I'm back, guys! How long was I gone? My goal is to update every week, which I miraculously did! Don't expect me to keep on track with that though, since sometimes I start a chapter the next week but not actually finish it. No matter, it's here now. It's so weird though.
Enjoy!
Annabeth
Annabeth tucked her cold feet under her leg, then shivered at the simultaneous warmth sinking into her feet and the coldness reaching her thigh. She shifted around before deciding she was too frozen to move. With a sigh, Annabeth turned back to her laptop. The cursor blinked on the empty page, reprimanding her.
She stared at the page until the battery symbol flashed warningly. She crept out of her chair, numbness prickling at her legs, to find the charger behind her desk. Annabeth emerged out with the charger before her feet got tangled in an abandoned cardigan. She went crashing to the floor.
Annabeth's first instinct was to push herself up before she started thinking, I'm cold. So she laid there forlornly against the scratchy blue carpet, annoyed and tired and panicked. She let herself stare into space for a while until a voice inside her head screamed, Do something!
Annabeth got up, plugged in her computer, then wrapped herself in her blankets. She stared at the sweaters on the floor of her closet but stubbornly refused to put them on.
It was fall now. Annabeth couldn't pay for the heater, and none of the sweaters bought back good memories. She'd bought them with Luke. They were either handpicked by him or in his favorite colors. But it was getting too cold for simply layering shirts.
Groaning, she hit her head repeatedly on the headboard of her bed. "What are you doing, Annabeth?" she hissed to herself. She finally let herself explore how pointless this all was. She wasn't working on her article. She was freezing herself because she wanted to forget Luke. And the sane Annabeth had slipped through the cracks. All she was doing nowadays was spacing out and murmuring to herself. Annabeth needed a purpose.
The gears of her brain creaked, slowly but surely. She started assembling a list of choices, feeling like herself for the first time since she dated Luke Castellan. Her eyes took in her room, with its sky blue paint and all the fuzzy toys Luke bought her. Annabeth wanted a new room. Her eyes landed on her laptop. No, she needed a new job indefinitely. Her brain spun out ideas faster and faster. A job would pay for a new room, new clothes. Eventually, even a new home. But…..where?
Annabeth hugged her pillow to her chest and spent the whole afternoon pondering her plan. Finally she settled on something. Satisfied, she changed into pajamas and fell into a light, dreamless sleep.
Her inner clock still counted down, subconsciously, what day it was when Annabeth passed her calendar. Twenty-two days from the breakup. She shook her head to clear away the thoughts and stuck a bagel in the toaster.
Then, she hunted out an number from her wide list of contacts on her ancient phone.
"Sadie?"
There were some muffled sounds before a thick British accent answered the phone. "Yeah, who is this?"
"I'm– I'm not sure if you remember me–"
"I can try."
"Oh." Annabeth paused, nervous. "I'm your friend from back in college, in the sophomore year. Um, Annabeth?"
There was silence on the phone. Then a slow exhale. "Oh my gosh, Annabeth? Seriously? You're still around? Sorry, I didn't mean that–oh , what am I saying?" A breathy laugh.
Annabeth chuckled now that the tension was gone. "No, it's okay, I don't mind. I'm calling with a favor to ask. Is that okay?"
She could feel Sadie grinning on the other end. "Depends on the favor." There were the scratchy sounds of a hand covering the receiver and a muffled, "Go away, Carter!" before Sadie returned.
"Okay, well, this is kind of embarrassing, and I'm so sorry, but…..I need a loan from you." There was silence, but Annabeth charged on before she lost her nerve. "Not much. I swear I'll pay you back in a few months. Five, I'm sure. I'll give you my address and everything so you can remind me if I forget. But I won't forget. Just for safety precautions, you know. So you can feel better, like, assured."
Sadie laughed. "It's okay, I get it. But, come on, Annabeth. You're the most trustworthy person I know. And organized enough to never forget anything." Annabeth blushed. She was hardly the same neat person she was back in college. "Of course I'll give you the loan," Sadie continued. "You don't have to worry about paying me back. I mean, we're friends, not business partners."
Annabeth almost dropped the phone in surprise. "Really? I mean, really? You're the greatest friend ever, Sadie."
"Oh, please. It's sad, though. We need to stay in contact."
"Yes, definitely." They chatted for a while, sorted out the arrangement, and Annabeth hung up while grinning.
She picked the slightly burned bagel from the toaster and set it on a plate. Things were already looking up.
A week later, almost every detail was completed. She found a tiny one-room apartment with a shared bathroom. The other owner, a girl named Lou Ellen, seemed nice from a short online chatting session. Her new home was in the next town over, right where Annabeth planned to start her new life. The train ticket was bought, and all her things were packed up and ready. The landlord would come over the next day to take her keys. And the job she found was rather incredible.
A few days ago
Annabeth slipped into a gray sweater from the very bottom of her closet and settled by her laptop. She had opened up several sites for job openings and even found the online newspaper for the town she was moving too.
It was a boring morning, where she went through option after option. Some of the regulations didn't fit her, and many of the shift hours were too unreasonable. And the pay for most of them were a no-no if she wanted to pay Sadie back within five months. She almost settled for a travel agent before the person on the phone said the spot was taken. Finally she found a good choice. A register at a real estate company. It would probably be boring, but at least she could work on her long-abandoned sketches in the meantime. She was about to call the number before a bright orange square caught her eye.
"Grace's Pizza Place," it proclaimed. "A homey restaurant on the edge of Sound St., with chef-personalized pizzas and adorable decor, Grace's is a new yet familiar addition to this town. We are a favorite of multiple families in the area that bustles with diner-size crowds instead of cramped tables. Our waiters are friendly and the chefs are extraordinarily creative. For instance, the illustrious Olives of Athens Pizza with olives arranged in the shape of the Parthenon that will leave anyone dreaming of Ancient Greece. Full-day chef needed."
Olives, her head whispered. Her favorite food, which Luke once made fun of her for liking on a date, so she completely forgot them. Annabeth reentered the numbers for the pizza shop into her phone and called them. On the seventh ring, a girl picked up.
"Hello? This is Grace's Pizza Place. What would you like?" The girl had an accent Annabeth couldn't place, and spoke slightly roughly, like she had a hard history.
"Um, this is Annabeth Chase. I'd like to sign up for the job as a full-day chef."
There was a delighted gasp and a muffled shout. "Hi, Annabeth. Thank you. The sign-up sheets are–" The phone was snatched away from her.
"Hi, this is Annabeth, right?" A deeper male voice entered the phone. His voice resounded in her gut strangely. Blood rushed in her ears, drowning out the sound of the girl from before yelling at him. "Your name is so cool. So, you're signing up? I can't wait to meet you. Oh, by the way, I'm Percy Jackson."
Argh, I'm so excited! I want to go ahead and start working on the next chapter. But, for the sack of tradition and my homework, (though I'm on break so who cares) I won't. You guys should have school, but I live across the world, and we had a holiday yesterday. So I still have tomorrow off. Then, school on Sunday. *grimace* If, you guys guess where I live I'll let you design a pizza. It has to fit in with the cooks, though. (No, Zoe/wacky friend/soap box actor no jk, you can't guess.) Alright, I'll finish with my rambling.
Au revoir,
Pride-and-loyalty