Live Another Year

For once in my seventeen years of living, my night was completely dream free. There were no warnings of the end of the world; no angry god digging his way in my head. It was silent peace.

I woke up happier then I'd been in a while.

Surrounding me were familiar sights and smells. The window sill where a picture of me, Tyson, and my dad stood. The calming blue of the walls, and the warm sunlight that bounced off of them. The whole cabin smelled like seawater.

I was home.

With a contented sigh, my head sunk back into the pillow. I was ready to turn over and go back to sleep, when someone started pounding on the door. For a moment, I thought I monster was trying to get in but the sound of an annoyed voice told me otherwise.

"Percy! Gods; get up!"

I groaned loudly. The monster—sorry, I meant girlfriend swung my door open. I tossed a pillow at her, which hit her squarely in the head.

"Five more minutes, Mom…"

Annabeth scoffed and picked up the pillow as she smoothed her bright blonde hair. I could feel her furious gray eyes burning daggers in my head, but honestly, I was too tired to care about holes in my skull.

"No! Percy, it's noon already, and you're the only one still asleep. I really need your help right now. And I'm not your mom!"

Normally, that alone would've made me jump up, but like I said, I was too tired to care. "Can't I help you in five minutes?"

Wrong answer. The pillow I had thrown earlier was used against me as Annabeth swatted me over and over again. "No you can't so get up now Seaweed Brain!"

If you've ever been repeatedly smacked with a pillow, you should know it gets mildly annoying, but it doesn't hurt. When Annabeth was the one wielding the pillow, well, maybe she should start using that as a weapon instead of her knife.

"I'm up!" I yelled bleary eyed as I jumped to my feet. "You can stop hitting me now!"

The plushy punishment stopped, as Annabeth smirked. "Good." I noticed she had a clipboard under her arm, which she shifted under her arm. "Meet me in the Big House in five minutes, alright? And if you even think about going back to sleep, I'll let Clarisse be the one to wake you up."

That threat was good enough for me. "Right. Five minutes. I won't even be a second late," I mumbled while ushering her out the door.

Annabeth stopped to kiss me, catching me by surprise. We'd be dating for nearly a year now, but I still wasn't used to those sudden kisses. "Thanks, Percy," she said, as she bit her lip happily

I shrugged and tried to say, "No big deal," but I was still shocked by the kiss and it came out more like, "Abbuh duh uh…"

Annabeth smirked again. "Nice boxers, by the way." Then she was out of the cabin.

I looked down, and to my horror, realized I had slept in nothing but my pink and blue dolphin boxers.

At the Big House

Just like I had promised, I arrived at the Big House, wearing jeans and a good ol' fashioned Camp T-shirt (my boxers were no where in sight).

Around the ping pong table were Chiron, Annabeth, my best friend Grover, and Mr. D. "Morning Percy!" Grover bleated happily.

I grinned. "Hey G-man." Less casually, I glared sideways at Mr. D. "Hello Mr. D."

"I'd say I'm glad to see you alive, Peter, but you and I both know I'm not."

I decided to ignore his jibes and turned to Chiron, giving him a grin as well. "Morning Chiron! Annabeth was telling me something that I would've paid attention to if she hadn't just woken me up and beaten me furiously with a pillow. What's the big deal?"

Chiron cleared his throat, motioning for me to take a seat. His hooves shuffled like they did when he was nervous, but his eyes smiled in an excited way. "Today is a holiday in the mortal world, and since we have so many new campers, we've decided to have a celebration."

"So they can relax a bit easier. Nothing is more relaxing then a good Fourth of July party!" Grover added.

Mr. D sipped his Diet Coke, looking bored, while Annabeth looked at me and smiled eagerly. The smile died, however, as she glanced at her clipboard. I noted how many things were listed on it, but only a third of them were check off. "We were trying to make it a surprise, but it might not work out. So far, everyone here knows, and the Apollo cabin."

"Why them?"

Annabeth gave me that 'are you that dense?' look. "Have you seen any other cabin relax everyone as well as they can?"

"Oh, I guess not," I said, sure I was blushing. "But where do I fit in with this?"

"We just need you to make sure everyone stays away from the lake until the sun goes down," Chiron instructed. "We need to set up tables and fireworks—and that will take us all day."

I shrugged. Keeping everyone away from the lake would be easy enough. "No problem. You've never seen anyone scare away people as well as me."

Grover raised his eyebrows. "Actually, I can name a billion people who are better at scaring away people then you are."

I shot him a shut-up glare. "Whatever. We're on lake-duty together, G. You up for it?"

In response, Grover fake saluted me. "Ma'am, yes, ma'am!"

I shot him another glare as he and Annabeth began to snicker. Mr. D took a happy sip of his Diet Coke, pleased at the joke made at my expense. Even Chiron looked amused.

I dragged Grover out of the House by his little curly horns.

Grover and I spent the whole day chasing kids away from the lake. Some had come for classes and we made up some impressive excuses:

"The water nymphs are on a rampage!" Grover blurted to a few girls carrying a canoe.

I was a tad less realistic, shouting "A leviathan ate a camper!" to some guys with surfboards.

Others simply wanted to relax. With that tugging feeling in my gut, I doused them all with angry look waves and blamed it on an angry Poseidon. "But he'll be happier by sundown!" I called after them as they ran away screaming.

Inwardly, I prayed Dad wouldn't get mad at me for that. Grover fist bumped be, obviously impressed. "I stand corrected," he commented, "Now there're only a few million people who are better at scaring then you are."

"Thanks buddy; that means a lot," I matched his sarcastic tone.

Overall, we were pretty successful in steering everyone away from the lake (except for a minor mishap with that one Ares kid, but I'm sure he'll regain consciousness soon).

Around nine, as the summer sun began to set, Annabeth ran up to us waving her clipboard in the air. "We're all set!" She squealed excitedly, showing me that every item her list had a fat line crossing it out. "Campers are already on their way!"

Sure enough, crowds of kids in bright orange shirts were walking over, or running, some even singing as they went along. They all crowded around the lake, resting on picnic blankets and laughing. The Apollo kids started a bonfire; we roasted marshmallows and sang a few songs.

I sat with Grover, Juniper and Annabeth, one arm around the waist of her gray T-shirt. She smiled at me and popped a marshmallow in my mouth, and we both ignoring the gagging sounds Grover made as he watched. Juniper swatted his arm and somehow, after a small scolding, they ended up feeding each other s'mores made of grass and leaves.

From behind us, a kid yelled "Look!"

Everyone looked up at the now brightly lit sky. Fireworks of every color were launched in the air by Hephaestus kids. Excited gasps and giggles rang through the crowd as we craned our necks upward.

"Nice job today Seaweed Brain," Annabeth teased as she nudged me with her shoulder.

"Right back at'cha, Wise Girl." Her stormy eyes met mine, but instead of analyzing me, they reflected the happiness I was feeling. The noise of hundreds of campers suddenly disappeared, and it was only us.

"I'm serious. There's no way we would've been able to pull this off without you keeping the kids away." She gestured a hand around us. "Look around, Percy. They're all so happy!" She turned back to me, and I could see tears welling up in her eyes; something I thought I'd never see happen.

I nodded, leaning closer to her. "You did a good thing today, Annabeth. For once, your obsessive organization wasn't just annoying."

She punched me in the shoulder and giggled. "I just hope we live long enough to do this again."

"With me around? Probably not," I grinned, lifting her chin. Our lips met at the same time. The kiss drew hoots and hollers from our friends, but neither of us heard. Annabeth put her arms around my neck, while my hands found her waist and drew her nearer.

After a few minutes of intense kissing, she leaned way just far enough to put her forehead against mine. "Happy Fourth of July," she breathed, not wanting to ruin the magic between us.

"Right back at'cha." My lips found her again, and we fell into the grass, holding onto each other.

Above us, the fireworks boomed and exploded. Happy kids threw s'mores into the air and whooped. I was vaguely aware of Juniper and Grover following our lead; but mostly I was just happy we had lived long enough for this to happen.

Maybe, if we were lucky, we'd still be alive next year too.

The End

D'aww Percabeth! Sorry this is short; but I like it this way! I'm in Boston, enjoying the fireworks (sadly without a Percy to make out with) and I hope you guys all have a super awesome holiday!

Happy Fourth of July from:

Percy and Annabeth!

Grover and Juniper!

Sonic and Amy!

Po and Tigress!

Sam and Freddie!

Tony and Ziva!

Abby and McGee!

-Awesome-sauce12 and the Internet XD