We also spent some time organizing the party, but there was only so much we could prepare since only half of those having their birthday celebrated were actually there, so planning was difficult. Considering how long and how strong our relationship was, I had surprisingly little knowledge of what Annabeth did in her free time when she was not at camp. At around seven, the phone rang. My mom picked it up. "Sally Jackson here. Oh hi Annabeth. Wait, I'll give you Percy." She handed me the phone. "What's up wise girl? I've missed you." "Do you ever not miss me? Even when I only leave for five minutes to go to the bathroom you do. But I missed you too seaweed brain. I was calling because I wanted to come over now. Your mom allowed that, right?" "Of course. You're pretty much family at this point. I'll be in the water in about ten minutes. Then I'll be able to get you here. Just go in the sound yourself in like ten minutes. I'll see you then." "See you then, bye" She hung up and I turned to my mom. "I'll just get Annabeth real quick and then I'll be back. Twenty minutes maybe. She nodded and I walked out the door.
As soon as I reached the east river and jumped in, I became aware of everything that was touching it. After two more minutes, that list was expanded by a certain daughter of Athena. Controlling the currents from over fifty kilometers away wasn't easy, but I still managed to pull Annabeth towards me. It only took her another two minutes to reach me, which was probably really fast, like faster-than-the-speed-of-sound kind of fast, but I'll leave the exact (and rough) maths to Annabeth. For some reason she enjoys that. But now, it was time for Annabeth to enjoy being with me, which she gladly did while I got both of us to shore. "And, how was I? Was it fast?" "You could call it that. I heard something that might have been a supersonic boom." "Well, I just couldn't wait to see you again. Want me to dry you up?" She nodded and so I did. "First my mom was worried about what a freshly reunited couple might be doing in her house, but then she remembered that-" "I'm ace. Right?" "Correct. How do you always know what I'm gonna say?" "I don't always know. Only when your statement makes sense and is grounded in logic in fact, because whatever conclusion you're about to state, I've drawn it before you." "Oh, okay" "So, your mom allowed it because I'm ace. I mean, technically I am on the ace spectrum, just not in the way she thinks." "Yes, that pretty much sums it up." We had reached the entrance to my house and I rang the doorbell. How did we get here so fast? It felt like Annabeth and I had only been talking for thirty seconds. I guess time flies when you're with someone you love, which I definitely was. "Looks like we cannot speak freely from now on. Mrs. Jackson is always listening" Annabeth said, sounding like a bad spy movie." Paul opened the door. "We'll have to rely on a secret code" I answered, having now switched to ancient Greek. This worked great as both a way to communicate secretly and one to confuse Paul. I switched back to English. "Hi there. I just told Annabeth that you and mom won't be able to understand us if we talk in ancient Greek." "Whyever you would want that. Anyways, hi Annabeth. We were just about to have dinner and Sally found out that you can't make blue cheese with food coloring. It ended up green." "I don't think I'll ever understand what the Jacksons like so much about blue food. Wasn't that something about smelly Gabe?" "Correct, he said blue food wasn't a thing, so we proved him wrong" "But Gabe died four years ago, you don't need to prove anything now" "Yes we do" Sally shouted from the kitchen. "Now come here, dinner's getting cold.
Annabeth
With that discussion temporarily out of the way, I finally went inside (So far Percy and I had been standing outside) and looked around. Not much had changed since the last time I had been here, which wasn't surprising, given that that last time was only two weeks ago. Well, technically 13 days, but who cares about such details? That's right, I do. I also noticed that while it might not be the first time I spent the night here, it was the first time I'd do so while Percy was also there. At least in the time since we officially got together. We all went to the kitchen and had dinner. Paul hadn't lied, the cheese was actually green. Once we finished, I decided to tell everyone. "Percy, did you watch the movie I told you about?" I asked. Not that I doubted it, watching a movie was far below the threshold for what he'd do for me. I just asked to change divert the conversation to that subject. Instead of Percy, his mom answered. "We watched it yesterday. It was a bit strange, with the different people in this person's head. I thought you'd be more into movies that are closer to reality." Now was the moment of truth. "Actually, that movie is, apart from some misconceptions, reality. In fact, it is my reality. I have DID." A moment of silence. "Well, suspected DID. I don't have any official diagnosis, and the closest thing to therapy that I've had was a five minute conversation with Piper about my symptoms, which also led to her unofficially diagnosing me with DID."
It was done. Sally and Paul knew. It took them about a minute to process that information. Paul was the first to speak. "If you think about it, it's not even that surprising. When I watched the movie, I thought something like 'If this were real, if trauma could really do such a thing' which I now know it can 'like half of all demigods would have it' and now I'm here learning it's real, from a demigod. It would be funny if the source of this disorder wasn't so tragic." Sally continued "So, this is real now. I never would have thought. But then again, I haven't heard of this until yesterday evening. Sorry if this is too personal, but what alters do you have?" I thought about it. Was this too personal. For just anyone, of course it was, but this was Sally. I could trust her. She might not be by mother, only potential future mother in law, to say it in Paul's words, but she was sort of like a second mom for me. "So far I know of three, excluding myself. The first one I found out about seventeen days ago, just before Gaia woke up. He helped me with a flashback I was having. His voice was this strange mix of Percy and Thalia, no idea why." "Maybe Thalia and I give you a feeling of safety." Percy suggested. He was right. At the moment, I didn't really feel safer with Thalia, considering that I was the older one now by over a year, but in the past, when we were on our way to camp, she had been almost twice as old as me and had totally made me feel safer. And Percy still did. "Makes sense"
"So, the next one we found out about was actually a child" I looked at Percy, letting him explain. "She was so dam cute. It was evening, we were already in bed, and then Annabeth came to my door and wanted to be let in. But she sounded like seven. And acted like seven. She told me she was scared and that monsters attacked her. We ended up just cuddling until she calmed down and then she spent the night in my place. So in short, seven and cute as Hades. I assume you'll do the next one?"
"Right. So for the last one, we actually know his name. He's called Chris and holds the trauma from down there. And he seems to like the piña coladas song, that's what played in the elevator. I don't think this one ever actually fronted. Wait, yes he did. He once came out at night to write me a note. That's pretty much the only time he was active in the outside world. I think that's everyone we know of so far."
"So, what else is new?" Paul asked. "Well, there's one thing. I have a cat now. He's part skeleton. Did Percy ever tell you about what happened at the the Smithsonian? It was one of them. I decided to name him small Damasen" "And I changed that to lil dam" Percy interrupted "after his brother, small Bob. He's currently being taken care of by my siblings. I told them not to anger him, because he might be able to transform into a full size skeleton saber tooth tiger. I just hope I didn't kill anyone by leaving him at camp." Sally looked at the clock. "Oh, 8 already. Paul and I still have a lot to prepare for your birthday, so could you maybe go up to Percy's room?" I randomly had a stupid idea. Stupid by my standards, by seaweed brain standards it would still have been genius. "I suppose we could do that." I said to Percy and gave him a wink. "Well, if you insist" Following another random impulse (Or was it a continuation of the first one) I asked "Do you have… protection?" I quickly looked at my wrist. Sally and Paul looked really confused, but Percy just responded with "Sure, I'll get it" and ran into his room, leaving a very awkward silence at the table. All I could do was to subtly show off the black ring on my middle finger. After a minute or so, Percy returned with the watch Tyson had made for him. "I got protection" he exclaimed and, with the press of a button, expanded a large shield. "I don't know why I'd need that to go into my room, but I've learned not to question your decisions". "So, you got your protection, now, can you go to Percy's room and do whatever aces do while Paul and I prepare your party." Neither of us dared to disobey, so we went up to Percy's room.
Once there, Percy started laughing. "What kind of a move was that?" "I don't know, sometimes I do stuff without thinking. That's definitely Piper's fault." "So, what are we gonna do now?" We could play pretend, except we pretend that we don't experience epic adventures and just live normal lives." I half-jokingly suggested. The half that wasn't joking probably came from Annie being close to front." "I haven't heard someone suggest pretend since I was like twelve years old." Yeah, I'm feeling a bit young at the moment. There's definitely a little nearby." "If you say someone is nearby, is there like an actual place in your brain?" "Not really, close to front means metaphorical distance. Though I really have no idea, I've never notfronted without blacking out, so I could totally have a world with physical-ish places in my brain." We actually did end up playing a bit of pretend, but stopped after Percy's statement that he'd study surfing almost triggered a flashback. I have no idea how that was related to trauma. Percy seemed to know where the connection was, but deemed it safer not to tell me. It probably was. When your brain decides to put up amnesiac walls between you and your trauma, circumventing them was probably not wise. All he did was try to avoid the flashback by reassuring me that I was safe, which he did just in time. Once I was stable again, we noticed it was almost eleven. We both put on PJs( I did it in the bathroom, Percy in his room) and brushed our teeth. Then we went to sleep. In the same bed, because that's what aces do.
Percy turned off the light and everything turned pitch black. Now, I wasn't scared of the dark, but I wasn't exactly fond of it either. "Percy?" I asked. "Yes" "Can you uncap riptide? I'd rather have a bit of light" "Sure" I heard the familiar Shink as his sword extended, illuminating the room. That's what I love about him (among many other things). Another boy might have teased his girlfriend for being scared of the dark, but Percy just accepted what I needed without question. With the room now slightly illuminated and Percy by my side I was asleep in only a few minutes. And I know people Say light prevents you from falling asleep, but that mostly applies to blue light, since it tricks our body to thinking that the day isn't over and causes the production of hormones that keep you awake. Riptide's glow on the other hand is an orange to brown color, which shows more similarity to that of a sunset. This has the opposite effect of blue light, in that it makes your body think it's almost night time, so it produces melatonin, allowing you to sleep. That was science hour with Annabeth, and now it's time for me to sleep.
Here's the next chapter, only seven days late this time (the last one was 10). Looks like Annabeth is doing a great job at keeping her lack of asexuality a secret. Oh, never mind, it was just an ace joke. And do you know who makes those jokes? That's right, asexuals who definitely did not just develop attraction to someone, so I guess she saved herself with that one. Also, Annabeth making it very clear she's ace despite it not really being true may or may not become a theme here. See you in the next chapter.