Renegade

Emily's POV

Even though I wouldn’t admit it to myself at the time, I was as nervous as I had ever been, waiting at the café in Gibraltar, Spain, for my new partner. I had gone through training for the Organization after my fourteenth birthday, almost exactly two years ago. But, after my parents wanted me to go to a place in New York called Camp Half-Blood, I really didn’t want to. After all, I had grown up in California, I went to Camp Jupiter as a little girl, and I felt Roman. I didn’t want to embrace my mother’s Greek side, no offense. It just didn’t seem to fit. Even so, I still felt a bit conflicted whenever I thought about my heritage, which means I mostly avoided the subject altogether. I also try to avoid talking about running away from my parents to start my training in Spain, because I still felt horrible about that.

The officer from TFG had told me he would have brown hair and green eyes, and even though I tried to keep calm, I couldn’t help but wonder what he would look like, wonder what he was like as a person. After all, he would be my TFG partner for the next ten years, and if I had to put up with a really annoying person for that long, I think I would quit the job altogether.

After about an hour and a half of waiting, I heard a deep foghorn in the distance. My heart rate spiked, and I started to feel light-headed. I guess I was a lot more excited than I had originally thought. I peeked around the corner of the outdoor café to catch a glimpse at the harbor on the Mediterranean Sea. A big red and white ferryboat was just docking, filled with the newest shipment of tourists and locals coming from Tangier. After confirming to myself that it was very likely my new partner would be one that boat, I controlled my nerves and ordered a cappuccino to appear normal, along with the morning edition of the local paper.

After sipping my coffee tentatively and struggling through the paper with my rusty Spanish, a group of eight ferry travelers arrived at the café. I forced myself not to look up too quickly as the travelers separated into their respective groups. Four of them, a family, sat down at a corner table in the shade of a big pine tree. Two more, a couple, sat down at a table in the pleasant morning sun, holding hands. The two travelers left were single, both guys that looked around the same age, sixteen or seventeen. The first one had a dress shirt and tie on, so I ruled him out, leaving the last traveler, who sat down at a table by the entrance to the café’s patio, strategically positioning himself to be able to see everyone in the café at once.

He’s the one, I thought, He’s the only guy who looks nervous.

I put the paper down and subtly started looking more and more often towards him, trying to get his attention. Then, he saw me in the corner of his eye, and looked at me. TFG had told me that he would have brown hair. Check. It was short cut but attractive, like one of those guys in a boy band. The Organization had also told me he would have green eyes. Also check. They were simply gorgeous, and they picked up the morning sun like emeralds under a jeweler’s light. I blushed as he got up slowly from his seat and walked towards me, because I already had a massive crush on him. He looked like a skater boy had merged with a Cali surfer dude and was totally cute.

“Are you from the Organization?” He asked me nervously. His voice was melodious and deep, but not too low, and it was perfect.

“Duh, um, uh, yeah,” I replied, still star-struck. I needed to get my act together, so I said with more confidence, “Yes, I am. Your name is?”

“Griffin, Griffin Jackson,” He replied. Cool name. Then, something in the back of my mind like an annoying wasp started buzzing, telling me that ‘Jackson’ was important. Where had I heard that name before? I had the answer on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t place it, which was infuriating.

“And yours?” He asked, looking into my eyes again. Gods, he was hot.

“Uh, um…” I was completely red-faced by now, and he started to grin.

“Um, eh? Cool name, Um. So, Um, where are you from?”

That got my act together. Only the corniest guys were able to have that joke ready to use at a moment’s notice, which meant that we were probably going to become good friends, seeing as I loved corny jokes.

“Emily,” I stated with emphasis, “Emily Grace. Nice to meet you, Griffin.”

“Ah, just call me Griff. That’s what my friends call me, anyways. So, what’s the plan?”

I remembered what the officer had told me, and was about to explain when an Iris-Message shimmered into existence three feet from our cast-iron table. Appearing through the Mist was a hooded man, his face completely surrounded in shadow. I had seen this man before, and he had told me that he was from TFG, and his name was Crow. I know, mysterious, right? But, he did have a point, because with his black robe and thin figure, he did kind of look like the bird his nickname was named after.

“I see you two have met,” Crow said, his voice very deep and gravely.

“Yes, sir,” I responded nervously. Even though this guy was on our side, I still felt intimidated.

“Well then, let’s get you onto your first job, eh? I have a contact you need to meet in Rome, specifically the Parthenon, and he will give you a package. Along with the package, you will need to hear my contact’s directions as to where you will be delivering this package, understood?”

I was about to respond, ‘Yes, sir,’ again, but Griff spoke up, asking,

“Wait a second, who are you?”

“My name is Crow,” Crow responded, “and I am your commanding officer from the Organization, so it would be best to address me as ‘Sir’ and not ‘you.’”

Crow turned back towards me and finished his presentation with, “Anyways, be at the Parthenon in Rome at noon on the dot tomorrow. Crow out.”

And with that, he passed his hand over the Iris Message and it shimmered into non-existence.
“Something about him is familiar…” Griff started to mumble to himself, but then saw I was looking at him curiously, and switched topics,

“Crow out,” Griff mocked in an imitation of the officer’s deep voice, “Gods, what a dick.”

“Hey,” I scolded, “He trained me personally. I know the guy a lot more than you do, so cut him some slack. Yeah, he’s a bit rough on the edges, but he’s a nice guy.”

“Whatever,” Griff said dismissively. He whipped his head from one side to the other to get his hair out of his eyes, which was also extremely cute. Jeez, I sound like a Belieber or something. I mean, it’s not like this guy’s Apollo or anything.

“Anyways,” Griff summarized, “Rome, eh? I guess we should find the boat he told us about.”

“You sound excited,” I remarked.

“Well, yeah,” He admitted, “I love the water, actually. It calms me down, I guess. Maybe that because of my dad…”

“Who’s your—?” I started to ask, and then was hit by a massive wave of realization, “Oh Gods!”

“What?” Griff asked panicked, looking into my eyes with concern.

“That’s who your parents are! Jeez, we should have met by now!”

“What do you mean?” He asked me.

“Griff, by any chance, are your parents Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase?” I asked tentatively, hoping I was right.

“Yeah!” He exclaimed in surprise, “How did you know?”

“Well, with the troublemaker attitude, skater-boy looks, and love of water, it just kind of fit. My parents, by the way, are Piper McLean and Jason Grace. I guess that explains a lot, doesn’t it.”
I began to wonder about how this was such an amazing coincidence, but then my training kicked in.

I don’t believe in coincidences, I told myself.

“What’s on your mind?” Griff asked, “Because I can tell you’re thinking something.”

"How'd you know I was thinking something?" I asked off-topic.

"My mom sometimes does that face...well, actually, she does it most of the time," He replied, and I grinned.

“Well,” I started, trying to piece a thought together, “I’m assuming you ran away from home like me. You went to TFG because it was an easy out and sounded exciting, like me. I’m starting to think we weren’t partnered by accident.”


“Well,” He summed up, “Let’s make that coincidence happy, eh?”

He smiled at me, and I still couldn’t get over how insanely attractive he was. I really had to get myself together.

“Boats,” I said into the silence, and he nodded his head like he was remembering.

“Yeah,” He said, “Let’s go find us a boat to Rome.”

Notes

Enjoy! This story will start to make a lot more sense after the next few chapters, but I have to set the scene first. Eventually, this will turn into more of a mystery-drama, something I've wanted to write since I started posting stuff on this site.

By the way, I know that Gibraltar is technically a territory of the UK, but I said Spain in the chapter title because people can visualize where Gibraltar is (Mouth of the Mediterranean Sea) better if I put Spain instead of UK.