Ok. so heres my short explanation : we had mini finals right before winter break, then my computer got a major virus so i lost it for 5 days while it was being fixed, then they said they had to erase everything (EVERYTHING) off of my comp so i spent another day getting everything back on, then it was Christmas, then my internet was down for another three days . so over all , i just had a TERRIBLE streak of bad luck . :P

but anyways, thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter ! still in love with you all(: enjoyy!

You know, it's pretty amazing how well you can get to know a person when they're driving you nineteen hours to your house without stopping. Well, except for the occasional fast food stop.

Mikey and I got ourselves hooked on playing Truth or Dare, except when you're in a moving car, dares aren't the easiest things to do. So we mostly strayed away from those and just started asking each other questions back and forth.

I learned that he was originally born in Oklahoma, but him and his dad moved to Colorado when he was young so his dad could open a repair shop. His first kiss was with a girl named Marissa in eighth grade, but it was on a dare so he doesn't really count it. He also lettered in football, basketball, and track when he was in high school.

We had already gone thought all the basic questions, so we've been asking more personal ones.

"Okay, my turn," he said. "Have you ever been in love?"

"Yes," I answered automatically.

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye as he slowly braked at a stop light. "Well you answered that quickly." I just shrugged, trying to hide my blush. "Was it with that Percy guy?"

"Ah, ah," I said. "It's not your turn."

He chuckled. "Ok, fine. Go."

I thought about it for a little bit, hoping I could come up with a really good one. I did. "How were you willing to just drop everything in Colorado and drive me nineteen hours home?"

His smirk fell a bit. "How else were you going to get home? I doubt you had enough money for a plane ticket."

I shrugged. "It's just a question."

With his eyes fixed harshly on the road, he responded, "Well alright then."

Thirty minutes later we were pulling up in front of my dad's house. Looking out the window, I could vaguly see the mountain in the distance when I was forced to hold the sky seven years before. The sun was rising behind the mountain which made every detail that much more sculpted. I could practically hear Atlas cursing under the weight of the sky. I shivered.

Not only did that freak me out, but then I turned my head towards my dad's house. Everything looked pretty much the same from the last time I was here four years ago; except the shutters were painted blue. Because of the hour, all of the lights were off. The grass and hedges were all perfectly trimmed and the mailbox had The Chase Residence written on it in perfect cursive. The whole house looked like the perfect old time summer house-the one with the white fence and the smiling sun in the background.

Mikey cleared his throat. I looked towards him. "Not that I don't enjoy your company, Annabeth," he said. "But you should probably go. You only got a couple hours of sleep yesterday night and you stayed up all night today. You need sleep."

I nodded. "Well, err, thanks for the ride." I leaned over and pecked him on the cheek.

"Yeah, no problem," he replied. "Text me soon, okay, Blondie?"

"Yeah, okay." I wasn't about to tell him that I didn't have a phone, but I let him give me his number anyway. It seemed to be a routine anyways, right?

I grabbed my backpack, slung it over my shoulder, and made my way towards my dad's house without waving goodbye to Mikey.

I grabbed our spare key that we keep wedged in a crack on our steps and let myself in. The inside looked pretty much the same too, except that toys and little broken pieces didn't cover the floors anymore.

"Who's here?"

I looked up the stairs to see my dad in his robe and slippers. His hair was even more Mad-Scientist looking than usual and he was holding a baseball bat. I smirked at his appearance.

When he realized that it was me, he dropped the bat. "Annabeth?"

"Hi, dad," I said.

He walked down to the bottom of the stairs and gave me a hesitant hug. I half-heartedly hugged him back. "What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story" I mumbled. "You know, dad, I'm pretty tired. Can we talk about this in the morning?"

The sparkle in his eyes dimmed. "Oh, yes, of course. You know where your room is, Sweetie."

I nodded then made my way to my room, taking the stairs two at a time.

"What's that?" Percy asked, pointing to the picture.

"The great dome of St. Peter's," I replied. "It's in Rome. It was designed by Michelangelo."

"Who's that?"

I raised an eyebrow at him but he looked genuinely confused. I sighed. "He's was a great Italian artist. One of the most well-known artists of all time."

I knew Percy was only pretending to show interest in my new architectural book that my dad sent me because he knows he gets, ahem, "rewarded" for actually taking the time to learn something, but it still made me smile that he was putting in some effort.

A strong wind blew towards us which caused some of the lake water to splash on me, and my book. I groaned.

Percy bit his lip. "Here, let me try something." He closed his eyes and hovered his hand over my wet book. With a deep breath, he slowly raised his hand which pulled the water up and out. Then he opened his eyes and nodded, obviously pleased with himself.

"I can see you're getting better at that," I noticed.

"Yeah, I'm awesome."

I playfully shoved him and giggled.

Percy set the book aside and grabbed my hands. "So here's the thing," he said. "Your dad wants you to go home for the rest of this summer, doesn't he." It wasn't as much of a question as it was a statement.

I sighed. "How'd you know?"

"I read the note that he sent you with this book." I narrowed my eyes at him. "Sorry, I got curious..." he added.

I smirked, but it quickly dropped. "Look, I knew what you'd say. But camp just started last week, which means I just saw them. And plus..." I squeezed his hands. "I want to spend the summer with you. This will be the first summer that we don't have to worry about being killed on some quest. And I don't want to leave you."

He grinned then leaned in and pecked me on the lips.

I knew what he actually said next: "I don't want to leave you either." But suddenly, everything shifted. The wind picked up and clouds rolled in fast, blocking out the sun. Percy's usual goofy look hardened and he stared me right in the eye. "I'm leaving, Annabeth," he said in a heartless tone.

My breath caught in my throat. "What?"

"I'm leaving," he repeated. "This camp, my home..." He paused. "You."

His image started fading. "Wait!" I screamed. "Why!"

"I'm leaving," he repeated, fading away.

I started breathing heavier. I couldn't feel his hands in mine anymore. It started getting darker by the second. I found myself struggling, trying to figure out where I was, why I was there, who I even was. But I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't see anything. I couldn't breathe.

I was alone.

My eyes opened. Somehow, I had gotten used to these nightmares. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. My room looked the same too—just how I left it four years ago. My walls were covered in blueprints and pictures of some of the greatest monuments in the world. My closet was mostly bare because all my good clothes were still back at camp. On my side table sat two framed pictures. One showed Grover, Percy, Thalia, and I with our arms around each other. It was the day after the war had ended and you can still see campers rejoicing in the background. I smiled.

The second one showed Percy sitting against the trunk of our tree and me against him. He was whispering something in my ear and I had my head thrown back, laughing. I couldn't remember exactly what he was telling me at that moment, but obviously I thought it was hilarious.

I picked that one up and examined it more closely. His arms were wrapped protectively around my waist and my arms rested on his, keeping them there. I was wearing my old Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and my curly hair was thrown up, but Percy still was looking at me like I was the most beautiful thing in the world.

And then he left without saying goodbye. I sighed.

"Annabeth?"

I looked up to see my step-mom standing in my doorway. She was already in her typical floral dress and apron, her hair in a bun. She was shyly smiling at me. "Your father told me you came home," she said.

"Yeah, well, I'm not staying long," I said, not really wanting to talk to her at the moment. My step-mom's smile drooped.

"Oh. Well, I made your favorite anyway: waffles with whipped cream, syrup, and strawberries. You did mention that it was your favorite, right?"

I nodded once, then turned my attention back towards the picture frame. I set it back down.

My step-mom shifted her weight. "Your father mentioned that you looked pretty worn down this morning, so feel free to sleep in as late as you want. Otherwise, come downstairs and eat with us. I would love to hear how camp was."

She gave me some privacy so I could take a much needed shower and change into some of my old clothes. Even if they were from when I was in high school, they still fit me and they were better than the two sets of clothes that I had been flip-flopping between this past week. Then I finger-combed my hair and skipped down the stairs—feeling better than I have in a while.

My dad, step-mom, and two brothers were already sitting at the table. A fifth chair had been pulled up and two waffles drenched in syrup with a mountain of whipped cream and cut up strawberries were already on the plate. As I came down, four pairs of eyes all fell on me. I immediately felt uncomfortable.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing, nothing," My step-mother assured, shooting my half-brothers a glare as to say Stop staring.

"We're just a little surprised that you're home, Anna," my dad said. "Not that it's a bad thing!" he quickly added.

Geez, everyone is so uptight, I thought.

I slowly made my way to the table and sat down between my dad and Matthew. Matthew and Bobby both had grown up a lot since the last time I saw them. They were sixteen now and definitely looked like it. They were both bulked up pretty well and Bobby even had his hair gelled into a fauxhawk. Lame.

I took my first bite and everyone else slowly started to eat again. I barely got through five bites before I couldn't take the staring anymore.

"Will everyone please stop staring at me!"

My brothers snickered and my step-mom shot them a look. My dad spoke up: "I'm sorry, Sweetie—"

"Stop calling me Sweetie."

Everyone got completly silent and my dad looked taken-back and a little hurt.

I sighed and rubbed my temples. "I'm sorry. I...I've just been a little on edge lately. Just...Dad can I talk to you, please?"

He nodded and followed me up to his office. I took one look back down at my step-mom to see her looking upset. I just kept walking.

"So, what's on your mind, Squirt?" he said as he closed the door behind us.

I grinned. "I guess 'Squirt' is better than 'Sweetie'."

He smiled. "Yeah, I guess it is."

I could hear my brothers fighting over something downstairs. "Look, Dad—I only came here for one reason." He sat on his desk and gestured for me to continue.

I started explaining my little adventure from these past few days. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be, considering me and my dad aren't exactly the best of friends. I left out any parts about guys though besides Percy. The whole time my dad had a stern look on his face, like he was analyzing the whole thing. We are so related.

"So basically, dad, I'm needing you to help me with this clue." I sighed. "I need you to think back to August four years ago. Most likely somewhere between the second and the fourth. Do you remember Percy ever coming here?"

My dad pursed his lips and lowered his eyes to the floor, deep in thought. "Four years ago...August...Percy Jackson..." he mumbled. It was like this for a little longer while he thought back.

"Yes," he finally said. "Yes, I do think I remember him coming by. I remember asking him why he wasn't at camp and he never really replied."

I sat up a bit straighter. "Do you remember if he said anything else?" I asked, eagerly.

He sighed then went back into his thinking pose.

I sighed. "Here, I'll go get you some brain food. You never got to finish breakfast." I stood up and walked back down stairs.

My brothers were already parked in front of the TV, beating each other up over a video game. I rolled my eyes and walked into the kitchen. My step-mom was washing the dishes so I stepped around her to get to the refrigerator.

"Annabeth, honey?" my step-mom said.

"Mhm?" I muttered.

She dried her hands on a dish towel. "Why did you come home?"

I was about to reply with something snappy like Why? Do you not want me here? or It doesn't matter. I'm leaving soon anyways; but I felt like she's just been trying hard to be a better mom than she was before.

"I needed to ask dad something."

She nodded. "Did the question have anything to do with Percy?"

I straightened my back and nearly hit my head on the refrigerator in the process. "Why do you ask?" I asked nervously.

She grinned. "You know, I have a much better memory than your ageing father." She laughed. "Here, I have something for you."

I had no idea what she was talking about, but I followed her anyway. She lead me to the broom closet under the stairs and grabbed a package out of it. She blew the dust off and handed it to me.

"I specifically remember Percy Jackson coming by that day," she said. "He said he wanted to leave something in your room for you so I let him up there. Then he let himself out without said a proper 'goodbye'."

He seems to be making a habit of that, I thought.

"Anyways," she said. "months went by but you never came home. So when I was cleaning the dust out of your room, I decided to put the package away until you did come home. But don't worry, I never opened it."

I smiled. "Wow, err, thanks. That was really nice—"

"Annabeth!" My dad came racing down the stairs in pure excitement. "Squirt, I remembered—" He seemed to noticed that my step-mom already gave me the package. I laughed. "Oh," he said.

My step-mom rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, Fredrick. I got it."

I smiled and thanked my step-mom again before racing up to my room.

good? bad? somewhere in between? have a story about something that happened over the holidays? click the button below (: I'd love to hear(: hope everyone's holidays were amazing ! & happy 2012 everyone ! -kenna(: