Hey y'all! Welcome to the third fic in the Percy Jackson and the House of Night series! I've decided to go about this one in a different way then I have been before. I am going to try to keep a consistent update schedule. I'm going to try to post a new chapter once a week, so I am going to make sure I am always writing ahead, so that in case I don't have time to write I can still upload the new chapter. I hope you enjoy this fic as much as you enjoyed the last two! Please don't forget to favorite, follow, and review! I love y'all!
A month has passed since Zoey and I went on a quest to save her ex-boyfriend and found out that more than just a couple fledgling have been coming back from the dead, and me and Zoey officially decided to get put on Neferet's shit list. It also marked a month from finding out that our friend, Stevie Rae was sorta alive again. You see a month ago, her body rejected the change, resulting in her death. The night she died Zoey got a vision of her and a few other fledglings that rejected the change as these twisted versions of themselves, but that's not all she saw. She also saw her ex-boyfriend, Heath Luck, being taken by these twisted fledglings. When the news came out he was missing, well that sparked Zoey in telling me her vision, and all of us coming out with a plan to save Heath. Us going after Heath was a caticalist that led us to being put on Neferet's shit list, and me and Zoey have done everything in our power to keep our friends, the Nerd Herd, safe while we all come up with a plan to help Stevie Rae have all of her humanity back.
Which brings us to today. Today is Zoey's 17th birthday, december 24th. You see the Twins and Damien tried to get us all to coordinate our gifts, but the demigod crew wanted to give Zoey something personal this year to her, and it definitely wouldn't fit with the theme Damien and the Twins wanted us all to do. We decided to make her a Camp Half-blood beaded necklace, I even wore mine today. We all worked on one part of the necklace. I wove the string and picked the color, purple, as that is the element that she has the strongest tie to. Annabeth created the designs for each bead, she worked really hard on each one. The first bead was the triple moon symbol of Nyx, signifying her becoming the leader of the Dark Daughters. The second bead was a pentacle with colors representing each element, it signified her and her circle all having affinities for the elements and our journey on discovering the truth behind Neferet. Nico and Will worked on painting the beads as they had the steadiest hands out of all of us. We hoped that Zoey would like her gift from us, but besides the group gift we got we also had our own gifts. I decided to crochet a blanket for her, like I did for my mom and Annabeth.
The whole herd however decided to have a party for Zoey, a little get together where we can give her her gifts and just hang out with friends. Only one problem though, Zoey was taking a while to even come to the dorm commons. So me and Damien decided to go and see if everything was okay. We both talked together, something, even if we are roommates, we haven't been able to do recently.
"All I am saying is I have never met a person that dislikes their birthday as much as Zoey." Damien mentioned as we walked down Zoey's hallway. "She acts like it's cursed."
I couldn't help but chuckling, "Maybe it's because it's so close to christmas?" I wondered out loud as we slowed our pace. "I mean, I would imagine her birthday get's mashed with christmas 90% of the time."
Damien stopped walking then looked at me, "Do you think she hates winter/christmas themed gifts for her birthday?"
I stopped with him and tilted my head, "It's a possibility, but she hasn't told me anything of the sort." I answered then placed my hand on his shoulder. "That's your guys theme?"
Damien nodded then rubbed his neck, "Yeah, what do we do now if she doesn't like those types of gifts?"
I shrugged, "I'm not sure, but my best course of action would be not to get made at her for not telling." I said then looked him in the eye. "We both know the one person she would have told."
Damien nodded then got his phone out as we got to Zoey's dorm. I saw him sending a text to Erik, Jack, Shaunee, and Erin. Telling them my advice I assumed. I smiled and knocked on her door. "Zoey, are you okay? Everyone is getting anxie, Damien came along with me." I said and earned a punch to my arm.
"Ah- I'm sorry I'm almost ready." Zoey yelled through her door and heard some muttering a shuffling on the other side. Me and Damien waited for a bit before Zoey opened the door and I noticed the slight puffiness around her eyes. I immediately placed an arm around her and so did Damien.
"We miss her too." Damien said and Zoey smiled a bit and chuckled.
"Was it that obvious?" She said and Damien shook his head.
"Not to me, I was tipped off something was wrong when Percy's expression changed." Damien answered and she looked at me.
I motioned to where her puffiness was on my own face. "I could see the puffiness, but I think that's because I have had practice."
Zoey chuckled a bit and nodded, she then looped her arms in between mine and Damien's and had a small smile. "I just wish she could be here, and wasn't in some cave somewhere."
"Hey, we'll save her." Damien said and nudged her a bit as we walked. "Your forgetting that both you and Percy have been working non stop on a plan for us to help her."
"Yeah!" I said trying to cheer her up, "Not to mention Annabeth has been writing to Camp asking our old mentor Chiron if he knows anything about what might be happening."
Zoey looked at me, "Has written her back?"
"Nothing more except he would look into what Annabeth told him." I answered and both Damien and she nodded.
"Well, let's hurry up." Zoey said with a smile. "I can't wait to open up your guys gifts."
Damien smiled big and he chuckled. "I can't wait for you to see what we all got you." He then gave me a knowing look. "Even if some of the gifts may not be your ideal gifts."
Zoey chuckled a bit smiling, "I can't wait to open them."
We all then made our way to the dorm commons smirking knowing what was going to happen when we walked into the computer lab that the twins decided we would have the party. Damien decided to fill the air by talking about his journey with finding the gift he got Zoey, without spoiling everything, of course. I could help but feel a bit relaxed as we like nothing was going on that were 'normal' fledgling teens.
Once we all walked into the computer lab everyone broke into a rendition of Happy Birthday. I heard Nala hiss and a wave of annoyance come off of her as she ran away. I chuckled as I overheard Zoey call her a coward. "Happy Birthday!" We all said together as we took our seats and Erik came up behind Zoey. I sat down with Annabeth, Will and Nico next to her smiling. Erik kissed Zoey and everyone smiled, Shaunee then chuckled watching the two.
"Hey, Erik, why don't you spread some of that birthday sugar around?" Shaunee eased wiggling her eyebrows.
'Yeah, sweet thang." Erin continued in an equal teasing tone. "How about a little b-day kiss over here."
Zoey rolled her eyes smiling, "Uh, it's not his birthday. You only get to kiss the birthday boy or girl."
"Damn," Shaunee said chuckling. "When is your birthday?" She asked Erik, causing everyone to laugh and we all settled down.
Once Zoey and Erik were seated Zoey went to snek another kiss when a whirlwind came through the door. "Yea! She hasn't opened her presents yet. Happy birthday, Zoey!" Jack, Damiens boyfriend, said giving Zoey and Damien a big hug.
Damien chuckled and he looked at Jack as he sat down next to him. "I told you that you needed to hurry up."
"I know, but I wanted to make sure everything was perfect." Jack said right before going into his bag and lifting out a box wrapped in a very christmassy packaging. "I made the bow myself."
"Jack's really good at crafts," Erik said smiling at Zoey, "He's just not good at cleaning up the crafts."
"Sorry," Jack said, giving Erik a sweet smile. "I promise I'll clean up right after the party."
"Hello! Speaking of presents!" Shaunee said getting our attention.
"Bring that gift over to the gift table so Zoey can start and open her presents." Erin continued and Jack stepped up and quickly brought it to the table. Zoey then stood up and picked up that present first smiling.
We all got up to get a better look at Zoey and Will leaned next to me and whispered, "Zoey is the happiest she's been in a long while."
I smiled but then my brain started turning, how did he know that? Annabeth grabbed my hand as Zoey pulled out a snow globe with a little snowman inside it. Zoey didn't lose her smile as she held it. She then looked at Jack.
"Thank you, no one has ever given me a snow globe before." She said and carefully set in on the table. "One of you should carry that back to my dorm when this is done, I'm afraid I'll break it."
We all chuckled then Damien handed her his present, it wasn't wrapped as extravagantly as Jack's but it was pristine. Zoey smiled as she glided the ribbons off the box, and her smile got bigger when she pulled out this gorgeous scarf. There were tiny outlines of snow men along the bottom of the scarfs. She kept her smile and ran her fingers along the snowmen. She then hugged Damien and smiled, whispering something into his ear to which she just nodded.
Then the twins handed her their present, "Now we didn't follow the snowman theme, we just thought our theme was just an overarching concept."
Zoey chuckled a bit opening their present, "That's alright- Ohmygoodness!" She said as she pulled out these black stiletto boots. There were snowflakes going down the inside side of each boot. "These must have cost you a fortune!"
"It more so took us forever to find them," Shaunee said with a smile.
"Plain boots would not do for Ms. Born-on-the-Twenty-Fourth." Erin continued causing everyone to chuckle including Zoey.
Zoey placed the boots back into the box and then noticed the six other gifts on the table. "Why are there six- shouldn't there only be five?"
"Uh, I'm afraid that's our fault." I said causing everyone to chuckle. "The four of us break the theme rule and decided to give you a group present as well as our individual gift." I explained and Zoey smiled.
"Which one is the group gift?" Zoey asked me and I got up and grabbed it. We put the necklace, beads, and paints in a simple wooden box. She smiled and opened the box and got a look of confusion as she set it down on a table where everyone could see. Everyone got looks of confusion and I chuckled.
"The bag Zoey, the real gift is in the bag." I said pointing to it and she opened it and pulled the necklace out. She looked at us four with a confused look. We all couldn't help but chuckle as we all pulled our own necklaces.
"Now you have your very own Camp Half-Blood necklace." Annabeth said with a smile Zoey immediately looked at it again.
"The one big difference is that with this necklace each bead represents a big moment as your time of being the hero." Nico explained and everyone gasped as they all tried to see the beads.
Will then cleared his throat and everyone looked at him, "The first bead is the triple moon of Nyx representing you becoming the leader of the dark daughters. The second bead is a pentacle with the colors of each element representing the discovery of your circle's affinities," Then he brought his voice in a lower tone. "And that you found out the truth behind Neferet."
Zoey immediately turned to Erik and he smiled helping her put it on. "This is amazing- I can't believe you guys decided to do this." We all smiled at her and put our necklaces back to where they were hidden."
"Alright, I'm hoping in, so that I can have my moment of glory now." Erik said, grabbing his gift and handing it to her. It was silver and gold wrapped and had a sticker placed in the middle of it.
Zoey gasped so I assumed it was probably an expensive gift. "It's from Moody's!"
"I hope you like it," Erik said with a sweet smile.
Zoey immediately went to open her present smiling, once she got the paper off she ran her hand over the black velvet box. She then gasped when she opened the box pulling out a pearl necklace. The pearls looked a bit off, but then I realized a couple of them were shaped to be snowmen. I bet Erik started the snowman theme.
Zoey ran her hands along the snowmen pearls and smiled a bit, "Normally, I'm not a fan of winter themed gifts," She said absently chuckling. "But you guys have all given me gifts I've never gotten before, or the winter theme is minimal enough that it's not so much a christmas-birthday gift." She looked directly at Erik, "Thank you, now help me put on your gift." She said which caused everyone to smile at her.
Zoey went to grab one of our gifts when Aphrodite walked into the room. The room went silent as Aphrodite walked in holding a box with a letter taped to the top of it. Aphrodite sighed and stayed where she was, "Mail was dropped off while you guys were in here, and they also got the room number wrong." Annabeth then walked over to Aphrodite and whispered something to her, to which Aphrodite shook her head. Annabeth grabbed the box before Aphrodite left the room.
"What did you tell- ask her?" I asked and everyone looked just as confused.
"I asked her if, with along with the wrong mail, any letters were sent addressed to me." Annabeth explained putting the box down. "Sadly no. But, I think this is from your ex-boyfriend Zoey, the return address name is just Luck."
Zoey nodded, "Alright. I'll open it when I get back to my dorm." She then chuckled a bit. "My guess it's something sentimental from a trip he was on- or something like that."
"Something not christmassy?" Erik asked with a chuckle and Zoey actually nodded and frowned.
"For the longest time I despised anything to do with Christmas on my birthday," She started to explain and everyone looked upset. "I even told Stevie Rae that I hated christmas stuff, because everyone always used it as an excuse to mash the gifts together. I never got birthday presents and christmas presents, it was always the same gift."
"Z, I didn't even think about that." Erik said and Damien looked at me with a look that said, you were right, I just gave him an encouraging smile.
"It's okay, I really do love the gifts, and they aren't too christmasy themed that usually means, 'your birthday is a convenience to my wallet and that's all I care about, not what you really want'. Instead it tells me you guys really just wanted to give me special gifts for someone born on the twenty-fourth of December." Zoey said then made us all get into a group hug and we all smiled.
"We'll, I think I should let you know my gift is home made and my gift can also be seen as kinda christmassy." I said which caused everyone to laugh.
"Let me open it!" Zoey said with a big smile on her face and Annabeth handed her the bag with my gift in it. Zoey took out the wrapping paper and she smiled when she pulled out the blanket.
"Oh so that's why you never gave me a straight answer for who it was for." Damien said, causing everyone to laugh really hard.
Zoey put it back in the bag and she thanked me before moving on to the rest of the gifts. We all enjoyed this moment of peace together and Zoey enjoyed her gifts from us all. When it was all over we all worked to bring Zoey back her gifts to her room. She immediately placed her new boots in her closet, her scarf on the coat rack, and Jack helped her find a place for her snow globe. Annabeth then placed the books Annabeth got her on her shelf as Nico and Will both set the brackets they got her on her vanity. The boys and I left so that Shaunee, Erin, and Annabeth could Zoey look amazing for her birthday meeting with her Grandma. While they dressed her up the rest of us decided to help Jack and Erik clean up their dorm room.