Percy and Annabeth had been traveling in the wilderness for what seemed like an eternity. A hellhound had attacked their bus three days ago and now they were stranded in the middle of Minnesota with dwindling supplies.
"Annabeth, don't you have ANY idea where we are?" Percy whined for what seemed like the millionth time that day.
"If I knew where we were, Seaweed Brain, I would've gotten us out of here already!" Annabeth's had spoken calmly at first, but she ended up screaming at the top of her lungs and scaring all of the wildlife away.
"Geez, Annabeth, you didn't have to yell. It was just a question." Annabeth only sighed in response.
After a few more hours of traveling, the still-lost heroes came across a lake.
"Alright, a lake! We can finally bathe! I don't know about you, but I am tired of being covered in swamp muck," Percy said, sounding totally unlike what one would expect of the 'manly hero of Olympus'. "Do you wanna go first, Annabeth?"
"I'm fine, Percy. You can go first. I'll try to figure out where we are."
"Suit yourself. I'm gonna go get all this dirt and grime off me. I'll see ya later."
Annabeth found a rock to sit on and tried to determine where they were. She heard a faint splash and then the whoops of joy coming from Percy. Since she was alone, she decided to entertain her thoughts. Lately, all of her thoughts involved Percy. How he defeated Kronos, how he could be such an idiot sometimes, how handsome he was…
'Whoa, Annabeth, what are you thinking? I need focus on saving us,' she thought, trying to get back on track. A few seconds passed by, and she found herself thinking of Percy again. 'You know, I could use my cap to spy– '
"AAAUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!"
'Percy!'
Annabeth ran to the lake. When she got there, what she found was not what she expected. She had assumed that a monster had attacked Percy. However, what she found was a strange girl in the lake with Percy nowhere in sight. 'She must've surprised him and he ran off.' Annabeth sighed as she thought of how only moments earlier, she had been praising Percy (in her head, mind you) for how courageous he was. 'Really Percy. All that racket for one girl?'
"Who are you?" Annabeth asked cautiously, hand still clutching the dagger in her pocket. The girl jumped in surprise, as she had not noticed Annabeth approach the edge of the water. Slowly, shyly, she turned around to face Annabeth. The girl's voice was so soft that, had she not been listening intently, Annabeth would've missed the girl's response.
"Annabeth, it's me. It's Percy."
Annabeth fainted.
"Ugh, I need to stop going to sleep on an empty stomach. I'm starting to get really strange dreams," Annabeth groaned as she sat up. Blinking, she noticed that she was inside a tent that she didn't remember setting up. 'That's odd,' she thought to herself. 'I don't even remember deciding to stop.' Deciding to chalk it up to pure exhaustion and leave it at that, she went to go wake Percy up.
"Yo, Seaweed Brain! Up and at 'em! I got a feeling we'll make it to civilization today," she yelled into his tent enthusiastically. Annabeth waited several moments for Percy to respond. Growing impatient of waiting for a response that might never come, she unzipped his tent and dragged his sleeping bag out, with him still inside of it. This got a reaction, as complaints started emerging from the bag. After much grumbling, a head emerged reluctantly from the sleeping bag.
"EEEEEEEKKKKKK!"
"Annabeth?" Percy asked sleepily. "Did you just 'eek'?"
"S-shut up! L-look at yourself," Annabeth said shakily.
"Hm?" Realization dawned upon his face as he remembered the previous day's events. "Oh, yeah, that. I was really of hoping that you could help explain that, or better yet, get rid of it. Because I really don't want this to be permanent."
"Is that really you, Percy?"
"The one and only" he replied with a small smile plastered upon his face.
Now that she was closer, Annabeth could see the similarities between the person sitting in front of her and the Percy she remembered. They both had the same dark black hair and sea-green eyes. She was willing to bet that, if she looked for them, she could find the same scars. And it wasn't just the physical things. The mannerisms that Percy had were all present in the girl sitting before her. However, there were differences to be noted, some subtler than others. For one thing, this girl was a head shorter than Percy, as well as being slightly thinner. The differences between Percy's normal chest and hip size were glaringly obvious. Also, this girl had wider eyes and slightly longer eyelashes, a smaller nose, and fuller lips. Deciding to believe the girl, she concluded that this really was Percy.
Annabeth sighed. "Percy, how do you manage to get into these situations?"
"These things just seem to happen to me. Do you have any idea how this happened yet?"
" No. Do you remember anything… weird happening? Did you see anyone else there?"
"Ummm, I don't think so. I was just taking a bath in that lake and suddenly this happened. Wait, do you think one of the gods did this?"
"It is highly likely. More then a few of them are displeased with you. Besides, if it was the lake, then it probably would have happened as soon as you got wet."
"Oh. Well then, I think it was the lake."
"How? I heard you splashing around for at least five minutes before you screamed."
"Son of Poseidon, remember? I don't have to get wet until I want to."
"Well, I suppose that changes things. But I don't remember hearing about any cursed lakes in the United States."
"Well, Minnesota is the Land of a Thousand Lakes. A couple of them are bound to be overlooked."
Annabeth sighed again. "Whatever. I'll just ask my mother when we get back to New York. In the mean time, it looks like I'm stuck teaching you a few things about girls."
Percy was confused. "What would you need to teach me that I don't already know?"
Annabeth sighed for the third time in fifteen minutes. Walking up to Percy, she whispered something in 'his' ear.
The color drained from Percy's face.
"You're kidding, right?" Percy asked weakly. Annabeth shook her head. Percy started to put on quite a melodramatic performance.
"Oh cruel Fates! Why must you insist on torturing me? This is cruel and unusual punishment! No man should have to go through this." He collapsed into a huge pile of sobs.
"Stop acting stupid, Seaweed Brain. Its not that bad," Percy's head whipped around to glare at her. "Okay so maybe it is. But sobbing about it isn't going to help you. Besides, you'll have me here to help you every step of the way."
Percy sniffled. "You mean it?" 'he' asked timidly.
"Of course I do. Now the sooner we find this half-blood for Chiron, the sooner we can get back home and get you help."
"Okay. But I'll need to borrow some of your clothes. I don't know if I was a lard-butt or what, but my clothes don't fit anymore."
Annabeth giggled at that. "You weren't fat, Percy. Girls are just naturally smaller than boys. Sure you can borrow some clothes." She helped Percy up and they went into Annabeth's tent to pick out some clothes for Percy before cleaning up the camp.
A.N. How's that for edited? Twice the word count of before (even though its still pretty short)! If any of you remember the first edition, compare it to this one and let me know what you think.
P.S. If you read a lot of PjatO fanfiction, please check out the Help Wanted section of my profile.