Annabeth's Mortal Friends

Chapter Twenty-Three

Annabeth Chase's POV:

I pulled the key out of the front door, turning the handle and pushing it open. Percy followed me in, dropping our bags by the front door and glancing around with me, listening quietly for Matthew and Bobby running around upstairs, or my dad moving around in the kitchen. However, just as I expected from the absence of cars in the driveway, we were met with silence.

"So no one's home?" Percy asked, stating the obvious.

"Guess not." I shrugged. "Everyone's either at work or school at this point. They technically don't even know we're home yet."

Percy nodded, silently coming up behind me and pulling me into his chest, resting his head on my chin. I didn't bother to protest, relaxing into the familiarity of his arms and closing my eyes, feeling safe for the first time all summer. I think we were both just enjoying the fact that we could even stand here together, rather than across the country from each other, or even worse.

Percy was the first to break the silence. "So when does the school year start up again?"

I clenched my jaw, realizing he didn't know. "About a week ago."

"What?" He did a double take, pulling his head away in surprise.

I sighed, leaning my head back into his chest. "My dad probably came up with some cover story for why we were gone, so I wouldn't worry about that. I'm sure everything's fine, but he obviously couldn't tell the school why we were really missing."

Percy hummed in agreement, kissing the top of my head. "Alright, Wise Girl." He untangled himself from me and took a few steps away into the living room. I watched him, a soft smile on my face as he dropped dramatically onto the couch, outstretching his arms in my direction and gesturing me over to him. I obliged, laying down on the couch next to him and hugging his arms tighter against me as he pulled me back into him.

He snuggled into me more. "You know, I don't think I can survive another year of high school. You should go on without me, I'll be fine here all day."

I laughed at him. "We survived last year, I doubt this one could be any worse."

Without facing him, I could sense Percy lightly roll his eyes. "That's easy for you to say. The actual embodiment of wisdom hates my guts. I think that's a valid reason for me not to like school."

I snickered, rolling my eyes right back at him. "You can't blame my mom for your hatred of reading."

"Hey, reading's cool when I actually understand the words! I blame the English language, really."

I shook my head gently, resting my eyes shut. "Yeah, yeah, I know.  Percy, if you can survive this summer, I think you'll live through another year of mortal school."

Percy shook his head in disagreement.  "See, while I was closer to actual death this summer, school will kill me with boredom.  It's a different kind of pain, but it honestly might be more effective."

I laughed at him as he rambled off a few more reasons to skip school, each one slightly less valid than the next.  "We've been to literal hell and back and you're worried about school?"

Percy pushed his shoulder deeper into the pillows, sinking deeper into the couch.  "You know, the deepest pit of the Underworld isn't sounding so bad right about now."

I shuddered at the thought, getting that familiar prickling feeling on my skin whenever I thought about Tartarus.  Percy and I were still debating whether the best way to deal with the memories was to make light of them or completely ignore them.  No matter what, any mention of the place just made me feel disconnected from the rest of the world.  If Percy wasn't there, I wouldn't have felt nearly as grounded. "You know that school and...that place...are completely incomparable, right?"

Percy sighed into my hair, intertwining his fingers with mine. "I know, Wise Girl. But you know I'm willing to go anywhere as long as we're together."

A light blush coated my cheeks at the familiar words, but I still knocked his shin with the back of my foot. "You suck, Seaweed Brain, why'd you have to say that?" Those words meant some much to me, but whenever Percy said them I couldn't help but feel like he was teasing me. It might not even be teasing, but he knew those words had an effect on me.

Percy just laughed. "Are you kidding? I'm putting that in my vows!"

"That's evil, don't you dare!"

Percy just chuckled at me again. I hate him sometimes.

I huffed in annoyance. "If you're going to do that, then you definitely have to come to school with me. I'd say that's a fair trade."

Percy mumbled a reluctant agreement. "Fine, but I'm warning you now that I will be complaining the entire time."

A smile tugged at my lips. "I expected nothing less from you."

"Are you sure we can't at least take tomorrow off, though?" Percy hoped. "We JUST got home, what's one more absent day?"

I shook my head, much to Percy's dismay. "We've already missed a week. Considering all the monsters and rogue gods running around, we need to be present as often as possible. Who knows how many days we'll miss later in the year."

"Alright..." Percy grumbled, his complaints muffled as he resting his head back into my shoulder.

I couldn't resist giggling a bit at him. "Percy, I can hear you pouting back there. We just survived the worst summer to date, Caleb's had plenty of time to cool off since our last interaction and whatever rivalry you two had, and the teachers probably aren't even assigning that much work yet. We'll be fine."

Percy moaned again, probably even more annoyed at the mention of Caleb. "Gods, I completely forgot about that weasel. You're going to have to hold me back if he gets in my face again."

I smirked to myself. "He's not a weasel, Seaweed Brain."

"He's definitely a weasel."

"Fine," I relented, biting my tongue to keep from laughing again.  "Even if that's a little true-"

"Very true," Percy interjected.

"Even so," I continued, "he shouldn't be a problem.  It's a brand new year; we have nothing to worry about."

Probably, I added in my head. 

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100 followers and 75k reads!!!! <3<3<3<3

since i've been absent for a week, i'm going to publish a second chapter tonight to make up for it (especially because this chapter isn't plot-heavy, i just really like writing cute percabeth stuff). so, if you're following me, i'll send out the announcement when i post it :)

6/8/20