A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter, you guys are awesome!
When Percy awoke, it was with the irritated knowledge that he should still be asleep. He finally cracked his eyelids open, only to find that Annabeth and Grover were in his room.
"What are you doing?" he mumbled, as angrily as he could at such an early hour.
"We have to go," Annabeth replied, her voice brisk. "We have a lot to do."
Percy caught a glimpse of his alarm clock. "It's six o'clock!"
Grover nodded. "Sorry. Annabeth's right, though. We have lots to do."
Percy pulled the covers over his head, sufficiently annoyed at the lack of information. Sure, they'd wake him up at ungodly hours and tell him they had 'stuff' to do, but no one would bother giving him the plan. It seemed a bit unfair, and he felt fully justified in closing his eyes again.
"Percy," Annabeth scolded. "Come on. You wanted this quest, you have to wake up early."
He wanted to remind her that he didn't 'want' anything, but all he could do was mumble sleepily.
"Guess you're not a morning person, huh?" Grover asked.
Had he been more awake, Percy would have come up with something snappy to say in response. With morning came an extremely low tolerance for cheerful behavior.
"Come on," Annabeth repeated. She looked so fresh and awake that it almost aggravated Percy. How dare people be fully alert at such a ridiculous hour?
At last, unable to take their expectant stares, he sat up. He rubbed at his hair, slightly embarrassed by his despicable bed head. Whatever, though. They'd asked for it.
"Alright," he said, hiding a yawn behind his hand. "Just give me like an hour or something, and I can shower and meet you downstairs."
"An hour?" Grover looked confused. "No, Percy, we've got to go now. We still have to fill out paperwork at the intern building."
"And say goodbye to Luke," Annabeth put it.
Percy openly rolled his eyes, shooting the two of them a glare. "I thought Chiron said that we were staying for breakfast."
"Can't," Grover replied, "Too much commotion. We'll explain later."
"Whatevs," Percy said. He reserved this infuriating attempt at slang for particularly deserving situations; this was one of those times. "I'm tired. After breakfast, I'll wake up."
"No," Annabeth said, giving him a good shake on the shoulder. "Get dressed now. We can get coffee on the road."
Percy wrinkled his nose. Rachel liked coffee; he personally had never found the appeal.
"Percy!" she was shouting, fully fed up with him.
"Okay, okay," Percy replied. He was still a bit too groggy to register everything, but he had the sneaking suspicion they were getting pissed. He could be very uncooperative when he wanted to be.
After ten minutes and colossal amounts of prodding, Percy found himself downstairs. Annabeth had forbid him from showering, and so Percy had forgone it, along with his vanity, and merely pulled a sweatshirt over his head.
"You did pack, right?" she asked, hands on her hips.
"Yup," Percy replied. He swung a duffel bag over his shoulder. "It might shock you, but I'm not totally inept."
She only smirked, and he clenched his fists. There was no way that the three of them could survive together; there was really no way.
"This way," Annabeth instructed, without looking at him. She was walking towards the terrifying stone building that stood on the edge of campus. Percy couldn't help but think that it looked like the place where people had gotten beheaded.
"Welcome to the Intern's office," a guy at the front desk said. "Oh, hey Annabeth. Hi Grover." He grinned. "Wait, did you guys get a quest?"
"Hi Beckendorf," Annabeth replied, smiling in return. "Yeah, we did."
"Congrats," he replied, "I knew you're day would come."
She blushed, her shoulder muscles tensing. "Yeah, well."
Grover casually stepped forward, putting an arm around her. "Listen, do you have the forms? Chiron wanted us to hurry."
"Oh, yeah. Sure, man." He glanced at Annabeth again, and then seemed to notice Percy in the back. "Hey."
"Hi," Percy replied, waving. "I'm Percy Jackson."
"I've heard," Beckendorf remarked, his eyebrows shifting up his forehead. "You made quite an impression on my girlfriend."
"Your girlfriend?" Percy felt a sinking sensation in his gut.
"Yeah, Silena," he looked up, frowning. "You made out with her, right?" He sounded interested, rather than upset, and Percy was unsure what to say.
"Um… I'm sorry," he said, "I had no idea –"
"No, no," Beckendorf interrupted, "It's fine. She's got some problems with monogamy." He shrugged. "Not your problem. Anyway, here's your form."
Percy took the sheet from him nervously. It seemed too easy, how he'd accepted it. In his brief time at Camp Half Blood, Percy had learned one unfailing truth about demigods. They held grudges.
He looked over the questions on the form. It was mostly questions about his childhood, and his DNA. There were a couple about grades and health. He filled them out quickly, doing his best with the spelling. He hoped that no one would read it and laugh.
"Here," he said, sliding it back on the desk. He glanced over nervously, finding that he was the last to finish. "Sorry," he muttered. Grover shrugged, patting his shoulder, and Annabeth evidently didn't hear him.
"Bye guys," Beckendorf said, smiling brightly. "Have fun." It sounded an odd parting line for a dangerous quest, but they all smiled back.
"Uh… are these things supposed to be fun?" Percy asked, curiosity getting the better of him.
"Depends," Grover answered.
"No," Annabeth said.
Percy looked between the two of them, uncertain. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be more worried.
"So listen," Annabeth said, "They're out of rentals, and seeing that Grover killed my car, we're kind of going to take Luke's."
"What is with this place and stealing people's cars?" Percy asked. It kind of amused him, although he didn't really like the idea of being the blonde guy's enemy. He didn't seem like somebody you wanted to be against."
"We're not stealing," Annabeth said, icily. "He's my boyfriend. We're just not going to tell him that we're taking it."
Percy held up his hands in surrender. "Yeah, okay. I wasn't judging or anything."
"And there he is!" Annabeth's cool expression turned into a sickening one, full of sap and giddiness. She teetered towards him, gracefully slipping her arms around his neck. They kissed passionately, and Percy averted his eyes. He felt a bit better, noticing that Grover was doing the same.
"I'll see you in a little while, "Annabeth said. She looked almost on the verge of tears, and Percy felt a little annoyed. Unless they died or something, he wasn't under the impression that they'd be gone all that long.
"Right," he whispered, kissing her on the tip of her nose. "Love you."
Her smile melted all over her face, and she seemed to soar off the ground. "I love you too."
Percy wanted to ask why she acted to below him or something, but he didn't. "Are we going?" he asked. This time it was his turn to pester her.
"Yeah," she murmured, barely audibly. "Bye." She and Luke continued to stare at one another, and it was a significant amount of time later that they managed to drag her away.
"Car hijacking time?" Percy asked, grinning with in excitement.
Annabeth stormed ahead of him, evidently angry. Both guys flinched as she wrenched open the car door with surprising force. "Get in, Seaweed Brain."
Percy laughed. "That's something twelve year-olds say."
A/N: Thanks a lot for reading! Reviews would make me incredibly happy, so please leave them!
: )
-Abbie
