Okay, I probably won't update for awhile, because of my exams, my piano recital, my orchestra concert, my solo ensembles, and Chinese school. You should know this if you read my story called Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
By the way, chapters from now on will be waayyyy longer, due to a request made by (forgotten name here). :)
This chapter has a lot of Percabeth. Hopes it makes you people happy (the Percabeth is pretty much indirect, though, so they're not technically doing it on purpose and realizing it, if that makes any sense.)
Percy's POV:
I was in a pitch-black forest, with no source of light except for a faint glow up ahead. I ran towards the glimmer of light. It was Annabeth, wearing one of those white Greek dresses, glowing a slight golden light. She looked stunning, more like a goddess than a half-mortal.
"Annabeth!" I yelled her name and she turned around, looking confused. She whirled back around and strode forward at an impossibly quick speed.
"No! Percy!" Someone, or something yanked my hand. Startled, I did a 180 degree turn. Those hazel eyes looked familiar, and the pale, beautiful face framed by soft brown hair.
"Calypso," I breathed in amazement, but looked for Annabeth. The light was getting fainter. She was getting away. I yanked myself forward, running to catch up to Annabeth. The light was stronger, as if she had stopped. Which she had.
It was the edge of a cliff, the churning ocean viciously throwing itself against the cliff's shelves. Annabeth dived over the edge.
"No!" I screamed, reaching out for her, but Calypso pulled me back. I then watched in astonishment and horror as Annabeth, right before she hit the icy-cold waves, turned into a snowy owl, and flew away.
"Annabeth!" I yelled, but I knew that nothing was going to make her come back.
"Percy," Calypso said sadly. "She is not going to come back. She is an immortal."
"Psst! Percy! Wake up! It's ten-thirty!" an urgent voice whispered. I responded with what sounded like, "Arugh, go to Tartarus" and turning around on the couch, pulling the fleece blanket over myself tightly. I was promptly responded with a shove, and I fell to the floor painfully.
"Shoot! What was that for?" I finally opened my eyes and was met by a laughing Annabeth. I felt better, relieved, like the dream had never happened. Then I blushed, remembering the "Tartarus" statement.
"Naw, it's fine. I don't want you to go to Tartarus, either," Annabeth half-smirked, playfully shoving me again and stealing my blanket.
"Hey! You asked for it!" I warned. I whacked her on the head with my pillow, and we laughed, shoving each other around and having a one-sided pillow fight.
"Percy, I was wondering if– Am I interrupting anything?" my mom had come into the living room, only to find Annabeth tackling me down, her face two inches from mine, about to steal my pillow. We got off of each other, faces burning, while my mom's face wore a mischievous smile.
Annabeth was the first to recover. "Uh, sorry about that, Ms. Jackson. You were saying before?"
"Yeah, you were saying?" I echoed, hastily brushing some lint off my shirt.
"Well, as I'm sure both of you two know, tomorrow is Christmas, and we'll be doing some Christmas shopping today," my mom said brightly.
"Joy," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Oh, be quiet. Come on, have some holiday spirit," Annabeth teased, and nudged my shoulder with her own.
I rolled my eyes. "Fine, fine! I'll go change," I grumbled. I trudged into my room and into my closet, picking out a black jacket, gray jeans, a dark blue shirt, and a gray baseball cap. I walked into the kitchen to grab a doughnut or something and saw Bobby and Matthew playing with plastic action figures on the wooden floor. They saw me and jumped up.
"Whoa! Hey, Bobby! We can finally meet Percy Jackson! In person!" Matthew cried in glee. Bobby pushed Matthew out of the way.
"Hi, Percy! I'm Bobby, and that loser over there is Matthew. I think it's awesome that you're Poseidon's son!" Bobby said enthusiastically. Matthew shoved Bobby, and they landed on the floor.
"I'm not a loser! You're the loser, Bobby!" They started wrestling and arguing. Annabeth approached us from my mom's bedroom, dressed in a blue sweater and black pants, her golden hair pulled back by a silver headband.
"Hi guys. What's up?" She turned and saw me. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The deal. Okay, Bobby, Matthew, this is Percy." Annabeth motioned to me.
"Uh, hey," I said to the twins, and then whispered to Annabeth, "What deal? And how do they know so much about me?" At this, she turned slightly pink, but ignored me.
"Is Annabeth your girlfriend, Percy?" Bobby asked innocently, playing around with his little figure.
I flushed and Annabeth did too. "No, Bobby. We're just friends."
"Than how come–" He was interrupted by someone.
"Good morning, Percy, Annabeth," a lilting voice said. I saw Mrs. Chase saunter over to the kitchen.
"Your mother is a very kind and gracious woman, you know, Percy," Mrs. Chase said, smiling.
I nodded. "Yeah, she is," I said thoughtfully.
"So, I promised that I'd help Ms. Jackson prepare some breakfast for you kids. Sound good to you?" Mrs. Chase asked, waving a spatula in the air. My mom hurried into the room, wiping her hands on her green wool pants.
"Thanks, Jina. Morning, Ms. Jackson," Annabeth said politely while Bobby and Matthew struggled to compose their grinning faces. Something was up with them, but I didn't ask.
My mom and Jina cooked up a few omelets, while I just grabbed a few doughnuts (like I said that I would earlier) and stuffed them into my mouth.
After ten minutes, my mother, Jina, Annabeth and I were in my mom's Civic (Dr. Chase took the twins out to sightsee), and we drove off towards the mall.
Annabeth's POV:
"We'll leave you kids by yourselves while do some shopping," Ms. Jackson said. "Is that all right with you?" Percy and I nodded, and they walked towards the big Christmas tree in the center of the mall, conversing about what to get Paul and my dad, which things were more expensive, etc.
"So, what'd you want to do?" Percy asked uncertainly.
"Let's just look around and see if we find anything we like," I said.
"Fine with me," Percy shrugged. We started window-shopping, looking at clothes and grabbing the occasional sugar-covered pretzel (for Percy, anyways). After about four hours of just wandering around the store and talking, Percy halted to a stop.
"Whoa. They're having a sale on that jacket that I really want at Hollister. Let's go see if I can afford it or not," he said while pulling me towards the store. I looked up at the top of the doorway inconspicuously and my eyes grew wide. Oh no. I yanked Percy back, right before we were about to go in.
"What?" Percy demanded. I pointed upwards at the little plant with waxy white berries dangling from the top of the doorway.
"So, what about it?" he asked, ignorant of what it was.
"Seaweed Brain!" I hissed. "That's mistletoe. Remember the holiday tradition with mistletoe?"
Percy turned a pale shade of red. "Oh. Oh," he said, finally getting it. "Let's get away from there," he advised. I nodded, and just as we walked ten feet away, we heard some screaming coming from nearby.
"Come on, Wise Girl! Let's see what the commotion is about," Percy said, and he ran towards the sound.
As we neared a fountain, I got a clear view of the cause of chaos. A five-headed snake/shark/rhino-sized monster was thrashing around, its rattlesnake-like heads spitting out toxic acid.
"Looks like we're going to have to deal with this one," I said grimly, and Percy nodded. We snuck up on it, our clothes blending in with a window display near the hydra.
I asked a few people who were freaking out whether they had lighters or not (AN: Remember? Hydra? Fire?), and believe it or not, one actually did. They handed it to me, and ran out of the area like mad.
"Percy! Catch!" I threw him the lighter. Think, Annabeth, think! My mind worked furiously, trying to think of a plan, but apparently, Percy had a different idea.
"Annabeth! Distract it with your knife!" he yelled. I unsheathed my knife and stabbed the hydra's back. It growled and snapped at me, throwing me a good five feet behind it. Percy took a shaky breath, dipping his hand into the fountain and then using the lighter to light his palm.
"What in Hades are you doing, Seaweed Brain? You're going to get burned!" I screamed. Percy just ignored me, quickly moving his hand in a throwing motion towards the hydra. A little ball of fire caught onto its leathery skin, and it hissed in pain as the fire spread, engulfing the hydra in a brilliant spectrum of fire and light.
Percy caused some water from the fountain to douse to fire, leaving in its midst a neat pile of black dust. He coughed and ran over to me. People watching everywhere applauded, and we blushed, trying to get through the large crowd doing some last-minute Christmas shopping.
"Percy! Annabeth! Are you two alright?" a frantic Ms. Jackson appeared in the crowd, towing behind a very worried Jina.
"Yeah, we're fine, Ms. Jackson," I assured her. She visibly relaxed, but still looked anxious.
"We heard some screaming, and people yelling that two teenagers were fighting off some kind of monster, so of course, we knew that it was you two, and we rushed here to see if you were all right," Jina said.
"Yes, we're all right, and it was Percy did most of it. I just stabbed it," I said modestly.
"Nah, you distracted it so I could work my plan," Percy said to me, than turned to his mom. "It's no big deal, Mom. Seriously, just relax." I could see that he was hiding something. Ms. Jackson seemed to realize that too, and grabbed Percy's right arm and pulled it out so she could see his hand.
"Oh my gods, Percy! You should have told us about that!" I said, concerned. His hand was raw and red, slightly bleeding in some places.
"I didn't want you guys to worry. And besides, it's nothing," he said, shrugging. Percy winced in pain, but acted like he didn't feel it.
"Nothing?! Look at it, Seaweed Brain," I said, slightly worried. He shrugged again, brushing back a few curls of raven hair peeking out from under his cap.
"Relax, Wise Girl. Any other person would've had their whole hand burned off. Me… Well, I'm different, being Poseidon's son and all," Percy said. I glared at him.
"Still. That was risky," I protested. "But… I guess you were pretty brave, facing the hydra like that. I still think that you take chances too much."
"So? My 'chances' often get us out of messes. Like that time in Mt. St. Helens," Percy argued.
"You could've died in that volcano! You had a, what, five percent chance of living?" I retorted.
"But guess what? Here I am, standing in front of you as a living human being today. I guess I was part of that five percent," Percy said calmly.
I scowled. "Whatever." Percy grinned triumphantly, winning the argument.
"Okay, that's enough, Percy," Ms. Jackson said a bit sharply. "We should get going. Jina and I already picked out everything for Christmas."
"Yeah, sure," I said, eyeing the twenty or so bags that Ms. Jackson and Jina were carrying. We walked out of the store and soon, we were back in Percy's apartment.
Ms. Jackson and Jina dumped all the Christmas decorations and presents on the floor while Percy went to go soak his injured hand in some water and inhale in a few pieces of ambrosia.
"You kids want to help?" Jina asked as she and Percy's mom started hanging up tinsel decorations around the fireplace and counters.
Percy shrugged nonchalantly, coming back from the bathroom, and reached for a large bag sitting by itself in a corner. He was about to look inside it when Ms. Jackson reached over and grabbed the bag.
"Uh, Percy, Jina and I will take care of that bag. You kids just help us hang up some decorations," Ms. Jackson said hurriedly. Percy looked at the innocent-looking bag suspiciously, but ignored it, helping Jina with the tinsel.
"Annabeth, do you mind helping me out in the kitchen?" Ms. Jackson asked.
"No," I replied, and I followed her into the cheerful, yellow-painted kitchen. Percy's mother took out a large bowl from the refrigerator and set it onto the countertop. I peered at the content inside.
"Here, help me make some sugar cookies," Ms. Jackson said.
"Isn't it supposed to be blue?" I blurted out.
Ms. Jackson's eyes glinted with humor. "Well, we don't want to scare your family away, do we?" I shook my head and laughed. After washing my hands at the sink, I took a huge lump of cookie dough out of the bowl and starter breaking it into little pieces for cookies.
"So, uh, Ms. Jackson, what's inside that bag that you told us not to do anything about?" I asked curiously.
"Oh, it's nothing, Annabeth. Just some presents, and… Well, you'll see," she said mysteriously. I said nothing, but continued to break apart pieces of the dough. We worked in silence, preparing a really late lunch/really early dinner.
***
The rest of the day went by smoothly, almost like normal (minus the fact that we had Percy and Ms. Jackson living in the same apartment), until night time.
I rolled around over and over on Percy's bed. I just couldn't sleep. If I did, I knew that I would just be haunted by another nightmare, so I quietly snuck out of his room, wearing my tank top and sweatpants, grabbing a cozy-looking blanket from a chair.
I walked down the hallway and into the living room, where Percy was sleeping. Maybe he wouldn't mind my waking him up so that we could talk.
"Percy!" I hissed, shaking his shoulder. He opened one green eye to see who it was, but he just glared at me and went back to sleep.
"Stupid Seaweed Brain," I muttered as I headed out onto the balcony I had seen Percy at yesterday. I sat in one of the two chairs (it was very crowded) and turned my head towards the night sky. New York City was so polluted, unlike camp, so there were just a few brave stars showing through the hazy night.
"I completely agree. What is mankind even thinking these days?" an exasperated voice said. I jumped and my gaze fell onto a ghost-like person sitting on the other deckchair.
The normal looking part of her had straight, silvery blond hair, a spraying of freckles, and misty gray-blue eyes. The not-so-normal part? She was wearing a long, white robe, her skin was pure white, and she was transparent, her image sometimes flickering in and out of view, with a (you will not believe this) halo hovering over her head.
"Who– Who are you?" I managed, shocked.
The girl smiled. "I'm Annalise, your guardian angel." I was still shocked, and Annalise sighed. "I'm your 'conscience', remember?" I nodded.
"Oh, stupid thing!" she cried as her halo started to float off. She grabbed wildly for it, and yanked it back onto her head.
"Um, excuse me?" I said timidly. Annalise rolled her eyes, and snapped her fingers. Her white robe turned into ripped jeans, a black T-shirt with some random punk rock band's name on it, and black Converse shoes.
"There. Much better. At least I don't look like some angelic geek anymore. I'll probably be the most un-angelic angel you'll ever meet," she said, winking at me. "So, Annie. I've come to help sort out a few things."
"Okay… Like what?" I asked, trying not to think about the fact that my so-called "guardian angel" was sitting right in front of me, acting like she had known me for ages (which she technically had)
"Let's see." Annalise pondered. "Oh yeah. You're confused about your little relationship with Perce." She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back on the chair.
"What?" I said, raising my eyebrow. "What relationship? We're just friends."
"Anne, think about it. Do you seriously think that you two are just friends? Always being there for you. Giving his life for yours. I've got to admit, Peter is one fine-looking angel," Annalise said dreamily, going off topic a little.
"Peter?" I asked sharply.
"Whoops, none of that. Sorry about that, Annabeth. Eh, Peter is Percy's very own guardian angel. Just like I'm yours." Annalise gestured to herself.
"Okay, sure. You were saying about Percy?" I asked.
"Well, you should really think about it. Being in denial isn't going to work out so great for your relationship," Annalise advised. I heard a little beep, and she said, "Oh, drat! Gotta go, Anna. Mother Teresa's calling, letting us know that my five-minute time limit is up. I'm gonna have to get back before I miss 'Christianity and You'."
"Wait! You're going already?" I cried.
"Yep. Toodles! Sorry if I've been no help. I'm practically failing Angels 101. But honestly, think about it. Denial will make it worse! Oh, before I forget. Look up there," Annalise said, pointing up over my head.
"What?" I asked, but she waved and seemed to melt into the night. I looked up over my head. A sprig of mistletoe. And in a corner, the big bag that Percy wasn't supposed to touch. Empty.
I opened up the screen door and went back inside the warm apartment, taking note of the mistletoe.
My endings always suck. -_- Well, review! What are you waiting for?
Before I forget… I changed the second halves of Chapter Three and Chapter Five a little, so that the characters are more in canon, and so that they're slightly longer.
Review! Review! Review! Remember, I have my exams, so I won't update so much, so make it up by reviewing! (That made no sense. Whatever, just review!)