A/N Argh! I'm sorry I delayed a little in updating. I really wish I didn't have to be so boring in beginnings… They are aggravatingly hard to create for me. Well, I tried to keep it as entertaining as I could, so I hope you like Chapter 2.

When my alarm went off on the first day of school, I felt as though my summer was only a faded dream, and that the reality was, school never ends. I got ready slowly, half-asleep. I walked out and passed Rachel's house and waved to her and Nico.

I kept my quick pace until the school was in sight, because then I started to slow down. Since the day I was told Annabeth was coming, I pushed her to the back of my mind, but as I got closer to school, I began to get nervous. I didn't know why, but deep down inside I knew I was wondering how I'd react when I saw Annabeth, if I saw her.

I had to pick up my pace, or I would've been late, so I kept my head down and walked faster. The truth is, I was making sure that I could delay the time I meet Annabeth so I wouldn't be in that awkward moment where I have to think of something to say, since we haven't seen each other in years, and for that lingering fact I can't remember too much about our relationship. As I approached closer to the school, Will Solace, my fellow classmate from last year, tagged along.

"Hey, Percy, do you remember Nancy Bobofit?" he asked.

I nodded. I definitely knew Nancy. That red-head was a kleptomaniac and stole from everyone. She was my locker neighbor last year and completely messed everything up for my sophomore year. I "lost" projects, my laptop, clothes, secret notes, etc. I was pretty sure Nancy had something against me.

"Well," Will continued, "Travis told me that Katie told him Nancy's got a thing for you now. She's waiting for you to ask her out."

I gave him a suspicious look. It didn't make sense. Then came the 'what if' scenario if we did end up dating, which made me shudder. Sure, Nancy was pretty, but what she could do to me if we were dating sent a chill down my back. Just like Annabeth, I pushed Nancy to the back of my mind, and hoped that I wouldn't have to bump into her today. I entered the school building, and checked the lists and my schedule.

I found my locker and got everything together for the first day. When I shut it, I saw my locker neighbor, who was organizing her textbooks through her locker. She was the same height as me and was probably in the same grade. Under a Yankees cap, I noticed she had blonde hair.

"No hats in the school building," I commented.

She turned to face me, but the shadow of the hat blocked out her eyes. "I'll take it off when class starts," she gave me one of those purely fake smiles you'd give to a teacher. "I promise," she replied in a mockingly-sweet voice and slammed her locker shut, which made me flinch. She smirked, got her bag and walked right past me. I watched her walk down the hall, until the bell rang. I got my bag and headed over to my first class.

I entered the classroom and sat in the desk next to Grover. As the class all got settled into their desks, the teacher got out of his desk. I looked carefully at the whiteboard. On it he wrote his name, Mr. Simmey, who was teaching us US History.

"Good morning class," Mr. Simmey smiled in that old teacher kind of way. "If you haven't looked around," he pointed to the whiteboard, "My name is Mr. Sidney."

Oh, I thought. The reason his name wasn't Mr. Simmey was the fact that I was dyslexic, so I probably read it wrong on the whiteboard. I prayed in my chair that Mr. Sidney wasn't the kind of teacher to write on the board a lot.

For the whole time of the class, Mr. Sidney explained what his class and expectations were all about. I didn't really pay attention and almost fell asleep, until the bell rang. My next class was English, and Grover was in that class with me too, so we walked down together.

"So," he began, "Did you see her yet?"

I looked at him, "Who, Nancy?"

"What?" He gave me an odd look, "Nancy? Of course not. Annabeth. Have you seen Annabeth yet?"

I shook my head. I didn't even remember what she looked like, so how could I have recognized her? "She wasn't in our class, was she?"

Grover shook his head, "I think she's in my Biology class, though."

We entered the English room. Grover went to go sit next to his girlfriend, Juniper and left me to find my own seat. I went to sit next to Miranda Gardiner, since I didn't trust sitting next to her boyfriend, Connor Stoll, considering his love for pranking. I sat down and got out my English binder and my textbook, until someone touched me shoulder from behind. I turned around and low and behold, it was Nancy.

I sighed, "What do you want to bug me about this time, Nancy?"

"Just wondering," she glanced back at her little 'friends' giggling beside her, "how your summer was?" Her tone of voice was so much nicer than the Nancy who used to push me and Grover around. For a second, I wondered what they did to the real Nancy.

"It was good," I said with a fake smile. It made me a little confused. Why did she care about my summer? I turned back to the front of the room, and I swear I heard Nancy and her friends squeal. On the other side of Miranda I saw Connor Stoll looking at me, stifling a laugh. I tried to ignore it. The teacher, Mrs. Glen, entered the classroom, and class started. Most of the time, I struggled to read everything or just looked out the window. The bell rang. I left the class.

Basically, for the rest of the day, all my classes went like that, except with different teachers, students, and rooms. The bell rang, and the first day of school was over. I headed over to my locker.

When I got all my homework and things together, I saw Grover heading over. He was talking to a girl with curly blonde hair in a ponytail. The girl opened the locker next to me. Then I realized, Yankees Cap Girl. Grover, finally noticed me and asked, "Percy, do you remember Annabeth?" pointing to Yankees Cap Girl.

Annabeth raised her eyebrows, "Wait, that's Percy?" she scanned me over, "I didn't know you looked so—"

"Hot?" I finished for her.

She rolled her eyes. I noticed they were a startling gray. "I was going to say old, but sure, we can go with hot," she replied with a smirk. "Well," she opened up her hands, "I guess we're locker neighbors for the year."

"Yeah."

"Yup," she nodded. The three of us stood there for a couple seconds.

"So…" I tried to come up with something to say, "Where are you headed after?"

"I'm headed to Thalia's coffee shop to help out. It's the least I can do for her hospitality," she said simply.

"Do you mind if Grover and I come with you?" I asked.

"Actually, I have a date with Juniper…" he checked his watch, "and I'll need to get going now! Bye Percy, Annabeth!" he dashed as fast as his little legs could carry him.

I sighed and fixed the question, "Do you mind if I come with you? I'm kind of up for some coffee."

"Sure," she smiled and closed her locker. "Let's go," she said as we began to walk down the hall.

When we were out of the school building, Annabeth started up a conversation, "So, I heard that you have a hard time remembering who I am."

I immediately turned to look at her, "Who told you that?"

"Thalia," she replied.

I felt my ears turn red. I didn't want to be Percy Jackson at the moment, because this was just embarrasing, but I had to think of something to say, "Oh, um…er well—"

She laughed, 'It's okay, I wouldn't expect you to remember too much, but, "

"But?"

"I want you to remember one thing,"

"What do I want to remember?"

She smirked, "The summer you turned ten."

I paused to think, "What?" I asked, not remembering why it should've been important.

She shook her head, "Never mind. Don't think about it too much, Seaweed Brain."

Her face was unreadable, so I didn't know how I was supposed to react. Inside, I felt frustratingly guilty. We continued down the streets without another word. All I could think about is why I was so bad at remembering things and how embarrassing it was. I glanced to look at Annabeth again, she seemed a little…irritated? I looked up to the sky and kept thinking about what I did (or should've done) when I turned ten.

After a couple blocks, I lost my train of thought because we were entering the coffee shop.

We opened the door. "Thalia," Annabeth called, "I'm back from school."

Thalia poked her head out from the kitchen entryway and jumped over the counter, "Great! So, grab an apron and get ready to be in charge of serving people." Annabeth nodded and headed over to the kitchen.

I watched the wavy-blonde curls of her ponytail swing up then down while she glided over the counter. It gave me an odd case of déjà vu, and as I watched her, for some reason I had a sudden urge to yank the curls of her hair, just so I could see them bounce back up, kind of like a spring. I blinked hard twice, why did I just think about yanking a girl's hair?

A/N Haha…the urge to pull her hair will come up later. I got the idea from one of the Ramona books (not really sure which one) by Beverly Cleary, so I don't own that (and if you didn't know, I don't own PJO either). I think this chapter was a little on the boring side, but bits and pieces will be important later. We're only at the beginning...