to all my US fans, hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving ! don't get trampled today. I'm going to the mall of america later sooo if I don't update again, you'll know what happened o_O
to all my fans who don't celebrate Thanksgiving, hope you had a fabulous day in general !(:
thanks to all who reviewed last chapter!: waldork, Tajee165, Guest, AzianDemigod16, DifferentKindOfAsian, me, envelope123, Alexandra Nightshade, Arrow of Artemis, yanksrock615, Menna Nasser, anon101, pepperose
mmk so this chapter got a little long so sorry . hope you like it anyways (: enjoy!
Being around Annabeth so much must have rubbed off on me because when our first trimester finals rolled around, I actually studied. You know, a little bit.
Secretly, I was hoping to do really bad on my first finals at OU so I could show my dad that I still wasn't cut out for this college and he'd let me go home, or at least choose my own school.
However, when I was sitting in my dorm the night before two of my classes' tests, I brought out the texts books and actually review. It wasn't intense studying like I knew Annabeth was doing considering that whole week she would show up in English with her hair just slightly out of place, like she woke up late and did what she could with it. I did, however, go over the stuff I didn't know and tried to understand what I could. I even asked Nico for help a couple times. Sure, he wasn't a big help, but I think it was the mental effort that counted.
Unfortunately, all four tests I would walk into very confident and leave with my head hanging. Even my Marine Biology test was impossible and I thought I had that down.
Luckily, hard finals comes with a reward: winter break. Ours lasted five weeks so I used that glorious time to fly back to my mom's again. When I got there, she acted like that was the first time I had come home even though I had just been there for Thanksgiving two weeks before. But of course, she grabbed my face anyways and planted a million kisses on my cheeks. Without anyone there to see it, I let her.
Being away from my mom was weird. It wasn't so much that I needed her—because I can so take care of myself—but more that I just missed her being around. I missed her positive, look-on-the-bright-side comments and all her blue foods. I missed her hugging me goodbye even if I was just going to the store. I missed her beautiful smile when someone other than her would offer to cook; just those kinds of things.
One thing I didn't miss though were her questions.
"That Annabeth girl is really nice, don't you think?" she asked one morning out of the blue.
I was flipping through channels on the couch and twitched. "Huh? Oh, yeah, sure."
"You should have asked her to come visit over break." She started the coffee maker. "I would have loved to see her."
"Yeah, okay."
"How did you two meet, again?"
"English project."
"I hear she's an excellent student."
"Yup."
"Well that's nice." The coffee maker beeped and my mom grabbed two mugs. "Do you like her?"
I was thankful that I was already sitting down because if I wasn't, I probably would have feinted. "What?"
"I asked if you liked—"
"No, no, I know what you said," I said, cutting her off. "I just mean, well, why would you think that?"
My mom got a smug look on her face and pulled her hair back. "Well, she's smart, nice, extremely gorgeous, and I'm sure you guys see a lot of each other from this English project. Also, you wouldn't just invite any girl to your house across the country for Thanksgiving just because."
She is not nice by any stretch, I wanted to say, but I held my tongue. My mom didn't need to know everything about my life. The thing that turned my stomach though is that was the only flaw I could find in my mom's statement. Annabeth was smart—really smart—and, as long as I ignored her voice, she was hotter than Hell. We did see a lot of each other which makes tolerating her a little easier every day. Sure, we have our moments that make tolerating her much, much harder, but those fights aren't everyday anymore. They're not even every week.
Lastly, my stomach did one final loop when I realized that my mom was right: I had to have some form of likeness for Annabeth to invite her over to my house for three days. If I only hated her and had no other feelings, I wouldn't have thought twice about her staying at OU over Thanksgiving—I would have made some comment about her needing to read a cook book over break to make herself a turkey then been on my way.
"I don't like her, Mom," I said.
She shrugged. "That's fine. But just remember:" She walked over and handed me a mug with the hot coffee and steam poured out of the top. "Mom always knows best, and Annabeth is a good one."
"Thanks, Mom," I mumbled. "I'll, uh, keep that in mind."
My mom kissed the top of my head just as the phone rang. I turned back to the TV while she went to go answer it. "Hello?" she said.
I couldn't find anything good on live TV, so I switched over to our recorded stuff. "Annabeth!" my mom shouted. I spun my head towards her and my eyes widened. "Dear, how are you? How's your break?"
Seeing that my mom was about to have an hour long conversation with Wise Girl, I got up and held out my hand for the phone. My mom waved me away. "That's great, dear. Did finals go well for you?"
I held my hand out again with a little more eagerness this time, but again, my mom ignored me. "Good for you! I hear you're a star student anyways so I'm not surprised."
"Mom," I said. "Come on."
My mom rolled her eyes. "Annabeth, would you like to talk to Percy? Because he really seems like he wants to talk to you."
I widened my eyes and my cheeks started to burn. "Mom!"
She laughed at my expression then handed over the phone. "That's what you get, honey."
With my cheeks still red, I went to my room. After my door was shut and locked behind me, I brought the phone to my ear. "Hey, Wise Girl."
I heard her laugh on the other end. "Little eager there to talk to me, Seaweed Brain? What, do you miss me?"
"No," I said. "I just didn't want my mom to get into her 'conversation' mode. She wouldn't have stopped until you told her your life story."
She laughed again. "Oh, sure."
I shook my head. "So what exactly is your reason for calling my house over winter break?" I gasped. "Did you miss me?" Even if she couldn't see it, I dramatically put a hand over my heart.
I could just see her rolling her eyes as she said, "No," she said. "I just needed some help on the project."
"You need help? Now?" I asked. "Why now?"
"Because I'm working on it now, Seaweed Brain. Why else?"
"No, shit, Wise Girl. I meant why are working on it over winter break? They're called 'breaks' for a reason."
"Well, we didn't do anything the week of finals so I'm just catching up."
I kicked some clothes out of my way. "Oh, phew! I was so worried we wouldn't get back on track. I mean, we only have, what, five more months?"
"Oh, shut up," she said. "Will you help me or not?"
"No because you shouldn't be working on it anyways," I said. "Come on, Annabeth, there are better things to do than an English project over winter break."
I heard her sigh. "I know," she said. "but to be totally honest, I just don't have much else to do." She let out one laugh.
I raised an eyebrow. "What about shopping?"
"I hate shopping."
"Really?" I asked. "With all the clothes you have, it doesn't seem like you hate it."
"I can have nice clothes and still hate shopping, Seaweed Brain."
"Well sorry that I don't know the rules of shopping." She giggled. "What about TV?"
"Nothing good on."
"I hear you. What about hanging out with friends?"
"Most either go to OU and don't live here or are away at their own school."
I really didn't seem to be winning here. I lied down on my bed. "What about your family?"
There was a pause, then she said, "What about them?"
"Well, what are they up to?"
Another pause, and this one actually concerned me. It was that specific length that was too long for her to be just thinking—it was more like she specifically wasn't telling me something.
"Annabeth?" I said when she didn't respond.
"Yeah?"
"I, uh, asked you a question."
"Right," she said. "Well, uh, they're not home."
I sat up. "Oh, where are they?"
"Out," she said. "My dad is working and my brothers are in school."
"What about your mom?"
"Um..." There was rustling on the other side, like she was walking somewhere. I heard the sound of a door shutting then the phone being brought back up to her ear. "My mom isn't around."
"Yeah, that's what you just said. I meant like where is she—"
"I mean she's not around anymore, Seaweed Brain." My mouth went dry. "She left my dad when I was really little and...I-I haven't seen her since."
I let her have a moment, and to be honest, I needed one myself. I hunched over and ran my fingers through my hair. "Oh my, God, Annabeth, I am so sorry. I-I didn't know."
"S'okay," she said. "I'm over it. She left early enough that sometimes, I don't even think I can remember her. Plus, my dad re-married when I was five so my step-mom has kind of been my replacement mom. It's better this way."
Something about the way she said that made me bite my lip. She had too steady of a voice. It was like she was trying to tell herself more than she was trying to tell me. "Oh, well I guess that's good."
I could just picture her with her eyebrows knitted together and her signature far-away stare. She always did look cute when she was thinking. "Yeah, I guess," she said.
I felt like I needed to lighten the mood to hopefully cheer her up so I said, "Well, Wise Girl, you've got a lot of catching up to do on our project, don't you?"
She huffed. "Glad you sound like you really want to help, Seaweed Brain."
"I'm ecstatic. But seriously, Annabeth, we go back in less than a week. Just use the last couple days to relax and stuff, and I promise we'll get back to work as soon as we get back to OU, okay?"
With a smile in her voice, she said, "Alright, I'll do my best."
"That's my girl."
"What?"
I choked up. "I, err, I said 'sounds good.'"
"Oh. Well, okay. Bye, Seaweed Brain."
"See you, Wise Girl."
"Oh, and Percy?" she quickly said before I hit 'end.' "Try reading something before we go back. I don't want you to become illiterate again." I smirked and the line clicked off.
As soon as I put the phone down, guilt hit me in the gut like a cannonball. I had known her for over four months and I had never even asked her what her life back in San Francisco was like. That should have been, like, number one on my list when I decided that getting to know the wicked girl that I was being forced to work with was actually not a bad idea. Another thing that hit me was the fact that she actually decided to tell me. By itself, that was pretty personal, so telling it to me was...I don't know, confusing.
The guilt that hit me followed me around for the rest of that week, to the airport, across the jet stream to Seattle, and onto the campus of OU. I knew that Nico got there before me because his stuff was already back in our room. Just as I threw all my own bags on my bed, Nico popped his head in. "Hey, Perce."
I smiled. "Hey, man. How was your break?"
"Good, good. But, man, I'll tell you more about it later. Your dad wanted me to come get you 'cause he wants to talk to you."
"Oh, do you know what for?"
"Nah," he said, lugging in another bag. "but it's probably just welcoming you back or something."
"Yeah," I agreed. "Probably."
Over the break, OU had received three feet of snow and some pretty harsh wind-chills to top it off, so closing the door behind me after nearly running to the main administration building was a relief.
"Percy, my boy!" my dad greeted me as soon as I walked in. He had a cup of coffee in his hands and looked like he had just been chatting with our receptionist.
"Hey, dad," I said back, embracing him in a hug. "How are you?"
"Oh, I'm great, great, great!" I couldn't tell if my dad was trying to hide something or if he had just had too much coffee.
"You, uh, wanted to see me?" I asked.
"Yes, I did!" he said. Then he turned back to the receptionist. "Laura, can you print out my schedule for the day, please?"
"Yes, sir," she said. Then she turned to her computer and started typing away.
"Great! Percy, why don't we go into my office? It's warmer in there."
I peeled off my coat, all ready a little warm, but I agreed anyways. I followed him down the hall and up two flights of stairs into his office where I realized that it really was warmer in there. Floor to ceiling windows lined one wall and bookshelves lined another. His desk was 'L' shaped so he could look over the campus if he wanted to but also look in the faces of students in trouble when they sat on chairs that were at the base of his desk. The middle of the room was taken up by two couches and a coffee table with a fur rug underneath it. But none of this was the reason for the warmer temperature—a full stone fireplace cut into the middle of the back wall.
"That new?" I asked pointing at the structure.
"Yup," he said proudly. "Just got it built over the break. At first they said I couldn't do it because I'm not on the top floor, but I made them anyways."
I chuckled and shook my head. "But enough about that," he continued, taking a seat on one couch. He kicked his feet up. "Make yourself at home, my boy."
I took the other couch. "So, what's up, Dad?"
"Well," he said. "remember before Thanksgiving when I was going to tell you something, but then forgot and never got back to it?"
Being that he was talking about something that happened six weeks ago, I honestly didn't. But I pretended that I did anyways. "Sure, Dad. Did you remember what it was?"
"Actually, yes." His face got a little less playful. "During the first trimester of the year, I was keeping up on how you were doing—making sure this was still a good idea and all. At that point, I was going to let you know how your base trimester grade were so you would know how you would need to do on the finals to keep a good overall GPA."
The ends of my lips started to curl up. "Yeah, and?"
"Well, Percy, to be honest, I'm not very impressed." He took his feet off the table and leaned forward.
My spirit actually fell a little bit. Sure, half of me wanted this but the other half had actually started getting into making my parents proud by succeeding in this school. I tried to shake that off, guessing that he was about to tell me that I wouldn't be coming back for this trimester. "That bad, huh?"
He raised his eyebrows. "Actually, no. You got two A's, a B, and a C minus."
"Oh," I replied. "Then why aren't you impressed?"
"I was, but those were your grades before finals." He twisted his mouth. Looking at him now, it was a lot easier to see why he's OU's vice principal. Before when I looked at him, I only saw him as my fun-loving tacky-shirt-wearing dad. Now, with a crease in between his eyebrows and his hands folded, it felt just like any other time that I was sent to the principal's office.
I sucked in a breath. "Okay. What did they come out as?"
"A minus, B plus, C, and pretty much on the dot in between a D and a D minus."
"Ouch," I said. "I guess I didn't realize how much effect these things actually had." I tried laughing to lighten the mood but he didn't join in.
"Percy, this is serious," he stated. I stopped smiling. "The first three are fine, but the D-slash-D minus that you got in Calculus isn't. You're better than that, son."
"Wait, weren't you even the one who said that I 'frankly wasn't smart enough' for this school in the first place?" I asked. The side of me that wanted to make them proud was overpowering the other side. I actually got mad that my dad even told me straight up that he didn't think I would be able to do it. Why shouldn't I be able to? I'm not the dumb, dyslexic boy that people like Annabeth treat me like.
"Yes, but of course that was before you actually decided to come—"
"Okay, I didn't 'decide' anything," I cut in. "You forced me to come here, remember?"
"Yes, yes, Percy. And of course I'm sorry for being so harsh on you, but I was trying to help."
I stood up. "Oh, yeah, real big help, Dad. If you didn't think I could actually go here without humiliating myself and flunking out, then why did I even come?"
"Because, Percy," he said just as harshly. "I wanted to help. You weren't doing anything with your life so I thought this might be good for you. Just something to make you realize that life won't be a smooth sailing anymore. But now, my boy, you do get a choice."
"Yeah?" I said. "What choice would that be?"
There was a knock on the door. My dad ignored it and kept his stare on me. "You can quit this life, go live with Sally again and figure out what you want to do for yourself from there," He paused. I hadn't even realize that I had curled my hands into fists until my nails started digging into my skin. "Or you can find a way to get your grade up. But if you choose option two and the grade doesn't turn into at least a B minus by the end of this trimester, I get to choose for you."
I kicked the coffee table out of my way and pushed the door open, forgetting that someone had knocked earlier.
"Ow," she mumbled, rubbing her hand that she used to try and stop the door. Her grey eyes were filled with annoyance.
"Sorry," I mumbled while still pushing past her, not wanting to hear any bitchy comment that she was about to throw my way.
"Hold on," Annabeth said, grabbing my arm. All the annoyance in her expression was gone. "Are you okay?"
"Just dandy," I said. "I'll see you in English." Then I pulled out of her grasp and left.
let me know how i did by clicking the 'review' button below (: happy holidays everyone ! -kenna(:
