Hey there, I'm PearlsAndPens, and you obviously have good taste in stories cause ya clicked on this one! This is my first FanFiction ever, but I've been a fan of the site for a while now. So I'd DEFINITELY love some reviews! Kay, enjoy!

I knew it was going to be bad as soon as one of the maids said simply, "The king and queen request your presence in the atlas room straight away, your highness."

For one, I had told the maids and butlers and everyone else who worked at the palace to not call me "your highness", "princess", "miss", or anything else like that since about the time I could talk; just call me Annabeth. I've got a name for a reason.

The second reason was that Mom and Dad, a.k.a. the King and Queen of Greece, just simply "requested my presence" when they knew I probably wouldn't like what they were talking about.

But before that, I was having a pretty good day. The palace chefs had made banana chocolate chip waffles-my absolute favorite breakfast in the entire world. After that, I had gone to my personal dance studio. I want to be dancer, and, not to sound conceited or anything, but it's probably the best studio in the world and any dancer's dream. It's a huge room, and all the walls were mirrors. There's a single pale wood bar running along all the walls and my iPod dock was in the corner, and there were surround sound speakers somewhere in the walls. My parents had turned an empty storage room into this studio when I was about eleven. Mom insisted upon my learning dances such as ballet, tango, salsa, and ballroom. I had two instructors who I loved: Lana and Joel. I did an intense summer boot camp from June through August. I learned lots of ballroom dances such as waltz, fox trot, tango, quickstep, and lots more. They even taught me some extra dances Mom hadn't prescribed, including hip hop, my favorite and pretty much all I'd done since my summer dance boot camp was over. I'd really found a love for dance, and it was probably the best thing Mom had ever done for me.

I had just been doing my normal routine and practicing my new steps (I mostly do hip-hop on my own time, but I like all types of dancing, like waltz, or the salsa.) when one of Mom's personal maids, Kelsey, walked in with the news.

I sighed. I turned off the speakers, and took a gulp from my water bottle, brushing a stray strand of blonde hair out of my face that had come out of my haphazard, messy side-braid.

I was barefoot, like I usually am when I'm dancing in my studio, and I was in my regular "dance practice" clothes: a white flowy tank and black leggings with a lime green band at the top and two lines running down the side to the ankle. Even though I was hot from all I'd done already, I threw on my gray zip-up that said "FREE SPIRIT" running across the front in lime green. I zipped it halfway, thrust my feet into my Classic Grey Uggs and trudged to where my parents were.

"Annabeth," Mom greeted me with a smile.

"Hey Mom, what's up?" I asked. "Oh by the way I-"

"We'll talk about that later," she cut me off, not even listening. "But before that, why are you all sweaty and running around the palace in…gym attire?" she asked, looking at me unpleasantly.

"I was…dancing. I practice almost every day in my studio. You knew that, right?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"So you've been practicing your ballroom dancing?" She inquired, clasping her hands together, looking pleased.

"Um...yeah," I lied.

"Fantastic! Did you hear that honey?" she asked Dad, who was over at the desk off to the side of the room.

"What?" he jolted. "Oh, yes, yes. That's good news." He turned his attention back to whatever he was doing.

"Why's it such great news?" I inquired, folding my arms.

"Next week, we're going to Atlantis-"

"On vacation? Cool, I love tropical places!" I cried.

"No, no, darling. We are not going on vacation. Perseus, the Prince of Atlantis, is coming of age. So of course, there is a ball held in his honor."

"Oh," was all I could say. I was kind of hoping for the vacation.

"You and I will be going to the dressmaker today to-"

"Wait, you're coming with me to the dressmaker?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes. Why?"

"I-well, I just thought you'd send one of your assistants, like Lynn or Claudia or Nadine or Rhonda or Marie to go with me," I explained to her.

"This is a very special occasion," Mom replied. "As you know, Queen Sally and I used to be the best of friends when she used to be Lady Sally of Silver Lake. We've kept in touch ever since we were both wed. She has a son named Percy, as you already know. He's just your age." Mom paused.

I silently groaned, knowing exactly what was crossing her mind as she said that. She wants me to "court" Prince Percy. I bet her BFF Queen Sally does too. Why can't I just go out with whoever I feel like /whoever asks me out like all normal people? By normal, I mean not royalty. Lucky.

"It's a few days travel, so you'll need your ballgown, plus a few other dresses to wear on the ship. We're taking the Atlantis Royal Cruise Ship to get there, as it's the only means of getting to the island."

"Okay, fine," I grumbled. "Let's get this dress-making over with."

"Oh dear, we also have to get shoes and jewelry taken care of. Hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in possible hairstyle and possibly-" Mom's normally wise, proper, distinguished, elegant queen side had done a complete 180°, turning into a full-on fashion obsessed beauty queen.

This ball had better be worth it.

So, what did ya'll think? This first chapter may seem a little slow (or boring) to you, but TRUST me, I've already got the next chapter complete, and this chapter is just a buildup to the GOOD stuff. I needed to start somewhere, right? Next is more characters, more moments to capture, more heart flutters, promised. This second chapter should be up fairly soon, within a couple days, so stay tuned! Another thing, some may argue that Annabeth is somewhat OOC because of the fact that she is a dancer, but this is just a tool to help the story along and gives her opportunities with certain other people *wink wink* that wouldn't have been able to occur had she not had that. Please leave me a review, it would mean the world to me if you did! XO, PearlsAndPens