A/N: This one is dedicated to ExceedinglyPeculiarChick. Love you, #!*% .
"What was it that they wanted us to get? More pickles?" Annabeth asked.
"I think so. They should be in here somewhere..." Was the muffled reply from deep in the recesses of the Big House supply closet. "I can barely see a thing!" said Rachel.
"Close the door and turn on the light."
She did so. "There. That should... Wait..."
At that moment, both girls heard a faint click behind them. Annabeth blanched.
"Rachel... What was that?"
"I don't—oh, #!*% ." The light in the stuffy closet flickered and went out with a pop, eliminating all light in the tight space.
Annabeth sighed. "They've locked us in here, haven't they?" She squirmed around to face the door and screamed, "Hey, guys! It's April Fool's, we get it! Now let us out!"
"Ouch! Girl, you got some set of vocal chords there." Rachel grumbled.
"Why, thank you," came from somewhere to her left.
"That was not a compliment."
"I know. I'm not an idiot." snapped the daughter of Athena.
"I never said you were!" said Rachel, who by now was starting to get a wee bit miffed.
"Well, it was implied."
Truth be told, Rachel's patience was wearing thin at this point, mostly due to the tasteless prank being played on them at this very moment in time. It may have also partly been her apparent resentment towards a girl who was, surprisingly, quite difficult for anyone else to resent. The narrator would like to be able to say that she cannot be held accountable for her actions, but unfortunately, she can.
Annabeth, in turn, never seemed to have gotten over the uniquely female rift that had been driven between them the very second that, ahem, tramphad set her wicked green eyes on Percy. The mutual resentment had been kept under the surface for years now, but jaded eyes see no truth.
The oracle girl replied as though not a beat had gone by. "Maybe it was."
Annabeth balked. "Excuse me? Little Miss Mortal is calling meand idiot?!"
"Because who was it that told me to CLOSE THE DOOR?!"
"What are you insinuating? That I'm so stupid that I can't even tell when I'm being pranked?" The volume level in the supply closet was creeping higher and higher.
"Now you're just putting words in my mouth! But hey, while we're on the topic, you didn't know!" screamed Rachel. If there had been any light to speak of, Annabeth would have seen the look of frustration and rage on the girl's face, and perhaps she would have shut up. But there was no light, so she didn't see, and thus, did not stop.
"I think we should remind ourselves who the daughter of wisdom is here! Not you, that's for sure!"
"Now what's that supposed to mean?" snarled Rachel with a fair amount of indignant fury in her voice.
"I'm just saying that—"
"Oh, why don't you just—"
And in that single, fleeting moment of Annabeth's reply, said girl would later claim that time had almost slowed down to wait for what she was going to say. She had two choices—her first would be to catch herself before she uttered another foul word and really think about what to say. However, she chose the second choice.
"WELL, I GOT PERCY, DIDN'T I?!"
The entire contents of the closet, namely two people, fell silent for about four seconds.
"It was never about Percy." Rachel said softly, her voice barely above a whisper.
Taken aback, Annabeth stuttered, "B-but... Then... What WAS it all about?"
Rachel looked down at her shoes, despite the obvious fact that eye contact is not possible when one has no light to see by.
"Annabeth, I'm the oracle! I could never have Percy, even if I wanted him!"
Well, #!*% .
"You mean you DON'T want him?" Annabeth asked bemusedly.
"I did once, but when I saw the both of you together, I knew that no one, even the supposedly all-seeing oracle, could come between you." she sighed. "You were always the smart one, the one who could find her way out of a doorless room—"
"That's easy. Climb out a window."
Rachel grimaced.
"Sorry, not helping. Go on."
"In other words, I've always been secretly jealous of you. You just seem to always have it all together." This was not what Annabeth had expected her to say, but nevertheless, she recovered in time to answer.
"Not nearly, Rachel," she said gently. She shuffled her feet around. "I was kind of jealous... Of you. Before you say anything," she said quickly, holding up a hand to silence the other girl. "You're a mortal! You don't have to run from monsters or deal with #!*% gods or any of that. I envy you your freedom."
There was silence once more in the closet, this time a more understanding one. And it seemed that the Stoll brothers had decided it was time to let the girls out of the closet.
The lock clicked and the doorknob turned. Connor's head poked in. "Did you have fun? What did you even do in here?"
The two girls shared one last look, a look that cannot be described in words, before stepping out of the supply closet and back into the world.
They never spoke of what went on in the closet again, but it was not as if it had never happened. They still kept their distance, but this time, it was simply for respect. Because they earned each other's respect that day, and though they did not talk much or hang out, there was a knowledge. And, as every daughter of the wisdom goddess or anyone, really, knows, knowledge is not always something to be shared and displayed.
This knowledge was their own.