Chapter 24: Annabeth Becomes a Starkid
"You both knew, and neither of you bothered to tell me!" Annabeth squealed, pacing back and forth as Nico and Thalia watched her in fear that if they said anything wrong, they'd lose a life.
"Malcolm told us that he either wanted you to come to him, or for him to tell you personally." Thalia explained, raising her hands in surrender.
"So how long have they been, well, together?" Annabeth asked, still not sure she liked the idea of her brother dating her ex-rival.
"I guess a week or so." Nico said, looking sheepish. "Give or take."
"What?!" Annabeth once again squealed.
"Hey, don't get mad at me!" Thalia answered defensively. "I only found out about this yesterday because of Nico."
"And I only found out about it three days ago because of Hazel." Nico continued. "And she only knew because of Frank."
"And how did Frank know?" Annabeth asked, unsure of when the chain would end.
"I think Malcolm told him directly." Nico answered. "Anyways, Malcolm didn't want to stir up any more bad blood between the two of you, so he neglected to tell you until you had made peace with Reyna."
"Jeez, how did they even meet?" Annabeth asked, flopping back down on the bed.
"When Malcolm took over for you during your ban from New Rome." Nico once again answered. "So I guess one good thing came from you duking it out with Reyna."
"Wait, she was still on the designer board and I wasn't?" Annabeth sat up, looking positively livid.
"No, she was also banned from New Rome." Nico continued. "They met because she was snooping around with the plans late one night when she shouldn't have been."
"This is too weird." Annabeth shook her head. "I've got to go talk to him."
"Give the guy a break, Anna. This could be good for both of them!" Thalia argued, watching Annabeth grab her sneakers and shove them on.
"How?" Annabeth retorted.
"Well, ok, let's see…" Thalia bit her lip in thought, having obviously not come up with a solid answer.
"Thalia is right," Nico interjected, taking the heat off of Thalia, "Reyna will probably keep Malcolm's slacker tendencies in check, and Malcolm may keep Reyna's alpha attitude at bay."
"That's… not a bad point actually." Annabeth agreed, surprised at herself. "Regardless, I'm going back to my cabin to get some fresh clothes."
"And I'm going to introduce Happy Wheels to the Aphrodite cabin." Thalia said with a sadistic smile.
"And I should probably follow her." Nico said, standing up and walking behind Thalia, who was holding Nico's laptop over her head in victory.
"Please don't cause them any emotional harm." Annabeth begged.
"We won't! Promise!" Thalia called as she stepped off the porch. Annabeth heard Nico's protest as Thalia ran off, laptop still in hand.
Annabeth blew her nose once more before exiting the cabin, and walked back to the Athena cabin. Once inside, she saw Malcolm was putting on his set of armor.
"You have a class to teach or something?" Annabeth asked. Malcolm's classes didn't start until after lunch usually, with Annabeth taking up the morning slots of the schedule and some of Ares' campers filling in the evening.
"Taking over one your self defense classes today." Malcolm answered, brushing his short, curly blond hair out of his face. If no one knew any better, they could easily mistake Annabeth and Malcolm for twins despite the year age difference between the two.
"That's nice of you, but I thought Percy had mine covered." Annabeth said, walking over to her trunk and picking out a set of clothes for the day.
"He had the first one, but I decided to take the second one for him, give him a break. You two do a lot for this camp," Malcolm continued, adjusting the last strap on his chest plate, "so I figure it'd be nice to give you both a break every now and then as well."
Annabeth drifted into a silence for a few moments, contemplating what to say next. "So… you and Reyna…" She trailed off, not sure how to continue the conversation without getting awkward.
"Ah, I was wondering when you'd catch on." Malcolm answered nonchalantly, like it wasn't a big deal.
"Why didn't you mention it?" Annabeth asked from behind her cabin's changing curtain. She had gotten so used to talking to her siblings, or her siblings talking to her while getting undressed on the fly, that even serious topics like strategy and relationships were no longer considered taboo to talk about while changing clothes.
"Didn't want to freak you out." Malcolm answered, again, nonchalantly.
Annabeth gave a short, curt, laugh. "What makes you think I'd freak-"
"Beth, I know you better than you think." Malcolm cut her off. "Reyna and I started dating the day after your big fight between the two of you. I didn't think it would be right for me to waltz right in that night and be all like 'totally dating Reyna, your arch rival.'"
Annabeth nodded to herself, seeing the logic, and shoved a Half-Blood t-shirt over her head. "How did you two meet, exactly?"
"I was going back to the drafting room to lock up the blue prints for the evening and found her in there. We got to talking, one thing lead to another, and she kind of won me over by the time I had to leave." Malcolm sighed, though it was more in exasperation than in a romantic sense. "Turns out we fit together pretty well."
"That's unexpected." Annabeth responded sarcastically. She pulled on some jean shorts and stepped out from behind the curtain, looking at her brother quizzically. "Is she nice?" Annabeth finally asked.
"To me she is." Malcolm said with a shrug. "And I guess that's what matters."
"Gods what does she see in you?" Annabeth teased, unable to keep a strait face.
"Haha, so funny." Malcolm growled, poking her hard in the stomach, causing Annabeth to squeak in pain. "I'll have you know that it's becoming pretty common place for Roman chicks to find Greek guys like me very attractive."
"Why?" Annabeth asked, still holding one hand over her stomach.
"Because apparently, and I quote from another unrelated Roman girl who isn't Reyna, we're 'sensitive and artsy.'" He said, using air quotes. "Now I've got to teach your class. I'll be back in an hour."
"Alright, thanks again." Annabeth playfully punched him in the shoulder on the way out. Stuck in her own cabin with nothing better to do than to read or study, Annabeth pulled her favorite Harry Potter book off the shelf and slumped back down onto her bunk.
PARROT HATTERS AND THE GIBLET OF FRIES
Annabeth rubbed her eyes with her fingers, the title page popping out at her incoherently. Normally, she could override her dyslexia fairly easily by reading whole words as opposed to individual letters that make up a word, making reading awkward yet bearable. Today, however, with the combination of being sick and still sleepy from the shot of Nyquil she had done to get to sleep last night, her dyslexia wasn't giving her much peace.
"What does that even say?" She grumbled to herself, tossing the book to the floor and staring up at the ceiling.
"It says Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Ariadne answered, standing in the doorway.
Annabeth looked up at her sister. "Does your dyslexia get worse when you're sick?" She asked her.
"Depends on what kind of sick." Ariadne responded, sitting on the foot of Annabeth's bed Indian style. "It wasn't terrible when I caught mono, but I could barely read soup can labels when I had strep."
"How did you catch mono?" Annabeth teased with a half-smile.
Ariadne rolled her eyes, but still turned slightly pink. "It wasn't from THAT." She protested. "I caught it at a dance last year when I set my drink down." She explained defensively.
"Don't you have a class to teach?" Annabeth asked her sister.
"It's supposed to be my morning tutoring session with August," Ariadne answered, her expression going almost angry, "but…"
"But?" Annabeth coaxed.
"But August might have gotten into trouble this morning." Ariadne finished with a pained expression.
"For?" Annabeth asked, looking at Ariadne for more of an explanation.
"Long story." Ariadne sighed, looking to the side.
"It's fairly obvious that I have nothing better to do today." Annabeth retorted, waving at her to go on.
"Well ok. One of the Hephaestus boys, Luis, you know him right?" Ariadne asked.
"Yeah, I think so. The shrimpy one with the red hair right?" Annabeth confirmed.
Ariadne nodded and continued. "Well I was walking past the forge with August on our way to the armory, and Luis was leaning against his cabin. Well long story short, he catcalled me followed by a fairly lewd statement about my butt, and August right hooked him without question."
"Whoa! Is he ok?" Annabeth asked, more worried for Luis's sake than August's punishment.
"He will be. Nectar fixed him up pretty well, so he'll just have a bad bruise for a few days." Ariadne rolled her eyes again before continuing. "August, however, has three days of stable and kitchen duty."
"Do you think she sees you as more than just a friend?" Annabeth asked with a cocked eyebrow. Ever since a week and a half ago when August first showed up to camp, the two of them had been inseparable, with August becoming very over protective.
Ariadne turned beet red and began to study a very interesting spot on the bed. "I… no… I mean… no she doesn't!" She stammered, "We're just friends."
"Sure," Annabeth said nodding disbelievingly, "just friends. Got it."
"Yeah, friends." Ariadne once again protested, regaining composure.
"Yeah, ok." Annabeth once again responded, still not convinced.
"Have you ever seen a Very Potter Musical?" Ariadne asked, desperate to change the subject.
"Can't say I have." Annabeth answered, giving her sister a break.
"Well if you can't read Harry Potter today," Ariadne answered, gesturing towards Annabeth's laptop, "at least you can watch people make it awesome."
Annabeth handed the laptop over, which Ariadne promptly opened up and began typing. "So, I pretty much figure you've heard about Malcolm."
"Yep." Annabeth nodded. "Go figure."
"Maybe she'll whip him into shape." Ariadne suggested, hitting enter on YouTube.
"Lets hope." Annabeth groaned. "Why is everyone suddenly so interested in romance lately!"
"Anna, seriously, where do you think you are?" Ariadne gave her an obvious look, but Annabeth shook her head, not catching on. "You're at a camp where the average age is fourteen, it's co-ed, and due to divine lineage, the ration of hot people to not hot people makes this place a living breathing movie set. What do you think is going to happen?" Ariadne asked.
"Good point." Annabeth nodded. "What are we watching?" She asked, Ariadne scooting next to her so they could both see the screen.
"You know Daren Criss from Glee?" Ariadne asked.
"More or less." Annabeth answered.
"Well before he got his breakout role, he started a theatre troop with his college friends called Team Starkid. They've done some pretty crazy plays, but A Very Potter Musical is probably their most well know." Ariadne pressed play, the title screen popping up with an ominous guitar playing the first five or so notes to the Harry Potter theme. "And here we go."
"Underneath these stairs, I hear the sneers and feel glares of my cousin, my uncle and my aunt." The Daren Criss, playing a young Harry Potter sang.
The videos went on, each segment of the play funnier than the last.
"Did someone say Draco Malfoy?" The Draco character proclaimed as his actress rolled across the floor.
"This is the best thing I've ever seen." Annabeth remarked, not looking away from the screen.
"There's also a sequel." Ariadne said with a smile.
Annabeth turned and looked at her, wide eyed. "Well, I know what I'm doing all day." Annabeth said, high fiving her sister.
"It's really easy to get addicted to these plays." Ariadne said as she clicked on the next part.
"How many do they have?" Annabeth asked, amazed that a group of college kids could conjure up entire plays in a matter of months.
"Several." Ariadne scrolled down the list. "There's Little White Lie, Me and My Dick, Starship…"
"What did you just say?" Annabeth cut her off.
"Yep, they have a play called Me and My Dick. I'm not making that up." Ariadne said flatly, pointing to the screen. "And yes, it is awesome."
"What class do you have next?" Annabeth asked, looking at Ariadne with a sly expression.
"It's my swim period. Why?" Ariadne responded.
"Who teaches that?" Annabeth continued.
"Uh… Percy?" Ariadne answered, still not catching on.
"Let's say your cramps started acting up." Annabeth suggested.
"But I'm not on my… oh." Ariadne nodded, the idea suddenly dawning on her. "Yeah, my cramps. Right." She smiled, leaning back against the bed.
"Next part! I want to see how they defeat Voldemort!" Annabeth demanded, snapping her fingers.
"I'm on it!" Ariadne agreed.
Look who's back on somewhat of a schedule! I feel great, and that means more chapters are coming down the pipe! So, my next question is would anyone be willing to draw me some cover art for this story? Because if you did, they're might be talks of a cameo appearance by you or your OC in future chapters. Just a suggestion! Thanks guys!