xxAnnabethxx

I sat alone at the lunch table on Tuesday, my head in my hands. I wasn't hungry. I didn't have an appetite for much of anything nowadays. Every single day that I spent cooped up in this school was another day for Percy to get further and further away, or perhaps deeper into the trouble he had most likely gotten himself into. Thinking about him alone out there made me feel sick to my stomach. Even if he didn't exactly like me at the moment, I at least wished I was there to lend a voice of reason to his erratic ways.

Not that I'm very reasonable, I thought bitterly to myself. My mind kept jumping back to that argument last week, where Percy had walked out of my life forever.

My stomach twisted again. I twisted my fingers into my hair and groaned.

I hadn't realized someone was sitting with me when a hesitant voice asked, "Annabeth?"

I immediately snapped up, yanking at my hair. Wincing in pain, I carefully untangled them, looking at Thalia. She was watching me from across the table with a surprised look.

"Thalia," I said, surprised.

"Annabeth," she said. She frowned. "You look terrible."

I sighed. I knew that I hadn't exactly been in tip-top shape this week, but I had been hoping it wasn't that obvious to others. "Thanks."

"Welcome," she said.

I eyed her suspiciously. She had barely spoken a word to me in a week, and now she was sitting with me at lunch? Something was up.

"Alright," I said, "what's going on?" I felt my heartbeat speed up as a thought came to mind. "Is it Percy?"

"No," Thalia said. Then she frowned, shaking her head. "Well, kind of. I mean… I don't know if I'm really supposed to tell you this, but I figured you at least deserve to know what's going on. I'm guessing you've been beating yourself up over this whole thing, huh?"

"Is it that obvious?" I asked weakly.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Please. I've known you for years. I can tell when you're about to snap."

I sighed again, rubbing my eyes tiredly. "Yeah," I said, "I suppose I am." I looked at her, remembering why she was here. "So, what was it you wanted to tell me?"

Thalia bit her lip, looking uncharacteristically awkward. "I saw Percy," she blurted out.

My heart stopped. I dropped my hands to my side, staring at her with an open mouth. "You what?" I breathed out, shell-shocked.

"Yesterday," she said. "We met at a diner and talked for a while."

"A diner?" I asked, feeling slightly faint. "Oh my- is he okay? Where's he been? He's been eating, right? Has he-"

"Annabeth," Thalia interrupted, "he's fine. He's staying with a friend. He's fine."

I physically deflated, my heartbeat slowing down slightly. "Oh, thank God." I covered my face with my hands, letting out a weak laugh. "Oh my gosh, he's alright. He's alright."

Thalia left me alone for a few moments to recover. When I felt that I could function again I looked up, feeling as though a weight had been lifted off my shoulder. "What did he say? Is he coming back?" I asked eagerly.

I hadn't expected this to happen, but now that there was the slightest possibility that he was coming back, I felt hope blossoming in my chest. Maybe, just maybe, he would find it in his heart to forgive me. Maybe I would be able to get my Seaweed Brain back.

My hopes shattered at Thalia's sympathetic expression. "I'm sorry, Annabeth," she said. "He's not coming back anytime soon."

I swallowed thickly, then nodded. "Okay. I guess… I guess that's fair." I frowned. "Thalia, you need to tell him to contact his dad. Poseidon's absolutely worried sick. I'm afraid he's going to get himself sent to the hospital with all the worrying he's doing. His mom's out here, too, and she's desperate to find him. He has to at least call them."

Thalia shook her head. "I don't know, Annabeth. He seemed pretty peeved off about this whole thing. I don't think he even realizes you guys want him back." She eyed me cautiously. "You do want him back, don't you?"

I stared at her incredulously. "Are you joking? I want it more than anything in the world! I…" I trailed off, shaking my head.

"You could have fooled me," Thalia said doubtfully. "You said some pretty final stuff to him before he left."

That now familiar feeling twisted my stomach. I wrapped my arms around my torso for comfort. "I know," I said, squeezing my eyes shut. "Gosh, Thalia, I know. I can't believe that I… that we…" I shook my head. "I want him back, Thalia. I really do."

She leaned forward. "Do you think he's innocent?" she asked.

I opened my eyes and stared at her. Her eyes were narrowed slightly; I knew that I would have to pick my words carefully.

"I don't see how it's possible," I said slowly, "what with the witnesses and all that, but- but I'm also starting to think that it wasn't possible for Percy to do something like that. He wouldn't. I just… I want to know the truth," I finished desperately.

Thalia nodded and sat back again, apparently satisfied. "Well, I'm happy you said that," she said, looking pleased. "Because I'm going to find out the truth after school."

I raised my eyebrows. "How?"

"Come with Grover and I after school," she said. "We're going to have a chat with an old friend of Percy's."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For the rest of the day I was nervous, constantly looking up at the clock. I had absolutely no idea what Thalia was talking about, but I had a feeling this was going to be the final answer that I was looking for. I would learn the truth this afternoon whether I liked it or not, and I felt a mixture of apprehension and excitement just thinking about it.

When the final bell rang Nico jumped from his seat and darted out of the room like he did every day. Apparently he had not been included in this afternoon's excursion, and if he was, he wanted no part in it.

I hurriedly threw my papers into my backpack and stood up just as Grover and Thalia walked over, their expressions grim.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Yeah."

The three of us walked out, our paces matched evenly. We walked silently, our eyes set on the front doors ahead of us, paying no heed to the students on either side of us.

"Who are we talking to?" I asked finally.

"Luke Castellan," Thalia said, her eyes scanning the crowds around us searchingly.

I frowned. "Castellan? Why?"

"We think he may have set Percy up," Grover said.

"How?" I asked, confused.

Thalia shook her head. "We don't know. But we're going to find out."

We burst out the doors into the bright sunlight and looked around. We stood there for a moment, scanning the students around us for that familiar group of boys.

"There," Grover said, pointing to the right. I looked over to see the last of Luke's gang rounding the corner to the side of the building.

The three of us hurried down the stairs as fast as Grover's crutches would allow and then followed after the Titans. We turned the corner to find them walking along, jabbing at each other and laughing about something.

"Luke!" Thalia shouted, her voice angry.

The group stopped. Luke turned around, his eyebrows raised, a small grin on his face.

"Thalia," he said pleasantly. "What's up?"

"You know what's up," she hissed at him, stalking over. "What did you do to Percy?"

Luke snorted, looking amused. "Jackson? That twerp did what happened himself. Trashed the art room, didn't he?" He shook his head, feigning disappointment. "So much wasted potential right there. Always knew he would get himself into trouble."

"Don't lie, Luke," Grover piped up from beside me. His voice shook slightly, but his gaze was steely as he glared at the blond boy.

Luke looked taken aback. He looked around at his gang, a bemused expression on his face, before they all burst into laughter.

"Would you look at this!" Luke said over the noise. "Underdork's actually standing up for himself? And look, you brought the whole gang! Percy's girl, right?" He winked at me. "You wasted your time on him, gorgeous. You were right for breaking his little heart."

I clenched my fists so tight I could feel my nails digging into my palm. I was on the verge of shouting some very un-ladylike things at him when Grover gripped my wrist and squeezed lightly, silently warning me to keep cool.

I bit my tongue and settled for glaring at Luke instead.

"Oh, shut up, Luke," Thalia snapped. "We didn't come here to make small talk. We want answers, now."

Luke held his hands out in a gesture of surrender. "Ask the question, first."

"How'd you frame Percy?" she asked.

Luke scoffed. "Please. I didn't do that."

She stalked forward until she was right in front of him, her gaze steely. "I am going to ask you one more time before I really get angry," she said in a low voice. "How. Did. You. Frame. Percy?"

Luke grinned at her, but I could detect a flicker of unease in his eyes. "I didn't."

"You did."

He sat back, silently looking down at the livid girl in front of him. I could practically see the cogs turning in his head, working through all the different ways this conversation could go.

Then he apparently made his decision and smiled coolly at Thalia. "So what if I did?"

Silence rang through the air. I stared at Luke, my jaw dropped as this new information registered in my head.

Percy was innocent.

He didn't do it.

I was wrong.

And then I was stalking forward, shaking with anger.

"Why, you little-" I hissed at Luke.

He looked at me with amusement as Thalia caught me and pulled me back before I could do anything drastic. From the look on her face, though, it looked like she was very close to joining me.

Luke shook his head. "Careful there, sweetheart. No one likes a hot head."

"How?" I demanded, ignoring his jabs. "How on earth could you have set this up?"

He shrugged. "Eh, it wasn't that hard. See, I've been working hard the past few years learning everyone's secrets. Apparently, a little blackmail goes a long way. Lacey Stellington- did you know that she stuffed the ballot boxes? We all thought she won her presidency by a landslide, but really she wouldn't even have that position if it wasn't for her cheating. She wants to go to an Ivy League School, doesn't she? Imagine how that would look on her record." He shook his head. "Lou Ellen and William Yards- the other witnesses? Star-crossed lovers since freshman year? Yeah, they're both cheating on each other. They don't want to admit it, and they would just die if anyone found out. It'd ruin their reputation and they'd lose their chances of winning cutest couple in the yearbook." He rolled his eyes. "Idiots. The other two- one's been sneaking alcohol into class and the other changed their grades in the school database. Definitely not something you want the school board knowing." He smiled at us. "Now, if you knew these little interesting facts and wanted a little dirty work done- what would you do?"

I stood there, speechless, staring at him. "You… you coward!" I whispered. "You're holding this over their heads to get them to lie for you!"

He shrugged. "Guilty as charged. There were a few tears shed, but none of them actually knew Jackson. I promised them that if they just smudged the truth about a few things he did, no one would ever know their secrets."

"You trashed the art room," Grover accused.

"They did," Luke said, jerking his head over at his gang. They had been watching silently up until now, nodding along with Luke. "I supervised."

I shook my head at them, disgusted. "You really don't have any independent thoughts, do you?" I spat at them. "You just follow anything he tells you to do."

Ethan Nakamura frowned at me. The rest blinked blankly. I turned away, back to Luke, who was looking far too smug for my liking.

"We're telling Dionysus," Thalia snarled at him. "You'll get expelled."

Luke shook his head. "I'm not admitting," he said cheerfully.

"Oh, we'll find a way," Thalia warned.

Luke snorted. "Yeah, so? I heard the gist of what happened with Percy. You really think you're going to get him back after all this?"

I glared at him. "You bet we are."

He rolled his eyes, looking amused. "Aw, how cute. You actually think you have a shot." He grinned toothily at us. "Face it. I've won. None of this changes anything; Percy's still ruined."

"Yeah, we'll see," Thalia shot at him, her tone biting. She gripped my elbow and turned around. "Let's go," she muttered, sounding disgusted.

Grover and I started walking with her. Behind us, Luke and his gang started laughing, apparently amused by us.

The thought of his smirk made my blood boil. He's the one that did this- to Percy and the rest of us. Suddenly all rational thoughts flew from my mind.

I tugged my arm away from Thalia. I turned around and stalked back over to Luke, who was still laughing. I walked right up to him, pulled my arm back, and punched him right in his smug little face.

The laughter was silenced immediately. There was a wicked sounding crunching sound as my fist made contact with his nose. Luke stumbled back, his hands flying up to cover his face, all traces of a smirk gone.

Behind me, Thalia and Grover gasped. "Annabeth!"

In front of me, Luke whined, "Ow!"

"You're a jerk and the biggest coward I've ever had the displeasure of knowing," I spat at him. "You may think you own this school and everyone in it, but I'm telling you now that you're dead wrong. You think you're oh-so-clever now, but when you're expelled within the week and Percy's back here with us, we'll see who's laughing."

Luke pinched his nose, trying to stop the blood from flowing from it. His blue eyes were wide and watering. "I think you broke my nose!" he exclaimed in a congested voice, looking nothing like the cool, slick boy who had bullied the students here since freshman year.

"Good," I said, smirking at him. "Consider that payback for years of tormenting this school and all those crimes you never got caught for. It's about time it caught up to you." I screwed up my face in fake sympathy. "Careful there, sweetheart. No one likes a crybaby."

The rest of his gang had taken a few steps back. None of them seemed to want to approach their disgraced leader. They looked at each other nervously, unsure of what to do. A couple of them shrugged at each other.

I spun around and stalked away. Grover and Thalia hurried after me a moment later, both of them looking shell-shocked.

"Annabeth!" Grover choked out as soon as we had rounded the corner to the front of the school. "I can't believe you just did that!"

"That was awesome!" Thalia shouted loudly, pumping her fist in the air. "Man, I didn't know you were capable of that! That was freaking amazing! Did you see his face? He totally wasn't expecting that!"

Grover was pale. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you'll get in?"

"Are you kidding me?" Thalia asked. "He'll never tell anyone. You really think he'll want it going around that he got beat up by a girl? No, he's probably back there right now, threatening the rest of them to keep quiet about it." She started laughing, clutching her torso to keep from falling over. "That was the best thing ever!"

I absentmindedly shook my fist, ignoring the sting that was left over. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off I thought I would feel bad about what I had just done; but in fact, it was the opposite. I felt very satisfied with my actions. Luke was as rotten as they came, and no one had ever put him in his place. It was about time someone knocked him down to size.

I was still furious about the way he was blackmailing all those kids. Sure, they had all done something wrong, but no one deserves to be stuck in a spot like that, especially not by someone by Luke. And what he had done to Percy was unforgivable.

Now that I knew the truth, a new kind of strength had filled me. The past week, whenever I had thought about Percy I felt like breaking down and crying out of worry and guilt. Now, however, I felt nothing but determination. I was through waiting around for him to come back. It was time I went out there and got him myself.

"Alright," I dimly heard Thalia saying. "Now we should probably-"

"I'm going to talk to Percy," I interrupted her. "You can set up a meeting, right?"

Thalia looked taken aback. "Well, yeah, but he probably won't want to talk to-"

"Tell him that it's you going," I said. "Don't tell him I know anything. I need to talk to him." I met her eyes. "Please, Thalia."

She hesitated a moment more before nodding. "I'll head over this afternoon and shoot for a meeting tomorrow."

I nodded, relieved. "Great. I'll go tell Poseidon and Sally they can stop worrying about him. And then tomorrow, I'm getting Percy to come back where he belongs."


xxPercyxx

When Calypso got home that night I was lying on the couch, watching television. I sat up as she walked up, pulling her hair out from her ponytail. I shifted to a sitting position to make room for her as she sat down, looking exhausted.

"Oh, I could sleep for days," she groaned, stretching out and shutting her eyes.

"You and me both," I said, turning the volume down so we could talk. "It's exhausting sitting around doing nothing all day."

She cracked an eye open to look at me, a small grin on her face. "Are you ever not sarcastic?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

She shut her eyes again and sighed, trying to relax. I was silent for another minute before speaking again. "You know, Calypso, I was actually thinking about that," I said. "If we're going to continue doing… whatever this is, I think it's time that I, you know, get a job. I kind of feel like a free loader."

Calypso opened her eyes and sat up, frowning at me. "You're not a free loader, Percy. You're my guest. I love having you here."

"I know," I said, "but I just feel… I don't know. I want to pull my own weight, you know?"

She nodded slowly. "I suppose we could arrange that," she said.

I smiled, pleased. "Good. I'll start looking tomorrow."

Calypso looked like she had just remembered something. "Tomorrow!" she exclaimed. "I nearly forgot. Your friend- Thalia, is it?- dropped by the diner today. She wants to meet you tomorrow. Said she has some pretty important news."

I frowned at her. "Did she say what?"

Calypso shook her head. "No, but she looked pretty excited about something, like something good had just happened."

My frown deepened. Cheerfulness wasn't really Thalia's thing. Maybe she had gotten Luke to admit to something? "Alright," I said slowly.

Calypso crossed her legs, looking suddenly awkward. "Look," she started cautiously, "I know we said we're not going to talk about our pasts, but- well, I'm just curious is all. What's going on, Percy?"

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "It's complicated."

"I can handle it," Calypso said certainly.

I looked at her hopeful expression before nodding. "Alright. Okay, fine." Taking a deep breath, I said, "Long story short, I got blamed for something I didn't do. I ended up getting expelled and almost no one believed me- not my friends, not even my family. I had a couple of fights, and then I ran for it. You hit me the first night, a few hours after I ran, and I- well, I guess I've been using your place as a sort of hiding spot." I winced at how that sounded. "Sorry."

Calypso shook her head. "It's fine." She looked sympathetic, and there were traces of something in her expression that made me uncomfortable- pity. "Percy, I'm so sorry. That's horrible."

I shrugged. "It's life. I'm used to stuff like that."

Calypso looked doubtful, but she moved on. "And Thalia? She's your cousin?"

"She and Jason, yes," I said. "She's the only one who believed me when I told her I was innocent. She's working to try and find proof. That's probably what she wants to talk to me about tomorrow."

"Oh." She smiled gently at me. "That wasn't too complicated."

I grinned at her. "That's just the short version."

She laughed a little, tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear.

A sudden wave of recklessness washed over me. "What about you?" I asked. "I told you my secret. Will you tell me yours?"

Her eyes widened. She started shaking her head. "Percy, I-"

"I'm sorry," I said before she could get any further, already feeling guilty for putting her on the spot like that. "That was out of line. You don't have to answer that. Just ignore me."

I moved to get up, but Calypso put a hand on my arm to stop me. "Wait- wait, Percy, it's alright." She hesitated. "I- I think I want to tell you."

I slowly sat back down in my seat. Calypso moved her hand again, frowning worriedly at the floor. She wouldn't meet my eyes as she started talking.

"My mother died when I was young," she said. "It was just me and my father. He… well, he wasn't the best father. He was always out gambling, so much that I rarely saw him. When I did see him, he was too drunk to function." She sighed. "When he died, he left me this house- not out of love, because I had no place in his heart. He just had no one else to leave it to." She looked away. "He also left me swamped in his debts with no money to pay them off with."

I wanted to say something, but she continued. "When I received everything he had, I thought I would be getting money," she said, shaking her head. She smiled bitterly. "No. I had just inherited the problems he had been running from his whole life."

She looked at me, her eyes sad. "If I don't get enough money to start clearing his- my- bank account, I'm not going to have enough money to keep the house, let alone go to college."

I stared at her, shocked at what she had to say. "Calypso…" I said, lost for words. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

She smiled sadly at me. "It's life, right?"

I shook my head. "You should have told me. I want to help. I'm sure if I talked to my father, we could-"

"No!" Calypso said, her voice defensive. When I shot her a surprised look, she softened her gaze. "No, Percy. That's exactly why I didn't tell you." She straightened her shoulders, looking suddenly determined. "My father never cared about me. He probably blew all his money before he died on purpose as one final joke on me. It's up to me to dig myself out of this. I need to do this, for myself, and I need to do it on my own." She smiled at me. "I've already made a lot of progress. Another year or so and I just might be able to go off to college. And then I'll really be on my way."

"Calypso…" I said doubtfully.

She reached out and took my hand, gently squeezing it. "I know you want to help," she said softly. "And thank you. But this is my test. I need to do it on my own."

I squeezed her hand back. She withdrew, and when she sighed again, she looked much more relaxed than before. "Sorry again for breaking down the other day," she said. "I've just been so stressed lately, I couldn't help myself."

I shook my head. "It's fine. It's totally fine. If you ever need anything… just know that I'm here."

She looked at me, an odd expression on her face. "Thank you," she said quietly.

We stared at each other until I felt suddenly uncomfortable. I turned away, my cheeks burning, and cleared my throat.

Calypso got to her feet, her cheeks red as well, but tried to play it off. "So you're going to meet Thalia tomorrow?" she asked, tugging at her shirt to smooth it down.

I nodded, getting to my feet, and smiled at her. "Yeah. I just hope whatever she has to tell me will be good news."


A/N: I'm back!

My trip was fun, but the end of it erupted into a load of unnecessary drama that I've been stuck in for the past week. Not fun, but it's mostly over and I'm back to normal once again.

Anyways, the story: I had SO much fun writing this. Luke was getting on my nerves even as I was writing his character. I hope you all enjoyed Annabeth's badass moment.

On another note, if any of you are into BBC Sherlock, I just wrote a kid/teenlock fanfiction called This Time and I would be really grateful if you would check it out and review. Only the first chapter is posted, but I hope to post more soon. It's not long, so it will only take a few minutes!

Thank you all so much for being patient with me and being such awesome readers. Please leave a review telling me what you think!

Thanks for reading!

-Kayla