Author's Note: Shorter chapters coming, I'm afraid. I have school and what not. I always forget the disclaimer, but I think it's safe to say no one expects me to be the owner of these lovely characters.

4.

Mr Dionysus was reading aloud a few pages of A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Annabeth was chewing on her pencil, probably not listening. I doodled on the margins of my notebook. Except I can't draw, so I settled for writing interesting words in incredibly annoying fonts. "Your book reports are due next week," he reminded us. "Please do not disappoint me."

Disappointment is the manifestation of building up all your expectations. It's like telling your archenemy where your Achilles Heel is and expecting him or her not to stab it. (S/he'd stab it.) Anyway. "Your turn to come to my place tonight," Annabeth whispered in my ear, before the ball rang, right on cue, and she made her exit.

I called my mom at work. She seemed frazzled. "What is it?" she asked. Never a hello, but that was how we worked. "I need to go to Annabeth Chase's house tonight," I said, and there was silence. "Okay," she said. I smiled slightly. "Thank you. I'll wait up." The rest of the day went by uneventfully, until Annabeth Chase—get this—sat at my lunch table.

"Hello nerds," she greeted my friends, before taking a seat next to me. They stared. And stared. And stared. Until she glared them down. And they went back to their cafeteria food. "So hey," she said, swinging a leg over the bench so she could face me. "I am having a party in two nights. And I need you to be there, you know? I kind of need emotional stability."

"And who's more emotionally stable than a guy who hangs out with Annabeth Chase?" I joked.

"Exactly! You'll come, yes? Party starts at eight. Be there at like, five or six, if you want to do the report or do the darn undone diddly deed." She was smiling slightly, and I detected a slight glimmer of hope in her eyes. "You have a bad habit of inviting me places, Annabeth Chase."

"I know. I'm young, and lonely. Sort of. And so are you," she stood up, placing a hand gently on my shoulder before leaving.