Disclaimer: Can I just do a disclaimer for the rest of this story? I don't own. I never will. Rick Riordan does. I'm just borrowing the characters. So yeah. Enjoy.

Chapter Nine

Annabeth had never felt so awed in her life.

As she stared at the massive mansion in front of her, she felt small.

Very small.

And Annabeth hated feeling small. It made her feel insignificant, something she hated more than anything in the world. She didn't want to be insignificant. She wanted to be important. She wanted to be something or someone.

"Breathe Annabeth, breath," she whispered to herself as she steeled herself to walk up to the entrance to the house. Thankfully Thalia was at her side so she didn't have to do it alone.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine Annie," Thalia said, squeezing her hand. But even Thalia didn't look so sure. Annabeth could tell. She prided herself in being able to read her best friend's facial expression even if she was wearing at large black mask over her eyes.

At least Annabeth thought she looked pretty. If she thought she looked pretty than it would be easier to make it through the night.

Aphrodite was able to work magic. Literally.

She had found Annabeth a long, floor length navy blue dress which apparently set off her eyes and her hair as according to Thalia and Aphrodite. It was one shoulder and swept up around the waste where all the material gathered and cinched together. She had to admit it was beautiful. And the fact that she had gotten it free… okay so Thalia wouldn't let her leave the store until Annabeth agreed to let her buy it for her… made it even better. She usually didn't accept charity but since she decided that Thalia was foricing her to come to this dance as moral support, Thalia might as well buy her dress for her.

Thalia looked gorgeous in her strapless black and white dress which fell to her knees and poofed out because of the large about of tulle that was underneath the black skirt. The top was white with black swirls and the bottom was black with white swirls. However the part of the outfit which was Annabeth's favorite was her converse.

Only Thalia could pull off black converse at a Masquerade party.

Annabeth had tried to get Thalia into a pretty, dark pink dress but Thalia had drawn the line. She refused to even go near anything pink. But Annabeth wasn't giving up, not in the least bit. She'd see her best friend in pink if it was the last thing she'd do.

The duo walked to the front entrance. "Apparently there used to be a massive mob of news people here to try and sneak a view of all the famous people. Dad didn't have a problem with it, it was good publicity but some of the people that came threatened to sue so he put the gate up around the property," Thalia said, nodding to the tall wall around the massive house.

Annabeth was still amazed by the architecture of the house. Corinthian columns, strong support at the bottom, dome tops and that was just the outside, she couldn't wait to see the inside. A massive drive way circled around in front of the house in a horseshoe shape and cars were parked tightly into spots. All of the cars were worth more than Annabeth's loft, a reality she was coming all too familiar with.

That's what happened when your best friend was rich.

Lifting her skirts up, she followed Thalia up the grand stairs which had a fountain every three steps. It seemed a bit too over the top for Annabeth and if she had designed it, she would have put only one in the exact center of the stairwell to the front of the house but make it very regal and beautiful.

The doors to the mansion were wide open with men dressed in such a way that they resembled penguins to Annabeth stood guard. They didn't even bat an eyelash when Thalia swept in, her head held high. Annabeth hurried behind her, hoping that she looked half as confident as her best friend.

Inside in the grand foyer, as Thalia called it, there was an incredibly large double staircase and at least a hundred people milling around, all in fancy outfits and masks so that Annabeth couldn't tell who she was looking at. It made her giddy. For all she knew she might talk to someone famous tonight!

The party spilled over into a large ballroom where music was playing and people were dancing, spinning around in swirls of colored silk. Annabeth thought it was dreamy. She reached for the notebook in her purse to write down the description but Thalia swatted her hand.

"No, you're not writing anything tonight," Thalia said. "You're here to dance." Annabeth began to protest but Thalia gave her a stink eye so she bit her lip but agreed not to write anything. So she had to settle for a picture with her phone which made Thalia roll her eyes.

"So what are we doing here?" Annabeth whispered, looking around self consciously.

Thalia shrugged. "I don't know, Dad makes me come, so I'll have to go check in with him before I leave just to prove that I really came."

"But how can you tell who he is?" Annabeth asked, craning her head to look around. She couldn't tell who a single person was. Not that she would know anyone here, it wasn't like she frequented the circles that many of these people moved in.

"Thalia, Annabeth!" A tall brunette accosted them, her face hidden behind a white mask with red swirls around the eyes. She wore a blood red dress which dipped far too low than Annabeth would feel comfortable wearing. And her heals. Annabeth didn't have a word to describe them.

"Hey Aphrodite," Thalia said as the woman in red squeezed Thalia into a massive hug. Annabeth took a step back before she could do it to her. "You dyed your hair," Thalia noted.

Aphrodite giggled and twirled a loose strand of her hair which had fallen out of her curls which were pinned back. She looked amazing of course, as if she could look anything else. "The red didn't really match with the dress, far too much red."

"So you just dyed it?" Annabeth asked. Who did that, 'oh my hair didn't match with my dress so I'm just going to dye it'.

"Of course, what else would I do? Buy a new dress? How silly," Aphrodite said, rolling her eyes.

"No because you couldn't just wear the dress, that'd be ridiculous," Annabeth said sarcastically. Aphrodite's eyes lit up.

"Now you see my problem!" Aphrodite said. It was Annabeth's turn to roll her eyes. Vanity annoyed her.

"So where's Hephaestus?" Thalia asked casually, trying to steer the conversation away from Annabeth wanting to strangle her. Everyone knew about Aphrodite and Hephaestus, the oddest couple in the Celebrity world. Hephaestus was a special effects designer for some of the best movies ever produced. He met Aphrodite on the set of one of the movies that she was working on (her film career was cut short when they quickly found out that she couldn't act as well as she could model). They married three weeks later. But whereas Aphrodite was gorgeous and one of the most beautiful women on the planet, Hephaestus was ugly.

And that wasn't an understatement.

His beard was burnt and singed at the edges, his face was misshaped from when his mother dropped him out of shock at his face which was slightly sunken in on one side. He walked with a limp as one of his legs was shorter than another. How they had gotten together no one had any idea.

"Of course not, do you have any idea what he would do to my image if he was here with me?" Aphrodite said, examining her nails. "Ares is here with me," she waved her hand in the general direction of wherever he was.

Ares, the greatest football quarter back to grace the planet, or so he acted. He was tall and burly and rode a Harley Motorcycle wherever he went. He was one of the best athletes ever but he was known for his brutality, a fierce brutality that didn't care who got hurt.

"You came to a party with Ares?" Thalia asked.

"Of course? Who else would I go with?" Aphrodite asked confused. Annabeth began to wonder if Hephaestus wondered that his wife was having an affair with Ares. For some reason she had a feeling that he did. "You two look simply gorgeous in those dresses," Aphrodite said. "I knew that they would fit perfectly. But really Thalia, the shoes?"

Thalia grinned, "I think they just complete the outfit," Thalia said, spinning around.

Annabeth grinned as Aphrodite cringed.

It just kept getting better and better.

"Why do I do this?" Percy asked, as he leaned against the table filled to the brim with food. He swirled his punch around in his glass and looked at the massive party, at the swirls of silk and drapes of black as the couples spun around on the dance floor. The room made his head hurt with all the people and bright lights.

"Because your uncle asked you to," Nico said as he reached for a small sandwich and popped it into his mouth. "And the food is incredible, you have to admit it."

"Only the best for my uncle," Percy muttered, but he reached for a macaroon, something he had discovered in France and had developed an unhealthy obsession for. "And this mask is annoying me," he said, reaching up to try and scratch his face underneath the black mask.

"But it's also keeping you from getting over run by screaming girls… and men." That was true. It was amazing just how much a mask hid your identity. Of course, Percy had been very familiar with the talent of wearing a mask. After all he had worn one for years.

"Touché," Percy said, leaning back and closing his eyes. He tried to drown out all of the annoying chatter with the music, with the soft pull of the violin strings or the loud dancing of the fingers on the piano keys. He had trained himself to be able to pick out each individual instrument.

"Would you look at that," Nico said, whistling and nudging Percy in the side. Percy's eyes opened and he looked up to where Nico was pointing.

He couldn't help but let his eyes pop open.

It was a tall blond, only a few inches shorter than Percy. The way she moved was as if she was walking on water. Her blond hair was pulled up into a bun with a few stray curls falling around her tan face. She wore a beautiful navy blue dress that fell to the floor. The blue looked nice on her… really nice on her.

"Di immortals," Percy muttered. He thought he was seeing an angel or something like that… great now he was turning into a hopeless romantic. "Tell me I'm not the only one seeing this."

"You're not the only one seeing this," Nico said. Percy watched as her lips quirked up in a smile at what the girl next to her said.

She's probably good with words Percy thought.

"Isn't that your cousin next to her?" Nico asked, pointing at the girl next to the masked beauty.

"How can you tell?" Percy asked. "She's wearing a mask."

"Come on man, only Thalia has that spiky of black hair and only she would wear that dress to this party. And plus there's the converse."

Good point. Only Thalia Grace could pull off the knee length black dress and converse to a fancy party.

"Okay so it's Thalia, whatever. It's not like I'm tight with Pinecone Face or anything, I haven't talked with her in at least a year." Nico snickered at Percy's nickname. When Thalia was twelve she got stuck in a pinecone tree because she had climbed too high and then looked down.

Thalia had a fear of heights.

A bad one.

"Come on, use your cousin to meet mystery girl," Nico said. "I know you want to talk to her."

"What… what no!" Percy said. "I…I'm good." But his eyes kept straight on the tall blonde. He wanted to talk to her so badly but he couldn't. He couldn't bring himself too.

"Hey guys," a chipper voice said. A girl with choppy brown hair pulled into curls with many different braids running through it. Her eyes were like kaleidoscopes, ever changing. She smiled at the two boys as she collapsed into a seat next to them, spreading out her turquoise dress and adjusting her black mask with small blue and green flowers.

"Hey Piper," Nico said, "Jason." He nodded to the blond that sat down next to Piper, his electric blue eyes shining behind his mask.

"Hey Nico," Jason said. "Percy." Percy grunted and crossed his arms, his sea green eyes still focused on the masked girl next to his cousin. He remembered back to when he was little and there would be a cookie on the counter but he was too small to grab it. So close yet so far away.

The same went for the girl. There was something about her that made Percy feel like he knew her, like he had known her for forever.

"What's up with him?" Jason asked. "Did he get rejected by someone again?"

"Shut up Sparky," Percy said, glaring at him.

"Nope, but he's afraid he will be," Nico said.

"The blonde chick with my sister?" Jason asked. Nico nodded.

"Oh she was nice!" Piper said, "And she's smart."

"Yeah, way out of your league Percy," a boy said coming up, his hair wild and curly as if he didn't even think to comb it, which knowing Leo Valdez, he probably didn't. He grinned as he slipped into another chair next to Jason. "I think I'm in love," he sighed.

"You and Percy should start a club," Jason snickered.

"Wait what! You're in love with her?" Percy asked, jerking up out of his seat. How did Leo managed to talk to her and he hadn't?

"No idiot, I'm talking about with Calypso," Leo said, a dreamy look on his face.

"Man, if you think Percy's out of his league, then you shouldn't be talking." Piper said, shaking her head. Calypso was a young movie star who was also seriously gorgeous. She had grown up in the Caribbean with her aunt, since her mother had died when she was little and her father had been sent to jail.

"A guy can dream," Leo said. Piper shook her head and then reached over in an attempt to straighten his crooked mask.

"What are you wearing Leo?" Jason asked, looking over Leo's clothing choice. Percy looked at him as well and then snorted. Leo was known for his strange sense of fashion.

"I'll have you know this is a one of the kind tuxedo shirt, directly from Target," Leo said resentfully as he looked down at the tuxedo shirt. And by tuxedo shirt it meant a shirt designed to be a mockery of a tux. Pair that together with black dress pants, sneakers, a crooked black mask that looked like it was bought from Zurcher's and a tool belt and you got a one of the kind Leo Valdez ensemble.

"Leo you could afford to buy out all of Target and you decide to get clothes from Target?" Piper said, exasperated. Leo shrugged.

"It's comfortable. What do you think Percy, am I right or am I right?" He asked.

"Huh? What?" Percy asked as he looked up from where he was still looking at his cousin and her friend. He knew that he should go and talk to her but he couldn't. Why was it that he was too nervous to talk to one girl? Usually he could have a girl under his thumb with one smooth sentence, but here he was, shaking in his boots about thinking about talking to her.

"Still staring at her?" Nico asked.

"Go and talk to her already," Piper said, leaning back. "She's really nice and I think you'd like her."

"Come on Percy, you deserve someone better than… RED." Jason and Leo both shuddered exactly on cue with the mention of Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

"I'm good," Percy tried to insist but Piper studied Percy with her kaleidoscope eyes. They used to joke that Piper saw into your soul, that she saw exactly how you felt. Percy shifted nervously in his seat. She shook her head.

"No you're not." But she let it go at that and turned to Nico to discus something that Percy couldn't care two cents about.

Why couldn't he talk to her?

There was something in the back of his mind that was nagging at him. The last time he hadn't talked to a girl he wanted to, she had disappeared before he got the chance to.

And now he had no idea who she was.

And it was killing him.

He hadn't had the courage to do it. It reminded him of something his mystery letter writer had told him:

W4W: I want to be courageous, I want to be able to do something that scares me. I want to dance in the rain, I want to walk through the fire. If I never do it then I'll spend the rest of my life wondering: what if? What if I could have done it? What if I took the chance? So I'm not going to live in fear. I'm going to do it. So that I never have to wonder What If.

That's it, she was nagging at his conscience. He'd have to do it now. He stood up and brushed off his black jacket and straightened the blue dress shirt he was wearing. "Where are you going?" Nico asked him.

"I'm going to go talk to her."

The whole table clapped in agreement.

Annabeth wanted to shoot herself. She didn't understand how Thalia managed to stand there and smile the whole time at the different people who they were talking to. But at least Thalia wasn't getting asked every five seconds to go and dance.

Annabeth hated dancing.

And yet she had been asked by so many men she had lost count. Of course she had politely said no to everyone of them. She had a policy about accepting dance requests with men who wore masks and she couldn't tell who they were.

What if they were a murder? Or a psychopath?

But then again… what if they were her Prince Charming.

Annabeth shook her head. She was tired of trying to convince herself that her fairy tale was going to happen. She had been waiting to for years and nothing good had come her way. Why would it change tonight?

But then again… it was a Masquerade.

Just like Cinderella.

"I'm going to get something to drink," she whispered to Thalia who was busy laughing with some woman in a pale pink and blue dress that fell down her legs with a train behind her, which when she moved shimmered to look like flowers.

"I'll meet you there," Thalia nodded. Annabeth turned on her heels and strode towards the large banquet table filled with so many different foods that it made Annabeth's head hurt. She walked down the table, studying each piece of food. She didn't even know that there was this much food.

And of course with her mind preoccupied, she didn't notice the man walking right towards her.

And of course, being the klutz she was, she collided right into him.

And rather ungracefully at that. She cursed under her breath and then looked at the man whom had half knocked her over and whom she had half knocked over.

Annabeth looked at him and her stormy grey eyes met sea green.