Relatives

Chapter Four

Percy POV

As soon as Annabeth closed the car door, my foot floored the accelerator and the car sped out of the driveway. We zoomed away from the apartments, leaving Paul behind us yelling something about not letting any more pegasi land on the hood.

As the car sped down the road, Annabeth doubled checked to make sure her seat belt was fastened tightly, looking somewhat peeved.

What had Rachel been so scared of? In the Iris message she looked so...agitated, almost frightened. What had happened to scare her so much? Rachel wasn't scared of many things, including the King of the Titans, Kronos. On the contrary, she had nailed him in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush.

So what had happened? She mentioned her relatives that were staying over had found out about the Greek world. That she told them. But I knew Rachel pretty well; she would never tell her secrets...At least not willingly. Had they forced her to talk? An image of Rachel tied to a chair with many sharp objects pointing at her formed in my head.

With that picture in mind, I pushed the accelerator a little further to the ground, vaguely aware that we were already twenty miles above the speed limit.

I glanced at Annabeth, who was sitting in the passenger seat. Her eyes were staring straight ahead, her face stony.

"You okay?" I asked. She didn't answer. All thoughts of Rachel instantly disappeared from my mind. Was Annabeth ignoring me? We had only become a couple a few months ago, after the Titan war ended. Had I already blown it?

"Annabeth, are you alright?" I repeated nervously.

"Oh, I'm fine." She said bitterly, "You just keep going right ahead to save Rachel. I know you care for her so much."

"Well, of course I do." I said, confused, "She's my friend, and-"

Then it dawned on me.

"Oh, gods, no! Annabeth, I don't care for her that way. You're my girlfriend and I-"

I quickly decided to stop rambling, and pulled over to the side of the road.

"Listen, Annabeth," I said, turning in my seat to face my girlfriend. Her stormy gray eyes bore into me. They were still beautiful. "You're the girl I love, and no one can change that. Rachel in a friend, and nothing more." I leaned over and kissed her forehead, and Annabeth smiled. Relief washed over my like an ocean wave.

"Sorry." She said, smiling sheepishly. "We just became a couple a few months ago, so I guess I'm still on 'Paranoid-Girlfriend Mode'"

"Me too!"

Annabeth raised an eyebrow "I said girlfriend mode, Percy."

I felt myself turn red. "I mean, boyfriend mode-I mean-!"

Annabeth leaned over and kissed me, which pretty effectively shut me up. "Seaweed Brain." She muttered, smiling. We shortly got back onto the road and sped to Rachel's place

Once we got there, we stopped outside the fancy apartment building. We both ran out the car, and through the lobby, were the doorman glared a 'you-better-not-break-anything' glare, and rode the elevator to the top floor. Once we were outside her door, I uncapped riptide and was about to Sparta kick my way through the door...

Well, I was 'till Wise girl held me back.

"What do you think you're doing?" she whispered furiously.

"What? Rachel could be in there being tortured to tell her secrets!" I whispered back. "Wait, why are we whispering?"

She pointed the door. "You're such a seaweed brain. The Dare's don't know about Camp or our world. So we can't be very loud about it! And you can't just barge down the door!"