Troubled

82

chapter eighty-two
annabeth

When I arrived at the Jackson household, Sally hugged me like there was no tomorrow.

"Are you feeling alright, Annabeth?" she asked me as she cupped my face in her hand. "You're looking a bit pale."

I laughed and waved away Sally's concerns. "No, Sally, I'm alright. I'm just pale from the cold."

Sally frowned, apparently not pleased with this answer. "I can whip you up some food if you'd like. You look a bit peckish. It's no worry at all, really!"

Paul smiled as he placed a hand on his wife's shoulder. "No, Sally, I can do it. You've done too much already today—"

"I'm quite alright," I assured Sally and Paul with a nod. "You two are too kind."

Sally nodded before patting my shoulder. Then she rushed off to her bedroom, which she was using as an office, to go work on her new book idea.

Oh, how I've missed Sally.

"So, Christmas Eve," Percy said with a grin as he led me to his bedroom. "What do you wanna do? We can watch a movie, explore the city....?"

I shrugged as I sat down on Percy's bed, wearing a grin. "I don't care. All that matters is that I'm with you."

The next few hours was full of banter with Percy, a movie of Percy's choice (Finding Nemo, again), and then half an hour of the National Geographic channel, at my request.

"This is so boooring!" Percy protested as he played with my blonde curls. "How can you enjoy this?"

"Shhh!" I scolded. "I'm gonna miss it..."

He rolled his eyes as he stared at the television intensely. "Man, all of the episodes are the same. Some animal does something, there's a snooty British narrator!"

He said the last part in a terrible British accent, which made me die of laughter and his face turn bright red.

"You're killing me!" I said as I planted a kiss on his face. He frowned. "Oh, don't be like that. You're just so adorable."

Percy's expression lightened up a bit as he shrugged. "You're just jealous."

I nodded. "Yes, that is it."

After a few more peaceful minutes of watching National Geographic while Percy silently died in the background, my phone started ringing.

I groaned as I reached for the phone and answered it and put it on speaker phone. "What is it, Thals? I'm kinda busy."

Percy wiggled his eyebrows at me and smirked. I rolled my eyes and threw a pillow at him, causing him to stop.

"Annabeth? Annabeth?! Is that you there? I think Bobby and Matthew did this right...." a familiar voice said into the phone.

Both me and Percy's eye's widened as I sprung up and grabbed the phone. "Dad?!"

"Yeah, it's not Thalia!" he practically yelled into the phone. "Oh, these stupid things, never work.... anyways, I know you already told me you weren't coming home for Christmas, but I wanted to see if you had changed your mind."

I shook my head furiously despite the fact that he couldn't see me. "Nope, nope! I'm all good here!"

"Hmm, okay. What are you working on?" he questioned.

"Nothing?" I responded.

"But you said you were busy. Are you with someone?"

Percy's face went red and he shook his head and mouthed the words hang up to me.

"Uhhhh....yes, just with good old Thalia," I lied with an awkward laugh. "And don't worry, Athena, er—I mean mom lets Thalia over!"

"Wait, you thought I was Thalia? Isn't she there with you?"

Dammit.

"Yes, you're right! But you see, Thalia, she's in the kitchen getting us some snacks. We're studying real hard here, and I was in the middle of writing something down. I thought that she was calling me to ask me about uh my snack preference or something!" I lied.

"Oh, okay. Well, um, Merry Christmas. We miss you at home!" he said. Fat chance. "No, Bobby, stop asking me, yes you can have some juice!"

I rolled my eyes. "Tell Bobby and Matthew Merry Christmas from me."

My dad laughed. "Don't worry, I will. Helen, too! And, hey, a secret between us, I got Bobby and Matthew some juice for Christmas. I hope they'll like it, they're always nagging for it, and Helen rarely lets them have sugar...."

"I'm sure they'll love it, dad. Oh, look, Thalia is back now! Hello, Thalia!" I lied as I ushered at Percy and towards the door, hoping he'd open the door to give the illusion Thalia was walking in.

Instead, I got something much worst.

"Hi, Mr.Chase!" Percy said in an awful high-pitched voice to the phone.

My eyes widened as I jokingly shoved Percy away and took my phone off of speaker mode. "Anyways, gotta go!"

"Hmm, okay. Is Thalia feeling okay? She sounds like she has a cold or something...."

"She's—Thalia's fine!" I lied. "Just a little tired with all the studying we've been doing, right Thalia?"

"Yes!" Percy interjected in his weird high-pitched Thalia impersonation. I rolled my eyes as I hung up the phone and instantly turned to Percy.

"What was that?!" I exclaimed with a laugh. "First the British accent and that terrible Thalia impression! I'm gonna tell her about that, I hope you know."

Percy shook his head but laughed along. "God, please don't! I'd like all my limbs intact, thank you very much. And what about your awful lying! What is a snack preference?!"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, shut it! You're just trying to change the subject since you're scared of Thalia!"

Percy nodded. "Oh, yes, that is exactly what I'm doing, is that not obvious?"

The rest of the hour we spent laughing and joking with each other. Then we had a small but utterly delicious meal Paul and Sally.

After that, they wished us goodnight and headed off to bed. The rest of the evening Percy and I watched all the Christmas movies we could find, and I fell asleep in his arms.

Best Christmas ever.