Thanks so much to all who reviewed last chapter (I reached 1000 reviews which completely blew my mind and I have all you awesome people to thank for it): RandomGurl8, cindella204, bubble drizzles, Experimental Agent 1123, soul61, A Sea of Sound, Goddess of Revenge, redandwhitetigers, fruit salad yummyyummy, ILove2Write13, ffsah1, SoccerGurl03, Insanity is my second name, greek-ac-thalassa, cheezygurl51899, boxtoplad999, ChildOfWisdom, CrunchyMunchers, HeroofTwilightsgf, Echo101, PJ and HP are my life, starr1095, Hidden in the flameS meSTDSD, Super Novelist 47, ixdookiie, meeeethegr8, C-Nuggets N.L, Regina de Morte a.k.a. Mezza, ButterflyFlyToMe, Clixia, .omega..z, StephDaughterofPoseidon, ShadesOfGrey97, HiThereSmiley, Alice and Jasper forever, Annabeth-Kahlan-Alanna-Cara, Alexandra Nightshade, averagewriter, hollyleaf998, Bookninja15, PoseidonChick13, xxbrowneyesxx, candy0304, Lord Sanguine, elmopie, SoccerGirl8, lilybethluna, Sky RV Gracious, GreekMythologyFreak98

I know, it has once again been a long time. And the only thing I can really blame it on is my lack of inspiration. I might have found it again though. I found it because I started working on another story and just writing PJO stuff again gave me the drive to work on it again. I'm posting the summary of the other story at the bottom of this chapter. So if you could please give me your opinions on it, it would be much appreciated since I'm thinking about posting it since it helped me so much with this story.

Oh, and I've been asked if I'm bringing Heroes of Olympus characters into this. No, I'm not. It's a bit too late in the story in my opinion and I probably would've put them on the trip originally.

I don't own PJO.

Annabeth POV

"Once this trip is done you guys better come visit me," Rachel threatened the next morning as we all waited with her at the bus stop.

"Do you have a swimming pool?" Connor asked, knowing her family was filthy rich.

"…Yeah?" she answered tentatively.

"Then we will most certainly be visiting you along the way," Travis replied.

"Great," she grumbled sarcastically, rolling her eyes but hugging them anyway.

We had all pretty much said our goodbyes last night, but we couldn't help but do it again. It was still hard for us to grasp that one of us would be gone for the rest of the trip. And although it was unspoken, everyone now seemed to be slightly worried as to who could be the next to go.

"No hard feelings?" Percy asked her, trying to make his voice sound joking. It sounded more like her answer could make or break him though.

She shook her head. "No, I understand why you picked me. But you better call me frequently and the two of you better visit me. I'm going to need someone to keep me sane from my parents."

I liked how she said that both Percy and I better visit her. I had once been jealous of her and Percy yet that didn't seem to bother her in the least as she openly welcomed both of us to go see her.

As she went around to everyone, I noticed curiously how she kept glancing at Mrs. Dodds. Rachel seemed pissed at her, like she wanted to knock her head clean off. And, of course, I was determined to find out why exactly that was.

"So what did Mrs. Dodds do to you?" I questioned as the bus appeared further down the road.

She looked surprised for a second that I had figured out she was angry with the woman, but then realized it wasn't very surprising of me. "Watch out when it comes to her. She barely says anything, but she's probably the most evil chaperone."

"Why?" I interrogated, tempted to sneak a glance at the woman myself.

"She's the reason someone had to leave the trip," Rachel explained hurriedly, watching the bus slowly get closer. "Mr. D just decided to separate us because we were being uncooperative. Mrs. Dodds reported our behavior to the board who organizes this program. She demanded something be done about it. So they figured what would send a big shock to us was making one of us leave."

What a backstabbing bitch.

I somehow managed to keep my voice calm despite the rage for that woman that just built up inside me. "Well, they were right. I'll miss you." I hugged her as the bus pulled up and shouted, "Group hug!"

Everyone joined in; even Clarisse after Silena threatened her with a makeover.

We all waved goodbye as she got on the bus with teary eyes.

And as it drove away we all loved down at the pavement with sadness that one of us was now gone.

}{}{}{}{}{}{

"Percy, move please. I need to talk to Annabeth for a minute," Thalia ordered when we were on the bus later. Everyone tried to ignore the fact that Rachel was here. We had all become close enough that it was blaringly obvious to have just one voice missing during these bus rides.

I had been sitting against the window and had been lying across the seat with his feet sticking out into the aisle and his head resting in my lap. We had been talking about completely random things from our broken families to whether or not Coke tasted different from Pepsi.

He sat up in his seat but didn't move from it. "Hi Thalia, nice to see you too."

"Fine, smartass," with that she parked herself on his lap and turned to face me.

"Get off of me," he whined.

"I gave you the opportunity to move and you didn't take it. So now you can wait," she told him, shooting me a look that said just how much she loved messing with him.

Trying to stop a fight before it could start; I cut in, "So how's the Nico fiasco going?"

"That's part of the reason I'm back here," she explained. "I talked to Nico and we've come to the agreement that a little time apart is best and then we hope to forget the whole thing and go back to being friends. But Luke won't man up and talk to him, so I decided to step to his level of immaturity and not talk to him."

"That'll solve your problems," I told her sarcastically.

She laughed. "It might in this case actually. Some other people in the trip are kind of on Nico's side and are a little mad with him. He doesn't want another person mad at him, especially me."

"Can you guys go an hour without fighting?"

"All couples fight," she pointed out shrugging. "That probably should've been a huge indicator earlier as to why we should go out. We were already bickering like a couple anyway."

I couldn't help but agree on the 'all couples fight' thing. Thankfully, Percy and I had kept our fighting to only over unimportant things and we usually made up within an hour. That may have also partially been because we didn't like staying angry with each other.

"As much as I love hearing this gossip," Percy mocked. "Thalia, can you please just say whatever it is you came here for so you can get off of me?"

He tried to make himself sound annoyed with her, but it was obvious he found it funny. If he really wanted her gone, he would've just pushed her off.

"Alright," she agreed, before looking at me with a hint of concern. "Pretty soon we're going to be back near your hometown as a stop so we can get to our next location. I figured I'd forewarn you since I know it might bring up bad memories."

The light joking from just seconds ago was gone. I couldn't even picture what it would be like for me to pass the school, the police station, the hospital, or possibly even that alleyway as we went through. It was a pretty small town after all, so it was likely we'd pass each of those places. I didn't even want to pass my own house, if I could even call it mine.

"Um, thanks for the heads up," I said quietly.

She nodded. "No problem."

Just to be obnoxious, she patted Percy's head jokingly to which he shoved her lightly as she got up. Then she disappeared down that aisle to go sit and talk with pretty much everyone else.

"Are you worried?" Percy asked gently pulling me onto to his lap that had been previously occupied by Thalia.

"I just have no idea how I'm going to react to any of it," I admitted, my expression completely puzzled.

"Come to think of it, you never really did tell me your story. And yet we're headed toward the home of it all."

His comment hit me like a truck. I hadn't even realized that I hadn't told him yet. Lately it hadn't exactly been to the forefront of my mind and knowing his hadn't made me see him any differently. So I guess I just sort didn't even notice. Especially since he knew most of the basics: my brothers were, I ran from home because I felt unwanted, I killed that one guy when I was seven, and I committed two other murders.

But, come to think of it, he was yet to even know how I had gotten the bullet wound on my shoulder.

Without even a second though, I just started spilling my story. The words were just falling from my mouth with ease.

For the most part Percy kept his face impassive, but he slipped up on occasion. His eyes narrowed when I described the bitchy cheerleaders. He looked disgusted when I told him how their boyfriends had taken my brothers for such a dumb reason. And he couldn't keep the shock off of his face when I said that a cop had been the one to shoot me.

"Wow," was all he could think to say when I was finished. He had managed to go without interrupting me, and now he just didn't know what to say.

"That was easier to tell than I thought it would be," I noted in surprise.

He chuckled. "That's because you trust me more now than you did a few weeks ago. You know I would never judge you. And you've had more time to deal with everything. Also, I'm not saying that it's good that your brothers died, but it gave you closure. You know that they aren't in the clutches of those guys anymore."

"That was…really insightful actually," I commended. Percy wasn't stupid, though he did sometimes do stupid things. But regardless, I never pictured him as insightful.

He laughed. "I've been dying to know your story this whole trip. Did you really think I was going to mess up hearing it by saying something ridiculous?"

I couldn't help but laugh along with him. "It's just that I hate to admit that this stupid trip must be working."

"Even though we all want to kill each other every other minute?"

"And we all flirt with each other left and right?"

"And some of our chaperones are a little crazy?"

"Yeah, it's really hard to believe this trip has worked at all."

First things first, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I know it was kind of filler-ish, but it was necessary for an epic next chapter.

Second, some of you may have wished I wrote out the dialogue of Annabeth telling Percy her story. But I tried writing it out and it just sounded repetitive since we all already know her story. So I did it to spare you some boredom, and I liked it better this way anyway. Also, I know I made her telling him it seem kind of menial, but I think I pretty much explained that in her and Percy's little conversation after.

Third, here's the summary for the story I mentioned at the beginning of the story:

Annabeth Chase spends her nights street fighting to help keep her makeshift family together. Percy Jackson, her best friend, spends his nights trying to avoid his stepfather's drunken abuse. Both have kept these things secret from each other, when it could actually ended up being the thing to bring them even closer together. AU/AH

I should forewarn you, this story wouldn't be entirely Percabeth. Yes, it would be part of the main plot line, but not every chapter is just going to be about their relationship. It will have a hell of a lot more going on.

And, as for STRUCK, I think I finally figured out where I'm going with this story. It might last roughly five to eight more chapters and an epilogue. I'm not sure yet, but that's where I'm heading.