Never After Ever

Even the Mermaids Know the Latest Percabeth Gossip

There was no doubt that the man standing by the door was none other than Jason Grace. This signature blonde hair, blue eyes and scar on his scarred lips all indicated feelings of being slightly upset. Oops. They probably should have invited Jason and Piper to come once they all decided to sit and hang out. And Annabeth for that matter.

Jason finally spotted Percy and said, “Oh Percy. I saw Annabeth running by me to the docks and she looked miserable. What happened?”

            “Oh well, she and I had a fight earlier. But, why was she running?” Percy’s face paled with a look of shock. He jumped up from his seat on his bed. “OH. OH NO. HOLY FREAKING GODS. I BLEW OFF ANNABETH WHEN WE WERE SUPPOSED TO TALK THINGS OUT.  NO. NO. NO! WHY DO I SCREW THING UP? AT THIS RATE I’LL HAVE NO ONE TO PROPOSE TO!” Percy thundered and paced around the cabin.

“Dudee. Calm down! You can just talk to her after canoeing,” Grover tried to pacify the stressed demigod.

            “Just go wait by the docks for her to come back,” Calypso helped.

            “Take her on a dinner picnic or something!” Frank added.

            The cabin echoed with sounds of people muttering their approval and adding their own ideas, but none of it calmed down the raging waves of stress and self-anger forming and crashing inside Percy. Thoughts flooded through him as his friends tried to calm him to no avail, but the one thing kept popping up back in his mind. It was the fact that he needed to somehow get to Annabeth and talk to her.

            Suddenly, Percy got the idea. He pushed past everyone in the cabin and ran towards the door. He flung open the abused door and spirited down the camp. Behind him, he could here the sound of his friends calling him back and asking what he was doing. He heard the sound of people running after him, but he tuned it out. The grass began to turn gritty as he neared the shore. Panting, Percy flung off his shoes and waded into the water. About 20 feet in, he turned and stared at the shore. All his friends stood slightly out of breath, staring at him. Some were yelling for him to come back, think out the situation rationally and just wait. But Percy didn’t care. All he cared for right now was making sure Annabeth didn’t feel miserable and fix things between them.

            When he was staring back at his friends something clicked in his head. They actually cared for him. They cared enough that they ran all the way down after Percy to make sure he did the right thing and that nothing major got screwed up. It would be rude for him to just ignore them and not even tell them what was going on. So Percy called back, “Guys! I’m sorry! I just really need to fix things with Annabeth! Don’t worry!”

            A chorus of wary ohs and okays met him in response. He stared at everyone’s pitying faces. Well, mostly everyone’s. Leo was grinning like a hyena. His expression basically translated GET ‘EM BOY. At least, that’s what it seemed like to Percy. Percy smirked and he turned back to face the water. Being in the water gave him a whole new sense of feelings that he could barely describe. Once he had stepped in the water Percy had picked up the location of Annabeth, Piper—oh so she was with Annabeth; Percy felt less bad about not inviting Jason and Piper— and—was it Clarisse? YES. That was mostly definitely Clarisse. Being the son of a sea god was weird. Percy waded in the water until it was deep enough to swim.

 Someone yelled, “Don’t do something stupid,” which was the last thing he heard before he submerged his head underwater. Percy scoffed at the irony of that statement—which was more like blowing out a bubble of air underwater. It seemed as if everything he ever did in his life was very stupid.

            Once fully emerged underwater, Percy’s thoughts cleared and he was able to focus on his one goal. Percy swam as fast as he could towards the boat. As he went along, Percy calmed down. It was something about the cool feel of the water on his body and the beautiful scenery that made him feel just at home. As he swam along he watched the sea life along him. A minnow desperately was trying to flirt with another minnow. The poor thing didn’t even have a chance. Percy swore he saw the tail of a mermaid flip around the corner of a rock. By the hushed giggling and multiple trails of air bubbles Percy could tell that they were hiding from him. Percy would bet every sand dollar in the world that they were trying to watch his struggle with his issues with Annabeth. They had probably heard some gossip from a sea or tree nymph. Holy Poseidon, even the sea life knew about Percy’s stupidity.

            Finally Percy reached Annabeth’s boat. Holy Hades! What was he going to do! What was he going to say? Would she even care? How would he even get Annabeth to listen to him? Was this even a good idea? What was Percy doing here? As more and more questions rushed through his head just like water crashing on the shore on thought broke the waves just like a rock protruding above the surface. And that highly intelligent thought was, “FUCK IT.”

            Percy raised enough of his body out of the water to grab Annabeth from the boat and he tugged her thrashing body with him under the cool, clear water.