Tie-Dye Perspective ((Annabeth))

[Rachel Elizabeth Dare]

Rachel rolled up a wet orange camp shirt snapping on rubber bands in various spots. Buckets of color sat in front of her in a semi-circle. Blue, purple, green and red all separated and ready for use. To her left was a bucket of clear water where she had previously dipped the shirt. When she was satisfied with the balled up t-shirt she dunked it into the first color bucket, red. From there she moved down the line letting only certain parts of the shirt touch a color at a time. Tie-dying was a good way to pass some time, besides the t-shirts around here could use a little pick me up. They were so boring and so orange. Rachel took her forearm and wiped a bead of sweat from her head. A little bit of the purple dye dripped onto her jeans. It wasn’t a big deal though, they were already so marked with paint, markers and pens. Ignoring the small wet circle of purple on her thigh she set the t-shirt aside. Taking the latex gloves from her hands Rachel sat back in the grass.

While the demigods of camp had fun with their weapon making as arts and craft time, Rachel enjoyed her own. This was a real arts and craft. Would it kill the kids here to do actual camp activities for once? It would get their minds off of the big bad ugly god that was out there. Rachel sighed and scratched the back of her head, tightening her ponytail. She felt a little safer going out amongst the demi’s in the past two weeks. There hadn’t been a prophecy telling in a while and it felt good. Maybe the Oracle was getting tired of trying to think of rhymes. Whatever the reason was Rachel hoped she wouldn’t have to deal with it for a while.

Rachel dusted off her hands and picked up the wet ball of fabric. She took off the rubber bands and unrolled the shirt. She grinned broadly to see her creation. It was...ugly. The added colors did not sit well on top of the bright orange. The red alone would have made the shirt pop, but the mixture of green and purple were off putting. And since some of those colors blended together, there were spots of brown. Rachel tilted her head to the side as if looking at it from another angle would make the shirt more attractive. No dice. Her lips twitched into a slight scowl. Though, the longer she looked at it the more Rachel started to like it.

“So hideous only a mother could love it.” Rachel mused out loud.

She heard a few girls laughing behind her. Rachel glanced over her shoulder and watched as a few young daughters of Aphrodite snickered at her work. Rachel tensed up and held her head and began to moan. “Never laugh at someone else’s mistake, unless it is your life you wish to forsake.” The girls shrieked and ran off. When they were gone Rachel chuckled shaking her head.

“Fake prophecy, gets them every time.” Rachel stopped laughing.

It had been a day since Percy and Annabeth returned from their quest. Rachel hadn’t gone to see them yet. She was too scared to do so. Her dream had spooked her more than she would like to have admitted. Luke was back. That could not bode well for anyone involved. His revival was not a good sign, which Rachel was sure of. The most disturbing part was she hadn’t dreamed anything since. Some wouldn’t think anything of it, but for an Oracle not to have a dream that wasn’t right. It was just black. If she were dreaming Rachel didn’t recall any of it.

She set the t-shirt on her lap forgetting that the dye was still wet. Rachel chewed on her bottom lip, perhaps she should tell Chiron or Annabeth. Of course that would mean having to face Annabeth. Rachel sighed; she could only imagine what Annabeth was going through. There she was head over fin in love with Seaweed Brain and then back in strolls tall blond and blue eyed Luke. Sure he used to be evil but that just gave him another quality to love. He sacrificed himself to save the world. So commendable. Rachel worried what it might mean for Percy and Annabeth.

WORD COUNT:

[/color]728[/center]

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth was looking for Percy. Part of her was scared of what she would find, after what had happened yesterday. He had seemed so mad at her. And he was hardly ever mad at her. Though she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong, she still felt guilty. But there was still the chance it was a bad dream, or maybe he was just grumpy, right? There was still the chance it would all be smoothed over by now, right? She’d checked the lake and the arena - she didn’t have the nerve to actually go to his cabin - and there was no sign of him. Maybe it was better though, a voice in the back of her head was telling her. Maybe he didn’t want to be found. She shoved the thought aside. Why would he think like that? They’d had little fights in the past, but it had always worked out eventually, right? Usually with the aid of a life-or-death situation, but that was besides the point.

She was passing the arts and crafts area, she stopped short when a small group of younger Aphrodite girls screamed as they dashed past. With a raised eyebrow, she looked over to the arts and crafts area, expecting to see Clarisse or something. Rachel holding a rather disturbingly colored shirt and looking a bit pleased with herself was not on the top ten list of things that seemed likely in this scenario. The prophecy Rachel had spoken to her before all this mess, the foretelling of all this mess, echoed in her head like a bad, really creepy recording. She couldn’t really blame those girls for running. If she could have gotten away from everything that happened, she would have. But then-… argh, there was just too much to take in.

Annabeth did feel a bit sorry for Rachel though, trying to be as close to normal as was Rachel-ly possibly. And sprouting doomsday prophecies every now and again couldn’t be helping her popularity. She decided she would push aside her own issues for a bit and maybe just hang out with her friend, since gods knew they probably both needed it every now and again. And gods also knew right now talking to Percy or Luke, or even Nick, might be a little on the awkward side.

So she walked over and looked over Rachel’s shoulder at the… ahem, masterpiece. It was a camp shirt. Just exceedingly… tie-dyed. With exceedingly unusual colors. “I can honestly say in all my years here I’ve never seen someone try to tie-dye their camp shirt. Leave it to you.” It wasn’t an insult or anything, like it may have been two years ago. Just a statement. This was Rachel after all, the girl who doodled on her pants (while she was still wearing them) and occasionally painted herself gold.

Word Count: 495

[Rachel Elizabeth Dare]

Rachel lifted the shirt off of her lap to see a rainbow of color now stained on her jeans. She didn’t really flinch or look visibly upset by the addition of color to her pants. They were missing that extra something this must have been it Rachel concluded. She set the shirt aside and grabbed the camp tank top she had picked up at the store. It was orange like the t-shirts. This time she would only dip it in one color. The red portion of the first shirt looked neat, very Ares like. Rachel wondered if Clarisse of one of her siblings would like it, probably not. She hardly saw them in anything but camo. She dipped the tank into the bucket of water and began to wrap on rubber bands.

Lost in her own world per usual Rachel jumped when she heard someone speak. She turned turned to see who it was laughing a little at her own jumpiness. The smile on her face faltered as she saw Annabeth standing there. She couldn’t avoid the girl forever. Rachel cleared her throat and looked back to her t-shirt. “That’s because no one in this camp has any imagination, or an artistic eye.” Rachel picked up the t-shirt and held it up to Annabeth and made a face as she imagined Annabeth wearing it. “Hmm, tie-dye isn’t your color...s.”

She went back to snapping rubber bands around portions of the tank top. “This next one I’m sure will be a big hit around camp. I don’t mean to sound like a daughter of Aphrodite but uh, who chose orange?” The question was mostly rhetorical. It was also to try and stay off the topic that Rachel knew she was almost obligated to ask. Avoiding it entirely would be more difficult than avoiding Annabeth. Though Rachel gave herself credit, she managed to do so for a day.

She swallowed and looked back to Annabeth with a grim expression. There was definitely trouble hanging in Annabeth’s eyes. Rachel knew the reason behind or at least she speculated. And the reason was Luke. She chewed her lip and took a deep breath, “Ho-how was the quest?” Rachel met Annabeth’s eyes she attempted to play dumb about the entirety of the quest wondering how much Annabeth would reveal.

WORD COUNT:

[/color]385[/center]

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth certainly hadn’t meant to scare the tar out of Rachel, but it seemed to have that effect anyway. “Sorry…” she said when Rachel jumped, though had to smile a little. It was a bit disturbing however to see the smile on Rachel’s usually carefree face droop when she turned. Great, someone else who didn’t want to be around her. Well, Rachel and Percy could just start a club now couldn’t they? She pushed aside the bitter, depressing thought and focused on the shirt Rachel held instead. Though when Rachel opened her big mouth, Annabeth raised an eyebrow at her. “No imagination or artistic eye, huh? Well, maybe you just don’t have the taste for some of the particular art forms here.” Her first reaction was a strong urge to hit Rachel upside the head with her architectural sketch book. Not artistic or imaginative her butt. And don’t let the Apollo kids learn of that insult either or Rachel would be speaking in rhymes a lot more than she ever wanted to.

Already getting a little annoyed with this visit, she refrained, with some effort, from rolling her eyes when Rachel held the shirt up to her. No way in Hades she would wear that. No offense to Rachel, but it was not her style at all. “Yeah, I’m thinking you might be right.” She watched Rachel resume her murder of a perfectly good tank top and shrugged off the question. “Beats me. Been that way for a long, long time.”

Then Rachel did the most un-Rachel like thing yet: look serious. And not just serious. No, she went the extra mile and aimed for the ‘unhappy serious’ look. Chewed on her lip too, which either meant a death sentence was forthcoming, or she was trying way too hard. But then came that question. Like she didn’t know how it went. It seemed the whole Camp knew about her miserable failure. She sighed and took a seat next to Rachel, carefully avoiding any spatters of dye - unlike Rachel, she was not horrible fond of ruining her blue jeans. Well, if Rachel was going to play dumb, Annabeth would just play along. She needed someone to talk to, and, rather surprising given their past rivalry, she considered Rachel a good friend. “Bad. We went to a lighthouse on a little island in the middle of nowhere just in time to be late and not manage to rescue the other demigod there. The god of fear,” she left his name out, since names did have power, “had convinced him he should sacrifice himself and bring back Luke in his place - you remember who Luke is.” For gods’ sake, she’d been the one who’d hit him in the eye with a plastic comb. If she didn’t remember that horrible event… “But I’m sure you’ve heard about his return. Hard to keep something like that quiet here. Anyway… Nick got hurt bad. I-… well, I don’t know for sure. I got knocked out, but I don’t know how. It’s… complicated. But Luke helped us get back - he can teleport and all - and that’s that.”

She decided to leave off the part about her and Percy getting in a fight right after they got back, though she wouldn’t have been surprised if Rachel somehow knew already. That girl knew more than a lot of people gave her credit for. She looked back to Rachel, not even realizing that her gaze had shifted to the ground as she’d been talking. “Sorry for talking your ear off. Guess it’s just sort of nice to get that off my shoulders.” Even if it wasn’t the worst of what was weighing her down, not by a long shot.

Word Count: 667

[Rachel Elizabeth Dare]

Rachel managed a smile at Annabeth as she sat down but it faded as fast as it appeared. She was hopeful that for once her visions and dreams were just that, dreams and completely incorrect. Her shoulders sunk at the first word alone. Bad. Rachel stopped what she was doing and paid full attention to Annabeth as she told the story. It wasn’t really news to her and for that Rachel felt a little bit of guilt. She could have warned them somehow. She gave a nod and went right back to tie-dying the tank top.

“It’s no problem.” She replied in a distant voice. Rachel dunked the shirt into the red. Her eyes stared off to nowhere and for a minute she tensed and it seemed she would go into yet another trance like state and start spewing more green gases full of another deadly prophecy. But after a second her body relaxed with a heavy sigh. “I knew though. Everything, I saw it happen. Well, I saw fragments of it but it wasn’t hard to guess what took place.”

Rachel wrung the tank top out and the excess water and dye dripped from the shirt. In the right light it almost looked like blood, the color was correct the texture was not. Rachel chewed on her lip as she removed the rubber bands, careful not to splash Annabeth in anyway. She wasn’t sure what to say at the moment. Sorry seemed like the wrong word and sentiment entirely for the situation. It was a cheap way of responding to all of it. Rachel smacked her lips and examined the red and orange tank top. The red spiraled around the orange and it actually wasn’t too offensive on the eyes as the previous one.

She was silent the whole time as she set the shirt aside and removed the gloves from her hands. They came off with a snap a drop or two of dye splattered. Rachel didn’t bother to jerk her head back to dodge the spray. Her face was dotted with red. Against the skin it looked like ruby drops of blood, even if it wasn’t the right consistency. With a lax expression Rachel reached up and attempted to wipe the dye away with the back of her hand, it only caused it to smear.

“Can I tell you something? I have this awful feeling that the Great Prophecy is coming. I don’t know how I know but it’s this feeling in my gut and it’s been growing. Like the worst is yet to come. And yeah maybe it’s a little obvious maybe it isn’t, whatever.” She sighed and finally turned to look at Annabeth she hesitated. Rachel finally noticed something was off, Percy wasn’t with Annabeth and she failed to mention Percy in the slightest. She figured this Luke thing would mess with things a little but so fast? She changed the topic over while it was on her mind, “Annabeth, is something wrong, with you and Percy I mean. Is everything okay?”

WORD COUNT:

[/color]507[/center]

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth was beyond grateful that Rachel was a good listener. It was sort of ironic; two plus years ago, she wouldn’t have dreamed of being grateful towards Rachel for anything. But now she counted on her for so much. After she finished talking, though, she couldn’t help but feel a little awkward in the silence, just watching her friend do some weird, but very Rachel-like, things to the poor tank top. She half wondered when a rainbow assortment of Sharpies were going to magically appear in Rachel’s hand to add random little doodles too.

When Rachel broke the silence, though, Annabeth looked at her, her expression at first a little along the lines of ‘you’re joking, right?’ and then simply resigning to the fact that Rachel was unique in that aspect at least, among many others. She should have guessed that, if anyone, Rachel would be the one to know. What was she supposed to say to that though? ‘Oh, I’m glad you got to witness my utter humiliation and failure in your Oracle HD’? Yeah, that didn’t sound right. Sounded a bit creepy, and more than a little embarrassing to be honest. Luckily there was a distraction (something that isn’t hard to come by when you’re an ADHD demigod). She watched Rachel unfold the shirt and smiled slightly, though it was half-hearted. “That looks kind of cool, actually...”

Dropping back into silence, she wiped away a tiny spatter of dye that had inevitably found the back of her hand, but had somehow managed to miss any clothing thankfully. She listened to Rachel, her heart sinking. That sounded way too familiar. “Yeah… we talked about that during the quest too once or twice. It doesn’t seem like it, doesn’t it? Not very reassuring. I’d been hoping on, you know, a good ten years at least. That’s probably asking way too much though.” She’d hoped that by the time that prophecy came around, she would be out of this place, working as an architect, possibly, dare she dream, with Percy still. The thought brought back the memories of the previous day when they had returned from the quest and she sighed. Rachel, in a minorly annoying way, seemed to read her mind.

Annabeth looked up. “Yeah… I, I guess. I mean, I think he’s having trouble accepting Luke being back. He snapped at me yesterday.” She paused, then continued in a quieter voice, like it pained her to admit. “Said all sorts of mean things…” Though the worst of it had not been so much what he’d said, as the fact that he seemed to mean every word.

[Rachel Elizabeth Dare]

Rachel turned to Annabeth at the compliment and gave her a look that read something like, Why wouldn’t it? Rachel was proud of her artwork no matter what it was or how ugly it was. She believed that it took talent, even if it was a small amount, to create something for offensive to the eyes. Besides, beauty was in the eye of the beholder, as the cliché went. Rachel didn’t say anything out loud though. She considered Annabeth a friend and valued her opinion whether it was positive or negative. Had Annabeth said that a few years ago Rachel might have opened her mouth to defend her work.

Her fingers twitched and to calm her nerves or in an attempt to occupy them Rachel grabbed a rubber band. She played with it stretching it letting it pull back. One time she let it slip from her finger and it snapped onto her other hand. Rachel flinched and shook her hand as if it was an etch-a-sketch and she could erase the pain. She gave a nod; she had been listening to Annabeth as they discussed the next Great Prophecy. “Ten years would have a been nice. A nice lull from all things big and terrible. Two years was pushing it I guess.”

Rachel dropped the rubber band not wanting it to bite her again. Instead she grabbed a loose piece of hair and twirled it around her index finger. Her eyes didn’t focus on Annabeth, they gazed off into space searching for answers that didn’t exist in this world. Rachel would have loved to be able to see into the future on command, and then she could see the outcome of everything. At the very least she would like to catch a glimpse of what was to come. Her eyes came back to the daughter of Athena’s face. She really is pretty, Rachel thought offhand for a second. It was a random thought that crossed her mind. But it was a viable reason that Percy loved her, beyond all of that great personality and brains and stuff.

Speaking of Percy, Rachel remembered the question she had asked Annabeth only seconds before. That random thought distracted her. The response wasn’t what Rachel wanted to hear. Her brow furrowed as she tried to imagine saying anything remotely mean or offensive to Annabeth. Rachel heaved a sigh. “I’m sure he didn’t mean it.” She said. Rachel wasn’t too good at these kind of things. But if Percy was being a jerk he was seriously in for a sharp kick in the ass. “Let me know if he says anything else, I’ll give him the Kronos treatment, a blue plastic hairbrush right in the noggin.” Rachel forced a smile hoping to cheer Annabeth up. Her smile dropped back into a frown it was hard to hold it for too long. “I’m curious, and I’m sorry if this is too personal but umm, what exactly did he say to you? I mean I have seen you two argue before; believe me. But, I can’t imagine Percy actually saying stuff to break you down. That boy may be denser than sludge in the Mississippi river but he isn’t a complete idiot.”

WORD COUNT:

[/color]537[/center]

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth almost started laughing at the look she got from Rachel. Almost. It was so… well, Rachel. She watched, not really wanting to focus on remembering her quest, on Rachel stretching a rubber band mercilessly. That is, until it bit her for her incessant demands on the little ring of rubber. Annabeth cringed. Rubber bands could be so cruel; they were like paper cuts, only thankfully didn’t last as long. There were some paper cuts that made one want to go face a monster in battle without a weapon rather than deal with the things. She was pretty sure paper might be used as a torture device. She stopped and reflected on what she was thinking about. Paper cuts? Honestly, she going crazy. Or spending too much time with Rachel, which could basically lead to the same thing.

“Yeah, I guess we should be thankful for at least two years. Kind of pathetic when that’s considered a great feat, huh?” Her attention went back to Rachel’s ceaseless fidgeting. Especially for an ADHD demigod like herself, just watching Rachel could be hours of cheap entertainment. It became a game after a while of ‘What Inanimate Object Will Rachel Play With Next!’, which was a surprisingly difficult game since the girl seemed to find entertainment in the most trivial things, and just about everything around her to boot.

But then, unfortunately, the little moment of going-back-to-normal ended abruptly when the topic of Percy came up. She wasn’t sure if it was her Oracle powers or just her being her - she could be surprisingly observant - but she seemed to know immediately that something was wrong. Rachel’s response was the norm, just the reassuring ‘he didn’t mean it’… ‘he’ll come to his senses’… ‘he’s just stressed’ sort of thing that she’d been hearing a lot. She wanted to believe it was true, but then she would remember something Percy said, or something he did, or one of those cold looks he had had and she suddenly found it much harder to believe. She nodded anyway though. “Yeah, maybe not.” Then Rachel said something completely unexpected and, had it not reminded Annabeth of another past unpleasant time, she might have laughed. “I’ll be sure to let you know. Olympus knows, you and blue plastic hairbrushes are not to be messed with.” She at least smiled at that one, even if the memory of the last time Rachel had wielded a plastic hair accessory kind of, well, sucked.

At Rachel’s question, though, the smile vanished and she leaned on her knees with a sigh. “Let’s see…” she said, starting to count it off on her fingers. “He said he was better off before I came out when I went to see if he was okay.” One. “If I wanted to help him I should go away.” Two. “A ton of indirect stuff when he was shouting insults at Luke too, which made it doubly bad. Oh, and did I mention he punched Luke in the face too?” She let her hand drop, realizing she couldn’t count all that easily. “And let’s not forget when he stormed off yelling at me to just go away and leave him alone. That was some serious warm-fuzzy feelings there,” she said sarcastically, then sighed and shook her head. “He wasn’t at dinner last night, or breakfast this morning. Do you think he’s avoiding me? I mean, I saw him once earlier just around camp and he never looked my way at all. I… I’m still trying to sort out what to say to him, so I admit I didn’t try to talk to him earlier. But still…” She looked at Rachel imploringly. Rachel tended to be able to pull random solutions out of thin air all the time, even if they were kind of crazy. Heck, right now, Annabeth could go for something just random and mildly crazy. As long as it wasn’t dwelling on Percy.

Word Count: 706

[Rachel Elizabeth Dare]

Rachel picked at the tank top she had recently dyed. Her eyes stared dreamily at the ugly colors. She thought about the last two years and wished they could have gone back to those times. If she was being honest, Rachel didn’t want the next Great Prophecy to come to pass. Her gut was churning and there was a voice in the back of her oracle like head telling her something bad, like mega bad was going to happen. She had prayed to the Gods that this prophecy wouldn’t happen until Annabeth and Percy had left Camp Half-Blood far behind them.

She glanced over at Annabeth gave a slight smirk. “I may not be a demigod, but I can still fight a mean battle. Even if all I have are hair accessories. As any Aphrodite kid will tell you, never underestimate the power of beauty, in any form.” Rachel was glad to see her friend make an attempt at being happy. Athena knows how hard that girl had it these days. She sighed and set her craft material aside and turned to face Annabeth.

Rachel considered herself a good listener; she nodded at the right moments, made the proper facial expressions and everything. Not to mention she also took in everything that was said. Rachel listened intently to Annabeth but didn’t expect there to be such a long list of what was going on with Percy. Sure that kid was a doofus but Holy Apollo did he screw up this time around. Rachel frowned and sat back after Annabeth had finished. She saw the look on Annabeth’s face that seemed to read ‘help please’.

Rachel wasn’t sure when she became the councilor for romantic advice. Was it in the fine print of her Oracle contract? It wasn’t that Rachel didn’t want to help Annabeth that would make her selfish. Its just, well if Rachel could be honest one more time, she could not deny there were still dormant feelings for Percy Jackson. Maybe hearing that the two of them had a fight sparked a little bit of joy inside of Rachel. She shifted on the uncomfortable ground. She wouldn’t act on that feeling or the emotions she may or may no have had for Percy. She couldn’t, it came with being the Oracle. She was silent trying to gather her thoughts.

“Did you say he punched Luke?” She tried not to giggle. Imagining Percy taking a swing at Luke who had a good several inches on him was actually kind of comical. Rachel’s slight smile dropped into a serious expression. “Sorry, its not funny.”

Rachel scratched her head and leaned backward on her hands. “I don’t know Annabeth. I wish I could see the future at will and see the outcome of all of this, or even by some extension fix this for you. Unfortunately the Oracle comes and goes as it pleases. That really doesn’t sound like Percy though, sure he can be a clueless jerk but he would never hurt you. At least, not if he could help it. I mean, that boy is crazy for you Owl Head. If he’s saying crap like that then maybe there is something really wrong.”

She paused and thought for a moment. It was strange and very out of character for Percy to do all of that. Well, maybe not punch Luke. Percy had wanted to do that for a while, Rachel could tell. The whole blowing up on Annabeth thing though just wasn’t Percy at all. She sighed heavily and gave a shrug. “Sorry if I can’t be of more help. I think I really will have to kick his butt. Besides, since when have you sat back and taken anything he said. Go stand up for yourself girly. Give him that daughter of Athena mind. Gods knows he deserves it right now. If you ask me you guys have all kind of changed since the quest, it’s this whole Luke thing. If that boy didn’t come back then maybe everything would be fine.” She gave Annabeth a quick grin. “Sorry, don’t mind me and my senseless rambling. I do that sometimes. And its not that I don’t want Luke back, it’s just...I’m not good at this advice thing. Maybe the daughters of Aphrodite would be better to talk to. Perhaps I should just go live in a cave in the forest and not bother people.” Her face turned solemn. That thought had actually been on her mind. “Maybe it would be better, I wouldn’t ruin so many people’s lives with these prophecies that I keep giving out.”

WORD COUNT:

[/color]768[/center]

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth just nodded slightly at Rachel’s attempt to help. Sure, she really couldn’t expect her to like pull the perfect solution out of thin air, but talking at least had been a relief. Though she knew keeping things that were bugging her stuffed up inside her head without escape was generally a bad idea, she had a nasty habit of doing it anyway. But Rachel was a great friend, and really good at listening too, even if her advice consisted of laughing at Luke getting punched. “Yeah, maybe you’re right. Maybe I should talk to him, see if he’ll tell me what’s going on. He should know by now he doesn’t have to face things alone, but I guess he needs a reminder.” She sighed and pushed several annoying strands of hair out of her face.

It was a moment or two before anything more was said, which was fine by Annabeth, but Rachel seemed to feel obligated, judging from her immediate apology. “Hey, don’t worry about it. Really.” She couldn’t help but smile at her advice to stand up to Percy and chew him out though. It was so Rachel. “You know, if he hadn’t caught me off guard like that, after all that confusion, I probably would have punched him first. You have a point though.” But she stopped short when Rachel brought Luke into it. Annabeth didn’t like the idea that this could be Luke’s fault, but thinking it over, it was only after Luke came back that Percy started acting like this. So it was plausible. And with how angry he’d been with Luke at the Big House. Like he perceived Luke as a threat. Annabeth didn’t respond at all to Rachel’s quick grin, remembering her talk with Luke right after Percy’s rant when they got back. She felt like she was sinking fast in icy waters. What if Percy’s perception wasn’t completely wrong?

Rachel’s continued apologies brought her back. She seriously wished that girl would stop apologizing for everything. But it wasn’t until she turned serious, something that was sort of a big deal when it came to Rachel Dare, that Annabeth got worried. If anything could distract her from her own world of problems, it was a friend’s problems. “Rachel, don’t you dare say that. I am not letting you go all hermit. Random prophecies or not, you’re still my best friend and you are not locking yourself in a cave. I know it’s probably really rough being the Oracle and all that, but you’re one of the strongest people I know. And not all quests are bad. Besides, can you imagine a world without them? All sorts of crazy problems would never go fixed and no one would know what was going on. But besides the saving the world role, you’re an awesome friend and I don’t know what I’d do without you, and don’t you ever forget it.”

Word Count:486