A/N: Hello friends! We are yet another chapter closer to the Christmas one! Woohoo! Also, I remembered to update! Woohoo! Enjoy chapter 22!
The time had come. The dance that Annabeth was both dreading and looking forward to. She and her friends, including Lewis and Vincent, had decided to get ready at Annabeth's then meet everybody else at a small park near Goode to take pictures.
The girls helped each other into their dresses while the guys got dressed in another room.
"Annabeth, I still cannot get over just how amazing this dress looks on you," gushed Gabby.
"Thanks," Annabeth said softly.
"Okay, so Gabby is the make-up extraordinaire, and Kimberlee is amazing with hair," Jess explained to Annabeth.
"Well, Gabby won't have to do much; I don't want to wear make-up," Annabeth replied.
"Please, Annabeth! Bare minimum, I swear!" Gabby pleaded.
Annabeth paused and thought it over. "Fine, but no foundation. I don't want to feel any of it on my face."
Gabby squealed in delight and pushed Annabeth into her desk chair.
"Is it okay if we come in?" she heard Vincent ask. "We want to make sure Gabby didn't kill anyone with that squeal."
"Come in," Annabeth called as Gabby did who knows what to her face.
"How on earth did you convince Annabeth to wear make-up?" Lewis questioned.
"Not really sure. She must be in one of her good moods," Jess laughed.
"All done!" Gabby announced. "Your turn, Kimberlee!"
"This is going to be really quick," Kimberlee said as she examined Annabeth's head. "I'm so jealous of your hair; it's so perfectly curly!"
"I never really know what to do with it. Pulling it back has always been my number one hairstyle," Annabeth said. She was aware of pins being put into her hair.
"I know. It's such a waste of beautiful hair!" Kimberlee joked.
"Gee, Kim, let her live her life," Vincent laughed.
"Yeah, what he said," Annabeth laughed as well.
Kimberlee announced that she was done and moved on to Jess' hair.
Annabeth stood and walked over to where her mirror was. Her dress fit perfectly, and she looked good despite the fact that she was wearing a dress of all things.
Annabeth inspected her hair and make-up done by her friends. Kimberlee had pinned her hair up in a way where only a few curls hung down. She actually really liked it. The make-up was surprisingly light. Gabby had used what looked to be light gray eyeliner and light brown eye shadow. There was some blush, but she could barely tell that it was there. No lipstick, and Annabeth preferred it that way.
Annabeth turned around to see Jess standing behind her, smoothing down her dress.
"You look gorgeous," Annabeth said to her friend.
"Right back at ya. Now move so I can look at my gorgeous self," Jess joked.
Annabeth moved and walked over to the guys, who were starting to look pretty bored.
"Can we talk for a sec, Annabeth?" Vincent asked. "Privately?" She and Vincent had gotten pretty close through architecture; he was like another brother to her.
"Sure," Annabeth replied, confused. She led him to the kitchen. "What's up?"
"I haven't really told you this yet, but I'm gay. Everyone else already knows, so it never really occurred to me that you might not be able to tell."
"Thank you for telling me, but I don't understand why it had to be in private if everyone else already knows about it."
"Well, I also wanted to tell you that I think I'm in love with someone. I needed to get it off my chest."
"Wouldn't this be something you talked to Lewis, your best friend, about?"
"That's the problem. I think I'm in love with him."
"Oh. Wow. How do you plan to approach all of this?"
"I have absolutely no idea."
Annabeth hugged her friend. "You'll figure it out eventually. For tonight, just try to have a good time with your best friend."
"Okay. This felt good to finally tell someone. It's been weighing on my mind for a while," Vincent explained.
"Understandable," Annabeth replied then called to the others, "Are you all ready? We need to get to the park for pictures soon!"
"Coming!" a chorus of voices answered.
The walk to the park was uneventful. Annabeth caught Vincent sneaking looks toward Lewis and wondered how she hadn't noticed before.
They were met at the park by the rest of the guys and everyone's parents. After what felt like forever posing and smiling, they were finally all free to go to the dance.
"That was terrible," Annabeth said once they were out of the parents earshots.
"What's the matter, Wise Girl? Too much smiling for your personality?" Percy teased.
"Shut up, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said, punching him in the arm.
"Can the flirting wait just a little bit?" complained Jess. "At least wait until there is a trash can in the vicinity that I can throw up into."
"Someone's being a hypocrite," Gabby laughed. "You were flirting with Lee not five minutes ago."
"Not true!" Jess protested. Her and Lee's faces were burning a bright red.
"Stop denying your love!" Gabby exclaimed dramatically.
She was ignored by Jess and Lee while everyone else just laughed.
Finally, they came to the doors of the gym which were poorly decorated for the evenings affairs.
They quickly found an out of the way table that they could all sit at.
"Let's start dancing before everyone else. I'd rather not see people grinding when I want to dance and have a good time," Jess said, leading her friends to the dance floor.
"What do you mean?" Annabeth questioned, confused.
"Have you ever been to a school dance?" Gabby asked.
"I mean technically, yes, but school dances aren't really the most important things for me to go to," Annabeth replied.
"Okay, well imagine this; girls and guys basically dry-humping to the beat of whatever song is playing," Jess explained.
"I'm not sure I want to imagine that."
"Nobody does; trust me. Somehow the chaperones never really say anything about it. I really don't think it's appropriate for a school dance, but my opinion doesn't matter."
"So I'm assuming you guys don't," Annabeth paused, thinking of the word, "grind?"
"You would assume correctly," Kimberlee said. "It's extremely distasteful."
"Speaking of extremely distasteful," Jess said, pointing to the doors of the gym.
"Daniela and her mini army had entered the gym. Teenage girls preparing for war. That, or just trying to make some grand entrance. Annabeth just laughed.
"Let's ignore her. I'm not in the mood," Annabeth said and continued to dance.
Her friends listened and they all continued to dance and have a good time.
"Do I get a dance, Wise Girl?" a familiar voice asked.
"Why of course, Seaweed Brain. The real question is: can you even dance?" Annabeth joked as she turned to face her boyfriend.
"That hurts! If I can sword fight, who says that I can't dance?"
"I suppose sword fighting is an art of its own, almost like a dance if you do it right."
"I do it right!"
"Then why haven't you beaten me recently?"
"Because your beauty is just so distracting."
"Invalid answer. A true fighter cannot get distracted."
"Shut up."
Annabeth laughed and got on her tiptoes to kiss her boyfriend's nose.
"You're adorable," she laughed.
Eventually, they all got tired, and the dance floor was filled with hormonal teenagers, so the executive decision was made to get something to eat.
"I'm going to the bathroom. Grab me a cookie or something," Percy said to Annabeth.
"Sure," she replied and laughed as he weaved through the crowd of people in the direction of the bathroom.
Annabeth walked behind Vince and Lewis, catching the glances they stole at each other. It was adorable.
She and her friends got plates of food and sat down at their secluded table.
"Hey, um, Lewis, can we talk for a sec?" Vincent asked the boy next to him.
"Yeah, sure," Lewis replied and they both stood up and walked to a quiet corner of the gym.
"I wonder what that's about," Lee said absently.
"I bet they're going to get together," Annabeth said, smiling.
"Really?" Gabby asked. "Are you absolutely for sure?"
"Well, Vincent was talking to me earlier, and he was saying things about his feelings for Lewis," Annabeth explained.
"So he finally came out to you?" Jess asked. "Took him long enough."
"He told me, and now, if those two come back to the table as separate, single individuals, my heart might just break," Annabeth explained
"This is so exciting!" Gabby squealed. "Two perfect couples in our friend group!"
"So where's the other half of perfect couple number one?" Jess asked.
"He said that he was going to the bathroom, but I'm not sure where he is. It's been awhile," Annabeth trailed off, her heartbeat beginning to quicken.
Where is he? Is he okay? Was there a monster? The questions stirred in her mind.
"I need to go look for him," Annabeth said then quickly stood up.
"Glancing at the dance floor, she decided that was the very last place she would look if she had to.
Checking to make sure that she had her dagger, Annabeth went to the hallway where the bathrooms were.
Nobody was in the hallway, but someone came out of the men's restroom.
"By chance, is Percy Jackson in there?" Annabeth asked him.
"No, it was just me in there. Sorry," he replied then kept walking back to the gym.
The next location was outside. Looking around, she didn't see anybody at first because of the dark.
However, the obnoxious sparkle of Daniela's dress was hard to miss. Annabeth walked over just in time to see the girl in mention attach herself to a certain boy's lips.
I received a lovely comment from Itsafangirlworld that gave me the motivation to update. So thank you my lovely!
I can't really think of a QOTD, but if any of you want to ask me questions, I'd be happy to answer. Within reason of course. I don't want anybody showing up at my house xD. I'm not expecting anyone to ask me anything, but please leave a review letting me know how you like the story so far. I will also start taking requests for anything anybody wants to see happen down the road in this story.
I love you all. You are so great. And to the people who comment on every chapter, I really, really appreciate it. Just want to recognize you and give you lots of figurative hugs and kisses. xoxoxo