Chapter 80

Annabeth

"Okay" I said, "so Monday, Wednesday and Friday you have American Lit, World History and Mythology, that covers your humanities for the semester, then Tuesday and Thursday you have Intro to Biology and your elective, Intro to Ocean Sciences. Now, that may seem like a lot but its only twelve hours and that is plenty to get you back into the swing of things. K?"

"Uh, sure. But we don't have anything together?"

"No sweetie, I'm in a masters program, I don't do humanities or any other undergrad anymore, but my building is right beside yours three days a week, and we will meet up after class everyday. Oh, and in mythology? Remember, just go with it. You are going to want to correct the instructor three or four times a class, and they hate that."

"I was looking through the text, do you think Piper's mom knows all those guys painted her naked?"

"Uh, she probably posed for them Percy. It was the Renaissance. We are talking about Piper's mom after all."

Percy seemed a bit nervous about restarting his education but not for the reasons every other incoming freshman had. He had a habit of being in and around the area of explosions and monster attacks at every school he had attended since sixth grade. Of course New Rome and as a result Stanford had magical protections in place much like those at Disney World so he didn't have to worry about fighting empousa on his lunch break there. I'm not sure if he was going because he knew I wanted him to, or because as I truly thought, he wanted to, or if as he said he wanted to be a good example for Tee and Caly. Either way his only concerns were time spent with me, or worse it seemed without me, the kids starting pre school, and, well, that was about it. Since he had committed to furthering his education, I had taught him a few spells we had been directed to by Dumbledore in a book called "Spells for Effective Learning." It was in the restricted section at the Hogwarts library, so restricted that students were not allowed to read it even if they had a professor's permission. It was considered to make things too easy on the student and led to laziness, but we had been using it for several weeks to get Percy caught up through a normal High School education. I used it through out college but was careful to attend classes and participate anyway.

I took Percy to his orientation day where he met some more of his instructors and learned about the myriad facets of campus life. He was excited to learn there were organizations just for Greek students and that confused me for a minute until I realized he was talking about fraternities and sororities.

One thing we would both have to get used to was muggles at the university hitting on us. Well I had gotten acclimated to that for three years now, at least as far as guys hitting on me, but it was new to Percy. He gave a cold, murderous stare to any male that even looked towards us so I wasn't approached all day. My husband was quite attractive though and all the sororities that had tables set up at orientation invited him to be a big brother, and hopefully pledge to their sibling fraternity. I could have scared them off, but Percy seemed to enjoy the ego boost and I was laughing inside as my man-child husband had his testosterone rush. He waived them all off though saying he would rather stay home with his wife and kids, leading to both a great amount of disappointed coeds and a great deal of happy wife points.

"Oh, you're sponsored by Aphrodite?" He asked as he passed one table that looked like an explosion of pink and white crepe paper.

"Yes, she is our patron, the goddess of beauty" Miss Silicon replied with a perfect smile.

"And procreation. By the way, she doesn't look anything like that" he commented, pointing at a drawing of a woman in a toga they had set up as I dragged him tactfully away giggling and squeezing his arm.

We went by my favorite deli for lunch afterward and he got to meet my regular waitress Katy. She was working her way through school and was a Jupiter graduate. We met when she recognized me as being "that greek girl that tried to blow up the camp" but we talked and I confirmed what she had heard about Leo being possessed and we got along famously after that. Katy had been a great comfort to me without her realizing it, as she was the one whose existence confirmed that half bloods could lead normal lives.

"Hey Annabeth!"

"Hey Katy, how was your summer?"

"Good, great in fact. How was... you... you look familiar, have we met?" She asked Percy.

"Katy is from Camp Jupiter" I whispered to Percy.

"Oh, well, I was Praetor there for a few days, and uh,,, there is a statue of me in the Senate but I am trying to get them to take it down." Percy smirked.

"Oh my gawwwds! You're Percy Jac... wait, this is your husband? I thought... I thought..."

"Go ahead and say it." Percy grinned.

"I thought you were dead! I never realized... uh, made the connection that Percy Jackson was your husband!"

"Go ahead Percy." I smiled.

"I got better." He grinned, completing his favorite joke for at least the twentieth time.

"Yes, that's my husband. Bad jokes and all." I smiled, "Can you join us?"

"Oh, uh, sure. Just for a minute. Once we get customers I have to , you know." She replied, her voice shaking with nervousness.

"Calm down, I'm not a big deal" Percy said.

"No,,, no uh, you are. I was in the Fourth Cohort. At the Battle of Camp Jupiter we were about to be over run until you came riding in on a hell hound and Praetor Zhang turned the Fifth to relieve us. I would have been killed by centaurs and earth born if not for you. So, yeah, you're a big deal. To me. How did you guys meet?"

"Oh, uh, I woke up in the infirmary at Half Blood and Annabeth was standing over me and told me I drooled in my sleep."

"Really?"

"You remember that?" I asked.

"Pretty sure I remember every moment with you." He smiled, and won the happy wife points game for at least a few weeks with just that comment.

"That's not very romantic!" She laughed, "Was that before you came to Jupiter?"

"Oh yeah, that was four or five years before. We've basically been together, uh well ever since."

"Okay, that's romantic. Can I ask you something? I heard a rumor..."

"Uh, rumors aren't often true." He replied.

"Oh, I just heard you turned down deification for the girl you loved."

"That one is true." I replied as I kissed him on the cheek.

"Really? I want a Percy Jackson! Do you have a brother or anything?" She pouted and then grinned.

"You sure? He still drools in his sleep, and no, he is one of a kind." I grinned as I squeezed the arm of the best husband ever.

"It is such a honor to meet... I can't believe I never made the connection. I mean, I knew you were Annabeth Jackson and I remembered the big gold ship... I should have. Wow. I've got the dumbs."

"Well Percy has been gone a few years so its not like you saw us together before, except when I threw your Praetor to the ground and kissed him" I laughed.

"Oh! I was on duty that day! I did hear about that though! So... wow, you're husband is Percy Jackson. I guess you know you're kind of a legend at Jupiter."

"I don't want to be! Geez. I'm just a regular guy that was in the right place when I was needed. Hazel and Frank really won that battle you know, I just killed one dude."

"I'm pretty sure Polybotes is more than a dude"

"Terminous helped." Percy replied.

"Oh! And before that Annabeth he blew up water cannons and knocked us all down during war games. I got a sinus infection that lasted a couple of weeks from Tiber River water going up my nose."

"Okay, yeah, that I did. I did that, but Frank came up with the idea. Sorry about the sinus , calm down Katy. Its,,, well I just want to blend in."

"I... I'm sorry. I just, wow. You really are down to earth. I never expected that. You know I have a friend still in the legion, she used to be Terminous's assistant. She told me last night she had gotten a quest. Anyway, since she was a little girl has said she wanted to be just like you. So really, as your fan girls go, I'm pretty calm already."

"Uh, yeah. We gave her the quest. Percy sparred her, she's really good. She held her own against him for like fifteen or twenty minutes. It was amazing." I said.

"You give out quests? You're... that Annabeth?"

"Uh, I guess so."

"One of the Twenty? I never made that connection either, I thought you were, you know, Annabeth. The girl that does cobb salad and water with lemon."

"I am that Annabeth that does cobb salad and lemon water, but geez, yes, one of the twenty, but we call it 'The Company.' Poseidon gave us that name."

"See, this is just weird. For what? Two years you've been coming in and having a salad and I never realized... wow. My friend is..."

"Special? Awesome? Beautiful? I knew all that when she told me I drooled in my sleep." Percy grinned.

"No, its just, you're so... you act like a normal person."

"I am a normal person! So is Percy! And you are a wonderful friend! Lets talk about something else," I smiled. Neither Percy nor I wanted to do anything other than just blend in on campus, at least as much as we could, but I didnt' want to be mean and just tell my friend to shut up.

"Uh first, can I ask, why 'The Twenty'?" Percy asked.

"Oh because between the seven, plus Reyna, Nico, Rachel,Will and the Hogwarts guys there are about twenty of us. Its not taught at any of the schools what we do, but of course everyone sort of knows anyway from scuttlebutt. Nico made the suggestion that unless a rumor got really off base and widely accepted we shouldn't bother correcting it so as to remain a bit of a mystery. So at New Rome we are called 'The Twenty'. Sorry Katy, I'm still getting Percy up to speed on stuff since he got back from his, uh, quest."

"So that's true, you've been gone since the Battle of New Rome?"

"No, not quite that long. We spent a year in Europe, then had a couple months together then I..."

I stared at Percy and shook my head and he stopped talking. Most of the world outside New Ionia had noticed Percy was gone, but we never told why. Word had gotten out of course, but we had never confirmed it lest people lose faith in the Company's operation of the schools and camps. All anyone knew was that Percy wasn't there, and now was back. The statues were placed without any real explanation as to where he was gone, and most believed he died, but no one knew how. Even when Nico raised the rescue mission the explanation was vague, and since it never got to depart, no one ever really knew where it was going or why. When the project was abandoned, everyone just assumed Percy was dead.

"So you go to school here?" Percy asked, fortunately changing the subject.

"Yep, Business and Nomaj relations."

"Oh, I should take that! I'm just starting this fall. Wise girl is starting her masters so I have to catch up. I'm doing Ocean Studies in the Earth Sciences Department on the nomaj side and, well I'm undecided on the, what do we call it? The 'maj' side?"

"Oh, just New Rome, that is the code among our people for classes offered only to the world of myth and magic. Have you considered magic development? Professor Longbottom is in it and is doing amazing things."

"Neville will always do amazing things, but that is probably over my head. Maybe something in attack/defense spell work. Its worth looking into. Do they have sword work as a PE class?"

"Yes, but only on the New Rome side. Oh gosh! I have that this fall, you two should show up and spar without telling the instructor who you are!" Katy smiled. "It meets Tuesday and Thursday third period."

"I don't have anything then, do you honey?"

"No, we can add it so you can get PE out of the way" I replied. "but its a New Rome class, you will still have to get two PE credits on the nomaj side."

"I figured swimming."

"Ha! You would!"

"So who is the instructor?"

"Oh, he's a former Centurian with the first, he's been teaching it about five years so he probably doesn't know you guys, I mean, he's probably heard of you, but... well anyway, they say he is pretty good. Or so he claims. He fought with the reserves at the Battle of Camp Jupiter." Katy said.

"They were across the field from me, so I probably wouldn't remember him if I saw him." Percy said.

After lunch we went by the New Rome office and added the class.

"You know, if you're not doing muggle studies or relations, and don't want to do new spell development there is always Nomaj Tech, Nomaj med, or Arcane Studies." Katy suggested.

"Tech was put together by Leo Percy, so you would have a leg up there, and Will is taking the med track, but is doing a nomaj premed as well. The Arcane thing might be fun though. Its the opposite of new spell research, instead they research old spells and try to get them to work again."

"Hermione would love that."

"Oh! You know Hermione jokes too?" Katy asked.

"Uh, what is a 'Hermione joke'?" Percy asked carefully.

"Oh, Professors Longbottom and Snape, whenever they needed to have a magic user example would always use this character they made up named 'Hermione', she was supposed to be really smart, but really dense too. Their stories were so funny! So we called them 'Hermione jokes'." Katy explained.

"Really? That's hysterical!" I said, having never heard of this.

"Uh Annabeth, I haven't told one yet... So anyway, there's this witch named Hermione, and she is trying to make a polyjuice potion, anyway, she uses a cat hair by mistake and, wait, this is funny, and she..."

We both just stared blankly at Katy.

"Have you heard this one before?"

"Sort of, Katy, I think you have customers. You know what? Sunday you should come to New Ionia with us. We are having a back to school soiree. You can meet the real Hermione." I said with a grin.

"You mean she's real?"

"Yes, and the most kind, intelligent, wonderful, homicidal maniac with a shotgun you've ever met. Oh, and probably the best spell caster in the world right now." Percy laughed.

"No kidding? To hear Snape and Longbottom talk she's a big ditz."

"She's not, but I would love to hear their lectures. I can't imagine Severous being funny."