A/N: I don't really have any inspiration for this. I just felt guilty for not updating for four months.

I'm actually slowly losing my long-time love for Percy Jackson…AND I DON'T KNOW WHY. :(

Also, I fractured my arm.

----

There was a painfully long moment where we all just stood with our mouths gaping open like goldfish.

The guy I'd thought was Percy backed up nervously. "I think they're fans of the series or something," he muttered to Alexandra Daddario. "The blond one was calling me Percy."

"Yeah, but why would a fan of the series look like my clone?" she whispered back.

"Um," I decided to speak up with a brilliant remark. "Um, I'm only fourteen, so I don't think I could be your clone."

"And her hair's different," Thalia added.

I gave her a sarcastic look. "Thank you."

"Just a....weird coincidence...I guess," the actress said, not sounding entirely convinced. It's one thing for two people to look alike; it's something else entirely when two people look so much the same, even they think they look the same. "Did you want to take pictures with Logan or something?"

Thalia looked puzzled. "Logan?"

"He's the one playing Percy," she said patiently, picking her sunglasses up from the floor. "The whole Percy Jackson cast, we had to come here to New York for some publicity stuff."

I laughed nervously. "Ah, New York City?"

"Yeah."

I tried to come up with a way to phrase this nicely, but eventually gave up. "We're sort of...in Boston."

Alexandra Daddario laughed. "That's probably your next flight. It's easy to forget things when you're jet-lagged. But this is definitely New York. Renée called and gave me a ticket to this gate after she saw Logan getting on--"

"Renée said what?" Logan turned to his co-star.

"Gave me a ticket. After she saw you getting on."

"No, I heard you the first time!"" Logan cried. "What I mean is, I came here when I saw you getting on, except you were with this other girl with black hair and--" he glanced at me and Thalia. "Oh."

A wave of guilt the size of a tsunami flooded over me when he uttered that "oh," and I couldn't get it to go away. Thalia, however, was apparently immune to human emotion, and didn't think twice before she looked at the two of them and shrugged.

"Yeah, well, gotta go, good luck with the movie!" she said in one breath, beginning to zip away as both actors gave her strange looks.

"Hey!" I got her by the collar, yanking her back. "Sheesh. Don't you think we're kind of responsible for landing them in Boston?"

"No. Now let's move."

"Look, he followed me on here because I looked like this girl, and she followed him. My fault. We can't just...leave them here without the other movie people."

"Oh, no," Alexandra sucked in a breath at my words. "Chris...Renée...they're gonna kill me."

"Us," Logan corrected her, pulling a phone from his back pocket. "They're gonna kill us. And Renée's gonna be a lot nicer to you 'cause you're a girl."

"Exactly!" I waved my hand toward them even though I had zero idea who "Chris" and "Renée" were. "We have to...you know, get them a ride to the city or something."

"They don't even know who we are," she said flatly.

"But Thalia..."

Logan, who had been busy texting, perked his head up from his phone. "Thalia? Hey, Alex, wasn't that the name of that tree in the movie?"

Thalia rolled her eyes as if to say, see what I mean?

I looked from her face to the actor's to the actress' and back again, trying furiously to decide. I hated hard decisions--hate, hate, hate.

"Come on," I said finally, stalking out of the plane. "All three of you. We'll get you to New York faster than you can go by car, train, or plane."

"What's the catch?" asked Logan slowly.

"You're following us for a while," I said, ignoring Thalia's dirty looks beside me. "And first, we have some business to do."

-----

Confession time: I sort of hoped they would just ditch me.

I mean, they're famous actors, and for all they knew, I was just another dorky 14-year-old who happened to bear a creepy resemblance to one of them. My plan was that, in all probability, they wouldn't want to hang around long enough to find Rick Riordan with us. They had barrels of cash; they could hire a private jet to New York if they wanted.

Not so.

Apparently, Percy and I were being portrayed by the weirdest, least Hollywoodish actors on the planet, because neither of them seemed to think about hiring a jet. In fact, we (us two half-bloods) had already scurried onto the last bus out of the airport when I turned around and, upon seeing Alexandra and Logan, flinched like Thalia'd given me one of her static shocks.

"Jeez!" I fell into one of the bus seats. "You're still here?"

"Well, yeah," Logan said shamelessly. "That was the deal: you'd get us to New York, we'd tag along for a while."

"Okay, stupid, there is no'deal'. They're, what, thirteen?" Alexandra Daddario told him before looking at us.

"Fourteen!" I cried at the same time Thalia said "fifteen...or something".

"You know what I mean. You guys are really sweet for doing this and all, but seriously, it's okay. I don't expect you to get us to NYC. We're just gonna have to be late."

"First off, I will get you to the city," I said, a little peeved that she didn't think I could. "Also...if you didn't want us to help out, why are you following us?"

Alexandra looked stumped. "Curious, I guess," she admitted, peering at me curiously. "Just...your face. It's like looking in a mirror. A nine-years-younger mirror."

"Nine years--and to think she's still playing you in a movie," Thalia muttered so that only I could hear her. I gave her a pinch. "Ow!"

"So you're twenty-three?" I asked, blinking at Alexandra twice. "Wow. That's...old."

"Only six years older than seventeen," Logan said hopefully, sitting down next to me and patting a seat for her to sit in.

"Logan," she sighed, sitting down anyway. "You are such a creep."

He ignored her. "You two never told us your names," he said thoughtfully, looking at Thalia and me.

"Thalia," she said flatly, showing all the emotion of a large rock. "Which you already heard. And she's obviously Annab--"

"Anna," I interrupted, beaming and clapping Thalia on the back to stop her mid-sentence. "Anna Be…Bellhaven. And we know you're Logan Somebody, and you're Alexandra Daddario."

"Lerman," he said, offended. "How come you know her last name and not mine?"

She laughed in triumph. "I'm just more popular. And please, call me Alex. Everyone does."

Thalia, who clearly couldn't care less, pulled out a folded map of Boston she'd picked up in the airport. "Does anybody know where this school is? I forgot. What was it called, Anna?"

"Patrick F. Gavin Middle School," I told her, remembering where Chiron had said Rick Riordan would be.

"On Dorchester Street. Then that's where we're going," she said decisively.

It took some time getting to the school, all right, but I spent around 90% of it staring at Alex's face. "That's really, really creepy," I muttered while Thalia and Logan argued about something--music, I think. "I mean, we're not exactly alike, though."

"Other than the hair?" she laughed, studying me. "Hmm. What d'you think's different?"

"Your chin is less pointy, your eyebrows are skinnier, and you wear makeup," I said. "And fancy clothes."

"I'm not exactly a big star," she said honestly. "It's not like I get to wear designer stuff all the time. The trick's to look for stuff that fits well. Like, you, Anna, would look cute in something off-the-shoulder and an…author visit?"

At first, I thought she was talking about a shirt or something, like I should zip over to Macy's and buy a nice author visit in black. But then the bus sputtered to a halt, and I noticed what she'd been talking about:

We'd pulled up to your average brick middle school, decorated here and there with dolphin mascots and tiles with paint handprints on them. The grass was just starting to turn green with springtime, and what caught my eye was in the middle of the lawn. ATHOUR VISIT TDOAY! a huge blue-and-yellow sign announced proudly, with annoyingly hard-to-read curly letters. NYT BSTESLLEING ATHOUR RICK RIRORDAN!

"We're getting off here!" I yelped, yanking Logan and Thalia--who were in the middle of a "Green Day is gay vs. Green Day rocks" debate--and Alex by the arms. We got off the bus just before the doors whoosed shut.

Logan blinked at my tan hand on his pale arm, then at the school. "What the hell, you guys brought us here because you forgot your homework?"

"Uh…sure," I smiled while Thalia gave an enormous eye roll, even for her, behind Logan's back. "One assignment and then we'll get you on a pegas--plane!"

"Didn't you say you had a faster way to get to New York than a plane?"

"It's a very fast plane," I said, leading the way to the side of the school and trying to walk quickly. "A sonic jet, practically."

It was reallyannoying, trying to find this Rick Riordan person. He wasn't in the cafeteria and he wasn't in the gym. Once we'd finally found our way to the auditorium, it was completely packed full of people, and it sounded like someone was giving a speech, and Logan and Thalia were getting really impatient.

"Seriously," he said as I inconspicuously pushed open a door in what looked like the back of the auditorium. "What are you trying to do here?"

"None of your business," I whispered, motioning for them to follow me inside. All the background noise, the wind and traffic and stuff from outside, vanished as we entered the auditorium, and suddenly even my whisper seemed loud as the door loudly clicked shut behind us.

I was pretty sure we were in the wings of the stage, and here's why: it was dark, it was walled in by curtains on one side, and, despite the hundreds of kids we could see sitting in seats through a gap in the curtains, nobody else was back with us.

"Who're my favorite Greek gods?" a man's voice said from behind the curtain, all echoing like he was talking ino a microphone. "Mm. Probably Poseidon, then Athena. I mean, you can tell why I made the characters the way they were!"

I rolled my eyes as Logan whispered, "That sounds like Rick!"

"Duh, Logan," Alex said. "Can't you read? He's visiting this school today. It was on a sign outside."

"Shhhh!" he shushed her. "Let's listen."

His shushing was all in vain, though, because two seconds later, somebody ended up bumping into us with a loud thump.

"Whoa!" a too-familiar voice said, his hard-to-see figure stumbling back.

I turned away from the curtain in disbelief. "Percy? You're--you're supposed to be at camp!"

"Really supposed to be," said Thalia. I could see her glare even in the dim backstage light.

"Blackjack gave me a ride," he whispered happily. "It's not that far from camp, you know. Chiron told me what was going on And I beat you here."

Alex giggled. Chiron, Percy, Blackjack. Way to keep our cover, Seaweed Brain. "You sure you guys aren't just crazy Percy Jackson fans?"

"I swear, it's coincidental," I said. "Sorry, Alex Daddario and Logan Lerman, this is my friend who…yeah, happens to be named Percy," I looked at him pointedly, though it was kind of hard to tell in the darkness where he was.

"Wo-o-o-ow!" he said appreciatively. Totally oblivious to my hints. "The Logan Lerman, huh?"

"And Alex Daddario," added Alex, hurt.

Percy grinned stupidly, still completely stunned. "I can't believe you got the two most important actors of all time to meet up with us. How'd you manage it, Wise Girl?"

I never got the chance to explain the situation to Percy, though.

Here's why: still staring at Alex and Logan, he tried to lean back, real casual-like. This wouldn't have been a problem if he'd been standing in front of, you know, a wall. As it was, he was standing in front of a curtain, and he ended up stumbling backward.

Onstage.

"Crap!" I whispered, pouncing forward to peek beyond the curtain. The audience gave a collective gasp, not knowing exactly what was going on. Then one kid started enthusiastically applauding, and of course everybody else followed along. Even I could hear the whispers going around the room: What's going on? Is he part of the speech? No, I think that's the guy who's playing Percy in the movie. Oh! Logan Lerman? Yeah, him. You sure? He looks a little different…

"Come on, Percy," I said in a low, fierce voice as the applause dulled. "Do something!"

Percy blinked. "Um," he said brilliantly.

Rick looked as confused as I did, but unlike Percy, he'd decided to pretend like he totally knew what was going on. "So," he said with a nervous laugh, walking over to Percy and putting his arm around him. "Why don't you tell us your name?"

Don't screw this up, Percy.

"Um, Percy Jackson?" he said, which the entire auditorium thought was hilarious. Laugh, laugh, laugh.

Alex and Logan gave Thalia and me with the strangest looks, but I just huffed and pretended not to see them. When Percy got off that stage, he was such dead meat.

"Exactly!" Rick said, laughing like everyone else in the theater. I wondered what he was really thinking. "Black hair, Camp Half-Blood shirt," he pointed to Percy as he talked, then glanced at his eyes. "Even green eyes…you're practically his twin!"

Percy smiled, confused. "Uh, sure, let's go with that."

Rick covered the microphone and turned Percy away from the crowd for a second, pretending he was fiddling with the mike's controls. But I was close enough to hear him whisper to Percy, "Um, did the school organize this or something?"

Percy glanced back at me for decision-making. I sighed, because this situation was so ridiculous, but gave him the thumbs-up. Honestly, there probably wasn't another way out of this situation.

"Yeah," he whispered back. "Just play along like I'm the guy from the book."

I probably could've relaxed a little bit right then…except I felt someone violently tapping my shoulder, and turned around to see Logan giving me an oh-my-gods-what-the-hell-is-going-on-you-crazy-child-who-dragged-me-here look.

"Anna," he said in a weak voice. "Okay, we've gotten over the fact that you look a lot like Alex. We've gotten over the fact that your weird friend is named after a tree from the Percy Jackson books."

"Hey!" Thalia stomped on his foot, which probably hurt, but he hardly noticed.

"And I can even get over the fact that your other friend looks a lot like me," he continued, "but, um, why is he calling himself Percy Jackson? If this is a joke, it's seriously the worst one I've ever--"

"You owe us some answers," Alex agreed stubbornly. "Please?"

I was just about to spout some more half-baked lies, until I saw something long, thin, and plastic roll toward me on the ground: a pen. Just an ordinary, sixty-cent ballpoint pen that could've fallen out of a teacher's pocket.

Or Percy's.

Oh my gods, I thought as I snatched up the pen before it vaporized back into Percy's jeans. Stupid, stupid, stupid idea, Annabeth. No. Stop now. Don't do it.

"Alex, Logan, I need you to hold onto me somehow," I said, absolutely ignoring the smarter voices of reason in my head. "Grab my shoulder or whatever. Trust me. I'm not joking around, I'm trying to answer your question."

Logan opened his mouth to be sassy, but Alex elbowed him and latched her hand onto my shoulder. Soon Logan did the same.

"All right," I said in a wobbly voice, knowing the Mist wouldn't work on them anymore. "Concentrate very, very hard on what you're seeing."

Then I uncapped Riptide.