Chapter Text
Annabeth’s left foot taps against the soft floorboard of her car, right foot on the brake. The Saturday traffic on the highway is bumper-to-bumper, made worse by the soft pattering of rain on the windshield, and Annabeth is getting antsy. She only left home half an hour ago, but it feels like an eternity. It’s 2:15, and Annabeth has an hour to get to the airport to make her flight on time. The traffic is exactly what she doesn’t need.
She tries to focus on the Beabadoobee song playing through the car stereo. The song always reminds her of Percy, with all the talk of beaches and tides and whatnot. The music does little to soothe her, but the reminder of the blonde boy has her hands readjusting on the wheel, determined to make this flight on time.
By 3:00, by some miracle of the gods, Annabeth nears the San Francisco International Airport, the traffic having lightened up just slightly, allowing her to sneak into the parking garage right on time. She lugs her bags out of the trunk, shrugging her backpack on as she locks the car. Her nervousness grows as she walks. She’s never been on an airplane before; they’ve always been ill-advised to demigods, and she isn’t stupid enough to hope that Zeus will show her mercy.
Annabeth makes it to her gate in the nick of time, latte in hand. She spots the dark clouds overhead as she boards, and she hopes they can make it out before the impending storm. She scans her boarding pass, dragging her hastily packed suitcase down the jet bridge. She smiles at the flight attendant who welcomes her and finds her seat, 12B. A middle seat. Just her luck.
Annabeth attempts to balance all of her belongings as she hoists her suitcase into the overhead bin. She almost lets out a sigh of relief until she feels something hit her hard. Her latte falls out of her hands and all over her white sweater.
“Oh.” The man looks up at her, face unapologetic. “Whoops.”
“Whoops?” Annabeth looks at him incredulously. She scoffs and turns away, rushing to the bathroom to get paper towels and apologizing profusely to another flight attendant. When she reaches her seat, having cleaned up the coffee spill on the ground, and trying her best not to panic about her stained sweater, she looks up to see no one but the same man in seat 12C, and another in 12A. Great. Perfect.
She awkwardly motions to the coffee-spiller and squeezes through to her middle seat. Amazing. Just another five and a half hours sandwiched between these two jokers. Annabeth zips open her backpack, pulling out her headphones, her only saving grace. In her backpack sit her headphones, a book, and her sketchbook. Only the essentials. She swiftly but carefully packed her bags, not filling up any space with junk. She presses play on her very curated playlist and prays that Zeus doesn’t mess with her. Slipping her headphones on, Annabeth fades away into her memories of the last 48 hours.
Annabeth stumbled into the Chase family’s kitchen.
“Hey, everybody!” Annabeth dropped her bags on the kitchen floor, embracing her father and younger siblings. Her stepmother smiled coldly.
“Happy spring break, kid,” Frederick gasped. “Oh! I almost forgot,” He scrambled for something on the counter. “Your ticket! We set off for LA tomorrow.”
Annabeth let go of her siblings to take the piece of paper in her hands. Her father told her that they would be going to the Griffith Observatory as a spring break treat, one of Annabeth’s dream architecture locations. She’d been to LA once before, when she was 12, but that wasn’t a sightseeing trip.
Griffith Observatory has remained one of Annabeth’s inspirations, a masterpiece blending Art Deco style and staples of Greek architecture, entwining her past with her present. Annabeth only looks at the ticket for a moment before hugging her dad again. Trying not to get emotional, Annabeth takes her bags and lugs them upstairs to unpack. She’s still in disbelief, just as she was a month ago when her father first proposed the idea.
She made it upstairs, miraculously, and shed her luggage to find her mail on her desk. Junk, junk, junk…
Not junk. She carefully picked up the postcard, a photo of New York City on the front, and a photo of Percy and Grover clipped to the back. They wrote her a kind message, the usual wish you were here, and visit soon. She promised herself and the boys that she would, but she hasn’t, and she’s missing them more than ever. She placed the postcard gently in the box that she stores the rest of them in, and made a note to write back to them.
She didn’t. Write back to them, that is. Not when she was on a flight to JFK now. She would tell them everything they needed to know in person.
Someone taps her on the shoulder, shaking her from her own world. Stupid coffee-spiller. She removes her headphones, and he points upwards. Annabeth listens to the garbled voice over the intercom.
“Due to the weather, we will be delaying this flight. On behalf of Delta Airlines, I apologize for the inconvenience.”
Cherry on top of a perfect day.
“Hello, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. In order to avoid complications, our flight will be delayed by about an hour. Thank you for your patience.”
Annabeth huffs and sinks further down into her seat, replacing her headphones where they were.
The next day, Annabeth woke, excited to be home and back in the swing of things with her family, despite the awkwardness between her and her stepmom.
She spent the majority of the day reading, catching up on her book after all of her tests the week before spring break. She lounged on the couch, smiling at her younger siblings as they play-fought. Her father wandered in and out of the house, into the kitchen from his study for lunch, then back in to continue his lesson planning.
By the time dinner rolled around, the kids were tuckered out, but Annabeth’s parents looked as though they had something up their sleeves. Dinner was served, and Annabeth bathed in the feeling of being back with her family again. She had spent so much of her life not having a sense of family, and she’s unspeakably grateful to have it now, however complicated it may be.
What Annabeth didn’t know was that it was about to get a whole lot more complicated.
They ate dinner, making small talk, but there was a feeling of excitement around the table. Once the plates were cleared and the forks tossed aside, Mr. and Mrs. Chase exchanged a look.
“So,” Annabeth’s brothers quieted immediately, tuned in to whatever their mom had to say. “Your father and I were listening to the radio the other day and entered a little prize drawing…”
The boys looked at each other, excited.
Frederick took over. “We got the results of the drawing back this morning, and we won!”
Annabeth was getting excited now. “Well, what did you win?”
The two adults looked at each other and said together, “A trip to Disneyland!”
At this, Annabeth’s brothers went ballistic, screaming and hollering at the top of their lungs. Annabeth was pretty excited, too, if she was being honest.
“It's fully paid for, flights, accommodations, everything! Isn’t that amazing?” Mrs. Chase declared, but Annabeth could feel something was off. There was something they weren’t saying.
“When is it?” One of Annabeth’s brothers asked, elated at the news.
“Well, that's the thing…” Annabeth’s father looked at her. “We would be leaving tomorrow, and it would be on the same days as the trip to the observatory.”
Annabeth was stunned. “Wh- what? So, we’re just not going anymore?” She tried to blink back tears.
“Well, we were thinking,” Frederick motioned between him and her stepmom. “You could spend one of the days going to the observatory. You know, freedom to explore the city on your own?”
“On my own? The whole point of the break was to spend time with you!” Annabeth stood up abruptly from the table. “I don’t want to go alone, Dad!” She moved towards the stairs.
“Annabeth- wait!”
She was already slamming her bedroom door by the time he was halfway up the stairs. She flopped on her bed, clutching her pillow. She pulled her laptop towards her, opening it to a page it had been sitting on for the past few weeks.
Flights from SFO to JFK. She stared at the screen. Let's see… two days spent in LA by herself or a week in New York with her best friends. It wasn’t a hard choice.
Her dad barged in at that moment. “Honey, please listen to me! This is an insane opportunity, you know how bad the boys have wanted to go.”
“I know, and you guys would have so much fun, but what about me?”
He sat down on the edge of Annabeth’s bed. “You could spend a day in Disneyland with us, and one by yourself, seeing the sights.” He attempted to place his hand on hers, but she slid hers out from under his. “You would still be spending time with us, hon.”
“It's not that, Dad,” Annabeth looked up at him. “Even the time we would spend together, I would feel like the odd one out. You guys are such a… a unit, and I feel out of place. The point of going to Griffith was to show you a piece of my world. My interests, what I’m majoring in, for god’s sake.”
Frederick sighed. “I know, honey, but you have to understand-”
“No, I don’t! I won’t!”
“We won’t be able to skip a day to go with you, we won’t be able to skip the trip-”
“Then I’ll have to.”
“Annabeth, you don’t mean that. What would you do, stay here? Wallow in your room?”
Annabeth shows him her laptop screen.
“Oh, honey, you can’t fly across the country,”
“Who says, Dad!? You? I’m 19, I can make my own decisions, and spend my money how I want. Would you rather I wallow in my room? Yeah, I’m sure you’d like that.”
She gets up, opening drawers and hurling clothes into her suitcase.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to Piper’s. I knew it was a bad idea to come here.”
Her father sighs. “Annabeth, please. You don’t understand.”
“No, you don’t understand.” She slides only her indispensable items into her backpack, slinging it over her shoulder and zipping up her suitcase.
Her father follows her down the stairs, trying and failing to get her to change her mind. When Annabeth Chase sets her mind on something, it's nearly impossible to change it.
When she made it to Piper’s house, Annabeth rang the doorbell, collapsing into Piper’s arms as soon as she opened the door.
“Oh, Beth.”
The two spent the night discussing Annabeth’s plan and shoving candy into their faces at an alarming pace. Right before they went to sleep, Piper nodded to Annabeth, and she hit the button.
Confirm flight.
Now Annabeth sits squished on said flight, shoulders brushing against her seatmates. About an hour after the first announcement, people are getting restless. She sees people craning their necks up, so she removes her headphones once again, listening to the announcement.
“Ladies and gentlemen, your pilot is pleased to announce that we will be taking off shortly. Please keep your seatbelts fastened and tray tables stowed until takeoff…”
Annabeth lets out a sigh as the flight attendant drones on and sinks down in her seat, tension dropping from her shoulders.
The plane finally takes off at 5, after around half an hour of waiting on the tarmac, making their arrival time at JFK… 11 pm. Annabeth reaches for her sketchbook, knowing she’s in for the long haul. She tries to subtly look across the man blocking the
window, and sees it's already getting dark out. She twirls her pencil in her fingers. Might as well get some work done while it's still light out.
At some point, hours later, Annabeth grows restless and gets up to use the bathroom. She savors the space away from the cramped space of her seat and opens the door to the bathroom.
Right when Annabeth moves to wash her hands, the floor beneath her starts to rumble just the smallest bit, and suddenly, her body slams into the side wall of the small bathroom. Her heart begins to race, and she can feel the panic rising in her. Zeus, I swear to god…
“Pardon the interruption, we are experiencing a bit of rough air. Please remain seated with your seatbelts fastened.”
Annabeth rolls her eyes once she’s caught her breath. Of course. What about the awful day that was today makes her surprised that there would be turbulence while she’s in the bathroom? And during her first time on a plane, no less. She braces her hands on the close walls of the bathroom, and she emerges only when the room has stopped shaking, making her way back to her seat.
Annabeth is awakened by the sound of clamoring throughout the plane. People in front of her row are hauling their bags over their heads and corralling their families into the aisle. Annabeth hastily shoves her things into her bag, still rubbing the nap from her eyes.
She reaches up to grab her bag from the overhead compartment and rushes through the plane, smiling at the flight attendant as she walks down the jetbridge and into the airport. A large clock on the wall reads 11:15 pm, and Annabeth has to stifle a yawn, forcing her legs to move in the direction of the rest of the world. Having less than no experience with airports due to the demigod of it all, Annabeth has no idea how to find her way around any airport, let alone the maze that is JFK.
After asking a very irritated and tired airport worker, Annabeth found herself on the sidewalk, saved from the heavy rain by the awning, and attempting to hail a cab. Very New York. She allowed herself the dreamy thought for just a moment before waving violently at a cab and sighing when it pulled over. She loaded her luggage into the trunk and let out a deep sigh in the back seat of the cab, letting her head rest against the headrest for a moment. When prompted with the question of an address, Annabeth fishes around in her backpack and pulls out a bent postcard, reading the address written in Grover’s handwriting.
The night is dark outside Annabeth’s taxi window, and she can’t see the stars like she can at home, but all of that is forgotten when the car pulls out from under the protection of the airport’s infrastructure, and she spots the buildings. The buildings. If it weren’t so dark out, and rain wasn’t hitting the window so violently, she would pull her sketchbook out and go to town depicting every interesting thing she sees. Sure, there’s cool architecture at New Rome University and back home in San Francisco, but it's nothing like this. Annabeth remembers her first and last (until now) time in NYC, and a shiver goes down her spine. She carries fond memories of that first quest: meeting Percy, growing closer with both him and Grover, seeing multiple different cities – and not to mention The Gateway Arch – but being back in the city brings back a few bad memories, so Annabeth turns back towards the inside of the taxi and focuses on trying not to fall asleep.
The taxi jostles Annabeth awake, and the driver comes around to remove Annabeth’s luggage from the trunk of the car. Soon enough, Annabeth is left alone on the rainy street, the chilly drops having her rush into the high-rise apartment building. Loading herself and her bags into the elevator, Annabeth looks at the postcard again, making sure she has the right floor.
She exits on floor 7 and finds her way to the door that reads 703. She only realizes now how rattled she must look. After an afternoon sitting in an airplane, and with soaking-wet hair, she must look insane. She raises her fist to knock on the door, soft music muffled through the door. She tries not to overthink anything and knocks hard on the door.
“Grover, did you invite Juniper over?” Annabeth flinches when she hears Percy’s loud voice. Damn, Annabeth. Really set yourself up here, didn’t you?
“No, I don’t think so,” Grover replies.
“Oh, well. I’ll get it,” She hears some sort of furniture creak as she assumes Percy stands up. Soft footsteps approach the door.
Deep breaths.
“GROVER! Stop, I was gonna keep playing, oh my god,” Percy lets out a sigh, and Grover laughs. “Ugh, whatever, man.”
Annabeth hears the doorknob turn, panicking inside. The door opens, and Percy appears in its place. Annabeth is stunned into silence. It feels like it's been forever since they saw each other.
“Hi,” Annabeth’s voice is soft and shaky.
“Annabeth.”