to go back to camp and tell Chiron what we know."

So reluctantly they agreed. It was hard leaving Percy, after everything they'd all been through — especially him, Annabeth and Grover; but they all said their goodbyes. Before Percy could jump in a taxi to Manhattan however, Enid grabbed his hand. The redhead was glad Annabeth and Grover had gone ahead to find them a taxi because she was already struggling to keep the red from her cheeks.

Tying her blue ribbon around his wrist again, much like she had done earlier that day, Enid smiled and said softly, "For luck."

Percy smiled back, a light dusting of red on his cheeks also. Enid began walking away, not keen to watch him leave in case that was the last time she saw him, but his call made her pause. Looking back, Percy's head was hanging out the car window, a large grin on his face:

"I'll see you at camp, Enid!"

Then he disappeared into the New York streets.

•

Enid tried not to shake as she stood waiting in the Big House. They'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood only for Annabeth to rush her straight to the farmhouse with the instructions: "Wait for Chiron and Mr D. They'll want to talk to you." Enid was terrified that was code for: "They'll want to kick you out and send you straight back to Hades." And the thing was Enid really didn't want to go back. Not just because she didn't want to die all over again and face an eternity in the Fields of Asphodel, but because the short moments she'd had looking over Camp Half-Blood... it had felt like she'd been blessed with her own Elysium.