The last few weeks of the semester leading up to winter break were hard. School itself had never been his strong suit what with dyslexia and ADHD, but now he kept thinking about what he and Annabeth were going to do with a baby, which made it extremely difficult to focus on finals.

He tried really hard, even harder than usual, to study and ignore bullies. He was afraid that if his mom suspected something was wrong with him, she would ask and he would spill the beans. He very, very, very rarely lied to her, if ever. Annabeth had made him promise to wait to tell anyone though and he intended to support every decision she made.

Percy felt like maybe 16 was the magic number where people grew out of bullying and being a plain jerk. Less people made it a point to single him out and pick on him than at previous schools. Still, other kids had been going to school together since kindergarten and it was only recently that they stopped calling Percy "the new kid." It didn't help that his stepfather was the principal.

It was finally the last day of the semester and Percy couldn't wait to get out of class. When the final bell rang, he was the first out of his seat and out the door. Dodging open lockers and feet stuck out to trip him, he hurried to Paul's office to get the keys to the Prius.

"Have fun at camp," Paul told him. "Come back in one piece."

"I'll see you at Christmas." Percy responded. "It's only a couple of weeks."

Then he all but ran to the front of the school. Stepping out into the cold air, he looked around and smiled when he spotted Annabeth. For about one second.

When he realized his least favorite person in school, Jackson Ellis, was hitting on his girlfriend, he felt his blood boil. He was tempted to set off a sprinkler near Jackson's head but knew Annabeth would be livid if he missed and got her wet instead. Less than a second later, he was reminded why he needn't have worried; Annabeth could handle herself.

Jackson reached out to pull Annabeth closer by her waist but she had stopped him and now he was on his back in a puddle of slushy dirty snow. She looked up at Percy smiling as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. There was a twinkle in her gray eyes as she hoisted the bag on her shoulder.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain." She walked a couple of steps up the stairs and Percy met her halfway. He leaned down to accept a peck on the lips and grinned, resting his hands on her hips.

"I love watching you beat up other people that aren't me."

He took her duffle bag from her and her hand. It was easy to ignore the stares and pointing. He was used to it being a son of one of the big three and all.

Mostly, though, because people were ogling Annabeth, not him. Who could blame them? She was tall, blonde, gorgeous, and tan despite the frigid winter weather. (He would've added smart but none of them knew her so that wasn't why they were staring.) She also had just put the biggest bully at their school flat on his back without blinking an eye.

At the top of Half Blood Hill, Percy and Annabeth turned around hand in hand to wave goodbye to his mother.

"I love you!" They heard her call as she drove away. Peleus breathed a small puff of fire and Percy assumed it meant, 'I love you, too!'

Before they stepped past the boundary line, Percy started to let go of Annabeth's hand, but she held on tighter. He glanced over at her to study her face. She wasn't one for PDA especially around camp where she had a reputation for being intelligent, focused and strong. She was the camper with the most beads. The one time anyone had seen her completely break down was when everyone thought Percy had been killed in a volcanic explosion he himself had caused.

Now he saw the worry lines that creased her forehead. Her bottom lip was bleeding where she had bitten it too hard and her whole body was shaking.

He squeezed her hand, trying to be reassuring, but the truth was that he was terrified as well. They were going to talk to Chiron.

Already people were coming up to greet them. With a deep breath, he pulled Annabeth with him over the magical boundary line.

Her brother Malcolm was the first to reach them. He had the same blond hair and gray eyes as Annabeth. More demigods surrounded them, a good portion Annabeth's siblings. Percy gulped and let go of his girlfriend's hand. For the amount of time he had spent with Annabeth over the years he had never really gotten to know any of her brothers or sisters. He couldn't help but wonder what they would say when they found out.

"You guys came early," Malcolm commented with a smile but Percy could see in his eyes that he had already come up with at least a dozen possibilities as to why.

"Yes, we weren't expecting you til next week." Percy's former teacher had come up behind the campers. He was in his horse form and he towered above them all. "Welcome."

"We wanted to talk to you about something," Annabeth spoke up and Percy was surprised at how smoothly that one sentence came out.

The other campers started asking questions.

"What's going on?" Connor Stoll asked. Percy spotted his curly brown hair and immediately registered his brother Travis wasn't with him, which was strange. They went everywhere together.

"They look perfectly fine. It can't be a monster," someone else whispered.

Percy glanced at Annabeth and saw that she was struggling for words. "It's nothing," he said, throwing out a lopsided grin at everyone else. "Just some history questions. Annabeth's decided to write a paper about why the things her teacher taught them this semester were wrong. You know Annabeth."

The demigods laughed.

Chiron studied her for a moment longer, then shouted, "All right, everyone, back to your lessons and chores. Cabin 11, behave yourselves in the strawberry fields."

"We'll catch up later," Percy told the others. "At the campfire."

Percy and Annabeth followed Chiron to the sky blue Big House. On the porch, Chiron backed himself into his magical wheelchair that made him appear human. He sighed when he looked out at the strawberry fields and saw that Connor had already managed to annoy Katie and was now wrapped in vines.

They sat around a table and Chiron poured them lemonade from a pitcher. The condensation dripped off, leaving little splatters on the wood.

Both of them sipped on their lemonade in silence. Finally Chiron asked, "What do you need to know, dear?"

Annabeth stared at her hands in her lap, nibbling on her bottom lip. She didn't exactly have a question. She didn't even know why she felt like Chiron was the right person to tell.

"Annabeth?" Chiron implored.

"If I'm pregnant am I still allowed to be at camp?"

Chiron studied the two teens sitting in front of him. Percy watched his face. He looked like he couldn't decide between being upset, concerned, or laughing.

"And when it's born," Percy added. "Will our baby be allowed past the borders?"

Stroking his beard, Chiron pursed his lips. "We've had exceptions before. How far along are you?"

Annabeth turned a deep shade of red. This was the question she dreaded most. "Four months on the 17th," she squeaked. Unable to meet his eyes, she stared at his chin.

Chiron's eyebrows shot up and he looked surprised. Percy reached over and squeezed her hand. Everyone would know the significance of the date and everyone would wrongly assume that Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase hadn't wanted to die virgins.

Percy cleared his throat. "I just – we were under the influence of magic, and, um, we –"

"We u-understand that the middle of a war is such an inappropriate time for something l-like that," Annabeth cut him off. "And under normal war circumstances we never would have – I would never. Gods, it only happened that day. We can't even remember it and it hasn't happened again."

"I – don't need to know that," Chiron looked slightly amused. "I am only in charge of keeping you all in line on camp grounds. I'm very sorry that it happened to you both. You both will always be welcomed here and if you would feel safer, you can stay here until the baby is born."

"Thanks, Chiron." Percy felt Annabeth squeeze his fingers and they smiled at each other.