IMPORTANT: Okay, so right after I posted my last chapter, my little laptop overheated. So now I have no computer to type up my stories. Just great. Anywho, now I'm using my friend's iPad, which is really challenging because I've never used an iPad before, and I am SICK of auto-correct! But the only way for me to update is if I use my mom's laptop (which I won't be able to use very often), go to the library, or if my friends take pity on me and let me use their computer. I am so sorry that I won't be able to update as often! I will try everything I can to get my chapters out there as quickly as possible! I am more disappointed than anybody and I literally almost started crying, I was that upset!

Also, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed my last chapter and told me that I did good. That meant a ton! And to Bluestar4ever: Thank you sooo much! I think you're right. It was pretty out of my comfort zone, and writing from Percy's POV is always hard, seeing as I'm a girl! Thanks again!

Another thing: I plan on this story going to anywhere on or between 30 and 35 chapters, so we don't have too much of this story left. If the rest of this is a little rushed, then I am so sorry!

On a happier note: YOU GUYS ROCK! I just thought I'd get that out there! 818 freakin' reviews! I can't believe it! Love ya guys! Enough of me, let's get to the chapter if you haven't skipped to it already!

HAPPY READING!

Annabeth

"You're going to dress me up as WHAT?!" I shrieked.

Calypso had gladly said that she would babysit Matthew and Bobby, and I had explained to her about Sue not knowing about me leaving. I also told her that I would be back by 11:45, right before Sue would get home at midnight.

Now, I was standing next to Thalia's bed, and the girls were looking at me with highly mused expressions on their face.

"Oh, come on, Annie! Don't be such a baby!" Thalia chided. "Your costume's hanging in the bathroom. Go and get changed so Piper and Silena can put some makeup on you!"

I crossed my arms.

"No," I said shaking my head. "Absolutely not! I am not going to the dance as Tinkerbell! Oh, and don't call me Annie! And besides, aren't we only allowed to wear Christmas costumes?"

Thalia snorted. "Screw that! What's the fun in that? Then everyone will end up wearing basically the same thing! We'll totally stand out!"

"That's what I was afraid of," I muttered.

Thalia pouted. "Please!" she asked, dragging the word out and making a puppy dog face. I rolled my eyes.

"You know your puppy dog faces don't work on me!" I snapped.

Hazel, Piper, Bianca, and Silena gasped.

"What?" I asked them.

"Thalia said 'please'! Annabeth, that never happens! Now you have to do it!" they said. Then they all made puppy dog faces.

"Oh my gosh, what is wrong with you people?!" I said, throwing up my hands in exasperation. "Fine, I'll wear it, if it means so much to you!"

"It does!" Thalia said happily.

"Idiots," I muttered, walking into the bathroom.

I slipped the costume on, wondering what I had gotten myself into. I absolutely refused to wear the freaky little sandals with sequins all over them, so I slipped a pair on converse on. I saw that my locket had gone to the outside of my shirt where anyone could see it, so I quickly stuffed it to the inside. I also tucked my hair into a hood, since my hair was too recognizable.

I walked out and was met with a bunch of laughter. They all stopped when they saw me. Their eyes widened and they started laughing again. I crossed my eyes and tried to look stern, which was pretty hard when you're dressed as an elf.

"See? That's why I didn't want to wear this hideous thing!" I said, frowning.

When the laughter died down, Bianca said,"You don't look bad! It's just that we never thought we'd see you of all people dressed as Tinkerbell!"

"Exactly! So now my reputation is going to be ruined! People aren't supposed to know I have a sunshine and rainbow side of me!" I joked.

Laying on the bed, I saw two masks, a white one and a black one. I got an idea. I picked up the black one.

"Ah ha! A mask! Now no one will know it's me dressed up like this!" I said happily. Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Fairies don't wear masks! Besides, it's not like you're going to be the only one dressed up like a fairy. Me, Hazel, Piper, and Bianca are going as them, too!"

"That's great, but I'm wearing the mask whether you like it or not!" I insisted.

"Fine then. But if you're going to wear one, then wear the white one. The black one makes you look like a fairy who decided to go goth," Thalia told me.

"Oh, that's nice! And it does not make me look goth!" I protested, but nevertheless, I picked up the white one and slipped it on. "Oh, that's much better! I'm ready when you guys are!" I announced.

"Annabeth, no one can see your face! Don't you think that's kinda creepy?" Hazel asked. I rolled my eyes.

"That's the point! No can will know it's me, and they probably won't ask me to dance or anything if they can't see who I am," I pointed out. Piper sighed.

"Whatever floats your boat."

"By the way, where's Juniper? I thought she was going to be here? She's one of the one's who annoyed me most while trying to convince me to come!" I said.

"Oh, she got sick. I feel really bad for her. She was really looking forward to hanging out with Grover. And I'm gonna tell her what you said about her being annoying!" Thalia said mischievously.

"You wouldn't!" I said, narrowing my eyes at her.

"I know! I just thought it would be funny to see you panic!" I threw a pillow at her.

For the rest of the time, we talked and joked about random stuff. We teased Thalia about her secret crush on Nico ("I do not have a secret crush on Nico, and if you don't shut up, I will crush your face!"), laughed at the stack of old homework papers that I had found stuffed under Thalia's bed ("Well, it's not my fault that I actually have a life!"), and giggled ourselves breathless when we saw that Thalia had immaturely drawn mustaches and beards on Leo, Grover, Nico, and Frank's pictures in the yearbook ("Personally, I thought they looked much more manly that way.").

Hanging out with these amazing people who had always been there for me, I could almost forget about Percy. I could almost forget that Sue would literally kill me if she found out that I was going to the dance. I could almost forget that I would have to serve detention with Rachel soon, and that there was a deep, empty ache in my heart. Almost.

The weight seemed the bear down on me more and more every minute, but I just kept pushing it away. I was determined to have a fun night for once.

"All right guys! It's time to go!" Silena squealed.

Thalia whooped and skipped to the car.

I smiled slightly, shaking my head, and followed my crazy friends out to the van.

What did I ever do to deserve such amazing friends? I thought to myself.

Percy

"Hey, man! What's up?" Nico said as I walked into his house.

"Nothing much," I said glumly.

"What's wrong?" Grover asked, easily picking up on my mood.

I started to say something, but Nico cut me off.

"Hold on! Let's talk about it in my room over chips and dip. Chips and dip always makes the world seem like a better place, even when it's not."

I laughed at that. I could always count on Nico to use humor even when there was nothing funny about a situation.

Soon, we were all in his room, eating the snack, while I told the guys about Annabeth going crazy.

"So now she hates me and I still have no idea what I did wrong," I finished.

A thoughtful silence greeted my speech. After awhile, Nico finally said, "Wow, that really sucks, man."

"Nah, ya think?" Leo said, rolling his eyes. "Nice detective work, Sherlock."

Nico pouted and stuck his tongue out at Leo. Leo grabbed a pen an stabbed his tongue with it. Nico yelled and Jason, Leo, and Frank guffawed. But then they became serious again.

"Sorry, man. I wish I knew what to tell you but I really don't. I'm as clueless as you are," Jason said.

"Me too," said Frank.

"Me a hundred and three!" put in Nico.

"And I'm single," Leo added glumly.

"Do you think that Annabeth will end up coming to the dance?" I asked them.

They shrugged.

"I honestly don't know. She promised she would, but if she's as mad as you say she is then I doubt it. And even if she hadn't gotten mad, it would have been pretty hard to get her to come anyway, even though she promised. You'll just have to see," Grover said.

"That's the problem. I don't want to see her while we're there," I grumbled.

"I sure don't envy you," Leo shuddered. "That chick is scary when she's angry."

"Ain't that the truth. Anywho, we should get our costumes on," Nico suggested.

"Okay. What are we wearing?" I asked curiously. Anything to get my mind off of Annabeth.

Leo smirked. "I'm going as Superman. Jason is going as Spiderman, Frank is going as Santa, Nico is going as Hades, and you're going as Batman."

I choked on my drink.

"What? I thought you could only wear costumes that have to do with Christmas things?" I protested.

"That's what I said!" grumbled Frank.

"So what? That's no fun! We'll end up looking like everyone else!" Nico explained enthusiastically.

"And you don't think we'll get kicked out? Dude, Mrs. Dodds is the main person in charge of the whole thing! She'll kick us out. Literally."

"Ah, but Leo and I have that all taken care of!" Nico said, with a look of triumph on his face. I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?"

"Well, you know how Mrs. Dodds is a witch, right?" Leo said. I nodded.

"Well, we figured that because of that, no one ever gives her presents, so we got her one," he continued.

With a wicked smile on his face, he pulled a package out from under the bed. "Ta da!" he said, proudly showing it to me. I leaned forward to get a good look and nearly choked at what I saw.

The picture on the front of the package showed a little girl wearing a witch costume.

"Oh. My. Gosh. You aren't seriously going to give that to her, are you?" I asked incredulously.

Nico and Leo looked at me blankly while Frank, Jason, and Grover tried to hold their laughs in.

"Of course we are! Why wouldn't we?"

"Uh, dude, you don't give the meanest teacher in the school a witch costume. That's a complete insult!"

"Well, yeah, that's why we got her some chocolate and flowers to go with it!" Nico said, as though it all made perfect sense. He pulled out a Hershey bar and a small bouquet of flowers.

"You know what, I'm just not gonna say anything anymore. You guys are weird," I informed them.

They looked at me blankly again.

"You just figured that out?"

After we all got our costumes on, we joked around while we waited until it was time to leave. We teased Nico about having a secret crush on Thalia ("I do not have a secret crush on Thalia, and if you don't shut up, I will crush your face!") Then, we laughed at an old science project and a stack of algebra homework we found under Nico's bed ("I do have a life to live outside of school, you know!"), and we all cracked up at the glasses Nico had drawn in to every nerdy person's face in the yearbook ("I thought it went well with them!").

Being here with these people who I had only recently met, I felt like I had known them my whole life. They knew how to cheer me up and how to keep my mind off of life. I could almost forget about Annabeth. I could almost forget about what Rachel did to me today. Almost. Even though I didn't kiss her, I still felt weighed down with the information.

But I tried to ignore it. I was determined to have a good time with my friends tonight.

"Yo, guys, it's time to go!" Jason finally announced.

As we headed out to the van, Nico and Leo skipped, talking to each other in Irish accents.

Shaking my head, I thought to myself, What did I ever do to deserve such crazy friends?

At The School

"Percy, don't forget your black mask!" Nico reminded me, holding it out.

"Oh yeah! Thanks!" I said, taking it from him and slipping it on.

As we walked towards the building, we got a ton of weird looks.

"Guys, people keep looking at us strangely," I muttered.

"They're just jealous!" Leo said loudly. People gave us even weirder looks after that. Yay. I heard a sputtering noise behind me. I turned around to see Frank picking something off his tongue.

"Dude, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Um, I got some of Santa's beard in my mouth," he said sheepishly.

We cracked up. We got to the entrance, and without looking up, Mrs. Dodds said, "Five dollars each."

Nico looked at Leo. Leo looked at Jason. Jason looked at me. And I looked at Frank.

We forgot the money.

Frank shrugged. "All I have is Canadian currency." He took it out of his pocket.

Nico snatched it away and handed it to Mrs. Dodds. "Here you go!" he said casually.

It looked like Mrs. Dodds was about to fall for it, but the her eyes narrowed and looked up at us.

"This is Canadian currency," she said in a deadly voice.

"Oh really?" Nico said, feigning surprise. "Now, that's weird, because I could have sworn-"

"Give me American money or peris- I mean leave," she said. I did my best not to look terrified.

"Uh, Mrs. Dodds, guess what? It's almost Christmas, right? Well, we got you present!" Leo said brightly.

"A present," she stated flatly. "That's great, now give me the money!"

"Now, see here, Mrs. Dodds. It's chocolate! Who doesn't love chocolate? Oh, and we've got some flowers!" he said, brandishing the bouquet at her. Her eyes widened and she sneezed loudly.

"I'm allergic to flowers!" she said, sneezing again. "Get those things-AH CHOO!-away from me!" She sneezed again. Wow, I had no idea that allergic reactions could happen that fast.

Leo didn't move.

"I-AH CHOO!-said 'get those away from me'!" Leo still didn't move. Mrs. Dodds was so overcome by sneezes that she just ran off.

"Merry Christmas, Mrs. Dodds!" Leo and Nico called after her sincerely. Then they turned to us.

"Well, that was easier than I thought," Nico stated.

I laughed as we walked right in, but I made a mental note to pay the school back eventually.

I saw a buffet table with desserts and punch in the middle of the gym. There was actually a disco call hanging from the ceiling and a DJ sat at the end of the room, taking in song suggestions. People all around us were yelling and screaming, but they all looked crazy with their costumes on. There were about fifty Santa's and twice the number of elves. I saw a few Mrs. Claus, but one group stood out the most.

They were standing in a corner and it looked like they had just entered the gym. They were girls who were dressed as... fairies? Wait, that can't be right.

"FOOD!" Leo and Nico yelled, gravitating towards the table before I could say anything.

I sighed and followed them.

"Perce, it looks like we weren't the only ones who thought of not dressing up in something Christmas-y," he muttered, nodding towards the same group I had been looking at.

"I noticed them, too," I said, staring. As I watched, the group dispersed, one heading towards where we were, and the others wandering around the floor.

Jason nudged me. "Dude, one of them is coming this way. Act cool!"

I laughed and grabbed a brownie straight off the tray, totally disregarding the tongs that we were supposed to use to pick it up.

"Um, you do realize the tongs are there for a reason, right?" a voice chided behind me. I turned around to see who had spoken to me. It was her. The fairy girl. She had a slight smile on her face, telling me that she was only joking.

I laughed.

"Yup!" I said, plucking another mini brownie off the tray and putting it straight into my mouth. She wrinkled her nose.

A sudden image of Annabeth's face when she'd see me drinking milk right out of the jug flashed through my mind. This girl made the same face. But I shook the thought out of my head. I did not want to think about Annabeth right now.

"That's gross!" she exclaimed. I just laughed. Then it fully hit me that she was wearing a mask.

"Um, you're supposed to be a fairy, right? So why are you wearing a mask?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "I just wanted to be different," she said simply.

"I think you would have accomplished that even without the mask," I pointed out. She just shrugged again.

"So what's up with the Batman costume?" she shot back.

I shrugged. "I just wanted to be different," I mocked. She smacked me on the shoulder lightly, not unlike the way Annabeth used to.

"Want something to drink?" I asked her. She nodded.

"Sure, thanks!"

We walked over to a corner of the room, and sat against a wall. She looked around somewhat awkwardly. I smirked.

"Dances aren't really your type of thing, are they?" I asked.

She looked down sheepishly. "Not really."

I laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not really into them, either."

We sat in a comfortable silence for a little bit. Then I asked,"So what grade are you in?"

"I'm a sophomore. You?"

"Same. What class?"

"Brunner. You?"

"Same here! What's your name?" I asked.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," she said mysteriously. "What's your name?" she asked.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," I said in the same mysterious voice. She smacked me lightly again.

"Do you want to dance?" I blurted out before I even got the chance to think about what I was saying. I groaned inwardly. What have I gotten myself into? She looked at me in surprise.

"Sure, but I've got no idea how," she told me.

"Awesome! Neither do I. We'll be perfect together!" She laughed, and I helped her up. Then, we walked out onto the dance floor and I placed a hand on her waist.

"Just act like you know what you're doing," I stage whispered. She laughed again.

We danced, tripping on each other's feet and laughing when her wings hit some guy in the face.

Time flew by, and I hated it. I loved her laugh, though it reminded me so much of Annabeth's. I loved the way her face wrinkled up when I did something she didn't approve of. I lost myself, and forgot all of the drama from the past few days. It felt nice.

But then, the bell sounded, signaling to us that it was midnight-the dance was over. I saw her eyes jerk up to the clock on the wall, a panicked look in them. She gasped wildly and took off.

Annabeth

Sue is going to kill me.

Sue is going to kill me.

Sue is going to kill me!

That was my only thought as I raced towards the place where Thalia, Hazel, Piper, and Silena were standing.

"Hey, wait!" I heard the mystery guy call behind me, but I ignored him.

I grabbed their arms and started to lead them out the building. But then a hand grabbed my elbow. It was the mystery kid.

"What? I'm in a hurry!" I snapped.

"I never told you who I was," he said, breathless.

I climbed into the car.

"Hurry up!" I told Thalia.

"Wait!" Batman called again.

I looked at him, and he peeled off his mask. Standing outside my car stood the one and only Percy Jackson. I gasped.

"Thalia, go!" I hissed. "Get me out of here, now!" I couldn't look at him a second longer. Anger radiated within me and all the happiness I had felt tonight was gone. Vanished.

His green eyes looked confused.

"Wait, please! Who are yo-"

But we drove off. I leaned my head against the cool window, trying to calm myself.

"Annabeth, I am so sorry," Thalia said. "The time was just going by so fast and I wasn't watching the clock and I should have, and now you're gonna be late and it's all my fault-"

"It's not your fault!" I said. "It was mine! Don't blame yourself!"

My heart rate was increasing and I felt like it was about to burst. I instinctively grabbed for my locket to calm myself down.

But it wasn't there.

I felt around my neck. But there was no chain. It must have fallen off.

I couldn't control myself. I burst into tears.

"Annabeth!" they all cried, alarmed. "What's wrong?!"

"My locket," I choked out. "It's gone!"

I'm sorry if the dance was disappointing! I tried my hardest. But YAY! This was my longest chapter ever written for any story! Over 3,000 words not counting the author's note! Yay me! And it took forever! I write all my chapters in one day. I did half of this one my friend's iPad and the other half on my mom's laptop. I worked on this for about five or six hours. :/ So tired! Anywho, Divergent rocks and if you haven't read it, then you haven't lived your life to the fullest! I'm about to read Insurgent and I plan on finishing it before tomorrow! I don't care if I have to stay up til midnight! Sadly, I probably won't be able to update until next weekend. But thanks again, and review! :)

Oh and I forgot! For all you Divergent lovers out there, I posted a story for it! It's called 'Just A Mask'. Check it out! :)