My life has been so hectic these past few months. But I won't give you excuses other than that and I am SO, SO sorry. I feel terrible. But here is the penultimate, chapter and I hope you guys don't hate me. (Happy belated new year.)

Chapter XII: Again

Percy

"Again?" Percy groaned as he laced his fingers through Annabeth's. "Ugh."

Annabeth smiled. "It'll be all right. Remember, Chiron promised that this'll be the last one." She tugged his arm lightly. "Come on; think about the rest of summer. This'll probably only last a few more days, anyway."

She dragged him up the steps.

Percy wrapped his arm around her waist. "Okay," he breathed. "Okay."

This school was different. It was more raucous, more uncoordinated than the last. The architecture was older too; the low, claustrophobia-inducing ceiling was smeared with grime and the imprints of long fallen clumps of wet toilet paper. He followed Annabeth down the hall.

It was later in the day, just after morning break. All the students were in class, yet the noise level did not fall beneath a very high decibel.

"What class am I taking today?" Percy asked.

"There's only one demigod that we know of here."

"So…?"

She increased her pace, avoiding the open doors with the students inside staring out at them. "So, we'll be together."

"Awesome." Suddenly, the prospect of his day seemed so much better. "Wait. Which class?"

Annabeth grimaced, at looking at him. "English."

Percy swore internally. "Hades," he muttered. "Why can we never have a break!?"

"Because we're demigods," Annabeth said simply.

"But… I think I'd rather fight some laistrygonians than… this."

"Be careful of what you wish for." Although her tone was a joking lilt, he heard the hard warning behind them. They both knew the dangers. They'd both suffered the consequences.

"So… What's our battle strategy?"

Her forehead creased. "I thought we'd do something that involves less reading."

Percy grimaced. Reading was pretty much on his blacklist of things to do; right down there with flying and a dip in the Styx. He remembered that one time in fifth grade when he'd confused two words and became the laughing stock of the class yet again. That was right before he'd been expelled. Again.

Sensing that he was in a reverie, Annabeth pulled on his arm a little more forcefully. "Come on. We're going to be late," she said.

"What room?"

She checked her instructions, helpful translated into Greek. "Uh… 221B." She quickened her pace. "The demigod. There's nothing about him or her here. Where is it? Chiron told me there was information on the demigod on the last page: name, age, physical description, Godly parent, et cetera."

"Well, we do know his or her age, right? We're in a middle school. This demigod is under thirteen."

"Very helpful, Percy," Annabeth snapped. "Where is it!?"

Percy froze. "Uh… Is it, by any chance, on an A4 sized piece of off-white paper, with perhaps a light marking on it?"

"Yes, it is. Wait. Marking?"

"Um…"

Annabeth breathed in sharply. "Percy Jackson. What 'marking'?"

"See… I was perhaps drinking some blue coke and-I-spilt-a-bit-and-threw-it-away." The last part came out in a mumbled stream. "I thought it was just scrap paper. I swear." He held his hands up in a surrender peace motion.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, clenching her jaw. "All right. We'll just have to go by our 'special demigodly powers'."

"What special dem-. Oh. Right. Sometimes I can't understand your sarcasm, Annabeth."

"Sometimes, you're just too much of a seaweed brain to." She smirked. "I was joking. I do remember her name. Casey Anderson."

They reached a simple looking door, painted an ugly greyish bluish gloop. A scratched, thin plaque informed them that it was classroom 221B. "Brace yourself." She smiled.

Entering the classroom was like leaving behind his last shred of sanity and descending straight into well, insanity. They were something like five minutes late for class and the students were in mayhem. Percy had never seen a group of middle-schoolers so aggressive. They (well, a select few) were throwing paper and various miscellaneous stationary at each other. Annabeth, of course, was slightly calmer.

"Class," she yelled. "Hey! Shut up!" It worked. They swivelled around, mid-scream, to look at her.

"Thank you."

Percy stood there uselessly.

"Who're you?" The question was phrased by a girl with stringy brown hair that had a reddish cast. Her eyes were pale blue. She couldn't have been more than twelve, but she was taller and buffer than most of the other kids.

"We are your substitute teachers for Mrs. Evans, is that correct?"

One of her pals sneered. "You're too young to be teachers."

"And you're too young to be wearing a top that barely covers your midriff, which I'm sure is against the rules," she shot back.

Several people snickered.

"Anyway, I'm Miss Chase, and I'm going to take attendance now. If you talk out of turn, Mr. Jackson will take you outside, is that clear?"

Percy jumped slightly. Wow, she was scarier than most of his teachers combined.

"Casey Anderson," she called.

"That's me."

Percy groaned internally. It was the bully girl with the scarily pale eyes. It occurred to him that she quite strongly resembled his childhood traumatiser – Nancy Bobofit. Annabeth must have felt the same, because her eyes flashed dangerously. But she went on.

The rest of the lesson was quiet, with Annabeth's scary presence at the front of the class.

And after the lesson, they'd cornered Casey, and taken her straight to Camp, bypassing her parent's house because according to Chiron, 'there's no time for that anymore'.

Home. Percy could feel it; the thick scent of strawberries in the air, the tangy sea breeze, and the lush green grass. He could feel his lush bed calling to him from the Poseidon cabin.

Annabeth leaned her head on his shoulder. "Finally," she said, voicing his thoughts.

Casey rolled her eyes. "Hello? I'm still here. Your happy sappy lovey dovey thing is making me wanna puke."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's go see Chiron."

The ocean waves were blackish in the night.

Annabeth sighed. "I feel like we have so little time together."

Although Annabeth was living in New York now, she was still going to this expensive all girls' private school that was supposed to guarantee you a good future. With all her work, they barely got to see each other once in a fortnight.

"Hey, we've still got the rest of summer to spend together. We can go swimming, hunting, you can kick my ass at sparring…"

"You bet I will."

"I look forward to it."

Thank you so much for not abandoning me. I am so, so sorry.

I promise, as soon as this reaches 150 reviews (only eight away) I will update. Seriously. I'm starting the next chapter as soon as this is posted.