Hi, reviewers! THANKS GUYS, I LOVE YOU ALL. Sorry I can't respond personally, but I'm taking advantage of the keyboard while it functions properly.
"Are you sure this has Chiron's permission?" he asks. "He'll kill us all."
It's Saturday afternoon. Percy's come over; he's going to bring them both to camp anyway.
"Nico said Chiron gave his permission. Besides, it's in camp. He can watch us all he wants. If you want to worry, worry about Mr. D," she answers. "He'll unleash the harpies on us."
"Really? Even as the god of partying?"
"You know him. Though maybe we should let him join or something, just so he won't try killing us in revenge."
"It's a harmless night of partying. What could happen?"
"If the Aphrodite cabin set this up," she mutters to herself, "anything can happen."
"Denise, are you coming or not?" she asks. Percy has been introduced to Denise, Annabeth's (newly-discovered) demigod roommate. He's placed his bets on Aphrodite for the mother.
They had considered bringing her along to camp, to introduce her early to the world she's really living in. But then, Denise raised the possibility of feeling left out, and having a ton of neglected studying. They're leaving already, and she still hasn't decided.
"Okay. I'm not going. I have a lot of stuff to do here, and the way you two are acting... I don't want to be in a car with you two. I don't want to... hinder you two from anything."
"Shut up," Annabeth says. "Fine. Stay if you want." They make their way outside.
"Are you going to summon Blackjack again?" she asks.
"Nah. On 'leave,'" he says. "I have another idea." He snaps his fingers, and a red Maserati Spyder appears on the road, looking brand new.
"Percy, do you even have a license?"
He snaps his fingers again, and a license appears in his hand. "Yes, I do."
"Do you even know how to drive?"
"Why else would I summon a car?" he asks. "Stop contradicting me so much." She laughs at that. "Besides, I can always make it drive itself. We'll have some time to ourselves." He grins.
"Just drive, Percy," she says.
They make it there by seven-thirty. There seems to be a lot of people present already.
"Ready?" she asks.
"Why are we doing this again?" he asks. "I don't see the point.
"I was bored, and it'll be fun. Maybe. It'll shock them."
He's starting to worry that she's been infected by the Hermes cabin, but it isn't really a prank, just a little shocker. She starts by going in alone. Percy makes himself invisible again, listening in on the voices of the demigods inside. He hides behind Thalia's tree.
"Oh, hey, Annabeth!" It's Nico di Angelo.
"Hi." She's modulated her voice to quiet and slightly withdrawn, it would seem.
He peeks from behind the tree, still invisible. Nico's face shows evident worry. He spots Grover, the Stolls, Clarisse and some of her brothers. Nearly the whole Aphrodite cabin is present. He sees quite a lot of Apollo kids, and a few campers from Hephaestus and Hermes, and the remaining Dionysus twin, Pollux. A handful of Athena kids are there, too.
"You alone?" Grover asks. Annabeth nods.
"Well?" the satyr says. "Join the fun!" It's gotten a bit quiet since she came, though.
Percy waits a while, as the party gets going again, before turning visible and going in.
The silence returns.
Some hi's and hello's are said, but other than that nobody talks. He decides to break the silence himself. "If you guys don't want me here, I won't stay."
"No, no, Percy," Travis says. He steals a quick glance at his brother before speaking again. "Just a bit... surprised."
He raises an eyebrow. "You knew I was coming, Travis," he retorts.
The son of Hermes shrugs. "Was talking about the others," he replies. "Anyway, let's not stop the party!"
The whole scene reminds him of prom night.
He's never really been much for dancing, so he sticks with talking to other people and drinking the lemonade someone brought. Strangely there's no supervision.
Soon, he's flirted with by a couple of girls (not that he flirted back), talked with some friends, threatened by Clarisse, and almost getting involved in a prank by the Hermes cabin (luckily he caught their grins at the last second when he was about to grab a glass of punch they had brought in). All the while, he keeps thinking about the reaction of everyone when he came. It just makes him think about the decision he made. How he didn't really think how it would affect everyone.
He spots Annabeth getting dragged away by some daughters of Aphrodite. He doesn't know what they're up to, but he'll find out.
Looking around, he spots Nico and the Stolls (which just occurs to him to be a pretty cool name for a band) making their way toward him. Nico didn't really hang out with anyone, just talking with people here and there, so it's weird to see him with the sons of Hermes.
"Hey, Percy," Nico calls. "Can you come over here?"
Percy mentally shrugs and gets up, making his way over. They lead him to the woods, away from the party.
"What are you up to?" he asks. The brothers are always up to something anyway, and who knows how devious Nico's mind is? He quickly considers the possibilities about the son of Hades, ranging from Nico being conned by the brothers, to Nico being the mastermind of all this, but that probably doesn't matter.
"Nothing, man," Travis answers, but nothing isn't in the vocabulary of the Hermes cabin. "Just wanted to talk, to catch up, you know?"
Percy gives them a look that makes it clear he doesn't believe Travis. "Drop the act, Travis. What's the prank?"
"But, Percy," Connor says, "the Aphrodite kids did it, not us. We were threatened with a repeat of the post-golden-mango thing." He leans in and whispers to Percy: "There's something else in it for me, too, but don't tell Travis." Travis is frowning.
Percy is praying to the gods (which is kinda weird, considering he is one) that it isn't a makeover in the middle of the woods or a blind date with a random girl. Though seeing that they dragged Annabeth away, he has a pretty good idea.
They lead him through the woods until they reach a small clearing. "Ready to meet my dad?" Nico asks.
"Don't scare him, Nico," Travis says. "I don't think it's deadly. I think. Nothing too scary, Percy," he continues with an evil grin.
"Besides," Connor says, "you'll be thanking us if this goes off successfully."
"Nico di Angelo, live knowing your mind has been corrupted by the Stoll brothers," Percy says.
"Hey," he says defensively, raising his hands, "I only came because I wanted to watch." When he sees Percy's face, he says, "I swear!"
They grow quiet as they hear the sound of footsteps. Annabeth and the squad of Aphrodite girls march into the clearing.
"Percy," she says.
"Hey, baby." That comment surprises everyone. The boys have an interested look on their faces. The Aphrodite girls are trying to decide between happy, angry and excited, it would seem.
Then Annabeth laughs, and Percy joins her. Everyone is confused, until one girl figures it out.
"Damn, we were too late!" she exclaims. "They're already together!"
"I was right," Annabeth says. "That was the objective of this party."
"One of," another girl corrects. "Yes, there was matchmaking the two of you—you'll have to tell us the details later—and there was the partying, and there's more matchmaking, and even a game of truth or dare, which is horribly cliché but it is fun."
"Now, for one of the other couples we plan tonight," another says... "Connor! You know what to do!" The girls and Connor start chasing Travis, who runs away.
Leaving Percy, Annabeth and Nico in the clearing.
After they talk some, they make their way back to find the Aphrodite cabin shoving Travis towards Katie Gardner.
"I was worried they'd kill him," Percy says. "Looks like they're leaving the job to Katie."
I know it's kind of horrible, at least to me anyway, but I want you to see what the others are up to, what they think, and let them have fun and whatnot.
I guess it's titled Worried because it dispels any worry left in them-Percy and Annabeth, that is. After all, the public-ness of it is basically a confirmation.
And I think my keyboard might be getting better, although I'm not taking any chances because I have to finish the story I'm writing that I have to pass for my English class next week. Damn. So please don't hate me if I don't respond to your reviews, just try to bear with it.
And this is basically a give-away... the next chapter will be Loved. So, bye! ~