black winged angels // pj

end of the beginning

We woke up in a room covered in football posters and a bright blue wall. Percy Jackson's room.

We woke up separately, me on an air mattress on the floor, him in his twin bed. His parents were out of town, but just in case they came back he got me to sleep on the floor.

Well, I got me to sleep on the floor. He offered several times for me to sleep in his bed and he sleep on the floor, but I told him no. Repeatedly.

I rolled over and found Percy to still be asleep. I threw stuff at him, dragged all of his pillows from underneath him and opened the blinds, but he was still fast asleep.

I resorted to throwing water on him, which threw him awake.

"What? What- what was that for?"He said, squinting at me.

"Well I thought you liked water." I told him, as if it was a fact.

"Of course I like water! But not water in my face at nine in the morning!" He replied.

He finally walked downstairs, tripped over every second step.

"What would you like for breakfast, Princess?" I asked Percy, leaning over the table.

"Well, servant of mine I would like some waffles, pancakes, crepes, strawberries, Eggs Benedict, and maybe some home fries as well."

I rolled my eyes at him and gave him a look of, 'seriously'.

"Eggs it is." I said

//.//.//

It was Percy's birthday today, and we are spending it on the beach in Kenosha on Lake Michigan.

It was 20 minutes away, but Percy decided if he was going to have a lake party he needed it at a very Great lake.

It took us forever to get out of his house, as he decided we'd have time later to do things and was determined to do a trick shot. (*hint: he couldn't do a trick shot).

It's me, Jason, Nico, Piper, Percy, and these three kids Aubrey, Sebastian and Constance, who we picked up at the beach because they looked lonely.

Although it was August, everyone's hopes were still high of adulthood and what they were going to do. Jason got a scholarship, Piper going into Yale, and Percy taking the 'life' approach. I mean, he was accepted but he wants to go into something water related, and to quote a kid in my seventh grade class, 'The oceans are dead.' I like to call it the 'I have no fucking idea on what I'm supposed to do', but since he bought me everything, I couldn't tell him that. I could however, tell him that he needed to put on sunscreen.

"Jackson! Sunscreen. Don't wanna look like Patrick, do we?" I said, throwing some sand at his face.

He groaned and rolled over, still lying on the sand. "Maybe Patrick is my role model, huh? YOU'RE RUINING MY DREAMS ANNABETH CHASE!!"

I grabbed some sunscreen and threw it at him, and then put him in a headlock and rubbed it into his back.

He pouted, but didn't stop me.

"I guess it's time for Patrick to leave." He muttered, and squinted as I rubbed more sunscreen onto him.

Percy tried to go body-surfing, but ended up floating around in the water instead since there were no huge waves today.

I tried to get him out of the water, but he played dead body until I screamed cake and he ran back, hair in his eyes and sand all over his back.

I looked back at Connie, Sebastian and Aubrey. They were pretty cool kids. Connie and Sebastian's parents went geocaching, and since they didn't want to go they went down to the beach. They were from Vermont, and they had brought Aubrey down (one of their friends) since she had nothing better to do.

I asked them if they were up for cake. They all nodded, since honestly who doesn't like cake.

Maybe my cake wasn't the best for first impressions, as I told everyone there that I would make the cake since I'm rarely useful any other ways. This was a great idea until I realized you actually had to make a cake. Who knew?

The cake had 'ROSES ARE RED, VIOLETS ARE BLUE, TODAY IS YOUR BIRTHDAY, I GUESS THAT'S COOL' written on it in messy handwriting, but it tasted pretty good. (And no, that isn't just my biased opinion.)

The afternoon continued on and everyone got sillier, Percy dumping me into the water (something I saw coming, someone (most likely still Percy), undid my strap, not bothering to tell me until I took off my t shirt, realized the straps were falling down, swore and ran away.

The sun started to set, and Connie and Sebastian's parents came. We shared phone numbers and all of those fun things, and then they left. Jason and Piper also left soon after them, and it's just Percy and I left.

"I'm gonna say something, and you're not allowed to punch me." Percy said, sifting sand (and my hair) through his fingers.

"Go on then."

He looked at me, an expression so real it hurt. "I'm glad we're both messed up."

I smiled. "Me too."

And it was just like that. We started talking, about this girl's stenciled eyebrows and good music and issues we had, anything and everything that we could find to talk about. We talked for hours, about how many European countries there are and how the amount of States that exist is insane.

We went on forever, until the pinks and oranges turned into a dark blue, stars glittering through the sky. The water got calmer and calmer, only touching our toes every time it rose up.

The air must've been cool, but I was as warm as I'd ever been. Possibly even more.

Percy wiggled his hand over to mine, and I grasped it.

For us. For them. For people we call our friends. For past Annabeth and Percy, two kids thinking they were on top of the world. For future us as well, to whatever we end up doing. It's for every time we ever decided we were in the wrong or we deserved to be at the bottom.

As I said, we rose. It may not have been to the top of the social circle of Bristol DHS, but to the top of my heart.

The hardest thing you will ever do is to love yourself. At the same time, it is the most important thing to do.

Dreams may not last forever, and friendships may fall apart. But as all stories do, this one has come to an end.