I politely refuse adoption
Apparently, Annabeth had found out before me because she'd gone to get an outfit for the day from Dr. Annabeth. The tapestry I hadn't paid attention to in what I thought was just Percy's bedroom yesterday? Yeah, apparently it was an original done by the master weaver herself, Arachne, and it was a spider-silk original masterpiece of Percy and Dr. Annabeth kissing at the bottom of the lake at Camp Half-Blood. I couldn't believe Dr. Annabeth could stand to have spider silk in her personal bedroom at first, but she spoke of vanquishing Arachne as a personal accomplishment, though she wrinkled her nose to discuss spiders.
So Annabeth had realized the situation about ten minutes before me. She'd even seen Dr. Annabeth's ring – a sparkly white rock that reminded me of the chandelier in the entrance hall. Percy had a gold band that he said was Imperial Gold.
Percy turned out to be just as oblivious as I was. "Oh!" he said. "That's why you were confused about Annabeth and I living together! No, I see. If we were just friends, that would be weird."
"We would not have stayed just friends living here all alone," Dr. Annabeth said bluntly. "It would have become a last-person-on-earth scenario." Percy made a face at this.
"That's why you live here!" I realized. "Annabeth was wondering why the Gods would banish you to the same place!"
Dr. Annabeth gave this barely-there smile. "My mother stepped in on our behalf," she explained. Then, glancing over my shoulder, she asked, "Grover, why didn't you tell them?"
"In my defense, there's a lot to explain. And we were in Manhattan for a bunch of the time. Percy didn't know who his dad was, or that his mom was still alive. And it's hard to summarize all you've done-"
"So yes, Percy and I are married," Dr. Annabeth said. "Going on eight years now. We got married a year before we were banished, while we were in college at New Rome… oh, actually, don't worry about New Rome just yet-"
"You see?" Grover demanded. "It's hard to explain everything! I haven't even mentioned Tartarus or Gaea. Or Luke!"
"What about Luke?" Annabeth asked, face white.
Dr. Annabeth shushed Grover, who immediately shut up, and then hugged Annabeth. "Luke joined the Titans," she said softly. "He stole Zeus's lightning bolt. My first quest was to retrieve it with Percy, who was accused of stealing it, and Grover. We journeyed to Los Angeles and entered the Underworld, only to realise Luke had it the whole time and had planted it on us in an attempt to deliver it to Kronos, the Titan Lord of Time. Percy succeeded in getting the bolt back to Zeus."
"And along the way," Grover said, "Faced Medusa, the Chimera, the mother of all monsters, the Furies, Procrustes, Charon, Cerberus, Hades, and Percy beats Ares the God of War in a sword fight."
"Angry guy with reflective sunglasses and a buzz cut?" I ask, remembering him from Mount Olympus.
"That would be the Ares," Percy muttered.
"Grover got his Searcher's Pass and went searching for Pan. Ended up being drawn into the Sea of Monsters and finds the Golden Fleece, Percy and I left Camp Half-Blood to help him and we brought the fleece back to camp, which healed Thalia from her tree."
"From her tree?" Annabeth gulped.
"She joined the Hunters of Artemis after learning of Luke's betrayal," Dr. Annabeth explained.
"And along the way," Grover said again, "Faced Polyphemus – thanks – and Colchis Bulls, Tantalus, Stymphalian Birds, a Hydra, Scylla and Charybdis, Circe, and Sirens."
I only knew about three of the things Grover was bringing up. But Annabeth was getting more and more pale.
"How do we speed this story up?" Percy asked.
"Well…" Dr. Annabeth hesitated. "We broke the Labyrinth, you led the Battle of Manhattan to keep Olympus from falling into the hands of the Titans, I took a poisoned knife for you, you were offered immortality but turned it down and instead asked the Gods to claim all of their demigod children. Then you disappeared because… oh, there's really no way to simplify this. Long story short, Gaea the earth goddess was awakening to destroy all of humanity, and there are Roman demigods who are usually kept separate from Greek demigods, and they had to team up in order to stop her. The only way to get them to team up was to recover the Athena Parthenos, and that's why I had to battle Arachne. Percy and I fell into Tartarus and had to cross it together… and then we went on a number of other quests as well before finally heading off to college together."
Dr. Annabeth clapped her hands together, as if this explained everything. I glanced at Grover, wondering if he'd jump into another round of "What have Percy and Annabeth killed/faced." But he shook his head when he saw me looking. "The list is too long," he said.
And all for nothing, I thought. At the end of all their adventures, they were still banished to the bottom of the sea. For being too awesome. It wasn't right.
"So you were banished…" I licked my lips, "even though the God sent you on all those quests, and demanded you do all those things?"
"It's just a game," Percy shrugged. "Jump through hoops… do tricks… if you get good enough, we'll make you a God."
"You know what it's like?" Dr. Annabeth said. "There's this game called the Impossible Quiz. 110 wacky questions. Every so often, you're given a skip. You can skip any question you want. But at the end of the game, there's a question where all the skips are required to proceed. So if you use a skip at any point, you lose the game without ever knowing it until it's too late." She went to go cut herself a loaf of banana bread but slicing it down the middle as if it were a long roll as she thought. "Becoming a God is like using a Skip. Hercules, off the top of my head, could have become a Legend if he'd turned down immortality. But he didn't."
She took a bite of the banana bread, thinking. "I honestly feel like there's more to life than cheating it. I think the Gods don't understand what they've lost out on. Legends live… Legends die. Legends change. Percy and I get better and better. The demigods who are legends get better and better. The Gods are stuck. They don't become anything."
"Well, not without a legend changing them," I said. Percy, Annabeth, and Dr. Annabeth all looked at me. I shrugged. "I mean, Hera divorced Zeus, right? After all these years?"
"Right," Percy nodded, then looked at Dr. Annabeth, who was nodding along. She opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again.
"It makes me wonder… if there's something better than being a God or a Titan."
"Well, you're already a Legend," I said. "That's better, right?"
Percy and Dr. Annabeth exchanged a glance. "I don't know," he said. "Piper doesn't seem too different. She always had charmspeak, though."
"Percy and I were banished within a month of becoming Legends," Dr. Annabeth explained. "We caused enough trouble in that month that the Gods demanded we leave immediately."
"You won," Grover said bitterly. "And they're punishing you for it."
"Can't you talk them out of it?" I asked. "I know they stopped you before… but what if you went up to the surface and tried again?"
Dr. Annabeth smiled her barely-there smile. She reached out like she was going to touch my hair. I ducked and leaned away and she brought her hand back, still looking at me fondly. I looked at Percy, confused. What was she trying to do?
He looked lost for a moment as well, then realized something and nudged Annabeth. "Hey, you're making Percy uncomfortable."
"Sorry," Dr. Annabeth said. "It's just nice to have you around." She popped the last of the banana bread into her mouth.
I looked at Grover, who looked angry. He always seemed to be that way. Annabeth was still in shock over everything.
Dr. Annabeth took the empty tiny bread pans and began to fill the sink to wash them. Percy hovered at her side. He got down so his mouth was beside her ear and whispered something to her. Dr. Annabeth's half-there smile disappeared. "I know," she muttered back.
"Act like you know."
"Well…" she frowned. "They just look like…"
"They're us. Other versions of us, Annabeth."
"Yes, I know…"
"Annabeth…" Percy's eyes flit up to Annabeth, still in shock beside me. "Dr. Chase…" he corrected.
"Don't call me that," Dr. Annabeth frowned.
"Just being sarcastic."
Grover cleared his throat and reached across me to tap Annabeth on the shoulder. "Have either of you seen the game room?" he asked. "Or the weapons room? Come on, I'll show you the weapons room. And the library! Largest library in the world."
Annabeth got off her chair immediately. She didn't seem to be paying attention to Percy and Annabeth fixing each other with firm looks across the sink. I got off my chair a little slower. Dr. Annabeth broke up the staring contest. "Percy," she said, "do you need an outfit for today?"
Percy and I locked eyes. I looked down at his pair of pajamas I was wearing. "Yeah," I said. "That'd be nice."
Annabeth touched Percy's cheek. "Why don't you help him," she whispered, "and we'll talk about this in a moment?"
Percy sighed. He nodded back towards the hallway. I got off the chair and followed him.
Percy basically just opened up his closet and let me pick whatever I wanted. He didn't have tons. I saw a few orange Camp Half-Blood shirts, some purple SPQR shirts, and others. I ended up picking one that read, "Alternate High Swim Team – 2011-2012 champions." He had some shorts that were fairly decent on me and offered me a belt to go with them. Then he left while I changed.
Dr. Annabeth and Percy's room was a lot more decorated than the other rooms. Makes sense, since they live here… together. Man, that was a weird thought. I'd known Annabeth for a week. I couldn't imagine spending all this time with her and no one else. Let alone sharing space like a bedroom with her. I guess it wouldn't be that different from sharing with boarding school kids, except for the fact there was only one bed.
I looked up at the spider silk tapestry on the wall. Arachne had some serious talent. I could be honest about that. But I didn't want to imagine swapping spit with Annabeth right now.
I opened the door. I guess I did it kinda quietly, because Percy and Dr. Annabeth didn't hear me and they continued their conversation in the kitchen. I didn't want to startle them, so I headed down the hall quietly.
"Annabeth," I heard Percy say from near the dishwasher. "They aren't our kids."
Yikes. That was one more thing I didn't want to imagine.
"I know!" Dr. Annabeth said. "But they look like it, don't they?"
"Annabeth, you cannot treat them like our children. We don't have any. They aren't ours."
"You keep saying that!"
I knocked on the side of the refrigerator. Dr. Annabeth craned her neck to look over at me. "Oh, wow, that's a blast from the past," she said. "Percy, when was the last time you wore that?"
Percy shrugged. "Been a minute," he shrugged.
Dr. Annabeth smiled. "You look very nice," she said, sounding like an uncomfortable replica of my mom. I looked to Percy. Percy huffed. Dr. Annabeth furrowed her brow. "What, I can't say he looks nice?"
"Annabeth, he's got a mom," Percy said. "Chill out." He wiped his hands with the dishcloth and closed the dishwasher. Dr. Annabeth grumbled at him. "We just need to find your mom's polias and send them on their way."
Dr. Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Well, I think Grover and Annabeth are in the library now. Why don't you take him along?" She snagged the dishcloth and wound it around her hands like the tape people put on their knuckles before throwing a punch. Then, she headed past me and down the hall, still huffing here and there.
Percy rolled his eyes. "Sorry, Percy," he said. "We get a little stir crazy down here."
I was kinda starting to draw a distinction in my brain between me and him and Annabeth and Dr. Annabeth. It was easy when they had psychic persuasion powers. Percy waved me over to the left of the living room and into a hallway. I saw an office space with tons of architectural drawings pinned on the wall. Then a weapons room with some Greek Armor strewn about.
"Percy," I asked, and slowed down half a step. "Can you really not leave?"
Percy looked back at me. His green eyes seemed to go right through me. He looked brooding, but I didn't peg everything on his expression. I watched his eyes to see if I could see through him the way my mom saw through me.
"The Gods said they would unite against us and destroy us," Percy replied. "They'd call up every asset in their bank to fight against us."
I licked my lips. My next question was dangerous. Even I knew enough to know that.
"Would you win?"
He shrugged. "Would it be worth it to the world for us to win? People would get hurt."
"It's not right."
"Nope."
He waited to see if I had any more questions. I did, but I didn't know where to begin. After a few seconds, Percy turned and touched a door. It opened automatically. "Welcome to the library," he said.
2/1's chapter will be called, "We leave Yelp! Reviews."