*clears throat* Erm… Let's just ignore my lack of the capability to bleeping update at a decent time, shall we? (At least I'm updating now! Gods, stop complaining all the time. [Just kidding, I love you, don't leave please.]) But anyway, I'm pretty sure this chapter's just complete crap, but at least it's something, right? *hides in my corner of shame*
Disclaimer: Do you really think two girls nicknamed "Bobo" and "Kitty" own a topselling book series? I didn't think so.
Annabeth's POV
We climbed back into the van after Percy took his stupid bathroom break. He's so stupid sometimes. And he's worse than usual now, gods. I got in first, then Grover, then Percy. I heard Percy muttering complaints and I rolled my eyes. Being squished in a car was not the worst situation we'd been in.
"Shut up, Percy," I said, "At least we aren't in Tartarus again." Grover shuddered beside me at the thought.
"Whatever," Percy said, leaning his head against the window. I rolled my eyes again. I shared a look with Grover, who looked just as annoyed as I was. I looked over at Argus, and saw that he was rolling all of his eyes, which to be honest, was kind of a funny sight to see. I turned my attention back to Grover and Percy, turning slightly in my seat so I could look at them.
Percy was staring blankly out the window, not really paying any attention to us at all. I nudged Grover. He looked at me, and I gestured towards Percy. "He is really out of it, isn't he?" I mumbled in his ear. He nodded. "I don't get it. He never acts like this."
"Have you noticed his eyes?" I whispered. Grover rolled his eyes. "Sorry, Annabeth, but I don't stare into Percy's eyes all dreamily like you do." I glared at him. "Oh, shut up." He laughed.
"Hey, Grover, you better not be flirting with my girlfriend," Percy joked, giving Grover his famous lopsided grin. I felt a small sense of relief seeing this- I hadn't seen that lopsided grin all day, and it was nice to see at least some normality coming from the Seaweed Brain.
Grover rolled his eyes at Percy. "Thanks, but I much prefer my own girlfriend…" He trailed off, beginning to daydream about Juniper, like he always did whenever she was mentioned. Percy waved his hand in front of his face. "Yo, Grover. Snap out of it."
Grover shook his head, his cheeks turning red, and Percy and I started laughing. "Shut up, Perce," Grover said, "It's not like I don't catch you daydreaming about Annabeth all the time." Percy groaned, and I laughed. "I hate you guys sometimes," Percy mumbled. I leaned across Grover and kissed my boyfriend on the cheek, much to Grover's displeasure. "Wow, thanks, that's just- Okay, off!" He gave me an annoyed look, while Percy smirked, and I just laughed.
"Argus, how much longer?" Grover whined. "You sound like a five-year-old," I observed. "I just don't want to have to deal with your guys' PDA." I rolled my eyes.
"But seriously, how much longer?" Percy asked, suddenly intrigued. I raised an eyebrow, curious about his sudden interest, but I decided to ignore it for now.
"About six and a half hours," Argus answered. Percy visibly tensed, gulping.
"It's alright, Percy," I said, "That's not too long away, we'll get to them soon enough. It's not like it's a week-long trip or anything. Besides, Thalia and Nico are strong. They can tough it out." Percy nodded, smiling, but he still remained tense. My eyebrows furrowed. This boy was driving me out of my mind, and not in the nice way that he normally did.
"Let's just hope we don't run into any trouble," Grover said. I mentally groaned. He was always looking on the bright side, wasn't he? I gave him a look. "What?" he said innocently. "I'm just saying!" I rolled my eyes again.
"I'm just hoping they aren't too hurt," I said. "Thalia looked pretty beat up in the dream. I still don't understand why it showed Percy, though."
Grover shrugged. "Yeah, that is weird. But like you said, it's best not to overthink things."
I nodded, leaning back against my seat. "Yeah. I just hate not knowing things!" I groaned.
"Really? he said sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed before!" I glared at him. "Shut it, Goat Boy." He just smirked in response. Okay, there was way too much smirking going on today.
I went back to the previous subject. "But yeah, they better be alright. If not, I'm going to kick their butts to Tartarus." Grover grinned. "Trust me, if Nico gets hurt, Alex is going to gladly do that for you." (*cough* Reference to my story Welcome To My Life on my account, BoboTheBookworm. *cough* Read it. *cough*) I smiled at the thought of Nico and his boyfriend. It was nice to see Nico had someone who he saw really cared about him.
"Alex?" Percy repeated. I nodded slowly. "Yeah, Perce. Remember? Nico came out with him a few weeks ago." Percy blinked, then nodded quickly. "Oh, right, ha, yeah! Sorry, uh, thought you were talking about a, uh, different Alex." I shook my head. "Percy, I swear, there is something wrong with you. Is something wrong? Do I need to knock you upside the head to get you to make sense?"
"No, I'm completely fine, really! Just I haven't gotten much sleep lately." My eyes narrowed. "Perce, you slept for twelve hours yesterday. And you took a four-hour nap the day before." Percy crossed his arms. "I meant before that." I facepalmed, then decided to drop it. I'd question him more later.
Grover shared a look with me, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. Percy was still acting extremely weird, and we had to figure it out.
Suddenly, Percy shot straight up, eyes wide. Cloudy eyes, dang it. That was bugging me so much.
"What if we're wrong, guys?" Percy asked. "What?" I asked.
"What if we're wrong?" he repeated. "What if the prophecy isn't talking about you? It could easily be about another daughter of Athena. And you know how a lot of people went missing during the Battle of Manhattan? Michael Yew was lost on the bridge when the Minotaur attacked- A daughter of Athena could've easily fallen there. I think we should take a look around Manhattan."
I paused, thinking over what he had said. He could be right… Just because I had the dream didn't mean that that line in the prophecy was about me. I thought it over, then said, "I guess it's worth a shot. And it's better to try it sooner than later, before we get too far away from the city." I could tell Grover wasn't too sure about the plan.
Finally, he nodded. "I guess… But I say after we search around for about an hour or two, we go back to the original plan, got it?" I nodded, and Percy did, though reluctantly.
"Alright," Grover said, "Argus, mind turning us around and heading back to Manhattan for a couple hours?" Argus muttered something in response, then louder, "Alright." He drove off the nearest exit then turned us around, back to the city.
It's true, we're all a little insane, but something is rising… a horde of idiots rampages throughout the internet, YOLOing and SWAGing with there l33t 5p34k! Join the Army of Insanity and help us battle the Stupidity Horde! Good luck out there, soldier!
