lacuna [connor stoll]

XXIX. Aliens and Geeks

CHAPTER TWNETY-NINE: ALIENS AND GEEKS

The shock faded away after a few days, but the worry she felt for Percy Jackson never did.

Percy could certainly hold his ground, Ellie would admit. He was a powerful demigod, she never denied. But going against an entire camp that was even scarier then Camp Half Blood? She worried for him, she worried that he hadn't even made it to the new camp, the worry that he would get into a dispute with a Roman, and so on. There was so many ways things could go very wrong.

She never talked about it with Annabeth, though. Announcing the ways that her boyfriend could die did not seem like a good conversation starter. But, she did grow closer to the girl. She offered help whenever needed on Argo II, the ship that would fly Jason, Piper, Leo, and Annabeth to Percy.

"Sure you don't want to come?" Annabeth asked, her nose stuffed in a book.

They sat under a willow tree. The wind swayed the leaves softly, bringing a sense of peace to the two girls. They had been there all morning, hiding from Sherman and Leo. Sherman was mad because they missed the ten-mile run last night, and Leo, because they weren't helping making the ship.

From the tree, they got a good view of camp. They could see Miranda and Katie watering their flowers outside the Demeter cabin, Will was running around carrying a roll of banadges, Travis and Connor were whispering in the corner. Clovis had fallen asleep on the training mats, and Sherman was yelling at him to get up.

Ellie laughed, pausing from drawing in her notebook. "I'm sure, Annabeth. I'm still recovering from my last quest." She paused. "And I couldn't leave Connor."

"I still can't believe you died. I mean...is it scary?" Annabeth looked up from her book, the title was in Ancient Greek and Ellie was too lazy to understand what it said.

"Yeah," Ellie breathed. "It's scary. I still get nightmares about the Underworld almost every night. It's like a piece of me is still there."

Annabeth took in a sharp breath, biting her lip. "Oh."

Silence fell upon them, and Ellie continued to draw her picture. She was nowhere near an artist, but it was a good stress reliever. Her pen flew across the page, a messy drawing of a certain boy's face emerged from her sprawled hand.

"Are you nervous to see Percy again?" Ellie asked carefully.

Annabeth stared off to the beach, where Percy would usually be found during this time of day. Waves crashed to the sandy shore irregularly.

"No," Annabeth said, her voice wavering. "I'm sure everything is okay."

Ellie nodded, looking back to the camp. Chiron was trying to pull an arrow out of someone's jacket, and a guilty Ellis Wakefield stood next to him.

"Percy is strong. He'll be okay." Ellie promised.

"That's not...that's not what I'm worried about. I mean, what if...his memories are wiped and he's in a camp with people that he doesn't know..."