Erin POV

The afterschool crowds had dissipated so there was only a couple with two kids screaming for ketchup and an elderly man staring out the window. The five of us took a booth seat in the corner and Liam pulled up a chair so we didn't have to sit three to a seat. I sat next to Paige on the outside of her while Percy and Sam sat across from us. Paige nudged me with her elbow and gave me a pointed look. In the locker room, we had discussed that I was going to start first to see if we could crack this guy. Sadly, Alice hadn't been able to make it, she would've been great at being scary.

"So Percy, who is Annabeth?" I judged that as the safest question to begin. My assumption was confirmed when I saw his eyes light up and his posture relax.  

"His giiirrlllfriend," Liam teased. Percy rolled his eyes at him before speaking.

"Liam is just jealous I'm taken. He can't stand the thought of me with a woman," said Percy dramatically. Liam just smirked. Percy was probably the only person on the planet that could beat Liam in a battle of sarcasm.

"So she's seriously your girlfriend?" said Paige. She leaned onto the table in anticipation.

"Yeah, for one and a half-ish years now." 

Paige cooed, "Aww, what's she like?" 

"She's brilliant, she's in all these advanced classes that I swear aren't written in English. She wants to be an architect, she's actually designing some building for her mom and stuff. She cares about people a lot, maybe too much. She doesn't like to give up on them. She's extremely stubborn. And determined. Once she puts her mind to something you better believe she's following through. She's basically fearless. There was this one time with these monkey bars over this huge-" he cut himself off, "nevermind. That's a story for another time. She'll also punch you or judo-flip you if she thinks you're being an ass." His words trailed off as he became aware of how long he had been talking with everyone staring intently at him. 

"You forgot something," said Liam, effectively breaking the silence. We all looked at him expectantly, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who noticed his cocky grin. Obviously proud of what he was about to say.

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Percy pushed. 

"She's a total babe, I'd tap that," he said. Percy raised an eyebrow accusatively. 

"You wanna try that again?" he threatened with that glare that made my insides rearrange.

"No, I'll just shut up now and marinade in regret."  Percy laughed at him a little and Liam cautiously joined in soon after. 

"Anyway, she sounds great, when do I get to meet her?" I redirected the conversation. Percy became a little bit more serious at that question.

"I don't know, she's in Boston. Something about a family emergency."

"So that's what Coach Hedge was going on about? Why did he get the call and not you?" asked Sam.

"I don't have a phone."

"Right, I forgot you live under a blanket of isolation from the world." They laughed a little but Percy's mood had taken a beating when he thought of Annabeth and her family emergency.

"Alright. Time for you to spill," I started. "First, why does it scare you so much that Annabeth has a family emergency?" 

He shrugged, "Can't say."

"Can't say? What's that supposed to mean? Seriously dude, Erin's right, spill your beans," Sam backed me up. 

"Why? Why does it matter? Can't we just eat some burgers?" He scratched the back of his neck nervously and glanced over his shoulder. 

"Because we're friends. Friends know stuff about each other, but we don't know anything about you. Except that your name is Percy Jackson, you live on the Upper East Side of New York City, and your girlfriend's name is Annabeth. Hell, we know more about her than we do about you," said Paige, clearly annoyed. I let her take the lead. She was always better at guilting people than I was, and it that was what it was coming to.

"Fine. It freaks me out because the last 'family emergency' she had where I wasn't allowed to be there didn't end so great for either of us. I'm worried she's going to get hurt then it'll be my fault I wasn't there to protect her."

"What was the last family emergency?" I said softly. We were treading on thin ice, I could feel it. I wanted to get some answers before he bolted yet.

"I can't tell you. Ask something else," he sighed. Not a failure. He wanted to answer some of our questions, just not that one. I could do that.

"Where did you disappear to last year?" asked Liam before anyone else could beat him to a question. Percy leaned back and shoved his hands into his hoodie pocket. He thought about the answer to that question carefully. It was like he wasn't sure if he wanted to tell the truth or not. We waited. 

"I went to my camp for the holidays. While I was asleep, there was an 'incident', or so you could say. Whatever, I disappeared, I got amnesia, there was this whole thing with my family and stuff. I ended up having to go to Athens to figure it out. Then I came back." The look on his face was almost disgusted. The story he had told was an offense to what really happened, he had left out everything important, everything that had meant anything. He had left out the pain and that was most of the story. 

"Dude, you had amnesia? What was that like?" said Sam. 

"It sucked, thanks for asking. Anyone else care to comment on my exciting adventure?"

"Yeah, why do I get the feeling that you aren't telling us the whole truth?" I asked. 

"Because I'm not," he deadpanned.

"Percy come on, didn't we just have this conversation, you can't just edit out anything worth telling." Paige wasn't annoyed anymore as much as frustrated.

"Telling you anything other than what I've said would put you in danger. And I don't want to relive Hell in the middle of a restaurant with people and stuff. Plus there's the issue of you believing me in the first place, which would never happen since you are all sane human beings, can we please change the subject?"

"How do you know Coach Hedge?" tried Sam.

"That, I can answer. He's a supervisor at my camp, he and I met on my trip to Greece last year." He relaxed again. Finally, he seemed to think, we are on solid ground.

"What kind of camp is this?" Sam asked again. 

"It's a camp for 'at-risk' youth," he explained with quotes around the at-risk part. 

"What does that mean exactly?" asked Paige.

"You know,  kids with one or neither parent in the picture, runaways, high school dropouts, kids with learning disabilities or a permanent record. The ones nobody else wants."

"How'd you get in?" I asked. Percy could be dense, sometimes intimidating, but he didn't seem like the picture I'd created of the typical camper. He lacked leather jackets and piercings, plus he seemed like he couldn't hurt a fly. Then again, if that fly pissed him off, I could also see him crushing it. That's what made me realize I was being judgmental. Most of the things he listed, if not all, were things you couldn't control. Maybe dropping out was the best choice for them, permanent records could always be an accident or have a valid reason the law isn't willing to listen to. I decided I'd listen first. Nevertheless, my question obviously bothered him.

"Well, my real dad left when I was a kid and my mom married this jerk-off who is gladly gone now, but he was my step-dad until I was twelve. I got expelled from...eight schools? I think. Might be nine, you kind of lose track after three or four. I also have ADHD and dyslexia and I was subject to a nationwide manhunt when I was twelve. That's when I found the camp." We stared at him open-mouthed. 

"Shit," started Liam. He was the first to regain his senses. "So that's what she meant," he trailed off.

"What?" asked Percy.

"Your girlfriend said trouble had a way of finding you or something," he explained with the same sort of detached confusion as before. 

"Yeah, it's a miracle I've been here so long, I'm lucky they didn't expel me when I blew up the band room." 

Paige voiced what I was thinking but couldn't come up with the words to express, "I thought that was just a rumor!" 

"It's a long story."

"I'm sure all of the other expulsion stories are just as long then, huh?" she asked.

"Well, there was the one with the dodge-ball game, and I kind of blew up the gym, then there was the time with the cannon and I blew up the bus, then there was this one teacher out to get me and we got into this debacle over who threatened whose life first. Then I accidentally beat up her favorite student," he chuckled. His eyes flickered mischievously. At that moment, I felt like I understood him. That I could see him for just a moment. He wasn't the juvenile delinquent, nor was he the jock or the loner. He wasn't a brooding silent guy with a quick draw on his punches. He was still a mystery, but he was just a kid who had been dealt the wrong hand. All he wanted to do was laugh but the world wouldn't let him. So in the meantime, he'd do what had to be done. I laughed. Nobody joined me but Percy. For now, that was fine.

"Tell me more about your camp," I said and he smiled at me gratefully. This was something that he could talk about forever. 

"What do you want to know?" 

"Everything." I rested my chin in my hand and waited.

"Well, my friend Grover brought me there when I was expelled from Yancy. I might've crashed a car on the way there, but that's a different story. The crash got me a little messed up, so I passed out once I got there. I woke up in the camp infirmary, there was this smart ass little girl. She kept looking down on me even though she was only five inches taller than me. Apparently, she'd been checking up on me while I was out. She told me I drooled in my sleep. I got her back for that when I accidentally blew up the bathroom and soaked her with toilet water-"

"Man, what haven't you blown up?" interjected Sam.

"Not much, I'll tell you that. Anyway, I got put into this cabin with a bunch of kleptos until they got me sorted out then I moved to my own cabin. Their cabin system is weird, I won't bore you with the details. Ever since that summer, I've gone there whenever I can. It's a year-round camp since some of the kids don't have anywhere to go back to, so I can technically go whenever I want. I go on weekends, sometimes holidays, and every summer." He grinned in memory of the place. 

"What do you even do at this camp? Hold hands and sing kumbaya? Heal your issues?" asked Liam.

"No. We have a rock climbing wall, we do archery, sword-fighting, we have some regular classes for the dropouts, there's a strawberry field. We sell the strawberries for funding and stuff. We also have a horse stable and a forge. Then there's a volleyball court, a basketball court, a canoe lake, and endless entertainment with the Stolls."

"The Stolls?" I asked.

"Two brothers, Travis and Connor Stoll, you're not a true camper until they've dyed your hair a bright color or lit your cabin on fire," he clarified. I could tell he was becoming comfortable with the conversation and, consequently, us. He was saying things he usually wouldn't and describing his camp with more truth than he usually would. I was definitely taking advantage of that. 

I prompted him further with, "Does Annabeth know you go to this camp?"

"Of course, remember the little smart ass I was telling you about? That was her. She's been going since she was seven for reasons that are hers to disclose," he paused. "But she's always been the dangerous one if that tells you anything." He frowned a little as if remembering her family emergency.

"How'd you two end up together?" said Paige, sensing the tension and wanting to bring up positive memories. 

"Well, she hated me that entire first summer. Barely tolerated me towards the end. The second summer we were best friends. I went that winter and we got even closer. The next summer though, that was the year of the band room malfunction, she was really annoyed at me the whole time and I couldn't figure out why until later. See, I'd made friends with Rachel Dare, and they both liked me and were fighting over me, I was completely oblivious. But whatever. The summer after that, on my birthday, she made me this horrible cupcake and kissed me on a bench in the dining pavilion. Then everyone threw us into the canoe lake. Four months later, I disappeared and everything, then here we are," he finished. Paige had been successful in cheering him up for awhile but once he got to recently, he darkened again. You couldn't dive too deep into this guy's past without running into pain. 

"Wow, well now I have to meet her when she comes back from Boston," I chirped. He looked at me thoughtfully. He had so much behind his eyes. They weren't windows so much as pits, straight into his soul. He was drowning in sea green. He was scared.

"If," he corrected. "If she comes back."