A gasp escaped Annabeth's lips as she heard Mrs. Jackson clear her throat. She pushed Percy off of her and tried to get as far away from him as she could on the small bed. She could see the fiery look in Percy's mom's eyes, and knew they were in trouble. They usually had their daily make out session out in Central Park, against a tree, or even on an empty bench when they could find one, but today Mrs. Jackson was at the doctor's office getting her monthly checkup, and Percy's bed sounded a whole lot more comfortable.

"Hi Mrs. Jackson," Annabeth said nervously. Usually, she scolded the girl immediately, and insisted that she call her Sally, but not this time.

"Hey mom," greeted Percy, just as nervous. "How was the doctor's?"

"Pretty good."

"Really?" he asked, and she nodded. "Well that's good. It was awfully quick this time."

"Yeah. I could see you guys were quite busy."

"Quite."

She glared at the couple. "You two know better." She wasn't all that great with the whole 'mean parent' thing.

"Sorry mom," Percy mumbled.

"Yeah, we're really sorry, Mrs. Jackson. We promise not to do it again," Annabeth assured her.

"Don't say that," she said with a smile. "You know that you're going to do that at least once again. And, please, call me Sally."

Percy smiled, and looked over at Annabeth. "Oh, but don't think you're off the hook just yet," Sally warned, making Percy's smile fade. "I need you to go to the store for me, Percy."

"Mooom," he groaned.

"Peerrccyy," she mimicked, making Annabeth stifle a laugh.

"Why can't you just go?"

"Because I've been at the doctor's all morning, and I need a nap. You try carrying around fifty extra pounds for nine months. It's hard work."

He sighed. "Fine." Looking over at Annabeth with puppy dog eyes, he asked "Wanna come?"

She smiled at his expression. "Sure."

They started walking out the door, when Sally grabbed Annabeth's arm. Percy continued out the door.

"Happy birthday, sweetie," she said, giving the girl a hug. "I'm so sorry, I almost forgot."

"Oh, that's okay."

"What did Percy get you? He never told me."

Annabeth didn't say anything.

"You mean he didn't get you anything?"

She shook her head.

"Did he even wish you a happy birthday?"

Again, she shook her head no.

"Do you want me to knock some sense into that boy?"

Annabeth laughed. "No, I'm sure it's fine. He's probably just kidding." Sally raised her eyebrows. "I hope."

"Annabeth, you ready?" Percy yelled from the door.

"I gotta go. Thanks again, Sally," she shouted behind her as she left for the door.

"I could've sworn that Safeway was on 17th street," Annabeth told Percy once they got out of the cab. She knew that was a complete lie, but hopefully Percy didn't. She had pretty much been living in New York since she was seven. She knew that the only things on 17th street was a bagel shop, a Starbucks, Paul Bunyan's Pancake House, and some crazy lady that says she can read your mind.

Percy laughed a bit while grabbing a cart. "No. The only thing on 17th street is that one lady who says that I'm always thinking about clams.

She laughed as well, entering the store right next to Percy. "Are you?"

"No!" Annabeth giggled some more. "Come on, what's first on the list?"

"Oh," she said, looking down at the note Sally had written with the groceries she needed. "Um, 17 pounds of chicken."

"17?"

"Mmhm."

"Are you sure? That sounds like a lot."

She looked down at the list once more. "Oh, my bad. It's 2 pounds."

"How do you get 2 from 17?" he asked while looking at the different types of frozen chicken.

"I don't know. My dyslexia's probably just acting up." Dyslexia my ass!

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "You alright?"

Apparently she wasn't as good at hiding her growing frown from him as she thought. She cranked up her fake smile a bit more, before asking, "Me?"

He nodded, adding some packaged meat to the cart. "Yeah."

"I'm fine." He gave her a skeptical look before she pecked him on the lips. "Trust me."

He still didn't seem all that convinced, but let it go for now. "What's next on the list?"

"Oh, uh, 6, 21 ounce cans of marinara sauce."

"How many ounces?"

"21."

"21?"

"21."

"Do they even make those?"

"Oh, sorry, it says 12."

"And how many?"

"6."

He raised his eyebrows at her, making her look down at the list again.

"2."

"Are you sure you're alright? You're usually pretty good at reading, even with dyslexia."

"Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind today, that's all."

"Ok," he said doubtfully.

"Really, Percy, I promise."

In the nest aisle over, while they were looking at potato chips, Annabeth dropped the biggest hint she could think of.

"What's today's date?" she asked Percy out of the blue.

"The 21st, I think. Yeah, June 21st."

"Oh." She waited a few seconds, seeing if just that would trigger anything. Guess not. "Isn't something happening today?"

"Isn't it, like, Groundhog Day, or something?"

Annabeth closed her eyes and breathed deeply through her nose. Opening her eyes, she said "That's in February, Seaweed Brain."

"Oh . . . then I don't know."

They stood in silence for a bit more, still looking at chips.

"I know what today is!" Percy exclaimed, making Annabeth beam and take hold of his hand. "It's somebody's birthday today."

"Yeah?"

He nodded proudly. "Ms. Robinson's," he said dreamily while sighing. "She was the hottest 5th grade teacher I have ever seen." Annabeth dropped his hand, grabbed a random bag of chips to throw in the cart, and walked off to the next aisle. "Hey!" he yelled after her.

Percy wheeled the cart around the corner to find his upset girlfriend looking angrily at the small selection of magazines, books, and cards. He walked over to her, and placed his arm around her shoulders. "Hey are you alright? Do we need to go to aisle 9?" he asked, whispering the last part. Annabeth thought for a while. Aisle 9? Wha-

"No!" she shouted, flinging his arm off her shoulder. She remembered from previous visits that aisle 9 has toilet paper, paper towels, and 'feminine products.'

"Then what's wrong?"

"You should know exactly what's wrong with me! It's your fault anyway."

His eyes bugged out of his skull.

"But-but . . . how? I mean - we never - all we did was make out on the bed! Oh gods, my mom's gonna kill me."

"I'm not pregnant, Percy," Annabeth huffed after his rambling was over. His freak out made her smile a bit, but it quickly faded.

"You're not?" She shook her head. "Oh thank gods!"

She glared at him still.

"If you're not pregnant, and it's not you're time of the month," (She hit him in the shoulder for this.) "then what's wrong?"

She didn't say anything. All she did was look over at wall of birthday cards.

Birthday cards? What the he-

Oh crap.

Oh crap!

"Happy birthday!" shouted Percy with a smile.

Oh, but she wasn't smiling. "Don't you give me that Minotaur shit, Perseus Jackson." Yikes! The full name. You know he's in trouble now. "You forgot my birthday."

"Psh - wh-what? F-forgot your birthday?" he sputtered. "Who would do such a thing? I know I wouldn't!"

She continued to glare at him. "Then where's my present?"

"Birthdays aren't all about the presents, you know."

"You forgot my birthday."

"No!"

"Then where's my present?"

"It's right around the corner."

"Really?"

"Mmhm." He nodded enthusiastically. "You just wait right here, and I'll go get it." He ran around the corner quickly to the produce section. What was he going to get her? He's in the freaking produce section! There's nothing here except for fruits and vegetables, plastic bags, and those little twisty ties people use to bag their fo-

A twisty tie! Perfect!

He snatched one, and ran around the corner to his angry girlfriend while trying to form his gift into as circular a shape as possible behind his back.

He skidded to a stop in front of her. She was tapping her foot with her arms crossed over her chest. "Close your eyes," he told her. She reluctantly followed instructions. "And put out your hand." Once again she listened to his directions. With a deep breath, he gently placed the 'ring' in the palm of her open hand.

She opened up her eyes . . . and laughed?

"It's a twisty tie," she said with a smile.

"No, it's a ring."

"Made out of a twisty tie."

"Psh, no. That's that new metal, they call . . . blube."

She laughed once more. "Blube?"

"Yeah, it's this new kind of metal that they made in China."

"Huh. How come I've never heard of it?"

"Cuz it's like, brand new. They came up with it, like, yesterday, and they don't want others to steal their ideas so they haven't told anyone about it."

"Then where did you get this?"

"Oh, uh, from that one store."

"Which one?"

"You know . . . that one . . . Dragony, uh, Flower.

"Dragony Flower?"

"Yeah. It's over by that pizza place."

"Oh, that Dragony Flower!" she said, obviously making fun of Percy. "I think I've been there before."

"Yeah, and Miss . . . Ying Ying gave it to me."

"Miss Ying Ying?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, she's real nice. I liked her."

"Yeah, me too. And she told me that the ring has some kind of meaning or something."

"Well, what does it mean?"

"It means like, relationship, or love or something like. And she said that as long as you have it, we'll be together." They were now tangled in each others arms, foreheads resting on the each others.

"Well, then I guess I'll have to keep it forever." After a kiss or two, Annabeth stepped away. "Oh, but next year, you better get me something better than some stupid ring made out of a twisty tie."

"You mean blube?"

"Whatever you say, Seaweed Brain."

Woah! Two fics in one day! Something must be wrong with me! Just think of it as my Christmas (Hannukah, Kwanza, winter, whatever!) gift to you! Aww, how nice of me!

And I know it's kind of suckish, and OOC (again, what of mine isn't? OOCness is like a specialty of mine. Ha ha!), and the ending's terrible, but it's the Twisty Tie fic, I promised all you 'Evil' fans! I thought I'd finally give you guys a break from Pezzabeth and get some Percabeth for once!

I would greatly appreciate some reviews, or CC, or whatever!

Oh! And I don't own anything!

Happy Holidays!

Jordan