Sophia was sad knowing that their little vacation was coming to an end. She would miss the nightly bonfires and the feeling of sand in between her toes. But, living in that small and barely functional cabin? Not so much.

She enjoyed having the sun warm her skin and the smell of suntan lotion filter through her nose occasionally while wasting her days away at the beach. Well she wasn't totally wasting her day, she did, if she could, calculate the velocity of horseshoe crabs. She thought this would make an interesting science fair project once school started again.

Sophia's tan hands patted the sand as she and her mother worked on the deluxe sandcastle they were building. Annabeth told her that she had always wanted to build this design of a sandcastle before, ever since she was a little girl. She also said that she would need a particularly special assistant to help her with this project. So, why not? Horseshoe crabs could wait.

They were almost done with the palace; Annabeth was working on the draw bridge, while Sophia was finishing up a wall. It already looked spectacular, and they didn't even add the finishing touches yet! There was going to be water in the moat (and maybe some fish too, if Percy could convince them), along with Chase's bucket of little, plastic army men to guard the knowledgeable princess that awaits her also intellectual prince. It was going to look great, Sophia decided. She couldn't wait to tell her friends about it!

Sophia brushed her hair out of her face; her eyes were squinted, accidentally scraping some dry sand on her forehead. She could see her brother and father still enjoying their time in the ocean. They were having a contest to see which one could blow bubbles the longest and they were both tied. She looked back at her mother and she could see that serious look upon her face as she smoothed out the sandy bridge so the army men wouldn't trip over any clumps, most especially the princess. Any architectural mistakes of her magnificent palace would be an immediate execution, of course.

Even serious, Sophia could also see the glee of finally accomplishing a wish in her mother's eyes; they were a lighter shade of gray than usual. It could be the sun, she deducted, but not even the sun could make so much rare expression stand out through her eyes like that.

She heard distant cheering mixed in with the waves crashing against the shore, probably meaning that someone had won the contest. Annabeth looked up from the now perfectly smooth bridge to her husband and son who were walking up to them, with Chase only slightly wet, Percy as dry as a bone. Annabeth smiled and opened her arms towards Chase who rocketed into his mother's arms, a triumphant grin on his face.

"Mommy!" He pulled back, looking at her, his hands on her shoulders. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"I won!" She smiled.

"That's great, Chase!" Her eyes flickered at Percy momentarily and he gave her a quick wink while grabbing a can of soda out of the cooler, letting her know that he secretly let his son win. "I think you deserve a prize."

"What would it be?" He asked.

"A congratulatory kiss from a fair maiden," She responded. Chase shrugged casually, offering his mother his cheek, his grin transforming into a more cocky one.

"If the fair maiden must," Annabeth rolled her eyes but planted a kiss on his son's salty, cold cheek. Chase laughed a bit.

Percy sat next to his daughter, pulling back the tab of the soda can, hearing the fizz releasing. He saw the sandcastle and smiled.

"Cool sandcastle you got there, Soph." Sophia looked over to her father, watching him easily and thirstily knock back the soda. She sighed, resting her vacant, sandy hands in her lap, her legs outstretched to the active sea.

"Cool?" She questioned his adjective. "I think it is the most magnificent sandcastle I have even seen in my life." Percy smirked at her response, resting his can in the sand beside him.

"That's because it's the only sandcastle you've ever seen in your life." He leaned back on his hands while Sophia shook her head.

"No, if I ever see any other sandcastles, I know they won't ever compare to the greatness of this one." Percy was trying not to laugh, so he hid it with a nod.

"Whatever you say, Soph, whatever you say." Sophia seemed pleased with his response; he could see her smile out of the corner of her eye. Chase crawled over to Sophia through the sand, getting the trim of his blue swim trunks covered in a band of sand.

"Do you want to put my army men up now, Sophia?" She nodded and got the white bucket that was full to the brim of them. Together, they decorated the building with putting some on the bridge, some inside guarding the walls and the majority of them up on the second level, guarding the princess's tower.

The children then gathered their colorful, plastic buckets and dashed towards the sea, hurriedly filling up them up with water, scurrying back to the sandcastle. They poured the water into the moat and Chase had to admit that it looked pretty awesome. Annabeth took numerous pictures and eagerly chattered with Percy how she, "couldn't wait to show these to Thalia, Clarisse, Athena and Rachel". Percy took it as, "I can't wait to show off how attractive and intelligent my kids are to Thalia, Clarisse, Athena and Rachel".

Chase and Sophia played with their sandcastle the rest of the afternoon they were there, and Sophia confessed that once you were sucked into Chase's unique plot, the sound effects weren't so annoying after all. Chase controlled all of the army men while Sophia had her lone princess figure.

But, not all time went to play; she learned one thing that day: not all fun comes from reading or learning things, but a little imagination can take you a long way.