Chapter 19: Awkward Reunion
As of last night, Annabeth Chase was Percy Jackson's girlfriend. He didn't know it would be her to get him smiling like a goofball, in fact he'd never thought it would be her to make his heart feel like it was 5 times the size of how big it usually is. The only thing he did know was that he was more than happy. Everyone at camp thought this to be strange since they thought Percy and Annabeth had been dating for a little over a month. Despite the past month being a game, Percy finally thought his life would be speeding down to a normal spot. Unfortunately, with a great game comes great challenges…
Grover walked up to a happy Percy who was standing on Half-blood hill.
"I'm glad you guys are together again, man. Glad you sensed up!"
Percy smiled and nodded. "Me too… it's funny, this time feels more, real." He cracked a smile at the insider her just said. The funniest part was, no one knew why he was smiling.
"I can tell you're happier, sheesh what exactly happened in that underwater bubble?"
"how did you know we had an underwater bubble?"
"Oh you know… the Stoll brothers… and their high definition camera."
Percy's eyes widened. "So EVERYONE at camp saw us…"
"Play a friendly game of tongue tag? Yes!"
Percy's face fell. "Annabeth isn't going to like this."
Grover laughed. "You guys might have your second fight over it, so watch out."
Percy hadn't even kept tabs on how much him and Annabeth fought. All he knew was that when they were first fake-dating, it was a lot. Every conversation someone would raise their voice, yell, and not feel the least bad about it. Now if either yelled at the other they felt extremely obligated to say sorry afterwards.
He just wondered how much worse a fight in a real relationship was. All he knew was, the blame would be shifted to him for taking them underwater and she would probably kill him.
"I should probably go tell Annabeth that… yeah…"
He walked off to the Athena cabin and knocked lightly on the door.
To his surprise, Thalia opened up. For some reason the only thing he could manage to say was.
"I thought you were a daughter of Zeus?"
She smirked. "Well Fish-Face I'm Annabeth's friend. And Annabeth lives in this cahin. Can you do the math?" she teased and Percy shrugged.
"I can see why you two get along, both like my world with absolutely no pride."
Thalia chuckled. "Well if you're going to have a relationship with her, than know this, there's enough pride in that girl for the both of you. Therefore, yours is really unnecessary."
"Where is Annabeth?"
"She's inside, and I was just leaving." She winked as she slipped past him.
Annabeth was standing over a desk cluttered with drawings of buildings with measurements and angular velocity and all sorts of stuff that made Percy's dyslexia go crazy.
"Still working on Olympus, I see." He stated.
She turned around and smiled. "You're not big on just saying hello are you?"
Percy shrugged. "Hello's are overrated. I'm more of a "get right to it" type of guy."
She shook her head, but smiled. "I'm sure you are."
"So… uh… there's something I need to tell you."
"You aren't growing gills are you?" she smirked.
He even chuckled at that. "I wish. Then I could meet all sorts of mer-people. I mean… I guess I could do that now, but it's more fun when you actually have gills…"
"What were you going to tell me?" she cut him off.
"Remember last night? The underwater kiss?" He asked stepping closer to her.
Annabeth felt her face turning bright red. She hoped it wasn't too noticeable though, considering she didn't look like she could be easily made embarrassed.
"Um, yes it was kind of hard to forget." She said still blushing and trying to figure out a way to make it stop. Since when did her face like to mimic the color of a tomato? Lately, she'd been feeling the heat rise to her skin a lot.
"And how happy we were."
"We're not happy now?" She asked raising an eyebrow.
"I was, but… hold on to that happiness when I tell you what I'm about to tell you."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What did you do?"
"How do you know it wasn't someone else?"
"Because you're notorious for messing things up." She said crossing her arms.
"I am not!"
"mhmm…."
"Whatever, anyway the Stoll brothers kind of used their cameras and… yeah."
Her eyes widened. "Oh Gods, are you kidding me? You better not be kidding me." She stated and he sighed.
"I'm not joking! And their High Def."
"Because that makes it a lot better."
"Well… really? What's the worse thing that could happen? There's pictures of us kissing. Isn't that what couples do? Kiss?"
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, but think of it this way… we haven't told our parents yet that you and I are actually a couple now. If those photos get to them before we even get the chance to tell them, we could be in some serious trouble, Percy Jackson."
"And somehow that firm, strict, I'm-going-to-kill-you voice comes back at me?" he exclaimed.
Get one thing straight about Annabeth, she's unpredictable. Therefore, when you think she's going to kill you, she'll probably do the opposite, which is good. However, there is the occasion when you think she's going to reward you, but ends up punching you so hard in the gut that you see that little white light.
She sighed. "No, I'm just mad. Not at you though, for once."
He let out a sigh and pulled her in for a hug that would make even someone like Clarisse La Ru feel warm and safe.
"Well, well, well what do we have here?" asked a voice that belonged to Drew from the Aphrodite cabin. She did not look happy. Not one bit.
"Um… you know Annabeth right Drew?" Percy asked ueasily.
Annabeth back away from Percy.
"What's she doing here?"
"I'm Percy's ex-girlfriend." She stated and Annabeth felt that feeling in the pit of her gut that this girl did not come over there for a simple conversation on monsters and dueling. She knew something was up with this girl and knew Drew quite well. Drew was territorial, mean, and bossy. More bossy than Annabeth. She never knew they went out though. She had a territorial instinct of her own building up inside her. She got the vibe that Drew was there to demolish what had taken seemingly forever to build up. Why would he date this girl though? Why would he fall for someone who was a total witch to everyone and anyone that entered her presence. Sure, Drew was extremely pretty, she was a daughter of Aphrodite, of course she was pretty. Unlike Silena Beaureguard though, she wasn't nice nor did she appreciate when other people were in love.
"Well isn't this awkward." Percy said breaking the silence.
Annabeth and Drew were a bit preoccupied with a stare down that spoke a thousand words.
"Gods I hate this girl already." Annabeth thought to herself.