Annabeth

“We cannot afford a break right now, we are still out matched.” Frank and I had been arguing for about an hour now. I told him that we needed to keep training everyone, that we weren’t ready.

“Annabeth, everyone is so wiped out that they are losing sight of what they are fighting for. We need to remind them that the world out there is worth saving. Right now all they know is training. I’m not saying we take a week-long vacation, just one day.”

I paced around the office where we had been planning the attack for the last two months. Deep down I knew that Frank was right, everyone was starting to get burnt out on the training and they needed a break. But they still weren’t ready.

Frank was looking at me intently. “We need to give them a break, then they can come back fresh and will train even harder and make more progress. Everyone is starting to plateau and that isn’t going to help us.”

One of the things that I’ve hated the most in my life, is admitting that I’m wrong. I cover my face with my hands and let out a large sigh. “Fine, fine! We will have one day of rest and relaxation tomorrow. It’s a Sunday, so why not? But on Monday we are back to training! NO excuses.”

He hung his head down, trying to hide his smile. “Yes ma’am. Now if you’ll excuse me, I will go let everyone know the good news.” He started walking towards the door, and just as he was about to leave, he stepped back to look at me. “Oh and pack your swimsuit, everyone has already planned on going to the beach in the instance you said yes.”

I suddenly got the feeling that Frank wasn’t asking for this break on his own initiative.

≈

It was about noon when we arrived at the beach. Hazel’s group stepped out of the alley-way. They used shadow traveling to get to the beach, they didn’t like to use our angel magic. Which was fine, we didn’t like to use their shadow travel method.

We gathered at the sidewalk that lead along the edge of the beach. All of us carried our packs full of our beach supplies, towels and umbrellas. It felt nice to have the sun shine on my skin, it had been so long since we had been out in the day time.

“I’ll race you guys to the water!” Percy said. He was grinning wildly and started taking off towards the water.

As we ran out onto the beach sand, a weight immediately was lifted from my shoulders. It felt so good to feel the sand in between my toes in my sandals. The sand immediately started warming up my toes.

The first person in the water was Percy. He ran faster than I’d ever seen him run before, shedding clothes along the way until he was down to just his swim trunks. When he jumped in, he went completely under the water and was under for a long time. I was starting to get worried when he suddenly emerged, sporting a huge smile covering his face.

“Come on in guys!” Percy yelled at us. “The water is great!”

I tried not to stare at his chest and his abs. All the training we had been doing was doing wonders for him. His pecs and arms looked like they had been sculpted by the Greek gods, using Adonis as their model.

I stopped myself, Woah, where had those thought come from? Sure, Percy was attractive, but he was still a devil, my enemy. We couldn’t be anything more than temporary allies. I’d been needing to remind myself that more frequently lately.

The problem was that more time I spent around everyone, the more I looked at them as my friends. I couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I decided that today was not the day to try and decide what was right or wrong. Today was a day to rest and enjoy the company I was in.

I got about half way to the beach and decided that was the perfect spot to set my towel to soak in some sun. I didn’t want to go swimming quite yet, maybe later. Percy was splashing around in the water with Jason, Piper and Frank.

Piper was sitting on Jason’s shoulders and Percy was starting to climb onto Frank. I wondered who would win that chicken fight, should be fun to watch. Hazel was setting up her umbrella next to her beach chair along with Rachel.

Nico and Will were playing catch with a Frisbee and Leo was making plans on constructing the most elaborate sand castle. I started laying down on my towel when someone came up next to me and laid their towel down next to mine.

It was Reyna, who I was surprised that she had come along on the trip. She hadn’t been very social since we saved her from Victoria. She had been spending most of her time with Hazel, trying to understand what had happened with her life. In the few times that she had come out to interact with us, she usually was training in the arena and she was tough. Definitely one of our better fighters. I got along pretty well with her, she was very professional and a natural leader.

She laid down on top of her town and pulled her long braid around to lay across her chest. She gazed out at the ocean with her harsh dark eyes. It was hard to believe, but her eyes were black, not dark brown, but actually black.

“It’s a nice day, isn’t it?” she asked me. It was weird at first when she had started talking to me. Other than Hazel, I was the only one that she had really opened up to. We were very much alike that it seemed easier to her. We didn’t talk a whole lot, but when we did, it was usually about fighting techniques and strategies when fighting.

“Yes, it really is. I’m glad that we decided to come out here.” We sat there for a while, watching the others play around and let loose. Frank and Percy had just beat Jason and Piper and they were cheering their victories. At least, until Jason came up from behind them and jumped onto Percy’s back toppling them backwards into the water.

Reyna and I started laughing, slowly at first but it quickly became uncontrollable as Jason and Percy started wrestling even more in the water. We finally calmed down after Frank broke up the fight and started dragging Jason out of the water.

Piper followed them out of the water, laughing almost as hard as Reyna and I had been. Percy was the only one left in the water, looking a little sad. “Who is going to be my partner for chicken now Frank? Come on, who wants to go up against me and someone else?” He looked right at me, “Annabeth! Get in here and be my partner! Reyna, you too!”

She started laughing, but shook her head. “Who is going to be my partner?” Percy asked again.

“I will,” Nico said. He was walking toward the water, giving a small smile at Reyna. Will was watching him with slight surprise. To be honest, we all were a little bit shocked. Nico had only really hung around Will and Hazel since he got here. It was a nice change though, I was glad that everyone was starting to get along better.

Reyna nodded, then gave me a look, “Ready to lose, angel girl?” she had a slight smile.

She knew exactly how to push my buttons, challenging me to a contest is almost an assured way to get me to agree. Almost as soon as she said it, I replied with, “You’re going down.”

We both stood up and started walking toward the water. I took off my shirt and put it next to my towel. Then I took off my jean shorts and threw them on top of the shirt. As I looked toward Percy he looked like someone just told him that he had just been elected president. He stood completely motionless until I got right up next to him.

“What’s with you? Got some seaweed stuck in your brain?” he kept looking at me with his dumbfounded look. I waved my hand in front of his face. “Hello? Earth to Percy!”

He shook his head and his face took on the same shade as a tomato as he started backing away from me. “Yeah! No I’m here, I just uh- I was thinking that- I mean, you look amazing! Not like you don’t usually look amazing, it’s just that uh-”

I couldn’t help but crack up at him. He was hilarious and adorable all at the same time. “I think you do have some seaweed stuck in your brain. Either that or your vocabulary suddenly became very unimpressive.”

He started chuckling nervously, “Yeah, must’ve been the seaweed. So who is going to be on top of who? I mean, who is going to be on the other’s shoulders?” his face was becoming more flushed by the second.

“I’ll be on your shoulders, I think I can take Reyna down as long as you can be a strong base for me,” I said in a teasing voice.

A determined look came over his face as he said, “You got it! No one is going to move us!”

After a little bit of awkward maneuvering to get on Percy’s shoulders we got set to fight Reyna and Nico. We were surprised when we turned around and saw Nico on Reyna’s shoulders. Well that was a bit of a twist, I was pretty sure that I could take Reyna, but I wasn’t as sure about Nico. I looked down at Percy, “You still think we can handle this, Seaweed Brain?”

He looked like he could take on the whole world with the amount of confidence, “You bet!”

We started toward the other two and I locked hands with Nico. We started pushing and pulling against each other, I was trying to get him off balance. Percy grappled with Reyna below, I wasn’t sure who was having the harder time, me or Percy.

I could see the struggle on Nico’s face, but he wasn’t giving up. He jerked me towards my right, almost getting me off balance, but Percy kept us upright. His effort, however seemed to get him off balance more than it did me. As he was teetering backwards, trying to right himself, I felt Percy angle backwards, and Reyna fell forward.

Nico went crashing backwards into the water and Reyna fell flat on her face. Percy must have noticed that Nico was throwing their balance off one way and pulled Reyna in the opposite, sealing their fate.

“Yeah! We make an awesome team!” Percy was jumping up and down, holding onto my legs. I had to admit that his happiness was infectious. I could feel a smile was spreading across my face.

“Alright Seaweed Brain, let me down, but I don’t want to get too wet yet so go to the shallow end,” as soon as I said it, I knew I shouldn’t have. I saw an evil grin come across his face.

“You don’t want to get wet huh? So, if I suddenly lost my balance that would be bad?”

I scowled at him, “Don’t you even think about it.” I tried to include as much danger in my voice as I could.

That trouble-maker grin suddenly became so large that it took up his whole face. The next thing that I knew, I was falling backwards. As we fell I heard Percy halfheartedly yell, “Oh no!!” I could tell that he was laughing along with his yell.

I was fully submerged, but as soon as I was free from Percy’s grasp I shot up towards the surface. As soon as I broke the surface I started screaming, “PERCY FREAKING JACKSON YOU’D BETTER PRAY TO WHATEVER DEITY YOU PRAY TO THAT I DON’T EVER GET AHOLD OF YOU OTHERWISE YOU WILL BE DEAD FASTER THAN YOU CAN ASK ME FOR FORGIVENESS!”

I looked around and saw him running down the beach away from me, laughing hysterically. Oh he is so dead. I thought, as I walked toward the shore. Once I was free from the water I took off after him. He had a few yards of a head start on me, but I was pretty sure I could catch him.

He turned around a rocky point, and disappeared from my sight for a little bit, so I poured on the speed as I rounded the point. Once I got around it, however I almost ran right into him. He had come to a stop and was staring off into the distance. I was about to yell at him when I noticed that his face was full of wonder.

I looked toward where he was looking and I saw a small cabin just off of the shore. I walked a little closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Percy, are you okay?” I asked him.

“I know this place, I’ve been here before,” he said, still looking at the cabin. “The memories are fuzzy, but I know I’ve been at this exact beach. I know that cabin, I used to go there with my mom.”

“Do you want to go up there?” I asked him. “I can head back and tell the other where you are.”

He looked at me, right into my eyes, “Can you come with me?” his sea green eyes pleading me to stay with him.

“Of course,” I tell him.

He started to walk forward, and as he started walking he reached down and grabbed my hand. I tried to ignore how my heart sped up a little bit when I felt his hand in mine. I liked how it was rough, and yet it was gentle.

We walked up to the cabin’s door and knocked. There was no answer, so he tried the knob, and it was unlocked. We walked into the cabin, Percy calling out, “Hello? Is anyone here?” but there was no answer. We started walking around, but it looked like it hadn’t been occupied in a while. We went back to a room in the back of the cabin where there was a single bed and a dresser and Percy stopped.

“This was the room where I slept, I can feel it.”

That’s when we heard a car pull up outside. “Percy, we should get out of here, we don’t want to be found as trespassers.”

He just stood there in shock, trying to take in everything around him. I went to the window and saw a man and woman getting out of a blue Prius, walking to the door, talking quietly. I heard them walk up the porch, when their pace slowed and their talking stopped. I heard the man call out, “Hello? If anyone is here, show yourself. You are on private property and you are trespassing. If you don’t show yourself, we will call the cops!”

That’s when Percy seemed to realize it was time to leave. He slowly walked toward the door out into the cabin. He passed through the doorway and I heard a gasp, followed by, “Percy? Is that, is that you?”

I followed him through the doorway and I saw the man looking dumbstruck and the woman had her hand over her mouth and she had tears in her eyes. She had long curly brown hair and sparkling blue eyes. I looked to Percy and he had tears in his eyes, along with something new. Recognition, he knew these people.

“Mom?” he questioned, slowly walking towards her.

The woman was nodding and she started sobbing as she opened her arms out to him and started walking toward him. When she did that, Percy quickly closed the gap in two strides and scooped up the woman, his mother, in his arms and picked her up. I saw tears streaming down his face, and I would be lying if a few hadn’t escaped my eyes as well.

Percy set the woman down and she held his face in her hands directly in front of her face, studying all the changes. “Oh my God, where have you been Percy? We thought you were dead!” the woman said.

Percy had a look of confusion on his face, “What do you mean dead?”

The man who came in with Percy’s mother walked up, “You disappeared three years ago. You left to run to the store for some ingredients for our dinner and you never came back.”


Percy’s confused look didn’t go away, “I don’t remember any of that. I only have my memory from the last three years.”

It was the couple’s turn to look confused now. “What do you mean? You don’t remember us?” the woman asked. “How did you know us, or to come to this place?”

“I was here with some friends,” Percy motioned towards me, and the couple finally seemed to notice me, “We were running along the beach when all of a sudden I got a feeling about this place that I knew that I had been here. We came here to check it out and then you guys came. When I saw you, I just got this feeling from the way you looked at me that I just knew had to be from my mom.”

The woman kept looking at me, I gave a small, awkward wave. “Hi, I’m one of the friends, Annabeth.”

“Hello Annabeth, I’m Sally, this is my husband Paul,” Paul gave a small wave from behind her. She turned her attention back to Percy, “you have grown so much, you need to tell me what you’ve been doing these past three years. We will bring in the food and we can talk. It is your birthday after all.”

Notes

So I know I changed up the POV from Percy to Annabeth, I just wanted to explore her feelings for a chapter. Also this is one part of a chapter that I started and it got way too long so I split it in two.