A/N: Was it just me, or was this year's Valentine's Day especially bad? Er, sorry, I mean SINGLES AWARENESS DAY. Sappy love songs, red roses, gold-wrapped chocolates… Meh. See you at the bottom!

Valentine's Day was among the top three things that Annabeth Chase hated more than anything else. Scratch that- it was the top thing on her list. At least for the moment, that is.

As she sat alone on the beach she tried to ignore the excited laughs of the other demigods trading Valentine cards. She tried to tune out the sounds of the couple behind her kissing loudly. She kicked the sand in an attempt not to throw a piece of expensive chocolate at the Aphrodite girls squealing over the bouquets of roses they were receiving by the dozen. But she found that the more she tried to disregard the flaring symptoms of the national day of love, the more she couldn't not think about it.

She felt her face twist into a scowl. Was she the only one without someone to share February fourteenth with? It seemed like it, due to the fact that all of her friends and siblings had forgotten about her. They were too distracted with their own affairs- used in the most literal sense. V-Day… maybe it was no coincidence that it rhymed with D-Day.

The cool winter wind did nothing to calm her flaring temper. Was it really so important to have a day dedicated to love? The main cause of the fall of so many heroes before her? She thought of Theseus, who had loved Ariadne and took her away with him after she helped him escape the jaws of the Labyrinth. When they sailed home to Athens he left her on an island, completely forgotten. Then there was Perseus, who absolutely personified the statement 'men are weak' when he went out of his way to save Andromeda. Who knows? Maybe his life would have been better if he had just let the fair maiden be the sea monster's dinner.

Just as Annabeth started to muse over the fall of Troy and the girl-crazy Paris who started all the trouble, she felt a warm arm brush against hers. "Hey Percy," she sighed, looking over at him.

"Well it's nice to see you to. I'm having a great day, thanks for asking," he grinned amicably, flipping his black hair underneath his green knit ski hat.

The blonde rolled her grey eyes. "That's absolutely lovely. How can you possibly be enjoying this awful holiday- term used loosely."

"What?" Percy's eyes widened, his mouth dropped in mock astonishment. "How is it possible not to love this beautiful day?"

"Uh, let's see: the bad chocolates, the cheesy flashing heart necklaces, the Aphrodite girls gossiping about who's dating who, the sappy love songs, those stupid little metal singing cupid dolls that I keep finding in front of the Hephaestus cabin, oh, and those obnoxious pink decorations with the-"

"Okay, okay, I see your point." Percy held up his hands, taken aback by the resentment she showed at the holiday.

"-Not to mention the fact that we're not even celebrating it right. Seriously, if we wanted to actually honor Valentine we'd ban marriage and all go to jail, where we'd send people notes telling them that we loved them and are soon going to be beheaded."

"CALM DOWN ALREADY!"

Annabeth snapped her head around, unaware before now that Percy could raise his voice that loud.

"Why are you getting so worked up over this?" Her friend questioned. "It's only one out of three hundred and sixty five days a year. It's only Valentine's Day. There's a very simple way to avoid all of this." He grew quiet, staring out at the vast, grey winter ocean before them.

"And that is…" Annabeth prompted him, bringing him out of his stolid moment.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. It's called S.A.D.- Singles Awareness Day. It's for the people like us, who don't really have anything better to do than be our lovely single selves. Seriously, how many times have you just been so irritated with all of those lovey-dovey kids are age, and felt like crap just because you're not in a relationship and they have someone who really really loved them? Where do we fit into the equation. Hence the creation of a day just for us. Coincidentally, it happens to be on the 'couples awareness day' as well. Weird, right?"

Annabeth pondered this for a moment before responding, "That's actually not such a bad idea."

"Yeah, well not all of us have been hit by Cupid's arrow yet. Like that guy Maxwell over there. Poor guy still hasn't realized he has a magic glorified dart in his ass yet." Percy pointed over at a teenage camper currently drooling over Lacey, one of Aphrodite's older daughters.

Annabeth followed his gaze and laughed. "How can people be so ignorant when it comes to love? It only blinds people. And now they have a day to celebrate it? Seriously, I'm pretty sure it's just an excuse for Hallmark to make more money."

"Well, you have a point there," Percy shrugged. "But that's why Singles Awareness Day is so great; you can totally brag about not being tied down by anyone and still eat as much of those ridiculous red and pink candies as you want!"

"Well, I have been wanting some of those…" Annabeth admitted, sounding slightly guilty.

"Then let's go crash Selena's party and steal some!" Percy stood up excitedly, quickly brushing off the sand on his cargo pants and grabbing a hold of the Athena camper's hand. He pulled her up as well then dragged her elatedly across the beach and up towards the cabins.

Running to catch up with him, Annabeth couldn't help but think to herself that this Valentine's Day- rather, Singles Awareness Day- was going to be the best she'd ever had.

A/N: Wow, didn't take me long to hack this one out! As always, please bless me with your reviews. They make my every day ; )