Freak || Percy Jackson x OC

One Hundred and Sixty-Five: Girls just wanna have fun but we're depressed

ANNABETH

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"Sen?" Annabeth asked as she looked up from her bunk. "Sen, why are you crying?"

Sen slammed the door to Cabin 6 and every other Athena camper instantly got nervous as Sen threw herself into Annabeth's arms, still weeping. Annabeth had absolutely no idea what to do. Emotions weren't really her thing. When she got mad or sad or embarrassed, she started yelling or pulled her knife on people.

Sen, however, was a little bit different. They'd been best friends for years now, and still, Annabeth had no idea how to comfort Sen. She knew that when Sen was upset about something, her first solution was to go to Percy. Her second solution was to stuff it all down and pretend it didn't exist. If Sen was doing this, it probably meant something big happened.

Annabeth wrapped her arms around Sen as the older girl cried. She made a face at her siblings and they all took off, leaving the girls alone. Annabeth had never been much of a hugger or anything like that- her brother, Malcolm, explained it was the psychology of "abandonment issues"- so when she met Sen, it was a little weird being around someone so touchy. But she'd gotten pretty comfortable with it and felt pretty bad when Sen wasn't being touchy, which was painfully often now.

Annabeth hated seeing the deterioration in Sen. Sen used to be the happiest person in the camp. She was kind of like the glue that kept everyone connected. She always helped keep the peace, she was the voice of reason, she was strong and beautiful and smart and kind... but the war was taking its toll. So often now, Sen would do that thing where she went a couple hours without speaking- and she was always the talkative type- and Annabeth would get scared that they'd have a repeat of the past. But then, she'd lapse out of it and laugh or something, acting like nothing happened.

But her laugh was different. It felt forced. Almost like it was a recording that Sen played at a convenient time. Her laugh used to be like a wind chime on a summer night, when you would sit out on the porch and listen to the grass rustling and the cicadas chirring, and that wind chime added just the right musical glow to it. But, that was gone. Annabeth's wind chime was broken.

Her smile didn't reach her eyes anymore, either. And even though it may not have seemed like much to anyone else, but it was really sad that Sen didn't wear her ugly sweaters and girlish skirts anymore. For some reason, it opened a new wound in Annabeth when she had to see Sen dressed for combat everyday, or in the infirmary- either after being wounded or helping someone else that was wounded. It felt like nobody could even be a kid anymore.

Annabeth had to mature fast because she was always on her own. She had to be the adult of the group, and honestly? She was okay with that, because it meant her other friends could be kids. It was okay for Annabeth to be the only one that was organized and serious. Seeing Sen and Percy do stupid things together kind of made up for that.

But this year, Sen was the adult, too, and that made things a lot more unbearable.

It had been really easy to forget that Sen was the oldest. Annabeth had only recently turned sixteen. In fact, she hadn't even taken driver's ed last year since she was so busy with the war. Sen, on the other hand, was seventeen. She'd been driving for a while now, and pretty soon, she'd be a legal adult. For some reason, that idea scared Annabeth more than anything. Where would Sen go when she outgrew Camp Half-Blood? After all, Annabeth knew that most demigods die by twenty-five because they aren't safe at camp anymore. Then again, camp was barely safe anymore. But if they won this war, what happened next?