You guys! This is the "Locket" chapter! We made it! Yey! OK, thanks everyone for reading and keeping up even with the big waits. I'm gunna finish this story even if it kills me! More action-chapters coming soon, I promise :)

Disclaimer: Don't own PJO

Chapter 15

Posy's POV

Christmas was fast approaching and even with all my Nico drama, it was hard not to get into the holiday spirit. All the beautiful Christmas trees and festive decorations, jolly songs, and the all this wonderful snow, the spirit was infectious and I had fallen victim to it. Not that I minded; I always thought Christmas was the best time of the year, and not just because of the presents. It was all-round feel-good kind of holiday, and everyone seemed nicer and more social during this time of year, going to show just how infectious the Christmas spirit really was. even my grumpy neighbor, Mr. Robaturri seemed in a better spirit than he was a couple days ago. Maybe his dog, Matilda, finally had her puppies.

I was Christmas shopping at a local open-air market. I didn't have that much money saved, so I figured that shopping there would allow me to buy presents without having to spend too much. I was actually really excited; I had thought out my whole plan for Christmas shopping.

That book about photography for Lauren since she just took up photography as a hobby.

Some new running shoes for Min Yang. I just found out her real size. She's a 5. She has small feet, but I think she's adorable. Smart, too!

I'm thinking a ruffly purse for Ariel, she'll love that, plus her leather one is falling apart. I hope they sell some not-too-expensive ones.

A Cookie Monster toy for Sebastian. That would be perfect for him, he's just discovered the color blue.

Maybe some cleats for Peter and Frankie for when they play football.

Potpourri and scented candles for Mom, and something Celtics for Dad to help him represent his home-sweet-home, Boston. He's a fanatic.

I even thought about getting a little something extra for Percy and his parents; they'd been so nice to me that one time at their house. Whatever I decide to get them, it didn't have to be something grand. They didn't strike me as the picky type and I knew whatever I got them they'd appreciate it.

That just left me pondering on what I should buy for Nico. This was critical. After all, I was in love with the boy, which put me in awkward situation, seeing that I wasn't even supposed to be acquainted with him after that heart-wrenching goodbye just weeks ago. It was for my own good. In a way, Nico was thinking of me and my protection when he left me. But I was determined; even if I wasn't allowed to see Nico, I could still like him, and one way or another, I was going to buy him the perfect Christmas gift even if I had to turn the market upside-down.

The only problem was that I didn't know Nico's size (I could probably guess it), his interests (aside from demigod stuff and the color black), or anything too personal about him that I could use to my advantage. For a girl who's in love with a guy, I didn't know an awful lot about him and that got me even more depressed. I felt like a loser.

But I didn't let that stop me. I trudged through the snow in my plaid galoshes because I didn't have proper snow boots and stopped at a kiosk that sold old books and picked one out for Lauren called The Ultimate Photography Handbook. I didn't know much about photography, but it said Ultimate and I guess I can't argue with that. I bought it for $8.

I bought Min's running shoes for $14, Peter and Frankie's cleats, and Dad's Celtics cap, and Ariel's $20 purse from the same place. I was just about to go off to get Mom's candles when I accidentally kicked a frozen block of ice. It didn't budge when I kicked it, so I stubbed my toe instead. I bit my lip to keep myself from screaming, but I dropped my shopping bags and hopped on one foot and tried to loosen up my foot to get rid of the pain.

When I looked up, I saw that the sky was turning grey and the New York lights had just started to turn on, the fluffy snow falling to the ground, and the barren trees sticking out of the ground like awkward cracks in a mirror. I thought it was beautiful and it was enough to distract me from my stubbed toe for a little while.

Taking in my surroundings, I also saw that I was standing in front of an antique store, Venus Antiques, to be more specific; a shop that, like the grotto in the park, I don't recall ever noticing. A dim light was shining through the window that displayed an old gramophone, some vinyl records, a couch that looked like it belonged in the Palace of Versailles, a Grandfather clock, a cuckoo clock, a velvet pillow displaying a collection of antique pins and pocket watches. But inside, it looked warm and cozy.

I looked down at my unlayered self, terribly ill-equipped for a walk in the snow in my cord jeans, a jacket, denim shirt, thick scarf and rain galoshes. The more I looked at the antique shop, in all it's old glory, the more inviting it became. And it wasn't just that; I was mysteriously attracted to that shop, like a magnet to the refrigerator. So I picked up my shopping bags, pushed the door open, and entered the Venus Antique Shop.

The first thing I noticed was the smell. The smell was a mixture of varnish, the brown pages of old tattered books, and Chanel No.5. A fairly pleasant combination of aromas. The first two were expected, being in an antique shop and all, but that last scent was a bit out of place.

Everywhere I looked there was nothing but books with tattered leather bindings, decoupage collages hanging on the wall, oriental carpets rolled up and left to lean against a wall, dish cabinets, Chinese boxes, upright pianos, an assortment of clocks and silverware, a stuffed jackalope nailed to the wall that freaked me out a bit, and a small collection of swords off to the side, each made with a different kind of metal.

I moved toward the collection of swords. They looked strangely Greek, like the one Nico had, and I thought maybe a new sword would be best for him, but a little voice in the back of my head told me that walking out on the streets of New York with a sword would look really suspicious. Especially a sword that was meant to be a Christmas gift for a fourteen-year-old boy.

I touched the tip of one of the hilts and felt the cold metal and jumped when I heard a voice.

"Can I help you?" The source of the voice was a tall, beautiful woman with thick dark brown hair, her eyes were the softest shade of blue and were framed by lock curling lashes. She had red lips and flawless skin and an amazing figure. Standing in front of her, I was suddenly self-conscious of my own mud-colored thin hair, my skinny, curve-less figure, and chapped lips. This woman was without the doubt the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, ten times prettier than Megan Fox without even trying. She wore blue denim jeans and a bright red sweater that hugged her torso nicely and the neckline plunged down just low enough for a little cleavage to show.

"Oh! Customers! I do so love getting customers, antique shops like this one are sooo boring and I hardly ever get visitors. Can I help you? Anything at all?" She leaned forward on the glass counter and rested her chin on her hands and batted her eyelashes at me. I bent down and picked up the sword I had dropped when I jumped at her voice and I suddenly realized that she was probably the source of the Chanel perfume.

"Umm," I said, suddenly forgetting why I was here in the first place.

"Ooh! Are you Christmas shopping?" She moved a hair out of her face and giggled, showing off her perfect pearly whites.

"Yes, I am, actually," I said nervously, approaching the glass counter that she stood behind. She giggled again.

"Don't you just loove Christmas? Buying presents, receiving presents, seeing people you love, not to mention the cute guys you meet at parties, hmm? Anyway, are you looking for something specific?"

"I don't really know," I said, getting closer and I took a look at her name tag. It said "Effie".

"Well, who's it for?" she asked, twisting a lock of her hair around her finger.

"Just a friend," I explained, being careful not to explain too much to a complete stranger. But somehow I felt it was getting easier to talk to Effie. "I don't really know what he wants." Effie squealed in delight and I jumped back again because she surprised me. She giggled some more, covering her mouth with her hands and then leaned forward again.

"So it is a boy! Ah, romance. I love it! You're soo adorable, doll!"

"What do you mean?" I said, tilting my head and staring at her. I didn't tell her anything about Nico yet and it was as if she already knew. "I'm just here to buy a present, Effie, that's all."

"Uh huh," she said so nonchalantly as she looked me up and down and came out from behind the counter. She rubbed her hands together and walked toward me. I tried to back away but she came up to me and took my face in her hands. She made me turn my head this way and that as if she were inspecting a deflated basketball for a hole. She then gasped when she looked into my eyes and then smiled at me. She patted my nose with one perfectly manicured finger and stated: "You are in love."

She then backed away after telling me as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. But me, I just gaped at her with wide eyes like an idiot.

"What?" she asked. "You're going to ask me how I know."

"How do you know?"

"Oh, so I was right! Well, I usually am. And I know because it's the most obvious thing in the world." My cheeks turned red when she said that. Was I honestly that obvious?

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well," she tossed her hair over her shoulder and retreated back behind the glass counter. "How can I not tell? You're looking over at the swords when most girls wouldn't go near something so dangerous. Those swords obviously reminded you of someone special which is why you were there in the first place. You're noticeably thinner than the clothes you're wearing indicating that you were thicker than you are now, which means you aren't eating. If you're not eating it's because you're distracted and you want that other person more than you want food which is why you forget all about it. Your pupils are dilated which means that you got excited at the mere mention of this other person. I watched you come in and you were smiling to yourself. You don't look like the type of girl who would purposely wear that jacket in this weather, so I'm guessing you were too busy thinking about him when you got dressed this morning."

I started laughing at myself on the inside. I didn't know my actions could be analyzed like that.

"Right on all accounts," I said, blushing. Effie smile at me some more.

"See? You're in love!" But then suddenly I was troubled and a frown came on to my face.

"What's wrong?" she asked?

"Just that," I started saying. "How is it that you can tell I'm in love right off the bat, but I needed a magazine to tell me?"

"Hmm, let me guess," Effie said, tapping her chin. "This boy. He's your first love, isn't he?"

I nodded. "I think so." Effie made a face at me and I wondered what I had said that upset her. She didn't look so good in a frown.

"What do you me 'you think so'? A girl ought to know, shouldn't she?"

"I don't know!" I fired back. "If this is my first time falling in love then don't you think that it's very possible that I don't know anything about it? I want to be in love, trust me, but I have doubts about my own feelings because the only reliable examples I have of love come from stories and books and TV shows. Oh, I'm a mess."

I sat down on a trunk and covered my face. "Sorry to be all emotional on you like this," I said. Effie sat down next to me and patted my pack.

"I guess it's okay," Effie said, although she didn't sound that convincing. "I guess I triggered this emotional outburst of yours. My fault. Anyway, lets talk about that gift you wanted to get him."

"I don't even know what Nico wants," I said flatly. "I've known him for a grand total of three months and all I really know about him is his name and... some other stuff. He's really secretive, I don't think he'd want me to tell you."

Effie nodded knowingly and sort of smirked to herself, and I wondered why.

"So...Nico, right?" she said. I nodded. She clapped her hands together and then went back to the counter.

"Well," she said. "Let's see if i can work my magic. What do we got on the counter here?" she waved me over to the glass counter and when I peered down, I saw that the counter held a lot of jewelry. But I was confused.

"But this is all jewelry," I said. Effie just shrugged.

"Maybe he's a watch kind of guy," she said, but I doubted Nico would like a watch as a present. Effie started laying out all these different watches in front of me and I leaned my had against my elbow. I would never find the perfect gift for Nico. I stood there at the glass counter as Effie talked about the merchandise for another thirty minutes and I still hadn't found anything. Effie was looking at the inside of a Chinese box when she suddenly perked up and clapped her hands.

"Oh my gods!" she yelped. She got up and went back to the glass counter.

"What?" I asked.

"I totally forgot about this! I shoulda thought about this earlier!" She came back with a velvet box and handed it to me. I looked at her.

"Effie," I said. "We've been looking at necklaces for half an hour and your solution is another necklace?" Effie scowled at me and fearing what she would say, I quickly opened the blue velvet box. On the inside was, as I guessed, another necklace. But something was special about it, not in appearance but in the way it felt in my hand. It was a silver chain with one white pearl as a pendant and another flat silver circle hung from that pearl.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Effie said and I nodded in reply as we both stared at the lovely necklace in wonder and awe. It was so simple and yet elegant and beautiful at the same time. I ran my finger over the flat silver circle and when I did, I heard a small popping noise and discovered that the flat circle was actually a locket.

I gasped and gently opened the locket, taking care because I knew it was an antique. On the inside was a small black and white profile picture of a woman with beautiful dark hair and a string of pearls around her neck. Her smile was sweet and her gaze was gentle and her eyes, though just a picture, stared back at me with so much life and courage that I couldn't help but be reminded of Nico. There was an inscription on the other side. I felt it with my finger. I turned it over in my hand and saw that it said Maria.

"What is this?" I asked.

"A necklace, obviously," Effie said. "It was found sometime during World War II in the ruins of a bombed hotel in Europe. But amazingly, it's still good as new. No one knows who that woman was, the only clue being that her name was Maria but the hotel records were destroyed in the fire, so no one knows who she is."

I stared down at the woman's picture with a stare that pounded my brain. She seemed the beg me to buy the locket and in response, I reached down into my pocket and curled my fingers around the bills in there. I think I had found my perfect present.

"How much?" I asked.

TBC

Yay, Locket chapter! Yay! OK, guys, please review! More action coming later! And would anyone care to guess who Effie really was? Tried to make it obvious without being too obvious. Thanks for reading, guys! Also, for anyone out there who has tumblr, my url is . FOLLOE PLEASE! I sometimes post my work on there, though not as frequently as on here :) Thanks!