Hi! This one's a short chapter, but it's kinda needed to connect some upcoming events. I hope you enjoy it!

Also, thank you to those who reviewed, especially Shauna Kullden. Your reviews made me smile!

Also, I would really appreciate some suggestions about what to improve in my writing and the storyline. Plus, I want to find a way to incorporate Malcolm in here, but I have no idea how. I have plans for a lot of other characters, though. Malcolm's pretty much the only one who I still need to put in. If you guys have any feedback about how I should do stuff, please let me know!

Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns these guys.

Percy

Grover was the best. The moment he read my text (which outright stated that I got rejected by my first girl), he convinced his wife Juniper into letting him come over. Not only that, but he got my cousin Nico and his boyfriend Will to accompany him. What better friend could a guy ask for?

Of course, that's leaving out the fact that the three of them basically ransacked the outside of my apartment trying to look for my spare keys.

But after 15 minutes of battering up my own self-esteem on the walk home, I felt beyond relieved to be back at home in the company of my best friends.

Speaking of my home, many people would be surprised to find that a man of my success lived in such a small apartment. But I loved it. I spent a majority of my life in an apartment just like this with my amazing mom and eventually Paul. I grew fond of that kind of environment, so I decided to buy my own apartment a couple blocks away from her. That way, I could stay close to her, but still establish my independence. Besides, it's not like I need a huge house, being the only person who lives in it. And I've been happily living in this apartment for 7 years.

So I opened the door to the shocking but lovely sight of Grover sitting on the carpet, playing Mythomagic against Nico and his cheerleader, Will. Naturally, Nico was winning.

"It's so not fair! How come you get the god Pan and I don't?"

Nico grinned. "Because I'm more awesome than you. Deal with it, goat-butt."

I laughed. "Goat-butt? Where did you get that from?"

All three of the guys looked up and greeted me with smiles on their faces. So much better than how Annabeth did, I thought.

Nico was the first to talk about it. "So, I hear some girl rejected you."

I looked down at my feet. "You don't know the half of it."

Will exclaimed, "Well, tell us the other half. I'm a doctor. I heal people. There's no way I won't be able to fix this."

So I told them the story. Afterward, Will predictably stated, "I'm done. There's no way I can fix this."

Nico responded with a smirk. "Thanks for showing him, Percy."

I half-heartedly smiled back at him, but it was Grover's reaction I was waiting for. He always had a knack for reading emotions. If anybody could tell me what I did wrong, he could.

Grover chewed his lip and thought for a minute, trying to drown out the noise of Will and Nico teasing each other. Then he made eye contact with me. "It's not your fault, Percy. You did the best you could. I think, more than anything, it's something wrong with her life that made her react that way. She's probably just taking it out on you."

"But what could possibly be so stressful that she won't even talk to me?"

He smiled. "That's for you to find out, young padawan. Now screw this sentimental stuff. We're going to play the heck out of Mario Kart today. Pizza should come in a couple minutes and I know for sure that you've got ice cream in your freezer."

Suddenly, a female voice came from the direction of the door. "Then let's get this party started."

I whipped my head to the right to see none other than my favorite couple (sorry, Solangelo), Hazel and Frank, walk through the door. Hazel, who happened to be my secretary, had a huge grin on her face, and Frank just looked confused. Then again, he looked like that most of the time.

Grover yelled in excitement. "Hazel! Frank! I thought you guys were on a date!"

Frank complained, "That's what I thought too, but the moment she heard Percy's 'emergency,' she rushed over here."

Hazel waved him off. "We spend enough of our nights together, anyway, and it's not every day Percy's interested in a girl."

Nico groaned. "Nooooo! TMI, sis."

Will tsked while stroking his boyfriend's hair. "Well, it's not like that doesn't apply to us too. Now we just need to find Percy someone to spend the night with."

"What? No, guys. Let's just forget about this. Hazel said it herself. It's time to party, right?"

Hazel gave me a knowing smile. "Sure, Percy. But believe it or not, you deserve someone to be with, and we're not going to rest until you find her. By the way, Jason's busy with Olympus Airlines, so he can't come."

I nodded. Jason was training like crazy, as the heir to the empire his dad built. It had been a while since I last saw him. I made a mental note to invite him out somewhere within the next week.

The night went on raucously, but I didn't feel like joining in. Instead, I spent the night thinking about what Grover said and what Hazel said and everything in between. I wondered when I would meet this girl of my dreams, and whether this Annabeth was the girl of my dreams or whether I should just give up and move on to somebody who didn't make me melt into a giant puddle of slush.

Just like that, my mind faded into sleep, lulled by the sounds of grown men screaming about Mythomagic and their so-called boring lives.

My eyes fluttered open, only to close shut when I saw the bright light streaming in through the windows. Wait… bright light? Was today Saturday? No, it was not. Should there be bright light coming through my window at 7:00 in the morning? No, there shouldn't be.

Alarmed, I rolled off of my bed and glanced at my Nemo wall clock. Shiz. I was supposed to be at work an hour ago.

I stumbled over to my closet, dodging the piles of notebooks and dirty laundry lying on my floor. Frantically, I grabbed the first shirt-pant combo I could find and shoved myself into them. I was already behind on paperwork. There was no way I wasn't going to get in trouble this time.

Not bothering to comb my hair, I rushed out the door, raced down the stairs, and pulled my car out of the parking lot. And of course, today was the perfect day for traffic to jam up the streets. There was no way I was getting to the office until 10:00. Great. Just great.

I slammed my head on the steering wheel in frustration, only to accidentally honk the horn. I am just so darn lucky, aren't I?

Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrate furiously in my pocket. Fumbling, I plucked it out of my pants and swiped right to accept the call. It automatically transferred to my bluetooth. "Hello?"

It was Hazel. "Percy? Where are you?"

I sighed. "Hazel, I'm so sorry. I slept in last night, and I'm on my way right now but the traffic is seriously killing me right now. I don't think I'll be there for at least another half hour."

Hazel worriedly whispered, "Okay. That's cool. But have you heard the news?"

"News? What news?"

"Percy, um, I'm sorry."

"What is it?"

Hazel hesitated. "I'm so sorry, Percy. It's Silena. Her cancer took her."

I dropped my phone. Silena. Silena Beckendorf. Silena, who had been there for me whenever I needed her, especially when it was about love and feelings, which I was never very good at handling. Silena, who had suffered through her husband's tragic death and the loss of her baby at the same time. Silena, who put all of her effort into benefits for police officers other public servicemen, so she could feel at the slightest level that she was making a difference in honor of her brave, selfless husband. Oh gods, Silena.

She had been suffering from breast cancer for a while now. But whenever I visited her at the hospital, she always kept hope. She sounded so alive and excited all the time. She constantly talked about what she would do when she "got out of this hellhole."

So I believed her. I believed that she would defeat her cancer and put herself out in the world again. I believed that I would be able to see her walking around with a smile on her face, talking animatedly and just making everybody feel welcome. The way she always could.

She did not deserve to die.

Hazel's voice echoed through my car's speaker. "Percy?"

I couldn't talk. Silena was one of my best friends, and one of the few people that I could trust my life with. She was an absolute angel. A neat-freak angel, but still an angel.

Tears began to slip down my cheek, but I didn't have the heart to wipe them away.

Hazel gently whispered, "She was brave, and she was the kindest person I knew. She will be remembered, Percy. And maybe it's better this way. She'll be back with Charles."

I smiled. Hazel was right. Ever since Beckendorf had died, Silena was all alone, with nobody to comfort her and nobody to heal her. Her father had passed away a couple years before, and her mother was still out there doing who knows what. She had mentioned to me that she invested herself in her work because it was the only way she knew how to keep her mind off of her sorrows. At least now, she didn't have to bear the weight of them anymore.

Hazel calmly stated, "Come back to the office. We'll talk then. Besides, you have a lot of work to do today. And you've got that meeting at 3:00 with Mr. Thorn about the underwater hotel. I have a feeling that's going to be a doozy."

I laughed through my tears. A doozy, indeed.

"Bye, Hazel. See you soon."

For the rest of the trip, I calmed myself with memories that I shared with Silena and Charles Beckendorf and prayed to the gods that they would find the happiness they deserved.

Around an hour later, I raced out of the elevator and dashed into the hall that held my office. On the way, I saw Hazel, who looked at me as if I were a ghost. "Oh my, Percy. Your hair!"

I stared at her in a confused manner. "My hair?"

Hazel facepalmed. "Percy, you look like you ran through a car wash on 2 hours of sleep."

I grinned at her, mentally making a note to wash my face and clear my teary, red eyes. "That's what I was going for. Doesn't it look smoldering?" I ran my hand through my hair for good measure.

She shoved me towards my office. "I would tell you to clean up, but you're going to end up looking worse at the end of the day, so there's no point. Go work. And you've got to finish that paperwork for the gala by tonight or they're going to make you delay the date."

Gods, Hazel was great. She was the only reason I was capable of being CEO. She had supported me through every step of the way, and I couldn't imagine life without her.

Nodding, I pushed the glass door to my office open. Before I could make another move, Hazel called after me, "Percy."

I turned back to face her.

"Just so you know, just before everything happened, Silena was visiting the kids in the ER. She bought toys for them and everything. She was a hero until the end."

Great. Of course she had to go and say that. Now I was going to start bawling my eyes out even more.

I quickly turned away, so Hazel wouldn't see the tears already streaming down my cheeks. Mentally cursing myself, I shuffled into my office and pulled my chair out. If I kept this up, there was no way I would be getting any work done.

Five hours and a stack of paperwork later, I sat at my desk, very impatiently waiting for this guy for a meeting. James Thorn. He was the owner of a very popular hotel group and was seeking to create an underwater hotel in one of our protected areas. Men like him only understood how to make a profit. He didn't understand that the area he wanted to destroy was where one of the last few coral reefs thrived. If he destroyed that area, one, he would basically kill 90 percent of the coral, which could lead to potential losses in tourism. Two, thousands, if not millions, of animals would die because of habitat loss. Three, the coastline of that area, which was subject to pretty bad storms pretty often, would become more easily flooded. And those were only a few of impacts.

But of course, all that mattered to this guy was money.

He had contacted me a couple months ago, asking me to sell him the land. I refused, quoting all of the reasons above. In response, that selfish idiot ramped up the price he was willing to pay for it. Finally, he had realized that bribery wasn't going to work, so he scheduled this meeting with me.

But I was nervous. What if he resorted to something else? Something worse than bribery? Businessmen were known to be the nastiest, most conniving people in the industry. What if he tried to take the land from me forcefully?

I may be stubborn, but what if I didn't have the means to prevent bad things from happening?

Hazel's voice jerked me from my thoughts. "They're coming in, like, five seconds. Security tells me they're in the elevator."

I looked up at her. "Well, they're half an hour late. This better be worth my time."

Hazel grinned at me. "We both know it's not going to be."

I shrugged, noticing a stout, bearded man coming up behind her. Thorn, I thought. I had to prevent myself from rolling my eyes when I saw that he was being closely followed by a tall, bulky bodyguard.

I rose from my chair and walked up to him. "Hello. Mr. Thorn, I presume?"

The beer-bellied man gave me a taut smile and shook my outstretched hand. "That's me. I hope you know what I'm here for."

I pulled out a chair for him so he could sit down. "Unfortunately, I do. I really wish we could see eye to eye on this issue."

Thorn seated himself and nodded. "So do I. You know, your concern for the environment is touching. But the world is ephemeral. Someday, it will no longer be able to sustain us. And that would have happened with or without human involvement."

I sat back in my chair and leaned back. "That's true, Mr. Thorn. But you can't deny that humans have sped up the process. And what I'm trying to do with this company is to reverse the effects for as long as possible, so that our children will be able to live in a safer world. With a strong focus on the oceans, of course."

"I'm sure some people would argue that, knowing our existence is limited, we should make the most of it."

I smiled at him. "And surely, there are better ways to do that than building a hotel in the middle of an endangered coral reef. Plus, you haven't given me any sketches. I have no proof whatsoever that this endeavor of yours will be worth it. And quite frankly, no building is worth our oceans."

I could feel Thorn seething underneath his fake smile and stiff posture. This meeting was not going the way that he planned. That much was obvious.

"Mr. Jackson. I believe you attended a total of ten schools throughout your lifetime? And not because you were simply moving."

I beamed at him. "Yep. And I'm proud. It certainly made me stand out on my college application."

"Considering you were quite the problem child, I trust you know what it feels like to be punished."

"Definitely," I nodded. Was he going to go there?

Thorn leaned forward, almost as if he were threatening me. "Well, I've dealt with plenty of problematic people throughout my career. Do you want to know how I manage them?"

Oh, he just went there.

But it didn't make sense to me. Why did he want to get that land so badly as to threaten me? There was no way the land could bring him that much profit.

I got up from behind my desk. "Well, I'm sure that I'll find out, because I plan to be the most problematic problem you've ever met with when it comes to protecting the oceans. Now, I haven't eaten my lunch yet, so if you'll excuse me." I walked around Thorn's bodyguard and opened the door to my office, inviting him out. "Would you like to join me?"

This time, he didn't try to hide the rage in his eyes. He shoved past me and stormed out the door.

Thorn's bodyguard, however, was far more hesitant. "You know he's not joking."

I gave him a terse nod. "I know."

The bodyguard smiled at me. "I knew I liked you for a reason. I'm Chris. Nice to meet you."

I relaxed my shoulders and grinned at him. "Nice to meet you too. See you around, Chris."

Well, at least one good thing came out of today.

But Chris was right. I knew I had to be careful. Thorn didn't seem like the kind of guy to go back on his promises. Most likely, he was going to try and hurt me. I could handle that, but I needed someone to consult, to minimize the casualties. I decided to go ask a special someone about that. An old family friend. It had been so long since I had seen him, so a visit was surely due.

But first, I had to go eat my very late lunch.