Chapter Nine:

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Last time on: Heroes of the Thirteen Colonies.

"She didn't do any damage, she's just tender around her injured spots and the roll probably just hit it wrong." Will explained. "Also she woke up and didn't know where she was and what was going on and probably forgot she was shot and she probably got scared. You did a good job keeping her calm though." Will finished patting my back. I nodded slowly, still feeling terrible. Maybe she won't remember this. Boy I wish that was the truth.

~Annabeth~

I did not know where I was when I woke up, which is not unusual for me. The last thing I remember was Will and Percy carrying me up a hill. My eyes fluttered open and I sat up quietly trying to find any light. There was none. I put my had up to my face and could not see it. I frowned and realized I was in a bed. I could feel the soft mattress underneath me, and the cool covers above me. I felt around and found the end of the bed. I scooted out of it and crawled on my hands and knees trying to find a wall. My head found one before my hands did. I slowly stood up gripping the wall with my right hand and my head with my left and cursing. It actually really hurt, I had been crawling pretty quickly. I felt around trying to find a way out, I needed figure out where I was. This seems to be a recurring theme.

I stumbled around the room, trying to find a door or window. My hands groped the wall and my arms moved up and down.

My fingers came across a handle and I tried pulling, nothing happened. I tried pushing and again nothing. I huffed in frustration and crossed my arms, when I heard a voice yelling. I could not tell who it was, but they were right outside the door. I began to scoot away but it was too late, the door was swung open and it hit me in the face, but I did not fall over this time.

"What the hell?" I asked rubbing my nose. Light streamed into the room but I could not see who was there.

"Oh my gods Annabeth I am so sorry!" Thalia said rushing to me. I laughed lightly, putting my hand on her shoulder. Thalia started laughing and I realized she was really pretty. She had long black hair and bright blue eyes like Jason. I decided they were related some how and the thought made me smile for some reason.

"It is alright Thalia. It did not hurt." I said still laughing. She smiled and gripped my hand lugging me to the door.

"Come on then, we have a lot to do and you're late." She said guiding me into a hall way with doors up and down its walls. The walls were deep red and all the doors where mahogany. She lead me to a set of stairs, the kind that go left and right in a half circle leading to the foyer. The stairs were also made of mahogany and had a gold and red rug going down the steps. She rushed down the left stairs before I even had time to admire the architecture. Thalia sprinted through the left doorway into what appeared to be a meeting or dinning room. Everyone was already in there except Percy.

They were all sitting in these really fancy chairs with beautiful designs on the spindle. The table could easily sit thirty people and there was a big fireplace at the end of the room with a very detail mantel. Jason was sitting at the head of the table. Looking slightly distressed. He was sweating and had a nervous look in his eye. Everyone else was horsing around. What is this place? How long was I asleep for? I had loads of questions and very few answers. Soon enough Thalia got annoyed at the lack of attention.

"Hey!" She thundered and everyone turned to her direction. She smirked and continued talking. "Sleeping beauty is finally awake and so it's time for the ceremony. We need to get ready." She said and everyone got up but Thalia was not done. "Hey!" She boomed and everyone stopped and gave her their attention. "Annabeth gets to bathe first." She said and everyone groaned. Thalia turned to me, "You have So much to do Annie. So you get to bathe first. I have to help the girls get your dress out." She said pulling me with her back up the stairs.

"Uh…don't call me Annie." I said and Thalia turned around and blew her tongue at me. I scoffed in return. Thalia kept leading up the stairs. The railings were deep mahogany and had such amazing detail, but I did not get to revile in their beauty because Thalia was going super fast. We turned the right corner and she opened up the first door on the right. It revealed a gorgeous washroom.

I had only been in one once before and it was not near this breath taking. There was a gold encrusted, claw foot wash tub, a huge vanity, with a ginormous mirror and loads of drawers. A chest of drawers was on the other side of the room. The walls were light forest green, with grey and gold detailing and The crown molding was to die for.

"Holy shit." I whispered and Thalia laughed.

"That's everyone's first reaction." She said guiding me to the huge tub. She plugged the drain and turned the nobs releasing the water. I had never seen such a thing. I just stared at it while Thalia talked. "Okay so take your time, But not too long because everyone else has to get ready and we only have three bathrooms. I'm going to go find your dress and stuff. The door next to the chest will lead to your room where your clothes will be when you're done. Ugh I hate the ceremony because I have to wear a dress!" Thalia finished, heading to the door. I was still awfully confused (mostly about the tub) so I reached out and grabbed Thalia's arm. She turned around, a startled look in her eye but still turned around.

"Uh where are we, and what is this ceremony you keep taking about? How long was I asleep? How do you have such an amazing tub? where is the water coming from? What was with the owl when we were in the woods? Was that me bein-" I asked, except I was talking so fast my words all bundled together and Thalia put her hand over my mouth and sighed.

"Okay blondie you got a lot of questions, and they'll all be answered later, just take a bath now, we don't have time to waste, or Percy will get mad and shit." She said and then rushed out of the room. I huffed and turned so I was facing the tub. It was almost halfway full and since this tub was like 8 feet by 4 feet and 3 feet tall, I decided it was enough. I took off my shoes and stockings, deciding taking a bath first was okay. I proceeded to take off the rest of my grimy clothes and tried brushing my hair. My fingers got caught so I went to the vanity and searched through every drawer until I finally found a brush. It took a while but I finally got all the tangles out and found three leaves and a twig in my hair. Where have I been? I gathered up a towel from the chest of drawers and sunk into the beautiful tub. I closed my eyes for a Minute, just wanting to relax for the first time in ages.

I had been really stressed out and (I will deny this later) scared. My uncle was dead and it turns out I am a demigod and I was shot twice and I just needed a moment to clear my head. I opened my eyes and looked at my chest. There was no sign I had even been shot. I touch where I had been hit and it was not even sore. I lift my leg out of the water and examined at my thigh. No scars. The fact that there were no scars amazed me and I just sat there reviling at the thought till Thalia banged on the door.

"Hey princess hurry up we don't have all day!" She yelled then scurried off. I grabbed a rag and started scrubbing my skin. It felt so good to finally get all Of the dirt off my body. I scrubbed my scalp with my finger nails and brushed out all the dirty. I scrapped all the dirt out from under my nails and got kind of grossed out at how brown the water was. It was like earth brown. I stood up and grabbed a dry rag to dry myself off. I rapped the towel around my body and went to the door leading to "my room". I pressed my ear to the door to make sure nobody was in there. I did not hear any noise and slowly opened the door.

It revealed a huge room, the walls were light grey, and the floors were light birch wood. There was a big canopy bed with tall birch pegs, and a decorative headboard. The carvings were so intricate and flawless. The covers of the bed were grey with a darker grey floral pattern. There was a large birch wood chest at the end of the bed that had a gorgeous dress laying on it. The dress was grey with silver flower patterns all over it. The sleeves would go to my elbows and had bright white ruffles at the end. The collar had the same white ruffle lining it, and had a train of the grey material flowing from it. The shoes were light grey as well with a bright white buckle on the front.

Selina knocked on my door and walked in. She smiled at me, taking in the scene. "We knew you'd like it." She said, making her way over to me. Selina was wearing a more simple light pink dress. It was more form fitting and the bodice was cream with pink bows. She looked down at her dress and sighed. "It's not my favorite, but I will wear it for the ceremony." She said and walked over to me. "Let's get you dressed huh?" She said grabbing a corset and my under skirt.

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After much effort and a few curse words from Selina, I had my whole dress on. It was a lot bigger on then you would expect, but my waist looked so tiny. I could barely breath so I knew I was wearing it correctly. My chest was pushed up so far it was disturbing and I felt terribly uncomfortable. Selina stood at the opposite side of the room and squinted. "You look perfect!" She said clapping her hands. I did not think she was that girly but I let it slide. "Okay so now for your hair." She said rushing to the washroom. I stayed where I was and looked at myself in the mirror.

I really did look pretty nice, the dress looked really nice on me and made my eyes pop. I hated it.

"Annabeth where are you? Your hair won't do itself!" Selina called and I slowly trudged into the washroom (because I felt pretty and that dress was heavy). Selina looked back at me, brush in hand and pins on the countertop. She frowned when she saw mine. "What's wrong?" She questioned, motioning for me to come to her. I did and sighed, as much as I could in the corset.

"I feel pretty." I said, like it explained everything (I mean it did to me). I tried slouching but I could not in the dumb corset.

"What's wrong with that?" She asked, re-curling my hair in her fingers. Her eyes were kind and open. I felt compelled to answer.

"I never wore pretty dresses in Britain. I never had the time and I was not really aloud to. Nobody really saw me as a person, I was just their personal killing machine." I explained, frowning and Selina kept quiet. "Also, what is this ceremony?" I asked, trying to keep light of the situation since I just made it dark and creepy. Also I had been wanting to ask that all day (since I woke up an hour ago) and hoped I would finally get my chance for answers. Selina sighed, pinning up my frontal curls, but they rebelled, continuing to fall in my face.

"Well this is our ceremony to the gods, they hate it when we don't dress nice." She explained, pausing to tackle my curls into a bun style, leaving some out of the bun, like a half up half down style. It looked really pretty from the front, which made me even more upset. "The lead girl and boy from our group has to perform the ceremony. That would be you and Percy." She finished, continuing to pin my hair. I froze. Me? And Percy? Percy made sense, he was the group's leader after all. But me? Selina noticed my frantic expression. "Hey don't worry! It is so straightforward. Did Thalia give you the tips yet?" She asked and my panicking got ten times worse.

"N-no Thalia did not tell me anything. Why me though? I am not the head of anything!" I said, my voice calm but the shaking proving otherwise. Selina huffed in frustration, I do not know if it was at me or Thalia.

"Okay, well here hold your hair like-" She stopped talking, shoving my curly bun into my hands. "I'm going to go find Thalia." She marched out of the room, mumbling under her breath. My arm was getting tired and I was still freaking out. I am no leader...especially not to these people. I have not even learned everyones names yet! When Selina came back with Thalia who was blushing slightly, and was wearing a black dress just like Selina. Selina had also gotten Piper, I am not sure why but I am not complaining. "Explain while I fix." Selina said taking my bun and continuing to pin. Thalia sighed then started explaining.

A/N: Hello friends! Don't mind me I'm just the author's note at the end of the chapter haha! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I tried to make it a little less chaotic but I don't think it worked. I hope you guys have had a nice week. Also I'm doing this new thing where I set an amount of reviews I want to get then when we hit those reviews I'll update the chapter within the week. I just want to try it and see how it goes because I love hearing your guys feed back! So this chapter my goal is three, we'll start off easy. So three reviews (from different people) and I will update within the week we reach that goal deal? If you have any questions or comments my Instagram is: lunch1380. I'll see you guys later! Much love,

~Lunch1380