All of these characters belong to Rick Riordan, as you know.

Authors Note: I put in a fake address for the sake of the plot, so anyone who lives in California (or cares), please don't kill me over this!

Chapter 4

Percy couldn't believe his eyes. He rubbed them just to make sure he was seeing right. The sign still read 2009.

Then he turned around and looked at the hotel. And he saw its name.

Percy was very confused, so he found the closest Internet cafe (yes, those are things) and he looked up Lotus Hotel. Nothing popped up, so he did something dangerous.

He went back inside. This time, though, he knew he had to come back out, and he kept that thought in his mind.

Percy went up to the clerk in the lobby and asked what year it was.

"Well, it's 1983, right?"

Percy walked away and asked other people what year they thought it was. He asked a couple people when they were born, too.

None of them knew the right year. And everyone had aged without knowing.

Taken aback, Percy left the hotel.

This time, when he walked out of the hotel, he saw a paper stuck to a telephone pole that said:

MISSING

Percy Jackson

Reward of $5,000 for anyone who finds him and brings him to this address.

1993 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA, 46783

Please contact Sally Jackson at this number: 768-173-3758

Percy gasped when he saw the picture under his name. It was a shot of him at the beach when he was seven. And if he did his math right, now he was... sixteen. Today was his sixteenth birthday.

Percy forgot about that when he saw the address. He quickly memorized it and ran off to find it.

Percy asked anyone who walked by where Valencia Street was. No one answered him. Not for a while.

He'd asked about 70 people already, and no one answered him. He asked an elderly lady where he could find Valencia Street.

"Oh, sure, I can give you directions! Could you just do me a favor first?" She said cheerily.

"Sure. What do you need me to do?" Percy responded eagerly.

"Well you see," She started. "I'm an elderly woman, and no one wants to wait long enough for me to cross the street. Can you help me get to that side of the road?"

"Of course." Percy said, confused. After all, how hard could it be to help an old lady cross the road?

Very hard, it turned out. The first time the walk light turned on, she had to pick up all her bags. The second time, she had all her bags but she dropped one of them and everything spilled out of it. Percy had to gather the fruits rolling away, and put them back in the bag. Finally, the third walk light came on, and Percy was ready to carry her to get his directions.

He did actually carry her. In the last seconds of the walk light, Percy boosted her up and carried her like a baby. One hand was cradling her head, the other was lifting her legs. He set her down on the other side.

"Now," Percy breathed desperately, "Can I have the directions to Valencia Street?"

"Oh, yes, of course." The lady smiled. "This is Valencia Street, dearie."

Percy groaned, then he ran off to find the building 1993 with the old lady chuckling after him.

Turns out, Valencia Street was long. Very, very long. Percy didn't care. He ran up and down the street dozens of times on both sides with no luck. Then he realized it went further than he thought, and extended into a more rural area. With all his exercise in for the day, Percy walked through the quiet neighborhood until he found house number 1993.

He walked up to the cream colored house, which looked very familiar for some reason. Percy rang the doorbell and stepped back.

A second later, the door swung wide open to reveal a lean, blonde girl, with stormy gray eyes. She looked kinda angry to be disturbed. But when she saw Percy, her eyes got less stormy.

"Hi there, what can I do for you?" The girl said.

"Um, I'm looking for Sally Jackson. I saw the poster that said to come here?"

The girl gasped. All of a sudden, her name came back to him. "Annabeth?" Percy asked.

"Oh gods, Percy, is it you?" She screeched.

"Well, yeah."

"Ok, if you are, what did you eat here the morning we dropped you off at that hotel?"

Percy struggled to remember. He'd spent so long at the Lotus Hotel without being aware of all the time that had passed. The concept made his head hurt. "Um, was it pancakes? Blueberry pancakes?"

Annabeth nodded eagerly.

"Wait, I think I remember. I had syrup all over my face, then you walked down the stairs, and you looked really pretty." Annabeth blushed a little at this. "Then we both ate together. Then you guys dropped me off at the Lotus Hotel."

Annabeth nodded again with a huge smile on her face and ushered him inside. Then Percy remembered something else. "Weren't you guys moving to New York?"

Annabeth turned to face him. "We were, but we saw the missing posters after we dropped you off. We contacted your mom and told her where you said your hotel was. She told us she was going to look there.

"The next day she called us and said there was only an alley where we said there was a building. We were very confused, so we told her to meet us there. She was right. Something was wrong, so we told her to put our address on the posters so she could go back to New York. Now you're here."

Percy looked around. Everything looked the same as the first time he was here.

Annabeth called her dad down and he stopped when he saw Percy.

Annabeth explained that he'd showed up at the door when he'd seen the posters. Her dad still looked shocked. Then Annabeth sighed. "Yeah, I left out a small detail. You were presumed dead after a year. The only ones who didn't think so were your mom... and me."

Now it was Percy's turn to be shocked. Everyone thought he was dead. His mom didn't know he was here and alive. He needed to hear his mom's voice. "Can- can I call my mom?"

Annabeth nodded and brought her phone out of her pocket. Percy dialed her number and his mom picked up before it even rang once.

"Hello, Annabeth. What's up?" Sally's voice came over the phone.

"M-mom?" Percy's voice cracked. "Mom, it's me. Percy."

Sally gasped. "Percy, is that really you? After all these years?" She sobbed. "Oh gods, Percy I missed you so much. Everyone told me you were gone, dead. I didn't believe them, and I'm so glad I didn't."

"Mom, I really want to see you." Percy held back tears. "When can I see you?"

"Oh Percy, today's your sixteenth birthday. I'm coming to California. I was going to tear down the posters because it'd been to long. I'm coming to see you. Don't worry."

Percy couldn't hold back his tears anymore. He let one drop roll down he cheek and he sobbed a little. Percy clutched the phone a little longer, and he finally ended the call. He wiped the tears off of it before handing it back to Annabeth, who gave him a watery smile. Percy saw that she was on the verge of tears, so he hugged her. She hugged him back, and Percy was happy.

Everything was going to be okay. Everything was okay.

Until it wasn't.