Author Note: I got a beta-reader (Shout out to the sensational bubblegum11!) to edit it for me. So, without further ado, Trepidation!
P.S. The girl at the end? Yeah, she's not important.
Disclaimer: I don't own this book or it's characters. le sigh
I flinched as voices pierced the air for the millionth time that day. The place was clean, which was good, because I hated dirty places. But the place was so crowded; it made me feel nervous. As if a monster would jump out and attack me any moment. The air was thick with smells too. You know the usual stuff. Hot dogs, cotton candy, nachos, you name it.
Percy moved forward in the line, tugging me behind him. I managed to walk the few steps without falling face first onto the ground. My heart was thumping two hundred miles per hour, and my stomach was fluttering with pegasi. That chili dog I ate a few minutes ago definitely did not help.
"Percy, we are supposed to look for the half-blood, not ride rollercoasters."
Percy scoffed.
"The last time I went to an amusement park was about six years ago. I am not passing up this chance. We are going to take full advantage of this situation, and ride every freaking ride we can. Grover can do the looking. He's the one with the good sense of smell."
The nauseous didn't stop me from commenting weakly, "Those are some pretty big words for someone with your brain size, Seaweed Brain." Percy glared at me, maybe because he couldn't come up with a good enough insult. He tugged me again, a bit harder than the last time.
The speakers above me screeched about how it was like a rollercoaster ride, and their knuckles were white. I glared at the loudspeaker, willing them to mentally explode like a volcano.
"This song is getting on my nerves," I growled, my teeth grinding against each other. Percy looked surprised. By now were at the end of the line, and were waiting for the people who were in the rollercoaster to get out of it.
"It's Aly and AJ. I thought you liked them." Percy looked at a ride near us a few feet away. "I am so riding that one next."
"I don't like Aly and AJ," I mumbled. Percy held out his hand to me, trying to get me in the uncomfortable death trap. Unsuccessfully may I add. I considered making a run for it, but there was a line of people behind me, a gate on my right, and some security guy on my left. The brawny guy glared at me, and I felt Percy tugging at my arm like a lost kid.
Resisting the urge to heave the contents of my stomach, I climbed into the previously mentioned death trap and slowly lowered myself next to Percy. The red paint was chipping off on the sides, and I spied a piece of the wooden rollercoaster sticking out at an odd angle. The partly bald, security guy pushed down the heavy security belt, not bothering to be careful; the thing snagged on my hair.
I snatched one of Percy's hands, which was up with the other one, as soon as the carts started moving.
"Didn't your mother tell you not to lean out of a moving vehicle? It's dangerous!" I yelped.
"Annabeth, stop it! Everyone else is doing it!" A part of my brain, the ADHD one, spotted bite marks on the seat belt, and the fuzz that was poking its way through it.
Yuck, I thought, cringing and trying to cut off the circulation in Percy's arm at the same time. We were going up the track now.
"If everyone jumped off a cliff would you do it?"
"Funny you should mention that. You're the smartest person I know, so I guess if you, the wise girl, jumped off a cliff then I would too," said Percy, wiggling in his seat, as if that would make the coaster go faster.
"It was a rhetorical question, Seaweed Brain," I whispered, my breath hitching up in my throat. We were at the top of the slope. I took a deep breath, and clung tighter to Percy's arm as if my life depended on it. It was if life slowed down because of some upper force- sorry I meant the
gods- pressed the slow motion button on a remote control. The chain of carts went down the steep slope.
And I screamed like Hades.
Percy practically had to carry me out of the cart. I was shaking so much that mothers steered their kids away from me when they saw me.
"Annabeth! Percy! Over here!" I could barely see through the crowd, but I managed to zero in on a hand waving frantically. Percy piloted me over to it.
As the crowd made way, my satyr friend's form slowly appeared. But you know, he was in his human disguise. The usual shoes and jeans.
"Hey G-man! You should've totally ridden that thing with us! It was so cool!" Percy exclaimed, giddy with excitement.
"No it wasn't," I mumbled. A girl behind Grover, apparently the new half-blood, looked at me oddly.
"What happened to you?" she inquired.
"Rollercoaster." I suppressed a moan.
"You guys! I brought your picture!" Grover waved a photo in front of my eyes, and I suddenly felt dizzy.
"Awesome! Lemme see!" Percy snatched it with one hand and supported me from my waist to the other hand. He adjusted the picture so both of us could see it clearly.
Percy had one hand up in the air, his mouth open as if he was shouting, and his hair flying. My face looked horrible. My eyes looked horrible too, my mouth was wide open, so wide I could see my uvula, and my hair looked like a rat nest. I knew I should have tied it up.
"I am going to burn that picture," I growled. Percy folded the photo messily and pushed it into his back pocket.
"Hey, can you please take Annabeth to the bathroom?" He asked the new girl. She nodded. He handed me to the brunette, making me feel like a rag doll.
He looked at me, and then said, "I'll get you some water while you're in there." The girl maneuvered me out of there before I could reply. That was probably a good thing…