Well, here we are on chapter thirteen. Happy December, everyone! Anyway, I'm going to make this quick because as soon as I finish this, I need to go...write the next chapter. This one is sort of a filler. :( I'm behind on this...so, anyway, happy December, and onto reviews we go!
SunBear: LOL.
Good for you, tis there for a reason. It was cute, I like to think.
Yup. Random Paparazzis! And yeah, it could not go uninterrupted. But that's okay. And yes, Piper handled it well enough.
Wow, I got cited. And it's true. Piper's fatal flaw- according to the Riordan wiki- is low self esteem. So that's her thinking, yes. Yeah. Poor Piper.
It's not that nonsensical. Yeah, I could tell. XD Yeah Jason is a gentleman.
Goodeth byeth.
The7horcrux: Weren't you the8horcrux before? Oh well. Thanks!
Nothing could go wrong: *le gasp* Yes it is! And yeah...I mean, Jason's had a couple bricks to the head. There's a reason football players can't get too many concussions. Bad things could *probably* happen. Anyway, yeah... hmm, what is the favorite dessert? LOL
Poseidon1702: Thanks! And yup, very awkward...very lovely. Thanks again!
Daughter of Sally Jackson: Yes, yes she is...
We're done! Onto this next chapter...
Annabeth's POV:
Annabeth opened the door, fully intending on peering down the hall. She'd heard voices, she'd thought, and she was met with Piper's limp body falling on top of her foot. She jumped and forced down the noise of surprise. Piper grunted and stared up at her with what looked oddly like anger, before getting up and getting right in Annabeth's face.
"How," she seethed, "could you set me up," Annabeth raised her eyebrows and watched, "with JASON GRACE?" Annabeth was right not to be too scared- because Piper grinned really big, almost screaming the star's name, and, after a moment of hesitation, gave Annabeth a rather large hug.
"Well, Beauty Queen," Annabeth said matter-of-factly, "your roommate is awesome." Piper rolled her eyes, with exasperation or something else, Annabeth did not know.
"Well, I know that part," she said, playing along, "but seriously, how? It's not like Jason Graces grow on trees." Annabeth rolled her eyes.
"No duh genius. And to answer your question, I went grocery shopping last week, remember? He helped me take my groceries in." Piper sighed.
"Aw, man! If I'd known I'd meet Jason Grace I would have gone grocery shopping."
"But you did meet Jason Grace," Annabeth pointed out, not realizing what the big deal was as Piper suddenly deflated, eyes downcast, shoulders slumping.
"Yeah, well thanks, I guess. Your joke's over." Annabeth raised her eyebrows, but Piper avoided her gaze.
"What? What joke?"
"Jason? Seriously? In what world was that going to be working out, Annabeth? I'm a washed-out daughter of a celebrity who's losing popularity, and he's a super big star."
"You're not giving yourself enough credit." Piper laughed. She didn't seem very angry, just sad.
"I'm giving myself too much. I'm a delinquent. I got kicked out of all these schools. My dad's secretary, Jane, was always finding new places to ship me off too, away from Dad. The Wilderness School. I was called a kleptomaniac on every magazine, every news station, all the tabloids." Piper's words were bitter- too bitter. Annabeth hadn't realized she would feel this way, or she wouldn't have set up the blind date. "I'm nothing compared to Jason Grace, and the press knows it. Sooner or later they'll remember that they talked to us at the pizzeria, and a big news story will blow up and Jason will read it and realize that I'm that girl he's probably read about when he was looking for the big story about him. It'll be captioned, Jason Grace's Charity Case. Other news outlets will pick up on it. It will multiply, until it makes the front cover of every magazine and every tabloid. Your joke's fallen through, it wasn't funny."
"It wasn't a joke. If I had known you would feel this way, I wouldn't have done it," Annabeth protested. "I'm not heartless." Piper shrugged.
"I didn't say you were. Thanks. I appreciated it…but only in a universe where you believe in soulmates would Jason Grace and I work out."
"So what happened on the date?" Annabeth pulled her knees up to her face, watching as Piper hesitated. "Was it really that bad?" Piper shrugged.
"…actually, ah, it was nice. Except that someone must have seen us and, well, paparazzi stalked us and ruined it. And then he found out I was Piper McLean."
"He didn't know already? I thought your dad was a movie star."
"I'm not my dad, I'm his illegitimate delinquent daughter." Piper protested. "The date died after that. They were going to come back, so we couldn't stay."
"Well, it could have gone worse," Annabeth said slowly. "So what happened after you left? Did you go somewhere else? Did he walk you home?" Piper shrugged.
"I, uh, borrowed a dude's car and drove home. He walked me to my door. Where does he live, anyway?" Piper asked. "I know he went upstairs."
"I don't know." Annabeth shrugged. Piper looked briefly disappointed, but changed the subject.
"So, anything new on the Percy front?" Piper asked slyly. Annabeth rolled her eyes.
"No."
"Well, can't blame a girl for trying. Well. At least one of us is getting a second date." Annabeth paused for a moment.
"At least."
Did it really mean that much to her to get a second date? She'd run out on the first one, after all. Piper glanced at her with concern. "What?"
"It's nothing."
"No it's not. Tell me."
"I just don't think I want that second date anyway, alright? I was foolish going on the first. Besides, I bet the guy is a believer. He's going to realize we don't have matching eyes or tattoos and try to find a way to go."
"Annie-"
"Please don't call me Annie." Piper didn't look convinced.
"…alright." Piper didn't say anything more, but the glance she sent Annabeth let her know the conversation was far from over.
"I'm going to go work on that draft." Annabeth told her after a moment.
"I- deleted that." Piper said after a second. "…sorry, by the way."
"Eh." Annabeth said, not telling Piper she actually hadn't deleted the precious document. Piper raised an eyebrow but said nothing. "Practice makes perfect, right? Just…don't delete it again, because I worked hard on that thing." Piper watched her for another moment, her dark hair shrouding her face.
"Alright."
In retrospect, the evening was a nice way to spend the night. Annabeth spent much of it writing, it was in a way therapeutic- her practice of putting words onto paper finally vindicated, finally heard.
For some of it, Piper read over Annabeth's shoulder and pointed things out- plot holes, things that confused her- even if it was only the slightest beginning of a first draft.
"What's it about?" she asked around the second hour. "Vampires? Wizards? Secret world unknown?"
"We'll see," Annabeth had said then. But she had already known- it was no conventional, cheesy romance, no familiar Hero's Journey. It, her story, would be something else.
Something, she hoped, beautiful.
Piper rolled her eyes and brewed coffee, and no questions slipped past for one hour, two- not until Annabeth's fingers clacked steady over the keys, her routine settling. "Are we pulling another all nighter or am I going to have to close your laptop again to get you to go to bed?"
Annabeth clicked 'Save' for good measure- no one could be too careful. Annabeth wasn't taking any chances, but Piper rolled her eyes as she looked up a thesaurus for the word 'sparkling,' but she didn't understand. In her mind's eye was her protagonist- in her combat boots with the gray in her eyes separating from the blue and light strands in her black hair.
"I'm caving." Piper said around the time Annabeth deleted half a page. "Are you planning on sleeping tonight?" Annabeth just gave her a weary smile.
"Probably not," she admitted. "But look at it this way. If I work in the night, I won't annoy you in the daytime with keyboard keys."
"In the daytime I'll be at work, Annie. You're going to keep me awake with keyboard keys instead." Annabeth just shook her head. "Anyway, if you do decide to go to sleep, sweet dreams. If you don't, I do hope you sleep in in the morning. At this rate, you're going to be nocturnal." Piper's footsteps echoed in the silent apartment, drowned out by the story in Annabeth's head. She knew her words had some truth to it- her new schedule of typing early into the morning was good for no one, but especially in the first while where inspiration was her everything, she had to write this. To not would be almost sacrilegious*.
She almost didn't notice that the story her fingers spun was tied symbolically to soulmates, to what went wrong about them- whether it was the main character's best friend, her 'other half,' as the two characters liked to say, falling apart, or the tattoo on a teacher's knuckle with his ex-wife's name printed in black. She almost didn't notice the fading darkness in the sky as dawn crept upon her, and she almost didn't notice her eyelids drooping, everything she wanted, needed to say unseen. She almost didn't realize that not once in her writing session had a furry figure draped itself on her feet and bitten her toes, and that realization was the thing that dragged Annabeth Chase up and out of the comfort of her chair that morning- not Piper McLean and the power of the off button. There was no food in the food dish, little water in the bowl, and peeking up onto her bunk bed did not reveal a sleeping cat named Mango. Piper, roused by her searching, gave her unkind advice and unhelpful knowledge on Mango's whereabouts.
"She probably went to go schmooze with some rich people," she mumbled. "Mango's got a point."
"Rich people? I don't think she hitchhiked to Hollywood." Annabeth said. "This is a small town, except for Jason Grace, I don't think we have any rich people. Does your celebrity count as rich?"
"This is not the time, Annie," Piper said. "I have yet to have any coffee this morning, and talking to me may not be the best idea."
"If I make you coffee, will you come help me look for my cat who you love very much and can't resist?"
"No." Piper said flatly. "I stayed up half the night watching you type, which is more boring than it sounds. While I'm sure your story will get really compelling and all, I'm tired. Mango's a big girl. She can take care of herself."
"She's a slightly obese tuxedo cat. They were worshiped in ancient Egypt. Mango couldn't find her way around unclogging a kitchen sink." Piper rolled her eyes.
"Then you had better go get her instead of sitting around here, talking to me, hadn't you? Your cat princess, worshiped in ancient Egypt, will not be able to find her way back home."
It was in the early morning, then, that Annabeth stumbled blearily from hall to hall in the Catnip Cottages calling for Mango, cursing her nuisance of a cat for disappearing and looking for her with a vigilant if not tired eye.
Of all the places she expected Mango to be, it was not going to be on Percy Jackson's floor, at Percy Jackson's door, purring on Percy Jackson's feet. And Annabeth had to grit her teeth and talk to him, because her darling cat was sitting happily on his pink bunny slippers and she wanted her darling nuisance of a cat back.
So she waited until Percy Jackson saw her and gave Mango a look of contempt because of all the people and of all the times, why Percy Jackson after Annabeth had pulled an all-nighter of writing and looked like a mess?
She was relieved when he spoke first.
"She yours?" Percy Jackson asked as he leaned over Annabeth's beloved cat.
"…Percy." Annabeth said slowly. "Uh, first, I just want to apologize for that date, it wasn't fair to do that to you and for what it is worth, I'm sorry about it."
Percy didn't look that troubled. Annabeth had expected more of a reaction. "'s alright." Annabeth was strangely caught off guard- where was the big deal? The second apology? Anything else that she'd expected him to do or say? But nothing followed his first two words, there was only the small little 'it's alright', something that strangely irked her. She wasn't sure why. She didn't want a second date, she'd established that the night before. There was no reason, then, that Percy Jackson's nonchalance should put a twist in her toga, so to speak.
"Really?"
"Of course. You had to go. It was just a first date. Nothing serious. Don't worry about it." Annabeth watched him for a moment, but Percy seemed quite serious.
"…right. Well, thank you for understanding," Annabeth said slowly. "I'll see you around, Percy Jackson." He winked.
Well, she was screwed.
Your chapter song is One Lonely Room by Justin Hayward. (The version on his Tuesday Afternoon video series is the best one.) :)