Who: Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson What: Hanging out after the homecoming rally Where: USC campus When: Fri, November 15th Rating: G Status: Complete
The Homecoming rally had been pretty interesting. Homecoming at Percy’s high school had never been quite a big thing like it was at USC; the parade had been on Wednesday then the rally had been tonight and the big game was that weekend. Percy wasn’t sure if him and Annabeth were going yet, but they still had some time to decide. Percy had never really been that big into sports, but wasn’t one part of college, aside from the parties and drinking, showing your school pride and going to sports events even if you didn’t really follow the sport? Besides, it’d be a good excuse to spend more time with Annabeth. He still couldn’t quite believe that he and Annabeth were actually dating. After so many years of crushing on her, it was finally happening and Percy was doing his best not to screw it up. So when he’d realized that he was compelled to tell the truth, he’d hoped to god that she wouldn’t inadvertently or deliberately ask him anything that could get him in trouble.
“So, my mom said it’s fine if I stay here for Thanksgiving,” Percy said as they walked back towards Annabeth’s dorm. They’d left the rally a little early, hoping that maybe that would mean they’d get a quieter walk back, but there were still students everywhere, showing their pride for the school.
Annabeth had embraced the idea of showing her school spirit by buying a USC shirt and a hoodie as well. She didn’t care about football at all, but she liked the idea of just having fun and celebrating their college. It was a great way to meet a few more students and possibly network when she got further along in her college career. And it was a fantastic reason to hang out with Percy especially since they were dating. It was taking a bit to transition into them being a couple because she wasn’t used to spending all this time with him. It was almost like getting to know him all over again since they were spending time in person, but she couldn’t be happier.
So when he announced that he could come to Thanksgiving she smiled brightly, “Oh yeah? That’s great! My parents said that if you got the okay to stay here then you can definitely come with us. My grandparents said we can travel up to my parents house with them. You’re in for a treat because my stepmom makes some great food.”
Percy had also bought a USC hoodie despite the fact that he already had a number of hoodies in his closet. It was the one piece of clothing Percy lived in during the winter. He still didn’t know what winter in California was going to be like, but he was sure that he wasn’t going to need his winter jacket, which was why he’d left it back home. Annabeth had one thing right, hanging out as much as they had since he’d moved, was almost like getting to know each other again since they’d spent the majority of their friendship talking on-line or the phone, having really only spent that one summer when they met together. Not for the first time, Percy was really glad that he’d accidentally told Annabeth he liked her while he was drunk.
“Yeah, she agrees that it’d be silly for me to fly all the way out there just to come back three days later. Christmas makes more sense.” Going home for Christmas though meant not getting to see Annabeth for a month. “You can assure your stepmom that I’m not a very picky eater so chances are I won’t leave anything on my plate.” He smirked at her as they walked.
“Don’t worry, she makes far more than she needs to. My step-brothers eat a LOT, so she makes a lot of food so hopefully you won’t have to fight for food,” she teased a little as she reached up to brush some hair out of her face, “But that’ll be fun to go back for Christmas. I bet your Mom misses you a lot and you’ll get to spend time with your step-dad. I’ll have to try and get you a gift before you leave and make sure you don’t open it before Christmas.” It might be a good idea to do that instead of mailing him a gift like she usually did. This way she could wrap it up nicely and hope that he didn’t open it early.
"Good. Fighting over Turkey and mashed potatoes with your brothers probably won't get me invited back." Percy smirked, squeezing her hand gently as they walked. Holding Annabeth's hand felt kind of surreal. He'd wanted to do that and so many more things for so long and now he got to and it whenever they were together. He still had to work up to the other things though. "Yeah, I mean I haven't seen her since July, so I do miss her." He really was looking forward to spending some time with her when he went home for Christmas. "Maybe we could Skype on Christmas. That way you'll know for sure if I've opened it or not." Percy was going to have to find the perfect present for Annabeth this year.
“Yeaaaah, that wouldn’t be a good thing,” she commented with a laugh and squeezed his hand back. It was so nice to be able to hold hands with him and it was nice to just spend time with him. Having a boyfriend was nice and actually having Percy around in the same zipcode was the best thing in the world. It was almost like Christmas had come super early now that they were dating and then he was discussing Christmas. “Yeah, you should definitely see her soon. I know she misses you. And I also think that Skyping would be a great idea. It’ll be nice to just see your face while we’re separate for a while.”
Percy smiled as she squeezed his hand back and he was glad that it was dark, the only light coming from streetlamps that lit the campus so it was possible that she wouldn’t notice the slight color in his cheeks. He was also very glad that his hand wasn’t clammy, because then she probably wouldn’t want to hold his hand again, “That’d be fun. Opening presents over Skype.” He would definitely have to do that either in his room or when his mother and Paul weren’t home, because he was sure that she’d say something to embarrass him while they were Skyping. “So, what do you think about these dreams?” Now that Annabeth had started dreaming he didn’t feel so alone or crazy.
“They’re strange. It’s like I know I’m that person because so much of my actual life is in there - like parents and siblings and running away - but I’m still different. The idea of being a child of a Greek God doesn’t make much sense especially when we get attacked by monsters all the time. My heart broke watching my younger self try to survive on the streets and join up with her new friends. Thank goodness for Camp Half Blood otherwise my dream self would probably be dead. But I’m surprised that we’re dreaming the same stuff,” it was a longer answer than she was expecting to give him, but she had a lot of thoughts about the dreams. She hated/liked the idea of being a demi-god, but she wondered where the catch would come in. Percy squeezed her hand again as she talked about her dreams. He hated to think about Annabeth running for her life from monsters at such a young age, but she’d made it to Camp Half-Blood where she was safe, so that was a good thing right? “Mine are more or less the same too. Raised by a single mom, but in my dreams I had another step-father. His name was Gabe and he was a real jackass and smelled.” It might have been a dream, but he couldn’t understand what his mother would have seen in someone like Gabe Ugliano. “I wonder who my godly parent is though. Dream me doesn’t know yet. Who do you think it is?” He asked, glancing over at Annabeth as they neared the dorm building.
“That sounds absolutely disgusting. Did your mom give a reason for marrying him? Because she always deserves better than that,” she couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose at the idea of this Gabe guy. And then Percy asked about his godly parent and she took a moment of pause to think, “Oh man, I have no idea. It’s been so long since I’ve studied the Greek Gods. Well, I can say that I hope it’s not Athena, Aphrodite, or Zeus. Oh and I guess I hope it’s not Hades because that might be kind of depressing. Who do you hope it is?”
“According to Grover, Gabe’s smell masked my demi-god scent so monsters wouldn’t be able to find me.” Percy was still trying to wrap his head around that. He understood that his mother would have wanted to keep him safe, but the thought of Gabe just made Percy gag. “I don’t think I’m smart enough to be a child of Athena. And a child of Hades wouldn’t be that cool either.” He tried to remember all the other Greek gods, but there were just so many of them, “I have no idea honestly. I hope I find out soon. I can’t stop wondering about it.”
“It’s just weird to think that one of your parents isn’t a human like you think. But you know what, whomever you parent is I’m sure you will be happy. We should really get more stuff on the Greek Gods and read up on this. It’s been so long and we gotta make sure we aren’t going to end up dying when we turn a certain age or anything,” she hoped that wasn’t the case. But the Gods must have strange things about them that they didn’t fully understand. She also wanted to see what attributes were Athena’s.
“That’s probably a good idea. I bet the library here has stuff on the Greek gods. We could go over there some Saturday.” Percy liked the idea of reading up on the gods, because to be honest he only knew the basics. The things that were common knowledge so he was sure that there were tons of things that he didn’t know about the Greek gods and while that sort of thing would be boring to do research on by himself, with Annabeth it might not be so boring. “
“Yeah, that would be great actually. I need to finish up some homework anyway, so we can do both at the same time. Then we can have the same information and easily share it together. And I’ll force you to get your homework done,” she commented with a laugh as she reached in her purse to grab out the keys to her dorm room, “Alright, I’d better head to bed. What time do you wanna go to the library?”
Leave it to Annabeth to still think of homework when he was suggesting something entirely different, “Well we could always go over during the game Saturday. Go see part of the game then go to the library? Might not be as many people there then.” Sure, Percy wanted to show his school spirit, but he didn’t think he could sit through a whole football game.
“Yeah, let’s check out the game and see if it’s any good. Then we can at least say that we saw our first homecoming game. And we can always go after the game if it’s good. But, let’s meet up at 8 and go to the festivities before the game,” she smile brightly because it sounded like a lot of fun to see the game and then go to the library with Percy.