The Royal Secret {DISCONTINUED}

Chapter Twenty

Percy's POV-

Annabeth had been hiding in her room all day, since she rushed out. Shortly after she ran off, Piper following quickly behind, everyone else left, besides Triton. We got some good brother bonding or whatever. We literally just ate food and played Xbox for like 90% of the time.

After dinner, I decided to creep down to the gardens, into a little alcove type thing, where a little pond was hidden from the majority of the castle staff. As far as I knew, only my mother and I knew about it, but, I'm sure a few others know.

As I slipped around corners and slinked down halls, I contemplated what had happened earlier. Piper had spoken for Annabeth as dared me to take Annabeth on a date this weekend. If I'm being honest, I was actually surprised that that was the dare, but also delighted that that was the dare. But Annabeth ran out, clearly stating that she didn't feel anything besides friendship towards me.

I grabbed a couple of good skipping rocks along the way, knowing I'd want to skip some after a quick swim in the pond. I walked into the hidden garden and visibly relaxed. Sure, Triton was lifting the law tomorrow so I'd be able to show my face, but I've been creeping around all my life. I'm not sure I can just... stop. Not to mention everything that had happened with Annabeth today...

Walking towards the pond, I laid my towel down, dropped the rocks nearby, kicked my shoes off, slipped my shirt over my head, and jumped in.

Water has always calmed me, so I would just sit at the bottom of the pool, pond, lake, whatever, for as long as I could without suffocating. Well, drowning, but whatever.

While I floated, I let a bunch of stupid 'shower thoughts' flood my mind.

Such as:

If I were to punch myself, and it hurt, would that make me weak or strong?

If I drop soap on the ground, is the soap dirty or is the floor clean?

If 2 mind readers read each other's mind, whose mind are they reading?

Also, if everyone is so worried about crime, just get rid of all the laws. Then there's no crime.

After I about choked due to some random thought, I decided it was time to get out of the water. I hastily dried off, enough that I wasn't dripping everywhere. I slung my towel around my neck and picked up a couple of the rocks I had collected, and skipped them. The first time wasn't so great, barely 2 skips. After that though, I got the hang of it and the lowest I got from then on was about 5 skips, the highest being past 10. I'm not sure what the actual highest was cause they started speeding up so I couldn't really tell.

Right as I threw another rock, I heard rustling near the vine covered entrance. I turned and called, "Hello?" I began creeping towards the vines. "Anyone there?"

As I got close, I was able to kind of make out a person, quietly backing away, clearly unable to see me anymore. I grabbed the person's wrist pulling them into the clearing.

I was immediately confused, as Annabeth let out a surprised yelp as I jerked her into the clearing.

"Annabeth?" I asked. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, yanking her arm out of my grip. "Aren't you still supposed to be hiding till Triton passes the law?"

Ok, so she was clearly angry at me. Why, I have no clue. Girls are confusing.

"Um, first of all, I don't know if you noticed, but this area is super hidden. I didn't think anyone knew about it. And second, why are you so mad at me? And where have you been all day?"

"Yeah, I know this place is hidden, why do you think I'm here, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth answered my first statement, clearly ignoring everything else as she turned to leave.

I touched her shoulder and asked, "Wise Girl, where are you going?"

"Uhh, somewhere else," she responded lamely.

"Why?"

"Because I want too. Why else?"

"Please stay?"

"Fine," Annabeth huffed, finally turning back to face me fully. "What do you want."

"Uh well, first I wanna know why you ran out earlier," I asked, nervously scratching my neck, surprised Annabeth decided to stay.

"I'm not talking about this."

"Wise Girl, come on! You can talk to me no one else is here, there's no one here to judge you or laugh at you. Please?"

Cue baby seal eye look.

"I... I was embarrassed, ok?"

"Why? Am I that horrible?"

"No... it's just..."

"Just what?"

Annabeth looked at me like I was stupid. Well, I felt stupid. I was clearly missing something here, but I wasn't sure what.

Annabeth sighed, stepped towards me, and pecked me on the lips. Pulling away, she immediately turned away and said, "See you tomorrow, Seaweed Brain."

And then she left, leaving me completely dumbfounded. What the heck just happened?

I stood there for about 15 minutes, before Jason stepped past the vines, almost running into me.

"Hey Perce, whatcha doing?" he asked, looking at me.

I mumbled something incoherent.

Jason must've noticed my blank stare and strange response and looked at me with concern, saying, "Perce? You okay bro?"

"Uhh... yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," I blinked.

"Okaayyyy... what happened? Also have you seen Annabeth?"

"I gotta go."

"Wait, Perc-"

"Bye Jason!" I said, practically running up to my room.

What the heck had happened? Annabeth kissed me. Annabeth Chase kissed me. She kissed me. Why? I thought she didn't like me. Did she? That would be great, cause then I could take her out on a date and we could have a lot of fun and she could show me around the city and-

Wait what if she doesn't like me, she was just messing with me or something?

Ughhhhh, girls!

A/N-
Hey there peepsles! Sorry this chapter is a bit boring, I'm having a bit of writers block. Like, I know what the outcome is gonna be and stuff, but I'm not quite sure how to get there... always open to suggestions if you have any! I will try very hard to update again next Friday, but if I don't have any ideas, I might not be able to update in time. If that's the case, feel free to go read my other book Wait, Another? which I'm currently bursting with ideas for.

Also....

2K READS OMG PEEPSLES I LOVE YALL SO MUCH!!!!!!! In all honesty, I was convinced that no one was going to read this... and here we are! I seriously can't say thank you enough! All your reads, votes and comments, literally mean the world to me, you have no idea. So thank you.

Well, that's about it... how was the first week of school for those who have started it? I know that mine was ok, and I'm glad to be back with all my friends, but there's already drama brewing. How, idek.

Hope you liked it, please vote if you wanna ❤️

Published: Friday, August 28, 2020