"That's the archery range. Those are the pegasus stables. That's the sword arena. There's the dining pavilion, and there's the beach. Any questions?"
"You have a pegasus stable?" asked Pez.
"Well, yeah. The gods aren't the only things that are real," reminded Annabeth.
"And you actually use, like, real swords in the sword arena?"
"It's called the sword arena. What do you expect us to use?"
He just shrugged, which caused her to laugh a bit.
"So, what do you wanna do now?"
He shrugged once more, now making her roll her eyes.
"How about we go to the beach?" she questioned.
Pez made a face of disgust. "I don't really enjoy beaches."
"Come on! You don't even have to go in the water!"
"Fine," he sighed.
She sprinted over to the beach, with Pez right behind.
Annabeth sighed as she stared out at the ocean. "I love the ocean."
Pez was slightly out of breath after the running. "Why?"
"Well, it's just so pretty, and calm, and Percy and I…never mind."
"What?"
"Percy and I got together here, and we had our somewhat first kiss here, and I was hoping someday that maybe he would propose here, and we'd get married here, and, well, that's not happening anymore."
He felt awkward, especially when he saw a small, lone tear fall out of her eye. From the movies and TV shows he'd seen, he was supposed to do something about that. He was supposed to put an arm around her, tell her everything was going to be all right, and kiss the top of her head. He was supposed to just hold her. But Pez was no normal guy. He watched that tear leave a wet trail on her face, and fall off of her chin without a single word, gesture, or comment.
"Enough about me," Annabeth said, wiping her eyes. "What about you? What do you like to do?"
"Your mom."
"What?" she said, appalled.
"Sorry. Bad habit."
"…Okay. What do you really like to do?"
"Your dad. I know, I know, but I need some balance in my life. I can't always stick to the ladies."
She was glaring at him, but he could see a slight smile tugging at her lips.
"You know you're dying to laugh right now, so why don't you? Go ahead, laugh Annabeth."
She shook her head, still with the smile on her lips. "I'm not going to laugh because that was not funny."
"Really? 'Cause it looks like you wanna laugh with that smile that's on your face."
She stubbornly shook her head.
"Well, then. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I must tickle."
"No!" Annabeth was extremely ticklish. She started backing away from the boy, pretending to be afraid. "Don't do it Pez!"
"But I must!" With that, he tickled. Moving his fingers back and forth across her slim stomach, causing her to have a bad case of the giggles. Annabeth tripped on a rock, and fell to the sand, bringing Pez right along with her. Still laughing, they tumbled down the beach. Finally they came to a halt.
The next event was pretty much in slow motion for Pez. He stared into Annabeth's eyes, and she stared into his. They were gorgeous, those gray eyes, full of mystery, pain, and curiosity. They told him all about her. All about her past and the terrible things she had to go through. All about her life and how messed up it has been.
And his eyes told a lot too. They were brown. Very brown. Almost red. They also showed pain. Lots of pain. Pez obviously had gone through a lot to be here, just like her. Maybe they had more in common than they thought.
They continued to stare at each other's eyes for quite a while, until a rude cough interrupted them.
When she noticed who it was, Annabeth sighed. "What do you want, Percy?"
He was pissed, obviously. Pez was surprised that his ears didn't have smoke coming out of them.
"Am I interrupting something?" Was he tapping his foot?
"Yes. I'm showing Pez around." Faces bright red, they detangled from each other, standing about a foot apart from each other. But Pez was holding back a smile, and Annabeth kept glancing at Pez, maybe even having a small smile of her own.
"Really? You look extremely busy." Percy's rudeness ruined the moment, of course.
"We were, until you showed up."
"I can see that. Tickling. Very productive."
"Are you saying I'm lying to you?"
"No."
"Yeah. He just called you a liar. I heard him." Pez just had to get involved.
"Stay out of this, Candy!"
Oh no he didn'!
Pez truly loved the original Pez's. I mean, who doesn't? They're all sweet, and tangy and all that jazz, and have you seen the dispensers? They're so adorable! Pez used to have a Mickey Mouse one and a Buzz Lightyear too. Anyways, Candy was not his name. His name was Pez, and even Peter at times, but not Candy. Candy was a name for little girls in beauty pageants who wore way too much make-up, or that skanky ho of a cheerleader at his high school who slept with every single football player, even the lineman. His name was not Candy.
He decided not to get into it with Percy, no matter how much he wanted to. Pez needed to show Annabeth that he was not all that bad, despite his middle name, and attacking her boyfriend wouldn't really do that, now would it. Instead he took a deep breath and flared his nostrils.
"Pez was right! You are calling me a liar!"
"I never said that!"
"Yeah, but I know you're thinking it!"
"No I wasn't!" Percy shouted. Percy wasn't thinking much at that moment. All he could see was the long gone small smile that used to be on Pez's stupid face, and how Annabeth might have had the same smile. Percy was never a fan of the original Pez's. Just the blue ones, and this Pez was definetly red. Stupid, ugly red. So Percy wasn't thinking much when he forcefully grabbed Annabeth's wrist, causing her to wince.
Now that crossed the line.
Pez saw red. Percy did not just hurt her.
Oh, but he did.
Screw being nice!
"Lay off man!" yelled Pez as he pushed Percy back, causing him to let go of Annabeth.
"Did you just push me, Zelman?"
"Why yes I did, Jackson."
Oh no he didn'!
Oh yes he di-id!
With that, all hell began. Evil laughs.
Not really.
Percy threw the first punch, but Pez ducked out of the way just in time.
Annabeth watched from the sidelines, knowing she should go tell Chiron, or Mr. D, or a counselor, or someone, but two boys, two extremely hot boys, were fighting over her! Who in the right mind would break that up?
She watched as punches and swings were dodged and others hit their target. She noticed that Pez was losing terribly in this fight, seeing as Percy was so cheating with his invulnerability. She also noticed how extremely sexy the two looked battling each other. The muscles on their arms looked extra large while in use, and the way they were just rolling around in the sand seemed to turn her on somehow, and she loved how Pe –
Oh.
My.
Gods.
Pez did not just take his shirt off!
Oh, but he did!
Annabeth will admit that Percy's chest was far finer and muscley-er, but Pez's still was such a wonderful sight!
He doesn't have a pack, or anything – like I said earlier; he's not much of an active kinda guy – but looking at his chest still gave her the geebies. She had noticed he was pale before, but with his shirt off, he looked about as white as the clouds in the sky. Annabeth has always liked clouds. A lot.
As soon as a drop of blood coming from Pez's nose totally ruined that perfect white cloud, she decided to stop the fight.
"Enough!" she shouted loudly as she got in the middle of them and put a hand on each chest to keep them apart. Te he he! Yes. She got to touch it!
Pez was breathing heavily, sweating quite a bit, and having a nose bleed all while glaring at Percy viciously. Percy, on the other hand, looked like he just took a walk through a field of flowers.
"We need to get you to the Big House. I think someone," she glared at Percy. "broke your nose."
"It's not my fault he hasn't taken a dip in the Styx yet!"
"You are the most annoying person, ever, Percy, I swear!"
"You think I'm annoying? – "
"Excuse me!" Pez shouted over the bickering couple. "I'm kinda bleeding here."
Percy and Annabeth had a stare off with each other for quite a bit, while Pez just watched. "Let's go," Annabeth eventually sighed as she helped Pez get his shirt and they headed to the Big House.
I give you full permission to hate me.
But really you should be hating Ms. Green and Mrs. Walker for giving me so much homework, not giving me anytime to work on this chapter during the week, and then sending me off to this camp (where I almost freaking DIED!) without posting this chapter.
Their fault, not mine.
So, I promise to have the next chapter posted sooner than two weeks, and I'll try for this weekend, but my grandparents are here, so we'll see!
I don't own anything.
:) Jordan