Phases of the Sea

Chapter 16

Perci POV

It was official, mom loved my Paul. Dinner had gone over ridiculously well, with Paul charming the hell out of my mom without even trying to, and he got along great with her Paul. He had insisted on holding her chair out, and mine, praised her cooking to be on par with Emily's, which I informed her was a huge compliment, and with one bite, completely understood the near-brawl Annabeth, Grover and I had to get her cookies. He had talked with her Paul about a bunch of random things, and had jokingly told my step-dad that since he had the name first, he'd answer to Paul 2.0. By the end of dinner, my mom had actually told him that he needed to propose, making my friends and I choke, while Charlie just laughed, and Bella sulked for some reason. I figured it was because my boyfriend was 100% family approved, and hers was only liked by Renee.

The past couple days had truly been some of the best since before my sixteenth birthday, and I had enjoyed every second of them. My mom and Paul had slept in my room, while Annabeth, Grover, and I had camped out in the living room. There had been no monsters attracted by Annabeth's scent combined with my now very slight one, and my friends and boyfriend and his pack got along amazingly. All the excitement had completely abandoned me today, leaving nerves like weights in my stomach though. Today was graduation day, and for the first time, I was panicking about having nothing to wear.

"It's not that bad, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said, trying to comfort me as I stared at my closet in dismay.

"Not that bad? Wise Girl, I need to wear a dress, and all I have are jeans, shorts, and swimsuit bottoms. I don't even own a skirt! This is the one time I would beg for a cabin ten makeover." I told her, putting my head in my hands.

"We could always IM Piper, and get her advice. She's always saying you could turn a pair of jeans into a formal outfit with the right top and accessories, so maybe we could get her help with this." She said, making me groan.

"You've seen my closet though. The nicest pair of jeans I own currently have grass stains from when Paul took me on a picnic, and I haven't had the chance to get the stains out yet. I need a miracle here." I said, not even removing my head from my hands.

"'Or the goddess of love and beauty.'" Aphrodite's voice suddenly sounded in my head as two boxes popped into existence at the foot of my bed.

"Let me guess, Lady Aphrodite?" Annabeth asked, as I got up to open the boxes.

"Yep." I said, pulling the lid off the clothing box first, and actually gasping when I pulled out the contents. It was a beautiful Grecian-style dress that was white at the top, but darkened to ocean blue down at the bottom, one shoulder, with subtle wave designs along the hem. Laying it down gently on the bed, I opened the shoe box, awed at the blue gladiator style sandals that mercifully, had a low heel.

"Paul is gonna drool when he sees you." Annabeth said, looking at the apparent graduation gift from the love goddess.

"Then let's not delay that, I've gotta get dressed." I said, grinning as I took the dress and ran into the bathroom to change. The dress fit perfectly, hugging my curves gently, and flowing beautifully at the bottom. When I emerged, Annabeth looked stunned, before she smiled at me mischievously.

"Looks like your hair and makeup is taken care of too." She said, confusing me before I caught sight of myself in the mirror I had by my door. My hair was pulled into a half up, half down style with loose curls, and beautifully done makeup with gold eye shadow, and coral pink lipstick. I sighed, before slipping on the sandals, taking a few steps to make sure I would lose balance and fall.

"You look like a goddess, you know." Annabeth whispered, making me smile sadly.

"Yeah, for the first time, I can see that. I actually look like a sea goddess, don't I?" I asked, looking at the completed outfit in the mirror.