Anthízo, Percy Jackson

XII. blissful ignorance doesn't last a lifetime

KARINA LOVED BOATS.

she always has. even though the only time she had ever gone on was when she was nine, and had gone off course of her (supposed to be) quick grocery run, and burrowed a red plastic canoe off of someone's backyard. and she had decided to go onto the small lake that was in the outskirts of town. but, of course, nothing ever goes to plan with karina, and she had forgotten to grab the paddles to row it. so, that left karina to sit in the middle of the lake until sunset. after finally giving up on paddling with her hands,  that left to just swim back to shore, ditching the canoe.

of course, her father had a very large opinion on that when she came home soaked in murky lake water, getting dragged back home by the family who's canoe she took. but, she thinks it was all worth it. even if she did have a couple bruises on her the next day.

now, karina knew hazel had a completely different view on this. she knew that hazel got sea sick extremely easily, she just never knew why. but, she always remembered to bring sea sickness bands with her every time there was slight change there would be water involved in anything her and hazel were doing.

karina dug into the side pocket of her fully packed bag, ( curtesy of hazel ), which disrupted the calm silence that had settled over the group, causing frank to give her a curious look, furrowing his eyebrows together.

karina didn't look up from her bag, though. and she got to the point where she had physically shove her hand into the small side pockets of her backpack, forcing them to reach the bottom, and right as her fingertips reached the flat fabric of the deepest depth of her bag, she felt the smooth velvet material and the small circular plastic disk sewn into the middle of the wristband. of course, the one thing she was always looking for had to be at the very bottom of the bag.

she muttered a small congratulations to herself and dug the stretchy wristband out of her bag, dusting off any stray dust or crumbs that may have stuck to it, and handed it out to hazel.

hazel turned her gaze away from the horizon and looked to karina, face face already turning a small shade of green. she sighed in relief at the sight of the band and quickly grabbed it from karina, slipping onto her wrist.

"you're a blessing, karina." hazel said gratefully.

karina laughed and turned her attention back to the setting sun, the red and orange hues reflecting off the water and onto the groups faces, making them all share an orange glow to their faces.

as karina got lost in her train of thought, her eyes not moving from the suns slow setting form, hazel finally spoke up, her voice sounding stronger after putting on the sea sickness band.

"did you see that?" hazel asked.

"see what?" karina replied.

percy's face was now red instead of orange in the sunset. "yeah. i've been here before. i. . . i don't know. i think i was looking for annabeth."

"annabeth," frank said. "you mean, on our way to camp jupiter?"

percy frowned. "no. before that." he scanned the city like he was still looking for annabeth, which made her heart sink just a little until they passed under the golden gate bridge and turned north.

as the sun continued to set, leaving the last bit of soft red and orange to fade away into the atmosphere, karina started to wonder if percy really had an important role in life before coming to camp jupiter.

i mean— the way he talked about looking for annabeth made it seem as if she was in danger when he was searching for her, which means he was definitely a part of something big.