The Forgotten Olympian |BOOK 1| PJO X HP | Alexandra Marine

Chapter 84 - Annabeth - Time Flies

Only three months had passed since the event of 'The Burning Maze.' 

Apollo had been restored back to his seat of 'honor'. He'd apologized at least a hundred times to Jason and Alex, who had, with large grins, accepted it.

No one knew about what had happened 'under the sea.'

In fact, no one knew that Jason and Alex were together except perhaps Sally Jackson, Poseidon, Percy, Clarisse, Piper and of course, me.

Sally had been very, very mad at Hera when the two had arrived home saying that they were unofficially engaged. In fact, she suggested a few places where Hera can stick up her stupid ideas. If it hadn't been for Alex and her slight intolerance for extreme curse words, things may have gotten very weird. 

Percy and I suggested that the two move into our flat. It was rather large, and we did find it a little hard to pay the rent anyway. So, the next thing we knew, Percy and I were roommates with Jason and Alex. And obviously, we all had different rooms each, to all those dirty-minded people out there.

Percy's room was oddly very sea-like. He had many paintings of the sea hung up on the wall, and he'd insisted on painting it blue. In fact, he'd have purchased all his furniture blue if only there hadn't been a lack of options in case of color. He had decorated it with his swim team medals and surf boards and whatnot. I was seriously appalled by a lack of books in there. Seriously. Dude even went to study Marine Science. 

Now, my room. That's the best room ever. I'd decided on a very neutral green color for the walls and bought white bookshelves and furniture. Just imagine a library, but one where you can find all sorts of educational books. And novels. Just imagine a library. That's all. But a beautiful one. I put up all sorts of photos of me with Magnus and Dad and even one with my mom from the time I'd redesigned Olympus.

Jason wasn't really picky with his choices. It was big deal for someone who was a child of Zeus. He had only asked that his room be painted with a stripe of purple on the top and a stripe of orange below. The rest was white. He decorated it with his pictures of being praetor at Camp Jupiter, and his shelves were always filled with sketchbooks and small plastic monopoly houses. He told us that he'd decided to go for architecture and engineering, so we studied together at the same college.

And Alex. The weirdest one yet. She painted her whole room orange. Her furniture was literally black so it kinda portrayed a Halloween-y look. She decorated her room with lots of novels, and a few twenty daggers hung from hooks at all times. Pictures of her with Jason, Percy, Chiron and even me were stuck to a wall. It was kinda nice but weird at the same time, you know? By the time she turned eighteen, she was assured a job. We celebrated that night with smoothies, seven layered dips and blue cookies.

And finally, on their first anniversary, the two kissed each other very publicly at the shores of Camp Half Blood on the day we celebrated the Athena festival. It was a fancy affair, cause Poseidon had then come out of the water, waving his trident threateningly at Jason and scolding him for his PDA. Percy was by his father's side too, screaming in agony and pain. I think it was the overly protective stupid brother hormones in him. 

But after all that, things went really smooth. 

Alex liked to dress up like an emo kid whenever someone visited the house, saying it helped people to stay away from her. Personally, I don't think anyone would want to stay near her even if she was normal. (Ow! No pillow hitting your best friend!)

***

"Annabeth," Jason pulled me aside one day before we left college. "I need to talk to you."

Jason had changed in the past few years. He still had blonde hair and electric blue eyes, but he had a bit of a charm that he didn't have in him before. It was kind of like Alex had given him a bit of a 'playboy' sort of personality. You could see him being sarcastic most of the time or cracking dad jokes that made everyone roll their eyes, including dads, but he was still an organized, sweet army idiot.  

"What?" I asked as he pulled me into an alleyway. 

"Look," Jason started. "I need to ask you a few questions."

I looked at him with narrow eyes. What was this guy even planning? "Alright, tell me."

"Do you think," he started, and he nervously shifted now, "you could help me by going to the jewelry store with me?"

"Well," I started. "Yeah. Maybe. Depends on what for."

Jason turned really, really red.

And then I realized what he was going to do. "Dude. Really?"

"Well, we're twenty now. Spent three years together. I think it's time I took the next step," he said, grinning. "Will you help me?"

I may have squealed. "Really? You're gonna propose! Wow! Yeah, I'll help you out- wait, how are you going to pay?"

Jason smirked. "Don't worry about that. Hera owes me a debt or two."

"Cool. Let's go right now."

"Right now?"

"Yes! Right now!"

"Maybe I should've asked you later."

"When are you going to propose, again?"

"Well, obviously, when she turns twenty next week."

"Then we need to go right now! We have so much to prepare for!"

We rushed to the nearby jewelry store. I was so excited. Alex was my best friend, after all. Least I could do was help her to-be-fiancé find the perfect ring for her. I didn't care whether Alex would pick me for her maid-of-honor. Heck, I didn't even care if I was a bridesmaid. All I wanted was for her to be happy.

We spent the whole evening at the store, deciding on a ring. 

"Does she like the ones with a lot of stones?" Jason wondered, looking through.

"No!" I yelled. "Anything but the ones that look too extra. She hates them."

"So definitely not this one?" Jason asked, holding a big ring that was glowing with diamonds.

"Definitely not that one."

We finally decided on a simple plain band of platinum with a medium sized blue diamond that just sat perfectly in the middle. The band had a crisscrossing streak of light blue painted on it. 

By the time we came out, it was almost evening. "Won't she realize that the two of us are just missing and kind of realize what's going on?"

Jason smirked. "That's why I've told Percy to keep her occupied. They're going to meet their mom for a cooking class on how to make their favorite seven layered dip."

I smiled. "You told him before me- you dolt!"

"Hey, if I hadn't told him, he'd have killed me!" Jason defended himself, massaging the arm that I had punched.  

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Just a few more filler chapters...