And here's the second last chapter. Whoo, can't believe I had the time to complete this... school's been pretty crazy with learning latin and everything. (unus! duo! tres! quattuor! quinque! er...) I'm thinking of a sequel... thoughts?

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. If I did, percy and annabeth would've realized their feelings a LOOOONNGGG time ago.

Read and Review!

I Literally Break a Leg

When I got back to Camp Half-Blood, Percy and Nico were waiting by the Christmas tree. I got out of the van and ran up the hill to give Percy a giant hug.

"You're alive," Percy said, slightly out of breath from my hug.

"Damn," Nico muttered sarcastically. "Wait. What?"

"Zeus wanted to kill me… guess he changed his mind," I shrugged. "Apparently I could be useful in the future, which I don't like the sound of."

"Zeus wanted to kill you?" Nico demanded. "No wonder you've been acting so moody lately."

"I'm always moody. Now what's for lunch?"

~0~

Fireworks blossomed above me. I chose special spot in the trees, not wanting to go down to the actual beach to watch them. I relaxed against the crooked nook of a branch and watched the twelve tasks of Hercules play. Percy and Annabeth were somewhere below me, probably kissing shyly, as were the other many couples on the beach. The fireworks show was the most romantic event of Camp Half-Blood, and I was happily single.

Well, maybe not happily.

"Enjoying the view?" someone asked on the branch below me. I looked down. It was some guy from the Hephaestus cabin. He had curly hair, some colour between red and brown. He wasn't totally muscular like his siblings, but he was getting there.

"It's great," I answered. "Come on up. It's a better view here."

"Enough space?"

"Plenty." I swung my legs down to make room for him as he climbed up. "You guys put on a fantastic show this year. Is every year like this?"

He grinned. "Each year's different. I'd like to think this one's better 'cause I helped, but that would be deceiving myself."

I turned to face him. "Haha. What's your name?"

He gave me his hand to shake. "Brenton. Son of Hephaestus."

I took it and then pulled away. "Lena, daughter-that-pissed-off-her-daddy." We watched the Nemean Lion get slayed.

"Didn't you go to Olympus or something? Like you just returned today, right?" he asked. "Aren't you that kid from Cabin Three?"

I gave out a long sigh. "Yeah – two both questions."

"Don't worry about getting your dad mad. If he really wanted to teach you a lesson, you'd be dead right now," he said matter-of-factly.

I studied him. "You're right. Or maybe he's saving up a special torture routine just for me," I said dryly.

Brenton laughed.

"Have I bored you enough yet? Or made enough sarcastic comments to drive you away?" I didn't know if he could tell, but I was watching the side of the face, temporarily cast into light from the blue fireworks above.

"You don't seem like such a bad person, if that's what you mean."

"Then you don't know me enough."

The fireworks kept playing. Somewhere along the way, our fingers interlocked.

~0~

Percy didn't ask me about how it went with the gods because he probably got the feeling I didn't want to talk about it. But I did want to, to talk to him about how I pissed off our dad. It was best if I didn't though, he was close to his dad. Or as close as a demigod could get to a god.

The next morning, we duelled in the swordfighting arena. I'd improved a lot compared to several weeks ago but I was still far from Percy's level. Maybe the fact that he was invincible had something to do with the fact I could never defeat him. Or maybe I just sucked.

But not as bad as javelin throwing. Clarisse had taken the initiative of wearing full body armour around me whenever I had a javelin in my hand. I guess a few injuries to her fellow campers convinced her of that. I once hit the target and was doing a victory dance until I learned I'd thrown the stick backwards.

Archery… I ruled out ever becoming a Hunter of Artemis even if she decided to invite me, which was unlikely after my finger slipped off the string of a loaded bow and it ended up shooting the cap off someone's head. Impressive, if I wasn't aiming for the opposite direction.

The first Capture the Flag game after I came back from Olympus, Annabeth finally decided to 'promote' me to the attack team, but warned that I had to stick to the plan and not pull anything on her. I'd fidgeted at that part but we still ended up winning thanks to Atalanta, who had mad tree-climbing skills. We celebrated over the campfire that night and just for a short while, major and minor demigods alike got along.

It was camp again, camp before I stole the scarf. Before my apparent death sentence. I enjoyed every last second of it: the campfires, the food, the activities, the victories. Especially the look on Cabin Five's face after they realized their cabin had been redecorated while they were out. Thanks to another extravagant prank pulled by your one and only Stoll brothers, they had pink ribbons tied to curtains and teddy bears on beds. The smell of roses lingered in Cabin Five long after they unsuccessfully tried to find the source. When I asked Travis and Connor why they pulled the prank, they said something about clients. Cabin Three was never pranked. Probably because I helped them, and also because they were afraid of our powers. So I slept safely, knowing I wouldn't wake up with frosting on my face the next morning.

July ended, much to my horror. I had been sure I was going to spend the entire year at camp, but I seriously didn't know if I was going to. I mean, I had lectured the gods about forgiving your family and everything. What kind of impression would I set on them if I didn't follow that myself? So I told myself I had plenty of time to make a decision. Plenty. Of. Time.

Right?

~0~

I found Nico one day doing what I usually saw in movies – talking to the dead. I'd just come from arts and crafts after giving up in frustration in making a model of the Parthenon. So I took a walk in the forest to vent out my anger, instead of going to the sea side.

Somehow, I ended up at the tree with the X. I put one hand on the branch above me and pulled myself up. Then I kept going until I was high enough to see the clearing below me. I balanced myself carefully on the branch, holding onto the next branch above my head for support.

That was when I saw Nico below and the glowing ghost in front of him, who looked like him so much it could only be Bianca di Angelo. She had this unearthly blue light around her and had a quiver of arrows behind her. She was a Hunter?

I felt like I was intruding something so I got up on the branch. It snapped under my weight and then I was holding onto the branch with only one hand. My fingers strained to keep myself up, but they slipped one by one and I fell with a yelp, landing on each branch on my butt until I fell forward onto the ground. I tried landing on my feet but it buckled under me from the force.

A few seconds later, a shadow passed over me, blocking the filtered sunlight from above. I raised my chin weakly. "Sorry," I said and spat out a leaf. My leg buzzed in that sort of painful way.

Nico helped me up after putting away his sword. "Thought it was someone else. Hurt?" he asked, keeping a tight grip on my shoulder just in case I fell.

I knew there was something wrong with my left leg. Even when I wasn't standing and putting my weight on it, I could feel it throbbing with pain. I nodded. "My leg." I put it down experimentally and the pain sharpened. "Crap," I hissed.

Nico looked behind him and helped me over to the tree. "Lean on this. I'll be right back." He disappeared into the clearing. A moment later, he was back, stuffing his sword back into his sheath. "Your leg?"

"Yeah."

"Big House." He supported me and we slowly walked towards the farmhouse.

"Was that Bianca?" I asked. "Your sister… who died? She was a hunter?"

"Yeah. That was Bianca. You know, I used to think she was kind of annoying and protective but after she left with the rest of the Hunters… I was hurt. And probably got protective of her. Now I talk to her ghost every now and then." We carefully avoided a broken branch on the ground. "It's weird, because now I'm older than her but I still think of her as my big sister."

So I was finally alone in the forest, with enough privacy to tell Nico what Thalia said. I should've told him, but I didn't, like I decided that day on Olympus.

At the Big House, Will, Cabin Seven's counsellor, took a look at my leg and said it was partially fractured. "We can give you ambrosia and nectar, but we can't give you enough so it can heal – you'll face the possibility of burning up."

I winced and tried not to notice how much my leg had swollen, just below my knee. "Um, can you do anything else to help it heal faster? I can't miss the last two weeks of camp – if I wasn't staying," I quickly added. "I have to train."

He looked down at my leg. "I can sing you a healing song. Maybe as the daughter of Poseidon, seawater will help. The ocean's right there –"

"No," I said. "Forget everything; just give me the ambrosia and nectar. I'll let it heal on its own." Nico made some noise beside me but I ignored it.

Will gave me a cup of the sweet nectar. I drank it down slowly and then watched him as he took out a bunch of bandages. "I'm going to have to help the other guy next to you." The boy was moaning on his bed and clutching his stomach. I wondered what he ate for lunch. "Cailey!" he shouted. "Can you help this girl?"

She appeared, looking slightly tired and crumpled the paper cup in her hand. "No problem." Then she walked over and stared down at my broken leg. "Here we are again."

"Yep," I confirmed. "You look tired. Are you sure you can handle this?"

She replied by putting her hands on my leg. "Just a bad dream. I'm going to have to reset this… Just the broken part. Is there anything you can bite on?"

I took a Popsicle stick from a jar next to me and stuck it in my mouth, biting down on it until I felt wooden splinters digging into my lips. "Ready," I mumbled.

She set the bone. I broke the Popsicle stick in half.

After five minutes, I was calm enough for her to wrap the bandages around me. "You know, for your dreams, you could get some kid in the Morpheus cabin to look into that – ow!"

She stopped tugging so hard. "Sorry. And I don't need anyone to help me with my dreams. I'm fine. It's just a little sleep deprivation."

Nico studied her, but didn't say anything.

"I'll just ease this in… there." Cailey stepped back to view her work. "You don't want to be putting any weight on that any time soon. Wait here." She went into the storage room and came out with a set of crutches. "Use these."

I took them reluctantly, wondering if I should stop being stubborn and use the sea powers to help me. But I leaned on them anyway and stood up. "Thanks. You should get some rest now."

Her expression darkened and she shook her head. "He's always waiting there… I'll see you around."

~0~

Because I was excluded from many of the camp activities that required full use of your legs, I found myself in Cabin Three a lot. At first, I coped by trying to read out of the boring architecture book Annabeth gave me, but after I finished it, I left it alone for it to accumulate dust, having no wishes to read through it again. ADHD required for me to move around a lot, so after that, I took a few short walks with my crutches. But after I tripped over some Gucci shoe near Cabin Ten, I got a strict lecturing from Cabin Seven healers and stayed indoors after that.

A week before camp ended for those here only for summer, I looked out at the window, seeing the sunlight stream in and sighed. I twirled the pen around with my fingers several times. It shot out of my hands and landed on a sheet of paper. I leaned over to grab the pen and noticed it was the sheet of paper I tried writing a letter to my mom on. I turned around with the pen and tried to ignore it.

But flipping pens got boring, so I figured. What the heck. I grabbed the sheet of paper and found something hard to write on. I'm not going to send it. It's just a letter I would send…

Two hours, three broken pens, and countless misspelled words later, I had a sheet of paper covered with words. Front and back. I tried reading it from the start because I wasn't exactly sure what I'd put down. My dyslexia kicked in and the letters jumbled together.

"Whatcha doing?" Percy asked as he walked into the cabin. "Needa grab some sunscreen."

I stuffed the letter into a drawer. "Nothing," I said but he was already out the door.

~0~

I had no more visitors until that afternoon, when Hermes showed up at my door. The god was in his classic mailman suit. I took his appearance with a slightly less enthusiastic response than I probably should have. "I thought the gods… decided not to kill me." Why are you here?

Hermes shrugged. "I figured you have a letter to send. Think of it as a favour."

"I don't have a letter," I lied but my hand betrayed me by moving towards the drawer.

"Come on kid. It's express service. Usually expensive," he reasoned.

I passed the note over to him with some reluctance, and just because he was growing impatient and you never wanted to make a god angry. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because family's important." He looked sad for a brief moment and I wondered if he was thinking about Luke Castellan. Then Hermes put it into his bag. "Well, see you kid," he said, with a completely different tone. "And you owe me one."

"You don't want a stamp?" I asked.

"Keep it in your stamp book collection or something." He winked and then left – not through the bizarre fry-you-into-a-crisp-if-you-looked way, but through the door.

Brenton came in five seconds later. I hadn't seen him much since the Fourth of July fireworks besides when he was forging metal or practicing swordfighting. I balanced on my crutches. "Hey."

"How are you?" he asked sarcastically, knowing exactly how I was doing.

I waved towards the cast on my leg. "Tough times these days," I answered with a slight smirk. "Clumsy me fell down a tree."

"Rhymes," he noted lamely and we didn't say anything for a few moments, when I pretended to busy myself with examining my nails with such detail you'd have thought I belonged in Cabin Ten, and him staring at his untied shoelaces.

"So what brings you here?" I asked. "I haven't really seen you around…"

"Heard you got hurt."

"Yeah. More than a week ago," I said. "But whatever," I added so he wouldn't be uncomfortable. "I'm fine. Just resting up and dying of boredom."

"You're missing the world out there," he said, gesturing to outside the cabin. "How about I take you for a walk? We're doing well on the orders for more swords and I've got a bit of free time."

Even though I'd tripped over a Gucci shoe and got told exactly not to do that, I nodded. "Sure." Because I never followed what I was told to do anyway.

~0~

Percy packed up the night before he was leaving. He cursed throughout the cabin, flying around, trying to find that watch he had on two days ago but then lost or that pair of sunglasses that had mysteriously disappeared after the Stoll brothers did cabin inspection. I watched all this with amusement, on the bed as he stumbled over a backpack. "Can't wait to see your mom?" I asked.

"Can't wait to be home too. You'll be staying for the year, right?" He stopped fumbling with some weird contraption in his hands to look at me.

I leaned forward on the crutches even though I was sitting down. "I will."

"You can take the same bus as me if you change your mind."

"I won't."

To this, he didn't say anything else though his brain was probably thinking things through. Five minutes later, he was sitting on his suitcase, trying to get everything inside to fit inside the poor bag. He pulled on the zipper, tugging it uselessly.

"Want me to help?" I asked pathetically. If I tried manoeuvring around the cabin with this mess, I'd surely break my bone again and the other leg too.

"Naw, it's okay."

I mentally ran through a list in my mind on who would be staying. Nico. Because he gave up on school or something though Chiron would probably force him to do a little studying anyway. A few kids in Athena's cabin. Ares's too. Cailey was going back to Buffalo after a year of not seeing her family. Atalanta was going along with her because she couldn't even remember her family. Brenton was going back to his town in Ohio. I couldn't really remember the name of the town – it was long, complicated and hard to say. Rachel Elizabeth Dare would be attending Clairon's Lady Academy or something like that. It sounded like a painful place to be to me. Percy and Annabeth were going back to their homes.

I wondered if I really wanted a bunch of braniacs and war loving punks for company for ten months.

So I just watched silently.

~0~

The next morning, I found two sheets on my bedside. I picked them up slowly and read the first one through.

Dear _Elisa Eddington_,

If you intend to stay at Camp Half-Blood year-round, you must inform the Big House by noon today. If you do not announce your intentions, we will assume you have vacated your cabins or died a horrible death. Cleaning harpies will begin work at sundown. They will be authorized to eat any unauthorized campers. All personal articles left behind will be incinerated in the lava pit.

Have a nice day!

Mr. D (Dionysus)

Camp Director, Olympian Council #12

Because there was no one else in the room with the initials E.E, I assumed Elisa Eddington was Elena Evans with more than a few letters switched around, taken out, and added in. I prepared myself for a trip to the Big House when I remembered the second letter.

So I carefully unfolded it to see my mother's handwriting.

By now, I'd received enough letters you would've thought this didn't make me catch my breath like before. But it did. And I read it through, slowly, and had to pause several times to stop the letters switching around.

Please come back home.

Should I?

I slowly set my crutches against the wall and stared at my belongings. I would need a suitcase. "Percy, where do you buy bus tickets? Percy?" He didn't move under the blanket. So I impatiently set the alarm and let it ring loudly by his ear. "Are you awake now?" I shouted.

"Let me sleep," he mumbled.

"Blackjack ate all the sugar cubes again and he's getting real drunk up in the sky. You know what they say? Don't get high and fly?"

This woke him up a bit more. "What?"

"Forget it. I need bus tickets to Manhattan and I don't know where to find them."

He peeked out from underneath his blanket. "Don't get any." Then he took out three tickets from the drawer. "One for Annabeth, one for me, and one for you." He sat up in bed, yawning.

I stared at the tickets.

"I figured you'd need one. Well, actually, Annabeth did," he said sheepishly. "Are you going to take it or not?"

~0~

The Greyhound bus was just by the road, waiting for us to hope on. The driver must've wondered why in Hades a bunch of kids of all different sizes and ages were boarding a bus to Manhattan from a strawberry farm, but his main priority was probably getting paid.

"I can take your backpack," Percy said to me for the fiftieth time. And he'd only started five minutes ago. Record for trying to be helpful, I guess.

I nudged the backpack with my shoulder to indicate I was fine. "Don't worry about it. I've got this." The crutches were digging into my armpits, but I was just focusing on one thing: I was going home… even though every part of me screamed I was doing the wrong thing.

Cailey looked even worse than before. Her hair looked like she'd brushed it once and then none more. She was talking to Atalanta though sometimes she didn't respond until the little girl pinched her hand. Which was painful – I'd experienced it, and after that, I swore to myself I'd introduce her to nail cutters.

I shook her shoulder. "You look like life's been giving you hell lately."

"Funny you should say that. I just can't sleep at night."

I took Atalanta's hand and pointed Percy out to her. "Talk to that boy, and ask him to show you his sword." She plodded off, and I half wished I could watch her torture Percy and bombard him with questions. But I readjusted my crutches so I was facing Cailey again. "What exactly have you been dreaming of about Alec?"

She looked like the last thing she wanted was to talk about him. But what she wanted and what she needed was different. "I don't know. I can't stop thinking I abandoned him…"

I wanted to shake her out of it. "Stop thinking of him, okay? You've chosen what you wanted to do with your life, and he has chosen his. Sure, he'll always be special, but the part of your life where he was part of it – it's over. You have a little sister to take care of."

She seemed to wake up for the first time in ages. "He would've let me go. If I didn't just leave. If I asked…"

"Cailey, you can't change you already did."

She shrunk even more. "I know. I know."

No more inspirational words came to me. I opened my mouth, to comfort her, or something, but instead, I just said, "How about we rescue Percy from Atalanta?" Cailey was probably far from healed but it was a start. She called Atalanta over. Atalanta gave her a flower she'd picked off from the ground.

"For you," she said. "Because you're my big sis."

Cailey took the flower gently. "Thank you," she said, and for that moment, she was not mulling over the past. She was firmly in the present. "I am your big sis."

On the bus, I picked the window seat, somewhere between the middle and the back. Percy and Annabeth were sitting together, Atalanta and Cailey were talking, and Rachel was chatting with the bus driver. I prepared myself for a boring trip and wondered if Percy would lend me his Ipod.

"Sitting alone?"

I raised my head and then moved my crutches from the seat beside me. "You can have it, if you want," I offered.

Brenton sat down. "I'm transferring onto another bus to Ohio once we're in Manhattan. So I guess you're stuck with me."

"Gladly," I said wryly, but secretly, I was. This bus ride won't be as boring as I thought…

Now I'm going to take a break and watch Friends because it's just that awesome. so as i said, i'll probably be writing a sequel. I've enjoyed writing fanfiction. please review! I will love you if you do...

Until next time! ~^^~