Absolute Mortality

Chapter 7

I woke up Saturday morning and got dressed.

I sorted through my clothes trying to find a fitting outfit for my "strictly platonic" hangout with Percy.

You're far overthinking this, I scolded myself. I grabbed a pair of skinny jeans and a plain blue t-shirt and put them on.

I went to my desk and pulled open the drawer containing a hand mirror. I picked up my brush and smoothed out my hair. I didn't tie out into a ponytail though.

I opened the window to feel the temperature and decided I didn't need my jacket.

I looked at Thalia's empty bed before leaving the room.

I made my way to the end of the hall and went down one flight of stairs to where the floor for junior boys was.

I'd started to look for Percy and Nico's room when a door opened and Percy emerged. He noticed me and smiled.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," I said awkwardly. "Ready to go?"

"Yep." He walked up to me and then we descended down the staircase together.

"So," I said. "What do you have planned?"

"Planned?" he said.

"You're telling me you invited me to hangout with you, and you haven't even planned out what we're going to do?"

"No," he said. "Of course I have a plan."

I raised an eyebrow.

"More like a general idea," he corrected.

We exited the dorm building and stepped outside.

"Well let's see your 'general idea' then," I said.

We walked through the arch that marked the entrance of the school and stepped into the parking lot.

"Do you have a car?" I asked.

"No," he said. "But I did call a cab."

Sure enough, when we got to the back of the parking lot there was a bright yellow car waiting for us. Percy opened the backdoor for me and I stepped in. I scooted to the middle and he stepped in after me.

"Percy Jackson?" the cab driver asked from the front seat.

"That's me," said Percy.

"Where to?"

"Uh," said Percy. "Take us to a river or beach. Somewhere swimmable."

"Alright. I know a good place. Maybe ten minutes from here."

"Perfect," said Percy.

"Buckle up," said the cabbie who then closed the window separating the passengers and the driver. The car kicked into ignition and they began to move.

"You intend on swimming?" I said to Percy.

"Not really," he said. "I'm not dressed for it. I just said that so we wouldn't end up anywhere polluted."

"Oh. So why do you want to go near water then?"

"It relaxes me. It's a good place to have a conversation," he said with a shrug.

"So," I said. "You never fully explained how you ended up at CHB."

"Ah. The bad luck I mentioned started during middle school. A couple of 'friends' of mine vandalized a school mural. When a teacher came, they all ran for it. I figured it'd be too suspicious if I ran too, so I stayed and told the truth. But apparently that wasn't good enough and I was expelled."

"That's ridiculous," I said. "They couldn't have expelled you without evidence."

He shrugged. "Guess they could. The other two middle schools I went to were pretty much the same story. I was blamed for things I didn't do."

"How can that happen to you so many times though?"

"It's the people I chose to be around." He thought for a second. "You guys aren't the type to do something like that to me, are you?" he asked with a sarcastic smile.

"Oh, we've already got it all planned out," I said with a smirk. "We're going to trash the fountain and leave you at the wreckage."

We laughed together. We stopped when the window separating driver and passenger opened.

"This is your stop," the cabbie said. Percy paid and then we got out.

We began to walk to the edge of a river.

"So what about high school?" I said.

"I went to three different schools before every school in the district stopped accepting me," he said.

"What happened to get you expelled from those three schools?"

"Midway through freshman year I got into a disagreement with my teacher. That one wasn't so much bad luck but me being overly stubborn."

"You were expelled for one disagreement?"

"No. There were multiple. I was given detention the first time but I was adamant. Came back to class, continued the argument. After enough times, they expelled me."

"What was the argument about?"

He laughed. "I don't even remember. I think it had something to do with the way she taught her class.

"Anyway, I went to a new school and finished the year there. The next year I stood up for a kid that was being bullied. The principal expelled the bully and me."

"Seriously?"

"I did quite a number on him," he said sheepishly. "And he did quite a number on his victim."

"And the third school?"

"Same story. But there were no witnesses to testify that I hadn't ruthlessly attacked an innocent football player."

"What about the victim?"

"I was the intended victim, but I know how to fight.

Percy walked up to the edge of the river. He might have intended to stop but he tripped and fell in face first.

I jogged up to the river just as his head popped up.

"Little bit clumsy there?" I said with a laugh.

"I meant to do that," he said.

I was going to help him up, but this was the cliché moment in the movie where he pulls me in too.

He stood and stepped out of the water.

"You have seaweed in your hair," I said.

He reached up and pulled a clump of green off his head.

"This is moss," he said and tossed it back into the river.

"Whatever, Seaweed Brain," I said.

"Seaweed Brain? It's moss. And my brain isn't in my hair, Wise Girl."

He pulled off his shirt and wrung it out. Okay, I thought to myself. Piper was right. He is hot.

"Are you staring at me?" Percy said, a smile poking at the corners of his mouth.

"No," I said a little too quickly. "I mean, I was just looking at your tattoo." He had a trident tattooed on his left bicep.

He turned so that I could see it better. After a couple of seconds he put his shirt back on.

"Let's get something to eat then I can tell you about it," he said. "Now turn around so I can wring out my pants."

I obliged. When he was finished, his clothes still looked wet but they were no longer dripping.

"So," he said. "Know any good food places?"

"Yeah. There's a nice diner a few blocks up that way," I pointed east.

"Lead the way," he said.

"So," said Percy after having swallowed a bite of his food. "Tell me about you."

"What?" I said.

"I feel like we've only been talking about me. I want to know about you."

"Alright. What do you want to know?"

"Tell me about your family. Mom, dad, siblings, the like."

"My mom died when I was two," I blurted out. I surprised myself because I hardly ever talk about my mom. "I have no memories of her, but my dad used to talk about her all the time. Ninety percent of the words he spoke were 'you're just like your mom.'"

"Did that get irritating?"

"A little bit, yeah," I admitted.

"You said he used to talk about her. Why doesn't he any more?"

"He remarried. She moved in with us and they had twin boys together."

"You have brothers?"

"Half brothers," I corrected.

"You don't sound too happy about it."

I hesitated. "No. I was pretty mad when my dad remarried. All his attention was focused on her. We went from being 'close father and daughter' to 'husband, wife, and that girl they keep alive.'"

"So you don't like your step mom or your brothers?"

"Well now I do. But at first I was pretty peeved. Eventually I came to try and get to know her and we kind of hit it off. We'll never be 'mother and daughter,' but I don't hate her anymore. She's always nice to me too."

"And your half brothers?"

I smiled. "They're sweet. She made me take care of them several times and they latched on to me. They seem to idolize me, for whatever reason. I'm glad to have Bobby and Matthew as my brothers."

"That's good." Percy's plate was finished so now he just maintained eye contact with me while I talked. My plate was barely half gone due to my talking so much.

The waiter walked over to us and set the bill on the table then walked away.

Percy reached for it but I grabbed it first.

"You payed for the cab ride," I said. "I can handle the food."

He raised his hands in surrender. "As you wish," he said.

I stuck the required amount of money in the bill plus a tip and set it back on the table.

"What about your dad?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"Did things ever get better between you two?"

"Only just recently. I'm closer with my stepmom, really. He's tried to mend the gap, but it was just so long of him caring more about my stepmom than me that I'm just not really returning the effort."

We sat in silence for a few seconds will I took a few bites of my food.

"So do you live in New York?" Percy asked.

"No. San Francisco."

"San Francisco? How'd you end up going to CHB then?"

"We had to move from New York to San Francisco because of my dad's job two years ago. I'd already made friends here and the college I want to go to in the future is in New York so they agreed to let me continue going to CHB."

"Oh. They're willing to pay the flight just so you can continue going to a basic boarding school?"

"No. The deal was that I had to come up with the money myself so I got a summer job. I saved all of it so I had plenty left over after paying for the flight. I also have to pay for the return trip so I can't be too reckless with my spendings."

"That's some dedication," Percy commented.

"I guess so," I said.

We stared into each other's eyes for several seconds before the waiter came back over. I picked up the bill and handed it to him. He walked off again.

"So what about your family?" I asked.

"Nothing special there," Percy said. "My dad fell in love with my mom, they had me, then they married. I'm pretty close with both of them."

"No rocky history there?"

"None."

"You haven't told me about your tattoo yet."

"Oh, yeah. My dad's a fisherman. He takes me out on the water every once and awhile and we catch a few fish. Sometimes he takes a crew on his fishing boat to go hunt large animals like sharks."

"Is that legal?"

"Perfectly. But he has to go through a long process before he can kill one shark. But the payoff is worth it. He used to tell me stories when I was a kid about how he jumped into the water with nothing but a trident and fought the shark. It was always the same tall tale. He jumps in, the shark nearly kills him, then he impales it and brings it to shore to sell it."

"Does he actually have a trident?"

"Yep. Tall and made of metal and painted gold. It just hangs on the living room wall."

"So he adopted it as like his personal 'symbol' or something?"

"Exactly. He likes to act like he's some sort of sea god." He chuckled at the idea.

"So your parents let you get the tattoo?"

"I turned sixteen and my parents asked what I wanted as a present. I told them I wanted a trident tattoo. My mom was hesitant at first, but she knew how meaningful it was. We had to go to Connecticut to get it legally. A week later, I recommended my dad get one to match and he did."

"That's cute," I said.

He scowled at my word choice but it quickly disappeared.

"Yeah," he said with a sigh. "I guess it is kind of 'cute.'"

The waiter returned and handed me the receipt.

"Thank you for your visit," he said before walking away.

I took the last bite of my food and swallowed it. I wiped my face and hands with a napkin.

"Ready to go?" said Percy.

"Yeah," I said.

We stood and left the building.

Percy called a cab and we rode back to school. We split the cost this time so as to make it equal, per my insistence.

We stopped at the floor were the junior girls' rooms are.

I turned to face him and our eyes met. "Well," I said. "Thanks for the 'strictly platonic' evening."

"It's not evening yet, Wise Girl," he said.

"Whatever, Seaweed Brain. I'll see you later, then."

"See you." He smiled then turned and walked up the stairs.

A/N: Sorry I didn't get this out yesterday like I said I would. I was tired when I got home and didn't really get a chance to write on it. But I hope it was worth the wait because we got a little "strictly platonic" Percabeth chapter here.

Also, I'm no longer giving this story absolute priority. I'm going to be flipping between Oath Kept, Now Eternal Breath and Absolute Mortality. So it'll be one chapter of OKNEB then a chapter of AM, so on and so forth.

Also, next chapter here is going to be in Leo's P.O.V. so get excited for that.

As always, leave a review and let me know what you think. I'm open to criticism. If I'm doing something wrong, let me know so I can fix it.