I love summer. Like, a lot. But I hate mosquitoes. I got 15 bites the other night, and they're itchy :P

I'm not even gonna make up an excuse of why I haven't updated in like 2 years. I was simply busy. With friends, and the beach, and getting ready for school (only a couple more weeks :P) and I just re-did my whole room so I've been majorly busy. But you can forgive me because I got you a present! It isss… this chapter! YAY!

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, it's characters, plot, etc.

Jill and Percy went right, running towards the parking lot; while Annabeth stayed straight and went to a small building that was most likely a park ranger station. I turned right and headed towards a large group of hikers, who were getting a safety talk from the leader.

"And folks, I can't stress this enough: If you see a bear – which, fingers crossed we won't – please resist the urge to run up to it and 'roar', scream, wave your arms, or anything else they taught you on those survival shows. I'm sure you've all heard the story of Joseph…" People shook their heads. "No? Alrighty then! Moving on," The hikers looked at each other, confused whether he was just trying to scare them or if he was being serious. Some rolled their eyes, while others chewed their nails nervously.

There were about 20 hikers there, and they ranged from an obese middle-aged man completely decked out in hiking gear, to a mildly-cute teenager snapping her bubblegum and trying to get reception on her cell phone.

A little boy began to scratch his mother's leg and meow loudly, so she pulled him aside and threatened him that if he continued pretending he was a cat Santa Claus wouldn't be coming that year.

The little boy stopped.

As I ran towards the group, I saw one man's head turn towards my direction. He seemed confused as he stared behind me, but then his eyes filled with fear. He grabbed a woman, who I assumed was his wife, and ran in the opposite direction screaming "Snakes!"

It was a domino effect. After people heard the first man scream, they all turned their attentions away from the leader and towards the area where there were apparently snakes (which was just the Mist covering up my little slithering friends). Once they saw the creatures for themselves, almost every hiker let out a shriek and sprinted away. People picked up their children and quickly made their way away from the "snakes" and towards the park ranger's station, which was where Annabeth was.

The leader of the group was making a desperate attempt to keep everybody calm, flailing his arms around and shouting "It's okay! Just make your way to the park ranger's station in an orderly fashion!", but he soon realized his attempts were useless and ended up running along-side them.

I was right behind the terrified group, wishing I had participated more in track at Camp Half-Blood; regretting the fact that if I had, I probably would be fit for this kind of cardiovascular endurance. I was surviving purely on my fight or flight reflexes, but they wouldn't last forever.

Soon I was panting more than I was breathing, and my legs burned with every step. I felt my dignity slip away as that chubby man with the hiking boots ran past me, leaving me in the dust. I had been trying to stay with the group, but when some of them were already reaching the station, I gave up. I turned around and headed for a particularly bushy tree, and just as it's shadow was close enough I slipped through it.

The familiar feeling of being consumed by the darkness took over again, but when I opened my eyes I was standing in a small building with a couple of desks and a whole lot of terrified tourists. Everybody was so distressed that they didn't even notice a teenage boy appear out of mid-air. Annabeth and some guy who I was guessing to be a park ranger stood up front, trying to get everyone to shut up so they could hear the story.

"People! One at a time, please!" the ranger shouted. He was tall and slim, wearing a uniform you wouldn't catch me dead in.

A man stepped forward. He blabbered on about the "humungous snakes" that were terrorizing the area, and if he was in charge he would exterminate of them immediately.

"Sir, I apologize for the inconvenience, but this is a wild area. We can't just capture all the animals and put them in cages, as you can understand." The man humphed! and walked away. Others then started to complain and shout and cause all kinds of chaos for the poor park ranger.

I made my way over to Annabeth, who was talking to that teenage girl from before. She didn't seem fazed by the monstrous snakes terrifying the rest of the group.

"No, Clare. I'm sorry, but I can't convince your parents to take you home early." She told her.

"But this place is so lame! There is like, no reception out here!" she whined, and popped her bubblegum. Annabeth just shrugged. "Well, can you at least drive me to the beach?" asked the girl.

Annabeth looked at me, then back at the girl. "Drive you? There's no beaches for like, 200 miles."

'Clare' looked at her like she had 5 heads. "Uh, no it's not? It's right down the road. There were, like, 7 signs on the way here." Annabeth looked at me again, and then back at the girl. The teenager seemed to notice me for the first time, and winked.

"Hey, I'm-" she started, but Annabeth cut her off.

"He's 14."

She looked at me and I shrugged. Annoyance crossed over her face, and with a final "Ugh!" she walked away and back to whatever poor parents were responsible for her.

Annabeth turned to me and saw how red my face was. "Don't feel bad, Nico. She was mental anyway."

"No, that's not it. We were being chased by those-"

"Dracaena?"

"Exactly. They're faster than they look. They should be here by now; I don't know why they didn't come inside and kill all of us." I walked over to the nearest window and looked towards the direction of the dracaenas. They were lurking around by the trees, whispering to each other and hissing toward the park ranger station.

"What do you think about that whole beach thing?" I asked Annabeth.

She shrugged, "Don't worry about it." She began to play with a piece of her hair, "If there's a beach anywhere around here, Percy will find it. For now you may focus on getting past those dracaenas and back to the others." She pointed her thumb towards the window. "And to do that," she paused, "we need a distraction."

Ten minutes later a teenage girl walked out of the building, wearing a t-shirt and shorts that were slightly too big for her. She had brown hair and was a few inches shorter than the girl the dracaena were after, but they wouldn't realize…

Hopefully.

Inside Annabeth was wearing the other girl's clothes, which happened to be a hot pink tank top one size too small and Abercrombie denim shorts that barely covered her butt. I had a feeling Percy wouldn't complain about her new apparel.

So we had convinced the teenage girl that we had just met to go and be bait for the man-eating "snakes". It's funny what some people would do just for a ride to the beach, eh?

"So let's go over the plan again." started Annabeth, "She goes out there, reeking of demigod from my clothes. The dracaena see and/or smell her, and go after her. She screams and runs, and yadda yadda yadda. They realize she's just a stupid human, and leave her alone; but by then you and I are already long gone. Good?"

"I just have one question." I started. She nodded her head, telling me to go on. "What if by the time they realize she's human, it's too late? Or what if they don't leave her alone?" I asked.

"Well…" she considered the options, "Then two parents won't have to worry about raising their obnoxious teenage daughter." She gave one nod of her head, satisfied of her answer.

This was morally wrong, and we were jeopardizing an innocent bystander's life, and most people would look at us like we had no souls – but I really didn't care so I just shrugged and said "Okay."

We waited a minute, and then heard a high pitched screech, which was our signal to get our booties out of there. People all turned their attention toward the scream, and hurried to the window to see what was happening. We ran outside along with a crowd of curious hikers. A man pushed to the front of the crowd screaming "CLARE! Hit it on the nose!"

A woman then shouted "No, that's for sharks! You're supposed to stomp on it's tail!" Clare just continued to run around and scream.

Another man added in, "That won't help! You have to stand up as tall as you can and wave your arms around! Make yourself look big!"

"That's bears, you idiot! She has to hiss at them!" said another.

People piped in all sorts of lame advice, none of which the girl took. She continued screeching and running around, which was probably the best thing she could have done.

With all the chaos, it was easy for me and Annabeth to sneak out and run away from all the commotion and to the other direction where Percy and Jill had taken off to. The girl's screams became quieter and quieter, but soon stopped at once. I was hoping that meant they had realized she was no demigod and left her alone, but I wasn't completely sure.

Throughout my life, many things have helped me. Other demigods, extremely dangerous weapons, super amazing powers – but I think the one thing that has helped me the most is completely and totally normal: adrenaline rushes.

Like, at that moment, for example. I wouldn't be able to sprint (and keep up with Annabeth) for 10 minutes if my body hadn't granted me with an oh-so-powerful adrenaline rush. Considering the circumstances, I was probably on a more intense adrenaline rush than normal. Kind of like in Twilight when Edward like crushes that car and then Bella's all like "Wow, that was epic. How'd you do it?" and Edward was like "Oh, it was an adrenaline rush. Pretty common." But he was really lying because he just had super strength or something like that (when you're stupid enough to prank the Aphrodite cabin with the Stoll brothers, they think of some pretty unique punishments).

But after it felt like we had run around the whole mountain twice, we finally spotted a blast of water from the distance.

"Like I said before," Annabeth started, "If there's a beach anywhere around here, Percy will find it."

Anddd…. That's chapter 20/21 for ya! Reviewww!