27/11/2020. I finally muster enough energy to write so let's a go! Also, I had my birthday yesterday so it really did boost my courage.
P/S: I think I will start using past tense from now on, I think that will help me to improve my grammar and help me tackle my fear of using any tenses other than present. Past tense is also a lot more common so maybe people would find it easier to read. Maybe.
The experience of waking up in the morning after having partied heavily the day before is something that is unforgettable and unfortunately, very unpleasant. Nobody wants to feels that at the beginning of the week and a certain daughter of Athena is no exception. Annabeth's Monday began with a headache so bad she thought she could actually die, and there is a surprisingly strong alcohol scent coming from herself. The alarm noise blaring through her ears just made the matter even worse. Nevertheless, she pulled herself together and drag her legs onto the floor, which somehow seemed to require more energy than some of the fights she has gotten herself into. Letting out an enormous yawn, Annabeth stumbled into the bathroom and prepared for the long day to come. She thought about the bizarre dream last night: she and Piper went to a party for the 1%, then there was a girl that happened to be a professional demon hunter and Annabeth stalked her using Leo's tracking bug. Just when she thought it couldn't get any weirder, her thought-to-be-dead ex, Percy Jackson showed up and ruined the whole night. Yeah, it was a rough dream.
When Annabeth went to the kitchen, Piper was already there, searching through the cabinets for something that she can't see. She let out a triumph "AHA!" and stepped out, revealing a old, possibly out-of-date box of cereal. Piper grinned like a cat that just brought back a mice for its owner and threw the box to Annabeth.
"I found food!" She puffed her chest out while Annabeth was busy checking out the expiry date.
"Piper? This thing's gone bad 3 months ago." Annabeth couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of health hazard this will result in.
"That's not the worst thing I've ever eaten. Do you want to go grocery shopping this early and in this weather?" Piper crossed her arms. Annabeth contemplated all the decisions, then sighed.
"Well, we still have some ambrosia in case of emergencies." She immediately regretted her decision as she opened the package. "Oh gods, the smell!". This would be a hard to swallow breakfast.
They ate their breakfast in comfortable silence…. Or at least, that's what Annabeth forced herself to think. This had been a part of their routine for years now: Annabeth woke up at an ungodly hour in the morning but Piper was up even sooner, she prepared the breakfast then they ate while talking about random topics. If they had nothing to talk about then they would just finish their food and then prepared for the day. This didn't feel like every day, though. Piper hid it well, but Annabeth saw straight through her: There was something on her mind. Annabeth wanted to talk to her about last night, too. Something was nagging her, something obvious… It was tense, both of them were trying to say something but were waiting for the other to start the conversation.
"The party last night was really something, wasn't it?" Annabeth decided to break the ice. As expected, Piper followed suit.
"Yeah, it was absolutely magical, maybe even more so than the parties at Olympus that you told me about." She was trying to lure her into saying something, something that she's not entirely sure of herself.
"Oh, be careful with your words there, the gods don't like it when you compare them with mortal." Two could play at misdirection and distraction. With a bit of luck, she could pry some information from Piper.
"Ha! Like they actually care." Piper huffed "So, what do you think about the post-party stuffs?" Huh, so she did do something bad after the party was over. Maybe that's where the alcohol smell comes from.
"I'm not really sure, the hangover is making my memory a bit fuzzy." Piper stopped playing with her food and gave Annabeth a long, proper look of "Are you serious?"
"You don't remember…. Anything?" Did she hit someone last night? Got into a fight? Annabeth's pretty sure that she didn't commit any crime last night.
"Well, I did remember having a strange dream, though it's nothing remarkable." Annabeth half-spilled the truth.
"Oh yeah? Try me." Piper leaned back on her chair and crossed her arms together.
"We were going to the party, having a good time." Annabeth tapped her finger rhythmically "Then I bumped into a girl that was some kind of monster hunter. What happened after that was even stranger, though….. Percy came back and he was working with the girl and….. The rest of it was…. Nevermind."
"Annabeth…." She didn't like how Piper is looking at her like a toddler. Annabeth would have scolded her if her curiosity wasn't eating her inside out. Stormy grey eyes met with ever-changing kaleidoscope eyes in a silent staring contest, trying to figure out what the other is thinking. The gears in her brain were working overtime, searching for answers. Why did Piper seem so disappointed? It was a weird dream, not the kind of prophecies that gods send to their children. Despite that, Annabeth remembered every single detail of it. It's not like it was real or anything….
….oh. Oh.
"Oh gods, it was real." The memories were rushing back to her. Annabeth remembered now: The girl – Clary, the conversation that she spied on, the meeting…. Even Percy coming back. It was all real.
"How did you manage to forget something as important as that?" Piper asks, her eyebrows shot to her hairline.
"I don't know!" Annabeth rubbed her temples "Maybe it was too much, maybe my brain just… rejected it."
"It just rejected it?" Piper repeated mockingly. Annabeth dropped her face into her palms, silently shake her head.
Piper was about to mock her again, but stopped immediately upon realising that her friend was having a panic attack. She came by her side and stroked her back gently.
"Hey, hey, just listen to me, okay? Breath in, breath out." Piper gave out the instruction that she had done a million times before "That's it, breath in, breath out."
"Why now, Piper? After all these times, why come back now?" Annabeth sobs, the tears drew horizontal lines onto her arms. "And all those people, what did he have to do with Christianity? Raising Hell on Earth? How do we even know that-"
"Beth! Look at me!" Piper gave her friend a good smack "You're rambling, which is not a good sign at all. Just take a step back and brreeaatthhh…."
Slowly, Annabeth's heartbeat steadied and her tears stops falling. Piper gave her a tissue, which she took without saying a word.
"Okay, that's better." Piper grimaced as her friend sneezed into the tissue. "Now, do you want to just… talk? You can take a sick day, and I can stay home to help you do whatever you want."
Annabeth almost said no. She had works to do, responsibilities that she needed to take care of. But the more rational part of her mind stopped her. If she could have a mental breakdown as suddenly and easily like that, what's gonna happen if she went to work, where the pressures and the deadlines were going to fall onto her shoulders?
"….Yeah, a day off would be nice." Annabeth sniffed and reached for her phone. After a short while and a few apologies later, the pairs were cuddling on the couch, being wrapped in a thick blanket.
"Do you remember that time when you refused to move in with me?" Piper wrinkled up her nose "Where would you be now without yours truly?"
"I Probably would have burned all my money into excessive therapy." Annabeth laughs bitterly "I would have to stay at the camp for the rest of my life, which is my worst nightmare ever! Can you imagine the gossip from younger campers?!"
"Now that you said it, why doesn't Camp Half Blood have any therapist?" Piper swung her arms dramatically "I still have nightmares about the first time I got there. We fell into a lake, I got thrown off a cliff before that and you were just like Oh, what's that? You got chased by monsters though half the country, suffered from bullying and mental illnesses? Whoops, better luck next time, kids!" Their laugh, though short, echoed through the compact apartment.
"I was such a stuck-up back then," Annabeth wiped away a tear "thinking I could bend the world to my knee, then freaked out when something goes wrong."
"You're still a stuck-up now." Piper messed with her golden locks playfully "The only improvement that I see is your self-awareness, which is still terrible."
"I've never apologised for our first interaction, have I? Gods, my reputation would have crumbled in seconds if I treated every new camper like that." Annabeth reflected on herself.
Piper looked at her friend, then changed her position to face her better. "Well, you also need to remember about context…"
"Context…?" Annabeth's face dropped "Oh. Right. That was when-"
"-when Percy was missing." Piper finished the sentence. Annabeth pulled herself closer into her friend's open arms and tugged the blanket.
"This must have been the cruellest, most tasteless joke ever made." She said simply. Piper stop twirling Annabeth's hair and blinked in confusion.
"…..Elaborate, please?" Annabeth's arguably the smartest person Piper had ever met, but the way that brilliant mind works often eluded her.
"I mean, it sure feels like it, doesn't it?" Annabeth stared blankly into the blanket "He left without a word, doing gods know what for five years, then came back with literal Christian warriors as if he's on a crusade, accompanied by witches and wizards. And, from what we heard, he's been hiding in the city for almost a year now, right under our nose. Tell me Piper, doesn't that sound ridiculous to you?"
"Well, when you phrased it like that, it does sound like a bad fanfiction." Piper gently placed her hand on Annabeth's "But, when you think about it, we're demigods, ridiculousness is our daily life. Just look at my family." Piper recalled "We got bankrupted by immortal Roman emperors, moved away from public eyes, then miraculously won every single lawsuit that was filed by said Roman emperors and got back the people's favour. We fell from grace then climbed back up so fast that there were conspiracy thẻoies floating around that my dad filed the lawsuits against himself as a PR stun! The nerve of some people!"
Annabeth supressed a laugh "Oh yeah, I still remember watching it unfolded on the news. The reaction on the Internet when he announced his retirement right after winning a million-dollar lawsuit is priceless."
"He really did end his career with a bang… "Piper sighed dramatically "Anyway, the points are: Always expect the unexpected and never lose hope. You are THE daughter of Athena, The Architect of Olympus, one of the youngest licensed architects in the whole country. Your ego is higher than the sky itself!" Annabeth snorted "If anyone can withstand all of this crap, it's gonna be you."
"Thanks, that means a lot." Annabeth smiled, squeezing Piper's hand. "And for the record, I have been working on my hubris for some time now, thank you very much."
"Tell that to the client I heard you were talking to last week." Piper started screeching in a weird tone, something Annabeth can only guessed is a poor attempt to mimic her "IF YOU DON'T RAISE THE BUDGET AT LEAST BY 70% AT THE END OF THE WEEK, YOU CAN TAKE YOUR DREAM HOUSE AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR-"
"Okay, okay! Point taken!" Annabeth clamped Piper's mouth shut with her hand "Don't make the neighbours complaint again!"
"You did give Percy hell last night, too;" Piper's joking voice dropped, replaced by a more serious tone "I've seen you angry before, but never that bad. You literally gave him a heart attack."
Annabeth rubbed her temple, the memory of the prior night started resurfacing again. Even she didn't realise how much emotion she buried inside herself until she started screaming. The scariest thing about that though? She still wanted to do it again. She could feel something inside her growing like a tumor, urging her to lashed out at him, to push him down to the ground and screamed until she lost her voice. It was him who thought their relationship wasn't working out, him who made her heart bled and him who ran away. Now, he had the audacity to come back with new friends and he…
He….
"… He's happy, Piper" She could feel her eyes swelling again "You saw that, he is content with his life. Percy was laughing, cracking jokes,…. He's back to being the 16 years old boy I once knew. Before he went missing, I didn't even see him smiled for an entire year. Looking at him now just feels like a slap in the face, a reminder of what I lost."
"…. What went wrong then, Beth?" Usually, that nickname would have annoyed Annabeth to no end; but now, she just let it flew over her head "I could sense something was off back then, but the way you two derailed… What happened?"
"We… failed to catch each other when we fell." Annabeth tried to look at anywhere but Piper's eyes "That's all."
"I did have my fair share in unfortunate love life, too, you know." That took Annabeth by surprise. This was the first time she heard Piper talked about this since a long time ago.
"To say I was heartbroken was an understatement. It was like falling without seeing the ground. I'm better now, but gods know that I still miss him." Piper chuckled "Sometimes, I wake up and realised I've cried while I was sleeping. I know you noticed, and I'm happy you don't push me for it. But still, you still help me in your own way. So, remember that you don't have to fight alone, okay? And for Percy…. Just don't be too harsh with him."
"…..Sure" Annabeth answered reluctantly, but that seemed to be all the answer Piper needed.
"Okay then." Piper moved on to the next topic "What about our unexpected guests? Care to give your thoughts on them?"
"They're…. hard to read, that's for sure." Annabeth contemplated "Clary is definitely the most easy-going of the bunch. She's Rachel if Rachel isn't so absent-minded. Jace is the typical popular high school guy, but from the way he acted around Clary and the stories, that's probably just a facade. Simon and Isabelle are the cliché nerd and popular girl couple, though Isabelle was strangely cultured for someone who is supposedly didn't even touch the Internet until she was an adult. Simon is just…. Human, which made sense given his background. Alec is the serious, no bullshit man, the mom of the group; and Magnus…. Why are you staring at me like that?"
"You said they're hard to read!" a hint of disgust could be heard in the brunette's voice "You just listed everything out like reading a recipe!"
"Usually I see more than that" Annabeth shrugged "What puzzled me is Percy's new friends though. There's more to them, I'm sure of it. Even the Magnus looks mildly interested, and he is warlock himself. I need more time though."
"That was terrifying." Piper pulled the blanket closer to herself "Please never do that again."
"Just don't ask again, it'll be fine." Annabeth smiled innocently.
"Hmp. Feel better now?" Annabeth was definitely more relaxed than before. Despite that, she made no effort to get up at all.
"Just a few more minutes." She moved in closer, and though Piper complained, she still welcomed her in.
"Take your time, we still have to go to the camp to hear the rest of the story from Percy's side." Piper closed her eyes, seemingly taking a nap.
"Apollo's gonna come himself to discuss the matter, isn't he? He actually had the audacity to kept the secret from us for that long." Annabeth thought back about the time he visited them at Sally's home mere months ago, saying he couldn't stay because of "Godly matter".
"Well, Let's not jumps ahead of ourselves." Piper yawned "Hear him out first, then draw the conclusion later. Now shut up and let me rest."
They stayed together on the couch for a while, enjoying each other's company until….
"…Do you think Sally knows about the news yet?"
"…..Shit."
7/2/2021. Right when I thought I was going to be more responsible with my schedule.
Hello there, fuckers. Been a while, hasn't it? I hope that you're having a good 2021 so far, or at least I hope you're still surviving. It's been over a month into the year now and…. Nothing has changed that much (In hindsight, it's not that surprising). COVID is still around and many people's lives are still fucked. If this new chapter can provide even just a scrap of happiness for you, then I'm glad it did. In this chapter, I wanted to write a wholesome friendship. You know, best friends supporting each other. However, the more I re-read it, the more I think that somehow, I just straight up created a lesbian couple. There's nothing gay about cuddling your friend, right? Ah, whatever, all friendships between girls are borderline indistinguishable from actual romantic relationships anyway.
Now, do you remember how I said that the timeline reduction would be the only retcon I'm gonna do? About that…. I've decided to make another change: I'm going to remove a character from the story, specifically Annabeth's boyfriend. While I was writing this chapter, I realised something: I have no idea what to do with the "Annabeth got a new boyfriend" plot. I wanted to integrated a long, complex, hardcore triangle love into the story but I have no idea how to make it not completely garbage. It's been 15 chapters and that "boyfriend" was only mentioned once then never again. Hell, some of you may have forgotten it entirely! Because of that, I've decided to erased that plotline while I still can to save the story from being any more convoluted. If you want to drop this story because of the constant changes, I understand. It's my fault for being an incompetent story teller who just keeps taking his shots in the dark. That being said, If you still want to see this story grows and evolves, then I'm grateful for it.
Once again, I wish you a very, very (late) happy New Year. To reassure you, the story will not go off the rail completely. Think of it as a painting: I may change some minor details but at the end of the day, the big picture will still be the same. Thank you for reading and….. Until the next time.
