I'm so sorry for not uploading a chapter so since i have a five day weekend i'll try to upload at least 1 more chapter. Any hints, tips, or knock-knock jokes are welcomed.

Without further ado the next chapter of Inner Circle.

Thalia and I had been on our way to what I assumed was the cafeteria when she stopped suddenly. I definitely was confused and as I've stated before I hate being confused. She looked down the hallways to our left and right then went down the right one. I had no way of knowing how to get anywhere so my choices were to either:

A) Follow Thalia

Or

B) Randomly wander and hope for the best.

I considered the two options and figured since so far she had been trustworthy I could depend on her. I stayed directly behind Thalia as she took several turns. Left, Left, Right, Straight…I kept track of everything so if she weren't here I could make an educated guess at where to go. Every now and then she would look over her shoulder, most likely to make sure I was still following her.

Or to make sure nobody else was.

Soon we came to a set of double doors. Thalia checked around before pushing open the double doors. What I saw was breath taking: trees whose leaves were a vivid green and the flowers complimenting both the leaves and each other.

There was one tree that stood out. It was the biggest tree I've ever seen, not only in height but width as well. You could easily climb the branches which looked sturdy enough to withstand even the most powerful of storms. Fruits hung form some of it smaller branches. I'm not an expert on trees but I'm pretty sure that their supposed to only bear one type of fruit. This tree had apples, pears, oranges, lemons, you name it.

Under this magnificent tree was a group of students. When we walked over they stopped talking and laughing instantly. Thalia sat down next to a boy who had cropped blonde hair and blue eyes like her. I was hesitant to sit anywhere until Thalia patted the spot next to her. I sat down and felt all their eyes on me.

It probably wasn't a smart thing to do but my pride insisted I meet all their stares. That was exactly what I did. I stared each one in the eyes and gauged their reactions. Some were impressed others surprised. Then there were the few who shifted uncomfortably when I stared at them. I made sure to remember who reacted how in case I needed to use that information for later use *cough cough* blackmail *cough cough*. Just as I was compiling all this info Thalia cleared her throat.

"So this is Annie." She said smirking

I glared and gritting my teeth corrected her "My name is Annabeth. Don't call me Annie."

She just kept on smirking and filled in the rest of her group "She's new and I already told her about you guys."

I realized these were the Olympian Children. I also noticed that they were all in my Greek class. I had to suppress a groan when I realized they had all seen me hit Percy with the textbook. One of them had to be a mind reader because they brought that up.

"Oh! She's the one who whacked the crap out of Percy!" Latino Elf exclaimed excitedly.

At this everyone looked at me and I sighed in defeat. "Yeah I did." I said

I heard a few appreciative whistles and some laughs. I saw a hand move towards me and looked at it. It was the boy I assumed was Thalia's brother. I shook his hand and gave a small smile. He returned it and I have to admit he was kinda attractive. He introduced himself which started a round of self-introductions.

"My name's Jason Grace. I'm Thalia's little brother. My dad's Zeus. We joke sometimes and say I'm the son of Jupiter Enterprise since my dad raised me to one day take over the company." He told me. He seemed loyal and I would place money on him being a great leader.

The girl sitting next to him was wearing loose jeans and a t-shirt with a snowboarding jacket over it. She introduced herself with a semi-serious expression. "Hey, I'm Piper McLean. In case you ask the answer is yes: my father is the Tristan McLean. I hope you don't mind me asking you not to treat me different 'cause of my dad. My mom's Aphrodite but…" she smiled "don't expect me to start going on and on about make-up. That's my sister's job." I noticed she said the word make-up like you'd say "Hades gym shorts."

The girl across from Piper gave an indignant "Hey!" when she mentioned her sister and make-up. The same girl (who I'm assuming is Silena) decided she might as well introduce herself anyway.

"Hi, I'm Silena! I'm Pipey's older sister. You know if you just added a hint of blush here and put on some mascara…" and I'm sure if Thalia hadn't stopped her she would have gone on about eye shadow and concealer and other things I had no interest in.

"Silena shut up. No one's even listening to you." Thalia said (in my opinion, bluntly).

Silena made an "hmph" sound scooted closer to the African American guy next to her. He put his arm around her and started rubbing her arm soothingly. Surprisingly quickly her expression changed from upset to comfortable.

The African American next to her introduced himself: "Sup, I'm Beckendorf. Um, my dad's Hephaestus and I'm Leo's older brother. If you need anything fixed just call me up." He gave me his number and I stored it in my bag.

Latino Elf, who was sitting directly in front of me, started talking fast. It was difficult at first to keep up because he would keep switching from English to Spanish.

Latino Elf was wearing an army fatigue jacket that seemed to have way too many pockets. The shirt under it was a sorta tan color. He was wearing jeans that had what looked like grease stains all over them. "Hola! Me llamo Leo and I'm Beckendorf's little hermano. I'm currently single and looking for una niña bonita." He told me. He sounded like a description off of a dating website.

I looked at him with a straight face and said "Sorry but if I do go out with someone they have to be smart enough to tie their shoes."

He looked down at his sneakers and started tying them while everyone else laughed. So far everyone seemed nice but I still wasn't going to let my guard down. Percy had seemed nice but obviously he was the exact opposite.

One by one everyone introduced themselves to me.

There was emo looking Nico who was apparently Percy's cousin. He wore all black and had olive skin. He didn't really say much.

Then there was Katie Gardener who was Demeter's daughter. I thought her last name was ironic considering who her mother was. She doesn't really agree with her on mom on things and normally she's home alone since her mom obsesses over the agriculture department. She wore regular jeans with a floral print blouse. She kept the Stoll brothers in check and didn't hesitate to use force.

Clarisse La Rue was Ares' daughter and it was easy to tell. Clarisse is a bit vulgar in my opinion but the others didn't seem to mind. Probably since they all knew each other. She was dating a boy named Chris and according to the others he balanced her out with his calmness.

The Stoll Brothers were definitely interesting. They had elfish characteristics such as their ears but their smile was what you had to look out for. Travis and Connor were twins but it's not like it mattered because they acted the same exact way. They both wore jeans that had a cadecus printed on the left pocket. One of them (Not sure which one) wore a red polo while the other wore a dark purple one. They gave me their card and told me if I ever needed to prank someone to let them know.

I put the card in my pocket figuring I wouldn't need it. [A/N: I'll have to see about that]

After they introduced themselves they all turned to me.

"So?" Silena asked.

"So what?" I asked back.

"Tell us about yourself." Jason said.

I opened my mouth to speak when I heard a set of doors swing open. Everyone looked to see who had come.

In walked Percy Jackson and when he saw me I swear I saw actual fire in his eyes. That at least wasn't the worst part. The smiling person behind him was.

Calypso

She had been my closest friend and my confident. The one I went to when my life had taken a turn for the worst. That is until five years ago when she turned against me and made my life hell.

Looks like my luck is worse than I thought.

Alright i hope you enjoyed the chapter. This was more like an introductory chapter so that you get sort of a background for the characters. I caught a cold and had to take medicine so i'm a bit drowsy at the moment. I promise to work through it and upload another chapter. Knock-Knock jokes are welcomed and please comment. Until next time

~TheUnwantedDaughterofArtemis ~