Percy Jackson, the Son of Olympus: The Sea of Monsters

| Chapter XII || Say "No!" to Invasive Rodent Transformation |

*August 27 XXXX*

***

"Percy!" a voice erupted in said demigod's ear. "Wake up!"

His body jerked up immediately, a feeling of dread encompassing his heart. He could tell by the tone of voice that he'd done something wrong. What had he done wrong? What could he possibly have done to deserve Annabeth's anger so early in the morning?

"Come on! We're going to be late! We still have to eat breakfast!" Annabeth's voice hissed in his ear. "You'd better be up in five seconds or I'm leaving without you." There was a pause. "Okay! I'm leaving without you!" she declared before he heard her footsteps fade. She must've left the room.

Slowly, Percy peeled the covers away from his body, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He was wearing the same clothes as the night before, seeing as he hadn't bothered to change.

Pretty soon, Percy was wearing freshly washed clothes after he'd rummaged through the closet and had run a comb through his hair, though it did nothing to get the locks to lie flat. He opened the door to see that Annabeth was indeed gone, but he just had to follow the signs to the breakfast buffet to find her digging into a plate of eggs and toast.

He sat down.

"Took you long enough," Annabeth remarked without looking up from the slice of toast that she was buttering.

"So I'm not a morning person. For most of my life, my best friend has been the goddess of the moon. What do you expect?" he grumbled as he dug into his eggs.

"I expect for you to be able to wake up on time. You're lucky that I didn't splash you with water," Annabeth answered.

Percy turned to her, sass almost extruding off of him. "First of all, that question was rhetorical. Second, you probably should've splashed me. I stay dry and it would've given me some energy." He then returned to his breakfast, quickly filling his mouth.

Annabeth scowled. "I'll make a note of that, but why weren't you dry earlier then?"

His eyes widened. Oh, right. They were still in the Sea of Monsters, which meant that his godly ability of staying dry was gone. "Never mind," he grumbled.

For the rest of breakfast, the two friends ate in silence, neither wanting to say anything and even if they did, they didn't know what to say. After discarding their plates, the two were escorted out of the hall by a new girl, not Hylla, back to C. C.'s... office.

The girl sat them down on the comfy recliners in the lobby.

"What are we doing here? Don't we just go right in?" Percy asked.

The girl gave him a disapproving look, just like all the other girls that lived on the island had. "It's not eight o'clock, yet. You will wait here."

Sitting in the room, Percy felt awkward. The last time he'd been in the strange medieval hotel lobby, he'd been in a conversation - sort of - with C. C., and then he'd left. Now, he was twiddling his thumbs as he waited, sometimes watching the minutes ticking by on the clock across the room, and sometimes letting his eyes wander over the decor.

One thing he hadn't noticed the last time, was the cage full of squealing, shuffling guinea pigs over to one side, and he was surprised that he'd missed it. The creatures were shoving around their shavings, tossing it out of the classic metal and plastic pet cage; they were scurrying in and out of their little plastic houses, running all over each other in an attempt to find an exit as if one would magically appear if they waited long enough.