Tears and Flowers

I had never told anyone about the flowers.

Every time I woke up, I found a purple hydrangea on my pillow. But that day, Annabeth found it before me.

"What's this?" she started, but before I could answer, Percy unzipped the tent. "We have some stuff to talk about." he said, a grim expression on his face. I slowly got out of the tent. "So we found out what people were saying to you at school." I nodded, tears brimming my eyes. "But apparently you said some stuff back?" I nodded again. "But they did most of it." I said. Percy nodded. "That's what you said when the principal asked you." I nodded again. "I believe you."

I was glad somebody finally believed me.

I had been reading up on Hestia, and that was all I was thinking about as we packed up camp and continued our journey. She was a maiden, and tended the hearth. She was pure and kind. I didn't know how I was related to her if she was a maiden. I was in an odd state of mind, not focused on anything but that, until I heard a small yip.
"STOP!" I screamed, and slid off the hellhound as fast as I could, running over to the puppy caught in the thorn bushes by the river. I looked over the whole situation, small black puppy, maybe a mutt, caught in a large twisted thorn bush. I immediately started one by one, taking the thorns out of that puppy. I splashed some of the river water onto the few thorns that had drawn a significant amount of blood, and picked up the small shivering form. We walked into the nearest town, considering it wasn't even a mile away, and soon after we saw the posters with the puppy's face on it.

LOST DOG
IF YOU HAVE SEEN PEPPER PLEASE CALL THIS NUMBER

Annabeth pulled out a small flip phone, and dialed the number. A few minutes later, we handed the squirming to a crying-with-joy family. As we walked away, Piper whispered in my ear, "Still think you aren't a daughter of Hestia?"

Notes