Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns all the rights to Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Heroes of Olympus. I am simply creating a work for enjoyment, and no copyright infringements are meant.

Rating: K+

Author's Note: This is a shorter chapter, but I hope you still enjoy it. The next one will be longer, I promise :)

Chapter 2

School drags on seemingly forever the next day. Annabeth loves school, especially her business management class and her modular technology class (in which she's competing with her friend to see who can make the sturdiest and coolest looking bridge out of toothpicks). Today, though, she's unfocused and edging, just wanting to go explore her beach.

"Are you okay, Annabeth?" Piper asks at lunch, stealing fries from Annabeth's tray. "The school year is almost over, you know. Only two weeks left."

"I just want it to be over," Annabeth sighs, pushing her peas around with a plastic fork. Two weeks seems like an infinity. A long, miserable infinity. "I have plans for after school, but the day seems longer than ever."

"Do you have a boyfriend?" Piper teases, and Annabeth playfully punches her on the shoulder. Piper should know better by now, if Annabeth's dating past is any consolation.

"The better question is if you really have to bother to ask. You know smart girls don't get guys. Well, with you exception of you. Thalia's brother is totally crushing on you."

Piper's cheeks turn red. "Jason?"

Annabeth laughs, and for the moment her impatientness is forgotten. "Ooh, you like him."

"Well, I mean, he is kinda cute…" Piper sighs happily, twisting one of her choppy braids around her finger. "Fine, you win this time. But I'm going to find you a boyfriend by the end of summer."

"I don't have time for boyfriends," Annabeth replies. "I have two weeks and a year left, then I go to college. Maybe after I graduate I'll find someone." Probably not. Not after her last dating disaster.

Piper lays a hand on her shoulder. "Honey, I hate to break it to you, but love doesn't work that way. You don't choose when you fall for someone. You take a leap, and you hope they return their feelings."

Annabeth doesn't want to think about that. She can control her feelings. All the guys at her school are either just friends or completely disgusting, and she knows she doesn't have to worry about falling for any of them. And it's not like there's any other guys here in Coral Reef. So maybe she crushes on the occasional tourist guy, but they're always gone within forty-eight hours max.

No boys, no problem. Annabeth has this all under wraps. No boyfriends, no drama. No drama, good grades. Good grades, good college. Good college, good job. Good job, good money. Good money, good life. Good life, happiness. No boys needed.

"Thanks, but there's no one for me to fall for here. I'm completely safe from that particular disease," Annabeth says jokingly. "But just in case it is contagious, please don't cough on me."

Piper falls into a fake coughing fit, making sure to get lots of germs all over Annabeth, of course (what else is your best friend supposed to do?) and Annabeth remembers how lucky she is once again. Who needs boys when you have great friends?
-

Annabeth barely has time to toss her notebooks and textbooks into her shoulder bag, along with a water bottle and some snacks before she bikes up to Lincoln street. She reaches the dead end, hops off, and walks her bike through the treeline. After about five minutes of searching she finds a slightly trampled path (most likely Beckendorf) and she follows it until the familiar smell of salt water and sea breeze reaches her. She inhales deeply, her mind clearing instantly, and she forges ahead.

The beach is all that Silena promised, and better. It's like its own little paradise. About fifty yards long is the sandy beach before disappearing into the treeline again, and there are rocky cliffs rising out of the water not too far away to her left. Ahead there's a small island about one hundred yards into the sea. It's covered in trees and probably poison ivy.

The water is sparkling clear with before hues of blue and turquoise and green. The sun is bright and high overhead, though the sand isn't too hot to lay on.

Annabeth lays on the white sand, her books and notes spread out around her. She breathes in the smell of the ocean as she works, and biology makes sense to her for once. This place perfect, and Annabeth wishes she had discovered it years before.

The hours go by in perfect harmony, her eyes glued to the textbooks, her highlighters making rainbows of her notes. She's so immersed in her work that she almost doesn't notice her phone go off.

"Hey," she answers.

"Annabeth! Do you know how late it is?" her mother replies in that strict tone she always uses when Annabeth is in trouble.

"Um…"

"It's past five! Dinner's almost ready, and if you're not home in time…" The threat is unspoken but understood. Annabeth instantly sets to packing up her things, throwing them in her bag haphazardly.

"I'll be home in ten minutes," she states before hanging up. She slings her bag over her shoulder and picks up her bike, glancing back one more time. She squints, seeing something dark hanging off the cliffs. A person, maybe?

There's no time for seeing who it is, though. Annabeth is already in trouble, even without chasing down possible strangers past dinnertime.

The ride home on her bike is almost melancholy. The new beach seems to already be a part of her, even though she's only spent about two hours there. She knows deep down that she'll return to her new sanctuary, every single day until she can no longer.

For now, though, she'll have to be content with the time she's spent today. And maybe tomorrow she can figure out who the stranger climbing the cliffs was—if it was even a person.