A/N: This is a retype and I for one love this one a lot more. I'll let you decide which is better. I think I might just leave the both up and have you guys vote on which you like best.
"See you sweetheart," Dad said, kissing me on the forehead. "Be good. You too, miss Grace," he demanded with a stern look at my best friend who would be staying with me for the week that he was off partying with my step-mother's parents. He had only agreed to leave me if Thalia was here which was weird since she was probably going to be the one that needed a babysitter.
"You can count on me, Mr. Chase. I'll make sure our Annabeth doesn't burn down the house," Thalia said jumping off her perch on the stair railing and throwing an arm around me shoulder. I chuckled at how worried my dad looked, you'd think he be used to leaving me alone since I was almost 17 years old, "We'll be fine. Have fun in Florida."
"Alright fine, have fun with your first day of summer," he finally agreed, taking the handle of his suitcase and heading out the door where his wife was waiting in the car. With a final wave when he had made it to the car and pulled out of the gravel driveway, I shut the door.
When I turned around I was met with the lovely sight of Thalia dancing wildly with flailing arms and whoops of laughter. I giggled at her childness, "You're excited." "What do you mean of course I'm excited? We have free range of the house for a week, do you know what this means?" She asked barely containing her joy. "We have to mow the lawn," I said, not wanting to start one of her schemes. "No. We are throwing a party," she answered sternly.
The alarm on my phone went off, blasting the hallway with loud Taylor Swift music. "Oh, wow, I got to go to work," I said, swinging my bag on to my back and pulling on my converse. "But what about the party? Thalia said her lip forming a pout. "No party, we'll talk about this later," I said shutting the front door behind me and hopping on to my bike.
I wasn't a party type girl, I was the shy bookworm in the back of the class girl and I had seen enough movies to know throwing an unsupervised party for high schoolers would not end well. I didn't want to end up drunk in the bathroom, pregnant, or humiliating myself. Heck, even the idea of the after cleaning was enough proof to me why it would not be a good idea.
I pedaled into the parking lot of Patty's Diner. Parking my beloved bike next to the front entrance I went inside, the jingling bell signaling Patty my arrival. "About time, don't you think? You missed breakfast hour," Patty said from behind the counter. "Sorry Patty, I said good bye to my dad today," I replied, tying my white apron around my antique pink uniform. "Alright, just don't let it happen again," my boss said, giving in to my excuse.
After 7 hours and 58 minutes of pouring coffee for cranking quests, serving French fries to a group of elementary-aged kids, and a large ketch-up stain on my shirt, I was ready to go home. I scrubbed down the counter with a rag, my eyes fixed feverishly on the turtle-crawling hands on the clock. Just two more minutes. Just let me last two more minutes.
The bells rang, knocking me out of my clock watching. I sighed in frustration, before looking up at my next overly perky quest. I froze, removing my fake "Keep the customers happy" grin. I actually knew this guy. Well not really knew, he was in most of my classes at school, had been for the last few years. Percy. Unfortunately, I blushed slightly at the thought at what else he was.
Known only to Thalia and I was that he was the love of my life. I have had a crush on him since the very first I met him and he helped show me to my lost classroom. He had been so nice and kind and he had made me laugh about the stupidest jokes. It had been an amazing moment, he had acted like we were old friends when I knew a popular guy like him probably wouldn't even remember me the next day. I was right of course, we hadn't talked since, but nevertheless I was smitten with him from that moment forward.
He grunted, breaking me out of my reminiscing," Oh, right, sorry. Lost my train of thought...What can I get you?" I asked, glad I kept my hair down today so I could cover my blush with my golden curls. "He laughed at my awkwardness and I had to stop myself from muttering something stupid like, I love your laugh or I love you.
"I'll take a coke and a burger," he said. I fumbled for a paper cup to give him so he could get his drink from the dispenser. "Thanks," he said once I had handed him the medium-sized cup, "Could you by chance dye the buns on my burger blue?" I froze from where I had started to assemble his sandwich. Blue. Why would he want to color it blue? I looked up at him my eyebrows raised with a questioning gaze.
He chuckled at my expression, "I guess I should explain the blue food thing." "No kidding, Seaweed Brain," I said before paling at my embarrassing words. Why the heck did I give him a nickname? I probably scared him away now. Luckily for me, when I looked at him again he was just smiling at me. Ugh why was he so nice? "Seaweed Brain, I like it, it gives me the air of an ocean hero," he said. I laughed at how ridiculous he was. "What it does if you're so knowledgeable, explain to me what it gives me the air of, Wise Girl."
"It gives you the air of a muttonhead," I replied silently thanking my stars I didn't visually jump up and down from his nickname he gave me. "Alright, Alright. I'll give you that, only because you don't know the joy that is blue food," he answered leaning back on his stool and sipping from his drink. At the thought of blue food I realized what had started this mess and started back on his burger. "We do have some food coloring, but if I'm going to dye your food blue, I have to know why, "I said, pulling the bottle of blue dye down from the top cupboard.
"Ok, I'll tell you. So my mom used to date this guy named Gabe and anyway he told her there was no such thing as blue food, right after he had bossed her around for the entire date. So my mom sick of this guy thinking he was in charge told him off saying that blue food did exist and ever since it's been this sort of game between us, were we try to eat as much blue food as possible and whoever eats the most by the end of the week gets to pick the movie for movie night," he explained his face immediately twisting into a smile at the mention of his mom. I smiled, Ugh, he was going to kill me.
"That sounds really fun, I wish my dad and I did something like that, but he's always so busy with work and my step-mom's fundraisers, I don't really see him much," I said handing him his burger, freshly dyed deep blue. "Sorry to hear that, what about your mom?" he asked, oh right he moved in after the incident he wouldn't know, unlike the rest of the school who knew about a second after it happened.
"Oh, well she died a few years back. Got hit by a drunk driver walking home from work," I answered willing the sadness in my voice to go away. I didn't want any more pity.
"Sorry, I didn't know. If it helps my dad died a few months after I was born, but I didn't know him well," he said trying to make me feel better. I let out a strangled sound of laughter, "Only you would think that would make someone feel better." I couldn't criticize his method much longer because he had started making the weirdest faces and I was such a goner. I bent over laughter peeling out of my throat at the bizarreness of this creature, thankful that he was laughing too.
"Hey Annabeth, are you going to leave or do you want another shift?" Patty said from the back and startled I choked on my laughter, looking up at the clock. It was thirty minutes after the end of my shift. Where had the time gone? What was this guy doing to me, right before he came in I couldn't wait to have that hand finally strike five and now I wish I had another hour to talk with him?
"No I'm going, sorry Patty," I replied. I smiled back at Percy before taking off my apron and hanging it on the peg. "It was nice to see you Annabeth, have fun at your party," Percy said before taking a bite of his burger. I stopped in my tracks did he just say what I thought he did? "Did you just say party?" I asked twisting around from the door so I could judge his expression, sure he was joking.
He choked, his eyes widening, like he just realized what he said. "No I didn't...I don't know what you are talking about? I said pantry," he answered his eyes searching feverishly for an exit. "You are by far the worst liar, I have ever met," I said. "Fine, Thalia invited pretty much everyone from sophomore year to this big party at our house as a sort of early birthday party gift. But it was supposed to be a surprise, or something like that," he said giving in, he was smiling at the end like this surprise was supposed to be the greatest news since sliced bread, but all I could do was think of all of the ways this was going to go wrong.
"I'm going to kill her," I growled before hurrying out the door, ignoring the shouts of Percy trying to stop me from becoming a murderer. It didn't take long before I had pedaled to my street and I could already hear the blasting music and cheers coming from my house at the end of the road. A line of cars were spilling out of the driveway and down the road. At that moment a large crowd led by Thalia burst out of the front door singing loudly off-key happy birthday, throwing all hope of escape out the window.
I scowled as Thalia came closer making her know full well that once all the witnesses were gone she was a dead girl. They hurried me inside of the house and I could barely hear myself think as I was shoved up the stairs to my bedroom, it wasn't until the bedroom door was firmly shut tight that my mind could slow down enough for me to recognize the girls around me.
There was Thalia of course. Silena and Piper a pair of beautiful sisters that I had taken care of fashion or boy problems I had to offer through the years. And there was Clarisse. Clarisse started out as a jerk in first grade when she punched me in the nose for "Looking at her wrong", but after that we had become sort of close, you can't spend most of your schooling years in the same class and not become friends. Together we made a weird mix and match group that I was very glad to be part of. Without them I didn't know what I'd do.
"What is going on?" I asked fighting the smile that was twisting on to my face, I was not happy about this. "We're getting you dressed for your 17th birthday party, you don't want to wear that uniform do you?" Silena asked, already head first in my closet. I rolled my eyes as the rest of the girls swarmed it. "But I said no party, "I argued as they pulled out a purple shirt and forced me to try it on. "No to girly," Clarisse said tossing the shirt into a tall pile that had formed from all of their rejects.
"A party will be good for you," Piper answered throwing me a blue dress, "You never do anything fun." "That's what I've been telling her but she won't listen to me, until she has her bachelor's degree," Thalia agreed. "I'm not that bad," I countered, the idea of the party weighing on me, it couldn't hurt to spend a few hours crazy. "Alright, Alright. I'll give this party idea a try," I said. "Good because that dress is perfect," Silena said, setting me down on the bed so they could do my makeup and hair. "Not too much alright," I said worried when they came out with the mascara, "I don't want to look like a hooker." "You won't," Thalia said, swatting me on the arm.
Five minutes later I was released from their monstrous clutches and was allowed to look in the mirror. I gasped at the sight. The person in the mirror looked nothing like me sure she had the same grey eyes and the same untamed curly blond hair, but this person made it look beautiful. Brown eyeshadow made the stormy gray stand out matching perfectly with the sea-like structure of the blue green dress. I actually looked beautiful, no one would be able to tell that this was the same girl that normally hid in the back of the classroom wearing only t-shirts and jeans.
"Wow," I finally said, "You guys are magicians." My four friends crowded behind me in the bathroom staring into the mirror with me. "Anything for you sis," Thalia said. The others nodded, agreeing, what I did to deserve these friends. "Well thank you, I think we have a party to go to," I said. "Of course milady," Thalia said offering me her arm playfully and with a chuckle I took it.
The party was actually kind of fun, and the height of the drama was that Rachel Dare a girl from school accidently ate a plastic grape thinking it was real, so over all I had freaked out for nothing. The Stoll brothers had managed to form the large group into a circle or so they called it, that thing was not a circle, and were about to start a game of truth or dare, but all I could think of was that Percy wasn't here. Surely he would come, he knew about it, maybe he didn't like how uptight I had been and decided to bail out. I frowned at the thought. Of course I would be so angry about a stupid party to scare away him, he probably thought I didn't know how to have fun.
Numbly I noticed that during her turn Thalia got kissed by Luke Castellan, and a girl named Katie had to sit on Travis Stoll's lap for the rest of the game, but the only thing that stood out to me was the ring of the doorbell. I flew to the door almost kicking Piper in the face in my attempt to reach the door. I was acting crazy and a lot of my classmates just saw that and oh I don't care, it had to be him. I opened the door, fully aware of the loud squeak it made when it was pulled back, and smiled.
There on the porch stood Percy Jackson, he was twiddling his thumbs his expression clear he was off in thought. He was dressed in a light blue t shirt and I was extremely aware matched my dress. I tried to hide my blush as he smiled at me ruffling his messy black hair. "Hey, Wise Girl. Mind if I come in?" he said. I smiled back, letting him in," Of course, Seaweed Brain. But I have to warn you we don't have any blue food." "Oh darn, someone up there hates me," he laughed, looking up and stopped. "Do I have to call the police or is your friend still kicking?" he joked and I smiled, "Yeah she's fine she put up quite a fight."
"Well I'm glad you warmed to the party idea, "he said. "Yeah it's a Christmas miracle," I continued to joke around. "Speaking of Christmas may I just say, Merry Christmas," and before I could even contemplate that, his lips were on mine and I couldn't breathe. What is happening? What am I supposed to do? Percy stiffened and started to pull away, and I finally went for it, I kissed him back, my hands finding the hair at the back of his neck.
A cheer echoed from somewhere in my brain and then I realized it was an actual cheer and I broke off, blushing fiercely as I remembered the rest of my classmates sitting a few feet away. I looked back at Percy, praying it wasn't just a onetime thing, hoping he didn't regret it, and he smiled back at me.
"You're cute when you blush," he said, which only made me blush more. I put my hands up to cover my cheeks trying feverishly to cover my tomato cheeks and stopping because I just couldn't stop smiling and I didn't care anymore, except for the one part of my brain that wouldn't let this buffoon get away with not knowing what month it was, no matter if I was in love and he had just kissed me.
"It's July," I said giving in to the Wise Girl side of me, "Christmas was seven months ago." He laughed and pointed up, "I know but apparently the decoration committee doesn't." I couldn't believe it. Hanging proudly on the chandelier was a small piece of mistletoe. How could dad have forgotten to take it down? I was blushing again. He probably thought I planned this. What if someone else had realized it was there? I wonder if they would have kissed me like he did. What if I hadn't been the one to open the door, would he had kissed them instead? Why was he staring at me like that?
"Stop thinking so much Wise Girl," he said kissing me again and for a second I did, I couldn't even remember my name. My brain just kept repeating Percy. Seaweed brain. Blue food. Merry Christmas. This kiss was shorter really just a peck of lips and when Percy pulled away he whispered in my ear, "I like you, have for a while." I froze, trying to think but I think I was pass that capability ages ago. "I like you too," I whispered back. We pulled away from each other and his smile couldn't have been bigger and my blush was probably permanent and my classmates and friends were cat calling and whooping like it was 4th of July. It was the best was the best Christmas ever, well sort of.
A/N: So yeah you guys get to pick which version you like better. I'm thinking of starting a story where I'll suggest all of my favorite stories on wattpad and if anyone thinks that's a good idea. and you guys could suggest stories to me as well. Please review and tell your friends. I love feedback.