Winter, 1999

"Shhhh, be really quite. Percy, do you see her? There's Medusa!" Percy crawled out of the sofa-cushions-and-bed-sheet-fort behind Annabeth, peering over her shoulder.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Percy whispered back.

"I'm going to distract her, and you go behind her and chop off her head."

"On three?"

Annabeth nodded. "One… two…," Annabeth paused to look at Percy and make sure he was in position, "Three!" Between Annabeth's plastic dagger and Percy's wooden pirate's sword, poor Medusa never stood a chance.

Percy held up the stuffed snake triumphantly. "Ha! Take that Medusa!" He poked his sword through her again for good measure.

"Percy! Annabeth! Dinner time!" Sally called from the dining room.

"Mom, Mom, Mom!" Percy ran to her holding the snake with Annabeth right behind him, "Look at what we defeated!"

"It's the dreaded Medusa," Annabeth proclaimed.

"You can have it." Percy handed the snake to his mom. "She'll keep you safe because if you're in any danger you just show them the snake and they'll turn to a stone statue."

"Thank you, Percy. It's so kind of you to worry about my safety, but that doesn't mean you and Annabeth don't need to clean up the mess you've made." Sally gave them a stern look. "You still have to tear down your fort. And put Medusa back."

"Awww, Mom," Percy whined.

"Percy. No whining."

"Can we at least have dinner in the fort before we put everything back?" Percy asked. "Please?"

"Please, please, pleeeease? Pretty please, Sally?" Annabeth chorused, doing her best to look cute and angelic, like she would be on her best behavior.

"Oh, okay. But only because it's the last day of winter break. You guys both have school tomorrow, so you have to be in bed and sleeping by nine o'clock at the latest. Got it, Percy? No arguing with me this time."

Percy and Annabeth happily brought their macaroni and cheese to their fort. They used the piano bench as their table, sitting on the ground, and ate off of blue plastic plates instead of the dinner china. (Sally did not want an oopsie-daisie to clean up after.)

"I wish your dad and Analise weren't coming home from their trip tomorrow," Percy said, "Then you could stay even longer."

"Yeah." Annabeth missed her dad, but she really, really liked staying with Percy and Sally. It was the most fun she'd ever had.

Usually, all Annabeth did over winter break was stay in her house and read (either with her dad or by herself), but for the two weeks Annabeth stayed at Percy's house, she did all the things normal people did during winter break.

After the first big snow, Sally drove them to a park with huge hills, and they went sledding, and they also built a ginormous snowman on the front lawn. Annabeth wanted it to be at least as tall as she was, and she insisted that it faced her house so she could see it waving every morning from her bedroom window upstairs when she went back home. Then, they got to decorate a Christmas tree that Sally put up in the living room, and it made the room smell really good.

Annabeth also helped Sally bake Christmas cookies and decorated them. (Percy refused to help with the baking part because he thought it was girlie, but he did come into the kitchen when it was time to decorate and ate a lot of them.)

On Christmas Eve, Sally took Annabeth and Percy to the Macy's in New York City to see all the pretty decorations and window shop. (Percy thought that was also really girlie and kept whining until they arrived that the toy shop.)

But Annabeth probably liked going ice skating best, not only because she was better at ice skating than Percy, but also because after skating she got to drink a lot of hot chocolate with lots and lots of marshmallows. Sally made the best hot chocolate. Unlike the hot chocolate her dad made, Sally made her hot chocolate by melting real chocolate and adding milk. It was the yummiest thing she'd ever tasted. Even better than the Christmas cookies.

Annabeth loved spending winter break with Sally and Percy, and on the last night, she ate her macaroni and cheese extra slowly, one noodle at a time, hoping that it would make time pass slower so she could stay with them forever and ever.

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