Hey hey! I've been looking around the PJ ff site and I can't help but notice. Everybody's doing these "While Percy was at Camp Jupiter" stories. Y'know, how Annabeth is coping, and the new trio is fearing meeting him. Stuff like that. So I would like to clarify: This is not one of those stories.

No way do I have the guts to attempt something like that. LAWL. I'll leave that to the master, All hail the great Rick Riorden. Bow down to him!

No, while it may be about Annabeth coping with Percy missing, it does not take place in between TLH and SoN. It happens in TBotL while Percy was on Calypso's island. Cuz I always wondered how she felt about that. Were it me, I would have dealt with it something like this. Heh heh.

Two Weeks and a Butt-Load of Chocolate

~By LFG

Afterwords, Annabeth was pretty sure she had never eaten so much chocolate in such a short period of time. After just a week she had felt bloated and grumpy. Like she was PMSing, only it was chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.

She got most of her stash from the twins. Conner and Travis could get just about anything into camp. They ran a kind of black market from their bunks in Cabin 11 and were plenty willing to sell Annabeth ridiculous amounts of chocolate at "discount price" as they called it. Total bullshit. Travis upped the price by two drachmas and Conner by three. But she still bought it.

Chocolate was good comfort food.

Silena was nice enough to give Annabeth a box of chocolate her father had sent. Annabeth had smiled and told Silena that she was a good person. Silena laughed and skipped off, blathering things about love and how cute it was. Annabeth decided to ignore that.

Clarisse, in passing, tossed her a Hershey bar. She told Annabeth that she missed her favorite punching bag. Annabeth agreed.

Charles Beckendorf gave her a pack of hot cocoa while he was fixing her armor. Told her it tasted best with marshmallows. Annabeth thanked him and Charles nodded, not meeting her eyes. On a whim, she asked how things were going with Silena. He blushed a little (Annabeth was sure of it) and said they were going alright. Doing alright. They were fine. He blushed harder and Annabeth laughed.

Gods, even with all these wonderful, awesome people around her she was still so depressed. Annabeth needed her Seaweed Brain. She needed the idiot she could count on to always screw up and fix up. She needed to see that look he got on his face when he was about to do something crazy. Which was almost always. She needed his stubborn obsession with blue food. She needed his short attention span and his constant movement. Because he was what kept her grounded. Annabeth wasn't sure exactly when he had become so centric to her life, but he was. And she didn't want that to change now. She didn't want to have to give up another important anchor in her life. Maybe she was just being selfish, but that was how it was. Yes, Annabeth needed Percy Jackson around.

Only he wasn't around. Not anymore. And it was killing her.

She had no idea that being away from Seaweed Brain would affect her like this. Sure, Annabeth had been separated from him for entire school years before, but then, at least she knew he was okay. Well, not okay, what with monsters and stuff. But she knew he was alive, for the most part, and not dead.

When Mt. Helen had blown Annabeth was already in the Labyrinth. She had felt the explosion, but kept running. She wished she hadn't. Maybe if she'd turned back she would've found Percy. He would still be alive. They would be together, like it should be, and she wouldn't be sitting there eating enough chocolate to kill a centaur. (No offense, Chiron.) But instead Annabeth had kept on running, like a coward. She hadn't even cried, because at that time she was sure that Percy would be alright. She couldn't imagine him not alright. Annabeth would go back to camp and Percy would be there, laughing, smiling, shining, asking her what took so long. She would punch in and call him names, but she would be smiling to. Then Percy would regale them all with the tale of how he had cleverly thwarted the Telekhines and escaped before the forge was blown sky high.

But none of that happened.

No, Percy was gone, dead, and everyone knew it. After all, no one could have survived that. Not even a son of the Sea God. Even Annabeth was beginning to think the same, though she would never admit it. Percy Jackson, her Percy Jackson, was dead. He had been blown into a billionzilliongajillion pieces when Mt. Helen went BOOM.

They had waited, of course. But after a week and a half everyone gave up. There were lots of tears and stuff. Work was started on the burial shrouds. Annabeth plowed through chocolate. Most of the campers moved on. They went about their daily routines almost like nothing had happened. Not her, though. Annabeth couldn't seen to move on. Whenever she tried, she found herself eating chocolate.

The day of the Burning everyone was very sober. Percy's shroud was saved for last. Annabeth carried it up to the fire. With each step it got harder to see, harder to move. Then she was there dropping the cloth into the fire and talking, though she wasn't quite sure what she was saying. She looked up. And there he was.

Suddenly Annabeth didn't want to see another piece of chocolate ever again.

~End!~

Wow. That was short. I'm kind of ashamed at how short it is. But that's all that I had for this one-shot. I did enjoy writing it though.

Hope you liked reading it! Pretty please review. It you do I will love you for ever and ever.

Ciao!

p.s.

OMG MARK OF ATHENA COMES OUT TOMORROW I'M SO ASDFGHJKL EXCITED! *FANGIRL SQUEEL*