Percy Jackson

I lost it.

Once Ms. Willows realized what was going on, she closed her door to not disturb the next class over and I couldn't talk for probably, twenty minutes after that. I was crying hard enough that Mr. Tyler in the next class over came to see what was going on being he was having a work day. He teaches freshman's, he's cool.

By the time I calmed down, all I wanted to do was sleep.

"Percy?" Ms. Willows asked and I spit it out for the first time since I found out like, 14 hours ago.

"My best friend died last night."

It was a still moment, because how do you respond to that? I'm 17, and it wasn't a car accident. It shouldn't happen. Mr. Tyler is standing by the door, and neither of them know what to say.

"Honey, why did you come to school today?" Ms. Willows asked me, and I shrugged.

"I can't call myself in and by the time I wake up my mom was leaving and Paul was already here." I told her. "Paul didn't let me miss last week when my other friend died, he'd probably accuse me of making shit up to miss school. He doesn't believe anything anymore. Plus, I'll be gone for the funeral, assuming I can go. If I can convince my dad to fly me out."

"Where's the funeral?"

"California," I told my teacher. "We went to summer camp together, the three of us did. They're both from California and he didn't have any family outside of his sister so they're just combining the funeral to save money. He died last week, and they found out about her last night, but it was the middle of nowhere so it could've been a few days. Her phone hasn't been working so I wouldn't know by when she'd stop messaging or calling."

"Aw, sweetie," Ms. Willows said and grabbed her purse. "C'mon, leave your bag."

"What...? Don't you have a class in like, ten minutes?"

She shrugged.

"I'll take the class," Mr. Tyler offered. "It's my prep and I have nothing to do."

"You don't have to—"

"Percy, come on," she insisted. "You shouldn't have to be here right now, were going for ice cream. I'll write you a pass."

I mean... I wasn't turning down the offer.

Plus, it was an order from my teacher. I'd be disobeying if I said no.

So we went to the nearest Dairy Queen and I talked about it a little. She asked if it was an accident and I told her no, she was attacked and it's a weird situation. Not people. But she was attacked in mass and couldn't defend herself well enough. Jason was killed by a person who's MIA right now and it was him or Piper, so.

He's the heroic type.

I got back to 7th hour like half way through but I had the pass so my teacher didn't mind, said it was my first time late and he wouldn't put it down. He's just change it to me being here since it's just a work day.

I felt kind of bad, but I skipped swimming. I was exhausted.

Mom was home when I got home, which is normal. She gets off at 3:00, and that's when I get our of school. The bakery is closer than the school.

"Hey, what are you doing home already?" Mom asked me as I saw her in the kitchen, giving Estelle some food. "Did practice get cancelled?"

"No, it uh... I—"

I stopped for a second, because I've cried twice today and I can feel a third one coming on.

"Can I stay home tomorrow?" I asked her and Mom walked over to me, all concerned now because I never ask to stay home. I didn't ask last week because Paul heard and like immediately said that I should be able to handle school, he just won't stress on me. If I miss an assignment, I can make it up.

"I mean... Baby, what happened?"

I choked up for a second, because I can't just contain it anymore. It's two people in a week.

A week!

"The call last night..."

"Don't tell me you have to go?"

I shook my head.

"I mean... Not really, no," I assured her that I wasn't involved in what was going on with camp right now. That's Apollo's situation, not mine. "but it was Piper and I guess Nico called her when he got to his dad's yesterday because uh..."

I stopped again.

"Annabeth's dead," I told my mom, tears starting to fall again. "she was on her way here to work on Olympus and help camp out with whatever's been happening and she was attacked and it was too many of them. Just going between trains. So like... I have to call Dad and ask if he'll be able to get me out to California for the funeral because now they're combining her funeral with Jason's because Jason's only family was Thalia. I was going to see if I could make it through the day and I got to my independent study and just lost it. Ms. Willows actually brought me out for ice cream, which was nice. I wasn't worried about 7th hour because it was a work day and my grade is fine in that class, so... Yeah."

"Oh no," Mom said and pulled me into a hug, because she really liked Annabeth. We argued every once in a while. Petty shit that didn't matter and we'd be over it in an hour or two tops. But outside of that, we were good. It was nice.

Now she's gone.

"You can stay home as long as you need to, okay?" Mom insisted, which was nice. "why didn't you say anything this morning?"

I shrugged.

"You were running late and I was kind of lazy getting out of bed." I explained. "I figured I could at least ask my teachers about next week."

"Alright, well you're done with school for the week." Mom told me. "Or at least, tomorrow. We'll just take it day by day for now. Do you want me to call your dad so monsters won't track you?"

I nodded my head and she told me she'd be right back.

Estelle got some baby food on her onesie and couldn't get it off so she had started to cry a little, upset by this.

"Me too, kid. Me too."

I called one of my friends on the team over an app that used WiFi so I don't think I can be tracked by monsters with it. Because it's WiFi. I haven't been attacked from it.

"Hey, dude, where are you?" Hans asked me when he answered the call. It's just a few of us at practice getting ready for sections and state. Sections is in two weeks, sub sections were the other day. So I wouldn't miss anything. "coach is going to be pissed if you flake and you were in school."

"I know, um... I'm flaking." I told him. "sorry. I was planning on going because normally swimming makes me feel better but I was swimming during my study hall and it didn't help anything and yeah. Sorry. I'll try to be there tomorrow, I'll probably swim on my own or something, I don't know. I'll be gone next week. Part of it, I think. Sorry."

"What happened? Did you get sick or...?"

"No, it uh... You remember Annabeth, right? She came to state last year like right before I went missing?"

"Yeah! She was cool, why? Did you guys break up?"

"No, we were still—" I stopped myself for a second. "she died yesterday going between train stations. They were a few miles apart so she walked and got attacked by an animal or something like that. I got the call at like, midnight. Probably shouldn't have gone to school because I lost it sixth hour and yeah. I won't be in school tomorrow, so. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, oh my God!" Hans exclaimed almost instantly. "that's terrible. I'm sorry. When's the funeral? She wasn't from around here."

"Wednesday." I said. "We have to find out if we have the money to send me out there and like, stay with another friend out there. It's Jason's funeral, too. You never met him, we met when I went missing and that whole ordeal. He was friend, he died last week and... Yeah. Just tell coach I'm sorry but I can't exactly control what happened."

"I will," he assured me. "get some rest, man, I'll see you later."