TERRIFIED . . . annabeth chase

three.

VAL TOTALLY WASN'T throwing up in her trash can before the door opened.

She hadn't even been thinking about Annabeth, but she was throwing up anyway. Then she realized it was probably cause Annabeth had been hanging out with Percy, because the door opened and their voices fluttered through.

Val hid the trash can from view and pulled out a fake smile. "Hey," she said, looking up at them from the other side of her bed. "What're y'all up to?"

"Careful, Ali," Annabeth hopped on her bed and looked down at her. "Did you really just wake up from a nap? It didn't seem that long since the council."

Val frowned at her. "Ali? Where'd you get that from?"

Annabeth smirked, shrugging. "I don't know. It just sounds . . . pretty, on you."

Val repressed a shiver. What was this girl up to?

"Uh . . ." Percy stared at them, clearly having the same questions as Val. "Since when were you two friends?"

"Since our talk with Nico last year," Annabeth straightened up on Val's bed. Val pulled herself up on her own bed, laying and closing her eyes. "Sorry, V, if that nickname's bad. I can just call you V or Val."

"It's fine, I just wasn't expecting it," she opened her eyes and sighed. "What are you two up to?"

"Why do you think we're up to anything?" Annabeth frowned. "We're just doing cabin inspections. Oh, wait, yeah," she jumped out of Val's bed and went to her clipboard. "Sorry, V, but your cabinmates are horrible. Your room's a five out of five, though."

Val fondly thought of Travis and Connor, some of her best friends and in her circle. "Yeah, I know pretty personally. See you later?"

Annabeth frowned. "You don't want us to stay longer?"

Val shrugged. "You have reports and stuff to do. And I need to talk to . . . someone."

"Who?" Annabeth asked, puzzled beyond relief.

"My inner circle," Val half lied, eyes darting away from her as she gazed at a shadow. When would Nico be here? She'd agreed to go with him to the Underworld, but she didn't want to be in there for long. It just reminded her of everything she couldn't have in Mexico.

She didn't even realize when Percy and Annabeth had left, thank the gods. She didn't need them here, because, god, Val was so sick. How had her mom handle a decade of this curse?

Val bent over to throw up again. She hated this. Hated what she had become.

She wished Will was here, but he was suffering with his cabin. She'd heard the arguing out there. She'd definitely witnessed it during the council meeting.

Then she laid in her bed and thought about Mexico. She thought about the gardens that she and her mom had, where they charged people to walk around and see plants for an income. She remembered walking around to water them, and going to the markets during the day to see people for fertilizer and pest control sprays.

Val remembered talking to her mother when she was little before her mother was ruined by the Hanahaki disease, and she remembered liking roses.

Those days were over, though. She wasn't in Mexico, her mom isn't alive, and she didn't like roses anymore.

Those jarring thoughts were enough to make her not notice the blonde that collapsed next to her. Val didn't even notice that Annabeth was next to her until her head was in her lap.

"Hi, when did you get here?" she asked, running her fingers through the blonde hair, undoing the knots in her hair. "Didn't I tell you to brush your hair the first night we met?"