Thanks to all who reviewed last chapter: kldsn123, ScarletGrace45, XX TEARS DON'T FALLXX, ApollosFavoriteDaughter3927, percabeth4evr, bubbly chick, nicoluvsme, Riley Coyote, HiThereSmiley, jahfreenalam, Chaoshime, storyteller1425, Firehawk97, C-Nuggets N.L, biancadiangelo0703, MelRose520, amy-x-ian-forever, filmyfurry, Alexandra Nightshade, BabyYou'reAllThatIWant, ILove2Write13, boxtoplad999, lilslybud, Julianna54321, SoccerGirl8, obsessivereader95, DammitimmaD, candy0304, percabeth4everandeverandever, theswagsisters, TMI, RainyVapor-Daughter-of-Hestia, Coqui's Song, Bookninja15, DCThunder2107, Lives2fly, codebrak

I'm so sorry I haven't updated in like forever. The only chance I got to write though, I was having total writer's block. So I figured I could either have you guys wait and give you a good chapter, or if I had posted it earlier it would've been really crappy. So I apologize for the wait, but I hope you think it's awesome.

I don't own PJO.

Annabeth POV

"Mom?" Bobby asked as my family sat at the table eating dinner one night.

"Yes sweetie?" she replied as she gobbled down a forkful of spaghetti.

Meanwhile, I was staring blankly at my plate as I munched on some garlic bread. Most of the time I didn't bother to listen to the conversations while we ate; it's not like any of them wanted me involved anyway.

Bobby didn't even bother to finish chewing his own pasta before speaking. "Me and Matthew keep getting picked on at school. Bullies keep saying that we are going to be crazy killers. They say it runs in the family. What's that supposed to mean?"

I guess I forgot to mention that when I wasn't being ignored at dinner, I was being targeted. Because hearing things like this would always guarantee a nice argument between my step-mom and I, and my dad would just continue to sit there mutely. I couldn't blame Bobby and Matthew for asking though. They were too young when I killed that creep to even remember any commotion that was caused because of it.

"They're just being silly," my step-mom lied smoothly since she was used to it by now. "You two haven't done anything wrong." At the end of her sentence, she shot me a sharp glare. I returned it with a glare of my own from under my curtain of curly blonde hair.

I looked at my two twin brothers sympathetically, "Just ignore them. I'll protect you if things start going too far." They weren't the most understanding brothers ever, but I was willing to defend them if they were getting picked on because of me. They were only eight years old after all.

"You will do no such thing," she snapped at me. "We all know your means of protection aren't exactly civil."

I clenched my fist under the table. "You must love the fact that I did something like that by mistake when I was so young. You just use it as a justifiable cover to hate my guts."

"How can you sit there and try and make it sound like I'm the problem here? I'm not the one who has broken the law." While this little spat was going on, my brothers seemed to be completely oblivious as they smeared spaghetti sauce on each other's faces.

With a roll of my eyes, I growled, "And how can you sit there and act so innocent? Maybe I wouldn't have ended up hiding out in that house if you weren't such a cold-hearted little-"

"Annabeth," my dad cut me off abruptly in a cold tone. "You have to stop this arguing with your stepmother. You know your real mom wouldn't have wanted things this way."

By that point I could feel my anger building up. My mom was always a touchy subject for both of us. She had left us when I was pretty young and things slowly went south from there. I missed her so much even though I felt like she ditched us. When my dad brought her up though, I always felt as if it was just to mess with me. Because I knew he would rarely want to bring her up, especially in front of his wife.

I got up out of my chair and slammed it back in place under the table. "Mom wouldn't have wanted you guys to make me run away in the first place."

With that, I stormed up to my room to get away from them. It wasn't long though until I heard the soft pitter-patter of footsteps outside my door. Before there could even be a single knock, I went and opened the door for Bobby and Matthew to come in. Every time I argued with my parents they came to me not long after I left. They were always hoping for me to explain the fights since they never had any clue what was going on. They only knew it would piss my parents and me off.

"What was this fight about?" Bobby asked as they sat down next to each other on my bed. They both looked so sad and confused.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I let out a long sigh. "You guys still wouldn't understand. I meant what I said though; I'll protect you if those kids don't leave you alone."

"Even though mommy said not to," Matthew countered.

With a wry grin, I bent down and pulled them both into a hug. "Especially since mommy said not to."

When I woke up, I didn't feel particularly panicky like I do from most of my nightmares. From that one, I just felt sort of groggy and numbed. I had a dull desire to cry nagging at the back of my mind, but I was too out of it. I barely even noticed the whispers going on nearby. I thought I was just imagining them until something blocked my vision and I could feel my ankles being tied together. That was the point where I started panicked.

Instantly I threw a few wild punches forward, yet none of them made contact. I tried to kick out with my legs but it wasn't very effective since they were tied together. Before I could scream, a gag was shoved in my mouth. Even as I continued to struggle, whoever was trying to take me managed to tie my hands together and bring me down from my bunk. The door of the cabin clicked shut as we walked out with two people carrying. One set of hands had my feet while the other set was supporting my back and head.

My breath was coming out in quick hisses and I felt a little light-headed from the shock. Could I really have been put back in danger so fast? I found it odd that seemed to be being fairly gentle with me (minus the whole tying me up thing) as they carried me hurriedly. That didn't stop me from thrashing around and being very uncooperative though. I was swearing like a sailor in my head for not having my knife. If I had it I could've been out of these ropes and would've taken these people down in no time.

After a little more running, and jolting around on my part, felt myself being passed upward. A different pair of arms gathered me up bridal style and I was put down somewhere. If it was possible, I took this as an even worse sign. Where they just going to leave me to die? Did they put me down so they could get some crazy-ass weapons to harm me with? A part of me thought that maybe this was just karma for the fact that I had killed people. It sucked that I would be getting this payback when I had just started making some real friends in that STRUCK program even though it was a stupid trip.

You could certainly say I was surprised when some untied my hands and took my blindfold off. I was sitting on top of some random eight-foot tall, shed-looking structure that overlooked a lake with Silena, Beckendorf, Rachel, Chris, and Katie. I was trying to figure out why they were there with me until I realized that we were all first-year kids on the trip. Thalia's words from last night hit me like a truck. "I can't wait for what we have planned for the newbies tomorrow".

I scrambled to the edge of the structure and looked down. All of the other kids in the program were dressed in bathing suits down there, looking like they were having a hard time containing their laughter. After looking at me for a few seconds, they all just couldn't hold it anymore. And I noticed too late that they were all armed with water balloons as well. A wave of them soared onto the roof, completely soaking us all. That would have been so bad if it was a hot morning. But it was cool and breezy and the water felt as if it had been iced for a while. Silena lucked out. Beckendorf didn't care if he got wet so he caught all of the ones that flew at her. He just needs to make out with her already.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked after I got the gag out of my mouth and they stopped throwing water balloons.

Nico was still chuckling as he spoke up. "Every year the newbies get 'kidnapped' in their sleep and have something done to them. Last year we got duct-taped to the side of building in a town nearby. The people walking by were so freaked out."

I was still beyond confused, but Katie voiced one of my questions for me. "And why are you all dressed in bathing suits? I'm pretty sure we were the ones who just got soaked."

Percy stepped forward and I couldn't help but think of the vicious burns on his back as he stood there shirtless in just his swim trunks. "The lake's right there. We planned on just going swimming after."

"Does that mean we can get down now?" Rachel asked.

Thalia just grinned. "Not just yet. The chaperones always find out we did this and they usually aren't too thrilled about it. They let us get away with it though because we try to incorporate some sort of activity they would do on this trip. We decided to make this into a trust fall as well. That's why you're up there."

"A trust fall?" Silena said in disbelief. "I think I did that in gym in third grade."

"We know it's stupid." Luke informed us. "But we need it as an excuse to get away with this. Just think of it as like stage-diving."

All of us on the roof glanced around at each other to see who was willing to go first. I was still busy unwinding the rope from my ankles so I obviously wasn't first. Chris volunteered reluctantly after about a minute. He put his back toward them as they lined up to catch him and then he allowed himself to tip back off the structure. They all caught him easily and then the Stoll brothers tried to throw him to the ground just for laughs. Clarisse caught Chris though and sent the two of them a murderous glare.

Rachel went to the edge and shouted down. "Can I try doing a back flip off this?"

They all cheered in approval of the idea and so she attempted a back flip. The key word being 'attempted'. The back flip seemed more like some weird twist-type thing, but they still caught her anyway. I was about to step forward to go next. Silena stood as well, so I let her go first.

"Send Beckendorf with her," Luke yelled from the ground. "They're barely ever separated anyway. We might as well try to catch them both at once."

"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Katie pointed out.

She got the mutual response of "Who cares?" from a bunch of us.

So Beckendorf and Silena went off the side together hand-in-hand. A few of the people below yelped slightly in pain as the weight of two people made contact with their arms. They were gritting their teeth, but they managed to still catch them safely. This left just Katie and I on the roof.

"You can go," I told her so she went to the side with only slight hesitation and fell back. They caught her successfully, but the Stoll brothers decided to have some fun. Everyone else had let go of her so they ran with her still in their arms and tossed her out into the lake. She had already been wet from the water balloons, yet that didn't make her any less angry with them.

"I swear to god that one day I'm going to get you both back!" she threatened when she resurfaced.

Percy looked at Katie in the water and then looked at me with an evil smirk on his face.

"You wouldn't dare," I tempted him.

"I take that as a challenge," he replied.

"You wouldn't."

"Wanna bet?"

"You better not."

"And if I do?"

"You really shouldn't try me."

"I don't take that as a reason not to."

I went and stood at the edge and I couldn't help the slight doubt of them catching me creep up on me. I knew the Stoll brothers would drop me just for fun any day, but I should've been able to trust the rest of them to catch me. Before I could over-think things, I let myself fall of into their arms. The impact hurt a little, yet they caught me with ease.

And I already knew what was coming next. Percy swept me from the rest of them and started running toward the lake with me in his arms bridal-style. He was pretty fast about it, but I thought faster. Just as he was releasing me to sail into the lake, I wrapped my arms around his neck and he pitched forward into the water with me.

When we resurfaced, I looked him dead in the eye. "I was already wet from the water balloons, so I believe you just got owned."

He merely grinned, "Actually, I love water. So maybe we both win."

The way he said that we both win sounded almost as if he was hinting toward something else. I couldn't figure out what he meant exactly but I could tell it was flirty. We were just staring each other down for a good minute until everyone else came jumping into the lake to join us.

We were all swimming around in the lake for a while, even though it was freezing. We eventually hiked back to camp, where the chaperones looked a lot less than pleased with us. They told ordered us all to go change and then go sit outside the cabin because they had news for us.

"Attention you little brats!" Mr. D howled to get us to quiet down.

"Today we have our first mail day," Chiron announced in a much calmer tone. "If any of you have been anticipating something from your friends or family, you will finally be getting it today. We have had some of your stuff for a few days and we got some of your stuff just yesterday." Mrs. Dodds walked out of the cabin and we all did a double-take having not realized she had gone in at some point. "Mrs. Dodds has left your mail on your bunks, so feel free to go and open it. Be back out here in fifteen minutes to get on the bus and head out."

I wasn't expected any mail so I was very confused when I saw a single letter lying on my pillow. I didn't bother climbing up to my bunk; I simply reached up and grabbed the letter. The first thing I noticed was the return address: my house. That meant it was either from my step-mom or dad. Neither of those could mean anything good.

Once I read letter, my world seemed to crash down even further than it already had. My eyes raked across the paper multiple times to see if there wasn't any indication that my dad had just written this as some cruel joke. It wasn't though. I quickly disappeared into one of the bathrooms and simply broke down.