Here it is, chapter one of book two! I cannot BELIEVE it! thank you for your continued support and well wishes. This is book two in my Andromeda Jackson series, I recommend reading book one if you want to know what's up. or not, I suppose it's all up to you, really. again, thank you, and please give feedback, positive or negative, I love hearing from readers. thank you!
My leg jiggled as I waited for the plane to land. Annabeth was due at the Seattle Tacoma International airport any minute. Charlie encouraged Percy and me to invite Annabeth here for a week before we all left for camp together. She said in the iris message that she'd been suspended twice over the school year- she'd been around two suspicious fires. We were all excited to have her over, but Percy was nervous as well, a fact I found hilarious.
"Here you go," Charlie said as he and Percy brought over strawberry smoothies.
"Thanks," I said. "She'll be here any minute."
Percy smiled, and I poked him. He flushed beet red and I laughed.
The plane started unloading, and then I saw the blonde hair, and orange shirt.
"Nabs!" I said and ran up to her. She had a backpack and her usual ponytail.
"Meds!" she said and we hugged tightly.
"Hey," Percy said.
"Hey yourself," Annabeth said with a smile.
"Hey both of you, arm's length apart, I'm too young to have a niece or nephew," I said. I wedged myself between them and we walked over to Charlie. Annabeth rolled her eyes, but she also turned pink.
"Hello Annabeth, nice to meet you," Charlie said.
"Nice to meet you too, Mr. Swan," she said.
"Charlie, please. So I hear you're a daughter of Athena?" he asked as we made our way back to the car.
"Yes," she said. She knew that I told Charlie everything. "I was in New York, last summer."
"Well, I'm glad you're all right," he said. I'd told him all about it.
"Thank you," she said. "I like him," she whispered to Percy and me.
"I like him too," I said. "That's why he's my dad."
The drive to Forks from Seattle was long. Charlie was tired, so eventually Percy and I had to take turns driving. I got picked for the last leg of the trip, and I may or may not have gone over the speed limit. I was sure Charlie wouldn't say anything, though, even if he was a cop.
"Here we are!" I yelled as I parked in the driveway. "Everybody up!" I yelled again. I honked the horn for good measure, scaring some birds.
"Geez, did you really have to do that?" Percy asked sleepily.
"Are you awake?" I asked loudly.
"Yes, now you can stop that!" he said loudly back.
Annabeth laughed. "I missed you guys," she said.
When we got in the house, it was practically evening, so we just had dinner and went to sleep.
"I get the couch, Annabeth gets my room, and Percy will stay right where he is," I announced with a glare to Percy's general direction. He rolled his eyes, but didn't make eye contact with me or Annabeth.
I laughed. "Oh, this is going to be fuuun!" I said.
The next five days passed like that. Annabeth said her dad had been promoted, her brothers were acting as evil as ever, and her stepmom was alright. Even though she'd been living in California, she said that she hadn't had much trouble with monsters.
"Oh, we haven't either. I was thinking they'd be coming left and right, but it was only a few. There was a drakon, and that one took a while, but it hasn't been too bad," I said.
"That's weird. Two children of the big three living together should cause a lot more trouble than that," Annabeth said.
"Maybe it's just because Forks is tiny," Percy said, trying to be helpful.
"Maybe, yeah," Annabeth said.
We didn't go back to that topic, but I could tell she was worried. And because she was worried, I was worried. We took her to La Push, and to Port Angeles. She really liked the beaches and forests, something she didn't get to see often. Annabeth jokingly complained about the clouds and the weather, and as an early birthday present, I got her an orange umbrella.
"It's so you can look dry with style," I said. She immediately struck a silly pose, and we cracked up.
There was a knock at the door and I went to answer it. Surprisingly, it was Alice and Carlisle. Alice was grinning.
"Hey," I said. I let them in. "I've got a friend over, would you like to meet her?" I asked.
"I'd love to!" Alice said. I had a feeling she already knew that, though.
I let them through to the kitchen where Annabeth and Percy were laughing about something.
"Could you not?" I asked. "We have esteemed guests!"
"Oh I'm very sorry," Percy said seriously.
Annabeth started giggling again. That was just weird, I've hardly ever head her giggle before.
"Well Annabeth, this is my friend Alice Cullen, and her dad Carlisle Cullen," I said. I saw her eyes widen a bit as she took in the vampires and their perfectly symmetrical faces. Maybe it also had something to do with the word "friend."
"Nice to meet you," she said after a short pause.
"It's wonderful to meet you too, Meda's been talking about how excited she was too see you for a while," Alice said.
"You didn't!" Annabeth said, looking at me.
"Of course I did, you're my best friend ever in the world!" I said back.
"You've always had such a way with words," Percy said, staring at the celling.
"Just like you've always had a way with idiocy, brother dearest," I said back.
"That was painful," he said, clutching his heart.
"Well I just wanted to ask if we could throw you guys a going away or early combined birthday party tomorrow," Alice said. "Meda told me that her birthday's in August, and Annabeth's in July and we're leaving for Denali in a week, so…" she trailed off.
"Oh I didn't think you were leaving for another two weeks, that's what Edward said, anyway," I said.
"No, we're leaving a week early, and we're staying for another month. We haven't seen them in a while, and it's kind of like making up for lost time," Alice said. "So will you come?" she asked. "Please say you will, I've already got decorations picked and everything!"
"Well what do you say, Nabs?" Percy said jokingly. She elbowed him and reminded him that only I was allowed to call her that. I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Alright, that's really nice of you," she said cautiously when she saw that we were all looking at her.
"I told you she would say yes!" Alice said.
"She's really excited, as you can tell," Carlisle said fondly.
"I'm sure she is," I said. Alice had a thing for parties, she was naturally social. Even though she surprised Annabeth, I saw that Annabeth was already beginning to like her. It was difficult to not like Alice.
"I'll go tell everyone!" Alice said triumphantly. "Thank you, I just won money!" she said as an afterthought to Annabeth.
"What?" Annabeth asked, confused.
"Oh, everyone bet me some money that you wouldn't say yes, and you did, so I won!" Alice said.
"That's good, I guess," Annabeth said with a small smile.
"Thank you very much, and it was a pleasure to meet you, Annabeth," Carlisle said.
I showed them out, and turned around. "Thanks!" I said to Annabeth.
"So you made friends with supermodels?" Annabeth asked.
"Well, they all look like that, actually," I said.
She looked a bit weirded out.
"Hey, they're actually really nice," I said. "Well, except for Rosalie, but she'll come around. After all, I am amazing," I said.
"You're full of it, you know?" Annabeth said.
"What are you talking about?" I asked innocently.
She rolled her eyes. Usually she'd have elbowed me, but since I swam in the Styx, she hasn't.
"What do I need to wear?" she asked.
"I'm sure that'll be fine, they're cool," Percy said.
"Well that's good, that you made friends," Annabeth said.
"You haven't?" I asked.
"No, not really. I have some acquaintances, but not really friends." She said.
"Well I'm sure Meda and Edward are the best of friends," Percy said with a grin as he walked up to his room.
"Watch it," I said. Annabeth looked at me with wide eyes.
"You…" she said, starting to grin.
"What?"
"You have a…" she started.
"No!" I said. I held up my hands and repeated myself.
"Why not?" Annabeth asked. "If you like him, and he likes you, it's easy!"
I looked at her with the look of, "are you serious right now?"
"Well, you know, if you wanted to, you could make it work out," she amended. "His name's Edward?" she asked.
"I'm busy," I said. "I don't have time to think of those things."
"You should, you deserve to be happy," Annabeth said sincerely. "Maybe you're just overthinking things."
I rolled my eyes and laughed out loud. "No, really, I promise you I'm not," I said.
The next morning we were all a bit nervous. Percy and I prayed and hoped that nothing went wrong. But I told Percy about killing James, so if something happened, odds are that I could do something about it. I had my pencils, watch and my trident was in the truck under a bag I had packed for emergencies. I left the bow and arrows at home, because that would be harder to explain. On the other hand, Annabeth was only fretting about making a good impression on our friends.
"If they passed the Jackson test, they're worth the effort to me!" she said.
I hugged her tightly and let her borrow a nice shirt, and she wore her nicer jeans. I drove the truck to the Cullen's, and Annabeth made jokes about the gas mileage, color, and state of the truck the entire way.
"Seriously, shouldn't it be in an old trucks home?" she asked.
"She doesn't mean that," I said to the dashboard. "Having fun there, bro?" I asked Percy. I kicked him over to the back seat, and he wasn't too happy about it. That way, I could keep track of their lovey doveyness. It was cute, but got kind of irritating after a while.
"Of course, my dearest sister," he said with a roll of his eyes.
"Shut up!" I said. Annabeth laughed, and commented on the pretty forest. It was cloudy and a bit misty, but I still appreciated the beauty myself.
Annabeth gasped a bit when she saw the Cullen's house, we had to explain to her that they were rich.
"I can see that," she said.
"Come on, they're actually really nice. Give them a chance, okay?" Percy said.
Annabeth nodded mutely. "Wow," she said after a moment.
"I know, but like Percy said, they're really great. Carlisle, Alice's dad is a doctor at the hospital. He's a good one, no other doctor's offered me counseling after seeing an x-ray of my arm," I said. "Long story," I replied to Annabeth's look of shock.
As we got out of the car, Annabeth was staring at the house in awe. I knocked on the door, but before my fingers could touch the door, Alice pulled it open. "They have arrived!" she announced over her shoulder. She hugged Annabeth and Percy, and then thanked me in a whisper as she hugged me.
"So how did you and Percy meet?" Alice asked Annabeth as we walked inside.
"That's actually my fault," I said. "Something I've been regretting for the past four years."
"That's harsh," Percy said.
"We go to the same summer camp, and Meda and I've been friends since we were eight, or seven," Annabeth said.
"That sounds like fun. Meda said she can shoot a bow, can you do that?" Alice asked.
"I'm barely mediocre," Annabeth laughed.
"So was I, but there's this thing called practice," I said.
Everyone laughed and introduced themselves. I could see Annabeth was nervous, but Jasper helped her calm down a bit. When Edward introduced himself, Annabeth grinned and looked at me. I kept my face bland and raised an eyebrow at her. She rolled her eyes and didn't let me spoil her fun.
Edward walked over to me, and asked if I was enjoying my day.
"Yeah, it's really been great. Tell Alice thanks for me, would you?" I asked.
"Of course," he said. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Okay, I don't know if I can answer it or not, but I'll try," I said. I had a feeling it had something to do with Annabeth.
"Your friend, I can't read her mind, it's like yours," he said.
"What do you mean?" I asked. We were talking quietly, but I was sure that everyone except Percy and Annabeth could hear us.
"She's silent. I don't get anything," Edward said. "That's just strange, I could hear everyone except you and your brother, and at first I thought it might be genetic, but I can't hear her either."
"Oh that might be it. Annabeth's actually a cousin," I said.
"I thought you said she was Percy's girlfriend," Edward said.
"Oh she is, I mean, they are, but she's also a cousin through my biological dad's side. It's safe to let them date, though," I assured. I didn't really feel like going into the technicalities of godly DNA.
"Oh, that would have an explanation," Edward said.
"That's the best I could come up with," I said.
"Presents!" Alice announced.
I noticed that by the cake, there was a small pile of presents.
"First things first, is the cake chocolate?" I asked jokingly.
"It's actually vanilla with chocolate filling," Alice said. She looked worried.
"I guess that'll have to do," I said dramatically.
"I'll give you my filling," Percy said. He was practically blasphemous, because he never really liked chocolate.
"Meda's kidding," Annabeth said.
I crossed my eyes at her, and she laughed. Having Annabeth around was nice; she was like my sister as well as my best friend.
After us, I mean, the more human of the bunch grabbed some cake, Alice started handing out presents. Percy had a large box, and he opened it to find a giant blue gummy bear. I'd told Alice about Percy's love of blue food, and she must have taken my advice.
"Interesting," he said, turning it upside down and looking at it intently.
Emmett and Jasper laughed and even Rosalie cracked a smile. I was giggling along with Annabeth; Percy took a bite out of the ear and chewed.
"Yummy," he said through a mouth full of gummy bear.
"Meda, it's your turn!" Alice said.
I pretended to be dreading it, but I opened the package and when I saw what was inside, I gasped. "Oh thank you," I said.
"It was our pleasure," Esme said.
Inside a small box was a photo album. It was green and had Andromeda embroidered in purple letters on the cover.
"This way you can take pictures and remember everything," Alice said.
"Thank you," I said again. Jasper handed me a new digital camera to use to fill up the album. I snapped a picture of Percy eating the gummy bear, and he crossed his eyes for the picture.
"Here you go Annabeth, I wasn't too sure about what to get you, so I hope you like it," Alice said with a hint of nervousness.
"I'm sure I'll like it," Annabeth said. Alice said that it was a scarf with dahlias printed on it. It was pretty, and I thought Annabeth might like to wear it when she went to one of her father's lectures that were open to the public.
Annabeth sighed in annoyance.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
Then I saw it. She had a paper cut that was getting to the red side.
"No!" Edward roared.
I flew to Annabeth and tackled her, breaking the fall with my body, but she landed on her side anyway. It was just so fast. Percy lunged toward us and pulled Annabeth away. Jasper was really close, his eyes filled with hunger and beyond reason. He was snarling, in a predator's crouch. Everybody but Carlisle had hunger in their eyes, but Emmett had his grip on Jasper, and was holding his hands behind his back. Edward had his body in front of me, but Jasper was looking at me over Edward's shoulder.
I straightened up and looked Jasper in the eye. I wouldn't let him hurt Annabeth; I'd even kill him if I needed to.
"Back. Down. Now." I said, letting my power seep into my voice.