Hello! It is I, the great, not-so great, not-very-well-known author of this story!

*nonexistant fans applaud politely.

Anyway, some replies:

titancrusher: Yes, I am AWARE that there are only seven Harry Potter books. I only used it because I needed a title for the book Annabeth was reading.

Shadow Ignis: Hi again! Look ^ for the HP thing, but thank you for the nice words. Also, Wise Girl wasn't originally Percy's nickname for Annabeth. If you read back to Lightning Thief, it was actually Clarisse who said it first. When she was trying to dunk Percy in the toilet she said, "Stay out of this, wise girl."

Also, Thank you to the guests who wrote such nice reviews! (I love the drama llama thing, I am totally using that!)

That's it. On to the story!

Chapter 4

Annabeth (again)

I am currently sitting at my dark wood desk in my bedroom, my head in my hands, brainstorming ways to kill my stepmother.

I'm so frustrated with her I might punch something! Apparently, my insane stepmother has finally decided that she's going to resume speaking with me. So now she's acknowledging my presence.

Which should be a good thing, right? I finally have a family! Yay!

Except not really.

Now that my so-called "family" has realized I exist, everything has worsened. You'd think they'd at least pretend to care about me, right?

Wrong.

Helen decided that it was an absolutely WONDERFUL idea to go get a manicure with her friends. And force me to babysit my twin brothers. This morning. The morning that Luke, Thalia, and I had specifically set aside way in advance to hang out and act like normal teenagers.

So, instead of having the super-fun morning I had planned, walking with Luke to meet Thalia at our favorite coffee place to have the best day ever, I had to stay at home with my two bratty little brothers who don't even listen to me and babysit.

I hate children.

I looked up at the sound of a message from Luke bumping into my window.

Hey, you okay? Anyway, we should get going.

I looked at him through the window and shook my head sadly at him. He looked at me questioningly and I looked away. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him stand up from his desk.

I buried my face in my hands again.

The doorbell chimed. I sprang up from my desk chair and made to rush down the stairs to answer the door before Helen got there.

"Why, hello, Luke! I haven't seen you in a while!"

I skidded to a stop and internally groaned. Too late.

"Um, hello Mrs. Chase. May I come in?" I could hear how uncomfortable Luke was. He hardly ever came to the door; I usually met him and Thalia outside.

"Of course. Would you like to talk to Annabeth? I think she's in her bedroom."

I reached the top of the stairs. Looking over the railing, I could see Luke's eyes widen slightly in surprise at Helen's mentioning my name. I hadn't told him yet that Helen had quit ignoring me.

"Uh, sure." Luke began slipping off his white Vans. He still remembered how much Helen hated having shoes in the house.

I slid back to my bedroom and quietly shut the door to avoid talking to Luke in front of Helen. I pretended to read for about ten seconds before I heard three quick knocks and two slow knocks on my door, Luke's characteristic knock.

"Come in!" I called, acting like I didn't know who it was.

Luke opened my door cautiously.

"Annabeth?" He asked. I looked up. He looked confused, which only made his face cuter. I nearly smiled, but then remembered how much I hated my stepmother and I looked down again.

"Annabeth, what's wrong?" he asked. "Why aren't you downstairs? And what's with Helen today?"

I opened my mouth to tell him that everything was fine, that I was just feeling a little sick. I closed my mouth. I couldn't lie to Luke. I've never lied to Luke in my entire life. We have the most open relationship ever. We tell each other everything.

I opened my mouth again, and the story poured out, how my stepmother started talking to me again, and she wants to ruin my life, and so she is pretending to hate Thalia so that she can destroy my social life by not letting me near Thalia ever again, and she cancelled my plans for coffee, and she wasn't going to let me leave the house, like, at all, and she just -

"Annie." I stopped mid-rant. I did hate my nickname, but hearing Luke say it made my heart flutter.

Luke sat down next to me on the bed and wrapped his arms around me. Blood rushed to my face but I managed not to squeal.

"Annie, she- Helen- if she thinks she can just... control your life like that, after all she's done- she's... "

I looked up at Luke. He looked angry, angrier than I had ever seen him.

"She's a bitch." I drew in my breath. Luke never used crude language unless he was furious.

"Luke?" I asked, a little bit frightened.

"She can't just do that!" he cried.

I shushed Luke frantically and whispered, "There's nothing we can do about it."

"Oh, yes, there is." Luke smiled mischievously at me, with a hint of malice in his eyes.

"We're going to make her life hell."