A/N: Hey everyone! It's been a few months since I posted the first chapter, I know. I'm kinda sorry for that, but at the same time I was busy, and I'd rather make you guys wait a bit longer than post a bad chapter, so... not super sorry. Anyways enjoy!
Sitting by herself at the Athena table in the dining pavilion Annabeth let out a sigh and put her head on the table. It was quiet there for once, but only because the other campers were at the campfire. Annabeth knew she'd have to join them eventually, but she wasn't really in the mood for festivities. Today had been long and frustrating for Annabeth. They were well into March now but there was still so much work to be done on the Argo II and so little progress at the moment. Annabeth was still trying to find Percy, contacting anyone who might now anything about his whereabouts, but so far she'd come up with nothing. She'd resigned herself to the fact that she may just have to wait for Leo to finish the ship whenever that may be. In the mean time Annabeth had tasked herself with researching the Romans, giants, and Gaea, but there was a frustratingly low number of books about them in camp. They weren't really popular subjects here. Annabeth was helping out with anything and everything she could to speed up the progress, but she just wasn't needed anywhere. That was the worst part. Percy had been gone for months and Annabeth hadn't been able to do anything about it.
Annabeth stood up abruptly suddenly feeling angry. Angry at the gods for taking Percy away after everything they'd done for them. Angry at the fates for being so cruel. Angry at Percy, as unreasonable as that was, for being missing and for causing her to feel this constant state of worry, misery, and pain. Angry at herself most of all for being incapable of doing anything but wait. Angry at herself for being absolutely useless. A growl forming in her throat Annabeth flipped over the table in frustration.
She stood there, breathing heavily as she started at the table. It had landed on it's side and knocked the bench over as well. The remains of Annabeth's dinner were strewn all over the ground. Seeing the mess she'd caused made Annabeth pause.
Anger spent, she slid onto the ground and hugged her knees feeling completely miserable. She didn't understand why she was acting this way. She'd been without Percy in her life before, and been just fine. She could do without him for a little while longer couldn't she? She'd faced down monsters, rogue demigods, the occasional bitter god, and the king of the Titans himself, but she couldn't deal with a single boy being gone for a few months. She was pathetic. Annabeth should be better than this and she knows it. She was letting her entire life fall apart. She was devoting all her time to looking for one person, but having exactly zero success. In the meantime her grades in school were slipping, she wasn't sleeping well, she could hardly remember to eat. And dear gods did she miss Percy. Seaweed brained as he may be, he'd know how to cheer her up right now. He'd hug her and hold her tight, kissing the top of her head and telling her that everything will be okay. He'd keep making ridiculously stupid comments, but they'd just be so endearing and Percy that eventually she'd crack a smile. Frowning Annabeth reprimanded herself. She shouldn't need anyone to make her feel better. She was Annabeth Chase, a strong daughter of Athena and was capable of more than this. That didn't make her miss Percy any less desperately though. Warm tears were tracing their way down her face now, and Annabeth wiped them off determinedly. Wallowing in self pity and crying wasn't going to solve anything.
Getting up and fixing the table Annabeth was grateful no one had been there to her lose control and flip the table like that. She threw the rest of her dinner in the fire, but didn't bother to offer it to any of the gods. She didn't have anything to thank them for right now anyways. Although she'd told her siblings that she would join them at the campfire, Annabeth started walking to her cabin. She honestly just didn't feel up to it. I'll make it up to them tomorrow, she told herself. As if she'd magically be in a better head space in a few hours.
"Annabeth!"
Startled out of her thoughts, Annabeth turned around to see who had called her name. It was Piper. The daughter of Aphrodite was running was running towards her.
"Annabeth, hey." Piper paused to catch her breath. She was dressed more appropriately for the cold March weather in her jacket, than Annabeth who was shivering in her camp hoodie. "Where are you going?"
"The Athena cabin."
"What about the camp fire? C'mon Annabeth, it'll be fun!" For a second Annabeth felt herself agreeing with Piper. It would be fun to go to the campfire. Snap out of it Annabeth. Piper was using her charmspeak and Annabeth wasn't having any of it.
"I'm not in the mood Piper." Annabeth glared at her. "And don't try to charmspeak me." Annabeth turned on her heel and stalked off towards her cabin. Piper's surprised look had made Annabeth feel a little guilty. She knew she was being harsh with her, and Piper had done nothing wrong. Annabeth just needed sometime alone.
Piper had other plans. Five minutes after getting into her cabin Annabeth found the daughter of Aphrodite knocking on her door. Annabeth cautiously opened it. Piper was holding out something to her. A s'more?
Piper followed Annabeth's gaze to what she was holding in her hands. "It's a s'more, from the camp fire," she explained. "You weren't coming so I got one for you."
Annabeth took the s'more from Piper and took a bite. "Thanks Piper." Annabeth sighed. She'd been acting poorly towards Piper, yet Piper was still being nice to her. "Look, Piper, I…" Annabeth's feeble apology trailed off when Piper started giggling. "What?"
"You've, uh, you have a little bit of s'more on your face."
Annabeth laughed and wiped at her face. "Did I get it?"
A nod from Piper told Annabeth that she had. Whatever slight tension that had been between them was gone now, but Annabeth still felt bad for how she'd treated Piper. During the three months Piper had been at camp for she's become one of Annabeth's best friends. Piper just had this sense of when Annabeth was feeling down, and would always try to cheer her up. Piper knew vaguely that part of the reason Annabeth was so miserable was Percy, but she didn't know just how badly everything was going for Annabeth right now.
Clearing her throat Piper looked Annabeth dead in the eye. "I understand if you don't want to go to the camp fire, but we are NOT spending the whole night in this cabin."
"We?" Annabeth was baffled. She looked at the younger demigod curiously. Piper didn't need to stay here, in fact she hadn't even needed to come to the Athena cabin in the first place.
Leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed against her chest, Piper grinned at Annabeth. "Yup! We are officially having a girl's night!"
"A girl's night." Annabeth repeated Piper incredulously. The determined expression on Piper's face told her Piper wasn't taking no for an answer. With a resigned sigh Annabeth walked towards the door. "Let's go then."
Piper led Annabeth to the strawberry fields and motioned for her to sit. Following Piper's lead, Annabeth sat down. "Piper… what are we doing here?"
The smile on Piper's face melted into something a little more serious. "Annabeth, we need to talk."
"About what?"
Faltering slightly at the emotionless tone of Annabeth's voice Piper pressed on. "About you."
"Me."
Pausing for a moment as if to gather her confidence, Piper nodded. "Yes you. Annabeth, I know I haven't been around camp for that long, but I consider you to be a good friend of mine. And I'm worried about you. You've missed a lot of meals, and it doesn't look like you've been sleeping lately. I know you're worried about Percy, but you have to stop every now and then to take care of yourself too Annabeth. Running yourself to the ground isn't going to help anyone, least of all Percy."
Silence followed Piper's little lecture. Piper kept glancing at Annabeth nervously, probably afraid she'd overstepped her boundaries. Annabeth just stared at the ground in front of her. She could argue with Piper's statements, but she didn't want to. Nothing Piper had said was false, and Annabeth was tired of lying to everyone.
"You're right."
"I-I am?" asked a taken aback Piper.
Sighing Annabeth faced Piper. "Yeah, you are. I know I've not been acting completely like myself lately, and I've been a bit of a crappy friend. I'm sorry. I just…" She trailed off.
"You miss Percy. And everyone understands, but Annabeth you're shutting yourself off from people."
"I'm not trying to, I just get distracted. I have to try and find Percy, Piper. It's really important, not just for me, but for the quest and the entire camp."
"The camp doesn't need you to solve every problem Annabeth, we'll figure it out in time. Right now they just need you to act like a friend. That's equally as reassuring as a leader."
Sighing, Annabeth nodded at Piper and smiled. Piper didn't get it. She hadn't been at camp during the titan war. She didn't know just how wrong that statement was. The camp did need Annabeth to solve problems, to be a leader, not a friend. Annabeth would know. It was her who shouldered that responsibility every day, not Piper. But Piper was trying and Annabeth appreciated it.
Relief crossed over Piper's face. She seemed happy that Annabeth appeared to be listening to her. "I know you're going through a bit of a rough patch, but I'm here for you, you know that right? You can talk to me whenever."
"I might just take you up on that Mclean." It was the truth, Annabeth would talk to Piper later, talking had helped, but that didn't mean Piper wouldn't get the full story. Annabeth wasn't ready to talk to anyone about everything she was feeling quite yet.
Getting up and brushing the dirt off her pants, Annabeth turned to face Piper. "Thanks for this Piper, I needed it."
Piper looked alarmed. "You can't leave yet! Girl's night is just beginning!"
Raising an eyebrow Annabeth faced Piper. "And what would this girl's night entail?"
"Well we've already made s'mores, and had a meaningful chat, so I'd say what's left is watching a chick flick, painting each other's nails and a pillow fight!" Piper listed each activity off on her fingers. "We can get the nail polish from my cabin, they've got enough that they won't notice if a bit goes missing. We have our own pillows in our cabin's, I just don't know where to watch the movie. There's no TVs in camp."
Annabeth thought for a minute. "There's a small movie theatre in the Oracle's cave. Apollo made us install one for Rachel."
Seriously?"
"Oh yes. Apollo was quite serious about it."
"Well then what are we waiting for?"
Girls night ended up being a lot of fun. The pillow fight was the highlight of the night. Piper put up a good fight, but she couldn't quite handle the daughter of Athena's pillow fight strategies, or her amazing pillow fort. ("I can't knock this stupid fort over! How the heck did you build this?" "I'm an architect, remember? This is my specialty!") They parted for the night with promises of another girl's night soon. It ended up being their monthly thing. Girl's night didn't help to solve any of Annabeth's problem's, and she still worried about everything far too often to be good for her health, but it provided Annabeth a distraction and a chance to just forget about everything and enjoy herself, if only for a single night each month.
"It appears I am the pillow fight champion for the third month in a row!"
"Shut up Chase, I'll get you next time."
"You said that last time, Mclean."
Piper would still talk to Annabeth about how she was holding up during girl's night, and Annabeth would try to answer her as much as she could, but despite her growing friendship with the younger demigod, Annabeth still couldn't bring herself to tell Piper everything. The rest of the camp didn't know that Annabeth wasn't as strong as she seemed, so if one of her friends knew a bit about it who cared? Annabeth apparently. Keeping everything to herself was a habit, but she was trying to talk to Piper a little bit, so it was a good start.
Annabeth Chase was 16 years old. With Percy gone she was a leader at camp more now than ever. Her success in the titan war has caused the other campers to see her as an even bigger role model, and they expected her to have the answers for everything. Like where Percy is, and how they're going to deal with the threat of the Giants. And Annabeth has no clue. Annabeth had thought that the burden of the camp's expectations for her were bad a year ago, but compared to now it was nothing. Being one of the demigods to help bring defeat Kronos had elevated the camps expectations of Annabeth to a standard that was impossible to reach. She had to be composed for them all the time. They expected a strong, put together daughter of Athena who had everything under control, could strategize them out of all their problems, and was a fearless warrior, to lead them. And Annabeth wasn't about to deny them that. Percy disappearing had unsettled the camp, Annabeth having a breakdown wasn't going to help them. An army was only as strong as their leader. As much as she hated to admit it that's what they were. Though they kept the pretense of being a camp through several fun activities, they trained for battle. When push came to shove Camp Half-Blood was an Army. And Annabeth was their leader. She had to be strong for them. One wrong move and the entire camp could crumble. One moment of weakness on her part and the camp's enemies would take the opportunity to punish the entire camp for her mistake.
Talking to Piper had helped. She hadn't been there for the titan war, and didn't view Annabeth the same way the majority of the camp did. She respected Annabeth's experiences, but hadn't come to rely on her yet. Annabeth knew she could talk to Piper when she needed to, and she took that opportunity sometimes, but she could never bring herself to open up to her completely. Some of Annabeth's worries, and fears had been buried for so long that Annabeth didn't even know how to talk about them anymore. Nor would she be comfortable talking about them even if she could. Piper wouldn't get it anyways. Piper's lack of knowledge of how both Annabeth and the camp react in a time of crisis prevented her from understanding why Annabeth had to act the way she did. Why she had to pretend she was okay even when she wasn't. Why she kept her head held high, and fought back the tears. Why she walked around with a confident attitude even when she was unsure about everything. That was the Annabeth Chase the camp expected to see, wanted to see, needed to see. So she gave it to them.
A/N: And there we have it! The second chapter is finished. There's still one more chapter to go, so hopefully I'll have that up soon, but don't be surprised if it takes a few months again. Remember, reviews are very motivating for me, so if you really want to find out what happens next, just leave a review!
See you later,
BlankPage-CleanSlate :)
