"When I walk on by, girls be looking like…"
I slammed my radio alarm off before any of the other occupants of the ship could hear it. I need to fix that so it goes from a playlist. Next project, I added onto my mental to do list. It shouldn't be too hard; just need to set it up to download songs and tinker with the hard drive a bit to save lists… Maybe while we were sailing on to Greece so I wouldn't appear to be a seventh wheel. I rolled out of bed, found a Camp Half- Blood t-shirt on the ground that smelt clean, and a pair of jeans from the foot of my bed. I looked at my hair in the little mirror to the left of the door, and considered combing it. Nah, too much work. I shoved my feet into sneakers and continued to try and wiggle them on as I walked up the narrow stairwell to the deck. Annabeth, of course, was already organizing maps and such near the wheel. The wheel was mostly for decoration while we were flying, the rudder would be used to determine direction and Jason's power plus the sails would push us along.
"Hey," I yawned, plopping down on the bench beside Annabeth. She scooted away slightly.
"Good morning. And brush your teeth," she wrinkled her nose. Oh, I knew I forgot to do something.
"Well, not all of us will be making out with our boyfriends later today," I retorted. Annabeth's face crumpled. Shoot.
"Yeah," she said. It sounded like a ferret had been shoved down her throat.
"Annabeth, Percy will remember you. From what I heard, you guys went through a ton together and understood each other well. And you obviously love him a lot," I attempted to comfort her. At least she wasn't full on crying, like Piper. Does Jason or even Percy have to deal with as many crying girls as me? The injustice.
"Thanks, Leo. I need to be strong; I don't want the Romans to perceive our camp as weak. But Jason had a fake girlfriend when he got here, and now they're almost a real couple. What if Hera did the same thing with Percy?" Annabeth sucked her lips into her mouth and tears started to pool in her eyes.
"Well, Jason wasn't dating anybody. And I don't think Hera would dare to mess up the saviors of Olympus's love lives!" I pulled out the savior of the world card on her. But it just made her look more pensive.
"Hera really hates me, though. She actually likes Jason, or as close as she can get to liking someone, and look what she did to him," Annabeth licked her lips.
"What, set him up with an awesome girl? When you put it like that, Hera sounds absolutely angelic!" Annabeth chuckled a little. Score! It was almost impossible to make her laugh.
"Those two just need to get over themselves and start dating. It's pathetic how they're pining after each other. Though I guess that's kind of hypocritical of me, seeing how long it took Percy and I to ask each other out," Annabeth tilted her head to the side, and her blond ponytail caught the light. It might have been the first time since I knew her that she mentioned Percy's name and didn't look upset. I'm getting good at this cheering-up thing. I should start charging per therapy session.
"Agreed. But for now, we need to get this ship ready to roll!" I wiggled my upper body and moved my hands in a cha- cha motion. Annabeth rolled her eyes, but she looked happy. We spent the next hour organizing maps and coiling ropes.
"This would be so much easier with Percy. He just had to say what he wanted the ship to do, and it happened. Like, 'Main sail, up!' It was great," Annabeth sighed as she stood on her tip- toes to grab the folded sail and string it up. Right about then, Piper and Jason straggled up the stairwell.
"Took you guys long enough. Were there things occupying you in bed?" I waggled my eyebrows and grinned. Jason looked confused as to why Piper was glaring at me. Oh, the innocence.
"Let's go to breakfast," Piper grumbled. Definitely not a morning person.
OoooOoooO
"Okay, five minutes until go time!" I shouted from the middle of the deck. Campers were swarming all around me, trying to set up last minute stuff, say goodbye, and get off the ship so they didn't have to brave Camp Jupiter. Annabeth strode over to me with five maps stacked in her arms and hair falling into her eyes.
"Hey, Leo, you should probably send a message to Camp Jupiter, give them a heads up. Take this," she lifted the pile up a little and I grabbed the top sheet.
"What do I do?" I called to her retreating back. She turned around and looked at me like I was the dumbest person in the world.
"You tap it and say, 'Activate' then say what you want to. Tap it again to stop it and it will send to Percy automatically. It's like an IM on paper," Annabeth rolled her eyes and continued on her merry way. Well, excuse me. That was just so obvious. I waited until we had finally managed to lift off the ground. Camp was shrinking down to the size of a Lego set. Everyone had finally stopped waving to our friends. Friends, I thought, Huh. I made friends. I guess I beat the odds. I headed down to the engine room, with Piper following behind me to the galley down the hallway.
"Want anything?" she asked.
"Yeah, a PB&J would be nice," I replied. I loved PB&J. And they were the only thing Piper could cook. It's weird that the best chef on this ship is a guy. I set the manila paper on the middle of my now cleared workbench. I reached out a finger and tapped it.
"Activate," I said in my best Darth Vader voice. Everything within 1 inch of the sides started to shimmer. Wow, it actually does look like an IM. Then I realized I was standing there, grinning like an idiot. Pull it together, Valdez.
"Hey, this is Leo, and I'm speaking to you on behalf of the Argo II crew. I'm the…" I realized I didn't know what I was called. I turned my head towards the galley. "Hey, Piper!" I shouted, "What am I? Admiral, or Captain, or…"
"Repair Boy!" she answered. Well, way to make me look like an idiot. I hope they didn't hear that.
"The Supreme Commander Dude," I finished. Yeah, I like it. Supreme Commander Dude Leo. Has a ring to it. "Well, anyways, we'll be landing a banging warship on your camp in, oh, I don't know, about three hours? So yeah, if you could try not to blast us out of the sky, that would be great. See you soon!" I gave a cheerful wave and last grin, then tapped the middle of the paper. It dissolved like water vapor, leaving the faint smell of a water fall behind. Not bad, I nodded. Annabeth couldn't have done a better job herself.
A/N: word count: 1217 And so, they head for camp! I wonder what Annabeth would have said if she left the message… probably bored them to tears with facts about the structure of the ship. I love her; I hope I didn't botch her character too badly! You know what? If you leave a review, you can let me know... *hint hint* To avoid copyright stuff, and to aid my being lazy, I did not directly copy the wording of Leo's message. This is about what I remember him saying.