Chapter 26

Annabeth

I really shouldn't have kicked that guard's groin. But they have been pestering me for so many days already, and by now they should have gotten the hint that I was pretty pissed. So I didn't actually have a choice when they cornered me this morning at the grocery store. (Well, I did have a choice, and it was either kick some balls or run away without a fight. I chose the first one because it was much more fun.)

So what happened this morning, anyway? Well, let me tell you that it's an act of betrayal. Too vague? I'll start at the beginning. I was really going to be married next month in September (Hola!) but then Mom decided to do a little improvisation of, well, betrayal.

She called me one night, saying that I should go home to Olympia because my wedding was somewhere in August 21st and I had to prepare and blah, blah, blah. My first reaction, of course, was: o_O then became 0_0 and eventually, it became -_-

I could've just said no, but Mom had to send a few guards to come and fetch me, along with, hey there, Mr. Octavian Jerkface. When I heard what she did, at first I was, like, Oh, it's okay. They don't know where Piper's house is, anyway. But boy, was I wrong.

They came, they asked to talk to me, we did, they persuaded me to come home (in vaiiiiiiinnn!) and I refused. At first Octavian seemed lenient, but he coolly told me I'd go home before September arrives. I told him to wake me up when September ends.

And thus started the endless "happenstances" and the lot. Almost everywhere I went, they were there; at the mall, in Target, in the grocery store, heck, even in the public toilet! I was lucky that these places were public, though. That was why I was able to escape them.

So why didn't I ask for help? They could be accused with, like, I dunno, stalking. But I can't actually sue them, and you guys know that. You also what'll happen if I try to. I couldn't tell Percy, too. He'll just gonna go panicked and then he'll try and fight them off in a heroic way and he's gonna know the reason why they were here. That wouldn't be good.

So they cornered me this morning while I was at the grocery store (it was pretty isolated in the early parts of the day) and so I was forced to kick Octavian's right-hand man, Hibbard, on his privates. After he crumpled, I ran away and drove off quickly to Piper's. I was pretty sure my Converse wasn't as much as, cough, immaculate, cough, as it was before, but at least, if Hibbard didn't have children someday, you'd know the reason. At least a princess blessed him already if he did have some kids. So now here I am, alive and unscathed (for the most part) and back in Piper's room and telling her and Thalia the story.

"Whoa," Thalia said after a while. "I've talked with that Hibbard guy sometime before. You just destroyed his best asset, Annie."

"Eww." Piper looked horrified. "I've never heard of somebody whose best asset is their… you know."

"I don't know," Thalia said innocently. I rolled my eyes.

"I just don't wanna go home," I said quietly. "I've built my life in here."

"Annabeth, we don't want you to go home, too," Piper said gently. "If we could, we'd help. But I don't even know what to do with all these."

"It's inevitable," Thalia said, and Piper glared at her.

"Thalia, you're not helping!" she said.

"But," Thalia continued, "it could be, like, I dunno, veered away from? Annabeth, you could just run away. Hide. I'll go with you. We'd settle someplace away from Olympia── somewhere in Asia! Biggest continent. Korea, Japan, China── Oh, wait, I don't know their language. The Philippines, Thailand. Is Hong Kong good? I wanna go to Disney Land. Anywhere but here. Maybe in Africa! Or Jamaica. Someplace your mom can't find us in. Uh, hey, Beauty Queen, what about that cool place you went into last summer?"

"The Maldives?" Piper asked.

"Yeah."

"Sounds like a plan," I said, smiling, although I knew it was never going to happen. "Thanks, Thals, but I guess we all know it's too late for that." Thalia sighed and nodded.

"But what do we need to do?" Piper asked. Her question wasn't answered because my phone suddenly rang. I checked the caller ID and had to smile. It was Percy.

"Hey, Birthday Boy," I greeted. "What's up?"

"The sky, the clouds, and my head," Percy replied. I rolled my eyes, but I smiled.

"Corny. Happy Birthday," I said.

"Thanks," Percy said. "What's your gift for me?" I imagined Percy waggling his eyebrows when he said that, just like he always do.

"I have no gift for you," I said.

"What? That's positively mean!"

"I know. I like bullying you."

"But…" Percy stammered, "Having no gift for me… it's illegal!" I laughed.

"So do I go to jail?"

"Wise Girl!" Percy whined. "Come on!"

"Not so fast, Kelp Head. I'll give it to you later."

"Ha!" Percy said it so loud, I winced. "You said I'll give it to you later. So that means you do have a gift for me!" There was a long pause. After I few moments, I said, "Are you doing a victory dance?"

"Ah, you know me too much," Percy said, and I could hear the grin in his voice. "Okay, thanks for your gift, I'm sure it's wonderful. Bye, love you!" With that, he hung up. Thalia and Piper gave me knowing smiles, and even though I smiled, I was almost crying inside.

This might be my last day with Percy.

~oOo~

"So, cupcakes, check, blue Coke, check," Thalia read aloud from the list she was holding.

"Oh, wait, are the cupcakes blue?" I called out from the stool I was sitting on beside the kitchen counter.

"Of course," Thalia said, rolling her eyes. "Percy hardly eats anything that isn't blue."

"Do we have blue cheeseburgers?" I asked.

"That would be gross," Piper said as she took out a carton of eggs from the fridge. "He should really cure his blue addiction."

"That seems incurable, unfortunately," I said. I was trying to break one of the eggs Piper handed me perfectly, but I always made a crack on the top instead of the middle. "Ugh. I'm never gonna be a chef."

"Here." Thalia grabbed an egg. "Here is the proper way to break an egg perfectly, Your Majesty." But instead of cracking it on the rim of the glass bowl, she hurled it onto the wall, where, point taken, it cracked perfectly.

"Thalia!" Piper said, but she looked amused.

"Alright, your turn," Thalia tossed me an egg, and I caught it and flung it to the wall. I thought about what Mom did to me. I thought about the unfairness of life. I thought about the dread of leaving Percy. I put all the anger and bitterness in my hand as I threw the egg. It shattered next to the gooey remnants of Thalia's egg. A few pieces of eggshell stuck into the wall, slowly sliding down a few moments later.

"Wow, impressive," Thalia said, clapping her hands. "Here, try another one." She gave me another egg, and just as I threw it again on the wall, somebody sang/shouted, "I'm here!"

We all turned around. It was Hazel. She was carrying a paper bag with her, and her eyes darted from the egg ammo in Thalia's hand and to the wall.

"God," she said, coming to us and setting the paper bag on the counter. "What's with the egg-throwing?"

"I call it therapy," Thalia announced. "To let go of anger. See, Annie here was problems. Here you go, girl. Collapse that freaking wall." She handed me another egg, and I gladly threw it, imagining the wall was Octavian's face.

"Whoa, what problems?" Hazel asked, sitting down next to me. "And Piper, is it okay? I'd like to try." Piper shrugged and smiled, like, go ahead, but Hazel looked at me worriedly. "Problems?" Piper immediately filled her in while Thalia served as my egg-handler. We finished a carton of eggs, and she went to the fridge to retrieve another set.

"Hold your horses, Thalia!" Hazel said when she saw the new carton. "Do you know how many chickens work hard just to lay eggs? You're just wasting it!" I tried to look ashamed, but Thalia just rolled her eyes.

"Listen to Piper, and you'll realize how we really need eggs in this therapy," Thalia said. Hazel stuck her tongue out and Thalia blew a raspberry. When Piper was done telling the story, Hazel shook her head.

"That's really bad," she said to me. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. Go throw those eggs."

"It's alright," I said.

"When do you think they're coming back?" Hazel asked. "I mean, your wedding, if they're telling the truth, is this Friday."

"Let's just hope they won't come back," I said. "But if they do… well, it's most likely they will. I just wish they would leave me alone, even just for today."

Percy

Today's the day. My birthday, I mean. So that means I'm a year older. It also means I'm already legal! Oh, the many things I could do. Now I can drive with a proper license, drink alcoholic stuff (not like I plan on doing it, anyway, but you never know), and all the other things adults could do. I might even get married with Annabeth.

Speaking of which. I noticed Annabeth was acting… strange, lately. She seemed so wary of everything, and when I asked her about how life was at her home, she would tense and just say, "It's fine." My head may be full of kelp, but I knew something was up. She just wasn't telling me.

It was already five in the afternoon and my friends and I all agreed to meet up at Piper's by six. Not to sound conceited or anything, but I knew they have prepared a surprise birthday party for me. How'd I know? Well, considering the fact that we always have a surprise birthday for anyone in our group who celebrates his or her birthday, ironically enough, I wouldn't be surprised. We've done it for Jason. We've done it for Leo (although he forced me to go to a party the Stolls held at school when it was his birthday). And we've done it for Annabeth. I wouldn't be astonished if they did it for me, too.

So there I was, driving to Piper's in Paul's new car (he'd insisted I should get the honor of driving it, since it was my birthday). I arrived at the huge doorstep and rang the doorbell twice. But instead of somebody opening the door, a voice from a speaker above the door I've never noticed before said, "You can come inside." So I tentatively held the doorknob and opened the door slowly. And BAM. Shocker.

I heard a loud BANG and a shower of confetti rained down everywhere, making it impossible to see for a moment. When it all subsided, I saw my friends in front of me, smiling and singing the same ditty we sang for Annabeth, but changing the lyrics a bit.

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, dear dimwit, Happy Birthday to you!" And then Annabeth came out from behind, looking as beautiful as ever, smiling and holding a big blue a cake with a candle shaped like 18 on it.

"Make a wish, Seaweed Brain," she said. "And oh, I thought about the candle. It's much easier to blow in just one than eighteen of them, right?" And then she kissed me. While she did, I closed my eyes and thought, I wish this would last forever. (Just a small clarification; I wished that the time with Annabeth would last forever, not the kiss. Although I wouldn't be complaining if the latter did last forever.) Then I blew the candle and everybody cheered and slapped me on the back.

"OKAY! FOOD TIME!" Leo shouted. He carefully got the cake from Annabeth's hands and dashed to the kitchen, and everybody ran after him, yelling, "careful of the cake!" and "get your filthy hands off my fries!" Annabeth grinned and tugged at my hand.

"Come on," she said. "We wouldn't wanna miss the fun, right?"

"And the food," I agreed. "Always the food." Annabeth rolled her eyes and she ran, pulling me along with her.

~oOo~

Now, the thing about friend-prepared birthdays── there will always, always be another party after it. And so it goes. Piper hired the Stolls to throw a party at her place tonight. When asked about her dad, she said she'd asked permission from him, and he'd agreed since he would be busy taping tonight, anyway (did I mention Piper's dad was a superstar?).

Now it was already seven and little by little the people came. Some greeted me a happy birthday, some gave me a fist bump or a high five, and some blew me kisses and winked at me (that goes for the girls, duh). All in all, everybody said hello to Birthday Boy.

The party was full-on by seven-thirty. But I didn't really go inside, although the party was partly on behalf of me. I was grateful to Piper for the effort, but honestly, I'm sick of parties. I never really liked them. It's all so loud and hot and just… ugh. Forget it.

I was headed for the kitchen and I saw a pink Post-It note on the kitchen counter, pinned down by a blue apple. A toothpick that was decorated by a paper arrowhead and blue feathers emerged from both sides of the apple. I smiled and grabbed the note from under the apple.

It said:

Garden at eight. Near the rosebushes. Don't be late if you want to get your present :)

-Wise Girl

I smiled wider and folded the note, tucking it in my pocket. I removed the little arrow from the apple and bit into it, realizing it was candied. I smiled and checked my watch. Seven-fifty. So I decided to start making my way to the gardens.

When I arrived there, I faced another problem; where the hell are the rosebushes? What do rosebushes even look like? I decided I'll know when I see it. Right now, I have to find it first. But it didn't seem like I needed to, after all. Under the glow of the series lights and the lamp lights, I saw a blonde head sitting in a bench under a maple tree.

I didn't know what made me do it, but I decided to surprise Annabeth. I sneaked up from behind the tree, but just as I yelled at her ear or tickle her from behind, she sighed and said, "I know you're in there, Percy." I sighed and plopped down next to her.

"How'd you know?" I asked.

"Because I know you," Annabeth replied matter-of-factly.

"And you like me, anyway?" I shot back playfully.

"No, no," she said sarcastically. "I like John Smith."

"Who's that?" I asked, suddenly suspicious. "Pocahontas' love interest?"

"That's the name of Pocahontas' boyfriend?" Annabeth asked, astonished. "Honestly, Seaweed Brain. I was just kidding."

"So…" I said, eager to change the subject. "My gift?"

"Well, aren't you demanding." Annabeth rolled her eyes and stared to reach behind her back. "Oh, wait. Close your eyes."

"Why?" I tried not to whine.

"Do you want it or not?"

I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I saw that Annabeth was holding a box wrapped in blue. She held it out to me, and I took it.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Open it," Annabeth prompted. I looked at the box in my hands, and then back at her. Then, I kissed her, quick and short.

"What was that for?" Annabeth asked softly. I smiled and shook my head.

"I love you, Wise Girl," I said, and I realized it was the first time I said those words to her. "I love, love, love you to Olympus and back." Annabeth's eyes were shining, and it made the last corny statement worth it.

"I──" she began, but she was interrupted when we heard the soft crack of a fallen branch. I stood up and Annabeth did, too.

"Who's there?" I asked cautiously. Maybe it was my friends, hoping to catch us in the act of PDA. But they were at the party…

Another snapping sound, and I grabbed a fallen branch. I grabbed Annabeth and slowly backed up, but just as we started walking away from the garden, a figure jumped up in front of us and knocked my head with a fallen branch, sending me crumpling to the ground. I was able decipher two big guys grab Annabeth's arms, dragging her away, and a familiar blonde boy stepping in front of me.

"I knew it!" The blonde guy cried. I blinked and my eyesight cleared a little, although my head was still throbbing. "I knew it. Infidelity! Infidelity to the Prince!"

"What are you talking about?" I yelled at the guy. "Who are you?"

"I am Octavian, the adviser of the prince of Sobryta who this girl," he spat on Annabeth's direction, "is already engaged to."

"That girl is your princess!" Annabeth said furiously, stepping forward, but the two guys holding her prevented her from doing so. "You must not talk to me like that, and you know that. I could sentence you to death, you know."

"Ah, you wouldn't dare." Octavian sneered and kneeled in front of me. "Because your friend here would surely face death for dating with an engaged princess." He grabbed my chin roughly and I glared up at him.

"What?" Annabeth said, frowning. "How do you know that?"

"'I love you, Wise Girl,'" Octavian spat. "Bah. Disgusting sobriquets. If your mother finds out about this… well, I'll admit I'd like to see her reaction. But no matter. Because I am a compassionate person, I shall not tell your mother about this, if you come with us and keep quiet about what I said and did tonight."

"Luke will never want this to happen!" Annabeth shouted. "You asshole!" Octavian winced, but he sneered again.

"The prince doesn't know my plans," he said. "He only knows I'm here to fetch you, and they expect it to be smooth and gentle, since you are a princess. But I will prove them wrong." He continued his monologue, and I took the time struggling to stand up. When I finally did, I tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey," I said, and before Octavian could realize what was going to happen, I swung a fist onto his face. I swear blood flew from his mouth. He reeled back, holding his mouth. His eyes blazed when he looked at me.

"Harassment to royalty!" he screeched. "I swear, Percy Jackson──" I punched him again. But this time, one of the two men holding Annabeth strode over to me and beat me. I tried to fight, but he was bigger and I was still dizzy from when I was clubbed on the head.

"Ha!" Octavian cried when he was able to regain himself. "Take that, you bastard!"

"Percy!" Annabeth screamed. I was vaguely aware of the taste of blood in my mouth when I raised my eyes to look at her. Her hair was disheveled and her face and eyes were shining with tears, but to me she had never been so beautiful.

"Annabeth," I managed to choke out, but the man socked me one last time and I fell down.

"Percy!" Annabeth screamed, desperately clawing her way out the man's arms. "Percy── hold on, I'll get help──"

"Enough!" Octavian growled. "Come on. Let us go." They started walking away, carrying Annabeth with them as she screamed and kicked. I spat out the blood from my mouth and with the last of my strength, yelled, "Annabeth!"

But they were gone.

And Annabeth was gone, too.

So sorry for the late update but I have been so busy recently and I still got this article about Homecoming to finish... again, I apologize, and I'm rushing, but I do hope you liked this chapter and please review! Have a nice day :)

-Bluecookies19