This is one of my favorite chapters :)

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Me own PJO? Yeah right...I wish...

Arrested for Grocery Fights

A few days had passed and it was the weekend. Annabeth thought it couldn't have come fast enough, and Percy was just grateful to be away from the wench.

Percy had gotten up late on Saturday, groggy and hungry. He went to his cupboards and opened them, only to find that it was filled with a few cups of instant ramen and a few dust bunnies. He frowned and went to the pantry but only found sweets and stuff that would take forever to make. He finally trudged to the refrigerator and yanked the door open. He found some week old yogurt, bad fruit, some beer, and a jug of milk. He pulled the milk out and opened it. He took a sniff and about collapsed from the horrid stench the carton was emitting. He coughed violently before going to the sink to empty its contents.

He was really grossed out when, after opening the cap and pouring it out, he found out it was slightly chunky and clumpy. He swallowed the lump in his throat and used water to help wash it down the drain.

He shivered from the traumatizing event and threw the now empty carton away. He sighed and slouched in the middle of his kitchen. He was in dire need of food.

Looks like it's time to go grocery shopping…Percy thought begrudgingly. He hated shopping with a passion. What did girls find so interesting about getting sore feet from walking around and being broke from buying so much stuff?

Percy went to his room and changed into some jeans and t-shirt. He slipped his shoes on, grabbed his wallet, and headed to the grocery store.

Meanwhile, Annabeth was having a crisis. She was going to be having a dinner party that night and she thought she had had everything she needed, but she found out she didn't have any more pasta for her Italian dish. Plus, she had run out of spices for her guacamole. She was freaking out, and so she decided she would have time to make a quick trip to the grocery store.

She rushed down to the nearest grocery store, which was just down her street. She had never been there before—she preferred the higher quality of her usual grocery store further uptown. Nevertheless, she hurried in, grabbed a cart, and started racing around looking for her ingredients.

Percy sighed as he grabbed an eight pack of Bud-Light beer. As he turned into the next aisle and grabbed a bag of chips, he heard the painfully familiar sound of heels snapping against the tile. He looked up and saw that familiar blonde, wavy hair and, dare he think it, nice ass.

He smirked, and, using stealth like movements, snuck up behind her.

"Hi, Honey!" he exclaimed, causing her to jump. He just laughed as Annabeth turned around and punched him in the gut.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked incredulously. "Are you stalking me?"

"Pft," Percy replied. "Like I would waste my time stalking you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're not worth stalking," he said in a tone that said 'duh'.

Annabeth growled. "I don't have time for this!" She stomped off.

Percy probably should have just let it go (in fact, it would have been better if he had just walked the other way), but he was having too much fun pushing her buttons. She was just so easy to get angry. Maybe that wasn't a good thing because he could potentially lose an arm…or worse…but he was really bored.

At least, he blamed his messing with her on boredom…

"What's the dealio, huh?" Percy asked. "What's the rush?"

"None of your business," Annabeth snapped looking through the shelves frantically. She really needed to get home and start cooking.

"Hey. We're getting married. It's my business to know what kind of stuff your doing."

"But we're not married yet, and like I keep saying, I hate you."

Percy glared at her. "Yeah, I know. You remind me every day."

"What? Do you want me to say I'm sorry? Well I can't, because my parents told me to never lie." Annabeth smirked.

"You are just evil."

She ignored him and continued looking for some pasta.

"Seriously, why are you in such a big rush?"

She sighed and stopped to tell him. "I'm having a dinner party and I don't have time to go to my usual grocery store, so I came here. I found out I didn't have some stuff to make my dishes."

Percy raised a brow. "You don't seem like the type of person to have dinner parties…"

"I'm not. It's all Thalia's fault. She and her boyfriend got engaged a while back and I said I'd throw a party for them, but then they started inviting more people, so now it's a dinner party."

"Who's Thalia?" Percy asked.

"My best friend."

"You have a friend?"

"Argh!" Annabeth exclaimed and pushed him hard. He lost his balance and fell over, his chips flying up and hitting a jar of tomato sauce. Percy fell into the same shelf and the jar jumped off the shelf and splattered on the floor with a resounding crack that caused the whole store to quiet down.

Percy stared up at the smug Annabeth in shock.

She just…pushed me into a shelf…of food…

His eyes narrowed. He roughly stood up (his beer now safely on the floor) and grabbed the thing closest to him, which happened to be Saltine crackers. He ripped the box open and grabbed some crackers in his large hands, smashing them up. He then threw them at her, to which she screamed at.

"Dammit Percy!" she yelled. "Some went down my shirt!"

Percy froze, shocked she had actually said that.

By now, people had looked over in amazement to see what was going down in the pasta aisle.

Annabeth scowled and grabbed a box of spiral noodles and threw them at Percy before turning to get away.

"Oh no you don't!" he mumbled. He exited the aisle at the opposite end from Annabeth and went to the next aisle where she was halfway down. She skidded to a stop when she saw him. He grabbed a can of Coke that was fifty percent off, shook it up for a good five seconds, and then opened it and aimed it at Annabeth, who had tried to escape but failed. Her white shirt got covered in light brown spots.

Percy smirked, but then Annabeth grabbed a jar of peanut butter, stepped towards him, and smeared it all over him—in his shirt, his face, and even in his hair. She dropped the jar and ran away. Percy growled and ran after her, dodging foods and snacks that she threw at him. A few Doritos got stuck on him, and she even threw a piece of chewed hum back at him (gross!) that got stuck in his hair.

"My hair!" he yelled dramatically. "Annabeth!"

Annabeth was freaked out now. Who knew what Percy was like when he was super duper angry?

She shuddered and kept running, but then Percy tackled her to the ground and the two slid into a pyramid of soup cans.

Annabeth groaned. "My head…"

Suddenly, two cops came running around the corner along with the store owner. "You two!" The store owner shouted, pointing a finger at them. His face was red and pudgy, and his eyes were bloodshot. "Arrest these…these…insolent children!"

"For your information, we're twenty-four…well, I am. I don't know about him…" Annabeth said. "He acts more like a three year old."

Percy glared at her and rubbed some peanut butter on her cheek.

One of the cops just shook his head. "You two are coming down to the station with us."

The two cops handcuffed them and led them outside to a cop car. They shoved Percy and Annabeth roughly into the back and slammed the doors shut.

"I can't believe this," Annabeth mumbled as the car started and they pulled out of the parking lot. "This is your fault."

Percy clenched his jaw to keep from snapping at her. "How the hell is it my fault?"

"You just couldn't leave me alone…" While Percy's eye twitched, she leaned forward. "Excuse me? Sir? Would it be possible to get a restraining order against my fiancé?"

The officer just glanced back at her like she was crazy. Maybe she was. Percy was definitely driving her crazy bananas.

Annabeth sat back and huffed. Then she groaned.

"Now what?" Percy asked.

"My dinner party…it's ruined!"

"We're getting arrested for having a food fight and all you can worry about is your stupid dinner party?"

"Hey! It's for my friend!"

"Big deal!"

As the two continued fighting, the two officers shook their heads and smiled.

Ah…one of them thought, young love…

Annabeth and Percy were currently sitting on steel chairs in front of a table that was mounded into the floor. The room was brightly lit, and sitting in front of them was one of the officers who had picked them up.

"So," the officer started, sighing. "I have a good idea why you two started fighting, but for protocol's sake, explain to me why we had to intervene."

"Well," Annabeth started. "I was just minding my own business, doing my shopping, when this jerk scares me, so I left, but he followed me—"

"And we talked and she just pushed me out of nowhere and started throwing things at me," Percy interrupted.

"That's not what happened! He's lying!"

"Calm down!" The officer snapped. "Look, it's not like you guys are going to jail or anything. You'll be pressed with a felony and you'll need to call someone for bail. Simple as that. Now let's go."

He led them to a pay phone and said, "You get five minutes."

Annabeth sighed and leaned against the wall as Percy went to make his call. Right now, she should be making the food for her party. Instead she was here, with Percy, trying to get bail. Wow.

Why couldn't he just leave her alone? Granted, there run-in was completely by chance. She knew he wasn't stalking her. That would just be creepy and gross. But why couldn't he just have turned around and walked the other way? They wouldn't be in this mess then.

In truth, Annabeth didn't really hate Percy. He had his moments, however few they were. She just really disliked how he acted around her, always teasing her and whatnot. He acted really immature during those times and she swore to God she was going to kill herself if he acted that way throughout their marriage.

But on those rare occasions he was actually nice to her, she almost…liked him. He could be a really decent guy, but he, unfortunately, chose not to…at least, not when he was around her.

Percy dialed his father's number. Probably not a smart choice, but who else would bail them out?

"Yello?" Poseidon answered his phone.

"Dad?" Percy asked. "It's Percy. Look, something happened…"

"Oh my GOD Annabeth's pregnant, isn't she?"

"What? NO!" Percy blushed. "Where did you get that idea?"

"Well, son, it was just your tone of voice. Anyways, what's the problem?"

Percy explained what had happened at the grocery store and how they were now at the police station.

"I swear, Percy…" His dad seemed genuinely upset about this. It was just…different. "Fine. I'm coming to get you guys."

"Thanks, Dad." But Poseidon had already hung up. Percy sighed and placed the phone back on the receiver. He then went over and stood by Annabeth to wait.

Percy felt awful. It actually was his fault they were here. He would never tell her that, but it was true. He felt guilty that he had ruined her day like this. That by itself was a weird thought. He was actually troubled that he had messed up her day: Something was wrong with him. Was he actually starting to care for her?

Nah. If that was true, they wouldn't be here.

He would have been guilty if he had messed up, say, his dad's day. It was no big deal.

Right?

Like I said in Chapter Six's author's note, I'm not going to update next week because I'll be in Mexico snorkling and eating spicy food :D

Thanks for reading! Review! Flames will be used in my fire pit to keep the bugs away!

-Akatsuki Child