A/N: This one was also put out quickly because I had it almost complete when I uploaded chapter 1. From here on out, it'll take longer to release the chapters but they'll be longer overall. Enjoy. :)
Around noon, Annabeth and Percy finally walked out of Cabin Three, hand in hand. Annabeth secretly wished that no one would notice. They've walked hand in hand all the time, why would today be any different? That wish was short lived. Multiple whistles could be heard as they passed by other cabins. Annabeth just crammed her head against Percy's shoulder, him just laughing at the whole situation.
Since no one had classes today, Annabeth and Percy headed to the beach. They walked by the Amphitheater where the Apollo kids were putting on a play for those that cared enough to stop by and watch. Usually the Aphrodite kids, who ironically enough were watching themselves in their pocket sized mirrors instead of the actual act. Annabeth and Percy continued walking, past the Climbing Wall where Ares kids were arguing with the Hermes kids. Flaming spears getting tossed and evaded by both groups. Just another day at camp. Finally, they arrived at the beach. It was relatively empty. Only a few other campers were walking around, enjoying the refreshing sea breeze hitting their face and the warm sand under their feet.
One of the Apollo kids that was walking on the beach, playing a small Lyre, spotted the couple.
"Yo! Percy, Annabeth!"
"Hey Austin," Percy said. "What's up man?"
"Nothing much dude. Headed over to the Amphitheater because I'm late for the play." He notices Annabeth's shirt.
She was wearing one of Percy's shirts. Which shouldn't matter since they all wear the same orange t-shirts. But it fit her big. Percy was much bigger than her,muscular and taller, so obviously the shirt wouldn't fit her properly. So she tied the side of the shirt with a hair tie which Austin noticed.
"I see you two made up. That's great to here!" He smiled mischievously and fist bumped Percy and clapped his back as he walked by. "My man." He mumbled under his breath to Percy but Annabeth heard him too.
Annabeth rolled her eyes and stormed off. Men could be such pig sometimes.
"Hey! Slow down," Percy jogged after her, wrapping an arm over her shoulders. "Why are you mad?" He asked chuckling.
Annabeth shrugged his arm off of her and kept walking. He caught up to her again. He grabbed her wrist and spun her around, holding her still by her hips.
"We were just playing, babe." Percy said, still laughing. "Besides, can't I be happy for being blessed with such a beautiful girl?"
Annabeth stared at him clearly not pleased. Arms on her hips. "It's one thing to be happy about that and another to be a pervert with other male counterparts.
Percy gave her a pouting face with the best of his ability. He couldn't help but laugh at the situation.
"You can't even give me a serious face right now, Perseus." She rolled her eyes.
Percy gave her a more believable pouting face this time around. It worked because she cave almost immediately.
"That's so not fair." Annabeth said, cracking a smile.
Percy returned a huge smile and carried her up in the air.
"Percy! Put me down!"
Percy was carrying Annabeth like in one of those romance movie scenes. The setting was typical, the beach. Percy had her in the air, holding her up by her hips. The upper part of her body was slightly bent towards him, her hair almost covering his face. Her legs were pressed against his stomach in fear that he would drop her. Percy wouldn't, but Annabeth couldn't take any chances. He was too unpredictable.
Percy lowered her just enough so that their noses could touch.
"Love you," Percy said. His goofy charming smile mesmerizing her by the second.
"Love you too," she replied, not actually being mad at him. Just last year, she noticed that he was more of a romantic than she thought. Little things like her pretending to be angry just so that he could go after her, he enjoyed a lot. And she enjoyed doing it too. She liked her man having a soft side away from the tough guy side he's shown and proven during battles and even the wars.
Percy lowered her even more until their lips met. "Common, let's go sit somewhere."
They spent the next two hours at the beach. They just sat in the sand, Annabeth between Percy's legs, Percy hugging her. The slight breeze kept them cool and made their time with each other feel more comfortable. Annabeth did most of the talking. She caught Percy up with everything he missed while he was gone. It occurred to Annabeth that her story sounded a lot more depressing than she wanted, but Percy didn't seem to care. He listened intentively giving her reassuring nods every so often.
The rest of the of the day went by quick.
They ate dinner at the beach as per Percy's request and by the time you knew it, it was time for Capture the Flag.
Tonight was a special game. Two teams. Red and Blue. 9 campers on each team. However, only camp counselors. Nico even showed up to participate which was surprising since Annabeth said he left the night before.
Chiron chose the teams and as per usual, Percy got separated from Annabeth. Seven years, and they've only been paired up together five times, if that. But if that meant going easy on her just because she was his girlfriend, you would be sadly mistaken. Annabeth hated losing, as did he, so there was always one ending up salty afterwards.
Percy got placed on the red team. Alongside Holly Victor from Cabin 17 (Nike), Lou Ellen from Cabin 20 (Hecate), Jason Grace from Cabin 1 (Zeus), Will Solace from Cabin 7 (Apollo), Miranda Gardiner from Cabin 3 (Demeter), Clovis from Cabin 15 (Hypnos), Connor Stoll from Cabin 11 (Hermes), and Butch from Cabin 14 (Iris).
The blue team consisted of Annabeth Chase from Cabin 6 (Athena), Piper McLean from Cabin 10 (Aphrodite), Laurel Victor from Cabin 17 (Nike), Travis Stoll from Cabin 11 (Hermes), Pollux from Cabin 12 (Dionysus), Katie Gardner from Cabin 4 (Demeter), Leo Valdez from Cabin 9 (Hephaestus), Sherman Yang from Cabin 5 (Ares) and Nico di Angelo from Cabin 13 (Hades).
Safe to say, it was an automatic win. Jason and I were all that we needed to win. He could fly, scout the other team over the trees, and I could surround the flag that was near the creek, with water. But no, that didn't happen.
Right of the bat, we were arguing. Jason wanted to stand guard because his foot was still sore from a couple of days ago. Annabeth said that it was the funniest thing she saw all week. Something about Jason being chased by miniature metallic cockroaches on fire which led to him tripping and twisting his ankle. If that was true, I agree, pretty fucking funny.
I agreed to Jason staying on guard-even though I knew he was bullshitting me. Injuries never last here, not with nectar, but whatever- and we started making our plan before the horn blew.
The plan was as follows: Jason would be on guard, protecting the flag. Maybe the most important job on the team. I emphasize that for a particular reason. VERY IMPORTANT. If the other team can't pass Jason, then we should not have a problem winning this game.
Next up we have Will Solace, Connor Stoll, Miranda Gardiner and Lou Ellen in that exact order. They were the defense of the team. They were to make a half circle about 50 meters into the woods. Will's job was to snipe anyone he saw on sight with his bow and arrow. Connor's job was to plant stink bombs everywhere where a route to the flag could be possible. If the bombs were to go off, the defense could turn their attention and deal with the culprits. Once activated, Connor would replace the bombs as needed. Miranda's job was to make other types of traps. Particularly those involving tree branches swooping down and catching whoever came in close proximity. Lou had a similar job to Connor but his bombs were just black smoke. They would blind the enemy enough for Lou to call for backup if need be.
Upper defense were Butch and Clovis. Clovis would play the role of bait. Since everyone at the camp expects him to sleep all day, and since we knew he wouldn't do much to begin with, we decided that this was perfect for him. The plan for him is to distract the opposite team long enough for Butch to communicate with the defensive line. Once either of the four gets his message, Butch would spring into action and fight off whoever he could.
Last but not least, the offense. Holly Victor and myself. She was a child of Nike, Goddess of speed, strength and victory, so of course I had her with me in the front lines. I could play bait while she jetted past the offense and even defense.
The plan was solid. Really solid. I started to question if I wasn't a son of Athena after this master plan. But that was short lived.
Remember when I said that Jason's role was the MOST IMPORTANT? 'Cause I sure do. Everyone on the team did so too, except for Jason. Everything started horribly. The second the horn blew, Clovis was nowhere to be seen. Probably sleeping behind some tree. Will and Connor started arguing because if the bombs exploded, they would blow the view of Will's shot. Time was wasting so I left them to deal with it themselves and Holly and myself headed into action.
We were halfway through the blue team's side of the woods and we hadn't encountered a single person.
"Keep an eye out," I told Holly. "It's more quiet than usual."
"Y-" Holly was gone.
"Holly?" I called out. Where did she head off to? You can't be serious right now…
A twig could be heard snapping. Percy turned to the sound but saw nothing. He twisted the sword in his hand nervous. Nothing good could come out from this. Holly just disappearing out of nowhere? Please.
Then it happened. Five bright flashes of light went off around him. They went off too quickly for Percy to react. He was blinded almost immediately. Plant roots started coming out of the ground; grape vines. They were twisting around Percy's legs, locking him in place, not being able to move. He could cut them off, but that would risk him losing both legs. He'd rather not. Then he got the answer as to what happened to Holly.
From the ground, six patches of tree foliage rose from the ground. It was the enemy team. Most of them anyways, and they were surrounding me. Six blurred shapes, staring at me, weapons drawn. My ears were still ringing and my vision hadn't come back fully just yet. The only blonde on the team said some orders and two ran towards the direction he came from. Of course that was Annabeth. My vision started to clear. She approached me with a smile on her face. I noticed Travis Stoll (explains the flash bangs), Pollux (explains the grape vines keeping me from moving) and Katie Gardiner (explains the camouflage) behind Annabeth, with Holly wrapped with grape vines and tree branches, mounted against a tree. Like a victim of a spider. Their weapons ready if I were to pull something.
"I'm in quite a pickle, aren't I," Percy said to himself.
Annabeth smiled with confidence. "I applaud your spirit, Percy."
"Thanks. I applaud your strategy. Expected nothing less."
Percy prayed to the Goddess of Agriculture. Um, Demeter, please don't kill me for the sin that I'm about to commit.
"I also applaud the rest of you," Percy stared at the other three that were on guard. "You really got me. That camouflage was nice. Never expected that. And those flash bangs, killer! Bravo Travis."
"Damn right!" Travis gloated. They're my latest invention. I gotta prank those Ares kids next t-"
"Zip it, Travis," Annabeth ordered. "He's trying to make you lower your guard. All of you, stay alerted. It shouldn't be much longer before this victory is ours."
"Who else ran towards our flag?" Percy asked. "Laurel I assume? We thought of the same thing. I guess Piper was the other since you wouldn't be careless enough to leave her on defense. Good luck getting past our double defensive line though."
"We'll just have to wait and see. You do know that if Piper reaches the flag, which is probably guarded by Jason, I mean, I would do the same thing, it's game over for you guys. Her charmspeak is levels beyond a normal Aphrodite kids' that not even her boyfriend, Jason, can stand a chance against it."
Crap! Percy thought. How didn't he think of that? Jason couldn't possibly fall for that, could he? Percy had no time to hope that were true. He sprung into action.
Concentrating, Percy made the water of the grape vines leave the plants, causing them to rot and fall loose.
He rolled to the side as Annabeth's shield swung towards his direction. Katie and Pollux started to advance but Annabeth said, "No! You don't stand a chance. Go after Piper and Laurel and provide backup! I can hold him off just long enough. Travis, you got any more flash bangs?"
"No, but I can make them pretty quickly now!"
"Hurry!" Annabeth ordered and Travis ran back to their side of the woods.
"On it!"
Annabeth and Percy circled each other.
"It's been awhile since we sparred. You sure you're up for it?" Percy asked.
Annabeth scoffed. "I should be asking you that. I've been training, I don't know about you."
"Ouch. That kind of stung, not gonna lie," Percy admitted with a sly smile. "Let's see how much better you've gotten."
"Or how much you fell off!" Annabeth said as she lunged towards him. Her blade making contact with Percy's shield more than once. She was fast, Percy could give her that. And it was evident that she had been improving on her form as well.
"Not bad," Percy said. "But-" He sidestepped one of her swings and just like that, he was behind her, his right arm around her neck. "-Better luck next time." He gave her a quick kiss on her cheek.
The horn blew at that moment, signaling the game was over. Percy couldn't believe it. Did they really just lose. They had a powerhouse of a team with Jason and himself. Did they get too cocky?
"Same to you," Annabeth replied, shrugging herself away from his grasp. She sheathed her blade and began to remove her shield. "You should have known that power doesn't mean an automatic win, Perce."
Percy was dumbfounded. He still couldn't process the loss. How did they lose? Then it clicked. Piper. She must have gotten to Jason. Did that moron really get charmspoken to?
Turn out that that's exactly what happened.
I was pretty annoyed at the result. Who wouldn't? Annabeth would not stop talking about it all the way back to our cabins. She kept replaying the moment I thought I had the advantage over her team. She found it hysterical, so I pinched the small amount of belly fat that she had. She punched my arm in return.
"You jerk," she said, "that hurt!"
"You punch harder than me!" Percy countered, rubbing his arm.
"Keep it up and we'll see how much stronger I can punch!" She playfully nudged him with her shoulder.
"I dare you!" Percy said, picking her up and carrying her on her shoulder, spinning her around.
"Percy!" She shrieked. "Put me down, jerk!" She struggled, punching Percy on the back. She wasn't hitting him seriously, but she should have because that boy would not stop laughing.
Finally, Percy put her down.
"Geez, Seaweed Brain, I'm wearing short shorts here." Annabeth said flushed, looking around.
"I know," Percy smirked. "You look hot."
Annabeth rolled her eyes in response.
"Gross," someone said behind them.
They turned around to spot Drew.
"Not you, Perce. Although, are you sure you're not the guy in the relationship, Annabeth?"
Percy could see Annabeth giving Drew a death stare. He tried not to laugh. Annabeth always looked cute, even when she was mad to the point of strangling someone to death.
"Anyways," Drew continued. "A couple of us are planning a camping trip tomorrow."
"Why? We literally live in a camp," Annabeth replied.
"Thanks for noticing, sherlock." Drew said sarcastically.
"My dad has a cabin deep in the woods. No service, no magic, no weapons allowed, but lots of booze. Totally disconnected from the world. Which means, no parental figures, including Chiron. We'd be able to do whatever we'd want. And, a great view of a large lake, which I'm sure appeals to Percy. "
"And why are you telling us?" Annabeth asked.
"Well I'm telling Percy, not really you."
Percy would step in right about now, but Annabeth hated when he fought her battles so he just watched, finding this banter to be great entertainment.
"So, Percy, you up for it?" Drew asked with a smile.
He exchanged looks with her and Annabeth, back and forth.
Annabeth looked beyond annoyed at both him and Drew. At Drew, for being Drew, and at him for even entertaining the idea.
"Uh… Who's going?" Percy asked.
Drew's eyes lit up. In her mind, even if it was a slight chance, maybe Percy would go and Annabeth wouldn't. That'd be splendid.
"Will, Holly, Laurel, Sherman, Miranda, Katie and the Stolls."
"Sounds fun." Percy said, not noticing how screwed he'd be with Annabeth later on.
Drew shone a bright smile and skipped back to her cabin.
Annabeth, had already stormed off back to Percy's cabin.
Percy opened the door to his cabin and Annabeth was grabbing her things. She still hadn't gather her things from the previous night and that's what she was doing now.
"On a scale of Mount Olympus to the Underworld, how upset at me are you right about now?" Percy asked, hoping he wouldn't get yelled at.
"I'm ignoring you," Annabeth muttered.
"You sure? Cause you just replied."
"Ignoring you!" Annabeth said louder.
"Now you're just acting like a child," Percy scratched the back of his head, cracking a smile.
Annabeth turned to him, "Don't you even start. How could you even say yes to Drew? We hate her Percy, and we're supposed to go on a camping trip with her?"
"It sounds fun!," Percy said in his defense.
"Well have fun with Drew. I'm not going."
Annabeth had gathered all her things and was on her way to the door when Percy got in her way. He grabbed her hips and pulled her closer. "Common. Doesn't it sound fun? You and me, alone… away from Chiron… We could have a lot of fun." Percy said with a mischievous smile.
Annabeth slapped his chest. "Care to say it any louder?" Her face was bright red, looking around as if someone was hiding around a corner, listening in on them.
"What? Not like we haven't had sex before."
"I know! But still…" She sighed. "It's something special between the two of us, we don't have to share it with everyone. And if we're in a cabin, the rooms are more than likely going to be connected so, no, think again."
"Fine," Percy gave in. "I guess we'll just have to wait, again. I'm sure it isn't a problem for you though. It's not like you were completely we-" Annabeth slapped his chest again, her face even redder.
Annabeth hated when he did that. He knew that she was shy when it came to that kind of stuff and he would always use that to his advantage. What a jerk. If she didn't love him so much, she'd stab him with her knife right about now.
"Peer pressure is wrong, you know." That's all Annabeth could muster in return, rolling her eyes.
Percy kissed her. "We can stay here if you really don't want to go. I hear the public toilets aren't as bad as we thought they were."
A shocked expression fell over Annabeth. Chiron. He must have heard about them sleeping in the same cabin last night. He gave them the stink eye during Capture the Flag, but he didn't say anything. Unless she was reading him wrong, but that almost never happened. If he did know, they'd be screwed tomorrow.
"You know what?" Annabeth said. "Camping sounds like a great idea."
"Right? The lake thing convinced me."
"However," Annabeth interrupted, "If Drew steps out of line at any point, I will stranger her neck. So be ready to hold me back."
She made it sound like a joke but Percy knew she wasn't joking in the slightest.
A/N: Still trying the multiple POVs this chapter. Chapter 3 might be the last one to be done in that manner. We'll see.