This was not quite what Annabeth was expecting to happen to her over her summer vacation. For starters, the ocean wasn't exactly Annabeth's thing. Being at the beach, taking in the sun, it just wasn't her cup of tea. She was more of the type to kick back in a really nice library and read for hours or even start sketching some building plans of some sort—she had to practice for when she was an actual architect. She was not Luke, with his sporty nature and his strong drive to do anything so long as he could win at it. She was not Thalia, who was brave enough to do most anything that Luke got in his thick skull to do and end up nearly smoking the boy in the process. Most of all she was not Grover, who insisted that he was an animal's best friend ala Snow White when he got kicked so hard in the legs by a goat that he's been saddled with crutches since the start of the summer—all because of one of his lame goat puns, too. She was thoughtful, calm and rational, not sporty, spunky or a victim of bouts of idiocy.
Therefore, the young blond had no idea how she had ended up on the beach that summer afternoon.
She had only come here because of Luke, of course. The whole group basically revolved around what sudden flicker of an idea passed through the boy's mind. Today, it was decimating everyone within a mile radius with a game a volleyball. From the sounds traveling towards her from a good fifteen feet away, the guy was taking the game way too seriously again and actually knocking people over with his spikes on accident. He was the type to get way too invested in playing a game and so somewhere along the line he seemed to forget that using every bit of your strength to slam the ball into the soft sand was not the best idea, especially if you planned on winning. Therefore his shots were very erratic and had a very unpredictable aim, leaving the other team to fear that the ball would hit them. They usually didn't have much to worry about, as the ball had a tendency to soar out of the court and crash-land in the non-sport related sections of the beach.
Thalia was playing as well, of course, swept up in Luke's contagious overzealous nature and setting up every slam and slap of the ball with a quick step or two. Her bright blue eyes were quick to find an opening and take advantage, sometimes even giving her a chance to steal a spike or two from her partner. She actually aimed for points, which is basically the only reason their team was even winning at that point, outruling the fact that they were the only ones in possession of the ball the whole game, an obvious break of the rules.
Grover was sitting on a bench on the nearby boardwalk, eating a soybean burger while eying the game of deadly volleyball with an interested yet cautious eye. His crutches were leaning up against his right leg, giving him the ability to focus on gulping down his food without losing his only means of transportation. He knew better than anyone that when Luke was playing any sort of sport, it was the best to stay as far as humanly possible away from the field of play. Innocent bystanders could find themselves hit upside the head with a football and walking up in a nurse's office a half hour later—if they were lucky.
Annabeth was stubbornly refusing to go near the carnage her friend was orchestrating and instead wandered off to one of the sheltered tide pools on the western side of the beach. No one ever really went in that area, as it was actually far more rocks than sand. Beachgoers typically come for the surf, sun and sand, not rocks, after all. With rounded rocks rejected from the ocean, soothing walls of stone carved from the tide and a very small pathway for that occasional visitor to traverse upon, the tidal pools were the ideal location for anyone to sneak away and finish that novel they've been meaning to finish but haven't had the peace and quiet to do so. The teenager was hoping for the little alcove to provide her with such a luxury now, as she even brought a towel to sit on and a totebag of books to read. Spreading out her olive green towel on the sand, the girl made a hasty seat and sat back, taking a deep breath of the air around her. It was salty instead of the usual sharp acidic aftertaste usually found in the city limits. Just went to show how beneficial a good hiding spot could be. With another intake of a soft sea breeze, the young blond turned her grey eyes to the pages of her open book and read to her heart's content.
Well, that was her plan, anyway.
Instead of finishing her book, as she had been planning on doing, she ended up getting three pages into it before being interrupted by a strange gurgling noise. At first, Annabeth just shrugged it off and counted it as some hooligan messing around in the water again. However after around five more times being interrupted, each one adding just a bit more annoyance to her serene mood, she gave up and decided to put her reading on hold. Sticking a bookmark in her page to ensure her spot was kept, she tucked the book back in her bag and stood up. Her hands rested on her jeans for a few moments as she scanned her little enclosure. There wasn't a soul around, as she had expected. The only sound in the air was the gentle sweep of the water curling around the rocky shore and nearly slipping inside of the numerous pools, as if the retreating water was mocking the small spaces by flaunting the water it couldn't have. Just as Annabeth was about to turn around and get back to her reading, her eyes caught a sudden shimmer of the light.
Grey eyes focused on the slight refraction of light, finding a smooth surface of grey and paler shades gleaming in the sun. At first, the blond took it as another stone that had been drenched by the earlier high tide. Then the grey form moved slowly up and down, almost like it was breathing. She realized with a jolt that it was in fact breathing and the thing she was staring at was not a a stone but in fact an animal of some sort. Her heart picked up the pace as she scrambled over to the far corner of her reading nook, stumbling over stones on the way with her wet sneakers in her hurry to get there. Annabeth was rewarded with the pitiful sight of a dolphin lying in the sand and rocks, breathing slowly and looking completely miserable. It didn't take a marine biologist to know that the unfortunate creature had swam a little too close when the tide was full and managed to get himself stuck on the shore. The girl quickly kneeled beside the creature to try to help him, but the sudden movement did more harm than good in effectively startling the poor dolphin. The aquatic mammal out of water bucked and made a strange sound in what she supposed was fear before abruptly giving up and flopping his nose back down in the sand. Her chest twisted at the sight. It was worse than those animal charity commercials on television.
Immediately after that thought, the blue waves broke in white as a head shot out of the water. Instinctively, Annabeth leaned away with a face of total shock. Once the sudden rush of adrenaline gave her bloodstream the slip, she found the head to belong to a boy with black hair and eyes that looked like the ocean itself, deep green with some odd shades of blue in there for good measure. The swimming boy seemed to shift a little closer to the dolphin before whirling around and staring straight at Annabeth. An awkward silence covered the shore before he ducked out of sight and disappeared under the water, leaving the girl sitting there in bewildered curiosity.
Against most of her better judgement, the girl took a deep breath and stuck her head under the water. Struggling against the salty needles that were now burrowing themselves into her eyes, she found the boy to be swimming behind the endangered animal and struggling with something, his feet churning viciously in the water. Lifting her gaze, she found his hands to be clawing at some rough fisherman's netting that was circled around the poor dolphin's tail and back. Before she could look any longer, her chest started screaming at her to find oxygen that wasn't chemically bonded with hydrogen already. Annabeth pulled out of the water with a gasp, her hair sticking to her face and reeking of saltwater. She struggled for her breath for a moment, her right hand clutching her chest as her heart slammed against her orange shirt. She relaxed as her heartrate decreased before abruptly remembering that she was in fact wearing a hat. Her hands jumped to her head to find her beloved baseball cap still perched on her head. She broke the silence with a sigh before placing it behind her on dry land and reaching in to her pocket.
"Hey," she reluctantly called out. "You're not going to break those ropes with your bare hands. You'll need to cut them first." The sound of the water responded to her before the boy lifted his head from the water again and stared at her with silent interest. Taking another look at him, it was pretty obvious that he was around her age. Annabeth took a deep breath in preparation before pulling out her pocket knife. The boy immediately reacted with a sharp shot backwards, putting distance between them. "Whoa, wait a second," she sputtered as he nearly dove under again, his nose already halfway underwater. "You'll need this to cut the ropes!"
He stopped and looked back up to her. He remained silent as he scanned her face with his brilliant eyes. Looking in his gaze, Annabeth could clearly see him thinking things over, as if he was unsure about her offer. Eventually, he rose back up from the water, gave her a nod and held out his hand to her, waiting for the knife. The blond moved just a bit closer and tried to shift the blade in her hand to give him access to the handle, but he abruptly reached out and snatched it from her blade-first, cutting himself in the process. He snapped back with a cringe just as Annabeth let out her own sound of shock. The boy pulled his hand away and stared at it in confusion as red slowly slipped from his skin and pooled in his palm.
"What were you thinking," she snapped. The dolphin beside her bucked again and let out another horrible sound of displeasure, making her hiss and lower her voice just a bit, her anger still swirling in her words. "Why in the world would you grab a knife by the blade?! Do you have seaweed in your brain from swimming too long," she sarcastically asked. The boy gave her a bitter glare before holding his uncut hand out towards her, prompting her for the knife again. Annabeth narrowed her eyes before moving the knife closer to her.
"You're not going to grab it by the blade again, are you?" The boy shook his head and curled his fingers towards himself in impatience. The blond rolled her eyes and eventually gave him the knife, this time making sure he had a proper grip on the handle. He gave her a dignified nod before slipping back under the water, leaving her shouting, "Don't lose my pocket knife!" at the ripples he left behind.
It was only after the ripples melted back into the surface of the ocean that Annabeth remembered the cut on his palm. Her chest tightened at the thought of the burning pain that came with open wounds in saltwater. There was a reason the expression 'like salt in an open wound' existed, after all. She pulled away from the water and ran a hand through her damp hair in frustration. "He really is a Seaweed Brain," she muttered to herself. "First he cuts himself by grabbing the wrong end of a knife, then he sticks his bleeding hand in the water." She shook her head and sighed. "Why do I always find the ones with really thick skulls?"
Her grey eyes shifted back to the water, taking a quick glance to see if the boy was polluting the water with his blood. To her surprise, there wasn't a single puff of red in the deep blues and greens. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. How in the world wasn't the water red? His palm was collecting blood like rainwater in a torrential downpour after he cut himself! Curious, Annabeth took another deep breath and stuck her head back in the water.
Her eyes struggled to adjust to the burning water before she took in the sight of the boy struggling yet again with her pocket knife. The blond soon found his injured hand resting beside his deep green swimtrunks, hanging limply beside him as he fumbled with the knife and the ropes. The boy's face burned with frustration before he switched hands with the knife and started using the very hand he had cut to wield the knife. The sharp suffocation slipped back in Annabeth's chest before she could watch any longer, forcing her to resurface and gulp down more fresh air. Her ears pounded with retreating water as her mind scrambled over the sight of his right hand. It looked untouched, as if had never hurt himself. Thinking back on when he was out of the water, he didn't look shriveled from being in the water too long, either.
She shook her head to shake off the impossible thoughts. Perhaps she was dehydrated from being in the sun so long? After the dolphin was back in the water, and she had her favorite pocket knife back, she would head up to the boardwalk with Grover and find something cold to drink. Her attention snapped back to the dolphin. With a jolt, she realized that his skin was looking less and less reflective and more dried out. Annabeth frantically started cupping water with her hands and pouring in on the animal's back, trying to focus on rescuing the animal instead of wondering about hallucinations from a lack of water.
After what felt like hours—but was really only three minutes—the boy came back to the surface. He found Annabeth trying to rub the water into the dolphin's skin, trying to hydrate him. He gave her an impressed look before holding her pocket knife back to her. She eagerly took it back and put it back in its rightful place in her pocket. She then looked back to find the boy under the water again. He popped back up seconds later with a frayed netting that must have been around the underwater mammal. He angrily hurled it back on dry land and then turned his attention back to the animal. He gently grabbed the dolphin's sides and tried to move him back in the water, his eyes narrowed with focus and worry. Annabeth took up the effort and started taking handfuls of sand out from under the dolphin's beached stomach, pushing it back in the water and bringing up a fist of saltwater to help wash it away and moisturize the animal.
"Shouldn't we call someone," the blond suddenly blurted as they worked. The thought of there being a marine animal rescue center in the city jumped back as the rush of helping the dolphin started to wane. The boy looked up at her with a horrified, almost offended face, with wide eyes and an open mouth. She just gave him a serious expression in return, her hands giving the animal more water as she talked. "I mean, he might be seriously injured. They could take him in and fix him up with actual medicines and veterinarian care." The black-haired boy shook his head wildly before angrily splashing water towards her. "Hey," Annabeth complained as she jumped back. Her shirt was now sticking to her shoulders and smelling of saltwater, irritating her. She glared at the boy as he returned to trying to bring the dolphin back in the water with a more frantic speed.
"Look here, mister marine animal rights activist," she growled. The boy just glared at her out of the corner of his eyes, giving the mammal the vast majority of his attention. "I don't care if you don't like the idea; it's what you're supposed to do if you find a beached dolphin or whale, especially if they're caught in a net like this one. Otherwise," she huffed, "The poor thing could die!" The boy gave her another shake of his head before focusing back on the dolphin. Annabeth felt her patience thin even further as she took another deep breath and tried to calm herself. "If you're so against getting him to a rescue center, what's your plan of action?"
The black-haired boy simply motioned to the dolphin with both hands before lifting his hands and bringing them down towards the water, as if he had picked the animal up and placed him back in the water. The girl glared at him for a moment before huffing, "Your plan is to literally just put him back in the ocean?!" He nodded enthusiastically, as if he was very proud of his idea. He returned to trying to execute his plan, moving the sand at the dolphin's stomach away so there would be a smooth slope to slide him back into the water on. "That's ridiculous," she snapped. "He'll end up dying in the ocean, you know!" The boy ignored her and instead dug away at the shoreline.
Soon, the slope was finished. Annabeth dropped another handful of water over the creature only to freeze in place as the boy wrapped his arms around the dolphin and tried to lift him back into the water. His eyes squeezed shut with his effort and he only managed to slip the poor thing back a measly few centimeters. The blond watched him for a moment before sighing and picking the dolphin up under his fins. The mammal released a hopeful yet mournful sound as both teenagers lifted in sync with each other and eased him down the slope. Their efforts were rewarded with the dolphin being returned to the water and the marine mammal slowly dipped back under the surface.
Annabeth held her breath in silence as the boy floated there, only exposing everything above his shoulders to the open air. The captive part of the ocean in his eyes brightened at nothing before he suddenly dipped back under the water. The girl moved backwards a little before trying to look under the water again. Before she could do so, the dolphin and teenage boy both came back up for air. The boy smiled at the recused animal before gently rubbing his fingers down the dolphin's spine, as if he was petting him. A few chirps came from the animal's mouth before it ducked back under the water and bolted away, leaving the two teenagers alone. The girl watched the boy stare off towards the ocean for a few minutes before finally speaking up.
"Do you know that dolphin," she asked hesitantly. The boy continued staring for a few moments before snapping his head back to her, as if he was just now hearing her. He tilted his head in silent confusion, making Annabeth let out a puff of air and brush her drying hair back over her shoulders. "First of all, are you going to even try to speak to me? It's a little hard to communicate with someone when they just stay silent." The boy lifted a hand to his chin as if he was thinking things over before shaking his head and sticking his tongue out at her, as if further taunting her. The girl felt her blood boil at this, but she held her breath and tried to ignore his immaturity. "Seaweed Brain," she muttered to herself, trying to release some of her frustration. She then lifted her chin and tried to talk to him again, her grey eyes sharp and narrowed. "Do you know that dolphin," she repeated. The boy visibly stiffened for a moment at her words. She tilted her head a bit and reached behind her for her hat, making sure that it was still in place. Her fingers brushed against the brim and she lifted it back to her head, feeling a bit calmer with her favorite hat back in its rightful place.
The boy's eyes clouded before he eventually nodded at her, not looking her in the eye. A sweet rush of satisfaction entered her bloodstream at the sight. "I knew it," she announced. "That's why you didn't want anyone coming to rescue him; you thought they were going to take him away and never bring him back to the ocean." The black-haired boy nodded again, this time very slowly. She smiled at the fact that she was right before frowning a bit. "But," she whispered more to herself than him, "Was he even well enough to be in the ocean? His tail was all wrapped up in that fisherman's net." Her eyes fluttered back to the netting to prove her point, and her mind silently reminded her to dispose of it properly so it wouldn't endanger any other wildlife.
He nodded violently this time, as if he was absolutely certain that the dolphin belonged in the ocean. Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Crazy marine animal rights activists," she cursed under her breath. "Endangering animals just because they don't want them in aquariums." She was suddenly splashed by the boy, making her let out a groan and shield her face. Her arms and shirt were once again drenched, and she angrily glared at his scowl as water dripped from her hair. "Look here, Seaweed Brain, as that's what's obviously in your head," she growled, "I don't think he should be in an aquarium, either. I just thought that he could do well with a bit of modern medicine and veterinary care. He belongs in the ocean, but he could use a little help to recover."
The boy stared at her for a few seconds before reluctantly nodding his head and looking away, as if he was bitter about agreeing with her. Annabeth just shook her head at him. "Look, you wouldn't want him bleeding—" Her voice caught in her throat as she suddenly remembered how the black-haired boy had cut his hand on her pocket knife and yet there was never a drop of blood in the water. She narrowed her eyes and hummed to herself in thought. She hadn't imagined it, had she? His hand didn't look cut when she saw it in the water. She inhaled and turned her attention back to the boy. "Show me your hands," she blurted.
The boy leaned backwards in confusion before rolling his eyes at her. With a splash, his hands appeared in the air, unwrinkled and unmarked. He wiggled his fingers at her while leaning his head forward and scrunching up his nose, as if making fun of her question. Annabeth didn't mind it. Instead, she just smirked in triumph.
"I knew it, I knew it," she proudly declared. The boy looked at her as if she was crazy, his deep green eyes narrowed and judgmental. The blond just beamed and pointed at his uninjured right hand. "Your hand doesn't have a scratch on it!" The boy then looked back at his palm with a curious expression, obviously baffled by her excitement. He then looked back up at her and shrugged, giving Annabeth just a bit more pride at her discovery. "You cut yourself on my pocket knife, remember," she slyly chided. The boy paled and stared straight at her. "I know you cut yourself," she continued, "You were bleeding before you tried to help that dolphin. When I checked to see if you could cut through the ropes though, you didn't have a scratch and there wasn't a drop of blood in the water!" The girl watched as the boy gulped and shut his eyes as if he wasn't feeling well. "How do explain that, Seaweed Brain," she asked triumphantly.
He didn't. Instead, the boy's eyes snapped open and he rammed his arm into the water, splashing Annabeth all over her body. Her grey eyes shut out of reflex and she turned her head away, groaning at getting wet yet again. She desperately tried to shake it off and opened her eyes only to find the boy gone. She growled at his disappearance before sticking her head back in the water to see if he was hiding under the surface. Her eyes strained only to find nothing but an empty space where he was swimming. She pulled her head out of the water with a frustrated snarl, unable to believe that he had disappeared so quickly. Her hands lifted her cap from her head and she wrung out her hair, her eyes glaring at the sparkling water ahead of her. She really wanted to know how in the world that happened. She could accept that there was a beached dolphin in her favorite reading spot. She could take that there was a boy who wouldn't speak a word to her that was trying to put the animal back in the water. What she could not accept was that the boy cut himself on her knife and then didn't have a trace of an injury when she saw his hand again.
Feeling a sudden suffocating feeling in her lungs, Annabeth swiftly pulled her knife back out and examined the blade. Her heart sank as she found the blade to be clean. She mentally scolded herself as she calmly tucked the knife back in her pocket and placing her hat back on her head. Of course the water had washed the blood off. Even if the boy had miraculously lost all traces of his wound, the water would wash off the blade regardless. There were certain rules of the world that could not be broken, such as water washing things away.
Or that wounds would not heal if you left them alone and stuck them in seawater.
"Annabeth," a voice shouted from behind her. The girl gasped and stood up, her eyes fluttering back to the small pathway she had come from to get here. She recognized that voice. It was impossible not to, what with how loud and boastful it was with just a single sound. It was like his voice never stopped praising himself, even if his words did. A boy with short blond hair and a noticeable scar on his face from the corner of his eye all the way to his chin walked awkwardly inside of her small enclosure, his face clearly displaying his frustration at stepping around multiple rocks and pillars of stone. Annabeth didn't even have to look to know that it was Luke.
"We have to get going," he muttered as he stared at her bag of unfinished books—oh, such a pity she didn't get the chance to read them all. "It's getting late and it's starting to get cloudy." The girl looked up at the sky to find that clouds had indeed started to cover the marvelous blue of a perfect summer sky. He pointed to her totebag before giving her a small smile. "Pick up your books and come on. Grover and Thalia are waiting over on the boardwalk." He went to turn and leave the tidal pools before he suddenly snapped his attention back to her drenched clothing. Luke stared at her wet clothes before shaking his head. "Next time you want to go swimming," he chuckled, raising an eyebrow at the odd sight, "Come and tell us! We would have walked back to your house to go and get your swimming stuff. You're father's not going to be happy that you're soaked to the bone." The blond boy then turned around and walked away at a slow pace, giving her plenty of time to gather her stuff and follow him.
Annabeth stared at his back before regretfully picking up her book bag and towel and turning to follow him. She abruptly remembered about the fisherman's net on the rocks. The girl snatched it up and speedwalked after Luke in an effort to catch up. As she slipped the totebag's strap up to sit on her shoulder and walked around a pointed rock—that Luke had stepped on and cursed at even though he couldn't possibly feel that through his fancy leather sandals—her mind wandered back to the boy and the dolphin. Finding a dolphin stuck on the beach was crazy enough without a strange boy who wouldn't speak a word and seemed to not understand the basic laws of the universe. The memories of what happened beside the tidal pools made a strange feeling come in her chest, as if she swallowed cotton balls and couldn't cough them back up to get rid of that stuffy, itchy feeling. Something wasn't right about that meeting. Something beyond the boy's silence and his miraculous lack of a cut on his hand.
While the two caught up with Grover and Thalia, her mind kept turning the encounter over and over and over in her mind, twisting and turning it around to look at it from every angle and try to find just some sort of rational explanation for the irrational happenings that transpired there. However, no matter how she twisted the facts and tried to find some sort of truth that wouldn't break multiple laws of the universe, she just couldn't find a logical reason behind the incident with her pocket knife. She had watched him cut his palm open. He had bled actual blood. There had been a wound on his hand. All of these facts were inexcusable. Unfortunately, so was the clear observation that his hand was uninjured from every point after he put it in the water.
When they walked back home, all she could think about was that one crucial fact. She hadn't wanted to go to the beach today. She didn't want to find a stranded dolphin and a universal law-breaking boy. She had just wanted to read her books in peace and relax. Instead she received what she didn't want.
From every angle she looked at it, this day was not what she was expecting.
Author's Note: Hey there! I'm Illusions of Insanity and I've written a little three-shot for you guys! I was recently recommended to try the Percy Jackson series and after reading only the first two books, I'm already rushing to write something for this amazing series. As I have only read books one and two, I decided to write an AU before I try anything canon-related. I'm going to explain right now that Annabeth's little circle is based on when she came to Camp Half-Blood, which is why it might be a bit different from what you normally see. Another note I'd like to include is that Annabeth and all of her little buddies still have ADHD and Dyslexia, though Dyslexia won't play a big part in this. Other than that, this is a modern AU that does keep some elements of the series. What are those elements? They'll show up in the next two chapters.
I'd like to thank Nighttyger for being my beta reader and making sure my characterizations were positively accurate. Thanks so much! Your advice made this so much easier to write than if I had to do it alone.
On a side note, please try not to put spoilers in your lovely reviews. I still have to wait for book three to be returned to my library before I can read any further. :U The agony!
Hope you all enjoy this little mini-series! Thank you for reading!
