The Best Of The Worst

CHAPTER 4

ANNABETH

When she woke up, Annabeth could only see two things: Percy, and her mother fading away in the background. 

Then she could only see two different things: Percy's gorgeous sea-green eyes. He'd grabbed the back of her head and leaned in, kissing her tenderly on the lips. 

"Annabeth..." he said after pulling away. "I have a question. I wanted to ask you this before the coma. But, well, you were occupied other-wise." He smiled like the dork he is, then helped her up before getting on one knee. 

In the background, they heard Piper say "Oh my dear gods..." 

"Wise Girl, will you marry me?" he asked. Annabeth faltered before bursting into tears. 

"I want to, Percy. I really, really do. But... our relationship is too much at risk by our own parents. We can't pull this off anymore. I'm sorry, but... I have to say no." she answered, her bottom lip trembling even more than her voice, which is really saying something. 

"But-"

"Percy, I'm so, so sorry." 

Annabeth hesitated before running to her cabin in tears. She leapt onto her bed, crying harder than she ever had. After a while, one of her siblings came up to her, but she  couldn't tell who. 

"What's wrong?" they asked.

"Mum is a fucking bitch!" Annabeth replied. 

She looked up to see that it wasn't one of her half-siblings at all. It was her best friend, Piper. 

"Watch your language. There are younger ones present." Pipes said, and behind her was Hazel, who looked shocked that anyone would say 'Fucking' or 'Bitch', let alone in the same sentence. 

Annabeth smiled as the young demigod muttered "Pluto's Pauldrons!" under her breath with that cute Orleans accent. 

"Sorry. Mum's a flipping female dog." she corrected herself. "Thanks for coming to check on me."

"Pleasure. So, what's wrong?" Hazel asked. 

Annabeth's smile wavered. "Piper, could you fill her in outside?"

Piper replied by steering Hazel to the door by her shoulders. That left Annabeth alone with someone on the bed opposite. Someone she vaguely recognised as her half-brother, Kayne. He was sketching an olive-tree, muttering something over and over. All Athena children have their genetic addictions; architecture, warfare, history... Kayne got one that surprised the whole cabin, but honestly they couldn't say they shouldn't have expected it. 

He's addicted to olives.

He draws diagrams about olive's different qualities, he makes sun-charts to mark their growth on, he annoys nymphs about the best way to grow them, and he's planted at least 10 around the cabin. He makes random recipes using them, too. Once he even made artificial olives with all the same qualities, but are easier to make. Annabeth had no clue how he did that at all. Kayne isn't very sociable, except with the nymphs of his olive-trees. Day in and day out, he'd talk about those plants. He wouldn't be interested in any other conversations, and just zone out. It got annoying sometimes.

"Hi, Kayne." Annabeth said. 

"Hello, Annabeth Chase." he replied. He had a habit of extending his sentences longer than necessary.

"Discovered any new facts recently?" 

"An olive branch appears on the national flags of seven nations, four US states and the flag of the United Nations. One city and three towns in the United States are called 'Olive Branch'. Olive branches (2,550 of them) were used at the 2004 Olympics Games in Athens when the tradition of crowning Olympians with an olive spray was revived. Olives are rich in Vitamin E and 'good fat'. The world consumes about 2.25 million tonnes of olive oil a year." he said as if he were reciting facts from a text-book. 

"Right." Annabeth replied awkwardly, but felt pleased to see Kayne was grinning at her. 

"People usually do not talk to me." he said, tilting his head. "A lot of people do not like me. They think I am weird. I am not weird, am I?"

"You're just as sane as the rest of us." Annabeth replied, but felt like it wouldn't be awfully reassuring because of her state; crying into a pillow about a shitty mother. But Kayne seemed reassured.

"Do you like my picture?" he asked, turning the notebook so she could see the realistic picture of an olive-tree. Those plants may look ugly, but this drawing really captivated the beauty of it. The luscious branches, fine leaves... But no olives were drawn, since it apparently takes up to 15 years for them to start growing. 

"It's... Amazing!" Annabeth said, breath-taken. She stood up and walked over to see it better. It was black and white, yet still emanated beauty. 

Kayne blushed and flipped a page. "This is a diagram of the ordinary Kalamata olive." he told me, and we spoke about the image for a while. I learnt so much about olives, and so much about Kayne... It was an amazing experience. 

After a while he said "You know, Annabeth Chase, I have not found that a lot of people are like you. Not many others appreciate this... This magnificence that an ordinary olive is. But when you can mutate them, or grow them for longer, or even just find one that is special... I do not think many other people appreciate that. I have been bullied a lot. Bullied for my addiction to olives. Ares children wold stomp on my trees and mess up my diagrams. They also mock my fear of grammatical contractions."

Annabeth took the opening up as an opportunity. 

"Who does this to you?"

"P-pardon?"

"Who's bullying you?"

"Um... Lilliana, Jackson and Emma from Ares cabin,  mainly."

"C'mon. We're going to teach them not to mess with children of Athena."