A/N: I am well aware that this chapter is far past its due date, but my life has been crazy. I wanted to upload this in January or February, and the next chapter deals with snow so please just bear with me when it's nice out and I upload chapters that should have taken place forever ago. Anyway, this chapter is extra long to make up for my absence. Enjoy!


The new year had begun at Goode High, which meant one thing was on a lot of people's minds: musical.

Every year Goode's drama club put on a spring musical, and it was apparently a really big deal. Annabeth first found out about it through Jess.

"I'm thinking of trying out for musical," she informed Annabeth as they walked through the hallways one day.

"Musical?" Annabeth questioned.

"Yeah, I was in the chorus last year, and it was pretty fun. I kinda want to do it again," Jess explained. "You should try out with me!"

"Well, you see, singing and dancing are really not my thing," Annabeth reasoned, trying her best to get out of it.

"You should still be involved somehow. A lot of people are," Jess argued. "Oh, I know! Vincent is the head of set crew. He could put you on it."

Annabeth though for a moment. She had never designed sets before, but she had redesigned Olympus. Sets couldn't be that much harder.

"Sure, if he lets me," she replied.

They walked into lunch, where Vincent was sitting and talking to Lewis.

"Hey, lover-boy!" Jess called. Both looked up. "I suppose I should be more specific. Vincent!"

"Yes, Jess?" he asked.

"I propose that Annabeth should be on set crew," Jess suggested as they sat down.

Vincent thought for a moment. "You know what?" he started. "That's not a bad idea. I'm the only person on crew who takes Architecture right now. We need someone else with actual knowledge on how things should be properly built."

Annabeth smiled. "Awesome."

"Great. Set crew meets on Saturdays in the auditorium. Come early and I'll explain everything you need to know."

Originally, Annabeth was on the fence about the whole 'set crew' thing, but the closer Saturday came, the more excited she got.

She went early, just like Vincent instructed and found him sitting on the stage writing furiously in a notebook. Beside him was an empty shoebox along with many small, seemingly useless items.

When he stopped writing for a moment, Annabeth moved closer and took the notebook to see what he was doing.

"So I'm not sure if you knew this," Vincent began, "but the musical is 'Annie.' I had a nice long talk with the director this week, and he told me that the one set that has to happen the way he wants is Warbuck's mansion. He wants a big, grand staircase leading up to an eight foot platform. I'm leaving it to you to design this today while everyone else who shows up sorts through what materials we have. We are most likely going to base the rest of the sets off of this one so it all works."

"Okay, so how am I designing this?" Annabeth asked.

Vincent handed her the shoebox and a glue gun then gestured to the bits and pieces around them. "Make it work," was his only instruction.

Other people started showing up, so Vincent began delegating jobs like nobody's business.

Annabeth sighed and began sorting through some pieces of cardboard to find one that could correctly represent the eight foot platform.

After about an hour of thinking, planning, measuring, and multiple hot glue gun burns, Annabeth decided to take a quick water break.

She noticed someone else's presence at the water fountain as she was running water over her most severe burn.

"Sorry, did you want to get a drink?" Annabeth asked, stepping back and shaking the water off of her hand.

"No, I wanted to talk to you. My name is Cissy. You're Annabeth right?" Cissy, pronounced like 'sissy', said.

"Um, yeah. Why do you want to talk to me?" Annabeth questioned.

"The thing is, I understand that this is your senior year and all, but it's also your first year on set crew. And we don't normally let first years design the main part of the set. We mainly let them sweep sawdust."

"But Vincent told me to design it," Annabeth protested.

"Here's the thing," Cissy started to explain, "Vincent doesn't really know what he's doing. But Dobs put him in charge because he takes Architecture as an elective. There's a way that things are done around here, and you are simply not qualified to design the main part of the set."

"I'm just doing what I'm told. I don't care how 'things are done around here.' Anybody who takes Architecture should be assumed to have more experience when it comes to designing, and I have plenty of design experience. Just because it's my first year doesn't mean it'll be bad."

"Well I'm just saying," Cissy huffed then walked away.

Annabeth rolled her eyes in annoyance before getting a drink from the fountain and returning to her work.

It didn't take too long to finish her design. She was really proud of her first set design.

"You finished?" Vincent asked, startling Annabeth out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, with minimal damage to myself," she laughed.

"That's great! Let me see!" Annabeth handed him her shoe box and began to explain her idea.

"Basically the staircase is made up of three platforms: two four foot platforms and one eight foot platform. There are staircases connecting the four foot platforms to either side of the eight foot platform. The stair cases from the four footers to the floor are angled towards center stage, and I have a hunch that with some hinges they will be able to move so that the staircases will go straight down facing the wings.

"I had this idea so that for other scenes you could wheel in some flat wooden sets, what are they called?"

"Flats," Vincent answered. Annabeth continued.

"Basically, this way you can achieve the effect of scene changes without the grand staircase in every scene."

"I love it!" Vincent exclaimed. "Wait until Dobs sees this. He's going to love it!"

"One question: who's Dobs?"

"Oh, Mr. Dobson is the choir director. He also directs the plays and musicals. Most of us just call him Dobs. He's running late today, but he's always around. You'll meet him eventually."

"Oh, okay."

Apparently it was going to be a short day, and there was not much else to do that wasn't already being done, so Vincent sent Annabeth home.

When she walked out of the school, she saw Percy leaned against the Prius waiting for her.

"Hey, beautiful," he greeted.

"Hey, handsome," she said in return. "Why are you here on this nice, cold day?"

"Surprise date," he answered, opening the passenger side door for Annabeth.

"Why thank you," Annabeth said, sliding in. "Where are we going?"

"What part of surprise don't you get?"

"All of it, apparently."

They drove for a while when Annabeth noticed that they were headed towards Long Island.

"Camp?" she questioned.

"Nope," Percy replied, smiling.

They kept driving for a little while longer, and Annabeth began to see water and beaches.

"Welcome to Montauk," Percy said as he pulled the car next to a cabin.

"Percy, it's freezing!" Annabeth exclaimed. "Did you really think that this was a good idea?"

"Not the beach necessarily, but the nice, warm cabin and a home-cooked meal that I can hopefully heat up in the kitchen," he explained.

"Aw, Percy," she said, not sure what else she could say.

"You go inside. I'll be in soon with the food," Percy instructed.

Annabeth smiled and kissed her boyfriend briefly.

"You are amazing," she said softly.

"So I've been told," was his reply.

She rolled her eyes and got out of the car.

The cabin was small but home-y. Annabeth assumed that it was the cabin he went to with his mother when he was younger. There was a small kitchen tucked into the far corner of the cabin. Percy had hung up strings of white lights, which lit the cabin up in an almost magical way. The small table was already set with plates and silverware.

"You like it?" Percy asked as he walked in with a couple bags that held food.

"I can't believe you did this," Annabeth replied instead of directly answering him.

"Well, I had to do something while you were at set crew for most of the day," he explained, setting down the food.

"Most girls would kill for their boyfriends to do something like this."

"Probably. But you don't have to because I'm 'amazing.'"

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain."

"Make me, Wise Girl."

Annabeth smirked and wrapped her arms around his neck. She leaned in close and asked, "Do you really want to go there?"

"Possibly," he answered with that smile that turned her insides to mush.

With a lot of restraint, she pulled away and said, "Too bad!"

"Oh, come on. Seriously?" Percy complained. "There was so much build-up. Perfect kissing moment."

"Oh, I know. Make me food, please." She smiled sweetly. "I love you!"

"I love you, too," Percy said with an eye roll and a laugh.

As Percy began his work in heating up the food, Annabeth explored the cabin a little bit more. There was a small bathroom, a bedroom that was separated from the living room by a curtain, and the living room which only had a small couch and an armchair.

"Is this the cabin you and your mom used to come to?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah, it was slightly crappier back then, though. The people who owned it put it up for sale, so Mom and Paul made the decision to buy it and fix it up as a surprise for me. We come down sometimes, but they also assumed that you and I would use it." He paused. "That came out weird."

Annabeth laughed. "I know what you mean."

"It's ready."

"Awesome. I'm starving."

Annabeth moved to sit down at the table and Percy served her.

"Lasagna. My mom's recipe, but all of my care and hard work," Percy explained.

"Well, it looks delicious."

As they ate, Annabeth told him about her day designing and her interaction with Cissy.

"She sounds like a brat," Percy commented.

"That's what I've gathered," Annabeth sighed. "This was amazing, by the way."

"My skills come naturally," he joked.

Annabeth stood to start cleaning up.

"No, no, no; sit back down. Dishes can be done later. For now, it's you and me time," Percy instructed.

"How long will we be here tonight?" she asked.

"My parents and your brother that we're at camp. That, or they pretended to buy my crappy cover story because they felt bad for us," he explained.

Annabeth laughed. "Considering you're a horrible liar, probably the latter."

"Hey, now."

She laughed again and exited the kitchen area to sit on the couch.

"Maybe everyone thinks that some time just to ourselves would be beneficial to our mental health."

"Maybe." Percy followed her to the couch and immediately wrapped her in his arms.

Wonderful, soothing silence followed, and Annabeth snuggled further into her boyfriend's warm embrace.

"I could stay like this forever," she commented with a content sigh.

"Me too," Percy replied and leaned in for the first of many kisses that night.


Percabeth is my life. Ultimate OTP. OTP of all OTP's.

Anyway, I know nothing about sets and theatre, so my sister wrote most of the stuff about that. She took a theatre technology class last year, so I assume she knows what she's talking about. If there is anything horribly wrong, I probably wrote it and feel free to correct me. On to the QOTD:

What are your thoughts on this story as you read? My sister was reading some chapters back to me, and she was quite sassy. In a good way of course.

Until next time!