Letters of Love: A Percabeth story

Chapter 6

The pounding on the door was what woke me up. Actually, I think it woke up every Athena camper.

“What’s that noise?” My brother Malcolm loudly groaned. I was about to answer his question when someone else beat me to it.

“ANNABETH! We need to TALK!” Percy shouted. The cabin was filled with moans and stifled giggles. I sat up, rubbing sleep out of my eyes as Percy shouted “Annabeth!” Again.

“QUIT BANGING! I’m coming outside already, GEEZ!” I yelled. I was not aware of the fact that I was wearing very short pajama bottoms and a sports bra until I stepped outside of the cabin and slammed the door. Percy looked a little shocked at my getup… and a little bit of something else that I was afraid to recognize.

“Nice pajamas,” he smirked. I crossed my arms over my boobs and scowled.

“What do you want, Seaweed Brain?” I muttered. His expression immediately switched to panic and he pulled out a piece of gray paper. ‘Poker face, Annabeth, Poker face. You can do this,’ I mentally instructed. “What’s that?” I asked. He shook his head. “This is probably the weirdest thing in the world. Go on, read it,” he said, thrusting it at me. I took it carefully with trembling hands and opened it, although I already knew what it said. If this performance didn’t verify my skills as an actress then I had no hope.

I laughed. “Looks like someone’s got a secret admirer,” I teased, handing him back the paper. He took it and worriedly read it again.

“Who do you think would do this, though? Who would write me a love letter?”

“I would hardly call it a love letter; they didn’t mention love even one time. But it does mean that someone REALLY likes you,” I offered.  He stared at me. My poker face began to falter a little bit as I started to panic. Did he… did he know it had been me?

“What?” I finally snapped as he kept staring at me.

“My sword…” he said, pointing above my head. I turned around just in time to see the outline of Percy’s enchanted weapon glowing above my head.

“Let me guess; they took Riptide?”

“Yep.”

I turned back around to face him and gasped. I could see the faint outlines of my baseball cap, perched on his head. I pointed.

“My cap…”

“They took that, too?”

“Oh, yeah.”

He sighed loudly. “I’m ready to skewer Aphrodite and all her children.” I smirked in agreement. “Count me in.”

Percy shook his head and ran his hand through his hair (again with the flexing bicep! Urghh!) “We need to figure out how to get our stuff back. If you haven’t noticed, I kind of need my sword,” he said. I rolled my eyes. So typical.

“I’ve already been thinking of some strategies just in case… you know, just in case they paired us up.” ‘Like they usually do,’ I thought.

“Really? Like what?”

“Well, we could, um… we could go into the middle of the lake and solve a math puzzle. That would be both of our powers working together. Or, I could build a chariot and you could make some horses out of water and they could work together- you know, Athena and Poseidon- and-“ his look silenced me. I was afraid to recognize it.

“Annabeth, I really don’t think that’s what the Aphrodite cabin had in mind,” he said in a low voice. My heart jumped into my throat. What was he- was he- what?

“uh uhhh,” I stammered. He cracked a grin. “Confused for once, Wise Girl?” He took a step closer to me. And then another. I couldn’t think. My brain was screaming at me to retreat, to make up some excuse, to just LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. But oddly, I listened to the whisper of my heart that said “keep going”. I stared into Percy’s sea green eyes, trying to make sense of what was going on in that surprisingly complex brain of his. For once, we were completely alone. I was very scantily clad. Percy’s voice had suddenly gone all… deep and sexy.

But I couldn’t let this moment go any further.

“You… you know what? I have to go and find Thalia,” I said hurriedly, and sprinted in the other direction as fast as I could. In the second that I turned to retreat I saw Percy’s face fall to the point of complete despair, but I had no time to make any sense of it. I really DID need to find Thalia.