Hi! HAPPY MARK OF ATHENA DAY! Have some fluff. Also have my one-hundredth story, gosh I need a hobby.
Disclaimer: Me no own
Dedication: Those who waited a year for The Lost Hero!
Lockers
August: "Mom!" Percy called. "Do we have magnets?"
"Magnets?" She asked.
"Yeah!" He repeated. It was a scramble to get everything for school done the day before he got back, but he had needed those extra days of camp after the summer's war so Sally accepted it with open arms.
"There are spares on the fridge, I think. Why?"
"Nothing," he called back.
September: He slipped the picture out of his agenda and put it up. Where did people usually put their locker pictures? At the top? At the bottom? In the center? Did they put them straight or purposefully crooked? Did any of this matter?
"Nice," his friend Mike said coming up to him and clamping a hand on his shoulder as more football players swarmed around. "You really know how to find hot chick pictures on the internet."
"Okay one; don't call her a chick. She's a girl, she's a great girl, not some toy. Two; she's not hot she's so much more. She is brave, smart, funny, strong and a gazillion other things, so don't you dare leave it at that. But if you leave it to her looks, you call her beautiful, okay? Three; the picture's not from the Internet she's my actual girlfriend."
Mike looked at the picture of them at Camp Half-Blood's canoe lake, smiling and laughing and holding each other, soaked since they'd just crawled out of the canoe lake; and then at Percy.
"We got thrown into the lake 'cause they caught us kissing." He explained.
"Da-yum, Jackson had hell of a summer." Cory said.
"We keep thinking you go to Narnia or something, because we never see you during the summer."
"Not quite," Percy said.
"Come tell us all about Narnia and this girl, man."
Percy slammed his locker door and off they went.
June: "Hello, this is Goode Public High School calling, have we reached Mrs. Sally Blofis?" The person on the other end of the phone line asked.
"Yes," Sally said, putting supper into the oven with her spare hand.
"It's Principal Finnegan, how are you?"
"Very well, thank you. Yourself?" Sally said, closing the oven and closing it with a shove of her hip.
"Good, thank you. We were just calling to see if you had your son's locker combination. We'd like to empty out his locker and Paul said that we might not have to cut it."
"Oh," Sally said. "Yes, I think I have it. Let me just checked."
She went into his room, which was getting dusty again. There was a path leading to Percy's bed and desk that was never dusty because of the many treks taken by Annabeth, Sally, Paul and various demigods who needed a magic item Percy had had stashed in his room. Some of the things she'd seen armoured kids walked out of his room with could not be okay, even with Chiron.
He had a post it with the combo stuck on his wall.
"Yes, I'll come empty it tomorrow night."
"That's perfect. Thank you so much for your constant cooperation, Mrs. Blofis, all of our prayers are with you and Percy."
"Thank you," Sally said. "Have a nice evening."
She hung up.
She found his locker, A-126, and managed the combo although his tough lock was probably broken inside. He just refused to change it to a newer one because he couldn't find another blue one. Her son could be a mature hero or a three year old in a teenager's skin, it all depended on the time of the day.
The door creaked open and Sally was incredibly proud when no horrible scent came out of it. He hadn't left any fruits or vegetables or dairy products in his locker over the holidays- well done Percy.
She did find a King Size Mars bar, and she wondered how it was still wrapped up and untouched. Ditto for a Kit-Kat, a Hershey's Cookie and Cream, and a Butterfinger.
His textbooks were thrown in there like whatever, spines at awkward angles and pages dog-eared. He'd been excited to come home and get to camp. Still; Annabeth would have his neck is Sally ever told her about this.
The book they were reading in English class, Life of Pi, was open facedown at whatever page he was at on the top shelf. He had a mitten hanging on a hook as well as a baseball cap. His stash of nectar and ambrosia was still tucked into the back of the top shelf. His binders were a pile. He had pencils all around.
She could spend all her time whining about how unclean and sloppy Percy was at home, but the truth was that she'd kind of been pleading for someone to clean up after for the last months. She really missed him. She missed the way that although his locker looked like that, like the locker of a kid who didn't care, he'd have come home with a serious nearly pitiful look in his face and ask Paul for vocabulary help and really put as best of an effort as he could manage in.
She had everything in reusable grocery bags and had moved on to taking down his pictures, which stroke her as odd because Percy wasn't the type to decorate his locker. Commitment to school objects was basically saying that he loved education, in the world of Percy Jackson.
Then it didn't surprise her at all.
There was a shot of Grover and Percy on top of the climbing wall, spoofing Titanic. Grover was Rose.
Percy, Will and Jake making intense faces at the camera, the kind you'd see on Movie posters for Greek myth adaptation movies.
Katie and Annabeth in the strawberry fields.
Tyson giving Percy a piggy-back ride and giving thumbs-up to the camera.
The three Big Three kids as loving cousins, all either stepping on each other's feet, making bunny ears, or holding blades and spear tips very, very close to each other.
Percy and Annabeth, of course, were everywhere.
The picture taken after they'd finally emerged from the canoe lake, some two hours after they'd been thrown in. They had to get out when Travis went scuba diving. Annabeth reading under Thalia's tree with her summer homework splayed across her legs. Percy holding Annabeth up bridal style, an ace bandage wrapped around her ankle. A shot of their lips nearly touching. A shot Sally had taken because it was the first time she'd seen Percy sit down with everything he needed, his books opened, his notes present while concentrating on math homework (Annabeth was next to him). Math! They'd basically conquered the world of homework's banes!
She smiled and realised how much she missed Percy.
She missed him, his sarcasm, that little rebellious streak, his courage, his dorkiness, his effort, his humour… She missed having all the demigods in her apartment at random times and she missed not making dinner for four and she even missed having him come back home covered in green slob- because at least then she knew that he was okay.
A locker told you a lot about a person; Paul had always told her that from his teaching experience.
Well, Percy obviously cared an awful lot about Camp Half-Blood and his friends.
And that was why Sally wasn't that mad that it was her son that had gotten plopped at Camp Jupiter. She just missed him.