Chapter 1: My Speech Ends Up In A Knockdown
It was July 20, Sunday. The summer sun was shining brightly, as usual. That was good news. If it had been all rainy and thunder storm mode today, the one perfect moment in my mom's life would've been completely ruined. Her wedding, to be precise. I muttered my thanks to Apollo, the Sun God. He'd probably say some haikus now about his greatness, because no offense, but Apollo is a little big-headed. The sky darkened for a moment. He heard me , all right.
My mom was getting married to this thirty-ish dude with long salt and pepper hair, Paul Blofis, aka Mr. Blowfish to me. He's pretty cool, by the way, except that sometimes after he uses the bathroom, it stinks like Grover without deodorant. Only ten times worse. You seriously needed a gas mask to get in the bathroom after he used it. Unless you want to faint.
They were now gazing dreamily into each other's eyes. Normally, I would retch and gag, but I couldn't. Somehow it was okay. If she's happy, I'm happy. That's the way it has always been.
As the wedding ceremony dragged on, my gaze kinda wandered off to where Annabeth and Thalia were sitting. Grover wasn't there though, he was still searching for Pan, the long-lost nature God. Wish you were here. I thought will all my might. Maybe the empathy link would bring that message to Grover.
The Priest was now motioning for us to sing some weird hymn, and as always, my thoughts got all scrambled. It always gets tangled up when there are weird noises-which believe me, around my neighborhood are a LOT. I looked over at Annabeth again. She looked so….perfect. Her blonde hair was creeping pulled up high in a bun, with some loose hair around her face, and her stormy gray eyes seemed brighter and shinier. She was wearing a sea-green dress, since that was theme. My jaw dropped for the nth time that day. I couldn't help it. I was just noticing a member of the opposite gender in a non- perverted way. That isn't a crime, is it?
Thalia must've seen me practically gaping at Annabeth, because she nudged Annabeth and nodded in my direction. Annabeth whispered something in Thalia's ear. Thalia whispered back. They giggled. I looked away, embarrassed and focused on this painting thingie featuring Mary. Then for some weird unexplainable reason which I will now blame on the gods, the face of Mary morphed into Aphrodite's, She winked knowingly at me, then the painting turned back to normal. I was so shocked, I fell out of my chair. I hope no one saw that. By now, I was blushing really, really hard. Last time I talked to Aphrodite, she said that me and Annabeth will have this oh- so tragic love thing going on. I was okay with the 'love' part, not so much on the 'tragic' bit. Apparently anguish and indecision will be in my way. Whoop- dee- doo.
Now the priest was mumbling something about love and all that junk. I dozed off.
'Percy! Percy!' a familiar voice whispered in my ear. I woke up, dazed. No one seemed to have noticed my little eh, nap. I looked in the direction of the voice. It was Annabeth, who was now beside me. She gave me her deluxe special edition death glare. " They're going to kiss already!". Oh gods. I hurriedly stood up and in process, my hand accidentally brushed Annabeth's. Maybe I should stand hurriedly more often.
The moment came. Everyone was giving them a standing ovation. Mom looked really happy, she could burst. That was such a happy moment. What's more, Annabeth just circled her hand around mine while clapping. Life was good, at least, for now.
As soon as we got out of the church, I fully grabbed Annabeth and cornered her behind the chapel doors.
"Thanks!" I heard myself say. Annabeth seemed a little pinker around the cheeks. "Yeah. Your mom would've killed you if she found you sleeping during her wedding. Her Wedding! But hey, you didn't drool." Annabeth said teasingly.
I winced. My chances of being with a girl who had seen me drool, fed me like a baby and seen me in some of my worst periods ever were like, nil. Why? Why? That question just kept on ringing inside my head.
"Annabeth-" I started to say. I really just needed to get this out. The sooner the better. Keeping it all in just felt like the time I held up the sky, which I would not want to do ever again. Ever. Anyway, Annabeth leaned closer to me, expectantly. We were really close. Inside, I was itching to cartwheel, tumble and hop all over the place like a love-sick bunny bot. Which was true, except for the bunny boy part.
"Percy, Annabeth! Get in the freakin car!" Thalia yelled. I sighed. Interrupted, again? It was like the tenth time this had happened. Thalia grabbed my hand, along with Annabeth's. She pulled us so hard that Annabeth tripped and crash-landed on top of me. That was very painful, even though Annabeth was on top of me. It still hurt.
I have got to say that was the MOST embarrassing moment in my young life of a decade and a half. Thalia was laughing her punk head off. She's going to double over soon, I think. Annabeth, who by now was flaming red, like me. She got off of me and mumbled, "Sorry", her head down.
After that fiasco, we all just went in the car heading for the reception. Nothing eventful happened. Thank the Gods.