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Ever had your world turned upside down in one moment? I have.

Multiple times.

Once upon a time I found the perfect girl. We met at Camp when we were twelve. She was taller than me, and beautiful and perfect and controlling and smart. I was awkward and smelled like most twelve year old boys. We grew up together from that point on. And as soon as I wasn't so awkward, she saw me like no one else did, and I saw her like I had never seen anyone. Suddenly life would always be ok as long as she was there with me, alive and healthy and beautiful. And there she was, always.

Except when the guy she used to like was butting in and trying to steal her from me.

Now there were a few reasons this wasn't going to work out for him:

A.) She doesn't love him. She liked him once, simply because she was young and he was a cute, older guy. Now she saw that he was an idiot—after watching him try to take over the world, and watching him give up his body so Kronos would have a vessel to control from, and watching me grow into a much smarter man than Luke ever was. Luke had become an idiot, a disgrace to the gods, and a man Annabeth wanted nothing to do with.

B.) Annabeth's mom is kind of strict about what guys she hangs out with. I discovered that firsthand five years before the incident. Yeah, Luke first appeared and battled me the night of my final claiming of Annabeth. But he then disappeared off the face of the earth, having gotten his butt whooped. Annabeth and I were seventeen, Luke was… old. Anyway, if Luke, son of Hermes, servant of Kronos, freak of the universe, and seven years older than us, ever tried to get to this daughter of Athena, I had this feeling he would quickly find himself fallen in battle.

C.) As long as I am with Annabeth, no mere demigod is going to hurt her. And I know Luke wouldn't be good for her. She knows it too. She would end up in a situation like Persephone if he ever got to her-imprisoned for some length of time in a place she couldn't help but hate, with no one but him as her companion. I would kill him. Luke may have passion on his side, and revenge (he never did like me…) but I have passion, revenge, love, protective instinct, the enchantment of the River Styx, the gods, and most of the Greek world on my side if it comes down to it. I have connections. You get connections when you save the world.

I should probably give you some background on my life at this point, five years after I finally managed to get Athena to like me back when we were seventeen.

My name is Percy Jackson. You know that. I am 22 years old. That might take some processing. Go ahead, I'll wait…

Ok, long enough. I am in college at NYU, studying to be a marine biologist. What else would I do? I can't even focus on anything else. I major in marine biology and have two minors, in the study of Ancient Greece and Ancient Greek Literature (a.k.a. MYTHS). You really can study anything in college. Annabeth is also at NYU majoring in Architecture, minoring in Engineering and Ancient Greek Lit (with me). We each have our own apartments, conveniently located within the same complex a couple blocks from school. The nice thing about New York: no matter where you live, you know somewhere there is going to be a good restaurant or two, a good coffee shop, a good book store (Annabeth…), and anything else you could possibly need. I love New York.

Annabeth and I were in our last year of college. Soon, school would be out forever, and I could not WAIT for that. Once we were out of college, we wanted to go back and help out at camp in the summers. Who knows, maybe there will be a dorky young son-of-whoever and a pretty little daughter-of-who-knows-who who end up falling in love and going on the adventures of a lifetime together? Crazy things happen, and I don't plan on not being around to see them. Besides, Chiron needs all the help he can get, right? Since the war ended, more and more kids have been realizing who-or what-they are.

It was a totally normal day. Kind of. It was a Saturday-no school-and I was sitting in my room studying for our final finals (finally). I was jittery, because I knew Annabeth would come in any minute, looking even more beautiful than normal, because it would be the five year anniversary of the day I got her back from her mom and saved her from Luke-and the ten year anniversary of the day we met, just before summer break of sixth grade. I couldn't wait for her to walk in those doors…

Annabeth and I had great apartments. Her's was on the top floor of the weathered white-painted brick building, where she could look out and see all the buildings and think about the architecture. Mine was one of few on the ground level, looking out over a small garden-complete with a saltwater fountain, thanks to my dad. I had white wooden French doors with chipped paint and dirty, old, blurry glass. These doors opened out into the courtyard. Annabeth had decorated the place for me, with pale ocean blue walls, driftwood accents and sea shells placed at random. It looked great and reminded me of my cabin, which I knew was what she was going for.

She had keys to my apartment, and I to hers, so I was just waiting for her to walk in. I got up and moved out to the sand colored couch, putting my feet up on a driftwood coffee table. A small black box sat on the table. I stared at it like it would jump out any minute and turn into a Hydra when I realized I should probably get dressed. It was eleven and I was still in boxers and shirtless.

I picked up the box and ran to my room, stripping my clothes off and taking a quick shower before pulling on khaki shorts and a shirt I knew Annabeth liked—short sleeved, button up, with thin seaweed green, ocean blue, sky blue and Annabeth's-eyes gray pinstripes. I left it unbuttoned over a white v-neck t-shirt and put on my camp necklace. Can you tell Annabeth helps with my clothes now? Yeah…

I heard the door open quietly and called out "One minute, Annabeth!" from the bathroom, sticking the black box in my pocket and giving myself a pep talk. I walked out of the room, grabbing my wallet, keys, and Riptide (in pen form) from the table next to my bed and slipping on dark brown leather sandals.

I walked out into the living room to see Annabeth still coming in, sun beams surrounding her as they streamed through the open door and filtered through the blurred glass. She quite literally lit up my living room, even more than normal.

I hadn't seen her look like this since she came out of Circe's, and that wasn't the same, because it wasn't her then. This was still her, just more beautiful than anything or anywhere or anyone I had ever seen.

I stopped breathing and didn't know when I would start again.

Annabeth walked in and I knew today would be incredible. She wasn't wearing her usual jeans and a t-shirt, as if she'd anticipated the fact that today was important. She was wearing a white summer dress, cut off just above her knees, with spaghetti straps and a low v-neckline and made of a thin flowing fabric. It was so completely un-Annabeth that it was totally Annabeth. She was wearing her camp necklace, too, and the silver owl earrings her mom had given her, and tan leather gladiator-style sandals. Her hair glistened in the sun in curls even more perfect than normal, forming gold and blond ringlets that framed her face. Her gray eyes glittered as she closed the door and said "Ready, Seaweed Brain?" as if we were kids again, headed on a mission as casual as any, when in fact we were headed out on the day of a lifetime.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I replied truthfully. She laughed and reached back for my hand as she opened the door.

"Come on!" she exclaimed, pulling me out in to the garden and locking the door behind her. We walked out to the fountain and made sure we had anything we needed before heading out to the bus stop. Annabeth didn't know exactly what we were doing today-mostly because I refused to tell her. But she was going to love every minute of it.

Or so I thought.