AN: I'm SO sorry it took so long for me to update! I know, I'm a horrible person, but please don't hate me too much. Thank you so much to everyone who alerted, favourited and reviewed - it means so much to a newbie writer like me! I have to thank chronos the cookie thief (awesome name by the way) for PMing me - it made me feel so guilty for leaving you all hanging :(. Also Alexander Kreof, your review was definitely motivation to update - I don't have any intention of having my eyes ripped out anytime soon ;) But thanks to everyone, you make it such a joy to write.

Also - I apologise in advance for my references to places in NYC. I have never been there, so I relied on Google Maps to find some likely places. I will happily accept any alternative recommendations from anyone who knows the area better than me!

Sorry for such a long AN, I know the only thing you're really here for is the story. So, I hope you enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Christmas has come and gone, but Percy Jackson and everything you recognise still DO NOT belong to me. I only claim credit for the plot.

Untameable Seas

Summary:

Semi – AU. Percy is a homeless half-blood, who was forced to run away from home when he was five, and has been sleeping rough ever since. When Grover and Annabeth find him, he won't trust anyone, and definitely doesn't want to come to this 'camp' with them. Will they ever gain his trust? Told in Annabeth's POV. Set during The Lightning Thief.

Chapter 2

I was right.

This trip wasn't dangerous – it was the complete opposite. It was so very dull.

I was posing as a transfer student to Grover's school: Yancy Academy. We thought that was probably the easiest way to be able to look for our half-blood candidate, and still have somewhere to stay.

Unfortunately, the problem with pretending to go to school was that, well, you had to go to school.

Don't get me wrong – I normally like school. I actually missed it at Camp Half-Blood, being a child of Athena and all, but this school was different.

Yancy Academy, as I said before, is a school for 'troubled' kids. Basically meaning they all think they're really cool and tough, because they've been kicked out of numerous schools.

I didn't think that was cool. According to the summer campers I talk to, that's life for a half-blood. We're always targeted by monsters, so staying in one place for too long never really works – that is, if you don't get kicked out before you can leave.

Anyway, that sort of attitude didn't make me the most popular new girl. Although, at least I had Grover. He was here all year, and apparently he didn't have any friends; he was bullied. That made me feel really bad, but luckily Grover just waved my sympathy off and said it was normal for satyrs. It didn't stop me feeling guilty though, for envying the satyrs for being able to go out into the mortal world. I hadn't realised it was so cruel.

But back to the point. We had to go to lessons and pretend to be regular Yancy students, and then every evening and weekend we snuck out to look for our mystery guy.

So far, no luck.

We had been here for three weeks now, and we still had nothing to tell Chiron. We IM-ed him every night, just so he knew we were still alive, and also to tell him how the search was going. It was a bit depressing, having to tell him we had nothing, night after night.

Some of the Yancy kids were getting suspicious too. At first, when they noticed we kept disappearing, they thought we were dating. The very idea made me laugh when I was cornered by a group of 'popular' girls who were trying to scare me. But now I think they suspected something. Of course, it wouldn't be the truth. Grover was right, there were definitely no half-bloods here, and the fact that two students keep sneaking out doesn't exactly lend itself to the conclusion that the Greek gods are real.

So we needed results, so we could get this stupid play-act over with and go back to camp. Strange, that although I'd been begging Chiron for years to let me visit the mortal world, now I was here all I wanted to do was leave again.

Grover and I were sitting in the cafeteria at lunch, alone of course, on Friday. By the end of this week, we were determined to have something to tell Chiron.

Suddenly, the cafeteria doors thudded open, and the group of 'popular' boys entered. Half the girls in the room suddenly went silent, and blushed into their pasta.

Pathetic. I thought. None of the boys were even that handsome, and a few of them looked like they'd been in a fight recently. They were trying to make it look impressive, that they'd been dumb enough to have a brawl, but all I could think was how badly they must have been beaten.

The guy at the front was sporting a huge black-eye, and wasn't using his right arm at all. It hung limply at his side. A couple of the others were limping, and the last one looked dazed, as if he'd taken a heavy hit to the head and could still see stars. I knew the signs – enough people at camp get knocked out in training for me to be able to tell. Only thing was, that normally only lasted a maximum of half-an-hour. This must have happened last night, and yet the guy still looked as though he was away with the fairies.

I frowned, and shared a look with Grover. He nodded, confirming my suspicions. This was the same group that had tried to beat up our mystery guy. They'd clearly had another talk with him.

'Grover, we need to hear what they're saying!' I said.

He nodded. 'Use your Yankees cap. Pretend to go to the bathroom or something,'

It was a good idea. My mom had given me a magical baseball cap, which made the wearer invisible. It had been a twelfth birthday present.

I said I'd meet him back at his room, so he didn't have to stay here on his own. I looked over at the group, and saw the 'popular' girls were going over to them. This was my chance. I quickly strode to the toilets in the corner of the cafeteria, put on the hat and came straight back out again.

Now, the difficult bit. Getting to their table without barging into anyone was going to be tricky with so many students in the cafeteria. I scanned the room quickly for anything that could help. Then, I smiled.

It was a bit tricky to get up, but eventually I was stood on the glass roof of one of the many food counters. They stretched ahead in a straight line directly to their table. I lightly jogged across, and jumped down. Then it was simply a matter of crawling under the nearest table, and listening.

This is where I envied Grover his incredible satyr hearing. It would have been easy for him, but I hadn't thought to give him my cap. I was a little possessive of it, seeing as it was the only thing my mom had ever given me. Never mind. I was close enough to manage.

'-so brave of you!' I heard one of the girls gushing. It made me cringe.

'It was nothin'. We don't want that sort around here. They're just scum that no one that wants around,' I heard one of the gang say. They? I thought, but then smirked. This mystery kid had wounded the group's pride. They couldn't face being beaten by one lonesome homeless kid, so they had invented an entire group. I was so busy trying not to laugh; I almost missed what was said next.

'-were there?' another 'popular' girl was asking.

'Oh there was this massive gang of them. There must've been twenty of 'em. Probably too afraid to wander around alone, eh?' The same guy said. He must be the leader. The others laughed and clapped him on the shoulder, impressed by his wit.

I could barely contain a snort at the irony of his statement. That gang are never seen apart, and they were taken apart by one rogue half-blood, who doesn't know he's a half-blood, and they're accusing him of being afraid of wandering around alone?

'Wow, you were so brave to take them on!' Barbie 1 was repeating herself. 'I can't believe we've never seen them before, if there're so many of them.'

I could tell from the pause that the gang was trying to think of an answer that didn't contradict their explanation of events. Their puny brains were probably struggling to get past the initial 'Uh oh'.

It was a long pause.

'Uh... Well it wasn't that close. They're sleeping rough down at Battery Park.' one of them finally answered.

The popular girls accepted the excuse straight away. They carried on gushing, asking for blow-by-blow accounts and demonstrations. I realised I wasn't going to get anything else from this conversation.

I climbed out from underneath my table, and left the cafeteria – trying to avoid everyone again. I think there was a 5th grader who will be forever confused as to why her books suddenly threw themselves on the floor. Sorry about that.

Anyway, I went to meet Grover in his room. He should probably stop looking quite so unconcerned by invisible people knocking on his door – it makes him perfect for pranks.

I stepped past him into the room – which was thankfully empty except for us – and turned to face him.

'Grover!' I stage-whispered, 'Shut the door already!'

The poor goat jumped about a foot. He was still staring at the corridor when I spoke, so I don't think he realised I was already in.

'Sorry!' I said, whipping off the hat. I sat down on his bed and waited as he shut the door and turned back to face me.

'Gods Annabeth, you terrified me half to death!' he said, putting a hand over his heart dramatically.

'I said sorry! Stop being such a drama queen Grover,' I said teasingly.

He walked over to lean against a post on the bunk bed opposite his. 'So... did you find anything out?' he asked.

'It was definitely our guy. They were pretending there was a gang of twenty to impress the girls though,' I paused, and mimed gagging slightly, which made Grover smile, 'And they said he was staying down at Battery Park, although that might have been a lie to back up their story.'

Grover looked thoughtful, 'Well, we might as well check out Battery Park. It's not like we've got any other ideas,' he said.

'Could do. We should keep an eye on those boys as well, in case they go find him again. Especially if they were lying about Battery Park'. I agreed.

Plans made, we parted ways to go to our afternoon lessons.

*** TIME JUMP ***

I met up with Grover just outside the school grounds, as usual. For a school for supposed delinquents, the security is awful. At one point the only boundary is a foot-deep hedge, which obviously didn't bother us much. Grover's woodland magic might not be the best, but I can reliably inform you that branches and leaves are not the most resistant of materials to a celestial bronze dagger.

Although, I intend to do some research when I get back to camp on how celestial bronze can defeat trees, but not mortals.

Back to more pressing matters though, and it turned out whichever god or goddess controlled luck was in a good mood that evening. As we were heading away from school, we ran into our favourite crowd of bullies. Or at least, spotted them sneaking out of the grounds with a whole lot less grace and dignity than we had.

They obviously hadn't taken well to having their butts kicked by one lone kid. Twice.

Normally I would have to fight a glare every time I saw even one of them – not that they ever went anywhere on their own – but this time I had to stop myself from grinning like a maniac. This was going to make our job so much easier.

Grover seemed to be following my train of thought, and we shared a brief smile before quickly following our new best friends.

They led us to an alleyway barely five minutes from Yancy Academy. We'd saved ourselves a long walk as well – this was getting better and better.

The leader of the group stepped into the alleyway first, straightening his shoulders before shouting into the darkness.

'Hey, freak! We know you're in there, why're you hiding? Scared to face us like a man?'

I had to stifle a snort at that. It had probably taken him hours to compose that speech. And the idea that they were braver than this kid? Don't make me laugh.

But then I saw a shadow move at the back of the alleyway. The dim streetlights cast a huge silhouette on the rear wall of the alley, as the reason we were here rose and stepped into the light.

The leader stepped back nervously to blend back into the lines of his friends, but was left looking lost when he realised they had backed away too. His head whipped back around to face the alley as a voice spoke from the shadows.

'Are you sure you want to do this again? You just interrupted my nap.'

AN: Please don't kill me! Epic Percy-ness will be up soon! (Feel free to rant at me to update if it's not).

As always, I'd love to know what you think. Please leave a review if you have anything you want to say, and I will try to accomodate any constructive criticism.

Hope you all enjoyed the holidays and are enjoying 2013 so far!

SarcasticPerson