Chapter Sixteen
Annabeth
I stood with my hands in the pockets of my sweatshirt, letting the chilly wind whip through my hair and nip at the tip of my nose. Percy's not here yet, and I can't help but cross my arms over my chest and jut one hip. A very scary stance on any woman: especially when you're late. Percy finally appears at the edge of the park, and timidly steps towards me.
"Hey?" He calls out, almost like a question. I roll my eyes and present the packet of sheets that Malcolm printed out, and then promptly deleted under my diligent eye. Percy scrambles closer and follows me to the park bench. I hold it between us and anxiously tuck a stray curl behind my ear. The teenage girl in me is refusing to let me forget for even a moment that a very attractive teenage boy is a mere inches away from me. I roughly shove those thoughts aside.
Percy flips the page over: scanning through the list of names. There are about three hundred people who have the name Perseus James in America; about half of them have changed their names and then about a quarter are in the right age group. Percy finally flips to the last page, glancing through the hometowns and current addresses, it really is quite scary when you think about all the information Malcolm can pull off the web.
"I keep thinking that I should get like an electric shock or something when I read the right name." He mutters and I nod, getting it, even though I can't really get it. My mother's dead, she'll always be dead, and there's no way I can find her, not like Percy can find her. Percy finally sets the packet of papers aside, and faces me.
"Why are you helping me?" He wonders, tilting his head, and looking down at me with those bright green eyes that are doing funny things to my thought processes. I swallow anxiously, and tuck a stubborn curl of hair behind my ear.
"Who else is going to do it?" I retort, picking up the packet and scanning the names again. "Tell me, did you find out where your mom could've met him?" I ask, knowing I'm changing the subject to avoid answering.
"Paxton Prep, Idaho, and that's not an answer, Annabeth." He reminds me, skimming his eyes over the high schools listed. He discards the first sheet and hesitates on the second, squinting at the words, his dyslexia clearly acting up. I peek around him, and highlight the first name, indicating that they went to Paxton Prep. Flipping to the next page, I'm about to highlight it, before I realize this Perseus James is eighty-nine years old, and unless something very bizarre happened, he's not Percy's father. "Annabeth…." His voice is low, and I finally realize he's not going to let this go.
"I've never left Remington, okay? I just want to get out of here. It doesn't have anything to do with you." I admit, really not wanting to open up to Percy, but knowing I don't have much of an option.
"Oh," Percy mutters and I roll my eyes, he just has a way with words, doesn't he? I pick up the next piece of paper and highlight another name, while Percy continues, coming up empty. "I would never have thought that there were this many poor suckers stuck with my name." He grumbles, staring at his paper again.
"Plenty of people are Greek Mythology fanatics." I comment, flipping the page. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Percy's hand freeze.
"Greek Mythology fanatics?" His tone is skeptical, like he can't believe I just said that. I feel my face blush but I focus on the words in front of me, which are suddenly square dancing all over the page.
"Yeah, Perseus, the son of Zeus, who defeated Medusa" I explain, unable to stop the random facts, I really need to knock that off. Too much blurting of random trivia, that no one really cares about, is not attractive. Percy grins.
"I know who he is… vaguely… I'm just surprised that people, other than you of course, are actually fanatics about it," I know he's teasing but I still blush. Skimming over the names again, I realize I had missed the fact that one of the "possibles" was eighteen, oops.
"I can't imagine that many possibilities in the age frame anyways and going to her school, I mean what are the odds?" He shrugs and grabs his half of the pages back."Then again, I thought there would be all of three Perseus James's in the country." He grumbles, going back to scanning the pages. Just for a moment, I stop and look at him. He's tall, but not a giant, muscular, but not a body builder or anything like that. Not to mention, I love those green eyes and could spend hours running my fingers through his hair, that very, very sexy hair.
"You okay Annabeth?" He suddenly blurts, and I realize I've been starng and he's raising an eyebrow at me. I swallow and nod, before picking up the papers and shoving my daydreams away.
…
Grover looks at me like I'm nuts.
"I'm not going on the Greece trip." I repeat and I swear his eyes actually bulge out of his head. He reaches up and lays the back of his hand on my forehead as if checking for a fever. His face furrow when he realizes I'm not sick.
"Are you feeling okay?" He wonders, and I swat his hand away, just like I did when I was little. "There is no way that Annabeth Chase is even considering not going on the Greece trip." He continues, give me a look that clearly says I need to explain myself.
"I'm not going, but don't mention it to the parents." I warn, before closing my locker and hearing Grover sigh. He pinches the bridge of his nose, and shakes his crazy curls around.
"What are you planning, and why do I get the feeling that I'm not going on the Greece trip either?" He wonders, shifting his book in his arm.
"I'll tell you later, just meet me afterschool."I promise, before walking off to gym. I can practically feel Grover's gaping gaze from down the hall.