1. Only In Fairytales
She stood in front of her bookshelf, one hand on her hip, the other cupping her cheek. She stared at the books; some fiction, but mostly non-fiction; books by Shakespeare, John Green, and countless other talented authors. She had encyclopedias, educational magazines, biographies… but she still felt like the more she learned, the less she knew. She sighed. She dragged her finger across the spines of her favorite books.
"Mother, please give me something new," she whispered. "I feel like I've studied everything. Science, math, history… There's got to be more!"
"Annabeth, go to sleep! You're keeping me up!" Malcolm said irritably. She sighed and crawled into her bed, sliding under the covers.
"Please," she whispered one more time as she closed her eyes and slowly drifted off into sleep. The next morning, she opened her eyes to see an unfamiliar room. She shot up. Besides the strange room, the sounds were even stranger. There was no screaming, or swords clinging. It was absolutely silent. And that was unsettling. She crawled out of the bed, onto a carpeted floor. The room was painted blue, with long white curtains covering small windows. There was a closet with the door hanging off the track and clothes sticking out the side. There were two bookshelves, filled to the brim, with two stacked at its base because there was no more room. Annabeth collapsed on the bed, her shoulders slumping.
"Where am I?" she asked absentmindedly, as her eyes travelled over the room; the shoes laying around, the basket of dirty clothes overflowing. It all seemed so… so normal.
"Annabeth!" a girl squealed as she burst through the door and jumped onto the bed. She had brown eyes and long brown hair. She gripped Annabeth's shoulder until Annabeth was facing her.
"Guess. What!" she gasped, with a smile. Annabeth looked at her with wide eyes, but it didn't seem like the girl wanted to hurt her, so she forced a small smile and said, "What?"
"There's like, less than three months until House of Hades comes out!" she squealed, shaking her head and lying down on the bed, with her head hanging off. A chill ran down Annabeth's spine.
"It felt like yesterday I just finished reading Mark of Athena!" she beamed, then she paused. "Oh wait. I did," she laughed. Annabeth gulped.
"Mark of Athena? House of Hades…?" Annabeth echoed, feeling frozen.
"Uh, yeah! You know, the series Rick Riordan is writing? Re. Mem. Ber?" she said, rapping Annabeth's shoulder with her knuckles.
"Rick Riordan?" Annabeth asked in confusion.
"Oh my gods! Where have you been?!" she exclaimed. "Uncle Rick writes the series that, like, trolls every single person alive," she said, wiggling her eyebrows like "helloooo". Annabeth just stared at her.
"Ugh, you're breaking my heart. Go read the series!" she said, pushing Annabeth of the bed and towards the bookshelf.
"I'm going to go eat me some cake, but you sit your butt down and read it!"
"Which one?!"
"The green one!" she said, skipping out the door and down the hallway. Annabeth shook her head, but she looked up to the bookshelf and started searching for the "green one". She was by the second shelf when her blood went cold. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.
"What the fu-"
"Do you want coke or sprite?" the girl's voice trailed over.
"Neither!" Annabeth yelled back.
"Suit yourself then!" Annabeth grabbed the book and almost fell sideways. She sat down on the floor and fumbled with the pages until she got to the first chapter. Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth… My name is Percy Jackson.
"Oh my gods!" Annabeth yelled, throwing the book. She pressed against the bed, taking deep breaths.
"No way. No way. Not. Happening," she chanted. "Where am I?" she whined, when there was a golden flash of light.
"Earth, of course," a familiar voice said. Annabeth stood up to face her mother.
"Where am I?" Annabeth repeated. Athena sat on the bed and crossed her legs.
"It's a parallel universe, Annabeth," she said plainly.
"Parallel- what?"
"Think of your world, but without magic," she said. "You, as you are in your world, do not exist now. In this world, Percy, Grover, Tyson, Chiron, and everyone else, do not exist. Demigods, gods, mythology is not real here," she said. Annabeth chewed her lip.
"Nothing?" Annabeth echoed in surprise.
"Nothing," Athena repeated.
"But, how did that author write that story? I mean, if magic doesn't exist, then this story shouldn't exist either."
"Like everything, the boundary between this reality and ours is not perfect. There are holes. So, some lucky author found the hole that lead to your story. It happens all the time. Twilight, Harry Potter, Divergent, just to name a few," Athena said.
"Wow," Annabeth breathed.
"It's truly the most fascinating thing to study, my dear," Athena said. "You have the chance to do it. But, you only have 3 days. Bridges between the realities don't always stay open for long. That's why some people disappear forever and why others are thrown into asylums. I mean, who believes in different realities, anyways?" Athena smiled wickedly. Annabeth shivered.
"Use your time wisely, Annabeth. On the third day, before 2:43 PM, you must be back in your own reality or you lose it forever," Athena said.
"2:43? Isn't usually midnight?" Annabeth asked, as her mother stood up. She chuckled.
"Only in fairytales," she said, before she became a flash of gold and disappeared. Annabeth turned back to the bookshelf.
"Well," she said, rubbing her hands together. "Let's get to work."
This story is mostly for fun and if you've got any ideas about the fangirl life, just throw them at me (just not hard!). I'd like some reviews to know if it's worth continuing because I don't have much time and I don't want to work on stories for nothing. So, tell me what you think! ^.^ Thank you and I hope you enjoyed it :)