Percabeth's Child: Children of Olympus Book #1

Chapter Six: We Plan to Break Into Olympus

"Couldn't we just ask the gods for help? I mean, your mom would probably know if there's some insane goddess of peace on Olympus," Percy suggested.

Annabeth twisted her lips to the side as she considered the idea. It's not like she had any doubt about Athena knowing. However, she was hesitant to ask her mom for help. Since the gods had explained how they would be given immortality after five months of being watched, she felt like she was being tested. She felt that she had to show she could be independent and succeed without the gods' help. 

"I think it would be better if we did this alone," Annabeth finally said. "Athena might help, but remember that the gods are watching us."

"I guess," Percy gave in, "Do you have an idea, then?"

Annabeth sighed yet again. "I'm still working on that part."

"I'll take that as a no," Percy concluded.

"Yeah," Annabeth smiled wryly. She sat there thoughtfully, munching on her sandwich. Her book was propped open in front of her, but she wasn't reading it. A book wasn't going to help her now.

Annabeth thought of the other times she had been to Olympus. They had all been for important occasions, like being offered Godship, or, you know, saving the world.

Except for one time. Once she had gone up to Olympus to see the remaining buildings, take some measurements and decide what would look good in the area. Although the major buildings, like the Gods' and Goddesses' throne room, were already designed and built, she still wasn't anywhere near finished with the project. Perhaps she could use that as a good excuse. She could say that she wanted to take some more measurements or something.

Before she told Percy her idea, though, she wanted to think it over more carefully. She didn't want to get his hopes up and then have her plan fail. 

"I think I'm going to go do a little work," Annabeth told Percy as she finished her sandwich. "I mean, I've been working, but not on my architecture stuff." 

Percy looked like he disapproved of the idea, but he knew how seriously Annabeth was taking her job of redesigning Olympus. To Annabeth's relief, he let it slide. Before he could think further about it, she had gotten up and shut herself in her office.

She lay back in her chair at the ceiling. Her plan was going to take a lot of thought. She couldn't just call up Athena on the phone and ask for permission to come to Olympus. Daedalus's laptop (he had had a secret copy that Annabeth didn't know about until Athena gave it to her when original was destroyed) had all the measurements, blueprints and images of Olympus that she would really need for her project, so she wasn't sure how she was going to pull it off.

She opened the laptop and scrolled through a list of all the buildings she still had to design. There were many minor ones that she hadn't payed much attention to yet, but now she read the title of each one. It amazed her how many buildings the Gods needed.

Poseidon's Pool, Olympian Ambrosia, Magic Pizza... Magic Pizza? No, those weren't going to help. That's when something caught her eye.

Olympian Retirement Home. Annabeth didn't know that Gods could retire, but then again, she'd seen Pan, god of the wild, fade away before her very eyes. If they were going to find a wild, senseless goddess, this would probably be the place.

Come to think about it, she didn't remember seeing the Retirement Home when she did her survey of Olympus. If she had seen it before, she surely would have remembered.

So, she had a plan of sorts. She'd say that she needed to see the Olympian Retirement Home and the buildings around it, because she didn't think she had covered them before, which was true. In actuality, she would search the Retirement Home for the Goddess Eirene. Hopefully she would be able to find a way to include Percy in her journey, too.