"I'm not sure what to get him." Annabeth was pacing up and down the length of her cabin. Malcolm, visibly annoyed, was sitting on his bed trying to read his new Battle Attack book.

"Why not just ask him what he wants?" he retorted.

"It's supposed to be a surprise party." Annabeth replied. She now took her seat at her desk and started writing up a list of things he could possibly want.

"Well, you've known him long enough now, you should be able to gather some sort of creative gift with the things he likes." Malcolm was flipping through the pages, making notes on every other page.

"Believe it or not, he's pretty hard to shop for. Aren't you getting him anything?" she swivelled around in her chair and stared at him.

"Possibly." he continued flipping through his pages. Annabeth wrote down multiple ideas but none seemed fitting for him. With a sigh, she got up and decided to get some fresh air. The cool air brushed against her face, refreshing her brain from the party gift she was supposed to be thinking of. Why couldn't men be easy to shop for? Even though she's known him almost her whole life, she was absolutely gutted about what to get him.


The day of the surprise birthday party was finally here. Annabeth picked up the little green box with the golden ribbon, ready to surprise. It was pretty heavy for such a small object, but hopefully he would like it. As she walked down to the Big House, she couldn't help but smile. How could they not have thought of this earlier? A party was a perfect way to surprise him. She couldn't wait to see his reaction. Every person had a part to play in the plan she had set up in order to make it sucessful. Malcolm would gather everyone in the Big House, Connor and Travis would make sure everyone was hidden properly, Mitch was in charge of the decorations, Butch was in charge of the drinks and snacks, and Grover was in charge of getting Mr.D to play along. Which was by no means, an easy job.

"Everybody! Get into position, he's coming!" Malcolm told everyone in a hushed whisper.

"Clarisse, get your foot off my hand!" Travis growled. As everybody scurried to find their positions, the door handle started to turn.

"Everyone down!" Annabeth whispered. Finally, everyone was in position ready to yell surprise. The door flung open and Percy walked in followed by a suspicious Chiron.

"SURPRISE!" Everyone yelled.

There was a chorus of "Happy Birthday's" and "How old is he now?" going around. Chiron was stunned, the plan had been sucessful. Percy joined Annabeth, smiling.

"Look's like we got him, huh?" he said to Annabeth.

"Looks like we did." Annabeth replied.

Later on, as the shock wore off, everyone got their chances to tell Chiron happy birthday, and there was even a game as to guess how old he was, the person who was closest won a bag of Jolly Ranchers. Annabeth plucked her gift off the table and handed it to Chiron.

"Here you go, I hope you like it."

"You didn't need to give me a present, you didn't even need to throw me this party. I wasn't expecting any of this." Chiron said with a smile.

"Well we did, so go on and open it." Annabeth pushed the gift closer to Chiron.

He unravelled the ribbon and took the lid off the box. His eyebrows were pushed up as high as they could go. Clearly he was surprised.

"What is this?" he asked.


EARLIER ON: As Annabeth and Percy were walking down Fifth, an antique store caught her eye. When she was younger her dad would always love going into places that sold old memorable trinkets. Something gleaming in the window's shop caught her eye and made her stop. This is it. The perfect gift she'd been hoping to find.

"Percy!" Annabeth stopped in her tracks. "Look!" she pointed over to the store with a big smile on her face.

"What? That place?" Percy stared at her with a slight look of disgust. "Why would you want to buy him a gift from that junk shop?"

Annabeth slapped Percy's arm, "It's not a junk shop, Seaweed Brain, it's an antique shop."

"So... your way of saying happy birthday is by telling him he's old?" Percy had a stupid smirk on his face.

"Ha. Ha." Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Back to my point, look at that stop watch thing, over there in the corner." She pointed to a decent sized, golden oval with a bunch of numbers and dials spinning around.

"How can you tell that it's a stop watch?" Percy squnited as if it would make him see it better.

"I don't. I'm just taking a guess. Whatever it is, I want to check it out." Annabeth grabbed Percy's arm and dragged him into the shop.

Twenty minutes later, Percy thoroughly bored, they emerged from the shop carrying a couple of bags.

"Are we done yet?" Percy complained.

"Oh stop complaining, or else you'll be getting something from here for your birthday." And with that threat, Percy didn't say anything else about her gift.


"It's a- well, I actually don't know, but I thought you'd like it. I found it in an antique store, it's a counter, a clock, a compass, a stopwatch, a calender, I'm pretty sure it has a few functions. I didn't think you had one." Annabeth said.

"It's perfect, Annabeth, thank you." Chiron gave her an awkward side hug. It was unforunate he wasn't their size.