Hello ladies and gents! Athena's cabin is back with another Christmas story. I realized I could make this an annual thing, since every year there are people who need some Christmas spirit. This year, my Christmas spirit is present. I can feel it, so I want to share it. Let's shake up the happiness! This fic was inspired by the song "Shake up Christmas" by Train.

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson.

Annabeth

Once upon a time in a town like this
A little girl made a great, big wish.

Why would one celebrate Christmas? Especially when you were a demigod, Christmas did not make sense. The whole celebration evolves around Baby Jesus. I thought it was pretty clear that the Greeks were right. But there I was, at camp on Christmas Eve, spending the holidays with the family I didn't fight with that much, and everyone was in a festive mood. Except me, of course. I couldn't feel but hypocritical of the whole hassle of Christmas. It was supposed to be the time of miracles, like virginal birth. Then why was it that nothing miraculous ever happened to me? Not that I would've wanted a baby at 16, but my kind of a miracle.

"Annabeth, come outside! We need an architect for our snow fort!" my brother Malcolm shouted from the cabin door.

I felt tempted. Designing was my favourite pastime. Yet, I was perfectly comfortable just sitting there, curled up in an arm chair with a book.

"I think I'm good, Malcolm. It's lunch time soon anyway," I told him.

"But Annabeth! You're our best strategist! Have some Christmas spirit and come help us," Malcolm whined.

That was it. I didn't have any Christmas spirit, and he had just reminded me of that.

"No, I'm not coming!" I shouted, and Malcolm left the cabin, shutting the door behind him.

I sunk back into my chair and continued to read. Not long after, someone knocked at the door.

"Annabeth, do you want to go see Mrs. O'Leary and the pups with me?" came a bleeting voice. "I've made them all matching Santa hats."

I felt bad. I didn't have the spirit of Christmas, but I didn't want to be rude to Grover.

"I don't know, Grover. I don't really feel like going-"

"Come on, Annabeth! You can't be sitting there forever!" he yelled cheerfully.

Apparently there was no turning him down, so I took a jacket and a beanie, and opened the door. Sure enough, I was facing a grinning Goat Boy who was carrying a paper bag full of red fabric.

"Let's go!" he said, and we started to walk towards the amphitheatre.

I had to admit, the camp was beautiful in the winter. Everything was covered with snow, except Thalia's tree. Apparently the Golden Fleece made it stay snowless. Peleus was sleeping next to the tree. My siblings had knit him an orange scarf. The poor thing was losing his fiery breath because of the cold. I hadn't joined them, because I hadn't felt like it.

Someone had spent time shoveling snow and creating pathways from one cabin to another, and then clearing up a little trail to the amphitheatre and the Mess Hall. It helped me and Grover, because otherwise we would've had to walk with snow up to our knees. In the commons area, the campers were engaged in a snowfight. The area, usually green of grass, was now covered with snow. The campers didn't care. They rolled around and got snow down their coats.

"Have you heard about Percy?" I asked Grover as we walked and dodged snowballs.

"Not really. The last thing I heard about him was that his mom and her boyfriend got married," said Grover.

"Oh," I said, and didn't know what to add. I kicked up the snow and continued to walk a bit briskier.

"Do you miss him?" Grover asked as we'd almost reached the amphitheatre.

I did miss Percy. I hadn't seen him since we'd parted ways after the summer. I'd gone to an all-girls school, and Percy had continued his studies at Goode. In between school and re-designing Olympus, I hadn't had time for seeing him, and before I realized it, it was Christmas, and everyone else went to spend the holidays with their family. I didn't want to go to San Fransisco, so I'd decided to come here to camp. It seemed more like home to me. I have to admit, I envied my roommate, my Algebra teacher, and Percy for being able to spend Christmas with their families. If only I had that happiness a family brought.

When we walked to the centre of the amphitheatre, Grover and I were attacked by a hurly burly of black fur.

"AROOF!" Mrs. O'Leary barked and wagged her tail as her puppies licked the daylights out of our faces.

"Happy Christmas to you, too, Mrs. O'Leary!" Grover laughed as he struggled to get up. "Look what I've got for you!"

I sat up and watched Grover put a Santa hat on all of the monster puppies. They looked hilarious with little bells hanging from the tip of each hat. Now anyone could hear them wherever they went.

Grover held up Mrs. O'Leary's hat. "Annabeth, do you wanna do the honours?" he asked me and grinned, offering the hat to me.

"Why not," I said and jumped up. I took the hat from Grover and put it on Mrs. O'Leary.

"Wow, she's a real Mrs. Claus," I laughed.

Grover beamed at me. "You're smiling," he said. "That's my girl."

I wished I could really be happy because of Christmas.

Percy

At the same time, miles away,
A little boy made a wish that day.

If I'd known Paul hadn't been able to prevent his parents to invite themselves to our place on Christmas Eve, I would've spent Christmas at camp. Grandpa Blofis seemed like a funny guy. He was quite senile and wasn't aware of his surroundings most of the time. I thought he was under the impression it was the Great Depression again or something. He was constantly reminding mum about how well things were for us. He also thought I was mum and Paul's black little servant boy. I was seriously starting to like him. Grandma Blofis, however, was the kind of woman who never smiled. She complained Paul about marrying a writer, cooking them chicken instead of ham, and having wrong kind of toilet paper.

"So, Peter, how is school for you?" Grandma Blofis asked me as I handed her a jar of pickles over the dinner table.

Yes, Grandma Blofis was starting to seem more and more like Mr. D...

"Good, good," I muttered and shot a pleading glance towards my mother.

"Good, is it? Hmph, I hope the boy at least has good friends," Grandma Blofis huffed. "With his father nowhere to be found..."

I really had to control my temper with this woman. In attempt to prevent myself from clawing her eyes out, I decided to think about those good friends of mine. I really missed them. I hadn't seen any of them since the summer ended. I wondered how Grover was doing in the Council of the Cloven Elders. He must have lots of responsibility. I hoped it was going okay with him. He got anxious so easily.

Then I thought about Annabeth. Was everything okay with her? I felt bad for not contacting her at all, even though she was attending school in New York. Maybe I should call her now, to wish her a happy Christmas... No, she might be in San Fransisco with her family. Although they did fight a lot. Maybe I should go to camp to see if she was there. No, what was I thinking? To go all the way there to see if she was there? And then what? "Oh, Annabeth. I see you're here after all! Well, happy Christmas!" That was plain stupid. Wake up, Jackson! Why was I even thinking about such a thing? I missed her like crazy, yes. I often thought about her, yes. But that didn't mean the other campers had been right when they'd expected me to ask her out, did it? I mean, I wasn't sure if I liked Annabeth in that way. I couldn't just jump into a car and go to camp to see whether she was there. Right? It would seem like I liked her.

"Percy, could you help me in the kitchen for a bit?" mum asked suddenly, and I jumped. I realized I'd been pushing a cherry tomato around my plate with my fork for a while there.

"Sure," I said quickly and followed her to the kitchen.

"I see you aren't enjoying yourself much with that little...err...Grandma Blofis nagging at you," she said quietly as soon as we were out of the others' sight.

"Yeah well," I muttered.

"You should be having fun. It's Christmas after all. How about you take Paul's car and go to camp to say hi to Grover and Annabeth?" mum asked.

My stomach jolted. I could see Annabeth after all! No, wait, what? Grover and Annabeth. Both of them equally. Yes.

"Yeah, that sounds great," I said, smiling.

"Good. I'll give you an excuse to leave. Just tell them goodbye politely, okay?" mum said and we returned to the dining room.

"Percy has still some errands to run. Paul, would you lend him your keys?" she announced and turned to Paul.

"Yeah, errm, I'm sorry for leaving like this, but like mum said, I still have things I have to do so..." I muttered and bowed awkwardly at Grandma and Grandpa Blofis. Paul threw me the car keys.

"Hmph, one understands where the boy is going," Grandma Blofis huffed as I turned away to walk out of the room.

"He must be going to buy some tobacco. Such a nice little servant boy," said Grandpa Blofis. I smiled. I wanted to be a senile old man when I grew up. Although I wouldn't want to be married to such frowny person as Grandma Blofis.

I put a coat on and rushed out of the apartment building. As I started the engine, and started to drive towards camp, I thought about growing old. Olympus was safe, we'd put an end to the Titans' upheaval, and the camp was supposed to be completely calmed down. I was so glad all of that had already gone by. I hoped things would remain the same. Demigods would live happily without any interference from the Titans. Now that everything was fine, I could concentrate on something else than fighting. Maybe...

I parked the car at the base of Half-Blood Hill. There was more snow than I'd expected, and I immediately got my socks wet when I jumped out of the car. I climbed up the hill and looked down at the camp. Children were playing in the snow, and in the amphitheatre, Mrs. O'Leary was playing with her pups. I descended from the hill and made my way to the cabins. I thought I might find Annabeth there. Grover and Annabeth. Yes. Both of them.

The campers greeted me when I walked by. I was glad to see them relaxed like that.

"Jackson!" I heard Clarisse call me from the porch of Ares' cabin. "Happy Christmas! Can't wait to whip your butt next summer!"

I grinned and wished her a happy Christmas as well. I made my way through the commons area where a snowball fight had been going on for quite some time judging by the looks of the fighters and their forts. They all wished me a happy Christmas. I was glad I had so many good friends like these.

I knocked on the door of Cabin 6. Nobody answered. I turned to look at the snowball fighters.

"Hey Malcolm!" I yelled.

"Yeah?" he shouted back.

"Have you seen Annabeth? And Grover?" I added the latter quickly.

"Yeah, they went to the amphitheatre," Malcolm said.

I thanked him and started to walk towards the amphitheatre. As I reached the bridge that went over the creek, I saw two snowy figures walking towards me from the distance.

"Oh my gods! Percy!" I heard a bleeting voice shout happily.

"G-Man!" I cried and took off running towards my friends.

"Hey, Perce! Haven't seen you in a while!" Grover laughed as he pulled me into a hug.

"It's great to see you, man!" I said. "Happy Christmas!"

Grover let me go from his enthusiastic hug. Then I looked behind him. Annabeth stood there with snow in her wavy blond hair, smiling widely.

"Hi, Percy," she said and stepped forward.

"Hey you." I grinned and hugged her.

She rested her head on my shoulder. "I'm happy you're back. I missed you," she said.

In a flash, many things rushed through my head. All the stuff I'd thought about in the car, the stuff I'd thought about in our dining room. I would grow old. I wanted to be one of those crazy grandpas like Grandpa Blofis.

"Umm, I'll catch up with you two later," Grover said and I heard hoofsteps retreating from where Annabeth and I still stood, hugging.

"I missed you too," I told her.

Annabeth

As I was hugging Percy, I felt it. The spirit of Christmas was around us. I could hear Santa's sleighbells. I felt warm, the kind you get sitting next to a fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate in your hands. I was happy. How did Percy manage to do that all the time? He always made me feel better. My mother had been wrong. Percy felt like family to me.

"Annabeth, I've been thinking," he said.

"You? Thinking? Pssh," I mocked and lifted my head from his shoulder.

"Ha ha, very funny," Percy said. "Seriously. I want to tell you something."

"What is that?" I asked.

"You know, Paul has a really crazy father, and I wanna be the same way when I grow old. I want to be the crazy senile grandpa."

"How does this relate to me?" I asked, confused.

"Wait for it, it's coming. I just figured that we've defied the gods before, right?"

"Yeah..." I nodded slowly.

"Well, how about defying them again?"

There was a silence during which I could hear my brain click several times, trying to figure out what Percy meant. Then I understood.

"Really?" I asked.

"I'm dead serious. I came all the way here to see if you were here in the first place. You could've been in San Fransisco but I took the chance because I had to see you," Percy said.

Like a six-year-old, my eyes lit up and I smiled widely. The birthday of Baby Jesus was the day of miracles. Santa had fulfilled my wish for a Christmas miracle.

It was the season of smile.

Athena's cabin wishes You a very happy Christmas!

Peace, Love, PJO!

Luv,

AC