Complicated Disclaimer: We do not own Percy Jackson or anything else that is owned by Rick Riordan. I (Kimby) own the "idea" of Leila. AnnabethLuna decided to give Annabeth a little fun.
(A/N: What's up? Having fun yet?! Me too. I love updates. Luna does such a great job, it hurts. Oh my goodness. Thanks for reviewing! You guys are so amazing :D)
As I stepped out of the shower, I wished I had Percy and Leila's power over water, to save me fifteen minutes with the hair dryer. Normally, I do not use the hair dryer – who cares if your hair looks fluffier than usual? – but then again, I usually shower right before bed, and go to sleep right afterwards, without having to worry about wet hair. (I hate the way my hair feels wet) But, after Percy and Leila's bright idea to go to the beach, I had to shower. Which, consequently, meant that I had to use the hair dryer.
Have I mentioned I hate hair dryers?
When my hair was finally dry, it was weird and static-y, and I couldn't stand that either. Why do people use the things? Reaching for the hair tie I always kept around my wrist, I found only a wrist.
Drat. It must have come off at the beach or something.
"Leila?" I yelled. "Can I borrow a hair tie? I think I lost all mine!" I could have just snitched one from Thalia's desk, but her fondness for black depresses me.
"Sure, go ahead," came the response from across the house. "They're in the top left drawer of my dresser!"
"Thanks!" I dressed, quickly, in my most comfortable clothes, and then headed into Leila's room to grab the hair tie. I twisted my hair up expertly – it's a skill you learn if you want to have long hair and fight monsters – and headed out into the hall.
When I reached the living room, I stopped short.
The devil herself was standing in the middle of the room, appraising me as though judging if I was appropriate company for her. I fought the urge to roll my eyes, and scanned the room, freezing for a moment as my eyes came to rest on Leila, who was wearing her Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. I wanted to smack myself – or her – in the forehead. Really, Leila? She knew that a mortal was coming over; she could have been a little less careless in terms of attire. (Of course I couldn't bring this up now, but she'd get it later) Anyway, she was standing across from the mortal, tensed as though for a fight, and Percy was sprawled on the sofa, looking as though he didn't have a care in the world. But I knew him better – his muscles were just a little too tense, his eyes a little too bright, to be truly calm.
Trying as hard as I could not to glare at the obnoxious mortal, I stalked past her into the room and settled onto the couch with Percy, lacing my fingers through his and leaning against him. His body automatically relaxed as soon as I was touching him, and even I turned a little to mush. (I really hope his Seaweed Brain isn't catching)
Leila raised her eyebrows at me before sitting down herself. I knew what she was thinking – I've never been that into displays of affection beyond hand-holding, and I've never been the kind of girl to curl up with her boyfriend as if she needs protection (as if! I'm usually the one who keeps Percy from getting killed!) but this girl needed to take a hint.
So I just gave Leila a meaningful look back, and she seemed to understand, because she nodded slightly as she said, "Why didn't you borrow one of Thalia's hair ties?"
"Hmm," Leila acknowledged my glare, and then continued. "Well, Thalia and Nico went for a walk, claiming you guys were taking too long" – I stuck my tongue out at her – "and Mom will be home in about an hour, so let's get to work."
I had planned this beforehand – that she and I would make sure to do our homework at the same time and the same place as Percy and the devil (I will not call her Cara, except for when I'm talking to her), so that we could keep an eye on them. Leila had set out our books while I was in the shower, and I tried to thank her with my eyes. I started to stand up, but then the devil spoke.
"Can I use your bathroom?"
"Yeah," sighed Leila, and led her down the hall.
As soon as they were out of earshot, I let out a sigh of relief. "Thank the gods, she's gone. For the moment."
Percy looked at me helplessly. "This girl is starting to freak me out. Do you think she's a monster?"
I rolled my eyes. "Really, Seaweed Brain? She's starting to freak you out? Did it really take you this long to catch onto my thought process?" I laughed at his guilty expression. "No, I don't think she's a monster. Monsters are smarter than this girl." Which believe me is saying something.
"Which is saying something." Leila had returned, and, apparently, read my mind.
I snorted. "Who are you to talk about smart?" One of Percy's sweatshirts was lying over the top of the sofa; I grabbed it and tossed it to her. "You know how we don't want mortals to know about CampHalf-Blood?"
"Shut up," she mumbled, but pulled on the sweatshirt anyway. I stifled a laugh – Leila was fun to one-up. Not just because it meant me getting the upper hand, but her reactions were priceless.
"Now," I continued, "where are our provisions?"
Leila grinned, ran into the kitchen, and returned with an open bag of gummy worms. She popped one into her mouth.
"That's more like it!" I grabbed our book, and a worm myself, and we settled down on the couch with the book, notebooks, and the candy.
As I found page 30 for the required reading, Percy announced, "I'm going to go downstairs and find a newspaper." He stole a gummy worm. "For current events."
"You do that," said Leila, slapping his hand away from the bag but smiling all the same. Percy grinned at her, gummy worm dangling half out of his mouth like an oddly-colored tongue, and headed out the door. Just as it slammed behind him, the she-devil came out of the bathroom and joined us in the living room. Simultaneously, Leila turned to me and asked, "What page are we on?"
"Thirty," I mouthed, and then turned to the mortal, who was looking at me curiously. I answered the unspoken question. "Percy went downstairs to get a newspaper." When she didn't say anything, I added, "We can all work on the couch."
"Okayyyyy," she said, dragging the word out. I tensed with the effort of not attacking her, and also preparing to rein in Leila if she decided to attack – we did not need to unleash that kind of destruction on the poor room. Also, the mortal might start asking questions if the sink exploded. She came over to the couch and perched on the far end; Leila smiled grimly.
A moment passed, a moment of blessed quiet, and then she spoke again. (Gods, her voice!) "What are you two working on?"
I made another note on my worksheet and let Leila answer. "We're doing our biology and math homework." Busywork, all of it. If the rest of my cabin were here, we'd be having a good laugh together at this school's curriculum – even the advanced classes were ridiculously easy.
"Oh," said the devil. She paused for a moment, scrutinizing Leila, and I was thankful I'd made her put that sweatshirt on.
Then, the door burst open, and a herd of elephants came storming in. "I lost my motivation!" exclaimed Thalia. "I don't want to take a walk anymore!"
What had they been doing outside for so long then? Terrorizing the poor mortals on the sidewalk? I made a mental note to ask Thalia about that later.
"So you dragged me off my comfortable spot on the couch for nothing?" accused Nico. Honestly, that boy . . .
"Pretty much, yeah," replied Thalia, and I heard a laugh in her voice. I met Leila's eyes and we shared a smile.
Percy dropped a newspaper onto the coffee table in front of us, and I'm pretty sure that even the mortal could see the pleading look he was shooting me. The question was: from whom did he want to be rescued? Thalia and Nico, or the devil?
Either way, I shot Leila a look that said (hopefully), I've got this. She responded with an imperceptible nod, and asked if anyone wanted anything to drink.
"I'll just take water," I responded, as Leila headed into the kitchen, other people yelling drink orders after her.
Percy let out a heavy sigh and plopped onto the couch next to me. I poked him in the ribs and laughed softly as he jumped. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the devil inching closer to him. Oh, no you don't. I pulled him closer to me – an impressive feat, if I do say so myself.
"Do you guys" – to Thalia and Nico – "want to sit down?" Her voice was syrupy sweet, and I held back a shudder with difficulty. She may have thought she was being subtle, but demigods with ADHD and battle reflexes notice everything, and everyone in the room saw her sliming over to Percy like a snail.
He suppressed a shudder slightly less successfully than I had and leaned toward me a little more. "There isn't a lot of room," he said desperately, "maybe we should just move to the table."
"That's probably best." Finally, Thalia stepped in. I tried to send her a thank you with my eyes.
"If we all move over a little there's room." The devil had dropped all pretense of being surreptitious – the back of Percy's shirt moved a little as her shoulder brushed it, and she moved one arm closer to him as she spoke.
I would not be held responsible for what I might have done had Leila not come back in with our drinks. Thank the gods. She handed me the water, asking, "Did you want ice?"
"I'll get it." I needed to be away from this girl.
"Go chill out a little," murmured Leila directly into my ear as the glass passed between us. I forced a smile, but believe me, it took work.
In the kitchen, I dug the scoop into the ice with more force than was strictly necessary. When my glass had enough ice in it, I put the ice back in the freezer and stood there in the kitchen for a moment, squeezing my eyes shut and gripping my dagger handle as hard as I could, trying to calm myself down.
Finally, I released my knife, picked up my glass again, and headed back into the living room – only to see Percy looking wildly uncomfortable, and the devil leaning against him.
Leaning against him.
I tried to keep the glare off my face, but I didn't completely succeed. Somehow, I needed to get her off of him, preferably without the use of force.
Athena always has a plan.
The condensation on the glass was just too much, and a little water had spilled over the side – it was just so slippery, that I couldn't keep my grasp on it, and somehow, it just slipped out of my hand right as I happened to walk past her.
Strange coincidence, right?
The result was immediate and entertaining. She shrieked like an empousa, jumping up from her seat and away from Percy. Ha.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I knew she would see right through me, but I tried to keep the smile off of my face all the same. She had no proof that I'd done it on purpose. "It just slipped right out of my hand!"
"No problem," she said. It was truly a treat watching her try to keep the anger out of her face. With a good-job smirk on her face, Thalia tossed me a towel, and I handed it over to the devil, watching in satisfaction as she dabbed at her shirt.
"You can borrow one of my shirts if you want," I suggested. Knowing her, she'd use the wet-and-see-through shirt thing to her advantage.
"I'm fine," she said, "it'll dry," but I stood firm.
"No, really, I'll get one." I headed off to the room I shared with Thalia and heard her footsteps behind me.
"All right," she agreed, following me into our room and standing in the doorway as I rummaged through my drawers. Just as I was discarding (yet another) Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, I heard her voice again. "Who's the boy?"
I looked up. She was pointing at the old photo-booth pictures I'd taken with Thalia and Luke shortly before Grover came to pick us up. I kept it as a reminder of "the good old days" before any of us knew about prophecies. Back when we were inseparable. "Just an old friend," I answered, trying to make it clear that the subject was closed.
"What's his name?" Apparently she hadn't gotten the hint. "You all look really close."
"We were." Seriously, did this girl have no idea on when it was time to shut the Hades up?
"Huh." This might have been the most obnoxious I'd ever heard this girl talk, when she was doing her little breathy filler words. "So, what was his name?"
"Luke." Shut up. Shut up now.
"So is he an ex-boyfriend or something?"
Was she trying to find ammunition to use against my relationship with Percy? "No!" I answered, probably too forcefully. It was always an awkward question about Luke. I mean, yes, I'd had a crush on him at one point, back when I used to hero-worship him. But boyfriend? No. Not me. Maybe Thalia. Maybe. I'd never asked her, because she was even more touchy on the Luke subject than I was. But honestly, in this picture, Luke was seven years older than me. Did this girl really think that I had a boyfriend at age seven? "No way. Not at all." I wouldn't tell her my suspicions about Thalia in a hundred years.
"Just asking," she said defensively.
I wanted to laugh derisively – sure you were just asking, no ulterior motives there or anything! – but held myself back and pulled out a tank top I vaguely recognized. (What? Did you expect me to keep close track of all of my clothes? Brains are put to better use than that) "This should fit." I tossed it to her.
"Thanks." She held it up to herself as though trying to see if it would look good on her. I rolled my eyes indiscernibly.
"Sure, you can change in the bathroom." Now, leave. That would be nice, I thought viciously.
"Fine, I'll go change." She said it as though she had a choice. As though she had considered staying in my room and had decided that it wasn't up to her standards. I clenched my teeth.
While she was in the bathroom, I rejoined the others in the living room. They'd moved their things to the kitchen table, I noticed with relief. Leila high-fived me as soon as I got out there, and I turned to Thalia. "Since you're the only one of us girls who doesn't want to kill her every time you see her" –
"Who says I don't?" interrupted Thalia.
"Fine. Since you're the only one of us girls who hasn't already done her or her clothing physical harm, will you go and get her shirt to put it in the dryer?"
"Fine," she sighed, heading out of the room to intercept her at the bathroom door.
Nico started to laugh. "Did you see how she freaked out when her shirt got wet?" he snorted. "Like she was going to die." He high-fived me as well.
Percy leaned towards me and I accepted his kiss gladly, closing my eyes and letting the world melt away for a moment until I was distracted. By gagging noises. Courtesy of one Leila Jackson.
I used my standard strategy: I shot her a death glare. "Please, Leila. You know if Will were here you'd be even worse."
"Shut up!" she snarled.
I grinned and sat down between the twins as the she-devil reentered the room. She looked for a moment longingly at the spot next to Percy – I would have to congratulate Nico and Leila for making sure we surrounded him; it was a good plan – but then, with a sigh, sat down across from him.
Leila looked at her, then at me. "Annabeth, is that my shirt?"
"Huh?" Oh, so that's why I didn't recognize it. "Oh, yeah, I borrowed it the other day. Guess I forgot to put it back."
"As long as you wash it before you put it back," shrugged Leila. I agreed without really paying attention, turning back to my stupid busywork.
"Here," Percy's voice cut through my concentration, but I didn't need to concentrate to ace this stupid homework assignment. Factoring trinomials with one half of my brain, I watched Percy hand the devil the newspaper with the other half. "We can pick something out of this to write about."
"As long as it's not an obituary," interrupted Leila, and I met Nico's eyes and grinned over the irony.
"You're not even going to be writing it," objected Percy, but I could tell that he was only responding to the principle of her dictating his work – I could see in his eyes that he agreed with his sister.
"I don't care – you shouldn't write about other people's deaths. It's weird," insisted Leila.
"Hey, it wouldn't be that bad." Guess who said that?
"For you!" replied Leila, giving Nico a meaningful look. Are they seriously stupid enough to be talking about this in front of a mortal?
"Just because" – started Nico, and I resisted the urge to smack my forehead. Apparently they were.
I cut Nico off. "Guys!" Save the demigod talk for later, when there aren't mortals present, please! That message was obvious for anyone who looked into my eyes.
"Never mind," muttered Nico as Thalia returned and sat in her place. She didn't seem too pleased to be next to the mortal monster, and shifted ever-so-subtly towards Nico. Of course, Nico is a boy, so that arrangement didn't seem to make her too happy, either. She shot me a death glare, as if it was my fault.
After awhile of working, in which I finished both my math homework and my half of Leila's and my biology homework and started sketching out a new temple for Artemis, the devil started talking again. "So why are you guys all living together again?"
Okay, I have to admit that from a mortal's point of view this would seem pretty odd. Still, we'd concocted explanations before the school year. Except for Thalia – oh, drat. We'd forgotten to brief Thalia on the whole cover-story thing. Hopefully she was good at thinking on her feet.
Leila started the explanation. "Well, Percy and I are what you call siblings" – and then "Ouch!" as I smacked her. But I tried to congratulate her with my eyes at the same time.
I told her the truth – mostly. "My parents live in San Francisco; they're letting me stay here so that I can go to school with Percy and – well – yeah." I didn't mention that the real reason was so that I could be close to Olympus and oversee the building going on there, or that I was busy designing new temples in my spare time.
"Oh, that's cool." She sounded like she didn't care one way or the other. To her, I was obviously the least interesting in the room – just an obstacle to overcome. Which honestly would have been hilarious if it weren't so annoying. "What about you two?" she continued, looking at Nico and Thalia.
"I'm a Dutch transfer student from Norway." I thunked the heel of my hand into my forehead at Nico's words, and Thalia hit him. "I was only kidding!" he said; I raised my eyebrows.
"Apparently humor has been banned from the household for the time being." I knew Leila was referring to me hitting her earlier, and nudged her again for good measure.
"Whatever." Nico started talking again. "My mom died a long time ago" – like, seventy-something years ago – "and I'm staying with the Jacksons."
"What about your dad?"
I loved this part of our cover stories. "He has a full-time job out in Hollywood." If only she knew where in Hollywood! Or how "full-time" his job was! "It's pretty time consuming, so I came here for school."
"Wow, I get it." She sounded pretty impressed with the Hollywood part. "My dad's job takes him away a lot. I don't see him much, but whatever. I don't really mind." How . . . entitled of her. Doesn't even realize what she has. Does she realize how many demigods wish they could see their parents more? How does she not? "What about you, Thalia?" She seemed to backtrack at Thalia's death glare, which was even more impressive than Leila's or mine – but not enough. She remained quiet, expectant, waiting for Thalia's answer.
"I just don't live with my parents," said Thalia's voice. Her tone said, "Shut up. Now."
"Why not?" Would this idiot never learn?
"I'm usually with my . . . guardian." I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank the gods Thalia could think quickly. "Yeah. She travels around a lot, but I like it."
"Huh," have I mentioned how much I hate the way she says that? Her fingers tapped on her laptop keyboard – a hunt-and-pecker, yet another con – and I saw Leila smirk across the table.
Oh, no. Leila has become an expert at cracking codes and figuring things out – almost as good as some of the Athena kids – and seeing her smile like that meant only bad things. Actually, hang on. Not so bad after all.
The mortal spoke again, ripping my eardrums into shreds. "So do you all have any brothers or sisters? I'm an only child and I never wanted any brothers or sisters."
I decided not to mention my cabin full of half-siblings at camp. Maybe I could just avoid this question. I turned to my temple design and listened to the others' answers. "Well," said Percy, "I always wanted to be an only child, but you know, we all have dreams." I laughed under my breath at that, but immediately sobered up as I realized that the pen he was fiddling with was not just any pen but was in fact his sword. When he set it down on the table, I nearly lost it.
"Oh, ha ha," glared Leila. "Thalia, Nico, and I are cousins."
"Mom's or dad's side?"
"Dad's." Leila's expression was horrified – I followed her eyes and felt my own pop open wide. The mortal was holding on to Riptide. Oh, I was going to kill Percy. Forget about loving him. Forget about everything – how could he give her such an opening?
I cleared my throat as loudly as I could, trying to make some kind of connection with either Leila or Thalia. Do something! Now! Underneath the table, I felt Percy's leg jolt as Thalia's foot made contact; he valiantly kept from wincing.
"You moron," I muttered to Percy, eyes fixed on the mortal. Don't uncap it, don't uncap it, don't uncap it, don't –
"Uh," Leila's voice was too loud, too sudden, enough to distract the mortal and turn her attention away from the pen in her fingers. "Anyone got a pen I can borrow?" She stared directly at the devil, who reluctantly gripped the pen just a bit tighter; then, as the stares at her increased, finally reached across the table.
Leila took it from her fingers, letting out a breath of relief, and turned back to her homework.
When the others were finally finished and the basic layout of my temple was done (snatches of facades drawn in between ignoring Nico's constant begging for help and Thalia's telling him to shut up, her voice growing louder every time), the devil suggested printing their project. Just as she was executing her (very poor) plan at getting Percy alone, Leila foiled it. "I'm done with math, Annabeth; if I do any more my head will explode."
I laughed, deciding not to mention that I'd been done for about forty-five minutes. "I guess I am, too."
"Let's go see if we can print that out, then."
Thank you, Leila. It didn't matter if math obviously was not generally done on a computer and thus had no need for printing – the devil probably didn't know it, and Leila had just conned her way into chaperoning them.
I didn't follow her because if I had to be with that mortal for two more seconds, I was going to scream. As soon as they'd left the room, I headed into the living room with Thalia and Nico and flopped onto the couch. "This might be the most obtuse mortal I've ever met," I groaned. "Why can't she get a clue and figure out that she is not welcome here!"
"Gods, I know," commiserated Thalia. "If she ever touches me, she'll be getting a major shock of static electricity coming her way."
"I could kill her," offered Nico.
"Of course you could." I tossed a pillow at him, and he whacked it away. Thalia jumped onto the couch with me and peered over my shoulder at my design. "It's for Artemis," I explained. "I was going to ask your opinion once it's a little less sketchy, but what do you think so far?"
She opened her mouth, but then we heard the voices from the other room get louder, like they were arguing. When Leila's voice rose to a shout, I jumped off the couch, handed my notebook to Thalia, and went to intervene.
The mortal devil was sitting on Percy's bed, Percy was leaning against the desk next to the computer, and Leila was standing in the middle of the room, glaring at the mortal. I sighed. "Hey, you guys are getting a little loud" –
All the heads in the room snapped around to me. Percy looked relieved, Leila still angry, and the devil looked furious. "What? Are we cutting into your study time?"
Percy's hand was at his pocket and Riptide was out in a blink. It was kind of sweet to see how protective of me he got, even though he didn't need to. I tried to tell him with only my eyes to put that away, as I replied. "I just came to see what the shouting was about."
"Well, we were fine without you." You really want to play that way, mortal girl? You really want to mess with me? You have no idea what I could do to you if I wanted to.
I had just opened my mouth to make a retort when Percy interrupted, looking a little scared. So did Leila for that matter. Smart of them. They have learned that you do not want to be around when I get really angry. Anyway, Percy said, "Hey!" loudly. "It's done printing!"
Leila looked relieved. "Oh, well then," and she collapsed back onto her bed.
Percy shot me a nervous smile, and I returned it before leaving the room.
Sitting back down on the sofa, I resumed my conversation with Thalia, but we were interrupted by the sound of the door opening. "Hello, anyone home?" called Sally's voice.
Sally Jackson is the nicest person in the world, a view shared by everyone living in this house (except possibly Sally). We all went running into the kitchen to say hi. Paul Blofis was there as well, and the floor was covered in boxes. I leaned down to pick a couple of them up, stacking them in my arms and turning to lug them into Sally's room. He was in the process of moving in, which we all thought was wonderful – it was about time Sally had someone here to commiserate with.
"How was your day?" asked Leila; I turned to see the twins rushing into the room. Percy hugged his mom, and then came over to take the boxes from me. I rolled my eyes and leaned down to pick up another one from the floor, carrying it into the bedroom after Percy as Sally and Leila started a conversation.
As soon as I had set the box down on the floor, a hand snaked out from behind the door and grabbed me, turning me around. I could have flipped my attacker to the floor immediately, but I knew it was Percy, so I let him pull me into him and kiss me soundly.
"Hey," he murmured when we broke apart, a silly grin on his face.
I rolled my eyes and kissed him again. "Hey yourself, Seaweed Brain." I patted him on the shoulder and extricated myself from him. "Now come on. Be a nice host. She'll be gone soon," I raised my eyebrows at him, "and then I'll have you all to myself." I winked, and then hurried back into the hallway, trailing Percy behind me, just in time to hear the devil announce her plan to leave.
"I'll get your shirt," Thalia said finally, turning and heading down the hall. The mortal followed her, muttering something about waiting in the bathroom. As soon as she was out of sight, I felt my shoulders relax.
Sally was looking at us, confused; I let Percy and Leila clear the subject up with her, turning just in time to see Thalia return.
Then Nico burst out laughing, and I turned to see what was going on. The way they were all staring at me, I assumed it was about the wet shirt, and lowered my eyes so I wouldn't give myself away.
"Science experiment gone wrong?" suggested Leila, and my gaze snapped back up to look at her with incredulity. Seriously?
"Percy was doing science experiments with his history partner?" Sally's tone made it obvious that she saw right through all of us.
"Don't you mean biology experiments?" said Thalia in an undertone obviously meant to be heard. She was smirking, looking directly at me, and I jammed my elbow into her ribs as hard as I could, rewarded by her quiet gasp of pain. Good.
"Someone," Nico stared hard at me, "spilled water on it."
And then, I had to laugh, because Leila was suddenly the one getting all the blame.
"It was Annabeth!" she finally protested, turning to look at me.
If it were anyone else, I wouldn't have minded, but it wasn't anyone else. It was Sally Jackson, and she was the nicest person ever, and I couldn't help hiding my face behind my hands.
She smiled at me, though, with that look that I had never seen in my stepmother's eyes, or even in Athena's, and tugged my hands away. "Please tell me my children aren't corrupting you."
Even blushing furiously, I had to laugh. "Sally, I" –
"Don't even worry about it. A little water won't hurt anyone." Then she grinned at me wickedly, as though she understood everything. "Besides, I'm sure that rotten girl deserved it."
And with that, no one could resist laughing.
(A/N: Can anyone else see Sally Jackson with a british accent? Or is that just me? I know it's possible-she's American, blah, blah, blah-but I don't know. Every time I imagine her voice she has this amazingly motherly British accent. It's awesome haha Sorry it's been so long, but hands down to Luna for editing this chapter THREE TIMES to keep up with my crazy brain! You rock, girl! ;) Sorry I'm so confusing and randomly decide to add things here and there! Thanks everyone!)
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