Chapter 2

Wise Girl and Seaweed Brain

The next morning I got up carefully so that I wouldn't wake Annabeth. She was still curled up against my side like last night and it was surprisingly more comfortable than being alone. However, I needed to ask her about that after she woke up.

I found something to wear without really looking since I didn't care and then slipped it on. Annabeth eventually began to stir and then sat up in the bed looking confused, then a look of realization dawned on her as she must have remembered what had happened yesterday. She got up slowly and then looked in the mirror to make sure she didn't look like she had been crying, same as I did after her.

"I don't have anything to wear." Annabeth realized. I looked around in my pile of clothes and grabbed a shirt for her.

"Here you go," I told her. "I don't have any pants that would fit you so you'll have to keep the pair you have on."

Then I turned around so that she could change. When I turned around she had on my shirt, which looked like a dress on her. It covered her shorts making it look like she wasn't wearing any pants.

"Do you want a pair of my pants?" I asked her, blushing slightly.

"No, this'll be fine." she told me.

I stuttered something about her having to wear something that showed her pants, but she took down her ponytail and wrapped the band around her shirt, making it shorter. Annabeth's hair now flowed around her and we made our way to the kitchen to make breakfast.

Mom was already in the kitchen making bacon, eggs, and hash browns. Annabeth immediately went over to help with the hash browns. My mom took an instant liking to Annabeth and helped her along with the hash browns while still managing the eggs and I helped with the bacon.

After a while when I was pouring the orange juice behind Annabeth she accidentally flipped a tiny part of the hash browns too hard and they ended up hitting me in the back of the head. She turned around and giggled at the mess of my hair.

In retaliation I flung some nearby flour at her and Annabeth's face became a weird white color, almost like a clown. I laughed at her face until I became the target and flour hit me in the stomach. I grabbed Annabeth by the stomach and turned her around so that she was pressed to me, then I started tickling her.

She laughed extremely hard and tried getting away by going limp, but I made a seat for her with my legs by bending down. Then Annabeth started to kick her legs out to try and stop me, but I didn't mind a few bruises to hear her laugh after everything that had happened to her the last two days.

"What is going on here?" Gabe yelled as he came through the room. He saw the problem and came over to slap Annabeth. She fell to the floor and I rounded on Gabe.

"You have no right to hit her!" I yelled at him.

"Is the little brat sticking up for his girlfriend?" Gabe asked me in a baby voice. I ignored his comment and kicked him in the shin. He groaned and then walked over to Annabeth pulling her upright by her hair. "I'm warning you," he said in a deadly whisper. "Try anything and she gets it." Then he threw her back on the floor and left the room.

Mom ran over to her and checked her out. She had a few new bruises on her back, but other than that she seemed ok. "Annabeth, I'm going to get you some ambrosia. Okay?" I told her, pulling out the medical supplies my mother had gotten for me the other day. Then I gave it to my mom to rub on her bruises.

Then mom got up and put the food that we had made on a plate for Gabe. I kneeled beside Annabeth and helped her stand up. "I'm sorry I got you in trouble." she told me.

"Hey, I had just as much of a part in it as you. This wasn't your fault." I replied. She nodded her head with a bright smile and then helped by grabbing the orange juice that I had poured earlier as we walked towards Gabe.

Butterflies started fluttering in my stomach making me sick. I absolutely, positively, did not want to see Gabe again. I grew stiffer the closer I got to the living room where Gabe was at. Percy put a hand on my shoulder for a second and then took it off to open the door.

"Finally, I was starting to grow impatient." Gabe complained. Percy grabbed a table and placed it in front of him while I sat down his drink. He started eating his food with much gusto and I couldn't help but think, I know why he's so fat now.

Sally and Percy sat down at the far edge of the couch and I took their lead taking a seat between the two. Sally grabbed my hand sensing my nervousness and I instantly calmed.

Gabe didn't complain again and i took that as a good sign, but when he was done eating he started to talk to us again. "Annie Belle, I want you to do the brat's chores with him to get used to everything. Sally, I'll see you in your room."

"Her name is Annabeth." Percy said defiantly.

"Watch it, remember what I said about Annie Belle. Since you obviously don't care about your own health, maybe you'll care about hers." Gabe got up slowly and advanced in my direction. I watched him with wide eyes until he was standing right in front of me. He grabbed me by the waist and then threw my over his shoulder while I screamed and shouted. Then he threw me to the ground making me do a flip over his shoulder, effectively making me land on my back and knocking the wind out of me.

While I tried to catch my breath Percy ran over to check on me. He helped me sit up and I got dazed for a few seconds. He pulled me in for a hug as he had done last night and I squeezed him back.

"How can you do that? They're just kids!" Sally yelled at Gabe. It appeared that Percy's mom had a rebellious streak as well.

"Shut up! I'll meet you in your room after I finish with these two." Sally was then forced out of the room by one of the men that had taken me here yesterday.

"Let her go." Percy told Gabe. Gabe just slapped him in the face and then me in return. I contained my scream remembering what Percy had told me the other day.

"What do you say?" Gabe asked Percy.

"Um, I don't know. You're a jerk?"

"Not the right answer." Then Gabe kicked me in the side.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry."

"Don't let it happen again brats.:" Gabe told us as he dragged us by the ears out of the room.

"Okay Annabeth, the first thing we need to do is the laundry today." I told her. She nodded, her hair bouncing as she did so. Then she followed me to the hamper that was supposed to hold Gabe's clothes, but they were scattered all around his room. And his room was an absolute pig sty.

"Where's his room in all this mess?" Annabeth asked, shocked. My lips upturned a bit and then I started picking up the clothes and Annabeth followed suit.

"So, I'm guessing that we'll be cleaning his room after the laundry." Annabeth commented after carefully handling a pair of Gabe's underwear and throwing it at my face. I caught it and threw it in the hamper.

"Right you are."

Then we grabbed the clothes Annabeth had worn yesterday and stuck them in there. Hopefully Gabe wouldn't catch us washing them, but we had to because I doubted he would buy her any clothes since he's seen that she can wear mine.

We ran down the stairs trying not to look suspicious and then into the laundry room to sort the clothes. Annabeth separated them into different piles based on their color and then we picked the biggest stack, the blue and green stack, and stuck the clothes in the washer. I turned it on and then Annabeth looked at me expectantly.

"Now we clean his room." I told her. Annabeth's face fell and I laughed then dragged her up the stairs.

We passed by my mom's room and heard a slight growling sound going through the door. "What's going on in there?" Annabeth asked worriedly. I had a small idea of what was going on and to save Annabeth from seeing that I stopped her in her tracks.

"You don't wanna go in there." I told her.

"But what if your mom's hurt?"

"Gabe's in there, remember? He may not be a big teddy bear, but he isn't going to let anything happen to Sally. It would cause too much attention in our direction with the police."

The wheels in Annabeth's head were turning and I could tell she was thinking hard about this. "Come on Wise Girl." I told her.

"Wise Girl?" she asked, slightly confused and I think maybe even touched.

"Yeah, because I can already tell that you're really smart." I told her. She blushed a little and smiled, forgetting all about what was happening inside mom's room. I wish it was that easy for me.

Percy and I had finally finished cleaning Gabe's room. There were a lot of things in there that I never knew would be in a room, cereal, cheese, and several spiders. The first one that I saw I jumped almost out the window, Percy caught me just in time. He saw what it was and then hurriedly killed it.

Sally had made lunch by herself and brought us some after Gabe had eaten. I'm not sure if she ate any herself though. Percy and I met her in the kitchen again to cook dinner. She was already in there and was making some weird salad with seaweed in it, steak, and wine.

"I'm almost finished dears. Percy, will you finish the salads for me? Annabeth, I need you to pour a glass of wine." Sally told us.

I walked to the refrigerator and poured Gabe some wine. Something told me he didn't need very much though, so I didn't pour as much as I normally would have thought to. Then I grabbed another glass and poured water in it just in case.

Percy, being the clumsy person that he is, tripped when he picked up the salad though and there was so much seaweed on his head it looked like he had made a wig out of it. I laughed then said, "Nice going Seaweed Brain."

"Seaweed Brain?" he asked.

"Your brain was obviously filled with seaweed, because no intelligent person would have tripped." I told him with a smirk.

"Whatever Wise Girl." he told me, then Percy picked up all the food and set it back on the plate even though it had fallen on the ground. I laughed and he put a finger to his lips and winked at me.

Afterwards we took him his food and Percy, Sally, and I held in our laughter as he ate the food that had fallen on the floor, Percy took me back to his room. He gave me some pants that he had to make me feel more comfy and then turned around as I changed. Then he put on his pjs as I laid on the bed with my face in a pillow.

When he had finished he jumped on the bed causing me to roll off of it and land on the floor in a heap. He laughed and asked, "Are you okay?" I glared at him and then got back on the bed.

I turned the lamp off beside my bed so we could sleep and then got under the covers. "Do you think we'll ever get out of here?" I asked Percy weakly.

"I promise we will. I'll get us out of this place."