Okay. Latest chapter of Whatever the Cost. For those who are persisting, the actual plot will begin in this chapter. So please just bear with me. I have been really stressed out with school work, band auditions and what-not. This is also the first chapter I am doing different POVs. Tell me what you think! This will also be one of the longest chapters I've written. Anyway, please enjoy the chapter! Again, special thanks to CoolWater123 for encouraging me! Also, the song in this chapter is not written by me, it is written by a guy on youtube named AJ Raphael. I just used it for the plot. Check him out, he's amazing!
Cheers,
sayWHAT96
I gawked at Annabeth. All that was going on, and she had a plan. She was unbelievable.
"Annabeth, I'm not sure you know what's going on, but I don't have time for this." I said, exasperated. "Andrew isn't feeling well—"
Annabeth gave me a look. "You think I don't know? That annoying gossip girl sister of Claudine's told me. I am trying to help Andrew, Seaweed Brain!"
I wasn't too sure about this, but I dismissed my worries. "Alright fine. What's your plan?"
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you Percy," she replied. "You tend to open your mouth more then you should."
I was going to argue, when I realized she was right. Whenever she told me her plans, I always one way or another, let my tongue slip to the wrong person. I just decided to let this one go.
"Alright fine. Andrew, come over here, Annabeth needs to talk to you."
Andrew POV
I slowly got off my bed. As I walked dejectedly towards Annabeth, my mind went into overdrive, remembering the events that occurred earlier….
I was pacing around in the Poseidon cabin, nervously thinking about what I would say to Claudine. I had slain hellhounds, knocked down giants, even killed a drakon, but I had never been more afraid then I am now. What if she says no? What if, after this, Claudine never wants to see me again, never talk to me again, to never be my friend again…
I walked over to the Aphrodite cabin, preparing to knock and receive a barrage of hugs and (attempted) kisses. For some reason, I had always been popular, thought I suspected it was because of Percy. He had defeated Kronos, for Poseidon's sake, and wasn't all that bad looking. (actually, many girls call him "hot")Problem was, he had a girlfriend, so I was considered the next best thing, especially since I am practically Percy's younger clone.
I was at the doorstep, when I heard something around the corner at the side of the cabin. Sneaking around the corner, I was surprised to see Claudine.
My heart skipped a beat, and my breath stopped. She looked—beautiful, that was the only way to put it. She wasn't hot, as I found the term rather degrading. I found her cute, adorable, and especially beautiful. She wore modest clothing, just blue jeans and a plain light green short dress over that. Her hair was jet black, her skin a light tan, her eyes brown and deeper than the sea, which being the son of Poseidon, I know by experience. Claudine was just…..well, the only way to put it was she was her. Her looks wasn't what I fell in love with, though. She was kind, caring, down to earth. Yet at the same time she was tough, and not necessarily physically but mentally. Claudine stuck to her values, and one of her most important was to not allow anyone she cared about to get hurt. I found myself lucky to have her even as a friend.
I was snapped out of my thoughts when I heard another voice. I peeked further around the corner, and saw Christopher Landings from the Hermes cabin. He was and arrogant son of a gun, and I didn't like him one bit. I was wondering what he was doing here, and that question was quickly answered.
"Hey, so Claudine," he said in that annoyingly smooth voice. "You busy tonight?"
Claudine blushed. "No, why do you ask?"
It never occurred to me that Claudine might actually like this jerk. After all, a lot of girls here had fallen in love with his looks. Everywhere he went, no matter what, he seemed to have a trail of girls after him. Me, as "popular"(which I am ashamed to call myself as such) as I am with girls, never had those irritating trails of females.
Again, Christopher said in the voice, "Do you want to go to the camp dance with me?"
At that moment I fell from leaning too much. I tumbled onto the scene, shocking them.
Christopher looked rather amused. "Well if it isn't Kelphead the Second. What're you doing here peeping here on me and my date?"
I got up flustered and angry. "Don't ever call me that again, you, you—"
"Andrew! Are you ok?" Claudine said, a reddened face on her. "I was just talking with Chris here…."
"Girl, you were doing more than just talking with me," Chris said. "You were just about to say you were going to the dance with me. So how about it?"
Claudine looked uncomfortable. I gave her a pleading look, begging her not to.
Then I heard a shaky, unsure voice. "Yes, I will, Chris."
With tears beginning to form in my eyes, I ran off, to nowhere in general, just anywhere, anywhere other than here. After a few minutes, I returned to the Poseidon cabin, and laid down on my bed to sleep.
These memories flooded through me, causing fresh set of tears to appear.
"Andrew? I need to talk with you." Annabeth said, sympathy written across her face.
I just stood there, with a blank expression. "What's there to talk about? Claudine probably hates me, and I don't want to face her, if that's what your 'plan' is."
"That's not what I want you to do. I want you to go to the dance."
I laughed, a crazed, bitter sound. "So you want me to go with another girl, and make her jealous? That's not going to work, Claudine's too—"
Right then and there, Annabeth slapped me.
Percy leapt in front of me as I lay on the ground in shock. "Why the heck did you do that, Annabeth?"
She promptly ignored him and pushed him aside. Once she got to me, Annabeth picked me up and led me away—to the Apollo cabin.
Percy POV
I was shocked, to say in the least. What Annabeth did was insane, even if she was my girlfriend. I mean, she slapped my brother! Why in the world did she do that?
I calmed myself down. I remembered that she never slapped someone without reason. So I just waited for her to come back so she would explain to me what had happened. As I sat down in front of my cabin, I remembered all the good memories Annabeth and I had….the first time she kissed me at the chariot race, the silver streaks we shared from holding up the sky, the first real kiss she gave me at Mt. Saint Helens, when we finally admitted our love for each other after the Battle for New York…
Annabeth and I had a very good time together. We started out as friends, and ended at something more. I had hoped the same for Andrew, but he always had the harder life, even for a half-blood. He had grown up with an abusive stepfather, his mother dead giving birth to him. Andrew's stepfather had regularly beaten him and forced Andrew to go out and beg for his alcohol money. He had barely enough to eat, and only went to school off of charity money. Andrew ran away at the age of 13, and was found by Grover near the Sound, with barely alive and starving.
When he came to in the Big House, he had a crazed look on his face, and tried to escape. Andrew thought he was back home, and was crying when we restrained him. When he had calmed down, I came in to explain the gods, monsters, who we are, and who I was.
"So, you're saying my dad is an all-powerful being?" Andrew said softly.
I prepared for the whole "why didn't he care about me" rant. "Yeah, that about sums it up."
To my surprise, he smiled. "That explains a lot."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, before Grover found me, a few miles away from the Sound, a man appeared to me as I layed on the ground." Andrew said. "He said, 'I claim you as my son, Andrew. You will make me proud one day. For now, you must make your way to the Sound, so that they may find you.'"
I looked at him, the boy who had been abused all his life, who was still smiling.
"So….did he tell you who he was?"
Andrew's face scrunched up. "Well, not exactly. I asked him who he was, and he replied something strange."
"What did he say?" I said, extremely curious.
"He said, 'I am the Earthshaker, creator of horses, Master of the Seven Seas."
Right after he said seas, a bright light filled the room. I covered my eyes, and threw a pillow over Andrew's face. When I opened my eyes, I was shocked to see two things: a glowing green trident over Andrew's head, and my father Poseidon.
"D-dad!" I said, bowing.
Dad smiled, and said, "No need to bow, Percy. I just came to introduce you to your half-brother, Andrew."
Andrew, who had been staring at Dad, suddenly understood what he had said. "I have a brother? But then that means…"
"Yup. You have a family again." Poseidon said, smiling. "One that cares about you."
Andrew's eyes began to water; that's how much this meant to him. Suddenly, he sat up straight.
"I remember you! You helped me in the subway, when I had to get on!" Andrew exclaimed. "It was rush hour, and you gave me your tickets!"
Poseidon gave that famous smile that caused the wrinkles on his face. "Yes, that was indeed me. I have always been watching over you, Andrew, because you are a very important child."
That was when I awoke to Annabeth's voice. Apparently, I fell asleep for the past 15 minutes.
"What time is it?" I yawned.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "About 4:30, Seaweed Brain. Come on, we need to talk."
"You bet we do!" I said loudly, remembering what happened. "What'd you slap Andrew for?"
Annabeth had a pained look, and told me to get inside the cabin.
Once we were sure no one was outside listening, Annabeth began to talk.
"Well, it was about 3:30, thirty minutes after Andrew went to ask Claudine to the dance. I was walking back from archery class, when that brat Drew came up to me. I asked her as harshly as I could what she wanted. She replied, 'Oh, you don't know?' I said apparently not. So, she told me what had happened, and said she was going to tell everyone in this camp about it. At that point, I got a little too mad, and pinned her down, placed a gag in her mouth, and tied her to a tree in the forest so she wouldn't tell everyone what had happened. That took roughly thirty minutes, by which time I came over here to talk to Andrew."
I still was confused about one thing. "Okay, but why did you slap Andrew?"
Annabeth sighed. "It was the only way to get him to stop talking, and to bring him to his senses. He had this maniacal look on his face, and I decided to bring back to his right mind."
Okay, so maybe she had a point. Andrew did have a rather disturbed look.
"So where'd you take him?"
Annabeth grimaced, and said, "I took him to Will Sollace, head councelor of the Apollo Cabin."
"Alright, then," I said, curiosity burning. "Why did you take him there?"
Annabeth gave a slight smile—that cute smile—and said, "Because it is all a part of my plan."
2 hours later
Andrew POV
I was feeling nervous. I had the song down, I had run the entire thing with the Muses several times, but it was still just plain scary. I wasn't even dressed for the dance. I was dressed for a stage performace; I was wearing jeans, a white button up shirt, over which I had a nice sports jacket, and a nice pair of Armani shoes given to me by sympathetic Aphrodite girls. It was comfortable and all, but I still was a wreck. I had to sing….and what Annabeth had told me really shocked me to the core….
I stumbled after Annabeth after she pulled me away."Th-thanks, Annabeth…I needed that."
"No problem, but now I have a few things to tell you." Annabeth replied, a sympathetic look on her face. "Claudine….she did like Christopher."
I stared at the ground. "No need to tell me something I already know. Now what are we doing here?"
"That's not all, Andrew." Annabeth replied. "See….after I tied up Drew, Claudine came to talk to me."
Okay. Now she had my curiosity. "So…..what'd she say?"
Annabeth launched into the shortened version of the conversation. "Well, Claudine only accepted Chris's invite because he had asked first, and she felt really bad seeing you run off. In fact, she's mad at Chris; he called you a wimp, and said you wasn't worth her time."
"So what?" I replied. "Just because she stood up for me doesn't change much."
"Oh, but it does. You see, after that, Claudine said that while she only liked Chris a little, you were the one she really wanted to go to the dance with. She said she liked you even before you became friends."
I just stood there, completely shocked. Not only did she not want to go to the dance with Chris, but she likes me. And I like her. There was still one problem, though. Claudine was still going to the dance with Chris.
And that's when Annabeth put her plan into effect.
I was still nervous as heck as the time drew closer for me to go on stage. "M-maybe I can't do this, Sollace…."
Will laughed and slapped my back. "C'mon! You're probably the best singer I've heard in a long time, and that includes from my cabin."
"Thanks, bro…but that still doesn't ease my nerves….."
"Gosh, stop worrying Andrew." Will groaned. "No go get her, man!"
With that, I heard the Muses out on the stage, "And now we have a guest star on stage, tonight. Please say hello to the son of Poseidon and your fellow camper, Andrew Peterson!"
I stumbled out on to stage, and made a fool of myself as I tripped on my way to the stool center stage.
As I sat down, I gave a nervous smile, and saw many girls out there sigh. Little drama queens.
I looked around and finally saw Claudine, just twenty feet in front of me.
My heart leaped. She was wearing a beautiful sea green dress, simple yet perfect. That wasn't what I saw, though. I saw the one I loved, a sweet, kind, wonderful girl. She had a huge smile on her face, and she waved at me, mouthing, Good luck!
That was all the encouragement I needed. I took a deep breath, and sat on the stool.
I strummed my guitar, and said, "This is a song I wrote for a very special, beautiful girl."
Percy POV-about 30 minutes before
I got ready to meet Annabeth to take her to the pavilion. I was wearing a surprisingly comfy grey tuxedo, (courtesy of the Aphrodite cabin) and went to wait for Annabeth. When I got to the place, what I saw astounded me.
Annabeth was absolutely beautiful.
She wore a wonderful grey satin dress, which made her look even better. Annabeth had on no makeup (that would just ruin the image) and wore her owl earings—rather coincidental, because she had those on at our first dance, all those years ago at Westover Hall. How much things have changed since then…..
Annabeth caught me staring at her. She blushed, then said, "Well, are we going, or what?"
I snapped out of my trance, and grinned. "Of course, my fair princess."
"So, can you tell me your plan yet?"
"Not yet, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said teasingly. "Not until after the dance."
I just sighed and took her hand, and we walked towards the pavilion.
By the time we got there, the dance was in full swing. People were going crazy, with dance competitions everywhere, groups of guys nervously dancing with their dates, and groups of girls just partying it all the way.
Will Sollace from the Apollo Cabin was the DJ, and the Muses were rocking it up on stage to whatever Will put on. When Will saw us walk in, he had a bright flash in his eyes and grabbed the mic.
"Alright ladies and gentlemen, grab your dates and head to the dance floor, for a nice slow dance with your partner!" Will announced. "This dance is dedicated to the Savior of Olympus and his beautiful strategist girlfriend, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase!"
I closed my eyes and groaned. Will was nice and all, but he overdoes things sometimes. Then I felt something on my lips, and opened my eyes to see Annabeth kissing me, and I kissed back with equal fervor. Once we released, I asked, "Where did that come from?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Do you need an explanation for everything? It's because I love you."
I smiled, and without responding, I pulled her to the dance floor. Then a beautiful song started playing…..I recognized it from my Mom's dance songs; it was You'll be in My Heart by Phil Collins. How true that was, because once she was in, Annabeth will never leave my heart.
We danced slowly, swaying with the music. It was nice to have her so close to me…..when I suddenly asked, "Am I doing better than last time?" Darn ADHD.
Annabeth laughed. "Yes you are, Percy. Just go with it."
I'll be here, don't you cry….
I held Annabeth closer, savoring the moment, thinking about her: her beautiful grey eyes, luscious lemon scented hair, but above all, her personality. Annabeth never lets anyone close to her get hurt. It's just one of those things that you rarely see in people these days.
For one so strong, you seem so small…..
That was definitely Annabeth. Too many times people think of her as a person with an iron will. It's true, but under that iron will, she can still feel pain, and be lonely. At those times, I hate to see her cry. At those times, I feel like I need to be there for her, to make sure that she'll be okay.
…I'll be there, for you.
Before I knew it, the song was over. That last line stuck with me the most, because no matter what, I will be there for Annabeth, even if I had to bear the weight of the sky again.
Then the biggest surprise of the day came. I was snapped out of my trance by Annabeth saying, "Here he comes."
I looked at where she was looking—the stage—and saw….Andrew.
Andrew POV-back to the present
I strummed my guitar, starting a nice, happy tune. It was something I wrote, so it was special to me. I licked my lips, and many girls sighed. Stupid brats. I played the tune for about twenty more seconds.
Then I took a breath, and began to sing:
"I, hold the door, please come in!
And just sit here for a while,
This is my way of telling you I need you in my life!
It's so cold without your touch,
I've been dreamin' way too much!
Can't we just turn this into reality 'cuz:
I've been thinking 'bout you lately,
Maybe you could save me
From this crazy world we live in!
And I know we could happen,
'cuz you know that I've been feeling you…
I strummed a few more notes on my guitar, all the while looking at the stage floor, afraid to meet Claudine's eyes. After a measure or two, I started again.
Storms, they will come,
But I know that the sun will shine again,
He's my friend, and he says that we belong together!
And I'll sing a song, to break the ice!
Just a smile from you is suffice,
It's not me, being nice, no this s real tonight 'cuz:
At this point I let go of the guitar and it strums on its own (thanks to the Muses' magic), along with guitars played by the music. I grab the mic off the stand and start walking/dancing across the stage while singing.
I've been thinking 'bout you lately,
Maybe you could save me
From this crazy world we live in!
And I know we could happen,
'cuz you know that I've been feeling you….
I know you want me—!
I slow the walk, and point at Claudine, giving her a look that hopefully confessed my feelings.
There's no other, there's no other love…
That I'd rather have, no-o-o,
There ain't no one there ain't no one else…
I want you for my se-elf!
I've been, thinking 'bout you lately,
Maybe you could save me
From this crazy world we live in!
And I know we could happen,
'cuz you know that I've been feeling you,
I know you want me,
I slowed down here, and stand in one spot, and beckon Claudine up to the stage. She gets pushed up here by the crowd, and I turn to face her. Her eyes were glistening with tears—hopefully those of happiness, not caused by my singing.
I've been, thinking 'bout you lately,
Maybe you could save me
From this crazy world we live in!
And I know we could happen,
'cuz you know that I've been feeling you….
I know you want me too!
The guitar strums a few more notes, and the song ends. The campers erupt in cheers, some praising, others crying saying how romantic this was. A lot of those annoying girls were in tears, saying, "We lost him, we lost him!"
I stare into Claudine's eyes—those deep, brown eyes—and say, "Claudine…I love you."
Claudine's cheeks go slightly red, tears starting to go down. "I love you too."
With that, I hug her and hold her close, not wanting to let go, and as the campers roared their approval, Claudine and I slowly walked off the stage.
1 and a half hours later-Percy POV
"So that was your plan! That was absolutely brilliant!"
Annabeth blushes, and replies, "Thanks Percy. It wasn't really that great."
"Whatever you say, Annabeth." I replied. "You always underrate yourself."
We were walking to our favorite place to meet at night: a place on the beach where the moon is always clear in sight, the sand is the softest, and the water is the calmest. As we got there, I stopped, and put my hand in front of Annabeth. What was before us was one of the most adorable, cutest things ever.
Andrew and Claudine were sitting down on the beach right where Annabeth and I would be, their hands entwined as they looked up at the moon. They were both still in their dance wear—Claudine in her dress, Andrew in his stage clothes. Annabeth and I smiled, and slowly backed away towards the cabins.
As we reached, the Athena cabin I said, "Well, I'm glad that Andrew finally has some good in his life. He needs Claudine more than he knows it."
Annabeth looked curious. "What do you mean?"
I just kissed her, ruffled her hair a bit, and said, "I'll tell you tomorrow, Annabeth."
She smiled, kissed me goodnight, and walked into her cabin.
I just walked to Cabin 3, reflecting over the night's events: Annabeth and I having our second dance, Andrew singing on stage, and Andrew and Claudine out on the beach, together.
I was just about to open the door when I heard a rustle to the side of my cabin. I pulled out Riptide, and took the cap off, turning it into a three foot long blade. I raised my sword to find—a satyr.
"Dear gods, man, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" I moaned. "What do you want?"
The satyr had a serious look. "I am a messenger from Chiron. He needs to see you immediately."
"What? At this hour?" I say, shocked; Chiron never breaks rules like curfew.
"He says he has an important quest for you. One that will greatly affect the future."
When those words left his lips, I knew that my world was about to be flipped upside down.
Yay! Finally done! Well, I hope that makes up for the long wait. 12 Microsoft Word pages!
So, did you like the dance and the mushy scenes? Did you? Did you?
What will happen to Percy? What exactly does Chiron have in mind for him? If you want to find out, then…
REVIEWREVIEWREVIEW!
Cheers,
sayWHAT96
p.s. Sorry if I didn't meet the promised deadline!
