Disclaimer: I do not own PJO
Annabeth's POV
"I think these ones capture the mood quite nicely." said Thalia, holding up an old bouquet of brown, wilted flowers.
I laughed, "I don't think my father will appreciate dead flowers Thalia. Come on, let's keep looking."
Thalia and I were at an elegant little flower shop in the richer part of town, trying to pick out flowers for my wedding. Of course, Thalia was no help at all when it came to flowers, and I'm no florist myself, so it wasn't going too well. The fact that as every second passed I got closer to my accursed wedding day didn't help either; it just filled me with dread.
The owner of the shop, a girl about my age with dark brown hair and warm brown eyes, came over to us.
"Excuse me, do you ladies need a hand?" she asked.
"That would be great." I said thankfully.
"No problem. I'm Katie by the way, I own...this." she said, waving a hand around the room.
"Nice to meet you Katie. I'm Annabeth, and this is Thalia, we're trying to pick out flowers for a wedding but we know nothing about them."
"Oh, a wedding!" she said excitedly. "Who's the lucky girl?"
Thalia and I look at each other and groaned. Ha, lucky girl, good one.
"Uh, I am." I said quietly.
"Well congratulations Annabeth, that's great. I just love weddings!" she was looking through flowers, and hadn't noticed our looks of unhappiness.
"Well I'll tell you Katie, if you find me the prettiest flowers in this whole store, I'll send you an invitation."
Katie dropped a planting pot and it shattered on the floor. She turned around slowly, eyes wide.
"You'd invite me to your wedding?"
I nodded. She smiled.
"Don't worry, I'll find the most beautiful flowers you've ever seen."
She ran off into the maze of flowers and started tearing through them, looking for the perfect ones. And when I say tearing, I don't mean violently throwing flowers around, because that's not how it was. She picked them up and snipped a few stems, smelled them, spun them around and put them back down again, and not once the entire time, did I see a petal fall off. Katie was incredibly gentle with the flowers, they even seemed to perk up a bit when she held them, but that was probably just my imagination.
"Maybe outside." I heard her mutter, and she sprinted out of the shop.
Thalia looked at me, eyebrow raised.
"You sure you want that at your wedding?"
I shoved her gently.
"Be nice, she's really sweet, and yes, I do want her at my wedding."
We followed Katie outside and saw her searching through hanging baskets and pots in the windows, still looking for those perfects flowers.
I looked up at the store. Above the doors was a bright yellow and green sign. I read it aloud.
"Gardner Florists."
"Yep, that's me." said Katie from behind me, "Katie Gardner, at your service."
I shared a look with Thalia. Gardner? And she has a flower shop? That's perfect.
"What are your full names?" asked Katie absent mindedly as she continued her search through the flowers.
"Thalia Grace."
"Annabeth Chase." I replied without thinking.
I groaned and turned to Katie, mentally slapping myself. She'd figure it out for sure now, I thought. But she was still going through the flowers.
"Grace and Chase? That's cool. Hey, that rhymes too." she muttered. "I think I've heard of Chase before. Something to do with..."
Katie trailed off and looked up at me. She fumbled with the basket she was holding but got it on the table before it could fall.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry your highness. I didn't-I just-you-and the flowers-and, oh!" she babbled quickly, and bowed.
"Katie it's fine. Please, stand up, you don't have to bow." I said, frustrated.
She looked up at me uncertainly.
"I don't?"
"I don't want you to."
"Oh." she said simply, and stood. "So, I'm getting invited to a royal wedding?"
I nodded.
"Cool." she said happily. "But why don't you want me to bow?"
I explained to her how I hated it when people bowed, and how I wished everybody just wouldn't.
"Ok," she said, "now let's find you those flowers."
We started to look again and after a few minutes Katie stopped.
"Of course." she said to herself. "Come with me, I know just the right ones."
Me and Thalia followed her back inside, and to the back of the store. Katie disappeared through a door, and came back holding a beautiful bouquet of blue flowers.
"They're perfect!" I said, admiring the wonderful flowers.
"You like them? Good, I'll have them sent over then."
We went back to the front of the store and I paid Katie. The flowers were a good price, but I paid her more than double the actual price. She protested, but I was rich, and I didn't need it.
"Buy a nice dress for the wedding." I told her.
"I will. Bye Annabeth, Thalia."
She waved to us through the shop window as we walked away, and we waved back.
"Can we get something to eat now? I'm starving." whined Thalia.
"Soon, but I have to buy a new dress first. Trust me, it'll be quick. I don't want to be in there any more than you do." I assured her.
"I thought you already had your wedding dress?" she asked.
"I do, but this is for something else. My dad is throwing a big party to celebrate my betrothal; it's one of those masquerade type things. Do you want to come? I was thinking of inviting Katie too."
"I don't know Annabeth." Thalia groaned. "Don't you have enough dresses? Can't you use one of those?"
"Father told me to get a new one. I'll probably never even wear it again."
"At least tell me we're not going to that one place, the one that's all pink and smells like perfume?"
"Uh, yeah, we are?" I said hesitantly.
"No." she said firmly. "No way. I'm not going in there. You're on your own Annabeth, I'm out of here."
"Thalia! Get back here!" I called after her as she ran off. "Don't make me go in there alone!"
But she was already gone. Sighing, I kept walking to the dress shop.
I soon came to a huge pink building. It said 'Dress Shop' above the door. Real clever name, I thought, and went inside.
As soon as I opened the door a wall of sickly sweet perfume smacked me in the face. The whole store was filled with it, and it was almost impossible to breath. I pulled my shirt up over my face to try and block out the smell, but it didn't help. Choking on the near poisonous air, I stumbled through the store, looking for someone who worked there.
The building was huge, and pretty soon I was lost in the never ending maze of dresses. Giving up, I stopped and looked around.
"Hello?!" I shouted.
Immediately a girl popped out of a clothes rack behind me. She looked a few years older than me, but it might have just been the makeup, which was perfect. She had straight black hair and bright blue eyes, and a slim figure. Her clothes looked great on her, and when she smiled, her teeth were pure white. In other words, she was really pretty.
"Hi, I'm Silena, how can I help you?" she asked in a bubbly voice.
"I need a...need a dress...for a party..." I gasped as I gagged on the perfume filled air.
"Oh wonderful! Right this way!" she said excitedly and took off down the aisles of clothes.
I hurried after her, and just as I thought I'd lost her, we came to a dressing room.
"Try these on." she said, shoving about thirty dresses at me.
"When did you get..." I trailed off.
Silena ran away before I could finish. Probably to get more clothes for me to try on.
Stepping inside the dressing room, I looked down at the many dresses in my hands. Half of them were pink, so I dumped those ones right away. I tried the other ones on, but none of them seemed right. They looked nice, but they didn't feel right.
I heard a knock on the door.
"How's it going in there?" asked Silena.
"Fine, I guess." I said, unlocking the door.
Silena came in and looked me over.
"No, that won't do at all. One second honey. Girls!" she called, and for more pretty girls appeared. "We need a dress, let's go!"
The next hour passed in a blur. I tried on hundreds of different dresses and shoes, and I felt like a Barbie doll. I didn't like feeling like a Barbie doll.
"Stop!" yelled Silena, and everyone dropped what they were doing. "It's perfect."
I looked in the mirror in front of me. I was wearing a bright, silvery grey, strapless dress that sparkled in the light. It was a nice dress, but the best part was that I still looked like me. I didn't have any makeup on, no one had touched my hair, and I felt good, until I saw my feet.
"What are those?" I said, disgusted, as I pointed to the heels I was wearing.
"Oh come on, just try and walk in them Annabeth."
I took a wobbly step forward. I can do this, I thought, they're just shoes, I can do this. Taking another step forward, I got a little more confidence, and tried a few more steps. I got three feet before I tripped and did a face plant into a pile of dresses. The girls behind me laughed, but came to help me up.
"No heels." I said angrily, kicking them off. "I have shoes at home, I don't need any."
"Alright," said Silena, still chuckling softly, "let's go ring that up, shall we?"
I pulled off the dress and followed Silena to the front. She put the dress in a frilly pink bag, then I paid her and ran from the store. When I got out into the fresh air, I took several deep breaths, then noticed Thalia standing there watching me. She had a turkey leg in each hand.
"Hungry?" she asked, holding one out to me.
"Uh, no thanks."
"Suit yourself." she shrugged, and took a huge bite. "How was the shopping?" she asked teasingly.
"Bite me." I said sweetly, and headed for home, Thalia laughing loudly behind me.
Little boring, but I wanted to introduce a few characters. There won't be too much with them, but you might see them again.
R&R.