Annabeth and Sadie were pushing Percy, Grover and Jason into a plane. 'Come. You three need to see what England looks like. Get some culture into your brain!' Annabeth exclaimed. Percy sighed. 'Annabeth, I am very cultured.' Sadie started laughing. 'Sure. Now get in here.'
Jason and Grover silently obliged - Percy stopped walking on the middle of the stairs. 'Zeus will strike the plane down.' Jason looked around the corner. 'I don't think so. I can fly a few of you out of the plane and we are going to be above the ocean for most of the trip, so you'll survive.' Percy took a deep breath. 'Hey, walk further!' Somebody screamed behind Percy. He looked around, but at that moment he got pulled into the plane by Annabeth and Sadie.
They all sat down. Percy insisted on sitting by the aisle. Grover really wanted to sit by the window. Annabeth sat down in between them. Sadie sat down behind Grover. Jason sat right next to her. The very last person to enter the plane was Carter. He sat down next to his sister, who immediately grabbed the bag of candy from his backpack.
Percy held his breath as the plane took flight. He grabbed the arm rests. His knuckles turned white. Annabeth patted his left arm. 'calm down. Do you really think Zeus would strike down his own son?' Percy looked at her with a terrified look on his face, and he only stopped holding on tightly to the arm rest when they were above the ocean.
As soon as they landed, Percy jumped up. The flight attendant gave him a dirty look. 'Sit down, please,' She said with a fake smile. Percy couldn't blame her for being annoyed. There had been a group of three men who had been screaming for stuff and catcalling her for the entire flight. Yet, as soon as Percy got out of the plane, he ran into the bagage hall to collect his suitcase. Annabeth was still on the plane, and sighed while picking up Percy's hand luggage.
When they all got their luggage, Sadie brought them to her grandparents car. They all got in, while Carters' and Sadie's grandma whined about the great amount of people. Sadie rolled her eyes. 'I told you six people would arrive, gran,' she said. Her grandmother rolled her eyes, but she drove all of them to her house.
Annabeth, Carter and Sadie all slept in Sadie's room. Percy, Jason and Grover all slept in the living room. The next day, they all ate breakfast and after that they went into the city. Annabeth insisted that they went to the British museum first. Sadie sighed extremely deep. 'I went there at least a million times. Do you really need to go there? We could also go shopping on Oxford Street!' Annabeth rolled her eyes. 'I came here so these three (She gestured at Jason, Percy and Grover) could get a taste of culture. We are going to the museum.' Sadie shrugged. 'Al right.'
Carter was definitely the sibling who liked the museum better, unsurprisingly. He walked to the stone of Rosetta with Jason, who immediately started asking questions about mummies. Sadie darted after them. Annabeth walked to the Roman and Greek expositions of the museum, but only after she gave a detailed explanation about the architecture of the museum. Grover looked like he was listening, but Percy acted like he needed to throw up. 'I am with Sadie, Annabeth. Let's go do something fun.' 'We have enough time to do fun things tomorrow. Today, I am going to show you some history.' Percy sighed dramatically, but realised that arguing wouldn't help.
After an entire morning in the British Museum, Percy felt like he had learnt enough culture and history for at least five years. Yet, Annabeth was not ready. Far from it. After a lunch at Sadie's favorite restaurant, Annabeth pulled them all towards the Westminster Abbey. Percy almost fell flat on his face when he heard about it. Annabeth rolled her eyes. 'After this we will go to the Tower Bridge. We can shop and eat things while walking there.' Percy walked into the abbey with a very bored look on his face.
Yet, even he had to acknowledge that it was absolutely gorgeous. He came out of the abbey a lot happier than he had felt before he entered it. When they found a MacDonald's on their way to the Tower Bridge, he felt content, for now at least. The rest of the trip to the bridge wasn't very exciting, except for that quick run-in with an unfriendly cyclops.
At the end of the day, everyone fell on their beds and immediately fell asleep. After a long night, they ate breakfast all over again and went back into The City. This time, they did go to the stores, and immediately Sadie tried to put Carter into a big, fuzzy Christmas sweater. It didn't work, but when she tried to get a big, fuzzy sweater for Jason and Grover, it did work and they both wore it with pride. There were more people on the street already deep into the Jingle-mood, so it didn't raise to many eyebrows.
Percy bought a normal blue sweater and Christmas presents for Annabeth, his mother, his sister, Paul, Chiron and after some deep thinking, a blue tie for Poseidon. When he told Annabeth about the last purchase, she showed him the owl-keychain she bought for her mom and asked: 'How many neckties did your father receive from you?' Percy thought about that for a few minutes, while watching Sadie asking the other three if her new pink jumper looked smart on her. 'To be honest, Wise Girl, I have no idea. He could probably use them as a carpet by now.'
Annabeth had also bought Christmas presents for her friends and family. Jason had also bought an ugly Christmas sweater for Annabeth and Percy, but he would give it to them on Christmas day. Grover found an extremely pretty necklace for Juniper. Sadie had a lot of packages, including a supply of British snacks for when she was back in America, while Carter just had a few small things.
By the end of the second day, Grover, Jason, Percy and Annabeth packed everything up into their suitcase. The next morning, they had their last breakfast in the UK. They rode up to the airport. Sadie and Carter waved them goodbye. Their grandparents had insisted that they would stay in the UK for a few more days. Percy felt even more on edge on the flight back, but made a huge effort to not show it.