A/N So I completely revised this chapter because I did not like it whatsoever, it was terrible. So, here is the new and improved Chapter 9! I decided to mix in another common cliche with this one -two birds with one stone!

And before anyone asks, no this is not a Thalico story and I don't plan on turning it into that!


Annabeth POV

Construction of Olympus was going well. There were only a few mistakes that had happened and they could easily be fixed within the week. The only downside was that as my mother led me around the city, many of the gods decided to drop in and give me new "ideas". That meant that I had a lot of work to do for the next few weeks.

On our way back to the throne room, mom kept dropping hints about Percy.

"Does Perseus have a job?"

"How are his current grades?"

"Has Mr. Jackson looked into colleges yet?"

"Have you met that lovely young man in the Apollo cabin yet?"

"Mother," I finally interrupted her when she started to talk about his future career at the movie theater, "If you have something you wish to say about Percy, I'd appreciate it if you told me outright." It was tough to keep my tone level. Athena huffed.

"Annabeth, I do not approve of you and Mr. Jackson's relationship." She said. Well I knew that!

"His name is Percy." I said, "And whether you approve of it or not does not play a factor in my decision to date him." I said firmly.

"He is an uneducated imbecile!"

"He loves me, and the feeling is mutual. Are your feelings for Lord Poseidon clouding your ability to see people clearly for who they are?" Her nostrils flared in anger.

"You are in no position to judge me in such a way, Annabeth." Her voice was deadly calm and cold. Fear was making goose bumps come up on my arms, but I held my ground.

"Percy has yet to do something wrong. As a matter of fact he has been nothing but good to me as well as all of you here on Olympus."

"Did he ever tell you about Rachel?" Athena asked.

"If you're talking about the time she kissed him, then yes he did." I said confidently. When he'd first told me about that, I wasn't mad. It was right after we'd first started dating, so I was in such a state of bliss and disbelief that I had only said, "You picked me in the end," and that was that. Maybe he wasn't so stupid after all. If he'd told me about that at any other time, he would have been a dead man.

Athena looked mad.

"Mother," I said gently, "There's nothing you can say that will change my mind. Now, thank you for the progress report, I will be back in a week or so to check up again." I said, and brushed past her to walk into the throne room, "Percy?" I called. His sneakers slapped against the marble as he jogged into the room with that goofy grin on his face that made my heart thump a mile a minute.

"Aw, listen to that heartbeat!" Aphrodite hadn't moved from her throne apparently. The Bachelor was playing on a small television set connected to the armrest, but her eyes were trained on the two of us, "Oh, am I glad I paired the two of you up! Not only will your kids be absolutely beautiful, they'll be brilliant and powerful as well!" If she thought my heartbeat was fast then, she should hear it now. The blush rushed up to my cheeks, and I didn't dare look at Percy.

"We must be going, good afternoon Lady Aphrodite." I muttered, and grabbed Percy's hand, pulling him out of there.

"I'd better get an invite to the wedding!" She yelled after us.


"Well that was..."

"Yeah..." Saying things were awkward in the elevator was an understatement. We could not look at each other, and after a few mumbles about the weather we didn't speak either. To think that Aphrodite was thinking so far ahead! It wasn't until we were out the building and down the street did I finally break the ice.

"Let's just... forget about Aphrodite," I suggested. For the first time since we were up on Olympus, he grinned at me.

"That's the best idea you've had all day." He laughed and twisted his fingers with mine. We bumped shoulders.

"Agreed, then." I sighed with content as we walked, "So what now?" He tapped his chin as though deep in thought (which he wasn't, of course).

"Why don't we spend a day hanging out at the apartment?" He suggested, "You know, just relax. It's not like we have anything else to do." On the contrary, I had about a thousand blueprints to finish. They would likely be the focus of my attention for the next couple of weeks. Today was probably my last day to just be with Percy. What better way to spend it than doing absolutely nothing?

"That sounds perfect."


What a shock, we got my apartment just as an argument was brewing.

"I so could!"

"Not!" Yet another shock: it was Thalia and Nico doing the fighting. All of our camp friends, plus Trinity and Hayden, lounged about in the living room watching the fight unfurl.

"What's it about this time?" I sighed as Percy pulled us to the couch. Hayden turned to us and shrugged.

"Beats me," he answered, "One second we're ordering a pizza, the next they're yelling at each other in Greek." I rolled my eyes. Great job, Thalia, yell about godly things in front of mortals in fluent Greek. Like they don't already suspect us! I put two fingers in my mouth and whistled, silencing the children of the two Big Three.

"That's enough!" I said, "Whatever issues you two have, sort them out when we don't have company!" Nico muttered an apology, and Thalia rolled her eyes.

"There's nothing else to do around here anyways," She muttered, "At least we provided some entertainment."

"Well, how about a game of truth or dare?" Silena suggested. At this, Clarisse burst out laughing.

"Do I look like I'm in sixth grade?" She snorted. Sixth grade is about the time most demigods start training for survival at camp. We don't get much time for truth or dare. This fact was absolutely fine by me.

"I vote we just watch TV or something," I said. Percy nodded in agreement.

"Hear, hear!"

In the end, Percy and I were outvoted. Clarisse gave in, Chris followed suit. Thalia and Nico looked ready to get back at each other with some nasty dares. I'm pretty sure everyone else just didn't want to go against Clarisse.

"Thalia, you first." Silena said.

"Nico," She said immediately, "Truth or dare?"

"Truth," There was fear in his eyes. Dare was just too risky when it came to an angry Thalia. She pursed her lips in disappointment, but continued.

"Have you ever crushed on a girl," She said with a resigned sigh. It was such a common question for her.

"Yes," He said nonchalantly.

"Who?" Percy asked in surprise. Nico never had been a very lovey-dovey kid.

"Question didn't ask for a who." He said, turning just the slightest bit pink, "But anyways, Clarisse, truth or dare?"

"Dare!" It was unlike a child of Ares to back down from a challenge.

"I dare you to... keep all insults to yourself for the rest of the game." He announced. Considering the fact that she insisted on calling my boyfriend Prissy every other sentence, this dare could actually be interesting. Clarisse mumbled something to herself, but didn't chicken out.

"Jackson, truth or dare?" She asked.

"Truth," Even Percy wasn't stupid enough to take a dare from Clarisse.

"Did you ever get a girl before Annabeth?" She asked. Huh, I suppose I'd never thought about it. He'd always been the school loser before Goode as far as I'd witnessed.

Percy only shook his head, "Nope," Way to waste a truth, Clarisse, "Nico!" Saw that one coming, "Truth or dare?"

"Dare!" Nico said immediately, adamant to tell us about his ex-crush apparently, though I was pretty sure it was me.

"Fine then, I dare you to tell us who your old crush was." Percy said. Nico groaned and started muttering under his breath.

"When I first met Annabeth I had a little crush on her. But hey, I was twelve! My judgement was all jacked up."

"Hey!" Percy and I both said at the same time.

"Truth or dare, Thalia!" Nico said quickly. He was blushing. The poor kid just didn't have the thing in his head that told him what not to say.

"Dare, bring it, di Angelo." Thalia answered bravely. His grin reminded me of the Grinch. This would not end well...

"I dare you to go out that door, and kiss the first male you see on the street." He said. This was one of the few times I had seen Thalia go pale.

"You know I can't do that!" Trinity and Hayden looked confused. Oh yeah, they didn't know Thalia was a Hunter. She couldn't break her oath, she was Lieutenant!

"That's an unfair one, Nico." I scolded. He pouted.

"Fine," He spit, "Thalia, I'm going to go make a nice drink for you." He said, and stood up. She shivered.

"I'm really starting to regret this..." She uttered, "In the meantime, Trinity." She said, "Truth or dare?"

"Dare!" It was hard to notice her eyes flicker to Hayden for just a moment. Thalia caught this, and planned her dare accordingly.

"I dare you to kiss Hayden," She said smugly. It was hard to miss the pure joy that erupted in Trin's eyes. Hayden just looked confused, and shocked. Ugh, boys! Trinity pretended to roll her eyes.

"Do I have to?" She asked half-heartedly.

"Yes," Thalia said, "Three seconds on the clock, go." There was no possible way Hayden missed the blush in her cheeks as she turned to look at him.

"Sorry about this," She said quickly before tilting her head and kissing him full on the lips. He looked so much like Percy on our first kiss.

"3...2.." With one second left Hayden closed his eyes and gently touched Trinity's cheek. I nudged Percy with a smirk. He was grinning at his two mortal best friends.

"1, break it up love birds." Thalia said. Trinity moved her face back an inch, but Hayden's hand was still on her face. Now it was his turn to blush.

"Uh..." he said awkwardly, "Sorry." With that he took his hand back. They both turned they heads so that they weren't looking at each other anymore, but it was so obvious that the kiss sparked something. Trinity had a feverish light in her dark eyes, and Hayden had the smallest grin lighting his face.

Nico walked back in holding a cup of suspicious brown liquid, "Drink up, Thalia!" He said as he thrust the cup towards her. She wrinkled her nose and gingerly held the cup.

"Fine... but if this kills me, I'm haunting you for all eternity!" She could do it too, Nico liked talking to dead people. He just rolled his eyes.

"Drink. Now." Grimace in place, Thalia pinched her nose and chugged the glass. She came up coughing and spitting.

"EW! What was in that?!" She screeched between gags.

"One of those diet chocolate milkshakes, some mustard, a little bit of cottage cheese, Tabasco sauce, a squeeze of ketchup, some salt, and a some cinnamon." He counted on his fingers. Thalia stood with her fist outstretched.

"When I get done gagging, you are so gonna get it Death Boy!"

"Come at me, Sparky!"

"Go wash your mouth out," Silena said, "Then you can kill Nico. But while you're doing that, back to the game." Thalia grumbled and went to rinse her mouth out as Nico took her spot in the circle, "Trinity, your turn."

"Katie, truth or dare?" She asked, still red from her dare.

"Truth, I don't feel like getting up." Katie answered.

"Tell us how you and Travis got together." Trinity said. I'd heard the story a million times already. A million and one wouldn't make a difference.

"Him and Connor had just pranked my cabin, right? So I went over to his cabin to yell at him. Connor was out, and for some reason Travis was alone. I was yelling at him, and throwing things at him..." In reality she had been making some nasty vines grow around his ankles, but she couldn't tell them that, "... and all of a sudden he runs up and kisses me." Katie finished. Silena awed for dramatic affect.

"Ok, your turn, Katie." She instructed.

"Juniper," She said, "Truth or dare?"

"Truth," She said quietly.

"Have you ever accused Grover of cheating on you?" Katie asked. The slightest tinge of green went up to her ears.

"Well there was that one time..." She said.

"I told you that was nothing!" Grover bleated, "Come on Juniper, you're the only tr... er, I mean girl, for me." She hugged him in response.

"Bleh, enough with all this mushy stuff!" Thalia groaned as she walked back in, "Lets see some hardcore dares!" Juniper sighed.

"Fine, Annabeth, pick dare." I would have anyways. I mean come on, it was Juniper.

"Ok, dare." I said. She pointed out the window.

"There's a twelve year old kid out on the street with his little buddies. I so dare you to go up, and use your cheesiest pick-up line on him." She laughed. I crawled to look out the window at the subject. There was a group of four little boys playing with trading cards out at the bus stop. Wow, Nico flashback...

"Ok, be right back." I said. I kissed Percy's cheek, and then walked out the door, down the steps, and approached the boy in the middle. He was wearing a big, baggy t-shirt with the Pokemon logo on it, and he had a serious case of acne. The jaws of his three little friends dropped to the ground when I walked up and tapped his shoulder. The kid's eyes lit up like the camp fire after Capture the Flag.

"Hi, I'm Annabeth." I said. He was at least two feet shorter than me, so I was actually tilting my head to look down at him.

"I-I-I'm T-t-t-Tommy." He stuttered. I almost felt bad doing this to him. I remembered how awkward I'd felt around Luke at this age: intimidated, un-worthy, lame...

"Nice to meet you, Tommy." I said, "So, do you come here often?" I asked. His little groupies started snickering behind their hands, and whispering to one another. Oh this was so bad...

"I uh... I..." Tommy started to blush like crazy. He sort of reminded me of Percy. He was just that awkward. The least I could do was give him something to brag about to his friends. I bent down and kissed his cheek. The groupies started slapping each others arms with their mouths hanging open!

"Nice to meet you, Tommy." I said with a wink. All he could do was stare at with eyes the size of saucers. Before he could say anything else, I was back in the building.

"Juniper, I hate you!" I said as I ran back in. She had her head leaning on Grover's shoulder, laughing so loudly she was waking up the trees in Central Park! In fact, everyone was laughing at me. Only Percy was even attempting to keep a straight face.

"You're not leaving me for that kid, are you?" He asked with fake worry. Rolling my eyes, I reclaimed my place by his side. To answer his question, I put my arms around his neck and kissed him.

"Maybe..."

"Shut up," He said and kissed me back.

"I thought I said no more mushy stuff!"