Disclaimer: Pjo isn't mine... yet

AN.: Hey, guys. I just wanted to thank all of you for the support. The tons of positive reviews for this story are the only reason I kept it going and I really apreciate it. I hope everyone likes it, this is the official end to Annabeth Incident. The fact that everyone loved this so much has made me think of continuations and spinoffs hahaha I almost sound as though this was a TV series or something. Don't know if I'll do it yet but let me know if this would be something you guys would want. Though I will say something: keep your eyes open for the epilogue :) That is one update that will happen in the near future, promise.

Pt 9

During winter break time seemed to go by slowly. Stacy, Kyle, Eric, Michie and Kara spent a lot of time together since all of them stayed in New York. Even though Christmas and New Year's came by none of them were in a festive spirit.

"Happy New Year," Kyle said as he and Stacy sat back down at their table. A guy from their school threw a New Year's party every year and that's where they agreed to spend it this year.

"Have a great year guys," said Stacy happily trying to brighten the mood around.

"Yeah, you too," Kara muttered.

"Come on, guys," said Michie. "We can't just sit around and mope! It's a New Year! New dawn, new day, new life, right?"

"You did not seriously just say that," Eric stared at her disbelievingly. He and Kara had been the ones to take it worse, though for different reasons, of course. All of them missed their friend way too much but there was nothing they could do if Percy refused to go back to school for the last two weeks of the semester and didn't return their calls throughout winter break. All of them had called camp a couple times, even if they didn't tell the others, but no matter who the person at the other end of the line was they always answered with 'he can't come to the phone right now but I'll tell him you called' and refused to pass the phone to Annabeth.

"Guys we can't keep on like this forever!" Michie continued. "We have to have fun and just accept that he doesn't want to talk to us or something. Maybe it's not even that, maybe something happened and he just has to figure it out before coming back to school." No matter what the others felt, Michie felt the guiltiest. She told herself again and again that something else was going on, that this wasn't just about what she said but she couldn't convince herself. She wished Percy would come back and she would even consider actually apologising if he did!

"I just wish they would tell us what's going on," Kara muttered. She was talking about Sally and Paul. Both of them refused to tell them anything other than "he's visiting family" or "he's dealing with some family problems" which didn't clear up anything. You could see it in Sally's eyes she was holding back tears and Paul acted as though everything was okay but recently he had developed some nervous habits.

The rest of winter break went by slowly. Stacy started to notice that the usual trouble and mischief they got themselves was actually linked with Percy. Everyone always said Kyle was the one who dragged him to trouble but her boyfriend didn't seem excited to wreak havoc as much as he usually was when Percy was around. All of them started to wish winter break ended as soon as possible.

/

"And hell begins again," Kyle said as he sat down in home room.

"Oh, stop being melodramatic," Eric rolled his eyes as he sat next to him.

"Dude, seriously, this year we gotta get out more," Eric rolled his eyes again at his friend. "This year we have to be productive, we can't just hang around each other's houses and watch movies eating pizza."

"But that's kind of our thing, isn't it?" Eric argued. "I mean sure we can go out more and stuff but movie nights are everything, you know."

"Yeah, sure. It's gonna be everything without Percy," Kyle wasn't normally mean but the way he talked showed the resentment he felt towards one of his best friends having disappeared without any explanation.

Before Eric could say anything, Mr. Blofis came in.

Now, every day for more than two years, they had seen Paul Blofis walk into homeroom, smile on his face, give them a cheery 'good morning', check who was present and who wasn't, say 'see you later' to the people who had English class with him and 'see you tomorrow' to anyone who didn't. This day was different.

Paul walked in, bags under his eyes, sat at his desk and said a half-hearted 'good morning' to the class. Kyle and Eric frowned at each other. "He looks like he's been run over by a truck a few times," Kyle said.

"Kyle!" Stacy scolded from the seat on his other side. "Don't be mean, he looks like he hasn't had a good night's sleep for a while."

"He looks like he hasn't had a good night's sleep since he was born," Michie said watching the teacher as though he was going to collapse any second.

Apparently everyone in the class was thinking the same as Mark's hand slowly rose. "Sir? Are you alright?" he asked.

Paul looked up carefully and though about what he was going to say. He couldn't tell them the truth but he knew after a while all of them would know something was wrong. Paul had spent his entire winter break worrying, comforting Sally and worrying some more. He didn't know what to do or even if he could do anything. It didn't seem possible that someone could just disappear without a single trace.

During the break, Paul had met some new people. People, or rather, demigods, who were simply too young, in Paul's mind, to be handed the responsibilities they burdened themselves with. Paul's step-son being one of them. Except Percy did that without anyone having to tell him. He was the kind of person who assumed he should be the one to take care of everyone and somehow, until now, he'd done it.

But now they had to save him. If they can find him, he thought. He would never say it aloud so Sally wouldn't hear it and become even more worried but he kept thinking it. He didn't know if Percy would come back from this one and he was trying to mentally prepare himself for that because he knew what it would do to Sally.

"I'm fine," he answered Mark's question. "My break just wasn't too relaxing, that's all."

"Sir," said Kara looking like she couldn't hold it in anymore. "Where's Percy?"

Paul looked around and saw his entire class looking back at him with worried looks. He had been worried about this moment and what he was going to say. He had rehearsed different versions of what he would say; some of them didn't seem realistic even for him. Annabeth, who had been visiting almost every day, and Sally helped him figure out a plausible excuse.

Paul sighed; he had to play this right. "This isn't really for me to say," he told the class, which made them look even more confused and curious.

"Sir," Kyle said and Paul could see he was holding himself back from just going 'dude what the hell just tell us where the fuck our friend is'. "I'm sorry but, Percy hasn't been to school since before break so we're kinda worried. Couldn't you just tell us and spare everyone of being curious and you of having to dodge this question every day?"

Paul couldn't help but be amused at how he could actually be convincing if he wanted. "Well, alright."

He saw everyone in class physically lean forward.

"I told you before break Percy was visiting family and that's why he wasn't here. That was true, he was visiting some family. His aunt decided he should do that so that's what happened."

"But why?" Michie butted in earning a glare from Stacy.

"Because," Paul continued, this is where it would get difficult and he'd have to lie because technically his Auntie Hera really did just decide he should go away, "Percy lives with his mother and, other than his cousins, he doesn't see much of his father's side of the family. He usually only sees his father on his birthday."

"Wait, doesn't his father miss him or something?" a student, Jared, asked.

Paul sighed and ran his hand through his hair, being uncomfortable wouldn't be out of character so he didn't have to hide his emotions. "Of course he does, but Percy's father is a… busy man. He travels a lot and, I would never let Percy or Sally hear me say this, but his father doesn't really have time to prioritize Percy. As his friends you probably know how he doesn't like talking about his family well, now you know why and I'm sure I shouldn't be saying this, especially to you, but it's the truth. His father hasn't been there for Percy much so spending this time with him and his family will probably do some good for their relationship."

He could see some of the students looked uncomfortable so he hoped they'd stop asking questions. This, of course, meant Eric raised his hand. "Sir," he said. "Doesn't Sally miss him though? I mean, he has been away for weeks now."

"Of course she misses him but she knows how important this is." Oh, how he wished this was true.

"Do you miss him, Sir?" Stacy asked.

"Obviously," Paul answered, he didn't think he'd ever missed anyone as much. Maybe this was because none of them knew if Percy was alive though. "But we get updates from time to time and we hope he comes home soon."

"Wait," Michie said and Paul knew he was going to have to improvise. "From time to time? You hope he comes home soon? Haven't you talked to him? Don't you know when he's coming back? I mean, he has to! There's school and he can't just not tell his mom where he is or what he's doing!"

Paul sighed again; he felt like either he shot them down or they would keep on asking and asking and he would eventually get caught in a lie. "Michie, not only does Percy not own a phone but his father's place does not have good reception and Sally and I agreed not to interfere in this. Also, I don't think Percy's education is more your business than it is his mother's. And Annabeth, his friend Grover and his cousin Jason have managed to get a hold of him and say he's doing just fine." That wasn't a complete lie. Annabeth had been trying to contact him through dreams, Grover had the empathy link and Jason thought he kind of had an idea where Percy might be. He felt bad about talking like this to his students, to Percy's friends, and he saw the shock on their faces but he couldn't continue with this.

The bell rang but no one got up. "Have a nice day, everyone," he said before turning to his computer. The students took their time leaving the class but Paul didn't look up, he hated lying to them but he knew he had to.

"Sir," someone said. He looked up to see Stacy standing there. "I'm sorry about that. I know I also asked but I can see how this is really bothering you and I understand why it is. I just think we're all kind of worried about him and you don't have to tell me, it's fine, but I know you haven't told us everything." She smiled at him and then left the class, closing the door behind her.

/

"I just want today to end," Michie muttered to herself as she stuffed her books back in her locker at the end of the day. She wanted to go home and throw herself on her bed and only get up for food. The others were feeling pretty much the same way. As she got her stuff, Eric waited patiently beside her, they seemed to be at a better place since both agreed this had grown a lot more than just something Michie had said.

"You ready?" Stacy asked as she and Kyle walked over to them and Michie closed her locker.

Together, the four of them headed outside. They walked out the front door and started heading towards their bicycles when Stacy stopped them. "Hey, look," she said pointing over to a girl leaning on the school wall seemingly waiting for something. They didn't understand immediately why Stacy was pointing her out since they didn't recognise her in normal school uniform, hair loose and no apparent cuts.

"Annabeth?" Stacy asked walking over to the girl. When they got close they noticed that the girl resembled Paul in a way. They remembered the first time they looked in her eyes, how they were powerful and intelligent, now they were sunken, tired, dull. By her posture she looked like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, she was leaning on the wall as if she would fall to the ground if she didn't.

"Hey guys," she said. Her voice wasn't weak, it was as normal as it could get but still there was something hidden behind her eyes that showed how distraught she was.

"Hey," said Eric looking slightly concerned for the girl. "You ok?"

Annabeth didn't seem to understand the question at first. "Yeah," she said. "I'm just waiting for Paul."

"Why?" Michie asked. She tried to tone down her usual bitchyness because she could see the girl wasn't all there even if she was sure what they saw was not even half of what she was trying to hide.

"I thought I'd stop by," Annabeth explained patiently. "Since my classes started again and I'm in New York, I thought I'd drop by and check in on Paul and Sally."

"Have you talked to Percy recently?" Kyle asked. Stacy nudged him for being so blunt but he just kept looking at Annabeth. The girl didn't show any change in emotion or any hint of being caught off guard. Of course she was prepared to answer a question about Percy. Paul, Sally and herself had rehearsed this and she was prepared to bump into anyone and answer anything. She forced a smile.

"Yeah," she said forcing a cheerful edge to her speech, by the looks on their faces they bought it. It wasn't hard to be happier when talking about Percy, if she put the thoughts of his disappearance in a dark corner inside her head she could pretend he was safely having just another happy day of camp. She wished this was true. "Why?"

"We just wanted to know if he is alright," Stacy said.

"Oh, yeah," Annabeth faked. "I talked to him a few days ago. His aunt's a bitch but his dad is pretty cool and he seems to be enjoying the family reunion." Annabeth wasn't even scared Hera would strike her down, or maybe she didn't care. "Thalia and Nico are probably gonna go over there soon so he definitely won't get bored." That was a blatant lie, Thalia and Nico had no idea where Percy was.

The others exchanged glances. Annabeth's story matched Paul's exactly so they each decided that they were probably telling the truth.

"Well, can you ask him to give us a call or something?" Eric asked. "I mean we're getting kinda worried with this silence."

Just you? Annabeth thought. "The signal there is awful but if his aunt lets him use and abuse of the phone then sure, I'll ask," she said.

That's when Paul appeared. At first he got scared that maybe the children were onto something but he saw Annabeth smiling at him and decided he needed to relax. "Hey, Annabeth," he said getting closer. "Nice seeing you."

"I just got out of school, thought I'd stop by and say hello to you and Sally," the girl answered. She stopped by everyday these days but the students didn't need to know or it would seem strange.

"Great!" Paul said. "Let's got then, I'm sure Sally will be happy to see you."

The two of them said their goodbyes to the others and left. Every student leaving the school watched Paul and Percy's girlfriend as they walked away. If they thought about it, they would come to realise they knew nothing about her. Though if they really thought about it, they didn't know much about her boyfriend either. And they obviously didn't know this would be the last incident where they saw Annabeth for months.

"Anyone want to grab a pizza and watch a movie?" Eric asked.

"Hell yes," Kyle answered smiling. Maybe it would be sometime before Percy came back but at least he was ok and they would hear from him soon.

AN. Oh dear, as Cinema Sins would say: roll credits.