Woodside Academy (Percabeth AU)

Chapter 3 - Talks and Popcorn

Annabeth's POV

July 30

I tore my eyes off of the page as the front door shut. I could hear my mother removing her coat and hanging it up, then taking off her shoes.

Artemis jumped off of the window seat and scurried over to the library door. She sat down beside it and tilted her head at me, waiting for me to let her out and greet my mother.

I closed the book and stood up, walking over to the shelf I'd pulled it off of earlier. Pushing it back into its place, I stepped away and opened the door. The silver cat leaped out of the library, bounding around the stairs and I heard my mother lean down and pick her up. I followed Artemis's example and walked out of the living room and into the entrance hall. Waiting for me was my mother, holding our cat lovingly in her arms and stroking her fur. Upon me entering the hall, she looked up at me with a small smile.

I mimicked her smile, but it was half-hearted. I was still in a state of shock from the news I had received from my mother last night. She was sending me to boarding school. In England. This was definitely going to take some time to adjust to.

My mother noticed my unenthusiastic smile, and hers bent downwards into a bit of a frown. She leaned down and let Artemis leap out of her arms before she straightened up again.

"Come with me into the living room, I'm sure you want to talk about your new school." She was right, I had so many questions about this. My mother had said one of her friends owned the school, what friend was she talking about? And what part of England was the school in, how far away was it? When would I come back home?

While I had been thinking about which question to ask my mother first, she had taken my hand and led me over to the couch. We sat down, turning our bodies sideways to face each other on the sofa as we spoke.

"Any questions you have for me, go ahead and ask." She said, nodding to me to let me know I could start asking. I hesitated, chewing my lip before I thought of my first query.

"Who's your friend that owns the school?" I asked. "I mean, I know all of your associates at work, and all of our family friends, who else do you know that owns a whole entire boarding school?" I tilted my head to the side in a questioning manner, awaiting her answer.

My mother inhaled. "Well," she began, speaking slowly. "Poseidon, that's his name, he isn't necessarily a friend..." I gave her a look, and she quickly changed her words.

"Not like that, dear. I mean we have an on and off friendship. We've never truly gotten along, we just have a past that ties us together."

"Why don't you get along?" I asked, my curiosity straying from the main topic.

"Well, you know me. I can be a bit uptight at times," at this I scoffed a bit. Uptight was sort of an understatement, my mother was strict. She required my assignments be done the day they were assigned, my bedroom to be spotless, and my manners on point.

My mother rolled her eyes at my scoff before continuing.

"Our personalities just didn't mix. I was serious, and he was careless. I was focused, he couldn't keep his thoughts preoccupied by one task longer than 5 minutes. I was organized, he couldn't prioritize. We argued often, and working together just didn't work out. The two of us owned a small building together somewhere on the coast of England, while your father and I were engaged. It was sort of a surf shop, Poseidon ironically loved the ocean." She laughed a bit. "It was more of an antique shop, the more I think of it. But it was mainly filled with ocean-themed items. I worked there for a year or so before we moved to France and I became owner of the Architecture Firm."