Disclaimer: I don't own the PJO characters

Chapter Fifteen

Percy didn't like that Annabeth was leaving late at night. He sat on her bed, biting his lip as she went around her room, looking for a small satchel to take.

"There's a genie outside following your every step," Percy said. "What if the genie attacks? You don't know how to defend yourself against that. I do."

Annabeth closed her closet shut. She gazed out the window behind Percy, spotting the same genie woman standing outside. Her eyes flickered to Percy who stood from the bed. He neared her, and she subconsciously pushed herself against the closet door behind her. Annabeth met his eyes. They were a darker green than what she remembered before.

"I don't like it," Percy said. "I don't know what I'd do if you get captured or something."

"I go to school every day without you."

"Not when it's dark. Genies like the dark. They can blend in."

Annabeth pushed him away from her gently. "I'll be fine, Percy. I know how to take care of myself."

Percy slumped. He was tall enough to wrap his arms around Annabeth and awkwardly bend his neck to bury his face in her mess of blonde curls. Offhandedly, Annabeth wondered how long it had been that she tied her hair up in a ponytail. She hadn't put her hair in a bun since Percy told her she looked like a cauliflower.

Annabeth went along with Percy's embrace, accidentally dropping her satchel on the ground. He wasn't acting like himself and it was making her skin crawl. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"No," Percy said without mumbling. He tightened his grip around her midsection. "No. Nothing. I just don't want to lose you. Not because you're the way out of my lamp, but because you're the best thing to ever happen to me."

"I'm just going to a friend's house, Percy. I'll be back before it's too late. My dad is driving me too and fro. It's not a big deal."

"I know."

"Then what's all this?"

Percy stiffened. He backed away. "Nothing."

Annabeth bent to pick her satchel from where it fell on the ground. She glanced at Percy once before leaving her room. Every time she left Percy in her room alone, she felt a sinking sensation in her chest. Annabeth wondered how it felt like being captive for three years by the authorities before getting stuffed in a lamp and sent to live in some seventeen-year-old's bedroom. Percy didn't deserve all that. Maybe some genies did: Luke was a raging gorilla. But not Percy. Percy was too sweet for a life in captivity.

aoaoaoaoaoaoa

Frederick wasn't a particularly tall or short man. Annabeth had Athena's blonde hair but her narrow face and small forehead all came from her dad. Moments like these were rare: Annabeth sitting in a car with no one but her dad. Frederick was almost always off on some business trip, or working late at the university he worked at. Out of Annabeth's three parents, Helen was ironically the only one Annabeth felt she could confide in.

So imagine Annabeth's surprise when her dad suddenly tells her he talked to her school teachers.

"Excuse me?" Annabeth demanded. She sat up further, the seatbelt grazing her chin. "You talked to my teachers?"

"Do you know how long you spend in your room these days? I barely got to see you before, but now you're invisible."

Annabeth scowled. "Nice, Dad. You think I'm invisible."

"I'm not an idiot, Annabeth. I know you spend your days talking to your genie. It's dangerous, you know, thinking that your genie can solve all your problems for you. Wishes are a stupid concept."

"Just because your genie was an asshole, doesn't mean mine is. Besides, I'm usually working. I have a lot work to do for school."

"Your teachers say you haven't been doing your homework."

Annabeth gaped, almost imperceptibly. She had been so caught up recently with the whole genie following her and wondering when Luke was going to show up that she had been neglecting school. But could she blame herself? At the end, Annabeth was only doing the moral thing by helping Percy. Everything with Luke trying to kill her wasn't intentional.

"You're tired all the time."

Of course, she wanted to scream. She's plagued with nightmares all night; Annabeth gets a maximum of four hours on a good night. She was under constant stress seeing the genie following her and the fear was becoming extremely suffocating.

"And your grades are dropping like potato sacks."

"Dad," Annabeth snapped. "Thanks for telling me all this. But you really don't know what's going on with my life. I've got a lot on my plate and you haven't been there for me so you don't exactly have a say."

Her dad turned onto Thalia's street. He remained silent for a good few minutes as they passed the numerous houses alongside built identical to each other. Then, he said, "I've talked to Athena and I agree that maybe living here is hurting your academic performance at school. You're forgetting what's important. We've decided that instead of at the end of the month, you should move in to Athena's penthouse as soon as possible. I'm talking next week."

Annabeth's mouth dropped open. "Dad! What the hell? You know how she treats me!"

"Maybe you need a little discipline in your life, Annabeth."

"What will Helen say?"

Her dad only stopped the car by Thalia's front yard. Her house was bigger than Annabeth's. She had a car in a garage next to the front yard with perfectly trimmed hedges and gorgeous holiday decorations. It was the beginning of December now, and while Annabeth's family didn't start decorating for Christmas until much later, most people had already started hanging wreaths outside their doors.

Lightheaded, Annabeth opened the door and stepped onto the pavement outside. She stood in one spot, staring at the car retracting in the distance. Her eyes burned. She thought Frederick was on her side. It was so unfair; Annabeth couldn't do anything to fight back. She wasn't sure what propelled her do it, but Annabeth opened her mouth and let out a scream. She yelled into the silence around her, completely disregarding the houses up and down the streets. Annabeth pulled at her hair, cursing so loudly that a second longer, someone would call the police.

"Annabeth."

Annabeth whirled around to face Thalia. She angrily flung a blonde curl out of her eye before grabbing a fistful of her satchel straps and marching to Thalia's front door.

"Nice company you got," Thalia said, jutting her chin out behind Annabeth.

Annabeth glanced back to see the same genie woman as before standing across the street. A cold draft spiralled up her body, and she dived through Thalia's doorway. Thalia pushed the door shut.

"She's still following me," Annabeth muttered, open-mouthed. "How'd she get here so quickly?"

Thalia only raised an eyebrow. She was barefoot, wearing a dark shirt and leggings. Her face was bare of any make up. Annabeth had never seen Thalia in such a domestic setting, and she almost looked harmless. But then Annabeth remembered Thalia during her gym competitions and when she lashed out at Rachel.

Annabeth swallowed her nerves, fiddling with the ends of her shirt. Her emotions were a mess. "Do you know who that genie is?"

"One of Luke's slaves," Thalia shrugged.

"What?"

"Luke. He's my genie. Well, he was my genie until he got out."

Annabeth gave her an incredulous look.

"I know. It sounds ridiculous. Truth is, six, seven months ago, I got Luke in a lamp. It had been a long time since he had seen his family. Genies usually get captured from their homeland around twelve or thirteen. They spend at least three years under training to grant us wishes before we finally receive their lamps."

"How'd he get out?"

Thalia shrugged. "I don't actually know his end of the story. He wanted to escape his lamp, like your genie does, and I helped him do just that. Genies return to their homeland when you make your nine wishes. And yeah, back at their home, genies can't escape to our world. But there's a portal that runs from our world to theirs. The key to opening that portal is only found in our world. So long story short, Luke and I found whatever opens the portal to him. I made my ninth wish, and said goodbye. A month later, he showed up at my doorstep."

"He escaped his homeland."

"Yeah. He escaped."

Thalia led Annabeth into the living room where the television was playing in the background. Annabeth slumped into the cushions, consciously sitting rigid. Thalia curled up with cushion between her legs.

"I'm just trying to get my genie out, too, Thalia," Annabeth said. "Why does Luke want me dead?"

"I think it's more to do with who your genie is. His name… Percy Jackson if I'm not wrong?"

"No."

"He and Luke have history. Luke's free genie friends are who helped Luke find the key to escaping the genie homeland. But Percy… Percy doesn't have a good relationship with those genies."

"Like what history?"

"Look. I don't know everything. Ever since Luke got out of his lamp, he tells me less and less about what's going on. I know there's a rebellion among genies. The genie homeland used to be a monarchy but some government-like Council was set up there to democratise it. But old royal bloodlines want the monarchy back. Us humans are simply caught in crossfire of their riots."

"King?"

Thalia nodded. "Or Queen, whatever. Luke joined one of the rebel groups a long time ago. I think he tried recruiting Percy who refused."

"And how do us humans keep getting genies then?"

"One of the powerful royal bloodlines gives genies to humans as a peace offering of their alliance."

"Oh. I would've thought the humans would ally with the government-like Council of genies you're talking about. I mean, our world used to be a monarchy. Shouldn't our leaders be sympathetic to the Council's cause?"

"Not if the royal bloodline happens to be stronger. They're the front runners in the riot." Thalia leaned forward towards the coffee table next to the couch. She uncovered a bowl and revealed dumplings sitting inside. "You want one?"

"Yeah. I'm starving. Thanks."

"Don't be too thankful. They're leftovers from yesterday."

"Leftovers?"

Thalia bobbed her head. "I ordered in Chinese yesterday. I usually end up eating alone so I always have leftovers the next day. Of course, once in a while, Luke drops in. We're still friends."

Annabeth sunk her teeth into the dumplings, watching as Thalia's focus shifted to her phone screen. Someone was texting Thalia. Thalia hurriedly turned the phone over so Annabeth couldn't see the screen. Her eyes became hard when she noticed Annabeth staring.

"Say my genie, Percy, wants to return to our world even after I make my ninth wish. How does the portal between the genie homeland and our world open?"

Thalia swallowed a dumpling. "Actually, Annabeth, I wouldn't be sure you want to let your genie free in our world. You know what Luke is doing. You know how reckless and murderous he's become. When he was in my lamp, he was the sweetest thing on this planet. Going back to his homeland changed him. Or perhaps it was his friends, I don't know."

"Just tell me how, Thalia. I'll deal with the rest."

"I can't. From what Luke told me, the portal responds to each genie differently. Some genies have to eat something to get through. Other genies have to take a physical object with them."

"What was it for Luke?"

"A caduceus from the Greek museum nearby Something in connection to Hermes, I think?"

Annabeth glanced outside the window and she caught sight of the same genie woman as before. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "If you're so close to Luke, tell him to call off the genie he has trailing me everywhere."

"He doesn't listen to me anymore."

"Right."

"He doesn't. I've been trying to clean up his messes ever since he came into our world."

Annabeth scoffed. "So Rachel is another one of his messes? He took a random genie from our school and drove her insane?"

"Rachel?" Thalia shook her head. "No. Rachel is human." She paused. "Her story is actually quite tragic."

"Please. Spare me the tears."

Thalia scowled. "Quit it with your smart-aleck responses. I'm not the one who has you so riled up."

"Sorry."

"The rule book, Annabeth, isn't wrong. Those rules are laid out in case anyone gets an incredibly erratic genie. Most of us get normal genies, so no, they don't enforce most rules in the book. But some rules apply to all genies whether or not they are crazy from the beginning. Rachel broke the most important rule in the book."

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows. Her eyes widened remembering the underlined, bolded, italic, capitalised last rule: don't fall in love with your genie. Immediately, there's a heavy sensation in her heart. "Rachel fell in love with her genie… and that drove her crazy?"

"Yeah. Genies have a way with human emotion. Especially love. When Rachel fell in love with her genie, her genie found a way to infiltrate her mind. Sometimes, Rachel talks like she's a genie because her memories have melded into her genie's."

"That's… so sad."

"Yeah. It is. Luke is curious to who her genie is. He has her eyes set on Rachel the way this woman outside my window follows you everywhere. That's why I've been sticking to Rachel recently. That girl doesn't deserve more tragedy."

Annabeth glanced at her tangled fingers. Percy flashed in her head and suddenly she was on red alert. She wasn't sure to what extent Percy was genuinely or jokingly flirting with her, but their dynamic had been shifting in the past few days. He baked her cookies the other day and said something about getting to her heart. Was Percy was trying to infiltrate in her mind?

Her eyes burned. God, she trusted Percy with her life. Was she making a mistake?

Annabeth muttered, "I wish it was someone else who got Percy's lamp."

"Me, too. Luke's been driving me insane. Fucking genies."

"Fucking genies."

Thalia and Annabeth exchanged a small smile. Annabeth broke out into a grin, chuckling, when she saw Thalia inhale a dumpling and have to cough it back out.

"My mom is making me go to this luncheon where she said you'd be."

Thalia nodded. "Yeah. Next week. My biological dad is making me go, but I'm not too thrilled. He wants to groom me to take over his company some day, but I just tell him to stick it all up his ass. He doesn't take too kindly to that."

Annabeth relaxed into the couch. It felt good to laugh, whether it was with Leo or Thalia, amidst the constant fear she was in. She wondered how Leo would react knowing Annabeth was sitting in his crush's house. "It's nice to know I'll have a friend there for the luncheon, though."

"Don't take this meeting the wrong way," Thalia said. She reached over the bowl of dumplings to pick up a glass of wine. Annabeth's forehead furrowed, tracking the movement of the cup to Thalia's lips. Thalia wiped her mouth but the red stain remained. "We're not friends. I simply pitied you as someone else stuck in the same situation I was in months ago. I don't know you. You don't know me."

Annabeth's smile dropped.

"But even my pity comes with a price."

"What?"

Thalia gave her a slick smile. A true, genuine smile that made Thalia's earlier grins seem fake. "Well, Annie, there's something I want in return. I gave you information. Now you've got to do something for me."

sorry. genuinely got busy with university applications :(

i hope you liked that though.

~Ami