Chapter Fourteen

Percy didn't want to know how a girl who had never stepped foot outside of Camp Half-blood for the past few years for more than a few hours at a time had learned how to drive a car. He was afraid that if he asked her, Annabeth would respond with the author of a book. Now it wasn't that Percy Jackson did not appreciate book (not that he read them a lot) and he was sure that the book would be one of the best ones there was about how to drive a car, not like The Dummy's Guide to Driving a Car or something like that—Annabeth wouldn't stand for being called a dummy. The fact of the matter was that there were some things in life that you had to learn from actually doing it, not just reading a five hundred page book about it.

Driving a car was one of those things which fitted into that category.

You could read as many books as your heart desired, but Percy was certain that reading a book could never actually prepare you for getting behind the wheel. Most novice drivers didn't understand the power that little circular thing had, one wrong turn to the left and you could go up in a ball of fiery flames and gasoline which was not something Percy had on his bucket list. The way Annabeth drove with jerky movements made Percy know right away—even though he would never actually tell it to her face—that Annabeth had never driven a car before.

But his arm was bloodied and was being held captive by a piece of blood splattered cloth so there was really nothing he could do about it. And of course one had to debate the merits of driving when you were high on pain killer, after all the bottle did say avoid working with heavy machinery (when he was little Percy always thought that meant washing machines).

So after they had torched the little Emporium (Leo had stubbornly refused to move from the creepy basement—even after Nico accidently discovered the dead bodies—until they had agreed to light it up. Annabeth put up no fight toward the proposition so Leo had enthusiastically raided the "Grilling" section which conveniently contained enough matches and gasoline thank you very much. Percy had noticed Annabeth stuffing folders into her backpack when she thought that everyone else wasn't watching. The look she gave him—a mix between a guilty glance and a threatening glare— told him to shut up and that she'd tell him later. Ten minutes later everyone but Leo was standing by the van, watching as he dramatically walked out of the store, the door swinging behind him. Somehow he had found a pair of sunglasses which were now perched on his nose, a maniacal grin on his face as he lit a lighter and tossed it behind him. Boom) and gotten out of the parking lot alive—thankfully Annabeth understood the term "hit the gas!"—everyone in the back three rows of the van was passed out. (Well Jason was barely conscious when they left so that was understandable of course.)

At first Percy had argued with Annabeth, saying that he was still able to drive a car, after all he had been able to drive one handed once before when he was trying to simultaneously slurp a blue Coke, but Annabeth wouldn't hear it. "Trust me Seaweed Brain, I'm perfectly capable driving a car."

"Name one time when you've actually gotten behind the wheel and driven a car," he said while Piper and Grover were helping Jason hobble towards the van.

"That's irrelevant," she said, tossing her hand in the air flippantly. "The point is your arm is in no way, shape, or form capable of driving a car and I am. I'm in no mood to see you bleed all over the van. Contrary to popular belief, I enjoy your stupidity every now and then."

He had to think for a moment about that backhanded compliment.

"Hey, you can go ahead and go to sleep if you want," Annabeth said quietly, stirring Percy out of his slight stupor. He turned to look at her from where he sat shot gun. There were deep circles under her eyes and she was incredibly pale, as if she might pass out at any time. But Percy knew that she never would. That was the thing about Annabeth Chase, she just kept going and going, she didn't stop. And he was afraid of it. He was afraid that she would work herself hard until she had nothing left.

"Nah I'm fine. One should never drive alone at night when oneself is tired," he quoted Paul, wagging his pointer finger at her disapprovingly.

"And yet semi-truck drivers do it all of the time."

"Well the problem with that is you're too beautiful to be a truck driver."

Annabeth was silent for a moment and the only sound in the car was the occasional, loud snore echoing from Grover. "So you think I'm beautiful?"

"Are we actually going to discuss this now?" Percy asked, glancing back at the sleeping teenagers. Annabeth shrugged. "Why not? We got pretty close to dying today so it's not like anything is going to change. You do get that people are trying to kill us right."

"If my memory serves me correctly, which of course you'll have to forgive me, I can't properly remember between the invasion of the barbarians and Rome all the way to the time period of around the Song of Roland, it seems that we have a habit of dying a lot."

Annabeth snorted. "I don't think 'a lot' correctly describes it."

"How long have you known?" Percy asked, leaning against the door of the car and staring at her. He hadn't used the seatbelt due to his shoulder which – although unsafe—allowed him to sit comfortably and watch her expressions.

"For a while now I guess," she sighed. "I don't think I can actually pinpoint the time when I knew for sure that you were the one I kept dreaming about. I've been having the dreams for a long time as you probably know from experience. That's the reason I'm at Goode, because my parents decided I was too difference, too unstable. My stepmother wanted to try shock therapy but my father decided that wasn't the best option, especially since I was so young. So they got this nifty flyer in the mail and here I am.

"When you first came I didn't really want to believe it, but then stuff happened and the dreams got worse and I figured it was because you were here. And of course there was the whole name thing which got suspicious after a while."

"The name thing?" Percy asked.

"Haven't you notice? Alice Clements, Potter Jackobs, Paxton Jonathon. Our names are similar yet not the same. It's interesting especially since we're not always the same."

"You always are," Percy interrupted her. He instantly blushed. "What I meant was that you're always blonde… and… smart… and…" His voice trailed off, embarrassed. Annabeth smirked.

"And you always have a tendency to stumble through what you actually mean to say. I guess that's one of the reasons I love you."

"Is it really love though? Just because we've loved each other before? Or at least we think we have. What if we're both just incredibly delusional and it's all a big, impressive coincidence which could go down in the world's records?"

"I've thought about that," Annabeth said slowly. "Trust me, I have studied this at every aspect possible. My brain keeps trying to view it all as a formula, as a math equation and that I just have to plug in the right numbers for X or Y and maybe sometimes A and B and then I'll get the answer. But then I have to realize that this has nothing to do with math or science.

"Someone once told me I have to stop viewing the world as something that I can solve."

"What are you supposed to view it as then?" He asked, staring at Annabeth's face which was now focused intensely on the road in front of her.

"As a great tragedy, one of the best in the world. Apparently not everything can be explained using formulas. This whole situation is like strange, it's unique. It's like the imaginary root you always forget to calculate or when you sometimes have to add 180 degrees when you find the arctan. Maybe it's one of those rare exceptions in the world. Do you even understand what I'm saying because sometimes I don't."

"A lot of the time we read stories about fantastic events, about occurrence that shouldn't happen, like a man who dies and then comes back to life. We don't believe them right?" Percy asked.

"Right," Annabeth nodded.

"But at the same time, they still have happened. We might not believe them and we like to come up with scientific explanations for the whole thing but sometimes there just isn't one. Maybe… just maybe, we're living one of those occurrences right now. Maybe we're the strange ones, the weird ones, the miraculous ones. Maybe we're the ones that no one ever thought would exist and yet we do. No one a thousand years ago would have ever thought that we could even be driving in this car.

"Why can't we set the standards? Why can't we be the ones who the miracles happen to?" Percy asked.

Annabeth smiled. "Sometimes Percy Jackson, I forget that I'm supposed to be smarter than you."

"The reason they're called miracles is because they happen to those who don't believe they would. I can't think of any scientific explanation for our rebirth, therefore I guess we just have to believe that it's happened. I know, I know, I know that I've met you before. I know that I love you."

They were quiet for a moment. Confessions of love are serious things. You can't just pass them by flippantly, love isn't something you play with. A person isn't created to have a broken heart. They are born complete, they deserve to die complete.

"Even though I nearly killed you?" Annabeth asked hesitantly. Percy laughed.

"Even though you tried to kill me. I find it more attractive when a girl doesn't fall head over heels for me."

"I tried to stay away, I honestly did. When I began to think that you were the boy from my dreams I panicked. I didn't want it to happen again. I figured what if I just ignored you, what if I purposely tried to make you hate me. And I was already dating someone and it just didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. So I made the effort to hate you. But that's not an easy thing to do Percy. You're honestly a really hard guy to hate. And then when you beat up Luke and… and… I knew that I couldn't try and hold it back anymore."

"You do realize that you're professing you're undying love to me in a van filled with hormonal teenagers who could awaken at any moment?" Percy asked.

"Focus on the word 'undying,'" Annabeth muttered and Percy laughed again.

"It still amazes me every time you make a joke. I never knew you had it in yourself Wise Girl." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Where do we go from here?" Percy asked. Annabeth's brow furrowed.

"I honestly don't know."

AthousandYearsAThousandYearsAThousandYearsAThousandYearsAThousandYears

Sneaking back into Camp Half-Blood was surprisingly easy. The rope of sheets had been untampered with and although they ended up having to tie Jason into it and hoist him up, the overall process went smoothly.

It was a little too smoothly for Percy's liking. He kept expecting a metallic dog and a maniac metal woman to come crashing out of the middle of nowhere, chasing them and screaming "Medusa is me! I am her! Die dirty, rotten scum!"

Thankfully none of that happened. But still, Percy was prepared for it. Or as prepared as a slightly crippled high school junior could do. As his sword arm was tied up in a sling, he wished that he at least had a can of pepper spray. Then again he wasn't certain how that would work against metal.

Briefly he thanked whichever god was in charge of gym class, for making Coach Hedge obsessed with the strange idea of making his students scale a wall with only one arm. The idea seemed ridiculous at the time but Coach Hedge had insisted, "You never know when you might have to perform an amputation on your arm in the heat of battle and then run away like a coward with his head cut off."

Percy was pretty sure that the correct expression involved a chicken but that was beside the point.

The true hard part of the night involved what to do with Jason Grace. He was currently unconscious again and Annabeth agreed with Leo when he said, "I don't think he's supposed to be that color." The group decided that Piper, who somehow managed to look the least beat up, would bring Jason to the infirmary, claiming that he had started sleepwalking and had fallen down the stairs and hit his head.

They could only pray that the nurse wouldn't know that Jason's room was on the bottom floor and therefore would not involve falling down stairs.

"Everyone get to bed," Annabeth instructed like a mother hen as they stood huddled behind the rock climbing wall, watching Piper struggle under the heavy weight of Jason across the field. Percy had offered to help but Piper said she was fine and then pointed out that he was in no shape himself to help what with his arm and all.

"You can't just say that Chase and expect us all to tromp off like good little children—which we're not by the way, I mean I just blew up a freaking building—and go to sleep. We basically just discovered someone was trying to kill us and now you're telling us 'sleep tight, don't let the crazy, maniac, metal obsessed guys in black suits kill you,'" Leo complained.

"How do you know they're in black suits?" Grover asked, confused.

"All the bad, government agents are in the movies," Leo explained as if he were talking to a little child. "And they usually have those crazy, awesome sunglasses which can see what you look like naked."

"Okay then…" Annabeth said, putting a quick halt to that train of thought. Percy was thankful for the dark cloak of night to cover up his blush. "Don't worry Leo, we'll talk about it tomorrow when everyone else has had some sleep and we all have our heads screwed on straight."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Nico said. Everyone turned to look at him. He had barely said enough words to make up a sentence this whole time.

"What do you mean?" Grover asked.

"Won't they be watching us?" Nico asked, Percy couldn't decide if he sounded nervous or just extremely tired. "Making sure that we don't meet up with each other tomorrow. I don't know… maybe we should wait a few days."

"Excellent idea Nico," Annabeth said. "It will give me time to think it all over." Percy could see the wheels turning in her brain. She was thinking about those folders she had swiped. "Alright, three days, the rec room… no better yet, on top of the rock climbing wall."

"Won't that cause everyone to grow suspicious? After all no one has ever climbed to the top," Percy pointed out.

"Well, if we're going to be killed which a very real possibility, why not go down in style?" Annabeth smirked.

AthousandYearsAThousandYearsAThousandYearsAThousandYearsAThousandYears

He found it hard to focus throughout the following day. He had reported to the infirmary before breakfast, reporting that he had been practicing his sword play with a fellow student (who remained anonymous) and had gotten into an accident. The nurse—not Clara—had grumbled about how students shouldn't be allowed to use sharp objects to which Percy responded with where was the fun in that.

The nurse wrapped his arm with a stretchy bandage after disinfecting it. If she found anything suspicious about the fact that it looked as if his arm had become the toy of a huge mutant dog, she said nothing. Thankfully she didn't see the need in Percy using a sling—or she just wanted him to get the heck out of there so that she could play Trivia Crack on her phone.

At breakfast, he had sat at his usual table with Leo and Nico. Grover was still asleep and Piper was at the infirmary with Jason. "They made up last night," Leo explained as he reached over to steal some of Nico's eggs and sausage.

"They did?" Percy asked. "But I thought Piper still hated his guts."

Leo shook his head. "Nah. Well I mean she did. Of course she did, he was a total jackass. But last night—or was it morning—when he was in a delirious state between the painkiller and just his head he said some stuff to her. Resulted in smeared mascara and a lot of tissues, trust me, I saw the wastebasket beside his bed. She didn't leave his side all night. I went to check on Jason and he apologized and we all had one big cry fest. Well I didn't… and Jason didn't really either. It was just Piper."

Percy was happy for the trio. They had obviously been close before Jason became a total douche. "Jason offered to let me punch him in payback for all of the stupid things he did but I said that a concussion made up for it all. It's strange though, Jason can't even remember why he acted the way he did. He said and I quote 'I just woke up one day and felt like you guys were idiots and I hated you.'"

Percy was pretty sure it didn't work that way and Annabeth voiced his opinion as she came up behind him and plopped down, a glass of a strange looking concoction in her hand. "It takes a whole lot longer than one night's sleep to actually hate someone. What?" She asked, looking at Percy's confused face. "Oh this? It's a smoothie."

"That doesn't look like a smoothie."

"Well it is."

"That is so not a smoothie Annabeth," Percy disagreed. She rolled her eyes.

"Some of us don't find smoothies filled with a lot of sugar and fruit juices and all of that appealing at all. It's a green smoothie."

"Great, I'm dating a health food addict. You probably don't even drink fish oil, you just skip the in between and just hook the fish right up to your veins," Percy groaned.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "So we're dating now? Why wasn't I aware of this?"

"Well I figured after last night that…"

"If your idea of a first date is nearly getting killed by a psychotic machine then I can't wait until our second date." Percy didn't know whether to be nervous or excited that she had agreed to a second date… not that they actually had a proper first date. Then something hit him—hypothetically of course, he had learned a while ago how to properly duck and protect his head from flying food in the cafeteria—what did one do for a date at Goode? It wasn't like you could just go to the movies, heck you couldn't even go to McDonalds.

"I'm pleased to find that you finally decided to take my advice Jackson," Leo said, leaning over the table to slap Percy on the back.

"I'm not sure how comforted I am by the fact that you guys are discussing my love life behind my back," Annabeth clucked her tongue disapprovingly.

"Apparently there's a bet going around," Percy added but as soon as he saw the look on her face, he quickly raised his hands in surrender. "Hey now, I didn't start it, hell I didn't know about it until yesterday." Annabeth sighed and shook her head.

"Well I've got to get to a tutoring session before classes start. I'll see later Seaweed Brain, I need to talk to you about something." She stood up, kissed him on the cheek, and then disappeared out of the door.

"Whoot, whoot. Jackson got some PDA from Chase. That's pretty legendary," Leo cheered.

He sat there dazed until someone slammed a fist down on the table. He looked up to see Luke fuming in front of him. Any normal person would have been terrified and probably run at the look across the pale blonde boy's face but Percy just found it slightly comical. After what he had seen last night, after nearly dying, after kissing Annabeth, Luke Castellan didn't scare him at all.

He was just like one of those bullies on the playground who liked to steal his chocolate bar when he was little. And Percy knew how to handle bullies.

"What do you want?" Leo asked, speaking before Percy was able to say anything.

"Shut up Valdez," Luke growled, not even turning to look at him, all of his attention was focused on Percy. His eyes were almost slits now, growing narrower and harsher with every passing second. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

Percy looked down at his plate of food and then back at Luke, raising an eyebrow. "Eating?" He said, gesturing towards the table.

"Don't be sarcastic with me you little—" Leo quickly made a loud beeping sound as soon as he saw the word begin to form on Luke's lips. Luke clenched his fists so tightly they turned white as bone. "What the hell was that for Valdez?"

"Do remember you're Head Boy Castellan and that there are innocent little children in this cafeteria," Leo shrugged. "I'm just saving your back because I care." He placed a hand on his heart as if expressing his sympathy and respect.

"No one's innocent here, especially you Jackson," Luke replied coolly.

"I really have no idea what you're talking about."

"Stay away from my girlfriend Jackson," he commanded, pointing an accusing finger at him. Percy rolled his eyes.

"Last time I checked, Annabeth wasn't your girlfriend. Last time I checked she dumped you after you were an ass. Last time I checked she was my girlfriend," he responded back, unafraid and undeterred. Just saying it out loud that Annabeth was his girlfriend made him feel warm and gooey inside like his mom's chocolate chip cookies. Oh gods what was he thinking. He sounded like an idiot.

A love struck idiot.

Okay. He was fine with that.

"Shut up, you have no idea what you're talking about Jackson." Percy could see the anger slowly swirling up in Luke, building upon more and more anger, creating a wall of pure anger.

"I'm pretty sure that I do Luke. I'm pretty sure that I do," he replied, standing up from his chair and walking slowly towards the door, counting to ten under his breath. If he could he would turn around and sock Luke in the jaw, lay him out so hard that he wouldn't be able to ever use that mouth to accuse him of stealing his girlfriend again. But with his arm in a sling, he didn't want to get any more beat up than possible. And he knew that if he was to do so, he would look no better than Luke.

"Where the hell do you think you're doing Jackson?" Luke asked jerking out of his chair so fast that it went flying backwards and clattered against the ground. This drew the attention of everyone who wasn't already watching they exchange between the two.

"I have classes, it is a school day after all," Percy said, altogether dismissing Luke as if he was nothing but an annoying fly buzzing in his ear.

"I didn't give you permission to leave," Luke growled, reaching out and grabbing a fistful of Percy's shirt, snagging a finger on his sling causing Percy to grimace at the pain which shot through his arm up to his shoulder.

"Last time I checked, Jefferson didn't need your permission to leave the dining hall." The room grew eerily quiet as everyone swiveled in their chairs to look toward the man in the leopard print shirt who never left his office. He was standing casually in the door way, a can of Coke in his hand, other hand in his pant pocket. Luke quickly let go of Percy's shirt, taking a quick step back and wiping his hands on his cargo pants as if he could disassociate himself from being involved in what had happened.

"Sorry sir, just making sure he knows his place," Luke said confidently. Percy scowled at him, suck up. He was all too familiar with the type: kids who were total shit heads with everyone their ages but put them in front of someone twice their age and all of a sudden it was as if they had the demons wretched from their souls. In other words: they became perfect angels.

"Oh I'm sure you were Mr. Castellan but I believe Poe Jingles knows his place." Percy winced at Mr. D's latest choice for his name.

It was painful.

"Certainly sir," Luke affirmed, nodding his head slightly. "On your way then Jackson. Wouldn't want you to be late to class now would we?" Percy traced the slight sound of sarcasm riddled in his poisonously normal comment. He scowled at Luke before pushing past Mr. D—who had a pleased look on his face, as if he had saved the world… by finally doing his job—and out into the fresh air, air which was conveniently free of Luke Castellan's evil germs.

Man he hated that guy.

"What the heck was going on in there? Hazel just came running, telling me that my boyfriend was going to no longer be among the living if I did not make haste to the dining facilities. I swear that girl swallowed a thesaurus at one point in time," Annabeth asked, running across the field towards him, her blonde hair swinging behind her in a ponytail, concern etched on her face.

"Your ex was having some issues with realizing the difference between the past and the present. He also doesn't seem to understand the definition of the derogative word you used to so kindly tell him to buzz off. Maybe you should go share it with him one more time."

Annabeth snorted, entwining her hand with Percy's. "Knowing his mind he'd just think I'd want to have sex with him. He's messed up. Most stupid thing I've ever done in my life."

"You've got that right," Percy muttered, kicking at a clump of grass with a passion as if it was Luke's scarred face.

"Don't take your anger out on the shrubbery, come with me," Annabeth said, pulling him towards the junior dorms.

"Where are we going? We have class. You're going to be late if we don't hurry. And I know that you have no desire to do so. I'm sure you have perfect attendance and no tardies. I would hate to ruin that beautiful white sheet of paper."

"Some things are more important than a sheet of paper filled with good marks. Sometimes you have to sacrifice perfection for better things. Besides, with what I have planned it's not going to matter if I have one tardy or not. It's not like these grades actually count towards anything if we're stuck here for forever."

"Touché," Percy grinned. "So where are we going?" repeated.

"My room, come on," she flung open the door and pulled him inside and up the stairs.

"Well someone's obviously in a hurry. Maybe Leo's rubbing off on you a little bit," he grinned as she opened her own door. He stood outside, running his hands over the woodwork. He followed her in and plopped down next to her on the bed which had been neatly made and tucked against the walls. He picked up a tattered, stuffed owl and turned it over in his hands. "Cute," he said. Annabeth glared at him, snatching it out of his hands and cradling it to her chest.

"Don't touch Avalon," she said hostilely.

"Whoa calm down Wise Girl, I'm not planning on stealing your precious owl. I have no use for it." Annabeth sighed and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she said after a few moments. "I've just been really stressed lately."

"Understandably so. I'm pretty sure that nearly being killed does that too you. I've heard that blowing up buildings isn't necessarily the best thing for your mental health either." He watched as Annabeth gently smoothed down her owls "feathers" and stared at her contemplatively.

"She helps with the nightmares," she said quietly. Percy mutely nodded, wrapping his uninjured arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him.

"Hey it's all good now Wise Girl. You're not going to have any more nightmares. You've got me now." She worriedly bit her lip and nodded. "Now what did you want to talk with me about?" He asked. "It's bound to be important if you wanted to skip school. And are you sure that this room is safe? No bugs or anything?"

Annabeth shrugged. "I can't be sure anymore. I'm more relying on the fact that they're not perverts and don't enjoy watching a teenage girl get dressed." Something about her comment made Percy feel slightly angered… more than slightly. The thought of someone… seeing Annabeth without her knowing… it made him want to murder someone.

Damn Annabeth was making him going bloodthirsty.

"I think we should run."

"Of course, I completely agree with you," Percy nodded. "We just have to tell Leo, Piper—"

"No Percy. I think we should run. Just you and I. Tonight."

"But… but what about the others? They deserve to know just as much as we do. They were there last night."

"And Jason nearly died," Annabeth said. "Look Percy, it's not that I don't want them to come. I do. But it's safer if they stay here."

"Stay where those creepy scientists can prick them with needles and experiment on them? Stay where the government can drag them away to gods know where? I don't think that sounds too safe Wise Girl."

"But if we can figure out what's going on then none of that is going to happen. We have to go fast and too many of us will just slow it down. You know that. And plus we work better as a team. We are a team."

Percy was silent, weighing his options in his mind. It was true. Despite their arguing and bric-a-brac, he and Annabeth did make a good team. A great team even. It was most likely due to the fact that they had known each other for years. Centuries even. Eons.

Okay so maybe not that far.

And as much as he didn't want to admit it, his friends did tend to slow them down sometimes. And Grover's cans could be a little loud when it needed to be silent. He took a deep breath. "Are you sure we can do this? The two of us?"

"Positive," Annabeth said confidently. "I trust you."

Percy nodded. "Okay then. We'll do it. Tonight."

"Tonight," Annabeth agreed. "I have no desire to die again. This time I want my happily ever after with you."

PLAYLIST FOR A THOUSAND YEARS (to be continued):

Dream- Imagine Dragons

Smile- Mikky Ekko (heard this song on the Paper Towns trailer. Ahhh!)

Believe- Mumford & Sons

The Kids Aren't Alright- Fall Out Boy

How Long Will I Love You- Ellie Goulding

Broken Together- Casting Crowns

Centuries- Fall Out Boy

I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)-John Rzeznik from Disney's Treasure Planet