Troubled

70

chapter seventy
annabeth

"Bobby, stop!"

I awoke to the noise of yelling, mainly from my half brothers and Helen.

I groaned as I rubbed my eyes and pulled myself out of bed. It was near nine, which was crazy since my family never allowed me to sleep in.

After getting dressed I headed downstairs where Helen was making breakfast for everyone. My father was nowhere to be seen but Bobby and Matthew ran around the kitchen like maniacs.

"Annabeth, Annabeth!" Bobby said as he instantly ran over to me. "What are you doing here?"

I rolled my eyes as Matthew made his way over to me, both of them looking ready to question me. "I came here last night. It's Thanksgiving, sillies."

They both shrugged as if they were satisfied by this answer and continued running around the kitchen like chickens with their heads cut off.

Helen scolded them a final time before leading us all to the kitchen table where she had set up breakfast. She'd made mouth watering waffles, sausages, and eggs.

"Where's the orange juice?" Bobby protested as we all sat down, my father's seat still empty.

"You mean the apple juice, right?" Matthew inquired as he peered around the table.

"Where's dad?"

Helen sighed and rubbed her temple. "Bobby, you know orange juice isn't good for you. And Matthew, we ran out of apple juice yesterday, don't you remember? He's at work."

Helen then filled up her plate and ignored us the entire breakfast until Bobby and Matthew started squealing more about their juice.

"I'll have dad pick some up on the way home!" she finally yelled, ending the squabbling. "Now go clean up and get ready for basketball practice, it starts in half an hour. No running!"

Helen groaned as Bobby and Matthew ran all the way up the stairs and into their rooms. Then she stood up and started clearing the table.

"Do you want any help?" I reluctantly offered, despite my hatred of Helen.

She shook her head. "No, you don't know my special way to load the dishwasher."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay then."

I made my way out of my seat and over to the stairs, where a dirt stain from my shoes still remained despite Helen's many obvious attempts to remove it.

Bobby and Matthew shoved past me on the stairs, already dressed in their practice clothes, still squabbling about juice.

"I'll be right back!" Helen yelled to me from the bottom of the stairs as she grabbed her keys. "I might have to stay for half an hour to get them settled, but until I'm back no leaving the house and no one can come over."

"I know the drill," I murmured back as I slipped into my room. I closed the door behind me and searched for my flip phone, which was nowhere to be seen.

"I swear I left it right here," I whispered as I gestured to the nightstand. My eyes scanned the room until I located the flip phone, which was sitting on the dresser.

Hmm, weird...I thought as I opened it. My text messages with Thalia were open, and several messages I hadn't seen were marked as read.

I shrugged it off as I quickly dialed Thalia's number and stuck the phone on my shoulder, balancing it there while I started to pack.

"Hey Annabeth, I see you're finally calling me back!" Thalia said loudly into the phone. "I thought you'd died or something."

I rolled my eyes. "Ever so dramatic. No, I didn't die. I'm just busy having family time."

Thalia laughed. "Oh, I bet that's fun, huh? It kinda sucks you got busted and have to spend Thanksgiving break with them though. I was looking forwards to us hanging out."

"I didn't get busted," I corrected her as I folded a shirt of mine. "I simply lied my ass off and they believed me. It does suck I can't have you over, though. I'm going home tonight and Athena comes back early tomorrow morning."

"Ugh, that sucks," Thalia protested. "I wanna see you. Can...can I come over tonight? I mean, I know you'll probably wanna go see if Percy is home yet, but—"

"Sure you can," I interrupted. "Hey, I think Helen's home. I've gotta go, but I'll see you tonight. I'll text you the details."

"Annabeth, wait—"

"Bye!"

I hung up the phone and instantly held it against my chest and sighed. I felt bad about lying to Thalia, but if I told her what had really happened, I would start crying, and I didn't want to cry. Not here, at least.

Packing went by quickly. Helen came home shortly after I'd finished and chastised me for not folding my shirts properly.

The hours went by quickly. I spent most of them alone either in my room or watching television with Helen, who insisted we watched House Wives.

Then Helen left to pick up Bobby and Matthew. They came back, ran around a bit, and then my father came home with the promised juice.

"Ready to go?" he asked me as he ushered to his car. I nodded and allowed him to help me with my luggage.

The car ride was filled with him rambling about some battle of World War Two and ended with him talking about work.

"Oh, no, looks like I'm home. We're gonna have to finish this conversation later—" I said, pretending to be disappointed at that fact.

"Annabeth, wait!" he interrupted as I shoved open the car door. I sighed as I sat back down in the front seat. He put his pointer finger up as to tell me just wait. Then he pulled a box out of his bag and handed it to me.

"What's this?" I asked curiously as I peered over at the box in his grasp.

"Just a little Thanksgiving gift."

I frowned as he handed me the box. It was moderately sized and made of plastic. He'd clearly enlisted Helen's help as it had a glittery bow on it. "A Thanksgiving gift? That's Christmas."

He shrugged and gave off a small smile. "Just open it, okay? When you get inside. I...I think that you'll like it."