Lily's POV

"Ambrosia and Nectar?" Annabeth asks, standing at the opposite side of the cluttered room, gathering her own things as she runs down the checklist of my stuff.

"Check," I respond impatiently, as ready to go as I'll ever be.

"Extra drachmas?" She continues, stuffing a laptop into her messenger bag.

"Check," I say again, adjusting my oversized leather purse. (A birthday gift, if you must know…)

"New clothes?"

"Check,"

"iPod?"

"Check,"

"The extra hunting dagger I gave you?"

"In ma' boot." I sigh, motioning down to the very boots I wear now. My favorite pair, a two and a quarter heel, knee-high boot. They're also the only pair I have other than my sneakers that were recovered from Becky's car when I first got here.

"Alright, well I guess that's as much as we can prepare…" Annabeth trails off, zipping up her bag.

"Do you trust me?" I ask carefully, noticing the glint in her eyes, like it's the last time she'll ever see her cabin.

"Of course I do," She says, though I could swear she hesitated. I only nod, watching as she rolls up some scrolls on the bunk into a bundle, placing them on the nightstand near her bed, as if she'll return to them any minute now.

"…We should get going, Percy will be waiting in the dining pavilion; he refused to leave without eating as much breakfast as he can." She smiles at me, hanging the bag off her shoulder, and beginning to walk towards the door again.

"Alright," I say simply, following her out of the empty Athena cabin, towards the smell of food.

Five minutes later, I'm sitting in front of a stack of pancakes. Blue pancakes.

"Come on, we need to go Percy. Start eating, or you'll never finish!" Annabeth declares, frowning down at her boyfriend, the ends of her lips fighting a smile.

I only stare at the stack in front of me, covering the view of my brother.

"First, you savor. Then you eat." Percy explains, his arms moving in dramatic gesture. Annabeth's hand disappears behind the pancakes, and I hear a whimper when I assume she playfully slaps him. I have to smile as I imagine it happening.

"If you don't eat it, I will…" I joke, reaching for the fork next to the plate. My hand is swatted away.

"Lily!?" He shouts in mock horror, making us all laugh. But of course, eventually the joke fades, and Percy eats his pancakes.

The Hephaestus cabin is no joke. A huge brick building, with a smoke stack sticking out of the roof, white smoke billowing out. In the back of my mind all I can think is, why brick? Because that's the question I ask…

We don't go inside, only wait until Nyssa comes out to meet us. I've been told that she's only temporary counselor because the real counselor is on a quest himself. Annabeth gave her title over to Malcolm, and since Percy and I are both leaving, Poseidon's cabin has no counselor.

"We built your boat…But-" She begins.

"What is it, Nyssa?" Percy interrupts.

"You uh, have to go down South to use it." She continues slowly, a sheepish grin growing on her face.

"But why?" Annabeth asks, shifting her bag.

"It's not exactly what you'd call, inconspicuous." She frowns, clearly uncomfortable with delivering the news.

"What happened?" I speak this time, glancing down at my watch. 8:34 AM. We're already running late, now we have to make the trip south before boating to Greece?!

"Well...we were working all night, and normally it's not an issue for us, but one of the guys was dozing off when he wrote up the blueprints with the dimensions…It came out a bit bigger than you'd asked for, and then we'd expected. So you'll have to find an empty port, or empty beach to set sail off of." Nyssa finishes, shrugging. I talk before Percy or Annabeth can.

"Its fine, we're still early, we can make the trip south before heading to Greece. No problem," I lie, smiling. It may not be ideal, but in all fairness we were asking a lot. They made a boat in a singular night for us, and they don't even really know me.

"Lily's right. No need to get wound up over this. Thanks Nyssa, tell the guys we're grateful," Annabeth agrees, taking a suitcase I hadn't realized was there, from Nyssa's hands.

"What's that?"

"The boat,"

"…Oh-kay." I respond slowly, trying to act less surprised. You'd think a suitcase that turns into a boat would be perfectly normal to a person who's been through crazier situations in two weeks, but still I have to wonder how they managed to do that.

I don't have time to dwell on it, because within the same minute we're saying our goodbyes.

The walk towards the gates is a dreary one. I have to force myself to keep walking, avoiding the stares of campers as we pass through their activities. I notice Will, teaching archery to the younger kids, watching me make my way across the lawn. He wasn't only my teammate for Capture the Flag, he was the one to nurse me back to health after my few nights at Hades' palace. I also like to think we're at least peers, if not friends. I smile, but he only turns away in response, much like most of the other campers. They all heard the prophecy, so I assume they're not hopeful.

"Alright, this is it." Percy interrupts my thoughts, as we reach the magical border. I look back once, before taking the lead, crossing into the part of the woods that isn't protected from monsters.

"We're ready." I say, taking a tentative step forward. Annabeth smiles.

"We're headed to Charleston, South Carolina, they have a private yacht club that we can leave from," She explains, pointing down the hill in the direction we need to go.

"How are we going to get there, and how are we getting in?" I ask. Again she smiles, obviously having previously thought out the details.

"The club is owned by Dare Enterprises,"

"Like, Rachel's family?"

"Exactly. And on the note of getting there, I figured we'd need a ride anyways, regardless of if it was just to a pier here, or to anywhere else. So I asked Percy for help," She pauses, glancing over at Percy.

"We just have to get back to New York City. My mom is going to be our ride to South Carolina." He finishes for her, taking her hand as we continue our walk towards the road.

"You, Lily Reyes, are going to have the magnificent opportunity to meet the Sally Jackson. The Queen of blue foods, love, and happiness." Percy declares, raising his fist to the air, Annabeth joins him, and after a moment, I do too.

"Long live the Queen!" We shout together, smiles on our faces as we embark on the first stage of our quest.