We are back to normally scheduled updates! Thanks so much for bearing with me!

Percy groaned as he woke up, stretching his arms and yawning. As he reconfigured himself, he checked him watch. The time read 11:30, meaning he had about eight hours till the party.

He got up, and stretched his arms once more. Walking across the room, he flipped the light switch, and blinked a couple times, adjusting to the light. He then opened the door, and slumped out of his room. He walked through the hall, and to the living room, where his mother was typing on her computer.

"Hey Percy," His mom said, looking up from her typing. "Good morning."

Percy yawned again. "Good morning mom. What are you doing?"

His mother smiled at him, though an exhausted look was present within her face. "Just some last minute stuff for the book. Nothing serious." It looked like it was serious. She looked exhausted.

"Mom, when did you go to sleep?" He remembered her sitting in the same position she was now, after they had eaten dinner.

"Huh?" She said. "Oh, don't worry Percy. I went to sleep at twelve-ish. Normal for a weekend."

Percy nodded. That was better than most times. When she was getting really close to deadlines, she tended to "forget" to go to sleep, and continue working. "Okay. Well, I think I told you this, but I'm going to a party later today. That's good right?"

His mother had returned to her typing, but murmured slightly. "Yeah. Of course."

"Thanks mom." He said, and walked over to the kitchen to get some food. He got an orange, and ate it quickly, soon returning to the couch, phone in hand, to check for notifications.

He clicked onto his social media page, to see if there were any notifications. Sure enough, several messages had come in, and a couple scattered post about the party tagging him appeared.

He looked through his messages, noticing several from teammates and friends, and a couple messages from Drew. He sighed, and clicked onto them.

"Hey handsome," One read, and wow, she was forward. "I'm excited to see you at the party tonight." Another one said, followed by a winky emoji. Percy looked through the others, all saying the same thing.

Replying with a simple "okay", Percy checked the time once more, seeing it was officially noon. He stretched, realizing he should start getting ready, since the day was starting, even though it was a weekend.

He showered, and then got dressed, putting on normal jeans and a white shirt, followed by a black jacket. Percy checked his watch again, and sighed, seeing not much time had past.

He busied himself with homework and chores around the house, the usual Saturday ritual. Most of the time, he and his mother were able to clean together, but these last couple weeks, because the book was coming out soon, he did most of the work. Which was fine because his mom was awesome. She was one of Percy's favorite people.

His mom was always there for him, even when he had done stupid stuff. Especially when he had done stupid stuff.

So with all she had done for him, why complain over a couple stupid chores? Sometimes, when he was over at a friends house, they would treat their parents like absolute crap. Percy was always astounded by this, and always made sure to thank them, and say "sorry," even if there was no reason for him to do so.

He'd always wondered how his friends could do that without any guilty conscience. He couldn't think of how he would feel if he had said something to his mom like that.

After all of the work with chores, homework, etcetera was complete, he texted Annabeth, telling her the address, and that he would get their at about eight thirty. She responded quickly, saying she would arrive fifteen minutes later.

He checked his watch, which read seven thirty. That gave him time to watch something and eat a snack. From what he remembered, Drew's house was about twenty five minutes away, and google maps confirmed that.

He queued up a couple youtube videos watching them as he momentarily ate chips. He pondered what might happen at the party. Would they dance? Maybe they would just sit on a nearby couch and talk, like they normally did.

Even so, a pang in Percy's stomach made him feel that this would be all but normal. Normally when they talked, it was as friends, and this party, this date, would be… not as friends. Possibly as something more, Percy reasoned.

He sighed and turned his phone off, realizing the time now read eight o'clock. He put it in his back pocket, and grabbed his wallet and keys. "I'm heading out mom!" He shouted to her, and left.

It was dark outside. The type of dark which was in the middle of twilight and full on night time. Percy shivered as he walked to the car and opened the door. He settled into the car seat, put the key in, and turned the ignition on.

The car instantly sparked to life, and Percy pulled out of the driveway. He drove silently, with one hand on the wheel, and the other hand on google maps, attempting to put the address in. And yes, Percy knew this was incredibly dangerous. It was something the school constantly told students not to do. But just this once, he needed to do this real quick.

He finished typing in the location, and began to put it onto the phone stand on the car. In this moment, four things happened.

One, the upcoming light turned from green to red, telling Percy he could continue on, though still adjusting the stand.

Two, Percy checked his watch, seeing he had ten minutes to get to the party.

Three, a car ran it's red light, seeming to, in a haste, ignore the changing light. It speed across the road.

Four, a collision. There was no way Percy could stop it. As he slammed his foot on the brake, he knew it was no use. He took a deep breath, and shut his eyes, bracing himself from the impact.

And as the cars collided, Percy didn't know what he could do. Was there anything he could do? He had never gotten into an accident, and because of that didn't know how to handle this. Plus, he was in danger what if-

The last thing he heard was a loud "thump."

Then, darkness.

I'm going to keep this short, as I am trying to avoid fruit & other objects being thrown at me, so:

There are two things I would like to say: One, I'm sorry (...not really), and two, thanks again for the support.

Hey, what can I say, every book needs a cliff-hanger of some sort (plus, authors crave drama)...