Percy's POV
Days passed by like a blur. I felt as if my mom just put me in a summer camp and I'll see her in a few weeks. Everyone helped me forget that my mom just died. I could always count on Annabeth for a shoulder to cry on. Thalia gives me static shocks (she's really good at that) whenever I start to stare at the distance and begin to think about my mom. Luke and Bianca would always give out their sympathies but the one who helps the most is Nico. He's always so talkative, so goofy so carefree. He never gets embarrassed and he always sticks up to whatever he likes. He'll talk to you about Mythomagic for hours and not stop even though you tell him you think it's dumb. He's so childish and happy even though he's in an orphanage. And he always cracks us up every time he does his hopelessly-out-of-tune rendition of Home on the Range whenever we sneak out for s'mores.
During one of our s'mores session, I couldn't help but notice Annabeth staring at Luke weirdly. I sat down beside her. "I know that look." I told her "What's up?"
"Oh, it's nothing." She responded. "He's just so familiar. I just can't remember."
"Can't remember?" I feigned a gasp. "The Annabeth Chase forgetting something? Quick! Call the news reporters. This is a breakthrough in American history!"
"Why don't you just ask him?"
Annabeth blushed. "Umm…"
"Oh. I get it." I snickered. "You like him."
Do not! She protested.
"Hey, you guys!" I said loudly, ignoring Annabeth's deathly glares penetrating my face. "You already know that Annabeth and I came from NY. How 'bout you guys?"
"Nico and I came from California." Bianca volunteered.
"LA." Thalia said, munching on a graham cracker.
"Virginia." Luke replied. "I ran away shortly after my mom and I moved to Connecticut."
"Virginia?" Annabeth piped up. "Now I remember. Luke, don't you remember? We were neighbors in Virginia."
"Now that you've mentioned it, I did think you looked familiar. You look so different now, Annie." Luke gave her a quick hug. "I missed you."
"I missed you too." Annabeth replied. "And don't call me Annie!"
"I remember telling me that when you were younger. Luke laughed. "You used to hit me every time I did. And I have to say, they really hurt."
"Wait, you guys knew each other before meeting here?" Thalia broke in.
"Yeah. Luke was my best friend before moving to New York." Annabeth said, looking at Luke. "He was like my big brother." Luke gave her hand a squeeze.
I was getting uncomfortable so I decided to change the subject. "Hey, is it just me or this orphanage is way too awesome? Not that I'm complaining or anything but this mess hall alone is way too amazing for an orphanage."
"This is not just an orphanage. It's also a boarding school. Besides, this is just one of the Dare's charity projects. They're like multibillionaires who own this huge company who destroyed a lot of nature or whatever it was called. So they have lots of charity works to clean up after it. I heard that this was just a birthday gift to Rachel." Thalia explained.
"Rachel?" asked Annabeth.
"She's their daughter." Thalia replied. "She's about your age, actually."
"So, what's she like?" I wondered out loud.
Thalia looked away thoughtfully. "She goes to school here. So I'll leave you to find that out for yourself."
A/N Ooh. Cliffhanger. Kind off. Well, you know the drill. Review, review, REVIEW! Please?
