A Break

It's a typical afternoon in Camp Half-Blood. Birds are chirping; monsters could be heard fighting deep in the woods; demigods are getting ready for lunch…and Percy Jackson is sleeping. Well, at least for now.

"Percy, Percy!" a voice says excitedly. Percy grumbles and rolls over in his bed, and doesn't wake up.

"Percy, Percy!" the voice booms. Still, Percy doesn't wake up. Gods forbid Mr. Jackson wakes up from his beauty rest!

Tyson is growing impatient with his brother. How could he finish cleaning with his brother still asleep? He gently pokes Percy in the ear. Percy mumbles something about blue cake, but didn't wake up. Finally, Tyson starts stomping on the floor. The whole Poseidon cabin starts vibrating but Percy didn't move. Tyson is really frustrated. But then, he had an idea.

"Brother?" he says. Of course, there's no answer. Percy's a really deep sleeper, apparently. Tyson huffs and crawls down on his hands and knees toward Percy's bed. He sucks in his breath, and slaps the back of Percy's head. Hard.

Finally, Percy woke up! Well, after hitting his head on the top of the bunk rather hard.

"Gods!" Percy yells. Tyson stares at his brother blankly, and then smiles triumphantly, his eye sparkling with absolute delight.

"Percy wake up!" He exclaims excitedly. Percy grimaces at his brother's loudness.

"Yeah…right. What time is it?" Percy rubs the place where he hit his head. It's starting to rise already. He could already see the bump rising out of his black hair in the mirror beside his bunk. He'll probably look like a green eyed-black haired unicorn by the end of the day. Great. Percy yawns loudly and stretches his arms and he closes his eyes.

Just closing them, not falling asleep.

"It is 1 o'clock."

Percy's eyes shoot open, "Crap! Why didn't you wake me up earlier, Tyson?"

Tyson glares at his brother, "I tried. Percy would not wake up."

"Gah, geh, gaah! I have to go!"

Percy runs around the cabin, pulling on his orange Camp Half-Blood shirt and throwing on some dolphin shorts and stashing Riptide in his front pocket. He runs outside the cabin without any shoes. Tyson walks around the cabin and curiously picks up Percy's flip-flops.

"My brother is very forgetful."

Two minutes later, Percy runs back in the cabin and snatches the flip-flops from Tyson and puts them on hastily. He smiles cheekily.

"Shoes. Forgot my shoes. Bye Tyson!"

Percy is late for the council meeting. The rec room was all the way across camp. Somehow Percy has to get there to be on time. If Percy left his cabin at 1:01, and has to arrive at the rec room in 9 minutes, how fast will he have to run?

The answer? Like a satyr running away from a Laistrygon giant.

Percy ran as fast as he could towards the rec room. By the time he got there, Clarisse and Will Solace were arguing. Again. But Percy had no idea what they were arguing about this time.

"It will be held next month!" Clarisse yells.

"How about never?" Will retorts, "Last time I got bitten by rabid bees. No thank you Clarisse."

Ah, the Camp Olympics. Of course Clarisse would want it to be held again. The other head councilors nod in agreement. The last Camp Olympics ended in fire…everybody in camp would agree with Solace save for the few Ares campers there.

Clarisse huffs in defiance. "Fine. Suit yourselves."

"Gladly," Solace says and sits down next to Annabeth. Percy sits across from her, glad to finally relax from his hectic afternoon/morning. He puts his head down and catches his breath.

"What's wrong with you, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth smirks.

Percy rolls his eyes, "Just woke up."

"Ah, so that's why I didn't see you with Tyson this morning."

"Hey! It's Saturday. I needed some sleep." Percy pouts and crosses his arms.

Annabeth laughs, "You're pathetic, Percy."

"Good. Where's Chiron? All I was told was that I had to be here at 1:10 today because it was important."

"He'll be on his way soon."

Way to be vague, Wise girl, Percy thought.

Soon, the head councilors got bored and decided to hold a ping pong tournament. Will Solace and Clarisse were first. After a round, Clarisse shot the ping pong ball straight through Solace's paddle and won.

"HAH!" Clarisse yelled. Yeah, she wasn't going to let Solace live this down. Fortunately, Solace looked like he could care less.

The second game between Clarisse and Connor Stoll was about to start when Chiron came in and called for order. It was 1:30. Percy didn't even have to run. Gods, Chiron, way to be late.

"Why are we here, Chiron?" whines Travis. He's sitting between Katie Gardner and his brother. "I'm starving!" He stretches his arms out behind Connor and Katie. Katie scoots away from him and gives him an incredulous look. Travis winks at her and holds up her wallet filled with drachma.

"TRAVIS!" Katie screeches and tries to snatch back her wallet.

"Uh, uh, uh young one. A kiss first then your money." Travis taunts. Chiron is sitting in his chair, watching the scene with a smile.

"Fine then. KEEP IT!" Katie says and stomps to the only other empty seat there, Nico's seat. It's never occupied anyway; he doesn't bother staying at camp.

Travis looks like he's about to say something when Chiron clears his throat and everybody turns silent.

"Eh-hem, settle down. Now, I called you all into this meeting to discuss something a couple campers have suggested to me. I know what you're thinking, Chiron, this is ridiculous; but with war coming up, I think that the whole camp would like a little break."

Clarisse was the first one to speak up, "A break? What type of break?"

And Travis was the first to reply to her question: "PIZZA PARTY!"

Everybody, including Chiron and Clarisse, agreed with him. Of course, when would the infamous 'PIZZA PARTY!' be held?

"Today." Connor pleaded, "OH PLEASE! We'll order a dozen boxes of peperoni, onion, and every other topping pizza. It'll be supper! We'll eat on the fireworks beach! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!" Connor is on his hands and knees now. He's giving Chiron a big puppy dog face. Pizza is very important to demigods, according to the Stoll's.

Chiron chuckles at the Hermes demigod. He really resembles his father. "Of course, Mr. Stoll, we shall have your pizza party. However, Travis, you must give back Katie her wallet…with all her drachma in it."

Travis pouts for a moment, and then tosses Katie her wallet, which she catches in midair.

"So, I'll leave you all to discuss this," Chiron says, "I'll see you at lunch!"

Chiron clip-clops out of the room, and as soon as he does so, everybody in the rec room erupts in bursts of excitement. Katie was dragging Connor and Travis to the air hockey tables by their ears. Nobody else really noticed but Percy and Annabeth.

Annabeth turns to Percy, "So does that mean that we can go now?"
She and Percy start walking out of the Rec room. The Stoll brothers and Katie's voices could be heard from across the room, and it was starting to get a little obnoxious. Half the camp counselors were leaving anyway.

Percy laughs, "Yeah, I guess so. Although, I kind of want to see Katie beat up Connor and Travis."

Annabeth raises her eyebrows, "You're an idiot."

Percy bumps into her playfully, "I'll take that as a compliment." He looks at her and winks. He links his arm with hers and says, "Where to now?"

"How about we visit Juniper?" Grover had been missing for nearly a week now, and Juniper was worried sick. She was used to him leaving, but usually they could send him an Iris message or Percy could usually talk to him through the link they shared. When that didn't work, Annabeth and Percy did everything they could, and eventually just ended up visiting Juniper daily.

"Fine by me," Percy says, "But you'll regret it if you miss that fight going on." He winks again and Annabeth hits him. Just the usual, everyday thing.

The two are almost to the woods when they hear an irritated scream coming from the rec room. They look at each other and smirk before running back.

"…I'M SO SICK OF YOU BOTH. I'M SICK OF YOUR STUPID TRICKS AND PRANKS. JUST LEAVE ME AND MY CABIN ALONE!" Katie's voice must have travelled all the way to the cabins, because curious campers were starting to migrate towards the rec room. By the time Percy and Annabeth got inside, Katie's face was bright red and she was fuming. It almost looked as if there was smoke coming out of her ears. Angry tears stained her face, which was contorted into a permanent glare towards Travis and Connor. The Stoll brothers were busy laughing at her to notice. Katie looked like she was about to punch both of them.

As soon as Annabeth sees Katie, she runs over by her side and guides her away from the twins. She's whispering encouraging words to her when she takes her out of the Rec room. Katie shakes as she heaves another sob. When Annabeth passes Percy, she gives him a look-one that meant to talk to the Stoll brothers. Percy gives her a small nod and walks inside the Rec room to the corner where Travis and Connor were still laughing.

Percy clears his throat to get their attention. They look at him and gain their composure a little bit.

"What in Hades happened?" Percy snaps. He's getting sick of seeing people cry. Today was supposed to be a day to relax, not torment people.

Travis says, "We were just,"

"Playing around! It's not our fault Katie hates us!" Connor finishes.

Percy nearly laughs at the irony of that statement, but doesn't. Instead he stands up straighter and crosses his arms. He'd seen his mom do that whenever she got angry at him and hoped he looked just as intimidating. "Just stop playing around with her." He says, "It's not funny to see somebody being tormented, especially at a time like this."

The laughter in their eyes diminishes in an instant as reality set it; war was at hand. They were going to war in just a month. Nobody could afford losing alliances.

Travis sighs and looks at his brother, "We'll apologize." Connor agrees with him by nodding.

Percy smiles, "Thanks guys." He looks around and murmurs, "Because between you and me, Annabeth would kill us all if you didn't."

The boys laugh and leave the Rec room and head the way Annabeth and Katie went. They were already in Katie's cabin when the boys came in. Percy went to sit beside Annabeth with a sigh, while Travis and Connor stay at the doorway awkwardly. They look at each other, raise their eyebrows simultaneously and enter the cabin. Secret twin telepathy. As soon as she saw them, Katie stood up defensively. Her face turned bright red again; she looked like a tomato.

"What do you want?" She spat. The Stoll brothers held out their hands to show that they weren't going to do anything.

"We want to apologize," Connor says first.

"We were wrong for making fun of you before, Katie. We won't be doing it again." Travis gives Katie one of his award-winning smiles. Her expression softens, but she still seems on guard.

Katie nods stiffly, "Okay…" she says slowly, "Just don't do it again."

The boys give her two goofy grins. "We won't!" They say loudly.

Katie glares at them, then shoos them out of her cabin. They leave without protest. She turns to Percy and Annabeth with a smile.

"I hate them all."

The chaos did not end after the incident with Katie and the Stoll brothers. In fact, they were just starting. Annabeth, being the few campers with cell phones, called Pizza Palace. The pizza guy was supposed to come in an hour. He expected a strawberry farm, but instead he would encounter Peleus the fire-breathing and overprotective dragon that guarded the camp and ten armed children with 'guns', or swords, that were waiting for him. Annabeth was worried. Everything had to work out perfectly, or else this perfect day would be ruined for her. And the only way to ruin her day was for a person to get fried or steamed.

And that's exactly what happened.

When the pizza guy came to the camp, he drove right passed Peleus and the guards. He headed straight towards the beach. When Peleus saw the car drive past him, he breathed fire at the pizza guys' car. Now it was smoldering and ashy. Annabeth and Percy were wading in the water there before, and now they were relaxing on the small beach. They were disrupted when they heard a car door slam close by the beach, and went to check it out.

What they found was a much disoriented pizza man carrying 15 large boxes of pizza right passed the barrier. When the man saw Percy and Annabeth he looked very happy to see them. He had pale skin, sandy blond hair and big brown eyes. The boy had a lot of acne. He looked about 18.

"Oh thank God! I'm lost, see?" He looked at his smoldering car curiously, then back at the two, "Any idea where Half-Blood hill is, you two?"

Percy looked at Annabeth, who shrugged. "You're here!" she said cheerfully.

"Oh, wow," the pizza guy said, "Did you order all this pizza?"

"That was me!" Annabeth giggled and blushed.

The pizza guy hands the pizzas over to Percy gratefully and digs in his pocket to get the receipt.
"Oh, I…uh, I can't find the receipt."

Annabeth nods, "it's okay! We're thankful for your service. We paid over credit card, anyways."

The Pizza Guy, Brian, nods. "They never tell us anything!"

Annabeth pats Brian's shoulder sympathetically, "I feel your pain."

Percy rolled his eyes. Annabeth was being over-dramatic now.

Brian coughs and checks his watch, "Oh! I better get going! Bye kids!" He runs away from both of them, turns on his car and leaves a dust of ash behind him.

When he was out of their sight, Percy bursts out into laughing. "Flirting with the Pizza guy, Wise Girl? So you wouldn't have to pay? Absolutely genius!" he manages between his laughter.

Annabeth curtsies, and then takes half the pizzas from Percy. They walk together to the fireworks beach to set out the pizzas, making jokes about the pizza guy.

As soon as the campers saw Percy and Annabeth carrying the pizza together, they all became excited. One reason was because it was pizza; two because Percy and Annabeth were blushing and smiling stupidly together. The Aphrodite girls and boys ran around camp spreading rumors that they were finally together. Some people believed the gossip, others didn't. Later that evening, during the party, the two were overcome by questions about their relationship.

"Are you really going out?"

"Do you love each other?"

"Were you blushing when you got the pizzas?"

They both answered 'no' to the questions…even though they really wanted to say 'yes'.

҉Percy and Annabeth spent the night together; retelling their friend's what happened with the lost pizza guy. The night was filled with dancing, eating, and of course, kissing. When Percy and Annabeth were hanging out with Tyson, Katie Gardner and Travis Stoll were having a heated conversation behind them which turned out into a heated argument, which then turned into a heated make out session. The new couple didn't leave each other's sides at all that night.

Annabeth had looked at Percy with a goofy smile, "I knew they would end up together. Travis is crazy for her." Travis stuck his tongue out Katie. Katie giggled and chased him behind a cabin.

Annabeth sighs, "This was one of the best times I had at camp." She rests her head on Percy's shoulder and watches the end fireworks. They were sitting by the water. The moon was full and in the middle of the dark sky. It was probably around midnight. The fireworks had started half an hour ago.

Percy looks at her and smiles, "I totally agree."

The fireworks ended, and all the older campers were heading back to their cabins; campers that were 13 and under had to go to bed at ten. The only campers left were couples. When Silena Beauregard and Charles Beckendorf left hand in hand, Percy and Annabeth were the only ones left on the beach. Percy went to get Annabeth, but noticed that she had fallen fast asleep on his lap. He smiled a little. Her blond hair fell in soft waves the framed her pale face. When asleep, Annabeth looked like a little girl. She had a small smile. Annabeth really was beautiful, when she was both awake and when she was asleep. Percy kissed her on her forehead. That was the moment when Percy decided that he really did love her.

"Annabeth," he said softly. She stirred and sleepily opened her eyes. She looked at him curiously. Percy sighed, "Time to go back."

Annabeth nodded and slowly sat up. She yawned and attempted to stand up, but her legs wouldn't hold her up. Percy laughed and stood up easily. Annabeth scowled and held up her hand, which Percy took. She wobbled a bit. Percy didn't let go of her hand.

"C'mon. I'll walk you back to your cabin," Percy said. Annabeth responded by yawning and clinging onto Percy's arm for support. They walked in calm silence to the Athena cabin.

Percy opened the door and helped Annabeth get to bed. She was all settled and cozy in bed and Percy was about to leave, when she said something quietly, "Please don't leave me Percy," followed by a snore. Percy knew that she wasn't talking about leaving her cabin- but the war. He had to live. If not for himself, for her.

"I promise."

End