Disclaimer: I don't claim anything. I disclaim it all.
"Hey!" called Annabeth. She dodged a couple of tables and headed towards Percy, who was sitting with a dark haired, shy looking girl and someone who was quite obviously her brother.
"Hey yourself," Percy greeted. "Meet Bianca and Nico DiAngelo. Guys," he directed towards the other two, "This is Annabeth. Annabeth Chase."
"I'm Nico, and we're not married," Nico was quick to interject. "We're siblings. Just in case you, you know, thought we were married. In case you wanted to get to know me better," he added with an appreciative smile.
"Nico, shut up and stop being a perv," Bianca said. "Hey, Annabeth. I'm Bianca DiAngelo. And please, don't pay attention to him," she added.
"We have classes together," Percy explained. "We met during biology."
"Biology? I thought we met during philosophy!"
"No, we met in Ancient Cultures," Bianca declared.
"No," Percy insisted. "It was biology. The class Dodds teaches."
"Yes," Nico agreed. "She teaches philosophy."
"No, she teaches Ancient Cultures!" Bianca persisted.
"Wait—are you talking about Ellen Dodds?" Annabeth interjected. "She taught at my high school for, like, half a year. I thought she taught calculus." The four launched into a noisy argument.
"Hey, hey, where did you go to high school?" Nico asked.
"In Virginia. Mrs. Dodds just came down for a few months my sophomore year, because the normal teacher was on maternity break—that means she had a kid, Percy—so Mrs. Dodds was our substitute. She was horrible!"
"I know what maternity break means, Annabeth," Percy rolled his eyes. "I'm not four years anymore."
"Sorry," Annabeth smiled, not sounding very sorry. "It's just that I remember you the way you were in second grade. I mean, you didn't know how to subtract. No offence, of course."
"Remember?" Nico asked. "Wait, you knew each other before?"
"Yup," Percy replied, popping the p. "It's a long story. Our families were family friends. Actually, her mom and my dad didn't like each other, but they put up with it."
"Yeah, so we knew each other since we were born. We were really good friends with a Juniper Heartwood and a Grover Underwood."
"We used to make up all sorts of games to play together," remembered Percy. "There was this shallow, inflatable pool that my family had. I think it used to belong to my dad. And then Annabeth's mom had this owl on the outside of her front door. It scared the crap out of all the kids in the neighborhood, except Annabeth."
"Oh yeah, I loved that owl. But once I got so mad at my mom that I left the house and slammed the door so hard that the owl got dented. Now it looks more like a demented bear, Percy. You should go see it."
By that time, they had pretty much lost track of what Nico and Bianca were doing. They were too busy reminiscing about their childhood. Just then, Nico asked, "So any embarrassing memories I can torture Percy with, Annabeth?"
"Hell yeah! Okay, there was this one time we both got ice-cream and devoured it in a couple of minutes. Percy had the bright idea of going swimming."
Recognition sparked in Percy's eyes. "Annabeth! Don't tell them about that time!"
"Oh, shut up," Annabeth joked, caught up in the story. "So anyway, I was like 'No, that's a bad idea.' But then he's like, 'That's okay, I'm a good swimmer.'"
"So she just sat by the pool in her frilly pink swimsuit—with a ton of sun block on, of course—while I swam a few laps."
"Yeah, and then he started getting tired. He said his stomach hurt. Percy tried to swim out to the edge of the pool, but his stomach just hurt too much. It was because he had had that ice-cream and then didn't wait an hour before swimming."
"Wait," Bianca interrupted. "If you thought you were going to drown, then why didn't you yell out to Annabeth to come pull you out?"
"I did!" Percy glowered at Annabeth. "I yelled 'Annabeth, Annabeth, I'm going to die!'!"
"Wow, man," Nico said. "How eloquent." Percy muttered some unfriendly words.
Annabeth smiled sheepishly. "Yeah…I was reading a book. I was reading Anne of Green Gables, and I guess I got kind of lost in it…"
"Well, you found your way out of the book…when exactly?"
"After I collapsed in front of her, half drowned and throwing up!" Percy said indignantly.
"Hey, I told you not to go swimming," Annabeth started.
"Oh, so it was my fault?"
"Yes it was! You knew all too well that you shouldn't go swimming until an hour after eating. You didn't even wait five minutes!"
"Okay, okay," Nico intervened before Percy could say anything. "Now that I've heard an embarrassing story about Percy, I want to hear one about Annabeth!"
"Oh, I can think of a lot," Percy mused. "There was the time she got lost in the library, the time she forgot about her birthday, the time she and Ben—" he was cut off with a savage shriek.
"Percy Jackson! You will not tell that story if you value your life!"
"Oh, come on," Percy cajoled.
"Not a chance."
"What if I just hint—"
"No!"
"Okay, okay, jeez," Percy rolled his eyes. "I'll tell about the time we got married."
"Oh god, no!" Annabeth laughed. "Well, that's less embarrassing…"
***
"Annabeth, I need to talk to your daddy," said Percy. Annabeth nodded solemnly.
"He's inside. He's working on his planes," replied Annabeth. The two four year olds walked into the library, where Frederick Chase was 'working' with his model planes. As a professor of aviation at the local college, he had to know his planes and historical reenactments.
From the kitchen, Annabeth's mother smiled the tiniest bit and headed into the hallway. Although she didn't really like Percy Jackson, she didn't hate him, either. Besides, she didn't want to miss the look on her husband's face when Percy asked him for Annabeth's hand in marriage.
"Mr. Chase, I need to talk to you," said Percy. "It's imp-impr-" After a few mispronunciations, he gave up. "I mean, I need to talk to you right now."
"Well, what is it?" asked Frederick. He didn't know that he was only a few moments away from being asked to marry off his [four-year-old] daughter to the neighbor kid [who also happened to be four].
"Can I marry Annabeth? I'll take care of her after we are, and I promise that there won't be any kissy business," At the statement, Frederick went off into gales of laughter.
"Dad?" asked Annabeth. She didn't call him 'dad' unless she was really annoyed. "Why are you laughing?"
"Oh…oh…" answered her father. "No, no, it's fine. Sure, you can marry Annabeth, Percy."
----
Ten minutes later, Frederick wasn't very happy. He, Annabeth's mom, Alyssa, Percy's dad, Philip, and Percy's mom, Sally, were all sitting on plastic chairs between their lawns, watching Grover 'marry' their children. Grover's parents were there as well. Although all the women thought it was cute, none of the men were too psyched to be there.
"Do you, Percy Jackson take Annabeth Chase to be your awfully wedded wife?"
"Grover!" yelled Annabeth. "It's not awful, it's lawful! Get it right," she complained.
"Oh, sorry," answered Grover. "I'll do that over again. Do you, Percy Jackson, take Annabeth Chase as your lawfully wedded wife?"
"I do," nodded Percy.
"And do you, Annabeth Chase, take Percy Jackson to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
"I do!" exclaimed Annabeth. Although neither had gotten dressed up, Annabeth was wearing a white shirt. Despite her massive efforts, unfortunately, Percy had refused to clean himself up any further than tying his shoelaces.
"Okay, then. I delcare you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride."
"Wait, wait," Frederick couldn't help but interject. "Percy, you said that there wouldn't be any kissy business."
"There won't be," said Percy bewilderedly. In a swooping motion, he lifted Annabeth hand and kissed it. "I saw it in this one movie," he explained. "It was a knight." All the adults laughed.
"Okay. Now all four of us need to go swimming," said Annabeth, including her bridesmaid, Juniper. "We're going to celebrate our honeymoon," she explained to the adults. Once again, they all laughed, and Annabeth's cheeks reddened. She didn't like being laughed at.
"Okay, last one there is a rotten apple!" yelled Grover. He and Juniper ran off towards the pool. The adults went inside to discuss something or the other. They weren't worried about the children; after all, it was just a shallow, inflatable pool. (Even if it had been an Olympic sized pool, there was high doubt that Percy would let anybody drown. He was a natural swimmer if there ever was one. )
Annabeth was about to follow the others, but Percy said, "Annabeth, wait." He reached into his sweatshirt pocket and pulled out a box. He handed it to Annabeth. "Open it!" he urged.
She did as he said. Inside, there was a bracelet. It was made of silver links and aqua beads, with an owl charm. "I got it for you, I know how much you like owls," Percy beamed.
"Oooh, it's so pretty!" exclaimed Annabeth. "Put it on!" she commanded, extending her right wrist. Percy complied, sliding the catch and slipping it onto her wrist.
"Thank you," said Annabeth. On a whim, she leaned in and hugged him. "I'll never take it off!" Percy smiled.
"I'm glad you like it," he said shyly. "Now come on! We're supposed to go swimming!" Together, the boisterous pair and best friends ran off towards the inflatable pool.
***
"Oh God, I haven't laughed that hard in ages!" Nico chortled.
"Annabeth, you seriously said that you were going on a honeymoon?" Bianca giggled. "Seriously?"
Nico was in gales of laughter, Bianca was throwing her head back and laughing, Percy was red-faced but grinning wildly, and Annabeth had her head on the table, embarrassedly, and was laughing quietly.
"What happened to that bracelet?" Percy wondered.
"Oh, I still have it," Annabeth held up her left hand, and sure enough, the bracelet was still there.
"Ooh, let me see," Bianca said softly. "It's so…pretty." And it was. There were tiny interlinking circles, all silver, set with alternating green sea glass and shiny black obsidian.
While Bianca was studying the bracelet, Annabeth studied Nico. "Nico, have I seen you around somewhere?"
"See, Bianca, she's hitting on me!" Nico crowed.
"No, I'm serious, I think I've seen you somewhere…"
"I don't know," Nico shrugged.
"Of course you don't," Percy agreed. "You hit on too many girls every day to remember one."
"Whatever," Nico said. He was going to continue, when the guy running the store came by.
"Hey, the store is closing," he announced in a gruff voice. "You kids need to skedaddle."
Nico rolled his eyes.
"Sure, sir," Annabeth replied. "We'll leave now."
***
Outside, a cold wind ripped through the city. It lifted Bianca's open hair and bit through Annabeth's sweatshirt. "Hey, let me get your phone numbers. We can meet up later," Annabeth suggested. Everyone agreed. After inputting everyone's numbers unto her own cell phone, Annabeth took leave of the three friends and headed home.
They feel like family, she reflected later.
End Chapter.
A/N I'm getting my writing mojo back! So, what do you think of this chapter? It's long compared to my typical chapters…
Also, I'd like to announce a kind-of contest Anna145 and I am doing:
"Crusade Against Crap"! As I'm sure many of you have noticed, there has been a hype of horrible fanfictions, with infinte problems including OOc-ness, spelling and grammar 'issues,' and plot holes that you could drop a cow through.
Therefore, we have decided that any story that follows the following requirements:
1. Perfect spelling
2. Perfect grammar
3. Good plot
4. In character (If set in mythological world)
5. Strong plot(AU and mythological world)
6. Realistic (Thalia wouldn't date a guy; Annabeth wouldn't flirt with other guys in order to entice Percy…)
7. Interesting
8. Original characters are not Mary-Sues
9. Creative title
10. Decent summary
11. IN CHARACTER
12. Phrasing
13. LOGICAL ROMANCE (realistic)
14. Thought out
15. NO LEMONS
may be entered. Send either me or Anna145 a PM letting us know about your fanfic, and the link to it. One of us will look over the story, and see if it is eligible to be entered. If it is, we will allow it access into a special community, and send you a PM saying it is. If it isn't, we'll send you a PM saying that it isn't.
Also, it is possible to nominate another's story! If we find it acceptable, then we will put it in the community, and send both the nominator and the nominee a PM saying that it is in the community. If it is not acceptable, then we will send only the nominator a PM saying that the story was not entered into the community.
Thanks for reading; we hope that we get hundreds of eligible stories! So, write write write!