Chapter nine
Also known as: Annabeth and Thalia rescue some orphans.

HElla lovely readers! SO sorry I couldn't update yesterday, but here's chapter nine. I know I promised fluff, but tis chapter leads up to some Percabeth bonding time.

Percy
I hope I never set foot in another conference room again. I've spent five hours every morning in meetings, more meetings, and oh look!- more meetings. They wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to dress the part in a monkey suit. The thing isn't the most comfortable in the first place; throwing in stiff-backed chairs and sitting still to the combination creates one very bored and very pissed Percy.
The ADHD doesn't help, either.
It's finally Friday afternoon, so I'm free for the next two days.
Grabbing my phone, I send out a text to the guys- "band practice. my house 4'
I get a quick and grammatically correct reply from Frank. "Sounds good. Hazel made brownies and would like to know if I ought to bring any?"
I can't help but roll my eyes. Hazel, Frank's girlfriend, is constantly baking things and making us try them. Brownies are one of her more successful recipes; strawberry-cherry-banana cake, not so much. I'm about to respond when I get an idea- maybe Hazel could come meet Annabeth? She hardly ever leaves her room, and only talks to to her maid... What was her name? Tandy? Tally? Thalia. Her name is Thalia. Annabeth and Hazel might get along. "Bring H, want her to meet A."
My phone chimes with responses from Jason and Leo- a quick 'k' from Jason and a long, barely legible response from Leo. Something along the lines of 'okay, I'll be there' but with tons of emoticons and a picture of Leo's abuela holding a cat. O-kay then. Don't even want to know.
I sit down in my beanbag chair and grab a notebook, the same one I wrote in two nights ago. There's a good song there. This could be the song to get the Half-Bloods started, to make Dad see that I'm serious about the music. The title? Wise Girl.

Annabeth
"Ugh, I'm so bored!" Thalia leans her head off the edge of my bed. She's been saying that for the past hour, consecutively every three minutes.
I look up for the twentieth time from my book. "Go do something outside!"
She looks at me like I'm insane. "Outside? Like, with trees and dirt and shit?"
I roll me eyes. "Um, yeah, outside. Get fresh air." We've been snapping at each other like this all day; the stress of being cooped up is getting to us.
She lets out a growl of exasperation and rolls over. "By myself?"
"Yeah." I'm bored, too, and Thal isn't helping.
"Let's go exploring!" She says with a grin. We used to go pretend we were adventurers and would go on 'quests', even if it meant just running up and down the stairs looking for dust particles. Thalia the Brave and Annabeth the Wise, we called ourselves.
I sigh and put down my book. "Fine. There's a rec room downstairs somewhere."
"Yay!" Thalia shoots out of bed and drags me down the steps.

Thalia
Gah, I'm seriously considering drowning myself from boredom. We're in New York City, for gods' sakes! We should be out seeing the sights, not hanging out upstairs reading. A girl can only read so many books before she goes stir-crazy. My limit just happens to hit a lot sooner than others'.
Annabeth seems fine with it. I mean, she sat around and read books most of the time anyway, so a change of scenery doesn't affect her. I thought if several things we could do- climb trees, go sock skating, sword fight. Hell, we could go and concoct poisons in the kitchen!
I suggest each of these ideas, and Annabeth only ever replies with an 'oh, that's nice.' Like that's helpful. I don't even think she's listening. I stare at the pattern in her ceiling- something nature-y, like bare tree branches or vines. We've had too many dance parties over the past two days that it's riduculous. So godsdamned bored! What to do, what to do? What could make Annabeth take interest and leave her room?
She's told me to go outside enough times, and normally I would without a second thought. But we're not at the old house, me it's a bit weird being in my best friend's... boyfriend's? The accurate term is fiancé, but that just doesn't seem to fit Annabeth and Percy's relationship. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what they have going on. Sometimes they seem close, and other times they're distant and awkward and... Acting like they are now.
"Let's go exploring!" I shout, adding in puppy-dog eyes and a smile that's dripping with 'please please please please!' Annabeth puts her book down, and I know she's cracked. Adventurers was always a favorite of hers.
"Fine. There's a rec room downstairs somewhere." If she dares try to act like she isn't excited to relive the tales of Thalia the Brave and Annabeth the Wise, I'm going to pulverize her for lying to herself.
"Yay!" I grab her wrist and pull her into the hallway, and nearly trip running down the stairs. "The Great Thalia the Brave and her accomplice Annabeth the Wise are to the rescue!" I shout. Annabeth giggles, like when we were kids.
*flashback*
My eight year-old feet hit the stairs, Annabeth's behind me, blond braids floppi against her back. "Alas! There are peculiar dust specks on Pain Mountain!" Pain Mountain was the final obstacle the Great Heroes had to conquer before rescuing the Fairy Princess from the Trolls. (A doll taped to the wall and surrounded by kitchen utensils at the top of the stairs.)
"O Wise and Brilliant Annabeth, how much time to rescue the princess?"
Annabeth would put her finger on her chin and pause for a few moments. "Fifteen seconds!"
"Plan of action?"
"Divide and conquer!" She'd shout, voice high and clear.
At that point we'd always end up scrambling up the stairs, jumping over pillows and sometimes falling down. Sometimes we'd reach the princess, sometimes we'd collapse in a fit of giggles, only to get up and avenge our honor.
*end of flashback*
"What's the mission today, Thalia the Brave?"
I give a sort of arrogant grin. "The orphans! We must rescue the orphans in the mysterious land of the Rec Room!" We take off running, a time limit of three minutes set in place before the Trolls dump the orphans into a pit of lava.
Never mind that we're being loud. Never mind that something will undoubtedly get broken. This place is too quiet, too serene. It needs some shaking up.
"Whoo!" Annabeth exclaims, leaping over an ottoman in the hallway.
"The plan?" My eyes alight with energy I haven't felt in forever. There's a warmth, deep in my bones, the kind that gets let loose in those carefree moments.
"Divide and conquer!" We split onto either sides of the hallway, and take off in a sprint to the dining room. Servants are poking their heads out of doors and laughing at us. Some even cheer us on as we circle the dining room table, grabbing forks. Some of the kitchen workers have started running behind us. They're in dire need of some entertainment.
I spot a hallway we haven't run through yet. "This way!" I call, pointing. It's a dead end. "Drat." Thalia the Brave and Annabeth the Wise didn't curse. They had to set an example.
"The orphans! This way!" Annabeth opens a door and runs smack into Percy.
"Hey, what are you guys running about for?"
Annabeth's too startled to answer. "The, uh, the-"
"The orphans!" I exclaim, thrusting the fork into the air. "The orphans need rescuing! Might you know the location of the Rec Room?" Percy remains blank-faced. Never mind that the Adventurers don't curse- we've grown up. "Goddamn it, man! This is a matter of life or death! Where is the-"
"This way."
Percy leads us through the door and to another hallway. I give him a salute. "Thank you sir, you have done us a great service! Let's go!"
He looks stunned. Well excuse him for not being able to handle the awesomeness that is the Adventurers.
There are only three doors down this hall- one leads outside and the other two are shut. "Try the one on the left?" Annabeth suggests. We've only got about thirty seconds left before the orphans go kablooey.
The knob turns, and we rush into... A bathroom? I turn spin my heel abruptly. "Go back! The other door!"
A man in an apron turns the knob for us and we slide into the room. There are people in here: three boys surrounding a plate of brownies. They look at us like we're a foreign species; the short, elf-eared one lets out a whisper of "what the hell?"
"The orphans!" Annabeth stands still behind me, breathing heavily. "Annabeth. The orphans!" The blond boy raises his eyebrows at us, and the Asian one cracks a smile.
Our thirty seconds have passed, and the game is over. "Annabeth! We didn't rescue the orphans in time! They died in a pit of lava and I got crushed by falling rocks."
I plop down on the floor and wipe sweat from my forehead. The staff that had been following us cheers.
Well, I'm certainly not bored anymore.

Percy
"Okay, five minute break. I'll go get Annabeth." There's a commotion in the foyer, quick footsteps followed by screaming about 'orphans'. That should have been the first clue. I meander the halls, making my way in the direction of the stairs, but I don't make it very far. Just as I'm about to open the door at the end of the hall, it opens from the other side and someone crashes into me. Annabeth, who seems to be out of breath, followed by Thalia, who holds a fork. I must be hallucinating. Did Hazel bake something into those brownies?
"What are you guys running about for?" I ask. The house is usually peaceful, and these two have started a commotion so intense that a group of workers from the kitchens and a few maids are following them.
Annabeth seems flustered. "The, uh, the-"
Thalia has grown impatient. "The orphans!" She stabs the fork around. "The orphans need rescuing!" Orphans? Rescuing? What... Oh! They must be playing some sort of game! "Might you know the location of the Rec Room?" The rec room... That's where the rest of the Half-Bloods are waiting. "Goddamn it, man!" Thalia grows impatient. I'm beginning to question her sanity- the way she clutches the fork makes me uneasy. She looks like she could stab it through my skin at any second. "This is a matter of life and death!" Yeah, my life and my death if I don't answer her. "Where is the-"
"This way." I start walking back the direction I came, the crowd of at least a dozen people following behind.
Thalia gives me a sort of 'Hail Hitler/Aye aye, sir!' salute. "Thank you sir, you've done us a great service. Let's go!" She and Annabeth take off again. What are they doing? I join the group following them. They make it to the end of the hall, and try the door on the left. The rest happens so fast I don't know what to think.
Taking in the shocked looks on my friends' faces, I walk into the room. "Guys, meet Annabeth and Thalia."

And as a sort of teaser, the lyric that heloped me write the next chapter:

"If you only live once, stay in the clouds, never come down, trust me." Forever the Sickest Kids, 'Nikki'