The Gods Play a Game

Before Percy and Annabeth really had much to say back to this, they found themselves standing before the Athena and Poseidon thrown on Mt. Olympus. Neither one of them seemed exactly thrilled to see their children.

"Um… hi dad?" Percy muttered.

Poseidon merely grunted and turned away like a child would if he didn't get his way.

Athena was more direct with the issue.

"Annabeth Chase how dare you? Of all the foul things in this world that you could partake in, you take part in THAT! Of all the boys you could have relations with you choose this… this…"

"Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth suggested.

"Hey!" Poseidon whined.

Athena rolled her eyes. "Exactly, why Annabeth? Is this some sort of teenage rebellion?"

Annabeth shook her head. "No mam, it's just… I really care about him."

Poseidon scoffed. "Oh please, you just called him a Seaweed Brain!"'

"It's kind of her pet name for me, dad. I call her Wise Girl." Percy stated.

"That's the best you could come up with? It sounds like you're complimenting her!" Poseidon scowled.

"That is not the point Poseidon, the point is, our children are dating and we do not like it."

"We didn't ask you!" Percy snapped and Annabeth nudged him.

"What Percy meant was that we think we can choose that for ourselves." Annabeth said more respectively.

Athena rolled her eyes.

"You're just children, you don't even know what love is."

"And you do?" Percy said as he earned himself another elbow in the ribs from Annabeth.

"What he means is, we don't think you guys really understand what we're going through." She said quickly.

"Oh come on! We were kids once." Poseidon argued.

"No you weren't." Percy pointed out.

Athena's nostrils flared. "I will not have my brilliant daughter dating some bafoon."

"I thought I was a Seaweed Brain." Percy muttered.

"And no son of mine dates a know-it-all."

Annabeth looked at Percy who just kept his eyes going back and forth from Athena to Poseidon as each of them countered each other with insults.

"ENOUGH!" shouted a high pitched voice coming from a different throne.

"Aphrodite! This does not concern you!" Athena said scowling.

"Anything that concerns love concerns me, smarty-pants." She said pleasantly.

"Duh… hi Aphrodite!" waved Poseidon with a big goofy grin on his face. No man, God, or creature could resist the Goddess of love.

Athena rolled her eyes. "Unbelievable! Why are you here Aphrodite?"

"I've actually been here watching you heart-less jerks go at it for the past 20 minutes and I believe both of you have crossed into my turf. You can't tell them who they can and can't date."

"Aphrodite, they did this without our consent. You see we saw photos of them… how do you kids say it, making out underwater!" Poseidon complained.

Athena nodded. "They're supposed to be sworn enemies."

Aphrodite grinned. "Oh you would think that, wouldn't you? Well I think Percy and Annabeth have a specially unique relationship that will probably suffer some of the worst and most grueling obstacles since Helen and Troy. They'll make it though."

"Are you saying, YOU planned all this?" Athena growled.

"It was time for you two to get over yourselves. I figured this would be the best way to do it."

"Well stop it! Stop it right now… er please?" Poseidon said.

"Hmm… well I can do this, I will put forth some of the most dramatic things I can think of that would break any couple up in their lives for 20 days. That would be the end of the camp season. If Percy and Annabeth are a couple at twelve midnight on the 20th day then they can be together. Otherwise, they break up and can never see each other again."

"WHAT?" Percy suddenly shouted.

Every single person was looking at him in the room. He felt his face growing hot out of embarrassment.

"I… uh… meant for that to be in my head."

Everyone sort of nodded at the same time then focused on what Aphrodite was saying.

"Anyway…" she continued. "Poseidon, Athena, anyone can interfere during the 20 days all they want to break them up, but after the 20 days, you leave it up to fate and themselves. Once the clock strikes midnight on August 18th, then whatever happens is solidified."

"This feels like a board game, and we're the pawns." Annabeth stated and Percy nodded in agreement.

"Yeah and not a friendly one like monopoly. More like trouble."

Aphrodite's bright smile returned to her face. "But if you guys overcome it, that would be the most romantic thing ever! Oh you kids are so perfect! This will be so fun to play with, see how much you guys can take."

"I really don't like this." Percy muttered and this time Annabeth nodded in agreement.

"It's like we're a stupid game to them, a bet."

"When will it start?" Poseidon asked.

"Tomorrow. That's when it's fair game."

"Aren't their any rules?" Percy exclaimed. "Like no death or anything like that?"

"All's fair in love and war my dear! Why do you think I'm dating the God of war?"

"That makes sense now." Percy said looking to Annabeth, who looked like she was trying to figure out a way to take down the Gods, by the way she was staring at each and every one of them.

Athena sighed and looked to Poseidon.

"Does this mean we're working together to break them up?" Poseidon asked.

"As much as I hate to say it, yes, and I have a feeling that Aphrodite will be making things difficult too."

"If you so much as touch my boy."

"And that to my daughter…"

"Fine so we agree, no physical hurting on purpose."

"Yes, accidents are acceptable. Like if I accidentally set Percy's hair on fire."

"We can hear you." Annabeth said.

They turned around embarrassed.

"All right, Aphrodite, you've got yourself a deal."

Aphrodite clapped.

"Yay! Oh this is going to be even better than that month when they played non-stop Spanish soap operas!"

Percy looked at Annabeth.

"I guess we don't have much of a say in this…"

"Nope."

"So what do we do?"

"We've just got to try and stick together, stand by each other." Annabeth said.

"Okay, I'll stand by you."

"I'll stand by you too." She whispered.