Annabeth's Mortal Friends

Chapter Thirty-Five

"You jerk, you can't even get wet, that's not fair!" She broke into laughter, lunging at me.

I side-stepped, laughing along with her. "Oh please, mine hurt way more! It's going to bruise." I pressed a hand against my chest, pouting at Annabeth, who appeared to feel no pity for my poor wounded torso.

Eventually I misstepped, and she grabbed a hold of me, latching on tightly. "Dry me off right now, Seaweed Brain."

I chuckled, letting the water dry off of her hair and shirt. I gestured toward the hose, which lay forgotten in the grass. "Should we get back to that?" I asked.

Annabeth nodded, picking up the hose again and adjusting the nozzle, setting it to mist. I tossed the drachma into the rainbow that reflected off of it, envisioning our home.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering," I mumbled, bowing my head respectfully. "Show me Grover Underwood, Camp Half-blood."

The rainbow shivered, then the image appeared. I saw the camp in the background, but no Grover.

"Is he there?" Annabeth asked, stepping next to me to take a closer look. We watched as a blur galloped past the image.

"Grover!" I called out. I heard a yelp in response, followed by the clattering of what sounded like many swords and shields knocking onto the ground. Grover stumbled over to the image, a big grin appearing.

"Percy!" He exclaimed, bringing his face close to the image. "Annabeth! It's been a while, how are you guys?" He paused, looking past us. "...Where are you guys?"

"We're on our way to New York. Mrs. O'Leary's giving us a ride," Annabeth informed Grover, an echoing bark in the background confirming her statement.

"That's great! You guys are coming for a visit?" He asked hopefully.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." I smiled.

Grover relaxed his shoulders, breathing a sigh of contentment. "Man, it'll be nice to see you guys without the looming threat of some god wanting us dead, right?"

I paused for a moment. "Well-"

"Please don't say 'well' like that. I hate when you say it like that." Grover pleaded.

"It was an accident, really-" Annabeth started.

Grover gulped, looking over his shoulder then lowering his voice a bit. "What did you guys do this time?"

"Nothing! Technically, we didn't do anything. It was something that someone else did, really." I nodded.

Grover put his face in his hands. "Who did what, Percy?"

"A mortal may know who we are..." Annabeth said cautiously.

Grover snapped his head up, a bewildered look on his face. "Tell me you don't mean what I think you mean."

"We can fix it," I assured him.

Grover flopped to the ground, looking up to the sky. "How is it that every time something bad happens, you two are in the middle of it?"

"Hey, Percy's the one who provoked him," Annabeth defended, poking me in the arm.

"He's your boyfriend, not mine," I retorted. Annabeth cringed.

"Eugh, don't call him my boyfriend..."

"Details, please?" Grover urged. "Who knows, and how much does he know?"

"It's this kid from our school." Annabeth sighed. "He's been following us around since Percy arrived here, and then he was attacked by a hellhound, but he thought Percy did it, and then he thought we were in a cult apparently, though I have no idea how he reached that conclusion. Then he spied on us when we were talking about camp and, well, here we are," Annabeth said, all in one breath. Grover looked sick.

"What are you guys going to do? He's in so much danger now that he knows!" Grover shook his head in discomfort, looking as if he wished he could just will the Caleb problem out of existence. If only it were that easy; that guy would've been long gone by now.

"We don't know. We're coming to camp to tell Chiron, and hopefully he'll be able to figure something out." Annabeth rubbed her arms uncomfortably.

"Any chance you'd tell Mr. D for us?" I asked Grover hopefully.

He shook his head very quickly.

"There is no way I'm giving Mr. D bad news, are you insane?" Grover asked rhetorically.

"Eh, worth a shot," I said, turning towards Annabeth, who shrugged in response.

"Hey, who's on the Iris message?" We heard a voice call from across the strawberry field.

"No one, Connor!" Grover replied, sending us a frantic look and a friendly wave goodbye before swiping his hand through the mist.

I sat down in the grass, Mrs. O'Leary's massive paws stomping up behind me and her wet nose sniffing the back of my neck. "Guess we're on our own," I said, glancing up at Annabeth.

"We'll figure it out, Seaweed Brain. Caleb's no bigger threat than anything else we've faced before. We'll be fine."

Mrs. O'Leary stared down at me. Through the sad look in her big, brown eyes, I could almost hear her saying you've got this, don't stress too much.

"I hope you're right, Wise Girl." I stretched, standing up and climbing up onto Mrs. O'Leary's back.

"Don't worry, I always am."

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for everyone confused about the updating schedule, i'm in the Central Standard time zone of the US, so Monday to me might be Tuesday to you, depending on where you live :)

5/10/21