Blue Sky Holiday

Her roommate Silvia's alarm goes off at 5:30a.m. Silvia, who sleeps like a hibernating bear, doesn't wake up. So, it's Annabeth's job to turn the siren-like clock off. It takes her an hour to get back to sleep.

     Annabeth wakes up again at 8:26. School starts at 8:30. After throwing on her uniform and grabbing her homework, she's five minutes late to assembly. Ms. Glaugson, the hawkeyed principal, gives her a demerit.

     Her history teacher makes her read chapter 5 of the textbook aloud. In her rush that morning, she forgot to take her Dyslexia meds. It takes her six minutes to read the first page.

     Their hockey coach has clearly never bandaged a shin before. And Lars—a Swedish exchange student—had obviously never played hockey before. He didn't understand that you are supposed to hit the puck, not your opponents.

     Lunch goes okay, except for the fact that she doesn't have any money to buy lunch. Her friend Kayla gives her some Skittles.

     "I want you to experiment with different mediums," her art teacher, Mr. Nelson, had said.

     The girl behind Annabeth has undeniably never used spray paint before. Luckily, Annabeth's canvas wasn't ruined. And Mr. Nelson says the purple will come out of her hair eventually.

     Now, with bandages on her leg and purple paint in her hair, Annabeth stomps off to her dorm. She's looking down and doesn't notice the person ahead of her.

     "Hey! Watch where you're going!" she snaps, even though she ran into them. Annabeth glares at the person in front of her. "I—Percy?" What are you doing here?"

     He gives her one of his gorgeous smiles, and she can't help smiling back. "It's nice to see you, too, Wise Girl. I was wondering if you want to go to a movie. We could—" his eyes go wide. "—wait, what happened to your hair?"

     She smirks, holding out her arms for a hug. "It's a long story that I'd rather not talk about."

     "Oh…okay." Percy steps forward and gives her a tight hug. She sighs happily, melting into his embrace. "I'd love to catch a movie—as long as we can eat first," she mumbles.

     "Sure, Annabeth."

     Suddenly, she's having a very good day.