Annabeth POV

*beep beep Beep Beep BEep BEep BEEp BEEp BEEP BEEP*

* SLAP*

I hate Mondays.

School passes uneventfully. Grover stays at Percy's apartment while Percy and I go to school. We agree to spend the afternoon together at Bianca's café. Percy's cousin owns it, so we get free fries with our milkshakes.

"So," Percy says with a flourish as he sets his milkshake on the table, "how was Korea?"

"Absolutely bursting with boy bands and pretty guys," Grover laughs.

"You're just jealous," I respond.

"Never! I could just feel the masculinity seeping out of me." Grover makes a face.

Bianca strolls over with our fries. With her chocolate eyes, olive skin, and dark hair swinging in a ponytail behind her head, she is the split image of her brother, Nico. He goes to a private school in New Jersey, per his father's request.

"On the house, as always." She grins at us.

"Thanks cuz. How's Nico doing?"

"As 'dark' and emo as ever." Cue the eye roll. "Anything new with you guys? Besides the legendary Grover returning to NYC!" The table laughed, and she looked at Percy.

"How is your mother? Is her condition still improving?" She looked genuinely concerned.

I could feel Percy freeze up beside me. I move my hand over and squeeze his. I know how difficult it is to answer those kinds of questions. I see some of the tension in his shoulders ease, but he's still apprehensive about answering her question.

"She, uh, well… you see…" he struggles to find the words.

"She is still fighting, as hard as ever." He looks over, grateful for my interruption.

Bianca smiled "Well of course. She would never give up. She's Sally Jackson. Or, Sally Blofis soon," she said with a wink. "How is the step-dad-to-be?"

Percy, clearly glad the conversation changed topics, replied, "Good. Amazing really. I don't think I've ever seen Paul so happy. Or my mom. They're both completely enamored with each other. Their love hasn't faded in 5 years, it's really inspiring." He looked over at me and my heart raced. I could see unbridled affection swimming in his eyes, and I found myself wondering if some of it could be for me.

"Aww that's really sweet," Bianca interjected.

Percy moved his gaze to her and gives a lopsided smile. As they carry on conversation about the future wedding, I take a moment to pull breath back into my lungs. Of course, he was just talking of his mother. He adores her, what else could that look be about? I need to get this very inconvenient crush under control.

"-what do you think Annabeth?" Grover looks at me expectantly.

"Huh? Sorry, I was lost in thought." I sheepishly smile at him.

"Come on Wise Girl, get your head in the game." Percy bumped his shoulder against mine. "We were wondering if you wanted to go to the park later today."

I poke his side. "Is this just an attempt to go to the skate park so you can show off your 'sweet tricks'?"

He scoffs at me, "Why, of course not! I just love skateboarding. If there happens to be cute girls there that enjoy watching a skilled boarder, that is purely coincidental."

I roll my eyes at his antics. "Sure. I'll grab my book when we drop by the apartment building to grab your skateboard. But what will Grover do?"

Grover has a genetic condition called Acrodysostosis where his feet are far too small for the rest of him, so he walks with a crutch. He doesn't need it, but he is incredibly clumsy without them. The birthday cake incident of freshman year comes to mind. This condition means he can't do things like ride a bike or skate.

"Were you paying attention, you would have heard that I'm going to visit our group leader at the hospital." Grover says matter-of-factly. "Out of curiosity, what had you so distracted?"

"Oh, nothing important," I say, waving it off.

"No, now Grover has me curious," Percy chimes in, "What were you thinking about?"

In a panic I say, "Food." I slow down and try again. "That is, what do we want to do for dinner? I was thinking pizza."

Grover seems fine with this justification and says, "Yeah, that sounds good to me."

Percy looks at me weird and says, "Sure." He definitely knows I'm lying. He's known me for too long. He either thought it was unimportant or he's going to ask me about it later. Please be the former.

It wasn't the former.

"What was that about? "Percy asked as we entered the cab.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I responded, still hoping to get away with the lie. But Percy knows my body language better than he knows English. I'm not going to get out of this.

Percy looks at me deadpan. "You don't lose focus thinking about pizza."

"Right, that's you!" Percy doesn't laugh. He just keeps looking at me. I sigh, "You really aren't going to let me get away with it?"

"I need to know. It's not like you to lie, especially to a friend like Grover."

I rake my brain trying to come up with an excuse, to no avail. "Well, I just… what you said about your mother and Paul. It really spoke to me. I guess I'm not used to seeing such a strong love between a family, and you guys are all I've got." His eyes soften at my response.

"Ok, well then let's hurry up and get to the park. I have some skills to show off and friends to party with all night!" I roll my eyes and make a mental note to grab the first aid kit. All that he'll be doing all night is nursing his minor wounds from whatever too-advanced skateboarding move he tries next. I feel affection rise in my chest as he runs into the apartments to grab his board. I chuckle to myself. He may be a complete idiot, but at least he's still here with me.

Awww cute. Don't worry, we will get to see Sally's wedding in this story. I'm particularly excited for that chapter.

BTW, that condition that Grover has is real, not just a plot device. You can look it up.

Grace Bondurant - Aww, thanks! You have no idea how big of a compliment that is to me!

Please Review! And feel welcome to ask any question. I'll answer it, but if it's spoiler-y then it'll be very cryptic...hehe

(and if you desperately want to know the answer to a spoiler question, just pm me, I may just give you a massive hint...)

Have a good week lovelies! And be on the lookout for a one-shot that I'm planning on posting next week. It's unrelated to this story, but I'm very proud of it.