Home Is Where You Are

Chapter 12

As I always, I'd like to say that I don't own own PJO or HoH :  ) 

I did go back and make some edits to Chapter 11, so if you haven't read them, you can : ) 

Please enjoy this Chapter, and Happy reading to you! 

Annabeth

Sally was amazing. She offered people places to stay and gave them food and everything. She was the mother of mothers... I know she could give Hera a run for her money. I smiled as I thought that. 

At regular points in our conversations, I found myself staring at Percy, bewitched. I loved the way that he would constantly shake his hair from his sea green eyes that sparkled like the slow-to-set sun. 

Thalia would continuously nudge me when I had been staring for too long, and I would look up to find everyone but Percy grinning at me. I swear, if I kept blushing, my face would set permanently red one day. When it was time to turn in, Nico and Chris stayed on the sofa, while Clarrise and Thalia stayed in the spare room leaving me and Percy in his room. 

Don't get me wrong, I really like Percy... I'd even go as far as to say I love him, but we'd only been going out for a month. He shut his eyes while I got changed, however, and he gave me most of the space on the bed. I smiled,

"Percy, I don't need that much room," I whispered. He looked at me sleepily.

"Oh," He said as he wriggled a little closer to me. My stomach felt all fuzzy and warm when he did. I breathed in deeply and I smelt the sea. It comforted me. 

Whenever I smelt it, I felt protected. Like I knew he was there in some shape or form. I grinned when I saw him asleep. He looked so relaxed, and soon, I was too. That night, I slept a dreamless sleep. There were no disturbing nightmares to wake me up... but there was a blinding flash of light instead,

"Thalia Grace, what the hell are you doing?" I heard Percy shriek. Quickly, I covered my ears and opened my eyes. Stood in front of Percy's bed, was Thalia, Grover, Clarrise, Chris and Nico... and Thalia was holding a camera,

"This one is so going into the photo album for sure," smirked Thalia. Then her eyes drifted to me and she realised that I was awake. Her eyes widened and she ran into the hall, everyone else following pursuit. 

I shook my head and looked at Percy. He was gorgeous, with his sleepy eyes and bed hair. He looked at me and did a double take,

"Wise girl, are you checking me out?" he leered. I looked away and got out of the warm sheets. Quickly, I crossed the room and picked up my clothes. My shirt was ripped and my jeans were scraped and dirty. I couldn't wear that.

"I'm gonna go and get my other clothes," I mumbled and I walked over to the spare room. I knocked on the door and walked in.

"Hide it," I heard Clarrise whisper urgently. She, Grover, Thalia, Chris, the Stoll twins, Katie and Nico were all stood around the wardrobe, which they quickly stuffed something into when I walked in. 

I stared at them for a while. They looked back at me, obviously going for a nonchalant look and failing. I rolled my eyes and grabbed my suitcase, before I started searching through it.

Everyone was silent as I did this. Eventually, I pulled out a deep red blouse and ink blue jeans along with my grey ankle boots. I turned around to see that everyone was staring at me. Not knowing what to make of it, I slipped out of the door and walked into the bathroom to get changed.

***

"Wise girl... you look amazing," gawked Percy as I emerged into the kitchen. Paul had left a little while earlier to set something up at school. I smiled and blushed and tugged on my shirt nervously. Suddenly, a flash of white light went off from behind me again. I turned to glare at Thalia who shrugged innocently,

"It was part of my deal with Chiron," She said plainly,

"To take photos?" I asked sceptically,

"Photos of you two," She replied, gesturing to Percy and I.

"Why would Chiron ask you to do that?" Percy chimed in.

"Because it's Chiron," She said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I looked at Percy, incredulous. He looked just as baffled as I felt.

"What does that mean?" He asked.

"It means, Kelp head, that Chiron is a huge shipper of you two," she explained impatiently, "Now, no more questions. We have to go to school," She said and headed out the door. What was going on?