𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑
𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: A mortal au? Kinda. Annabeth just really doesn’t like spiders, and now they’re interfering with her daily life.
𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: Percy Jackson x Annabeth Chase
𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 1400
The spiders were conspiring against her. That was the only explanation for why there were so many every which way she went.
It was no secret to Annabeth’s family and friends that she was terrified of spiders. For as long as anyone had known her, she’d been rendered defenseless at the sight of those tiny six legged fiends.
“They have too many kegs,” she once told her best friend Piper, who had just gotten rid of a daddy long legs that had infiltrated their cabin at summer camp. “Nothing needs that many legs.”
It became somewhat of a running joke for everyone. But it was no joke to Annabeth. Those little devils had no place in her vicinity. The only problem was that she was never the one to get rid of them. What if she killed a spider and its family decided to bow vengeance upon her? It wasn’t worth the risk in her opinion.
So she had others do the spider slaying for her. But Annabeth had just turned sixteen that year, and all her Spider Slayers have grown tired of having to kill spiders for her.
“You’re like, a million times their size,” Piper had said just last week. “The spiders aren’t gonna hurt you.”
Annabeth begged to differ, but Piper wouldn’t listen. And so, now Annabeth was faced with a dilemma: the neighborhood pool job.
It was a good job. All she had to do was drop by her neighborhood’s pool house twice a week and keep it nice and clean. Easy money. It wasn’t until the third week into the easy summer job that she noticed the spiders.
Upon seeing the two spiders hanging on a web just above the girl’s bathroom door, Annabeth jumped back and gripped her broom like a lifeline.
“Maybe they’re dead,” she whispered to herself, hoping that the people in the nearby pool wouldn’t pay her any mind. “They’re probably dead.”
After a slight prod at the web with the bristles of her broom, Annabeth deduced that they were not dead. The spiders flinched as their web bounced a little, and it was then that Annabeth’s eyes were drawn to a brown, circular something stuck in the strings of the web.
Her heart dropped. It couldn’t be a spider nest, could it? After a quick Google search, Annabeth was halfway certain that it was a leaf, not a nest.
She slipped her phone back into her pocket, turning her gaze up at the offenders once again. She could just… leave them there. Yeah. That's not such a bad idea.
Annabeth locked up the supply closet and left the pool as fast as she could.
She was back the next week. The spiders were still there.
Right where she left them, they rested motionless on the web above the girl’s bathroom door.
Perhaps they died. She poked the web with her broom. Nope. The spiders jiggled back and forth, their legs hooking onto the web for dear life.
Sucking in a deep, brave breath, Annabeth pushed the door open and ducked inside. Who knew if these spiders liked to jump on people’s heads! She quickly swept the bathroom and hurried back out.
She stopped by the supply closet and swapped the broom for a spray bottle of clorox. As her fingers closed around the neck of the bottle, an idea pricked her mind.
A somewhat devious smirk crossed her face, and she skipped back to the girl’s bathroom. Annabeth held the bottle up, her index finger on the toggle like it was a gun trigger.
She tried to think of something clever to say, something that would make this feel cinematic. Then she remembered that she was facing off against two spiders, and decided to just get this pathetic scene over with.
Within four spritz, the spiders had retreated out of sight. Whether or not that was better than seeing them, Annabeth wasn’t focusing on it.
She entered the boy’s bathroom, cleaned the toilet, and booked it out of there when she saw a big black spider creep out of the corner.
A week later, Annabeth entered the pool house with a gentle smile. She had music playing in her earbuds, content with the fact that she had defeated the spiders last week.
But just to be sure… before she did anything Annabeth rushed to the girl’s bathroom. She let out an almost feral growl at the sight of the spiders, back again.
She raked her hands through her hair and stormed off to the supply closet. Broom in hand, Annabeth stood outside the bathroom door, a determined set to her jaw.
Three minutes passed, and there she stood, staring at the spiders. Her resolve began to crumble. Maybe she could just let them be? Learn to get over it?
She scoffed at the very thought. There was only room for one for them; Annabeth or the spiders.
The door to the boy’s bathroom swung open, but Annabeth was too caught up in her thoughts to notice. Out came a boy around her age, his wet hair sticking to her forehead. He turned to head back to the pool, only to see a blonde girl blocking his path. She was staring at the door frame of the girl’s bathroom, a broom in her grasp.
He walked up to her, and still she didn’t look at him. So he too looked up at the door frame, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Clearing his throat, he said, “Excuse me.”
Annabeth jumped, eyes wide, and instinctively hit the boy in the gut with the end of her broom. Her weapon clattered to the floor when she realized, wincing at the boy gripped his stomach in pain. “I am so sorry.”
“All good,” he wheezed. “I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
“Yep.”
He stood to his full height, so Annabeth had to look up to keep his gaze. He grinned slightly, then looked up at the spiders. “Are you okay?”
She pursed her lips, saying with malice, “I hate spiders.”
Brows furrowed, he gave the doorframe another look, and nodded after he spotted the tiny fiends. Much to Annabeth’s frustration, he laughed. It took about three seconds for him to notice the dark glare in her eyes and shut up. “Oh, you’re serious?”
“Yes. I’m serious.” She bent down to pick up her broom. “I’m supposed to clean the pool house twice a week. But every time I think I’ve gotten rid of them, they come back the next week.”
“Have you, you know,” he started, “tried actually killing them?”
She scoffed at the very thought of it. “And take the risk of having a hoard of spiders coming after me to avenge the ones I killed? Hell no.”
He almost laughed again, Annabeth could tell from the way his eyes lit up. “You sure you’re serious?”
“Deadly.”
“Okay then.” Looking up at the spiders, he reached out for her to hand him the broom. “I’ll get rid of them. That way the spiders will be after me.”
Annabeth practically threw the broom at him after that offer. She took five steps back, in case the spiders really did like to jump on heads. All it took was one fatal swoop of the broom, and the spiders were knocked to the floor, to be squashed under his shoes. It was a little too anticlimactic for the stress they caused Annabeth, but she supposed it was all right, since now they couldn't bother her any longer.
“Thank you…”
“Percy. Percy Jackson.”
“I’m Annabeth Chase.”
“It was no problem, Annabeth.”
She gave him a gentle smile, then went to put the broom away in the supply closet. When she emerged from the closet with the bottle of clorox and a rag, Percy was there, leaning against the wall.
“Hey,” he said as he pushed off the wall, reaching for his back pocket. “Here’s my number. You know, in case you ever need me to slay any more spiders.”
Of course, he hadn’t meant it literally. He just wanted an excuse to give her his number. Which is why he had to laugh when two weeks later, his phone rang with Annabeth’s caller ID and before he could get a word out, Annabeth's ever so serious voice broke through: “I told you so. There are more spiders here to avenge the last ones. I told you so, Jackson.”
Was this based on a true story? Yes, up until the part where Percy saves the day. In real life, I was the one who had to slay the spiders. I think their friends followed me home too, because I found a spider in my sink today...
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