Hey! Sorry I haven't uploaded anything in a while I had the stomach bug for a couple of days and have been swamped with makeup work from school ever since. Anyways here's the next part. Enjoy!

Again all of these characters belong to Rick Riordan. Not me.


I awoke well rested and hungry. In fact, I couldn't remember eating dinner last night. Last night, my mind suddenly flew back to my conversation with Leo the night before. I can't believe I actually laughed at something he said. Did anything scream I'm desperate for some friends more than that. He wasn't even trying to make a joke. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Still scolding myself I got up and changed into my clothes; black jeans and a dark blue t-shirt that my sister had gotten me in New York. Grabbing a random hoodie from inside my bag I pulled it over my head feeling the heaviness of the fabric push me down slightly. Running my fingers through my hair I glanced in the one small mirror Leo had and felt pretty satisfied.

The sleep had taken away the bags under my eyes and my skin looked healthier than usual. My hair fell around my head in a pretty flattering way, for me at least. My eyes looked dull, but they weren't their usual glazed look.

Leaving the dorm I locked the door and tucked my key into my pocket. As I walked to the pavilion I mentally prepared myself for the day. There was not going to be any desprate for friends moments and no unnessicary smiling. It might be a little difficult not to be desperate or annoying, but I need to do it.

The walk was enjoyable and I could clear my mind at least a little with it. I made I to breakfast in time to get the Lucky Charms, which were extremely popular. I paused a little before sitting at an empty table to the left side of the pavilion.

Not more than two minutes pass and girl, with blonde hair that curled at the end, put her hand on my shoulder. Startled I looked up and saw surprising dark gray eyes and a pretty scary scowl.

"Hey," I said smiling weakly, "Can I help you with something?"

"Your sitting at me and my friends table." She replied, obviously offended I didn't know it was her table. However, it's not like I really could have known plus she was being rude. I couldn't help myself.

"I didn't know you owned the tables here. My apologies." I replied smoothly turning back to my breakfast.

"I don't own it, but I've sat here since I was six. I have to give permission for people to sit here."

"God, your really not that smart are you? If you don't own it then you can't tell me I can or can't sit here."

At this point the girl turned bright red and looked ready to burst out at me. Luckily one of her friend walked over just in time to stop her. I wasn't in the mood for any shit this morning.

"What's up Annabeth? Who's this?" Asked a tall, broad shouldered boy with green eyes and messy black hair.

"Oh my god Percy thank god your here! This little shit won't move!"

"'This little shit' can here you, you know." I intervened.

"Hey! Kid what's your name?" Percy asked rudely.

"None of your business." I answered.

"C'mon dude it's our table can't you go and sit somewhere else?" He asked.

"Nope," I said finishing my cereal and standing up. Walking away I decided to jab a little bit of guilt at them.

"It wouldn't have killed you to just sit with me." I said over my shoulder, and, without looking back, left the pavilion.

I still had about 45 minutes until my first class, so, naturally, I decided to explore.

The campus had tons of stuff including a library with tons of books, a pool, a gym, a computer lab, as well as at least 30 nature trails. I, of course, found myself exactly where I was back home. At the basketball court.

At home I played by myself everyday and with my friends whenever I could. The court was crack and weeds were growing everywhere, but I felt that if I could dribble a basketball there, then where couldn't I? The basketball I used was at least 6 years old and basically didn't hold air anymore.

Here though, the basketball court was amazing. The court looked newly paved and over on the side there was a pump lying on the ground along with a rack of basketballs, all new looking. Most excitingly, there were people there!

Hey, Leo you got this. Go out and make some friends. Just play ball with them. It's not hard. Unfortunately, despite my pep talk I couldn't go out there. Instead I observed.

There was four boys and a girl. One of the boys was in my classes yesterday; Luke I think his name was. Another one was an African American guy that had oil on his shirt; he probably had the mechanic class. The remaining two boys were (or at least seemed to be at this distance) identical. They had curly reddish brown hair.

The girl was the most interesting one of all though, her hair was black, but seemed to have streaks of color running through it. She had piercing blue eyes that seemed to X-Ray your soul. Her nose was sprayed with freckles and she was wearing a Of Mice and Men t-shirt. I thought she seemed pretty cool.

After about 5 minutes of playing basketball they paused for a water break. None of them had noticed my and I inched closer to introduce myself, but when I heard them talking I stopped short.

"Thalia how's you girlfriend doing?" Sneered the Luke guy leaning in close to the girls face.

"I told you already! She's not my girlfriend!" Thalia spat

Luke backed down for a second before saying, "But you wish she was, right?"

"No! I don't!" Thalia exclaimed stopping her foot on the ground.

"Admit it!" growled Luke

"No." Thalia said adamantly.

Luke backed away and, for a second, looked like he was done. Then he punched her full force in the gut and sent Thalia flying. The rest of the boys followed Luke slowly across the basketball court cracking their knuckles.

Without thinking I shouted, "Hey! Leave her the fuck alone!"

Shit! Why did I say that? I asked myself.

All at once the heard of boys swung around menacingly. Luke, whom was the obvious leader, grinned horribly in my direction looking like a dog about to eat steak. Gulping I took a breath to calm myself and looked directly into his eyes.

"What'd you say punk?" He asked

"I said you should leave her alone. What are you deaf or something?" I snapped back. Yep, I'm gonna get beat up.

Before I could even react Luke was on top of me, knocking me down, pushing the air out of my lungs, and then, punching my square in the jaw. In reaction to the pain I curled up and that invited a volley of hard kicks to my back. I decided not to get up, I wasn't supposed to fight and let them beat me up. A moment later a sharp kick came to the head and I blacked out.

When I came to Thalia was checking my pulse.

"Jesus Christ!" I swore, "I'm not dead!"

"Could've fooled me. Do you even have a pulse?"

"Um... Everyone does?" I said more like a question then an answer.

"Okay, yeah, whatever. Uh the bells about to ring, but thanks for saving my ass back there. Bye!" Thalia said all in one breath before rushing off.

"Wait!" I yelled after her

"What?"

"Will I see you around?"

"Sure."

"Okay," I said with a smile. Maybe we could be friends after all.


Please feel free to send in reviews on what I need to improve on and stuff. Or maybe something you'd like to see? Anyway thanks for reading!

Bye!