Changing the Future

Chapter 55

Over the next few days, I basically became Percy's shadow, trying to spend as much time with him until he'd be stolen away by Hera, which would be within the next eight hours. I knew he thought I was smothering him, but he didn't try to push me away once he saw the look on my face, remembering the warning I'd given him earlier.

Annabeth didn't seem to mind my company, either, as long as I wasn't staring at the two whenever they kissed, which seemed to be a handful of times every hour. It wasn't full out kissing, sometimes being forehead or cheek kisses, but there was the occasional real kiss, the one that most people don't appreciate being interrupted by others.

"What book is that?" Annabeth asked me after lunch, having found me hunched over Mythology Through the Ages at one of the picnic tables in front of the cabins. I placed a bookmark on the page I was on and handed it to Annabeth, allowing for her to skim the table of contents.

"Interesting," she said, running her fingers against the intricate designs on the spine, flipping to the chapter on the Titans. "Wow, these pictures are really accurate. I wonder who the illustrator is."

"No clue," I said with a shrug. "I don't even know the author. But after seeing how accurate the information was in the Titan and Olympians sections, I decided to read the rest of the book. Doesn't hurt to learn more about the messes that exist in the world."

Annabeth pursed her lips together as she turned to the large section labeled Ancient Greek Heroes. "Do you mind if I borrow this book after you?" she asked, her eyes never looking up from the page as she began to read the story of Achilles.

"Not at all. I think you'd enjoy it, actually."

"You two are crazy," Percy said, shaking his head in exasperation, though he was still smiling. "I can't imagine reading a book that big for fun. That thing is easily, what, a thousand pages long?"

"It's actually fifteen-hundred pages long," I replied, checking the number on the last page of the book.

"That's fifteen-hundred pages longer than it needs to be. Not to mention, the size of the print would be murder on our eyesight, what with us being dyslexic and all."

Annabeth winced. "You're right, Percy. I was only skimming the page, and my head already hurts from the letters floating around. But that won't stop me from reading it, not if it'll give me the chance to learn something new about the gods."

Percy sighed. "I'll make sure to have a ton of Tylenol on hand once you're in possession of the book."

Annabeth smiled and pressed a kiss onto his cheek. "That's so sweet."

"Alright, you two," I said in amusement, unable to hide the smile on my face. "I'm going down to the beach with Luke. I'll see you guys at the campfire tonight."

They waved goodbye as I packed up my things. As I stowed my book away in my bag, I turned the star brooch three times to the right, hearing the soft click of a lock sliding into place before quickly turning it back into a charm. Usually, I didn't lock my bag, but seeing that I couldn't afford for my book to fall into the wrong hands, it was finally time that I started using higher security measures.

Once again, Luke and I spent the rest of the day at the beach, splashing around in the frigid water, laughing as what started as splashing each other turned out into a full out soaker war. At one point, the Stoll brothers and some other Hermes kids showed up with water guns, and all hell broke loose as freezing streams of salt water were shot every which way.

I didn't have a water gun, instead using my own powers, which Luke said was cheating. "Nah," Connor Stoll had said before shooting Nelson Randolph in the neck, causing the younger boy to squirm as the cold water trickled down his shirt. "All's fair in love and war!"