I'm a Mermaid (a PJO / H2O crossover) - Complete

Chapter 8-

Percy's POV

Last night was great! I fell asleep for a while, and the guys pranked me back by putting me right next to the water. Unluckily for them, I'm a son of Poseidon, so the water didn't really effect me. If anything, it helped me get back full strength. Anyway, this morning I'm the only person remotely awake, so I make the decision to just swim back home and see mom.

Annabeth's POV

"Are you ready to go?" Nico asks us all. A collective 'yes' is said by everyone. And by 'everyone' I mean me, Nico, Will, Thalia, Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel, Leo, Calypso, Juniper, Clarisse, Chris, Connor, Travis, Katie and Grover. I know that sounds like a lot of people for Nico to shadow travel, but he's been practicing long distances with multiple people, and has built up a better tolerance for it. He can now shadow travel up to 19 people to China and not get tired, so going to Australia with 16 other people shouldn't be too much more difficult (Sally and Paul told me where they are).

I can't wait to surprise Percy today! His birthday has not been a very happy occasion this past year, so I want to make it really special for him. I also can't wait to meet his cousin, Cleo. From what I've heard from Sally, she seems really friendly and nice. But, she's scared of water, so that must be quite hard for Percy to cope with. He's probably tried about 10 times to get her in water in the past two days. He's such a Seaweed Brain sometimes! But I love him, so that makes up for it. Almost.

"Let's get this over with. Time to face the head of Kelp once again." Thalia says, pretending not to be happy that she's seeing Percy again. We all know she's the most excited out of all of us.

Nico shadow travels to the address Sally told me- it's a café in the area that's owned by one of Cleo's best friends. It will be perfect for the surprise. Looking at the exterior of this Café, I notice that it looks quite small, and has live music playing twice a week. Nice.

"Thanks, Nico." I say, "We now need to set up inside before Percy arrives. I'll just call Sally to bring Percy." I pull out my phone and dial Sally's number, "Sally?"

"Is everything alright Annabeth?"

"Yes, everything's fine. We're just about to go into Rikki's to hide and set up. Could you get Percy to come to the café soon?"

"Absolutely! When should I bring him?"

"About half an hour should be enough time."

"I've already told Percy's cousin, Cleo about the party, so she'll be coming too,with her friends."

"Great, thanks so much! Bye!" There is a brief pause of awkwardness before either of us hang up. I end up ending the call as I can't stand the silence. Why is ending calls awkward like that? Is it always so weird? I'm still kind of new to this phone thing.

We all walk into the café, earning a lot of strange looks from people. That's kind of given, as we must all look really weird, all completely different. It is pretty much empty, apart from a table of 3 girls and 3 guys. They all look like couples and are deep in conversation. I wonder what it's about...

A blond girl comes up to us and asks, "Hi, I'm Rikki, the manager. How many are there of you? So that I can sort you out some tables." Oh, she's one of Cleo's friends!

"Actually, it's my bro's birthday today, so we were wondering if we could throw him a party here in about 25 minutes." Jason says.

"Hey! Percy was my bro first! I've known him since he was 12!" Grover shouts. They don't dislike each other, but they will always have this argument, and Percy doesn't do anything to stop it.

"Ignore our boyfriends. They have this argument all the time." Piper says, gesturing to herself and Juniper.

"I'm sorry, but the café is already rented out for that time." Rikki says.

One of the girls from the table at the back says to us, "Did you say Percy? That's my cousin! I'm Cleo, and I was the one to rent this space out for him." She looks at me, "You must be Annabeth, Percy's girlfriend."

"It's nice to meet you Cleo. These people are Percy's best friends from our summer camp. This is-" I introduce everyone to Cleo, and she does the same with her friends. Once the introductions are done, we start to have conversations with each other, but Rikki and Emma (one of Cleo's friends) are hesitant to talk to us. Piper notices this as well, and questions it, "Why do most of you seem really nervous and anxious around us? Did we do anything wrong?" She asks, lacing her voice with a bit of charmspark so that they'll tell us.

"Well, Percy and I pranked the guys last night, and-" Connor and Travis perk up at this and immediately become excited.

"What did he do? What was the prank? Was it funny? Did it work?" They ask, in perfect unison. Sometimes it's really hard to believe that they're not twins. Before Will can finish speaking, a voice is heard from outside.

"Mom, I don't think it's open, all the lights are off." It's Percy! I will finally be re-united with my Seaweed Brain!

"When Percy walks in, you all need to shout 'Happy birthday Seaweed Brain!'" I whisper. "Now, hide, and let's do this!"

Percy walks into the café, completely unknowing of what's coming for him.

We all jump out of our hiding places and shout (some much more enthusiastically than others), "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAWEED BRAIN!"