Guys, here we go. The last chapter. I don't want to end this fic yet. But it has to end. I'll probably post The Royal Treatment by later or tomorrow.
Wow! I reached 200 reviews. And even more. I was so shocked to see this many reviews. I was also shocked that the reviews of this story had outmatched my other story—Broken Vow. I was thinking of reaching this to 250. But I think it's impossible.
Since all you guys have been reading this, I'll give you a haiku:
What is a haiku?
I must ask Lord Apollo.
I just made one now.
I know it's lame but... Whatever. I also realized that if you take the first letter of every sentence at my haiku, it would be like Wii. Ok, I'm so lame. Really.
May I say that this chapter is full of fluff? Or they would be OOC here. All my parting words were at chapter 14. Let's not prolong this, let's start.
Disclaimer: This is the last chapter already. Please.
Three months had passed and Percy decided to move in to Annabeth's house two months ago. Even Thalia was surprised when he saw a stranger sitting on Annabeth's couch. Thalia had almost strangled Percy to death if Annabeth hadn't appeared. When Annabeth explained everything to Thalia, Thalia had described it as a 'Happily Ever After'. But Annabeth just shrugged it off.
As Annabeth went inside their house—after her morning jogging and getting the mail—she plopped down the couch beside Percy and laid her head on his shoulder while she was holding a piece of envelope. The envelope was a fancy one. Not the envelope that people use for letters. But for invitations. The envelope's colour was beige and the shape was a square.
"What's that?" Percy asked, gesturing his hand on the envelope.
"I don't know yet." Annabeth said as she examined the envelope and saw their names written in fancy script.
"Look." Annabeth abruptly sat up, taking her head off of Percy's shoulder.
Percy took the envelope and read the names written, "Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase." His eyes were scrunched for a while, of course, his dyslexia was acting up. "Who's that from?" Percy asked curiously.
"Let's see." Annabeth said as she opened the envelope carefully.
She took out the fancy card that was inside. She was surprised that it was a wedding invitation. "Percy! It's from your grandma!" Annabeth said happily.
"Really?" Percy asked losing interest in the TV in front of him.
"It's a wedding invitation. It means that... Oh my gosh! We're invited!" Annabeth exclaimed.
Percy took the invitation off of Annabeth's hands and read the content, "You are cordially invited to Alice Jackson's and Alberto Dare's wedding." Percy raised his eyebrows. "Wow. The Dare family is spreading. Don't tell me that I'm going to be a Dare too." Percy commented.
"Percy, you can keep your last name if you want." Annabeth told him.
"Well then, can I change your last name to Jackson soon?" Percy smirked.
Annabeth blushed at thought of getting married especially to the guy beside her. "Someday soon." She said.
Percy handed the invitation back to Annabeth and put his arms on the couch, at the back of Annabeth. Annabeth read the invitation thoroughly. After a few minutes of reading or staring at Annabeth, for Percy's matter, Annabeth spoke up, "The wedding's next week. May 28, 2011."
"Should we go?" Percy asked. "I mean it's next week. We haven't booked a flight yet."
"We have to go Percy. And we don't need to book a flight." Annabeth said.
"Okay then."
"Now the problem is..." Annabeth rubbed her chin, "what should I wear?"
Percy took the invitation and read the part that said 'attire'. "Well it says here that you can wear anything between a cocktail dress and a gown." Percy said, placing the invitation down the table. "You can wear the gown you wore at the dance." Percy suggested. "You absolutely looked beautiful there." Percy smiled.
"Okay then." Annabeth agreed.
"Where will we stay? Should we stay on my house there?" Percy offered.
"No. The invitation said that the guests would be staying at Luke's hotel. They reserved the first two floors of room for the guests. The wedding's gonna be there too. At the meadow." Annabeth added.
"The meadow? Cool." Percy grinned.
"So are we settled?" Annabeth asked.
"Yeah, I think we are." Percy said.
Annabeth kissed Percy's cheek and said, "Good. I'll just go and take a bath, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth stood up and went upstairs.
Percy just sat there, thinking. He loved Annabeth very much. He wanted to be with her. He though that his grandma and his soon-to-be grandpa are getting married after 35 years. So he asked himself, 'Why wait for 35 years if I can marry Annabeth now?' And with that he stood up, left a note for Annabeth that said that he was going out, and left the house.
"Wow. I've seen you wear that gown. But still, I can't help but be astonished. You look absolutely beautiful, Wise Girl." Percy remarked as Annabeth stepped out of the bathroom.
They had reached Italy three days ago. The guests were supposed to stay in the hotel. For better preparations. When they entered the hotels three days ago, Luke had greeted them with big smiled especially at Annabeth which Percy found rather annoying. Alice and Alberto were not at the hotel, they were supposed to come at the hotel by their wedding day.
Annabeth and Percy had seen Luke and Rachel fighting the other day about which flowers would be used to decorate the wedding. But since they were doing the wedding on the meadow, Annabeth had an idea and told them that the flowers growing around the meadow are already perfect as decorations and she didn't want more flowers because it might ruin the beauty of the environment. Rachel agreed but Luke hesitated but also agreed nonetheless. Which Percy found rather suspicious considering that Luke only agreed because it was Annabeth's suggestion.
Sometimes Luke can see Percy and Annabeth cuddling, flirting, or even kissing and he would walk away with jealousy written all over his face.
On the day before the wedding, everybody was doing there last minute preparations. Rachel and Luke explained to Percy and Annabeth everything that would happen to the wedding. It would only be Alice walking down the aisle, of course with Percy's help. There would only be 50 guests so the meadow wouldn't be crowded. On the night of the wedding, everybody would be eating, dancing and have fun. And Percy thought that it was a good opportunity to engage his plan. He was ready to do it.
Well, back to the present case.
"Did I just drop your jaw again?" Annabeth asked Percy with a teasing face.
"Yes, you did it again." Percy grinned as he was fixing his necktie.
As he turned around, he felt Annabeth's lips to his. After pulling away, Annabeth asked mischievously, "Did I just put it back in place?"
Since Percy was still in shock, he nodded his head vigorously like it was about to fall off. "Seaweed Brain." Annabeth muttered and fixed her hair in a ponytail.
"Are you ready to go down?" Annabeth asked as she looked at Percy's wristwatch. "The wedding starts at thirty minutes."
"Yeah, all ready." Percy took one last look at the mirror, took Annabeth's hand, and went to the meadow.
As soon as they reached the meadow, Rachel and Luke greeted them. "Well aren't you two look adorable?" Rachel teased.
"Shut up, Rachel." Percy said while blushing.
"The weather's great!" Annabeth said grinning.
"Yeah, the weather's nice! Nothing would ruin the wedding!" Luke grinned back to Annabeth.
"Anyways," Percy intervened. "There's a dance tonight, right?"
"Yeah." Luke said.
"You're going to dance with me." Percy told Annabeth before Luke could chime in.
"Of course, I will." Annabeth smiled.
"I'll be taking my sister." Luke said with a look of annoyance.
Rachel rolled her eyes playfully and muttered, "They're still fighting about Annabeth."
Annabeth heard Rachel and she chuckled. Rachel's eyes widened and exclaimed, "It's grandpa!"
"Gramps!" Luke called
"Oh! Rachel and Luke!" Alberto grinned. "Nice day today, eh?" he looked around. "My, my. Rachel, you look gorgeous on your gown." Alberto complemented.
"Thanks, grandpa." Rachel blushed.
"Luke! Looking handsome as always." Alberto complemented at Luke.
"Well, what can I say grandpa? I got the looks from you." Luke chuckled.
"Oh, stop it." Alberto turned his head to the side to see Percy and Annabeth looking at them awkwardly. "Percy! Annabeth! My, the both of you look stunning."
"Thanks." They both said in unison.
"I hope your grandma, Percy, would look as beautiful as Annabeth over here." He motioned to Annabeth.
Annabeth blushed and Percy answered , "Of course, grandma will." Alberto nodded approvingly.
After 30 minutes, everyone settled down. Percy beside Annabeth—though he wasn't there because he had to assist his grandma—Annabeth beside Rachel, Rachel beside Luke. And they're all in the front seats. The priest had prepared his things. And the pianist was ready to play his piano. At last, Alice appeared. Alberto smiled hugely. Alice wasn't wearing anything fancy. She wore a plain white dress. She also wore no veil. Her hair was pulled up in a bun. She didn't wear heels. She only wore plain, white flats. But the best thing she wore was a big smile on her face.
Everybody stood up. Percy assisted his grandma. As they walked towards Alberto, Alice's smile was getting bigger. Afterwards Percy had assisted his grandma, he went back to his seat as the crowd sat down.
The priest did his job. Asked if somebody wants to stop the wedding—which nobody did, said the Gospel, Alice and Alberto said their vows, and had kissed.
Later on, the happy couple thanked everyone who came when they were eating their dinner. Percy, Annabeth, Rachel, and Luke sat at the couple's table. Percy and Annabeth on the right side with Alice with Rachel and Luke at the left side with Alberto. Alberto was in the midst of his speech. And afterwards called Alice to make her own speech.
Alice stood up and started, "I couldn't have found Alberto without a help of a very special woman in our midst right now." Percy smiled at Annabeth as she was blushing. "If it wasn't for her, we all wouldn't be here." Alice continued. Percy took Annabeth's hand and squeezed it. "Well, four months ago... I was just at my house, reading a good book when the girl knocked on our door. It was my grandson who opened the door. He looked at her annoyingly because the girl disturbed him. What he didn't was, he was going to fall in love with girl in front of him." The crowd laughed like it was a joke. Annabeth nudged Percy who was trying hard enough to blush.
"The girl was holding a letter that I wrote thirty-five years ago. She was an author, she had told me. She wanted to use the letter for her own novel. She wanted to know what happened after I wrote the letter. Alas, I didn't know what happened. The girl looked so disappointed. I wanted to help this girl, so I had this idea. This crazy idea that led us all here. We would embark a journey to find Alberto." Alice continued telling her story. It was terribly long for Percy since he was suffering ADHD. He'd almost fell asleep but Annabeth kept him awake. Alice finished her story with the wedding and continued, "This girl over here," Alice gestured to Annabeth. The crown turned towards her and slumped back to her chair. "She had changed our lives. I wouldn't have found Alberto and my grandson would still be single." Everybody laughed at the joke especially Annabeth causing Percy to scowl. Alice ended her speech and finally sat down.
When she sat down, she thanked Annabeth and told her that she had done a great job. Minutes after eating, the newlywed couple started dancing. Luke and Rachel followed. But Percy and Annabeth headed somewhere. They didn't want to dance with the crowd. They wanted to be alone together. They wanted silence. They went to the meadow, where the stars were out, showering the light upon them along with the moon. They can hear the soft melody of the music from the dining area. It was peaceful. "Would you love to dance?" Percy smiled.
"I would love to." Annabeth said.
Percy placed his hands on Annabeth's waist and Annabeth placed hers on Percy's neck. The two swayed to the melody and felt the air around them.
"You know," Percy started. "I thought of grandma's speech." Annabeth laid her head on Percy's chest and Percy held her even tighter. "And?" Annabeth asked.
"And I thought that time changed us." Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows, she didn't understand. But she kept quiet to let Percy continue. "The first time we met, we were so annoyed by each other." The two chuckled. "But after a few days, our feelings towards each other changed. I fell in love with you, and you did too." The two kept on swaying. "I lost you once." Percy took her hands this time , turned Annabeth around, and hugged her from behind.
Percy continued, "I don't wanna lose you anymore." Percy hugged Annabeth tighter. "I want to be with you forever." Percy took a small object from his pocket. Annabeth's eyes widened at the shiny object in front of her. It was a ring. An engagement ring. "And I think that this ring would go perfectly at your finger." Annabeth just stared at the ring, "I'm not going to kneel like what other guys do." Percy took one of Annabeth's hands and whispered, "Will you marry me?"
Percy turned Annabeth around again so he could see her face. He was holding one of Annabeth's hands on his free hand and held the ring on the other. Annabeth bit her lip and said, "No."
"No?" Percy's voice cracked at the word. He didn't get it. "Why?" he asked with tears forming in his eyes.
Silence took over and Annabeth started laughing, "You idiot," she laughed. "I was joking about that." She laughed even more.
"What?" Percy asked, smiling while he wiped away the tears that escaped his eyes.
"I was really kidding about that." Annabeth laughed at Percy.
"Annabeth! I was serious and everything and you would joke about this." Percy said, half annoyed, half amused.
"I'm sorry. I just wanted to see your reaction. I'm glad you didn't walk away. I'm going to blame my curiosity if that happened." Annabeth said, stopping her laughter.
"So, what's your real answer?" Percy asked, hopefully.
"Of course, I'll say yes." Annabeth said happily.
"Really?" Percy was grinning, like he'd won the lottery.
"Yes!" Annabeth said. "Now put that ring onto my finger before I change my mind." Annabeth told Percy.
"Oh. Oh, right." Percy's hand fumbled while putting his ring on Annabeth's ring finger.
After the ring was placed on Annabeth's finger, Annabeth kissed Percy. And Percy responded with such enthusiasm that lifted Annabeth off her feet.
It wasn't just them that was there. But Alice and Alberto too. The two watched the both of them, with smiles on their faces. She knew it was the happiest day for the four of them.
Time was fast. As months passed by the two became closer to each other. Every important aspect of their life had happened. First and foremost Percy and Annabeth got married. They had their honeymoon on Italy. Annabeth had finished her book. And of course, it was one of the best sellers. They settled down on Manhattan, where Percy grew up. They'll have two sons. For the first time in forever, they'll wake up in each other's arms. They'll even grow up to have a perfect family. It's ironic that a simple thing can change a life. Just because of a letter, they found each other. Just because of a letter, they fell in love. And just because of a letter, their lives became perfect as you imagined.
Well? I had fun writing this story. I'm squealing so hard by what's happening. Yehey! They got married! Anyways, I'm so speechless. Just go leave a review. I'll be back with a new story.
-BeautifulEscapades18