Hey, great job with the reviews guys, keep that up!
MoA came out Tuesday! I HAVE read it, so if you want to discuss the book, hit up my PM. I would be glad to talk.
Here is Chapter 14. We have only one chapter remaining after this one.
Anyway, here is Chapter Fourteen of The Princess and the Peasant.
Disclaimer: I didn't write Mark of Athena. Even I'm not that good of a writer.
Chapter Fourteen: Annabeth POV
I pulled Percy along the hallway by his good arm. I still felt awful for what I indirectly did to him. I had gone up to my dad and thoroughly apologized, something that he accepted, along with our official relationship now. He also told me that I could continue sleeping with Percy as long as I left a note back in my room saying where I was. However, he said if I got pregnant before we got married he would do so much worse to Percy than what he did today.
Anyway, back to me 'making it up to Percy.'
No, I wasn't going to have sex with him if that's what you were thinking. I already had my dad's threat to worry about anyway. No, I was going to take him to the most beautiful place in all of London. I made sure Blackjack and Starry were ready for us so when we got to the stables we could take off immediately.
I pulled Percy down to the stables and got him to mount Blackjack with only a few questions. I ignored the questions, told him to follow me and took off. I didn't look back until we were outside the castle gates, but by then Percy had caught up to me, so there was no need to.
"Annabeth," he said, once he got me to slow down, "Where are we going?"
"I guess you're going to have to wait and see," I replied and took off again.
As I rounded the last corner, I slowed down in anticipation. Every time I visited this place, it always made me feel amazed. And it did again today.
The clear blue water stretched endlessly into the horizon. The sky reflected into the water, so you felt like you were standing on the edge of a mirror, except you could see the fish swimming and the plants growing underneath the surface. Along the sides of the river were trees like the kind you would see in Miami. They looked like palm trees, but palm trees do not grow in London. It was an amazing sight.
"Oh my gods," Percy said next to me, "this is amazing. How did you find this place?"
"I don't know," I replied. "I just came across it one day and it stole my heart and locked it away. I've loved this place ever since I saw it for the first time when I was seven."
"That's unbelievable."
"Yeah," I said. "Did you notice the waterfalls yet?" He followed my gaze.
"The waterfa-oh my gods." I couldn't help but laugh. Percy was standing open-mouthed at the waterfalls on the other side of the river. Lush green trees were behind the waterfalls and moss covered the stones in the river, so it looked like the river ran right through the forest. When I was little, that's exactly what I thought it did. The waterfalls came from both sides of the lush green trees, so it looked like the trees were an island in itself as the waterfalls surrounded it on each side. The waterfalls weren't that tall, maybe only eight feet at the shortest height and maybe twelve or thirteen feet at the tallest height. That didn't really matter though. These waterfalls would have looked majestic at any height, that's how beautiful they were.
"That's amazing," Percy said, turning towards me. "They look almost as amazing as you do Annabeth."
I blushed and punched his arm.
"Thanks for ruining it Percy."
"What?" He said. "You don't want me telling the truth?"
I blushed again and dismounted, grabbing the picnic basket and the blanket. I ignored Percy's last statement.
"So," Percy said after dismounting, "what are we doing here at dinnertime?"
"Having dinner," I said tossing him the blanket, which he caught easily. "What does it look like we're doing?"
He shrugged and set down the blanket, spreading it out to make sure it was even.
"So, what are we having for dinner then?"
"Lamb sandwiches, sweet corn and hand-picked apples," I told him.
"Lamb sandwiches? Now is that like lamb's meat in a sandwich or what?"
I rolled my eyes and ignored him.
"What? It's an honest question."
"What do you think the answer is?" I eventually replied. Percy smartly ignored me and we started to eat.
We continued to make small talk while we ate. After finishing the excellent meal, I soon found myself falling asleep on Percy. He was sitting with his back against a tree and I was sitting in his lap. We were waiting for the sunset, which would happen right over the center of the river, another perk of this beautiful place.
I barely saw the sunset. It wasn't too much later after the sunset had happened that I fell asleep. The next thing I remembered after that was Percy setting me down in my bed. He gave me a kiss on the forehead.
"Night Annabeth," he said softly.
To be honest, I was too tired to reply, so I just fell asleep.
The next morning I woke up and quickly headed down to breakfast. Percy was having breakfast with his sister and Ashton when I got there.
"There's the special someone," Ashton joked as I sat down next to Percy. I blushed and gave him a glare.
"Hey sleepyhead," Percy said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. "How'd you sleep?"
"Good," I replied, "but not as good as the night before."
Percy gave me a smile. "Well that's good to know."
I smiled back at him. "Yeah, so what are you going to do during the duels today, since you're not fighting?"
"Well, I was figuring on watching them with you. It's a good time to do some scouting anyway."
"Oh, ok," I said with a smile. "So are you going to watch them with me? Like right next to me?"
"Well, not for the first two," he said. "I fight either District 1 or District 11, so I'm going to watch them with Ares and see if we can get some sort of advantage, but it's not like I have one already. I'll join you after those two duels, ok? So save me a spot."
"Will do," I told him.
We finished breakfast and we went to our separate rooms. Percy came over to my room after changing and we hung out for a while before the duels. I managed to learn a lot about Percy. Not only is he cute, but he's smart. Well, battle smart, that is. He isn't really smart smart, if you know what I mean. His favorite color was sea green like the ocean (like your eyes, I wanted to add) and he has always loved swimming. He told me his mom owned a restaurant (which I already knew) and that it was very popular (which I also knew). He asked a lot about me personally and we continued to trade questions back and forth until we needed to head over to the arena for the day's duels.
Percy and I walked into the arena together until he needed to break off to find Lord Ares. I made sure there was plenty of room next to me for him to sit down after the first duels and waited.
The first two duels passed and I didn't really see any reason why Percy wouldn't beat whoever he faced in the knockout stage, even with an injured arm. Neither one of the two districts seemed like they were even close to Percy in talent level.
Percy made his way up during the middle of the third duel and sat down to my left. He wrapped his good arm around my shoulder and pulled me in for a kiss on the cheek.
"As long as my arm holds up, I'll have this in the bag tomorrow," he told me.
"Awesome," I said, wrapping my arm around his waist.
We remained like that until after the duels, where we went straight towards dinner. During dinner however, my father did something that surprised and embarrassed both me and Percy.
"Attention, attention," he said, tapping his spoon on his wine glass, "I have an announcement to make. Please will you all be quiet. Thank you." He paused dramatically. "Now as many of you know, I have a daughter." A slight ripple of amusement went through the crowd. Several eyes turned towards me. "Now what most of you don't know is that she has a boyfriend." I looked over at Percy, who was smiling, and I immediately turned a deep, deep shade of red. Lots of cheering and wolf-whistling went up. "Now I know that it's only a boyfriend and she isn't getting engaged or whatever, but she is our only daughter," he brought my mother into this, "and it is our duty as parents to embarrass her whenever possible." A small laugh went up from the crowd. "And, if so," he continued, "to embarrass her boyfriend whenever possible as well." I looked over at Percy, who wasn't smiling anymore. "Oh, don't think you'll get out of it so easy Percy. If you want to marry my daughter, you're going to have to be able to suffer the embarrassment that comes along with it." My dad smiled. He was enjoying this too much. "So now, a toast. To Percy and Annabeth," he raised his glass, "and the hope that your relationship is one that goes so much better than mine ever has." He looked over at my mom, who was now glaring. "Oh, was that out loud?" The crowd laughed. I'll admit I cracked a smile. My dad turned back to the crowd and smiled. "To Percy and Annabeth." The crowd relayed the toast.
I looked back at Percy, who was trying to avoid Ashton's claps on the back. We eventually made eye contact and I managed a weak smile, which he returned.
After dinner, I was walking with Percy back to his room. Our plan was to head up and change before walking back down to the dining hall to listen to a musician that had never before played in London. I was intrigued to see how good he was.
However, people kept walking up to us and congratulating us on our relationship. The first few were okay, but once we were getting stopped every few feet, it started to get annoying. It took us a half-hour to get up to Percy's room. He changed into a simple shirt and pants and we made our way to my room, again getting stopped every few seconds for congratulations. We eventually made it to my room where I changed into another more comfortable dress and then we made our way back down to the dining hall just before the musician started to play.
I recognized him immediately. He was the musician from Wales; the one who performed a couple of days before Rayne's birthday party. He recognized me and flashed me a smile.
I walked up to him and since my hand was interlocked with Percy's, he had to follow me.
"So, you followed my advice," I said.
"I figured I might as well try it, my lady," he said.
"Don't worry," I said. "Just play normally and you'll do amazing."
"Thank you, my lady. If I may ask, who is this?" He said, motioning towards Percy. "I don't recognize him from Wales."
"Well," I said dramatically, "this is my boyfriend, Percy Jackson. He's fighting in the Championships this year."
"Really? Well, any friend of the Princesses is a friend of mine. Nice to meet you Lord Jackson." He extended his hand, which Percy shook.
"The pleasure's all mine Master…" Percy let the sentence hang.
"Richardson. Alexander Richardson," the musician supplied.
"Well, the pleasure's all mine Master Richardson. I look forward to hearing your work tonight."
"Thank you my lord. Now if the royal couple could take a seat, I would very much like to get started. Please enjoy."
"We will," I said. "Thank you." Percy and I made our way to two open seats next to Isabel and Abby.
Master Richardson played for a good two-and-a-half, three hours and I stayed to watch the entire thing. He must have stepped it up for London, because it was even better than when I saw him in Wales. I gave Percy eight or nine gold coins and told him to put them in the case and he obliged. The case itself was already almost filled to the brim.
Master Richardson eventually ended his concert for the night and everyone made their way back to their rooms. I changed out of my dress and into nightclothes. I made sure to write a note and make it visible and Percy and I headed off towards his room.
The next morning the knockout duels were announced. The winner of Group A was going to be set to face the runner up of Group B and so on and so forth down the line.
On the one side of the bracket were Districts 1, 8, 12 and 13. Percy (District 13) would have to face the winner of Group A, District 1, in the first duel and then the winner of Group C, District 8 would face the runner up from Group D, District 12. On the other side of the bracket were Districts 2, 10, 11 and 14. District 10, having won Group B by virtue of Percy's withdrawal, would face the runner up from A, District 11. The last knockout duel of the day would be District 14, who won Group D, and District 2, who finished second in Group C.
After learning about the knockout pairings, Percy seemed pretty satisfied with his pairing. I watched his short training session just before lunch and then the two of us hung out with Rayne, Ashton, Abby and Isabel for the rest of the day.
Percy and I headed back to bed pretty early that night as he needed to get a good night's sleep for the upcoming duel the next day.
We were still sleeping when Lord Ares came into Percy's room at 8 in the morning.
"Let's go Percy. Time to get up," he said.
"How much time to I have?" Percy said sleepily.
"Two hours," Lord Ares replied. "But you should get dressed and head down to breakfast so you are wide awake by the time you enter for your duel."
"Ok, ok. I'll be down there in twenty minutes."
"Ok." Lord Ares turned towards me. "Make sure he gets down there, ok?"
"I will, Lord Ares. Just leave it to me." I turned and gave Percy a kiss on the cheek. Lord Ares smiled gratefully at me and turned and left the room.
A half-hour later, Percy and I finally made our way into the dining hall. We joined Rayne, Abby and Isabel along with Lord Ares, Lady Allyson and Ashton. We were served almost immediately. Percy started to talk with Lord Ares and Ashton, so I turned to Abby.
"Hey," I said. "I haven't really gotten to talk with you a whole lot."
"Well," she replied with a smile, "that's because you're too busy with my brother."
I blushed slightly but shook it off.
"Speaking of your brother," I said, "what do you think about all of this? You know, the Championships and all the attention he's getting."
"It's good for him. I mean, people obviously like him, including your parents, which is good for you. And it also proves the point that he is actually a really good swordfighter. It gives legitimacy to his perfect record. Well, his nearly perfect record."
"Yeah, but that's about him," I said. "What about you? Do you like him getting all of the attention?"
"I personally don't care during an event like this. This is his ground, not mine, so if he gets all of the attention, then that's fine by me. We're best friends, so I support him and he supports me. We have that practically unbreakable bond and nothing about attention is going to change that." She paused for a second, but then continued, "And between you and me, I'm my mom's favorite anyway, so attention doesn't matter."
I laughed. "Is that so?" Abby nodded. "I'll keep that in mind when I come and visit your mother for the first time."
Abby gave me an intriguing look, but let it go. The two of us turned back to the table conversation just as it was ending.
"Ok," Lord Ares was saying, "We should probably start heading back up to our rooms, Percy. That way we can get changed and then have plenty of time to get your armor on before your duel."
"Ok, that sounds good," Percy replied. "I guess I'll see you ladies in the arena then."
The three guys stood up and started to walk out of the dining hall. On an impulse, I stood up and caught up to Percy.
"Hey," I said.
"Hey," he replied. "What are you doing?"
"Following you." Gods, he was so dense sometimes.
"Uh, why?" He asked tentatively.
"What? Can't I say good-bye to my boyfriend right before he walks out in the arena? Come on Percy, this is the first time you have the first duel. There have always been either two or three duels before you. The one time I want to send you off on a good note and you're denying me?"
"No, no," he said quickly. "It's just that how are you going to help with my armor?"
"I'm not going to help with that. I'll leave before then. But I just want to walk with you for a half-hour. Can't I do that?"
"Uh, I guess," Percy said looking at Lord Ares, who just shrugged.
"Plus, I need some time to get back to my seat anyway."
"Ok, that's fine by me." With that, the two of us made our way up to his room. Lord Ares and Ashton decided to just meet Percy in the arena, so the two of us were alone.
Percy changed into a navy blue cutoff and his normal athletic shorts. The two of us headed down to the arena. By the time we got down to the changing room, there was twenty minutes until Percy's duel.
When we got there, Lord Ares and Ashton were standing there pretty awkwardly, so I took the hint as the fact that I should get going.
"I should probably head out," I said. I gave Percy a hug and a kiss. "Good luck today Percy. Make District 13 proud."
"I will," he said, returning the hug and the kiss. "I'll see you at dinner?" He posed it as a question.
"Only if you win," I replied. Percy smiled.
"Don't worry. I'll win." I smiled back and gave Percy one last kiss.
And with that, I walked through the door and headed to my seat, ready to watch Percy destroy the hometown favorite in District 1.
A/N:
So, what did you think? Only one more to go.
Now for the Question of the Chapter (MoA related as well): Have you read MoA and, if so, what did you think or what are your impressions on it?
I have read MoA as stated above and I personally thought it was Ah-mazing. I will not give out any spoilers, but if you want to talk to me about it, hit up my PM. I said that before as well.
Update News: The final chapter of TPATP will be up on Tuesday October 16th. Mark your calendars everyone. Nothing else will be updated between now and then. I need some time to write my stories (and possibly a sequel, but that will be decided next chapter).
I will give you a warning. You will not like my ending. Check that, 99% of you will not like the ending. The other 1%, well, I don't know about you. Feel free to be mad at me next chapter; I'll understand. I will give you an insight though. Next chapter's question will be Do you want me to write a sequel? I can tell you that now.
Anyway, I've blabbered on enough.
Make sure to review!
Thanks!
-PSON