Troubled

83

chapter eighty-three
percy

"Merry Christmas, seaweed brain."

My eyes fluttered open to see Annabeth in front of me, wearing a grin. She had changed out of her pajamas and had combed through her golden curls.

"What time is it?" I whispered as I rubbed my eyes.

Annabeth smirked at me. "Nearly noon. You still drool in your sleep."

"What?" I asked as I quickly wiped the line of drool off of my face. This made her suppress a laugh. "Oh, shut it!"

"Sally made you pancakes. They're probably cold now. You sleep a lot," she commented as she helped me up. "Awww, you have bed head."

My face went red as I attempted to pat down my messy hair which, for some reason, made Annabeth smile even more.

She led me to the kitchen where, sure enough, a stack of mouthwatering blue pancakes sat before me. Miraculously, they were still warm enough to eat, so I poured a heaping amount of maple syrup over them and dug in.

After I finished my breakfast and got dressed, my mother came into the kitchen and presented us with unfrosted blue sugar cookies.

"Sorry, I haven't had enough time to frost these...." she murmured as she placed the tray down in front of us.

I shrugged as I peered at the cookies. "Don't worry, mom, Annabeth and I will finish them."

My mom laughed and ruffled my hair. "Are you sure? You baking can be....interesting. Don't feel like you have to."

"Nah, we can do it," I said assuringly.

"Alright then. Just...don't burn down the apartment, okay?" my mom asked. "Promise me."

After promising her that I wouldn't burn the house down, I turned to Annabeth and grinned. "You ready to frost some cookies?"

She shook her head. "Uh, no. I'm terrible at baking. And, no offense, with your track record I'm scared of how these will turn out."

I rolled my eyes and waved away her concerns. I made my way over to the fridge and started grabbing the ingredients out of it. "Don't worry, I've been baking with my mom since I was born."

"Do you want me to google a recipe or something?" she interjected. I shook my head, causing her to frown. "You sure? Or we can just go buy some frosting—?"

"Nah, it's Christmas. None of the good grocery stores will be open. Besides, I have my mom's recipe practically drilled into my brain. And it's super good," I said with a grin.

"I'm sure it is when Sally makes it, but—" Annabeth said, her voice trialing off as I started pouring ingredients together in a mixing bowl. "You sure we need that much sugar?"

"Ha ha, very funny, yes I'm sure. Sugar is what makes it taste good, wise girl!" I replied as I mixed the ingredients together, the frosting starting to form. "Hey, can you look for some food coloring? It's in one of the cabinets, I want blue frosting...."

A smile flashed on Annabeth's face as she stood up and started searching the cabinets, a look of concentration on her face.

She did a fist pump of triumph when she found the food coloring and brought it over to me, the blue coloring nearly all gone from use.

"I'll let you do the honors," Annabeth said as she pulled out the blue food coloring and handed it to me.

I unscrewed the cap and poured tremendous amounts of food coloring into the frosting, causing Annabeth to protest.