Chapter Two

Sorry, guys, if I let you down. I was sick and am still not well. You see, my best friends made me sing songs for like, two hours straight, so it ended up with them being entertained and satisfied, and me having a throat pain and cold.

I DO NOT OWN Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Heroes of Olympus. As we all know, Rick does. *sighs*

"WHAT?" It was now my turn to widen my eyes.

"I know, I know, it's quite soon, but-"

"At least tell me that you've started the preparations!" I said, looking desperately from my mum to Paul and then back again.

Mum sighed and scooted over to sit beside me.

"Then we wouldn't have called you, would we?" she asked in a very soft voice.

"The thing is, we just thought about it today," said Paul. "But we thought we would do it the next year; my relatives would come back again for the next summer."

"Then I remembered," said mum, "that you would be in Rome next year. So we decided it in a bit of a hurry."

I was shaking my head. You couldn't just conjure up a wedding. You had to send invitations, find a place, a good decoration company, a catering company, a beautician … The list was never ending; I instantly knew that we wouldn't be able to do everything on time.

But…

"Do it next year, then," I said, relieved to find that there was time indeed. "Do it without me-"

"Perseus Jackson!" My mum nearly shouted in disbelief. "If you hadn't noticed, you are my son! Who in the world would… would…?" She trailed off, tears swelling in her eyes.

I looked at her with a half-confused, half-horrified expression. What had I said that had made her cry?

Paul gave me a look-what-you-did look, and hugged my mom. He started soothing her, but she collected herself, took a deep breath and looked directly into my eyes.

"Percy, you're my son. I would never, ever marry anyone without you present there."

It then dawned on me: My mum didn't want me to miss her wedding. She couldn't bear that. She wanted me to be there.

"Oh, Mum… I'm so sorry…" I said, hugging her very tightly. Paul slowly removed his arms from my mum, as she hugged me back, crying softly into my back.

Then, again something else, something much scarier dawned on me: Annabeth.

She hadn't said a word or, as far as I could remember, react to the whole wedding-date thing.

I pulled away from my mum, and looked to my right-

There she was, still sitting on the sofa, a few feet from me. But she had a faraway look in her grey eyes. It looked as though her mind was working a thousand miles a minute, which it could, at times.

And I knew that look: she was thinking about something absolutely, extremely, awesome.

"Annabeth?" I gently touched her shoulder. She didn't move, and, surprisingly, I didn't panic.

"Annabeth." I said once again, now shaking her shoulder.

"Huh?" She blinked twice, and then looked at me.

"I have an idea," she said, her eyes glinting with excitement.

I grinned at her and said, "I knew you did."

"Here, have some," said mum, placing down the blue home-made cookies.

We took one each. It was still the most delicious thing I've ever tasted.

"So, Annabeth, are you ready to tell us the plan?" asked Paul, taking a bite from his cookie. "Because, as you can see, we're a little short on time."

Annabeth wanted some time alone to think about everything. She said that her mother, Athena, had given her a small visit, telling her the beginning of the plan, while the rest of us were talking. And, then Annabeth had formed the rest of the plan. But she wanted to sort out all the things, because all of them had come together, at once.

"Or else," she had said, "I'm going to go insane. Yes, that is possible, even for a child of Athena, Percy," she added sarcastically, seeing my feigned look of surprise.

She had gone to my room and shut the door behind her. While she took her time, I wasted no time on planning the wedding.

"So, which priest is going to come and do all the ceremonial stuff?" I asked my mum.

"David Morgenstern," replied Paul. "I already booked him for us."

"Okay, we can check that off the list," I said, and continued, "What about the food?"

"The hotel will serve that," replied Paul.

"What is its name, again?"

"The, er, Waves," he said, rather sheepishly.

I had been controlling the water in our fish tank, for fun, but when I heard him reply, I stopped and turned to stare at him.

"Seriously?"

"It's a really good hotel, one of the most expensive ones in New York-"

I smiled slightly, and said, "I really don't care, Paul. I was just joking."

Paul gave a small sigh of relief. Mum chuckled from where she was sitting, which, was above me. I was lying on her lap.

"Why is it called The Waves?" Mum asked Paul.

"It's because it's just next to the New York Beach," said Paul, "So, we have a direct path to the ocean. I guess we can cut our cake by the beach," he added dreamily.

"So what about the beautician for you guys?" I asked next.

"Well," said my Mum, stroking my hair absent-mindedly, "I checked everywhere but, no, I couldn't find anyone."

I looked at Paul.

"I forgot about that," he replied, shaking his head.

"I can help," said Annabeth, smiling.

She had come from my room, and was walking towards us. Paul was sitting on the couch opposite us, and that could only occupy one person. That left the couch Mum and I were sitting on. Mum sat at the end of the couch, and I was sprawled across the rest of it. So, where will Annie sit?

"Are you going to move or not, Seaweed Brain?" she asked me with a raised eyebrow.

"No."

I was simply playing with her. We both knew that. She could easily judo-flip me down to the floor like she did at Camp Jupiter.

But, Annabeth took this as an insult to her knowledge.

"Oh, well, you earned it," she sighed and… lifted my legs, sat on the couch and put my legs on top of her lap. Now, I was lying on top of mum and her.

There was a moment of silence. Then, Mum and Paul started to laugh.

I sat up straight and sat between my mom and Annabeth, who was smiling.

"Okay, okay, enough," said Mum, at last. Both of them finally stopped. I leaned my head against her shoulder, and smiled.

"Okay, what were we discussing before my girlfriend came and tore me apart from my Mum's lap?" I asked Paul.

Annabeth snorted, but she let it pass.

"Uh... we were discussing about beauticians for Sally."

We all turned to look at Annabeth.

She took a deep breath. "Piper can do it."

Mum gasped, which made my head jump slightly, but I hardly felt it. I remained silent. Paul was frowning slightly; he had forgotten who Piper was.

Seeing Paul, Annabeth added, "The daughter of love, the one you said had really good manners…"

Now, Paul nodded. "Ah yes- wait, what? Piper? Our makeup artist? How can you say such a thing, Annabeth?"

"Yeah, darling, she's our guest," added my mom, worry lines creasing her forehead.

"But, if you want the best of the best," countered Annabeth, "then go to Piper, she'll make you guys the most beautiful couples ever."

"Percy, it is your call… she's your friend…" said Paul, turning to me.

"What would she think?" I asked Annabeth, shaking my head.

"Uh… Fine, let's ask her, then," she said.

She pulled out a golden drachma from her jeans pocket and looked at me expectantly. I made the water rise from the fish tank, making the fishes swim frantically.

Sorry, I told them telepathically.

Its fine, My Lord, Marie, the gold fish, replied back.

Annabeth created a rainbow with the water, and muttered, "O, Iris, please accept my offering…"

A small window-like structure rose from the water.

"Piper McLean, Camp Half Blood, New York," said Annabeth. "Um, instant message, please," she added, glancing at the slightly impatient faces of mum and Paul.

Piper and Jason had taken a one week leave before the summer vacations dad actually started. They had gone to Piper's dad's place, and had come back to Camp a few days ago.

The window showed the Aphrodite Cabin, and many people were walking in the background talking to each other so it took a while for us to get Piper's attention. Piper was lying on her bunk, reading a magazine and humming "Love me like you do".

"Hey, Piper!" called Annabeth, waving at her.

Piper sat up, and looked at us, then grinned.

"Hey, what sup?' she asked smiling at the both of us.

"Uh...okay, so here's the thing," Annabeth started, "you told me once that Aphrodite wanted you to do something absolutely nice, in order to stay as the cabin leader?" Piper nodded, frowning slightly. "Have you done anything for that?"

"No, I… still haven't got anything to do…" Piper replied. "So what?"

"Well, you see, its Miss Jackson's and Paul's wedding-"

"Oh, congratulations, Miss Jackson!" interrupted Piper, smiling, her eyes gleaming with happiness for my mum. "You, too, Mr. Blofis!"

"Thank you, dear," said my mom, returning her smile, while Paul nodded.

"So," said Annabeth again, "I was wondering if you'd be happy to, you know, be the beautician for both of them, because-"

"Absolutely! Oh, and I could impress my mom, too."

I had been holding my breath for the whole conversation, but now, I let it out in a huge sigh of relief. Annabeth smiled at me. "See?"

I immediately went over and kissed her, throwing my arms around her waist.

Paul cleared his throat. I withdrew from Annie. Mom was purposefully looking at the image, a small smile on her face.

"Please insert a drachma for five more minutes," said a female voice.

I took one from my pocket and flicked it towards the image of Piper.

"Thanks a million, Annie," I said, then turned back to the message. "When can you come on over? Cause we're a little low on time…"

"Come on, when are you two coming back? We can talk over here. Chiron won't allow me to get out of Camp."

"Okay, fine, how about day after tomorrow? Just tell Chiron for us, will you?" I asked her. She nodded and opened her mouth to speak, but just then, there was a distant sound of the conch horn.

"Lunch. Bye, see you guys soon!" said Piper, and she cut the window into two.

"That was… easy," said Paul, who stretched his legs out in front of him. "Now…?" he trailed off, looking at Annie for more suggestions.

"Okay, so… Venue: check, beautician: check, priest: check, and…" she trailed off, too, thinking. "Yeah! Some singers and that will be," she said looking into my eyes, "the Apollo campers, of course."

"Really? You think they'll perform? For us?" I asked her.

"Of course, anything for you, Seaweed Brain," she replied.

"So that's a "check", too," said Paul.

"Shall we eat and discuss?" Mum asked. "You both should be hungry, come on," She said, getting up, and so, forcing me to get up, too, as I was leaning on her.

"Now we need some disco lights for the after-wedding party," I said, after taking a bite from the pizza that Mum had made.

"Yes," said Annabeth, and continued, "And guess who would do that?"

"Thalia," guessed Mum.

"Jason," I said, both of us looking at Annabeth.

"Both of them, but one is enough, I think," She said, sipping some blue berry juice. "I mean," She continued, "all you've got to do is put on a temporary low-level electricity spark or lighting, and any one of them can do that. We'll ask them when we get to Camp."

"What else?" Mum asked.

"Invitations, "said Annabeth. "And my cabin will take care of that. Just give us a list of the guests."

"Excellent," said Paul, wiping his mouth with his napkin. "We're almost done."

"Yeah!" I said.

"So now, all we've got to do is-" Annabeth said, looking at me again.

"-go to Camp!" I finished her sentence.