Annabeth:
I looked beside me at the clock on the oven, ignoring the almost blinding morning light.
6 am.
I let out a large sigh and began to bang my head on the granite countertop. My body nagged at me to go back to sleep, but I was feeling too sick. I hate morning sickness. I wonder if everyone gets morning sickness this badly or if Hera just makes it worse on me because she hates me. I ran a hand through my messy blonde hair. Really, Percy thinks this is hard on him. Honestly, I should be making this harder on him. He really does deserve it. Well, I guess, I did it too. Okay, new subject. I pressed the start button on the coffee.
Two hours later, I slid on my right shoe and took a last sip of my coffee. Luke tugged on my arm anxiously, and I really wished Percy was taking Luke instead of me.
"I'm coming, Sweetie," I told him, almost cringing from saying 'Sweetie'. I'm spending too much time with Rachel. I felt my stomach flip, but I ignored it. I was starting to get used to it. I put up with it three years ago. I can handle it now. Well, I can pretend to handle it now.
"Love you, Annabeth," Percy kissed my cheek. Sparks fled through my body, making me feel like a nerdy girl being kissed by the quarterback like in some tween movie or something. For a moment, my thoughts completely left my brain, but the toddler looking impatient brought me back.
"Love you, Percy," I forced the words off my tongue, trying to sound as non-giddy-from-his-kiss as possible. Percy, being so cutely clueless, didn't notice. Instead, Percy said goodbye to Luke or something. I'm not sure. I was a bit busy trying to remember what I was thinking earlier and making sure I had my keys because while I found it a bit funny when that happened, Luke didn't share the feeling. Sometimes, I worry about if he knows that he's the kid and I'm the parent. Eh, my dad probably thought the same thing. What? Have you met me? I was exactly like this when I was a kid. Some things don't change, like Percy's cluelessness or dieters craving chocolate. Wait, now I want chocolate.
I hate being pregnant.
I grabbed a chocolate breakfast bar and stuffed in it my purse before Luke pulled me off.
I hate mornings.
Percy:
"Yes, I completely understand, Dad," Annabeth answered into the phone, anxious to hang up even though I really wanted this conversation to keep going. Remember when I though moving furniture was bad? I was wrong. Compared to this, that was like a day at the beach. I was picking out paint with Annabeth. Do you know how picking out paint is with her? She wants everything to be perfect, especially this which means we've spent forty-five minutes picking out paint, and we're not even close to finding what she wants. A call from her father was a welcome change. I don't even understand why we have to do this. We won't know if it's a boy or girl for another three months. Shouldn't we wait until then? I think we should. Then again, I'm really not in the mood to paint. Don't ask me why. I'm just not.
"Dad-" Annabeth started but stopped like she was being cut off. She looked like she wanted to hang up right then. Well that, or she wanted to kill me. I don't know which, but I'm going for the father thing because I've had enough of her being mad at me for the next few weeks.
"Really, Dad, I have to go," Annabeth tried to convince her father, "I'm cooking. Why would I lie about that, Dad? Alright, love you, too, Dad."
Annabeth pressed the end button, turned her phone on silent, and stuck it in her jean pocket. I couldn't help but look at her, my arms crossed with a smile positioned on my lips. She let out a sigh of relief before she looked at me.
"What?" she asked, looking like she had absolutely no earthly idea what was going on. Really? And she thinks I'm the clueless one? Not so smart now, huh little miss Athena? If you tell her I said that, you'd be better off facing the wrath of my mother-in-law when she found out I went with Annabeth to California when she got the job there. Well, there's no way anyone but the goddess of war and wisdom could have pulled off such anger when she found out:
She was my new mother in-law
She was a grandmother of my son
I didn't know about said son and left
She's about to the grandmother of, yet again, my child
I messed around with her daughter in college
And there's another, but that one could go either way:
I almost ended up with Rachel and numerous other girls, in Hawaii.
Yeah, I mean, I guess she was mad because that would have hurt her daughter. Then again, I wouldn't be with her daughter which would be a good thing to her as well. Honestly, I suppose she could mad at both. Well, knowing her, she'd hate me no matter what I did.
"What is it with you and lying to your father?" I asked, resting my arm around her shoulders. She got closer to me, but still shrugged, causing a bit of a stir.
"I love him and never want to disappoint him," Annabeth leaned her head onto my shoulder where she continued to look at colors.
"So, telling him you are picking out paint with your husband would disappoint him?" I asked her, looking at her like she was just as crazy as she honestly was.
"No, but telling him I really wanted to spend time with my husband, even if it was picking out paint, instead of talking to my father would, Perseus," Annabeth used her 'I'm-Always-Right-Just-Accept-It' voice that always works on Lucas and me. I don't know why, but there's something about it where I just know that suddenly I'm wrong, she's right, and I need to agree with her, a lesson to all men dealing with any woman.
"You know, we could go spend time together not picking out paint," I nudged her with a smile. She somehow managed to shake her head while still having her head on my shoulder.
"You're not getting out of painting the baby's room that easily, Perce," Annabeth didn't even seem to pay attention to her words as she scanned from color to color.
"We don't even know if it's a boy or girl," I whined, clutching her tightly as if that would change her mind. If only. All my problems would be gone if that worked.
"Percy, face it. We are not normal. I don't want to be normal, and this baby won't be normal either. Honestly, it could be in the best interest if we went ahead and started painting. I mean, what if we do wait until we find out in about three months. We'll then have about two months, and we need so much more to get ready for a baby. Really? What are boys taught? How would you not know that?" Annabeth said as nonchalantly as she would tell me that Luke was in his room watching Bubble Guppies again.
"Boys are taught not to screw around and always agree with the woman. You're lucky I even remembered to agree. There are some men who can't remember either," I smirked, smiling down on her. She looked up to look into my eyes, her grey eyes almost shining.
"I don't have to be reminded how lucky I am, thank you very much. I have my mother to disagree for that," she smiled, and I kissed the top of her head. I don't know if what because she was pregnant, but she was glowing like the camp fireworks on fourth of July, maybe brighter.
"So, what color are we really looking for?" I asked, finally accepting the fact that no matter what I did, I wasn't getting out of this. She turned back to the colors. I looked back and forth between her and the colors.
"We have to go for something gender neutral like yellow or something," Annabeth answered. I looked at my watch. We had now been here for an hour. I was on the verge of buying all the paint and painting it all on the walls.
TWO DAYS LATER:
Annabeth walked into the room, the floors covered in the awful white plastic you put down on wood floors so you don't get any paint on them. My jeans and tee shirt were both devoured in the paint. I had Grover help with a lot of it, but he left when there was only a quarter of the last wall needed paint. I couldn't help but notice how Annabeth did not have even the slightest imperfection on her black yoga pants and college tee shirt that somehow managed to survive the late night sweet-and-sour-chicken-eating study nights, the morning jogs she took every morning with Rachel when she lived out West in California for a few years, so-tired-she-fell-asleep-on-the-couch while being a complete workaholic nights, can't move because of the flu days, and cry in the bed complaining about me to Rachel whenever I did something stupid fights. My college tee-shirt has seen so many bad days that I repeatedly have to buy new ones. Annabeth pulled her curls into a bun and looked straight at me.
"You do know you were supposed to get the pain on the walls, not on yourself, right, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth smiled, her arms crossed.
"Shut up," I walked towards her, forcing her lips on her own. She smiled for a moment before kissing.
"Why are we babysitting my baby sister on Valentines Day?" I complained. Annabeth shushed at me and tiredly sat back down on the couch, resting her head on my chest
"I just got Cally to sleep. So, try to be a little less loud," Annabeth complained. I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her closely. Cally was seven months old and being the biggest change of my life since I found out I was a half-blood. Now, instead of going to parties with my friends or going on dates with my girlfriend, I was watching her. Annabeth was completely understanding, and usually made the relationship work by somehow making the babysitting fun and a tad bit romantic. I have no idea how she does it, but I couldn't do it without her. Then again, I can't do anything do anything without her. Well, I don't want to. So, I'm not so sure if I could, but I never want to.
"Hmm," Annabeth nuzzled closer to me, almost falling asleep in my arms.
"Annie-beth," I whispered in her ear. She 'Hmmhumm'ed again, falling deeper and deeper into a slumber.
"Why didn't we let my parents stay home with Cally?" I whispered again. She let her eyes open again, not enough to be called awake but not completely asleep.
"Because your parents need some time to themselves and I don't like romantic things. You know that better than anyone, Percy-beth. We have next year for Valentine's Day," Annabeth answered with a sweet smile. I felt sparks erupt through my body.
"In all the time we've dated, we have never once had a romantic Valentine's Day. I thought girls were supposed to love all that stuff," I kissed the top of her head.
"Listen, I don't care about that. As long as you don't cheat on me or anything, I'm good," Annabeth let her eyes close once again.
"I love you, Annie," I whispered in her ear with a smile. She let a smile dance across her lips and clutched onto me a tad bit tighter.
"I love you, too, Percy," Annabeth got up from falling asleep in my arms to crash her pale-pink lips on mine. I could have focused on how we had just finally told each other that we loved each other. I could have focused on a lot of things, but I chose something a bit more simple. I focused on how her lips were on mine.
"Do you still think this is the right color?" Annabeth looked at the walls, still in my grasp.
"It better be because I'm not repainting this," I nodded towards the four green walls. She had a light green so it could be made for a girl or boy room. Now, we had the part I was going to hate the most.
Shopping.
"Thank you, Sweetheart," she kissed me once again.