There I sat. My pen in hand. I was ready to write. Sitting at my shiny marble desk in the Poseidon cabin, I clutched my ballpoint pen, unopened, over a whole pile of Christmas cards. ADHD kills when your running on a deadline. I hadn't been able to get the Christmas cards sent, because, well...I forgot. Staring at the cards, I examined each one. They were red with golden lettering reading Merry Christmas from Perseus Jackson. Under the lettering was a picture of me standing in front of the pavilion. It was a photo taken just days before the last of the snow melted.
So there I was, rolling my pen around in my fingertips. I didn't know what would happen once I started writing. I was using my Riptide because I couldn't find any other pens, and well, I really had never used Riptide for signing cards. I took a deep breath.
"Okay, here it goes." I mumbled as my thumb and forefinger tightened around the cap. I held my breath, waiting for-
KNOCK KNOCK!
I heard a knock on the door. I sighed and put the pen down. "Come in!" I yelled. The door creaked open.
"Hey Percy, sorry to interrupt."
"Grover, hi!' I said, a little bit on the startled side. I set the pen down as I got up to welcome Grover. "What did you come here for?" Grover smiled.
"Ah, just bored. I was hoping you were bored, so we could, um, un-bored each other." He smiled crookedly. I shrugged.
"Well, I'm just signing my Christmas cards." I said, pointing my hand towards the messy desk. Grover scratched his head.
"Um, Percy, you it's well after Christmas, right?" Grover asked, looking at me as if I was crazy. I looked away.
"Yeah, you got me."
"You forgot, didn't you?"
"Yep." We stood in awkward silence for e few moments before Grover broke it.
"Okay, well I'll leave you to your work then." He said, heading out the door. "Maybe Juniper will be here."
I watched him walk out the door. "Kay, buddy."
--
Back at my desk. Pen in hand. Fingers around cap. I was about to open Riptide. Again, I grabbed the tip. As I began to open it, I-
KNOCK KNOCK!
"What! Who is it!" I shouted, hoping I didn't sound too mean.
"Pizza." A deep, obviously disguised, voice said outside my door.
"I didn't order any pizza." I said, heaving myself out of my chair to answer the door. I opened it, and groaned.
Travis Stoll in a mustache. Go figure.
"Hey, Travis, I'm not falling for anything this time, okay? Who's paying you? Clarisse?" I said, leaning against the door.
"Jeeze! I was only being nice! It's from me and my brother." Okay, when I heard "me and my brother" I knew this couldn't be right. I didn't have time to hear Travis complain by the time I slammed the door shut.
Now, back to my desk. I closed my eyes before opening the pen. Tightening my grip on the cap, I began to pull.
KNOCK KNOCK!
"Of course..." I muttered. "Come in!" I said, a little more louder.
"Percy, it's Annabeth." My mood lightened.
"Annabeth, hi!" I smiled, and she smiled back. (Gods, her teeth were so white.) I fiddled with the pen that was still in my hands. "So what brings you here?"
She shrugged. "Thought I'd stop by. Grover said you were here."
"Grover was right..." I mumbled. Annabeth looked up. "Nothing." I said. She just smiled.
"Percy, you know dinner is going to start soon, right?" She said pointedly.
"What?" Had time passed that quickly? Last I checked, it was only 3:00.
"Din-ner. " She stretched out the word. "Do you want me to say it slower, Seaweed Brain?" She punched me lightly in the shoulder.
"Ha ha." I said sarcastically. "Um, thanks. I'll be there, I hope." The last bit was cut off by some of the campers from outside yelling, "ANNABETH!"
Annabeth looked at me. "I gotta go. Talk to ya later!" She rushed out the door. Phew. I went back to sit at my desk.
--
My hands tingled as I reached for Riptide's pen cap. I began to twist it slowly.
KNOCK KNOCK!
"Urgh! I grunted, a bit too loudly. I needed to get these Christmas cards done. I evened out my voice a bit. "Who is it?"
The door flung open and closed. Before I knew it, the ghostly figure of Bianca di Angelo stood in front of me.
"WHAT THE HADES!"
"Jeeze, I come all the way from the Underworld and this is the greeting I get?" She said. I backed away.
"You're...you're..."
"Bianca?"
"Yeah." I stuttered. She giggled. "How...why...when...WHAT?" I screamed, a little too loud.
"Percy! Gods, more outbursts like that, and you'll have the gods worried." She said, half smiling.
"Why are you here?" I asked, a little shaken.
"Um, well something told me to come interrupt you. Were you doing anything important?" My shoulders slumped.
"Well, actually, I-"
POOF!
She was gone.
--
Okay. Nobody could stop me now. I sat upright at my desk. My hands were firm on Riptide. My fingers clutching the cap. I pulled it hard.
My MP3 player flipped on.
You get the best of both worlds
Chill it out take it slow
And you rock out the show
You get the-
"Gya!" I dropped the pen and flipped off the music. (DON"T ask my why I have Hannah Montana on my MP3 player.)
Okay, here we go. One hand held the end of the pen firmly, the other hand held the cap. Flexing my fingers, I slowly twisted. The cap flew off. Oh no. The sword flew out of the pen.
"AHH!" I tried to save it, but the weight of Riptide brought the sword down and cut right into the desk, splitting it in half. The table creaked as it broke. My cards flew everywhere.
"NOOO!" I screeched as the two halves of the desk fell apart. This would NOT go down well with Chiron.
--
One lesson I learned from that day. Wait, actually a few lessons I learned from that day.
1. Never answer the door when signing Christmas cards.
2. Never use Riptide for anything other than fighting.
3. Never send belated Christmas cards.
A/N- Happy belated Christmas! (and New Year!) This is a Oneshot that I've been wanting to do. Hope you like it! Review!