California Gurls -This is for IHeartThePercyJacksonBooks song fiction challenge
Annabeth Chase stared out the window, waiting for Percy to arrive. On the beach next to the place she was waiting for Percy there were lots of teenagers having fun. Living in California doesn't mean you go to parties every night, wear less than a Barbie doll, or love underage drinking. Annabeth was disgusted looking at the beach so she decided to check her emails whilst waiting on Percy.
You see, Annabeth Chase isn't a Barbie Doll girly girl, though she lives in California. Her mother is the goddess of wisdom of all things and she would rather be dead than one of those twittering airheads who gabbed about nothing but the latest fashions, which actors and actresses were seeing each other, make-up, or boys. Rather like the Aphrodite cabin, she thought slyly; though to be fair, a few stood out from the others, a chief example being Silena Beauregard. She found it difficult to swallow at the sharp reminder of Luke's manipulation and betrayal and then his subsequent redemption.
Both the son of thieves and the daughter of love had found redemption in sacrificing themselves.
Instead of letting her mind be drawn into the memories of the Titan War she fingers the small charm Percy gave her a week ago. It's cool to the touch, smooth, and silver. A silver owl with harsh grey eyes that glint eerily in the night. Annabeth suspects he did this so she had a reminder of him (he was all the way across the U.S. in New York while she was stuck trying to fit in with her dad and stepmother), but a big part of it is to appease her mother.
Percy, her seaweed brain, well to be official he is…Perseus Jackson, bearer of Achilles' Curse, forbidden son of Poseidon, slayer of the Nemea Lion, sophomore with far too many titles. He is also her best friend. The one with green eyes that soften when he's with his friends and can finally relax and messy black hair that she is always threatening to cut. Somewhere between fighting off monsters, going on quests and holding up the sky together he evolved from an annoyance to her friend and into her first boyfriend.
Like something out of a romance novel, she thinks with distaste and grimaces. Despite the Aphrodite's oohs and awes, that wasn't what they were. Clarisse of all people understood. But given her dad was Ares, god of war, maybe that wasn't so surprising. He didn't seem like the sappy type or someone to go to advice for, unless it was something involving violence. Clarisse still got a kick out of teasing her, but didn't take it too far. She knew Annabeth and Percy were friends first and foremost, who had forged a deep bond despite enormous differences.
Annabeth suspects part of her silence s because of the blackmail she had on the daughter of Ares and her boyfriend Chris Rodriguez. But it's a different story for another time. If she reminisces on it now she would start giggling and wake up her half-brothers in the next room over.
Back to Percy. She blushes. When had he become the dominant object of her musings? He is like a stimulant for her brain. Annabeth remembers an article she'd read in a magazine, something on the benefits of water (besides keeping people alive and being good on a hot summer day). One of the fun facts had said drinking water stimulated brain power. She didn't know if it was irony or she was looking too hard at the coincidences in her life.
Annabeth suspects the latter. But now her brain is abuzz, thinking of all the connections between water and knowledge-any common points between Athena and Poseidon. Water is life and knowledge is what made life worth pursuing (and she knows she is right, never mind what the other cabins would say was most important).
Together, she and Percy are a hurricane. It isn't that weird, was it? her sleep drunk brain wonders. Knowledge and air were both incorporeal things. Add water and heat to air and voila! A rampaging storm. But what about the heat? Probably the friction and good natured (usually) arguments between them. Satisfied with this conclusion, her mind moved on the other things.
Like the fact that she is seeing Percy tomorrow. He is coming to California, which is weird because usually she is the one going to see him. Annabeth kind of likes it though; she saves money (her parents are making her pay the expenses of having a long distance boyfriend which is exactly one roundtrip to New York and back), and it means Annabeth is worth paying that plane ticket (and risking being blasted out of the sky by his uncle), just to see her. Her stomach fills with butterflies, even if it is a selfish and rather petty thought.
Annabeth suspects that Aphrodite has a hand in this. She convinced Zeus to grant Percy safe passage because they were 'the cutest thing since Helen and Paris'. Maybe she'll be a little nicer to those silly, shallow girls and boys next summer.
She saw Percy outside humming along to the song on his car rental radio. He stopped my badly off key singing, as a new song came on. Percy was driving to see Annabeth in California, and had been singing to the radio like he had no cares in the world. The radio had been turned on as soon as Percy left the airport and hadn't been of since.
Annabeth would be laughing at him right now. The beaches at California were mobbed, but with drunk teenagers. Montauk beaches weren't as good as those in California, so Percy was excited to hang out with her on one tomorrow.
The new song that came on was California Gurls, it reminded him of Annabeth but didn't at all. The only resemblance to her and this song was that she lived in California, she wasn't one of those typical L.A, Orange County girls. No partying, underage drinking, going to clubs, Annabeth is smart and not like that at all, Percy thought. He pulled up at the place, to see her staring at him with a glare. It was funny to all around him as he checked the time on the dash board to see he was late. Running he tripped and called out to Annabeth.
"Miss me, California girl!"