Annabeth POV

"Awesome! I love this place! It's such a nice house dad! Thanks for letting us move here!" I hugged my dad just as my stepmum walked in with my little half twin brothers.

"Annabeth, go get your suitcase and you get the attic room." My stepmum was horrible to me. That was one thing I knew. She hated but she was nice enough not to scream at me. In front of my dad.

I sighed and got my suitcase and trudged up the stairs. I creaked open the door and gasped in surprise. Obviously my stepmother had not seen the room. It was beautiful, the sun shone in from the wide polished glass windows, the bed was a huge queen sized bed with light blue covers and soft pillows, the bookshelf was huge and quite full of books, and the closet was walk in and there was a carpet and bean bag next to the bookshelf along with a pretty purple lamp that gave off a brightly soft glow. There was even a TV opposite the bed. The well-painted wooden door creaked open and I heard someone come up the small stairs up to my room.

"Hello Annabeth." She looked around the room. "No wonder your father wanted you to have this room. But honestly, it's a bit too fancy for you. I would have Bobby or Matthew move in here but then again it's too girly for them. But your punishment for having this room is your washing the dishes this WHOLE week, got that?" She stalked out of my room before waiting for my reply. I glared at her back. She was the meanest person ever.

I started to unpack my stuff and then walked in my closet with an armful of clothes when I spotted something silver under a drawer. A laptop! I pulled it out grinning, a macbook air! No way! When I opened it a note fluttered out. I took it and read it.

Hey Annabeth,

I think you're old enough now to have your own laptop, but don't show Bobby or Matthew or they might get me to buy THEM one! No way. So keep this to yourself sweetheart!

Love,

Dad

OMG! Dad is the nicest person alive! OMG! OMG!

I tore down the stairs to give my dad a huge hug. He grinned and hugged me back.

"So you found it?" He asked. I nodded hard.

"Thank you so much!" I whispered because my stupid little brothers had entered. I let go of my dad and greeted them.

"Hey guys." I said then turned to leave but dad grabbed hold of my arm.

"There's a girl next door, only a year older than you. I'll take you to see her. Okay?" He asked as I nodded hard. We had always moved next to people Mat and Bobby's ages so I was glad for once.

We walked out onto the shiny green lawn and I sniffed in the beautiful scent of pine and lavender coming from the huge Christmas tree at the bottom of our garden.

When we walked over to the left side we heard loud voices. A girl with straight black hair that reached her shoulders stormed out. Her electric blue eyes were furious and I thought it wasn't a good time but when she saw my dad and I her eyes lit up.

"Hello Mr. Chase! I've been waiting forever to meet Annabeth! Thanks for bringing her. I'll just show her into my house. Though unfortunately my stupid little brother Jason is in there, but that's okay. Will she stay for dinner?" The girl asked. Dad nodded and grinned at her. Then he waved and left.

"So, I'm Thalia age 9. I know your name already." She told me as she dragged me into her house.

The house was greatly designed, just like ours next door. But her's had some sort of architectural touch to it that I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It was messy, but in a good way. Like a homey sort of way.

"Hello, I'm assuming this is Annabeth Thalia? You two go to Thalia's room and if you make a SOUND Thalia I swear you will be in big trouble." She pushed Thalia towards the stairs and turned around. Thalia stuck the middle finger up at her then turned and proceeded dragging me up the stairs.

"Ugh! God, stupid stepmums. I hate her sooo bad! She's always screaming at me when my father isn't here and sometimes she slaps me." Thalia said, her voice full of plain resentment.

"Same here. My stepmum sucks. She is the most annoying person alive!" I told Thalia. She nodded in agreement. We were now at the door of her room, which was at the attic, just like mine but hers wasn't as nice as mine. It was a bit dirty and there wasn't much furniture so it looked a little bare. We suddenly heard footsteps behind us we whipped around. A boy with black hair and sea green eyes stared back at us with a lopsided grin.

"Hey Thals, who's this?" He asked gesturing at me.

"Annabeth, Percy. Percy, Annabeth. Annabeth just moved here, same age as you Perce. Percy is the guy who also lives next door to you." Thalia replied addressing us both. I nodded as I looked at Percy. He seemed nice enough but we'd just have to see his attitude later.

"Dude, Grover, Nico, Connor, Travis, Charles and Silena are outside. C'mon!" He grabbed Thalia and my arms and dragged us down the stairs. I sighed. I was so sick of being dragged around these days! When we reached the door Percy flung it open and there were 5 guys and 1 girl out there. The girl I was just wildly guessing was Silena (Please note my sarcasm) she was amazingly pretty. Shining black hair and soft blue eyes. She was quite skinny but now freakishly skinny. She smiled at me and showed perfect white teeth.

"Hi! I heard about you. Thalia was sooo excited to have a girl live near her! I'm Silena, 10 years old." She said and shook my hand.

"Luke, 10 years old." A guy with sandy blonde hair that shaded his blue eyes stuck out his hand. I took it and we shook.

"Connor Stoll, over there would be my brother Travis. He's ugly so that would be the difference. Both age 10," Two boys with dirty blonde hair and mischievous dark blue eyes stepped out to shake my hand.

"Wait a sec, if you call him ugly, aren't you sorta calling yourself ugly?" I smirked at Connor and they both frowned back at me but Thalia, Percy, Luke, Silena and a guy with dark hair and melting brown eyes grinned at shouted 'BURRRN' at Connor.

"Nico, age 9." The guy with the melting eyes shook my hand and the last two guys introduced themselves.

"Charles Beckendorf. I prefer to be called Beckendorf. Age 12," He told me and shook my hand roughly. I grinned as I thought of something.

"Ya mean Beckendork?" I said acting innocent. Percy burst out with laughter next to me.

"Awesome Annabeth! You are going to officially be my 'comebacks' supplier." Percy smiled revealing rows of straight white teeth. Just like Silena's.

"Nuh-uh, Annabeth trust me you do NOT want to be Percy's ANYTHING!" Thalia advised and earned a few hoots of laughter as Percy blushed.

"Don't worry, I'm not planning on EVER doing that. I mean seriously, known him for around 3 minutes, already know there is no way I will ever ever be his ANYTHING!" I grinned and Percy blushed so hard tomatoes would've been jealous and probably thrown themselves at him. I laughed at my thought and the others looked at me weirdly but I shrugged it off.

"Ugh! You guys don't even know how mean you are!" Percy pouted and turned away from us. I smirked. That guy was suucchhh a Seaweed Brain…WAIT! That's it! That'll be my nickname for him. Since his head is so full of kelp that he can't think of good comebacks!

"Seaweed Brain, turn back around. Stop being such a baby." I told him. He whipped around.

"What did you call me? Seaweed Brain? Well you're a…a…a…WISE GIRL!" We all stared at him then busted out laughing. It was hilarious! No kidding. Best laughter ever, the one where you laugh so much it hurts your stomach and then you have to sit then you laugh again and the laugh goes all silent coz your laughing so hard. That was the best time I'd had since I'd left my Best Friends, Megan and Jana behind. I had a feeling they would all be great friends.