Percy POV
"Dude, I don't know I mean… it's Trin, you know! It's Trin, and we've been friends since kindergarten and it would be so weird… ugh!" Hayden was having a serious argument with himself. It had been exactly two days after Calypso's downfall. It was Wednesday, after school. Four days after Trinity and Hayden's first kiss and he was still not sure what to do about it.
Silena decided she needed some "girl-bonding-time" and so they all had gone out for pizza while us guys had stayed back at the apartment and ordered Chinese. Hayden was so focused on his rant he didn't even notice Grover take a bite out of the Styrofoam cup his hot and sour soup came in.
"You know, Clarisse and me were friends since we were twelve." Chris said, "We ended up pretty well."
"I wouldn't say that exactly, I mean you did end up with Clarisse." Connor shuddered.
"Hey, no smack talking my woman. Besides, you're single." Chris reminded him.
"Pfft, by choice! Dude I have offers coming at me left and right." Connor said. Travis started choking on his noodles.
"You mean that time grandma asked you to go to the Charlie Chaplin marathon with her? Or were you referring to when our five year old cousin, Lindy, wanted to play tea party?" He laughed. Connor turned scarlet.
"Come on, bro, that's cold."
"Says the single twin."
"Can we get back to the issue here?" I interrupted and pointed my chopsticks at Hayden, "I think you should ask her out. She's had a crush on you all year." Hayden chewed nervously on an eggroll.
"I'm not so sure, Perce. I mean what if it gets messed up and then things are awkward…"
"What if it goes perfect and you end up with your first steady girlfriend?" Grover pointed out.
"It's a lot easier to mess up than it is to make it work." Nico said.
"Gee, thanks Nico. You're really helping out here." I said sarcastically. He shrugged and took a bite.
"I'm just pointing out all the options here." He said through a mouthful.
"Well, stop." I said, then turned back to Hayden, "Look, Annabeth and I…"
"Here we go again," Grover groaned, "The epic story of "How Percy Met Annabeth". I swear one of these days someone will write a book about you two."
"We are pretty awesome," I said, "But that's not the point. My point is that almost every guy in here has been with their girlfriend since we were younger, and our relationships have all gone great."
"Except, the first few years Katie totally hated my guts." Travis said, "But once we got together, everything was awesome. I've never been happier."
"Not even that time we tricked that cop into thinking we were the Olsen twins in disguise?" Connor asked, batting his eyelashes mockingly at his brother. Travis considered this.
"Ok, that was hilarious. But still, Katie's the best thing that ever happened to me.
"Gee, thanks bro. Glad to know you care." Connor muttered.
"I agree," Beckendorf said, ignoring Connor, "I can't believe I didn't ask Silena out earlier. What a mistake it was to wait so long."
"Juniper and I have been together longer than any of you." Grover gloated, "Even though sometimes she gets a little protective, I'm nothing without her."
"But what about when you guys all fight with your girlfriends? Aren't you worried that she might leave you?" Hayden asked as he stared dismally into his glass.
"That's a question for Percy here. Him and Annabeth fight the most out of every couple I've ever seen." Chris said, patted my shoulder.
"Thanks dude." I said and rolled my eyes, "Do Annabeth and I fight a lot? Hades yes!" Everyone laughed in agreement, "But she'd never leave me, and I'd never leave her. The worst fight we ever had was when she caught me teaching some girls from Aph… er, Silena's cabin to do archery. I didn't realize they were flirting…"
"Silena was so mad at them! They were newbies, and they hadn't learned about your whole "best love story of the century" situation yet." Beckendorf explained, "I didn't hear the end of it for weeks! Thanks for that, by the way."
"Anyways," I said with a pointed glance in his direction, "The fight was so bad, everyone else actually believed that we were gonna break up."
"Except Silena, she had faith," Beckendorf added in.
"Right, except Silena." I agreed, "But even though we were mad, that didn't mean we didn't still love each other and would find a way to fix things. And we did. Sure when we first started dating I was worried about doing something stupid to mess things up, but that's normal."
"Amen to that!" Travis said, "I'm still in that phase." Connor laughed at that.
"Once I got past that phase, never once did I think that Annabeth and I would ever break up." I finished.
"So you don't think that you and Annabeth will ever break up?" Nico asked. I shook my head.
"Nope."
"I hope not, Silena would be so depressed, and who knows what her mother would do to you!" Beckendorf said. Thunder rumbled outside.
"What does her mom have to do with anything?" Hayden asked. Oh, right…
"She's…a… wedding planner!" Grover said, "And she's been planning Percy and Annabeth's wedding for years now." Great job Grover, way to make it better.
"That's a little far into the future, don't you think?" I mumbled and pushed my chicken around the container.
"Well you don't think you and Annabeth will ever break up, right?" Chris said.
"Point is, ask Trinity out." I said loudly, "The success rate for this group is pretty high, minus Nico and Connor of course." I teased.
"Nico, we really need to hang out with more single guys." Connor said. Nico raised his cup in agreement.
"So Hayden," Grover said dramatically, "Are you going to, or what?"
Annabeth POV
I really hate girl's night out.
Silena, Rachel, Thalia, Trinity, Juniper, Clarisse (surprisingly), Katie, and myself walked around the corner to a small pizza place and took a seat around a table in the back.
Unsurprisingly, Silena was the one to begin the conversation we all knew was coming.
"Trinity, how was the kiss?" She asked before we'd all even sat down. Her blush could have been seen from outside.
"It was absolutely incredible! There was such a huge spark…" And then she started going on about how the kiss felt. Of course I liked Trinity, and of course I was happy that she was so happy. But I really didn't need to know what Hayden smelled like.
"Do you think he'll ask you out?" Katie asked after we ordered two pizzas: one meat lover and one vegetarian. I frowned as the waitress walked away. She was staring at us funny, as was that waitress over there…
"I think so, do you think he will?" Trinity asked. We all nodded in agreement.
"How could he not after that kiss?" Rachel asked.
"He may not if he's as oblivious as Percy. I kissed him a year before we finally got together." True, the kiss had been because I thought he was going to die, but still…
"He's worse than Percy," Trinity said, "Great, now I just have to wait a year or two…"
"Hold on, he's talking to all the guys right now. No doubt it's about you," Silena said, "Hopefully they can convince him not to be an idiot for a year like Percy."
"Watch it, Beauregard," I warned, "He may be an idiot, but he's my idiot." I said proudly. She smiled at me.
"Don't worry, Annabeth, we know." She winked.
"Your pizza, ladies." The waitress came back with our pizzas. She leaned over my shoulder to set the, on the table and I caught a weird scent off of him that I couldn't quite pinpoint… was that… blood? She smiled at us. And walked back to the kitchen. I could tell everyone else felt uneasy about her. Everyone but Trinity, that is.
"She seems nice," She said. I bit my lip and nodded.
"Uh-huh…" We fell silent.
"Did I say something?" Trinity asked. I snapped out of it.
"Oh no, no, no, no, you're fine we're just hungry. Right?" The other girls nodded enthusiastically and dug into the pizza. Trinity still looked suspicious though…
"If he doesn't ask you out, you should ask him out." Thalia said through a mouthful of cheese, "It's the 21st century, why can't a woman ask out a man?"
"Yeah! I'm the one that asked out Chris," Clarisse said, "Worked out fine."
"Grover never would have made the first move if I hadn't asked him out first." Juniper said, "He's just gets so nervous and he trips over his own words so much."
"Same with Percy. He was trying to ask me out, but he just wouldn't spit it out! Finally I just kissed him." I retold the story.
"Oh, we remember, Annabeth." Katie winked. And here comes the blush.
"The point is, it's been a week. Give him a few more days to get the courage, and then just ask him for yourself." Rachel interjected. I mouthed a thank you to her.
"How's the pizza?" The waitress once again walked over. Immediately the seven of us stiffened in our chairs while Trinity just looked confused.
"Fine, thank you." I said coldly.
"Can I get you ladies anything else?" She asked, putting a hiss on the "s".
"No, thank you." I turned my head to stare him directly in the eye, "We're just fine."
"I see." She flinched from my stone cold glare, "Annabeth Chase, is it?" Full name: monster alert.
"Rachel, why don't you and Trinity go to the bathroom?" I said calmly.
"No!" The waitress slammed her palm down on the table, "Nobody leaves." Her voice had gone raspy, and it made my skin crawl.
"W-what's going on?" Trinity asked. She was pale white, and her hands were shaking. The other two waiters in the place quickly locked the doors and shut the curtains. It was late, we were the only ones left in here.
"Demigod scum." The "waitress" spat at us. Before he knew it my knife was in my hand.
"Well this'll be fun," I said and stood up.
The monster growled. Slowly, its skin faded into what looked like a black fog in the form of a human. It's eyes glowed red, and it's fangs dripped with a dark red substance. Blood.
"It's a ker!" I told the others as I lunged for it. The creature swiped at me with razor sharp claws, but I ducked and plunged my dagger into it's calf. The ker howled in pain. The other two took on their true forms, and rose up into the air in foggy black wings. Being the skilled demigods we were, we knew how to conceal our weapons, and get the quickly when needed.
"ARES!" Clarisse called as she charged them with Maimer (a.k.a Lamer). Rachel pushed Trinity down underneath the table and crawled down with her. Thalia jumped up on the table, bow in hand.
"Come at me!" She yelled, the delight of battle glinting in her eyes. She shot one of the ker in the wing, and it spiraled back down where Katie promptly jabbed her sword into it. The thing melted down into a buddle of darkness before it disappeared completely. One down, two to go.
The one that had attacked us first bared those blood filled fangs at me. I stabbed my dagger into its shoulder. Black blood squirted from the gash and onto me. The thing screamed in agony as it fell to the ground, and made my ears feel like they were bleeding. Silena and Clarisse tag teamed the other one. Silena would take a swipe at it with her knife as Clarisse jabbed at it with her spear, electrocuting it away bit by bit. Katie was running towards me, yelling…
"Annabeth!" She cried out. I looked just in time to see the thing at my feet regain consciousness, bare it's fangs, and take bite out of my ankle.
It felt like acid was being pushed through my veins as I fell. Blood was pouring out of the wound. I grit my teeth to keep myself from screaming and wiped the tears out of my eyes. Katie caught up, and stabbed the thing in the stomach as I got it in the heart. Just like his brother, he dissolved away into nothing.
"What a rush! I haven't had a fight like that in a while," Clarisse cracked her knuckles and grinned like a madwoman.
"What were those things anyways?" Silena asked. Katie helped me up and onto a chair.
"Keres, they're daughters of Nyx, goddess of the night. That's odd, they usually prey on dying men on a battlefield…" I said. Juniper jumped up from her hiding place and poured some nectar over my bite.
"Maybe they're leftover from the Titan War." She said hopefully.
"Well, they certainly weren't the loving type." Silena grumbled.
"Wait, where's Trinity?" I asked hurriedly and ducked my head under the table to where she sat beside Rachel. The Oracle was holding her tightly, speaking soft words to her.
Trinity… she looked like a mess. Her eyes were wide; she was pale, and shaking. Katie crawled down to help coax her out.
"Oh gods this will not end well." I groaned.
"T-t-the the things! Th-they and you guys! Y-you…" She started stammering, and her right eye began to twitch.
"We need to get her back," Clarisse said, "Silena, wrap Annabeth up and help her walk. We'll take care of the mortal."