Percabeth: A New Beginning

Christmas in San Francisco

Annabeth's POV

"Christmas, Christmas time is here. Time for toys and time for cheer." The radio sang the voices of Alvin and the Chipmunks at the ungodly hour of three a.m.

"Uh gods, why?" Percy groaned, switching the alarm off. All our kids had been listening to was Christmas music. I love Christmas music but not when it is sung by a bunch of high pitched chipmunks.

Today we were leaving for San Francisco, Percy and I decided that we'd spend Christmas and a week and a half during the summer in San Francisco to visit my family. It was nice to have a change from New York every once in a while, and visiting my family was always fun.

"Come on Percy, our plane leaves at five thirty." I jumped out of bed, excited for this holiday season.

"Ok, just give me a minute." Percy mumbled, turning his face back into his pillow.

I rolled my eyes and went into my closet to get changed. I pulled on a pair of jeans, a red shirt and a purple Patagonia sweater. I brushed my teeth and hair, then turned on every light in our room to wake Percy. "Oh gods, turn it off." Percy shoved his head under the pillow.

I rolled my eyes in frustration but tried to hide the annoyed smile pulling at my mouth. I ripped the covers off Percy and kissed him. "Get up seaweed brain, we have to go. And you taste awful this morning."

"Do that again." Percy smirked.

"Maybe later, I'm getting the kids." I slapped him with a pillow.

I crept down the hall and woke Luke first. He was groggy, his green eyes were half open.

"Mommy, it's too early."

"I know kiddo, but it's a long flight to San Francisco, you can sleep on the plane, I promise, now come on. Do you want to wake Zoe or should I?" I stroked his gnarly blonde hair.

"I'll wake her up." Luke slowly crawled out of bed, he followed me towards Zoe's room.

"Zoe, it's time to wake up." Luke whispered.

I touched Zoe's shoulder and tapped her, "Zoe wake up."

"What?" Zoe groaned.

"Zoe wake up we are going to San Francisco." Luke seemed to realize why he was awake and he turned into a big ball of excitement.

Zoe rolled over and smiled, "wait we are leaving today?"

"Yeah! Come on Zoe, get dressed!" Luke bounced up and down. Zoe crawled lazily out of bed and got dressed. Luke ran back into his room to change, while I awoke the twins and carried Taylor downstairs who was thankfully still sound asleep. Taylor needed to sleep, because once she was up, she usually didn't go back to bed. I carried her into the car and buckled her in. In the trunk were six suitcases and two carry on bags for Percy and I. We didn't have to pack a crib anymore, thank the gods. I left a door open for fresh air while I rounded up the rest of the kids.

I made sure we had everything, plane tickets, jackets, one sleeping toddler, and four groggy kids. The car ride was quiet, Luke and Zoe were beginning to fall asleep, the twins were already asleep, and Taylor was still out cold. We parked in the airport parking lot and I carried Taylor in one arm and pulled my suitcase in the other, Percy and I checked our bags, then we rushed to the terminal after the long process of security. Soon enough we boarded our six and a half hour nonstop flight from New York to San Francisco.