A/N: Here's my favorite chapter so far. After you read it, you're probably going to think I'm a terrible person for loving it so much, but oh well. Think whatever you want about me.

Enjoy!

At lunch, Annabeth was tasked with setting up the dates. She wasn't too concerned; she was pretty sure the guys would be perfectly fine with it.

Instead of going to her own table, she went to Percy's straight away, and the look on his face was quite entertaining. He looked very confused.

"Is something wrong?" he asked after she sat down.

"Nope, I was sent on a mission," Annabeth replied which got all of the boys' attention. "Jess, Kimberlee, and Gabby need dates to the dance coming up."

"What, don't you need a date?" Percy teased.

"I'll find one eventually," Annabeth replied with a wink in his direction.

"Well," Shayne started, "Liam has had a crush on Jess since elementary school, so he should go with her."

"No, I haven't!" protested Liam, but he was covering his dark red face with his hands.

"Sure," Max said with an eye roll. "I'll go with Kimberlee, I guess. Gabby is smart and all, but she had very little common sense."

"Then when should I go with her?" Shayne asked.

"Because you have less than her!" Max exclaimed, and all of the guys erupted in laughter.

"I suppose work here is done," Annabeth said then began to stand up.

"Wait," Percy said, tugging on her arm, "would you go to the dance with me?"

"Gee, Seaweed Brain, if that's how you're going to ask me things from now on, you better practice in a mirror or something before you ask me to marry you," Annabeth joked.

Liam, Shayne, and Max's jaws all dropped at that comment.

"It's a 'yes' or 'no' question, Wise Girl," Percy replied with an easy-going grin.

Instead of answering, she leaned down kiss him before running to join her friends in the lunch line.

"Success," Annabeth said to the girls, and she told them who their dates were.

"Aw, Jess is going with Liam. They would be so cute together!" Gabby babbled.

The rest of them laughed while Jess made a face.

"Aw, Jessie, don't resist it," Kimberlee teased.

"Shut it," Jess replied, and they all just laughed more.

Annabeth loved how she felt with these girls. In the back of her mind, she knew that she would never be normal, but at least at Goode, she could take a break. They all got their lunches and made their way back to their table.

"So Percy asked me to go with him," Annabeth said then explained the interaction that had just happened.

"Did he freak out? Guys don't talk about marriage as much as girls do," Jess pointed out.

"Not Percy. Sometimes I think that he's planned our future more I have, and I'm the one who makes all of the plans," Annabeth laughed.

"I don't know what you two went through together, but whatever it was made you unlike any other high school couple I've ever seen," Kimberlee pointed out.

Before that comment could even get to Annabeth, they heard screams of pain come from the other side of the cafeteria; Percy's screams to be exact.

The whole cafeteria went silent, and the lunch monitors were quickly making their way to his table.

"Percy," Annabeth muttered to herself before getting up and making her way to her boyfriend.

One of the lunch monitors, a teacher Annabeth didn't know, was saying something about Mr. Blofis.

"Excuse me," Annabeth said, trying to get to Percy.

"Stay back, honey. Give him space," the teacher said. "Could someone go get Mr. Blofis?" she called to the silent group of teenagers.

Annabeth saw Daniela and her group leave the cafeteria.

"You don't understand. He needs me," Annabeth said, but she was ignored.

All the while, Percy sounded like he was in agony. He screamed out her name which seemed to shock a lot of people, so Annabeth took the opportunity to push past the teachers and to her boyfriends side.

Annabeth pulled him into her arms and gently rocked back and forth. What was she supposed to do? How did he manage to calm her?

"It's okay. We're alive. We may not be okay, but we're alive. We got out. You aren't in there anymore," she said softly, hoping people couldn't hear her. She didn't think that she could manipulate the mist while Percy was in this state.

Eventually Percy's screams subsided, and Annabeth looked up to see that the cafeteria had been cleared out. The only people remaining were the lunch monitors and Paul who had run in as she looked up.

"Is he okay?" Paul asked, sounding out of breath.

Before Annabeth could answer, Percy sat up. "I'm fine. It just snuck up on me, that's all," he said.

"I'm confused as to what just happened," the teacher that Annabeth didn't know said. She really needed to learn her name.

Paul and Annabeth ignored her.

"Do you want to go home, Percy?" Paul asked.

"No, I'll be fine," Percy replied.

"Are you sure?" Annabeth questioned.

"Yes."

Annabeth looked at Paul, and he just shrugged.

"Okay. Now that we've cleared the entire cafeteria, I assume that we can just go to fifth period," Annabeth stated then looked to the teachers for confirmation.

"Yes. I'll help Percy get to class then walked closer to his stepson to help him up.

"Thanks Paul," Percy said.

Annabeth stood up as well and turned towards her boyfriend.

"We'll talk later. Are you sure you're okay?" she asked. When Percy nodded, Annabeth leaned in and kissed him before gathering her things.

When she got to Physics, the whole class was gathered outside the locked classroom. Because they got let out of lunch so early, the teacher wasn't there yet.

As soon as Annabeth walked up to her friends, they all started talking at once.

"What happened?" "Is Percy okay?" "Did they let you see him?"

"Stop," Annabeth commanded and they all promptly shut their mouths. "Percy's fine. He goes through the same thing that I go through. And I had to shove my way to him. I like to think I helped, though."

"Did they send him home? Teachers normally do that," Kimberlee asked.

"No, Pa-Mr. Blofis asked him if he wanted to go home, and he said 'no.'" Annabeth explained.

"I always forget that Mr. Blofis is his step-dad," Gabby said absently.

None of them really knew what to say, so they just stood there silently while the other students chatted away until the teacher showed up.

Annabeth barely paid attention in her afternoon classes. She was too busy thinking about Percy. Luckily, all of her teachers barely batted an eye at her mental absence.

By the time the bell rang to go to last period, Annabeth was beginning to get jumpy. She practically ran to Mr. Alexander's room.

Percy was already in his seat when Annabeth got there, so she automatically went to his side.

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked, putting a hand on his cheek.

Percy smiled up at her. "Wise Girl, you worry more than I do, and if that's the case, then you'll worry yourself sick," he said softly.

"I just hated seeing you like that. Hearing you scream terrified me. All I wanted to do was to make it hurt less," she replied.

Instead of answering, Percy pulled her onto his lap and into a hug. They sat there for a while, just soaking each other in.

"Annabeth," Percy said, and she pulled away to look into his eyes. "You always make it hurt less. Whether the pain is physical or emotional, you just being near me makes it so much better."

The bell rang signaling class to start.

"I'd kiss you if we weren't sitting in class," she said then moved to get off her boyfriends lap.

"Who cares?" Percy asked then pulled her back down for a quick kiss.

Annabeth giggled as she pulled away then reluctantly went to her seat.

Is it wrong for me to like this chapter so much? Well, anyway, I hope you like it. As always, leave a review telling me what you think.

QOTD: Do like reading or analyzing books better?

I like to analyze just because you get a better sense of the book than you did while you were reading it. Discussion can help you understand things you didn't understand the first time you read it, and I personally love finding and analyzing certain literary devices.

See you all next time!