Disclaimer: Still not Rick Riordan, dang it!
AN.: Okay guys, this is almost the end... wow
Ch 9 – That Sweet Saddness
"That's it. I want payback. I have had it up to here with these, these cornos filhos da p*ta idiotas, esc***os que nem a m*rda!" Malu screeched. We just had to pull her kicking and screaming from Drew that had been calling Ana something I did not manage to hear. The girl herself was only cursing under her breath, unblinking. "We will be getting back at them. They think themselves the most gorgeous creatures that ever lived. The most graceful right? So let's take that away from them. Make it so they feel as if they had the floor pulled under them." Ana muttered teeth grit together.
That scared me a little. Ana was usually one of the tamer ones. It took a lot to get her mad, and she usually handled insults quite well.
"Ana, are you sure? Will you really let them get to you like that?" Le attempted to appease.
"It's not just about me Le. I'm sick and tired of them insulting us. They think that Brazilians are empty headed whores right? Then let's give them a reason to say that. Leave every male camper drooling, especially our boys." she smirked, eyes gleaming. "Meninas, projeto show das poderosas entra em consideração." She told them.
Bianca stood a little straighter, Clarinha crossed her arms and looked at Ana, Malu looked curious and Le's eyebrows went to hide in her hair.
"Wait, am I thinking what I think you're thinking?" Bianca questioned. A nod from the shortest of them made Bibi's lips curl up in a frightening smile. Looking at the others, I saw amusement replace their curious reluctance.
"Wait, wait. Time out." Thalia stated. "Whatever it is you're doing to get back at Drew, I want in!" she said with a grin.
"Anyone else?" Malu asked, anger replaced by excitement. Rachel and I shared a look before nodding.
"Okay girls. We need you to find for us five pairs of black varnished high heels. Eight inches." Clarinha supplied.
The next few weeks until the talent show that Bianca somehow convinced Chiron to host, were a flurry of activities. The girls were scheduled to be the last presentation of the evening and they seemed to randomly vanish at the crack of dawn and show up with half a ton of stuff ranging from clothes and hair products to liquid nitrogen at night, just in time for the campfire. When they did show up for an activity, they were usually in baggy clothing and already ready for exercise.
POV Annabeth
"Clara, I need to talk to you for a minute" Chiron called as we passed the porch of the big house when going to collect some supplies for the show.
"Sure Chiron!" She said happily. "See you guys later" she ran along to catch up with the centaur, which was already walking towards the cabins. Even without knowing what was going on, just by his expression, I knew there was something wrong.
"What's going on?" Asked Malu.
"I don't know. We'll ask her later, come on" and we continued our way.
As soon as we walked into the cabin and I saw the girl sitting on her bed, i knew something was really not right. Clarinha was sitting there like a statue, looking straight ahead. This wasn't a surprise as she normally drifts off into her world, but this time it was different. She wasn't moving.
Clarinha is super hyperactive, so, even when she drifts off, she doesn't stop moving. She fiddles with anything in her hands or bites her nails without even noticing what she is doing. But when we found her she was completely still.
"Clara? Clarinha!" Called Bibi to get her attention. When she turned I realized that her lack of energy was the less worrying matter. Her eyes, normally so full of color and life, were now dull and opaque. Her face was red, her nose impossibly small and her eyes puffy; the only sign of glow was the glimmer of the remaining tears dripping down her face.
"Clara o que aconteceu?" Asked Le kneeling down in front of her.
"Meu avô, Le, ele morreu" her voice caught in the end. I'd never seen her cry. I'd known her for some time and I had never seen a single tear come out of those happy eyes. She was always smiling and having fun or being completely nervous, hyperactive and drifting off to places of her own. This was the first time I'd seen her really crying.
I didn't understand a lot of Portuguese, but after the short lessons the girls had given me, i could pretty much work out what was happening.
Clara and her grandfather were really close. He was the person the person she looked up to and the person she always thought to be eternal. He was always there for her, like a safe heaven and always protected her from everything. She said he was her "father figure" and "protector".
"Como?" Asked Ana.
"Eu não sei. Minha mãe ligou pra falar com o Chiron, mas ele disse que ela vai me explicar depois"
"Pera ai! Depois quando?" Asked Malu confused.
"Hoje. Eu to indo pro Brasil pro enterro"
Clara spent 3 days in Brazil with her family after the funeral. She was devastated when she came back and I thought for myself that something inside her was definitely gone. The fun hyper girl was replaced by a gloomy person who walked around but didn't seem to be here.
"Hey there carioca!" Called Drew when we passed her and her gang, the day Clara came back.
"What do you want, Drew?" Asked Bibi.
"Sorry, not talking to you, hon!" She said focusing on the gloomy girl. "So, you're back! I was really hoping you'd stay there and never come back"
We had to hold back Bibi and Malu for them not to fly on top of Drew.
Clara looked at her for a moment, as if considering what to do, and then started walking away.
"Hey come back missy!" Called Drew. "I didn't even get started on that grandfather of yours!"
Clara froze in the spot.
"Yeah, how old was he? 900 and something?" Mocked one of her friends.
"Older I guess," said Drew. "He has to be old for his age to be proportional to her whore of a mother. What does she do again? Dance naked in the street?"
Clara came back and stopped right in front of Drew. For a second I thought she was going to hit the girl but she didn't. She turned to leave and that's when Drew should have kept quiet.
"Yeah, go back to your little Brazilian family! Do me a favor and lock yourself in your grandfather's grave!"
This time she got punched in the face. And no one tried to stop it because, honestly, Drew deserved that and was asking for it for a long time.
"Hey I was wondering if I could sing a song really fast."
We were at the camp fire. I thought Clara wasn't even coming but she appeared holding her guitar, which had writing and stickers all over it.
She sat down next to her sisters and started playing a song.
"This is kind of an old song but i find it quite beautiful."
Sha la la la la sha la la la la
You used to call me your Angel
Said I was sent straight down from heaven
You'd hold me close in you arms
I loved the way you felt so strong
I never wanted you to leave
I wanted you to stay here holding me
I miss you
I miss your smile
And I still shed a tear
Every once in a while
And even though it's different now
You're still here somehow
My heart won't let you go
And I need you to know
I miss you, sha la la la la
I miss you
You used to call me your dreamer
And now I'm living out my dream
Oh how I wish you could see
Everything that's happening for me
I'm thinking back on the past
It's true that time is flying by too fast
I miss you
I miss your smile
And I still shed a tear
Every once in a while
And even though it's different now
You're still here somehow
My heart won't let you go
And I need you to know
I miss you, sha la la la la
I miss you
I know you're in a better place, yeah
But I wish that I could see your face, oh
I know you're where you need to be
Even though it's not here with me
I miss you
I miss your smile
And I still shed a tear
Every once in a while
And even though it's different now
You're still here somehow
My heart won't let you go
And I need you to know
I miss you, sha la la la la
I miss you
I miss your smile
And I still shed a tear
Every once in a while
And even though it's different now
You're still here somehow
My heart won't let you go
And I need you to know
I miss you, sha la la la la
I miss you
"Thanks" she said as everyone clapped. Even though she was crying, I got the feeling they were happy tears and from then on I knew she would be okay, she would get over it and go back to being our dreamer.
Meanwhile, we had a show to produce.
"Where the hell are they!?" asked Leo, mad at his girlfriend who mysteriously disappeared again. "This stopped being funny a long time ago!"
"I don't know, man, I'm getting seriously worried!" said Jake, rubbing the sweat from his face.
"Do you think something happened to them?" asked Nico.
"I don't know, but we aren't exactly the best looking guys around…" Jake thought aloud.
"Guys chill, they're just pranking us. This is just a big prank, right? Right?" Connor sounded like he was trying to convince himself. He looked at Malcolm for reassurance but Malcolm's head was one big blue screen of death.
The boys had met two hours ago and this was the saner part of their speculation. Each one had been looking for their girlfriends for hours before bumping into each other screaming bloody murder.
Nico thought Ana left him because of the bike weeks ago. Jake thought Clarinha thought he wasn't romantic enough. Leo's self-esteem was not exactly enviable. Malcolm always had his doubts whether Bianca thought he was interesting enough or just some stuffy nerd. Connor wandered if Malu thought he was too big an idiot, he was probably right, but still.
From where they were sitting they noticed Percy and Annabeth from a distance. Percy leaned in to kiss his girlfriend but she stopped him.
"Okay, Perce, now I really got to go." The girl said turning on her heals and jogging away.
Percy noticed the boys sitting lonely on a bench nearby so he went over to talk to them.
"Hey guys!" he said cheerfully.
The boys looked at him like he was clueless.
"Perce, are you that stupid?" Nico asked. "I mean, we know you're stupid, but that bad? Really?"
"Nico, what are you talking about?"Percy asked confused.
"Well, I don't think you've noticed but this is break up season!" explained the son of Hades.
"Break up season?"
"Yeah, the time of the year that the Aphrodite girls dump their boyfriends." Muttered Jake.
"What's that got to do with my intelligence?"
"God's you're clueless!" cried Leo. "Let me explain it to you. Apparently the Aphrodite break up mania has spread to the other girls!"
"Did Le break up with you?" asked Percy.
The boys sighed. He really was that stupid sometimes.
"Percy," began Jake. "Don't you think it's weird that its break up season, our girlfriends are nowhere to be found and your girlfriend just practically refused to kiss you?"
"Well, she had to go."
"Do you even know where she went?"
"Well… No, but… Oh gods! She's gonna break up with me isn't she?" he asked wide-eyed.
When none of the others answered he looked back, searching for his girlfriend but she was nowhere to be found.
"Oh gods, she's gonna break up with me!" he exclaimed again, sitting next to them.
The six boys sat there, staring at the ground and thinking, maybe too much.
"Do you think they're cheating on us?" asked Malcolm, speaking for the first time in hours.
"I dunno, Mal, maybe." Said Leo.
"Guys I told you! It's just one huge prank! A stupid one, I might add!" said Connor, though this time he didn't even seem to convince himself.
"I don't know what I'll do" said Jake.
"Yeah, me neither" muttered Nico.
"Don't think I can live without her anymore. Her smile, her eyes, her lips…"
"We get it!" cried Leo.
"Things are just gonna get so weird without them" said Nico. The poor guy actually believed now that his girlfriend wanted nothing to do with him, though he kind of hoped she actually was stuck somewhere yelling for help and… No. That thought was even more disturbing, she might be cheating on him but he definitely didn't want her hurt!
"I you're worried, what about me?" exclaimed Percy. "I'm too stupid to even notice my girlfriend is dumping me! I'm too stupid to understand the meaning of a girl refusing to kiss me! Guys I'm sure I can't live without her! If she leaves me… I don't know what I'll do with my life."
Poor boys. So clueless, so insecure. They actually thought their girlfriends would leave them.
Ana, the girl who freaked at the thought of her boyfriend getting hurt, leaving him for that reason and risking hurting him even more? Clarinha, the girl who almost fainted when her boyfriend gave her the rose, leaving her speechless, leaving him because he wasn't romantic? Le, the girl who loved Leo's humor and personality, leaving him because he was uninteresting? Bibi, the girl who loved Malcolm's brain, leaving him for being a nerd? Malu, the girl who joined in on Connor's pranks, leaving him for being too big an idiot?
Lastly, Annabeth. The girl who loved Percy with all her heart, who searched for him endlessly, who went through hell and back with him, leaving him for being exactly what she loved most dear about him: a Seaweed Brain?
They were really mad to think that any of the girls would leave them.
They continued that way though, for hours, speculating about why they'd leave them and what had they done wrong. At one point they stopped talking and Malcolm started crying. Really quietly and softly but it could be noticed like rain pouring on an empty street.
Hours went by and the six boys remained there, quietly waiting for nothing.
At night, just before lunch time, what they were waiting for showed up.
"Hey boys!" called Bibi, running up to them followed by the others, plus Rachel and Thalia. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing." Answered Leo, standing and looking at Le. "Not that you care anyway."
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"Go on, admit it." Said Malcolm, also standing up and looking straight at his girlfriend. "Admit you don't want anything with me and let's get this over with!"
"Malcolm are you going mad?" asked Bibi making the boy even more confused. "I love you because you're smart but if you think I could even consider breaking up with you I think I should actually start considering it!"
"Wait so you don't want to break up?" he asked.
"Of course not, dummy! Who gave you that idea?" he pointed to Leo.
"Well, it is break up season, so we thought…"
"Are you crazy?" asked Clara. "Why would we go for that? It's just a stupid Aphrodite tradition!"
"Well, we thought you wanted to follow that… Probably thinking we weren't romantic enough or something" murmured Jake standing up too, the other guys followed.
"What?" exclaimed the girl completely confused.
"Wait a sec! All of you thought we were dumping you?" asked Ana. "Even you, Nico?"
"Well…" Nico didn't know what to think anymore. His girlfriend wasn't maimed or seriously injured but she wasn't breaking up with him either and apparently loved him enough not to be cheating.
"You idiot!" she exclaimed, kissing him deeply, the boy fell back on the bench surprised but the girl just sat on his lap, the others followed her example.
"Ew, guys, get a room!" mocked Thalia. The couples broke apart and together, holding hands, left with Thalia and Rachel to the dining pavilion. The only ones left were Percy and Annabeth.
"So, what were you doing there Seaweed Brain? You didn't think I would dump you, did you?"
"Well, I thought-" she put a hand to his lips and smiled. She came closer, their lips almost touching.
"I think…" she said slowly. "We left off about here didn't we?"
They kissed but Percy broke it soon. "What were you doing anyway?" he asked.
"Oh, that you'll find out later my sweet Seaweed Brain, you'll definitely find out later." She said chuckling and pulling him down for another kiss.
