Disclaimer: I don't own PJO characters

Chapter Ten

Annabeth's crutches dug into her armpits with a jab when some old lady kicked one of them over to get past Annabeth. She winced, tilting dangerously to one side to steady herself on her crutches before making the excruciating journey from where Helen dropped her off to the coffee shop Leo was waiting for at.

She spotted Leo immediately. He looked like he just rolled out of bed with all his strands sticking from his head like the back of a porcupine. He waved to her from inside the coffee shop and dove through the door to jog to the curb where she stood waiting. Leo was holding two drinks in his hands and Annabeth's mouth watered seeing the hot chocolate she was craving just a few hours ago.

It was starting to get cold. It was nearing the end of November now and the air went from a warm breeze to a chilly wind that made Annabeth's hair blow. She had blonde curls down once again, Percy's earlier taunts were still stuck in her head, and they were blowing all over the place. She spit out her hair from her mouth and a ran hand down the back of her head to keep them in place.

"Let's go to the park," Leo said. "We can talk there."

It was a slow way to the park and eventually Annabeth collapsed by a thick trunked tree. She took her drink from Leo eagerly and blew it cool. "Thank you. I was about to text you to get it for me."

Leo gave her a wolfish grin. "You know me, babe. I can read your mind before you know what you're thinking."

"Call me that again and you won't have legs."

"Oh, like you don't?"

Annabeth narrowed her eyes and him and his smile faltered.

"So what was up yesterday?" Annabeth asked. She was relieved for some time with Leo before Athena shows up tonight as she told Annabeth she was. "You texted me acting all serious about something you wanted to talk to me. What was it?"

Leo glanced at his own drink. His fingers fiddled with a thick, black necklace-string he permanently wore around his neck. "You've got to promise to listen with an open mind."

"Oh yeah," Annabeth tilted her head. "Wait. Is that Rachel?"

Leo followed her line of vision and sure enough Rachel Dare stood near an ice cream vendor. Next to her, Thalia Grace was paying for two cones of ice cream. The two of them looked awfully comfortable with each other. The scene in the art room flashed behind Annabeth's eyes. Just a while ago, it seemed like Rachel was downright terrified of Thalia. And now what were they, best friends?

"Huh," Leo said. "I saw them a while ago at the coffee shop too. Thalia's smoking as always."

"Your chances with her are still zero."

"So are your chances with Luke because he's busy screwing my crush. Our luck is really crap when it comes to romance, let's admit it already."

They exchanged a wary look.

"Then again you have to wonder," Annabeth said, taking another sip of her drink. "Is she still screwing Luke if he hasn't shown up for school for the past month now? He's in my biology class and even the teacher has absolutely no clue where he's disappeared." She didn't mention she was probably the last person from school to have seen Luke. He walked into the museum and never came out.

"Well. Whatever it is, I never imagined Rachel and Thalia to be friends. I thought they hated each other."

"Not hated. Rachel was scared of her, remember?"

"I'd hate someone I was terrified of."

"Hey look at that kid. He just got his genie and he's all excited." Annabeth pointed in the distance where someone their age stood with their family. They're holding a velvet box and grinning down at it as if it's the most beautiful gem in the world. "Well, his life is all set now. Genies tend to do that. They just make everything okay with a snap of their friends."

"You're smiling."

"Yeah, my genie and I are good friends and I feel like my life has improved a hundred times since I met Percy. Can't I smile, Leo?"

Leo sighed and folded his legs to get comfortable. He leaned back on the tree.- "This is what I wanted to talk to you about. You're too obsessed with your genie, Annabeth. It's starting to show. I had a long time to think after you convinced me to help you steal Frank's lamp yesterday. I made a mistake. I should've stopped you instead of letting you go through with it."

Annabeth snapped her attention to him. He was downright serious. She crossed her arms over her chest. "You should know, Frank's genie is named Jason. Poor Jason is still trying to get over how terrible life is with Frank. Frank treats him like literal trash. In fact, while we're here, Percy and Jason are back at my home playing board games or something. They cried when they saw each other, you know that? Stealing Frank's genie lamp was one of the best decisions I ever made."

"You talked to Jason."

"Why else would I steal the lamp? To admire how it looks on my bedside table?"

Leo shook his head, dejected. "I was hoping you'd come to your senses. You've broken one of the more important rules in the book. Honestly, I don't even know how far you're going go. I did some research. I know you can't break the rules that restrict what your wishes are. The chains will physically limit your genie's magic. But there's nothing stopping you from breaking the other rules. God forbid, please don't actually fall in love with your genie. You'll break the only rule in the book that's been bolded, underlined, italicised, and capitalised with a giant "DO NOT."

"Percy's not romance material."

"I'm not kidding, Annie. Don't break that rule. You can't fall in love with Percy. There must be a reason that rule is regarded as the most important in the book."

Annabeth blew up. "What the hell is all this about? Did you call me over to tell me everything I'm doing is wrong? You weren't there when Jason and Percy reunited. You don't know how they reacted. They spent three years staring at walls in isolation, Leo. Have some mercy for genies. Who knows all your genie, Hazel, had to endure?"

"Annie."

"Why don't you ask Hazel yourself, huh? Or is she scared of you like Jason is scared of Frank?"

"Annabeth."

"I know what I'm doing."

"Are you going to tell me how you lost the function in your legs?"

Annabeth froze.

Leo pursed his lips, his eyebrows flying off. "I know you didn't fall in a ditch like you told me you did. Tell me the truth, Annabeth. What happened to your legs?"

She swallowed, hesitating. Annabeth played around with the cap of her drink before she said whispering, "Ran into a rogue, free genie when I followed Luke the day before he disappeared. The rogue genie cursed me. Percy saved me before the curse finished but I'd be dead if he hadn't."

Leo breathed out forcefully. "Did you read the news early this morning? I'm talking six or seven."

"No."

"There's a family on my street," Leo started. "A couple and their nineteen year old son who was home for the summer from university. Last night, the couple was murdered. Their son escaped. He claims it was genies who attacked them. He said the genies let him go on purpose. There were three according to him. They killed his parents without setting a finger on his parents. And here's the bomb: one of the genies the boy said was his own genie. The boy made his nine wishes and thought he'd never see his genie again. Who knew, that the genie would come back and murder his parents?"

A cold draft made its way up Annabeth's spine. "Leo, I don't know where you're getting this information from. I'll search it up tonight but… I've never heard of something like this happening. Ever."

"Don't bother searching it up. Either trust me or don't because the authorities took down the news articles around eight this morning. The only reason I know is because it happened on my street and along with all my neighbours, my dad went out to see who was screaming in the middle of the night. And that's why not many people know about it. Articles were barely on the internet for an hour before they were forced to be removed. Imagine how many other articles were removed."

Her mouth went dry. "I'm sorry… but I really can't imagine Percy doing that."

"You can't now. He's trapped in his lamp. If you really do value my opinion, Annabeth, I say leave Percy in his lamp."

Annabeth went quiet. What could she say? She just kept replaying Percy and Jason hugging each other as she stared at the murky chocolate her drink had become. It was too cold to enjoy now.

"Annabeth. Are you okay?"

"Fine, Leo. But you're scaring me."

He set his drink on the ground next to him. "Okay. How about this? We go dress shopping for the Christmas Ball. Get your mind off of things. You told me Athena is coming tonight so before she shows up, let's go have fun like the old times without any genie talk at all. Let's forget any of this happened."

"I thought you hate dress shopping."

"I do. But we've got pranks to play on the shopkeepers."

Annabeth cracked a smile but it was forced and even Leo could probably see that. "Just like old times."

aoaoaoaoaoaoao

"That's it," the shopkeeper snarled. She pushed Leo and Annabeth out of the store, rather rudely, and threw Annabeth's crutches on the ground afterwards.

Annabeth and Leo burst out in laughter again and Annabeth snatched the small remote Leo was holding. "This was hilarious. Let's go do it on another store."

"Can't," Leo said between laughs. "The batteries are dead." He held in his hand a small, fly-sized robot that could be controlled from the remote Annabeth held. Leo made it himself. They spent the last two hours flying it around shopkeepers and buzzing it right next to their ears while pretending to try on dresses and suits for the Christmas Ball. So far, they had driven two shopkeepers out of the store after dancing around to avoid the robot fly before the third one figured it was Annabeth and Leo behind it.

"I didn't even get my dress," Annabeth giggled. "And I actually liked that last one. Oh, well."

"Damn."

Annabeth looked up to see Leo staring at his phone screen. "What's wrong?"

"Dad wants me back at the store."

"Oh."

"Here," Leo said. He swooped down to grab Annabeth's crutches "I'll drop you off at home before we go."

"Hey, Leo."

"Yeah?"

"Is that Thalia with Rachel over there at the arcade?"

A few stores down from the dress store is an arcade spanning over half the floor. Somewhere near the entrance, Thalia and Rachel stood stoically, talking amongst each other in hushed whispers. Thalia was holding Rachel's hand, visibly squeezing it as if in reassurance.

"You know what? Let's go talk to them." Annabeth pulled Leo along with her and they made their way across the floor to reach Thalia and Rachel. "Hey! I didn't think I'd see you guys here!"

For the first time ever, Annabeth was able to see Thalia Grace properly without a screaming Rachel on the ground or her friends surrounding her. Annabeth was taken aback. Thalia was gorgeous in an intimidating sort of way with her kohl lined eyes and dark hair snipped up to her neck. She wore three spiked bracelets on one hand with a black hoodie and typical blue jeans. From what Annabeth heard around school, Thalia was near the top of the grade in terms of academics. It's no wonder Luke fell for her. God, did Annabeth really think she could compete with Thalia?

"I'm Thalia," she said roughly. She held out a hand and Annabeth shook it.

"Rachel," Rachel piped up.

Annabeth smiled. "I know, Rachel. We're in biology together, remember?"

"But you always sit with Piper."

Annabeth's smile fell. "What are you guys doing here anyway? How do you know each other?"

"From art class," Thalia said. "We paint together and thought it would be fun to come out for a day. I see you're here with Leo."

Leo was hiding behind Annabeth and hearing his name coming out of Thalia's mouth made him look like he was going to pass out. He squeaked, "Hi, Thalia. You have an amazing name."

Thalia wasn't impressed. "Anyway, Rachel and I are just about to leave. I hope you guys have a great rest of the day."

"Hey," Annabeth called out before they could leave. Leo stiffened against her back. "It's… Leo's Coming tomorrow. I'm having a party for him. If you guys want to come, it would be really fun."

Leo opened his mouth to protest but closed it a second later after seeing Annabeth's glare. He nodded weakly. "Yep. Getting my genie tomorrow."

Rachel's eyes went glassy. "My Coming was amazing. I think I died the next day, though. I don't remember. I remember a song though! I followed the stars to a place I don't know." Rachel went on singing, turning away from the group to wave at a little girl passing by.

"No," Thalia said. "Thank you for the invite, but with all due respect, neither Rachel nor I will attend. I hope your Coming goes well."

"Do you have a genie of your own?"

"Goodbye, Annabeth. Leo." Thalia grabbed Rachel's arm and pulled her away from Annabeth and Leo. From behind, Annabeth saw a glint sticking out of Rachel's tiny backpack. No one really brought around their genie lamps everywhere but Rachel was far too obsessed with hers. Annabeth remembered back when she touched Rachel's genie lamp when she was giving her a school tour. Rachel had gone livid.

"Don't tell me that wasn't suspicious," Annabeth told Leo. "Something is up with them. As Rachel's friend, I should figure out what."

"Something we're not going to involve ourselves in. Besides, how much of a friend do you consider Rachel as?" Leo reminded. "You still have to return Frank's lamp because I swear Annabeth if something goes wrong… if you get caught or if Percy decides to murder you like what happened with the family, you'll spend the rest of your life regretting the choices now. Your legs are barely improving. And okay, they'll be back to fine one day but are you really willing to lose something else permanently before you learn your lesson?"

Annabeth's phone binged. She checked it and her heart plummeted. Athena just landed at the airport and she was coming over for dinner. She had to get home — before anyone, especially her genie hating mother, realised she was harbouring not one but two genies in her room. "Take me home, Leo. I promise I'll stop."

I should really stop saying I'll update on Friday 'cause I end up doing it on Saturday anyway. This chapter was kind of short but I have something HUGE planned soon for Rachel and you guys, it's really gonna start picking up steam from here ;)

I hope you still enjoyed that! Leave a review :)

Also, random note, the pjo fandom is dYing, it's not just me who thinks that right?

UPDATE: I can't upload the next chapter for the next two weeks 'cause I'm really busy with dance recitals. I hope the wait is okay :)