Annabeth and I were almost done with our project. We didn't talk a lot, so I thought I'd try to strike up a conversation.
"So, um, Annabeth?"
"Yeah?" She said without looking up.
"Whose clothes are these?" I pinched the shirt I was wearing. She chuckled, and continued to work.
"They're my older brother's. His name is Malcolm, he's in high school. Why? Have you ever worn nice clothes before?" No. I wanted to reply.
"Just wondering." I said instead. We continued to work in silence. I added another picture of a coral reef.
"So, is he a freshman?" She shook her head.
"No, sophomore. He's on the honor roll. And he's president of the math and debate team." She said proudly.
"Cool. Do you have any other siblings?" She grimaced. Oops, wrong question to ask.
"Well, yeah. I have two stepbrothers, Matthew and Bobby. They're really annoying."
"How old are they?" I asked on reflex.
"They're both five."
"What does your dad do?" She smiled proudly again.
"He's an archaeologist. He's researching at the Coliseum in Rome right now."
"And what about your-" Oops, her mom is dead, and I'm guessing she doesn't like her stepmom very much. I tried to save my slip-up, but it was too late.
"My stepmother? She does nothing." She said with a cold, harsh expression. "Absolutely nothing. But apparently, that's called being a 'stay at home mom'. My real mom? She was way better. She was the smartest person I've ever met." Annabeth's words started to carry off. It was still a touchy subject for her, so I decided to leave it alone. I was planning on working in silence again, until she said,
"What about your family?" I was a little surprised by the question.
"Er, what?" I asked flustered. She rolled her eyes.
"Your family. What are they like?" She sat on the desk, and began to watch me work instead.
"Well, I never knew my dad. He died before I was born." I looked at her and she nodded in understanding.
"In the Navy. Right, I remember."
I nodded. "My stepfather's name is Gabe." I said quickly to kick him out of the way. "And my mom works at a candy store. She's the nicest person I've ever met." I smiled broadly.
"How's your arm?" She asked suddenly.
I went into defense mode, "Um, m-my what?" She stood up from the desk.
"Percy, first of all, I already know. So there's no point in hiding it anymore." I sighed with disappointment.
"Second, I'm not going to tell anyone." I was happy with that answer. I was going to thank her, but she continued to add on,
"If, you promise not do to it anymore."
"Wh-why not?" I asked. She sighed and began to roll up my sleeve. I didn't pull away this time.
"Percy, you're only hurting yourself by doing this." She said while studying cuts again. "Just promise you won't do it anymore."
"But-" I began to reply, but her face was determined. I wasn't getting out of this one.
"Fine. I promise." I said. I didn't see what the big deal was. I wasn't going to die from doing it, right?
"Good. Now hang on for a sec." She let go of my arm and started to search around her room. She dragged something from underneath her bed. It looked like a first-aid kit. I laughed.
"You keep a first-aid kit in your room?"
"Shut up!" She growled back. I continued to laugh, while she was digging for something specific. Finally, she found what she was looking for.
"What is that?" I looked at the jar she was holding. It had some kind of gold liquid in it.
"My dad calls it 'nectar', but it's just like healing cream. He invented it. Put some on your arm, but not a lot. Otherwise, your skin might burn up from irritation." Good to know, I thought as she handed me the liquid. I dabbed a tiny bit on my finger, and smoothed it over my arm. Instantly, I felt a warm sensation. After a few seconds, the cuts were already fading away, not leaving any scars behind.
"Wow, this stuff is awesome!" I said while handing her back the jar.
"Yeah, I know." She put the first-aid kit away along with the nectar. We were adding the finishing touches, when we ran out of glue.
"Hold on, I think we have more downstairs." Annabeth said as she left the room. I heard my phone buzz. It was a text from Nico.
NICO: Hey Perce! What's up? Anyway, me, Grover, & Thalia r going 2 the mall! Wanna come?
I was a little surprised that Thalia was coming. Of course I wanted to go, so I texted him back.
ME: Hey Nico. Nothin much, jst working on a project. What time r u guys going 2 the mall?
It only took a few seconds for him to respond.
NICO: Like 12ish?
I looked at my watch, it read 11:40, but Annabeth and I were almost done. The mall was only a mile away.
ME: K, I'll b there
I slipped my phone back into my pocket just as Annabeth came back with the glue. It took a few more minutes to put everything else on, and we were finished.
"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?"
"Yes it was." I said automatically. Annabeth scoffed. We did do a pretty good job. The poster was nicely decorated and the pictures were neatly in place.
"Well, I have to go." I began to search for my things.
"Where are you going?" She replied curiously. Well, there's no point lying to her. She'll probably find out anyway.
"Nico, Grover, and Thalia invited me to the mall. I have to meet them soon." I swung my backpack over my shoulder.
"Can I come?" That kind of threw me off. Did I want Annabeth to come? I wasn't sure. I knew she didn't hate me, but that doesn't mean we got along.
"Are you sure? Nico and Grover are going to be there." I said cautiously.
"Well, you said Thalia was going, right?" She folded her arms.
"Well, yeah, but-"
"Okay, then let's go." She began packing up her own stuff and I shrugged. We walked out of her apartment with our backpacks. I decided to come back and get my surfboard later. We strolled out of the lobby and I tried to wave for a cab, but Annabeth stopped me.
"Percy, come on. It's only a mile away. Can't we just walk?" She gestured towards the sidewalk, but I frowned.
"Why?" She rolled her eyes.
"To save money? Duh."
"Ugh, fine." I said and we began walking. Annabeth wasn't saying anything, so I decided to talk to her again.
"So, why do you hate your stepmom so much?" She clenched her jaw. Ugh! Stupid question, stupid ADHD.
"Because." She started to walk ahead of me, but I stayed persistent.
"Because why?" She scowled and walked even faster.
"Because, she hates me, and I hate her."
"There has to be a better explanation than that." I was practically jogging to keep up with her now.
"I just do, okay!" We came up to a street light. She slammed the crosswalk button really hard with the side of her fist. She didn't even wince in pain. I saw the expression on her face; which was angry, upset, and violent looking, like she wanted to punch someone. I really didn't want to be that someone. People were giving me concerned looks, as if they were saying "control your friend, please, before she hurts us."
We were still waiting to cross. I tried as gently as I could to put a hand on Annabeth's shoulder. Bad Idea. She grabbed my arm, and judo threw me.
Right on the pavement.
With my bad back.
With everyone watching us.
The tourists who were walking by thought it was a show, and took pictures.
She didn't stop there. She put her knee on my chest and placed her forearm across my neck. Her eyes were forming a tornado. The only thing I could do, was give her my best "please don't kill me right now with all these people watching and my back is killing me so can you please get up PLEASE" face. I think it worked, and she was finally aware of her surroundings. She got off of me slowly. She shyly waved to the people who were crowded around us. She offered her hand to me, which I took. My back was in bad shape again. I started limp-walking across the street. Annabeth finally sensed that something was wrong and helped me get all the way across. I put an arm around her shoulder, and she helped me to the nearest park bench. We sat down in relief. Annabeth was red in the face, probably embarrassed of what she had just done. I couldn't have been much better. I just got beaten up by a girl in front of complete strangers.
"Are you okay?" She said while panting. I tried moving my back around. It didn't feel as bad as the first time.
"I'm fine. My back just hurts." I winced when I felt the electric sparks from my weak spot. Annabeth still looked concerned.
"Where?" She asked curiously.
"The small of my back." I told her. She lifted her hand, and cautiously placed it on my lower back, underneath my shirt. My skin tingled, but I don't think it was from my weak spot.
"Here?" She asked. I shook my head. I held her hand and moved it to the worse spot on my back. I felt the electric sparks again, except this time they went throughout my entire body. She must have felt them too, because she quickly pulled away. She was even redder than she was before.
"Er-, well, um, do you want some Advil?" She asked, reaching for her grey backpack.
"No, s'okay. I feel better now." I said while standing up. I wasn't lying. My back did feel a lot better for some reason. We continued to walk slowly down the street.
"Hey, I'm sorry about that by the way." Annabeth said, tucking a blonde strand of hair behind her ear. I just shrugged.
"Look," she said while taking a deep breath. "after my mom died when I just turned seven-" I put my hands up, gesturing for her to stop.
"Annabeth, you really don't have to-"
"No, it's okay. I think I want to." I nodded, and continued listening to the story.
"Anyway, when my mom died after I just turned seven, my whole family was upset. We missed her. A lot. I thought it would stay that way. I thought it would be just the three of us; me, my brother, and my dad. And it was supposed to stay that way. But then my dad came along and ruined everything."
I could hear the bitterness in her voice. She was mad about her dad moving on. I guess I could relate. I didn't like it when my mom married Gabe, but that was for other reasons.
"He waited a month. One month. And all of the sudden, he tells us he's getting remarried, and starting a new family. He even brought out the other woman, who we've never met before. It was just too much to handle all at once. My brother was in shock, and locked himself in his room. I on the other hand, thought I had a better plan."
"What did you do?" I asked curiously.
"I decided to run away." My eyes widened. Annabeth didn't seem like the runaway type.
"Really?"
"Yeah." She laughed half-heartedly. "It was pretty stupid now that I think about it. I packed way too many clothes, and not enough food or water. So I didn't eat for a week." I felt guilty for making her tell me this.
"Then what?"
"Well, Thalia found me behind a box in an alleyway. And she convinced me to go back."
"Thalia did that?"
"Yep. Right place, right time I guess. She also bought me a cheeseburger afterwards, which tasted amazing. I made up with my dad and we happened to move into Thalia's apartment building."
"No wonder you guys are so close." Annabeth smiled.
"We've been best friends ever since."
We were waiting to walk cross the street to the mall. I looked both ways, and I swore I saw no cars coming by. I decided to take a chance, so I took three steps forward, only to be roughly pulled back by some force. I stumbled back on the sidewalk, and I saw a cab going a hundred miles an hour pass right in front of me.
"Stupid kid!" The grumpy cab driver yelled as he sped off.
"I saved your life. You're welcome." Annabeth said proudly. I scoffed, and looked for my chance to cross again. I felt Annabeth grab my hand. I looked at her embarrassingly.
"What are you doing?" She looked back at me with an annoyed expression.
"Making sure you don't get killed, dummy."
"Oh. Oh right." I walked across the street, with Annabeth holding my hand. We went into the mall, and it was packed, like every Saturday. I could already smell the sweet aromas from the food court. All of the working we did today made me hungry.
"You want some food?" I asked Annabeth. She shrugged.
"Sure." We walked to the center of the mall where the food court was. Annabeth studied her options carefully, and I rolled my eyes.
"What are you getting?" I only thought about it for a few seconds.
"Cheeseburgers?" I suggested. She nodded in agreement and we waited in line. We grabbed our food and sat down at a table. Annabeth and I were eating and talking, and I got another text from Nico.
NICO: Hey, where are you guys? Huh, I completely forgot of why Annabeth and I were here in the first place.
ME: We're at Aunty Em's Famous Burgers, in the food court. Annabeth sipped her drink.
"Who's that?" She asked.
"It's just Nico."
"Is he that shy kid?"
"Yep."
"Oh." I looked at my phone again.
NICO: Ok, we're coming.
"Why is he so shy?" Annabeth asked.
"I don't know. He's always been like that." I answered simply.
"And who's Grover?"
"Grover looks older, but he's in our grade. He's dark-skinned, and walks funny. But he's really nice." A flash of realization appeared on her face.
"Oh, right. He's the guy who walks like a goat." I laughed a little.
"Yep, that's him." This time, Annabeth got a text. At first, I thought it was from Thalia, but Annabeth's face told a different story. When she looked at the text, her cheeks turned scarlet. It must be from Luke. She quickly replied, and put her phone away. She sipped her Coke again while looking at the floor awkwardly.
"So, how's Luke?" It looked like she was going to spit her drink out (which would've had me rolling around on the floor laughing hysterically), but she managed to painfully swallow it down instead.
"Wh-what?" She blushed deeper.
"You know what I asked." I smiled devilishly before taking another bite of my cheeseburger. She started to get mad now.
"He's fine. Why do you want to know?"
"Oh, well, I know how much you have a crush on him and all. I just wanted to see how things were going between the two of you." I said innocently.
"I do not have a crush on Luke." She said firmly.
"Then how did you get the bad sunburn?" She glared at me hard, and I remembered my mom's advice, to smile instead of glaring back. So I gave her the famous Percy Jackson lopsided grin. She looked at me weirdly.
"Why are you smiling?"
"Why not?" I saw a range of mixed emotions appear on her face. First, she looked confused, then she softened, then she looked confused again, and finally she expressed her frustration.
"Ugh! You're such a-"
"Hey guys! We finally found you." Annabeth was cut off by Grover who slid in next to me. Nico followed him and waved awkwardly at Annabeth. He slid in next to Grover. Thalia made a loud entrance, with her black leather jacket and black combat boots. I could tell Nico had a hard time not staring. She sat on the opposite side next to Annabeth, and nudged her.
"So, how was working with Kelp Head over here."
"Hey!" I protested, but she waved me off.
"Oh, not as bad as I thought. Well, at first it was." Before I could stop her, Annabeth told the story of me showing up with a wetsuit and surfboard, like I was ready to "catch some waves", at her place. As she told the story, Thalia was laughing, and Nico and Grover were snickering. I tried to deny it,
"I did not! She's lying!" That was pretty stupid of me, because this just made everyone laugh harder. Nico was full out laughing (which was a big deal for him), Grover was wiping tears from his eyes, and Thalia was chuckling in the crook of her arm. I didn't see what was so funny.
"Kelp Head, that is so you. No one on the face of this planet would do that, except you. You are so clueless sometimes, I swear-"
"Okay guys, I think he's had enough." Grover said, trying to control his laughter. "I'm Grover, by the way. Percy's not-clueless best friend." Grover stuck out his hand, I face-palmed.
"I'm Annabeth. Nice to meet you, Percy's not-clueless best friend." She smirked at me. I stuck out my tongue at her.
"Anyway, you guys wanna catch a movie?" Thalia swung her leg out from the bench.
"Sure." We all said at the same time. All five of us rode the escalator together. Everyone was talking to each other, and it wasn't awkward at all. Nico was even opening up to Annabeth. We finally got to the third floor, where the movie theater was.
"Let's go see Attack of Ashes!" Thalia exclaimed as we were in line of the ticket booth. Nico got an ecstatic look on his face.
"I've been dying to see that! Have you seen The Birth of the Bleeding and Burned?"
"Duh, who hasn't? What about Wicked Witch of the World? Have you seen that?"
"That's from my favorite series! The Curse of the Cannibal!"
"Mine too!" Annabeth, Grover, and I, had horrified and confused looks on our faces. Nico always loved talking about horror movies, but if you add Thalia in the mix, it's a recipe for disaster.
"Well, um, youguys can go see that. The sane people in this group are going to see something else." Annabeth gestured to Grover and I, and we nodded vigorously.
"Suit yourself. Come on Nico." Thalia grabbed Nico's hand and ran into the theater with their tickets. I happened to catch Nico's blush when she did that.
"Well, what are we going to see?" Grover said. I looked at the movie board, and found my favorite movie of all time.
"Finding Nemo 3D!" I said excitedly. Annabeth gave me a confused look.
"What?"
"C'mon. Who doesn't love Finding Nemo?" Annabeth scoffed.
"We are not seeing Finding Nemo 3D, Percy. That movie is for kids." That was a big insult to me.
"Fine then, what do you want to see Wise Girl?" Grover laughed at my nickname. Annabeth scowled at me before replying.
"Well, there's this interesting documentary that's playing. It's about-"
"I vote Finding Nemo." Grover interrupted while raising his hand, obviously trying to avoid Annabeth's suggestion.
"That's two out of three, Wise Girl. You do the math." She folded her arms.
"Fine. We'll go see Finding Nemo."
"Yes!" I jumped up with excitement, and punched my fist in the air. Annabeth rolled her eyes to show her annoyance, but I saw a small smile appear on her face. We got our tickets to see the movie, and we entered the theater. It smelled like butter and junk food. We got our snacks and drinks, and took our seats in the very back. The movie was as good as I remembered, and even better in 3D. Grover and I were laughing at all of the puns, and Annabeth was laughing at us laughing at the puns. By the time we got out, Thalia and Nico were already waiting for us at a table.
"How was the death movie?" I asked as I sat down.
They looked at me. "It wasn't just a death movie Kelp Face." Thalia said.
"Did someone die?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, okay, yeah. Thousands actually, but you guys should've seen it! People were literally suffocating on their own ancestors ashes, and-"
"Alright! I've heard enough." I felt like I was going to be sick.
"Anyway, what did you guys see?"
"Percy wanted to go see Finding Nemo." Annabeth said with a mocking tone.
"Doesn't surprise me one bit." Nico said while chuckling.
Thalia agreed, "Me neither."
"At least I didn't want to watch a boring documentary!" Annabeth scowled at me.
"It's not boring! It's interesting!"
"Uh-huh. It's only interesting to you because you're a nerd, Wise Girl." Everyone laughed, myself included. She glared daggers at me, and I smiled again.
"Ugh! You're such, you're such a…"
"What? What am I Wise Girl?" I challenged. She threw her hands in the air.
"You're such a Seaweed Brain!" Threw were a few moments of absolute silence, no one knowing exactly how to react. I gladly broke the tension, by laughing so hard that I fell to the floor. I wrapped my hands around my stomach and started rolling around, totally losing it in front of everyone, who seemed to be on the right page as I was. They were laughing almost as hard as me. All of their faces turned red from laughter. Annabeth's face was red too, but from embarrassment. I couldn't control my hysteria, as I continued to roll around. Seaweed Brain?! WHO COMES UP WITH SEAWEED BRAIN?! Everyone was dying from my reaction. Annabeth finally started kicking me really hard on the floor, to make me feel pain instead of enjoyment, and it worked. I had to get out of my extremely amused state to stand up. With the exception of Annabeth who had her arms crossed glaring at everybody, we were trying so hard to contain our laughter.
"Sea-, Seaweed Brain? I didn't, I didn't see hear Dory say that in the movie." One of my hands was holding onto my side, because it hurt from laughing so hard. The noise level decreased as we started to take deep breathes instead.
"Yeah yeah laugh it up! It makes perfect sense. You showed up at MY apartment with a wetsuit and a surfboard, you only seem to know things that involve the ocean, and you just made us watch Finding Nemo. You're a Seaweed Brain!" I wasn't laughing anymore. My face turned serious, while everyone else continued to laugh away.
"She's got a point dude." Grover said while patting me on the back.
"A HUGE point." Nico agreed.
Thalia stopped laughing for a bit. "It's official. Percy Jackson, you are a Seaweed Brain."
"Whatever. You guys are the worst." I started walking out of the theater with everyone trailing a ways behind me. They still didn't have the decency to control themselves. Sheesh, it's not funny anymore!
"Hey, let's go to the arcade." I suggested, trying desperately to change the topic.
"Okay." They all said. We finally approached The Lotus Arcade. When we entered, I heard loud clanking noises from the machines. Then I saw my favorite game, Chariot Racers Five. Forgetting about everyone else, I quickly ran to it before someone took the spot. I already had a bunch of quarters in my pocket. I put two in, and saw someone sit next to me. Of course, it was Annabeth.
"Hey Seaweed Brain. You like this game too? I'll race you." She put in two quarters of her own in the other machine.
"I never lose at this game, so don't bother wasting your money." I was still very annoyed at her new nickname for me. It was actually really insulting. My brain was not made out of seaweed.
She raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Well neither do I." She pressed the "START" button, and I saw a message appear on my screen. "This opponent wants to challenge you. Accept or Decline?" I gladly pressed "Accept", and gave her a challenging smirk. She huffed at my cockiness. This game was just like car racing, except there wasn't a steering wheel in front of you. Instead, there was a rope that you hold on to, and you whip it as if you were riding a real horse.
Annabeth and I were setting up for the game. The game said "STEP ONE: Pick your horses". I naturally chose two jet black ones. "STEP TWO: Choose you chariot". After a while, I finally decided on a blue-green one that had wave designs on it. It looked pretty cool. "FINAL STEP: Name your horses." I didn't really know what to name them, so I just put the first thing that came to mind.
All of the sudden, Annabeth started to laugh. "You named your horses Bob and Bessie?"
I looked at her confusedly. "So what?"
"Nothing, just remind me never to get you a pet. Otherwise, you'll probably name-abuse it."
"For your information, I do great with animals."
"That's because you act like one."
"Hey!" She laughed harder, and I gripped the reins tighter. I so wanted to beat her.
"Ready to lose, Owl Head?"
She scowled. "Bring it on, Coral Breath." We glared at each other one more time before turning back to our machines.
3….2….1…. GO!
Annabeth got the early lead, but I managed to stay right behind her. At one point, I had taken the lead. I was making my way towards the finish in first place, until all of the sudden, my chariot slows down.
Your chariot wheels have been slashed. GAME OVER.
I glared hard at Annabeth who ended up winning the race.
"Cheater!" I exclaimed.
"I did not cheat. I simply used my sword to destroy your tires." I was shocked that Annabeth knew that cheat, I thought I was the only one who used cheats.
"Rematch. Best two out of three."
"You are so on." So we raced again. This time, I purposely let Annabeth lead the entire way, until we were near the finish. I steered my horses so that I was right behind her. Then I had them tip Annabeth's chariot from the side. I watched as her chariot went erratic; suddenly drifting all the way to the right. Her horses went wild as the chariot took an unexpected turn. Both the chariot and the horses tipped completely. I didn't see too much after that, as I was busy winning the race.
Annabeth looked at me with a horrified expression on her face. "Now that was cheating."
I gave her the same innocent look she gave me. "I did not cheat. I simply used my horses to tip your chariot over." If I wasn't so amused, I would have shrunken away under her death stare.
"Fine, if you want to play dirty, then so be it. Bring it on Seaweed Brain."
So I did. I have to admit, in the third game there was a lot of cursing, swearing, yelling, taunting, and most of all, cheating. I did everything I could to make sure she didn't beat me, but she ended up winning anyways.
"I win." She said as she stuck her tongue out at me.
"Best three out of five." I demanded.
"Deal."
I won the next two games to win the best out of five. Annabeth's cockiness was gone now as she looked at me with determination.
"Best five out of nine." She proposed. I was going to say no, but then I saw that our friends were pretty busy. Nico and Thalia were playing a shooting game, of course, and Grover was playing one of those dancing games. He was sucking at it too. A bunch of people were crowded around him, and laughing while he was dancing to Poker Face by Lady Gaga, but he didn't care.
I finally said, "Why not?" So we played several times after that, each of us winning every other game. It seemed like only minutes before our friends came up behind us.
"Hey guys, Grover wants to go to the pet store. Are you almost done?" I'm not sure whose voice it was, because we were still in the middle of a game.
"Could you guys come back later? We're kinda busy." My chariot took a sharp right. I heard someone scoff behind me; probably Thalia.
"Fine. See you guys in a bit." I heard them leave, not that I cared. I was only focused on beating Annabeth. After many games later, I only had two quarters left.
"These are my last two. Winner takes all?"
"Sure, Seaweed Brain." I glared at her as she smirked.
"Will you stop calling me that?"
She shook her head. "Nope." I rolled my eyes. I was just about to put in the quarters, when our friends walked behind us again.
"You guys are still playing that?" Grover said as he took a bite into a churro.
"So?"
"We've been gone for over an hour. Nico and I even went into Hot Topic." Thalia and Nico raised their bags, which were probably filled with weird clothes and stuff. I couldn't believe that Annabeth and I were playing this for over an hour. It only felt like minutes to me.
"Truce?" I suggested, and I put my hand out for her to shake. She smiled a little bit.
"Sure." Right when she was about to shake my hand, I pulled it away, and stuck out my tongue
"I win!" I got out from the seat and bolted out of the arcade, knowing that she was going to kill me any second.
"Seaweed Brain!" I heard her yell. "I'm going to kill you!"
Like I said before, I wasn't very fast. So I knew I didn't have much time before she caught up to me. I ran into a few innocent shoppers here and there, and turned a corner. I didn't exactly know where I was, so I ran into the nearest store I saw, which happened to be a Victoria's Secret. Yes, I know. That was really stupid of me. The women in the store gave me confused looks as I ran inside. The smell in here made me want to gag. Also, the sight of bras and underwear made me very uncomfortable. I just hoped that Annabeth didn't find me in here. I heard footsteps of someone running and I panicked. My ADHD kicked in and told me to hide, so I hid behind a clothes rack. It happened to cover most of my body. I peeked through the clothes rack and saw a girl with converse high tops sprinting past the store. I thought I was in the clear, but of course not. These high tops backed up all of the sudden and faced me, pointing directly towards the store. They slowly made their way inside, and all of the sudden this girl stood right in front of where I was hiding. Well, crap…..
I saw bright lights, and my first instinct was to cover my face to protect myself. This person, Annabeth, found where I was hiding. I expected her to immediately start hitting me.
"Say cheese, Seaweed Brain."
"What?" I saw a flash of light. Then I looked past her and saw Nico, Grover, and Thalia who were staring at me through the window. Then they began to crack up, pointing and laughing at me. What's so funny? I wondered. Then it hit me. I wasn't just hiding behind a rack of clothes; I was hiding behind a giant rack of bras. I blushed horribly as Annabeth and my friends continued to laugh hysterically. I quickly jumped out of the bras and dusted myself off in disgust. Annabeth was still laughing really hard with her phone in her hand. She had just taken a picture of me in a rack of overly-sized bras, so I don't blame her.
"You better not send that to anyone." I threatened.
"Why not?" She answered in between breaths. Then she showed me the picture. It was even worse than I thought. There was me in the middle with a horrified expression on my face, with a bunch of colorful bras on both of my sides. I clenched my teeth and she laughed even harder. Then I remembered my picture of her earlier in the week. I smiled devilishly as I walked away from her. I got out of that place and turned to my friends who were still laughing at me.
"What's wrong Kelp Head? Didn't find a big enough size?" This just made matters worse as everyone howled with even more laughter. I clenched both of my fists and resisted every urge in my body to hit my cousin. Grover momentarily came out of his state of amusement to add,
"Maybe they didn't have a blue one he liked?" Great. This was even worse than the first time Annabeth called me Seaweed Brain. Grover and Nico were rolling around on the floor like I did earlier, and Thalia wasn't much better. She was only holding herself up by the wall of the store. I didn't know if I could be any more embarrassed. People were giving them odd stares as they walked by, but heck, they didn't care. I felt Annabeth using me as support by grabbing my shoulder, I immediately shrugged her off.
"Don't worry Seaweed Brain. This picture's only gonna get, like, fifty likes on Instagram."
"Fifty!" I exclaimed with horror.
"Maybe over a hundred if I'm lucky." She smirked at me evilly.
"Whatever. You're just mad because I beat you at your favorite game."
"No I'm not!"
"Ann, there's no need to-" She shoved me.
"Do not call me Ann."
"Annie?"
"No."
"Beth?"
"No."
"Anniebeth?" That did it. She shoves me so hard, that I fall to the ground. Everyone chuckles, but I ignore it as I swiftly get back up.
"Fine." I raise my hands in surrender. We started to walk again. Thalia begins to say,
"Nice job on getting Percy to dress up, kiddo. Now if only we could do something about that hair-"
"Hey! There is absolutely nothing wrong with my-"
"Hey, Annie. What's up?" I'm cut off an unfamiliar voice. I look in front of me, and there's Luke Castellan. He was walking our direction with another kid I've never seen before. He was a little shorter than Luke, and also a little skinnier. He was probably in the same grade as him though. He had glossy black hair and friendly brown eyes. He looked like he could have been Japanese. He was wearing black jeans, a black t-shirt, and black Nike's. Next to him, Luke was wearing a light blue shirt and navy blue jeans. What really caught my attention though were his basketball shoes. They were white, with golden wings painted on the sides of them. He walked with his thumbs in his front pockets, seeming confident. The other kid was trying to follow his lead. I saw Annabeth face brighten and blush at the same time.
"H-hey Luke."
"Hey Thals." The new kid waved to Thalia, and she waved back.
"Hey Ethan." Thalia didn't stutter like Annabeth, but I saw a small blush appear on her cheeks. I also saw Nico's eyes darken at the sight of him. I chuckled at everyone's funny reactions. Then I noticed how neat their hair was compared to mine. It looked like they had just gotten their haircuts. This made me self-conscious as I began combing my fingers through my hair, trying to matt it down. I saw Grover raise his eyebrows at me. I rolled my eyes and he just laughed.
"Well, see you Monday. Bye guys." Luke said. We waved goodbye as they walked past us. The girls looked behind them as they strode away. Nico's black eyes couldn't be any darker. Now I see what Grover was laughing about.
"So…" I began to say, "When I say Annie, I get shoved. But when he says Annie…." I give an impression of her dreamy eyes whenever she looks at him. Of course, she shoves me again.
"Shut up."
I start laughing along with everyone else. "You guys know that Annabeth has this huge crush on Luke Castellan, right?" They snickered, and Annabeth started to blush.
"Yeah, I know. No matter how much she tries to deny it." Thalia said.
"Thalia!" Annabeth yelled.
"You like him kiddo, it's so obvious."
"They would make a cute couple, wouldn't they?" Grover said.
"I think they would too, if he likes her back." Nico added on.
"I do not have a crush on Luke, you guys. I'm not going to say it again." This time, she gave everyone her death glare, and instantly their faces turned serious, except mine. I pulled out my phone, and scrolled to the adorable picture of Luke and Annabeth. His arm is around her shoulder, and she's blushing madly. He wasn't even wearing a shirt. I gave my phone to all of them, grinning like a madman. They all began to laugh again, and Annabeth elbowed me in the side.
"What are they laughing about?"
After Thalia was done laughing, she said, "Are you still going to say you don't like him, kiddo?" She turned the phone around so that Annabeth could see the picture. Her face turned completely red. After overcoming her shock, she glared at me.
"You were stalking me?!" She said with horror.
"Who said I was stalking you?" I said innocently. "It doesn't matter anyways. We're even. I'll delete my picture of you, if you delete your picture of me. Deal?" Annabeth took this into consideration.
"I think I'm gonna put, #Lukabeth. What do you guys think?" This made everyone crack up more. Annabeth glared at me again.
"Fine. Deal, Seaweed Brain. Give me your phone." We gave each other our phones and deleted our humiliating pictures. We continued to walk for a while, when Thalia wanted to go into Bob's Barber Shop, for some reason. I didn't mind this too much, because I really needed a haircut.
"Finally gonna get you're haircut, Kelp Head? It's about time." I rolled my eyes, but Thalia completely read my mind.
"I may as well. What about you?" For some reason, she began to smirk.
"Oh, something like that." I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Hey guys? We're going to bookstore across from here. We'll be back." Annabeth said. She began dragging Grover and Nico out of the shop, as they were not very enthusiastic about shopping for books. I waved at them.
"Have a lot of fun!" Nico and Grover glared at me once more before getting dragged out completely.
It only took around ten minutes to get my hair done. The hairdresser trimmed it really fast and combed it to one side. The rest of the time was spent on her talking, which kind of annoyed me. Then I sat down and waited for Thalia, who was taking forever. For some reason, they took her to the back, which made me suspicious. After what felt like hours, she finally came out. As she walked my way, I gaped at her. What did she DO?!
Thalia's haircut looked any other rebellious teenager's. Her hair was cut very short, and it was punk style. Not only that, she had blue highlights in it. I couldn't stop staring as she was finally in front of me.
"Well, what do you think Kelp-for-Brains?" Before I even had the chance to answer, our friends came back in the shop, all with the same expression I had when first I saw her.
Annabeth spoke up first. "Thalia! What did you do to your hair?!" Thalia just shrugged.
Thalia just shrugged. "I cut it, and I got highlights."
"Awesome!" Nico said as if he were a little kid. Thalia smiled at him, and he blushed.
"Your dad is going to kill you, Thals." Annabeth said as she folded her arms with disapproval.
"Eh, he'll be fine with it. And don't think I've forgotten our bet, kiddo." Annabeth looked down on the floor.
"What bet?" I asked.
"Well, Annabeth and I were captains of capture the flag this week. It was 7th versus 6th graders, and Annabeth claimed that she was going to win-"
"We almost, did." Annabeth interrupted.
"Right. Almost, but you didn't. Anyway, we made a bet that if she won, I would have to wear pink for an entire month. But if I won, she would have to dye a streak in her hair, grey." Annabeth put her face in her hands,
"Can't we let that go, Thalia? Please?" She looked up at her best friend, but Thalia showed no sympathy.
"Nope. Sorry kiddo. A bet's a bet. You might as well get it over with now." I strangely felt sorry for Annabeth. I actually thought of getting blue highlights like Thalia's, but it would be weird going around school matching her like that.
"I'll do it." I blurted out. Everyone turned to look at me.
"What?" Thalia asked, confused.
"I'll do it for you." Thalia raised her eyebrows.
"You would dye a grey streak in your hair?"
"Why not? It's pretty messed up anyways." I ruffled my hair, and gave a small smile to Annabeth, who was still as shocked as everyone else.
"Wow, your head is more filled with kelp than I thought. Alright. Go on, be the hero." Thalia started to push me away to the back, where she got her hair done. I took a deep breath as I entered. The barber was there. He was a big brute guy with giant hands, ones you really don't want touching your hair.
"Hi. I am Bob, how may I help you?" His voice was deep and intimidating, but he also sounded a little childish.
"Er, hi. Can I get a grey streak in my hair please?" Bob gave me a confused look.
"Grey streak? No man has ever asked for grey streak before."
"I want to look, um, older." It was the first thing that came to mind, but Bob seemed to believe it.
"Oh. That makes sense. Sit there, close your eyes. Do not open them until after Bob is done." I gulped and made my way over to the chair. I sat in it, and it was actually pretty comfy. I closed my eyes as I felt Bob putting something in my hair, and then I drifted off to sleep. I woke up later as I heard Bob's deep voice,
"Okay. Bob is done, you can open eyes now." I opened one eye first, and then the other. The grey streak was right in front of my bangs. It didn't look too bad, but it didn't look great either.
"Thank you, Bob." I stood up and made my way towards the door.
"No, Bob thanks you." He said. I opened the door and waited for what was to come. Thalia gave me a small smirk, as she studied the grey streak in my hair.
"Doesn't look too bad, actually. Annabeth, what do you think?" My eyes widened when I saw her. She had a bunch of grey highlights in her hair. I only had one, but she had several.
"Trying to outdo me Chase?" I managed to say. She came over to me and touched the grey streak in my hair.
"I couldn't let you do it on your own, no matter how tempting it was."
"Thanks." I smiled at her, and she smiled back.
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After a while we were finally ready to go home. Annabeth invited all of us to her apartment to hang out. Her stepbrothers were there, but they didn't bother us very much. Helen, Annabeth's stepmom, even baked us cookies. They were tasted great, but they weren't as good as my mom's blue chocolate chip cookies. Those were the best.
"Do you guys want to watch another movie?" Annabeth suggested. I opened my mouth to speak, but I was immediately cut off.
"And no, Percy. We are not watching Finding Dory." I pouted, and everyone else laughed. We finally decided on Brother Bear, Grover's personal choice. Halfway during the movie, I felt a little tired. Annabeth was sitting on the couch next to me. Grover was in his own chair, and Nico and Thalia were sitting on the floor. I tried to stay awake, but I failed as my eyes started to close on their own.
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I felt strangely comfortable as I began to wake up, I felt someone nudging me.
"Hey, Seaweed Brain, wake up." I refused to open my eyes, but this person wouldn't stop bugging me.
"Percy-" I groaned in response.
"Percy! Get up, now." Finally, I opened my eyes. I was startled to see a pair of grey ones hovering above me. Her curly blonde hair with strange highlights flowed on her shoulders. She was looking at me intently, and then I realized where I was. I was sleeping on Annabeth's lap, gods know how that happened. I was horrified, so I did the natural thing. I screamed.
"Ah!" I rolled off of her lap and landed onto the floor. "Ouch."
"Gross, Percy! You drool when you sleep." She dusted off her lap in disgust. Embarrassingly, I used my arm to wipe off the saliva on my mouth.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"It's ten."
"Ten at night?" She rolls her eyes.
"No, Barnacle Brain. It's ten in the morning, and we have to pick up my dad at the airport. So you'd better go."
"Ten in the morning?! Crap, my mom is probably flipping out. Why didn't you wake me up?"
She looked away from me and found something interesting on the floor. "Hey, I just woke up too, you know."
"Why didn't they wake us up?"
She glares at me. "They were probably too amused by you sleeping on me, Seaweed Brain." I blush uncontrollably, but so does she. I look at my phone, and there were over twenty text messages from my mom. This makes me panic even more as I quickly grab my things. I tucked the surfboard under my arm, and I waved at her.
"Bye Anniebeth!"
"Don't push it, Bed Head." This makes me smile one last time as I run out the door, despite knowing that I was going to a huge lecture when I got home.