CHAPTER TWENTY – Thank You.

Since I'd told Percy about the darker parts of my past, he's been a constant figure always next to me. It's been four days and I haven't been back to school yet. And neither has Percy.

After my session of crying on his shoulder and admitting about the him situation, Percy took me back to his house. I'll never admit this to him, but I felt so cared about as he took off his sweater for me to put on instead of walking back through town with my boobs the new tourist attraction. It was a little baggy on me, but it smelled so much like him that I didn't care.

Mrs Jackson – I mean Sally – happened to be home. She saw my face and, unfortunately, the walk hadn't been long enough to let the swelling of my bloodshot eyes die down. She fussed over me despite my protests. Then Percy told her about everything.

Sally got me some of her old clothes. The next day she went out and bought me a whole heap of brand new stuff. I tried to decline it and tell her to take it back or donate it or something because I had clothes already (although I hadn't had anything brand new since my parents), but Sally was just as stubborn as her son on this matter.

I haven't gone back to Susan's yet. Sally has called her every day just to update her that I'm still fine and healthy. Thankfully she has kept quiet about the things she now knows about me.

I met Paul. He seems really caring and protective of both Sally and Percy. He even treats Percy like they are actually father and son. And there is no mistaking the love between him and Sally. But because Sally refuses to keep secrets from Paul, he too knows about me.

I've gone from one person with a head injury and memory loss knowing about my past, to four altogether within a matter of hours.

"You feeling okay?" Percy asked as we were sitting, watching Finding Nemo on the couch. It was about halfway through the day, which meant that Percy's mum and Paul were out at work. This movie reminded me about the past and my brothers and my parents. The old times. The old life.

"Yep, why'd you say that?" I shrugged it off, and kept my eyes glued to the screen.

"Your eyes are getting watery," he pointed out.

"Percy shut the fuck up, I'm trying to watch the movie," I snapped. It was a lie; I couldn't tell you what was going on in the movie if my life depended on it. There was an office. Some little girl with braces. And scared fish.

"Bullshit you are," he scoffed. "What are thinking about?"

"Fish."

"And?"

"Braces."

"That's not what I mean and you know it."

"I thought you liked this movie. You were the one who picked it," I turned my head to face him. "But yet you keep watching me instead. If you're trying to make me feel like a lab rat, Percy, you're nailing it."

"Well you are the one who is getting all teary-eyed on me," he argued.

"Just watch the movie, Seaweed Brain."

Knock Knock Knock.

Percy sighed as he got up slowly and dawdled to the door. I kept my eyes on the TV screen in front of me but at the same time straining to her what was happening.

The door hinges creaked softly as Percy opened it.

"Nico?" he said, a bit confused, but he quickly got over it. "Hey man, how you going?" There was no confusion in his voice now, just delight.

"I was gonna ask you the same thing," came the lazy drawl of the Goth Kid. Well what a freaking delight (total sarcasm). "I hear you have little blondie-" I automatically started to glare at the TV as soon as he said that "-staying here with you."

"Ah, yeah, um so it-"

As Percy stumbled through whatever he was trying to say, I got up and stomped to the door with my head held high. The Goth Kid smirked as soon as he saw me – he knew that I knew what he had just called me. And he knew that he had found a way to piss me off.

"It's Annabeth, you wanker," I shot at him, coming to a stop with my arms crossed over my chest and a hard stare at him. Like I was daring him to call me "Blondie" one more time. Percy looked between Nico and me, lost.

"It is too. Must have just… slipped my mind," his voice held no conviction to it. He was actually telling me the complete opposite of what he had just said.

"Ah, so anyway," Percy began talking again, shuffling on his feet a bit to drag Nico's attention back to him. I, however, kept assessing the Goth Kid. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at school?"

I rolled my eyes at the same time as Nico. I think he caught it too because he looked a little freaked about it. But only for the split of a split second. Then he was back to no emotion showing on his pale face framed with jet black hair.

In answer to Percy's question, Nico shrugged.

"Just wanted to see what was going on." He looked over at me, up and down.

Shoot, didn't brush my hair today. I think Nico must have noticed the messy state of it because when his eyes reached the top, he then looked straight into my eyes, and smirked.

"Oh, I see," he looked over at Percy who had gone slightly red on the tips of his ears.

"Oh no, man, not like that. Annabeth is just here because-"

"Sally wanted another girl to help her control her two men." Okay, so as far as lies go, yeah, it's unbelievable and dog shit. But hey, it was better than anything that Percy could come up with on the spot. "You see, we have now finally managed to potty train your friend over here." I indicated Percy.

"Hey!" he scowled. He poked me in the shoulder but I elbowed him in the ribs twice as hard. "I'm a very quick learner for your information."

"Ah, couples banter. It makes me sick," and Nico actually looked disgusted.

"Aw, is little Nicky jealous?" I teased in a baby-ish voice. He glared at me, making me feel good because now, it's even. "So, Goth Kid, you done here? Seen everything you want to? Because if you don't mind, there's a movie still playing that is calling my name, and, honestly, the movie wins over you, hands down."

"Then why are you still standing here?"

"Because-"

"Hey guys, just chill okay?" Percy cut in. "I mean, we're all friends here."

"Not friends," Nico and I said in unison, looking pointedly at Percy then weirdly at each other. Damn it, it happened again.

Percy bite his lip. "Ahhh, well then, what are you?"

I smirked. Nico answered.

"Assholes."

Staying with the Jackson's has changed me. I feel happier. And wanted. And cared about. And also like how the old Annabeth may have turned out. I'm not sure if I like it yet.

"You make the greatest meals, Mrs Jack- Sally," I have to stop calling her so formally. When I say her full formal name she always corrects me. I wonder if she'll ever forget to or get sick of it and just give up?

We were in the kitchen now, stacking the dishwasher.

"Thank you, sweetie," she beamed. That's the thing with her; she is always happy or looking for the silver lining in the dark clouds. It is a really nice quality for a person to have, but it was just really rare that people are as positive as Sally. "But I want to thank you."

I choked a little. "Me? What? Why?" Sally was the one I should practically be worshipping. She has bought me clothes, let me stay at her place, acted motherly toward me, cooked amazing meals for me, given me consent to ditch school, and lied on my behalf.

She laughed. Probably at whatever transition my face was in between shock and confusion.

"Because you've given my son a friend. A true friend. I'm not saying that Grover and Jason and Juniper and the rest of them aren't true friends, but I haven't seen my son this happy or… motivated in a long time. Thank you, Annabeth."

"I don't think that was me," I mutter, looking down since I don't know where else to look. "He's a stubborn guy."

She laughed again at that, continuing with packing the dishwasher. "That is true. He gets it from his father. And Paul can be like that sometimes, too."

"They get on well, don't they?" I said, but it was more of a statement. I didn't even have to say their names for Sally to understand who I was referring to.

"Yes, they do," she sighed contently. "And I'm so glad. I was so worried, when I met Paul, that Percy would oppose him. It was just so likely that he would because of everything he's been through…" this time her sigh sounded more traumatized.

On an impulse, I hugged Sally. She didn't even hesitate to hug me back. When I realized that this was something I hadn't done in years (voluntary anyway) I stiffened and pulled away.

"It's made Percy stronger," I blurted out. Sally looks at me – not as if she disbelieves me, but like she's waiting for me to explain. "I know that you've been to hell and back, and I know that Percy took the guilt trip to the moon, but he is a better person. He may still feel that guilt, but I can tell you, he wouldn't be the person now if it hadn't happened. That sounds harsh, I'm sorry."

"No, no, honey. It's…" she sniffed slightly. "It's nice to finally see someone paying attention to Percy. You know him so well, and you can just read him. He trusts you, you know? You're the first person that he's ever opened up to."

"I know," I told her.

She smiled at me. "That's why I'm thanking you."

*To MJ's Thriller* Coz it's update.. Update night..

Right back to normal. And firstly I would just like to THANK YOU FOR STAYING PATIENT WITH ME COZ I KNOW IT IS TOUGH FOR YOU COZ YOU'RE ALL LIKE "UPDATE THE BLEEP UP WOMEN!" AND I'M ALL LIKE "YEAH I'LL UPDATE FOR YOUS NEXT WEEK" AND A FREAKING MONTH PASSES...

Sooo this is a very short-ish boring-ish chapter. And yeah, you don't have to be nice and say you loved it coz not even I like it... It was very hard to get the motivation to write it because I knew it would be a filler chapter and personally I hate filler chapters. I've done a lot of fillers lately... well, like two, and the last one was a few chapters back...

But hey, I'm sorry and I'm posting this as fast as I can for you guys!

Holidays in a week, but the bad news is that I only get the first week to actually take a holiday and break in (the second week I singed my death wish to go camping for a freaking week with the cadets down at Canberra where it is freaking freezing all year freaking long, and they have the stupidest and ugliest rules for what we are able to wear - which I will not be listening to coz they can just NO - and the sleeping-in-tents part is because they are too cheap to get us god-damn cabins), and even in that first week I don't even get a break from school coz, oh hey, they gave me MORE FUDGE CAKING ASSIGNMENTS!

Ones a maths and I'm just looking at it laughing coz I got halfway through and realized "Da hell we never learnt this!" And today we got a SOS assignment. Would you look at that, it's my 4TH MULTIMODAL ASSIGNMENT THIS TERM! SO you can just imagine how happy it made me *note the sarcasm in my words*.

I'm the only one in grade 11 (and 12 I think) doing all the Social Science subjects. I can now see why the grade 12 people who had chosen these subjects soon realized their mistake and changed out. On top of that I have work and Cadets and, oh yeah, we are moving. Now I get to sort through my mountains of shit that I have procrastinated going through for most of my life.

What I think I'm trying to say is: it may take me a while to update, but don't fret, I have not given up on this story, nor do I plan on giving up on it. It just might take a while - like it has been - for updates. But I'm seeing this story through to the end, I swear it.

I was just about to write "I swear this time I mean it" but then I was like, "that's a Mayday Parade song..." For those (which I'm gonna take a stab in the dark here and guesstimate that it refers to most of you) who do not know, Mayday Parade is this really amazing Alternative band. They are my fav and have such great songs with moving lyrics.

Mayday Parade songs that I recommend:

'I Swear This Time I Mean It'... ' Save Your Heart'...'Terrible Things'... 'If You Wanted A Song Written About You All You Had To Do Is Ask'... 'Everything's An Illusion'... 'Oh Well Oh Well'... 'If You Can't Live Without Me Why Aren't You Dead Yet?'

And that's only some of my favs from the top of my head.

Also the book "The Five Wave" and I forgot the author... But yeah, I bought this.. because one of the main characters was named Cassie and I was like "You sold me." It also sounded like an alright book in my defence!

Yeah so anyway, I recommend this to you all as well. At first, I'll warn you that it can be hard to et into. Like I started reading and got to page 18 or something then put it down. It took me a whole month at least to pick it up again and try reading. ANd I tell you what, I do not regret it! It turned into this really god book and the next one is coming out next year and I honestly can not wait that long to find out what is gonna happen!

I won't spoil it for you all (like my sister did when she told me who A was on PLL) but I will say if you like gutsy female antagonists (is that even the right word?), a bit of love although there is a few ..ah fights-ish , end of the world, aliens, and fighting to save not only the ones you love but the world, then you should go and borrow this out or buy it or something.

Yeah so I'll stop and post this for everyone now.

- Thank you! I love everybody! ... Cassie.