Chapter 13: Mysterious Unicorn Loving Brother
Disclaimer: Okay… stop rubbing it in that I don't own Percy Jackson! You don't too! You're just a disclaimer!
Thanks for understanding about test and what-not! But guess what? STAR TESTINGS OVER FOR ME! Five days straight of testing… *shudder* never going back there again! Anyways now that star testing's over I just need to focus on finals! Well here's a little present for you guys for being so patient with me :D (cause there's no promise when I'll update next time.. DON'T KILL ME!)
Percy's POV:
I came face to face with a girl in spiky black hair, freckles spread around her cheeks. Around her wrist she wore a silver bracelet, she wore a simple black shirt with the logo "Death to Barbie," with a comic picture of a Barbie getting pinned down with so-called blood spreading over the shirt. Despite the warm air inside the home, she was wearing a black leather jacket with a pair of camouflage pants. I'll admit… this girl looked scary… if possible even more scarier than Clarisse. Her electric blue eyes looked me over, then shifted over to Annabeth, and her frown instantly turned into a smile, "Annabeth!"
Annabeth eagerly hugged the scary girl back, "Hey Thalia,"
"So what brings you here?" The other girl asked as she looked at both of us in confusion.
Annabeth cocked an eyebrow, "I called just 15 minutes ago,"
The spiky haired girl opened the door a bit wider and chuckled nervously, "Oh yeah, come on in," She grinned. "So who's this kid?"
I look at the girl, "I'm pretty sure I'm older than you… kid…" I mumbled.
Either the two girls didn't hear my exchange of wisdom or they choose to ignore it, Annabeth casually said, "Perseus Jackson," She gestured towards me. "Thalia Grace." Annabeth pointed towards the girl.
"No need to throw around the full name," Both Thalia and I said at the same time. I stopped and stared at the girl for a second then the next word came to my mind, "Jinx! Double jinx! Triple jinx!"
"Quadruple jinx!" Thalia said as she had a victorious smirk on her face.
"There's no such word as quadruple!" I tried to fight my way to triumphant.
"Yes there is!" She said annoyingly.
"No-" I began glaring at the girl.
"Yes there is!" Annabeth said in frustration. "You guys are so alike it's scary," She mumbled under her breath. Annabeth shook her head as if looking at us like little kids, despite that she was probably the youngest of us three, "Anyways… Thalia this is my half-brother that I was talking about,"
For a moment Thalia looked surprised then she grinned evilly, "So this is the brother you were talking about," For some reason she emphasized on brother, and I noticed Annabeth glaring at her for a moment, but she quickly looked away so I wonder if it was my imagination.
"Half-brother," Both Annabeth and I corrected her.
"Like it makes a different," The annoying girl shrugged, giving an obviously knowing look towards Annabeth. Seriously what's up with girls and their secret 'look'?
"Thalia… how about you try and be a good host, and invite us in?" Annabeth asked, seeming a bit eager to change the topic.
Thalia smirked, "Yes and we shall talk… "She glanced inside a bit nervously, "Now… just give me a chance to be a good host and tidy up the place." She quickly shut the door as both of us stood outside waiting.
I noticed Annabeth fiddled nervously with her fingers, "You okay? You look kind of nervous." I stated.
"Nah, I was just kind of scared you guys might kill each other," Annabeth mumbled.
I feigned hurt, "Me? Hurt an innocent soul?"
"Yes, you the Perseus Jackson." She smirked, probably already catching on that I hated my full name.
"I already said enough with the full name!" I glared at her. "I will kill you if you dare call me by that word again," I warned her. Of course I wouldn't kill her, but where's the fun if I don't threaten your own sister.
"What happen to 'I don't hurt an innocent soul'"? She smirked.
I bit back a curse and was about to shoot back a reply when I met face to face with a wooden door. "We're don- oh gods are you okay?" Thalia asked as she finally noticed that she had made the door punch me in the face.
"Gee… I got slammed into the face by a wooden door, I'm perfectly fine, it's not like my face has splinters on them…" I sarcastically mumbled as I noticed a little splinter hanging off my right cheek.
"Okay good," Thalia said either because she's completely obvious to my sarcastic comment or she's trying to piss me off. "So why don't you guys come in?" She offered.
Annabeth happily walked in as I slowly trailed in behind her. "Nice to see nothing have changed much," Annabeth commented as she looked around Thalia's house.
"Well, I've pretty much been in the same place for a while," Thalia admitted. "So it would be likely nothing have changed since you last came here."
Annabeth casually made herself at home as she sat in the sofa as I stood awkwardly to the side, "You can tell your so-called brother to sit down Annie," Thalia smirked.
"I'm right here you know…" I mumbled.
Annabeth eyed something on the living room table, "You had someone ever recently?" Annabeth asked pointing towards a glass of water.
For a moment Thalia looked almost… afraid, "Oh yeah, one of my friends came over this morning, I never bothered to clean it." The nervous girl stood up, "You guys want anything?"
"You got any soda?" I asked her.
"Yep, Dr. Pepper okay with you?" She asked me.
"Yeah, it's cool," I replied as Annabeth stood up.
"I'm going to go look for some food, if you don't mind," Annabeth followed Thalia out to the kitchen leaving me alone in the living room.
I took a careful look around the room, it was dimly lit, even in the morning sun, you could just barely make out where everything is. Oddly enough, there were lots of pictures of various things, from different kinds of birds to all kind of beautiful landscape. The pictures were detailed amazingly, the picture captured every aspect so accurately I couldn't help but be amazed by the simple pictures.
My eyes caught on a picture frame where I saw a couple younger kids smiling at the camera.
One girl was clearly wearing all black, with cut-off jeans and a couple red highlights in her hair. While the other girl had honey blond hair and a Yankees cap on her head as if she was hoping to hide. I realized with a start that the girls were Annabeth and her evil friend Thalia. Oddly enough there were people behind them that looked almost like their parents, or guardians. The man in the back had sandy-colored hair and intense brown eyes. On his head was an explorers hat, and his shirt was oddly buttoned, and his hand was wrapped around another woman's waist. However, this woman looked familiar, but I wasn't sure where I've seen her before. The woman had the intense grey eyes that Annabeth had along with the calculating look and the curly blond hair just like Annabeth. I realized for a second that this was probably Annabeth's parents, or at least the woman was her mom, the dad was probably her foster or step-dad.
Next to that picture was one with Annabeth, Thalia, and two little boys who appeared to be twins. Both boys had mischievous looks on their faces that somewhat reminded me of the Stoll brothers. They looked kind of like Annabeth, but also a bit like the guy from the other picture. They had the same colored hair as Annabeth but instead of the intimidating grey eyes, they had brown eyes. All four of them seem to be standing in front of a meadow and for some reason Annabeth did not look happy in this picture.
I looked into another picture where I saw a blond-haired boy, leaning casually against a more present picture of Thalia and Annabeth. The blond-haired boy had his arms draped on a choppy chocolate brown haired girl that looked oddly familiar. I realized with a start that the girl was Annabeth's dorm partner that I saw just a couple days ago. I was about to sit back down into the couch when I suddenly saw another picture that made me stopped in my steps. The picture was almost hidden beneath the other frame as if someone was deliberately trying to keep the picture out of sight. I took a step towards the hidden picture to get a closer look.
"What are you doing?" someone snarled from behind me.
I literally leaped up in the air and turned around to come face to face with a scary looking Thalia. "Umm… looking around?"
Luckily Annabeth chose that moment to walk out, briefly noticing the tension in the air, "Are you guys okay?" Annabeth asked surveying the situation between us.
I chuckled nervously, "Just looking at some pictures of miniature you,"
Both girls looked alarmed, but Annabeth quickly gained back her posture as she held out my Dr. Pepper, "Here's your drink,"
I gladly accepted the drink and turned towards Thalia, "Oh, you got a picture wedged in between the frames," I told her and made an attempt to take the hidden picture out in hopes of getting a better view of it, but Thalia beat me to it.
"I got it," She quickly put the picture in her pocket before I could ask any further questions. "Just relax and sit down," She said her voice a bit more forceful this time.
"So any new assignment?" Annabeth asked as soon as I sat down.
"Since you left?" Thalia grinned. 'I got plenty. Many newspaper articles and magazines as well as online resources have been using my pictures, but I've just recently got a stable job,"
"You're a photographer?" I asked in disbelief.
"Is there any problem with me being a photographer?" Thalia asked narrowing her eyes.
I quickly shook my head, "No, I didn't mean it that way, I meant to ask whether or not you took those?" I pointed towards the landscape pictures from earlier.
Thalia's face lightened a bit, "That's all my work right there," She smiled proudly.
"It looks amazing as always Thals," Annabeth looked at the picture with an awed expression. "This is even better then the snapshots you send me a while ago," My sister exclaimed.
Thalia laughed, "Well, I did travel over to Europe recently and got some pictures that you might be interested in," She walked over to a shelf and pulled out a yellow manila folder with the labels 'Classified Information: Titan Invasion'. For some reason the words sounded familiar, but I couldn't pin on where I have heard that word before.
I tried to take a closer look, but she quickly put it always pulling out another yellow folder that had the word, 'Europe Trip' on there. "Here it is, a picture of some of the world's most famous monument in architecture," Thalia pulled out a couple pictures and handed them to Annabeth who seemed almost flabbergasted by them.
"Wow… this is…amazing!" Annabeth exclaimed as she looked at each picture. I leaned over to take a look at the snapshots. It had pictures of the Parthenon, Hover Dam, and many other famous monument that I do not know the name of. Frankly the pictures were actually good, even me… a person very inexperience in taking pictures had to admit these are pretty good, worthy of a professional.
"Well it's yours if you want them," Thalia grinned as she sat down on a chair crossing her arms.
"Are you serious?" Annabeth asked still looking at the pictures with wide eyes.
Thalia just simply nodded. "All yours, I got plenty more from my trip still in my camera so I'm all good." Suddenly a phone went off and Thalia reached into her pocket, "Hello?" She raised up her hand as if telling us to wait and walked into one of the rooms. I pretended to look busy when I noticed a picture that fell to the ground as she walked out. Luckily Annabeth was too busy flipping through pictures to notice anything. I casually reached down to pick up the picture to take a closer look. It was taken at a sideway glance so I couldn't see the face in there, but there was something about this picture that looked oddly familiar. I heard some footsteps walking out and quickly walked back to 'look' at the snapshots with Annabeth.
"Well… love to have you guys stay here a bit longer, but I have to head off now. My boss is calling for me." Thalia stated as she grab a black coat off the hanger.
"Well, maybe we could actually hang out next time, just call me up," Annabeth smiled in her friend's direction as I just stood there awkwardly between the two friends.
"Sure kiddo," Thalia walked us to the door and waved us goodbye as we got into my car.
Annabeth's POV:
I sighed in relief as we finally got off work, it's just the first day and I didn't even particularly work, we pretty much just ate, went to Thalia's house, signed the contract, and I got a personal tour around the place from Mr. Perseus Jackson himself. Of course the scariest part of the day was with Thalia when she was teasing me again and again about Percy not being my brother. Of course, me being the good friend threatened to throw her down the Grand Canyon if she dares say anything.
"So you got the lay-out of the place?" Percy asked as we walked towards the parking lot.
"Yeah, but seriously… I didn't even have to come today… it was just a tour." I stated a bit nervously.
Percy scratched his head as if thinking and I couldn't help but think it's a bit cute, "Well… I just erm… thought you might need to know the way around… plus… with the contract signing today with Ms. Collin it kind of messed everything up," He stated.
"You sure it isn't because you wanted to spend a day with this wonderful sister of yours," I teased him, as he unlocked his door.
He laughed it off easily, "Nah, don't forget you are here because you talk better with older woman than me."
"Of course it is, and let me guess… you have a better time sweet talking little kids." I shot back.
"True that, the best part is when I sweet talk them with candy." Percy went along with a faint smiling playing on his lips.
"That would explain why I always see you with candy in your pocket." I smiled and oddly enough that was true, he had candy everywhere, just a moment ago I saw a lollipop in his desk drawer and as I sat down in his car I saw a jar of jelly beans. "And care to explain why they are all blue?" I held up his jar of jelly beans that was hidden right next to my foot and was filled with different shades of blue.
"Cause I like the color blue." He answered simply as he pulled on his seat belt.
"Obsessed much?"I retorted back as I opened the jar. "You mind if I steal some?" I asked already putting some in my mouth.
"Thanks for asking," He mumbled sarcastically as he started the engine. "Your manners are to die for,"
"I couldn't agree more," I smirked throwing a few blueberry flavored jelly bean into my mouth. "Are you going to eat any?"
"Nah," He shrugged. "I eat that stuff everyday anyways."
"Whatever you say then," I eagerly ate a couple more jelly beans.
"So do you want to go home now… or accompany me for some food?" He asked as he took a turn into a square and parking his car in front of a fancy looking restaurant.
"If you are already planning to get some food why didn't you just say so?" I grinned as I walked out of the car and entered the restaurant. "Two people," I told the waiter as he came out to greet us.
"Right this way ma'am," The guy lead the way towards a corner. Percy sat down on the opposite side of me and we were immediately given our menu.
"So how was the first day of work for you then?" Percy asked as he eagerly took a look at the menu like a little kid.
"I guess you can say it's a rather good day, considering I didn't really do anything…" I shot back.
"Trust me… just wait till tomorrow… you'll wish that you've never met me." Percy grinned as he called the waiter back to order our food.
"Hi, I am Brian, I will be serving you today, what would you two like to order?" He asked good-naturedly.
"I'd like the new salad you guys have here, with a side dish of tomatoes." I told the waiter.
Percy raised an eyebrow, "You know… I don't really mind if you actually eat… I don't like girls that starve themselves because they are out in public…"
I glared at him, "You didn't let me finish," I turned back to the waiter, "Also I would like the chef special's as an appetizer." I glanced a bit longer at the menu. "Perhaps maybe some cheese lasagnas . As for dessert I would like the ice cream sundae, number 33." I told the waiter as he collected the menus.
I smirked at Percy as he looked at me wide-eyed, "You got a pretty big appetite, mind sharing the food? Or do I have to order my own share of the same thing?" I looked at him questionably. "Well… I was about to order the same thing… minus the salad of course," He explained.
"I guess… not like I could stuff that all into my mouth." I admitted.
Percy turned to face the waiter, "Thanks Brian, just add in another ice cream sundae and we're good." He told the waiter nicely. Brian nodded and proceed into the kitchen leaving us two non brothers and sisters to talk. "So I'm guessing you're not like other girls then… considering you actually eat…"
"What's that suppose to mean?"
"Exactly what you think it means." Percy countered. "Anyways… " Suddenly Percy stopped as he stared behind me.
"What are you-?" I began.
"Don't move." Percy whispered as he failed to hide behind me.
"Percy!" I heard a male's voice called out from behind me. Not really listening to Percy's command earlier… I turned around to come face to face with a Hispanic guy with dirty brown hair. He wore cameo pants with a dark black t-shirt. His arms was slung around a scary looking girl with a frown on her face that quickly changed into a angry scowl as she saw Percy. The two couple advanced over to where Percy and I was, "Percy? Is that you?" The guy asked again.
Percy laughed nervously, "Hey Chris," He looked at the buff girl, "Hey Clarisse."
The girl ignored him and I took that chance to study the girl. Her brown hair was rested on her shoulder sure she was pretty but it seems almost intimidating with this angry aura around her. However the guy next to her seems to be able to calm her down because as he put an arm around her waist, I saw her expression soften a bit.
"So how's the lady with you? Finally decided to move on?" Chris asked as he looked at me.
Percy's face looked pained for a second before he answered, "Actually… this is my sister, Annabeth, Chris, Clarisse." He introduced us. "We're just here to grab some dinner since I'm too lazy to make a home cooked meal." Percy admitted.
"Punk," The girl finally spoke rudely to Percy, but he didn't seem to care, it was almost as if this was normal. "So what happened to explaining everything to me?" Clarisse voice sounded angry, pissed off even.
"Erm… I got… busy?" Percy said weakly as Chris stared at him in confusion.
"Well… looks like Clarisse was not hallucinating! You actually do live here in New York!" Chris exclaimed trying to ease up the tension. "Hey how about you guys join us?"
"Yeah join us Prissy," Clarisse urged, the anger still evident in her voice. "Then maybe we could talk."
Percy hesitated before moving us over to his friend's table. Chris and Clarisse sat across from us as the waiter brought us some drinks and soon we were digging into our food making side conversations. Oddly enough I felt included into their conversation, learning that Chris was quick to please Clarisse who had a hot temper in contrast to Chris cool and calm mood.
We were laughing about Percy's cluelessness and accidently spilled a drink onto my clothes when I excused myself to the restroom. "Excuse me for a bit,"
The others nodded as I hurried into the restroom to take out the stain. Spending nearly 15 minutes just cleaning out one stain I finally walked back out in time to hear Clarisse say, "-tell me this already? You can't hide this forever punk. I'll find out and it'll not be a good thing when I do." She warned him.
I was about to walk back to the table when I heard Percy's reply. "Just keep quiet would you! My sister could come out any moment…" Percy sighed painfully as he stared at his plate. That just got me curious… I stayed quiet behind the wall and listened to their conversation.
"Whatever… she's probably still in there cleaning her stain, can't you just tell us the read story… it's obvious that you didn't kill them… considering you were pretty much scarred for your entire session there." Chris supplied.
"You guys don't get it do you-?" Percy began.
"DON'T GET WHAT?" Clarisse whispered-scream as she shot a death glare at Percy. "It was not only your friends that died in there! My friends were in that car as well" Clarisse added her voice filled with evident hurt as Chris put a reassuring arm around her.
"Percy, Clarisse is just doing her responsibility as a friend, she wants to know what happened to them what happened to Si-" Chris said softly before Percy broke in.
"What happened to them was the past already," Percy said in a monotone voice. "Just let it go…"
"Then just tell us! She's my friend! I deserve to know! It's painful not knowing!" Clarisse argued.
"And you think it's even any better knowing too much?" Percy said his voice grave.
"Clarisse just give him a break," Chris began. "Don't do rash thing,"
"Oh so now you're taking his side?" Clarisse glared at her fiancé.
"No…no… I mean you should know how hard it is to deal with stuff like this, especially since Silena's and Beckendorf's death-"
"Can you stop mentioning their names!" Percy said clutching his head as if it might explode.
"Why don't you tell me what happened then?" Clarisse pressured him. She continued to drill him with question while I only catch bits of it… not understanding a single one until she practically scream, "Don't be hiding like a coward punk, why don' t you just tell me!"
Percy shook his head stubbornly as Clarisse made a grab for his shirt before being stopped by Chris. "Percy just tell her," Chris begged. "She's been dying to know.
"You want to know? You want to know right? Okay… How about I'm the one responsible for their death! I'm the one that practically killed them! I'm the one that leaded them to their death! Because of that car accident was why Silena and Beckendorf died! It was all...because…of…me!" Percy hissed. Clarisse look at Percy her eyes gaped open. "How do you think I felt… considering… I was the reason they died?" Percy said softly.
I stared at the table in shock… my so-called brother… killed someone? I wasn't sure if I misheard or not… Percy was a killer?
"As they died… I didn't do anything, I was already off in my slumber! I'm not even considered a true friend! I left them there to die!" Percy continued.
I didn't know what to think now… the fact that Percy would leave someone to die while he enjoys his nap like that or the fact that he lead some innocent people to their death. Even though I've only known him for a couple days, I thought he was a naïve guy with a nice, loyal personality… apparently he's more complex than I thought…'But why is he feeling guilt if he's suppose to be the bad guy?' I asked myself, more and more curious about Emily's brother.
I nodded my attention back to the conversation only to find that all of them had been quiet. I mentally cursed that I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn't hear them say anything, a bit scared, I made my way back over to the table to meet with Percy's forced smile.
"Took you a while." He said trying to hide the pain in his voice.
"Well… it was a pretty bad stain." I said nervously, hoping that none of them would catch my sudden change of mood.
I sat down as casually as possible as I noticed Clarisse eying Percy as if he's a dangerous person. Clarisse averted her eyes towards me, "Well, Chris and I better get going,"
"Yeah, it was nice meeting you though," Chris told me as he took Clarisse hand. "Percy… don't take it too hard on yourself though…" Chris said sympathetically as Percy tried to keep an emotionless face. "I've done pretty bad things in the past too." Chris clapped Percy on the back.
Percy smiled back… but I wasn't sure if it was forced or not, "Sure, I've got to take Annabeth back to her dorm before she gets locked out of school, so I'll catch you later." Percy said quickly and waved his hand goodbye before pulling me by my arm back out to his car.
I turned to face Percy whose face was almost a mask that I couldn't read anything from it. We were currently down on the road back to my school that was probably about a fifteen minute drive when Percy suddenly startled me with a question. "So what do you think of me as a brother?"
I looked at him as if he have dropped from another planet. "What?"
"I mean… considering you knew me for a few day… how would you describe me?" He said stupidly.
"I don't know… I guess annoying and overall nice guy…but… a bit mysterious if you ask me." I said honestly.
"Why mysterious?" He asked, his eyes still glued to the road.
I bit my bottom lip thinking how close I was to admit that I eavesdrop on them. "I mean… like I don't know that much about you." My brain answered for me. "Besides that we're erm.. related… and your name and job… I know nothing about you."
"Oh… that?" He laughed. "Fine then, how about we stop being strangers," He offered. "And be more like brothers and sisters."
"No half-siblings this time?" I laughed along remembering how much he had emphasized it to his friends as well as how much Emily had emphasized it to me.
He smiled and casually glance over, "Nope, just normal brothers and sister."
"Fine… then what's your favorite color?" I asked him.
"Blue," He answered right away. "You should've seen how much blue food I've eaten when I was small." He smiled at the memory.
"Blue food?" I asked a bit surprised.
"Yep, but now it's my turn, what's yours?" He asked me back.
I smiled remembering the color of my mother's eyes that I've inherited. "Grey, I just like the color." I told him.
"Okay… favorite animal?" He asked.
"Seriously?" I asked him a bit surprised he would ask such a child-like question.
"Just answer it."
"Fine, an owl." I answered.
"Owl… like… Hoot Hoot?" He asked making a weird voice with his throat.
I glared at him, "They are wise creatures!"
"Sure they are…" He mumbled as he turned into the school's parking lot.
"What about you then?"
"A horse… with wings," He said shyly.
I almost bit my tongue as I heard that, "A unicorn? Are you seriously? Of all animals you pick something that's not even real." I teased him.
"No, not a unicorn! Those are for little girls… I meant a pegasus," He told me.
"There's no difference between them." I mumbled.
"Of course there is." He argued back as he stopped the car in front of my dorm.
"Unicorn…" I said in a singsong voice.
"It's pegasus," He mumbled as he opened the door. "So I'll pick you up to go to work tomorrow?" He asked.
I smiled a bit thankful, "Yeah, sure,"
"You want your pegasus loving brother to take you back to your dorm?" He asked me as I got out of the car.
I hesitated a bit, "Well..."
"Then it's settled, come on, I'll walk you back, plus I want to get to know my little sister." He shot me a grin and locked his car before walking next to me. For the rest of the walk, until I got back to the dorm we asked each others questions about one another and for once I felt like I'm actually getting to know Emily's brother as a real sibling, probably even more than my own siblings.
Hmm…. A little bit of brotherly sisterly Percabeth there…. Well… kinda… I guess? Kinda bought Clarisse back :D let's see… Annabeth assume that her fake brother is a killer and Percy is feeling guilt… and you found out two of the person who died during the car accident :D now all that's left is the last person anyone wanna take a guess? Also anyone suspicious of Thalia's behavior? *wink wink* there's lots of hidden stuff in here (maybe not hidden… but… yeah hidden… anyways… READ AND REVIEW PLEASE!
Song: My Last Goodbye – Trading Yesterday! Highly recommend this song, I could sing to this song all day :D
Agent Astro Zombie