"Drella!" my mom called. I opened one eye, groggy and disoriented. "It's time for school! Get up!" I groaned and pushed the cat off the bed, and getting out myself. Picking out a quick outfit (white skinny jeans, a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, Converse...) I went to breakfast. I chased my cereal around its bowl.

"Today's a half day, did you know that?" I shuddered. That word. Half. It had been bugging me all weekend, coming up every where.

"Yeah."

"Do you have any plans for today?"

"No, not yet."

"Okay, call me if you change anything." I nodded, still staring at my breakfast. I kicked my feet at the rungs of the table before getting up and grabbing my bag.

"Drella! What about your mess?" my mom cried. I grabbed some toast and headed out the door.

"I'm gonna miss my bus!"

A few minutes later, the bus pulled into my high school. Hopping off, I hurried over to where Lily was walking.

"Hey Lily!" I chirped. She turned around, looking at me.

"Hey! It's finally a half day! Are you coming to the diner with us?" she asked. We kept walking toward the school. I looked around hoping that I could find Percy.

"Uh, sure. Are we just going to walk around and stuff?" I asked. Lily nodded. "Cool." I sped off toward my locker, opening it and shoving my backpack inside before everything collapsed. Glancing around, I found Percy walking in the door, laughing and talking to Lukas, Brian, and Juri. Rushing over, I stopped, breathless in front of them.

"Hey, guys," I said casually.

"Hey, Drella. Huh? What's up? Huh? Huh?" Juri said jokingly. I ignored the comment.

"I really need to talk to you," I said, addressing Percy. I saw Lukas look away and Brian and Juri looked at Percy, then me, and then Lukas. Percy looked confused.

"Uh, why?"

"Hanna problems. Serious Hanna problems." Brian laughed.

"I feel so bad for you dude...." Brian laughed. Hanna also had huge crushes *COUGH COUGH obsessions COUGH* on Lukas and Brian. Lukas stood there, staring at the floor.

"Oh my gods..." Percy muttered.

"Yeah, I know. Talk to you guys later, bye!" I chirped. Walking off, I went over to Lily's locker.

"Yo, Lilay what's up?" I asked her. She shut her locker.

"Nothin', Drellay." I laughed.

"You know, that doesn't really work for my name," I noted. She nodded and I went off to go talk to Aspen.

"Hey, Drella," she said.

"So are you comin-?"

"Oh my god!" she squealed. She whirled me around and stood there holding my arms. She was excited and blushing. I looked over and Lukas was passing by, his skateboard hanging from his hand and his hair flipped to one side. Aspen's heaven. I smiled to myself, sharing Aspen's feelings a small bit. It was like a movie. She sighed and turned me back around.

"You are really, really obvious."

"I know. He's just so hot." I laughed.

"You are obsessed. You have Lukas syndrome. You probably sneak into his house and watch him. You probably hide under his bed. Or you have secret cameras stashed everywhere and you sit in a cold, dark basement corner with one solitary light, giggling manically at the screen. Oh no, wait, you have a ladder set up by his bedroom window, and-" she steered me away, while I went on and on about what she did.

Classes came and went. School ended, and I grabbed my bag. I hadn't caught sight of Percy all day, except for that morning. I scanned the crowd, looking for his black hair when I felt a tap behind me. I turned around to see Juri, Sophie's boyfriend, standing there.

"What are you doing?" he asked me. I gave him a look.

"Uh, why do you want to know, stalker?" He shrugged.

"Just wondering..." Silence. Awkward silence.

"If you're looking for Sophie, she's in homeroom."

"Hey, do you like-" My heart stopped. If Lukas knew I liked him, even just a little bit, it would be all over the school before the bell rang.

"Percy?" Juri asked. My started again and relief flooded over me. I could answer this.

"No, why?" People never asked me these questions, except my friends at sleepovers. But that's like, a ritual, right? Juri shrugged.

"Just wondering..."

"Of course you would, Juri. Out of all of the people at this school, you're the one wondering," I replied sarcastically. Juri and I weren't actually on very good terms. He thought I was a big mouth (which I am certainly not!) and I thought he was a weirdo who is tall and is scary and looks bad in shorts. Oh well.

"Well, you talk to him a lot, so we thought-"

"We?" I asked. Juri was wasting my time. He shuffled his feet.

"You know what, Drella? I'm gonna go talk to Sophie!" he announced, pushing his way through the crowd. Seeing Percy at his locker, I came over.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked casually.

"Nothin', why?"

"So..." I had to cut to the chase. The bell would ring any minute and soon kids would be flooding out of hallways and rooms to get to their busses. "Do you know anything about these pictures? Because if you think this is some kind of sick joke, it's not funny." I handed him the envelope. Last night after dinner I had opened it up, and much to my surprise, found pictures of me at this weird place with Percy, that girl from my vision, Annabeth, and some other kids I didn't know. Percy took the envelope from my hand as if it were a snake, something contagious that he should worry about.

"Sorry about that, the guys dared me to do it." The bell rang. "Gotta go, bye Drella, see you at the diner!" Percy called over his shoulder as he walked to the doors. I hoisted my bag over my shoulder and followed the wave of kids out of school.

"Do we have to wait here this whole time?" I whined, shifting my weight to my other hip. Ruthie, Caroline, Katherine, Paige, Freya, and I were standing outside the Empire State building. Cars and taxis whizzed by us on East 34th Street, and the sun beat down on us like a magnifying glass over an ant.

"Why are they taking so long?" I asked. Ruthie shrugged and Caroline fished her cell phone out of her purse. She looked at it for a second, and then snapped it shut.

"Sophie, Diamond, and Charlotte should be here soon. I don't know where Lily and Alice are. And the boys should be here in a few minutes." We all smirked at Freya.

"I bet you can't wait to see B-ri-utiful!" Ruthie taunted.

"Yeah, well we all know that you 'want' Luky Wuky!" Paige laughed. Ruthie blushed and laughed along too.

"Oh my god!" Caroline said, pressing herself up to the glass door. "What is hottie Percy doing in there?"

"Really?" Paige squealed. She pushed open the door and I watched him get into the elevator. I sighed and rolled my eyes at the two fan girls.

"Do you want to stalk him?" Caroline turned to me, smile across her face.

"Really?"

"Sure, why not? My mom works in here, so its fine." Before my sentence ended, my friends were inside the Empire State Building, running over to the elevator. They turned to a strange looking guy who had just gotten off.

"What floor did that kid just go to?" Paige asked excitedly.

"Uh, to the top, but you girls probably-" They left before he finished.

"Sorry, they're a little obsessed."

"And annoying..." the man grumbled. He wore a weird striped shirt and a grumpy expression.

"Gotta go, bye! Sorry again!" I called as I dashed into the closing elevator doors.

"Where is he?" Caroline asked when the doors open and we got to the top.

"There he is!" Paige whispered. She pulled us behind the corner. She peeked out and then whipped back around, stifling her giggles.

"You guys are so weird," I whispered.

"But he's totally worth it!" Caroline whispered back.

"Guys, what if they come," Freya said.

"Yeah, we have to get back down stairs," Ruthie noted.

"Hold on!" Paige whispered, looking around the corner again. "Oh my god, where'd he go? C'mon!" she said, racing to the other corner and looking around wildly. She came back around, panting. "He's gone!"

Back downstairs in front of the building, we were discussing Percy's mysterious disappearance.

"You don't think he fell off, do you?" Caroline asked.

"I think we would know if he fell off. He probably saw Paige being a creep and went back downstairs," Freya said, laughing.

"You have his number, right?" I asked Caroline. She nodded. As if on cue, her phone rang, the song Dead and Gone floated out of her purse. She got it out and looked at it.

"Guys, it's from Percy!" she said excitedly. We crowded around her and her phone as she read it out loud.

"'Sorry. Can't go. Mom won't let me. -Percy' Well that's stupid!" Caroline exclaimed. Caroline's phone rang again and Caroline entered the next text message.

"'Can see you. Look to your left.' from the boys," Caroline read, looking to our left. There was Lukas, Alex, Brian and Juri rounding the corner. Behind them were Lily, Alice, Sophie, Diamond, and Charlotte.

"Hey, do you know why Percy couldn't come?" Brian asked.

"Yeah, he said his mom wouldn't let him," Freya answered. As we left to go to the diner, I looked up into the noon sky. I could have sworn I saw something beyond that cloud near the top of the Empire State Building.

"Guys, it's raining," Ruthie said. It had begun to sprinkle as soon as we reached the skate park, but that didn't keep Lukas and Alex from skateboarding. Diamond, Charlotte, Sophie, Lily, Alex, Ruthie, Lukas, Caroline and I had split up with all the other people, and Brian and Juri had gone home almost an hour ago. Ruthie, Caroline, Lily, and I stood around and watched the boys skateboard and Diamond, Sophie and Charlotte were sitting down on the curb talking and texting.

"Yeah, I know, Ruthie. It's been raining for like, and hour," Caroline said, wiping the rain off the screen of her phone. Ruthie and I turned to watch Lukas and Alex skateboarding and Ruthie smiled.

"Lukas looks so hot with his hair wet," she whispered. Caroline and I smiled and giggled. "It'd be even better if he didn't have a shirt on."

"Ruthie!" I exclaimed, laughing. "You are so weird!"

"But it's true!" Ruthie protested. I nodded. Over by the ramp, Lukas was watching Alex chase the skateboard down.

"Yeah, you are right," I whispered. We bent are heads together as we whispered, giggling and watching them. Lily was watching us and laughing. Pretty soon, the two boys noticed and began whispering of their own. It was like we were in sixth grade, whispering to our friends and giggling. Lily pulled us back around and we began talking again. Over head, thunder rumbled.

"I can't believe Alex knocked your phone into the bowl," Ruthie said. Caroline checked it again, just to make sure it was fine.

"Don't diss my boyfriend!" Lily laughed.

"Sorry, Lils. Anyway, do you really believe that Percy couldn't co-" Caroline started to say.

"Drella!" I turned around to see Lukas standing a little while away. "Did you just see that?" he asked. I shook my head.

"Sorry, no."

"Alright, I'll do it again. I just grinded that whole thing right there," Lukas said, motioning to the box. "Okay, everybody, this one's for Drella!" he announced. I blushed slightly as he preformed the trick again. Before I could say anything, Alex started taking the board out from Lukas's hand and he and Lukas went off to the bowl. Lukas glanced back one more time as I turned back to my friends, smiling secretly as they gossiped about Percy.

Okay, more life-stuff than Greek-stuff, but I'm taking this slowly so that it doesn't seem too rushed. Hmm, I wonder where Percy is... :) Please review!