I'm not usually smooth with women, although I've had my fair share of girls. My usual plan is to just start talking to them and buy them a drink or five and at some point we'll leave together. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's a dirty pirate trick, I know, but to be honest I don't see it as "taking advantage" of a girl, since usually I'm just as drunk as she is.

With Annabeth, my hot, blonde female Captain, it's different. Maybe it's just the thought that she's a captain, that is extremely attractive to me, or maybe it's her lean legs or her eyes, that always seem to know what you're thinking. She's just so confident and oozes out this aura of seductiveness, in an incredibly different way from any other girl I've ever been interested in.

So considering that I'm not particularly good with women, I wasn't all too mortified when I thought about our last conversation. Sure, I had said some idiotic stuff, but she knew that I had been drunk and she hadn't seemed to fazed by it – by what I could remember.

These were the thoughts I had when I left my cabin toilet at 7:00 o'clock the morning after, with the taste of vomit in my mouth and a pounding headache. Leo was sticking his dirty feet into some boots and grinned widely when he saw me. "Hey, man. Where'd you hang around last night? I didn't even hear you come in."

I rubbed my temple and almost told him to just shut up. His regular voice was too loud. "I fell asleep."

Luckily he didn't ask much else to that, probably because he had experienced things way worse and more dramatic than I had in department drinking and drugs. He just nodded and jumped up. Asad was still fast asleep and Olivier was staring at me through the squinted eyes. The guy freaked me out. I had found out that he was half Russian, half Norwegian and that he had been on a ship in Europe, close to the shores of Spain and Portugal before coming here. He had gotten onto the ship by crawling through one of the portholes and living in the basement off of the apple-storage for three weeks, before someone found him and placed him in Corridor 30.

I followed Leo out of the door and up the stairs to the deck. The sunlight was harsh and I squinted my eyes shut. "Tartarus," I muttered.

"What?" Leo looked at me. He was wearing a striped shirt and a bandana around his head and he looked like an old, Spanish grandma. The only difference was his gun that was sticking out of his back pocket. I almost smiled at the thought of him fighting with that thing in that outfit.

"What?"

"What'd you just say?"

"Just something my father used to say," I grumbled. Why did he have to question everything today? I wasn't exactly in the mood for talking, since I had a massive hangover.

"Tartarus," Leo chuckled. "New vocab."

"Hm."

My eyes finally adjusted to the light and I scanned around the boat. It was pretty empty, since we were relatively early for our shift. It was supposed to start at seven, but most didn't turn up until twenty minutes past. My eyes landed on Annabeth, who was standing in front of her cabin, sharpening her dagger. When she looked up, I waved.

She completely ignored me. My cheeks heated up.

"LOL," Leo muttered.

"What?"

"Laugh out loud," he grinned at me. "Something my father used to say."

I rolled my eyes.

The sun came up properly around thirty minutes later and forty minutes later, the deck was scrambling with men. William and Willem (who I had found out were brothers) stampeded past, each with a hard-boiled egg in their hand. Annabeth was standing by the stern, drawing something with a feather and ink. Jase kept crawling up and down the ladder, leading up to the lookout post and yelling things at everyone, which he was very good at.

I kept staring at him, without noticing so. "He doesn't fit in here," I thought aloud.

Leo looked up from his map-drawing. I was supposed to be sorting apples from oranges from carrots into three separate boxes.

"Who, Jase?"

"Yeah."

"He's not meant to be a pirate, I don't think. He seems much too sturdy."

"Yeah."

"You know his name's actually Jason, right? He hates it when people call him Jase."

"I know his name's Jason. Everyone calls him Jase though, right?"

"Maybe that why he's pissed 24/7," he shrugged. "Or maybe he misses his girlfriend."

"He has a girlfriend?"

"Uh huh. Name's Piper, I think. Octavian used to moan all the time about how much Jase talks about his girl at home."

I couldn't help but wonder how a guy like Jason got a girlfriend. Where would he meet her? Book club? Or because, he like, tried to kill her or something? I didn't see Jason as a guy who had many hobbies except being a killing-machine pirate. Maybe girls liked that nowadays?

"What happened to Octavian?"

"Captain Chase threw him off the boat. One morning at like, four am we just heard his begging for mercy and then a splash and when he was gone the next day, we all knew what had happened," Leo shrugged. "There were lots of rumours, but William said that he had tried hugging her from behind and then she had judo flipped him into the ocean. There was an island nearby, so I'm sure he survived it though."

I couldn't help but overlook his grin, while telling the story.

"Why are you smiling?"

"Dude," Leo looked at me, eyes serious. "Octavian was the most annoying guy ever. All he ever talked about was himself and how we deserved to be captain of this ship and blah. Everyone hated him. We celebrated for, like, three days after he was thrown off."

I didn't really have anything to say to that.

"Anyway, not many get thrown off the ship with no warning. Usually Captain holds a big ceremony, before making them crawl down the plank. It's hilarious."

"Sounds fun," I muttered.

Leo rolled his eyes. "You're being a fun sponge."

"I have a headache."

"Get over yourself, Jackson."

We scrubbed the deck, cleaned the sails, cut up new firewood, had a quick lunch break, where Leo got to take the rest of the day off. My shift went until 22:00 o'clock, so I was stuck washing the dishes, cleaning and securing weapons and sorting in the basement.

It was a bit of a surprise when Annabeth came walking down the stairs, basket of bananas in her hands.

"Hey," I said.

"Hello."

There was a short awkward silence, where she put down the basket. She turned around to leave again, but my hands were aching and my feet were blistered, so I wanted to make my short opportunity of pause last.

"Um," I muttered to get her attention, "I wanted to ask why it is that my shift is so much longer than the others?"

"Because you're new."

"But no one else had a shift this long. Ever," I protested.

She turned around and started looking through a box on the other side of the cluttered room and pulled out some ancient looking maps, which she started studying. I sighed, exasperated.

"You're really frustrating," I said and immediately regretted it. It was strictly forbidden to say something like that to your captain.

"You're really cocky and unintelligent."

I blinked. "Uh, okay."

She sighed and secured the maps between her belt and her shirt-dress, looking up at me through her lashes. "Look, Mr Jackson. Just because we had a little heart to heart yesterday night doesn't mean you can go around being a douche. You have to fulfill your job like everyone else does, without complaint. And you should really dig up some family history."

"Can't you just tell me?"

She didn't reply at first, but went back to digging through the basket behind her. Finally she pulled out a book.

"If you show this to anyone I'll stick a dagger in your throat," she handed me the book. "Now scram. Your shift's over."

I glanced at the ticking clock above the staircase and realized that it was only 19:00. "Thank you… Captain Chase."

She rolled her eyes and turned her back to me. I smiled to myself, before hurrying up the stairs.

I walked across the deck, thoughts rushing through my head. Did we really have a heart to heart last night? What did that even mean? I also got the strange feeling that she spoke more to me than to the other newbies. Or was I completely mistaken?

I hurried down the stairs to Corridor 30 and was pleased to see that our room was empty. Sitting down on my bunk, I finally got to inspect the books cover.

It was leather bound and brown and on the front there was a big, golden A.C. Annabeth Chase? But the book looked too old to be hers. It was basically falling to pieces and it was covered in dust and cobwebs. I carefully opened the first page.

1897

Athena Chase

Private journal

I felt a bit bad for reading this girls diary, which I interpreted to be someone in Annabeths family. Maybe her mother? Probably. Why on earth was Annabeth giving me her mother's old diary? My heart jumped excitedly. Somehow this felt a lot more intimate and forbidden than a lot of other things I had done in my life, which was weird. I was a pirate, for God's sake. But girls always made this huge deal out of not reading someone's diary and I had never goten to red one.

I turned the next page and quickly scanned through the words, although I found nothing of interest. Some of the words were faltered and missing and it seemed as though whole pages had been ripped out. I kept turning the pages, waiting for something interesting to pop out.

"Annabeth must overtake my role once I die. I am worried for her. She is so very young, but she is beyond many standards of intelligence and charisma. I am positive that she will have a wonderful debut in this world. Although I can tell that she hides herself from me. She enjoys being on her own, will often leave the dinner parties, the brunches I organize for her. I think she respects me and that is good, but I would like to have a relationship to my daughter. She is special to me and my heart, but I am simply not very good at showing so."

So it was her mother. I wondered what Annabeth had thought while reading this, for she must have read it, otherwise she wouldn't know to give it to me. I started getting the feeling that there was much more to this girl than she let on.

I turned another few pages, until I noticed a familiar name. Eagerly, I began reading.

"Poseidon thought he could win over me, over us. He is obsessed with power and beauty, but he ought to know that often neither of these things come in handy. He must realize that the largest blessing for someone of mankind is a free and clever mind, open for possibilities. He is a fool for thinking that the humble village would prefer his fountain, over something so fine and practical as an olive tree. I give them a gift of time and practicality, he gives them decorations.

I have heard that he has a son with a young woman from the mainland, with the name Sally. I do hope that boy does not take after his father and that he never comes in contact with neither Annabeth nor Malcolm."

I clap the book closed,. That was why she didn't like me? Because her mother had a problem with my father? That was just messed up. I would've thought that Annabeth was better than that. I was fuming, but I still opened the books back up. I wanted to find out who Malcolm was, so I went hastily through the diary. My father's name popped up a couple more times, so did Annabeth's, even mine, but the name Malcolm didn't seem to have any relevance to Athena again until the vry end of the journal.

"17 of October 1903

I have driven my son over the edge. Forever. I don't know what it is I do wrong, but it seems that I was just not meant to be a mother. I have failed my children completely. I don't deserve to see Annabeth anymore. She will be better off without me. I will join Malcolm in a place where we are safe and without sin."

My eyes widened. This was the last diary entry. On the next page there was a letter, which I unfolded.

"My dearest,

I love you. I have never had this much faith in anyone.

Goodbye, my love."

The note had been crumpled, before being stuck in here again. It felt wrong to have read this. Too personal. I don't think that Annabeth had had these entries in mind when she gave me the journal. It was still a bit confusing, but from what I could figure out, it seemed as though Malcolm had committed suicide and their mother, Athena Chase, had followed along, leaving Annabeth alone with a huge ship and a huge responsibility.

I thought of last night and I remembered that she had been crying. Today was the 18th of October. I huffed and leaned back against the swaying wall of the ship, closing my eyes. Maybe Annabeth was intimidating, but she was just a girl. And she was scared. She must be scared.

Although I can tell she hides herself from me.

Maybe Annabeth put on such a good show, such a good façade that no one realized what was actually going on in her mind. I felt the urge to go hug her and comfort her, but I didn't know if that was what she needed or what I needed.

I heard footsteps out in the hallway and quickly stuffed the book underneath my covers. The door opened and Leo peeked in.

"Jackson?"

I forced a grin. "It is I."

"Are you ditching work?"

"Nah, Captain let me leave."

"Well, that is great! Because we're going to part-ay."

"But –"

"Yes, yes. No alcohol for you. You're going to watch while I get wasted."

"Great."

"Come on now," he cocked his head to the side and smiled his creepy smile. I got up slowly and followed him out the door, almost tripping as the boat lurched to one side.

"Woah," Leo laughed maniacally and I couldn't help but think that he had already had a couple drinks. "What was that?"

I pushed past him and hurried up to deck. It had begun raining slightly and the waves around the boat were starting to act up. They were already a couple metres high, but they would have to get three metres higher before being able to threaten the gigantic ship. Still, they were already large enough to make the boat sway and shake uncontrollably.

Crewmembers started yelling stuff, especially when the rain started coming down heavier. Leo stumbled up the stairs, but I stopped him before he got to set foot on deck. "You're not coming up here drunk."

I was expecting him to protest, but he just shrugged and went back down. One less thing to worry about.

I hurried over to William, who was securing the rescue boats, so that they wouldn't fly off. "How serious is it?"

He glanced over the side of the boat. "Not too bad yet," he had to yell over the rain. "It's just coming out of no where."

"How big are the waves going to get?"

"Kid, I'm no fortune teller. Ask the captain."

I really didn't want to ask the captain, so I jogged over to Willem, who was standing on the other side of the boat. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

I couldn't help but feel a little stupid. I was supposed to be son of Poseidon for God's sake, and here I was having no idea what to do when the waters were acting up. Willem glanced down at me, maximizing my feeling of being useless.

He looked around the ship. "I think everything's been taken care of, lad. Just don't panic and make sure no newbies panic. Good?"

I nodded and decided to take a quick tour of the boat to see if there was really nothing I could take care of. It didn't seem as serious as it felt. Some crewmembers were still just lounging around, smoking cigars and laughing. I noticed Asad talking with Jason. Olivier was probably doing something with his strong, buff arms, like breaking wood to burn with his bare hands or something, although I couldn't see him anywhere.

I noticed that I was looking for a familiar blonde head of hair, without actually wanting to talk to her. Maybe I just wanted to see that she was alright, but I couldn't spot her anywhere. The ship lurched again, this time even more violently and I was thrown against the railing. The laughter from the men died and I saw Geoffrey, who was one of the older men on this ship, get up and look out to sea, worried.

I groaned and rubbed my head, which was pounding. Luckily I seemed to get off with a bump, no blood. I got to my feet and looked out to the ocean. The waves were growing and the ones that had seemed far away before were coming closer. I estimated them to be around seven metres and glancing at Geoffrey and Willem, they didn't seem to upbeat about it either.

Geoffrey walked hastily to the captain's cabin, but he didn't even have time to knock, before the door flew open. Annabeth stepped out on deck and jogged over to the railing to look out. She muttered something.

"We need everybody on deck!" she yelled out. I prayed that no one would look in our cabin and find Leo.

Thats when the waves started hitting. The boat tilted so violently that the ones who didn't hold on to the other side, slid all the way down and hit the rail on the opposite side. Most recovered quickly and started securing everything onto poles or brought them downstairs, so that no one would get hit on the head by a flying chair. Water flushed onto deck and the rain started coming down in waterfalls. I was drenched in seconds.

I noticed Annabeth beckoning me over. "Where is Mr Valdez?"

My heart started beating and I tried to send her a message with my eyes, to not ask after him so publically. Not that anyone was listening right now anyway.

"Percy, answer me!"

"I don't know!"

She grumbled something, but there wasn't much time for arguing.

"You called me Percy!" I yelled over the wind.

She sent me a glare.

I couldn't help but grin as I held on as tightly as I could. There wasn't much else to do now, except hold on. Everything had been brought downstairs and there were already three people pulling at the steering wheel. Annabeth looked grim.

"How long does a storm like this usually take?"

"It depends on many factors," she practically had to scream for me to understand her.

"I read the diary."

"You understand now?"

"No!" I yelled. She looked at me, looking genuinely surprised.

"Seriously?"

"I don't care what your mother thought of my father!"

"I do!"

"Did your brother commit suicide?" To be honest, I wasn't expecting her to hear that. And to be honest, I wasn't really thinking in that moment.

Her eyes widened and she stared at me, in complete chock for a second.

"I'm sorry!" I tried. She didn't respond and for that short moment of chock, she didn't hold on tightly enough. A gigantic wave washed over the deck from the other side, tipping the boat. Her scream was drowned in salt water.

"Annabeth!"

I reached down to grab her, my own hand slipping on the metal rail I was holding on to. No, no, no, no, was all I could think. Then a hand grabbed onto mine and with all my remaining might, I pulled her back onto deck. We landed clumsily, her on top of me, both completely soaked from top to toe. She stared at me. Then she punched me in the nose.

"What the hell? I just –"

She leaned down and placed her lips on mine. The kiss tasted of blood and salt water and it was short and passionate. Then she got up and walked away, hands above her head as if to shield herself from the rain.

The ship landed on the sea with a bump, after being lifted over a huge wave, but I didn't get up. I just lied there and stared up, partly smiling, partly crying, with a blood nose and a bruised head. The rain was still pounding down, but for a short moment I almost enjoyed it. She really messed with my head.

I couldn't help but look around to see if anyone had seen it, but no one was giving me weird looks. I sighed in relief.

"Jackson, sit your ass down somewhere that's not in the middle of everything!" Willem yelled at me.

I nodded numbly and pushed myself to the side of the boat, where I sat and let the waves crash in over me until the storm had calmed down, a maniac smile plastered to my face.