ᴄᴀᴠᴇ ᴄᴀɴᴇᴍ: ᴘᴀʀᴛ ɪɪ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴇʀᴄᴀʙᴇᴛʜ/ꜱᴏʟᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏ ᴘʀᴏᴊᴇᴄᴛ

ɪɪ | ɪɴ ᴡʜɪᴄʜ ᴡᴇ ᴇꜱᴛᴀʙʟɪꜱʜ ᴛʜᴇ ɢᴏᴏᴏᴏᴏᴏᴀᴀᴀᴀᴀᴀᴀᴀʟ

Annabeth is eating the single worst chicken wings known to man. Can British people do anything right other than fish and chips? Now that she thinks of it, the smarter move might have been to get the fish and chips, but what kind of person eats fish and chips at a soccer game? From her experience as a Hooters girl, she knows for a fact that wings are a mandatory sports food.

She could go back and get the fish and chips. It's not her money anyway.

"Annabeth, there you are," Percy says, huffing and puffing. He's pulling their massive shared suitcase behind him. Good for him. Annabeth can't say she thought of that when she went after the storm spirit.

They speak at the same time.

"You can't run off like that!"

"Do you want a shitty wing?"

Percy raises an eyebrow. "You ran off for food? Seriously? Do you not realize we're on a potentially time-sensitive mission?"

"I mean, yeah, but we don't even know-"

"And we haven't even come up with a plan!"

"All we were told was that the next phase of Pothos's plan would be happening in Europe, so I-"

"And you think getting wings is a valuable use of our time right now?"

Annabeth just shrugs. "I think better with food in my stomach. You should try it sometime."

"So you have no plan?"

"No, but I have wings."

"I don't want your stupid wings, Annabeth!" Percy yells.

"They're kind of gross anyway-"

"I want a plan. I want a plan that's going to get us somewhere that's not here and that's going to get me home in time to celebrate my birthday with people I actually want to be around."

Annabeth rolls her eyes.

Before she left New Rome with Percy, she overheard Leo telling his son Jason old demigod stories. Leo tends to exaggerate—monsters don't cower at the mention of Percy's name—but the tale of how they captured the literal goddess Nike made Annabeth realize that Percy changed too. Sure, Annabeth's the one who grew up into a Hooters girl, but Percy went from catching Nike to barely being able to catch a fly.

She knows that the latter is true because he spent an embarrassingly long couple of minutes trying to swat a fly on the plane. His clapping kept waking her up. Now she's hungry and tired.

She takes another wing out of the flimsy container and takes a bite.

"Annabeth?"

She takes a long sip of her beer and then says, "We have come so far only for you to be a dick."

"That's not fair and you know it."

"Except it is fair. You invited me on this quest. We've already established that I have changed since we were kids. You knew what you were getting when you invited me. I'm sorry that I'm not some plan robot. To be honest, I don't think I ever was." Damn, that felt good. She finishes off her beer.

Percy stands there like a confused idiot—which he is—and stammers for something to say.

"I'm going to use your credit card to buy another beer while you figure that out," Annabeth says, waving the card she stole earlier in the air. If he's going to be this way, the least he can do is buy her a drink. "And for the record, you've changed too."