"I'm not as smart as you think," I tell Fabian.
"You know more than I do about a lot of things," he says. I shake my head.
"I told you how my mom was a daughter of Athena – the wisdom is inherited. I've been hacking into the school system and changing all my grades to A's. I can't even read anything unless it's written in ancient Greek, my dyslexia is too bad."
"You've got dyslexia?"
"Yeah, ADHD too. They're common among demigods."
"Right." It's silent for a minute.
"I'm not the same person you think I am," I admit, "but not all of it was a lie. Honestly, I've got one of the worst attitudes in the history of the world. If I hadn't been trying to get on your good side when I first got here, I would probably be spending my free time with Alfie and Jerome instead of you. I'm a prankster like that; I got it from my Uncle Grover. I don't like to let people boss me around. I'll tell them off in a split second. I've been holding my tongue all year." I laugh bitterly. "But I don't think I've been doing it as much anymore. Spending all this time with you, you've rubbed off on me. I'm better now, at being polite and things."
"You think I've changed you?"
"You've definitely changed me. For the better. I'm still a hot mess, but a better one."
He hesitates for a moment. "I believe you, Nina. About the demigods and monsters and everything. I just don't understand why you had to put on this huge act in order to tell me about all of it."
I give him a disbelieving look, but can't help the smirk that crosses my face.
"Are you telling me that if I walked up to you on the first day we met and said 'By the way, you're a demigod, and your dad is Zeus!' you would have believed me?"
"Okay, maybe not," he says, cracking a smile. I shake my head.
"My life is so messed up. Even I can't tell what's real and what's not anymore."
"What about us?"
"Huh?"
"I mean…" Fabian blushes, rubbing his neck nervously. "Before the hellhound, earlier…was that real?"
"Oh," I realize, flushing red when I realize he's talking about the fact that we kissed. "I mean…if you want it to be."
"Good," he says, smiling with relief. "I mean…"
"I know," I interrupt, smiling. "I really do like you, Fabian. That much is true." I get up slowly, walking over and sitting next to him on his fallen tree. He smiles at me and I can't help but grin back.
"Life's about to get a bit crazy isn't it?" he asks. I nod.
"Oh, definitely. Welcome to my world. Enjoy your stay," I say, rolling my eyes.
"As long as I've got you to help me, I think I'll be okay."
Hesitantly, he leans in closer, and I meet him halfway, pressing my lips against his and smiling against his mouth. His hands come to my waist and pain shoots up my side. I pull back abruptly, wincing.
"Ow."
"What's wrong?" he asks immediately, alarmed. I motion to my side.
"Got scratched," I say.
"Why didn't you say so? We need to get you patched up!" he says, standing up and holding out an arm. I grab onto it and let him help me up. We turn around and start heading back to the house.
"I'm thinking we tell Trudy we were walking in the woods and you decided to climb a tree, but you fell out because you're clumsy and got scratched by a branch on the way down."
"No need, I can fix myself up," I say shaking my head as we walk. "Just like in the stories, I've got ambrosia hidden in a plastic baggie under my bed. Eat that, bandage it up, I'll be fine in a day or two."
"If you're sure," Fabian shrugs. "You probably know more than me."
"You know, you're handling this pretty well," I tell him. "Usually people are up the wall by now."
"I don't know. I guess, the way you say everything makes it all seem kind of normal. I just have one question."
"What's that?"
"Why now? All these years I haven't known anything about this stuff, and all of a sudden, you're sent along to come tell me."
"I mentioned earlier, recently there has been a lot more monsters wandering about the Earth. You're exposed, now, Fabian, and that's dangerous. And you're not going to like this, but we're going to need to leave, as soon as possible." I start to tell him about the prophecy, but I bite my lip. He doesn't need to know about that until we get to camp. Chiron will be better at explaining than I am.
"Leave? Go where?"
"Camp Half-Blood. It's where I was raised, in America. It's in rural New York. Tons of demigods live there. You need to be trained, and taught how to defend yourself against everything that's out there. You need to know what you're dealing with."
"I'm just supposed to drop everything and go?"
"I wish there was another way," I say apologetically. "Really, I do."
"What about my mom?"
"She'll understand. She knows about this stuff, about camp, and all that. Chiron has already contacted her, he's the camp director. He's a centaur."
"Even my mom has been hiding this from me. My entire life, I've been lied to," Fabian mutters. "Anything else I need to know?"
"Well, if you're asking…" I sigh. "My name isn't Nina Martin."
"Of course it's not," he grumbles. Clearly the knowledge that he needs to leave the country has put him in a mood. "What is it, then?"
"Annabeth Jackson. I was named after my mom," I say. "Look, there's the house. Come on, then."
"Annabeth Jackson," he says quietly as we go, trying it out on his tongue.
"And Fabian? This is kind of important," I say, stopping at the door to Anubis. He looks at me expectantly.
"Yeah?"
"You can't tell anyone about this. No one can know."