Troubled

24

chapter twenty-four
annabeth

The next morning I awoke, my hand intertwined with Percy's.

After what seemed like hours, we had both headed inside. He'd crashed on the air mattress and I slept on his bed. But we must've fallen asleep holding hands or just grabbed each other during the night, as my hand was in Percy's.

I smiled as I peered out of Percy's window. By the bright sun I could tell that the day had already started and, by the smell of pancakes, breakfast was ready.

I peered over at Percy, who was drooling in his sleep. I wasn't sure if it was from the pancake smell or if he always did that, but I couldn't help but grin.

As I released his hand he slowly stretched and rolled over. I grinned as I grabbed my bag and headed out of the room. After changing in the bathroom I re entered Percy's bedroom, where he was awake.

He sat up on the mattress and waved at me. "Good morning. Did you sleep alright?"

I nodded. "I'm assuming you did, too, by the drool on your chin."

He quickly wiped away the drool, his face turning red. "I don't drool in my sleep!"

I rolled my eyes as I helped him up and he led me into the kitchen, where Sally stood over the stove, a tall stack of blue pancakes besides her.

"Merry Christmas," Sally said with a smile as she served us each a couple pancakes and drowned them in syrup. Her smile was warm and comforting. "I do hope you like the pancakes, Annabeth. I was unsure of what you liked."

Usually, I wasn't a huge fan of pancakes. Helen usually only made them for my brothers, and when I did get some they were usually burnt.

But I pushed that away and took a bite of Sally's pancakes, which were nearly the best thing I'd ever tasted. They were soft and sweet at the same time.

"These are amazing!" I said as Percy poured more maple syrup over his pancakes. "Percy, you're drowning yours!"

He shook his head as he continued to pour more maple syrup over his soggy pancakes. "You see, there's barely anything on these."

"There was, the syrup just seeped in already, you're going to have a sugar rush!" I said with a laugh. Then Percy smirked as he poured more syrup over my pancakes as well. "Hey, leave my pancakes alone!"

Percy stuck his tongue out at me before ignoring me and returning to his pancakes. I don't think he was specifically ignoring me, but when he ate pancakes he looked as if nothing could distract him, not even a bomb.

"So, what do you do on Christmas?" I asked Percy as he finished his pancakes. "Do you go to church?"

Percy snorted. "God, no. I mean, we aren't really religious people, let's just put it that way. My mom and I usually watch a few Christmas movies, eat Christmas cookies. The works, nothing fancy."

I nodded. "Thank god. Every year Helen forces us to go to church."

I shuddered while remembering the years of church past. Bobby and Matthew were often too rambunctious, which resulted in Helen scolding all of us. Then she'd sing way too high pitched and would elbow my father for not singing, claiming he was 'setting a bad example for Bobby and Matthew.'

The rest of the day Percy and I binged watched Christmas movies while talking and giggling. Sally would occasionally join in, but she spent most of the day either cleaning, baking, or shut away in her room.

Percy informed me his mom wanted to be an author, but she couldn't since she never went to college and could never quit her job. He also told me she'd been working on something recently, claiming it was a huge surprise.

Sally joined us for one final Christmas movie, Christmas dinner (which was simply amazing), and even Christmas cookies.

After we finished the cookies she yawned and wished us a goodnight and headed into her bedroom. Percy turned on one last Christmas movie as we fought to keep our eyes open.

It was the best Christmas I'd ever had.