Secrets | Percabeth AU

5- Welcome to New York

Annabeth's POV

The car halted to a stop in front of the airport. Helen and dad went out of the car. I turned towards Matthew and Bobby, who both had smiles peaking through their "sad" faces. "I'll see you guys soon, okay?" I said, kissing the tops of their head .

"Okay. We'll miss you, and we promise to never touch your room...ever," They said with deceiving smiles.

"Uh huh." I jumped out of the car. I heard Rachel jump out of the car after saying her goodbyes to my brothers. We walked towards the trunk, where Helen and Dad were gathering our luggages. Rachel and I took our bags. Once we were set to enter the airport, we said our goodbyes to Helen and Dad.

"Bye, Mr. and Mrs. Chase. Thanks for the ride," Rachel said, as my parents and her hugged.

"Bye, Helen, Dad. I'll see you soon. I'll call you when I have time. Oh! And don't let Matthew and Bobby touch my room. Please," I said, hugging Helen and Dad tight.

"Take care, girls. Annabeth, call us. If  you don't call, I'll assume that you're in trouble or you got a boyfriend-"

"Dad! Shh! I promise you that I'm never going to let a boy prevent me from calling you." I heard Rachel snicker. I turned towards her and she hid her smiling face.

"I'll take care of that Mr. And Mrs. Chase. You don't have to worry," Rachel said, as I smacked her arm. "Ow!" She exclaimed.

"Please, it wasn't even that hard." I smiled. She stook her tongue out.

"Have a safe flight, girls! Call us when you land, okay?" Helen asked.

"Okay," Rachel and I said. I hugged my dad one more time, and he whispered in my ears: "You'll be fine. Say hi to your mom for me."

I grimly nodded, and let go from the hug. I gathered my luggage in one hand, and waved bye with my other.

Rachel and I went through all of the security and checkpoints. Once, we've passed through those, we were sitting in front of our gate. She sat on one chair sipping her Starbucks, while I read my book. She turned towards me.

"What are you going to do when you live with your mom?" She asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Ignore her?" I replied, putting my attention back to my book. I was engrossed on the book, when she yanked the it out of my hand. "Hey-"

"I'm being serious. You can't just ignore her. You're going to live with her. You can't just isolate yourself from her," She said holding the book in the air. Her piercing green eyes bore through me, searching for an answer.

"Yeah, I can. All I have to do is not talk to her for a couple of months. Why are you even siding with her? She left me," I retorted, anger slowly building inside of me.

She lowered the book onto her lap. "I'm not siding with her. I just want you to understand your mom. She might've have had a reason-"

"A reason as to why she left me? Yeah...okay...sure. You want to know what her reason was? Her reason was that she grew tired of me. She didn't think Dad and I were good enough. That was her reason, okay?!" Anger started to diminish, as I let it all out. Remembering that I was in a public place, I lowered my voice, "Look, can we just drop it?" I grabbed my book back, and went back to reading.

"Fine...fine," She gave up, and went back to drawing sketches. Minutes passed by, when my attention was averted from the book. I was staring out the window, where I could see the airplanes. I felt a stare on my back. I turned towards Rachel, but she wasn't the one staring at me. I looked behind me just in time to see a familiar black-haired guy turn around. He was wearing a gray-hoodie, blue jeans, and green sneakers. If only I could see his face, maybe I can recognize him. After a while, I gave up trying to figure out who he was.

The intercom blared, "Flight 6A is ready for departure. Flight 6A is ready for departure."

Rachel and I gathered our luggage. I took out my ticket from my bag. We walked towards the forming line to depart. We gave our tickets to the flight attendant, and went through the tunnel. We entered the plane. We both got first class seats, since Mr. Dare and Mom booked them for us.

"How come you get the window seat?" Rachel complained, as she struggled to put her carry-on in the compartment. I helped her put her bad in.

"I don't know. Why don't you ask my mom?" I said sarcastically. She gave me a look. We got settled in our seats. Before we knew it, the plane was in midair. Rachel fell asleep, while sketching. Her face slammed on the mini-table, which had her sketchbook and pencils. I helped her out of her uncomfortable position, and went back to reading my book.

I put my book down, as thoughts of my mom clouded my mind. The closer I get to New York, the more I feel nervous and scared. What do I say to her when I see her? Hey Mom! I'm here to spend time with you after 10 years you left us! No...just no. Would she be over-protective of me? What else should I say to her? Um...mom? I'm gonna lock myself up in my room, so I won't see you, okay? Ugh, this is so frustrating! What if she has a family? A new family that I don't know about.

I ran my hand through my hair, and closed my eyes. I opened them again to see how long 'till we land. The monitor said 2 more hours. I closed my eyes again, and let out a heavy sigh. I wish my life wasn't like this. Everything was bad enough in my sophomore year. Now, this. Why can't life slow down, 'till it stops? I'm getting more paranoid.
I closed my eyes, and let my mind shut down- which rarely happens. My mind fell silent, and I went to sleep.

What seemed like a 30 minute nap turned into the full plane ride- 2 hours. I woke up as people hurriedly gathered their luggage, including Rachel. I stretched my arms, and yawned. I got up, and helped Rachel bring our luggage down.

"Phew, I tried waking you up, but you were in a deep sleep. I was going to leave you here after you set an attitude on me in the airport," She smiled, and had her hand on her hip. I gave her a piercing look, and chuckled.

"Sorry, it's just...I was thinking too much." We moved out of the plane as flight attendants said their thank you's.

"When are you not thinking too much?" Rachel said, dragging her luggage through the tunnel.

"Haha...very funny." We went through the exit looking at different signs that might say our name. I noticed that New York is a lot more busy than SF. I've expected it, but not this busy! People pushing other people to get through. After looking for at least 5 minutes, there was one sign that caught my eye. In dark blue ink, it read:

Annabeth Chase
And
Rachel Dare

I heard my breath stop for a second. Rachel looked at me, and looked at where I've been staring. She looked at me again, grabbed my hand.

"It's okay. You'll be fine," I nodded, and she led me to the sign's direction. The person holding the sign was in a polished, black suit, but I wasn't paying much attention to him. One lady caught my eye. She had dark brown hair(AN: I have no idea what her hair color is. I just based her hair from the illustrated pictures from John Rocco and Uncle Rick.) and intimidating grey eyes. She wore a pencil skirt and a blazer. She looked frantically around, until her eyes landed on me.

At that moment, it felt like everything froze. She was slowly walking towards me. My hand was still holding Rachel's, as if it was supporting me. She dropped her hand out of mine, as my mom hugged me. I heard her silently crying. I stood there like a stick. I didn't hugged her.

-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=

Phew! This chapter took a lot of time to write. I know, I know. We haven't seen much Percabeth yet, but I promise it will be coming. I just have to set the scene, and Percabeth's different situations in life. I hope you guys liked it!

---Brainy_dolphin <3