Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HOO only having fun with it.
Lexie: Okay so this is kinda dedicated to my friend, brother, co-author, rival, partner in crime….. the list goes on. This is dedicated to Sean Son of Athena, Merry Christmas, even though I already made you a bunch of comics…. Anyways! This was inspired by one of our many late night (well late for me) conversations, which was rudely interrupted by an owl.
Stalker Owls: Lexie
I groaned and jumped onto my bed.
"My first day back in the real world and I already have homework." It was my first time back home in Georgia in two years, I had lived at camp ever since I found out I was a half-blood, my home and family had been the Athena Cabin. And now I'm back starting my sophomore year in high school, half a semester late.
I glanced over to my backpack, which sat by the door on the other side of the room, and thought of all the work that awaited me.
"Might as well get it done now." I sighed and jumped off my bed. Just as I was about to reach my bag, the door flew open revealing two little demons. My younger half-siblings.
"Dad wanted to know if you wanted to go do archery with us." My youngest sibling Eugene announced.
"Yeah! We want to see how good you are now! That is if you haven't lost your touch in the two years you've been gone." My sister Sydney exclaimed.
A thing about my younger siblings, they are extremely hyper, I blame their ADHD. My sister, Sydney, is the most hyper out of the two and is eleven, making her the older of the two as well. Her being older though doesn't exactly make her the bigger one though. My brother Eugene is nine, and is a good inch taller than Sydney is, which annoys her to no end, and it doesn't help with our constant teasing.
Sydney and Eugene are polar opposites in almost everything. While Sydney is blonde and tan, Eugene has brown hair and pale skin. Sydney has blue eyes, Eugene has brown. Sydney is short and has no visible body fat or muscle, Eugene is tall and thin but has visible muscle and just a little baby fat. Sydney is bouncing off the walls ADHD, while Eugene is fidgety ADHD.
And just in case you're wondering, no they are not half-bloods that would be a living nightmare; actually it would make the living nightmare that is my life two times worse. There are mortals out there with ADHD too, and I was blessed with having two of them as half-siblings.
I sighed and glanced at my backpack and then back to the begging faces of my siblings. I haven't seen them in nearly two years; I can put off my homework for an hour or two. I grinned, "Okay guys, let's go. And I have not lost my touch, if anything I have improved it." They grinned and each grabbed one of my arms and pulled me downstairs all the way to our backyard.
We had been shooting for nearly two hours. Just as I was about to release another arrow when I heard a sudden "hoot". Distracted, I released the arrow and completely missed the target.
"She finally missed!" I heard Eugene exclaim to Sydney, but I was too lost in thought to care much.
I glared in the direction the arrow had flown and then searched for the source of the noise. After a couple of seconds of looking in the trees I spotted it a few yards away. An owl.
Maybe it was because I was finally focusing on something other than archery. Or perhaps the fact that the owl reminded me of my brainiac siblings back at camp. But as soon as I saw the owl, I remembered all of the homework that awaited me.
"Oh gods! I still have to do my homework! Sorry guys, I have to go!"
"Aw, but Lex—" I didn't hear the rest, I had already bolted inside the house.
I sighed and rested my head on my desk. So far I had finished two essays for my English and history classes, three worksheets for biology, and had memorized the vocabulary for Latin.
"And that just leaves the math worksheet." I mumbled into my textbook, which was serving as a pillow. I glanced at the blank worksheet and groaned. "I'll just do it tomorrow in class, I mean its math! I already know all of this; it'll take like ten minutes."
I had finished putting away all of my work and was reaching to turn off the lamp that sat in front of my window, when a figure flew up to the window.
"Hoot." The owl… It landed on the flag pole under my window.
"What?" I asked it. It just stared in response.
"What? You can't possibly expect me to stay up and do this. I'll finish it in class."
It just continued to stare.
"Just because you're an owl and my mother's sacred animal doesn't mean I'm going to listen to you."
"Hoot."
"Hoot? What is that— I am talking to an owl… That's it, I'm going to bed."
"Hoot!"
"Goodnight…" With that said I pulled down the blind.
My alarm went off at 6:30 AM, and by 7:30 I was at the end of my street waiting for the bus. The bus arrived at 7:36, and by 7:43 we were at my school.
At my school they force us, the student body, to wait in the cafeteria until the bell rings at 7:50. Now usually this is a good thing because it gives you a chance to socialize with your friends before school starts, but the problem was I didn't have any friends.
I was the awkward girl standing alone in the room, looking for something or someone to get her out of the situation.
Maybe if I find my old friends… I thought, Maybe what? They haven't seen you in two years, ever since you suddenly vanished. I was saved from my eternal battle when I heard my name.
"Lexie? Is that you?" I spun around and was greeted by an older version of my friend Zena, well older than I remembered that is.
"It is you!" Before I had time to react she had surged forward and enveloped me in a bone crushing hug. "Oh my god it really is you I can't believe it!" Before I could do anything in response, she punched me in the stomach and started spitting out questions so fast I didn't get the chance to answer.
"Where have you been? What happened to you? Why did you never write? How have you been? When did you get back? Why did you never come visit!?" I thought she had finished when she burst out again. "Oh my god! Everyone is going to want to see you! Come on!" I didn't get the chance to protest she grabbed my wrist and pulled me along.
She pulled me up to a group of people that all looked like older versions of the friends I remembered. I pulled the hood of my jacket over my face; I did not want to deal with all the questions that they were going to trample me with.
"Hey Zena, who's that?" I heard one of them call.
"What do you mean 'who's that?' don't you recognize her?" She turned to glance at me and saw that I was hiding my face. "Oh take that off!" she made a move to pull back the hood, but I dodged her. She tried again only to have the same result. She gave me a quick glare and I knew what she was going to do. Just as she lunged for me I ducked into the middle of the group of my old friends. I was about to move out of the group when I felt my hood being pulled down, I spun around and froze when I realized that they could see me now.
"Lexie!?"
"Hey guys!" I said in a choked out laugh.
To say I was swarmed, doesn't even amount to their reaction.
I was currently sitting in my math class, waiting for the bell to ring I was passing the time by doing last night's homework.
"After two years and you're still doing your homework in class, I'm disappointed Lexie."
I looked over to see my friend from eighth grade, Shannen.
"Well it's nice to see you haven't grown at all in my absence Shannen."
"Oh shut up, it's just because I'm Asian."
"And that's exactly why you're going to give me the last two answers because I don't feel like doing them."
"That's cheating." She said in mock horror.
"Yeah, but you owe me from eighth grade." She gave me an annoyed look, "Okay fine you don't owe me, but please I just got back yesterday and I was spending time with my siblings for the first time in two years."
"Okay fine, but don't expect this to be a regular thing."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
While Shannen was getting out her worksheet I decided to look out the window, I noticed a bird flying around outside, and the heard a familiar noise.
"Hoot." I jumped causing Shannen to give me a weird look.
"Sorry, guess the ADHD is acting up." She nodded and continued looking for her paper. While she was looking I got up and walked over to the window and was greeted by the same owl from last night.
I looked around to see if anyone was watching and then glared at it. "What the Hades! Just because Athena is my mom that doesn't me you can go around and follow me, now shoo." I hissed, and walked back to my desk, I heard it hoot in protest, but I ignored it.
Shannen walked up and handed me the worksheet. "Thanks." I said and quickly scribbled down the last two answers.
"So where have you been? You seem different."
"What do you mean different? I'm still the same Lexie you know and love."
"Well for starters I don't remember you having any scars." She said poking the scar on my right forearm. "But I don't think you've become emo or anything, if anything you seem happier and a lot more confident than you were two years ago. So what are you hiding?"
"I'm not hiding anything." I said staring at the scar on my arm.
"Well then where have you been for the past two years?" She asked.
"I've been at a boarding school in New York; I never got to visit because our breaks were never long enough."
"Okay, but that doesn't explain all the scars." She said pointing to my arms, I was grateful that I had worn jeans; I'd have an even bigger problem.
"I—" Thankfully I was interrupted by the bell ringing and our teacher walking in.
"We'll talk later." Shannen said turning to her desk.
'Well at least I had time to get my story straight.' I thought. For the rest of class I thought of ways I could use to explain my scars.
I was mugged on day walking back to my dorm. No, people would never believe that.
I got in a car accident. Why would I be driving?
I fell down the stairs. I'm not clumsy.
I had secretly gone emo. No, I don't want to be an even bigger outcast than I am now.
I kept going through different scenarios in my head until I was broken out of my trance by the sound of my name.
"Lexie Greyson." I looked up to see the teacher glaring at me. "What are you writing?" I looked down at my paper and cursed in ancient Greek, I had unknowingly been writing in Greek all over my paper."
"Nothing Ma'am."
"Bring it up here."
I did as I was told and brought her the paper. She took it from my hand and looked at and then back at me giving me a confused look.
"What are these?" She motioned to the symbols on the paper.
"Umm Greek symbols…"
"Why are you writing Greek symbols all over your paper?"
I looked around the room and noticed we we're doing trigonometry. I racked my brain for any Greek symbols involved in it. The Greek sign Theta, Θ.
"I was trying to remember which symbol we sometimes use when solving for sine, cosine, and tangent."
"You mean theta?"
"Yes! Theta! That was it!" I said playing dumb-blonde.
"Well maybe if you had been paying attention you would have remembered."
"But I was paying attention Ma'am." I insisted.
"Oh really? Then why don't you solve the next problem for us." She said motioning towards the board.
I sighed and made a quick glance out the window and saw the owl sitting with an annoyed, but expectant look on its face. I then looked back to the board; the problem was one of the ones I didn't solve. I glanced back out the window one more time to see the owl was gone.
"Figures." I mumbled, and I walked up to the board to solve the problem.
Biology had just ended. I had spent the class catching up with my friends Ben and Leah. Ben was still the big flirt I remembered him to be, he was taller than I was now, and he'd also filled out, a lot. Leah hadn't changed much she was still short, and still had her fun loving personality. Luckily they weren't as observant as Shannen was.
As soon as the bell rang signaling lunch, I was whisked out of class by them and a few other friends.
"Guys, where are we going? The cafeteria is in the other direction."
"We are going outside to eat." Ben said and grabbed my arm signaling I didn't have a choice.
I sighed and let them drag me along.
Once we were outside they led me to a table, and motioned for me to sit. Once I sat down Ben and Leah sat down on either side of me. Shannen sat at the head of the table on my right. My friend Sydney sat across from me and Zena sat next to her.
I took a good look at all of my friends they had changed in the past two years. Zena was now nearly as tall as I was, her brown hair was still just below her shoulders, but it was styled differently than I remembered. Ben had grown a lot, he was about an inch or two taller than I was now, and his work outs had done him justice. Sydney's blonde hair was shoulder length, and she was as tall as I was now, I could tell she still had her smug personality, quite similar to mine. Leah hadn't grown at all from what I could see, but she had started wearing her hair down rather than up in a ponytail although I could tell she would still put it up from the hair tie she had on her wrist. Shannen hadn't grown either, she still wore glasses, but I couldn't imagine her without them, her black hair had a few golden streaks in it and was now just below her ears rather than below her shoulders.
"So how's it going?" I asked like it was just any other day, and that I hadn't disappeared for two years.
"Good, nothing new really, same routine as always, except our friend who had vanished for two years suddenly reappeared." Sydney said blandly.
"Yeah about that—"
"How about this, we" Shannen said motioning to everyone at the table, "Will ask you whatever questions we have and you," she said pointing to me, "Will answer all of our questions."
"Yeah." Everyone said.
"Doesn't seem like I have a choice, ask away."
"Okay for starters where have you been?" Leah asked.
"I've been at a boarding school in New York."
"Okay, but did you never write or visit?" Zena asked.
"You wouldn't believe the amount of work they gave us. And I kind of forgot your addresses. I couldn't visit because we didn't really have breaks, sure we wouldn't have school on holidays, but just the holiday so the day after Christmas I was back in school."
"Okay so why did it seem like your dad didn't know when you were coming home?" Ben asked
"Simple, he didn't know; I could have stayed there for the rest of high school if I wanted to."
"Okay then why come back all of a sudden?" Sydney asked raising an eyebrow.
I sighed. "I really hate those uniforms. After two years of wearing a plaid skirt, stockings, blouse and vest, and a tie I was done."
"You wore a skirt!?" Ben exclaimed in shock.
"Yeah believe it or not." I laughed.
"I never thought I'd see the day that Lexie wore a skirt."
"Yeah and you still won't." I joked.
"Okay Lexie, but you still haven't explained where those scars are from." Shannen said from the end of the table. I felt all eyes turn on me.
"W-what scars?" I asked playing dumb, trying to hide my arms.
"Don't play dumb with me. Ben, grab her arm." Shannen ordered.
I tried to pull my arm away, but Ben had already grabbed it and pinned it to the table.
"Lexie… What happened?" He asked as I tried to pull my arm away.
"Nothing…" I said in a strained voice as I tried to loosen his grip on my arm.
"Lexie don't lie we all know those weren't there two years ago." Leah insisted.
"Nothing happened okay, forget –"
"Hoot." I jumped at the noise. I turned around and sure enough there was the owl. By this time my friends had all turned to see what I was looking at.
"Is- Is that an owl?" Zena asked. I could only nod in response. We all watched as it flew over our table, as it passed it dropped something in front of me.
I looked down at the green biology notebook that had landed in front of me, then one I had left inside.
"How the Hades did this get out here!?" I said staring at the notebook.
"Did you just say what the Hades?" Leah asked looking at me.
"What no…" I said as I mentally scolded myself.
"Was this boarding school you went to Hogwarts? Because you are getting stuff delivered via owl." Sydney joked.
And for once I didn't have a response.
Mom what are you playing at? I thought.
The day had finally ended and I was back at home in my room. Lunch was not the last time I saw my friend the owl. It followed me to every class, making sure I was taking notes, and doing my work, and over achieving; or that at least is what I had determined its motives to be.
Well what else could it be? I reasoned with myself. If it was sent by mom, which is the only explanation, then it's going to want me to do work.
I reasoned that I would be seeing much more of the owl, if that was true. And sure enough I was right.
"Hoot."
"What do you want!?"I shouted from my bed.
"Hoot."
I groaned and walked over to my window to face my stalker owl.
"What?" I asked with an annoyed tone.
"Hoot."
"I just got home I'm not going to do my homework right away."
"Hoot."
"No! I will not!"
"Hoot."
"Goodbye…" and with that I walked away.
At this rate I might end up going back to wearing the 'plaid skirt'. I thought to myself.
Every now and then I would hear little hoots of protest, but I ignored them, I would probably pay for it later, but I didn't care. I decided I'd IM my brother Sean.
I went to the bathroom and turned on the faucet; I then opened the window to let the sun in and pulled out a drachma.
"Oh Iris goddess of the rainbow accept my offering," I threw the coin into the mist, "Show me Sean Kennedy, California." The image shimmered and revealed my brother in his room playing on the computer.
"Still the computer nerd I see." I said.
He jumped, and turned around, "Hey Storm Eyes. How's being in the real world again?"
"It's mostly nice. Especially seeing all my old friends. Although I have been punched multiple times and I have had several close calls."
"What do you mean mostly? And yeah I had several close calls myself when I came back after my first summer."
"Well… okay this is going to sound strange, but have you been experiencing owl trouble?"
He looked behind him and then back at me and sighed, "Yeah, you could say that."
Lexie: So that's chapter 1. I plan on this story having three chapters: Lexie, Sean, and Annabeth. I hope you liked this. This story gives you more detail on our lives outside of camp. So Merry Christmas Sean, hope you like this story.