This is probably the worst delay ever. I can't even use the 'I'm busy' thing, because the universe literally seemed to be pushing me to upload a chapter. I even got a snow day! And I live in Florida!

Even though it most likely looks otherwise, I do put a lot of effort into these chapters. I hate it more than anything when a writer belittles his or her own work by saying that he or she: hates the story that THEY wrote, or that he or she just 'doesn't feel it anymore' Whatever… I guess it's better than proclaiming to the world that," I am the best auther like 4evs" but I really love optimistic people. So here you go! Oh, and if you see grammatical errors please tell me and I will fix them.

For an 'IMPORTANT' quest, there sure was a lot of mindless waiting involved. I had to go to classes that I'd already been to, pretend like I was a normal twelve-year-old delinquent, and occasionally spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on people to make Grover think that hadn't caught onto his stupid 'crazy Percy thing.' Gods of Olympus! I never thought that anything could make him seem like a worse liar, but now I knew that he was trying to fool me, and his weak attempts only 'worked' because I pretended like they did I found out that I had been wrong.

Sure, it was tedious and boring and lonely and seemed pointless, but I felt as if this was a break of sorts. The world's most realistic trip down memory lane, if you will.

The best part of the down time, was the time I got to spend with Grover. Even after the war was over, he was always busy with Lord of the Wild duties and we never got to talk. Just because our godly problems were over it doesn't mean that the environment was improving. Now, I lived with the guy and we got to talk about all of the dumb kid things that I didn't even know I had been missing.

The freak weather must've spooked him more than I realized, because he wasn't able to read my emotions very well. It was actually quite helpful, though I did feel badly for him. Grover was always practically ripping his hair out each time we heard a BOOM! Of thunder.

I'd had to hold myself back from many things throughout those months and one of the more minor things was yelling, "SHUT IT ZEUS!" Every time thunder crashed around outside. The more major things were referencing Annabeth and anything else that had happened to me in the past few years. Pretty much, I had to forget them for now. (Which was fine by me)

As the days till the end of my second sixth grade year dipped into the single digits, I grew restless in anticipation. Each night, when I was sure that Grover was safely snoring in his bed, I would slip out and roam the school for a little peace and quiet. My stealth training came in handy for avoiding hall monitors (I'm not sure that that was the purpose Nico had in mind when we practiced it)

In all honesty, Im surprised I didn't see it coming, I mean it was almost an exact repeat of last time. One night, as I was doing my midnight stroll of the shadowy halls of my alma mater, I stopped when I heard muffled voices were coming out of the door to Chiron's classroom.

I slunk over to the entrance and heard two very familiar people talking. The first one was Grover.

"I'm worried about Percy, sir" he said in a small voice.

How did he get out of bed? I'd waited extra-long to ensure that my journey would be undisturbed! Of course I faintly remembered that (other than Mrs. Dodds) my first solid affirmation of the existence of Half-Bloods, was through an overheard conversation at Yancy, I just heard my name and was automatically drawn in.

"…this sumer," this was also Grover.

Maybe he was talking about camp half-blood?

"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Chiron said.

So he had wanted to give me more time… how nice.

"The Summer Solstice deadline—" Grover started.

"Will have to be resolved without him." Wow, Chiron was bent on this.

"Sir, I… can't fail in my duties again." Now Grover sounded like he was about to cry. I wanted to run in and tell him that nothing had been his fault, that Thalia had made own choice on the hill all those years ago. But Chiron beat me to it.

"You haven't failed anything Grover," he said kindly. Man, that's why I loved him so much. It took a lot to frustrate him. He made a great teacher, both for mortal children and demigod children.

"-Keep Percy alive until next fall." Ha, jokes on you Chiron. I thought weakly it'll be a lot harder than just keeping me alive for Thanksgiving.

Now I know I mentioned Nico's stealth training. Well I neglected to say that I had almost utterly failed it. Chiron's comment had brought a small laugh from my throat.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Grover and Chiron's animal ears picked up on the chuckle and immediately snapped to attention. Luckily, I had more than enough practice with running from… well... 90% of any Greek monster, witch, god, or titan so hiding in the shadows was easy. I heard the clop-clop-clop of Chiron's hooves and saw the shadow of his horse-backside. It was surprising that he would just walk out of his office like that, but I didn't have time to question his level of secrecy. As I ran, I heard something about nerves and winter solstice, but didn't stop to think about it. I slipped back into my bed and stayed silent as Grover trotted in and lay down. Tomorrow would be a long day and I needed the rest.

..

The Latin exam wasn't too bad. I probably got at least an –A, which better than I could ever say before. I was just about to walk out the door and prepare for Camp Half-Blood, when Chiron called me back into the room. I felt a flash of worry that he had found out about my previous night's eavesdropping, but it went away quickly when he spoke.

"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's... for the best."

I had forgotten that all of my other grades were complete failures. I could've passed with mostly A's and B's had I put in effort, but I didn't really care. My 'logic' was that I should try and keep things as similar to the present as possible. (In reality I just wanted to not have to do any work.) So needless to say I was not invited back to Yancy. (Boo Hoo, what. a. shame.)

Even though I knew the truth behind his 'kind' words, it still hurt to hear him tell me that I wasn't able to succeed. I silently wished he could see the current 17 year-old me. I think that he might be proud.

He continued the same stupid conversation that had embarrassed me so much when I was 12. When I'd had enough, I walked out and went to pack my stuff.

I silently listened to the other kid's summer plans and smugly thought of my most recent summer (In the future.) I had traveled to Rome, Greece, and pretty much everywhere else in the world, fought like three Titians, and survived tartaurus. Who cares about Zack's hiking trip to Switzerland or Cynthia's Caribbean cruise.

They asked me what I was doing for summer and I vaguely told them that I was looking into a 'summer camp.' They probably assumed it would be some crappy sleep away camp... If they only knew...

There wasn't much to plan for, so I lay on my bed, daydreaming about being reuniting with Annabeth who I was 99% sure was at camp half blood, probably coming up with a good plan that wouldn't suck like everything I'd come up with. I was dreading being separated with Grover, due to the fact that he was the only connection I had to camp, and the fact that when he was around, I never truly felt alone.

When the time came to part ways, I was relived to find that he was riding the same bus home as I was. I doubted that he was actually using it to get home, and was most likely acting on orders from camp, but it was nice to have company for the drive. Grover spent the entire trip looking over his shoulder, probably looking for Mr. D to pop out of nowhere and demand that he give up his searchers license. It was really getting on my nerves, so I pulled out Riptide and started fiddling with it. Turning it over in my hand and running a finger along its smooth engraving.

I was brought out of the inspection by Grover's shaky voice.

"W-Where did you g-get that?" He whispered, pointing at my sword. Dang! I had been banking on the fact that he wasn't expecting me to have it and that he wouldn't be able to recognize it. I've been told I can be a little stupid sometimes.

"Uhhhhh…"

"Percy, this is important!" he said urgently.

"I uh… Ch-Mr. Brunner… uh gave it to me…" I stammered. "It was after Mrs. Dodds… disappeared."

He nodded and then paled, realizing his mistake. "Percy, there... is no ...Mrs. Dodds. I'm ...starting to worry about you. I mean, hallucinating about a demon math teacher?" He quickly tried to recover from his mistake.

I started to talk, but he stopped me.

"Here," he said, pressing a piece of paper into my hand, "take this in case you need anything."

If I wasn't only days away from going back to Camp, I probably would've started sobbing right then and there. I'd like to think it was my twelve year-old body's hormones, but those words printed on the paper made me homesick.

The card read: Grover Underwood Keeper Half-Blood Hill Long Island New York. My home.

I pocketed the card and turned to face the window after giving Grover a reassuring smile. No doubt his emotion-sensing skills were going crazy, trying to figure out why this card meant so much to me. I did my best not to dwell on it, and instead looked at the New York 'Countryside.'

When the bus came to a stop and it was filled with hot smelly air, my blood ran cold. The first thing I could think of was 'not this.' Sure enough, the Greyhound had come to a stop in front of a fruit stand, where three old ladies were knitting an XXXL pair of socks that some part of my crazy head wondered if they would fit on Tyson.

I hated the elderly women the instant I saw them. They were the ones who had screwed up my life so badly that it must have been their favorite past-time. The Fates.

Grover made no move to get off the boiling bus and I followed suit. As much as I wanted to run them through with Riptide, I got the feeling that doing so would not only kill me before I got within a few feet of them, but it also would prove the theory of 'a fate worse than death' correct.

A few minutes later, when the bus was once again moving and away from the fruit stand, I still could hear the clear, sharp snip of the ladies' scissors, cutting through the life of a human being as if it were like snipping a piece of yarn. Grover was even more shaken up than I was. Mumbling about how they "never get past sixth grade" giving me those all to familiar pitying glances that I hated so much. It was then that I wondered for maybe the millionth time in the past few months if this quest was worth it.

Something that you might find is that that when I type for a long time, I accidentally capitalize the wrong stuff. I don't know why I do it, but it also happens when I hand-write.