Okay, the votes were 50/50 so I decided to post this one first, and then the beautiful woman post next week. So, since this took forever to type up, it got delayed a bit. I'm sorry!
I hope this makes you think,
Jen
*'s explained at the bottom of the story!!!
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"Okay, meet at five-thirty tomorrow morning for the Anaheim trip." Her chamber choir nodded in consensus with choruses of "Yes Ms. Smith." and exited the classroom. She sighed, remembering the last time that she had made the trip to Disneyland.
~
Percy, Grover, and she were on a break after the Giant War, and she was simply exploring the park with her two best friends. But then God made an appearance.
As she walked up to Thunder Mountain, she noticed a young girl crying, yet no one else noticed. So she nudged Percy and went over.
"Hey, are you okay?"
The ten-year-old looked up and shook her head. "My foster mom and I got separated. I'm scared that she won't want me anymore!"
The two locked eyes and a wave of shock ran through the adult demigoddess. "Sarah? Sarah Olivia Smith?" The demigoddess looked in the ten-year-old's eyes for a response.
"Come on!" She then tried her Spanish nickname. "Don't you remember me, *prima Isa?"
The words sparked recognition in her eyes. "Isa? Is that really you?"
In sync they said, "I thought you were dead!"
Percy and Grover exchanged looks of confusion and wariness. "Uh, Aria? Jewel," Percy used his nickname for you. "how can you tell?"
" 'The eyes are the windows to the soul' are they not?"
"Yes, but-" He was stopped as three hellhounds appeared around them. But even as Percy and Grover readied their weapons, Aria didn't draw hers. Instead her whole life as a demigoddess flashed before her eyes.
As her time as a demigod passed, Aria found it very uncomfortable to sacrifice and bend to the will of these gods of Greece and Rome. Growing up in a Christian home, she had been taught all about the Living God and Jesus. But when she lost her family to "monsters", she lost all her faith. But, did she ever really have it?
After that, she had taken to the sword and bow with a fury worthy of Ares himself. Upon her twelfth birthday, she was claimed as a daughter of Athena, and it fit for she favored wisdom, strategy, and crafting.
But as Aria, or the Jewel of Precious Wisdom as some had nicknamed her, stood and fought for these gods that needed human assistance to survive the littlest thing, she felt disquieted, and at times even angry. Nothing was safe, nothing was sure, nothing was solid, and nothing was true. Every day was the same with no richness, no mercy, no grace, no love shown to one's own brother.
And what love was there? "Love", nothing but desire, attraction, youth, and life lived too short. Rules were temporary, whatever felt good was right, and if someone stood in the way, they were cut down.
And as Aria stood there in front of those three hell hounds, she sank to her knees as the goodness, mercy, and grace of The Lord flowed out of the floodgates onto a tired and weary soul. And by The Lord's power, the hellhounds disappeared, and her faith was renewed.
~
From that day on, as Aria was an adult, she became the guardian of her cousin (once-removed), Sarah. Aria left Camp Half-Blood and moved into her parent's old house. As she had been going to college for awhile and had her teaching degree, she started a job at her old high school as its assistant choir director alongside her old teacher who was thrilled that she returned.
In Aria's fifth year of teaching, the high school's beloved and blunt choir director retired with a heavy heart, and Aria took up her mantle with every intention to give her all in the mission field that God had given her.
And every Sunday Aria and Sarah walked to church together along the river of their small town. By this time, years later, Sarah had grown into a woman clothed in dignity and honor, with a gentle and quiet spirit; she was now a beautiful young lady with a heart and soul that feared The Lord.
Aria still wondered how her friends from Camp had faired in this broken, messed up world, especially those she was close to. Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Malcolm, and Clarisse were forever stamped across her heart, and she prayed for and worried about them unceasingly.
Percy more than any of them. For years he had been the best friend she could have asked for, and she had left him with only a letter that said "I'm sorry, but I can't live like this anymore. It's not worth it. I love you Perce, you'll always be my best friend in the whole wide world."
Aria caught herself wondering about him as she fell asleep that night before that Anaheim trip, and he was the first thing on her mind when her her alarm went off at three-thirty that morning. "Okay Sarah, Disneyland awaits."
Sarah waltzed into the room with a smile on her face. "Way ahead of you, **prima."
And so they spent the next thirteen to sixteen hours with teenagers caffeine high on Monsters, Coffee, and Sugar, so when Aria's feet landed at the festival gates, she wanted to jump for joy.
The festival finished and her choir did very well, and one of her soloists won an award. Proud but not prideful, she let them run around all day in the "Happiest Place on Earth" the following days with a smile on her face.
Both Sarah and Aria had a connection to Thunder Mountain, so they stayed pretty near that ride the second day as they were wiped. And as they stood to leave, they heard the clanging metal of an intense sword fight. "Sarah stay here."
Aria grabbed her sword that she couldn't bear to leave at home. She still marveled at how it passed security. Even rusty after almost ten years of disuse, the sword still felt at home in her right hand where it went on instinct.
Running, Aria saw a man she never thought that she'd ever see again. And he was battling several hellhounds. Aria's blood ran cold. Softly she started to sing to herself. "There is power in the name of Jesus, there is power, power in his name. One name, one name can save, one name breaks every chain, one name always one name, Jesus."
And she gathered her resolve, running up to the gigantic demon-dogs. And they cowered in fear of the One who was by her side, He Who Created All Things, The Alpha and Omega, Who Was and Is and Is to Come, and vanished, not to be seen again, leaving a shocked twenty-nine-year-old Seaweed Brain.
"Thank you miss. Can you see through the Mist?"
A bit offended that he didn't recognize her, Aria answered stiffly. "In a way sir. Though I am shocked that you didn't recognize me when we are in Disneyland of all places."
Turning on her heels, she walked away. Suddenly there was a hand on her arm, stopping her. "Jewel, how could I ever forget?"
Turning around, she smiled an uneasy half-smile. "It was nice to see you again, but I am responsible for a bunch of teenagers on a field trip. I must get back."
Worried about how easy it was to just grab her sword and how strong the urge to kill the hounds was, Aria tried to walk away, for her faith had faltered. "Lord, please give me the strength I need."
Percy stopped her again. "Come on, it's been a decade. Can we not catch up as old friends?"
She gave in. "Fine Shark Bait, but let me find my cousin first. I left her to go help you."
They walked and found her still by Thunder Mountain. "***¡Prima!¿Estás bien?"
"Yes, we are well Sarah. Just tired. And you, are you well?"
"I am well, cousin. So is this the infamous Shark Bait?"
Percy smiled. "So she does talk about me. Nice to meet you Sarah."
"Nice to meet you too Mr. Jackson. ****Prima, we have one hour until the awards ceremony starts. Shall we get in line?"
"You may if you wish. And would you start texting or calling the chaperones so they can text or call their kids. I'm going to talk with this irritatingly obtuse man-child over here."
Sarah smiled, nodded, and left. "So a school teacher?"
"Like you would have expected anything different."
"True, but why?"
"Simple. It is where The Lord wants me. My passions have always lain there Shark Bait. Just this time I get to teach something that I love."
"You didn't love Ancient Greek or Archery?"
"No. They were simply distractions for my own pleasure. They were what I used to fill the insatiable thirst that could never be filled by any earthly thing."
"The Jewel of Precious Wisdom I knew would never do that."
"You knew me before I knew The Lord, Percy. I don't need to fill the insatiable void with senseless killing anymore."
She looked into Percy's eyes and could see the same thirst in his eyes that she felt. "Is that why you left?" The hurt in his eyes was self-evident.
"Yes. I couldn't stand to see the way that Satan has destroyed that community. That thirst and passion would not go away, and the minute I found my cousin, The Lord restarted my dead heart. People say that we were dead in out sins, but they have no idea how true that can be. You can still be living, but your heart is completely dead. There was no love there, none of the love that I was raised with, a love that I couldn't live without as it left a gaping hole in my heart. The Lord never left me, nor did he forsake me. And my life, hasn't been the same since."
Percy's eyes shone with the same desperate thirst that had filled you. "No god could forgive me, not after I worshipped, loved, and fought for those that were against everything He was for. He would never forgive one who turned away from Him."
***** " 'I am Judas' kiss, but He loves me anyway. I am the man who yelled out from the crowd for His blood to be spilt on this earth-shaking ground. And I turn away with a smile on my face while this sin in my heart tries to bury His grace. Alone in the night I still call out to Him, so ashamed of my life, my life. But He loves me anyway, and its like nothing in life that I've never known.' "
"Percy," Their eyes locked. "If He did not take His own Son down from the cross because He loved us so much, even when we were still dead in our sins, how can you believe that He doesn't forgive you?"
"Tears came to his eyes. "Jewel, I-I can't-".
"Do you believe?"
He looked her in the eyes. "Do you believe?"
"I want to, but-".
"That's not the question. Do. You. Believe?"
"Yes." He stated plain and simple. "I believe."
"Then welcome home, my brother."
And they smiled.
*Spanish for "Cousin Isa"
***Spanish for "Cousin! Are you well?"
****/**Spanish for "Cousin"
****Paraphrased from How He Loves
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