Annabeth Chase and Things Are Getting Intense

Chapter Nine

A/N: ok gang I started watching Young Justice so that batman thing might actually happen at some point. No promises though.

I have no idea what's going on but I am loving it.

The dorm was exactly how Annabeth remembered it; five four poster beds, each draped with emerald green curtains, with a nightstand and everyone's trunks at the foot of their beds. Thankfully, Pansy and Millicent were pretending to be asleep in their own beds, so Annabeth didn't have to deal with talking to them.

Vera collapsed into her bed the moment she got near it. "Oh, I missed this thing," she said, her voice muffled from the pillow. "Look at this blanket. Look at it. It's so beautiful."

"Mhm," Annabeth muttered, kneeling in front of her trunk to pull out shorts and a sports bra. "Everything is beautiful when it's what you're looking for."

"Can you not spit out philosophical shit at midnight?" Vera said. "I'm tired."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You made a mistake becoming my friend if you don't want to hear philosophical shit."

"That's true." Vera rolled off her bed and opened her trunk, pulling off her robes to reveal a white undershirt and men's boxers.

"You wore that under your robes?"

Vera shrugged. "I didn't want to wait any longer than I had to to get to bed."

Freddie came in a few minutes later and immediately pulled off their robes, putting on a white and green polka dotted pajama set. Even in their exhausted state, they folded the robes neatly and put it in their wicker laundry basket.

"Tha' kin'a hurs 'oo wash," Vera said thicky, walking out of the bathroom with a toothbrush in her mouth. She was drooling a bit of foamy toothpaste. "Wha fol' ih if ih's 'oin in a ha'er ayway?"

"Because it fits better," Freddie said without pausing to interpret and starting to unravel their double french braids. "Go do that in the bathroom. You're making a mess."

"Fah." Vera went back into the bathroom and came out a few seconds later, her face clear of the toothpaste.

Annabeth sat down on her bed. "So what's going on with you and your mom, Freddie?" she said. "We didn't talk much about it on the train."

"Hm." Freddie nodded and took a seat next to Annabeth. Vera joined them a moment later. "We apparated home right away, and all of mom and Darla's stuff was packed up and by the door. Mom told me to grab what I needed because we were leaving, so Darla and I went up to our room and finished up clearing it, and we left the next day. Mom already had a house lined up, apparently. I think she was waiting for something like this to happen. I'm also not sure if she got it legally, but whatever, I guess. She keeps saying that now it's just her and her girls."

"Oh, shit," Vera said. "Does she not know?"

"No, she does," Freddie said, bringing their knees up to their chest and folding their arms over them. "She asked me if she could say that. I don't mind."

"Are things better?" Annabeth asked. She was always wary about familial situations, especially when it came to her friends. Call it childhood trauma, but Annabeth always needed to double and triple check that things were okay.

Freddie shrugged. "It's quieter, I said that earlier, since dad's not around to fight with mom all the time. But mom's kind of just... I don't know, she's mom. She doesn't actually realize she's doing anything wrong, you know? She thinks she's teaching Darla and me to be 'independent' or whatever."

"So what does she do all day?" Annabeth frowned. "Does she just sit around while you guys do everything? Is she home at all? Because I swear to the gods—"