Annabeth Chase hates Christmas.
As a kid she used to spend Christmas with her dad. Every year they would go out and pick out the biggest, greenest, tallest tree they could find and decorate it with so many ornaments and lights you couldn't even see the tree anymore. After they would have hot chocolate to warm their frozen fingers and Annabeth's would have exactly seven marshmallows, just the way she liked it. It was a tradition, the thing she looked forward to as soon as the weather started to turn cold. That is until her stepmother came into the picture.
Turns out her stepmother had an unrequited hate for any and all things Christmassy. Of course Annabeth's father insisted that they listen to her and shut down everything Christmas related. No lights, no trees, no carols.
It stayed this way until she had decided to run away. When she met Thalia and Luke she had finally found a family, it was kind of hard to celebrate Christmas when you were running away from monsters who were trying to eat you with no money or provision, but they made do. They sang carols while roasting marshmallows that they stole from a supermarket over a roaring fire.
Eventually Annabeth got to Camp Half Blood where they had they went the whole nine yards, trees, carols, ornaments, lights, anything Christmassy they had. You would expect Annabeth to be exited or happy but all it did was bring back painful memories of Thalia and her father. Plus by then she had thought the whole thing was stupid, I mean how could a fat guy slide down billions of chimneys in one night. How would he even get down one if he was fat anyway?
When Annabeth told her boyfriend of four months that's she didn't like Christmas the look of horror on his face was almost comical.
"You don't like Christmas?!"
Annabeth shrugged "i just always though it was a little pointless."
"B-but it's Christmas" Percy stuttered, like that would automatically make her like it.
"I'm just not a fan" she said, not getting why he was so shocked. "So do you want to go get breakfast now?" Percy just stood there with his mouth gaping open. "I'm taking that as a yes" Ananbeth said as she dragged her shell shocked boyfriend down to the pavilion for some food.
Annabeth played with her fingers as she gazed around the dining hall for Percy. They had sat down at the Poseidon table when Percy told her to stay put before running off with an excited smile on his face. Suddenly a plate of Christmas tree shaped pancakes was thrust into her field of vision. "You may not like Christmas now but by the end of the day you'll be the freaking poster child for it!" Percy stated proudly. And thus the Christmas challenge began.
"Done! Percy said proudly as he stood back to admire his handy work . Sure the roof may be a little lopsided and he may have gotten hungry and ate the chimney and yeah he accidentally squashed a section of it with his elbow but he had managed to cover all the damage with blue candy canes so an in all he felt that it had turned out pretty well! He turned to show Annabeth his masterpiece only to be shocked by what he saw.
Sitting in front of her was a two story gingerbread house. It was intricately piped with icing icicles hanging down elegantly, little windows made of tizzlers had been perfectly proportioned and iced on, a red and green smarties door created, and other painstakingly beautiful details manufactured. Not to mention that the whole creation smelled amazing. The smell was alluring and Percy had the wild urge to grab a piece of it and inhale it's deliciousness. So that's exactly what he did.
"Perseus Jackson!" Annabeth yelled at a guilty looking Percy who held resemblance to a chipmunk with his mouth stuffed with a smarties door and chocolate rock pathway.
Turns out Percy's idea to make Annabeth love Christmas was to do everything, and I mean everything, Christmas related. Surprisingly Annabeth was having fun, most likely because gingerbread house decorating related to architecture. Well she was until her every hungry boyfriend ate it.
"Sorry" Percy mumbled through chewing
"You had eleven pancakes this morning!"
"Sorry!"
The next activity was sledding. Annabeth stood outside shivering in her thick coat and woolen scarf and gloves with a scowl on her face. Freezing to death was definitely not her idea of fun, especially when she could be inside next to the warm fire with a good book.
"Don't worry wise girl it'll be fun!" Percy encouraged. "It's Christmas, the best time of the year it-" Ananbeth cut him off.
"Sorry" she said, covering her hand with her mouth with her hand and making static sounds. "We're breaking up"
"Your not even using a phone!"
Annabeth shrugged, it was worth a shot, she was getting fed up with all this Christmas nonsense. Percy walked over and placed a blue sled at the top of the snow covered hill. He than walked over and threw a protesting Annabeth over his shoulder before placing themselves only the slay. "Ready?" Percy asked grinning wildly. "Sure" she said, grinning at the childlike look on her boyfriend's face.
"This is AWESOME!"
Annabeth grinned at Percy's enthusiasm. To her it wasn't too exciting, she had fallen of a cliff on top of a crazy monster's back, this sled had nothing on that. Just as they were about to reach the bottom of the icy hill, their sled hit a rock.
She heard Percy let out a yell as the sled went flying straight into a mountain of soft powder. Ananbeth spluttered as she sat up, spitting out snow that forced its way into her mouth. She sat up and what she saw next made the whole ordeal worth it. Percy upside down with his head stuck in the snow which was muffling his yelling while his legs flailed around in the air which revealed a huge tear in his jeans that had his finding nemo patterned boxers peaking out of it.
"Hahahahahaha" Annabeth cried, rolling around in the cold snow shaking with laughter. "O-oh my god you look s-so stupid" Annabeth gasped between laughs.
"Mmmmh hmmm mm!"
"Oh right" Annabeth said, still letting out the occasionally giggle. She walked over to where Percy was thrashing around upside down in the snow and pulled him out but his ankles. With a loud gasp Percy plopped out and flopped back onto the snow dramatically.
"Are you laughing at me? I nearly died!
Annabeth laughed his theatrics. Well that and the fact that he still hadn't realized that his pants were ripped. Percy rolled his eyes and when he turned around, probably to go change out of his snow covered clothes, Annabeth realized something. His boxers were ripped too.
"Come on!"
"Percy this is stupid"
"Please wise girl! It'll be fun, you'll see!"
"I can't believe I'm doing this" Annabeth groaned. After the whole sledding boxer incident, which resulted in Percy turning the same colour as the red ornaments on a near by Christmas tree, he had decided that the best way celebrate Christmas was to go to the mall and sit on Santa's lap. Annabeth scowled as she neared the front of the incredibly long line, all just to sit on some random old guy's lap for thirty seconds and a quick picture. They had photoshop for a reason you know she grumbled internally. Finally it was Annabeth's turn to go. She walked up the red carpeted steps and plopped herself down on the guys lap, ready to get this over with and hopping it would be quick, but he hopes were demolished because as soon as she sat down he grabbed her ass.
Annabeth gaped at the guy and shock. He wasn't old and scraggly like she had automatically presumed, but young, handsome, and definitely perverted. She couldn't tell by the creepy smile and how he kept his eyes trained on her chest.
"Now what does such a pretty lady want for Christmas? I have a few suggestions" he said, smirking. He probably thought he was being sexy, but all Annabeth saw was the spinach stuck in his teeth. She hated spinach.
"Is one of your suggestions is to get off your lap and walk away so I don't lose my temper and kick you in the place where the sun doesn't shine?" she said in a fake flirty voice before hopping off his lap and stomping back over to Percy, leaving a shocked Santa Claus behind.
"Annie look I got a picture!" Percy yelled as he waved around a picture of a sour looking Annabeth perched on a smiling, and creepy, Santa's lap.
"He grabbed my ass" Ananbeth growled. Percy's eyes widened before he started to chuckle. His chuckles soon turned to loud body shaking laughs.
"An old bearded Santa Claus grabbed your ass" he choked out, tears springing to his eyes. Ananbeth glared daggers, wishing he feel then. Suddenly a brilliant idea sprang into her head and she smirked deviously.
"Actually" she drawled, "he wasn't old, he was about our age. He was pretty hot too." Percy stopped laughing and Annabeth mentally gave herself a pat on the back before continuing. "You know he did it twice" she lied, "and he gave me his number, and since you think it's funny maybe I should use it". With that, she turned on her heel and marched out of the mall, leaving a shocked Percy behind.
"I'm going to kill him!"
"Percy"
"I'll kick his ass!"
"Percy"
"I swear I'm gonna-"
"Percy!"
Turn out Annabeth's idea wasn't as brilliant as she thought because as soon Percy caught up with her at camp the overprotective and jealous ranting began.
"I'm gonna rip-"
"Perseus Jackson!" I screamed, cutting him off. "He only did it once, I could have totally judo flipped him if I needed to, and there's nothing you can do about it now so calm down!"
Yeah, Percy didn't calm down.
"What's up with him?" A confused Thalia asked as she looked at an angrily pacing Percy.
"Someone grabbed my ass"
"That'll do it"
"Well I'm just gonna go now" I said, turning around to leave a fuming Percy behind.
"Wait no!" Percy yelled, "we still have Christmassy things to do!"
Thalia rolled her eyes. "I'll do Christmassy things with Annie until you calm down and stop wearing a hole in the floor.
"Don't call me Annie!" I grumbled, annoyed that my plan to escape from all things Christmas related didn't work.
"Yeah, yeah" Thalia said as she grabbed my arm and dragged me out the door. "Bye kelp head!"
"A snowball fight really?" I asked, eyebrows raised in amusement. She knew how competitive I could be, this was definitely going to be interesting.
"Oh but not just any snowball fight, a full out snowball war!" Thalia declared, pointing to the campers running down the hill. "I even got death breath to join!".
"Everyone for themselves!"
Ananbeth wasn't sure who yelled that but it seemed to set off the other campers. The thick sparkling snow covered ground had become a war zone with white snowballs flying too and fro. She let a smile grace her features as she grabbed a clump of the snow in her bare hands before shaping it and launching it at the back of some random campers head.
Ten minutes later the battle was still in full swing. Annabeth ducked as she saw a white sphere being hurtled in her direction. It seemed like everything happened in slow motion after that. When Annabeth ducked, the snowball went flying over head and hit Katie Gardner square in the back, sending her flying into Travis Stoll. The only problem? When she fell her lips bumped into Travis's. It was chaos after that.
All the Aphrodite girls started to scream about how their ship had sailed before promptly fainting, Conner had taken pictures of the two swapping spit and had a beet red and murderous looking Travis chasing after him with a bright pink golf club, where he got one from she would never know. Katie was in complete shock and was not responding to anyone or anything, the younger campers had started to sing "Katie and Travis sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G", and Will Solace had his head stuck in a tree, which was completely unrelated to what was going on but added to the chaos none the less. Annabeth was so caught up watching the actions that were unfolding before her that she didn't see a evilly grinning Nico sneak up behind her and dump an armful of snow down her shirt.
It was unfortunate, for Nico not Annabeth, because as soon as she felt the coldness on her back her reflexes kicked in. What her reflexes did? Well they caused her to spin around and kick Nico in the balls.
"AHHH HOLY MOTHER OF ZEUS THAT HURTS!" Nico then proceeded to hop around clutching his jewels while using every swear word under the sun. And world. And universe. Annabeth had to give him some credit she thought, as she heard the words Hera, cheese, putrid, and thong fall from his mouth.
"Hey guys I've calmed down and I'm ready to teach wise girl all about holiday spir- what in Hades name happened?!" This is gonna be along day Annabeth signed, rubbing her temples.
"Hey wise girl" she heard Percy say as he slung his arm around her shoulders and planted a kiss on the top of her head. When had he gotten so tall she wondered? "Well I'm gonna go find Travis and Conner, I heard their starting a contest about who can drink the most eggnog without puking!" He said excitedly. "They had to add the puking rule because last year because Conner forced himself to throw up so he would have more room in his stomach."
"Okay have fun" Annabeth said, knowing that she would be rubbing his back while he puked up the rest of the eggnog that he was bound to stupidly force down his throat later this evening.
Ananbeth looked around the pavilion fondly. Lou Ellen was teasing a blushing Katie about 'bumping' lips with a certain Stoll and Percy, Travis, and Conner were all drinking eggnog out of shot glasses yelling "chug!" Chiron was wearing antlers, a fake red nose, and a scowl as the younger kids called him Rudolph and pestered him with requests to ride him, Pollux had his face in the cranberry sauce and was fast asleep, and Nico had somehow managed to get tangled in the multicoloured Christmas lights, which looked strange on his black and skull clad figure.
Sure Annabeth may still not be the biggest fan of Christmas and she still thought the holiday was highly illogical but it didn't matter if she didn't like sledding or taking pictures of Santa Claus because she got to do it with the people she loved, she realized. That was the true meaning of this holiday, the thing that mattered the most. Maybe this holiday wasn't that horrible after all Annabeth thought grinning.
"Dude I think I'm gonna puke"
"What are y- NOT ON MY SHOES PERCY" Ananbeth heard a distressed sounding Conner exclaim. She sighed and turned around, ready to take care of her idiotic boyfriend. Well that and tell him the his pants were ripped. Again. This was definitely going to be a long Christmas.