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: I'm updating this a day early, since tomorrow I'm leaving for band camp. I'll be back in time for next week's update, though! And thank you for your kind reviews; I love writing for this fandom simply because of how generous you guys are. Anyways, enjoy this chapter :)

Chapter 3

The next day is scorching hot. Literally, every single thing Annabeth touches burns her. At school she can't sit at any desks near the open windows, and since the school air conditioning conveniently broke down, everyone is sent home after lunch.

Annabeth drinks a glass of water that's half-ice and turns up the AC to high in each room of her house. She also puts a fan in front of her and tries to study, thankful for the extra day, but she just can't concentrate, even if the heat isn't frying her brain anymore. She just has to go to the beach.

She puts on her bikini, adding a cut-off shirt and short shorts before grabbing her books, a battery powered fan, and a blanket before heading out. The moment she steps outside she almost changes her mind, but instead just ties up her hair into a bun on top of her head and bikes out.

The shade of the forest is so pleasant. She hikes through it, but when she gets to the beach she can't even walk on the sand because it is so hot from the sun. Her weather app on her phone says it's one hundred and five degrees, though it feels hotter due to the humidity and lack of wind. Normally there's plenty of wind coming off the ocean, but not today.

A thick sheen of sweat sprouts up on her face within minutes, but she ignores it, laying out a blanket in the small section of the beach that's shady due to the looming treeline. She lays on it, turns on her fan, and pulls out her textbooks.

The sound of the waves is alluring, so after an hour she takes off her cut-off shirt and shorts and sprints across the sand to avoid burning her feet, then dives into the water. It's cool and refreshing, and she doesn't even mind the salty taste in her mouth. She stays underwater as long as she can, and when she resurfaces the sun's heat immediately drives her back under the waves.

She finally comes up, smoothing strands of her hair back and wiping the water out of her eyes. She looks over to the cliffs, remembering the strange figure climbing up them yesterday. She doubts they'll be there today; if the sand is burning her feet then the hard rock would definitely burn them way worse. It'd be a health hazard.

Her eyes widen in shock, however, when she sees a person scampering up the rock face. No climbing gear, no protective gear—and wearing only swim trunks! (So it is a guy, if the shirtlessness and back muscles are any clue).

The mop of black hair doesn't even answer her shouts. Whoever he is, he doesn't seem to be affected by the heat, and simply continues to climb before disappearing into a dark space. Annabeth shakes her head, wondering who that person could possibly be.

It doesn't matter for today, however; he's gone, and she's not stupid enough to try and follow him up. When it's not so hot, yeah, she'll definitely find out who he is, but today is his lucky day. Or unlucky, if he actually did get burned and just ignored it.

Annabeth tries to forget about him and instead dives back into the water, opening her eyes underwater and watching the colorful fish swim around the colorful coral. She has to swim pretty far out and down to see the coral, so she comes up for air only a minute later. Her eyes are also burning from the salt, so she calls it a day and rides the waves back in to the beach, where she returns to her studies.

Around four she finally gets tired of the relentless heat and she puts her clothes back on, packs up her things, and bikes back home. No one is outside, and when she exits the shade of the forest she understands why; the heat is driving her crazy, giving her an almost instant headache. She has a sudden and unquenchable thirst, and it's all she can do to make it back home.

Once inside the amazingly cool house—seriously, it's like the ice age inside, and she's not complaining—she downs a whole water bottle without a second thought. Then another one, and finally she steps into the cold shower, washing the salt and sweat from her body.

She can't stop thinking about the guy on the cliffs. She's worrying about him; what if he's seriously burned from the climbing? What if he fell from the cliffs after she left? What if he needs help and she's not there?

And more pressing, who is he? How did he find out about the beach? And why doesn't she recognize him? She knows everyone in Coral Reef, but not him. No one fits his description (or what she considers a description of him. She only knows his body shape and hair colour).

Annabeth changes into a tank top and athletic shorts, then heads over to the pet store to work her shift. Hazel should be working today with her, so at least she'll have a friend there.

The pet store has the closed sign out, and when she steps through the unlocked back door the whole store is in disarray. Hazel and another guy are moving things around and clearing out the back room entirely.

"What's going on?" Annabeth asks, stepping over a few boxed birdcages.

"Apollo finally received his veterinary degree!" Hazel gushes, unloading extra dog food bags and dumping it on the register counter. "He's converting the back storage rooms into surgery rooms."

Apollo is Will's dad. Will Solace is a guy who graduated from Coral Reef High a few years ago and went straight to med school, and who volunteers all summer in the doctor's office at Coral Reef (yeah, that's right—the town is so small they don't even have a hospital). Will is a registered nurse and is working towards his doctor's degree. It runs in the family—his father is the main doctor at the doctor's office, though Apollo had been taking online classes and occasionally going out to shadow other veterinarians. The demand has been big in the town recently, and it seems it is finally coming to light.

"That's great!" Annabeth replies. "I take it you guys are just starting to clean out the storage rooms now."

Hazel nods. "We started a few hours ago. We're almost done getting everything out, though we still have to clean it all up, and some builders are coming to take measurements so they can start putting in drywall and the likes."

"And where are we taking all these things?" Annabeth questions, poking a pack of dog collars with her toe.

"Silena is ordering sheds. We'll actually have to go outside now," Hazel says, wrinkling her nose. Annabeth smiles, then proceeds to help. Once they've moved everything out they sweep, and Apollo announces that they've done enough for the day.

"It's insanely hot out," he remarks, "just like me." He winks at the girls, and they roll their eyes at him (even though he is really attractive, especially for a man who has to be, like forty something. He only looks in his early thirties, though, which is so not fair).

"And the air conditioning in here is really bad," he continues. "Sign out on the log as doing your whole shift, but feel free to leave early. God knows I am."

They do, and Annabeth is grateful to go home early. The heat has given her a huge migraine, not to mention has worn her out. She already wants to go to sleep and it can't be more than six o'clock in the evening.

Once she gets home she eats a light dinner with her parents before crashing in bed, utterly exhausted. The AC feels great, and if it weren't for those stupid reoccurring thoughts of that guy on the cliffs she'd be in heaven. Why does she keep thinking about him? She hasn't even met him. She doesn't even know what his face looks like.

Tomorrow, she promises herself. Tomorrow she'd figure it out. As long as it isn't this hot outside.