So…it's Halloween night in the story. Mark and Laura just saw Joey and Amy kiss at the Golden Gate Bridge a few minutes before trick-or-treating, supposedly alone. Mark's starting to feel something for Laura, and he was immune to Michael Yew's Mist freeze of all the mortals, but he can't see through it…hmm…odd, isn't it?
This is the last chapter before Percy leaves for New York City to await the arrival of the Princess Andromeda. I think after this I might do a chapter or two without Percy, like the way it was before his entrance in, but I'm not sure yet, if you have a preference please tell me somehow, so that's that.
Thank you JoeBob for all the reviews, and yes, I did use your idea about following them in the cafeteria.
The8horcrux, TTC takes is in winter, so they don't have a bead because it hasn't been a summer yet.
If I owned PJO, my name would be Rick Riordan, and it isn't, which is good because he's much better than I am.
They were matching. Annabeth in a white chiton and a gold braided belt around her small waist and an olive branch in her hand and a golden headband/crown on her head. Percy in a white toga with a golden trident and a belt around his waist and another gold crown on his head. They looked a little like two Greek demigods, to tell you the truth. Two demigods, living back in Ancient Greece who'd come to visit us through two mortal humans named Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. I stared. Laura, and Amy, and Joey stared.
"Wow." Amy said. "You guys just had to top me, didn't you?" there was a sparkling laughter in her eyes, and a dreamy quality to them, probably from that kiss she'd shared with Joey a few minutes ago. Kissed. Amy kissed Joey. Joey kissed Amy. Everything is starting to change. Percy will be leaving soon. Amy and Joey might start dating, and…I'm still the same. But…not fully. I thought about Laura, how she seemed to shine brighter than the sun now. How Annabeth wasn't now.
Annabeth laughed, lightheartedly. Happily, even. Percy just smirked. "Well, Amy, it's sort of a big thing. Our family is so into Greek mythology that we dress up for it every year, and everyone at Camp does too. It's sort of a tradition, really, and my great-great-aunt is the best with outfits and presentation, so she helped us a lot." She shifted in her makeshift chiton, the gold braided belt accenting the white fabric, the olive branch in her hand almost blooming. Where did she even get an olive branch? Where did Percy get a golden trident that looked frighteningly real? It was probably painted gold, at least.
"Are you allowed to carry a weapon, Percy?" he looked down at the trident, then back at me, frowning. "The trident," I added for good measure. He stared at us. "It's not invisible, Percy." The rest of us chimed in. Percy's eyes widened comically.
Annabeth whispered something in his ear, did her lips brush him slightly…? He relaxed.
"It's only painted gold," he said. "It can't harm you." The way he said you made me tense. It was covered in gold paint, but it was obvious Percy seemed to think it could harm somebody else. That it wasn't quite the safe piece of Styrofoam he wanted us to think it was. Amy's brow creased. "Should we start walking?" we left him alone after that, but I could tell all of us remained preoccupied in some way- Amy and Joey kept glancing at each other, sharing the memory of a kiss; Percy and Annabeth stayed on edge as if they were expecting something to go wrong; Laura and I wondered about it all. How everything was starting to change for us.
Amy and Joey walked ahead of everyone, giggling and talking. They'd never been the closest, Laura was Amy's best friend, but apparently now they were going to be very inseparable. Percy and Annabeth were behind Laura and me, talking softly about different things only they could understand.
"Do you think it's going to be the same?" Laura finally broke our silence.
"What do you mean?"
"Percy is leaving, Annabeth will be alone. Joey and Amy…well…we saw them kissing before we started trick or treating, so they'll be with each other all the time and start dating or they'll become very awkward around each other and lose their friendship. Everything's going to be different, Percy says he…he says he might not come back from New York City…and Annabeth is so dependent on him sometimes. It's all going to be different. We could come back for sophomore year, come back for junior and senior, and Percy Jackson wouldn't be with us." I thought about it. It wouldn't be very nice change, every one of us, Annabeth most of all, had gotten used to Percy's presence in the school's halls, and it had been good to know that he'd flunked his Goode admission even though it was bad for him. Would he go there for the remaining of his school year now that he had to go to New York? There was also a girl named Rachel he'd mentioned a few more times since Percy's and Annabeth's big fight on the first day of school. Rachel, who Annabeth didn't like, lived in New York. She went to Goode, that was one of the times they'd met. Rachel seemed to know things. Annabeth was jealous of her, and I had a feeling that would spike should Percy talk of her whilst he remained in New York City, about a girl named Rachel, who'd given Percy a pair of jeans doodled on with Sharpies, and one of Percy's shoes said, 'Kill some monsters for me' in what was definitely a girl's handwriting and definitely wasn't Annabeth's. I knew Annabeth's handwriting well because we'd used to study together before Percy demanded Annabeth's attention more often than I had.
"So, this is probably a good-bye, soon," I heard Annabeth say behind us, her voice soft. "You're- you're going to Goode, aren't you? For the remainder of our freshman year?"
"Yeah, Wise Girl. I'm sorry." Percy's voice was heavy, and I could sense the sadness between them. "But I can't be in California when Luke's ship comes to the docks; I need to go with Beckendorf for the reconnaissance."
"I know. But, next year…" Annabeth paused, and there was grief when she spoke next, "next year, either we'll both come back to California for maybe years…or both of us will be staying with Old Uncle Hades for a very, very long time." It must've been a sort of inside joke about their love of Greek myth, but there was a defined sorrow and acceptance there, as if both Percy and Annabeth were not to live past this coming summer. Laura shot me a quizzical glance and I lifted a shoulder. "If that happens, Seaweed Brain, and I don't get to say good-bye, I'll see you…hopefully in Elysium." I saw her smile, but the grin fell about a mile short of her stunning gray eyes. She looked like an Ancient Greek princess, maybe Andromeda, saying goodbye to her beloved Perseus about to go to war. Percy had said he was named after Perseus. Something about his mother saying he was the only hero to have a happy ending.
Annabeth's smile was soft, and there was hope in her eyes, but along with that was a loss, igniting a pool of gray irises and stirring it around like mist in her eyes.
"Where do you want to go first?" Joey called back to us. We were probably sad excuses for freshman, still trick-or-treating, but here we were anyway on the cold night of October, scouring neighborhoods for candy.
"I don't know!" Laura said. I glanced at her, blond hair gleaming in the Golden Gate Bridge's lamplight. Her blue eyes were like rivers that could drown you but were so pretty you couldn't help coming a little bit closer. I'd never thought that before…must've been hormones or something. A simple crush.
A simple crush is the same thing you had with Annabeth Minerva Chase. A simple crush that kept leading you on for years was what you had with Annabeth. Because you didn't act on it, didn't get closure. Maybe…
I stopped thinking about that when we started hitting the candy.
All six of us crowded up to the doors with a porchlight on and a car in the driveway, blushing a little when twelve year old boys and girls stayed home to hand out candy. We were probably too old for it and we didn't care.
"Perseus Jackson…" Percy and Annabeth had crowded up to the door first this time, their hands touching just the slightest bit. I smiled to myself. Percy's shoulder blades tensed, defined through his makeshift toga that Annabeth probably had to help him into. How did this teenage girl know Percy's name? She was rather thin, very pretty, and her eyes flickered, amber colored. Annabeth, slightly behind Percy, shooed us all away as the girl talked to him. "We thought, just maybe, you would stop by. Hurts to have your poor mortal mother all alone with her new husband, not here to give you candy every year…I won't give you candy. You say trick-or-treat, and I choose trick." Her smile was like the Cheshire Cat's, nice at first, malevolent a moment later.
Percy pushed Annabeth out of the way as she leapt, grimacing in pain as the girl lunged and raked her fingernails down his midsection. Falling with his gold trident to hold him up, he thrusted it towards the girl's chest, but she just nimbly dodged the three prongs and turned to Annabeth, who just glared.
"Didn't even bother with putting him under your spell?" Annabeth asked her. "How many of you does Luke have to send to us? How many promises has he made you that you are thinking he'll pay off?" liquid pooled in her eyes. "Luke's wrong, you know. He promised me a family, once. That he was never going to leave, and here he is, trying to kill us. Mark, Amy, Joey, Laura…we'll meet you down the street." We all nodded, but none of us was really willing to leave Percy. Annabeth's eyes were red around the edges.
"Just go! ...Please." and then, out of the sleeve of her dress, she pulled a glowstick, and protected Percy from the psycho as the four of us moved away, slowly. But away. We really were cowards, but Annabeth's pleading voice had gotten to us. I'd never been able to say no to her. Especially if she was crying, which she'd started doing a lot more often now that Percy was here. Hmm.
"Here, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth's voice again, gentle and soft like it had been on the walk, when they were discussing Percy's move to New York for the rest of the year. "It's over. It was another one of Kelli's and Tammi's kind. You'll be safe now. Come on, eat the…the candy. I am not having you die of blood loss Halloween night, Perseus Jackson!" there was fear in her voice now, but she wasn't letting it get to her, and the four of us a little ways down the street waited. "Percy…shoot, screw it, if you won't eat you will drink."
Percy whimpered a little, but eventually got up from where he appeared to be lying on the ground, as Annabeth gave him a bottle full of something, maybe Gatorade, golden and amber. It appeared to rejuvenate him, at least.
"Come on, guys," Annabeth said, too cheerfully, "let's go get more candy."
"Let's go-" opening the door into Annabeth's home, we were greeted by a skinny, kind of tall kid, many twelve, with black hair and olive skin and dark eyes, watching us. "Nico?" Percy asked. I know Percy and Nico aren't really friends at this time but Percy needs good transportation somehow. The kid nodded.
"Percy." It was barely Thanksgiving Break. What was this kid doing here? "The Princess Andromeda is making good time, we need you to come now, a month early. Sorry. Duty calls." Percy nodded. Annabeth's face was ashen. "Sorry, but we can't have you here when it's time."
"I know." He sounded resigned. "I'll pack." He started up the stairs, Annabeth watching him.
"I brought Mrs. O'Leary!" Nico called. As if on cue, a HUGE black dog trotted from the kitchen, wagging her fluffy black tail and barking very loudly. Annabeth smiled a little, walking right up to 'Mrs. O'Leary' and giving her a few scratches and pets. The rest of us stared. "She's quite safe, if you must know," Nico said, sounding affronted. "trained by Quintus himself." Annabeth frowned uneasily, sitting down on a sofa and pulling from a desk drawer a computer. It looked like an Apple or Microsoft laptop, but in the place of the Apple or Microsoft symbol was a glowing blue Delta.
"Annabeth, could you help me find my blue shorts?" Percy yelled downstairs. Laura giggled.
"NO!" Annabeth screamed at him. We were all a little taken aback, but Annabeth acted like nothing had happened, and Nico didn't even flinch. "Hey, Nico, do you know which file on the computer has Mrs. O'Leary's 3D models?" Nico pointed to one. The computer projected an image of a ball big enough for the black dog, who chased it as Annabeth moved it around the room, smiling a little.
"What is that?" Amy asked, lacing her fingers with Joey's. I forgot to mention, they're dating now. After Halloween night, Amy, who lives right next to me, invited Joey to her house, and I looked out my bedroom window and voila! Kissing.
The next day, Laura and I teased them about it, so much, that they had no choice but to finally tell us that they had officially started dating. I remember the time Joey showed up at my place in a panic about what he should wear to their first date, which…he planned at the zoo. Amy wasn't too pleased with that one.
Percy finished packing a little while later, and we stood in silence while Annabeth scowled and worked on her computer, in no mood to talk to anyone, and Nico just stood there, looking very uncomfortable.
"Do you need to rest first?"
"No. See you, Annabeth. Mortals." Mortals? Who was this weirdo kid, anyways?
"Bye, Nico." Annabeth's voice was cold as ice, almost freezing to hear. It was obvious she was more than a little angry, and she typed on the keys so hard I was surprised the keyboard of her laptop hadn't broken.
"Annabeth, you know-"
"Perseus Jackson, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" she started off quieter until she was screaming at him again, and both of them ducked out, Percy giving us an apologetic smile and wave, but staring at Annabeth.
"I'll see you at Winter Break, okay?" Annabeth looked at him, steel-eyed, and Percy closed the door.
This is the longest chapter yet! 2500 words or something! Percy has officially gone to New York, a month earlier than intended. Also, thank you for 22.5K views!
