A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! I also got a particularly nice review from emmagrace13, so thanks :) But you're all awesome if you reviewed!

Also, for any Harry Potter fans who might be interested, I'm thinking of posting a story about Dumbledore's background. So if you're interested, please check that out! You can also check out my HP/PJO crossover too, Colliding Worlds, if you want!

Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 10

Annabeth

Is it weird that I couldn't wait for school to start?

Wait, don't answer that question. The response is yes.

But it was the truth. Home wasn't exactly my favourite place, and the rest of that Sunday after my tuition session with Percy was pretty awkward.

I'd already done most of my homework on Friday, so I didn't know what to do. It was a pretty cold day, so I didn't want to go outside. And I couldn't exactly talk to Malcolm, considering our fight this morning.

Surprise, surprise, it was about our mom. Malcolm came home every weekend, but during the week he was living in our mom's penthouse. I hadn't even met mom during this time period.

Yeah, I'll admit it. I wasn't proud of it, but I was slightly jealous of Malcolm. Mom had never seemed that interested in us, and now Malcolm was staying with her, working at her architecture firm: my dream job. He was only interning as an IT consultant!

But I'd swallowed my emotions. I was pretty proud of him. Until his revelation this morning, where he'd told me he might end up staying at mom's for a while. No coming back on the weekend, nothing.

"What?" I asked, surprised.

"Mom asked me," Malcolm said, a small smile on his face. "And I think it could be good. Time to bond with mom. It's more convenient, and—"

But I'd stopped listening. "So you're just going to go? Just like that?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Well, I think so, it's not permanent." Malcolm frowned slightly. "What's your problem?"

"I just don't think it's a good idea," I said coolly.

"And why not?"

"Because mom never cared enough about us before to ask us to live with her, and now she does? Seems pretty suspect to me."

"What are you trying to say?" Malcolm asked harshly.

"I'm saying, why not stay here? Why just leave Dad and Helen and—" I stopped myself.

"I'm not leaving them, it's just for a while," Malcolm shot back.

"How long then?" I asked. I wasn't even sure why I was so against the idea, I just was.

"I- I don't know," Malcolm admitted.

"See?" I said triumphantly. "You don't even—"

"You're just jealous," Malcolm interrupted. "Look, Annabeth, I'm sure the only reason mom didn't ask you is—"

"You think I'm jealous?" I said, shocked.

Malcolm smiled sympathetically. "I'm doing an internship there, that's why. If it makes you feel better, she asked about you—"

"I'm not jealous," I said, outraged. "I just think it's a bad idea."

Malcolm just gave me a look. "It's alright, Annabeth."

Now I was mad. "I'm not jealous! You're the one who think this actually means anything, well you're wrong!" I said scathingly. I saw a look of hurt on his face, but before he could say anything I stormed out.

Here I was, a few hours later, and I regretted most of what I said. Was Malcolm right? Was I jealous?

Somehow I survived the rest of Sunday. At the end of the day, I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Monday was a hectic school day. For some reason most of the teachers decided, as the holiday season approached, to be generous and give presents to everyone in the class: in the form of homework.

Take my Architecture teacher. Just as class was ending, Miss Thina called out, "Oh, and for homework, I want a three page essay on why Corinthian columns are better than Doric columns, in terms of structural support. Don't forget!"

Reyna groaned. "That's my fourth essay this week," she complained as walked to our next lessons. She was dressed in a blue t-shirt that was slightly small for her and faded jeans, and she was letting her brown hair out of a ponytail.

"It's a pretty easy topic," I said reasonably. Reyna just shrugged.

"Say, what's your next lesson?" she asked. "I have Bio, with Mrs. Rodriguez, who is so boring…"

"Advanced math," I told her. I liked math a lot, so that wasn't really a problem.

Reyna walked past my classroom. "This is you, right?"

I nodded, waving at her as she walked up the stairs. Reyna was pretty cool.

I saw Matt and took my seat next to him. He glanced at me curiously.

"Were you talking to Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano right now?"

I blinked. "Um… yes. Why?"

Matt blushed. "No reason. I just didn't realise you were friends with her."

I looked at him suspiciously. "Well, yeah, I am. But—" My mind whirred. Matt's blush, the way he asked about Reyna, saying her full name… "Do you like her?" I asked him.

"No!" If possible, Matt blushed harder. I grinned.

"You so do," I teased. "I don't care. If you were going to crush on someone, Reyna's a pretty good choice."

Matt just shrugged uncomfortably.

"Why don't you ask her out?" I asked curiously.

"There'snopointit'snotlikeshe'dwouldeversayyessheprobablylikessomeonelse," Matt muttered quickly.

"Huh?"

"There's no point," Matt repeated, slower, his tone self-conscious. "She probably likes someone else."

"Well, you don't know until you try," I offered.

Mr. Bing coming in interrupted us, and soon while we were doing calculations I was trying to encourage him to ask Reyna out.

"You're a great guy, why wouldn't she say yes?"

"She won't say yes!"

"You don't know till you ask. Just do it."

By the end of the lesson I had managed to convince Matt to ask her out. He was very red, and kept readjusting his hair self-consciously.

"Stop it, you're fine," I told him as we walked to lunch. I entered the lunch hall, and nodded at Matt. "It'll be fine," I promised. He nodded back nervously, before waiting at the door. I walked to the table where Piper, Hazel and Frank were sitting.

"What's going on?" Hazel asked curiously.

I smiled. "Just watch."

As it turned out, we had to wait a few minutes. Eventually though, Reyna walked through the doors, entering the lunch hall which was getting pretty crowded.

But she wasn't alone. She was holding hands with some tall guy with dark hair, a stiff expression on his face. I saw Matt stepping forward, before seeing the other guy and stepping back again, his expression upset. My face fell.

Reyna didn't even notice him. She walked through the lunch hall with the guy. That's when I noticed Piper and Hazel's expression. There was distaste on their face. I knew why I was upset with this, but why were they?

Reyna kissed the guy with her, before sitting down at her table, smiling at us.

"Who- who was that?" I asked.

"Ethan Nakamura," Reyna responded, digging into her meal. "He asked me out on the weekend, and so now we're dating."

"Oh," was my only response. In the distance, I saw Matt leaving the lunch hall.

Two days later, and not much happened.

Well, Malcolm and I made up. I figured I should probably apologise, and when I did, he just shrugged.

"It's cool," he told me. "I figure we probably both said stuff we didn't mean." I nodded. Malcolm looked at me, as if deciding whether to say something. "I've put off staying at mom's apartment for now, since it wasn't convenient," he said casually, but before I could get too happy, he continued. "It's likely to happen in a while, though."

"Oh," I said.

"I will miss this place," Malcolm said wistfully, before recovering. "Not like it's permanent though."

I didn't say what I was thinking: that it sure felt permanent. It felt like my mom was stealing my brother away. That's why I was really angry about the idea.

But I was just being childish. So I didn't say any of it.

I also apologized to Matt. Big week for me, huh?

"Look, Matt," I said awkwardly, as we both sat down next Maths lesson, "I didn't know about Reyna and Ethan. I'm sorry if I—"

"It's fine," Matt said, smiling. I looked at him uncertainly.

"Are you sure? Because it must have been—"

"I'm fine," Matt told me, his voice forced. "I'm over it."

I kept my doubts to myself.

It was only on Thursday lunch that I discovered the truth about Ethan. It was one of those lunches when most of the guys had already left, and Reyna had left early to meet Ethan, so it was just me, Piper, Hazel, Calypso and Leo.

Calypso and Leo sat on opposite ends of the table. Every so often their eyes would meet: it was clear they were crushing on each other.

As Ethan and Reyna left, Leo scowled. "God, I hate that guy."

"You do?" I asked, surprised. "Why?"

Hazel looked at me. "Most of the guys do. He's a jerk and a bully, apparently, but he's two-faced. You'd never know it by looking at him, he puts on such a good front."

Piper nodded. "I can't believe Reyna's going out with him. Jason was so mad when he found out."

"Jason?"

"Reyna used to have a crush on Jason, but Jason always viewed her like a sister," Piper explained. "Reyna's long gotten over her crush, but Jason's still protective of her."

"And so are we," Calypso pointed out. "Reyna's our friend, and I'm afraid Ethan's going to hurt her."

"So why don't you tell her this?" I asked them.

Leo snorted. "Because she's Reyna. She'll never listen, not when she's dating." He sighed, before getting up. "Well, I have to go to detention." His eyes once again met Calypso's, before he rushed off.

I smirked. "Calypso, you so have a crush on him."

"No, I don't!" she responded, outraged.

"Yes, you do," Hazel said, surprised, as if she thought everyone knew. "It's obvious."

Calypso turned red. "If it helps," Piper offered, "he likes you back." Calypso pretended not to care, but I saw her fighting a smile.

"Yeah, well, Annabeth has a crush," Calypso retaliated.

"On who?" I asked, surprised.

"I don't know," Calypso admitted, "but it's obvious."

I smirked, but Hazel nodded. "She's right."

"What?"

"You're always busy after school or on weekends," Hazel told her.

Piper grinned. "Not to mention that phone number you had on your hand a few weeks ago? Definitely crushing on someone."

"Phone number?" It took a second before I remembered. Percy had written his number on my hand for tutoring. "Oh, you mean Percy's—" I immediately stopped speaking when I realized what I had said.

Calypso gasped. "It's Percy?"

"I would not have expected that," Hazel said, shaking her head.

"It's not like you think," I said desperately, mentally hitting myself.

Piper smirked. "Sure, Annabeth."

"I'm tutoring him, okay?" I told them. Immediately they went quiet. "Nothing else, nothing else at all."

"Tutoring?" Hazel frowned. "Why does Percy need tutoring?"

"He was going to get kicked off the swim team if he didn't improve his grades. We both signed up to local tutorship centre, me as a tutor, him as a student. We got assigned to each other."

"Oh," Calypso said, breaking the silence. "Sorry."

"I didn't want to tell anyone because I didn't want to get made fun of," I muttered. When I said it out loud it sounded dumb—which it probably was.

"Tutoring, huh?" Piper mused. "How romantic." I kicked her in the shin lightly at her teasing.

"So you're the reason," Hazel said slowly, as if still thinking something through.

"What?"

"You're the reason he's so much better," Hazel said excitedly.

"What?" I asked again.

"No, she's right," Piper said, eyes wide in realization. At my face, she started to explain. "Recently, Percy's been getting a lot better."

"Less of a player, not as much of a—well—jerk to other people," Calypso said apologetically, "more like his old self, how he was before—" Calypso stopped speaking, and the Piper and Hazel's faces darkened. I wondered what they were talking about.

"We figured it was down to something," Hazel said, "like maybe he'd met someone, or something had happened. But it was you! You're making him better!"

"Me?" I asked, unsure. "I don't think so. It's probably something else, if anything."

"No, it makes sense," Piper said firmly. "You're a good influence on him. Tutoring—he's focusing on work, it's good."

I shrugged uneasily. Noticing my awkwardness, Hazel changed the subject.

"So, are you going to Silena's party?" she asked hopefully.

"Percy will be there," Piper said happily. "You should go."

"I am," I told them to their surprise. "I promised Percy I would."

Calypso squealed. "That means something. Something is definitely going to happen at that party!"

I shook my head. Percy asking me didn't mean anything, we were just friends, good friends even. "Nothing's going to happen," I told her.

Piper's eyes sparkled. "Oh, Annabeth," she sighed, "something always happens at parties."

Oh, how right she was.

Next chapter will be the long-awaited party, and certainly stuff will... happen. And we also get a revelation which answers the question: who is Luke's mystery girl? Not to mention some, ahem, other stuff. Last minute predictions?

If you want to read the next chapter, please review! Reviews motivate me and always speed up my update... if all of you reviewed right now I would make sure I posted the next chapter today :) So review, and till next time!