They say when you hit rock bottom, the only place left to go is up, that's not true. You can stumble around rock bottom for a long time, and you're technically still going somewhere.

After my annoying and slightly endearing conversation with Jackson, I don't feel close enough to call him Percy just yet, I make my way back over to Nico and company who are now discussing Pitch Perfect 2. Nico sees me coming and shuffles to meet me.

"What took you so long? Class is almost over."

I sigh. "Remember how I said Leo has to be the single most annoying guy out there?"

"Yeah, you poured Kool-aid on his head right afterwards. Still have the picture, want to use it for blackmail?"

"Maybe another time, but the point is Leo has officially lost the title to Jackson."

I then proceed to point at him in his lap lane. Nico looks at me like I'm some kind of alien.

"You've got to be shitting me. He lost the title to Percy?"

I give a look. "You know him?"

Nico nods. "He was my welcoming guide for orientation. Has a weird sense of humor and not on your I.Q. level, but he's a good guy. What did he do to piss you off?"

I then swiftly tell my tale of the annoying swimmer as we make our way over to Will, Lou, and Cecil. I can tell Nico thinks it's hilarious because by the time we reach them, he bursts out laughing. It's strange due to the fact he rarely laughs in public and everyone turns to watch us now.

I cross my arms. "It's not funny Nico."

He barely makes out a reply in his fit of laughter. "Percy .. and you..." Whatever he was trying to say is drowned in a new wave of giggles. Will and Lou look at Nico, checking to make sure he isn't high. Cecil on the other hand is jumping up and down.

"Please tell me what is so funny it made Nico crack, please."

Nico finally calms down and smiles at Cecil. "You had to be there and she won't tell it again anyways."

Will taps his pointer finger to his chin. "Let me guess, Percy somehow annoyed the crap out of Annabeth."

Nico smiles. "Correct, Will, and Chase, please learn to take a joke."

Cecil looks at me with pleading and curious eyes. "Will you tell it to me?"

Lou shakes her head and flicks his head. "Leave the poor upperclassman alone Cecil. Nico, stop telling it to Will and save it for lunch." Nico sighs and nods. Where would these three morons be without Lou when she's calm?

Coach Kym blows her whistle. "Time to go get changed kids, and I expect all of you be here tomorrow." Is it just me, your was she making eye contact with me the whole time? Yep, she was. I nod in her direction and put on my "I'm a good kid" face and walk out trailing the freshmen to let Nico secretly tell Will and Cecil what happened. It still isn't funny to me though.

By the time I reach the locker room, most of the girls are already out and I have two minutes to change. My next class is close enough so I won't be late, got to love the person who made my schedule.

As I enter the locker room, I can see my locker has a bunch of sticky notes on it. When I get closer, I notice the level of creativity has gone up since the incident last week. There were a good amount of "whore", "bitch", "slut", and "smart ass" stickies. A few people drew me as a stick figure being fucked by another stick figure or cutting myself. Then there were the random "loser", "suck up", "teacher's pet", "nobody", and the one that really got to me "mistake".

You know how people say "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", well I have a different version "you can hit and hurt me, but only certain words can break me". One of those words just happen to be mistake.

I grab the near by trash can and start ripping the stickies off in fist-fulls. My mind wanders though, to why the word always seems to have a straight, deadly shot to my heart. My mother met Fredrick while they were both attending the same college. My mother helped my dad get through Harvard and somehow the two of them started dating. Right after graduation, my mother found out she was four months pregnant with me. Now, my mother had plans, that didn't include being a parent, so when I was born she left me on Fredrick's front door. In a surprising twist, Fredrick didn't want to be a parent either. In fact, my sperm donor only took minimal care of me up to the age of three. After that, I somehow managed to keep myself alive off of microwave meals and snacks. Once Fredrick married Helen, I had accepted this to be the norm. for kids my age.

The bell rings as I toss the last of the stickies into the trash and cover them with some loose leaf. Then I quickly do the reverse process I did at the beginning of the period, so I'm back to orange shirt and jeans again. I gather up my crap and swiftly speed walk to my English class.

It doesn't take that long and I make it there with 94 seconds to spare and take my seat in the back. I hate the stereotype that all the smart people sit in the front and are the perfect little angels. Clearly, those people haven't had the pleasure of meeting me and Calypso. We're the kids who sit in the back of room and pass notes because we finish our work at home or are ahead of everyone else. We could text, but minutes aren't cheap and notebook paper is.

Callie makes it with 15 seconds in change and slams her stuff down on her desk then plops into her seat. I see a "Journey" music sheet and realize Mr. Fletcher is worse than I thought, way past Finn dying bad. If he's pulling out that song, he'll probably redo "I lived". Hopefully, the Hail Mary movie play known as Pitch Perfect, and maybe the sequel, works.

I take out my Macbeth book and notes we took yesterday. Being the smart, workaholic I am, I finished the rest of the notes last night. I turn to Callie to see she did the same thing.

Our teacher is out on vacation, so Mr. D, our beloved principal, is being the sub for the next few days. That means, our current watchdog doesn't care what we do as long as we finish our work. I don't know how the district let someone like him be a principal, but I'm not about to complain.

I turn to Callie and gesture to the music sheet. "Worse."

She rolls her eyes. "You have no idea Annabeth. I wish he kept up with the show more and wasn't a season behind when it ended. Then this could be his past students' problem!"

I cross my fingers. "Just hope the movie works."

Callie sighed. "It better because I don't want to spend any more time with a teacher mourning over a TV show. Why did I take choir again?"

I smile. "Because you love to sing and thought it would be an easy class?"

She hits herself with her Macbeth book. "What I wouldn't give to slap the sophomore me upside the head."

"I'd like to do the same thing to my freshman self for not forging a note."

Calypso looks at me concerned. "What did you drag yourself into this time Annabeth?"

So I tell her too about the whole swimming drama, the Jackson drama, and the Nico part. She was patient and reacted quite similar to myself.

"Well, I don't get how Nico di Angelo found that funny. My best guess is that he finds the pain of others enjoyable."

"Yeah Callie, but I think it was the whole situation."

"Fine, on another note, you haven't been to your house in almost a week."

I tense a little, I really don't like going back there. "So?"

Callie sighs. "I know you hate it there, but you need a new set of clothes. Also, you remember that deal you made with Fredrick back when you were fourteen?"

How could I forget. The Chase family unit have only moved a total of two times. The first was right after they found nine year old me after two years of being MIA with Thalia and Luke. I loved those two years because I felt that I was part of a real family, then I was returned to Fredrick and taken to San Fransisco. If they thought I would magically behave, they were incorrect. Every chance I got, I would run to Thalia and Luke, who kept in touch with me through a payphone after their first visit three months after the move. From ages nine to fourteen, I was gone a total of 42 months, or three and a half years out of five. Fredrick didn't like all the negative attention, so when the Chase unit made the move to New York City, where we both knew Luke and Thalia were permanently living, he offered me a deal.

"You can spend time with them and live with them for all I care, but you need to visit the apartment once a week so I know you haven't made a break for it."

"What's the catch Fredrick?"

"I don't have child services at my door for neglecting you, and if they do think that, you go into the foster system."

Clearly, I took the offer. I wondered why they hadn't already been called at the time. Helen told me that the police recorded me and the length of all my disappearances and common crimes like stealing, breaking and entering, destruction of public property, avoiding the law, grand theft auto, breaking out of juvie, and a few other minor things. Basically, Fredrick said he'd take care of it and get someone to find me after a few months.

If you're wondering why I'm not behind in school, I taught myself and have a good record of that. Most people don't care about elementary or middle school, they care about high school. Since I haven't made a run in the last three years, my grades and such at Goode are almost perfect. In fact, I'm first in line for valedictorian.

"It's been what, five days?"

"Six actually, the week mark is tomorrow."

I sigh and play with the end of my ponytail. "I'll go visit real quick today, grab some clothes and stuff, and get out of there."

"Do you want me to drive you? You know I'm only a block away."

I shake my head horizontally. "I have practice today, and I'm getting Thals to come get me on her way home. Just worry that Leo's meeting your dad tonight."

Callie hits herself with the novel again. "I almost forgot about that."

The rest of the day runs as smoothly as ever. Mrs. Dodds and me arguing about an answer for half the class and I was right, but she couldn't accept that she made a mistake. At lunch, someone had the balls to try and trip me but I caught myself and saved my crappy school made lunch of a hamburger, fries, and milk with strawberries.

I turned my architecture project in, to make your own modern version of an architectural wonder and I did the Parthenon in Athens. I even drew it to the exact measurements as the original, 111 ft. by 228 ft or 30.9 meters by 69.5 meters. Of course, mine is a grand library and not a temple to a Greek goddess, although there is a marble statue of her inside. Sadly I need to stop fangirling because I still have to make a model after Ms. Nike grades it.

That currently leaves me admiring my test I recently got back in AP U.S. History with less than five minutes in class. Most people, including Calypso, had difficulties with it considering it was the test on the war of 1812 and aftermath. Calypso got an 87%, the second highest grade, while I got a percent score, highest grade. Mr. Brunner had said before he wouldn't curve the test like the last two, and probably won't for any other tests, so we can see if we need to improve our studying habits. Clearly, I thought I could nave prepared better, but I'm happy with the results. Callie seemed fine with what she got.

"I can see your test Annabeth. I want to see the right answers and why I chose the wrong ones."

"Sure, but remember Mr. Brunner's collecting them in a few minutes."

Callie nods and I carefully give her my test. With two minutes left, I look over my planner to checklist my homework. Read and take notes for Macbeth, a report and presentation in physics on black holes while we touch on astronomy and isn't due for two weeks, and psychology essay on your opinion on dreams, due tomorrow. Since practice is an hour after school, until 3:45, and I have my shift at Outback from 4:30-9:30, I usually am the first to go when it gets slow, but I'm okay with that, then I should have a most of due tomorrow done by midnight. If I'm not dead on my feet, I'll start start researching black holes until 1:00 A.M.

Callie puts my test on top of my planner and snaps her fingers in front of my face. I snap out of my planning zone and turn to Callie.

"Sorry, but I was just checking my time table."

"Yeah, I figured as much."

The final bell rings and we all pass our tests our to Mr. Brunner. He might be in a wheelchair, but he refuses for us to give him special treatment. He's wearing his tweed jacket today and gestures me over.

"See you tomorrow Callie, and good luck with your moon lace."

"You too Annabeth, and have fun at practice."

I hall my stuff over to where Mr. Brunner is organizing the tests in alphabetical order. I smile at the sight. Mr. Brunner has somehow been one of my teachers since freshmen year and has become my favorite teacher of all time. He might have inspired me to be a teacher if my heart wasn't dead set on being an architect. What he did accomplish was making me a tutor for certain people whenever there's an opening in my packed schedule and becoming a grandfather figure to me.

"What's up Chiron? Do you have an assignment for me?"

We also have this secret agent gag when Chiron wants my help.

"Why, yes, I do 00 Chase, but are you willing accept it?"

"Well, that all depends on the mission."

Chiron laughs. "It surprises me you still won't just take someone and not ask about them."

"Hey, I'm just making sure they're not killers." Or the people who torment me.

Chiron smiles again. "The boy has a low C in one of my basic history classes and is in your grade. I know he's trying his best and this is shown in all his work and projects, but just can't seem to do well on tests, and my tests take up half the grade percentage, and the reading. If his grades get any lower, he'll be taken off of the swimming team and they need him. Also, he's my second favorite student and can be quite the character."

For some reason, the first person who comes to my mind is one Seaweed Brain. But, surely, it can't be him. The odds of that happening, well, it's not impossible but it's unlikely. I bite my lip.

"What's his name?"

"Percy Jackson, do you know him?"

Yes, I know the annoying boy who can push my buttons better than anyone. It could be worse, like Ethan. Yet, I don't have the time to help him right now, unless I multitask and tutor him during swimming, or give up my lunch. Does he even have my lunch?

"Kind of and I'll think on it for a few days, okay?"

"I can't ask you to do any more. Just give me an answer by Friday."

Great, today's Tuesday so I don't have all that long to make a choice. "Will do Chiron. Now, I really have to get going."

He smiles up to his wise, old eyes. "I know, and good luck Annabeth."

I smile and wave, then walk out of the room to my locker. Luck? Luck isn't real. Hard work and determination are, and I've already got plenty of both.

Practice is a breeze like usual, but that's because running is as natural to me as breathing. That and I've had a lot of practice over the years. Ms. Nike, or Coach Nike at the moment, tells all of us practice is over and to go home at 3:37. While the rest of the girls chat and text on their phones, which are a decade ahead of mine, I go into the locker room.

Since I'm going to the house and work after, I have to now change out of my blue team shirt and grey shorts. When I pause to think about all the costume changes I pull off in a day, I give myself a headache. As I take off my shorts, I hear footsteps. I drop my jeans and grab a compact grey umbrella out of my locker, which I put here for bad situations.

"Well, the beautiful Beth has done half the work for me."

I do a 180 turn to be less than five feet away from Ethan. His black hair is crop cut military style. He's only an inch taller than my 5'9 frame, but is built like a wrestler. He still has one of his eyes covered with a leather black patch.

I expand my umbrella so that it's like Robin's martial arts weapon or a baseball bat. My heart races inside my chest, but I don't dare show how terrified I really am. I smirk. "Still hurt from last time Nakamura?"

He makes a tsk noise. He walks closer to me and I start to walk diagonally to the exit behind me. It's still too early for anyone to come in, if anyone comes in because most of the time they go straight home.

"Oh, don't be so feisty Beth. I know you liked it."

I'm backed up against a wall, both hands on the hilt. My hands shake a little, but I refuse to show any weakness. "No, I didn't like. Now, get the hell away from me before I hurt you again!"

That seemed to spark a reaction, just not the one I hoped for. Ethan makes a grab for my waist and I hit him upside the head with my umbrella stick. I hear a grunt of pain from him and keep striking. The boy just doesn't know when to give up though and pushed me up against the opposite wall. I kept clawing and kicking and hitting, but he ignored the pain I was inflicting. His hands wandered to places they shouldn't be touching and he slammed my spine on a combo lock, that's going to leave one hell of a bruise. I heard the sound of a zipper and I'm slammed against the lockers again. I didn't stop fighting, but I didn't dare scream because then I'd start crying and I wouldn't let this asshole get the satisfaction of me giving up.

Then, almost as suddenly as it started, he pulled out and drop me to the floor like a corpse. The floor was a mess that I have to clean up as soon as he leaves. Ethan darkly smiles. "That was fun and remember to clean up my mess Beth."

"Go to hell."

He turns back before he exits. "You too, Beth, you too."

I spit on his shoe and then he vanishes through the door. I then proceed to get up and pull my stupid underwear, a lot of good they did me, up from around my ankles. I go to the little bathroom on the far side of the locker room and snatch a bunch of paper towels and quickly clean up the floor. When it looks good enough, I finish changing my clothes and put the umbrella back inside my locker. I check my appearance in the mirror and there's no visible marks or injury, just a little fear left in my eyes but that will be gone along with the leftover adrenaline soon enough. I finally pick up my backpack and leave the locker room at 3:47, ten minutes after I first went in. It only felt like a minute.

As I'm turning a corner to the exit of the school, I run into someone. I notice black hair and that the figure is male and taller than me. My disappearing energy comes back instantly and duo flip the guy and put my foot on his chest. The only problem is that the person is about 6 ft. with a swimmer's frame and doesn't wear an eye patch since I can I see two sea green wide eyes looking up at me.

"Well, I didn't think I'd see you so soon Wise Girl. Could you kindly remove your foot and help me up?"

I blush, why am I blushing? I trade my foot with my hand. This boy must have a certain ability of popping into my life during the most inconvenient times. "I'm sorry about that, you reminded me of someone else."

He smiles. "Yeah, I got that much. This is actually nice though because I need to talk to you."

I groan internally. I really don't want to talk to anyone right now. "Shoot."

"Well, the team is still practicing during first period tomorrow, but I'll be doing my swimming during my last period study hall. That is, until I'm done being your swim coach."

"This concerns me ...?"

"Just bring something to do tomorrow and I'll try to keep you company as much as I can."

"Okay, that works for me."

Somehow we both are at the exit doors and Jackson holds one for me. I don't make a jab at him and instead search desperately for Thalia's black Toyota. She isn't anywhere to be seen yet.

I look over at Jackson who's standing a foot away and looking at me with concern. It makes a small part of me feel warm and fuzzy while most of me is scared and worried for myself.

"Are you okay Annabeth?"

The fact that he cares enough to ask hits me like the Statue of Liberty did when the Americans finished building it. Why does he care? I want to tell him to stay far away from me and my weird beautifully messed up life. I see Thalia's car enter the lock and I quickly give Percy a determined, cold look. "I'm fine." I then speed walk over to the Toyota and see him looking at me still. He doesn't buy the most common lie, but I really want him too.

I get in the car and close the door as fast as possible. The second it closes, Thalia drives off and looks me over with concern. "It was Ethan again, wasn't?

"No."

She briefly makes eye contact with me, electric blue on grey. Thalia's short spiking hair looks to almost be crackling with static and she grips the steering wheel so hard her fingers go white.

"Don't lie Annabeth."

The thing about Thalia that separates her from all the other women is the world to me is that she's both a mother and a sister to three kids with two not being related to her, I'm one of the them. She's the one who told me about periods when we were in Kansas. She's the one who sang me lullabies and told me stories before I went sleep. She's the one who taught me how to make ponytails and braid. Thalia's also one of the most stubborn people ever as shown by running away at eleven to try and locate Jason, but also one of the most considerate since she partnered up with Luke, which slowed her down, and they both took me in. She still worries the most about me because while Leo and Jason are safe, I'm not and she knows it. She got Luke to respect my decisions, even though she hated it, because she knew how hard it was to get into college. She got to attend community college with Luke and herself paying for it, so she wants better for the three of us and puts all her extra funds in a savings along with Luke, who is taking courses on line and almost done.

"Yes, it was. Can we not talk about it and just go to Fredrick's house?"

Thalia sighed. "Almost there Annie. Want me to go in with you?"

"Could you just wait at the front door Thals?"

She nods and makes the turn onto the street. It's about five minutes away from school and part of the upper middle class since Fredrick's a college history professor and Helen is a wedding planner. The twins, Bobby and Mathew, go to some nice private school and the two twelve year olds have a British nanny named Mary Peters, I honestly believe she's the reincarnation of Mary Poppins. I have a room here, but there's more decoration in the living at Thalia and Luke's apartment than in there.

Thals and I both got out of the car and walked into the building. One elevator ride and walking later, I'm knocking on the door to Fredrick's house, technically apartment. I'm not surprised when Mary opens the door.

"Well, come in and take care of your business Miss Chase."

I give Mary a smile and walk into the apartment and to my room. I pass Fredrick's study and knock on the doorway. A blond, greying head of hair looks up at me through a pair of glasses. The man looks tired like he just finished a lecture and waves me off, stating he's seen me. I continue my journey and think about what to grab from my given room.

I walk in to see the floor is covered with Lego play sets and some of my old buildings. Two heads of brown hair seem to be making a set from the Lego movie turned to look at me with Asian shaped light brown eyes. I smile at them and make my way to the closet. I take a plastic bag out of my backpack and start putting clothes in; jeans, sweats, shirts, underwear, bras, socks, my whole suit, and a hoodie. I also picked up my snow boats because you never know what the weather might do.

I exit the closet looking like a female Santa Claus and the twins smiling at me. I smile at them yet again. I carry no ill will towards them, they do the same in return. I'm more like a mythical creature than a sister to them anyway and neither need to know where I live or that I work at an Australian themed steakhouse.

Bobby grabs my leg, stopping me from leaving. "Annabeth, Mathew and I found something in the mail."

I raise an eyebrow. "Is it from Goode?"

Bobby shakes his head no. "It didn't say who it was from and was addressed to you, full name too."

Now that was more than a little strange. Mathew, who I didn't see leave the room, comes back with a cool grey envelope and hands it to me.

"Bobby and I have been hiding it in our Lego vault for about how long long Bobby?"

"Over a month Matt, and really tried to get it to you."

I ruffle their hair. "But you couldn't tell your parents because they would open it and I don't come over when you're home usually." I slip the letter into my bag. "I'll open it later today, and see you around."

Both boys wave to me as I leave and make my way to the front door where Thals and Mary are discussing children's educational programs. Thalia sees me coming and takes the bag from my hand and politely says bye to Mary. If Thals sees the envelope, she doesn't say anything about it.

When we both get in her car it's about four, so we have to rush back home. I turn on the radio and a Green Day song is playing. Thalia starts humming it and I look the window.

The second we get home, I rush inside the apartment building to get changed, again, into my work uniform. Leo and Jason appear to be doing their homework but are making a game plan to get Yankee playoff tickets as I come out of the bathroom, or my person changing room.

"You two better get me one!"

"Cool down chica, we included you."

I still see Jason add another figure into their plan. I roll my eyes and run out the door. Thalia looks tired with her planning binder under one arm. "I'll take the subway Thals!"

She shakes her head as I run past. "You're wearing the shoes Luke got for you right?"

I pull my pant leg up so she can rest easy. "Yeah, I'm carrying. Now, go spend time with your brother and his best friend."

I continue my journey and I get there drama free and early. Silena, the hostess and an aspiring designer, is waiting with her brown hair pulled back in a bun and blue eyes shining in the lighting. She smiles warmly at me and hands me my notepad.

"I have a feeling it's going to be busy, but I'll send you home as soon as possible."

"Thanks Sil, now let's get this diner started."

Silena kept her word and I was free to go at five to ten. I say my good-byes to the others; Clarisse, Hylla, Miranda, and Castor. I wrap my blue Goode hoodie a little tighter around me since the temperature dipped below freezing.

There are stilling people rushing about, though a lot less than when the sun's out. It's silly that so many are scared of what lurks in the dark in NYC, they clearly haven't been to LA. That doesn't mean I'm strolling and taking my time though.

I make it to a pretty deserted subway station and luckily catch a train a few minutes after. The train itself is basically a ghost town except for a few tattoo covered teenage boys. I take a seat far away from them and hope they're not stupid or drunk.

Sadly, one of them is drunk as he almost falls on his face walking over to me. The guy holds on to one of the rails on the ceiling and stands next to me. I don't know who he is and don't want to. So when he tries to touch my face, I pull my pocket knife out of the sole of my sneaker.

The guy jumps back and raises his hand, then chuckles. "Do you know to use that, girlie?"

I glare and my noise scrunches in disgust from the alcohol scent coming feet away from his mouth. "Do you know how to get beat up?"

He took that as a challenge. "Marrow Sucker, Joe Bob, come help me teach blondie not to mess with the Laistrygonians!"

His two drunk friends stumble over and I extend my pocket knife smirking. "Bring it on morons."

I usually don't pick fights with gangs, but it's a great way to re-leave stress and sometimes they ask for it. Does this mean I'm stupid? No, because I don't pick fights I can't win. Am I crazy? That one's still up for debate.

I hit the guy near me on the side of his head with the blunt end of my weapon. I'm proud to say that instantly knocks him out before his friends can get to me. I turn to face the two giant men, one having a blade and the other his own fists. I go for the guy with the blade and easily disarm him and cut his elbow. The drunken moron backs away and cups it in pain. I can see his eyes almost somber up when he sees one of his friends unconscious. To bad the last fighter hasn't realized what he's up against. I close my knife and make a come at me gesture, and he does all to fast. I side step and swipe his feet out from under him, so he lands on his butt. The man gets up, but not without pain. He tries to punch me in the face, but I duck and hit him in the gut. He clutches his belly and I give him a nice shot in the face.

I hear my station's name and the doors open on the train. As I walk off, I give them a smirk. "Guess you do know how to get beat up." The door closes before they can follow me off, and I wave as they punch the doors of the moving train.

I grab a napkin from a closed Starbucks and clean up my bloody knife. Then I do a quick once over, not even a scratch. I snort at the irony. I can take on three men bigger than me and win, but I can't stop people like Ethan.

I get to street level and place the knife back in my shoe and throw away the napkin. The streets are still quiet, but no one else bothers me. I enter the apartment and see Papa John's on the kitchen table along with Jason, Leo, and Luke waiting there for me.

Luke's arms are crossed and I can tell he knows about Ethan and that I got into some fight since he can sense adrenaline. His scar that crosses his left eye to mid cheek makes me feel careless. Luke got that scar when he was seventeen and saving me from a group in LA. His blond hair looks light grey in the dark lighting and his light blue eyes slightly re-leaved.

"Are you going to stand there Annie or come tell me about your day?"

I smile and plop down in my chair. If Thalia is my mom, then Luke is my dad and he gets how hard it is to deal with almost anything except school and girl related. He ran away at nine from a mentally unstable mother and like me, Luke never got a male role model in his father, who he only met once when we had to visit his mother. When tells the story of meeting Thalia, he leaves out the brawl she saved his butt in and instead says that was moment he first experienced love, he just didn't know it yet. Later the two found me, and he took on the responsibility of being my dad, like Thals did my mom. He taught me sports and how to fight with a blade, Thals did hand to hand, and they both found ways for me to continue my education. As years went on, our family only got stronger and bigger, but he always showed me that he cared in some way.

I grab a slice with sausage and olives. "Well, school was pretty normal, except I'm going to be swimming after school for three weeks."

Jason grabs what must be his second slice. "Sure Annabeth, and you'll start working on weekends."

"No Jase, I have to do it to pass gym."

Leo takes his second slice, leaving one left from the eight slice pizza. "Don't they give you the option to take it during gym class, hermana?"

"Yeah, Nico and his friends are starting to take it tomorrow in gym."

Luke looks at the boys. "Just trust Annabeth probably has a good reason, along a super long story to go with it. Now, can you two go do your homework?"

They both nod and go off to their shared room, probably to continue their ticket plan, which leaves Luke and me alone. I rip the last piece in thirds, and hand Luke one while I finish my first. Luke softly smiles. "Okay Annabeth, tell me what else happened today."

I sigh. "Just let me grab my homework and I'll talk and work."

He chuckles. "If only Leo had your homework ethic."

I take out a piece of paper and start the essay along with the incredibly long tale that started in gym. He nods and listens as I shift to my notes on Macbeth and how Chiron wants me to tutor Percy. I pull out my Delta laptop and start researching black holes while telling about this blind date I had to wait on. So, after about fifty minutes, I had all my websites, had finally finished my story, and it's only 11:30. The notes took less time than I thought and so did the essay.

I look up at look to see Thals sitting next to him and the two are paying bills and planning the boys' physical check ups for basketball. "When did you get here Thals?"

She smiles. "At the point where you duo flipped that boy. Also, remind Nico to come over here with Hazel this weekend. I haven't seen those two in ages."

Luke and I snort. We both know she saw them last weekend at their place. She just knows Nico will try to get out of it if he's not reminded, it's their gag.

I smirk. "Will do Thals. Now, can I take my shower?"

Luke gave me a look. "Fine, just try not to pick fights with drunk gang members, unless it's self defense."

I sigh. "You know it was for that reason."

He sighed and ruffles my curls. "Just be careful, Annie."

"Couldn't have said it any better Luke." Thals gives the same version of affection.

The rest of the night goes on as usual; shower, finish third of food, finish homework, and sleep. I forget the envelope and I promise myself I'll open it come morning.

I don't own PJO or HoO. Please review or don't. Also, thanks to anyone who viewed, followed, or favorited this story