Percy & Annabeth

Monday Afternoon

Percy's POV

The scary part about being married at sixteen to the daughter of my dad's greatest life enemy isn't the "being sixteen" part or the "she's the daughter of my dad's greatest life enemy" part. It's more the listening to the rumors of marriage. You know, the parts about the girl growing old and getting fatter and bitchier every day.

I mean, I know that's not going to happen in our case! So please don't kill me, Annabeth. You're much too beautiful and nice to turn into a fat bitch. But really, as I was walking to the beach to meet up with the guys, that's sadly what came to my head.

The good thing is those thoughts quickly went away when I remembered her walking down the aisle in white, feeling jealous for others that they couldn't see her perfect smile, and of course our first kiss as husband and wife. The list went on and so did my thoughts.

Which is why I ran into and then knocked over a trash can.

"Percy, man!" Grover called when running up to me. He had a look of both fear and rage, but both of them wiped off when he saw all the garbage that had spilled out laying on the ground. "Way to go."

"Shut up," I said. "Now, what is it?"

Grover nodded his head like he had forgotten why he came up to me in the first place. "Oh, right. Man, guess who just showed up?"

"I give up."

"The worst of all the Chase's." He narrowed his eyes back the way he came. "Clarisse."

I snorted. "Great. What does she want?"

"Err, well—"

"JACKSON!"

Clarisse was standing in the middle of the beach. She was wearing boots and pants which labeled her as a trouble maker already. But if that wasn't already enough, Clarisse had a sword strapped to her side. Her very muscular arms were crossed over her body and a grin that was a cross between a smirk and a growl was plastered on her face. The Stoll's were standing behind her with the same look of distaste for all Jackson's that Clarisse was wearing.

I sighed and walked up to her, Grover just a step behind me. Nico came up to us as well with a determined look on his face. We came to a stop about ten feet in front of them. "What is it, Clarisse?" I asked.

"What, no insults today, Jackson?" she snarled.

I shrugged. "Not feeling it, I guess."

She laughed. "Whatever, Jackson. Well, believe it or not, I came all the way out here just for you."

"Oh, wow, I'm honored."

"Shut it, boy. I came here for business." Clarisse drew her sword and pointed it my way. "I'm here to end this once and for all, you mess with my family, and you mess with me."

"Hey, what did I ever do to your family?" I complained.

"Does crashing our party sound familiar?" she asked.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and ask what pills she was put on to make her so sensitive. I mean, come on. I snuck into one party and now she sees it at a fight to the death? I was actually ready to take her challenge just to shove karma in her face, but it was her face specifically that stopped me; her eyes to be more exact.

In them was the same determination and drive that I had gotten to know so well in the last eighteen or so hours; my newly-wedded wife always had that look when she was thinking. Of course, usually her determination came from something good—not this.

I lowered my gaze, knowing that there was no way I would fight Clarisse or anyone in the Chase family for that matter. I didn't want to like them because it was the way I grew up, but they were Annabeth's family. I'm sure she would do anything she could to make peace now that we're together as well. In surrender, I held up my hands. Clarisse seemed confused.