Walking through the streets of New York City, flashbacks hit me like a train. I remembered the last summer I had gone up to Mount Olympus, seeing all of the gorgeous buildings where the stuck up gods lived and ignored their children.
Of course, the buildings were nothing on Annabeth.
Her storm grey eyes sparkled in the light of Olympus as her golden curls flowed freely in the wind. She had a bloodstain on her hands, but I'd never seen anything more breathtaking in that moment. The daughter of Athena had quickly gone from best friend to my only reason to stay alive. Annabeth, the only word that mattered.
The war was finished, even if the price had been great. So many people had died and Olympus was in ruins. If that day wasn't such a tragic day, I would definitely be laughing in the gods' faces. That's where Annabeth would get the opportunity of a lifetime!
Standing in front of the gods, Athena had awarded Annabeth with the job of redesigning Mount Olympus, which meant the world to Annabeth. She was an aspiring architect and I had never seen work more awe-inducing than her's. Everything she did had that effect on me.
But redesigning Olympus was no easy job, even for Wise Girl. Annabeth seemed to be living in a pile of blueprints, and only the gods knew how much she was sleeping. They had offered her a place to stay up on the mountain, but every once in a while Annabeth would come to Mom's house and sleep there. She always arrived late and left early in the morning, only early enough for the owls to see. Not like there were any owls in overpopulated New York.
While my girlfriend was off rebuilding a place where literal gods resided, I was off going to stupid high school for the next four torturous years, just to get a degree and go back to school. If I school would take me. And there's no way Wise Girl would let me just not go to college. That being said, I'd even be surprised if I lived that long at the rate things are going.
That doesn't really matter though, as long as Annabeth lives.
The high school I was enrolled in was nothing I was particularly excited about. There I would be known as the dyslexic no good troublemaker, and I would have to do it all without Annabeth. I had to remind myself every day that at least I wasn't the one who had to work with the gods 24/7!
The walk from my school to my house was only a couple miles, which I would gladly endure instead of riding on the bus. Too many possibilities of monsters either way, but hey, what was life without a little rush every once in a while?
I turned the corner past the bakery. The next street held a bunch of apartments, one of which was mine. I of course shared it with my mom (who I wouldn't trade the world for), Paul, and the occasional Wise Girl. Walking into the cramped apartment, I could smell a million different dinners all being cooked at once. And, was that, fish? Hmm, I wonder if I knew them.
Our apartment was up on the third floor. The elevator had been faulty for the past couple weeks, so I took the stairs up to our floor. I reached the door, and to my surprise, Annabeth was sitting at the kitchen table, talking with Mom as Paul cooked something on the stove. My Annabeth.
I put my backpack on the ground, and upon meeting each other's eyes, Annabeth ran towards me. I enveloped her in a hug, slightly lifting her up off the ground. "Seaweed brain," she whispered into my ear. Gods, I missed her voice. Her hair smelled slightly of lemons, just like it always did. Wise Girl looked like she could fall asleep at any minute, but I thought she had never looked so beautiful.
Annabeth and I loosened from our hug, and looking over her shoulder, I saw my mom staring at me, eyes raised, with an excited look on her face. She of course knew that Annabeth and I had been dating for a couple of months, but it never failed to entertain her when we showed affection.
In fact, tomorrow was our 2 month anniversary, and I was taking Annabeth on a picnic date at the lake. I already had her anniversary gift all picked out: it was a bracelet with Ancient Greece style waves made of grey jewels. The grey would bring out her eyes; I was sure of it. And the waves reminded me of our underwater kiss! What more perfect gift could there be?
Annabeth and I retreated into my bedroom to catch up without Paul and Mom listening in. I wasn't too worried about them, but it was nice to just be alone with Annabeth again. It felt natural.
"And Hera went haywire when I turned down her idea for peacock feather curtains, but I was glad to make her mad. Every chance I get. Oh! Hestia asked if I would say hi to you. Your father says he wants to go on a fishing trip with you sometime, so I said I would let you know. Other than that, not much has happened. Apollo and Artemis won't stop fighting, and it's going to drive me insane!" Annabeth rambled about how things were up on Mount Olympus while I sat there listening. "You know, it's amazing how quickly some kids are getting claimed now. Have I told you how grateful I am that you made them that deal?"
I laughed a bit and pulled her closer to me. Just after the war, when the gods had given Annabeth the job of Olympus redesigner, they had also offered me something. Immortality. Zeus said I was crazy for turning it down, but what he didn't know was that I would be crazy to take it. Because there Annabeth was, and there was no way I was going to be immortal without her. So yeah, I turned down immortality, but I honestly don't get why it's such a big deal.
"How about you? Tell me about school," Annabeth looked up at me, expecting some great story.
"Well, I haven't blown it up yet, so I guess that's a good thing!" I laughed a bit with Annabeth.
"You do seem to have a knack for that. Which is ironic considering the whole water control thing!"
We talked and held hands until Mom called us out for dinner, which so happened to be lasagna. Lasagna was amazing no matter what.
The rest of the day had passed quickly. Annabeth had went to bed almost right after dinner, but I would be willing to bet she didn't get to sleep very easily. I don't understand how she keeps so much information in her brain: I'm pretty sure I would explode. Not even joking.
Despite my attempt at procrastinating, I had pages upon pages of homework I needed to do. If only Annabeth were awake, she would certainly help me.
And before I knew it, I had drifted off into a dreamless night. Huh. That's rare.
The next day dragged on much too slowly for my liking. Annabeth had left early in the morning, and school was just as torturous as ever. I'm pretty sure the teachers actually tried to make it seem like jail.
But finally, the last bell rang and I was free to go. In three hours I would be picking Annabeth up in Paul's car from Mount Olympus, and we would be off on our date.
Of course this one night couldn't be easy, though. The gods would never let me have an easy night.
I picked Wise Girl up at 6:30, and our date had started. We drove the distance to the lake, chatting the entire time. By chatting, I mean complaining about the gods. Which is probably what got me in this predicament.
I don't know if the god of sickness is Apollo or someone else, but thanks for ruining a perfectly good evening with my favorite person in the world.
Not even halfway through the date, Annabeth passed out. I freaked out for a minute, like any rational person would do, then remembered what my mom had said about when people pass out. Once Annabeth had woken up, I walked her to the car, helped her lay down in the back, and drove home.
Her face was ghostly white and she didn't even seem like the same person. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Really Percy, I'm fine," she kept trying to insist, but even her voice, which was always steady, sounded more fragile than a china plate.
I called Mom, who told me just to bring her to our house. Wise Girl had fallen asleep in the back, so Paul and I carried her in and laid her on the couch. Mom was already prepared with an assortment of things one who is sick might need, including a thermometer she used to take her temp. 102.7 degrees. How had I not realised she was sick earlier?
The apartment was silent after that. I spent most of my time sitting right by Annabeth's side, waiting patiently for her to wake up and tell me she'd be alright. I had a feeling she wouldn't be alright for a while though, considering the many different things she was more than likely battling right now with her new job.
Here go the gods, ruining everything again. And I bet you anything it was Hera.
The sun disappeared and the moon rose far into the sky, but I didn't plan on leaving her side any time soon. At around midnight, Paul came into the living room and broke the silence. "Percy, you need some sleep. I know you don't want to leave Annabeth, but the worst thing you could do is get yourself sick too." He handed me a blanket and went back to bed.
Next thing I knew, the sun was rising and I woke up in one of the chairs. My brain was completely blank for a minute until I looked over and saw Annabeth's pale skin and sweat beading her forehead. She was still asleep, but I couldn't imagine it was a comfortable sleep. Sleep sounded nice.
No! I scolded myself. I will stay awake and watch over Annabeth. Once she wakes up, I want her to know what's going on. But sleep wasn't something I could fight and win, unlike Kronos. I soon drifted off into another dreamless sleep.
When I woke up a few hours later, Paul and Mom left for work. I assumed it was around noon or something, and food sounded nice. Annabeth would need something to eat, but I wasn't going to wake her up.
I made myself a quick PB&J and went back to sit over by Wise Girl. A few minutes later, her eyes fluttered open and a pained look crossed her ghostly face. She went to sit up, but the dizziness overtook her. I was just in time to catch her when she fell back down, nearly hitting her head on the coffee table. "Hey, easy, lay down, okay?" I instructed softly, which she obeyed. I brought over some saltine crackers just in case she was hungry, but Annabeth softly pushed them away and shook her head.
I then grabbed a glass of water. "You need to drink something." Annabeth took the cup gingerly in her hands, which were trembling ever so softly. She took the smallest sip and set the cup down, then holding onto the table, she stood up slowly.
"I need to go," Annabeth looked pained as she said this, but defiant.
"No, you need rest. You need to get better," I responded softly, but using a confident voice.
Annabeth simply looked at me and shook her head. "If I don't go, they'll be mad."
"If you don't go, you'll stop being sick."
"You don't understand. This is big. I need to go work on Mount Olympus."
I looked at Annabeth, who could barely even open her eyes. There was no way I was letting her walk out of this apartment. I walked over to Wise Girl and tenderly put my arm around her back, guiding her toward the couch. To my surprise, she didn't even try to leave.
That was how the next few days went. Annabeth would eat a bit, drink some water (she was clearly dehydrated), and say she needed to leave, which I or Mom would talk her out of.
"You really are impertinent, Percy. Just let me go to work!" Annabeth said one day. It was clear she was getting better, but slowly. If only I could get her to take some medicine, maybe she would feel fine enough to eat a meal.
The days passed slowly enough that you'd think Kronos stopped time. It had been about 5 days after our anniversary when Annabeth started truly feeling better.
Today when I woke up, after checking my missing assignments list (which was growing at a worrying amount, even for me), I went to check back in on Annabeth. But to my surprise, my Wise Girl was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a piece of peanut butter toast. She was looking over a blueprint which I assumed was the entrance hall. Just as I was about to protest, Wise Girl put up a finger in a wait sign. She finished her toast, rolled up the blueprint, and got up.
I then realized what she was doing. Annabeth was leaving for work, and this time there was nothing I could do about it. The way she looked at me told me that even all of the water from the Pacific ocean couldn't keep her from going to Mount Olympus today.
Gods, I loved her.
"Bye Percy, I'm going to Mount Olympus. Will you tell Sally thank you for breakfast?" Annabeth walked over to me and started to give me a hug.
"Wait!" I said. She started saying how she was going to go to work, but I had already left the living room. Where was it? It was a few long seconds later until I found the dark blue velvet box from the bottom of my backpack.
Walking back into the living room, I handed Annabeth the box. "Here you go, Wise Girl, your anniversary gift." I smiled as I watched her open it. Her eyes lit up seeing the bracelet.
I was about to ask if she liked it when she pulled me into a kiss. And before I knew it, my Wise Girl was out the door, smiling widely, on her way to become a famous demigod.