★★★
★Happy Birthday Princess★
December 24, Esmeralda Beckendorf's birthday. Or Christmas Eve but which one do you think Percy Jackson was more excited about.
"Mom! Where's the tape?" Percy yelled through the apartment.
"It's on the second shelf where I always leave it!" Sally Jackson replied from the other room.
"No it's not! I already checked."
Sally walked in and sighed, reaching over her son's head. "Check again," she said as she grabbed the tape off the second shelf.
Percy smiled sheepishly, "when did that get there." He said, taking the tape. "Thanks."
"You're welcome, don't wrap it sloppily." She gently tapped him on the head with a roll of pink wrapping paper.
"I won't. I know what I'm doing." Percy said, taking the tape and wrapping paper back to his room. He'd spent the past month searching for the perfect birthday gift with his mom. Esme's favorite color was pink, that was obvious. However that still didn't give him much to work with. Finally, after weeks of struggling he passed a shop, his eyes catching a glimpse of a pair of shoes in the window. They were converse, like the ones she always wore. But they were light pink, with little flowers around the heel. After asking Annabeth to find out her size, he bought the shoes and brought them home to wrap.
Now he was in his room, fighting one of the toughest monsters known to man.
Wrapping paper.
Now yes, Percy had just told his mother that he knew what he was doing. But that was a lie. Now he was currently having a silent battle with the pink paper, struggling to make the folds and creases work with him.
"Stupid piece of shit." He mumbled under his breath.
Just then his mother walked in holding up a birthday card, "Percy I found a card-" she froze when she saw the scraps of paper and tape stuck in his hair. "Percy sweetheart, you were supposed to wrap the gift, not yourself."
"Ha ha, very funny." Percy grumbled.
"Do you need some help?"
"Yes please."
Sally smiled, kneeling next to him on the floor. She must have been magical or something because the wrapping paper seemed to do the work for her. When she was finished, she presented him with a perfectly wrapped box.
"You're magical." Percy said.
Sally just laughed. "Here," she handed him the birthday card, "don't forget to write your little love letter."
"Mooom," Percy whined, "it's not a love letter it's just a card."
"Alright fine, it's just a card." She raised her hands in defense but she couldn't help smiling as she walked out of her son's room.
Percy took the card over to his desk and grabbed a pen. He stared at the blank construction paper for maybe ten minutes, contemplating what to say. Finally, he came up with a few words and began to scribble. Surely there were a few spelling errors but he knew Esme wouldn't mind. He taped the card to the box and headed to the kitchen with it.
"I finished," he said, placing the box on the counter.
"Great, I'll take it to the post office after dinner."
★★★
"Selina where are we going?" Esmeralda asked. The daughter of Aphrodite had blindfolded her and was leading her around the camp in the dark.
"Patience is a virtue Em." Selina said.
"You don't even know what that means." Esme argued.
"Maybe, but neither do you." Selina wasn't wrong. "Ok stop,"
Esmeralda stopped in her tracks, "can I take the blindfold off?"
"Yes,"
Esme untied the blindfold, blinking a few times to adjust her eyes. She was standing near the beach and in front of her was a picnic blanket. Charlie, Annabeth, and Thalia -who Esme had reconnected with- were also there.
"Surprise!" Annabeth jumped up and down clapping her hands together excitedly.
Em ran up to her, tackling her in a hug. "I can't believe you." She squealed, hugging her friend tightly.
"What, you really thought we weren't going to celebrate your birthday?" Annabeth asked.
Esme bounded over to her brother, tightly wrapping her arms around him. "Thank you." She couldn't stop smiling.
He hugged her back, "Open your gifts Emmie." He said, pointing to the little pile.
They sat down on the blanket and Annabeth insisted she opened her first. Inside the bag was a little square box, she pulled the ribbon off and inside was a woven bracelet. It was yellow, blue and pink, and the pattern was so intricate Em couldn't even fathom how it was made. In the center of the bracelet a little broken heart charm dangled. "Did you make this yourself."
Annabeth nodded, she then extended her arm and on her wrist was the same woven bracelet with the other half of the heart. "You made us friendship bracelets?" Esme made her tie it on right away and the two girls made a promise to never take them off.
She excitedly opened Thalia's next and a big grin grew on the girls face when she found a Swiss Army knife inside the bag. When she was younger and on the run, Thalia had always carried around a Swiss Army knife. She loved it, she always told the older girl that when she was older she wanted a knife just like Thalia's, and now she had one of her own.
Inside Selina's gift was a jacket, it was a variety style with a light pink body and cream white leather sleeves. Selina definitely knew her well because she loved it. It also made her happy because most of her clothes got stolen by Hermes campers when she would leave for quests, so it made her happy to finally had something she liked again. She'd have to hide it under her mattress every once in a while though.
The last gift was from Charlie, and she had a vague idea of what it was. Her brother was always tinkering something special around this time of year, and he would always give her a hint as to what it was. This year however he just told her 'sparkles'. That obviously got her excited.
She opened the tiny box he'd given her. Inside was a dainty gold necklace and in the center hung an oval shaped pink gemstone. Esme smiled from ear to ear, "where did you-" she was going to ask where she found the material to make it. Then she remembered a few weeks ago when she'd lost control of her new powers. Everywhere she went gemstones and precious metals appeared on the ground. She even tripped over them a few times. "I love it," she tackled him in a hug, knocking him over onto his back.
"I can tell." He smiled, "happy birthday Emmie."
"Thank you," she couldn't wipe the silly grin off her face
"Wait we're not done." Selina said.
"What do you mean?" Esme looked at her in confusion.
"This came for you this morning." Selina pulled a neatly wrapped box out from behind her back. Annabeth bit her lip to hide her smile.
Esmeralda took the box, checking for a name to see who it came from. When she found nothing, the only other option was to tear it open. Inside the box was a new pair of converse, they were the same pink color as the jacket and had tiny flowers printed around the heel.
"Show us." Selina said eagerly.
Esme pulled the shoes out of the box and handed them to Selina. She then noticed a card taped to the bottom. She pulled it out and opened it, her eyes lighting up as she read:
Happy birthday Princess,
I hope you're not going crazy without me, I can only imagine how much you must miss me.
Esme rolled her eyes with a smile.
Even if you don't miss me, I miss you, a lot. Schools boring as hell and I don't understand algebra. I'm trying to make it through the whole year without getting expelled, please pray for me. How are things at camp, how's training going? I hope everything is going ok and that I don't return to total madness like last year. Have a great birthday and I hope you like the gift, I had to battle a monster called Wrapping Paper for you so I hope you like them. Wish I was at Camp with you but I'll be back soon. Don't go doing anything crazy without me, Princess.
Love,
Seaweed Brain :)
Em hadn't noticed the smile on her face to Selina said something. "Looks like someone's happy, who's it from?"
"It's from Percy." She bit her lip to stop herself from grinning like crazy.
"Oooh, what's his love letter say." Selina teased.
"It's not a love letter, Lina. It's a birthday card." True to her word Selina had managed to get a confession out of Esmeralda. The girl broke down one day and ended up spilling everything to her. Selina had refused to let her leave any tiny details out and also refuses to let a day go by without reminding Esme of her 'lover boy'.
"Then let me see what it says."
"No way!" Esmeralda pulled away from her, hiding the card behind her. A bright blush crept onto her cheeks.
"Awww," Annabeth cooed, "Selina we need a ship name."
"No!" Esme argued, "no ship names."
But it was too late, the two girls had already started brainstorming ideas together while Charlie and Thalia laughed.
Esme covered her face with her hands to hide her embarrassment. She loved her friends though, and she wouldn't have traded that moment with them for anything.
Later that night Esmeralda sat in her bed reading Percy's card over and over again. She read it so many times she could've recited it like an anthem. Eventually, she stopped reading and realized the fluttery feeling had returned in her stomach. She had a love hate relationship with that feeling. She loved it, but she hated that a boy was making her feel that way. And if she was being honest, she wasn't really sure what the feeling even was.
1747 Words
Authors note
Can you guys guess what Em's fav color is. Also the slow burn is beginning to burnnnnn! I have some really cute moments planned for Titans Curse so I hope yall are prepared. Anyway I hope yall enjoyed this short little chapter, I might do another one or maybe not please let me know if you want another.
- Your Mystery Girl <3