HI guys! Thanks for all the reviews, yea? Nothing much to say for this chapter except enjoy! :)


Annabeth's POV

"Man, I've missed this. The food is still as awesome as before!" Micheal praised happily as he chewed on his steak hungrily. We were seated around a huge, large circular table that was covered with a white tablecloth.

"Figures. What did you eat when you were away anyway?" Travis asked curiously. Micheal tapped his chin with his finger as he tried to recall.

"Well, we went to Asia…lots of Japanese, chinese, malay and indian food. Really nice! There were quite a few western restaurants there too, but there's nothing like the original!" He exclaimed cheerfully, pointing his fork towards the smoking steak. They all laughed and agreed with him.

I frowned as I noticed that Thalia was really happy and cheerful. She laughed and talked to him unstoppably. It was really unusual to see her act like this.

The rest of the gang had similar behaviors to her too. They all acted so cheerful, so hyper. I had never seen them in that kind of mood. They had their happy times, but I had never seen Beckendorf guffaw so loudly, or Juniper giggle so highly, or Leo shout so much before…and that's saying a lot.

It was as though they didn't even notice Percy's absence. Almost the whole time, I had been listening attentively to their conversations, trying to pick up any conversations, or even a mention about Percy. I hadn't heard one at all. They were all so..addicted to Micheal, so attracted to him. The only people other than me who were not always talking to him was Nico, me and Grover.

That wasn't a surprise. After all, Percy was in our inner circle. We were the closest to each other out of the rest of the gang. Juniper joined in from time to time, but she wasn't really in the inner circle. It was only because of Grover that she came.

But, what I kind of disapproved of was how Thalia was acting. I had been observing her the most the whole time, and I hadn't seen the slightest hint of confusion or wonderment on her face. All I saw was satisfaction and joy at having Micheal as company. She was in the inner circle, and yet…

"Annabeth, if they weren't that infatuated by Micheal, they would have noticed your killer glare by now." Grover whispered teasingly, causing me to snap out of my thoughts and immediately correct my facial expression.

"I wasn't glaring." I denied blatantly, but we both knew that I was lying. Nico chuckled at us, but I could see the discomfort in his eyes.

My eyes widened slightly when I realized that he was probably the most hurt out of all of us. I mean, Thalia's his girlfriend, for gods' sakes! And she was paying more attention to Micheal than she was to her own boyfriend.

"Can you give Percy a call?" Grover asked, making sure that his voice could not be heard by the rest of the gang, who was being all rowdy and noisy. They didn't seem to notice us, nor did they seem to care at all.

"I doubt he'll answer the call, y'know. He tends to be…uh…" I trailed off, not knowing how to describe. However, Grover and Nico seemed to know what I was referring to. Well, they were his best friends for years.

"Yea, I know. I guess we'll have to visit him later then." Nico declared. We nodded in agreement.

"Hey, guys! What'cha guys talking 'bout so seriously?" Leo asked loudly, seemingly appearing behind us from nowhere. We all jumped back from each other and gasped, causing Leo to start laughing uncontrollably.

"Not funny, bastard!" Nico glared at him, but I could see the amusement twinkling in his eyes, and the slight quirk of his lips.

"Whatever! Come and join in the convo, dead boy!" He teased before going back to his seat and once again adding his lame and idiotic jokes into the commotion. We all sighed and shook out heads in exasperation as we saw him stick a straw in his nose. He was still the silliest and most idiotic person we have ever encountered in our lives. At least, in mine.

"Hey, Annabeth!" Micheal suddenly called my name. My head snapped towards him, and I looked at him cautiously. He was waving with a cheeky grin plastered on his face. "Care to join in! I know you're the newest, but doesn't mean that you have to be so shy!" I almost snorted when I heard his assumption of me.

I nodded and gave him a grin and a thumbs up, which he shot right back at me. He then went back to his conversations. I looked at Nico and Grover quizzically.

"Is he always so random? I had not said a word to him for the past twenty minutes, and now he asks me to join in?" I asked them in disbelief. They both chuckled.

"He's a little slow, and random? In terms of randomness, the only people he loses to are Leo and the Stoll brothers. " Grover informed me with laughter in his voice.

"Hm…" I hummed as I pondered. Micheal had taken twenty minutes to notice that I wasn't talking. Nico and Grover had said that he was a little slow…but what if it was just because he had not noticed, because he did not even care about us?

Frustration bubbled inside me as I actually felt hurt that I wasn't important to him. Why the hell was I so worried whether he saw me as an important person or not?

"We'd better join in the convo, before they start to suspect something." Nico suggested. We nodded and went in, contributing to the insufferably loud commotion caused by the gang.


"I wonder why they didn't chase us out of the restaurant, seeing how noisy and ridiculously hyperactive we were just now." I muttered in irritation. Nico laughed and patted my back lightly.

"Don't get irritated so soon. The worst has yet to come." I looked at him incredulously, and then looked at Grover, expecting him to be laughing as though what Nico said was a joke. Instead, he was nodding.

"Yea, you haven't seen the gang when Micheal plays his guitar." He added in. They both talked about it as though it was something amazing, but horrifying at the same time.

"So I take it that the gang loves his music a lot?" I asked.

"Yup." They replied simultaneously.

"I'd like to hear it one day. Want to see how good he really is…" I muttered. We had finished eating lunch a while ago and were now on the way back home. Thalia had said that she would catch up with us soon, choosing to follow Micheal for a while more.

"He's really good. Anyway, we're here." Grover stated.

"That was fast."

"Time flies when you're having fun!" Nico exclaimed. The three of us smiled at each other, and then Nico stepped forward and pressed the doorbell.

"Hey, Percy, in there?" He shouted at the door. For a few seconds, everything was silent. We almost gave up and walked away when we heard a voice from inside the house.

"Coming, coming, wait…" It said, and the front door opened to reveal Percy, with his usual curly black hair and sharp and energetic sea-green eyes. His hair was wet though, as though he had just taken a shower. His face, which initially looked really displeased, transformed into one of curiousness and cheerfulness.

"OH, its you guys! Come on in!" He exclaimed, stepping to the side and motioning for us to come in, grinning like a chesire cat.

Once we were all in comfortably, he went to the kitchen and poured some coke for us.

"So," He started, handing the cup of coke to me. "What brings you here today? Thought you were having fun with Micheal…" He trailed off. We stayed quiet for a few moments, until I couldn't take it anymore.

"We were wondering why you didn't arrive for lunch today." I explained, choosing to break the ice.

"Oh, I wanted to practice some swordsmanship today, so I didn't have that much time. As you can see, I just bathed." He said, pointing at his slightly dripping hair.

"Really?" Grover asked. Percy nodded and gave him a smile.

"Yea, really. I promise I'll be there for the next lunch," He told us. "By the way, where's Thalia? She doesn't seem to be accompanying you right now." He asked us. We exchanged looks.

"She went and stayed with the gang for a while more. Told us to move back first." Nico replied. Even though it was very subtle, I could see the slight disappointment that surfaced into his eyes, the very slight sag of his shoulders, and the very faint waver of his smile.

"Oh…yea, I guess that's reasonable…" He seemed to be talking to himself. He studied the ground for a shot moment, and then looked up once again, his posture back to normal.

"Well, thanks for caring!" He exclaimed joyously. "Really appreciate it! Do you guys still wanna stay here, or do you have something on?" He asked them. He didn't bother to ask me, but that was reasonable, since I lived just next to him, so he didn't need to ask me.

"Sure. I'm waiting for Thalia to come back anyway." Nico shrugged nonchalantly.

"I'll stick around for a while more." Grover told us. Percy seemed to be happy at that, and for a moment, I saw the loneliness he had been hiding inside him show in his eyes, but it was considerably lessened by the presence of three of his inner circle.

"Good! I'll bring more food out, and maybe we can discuss 'bout what you did today." He said brightly, and walked to the kitchen to get more drinks and food.