Chapter Nineteen

Annabeth

I laugh when Percy insists on buying cookies for the trip, rolling my eyes at his antics and trying to keep a stern expression, but can't help it when he practically leaps towards them with a wild grin on his face: before jokingly dunking the package into the cart. A middle-aged woman shoots a dirty look in our direction, but I really don't care, Percy is definitely one of those people who you have to get used to, and I think I've gotten used to the majority of his quirks by now.

"Geez Percy, you're attracting glares." I complain, but my smile gives me away. He grins a sloppy, lopsided grin, and I bite my lip in a sad attempt to stop myself from smiling like a lovesick twelve-year-old. I think he knows what I'm thinking though, as he grabs a case of waters and slides it on the bottom shelf of the cart.

It's so good to be out of school for a while, and just avoid all the frustrating chatter. The whole school is talking about the Greece trip, even my father's gushing about it. I'm never going to tell him that I'm not going, it's not like he'd care anyway. He's far too involved with his work now to care about my life.

With a sigh, I push the cart forward, gesturing for Percy to come with me. I head down the aisle, tossing a box of crackers into the cart. Percy grins at me again, his eyes twinkling dangerously. It's not the same as when Luke's eyes twinkle, I always get a great deal nervous when that happens, Percy's twinkle just makes me want to grin and shake my head at the same time.

"When I was little, I used to try to ride the carts around," He smiles and eyes the cart as if he's considering doing it. Feeling my eyes widening, I shake my head quickly. He laughs loudly, earning more glares from our fellow shoppers. "Did you really think I was going to try it now?" I blush, Percy may act immature, but there's no way he's that immature, hopefully. He glances over his shoulder
and eyes an unattended cart. "Now I'm tempted." Catching his comment, which I'm sure I wasn't meant to hear, I grab his arm and drag him away from the aisle.

"You're going to get us in trouble." I hiss; he just grins at me. Trouble seems to follow him like a dog. Unfortunately, I've been spending a lot of time with him, and so my probability of getting into trouble is increasing rapidly. I glance at him out of the corner of my eye, as he brushes his hair out of his face, eh a little trouble never hurt anyone.

Percy

Annabeth's annoyed with me, but that just seems typical lately. I swear to god, she considered strangling me when I asked why she's planning on bringing books, of all things, along with her. Personally, I don't see the purpose of lugging around bundles of paper when she can pack something useful, like food for instance. She didn't see my point of view. At the moment, we're sitting in Greek. Annabeth's eyeing my seat a little wistfully and I raise an eyebrow at her.

"Um…. Annabeth, what are you looking at?" I wonder, a little uncomfortable. She blushes bright red, not "Luke just walked into a room" red, but pretty darn close. She stutters for a moment, before Ms. Olsen calls the class to attention, and begins lecturing on the imperfect tense. Personally, I can't focus on a word that comes out of her mouth. With my ADHD, it's hard for me to focus on a daily basis, but with the Greece trip, and our departure so close, I can't even attempt to listen to my teachers. I glance over at Annabeth, whose doing a bit better than I am at pretending to pay attention, but not by much. She's nodding at Ms. Olsen, but scribbling a note under her desk at the same time. I glance away to pretend I'm paying attention, and feel a hand on my thigh, my eyes widen and I snap to Annabeth. In a moment, her hand is gone, and I look down at the note, resting on my leg. I swallow, trying to get the thought of Annabeth's hand on my thigh out of my head. Still dazed, I pick up the slip of paper, and try to decipher the words.

"I used to sit there, almost every single class. You stole my seat on your first day." I breathe a sigh of relief when I realize its' just a note, and she's not trying to flirt with me, not that I wouldn't um… uh… never mind. I almost laugh when I finish. Only Annabeth would be ticked because I stole her seat in the front row. I can't decide if it's hilarious or endearing: probably both.

At this point, we're ready to go. The money is stashed away, and Annabeth plans on getting a little bit more from her parents if she can. The food and supplies are bought and Malcolm has three names for us to investigate. Unfortunately we had to have a large age range because we don't know exactly how old my mom was when she met him, and how old he was at the time. I wanted to just use the ones who were around my mom's age, but Annabeth gave me a forty minute lecture on why I was wrong for even considering that. Eventually I just nodded and agreed. It's really not worth it to argue with her.

Malcolm's been surprisingly accommodating. He hasn't asked about the trip, or anything really. Grover's kind of the opposite, I explained everything to him. He too has been surprisingly understanding about the situation. I think that's just his nature, but I can't picture him and Annabeth in trouble: they're both way too goody two shoes. I might be able to see Luke on the run, but it's still a crazy image. Annabeth is acting like I'm the naïve one, everywhere we go, she's rolling her eyes at me. Come on Annabeth, I'm not that stupid, promise. Okay maybe not promise, hopefully is probably a better choice of words. Let's hope I prove her wrong in the long run.