Annabeth had been coming to camp ever since she ran away at seven years old. Her father never had time for her, her stepmother was cold and distant, and her dyslexia and ADHD demanded constant attention. Her mother walked out on her and her older brother Malcolm when she was three, and their father, Dr. Frederick Chase, sent Malcolm to a year-round boarding school for gifted children shortly after. Annabeth was passed from babysitter to babysitter until her father got married again to a woman named Helen. She loathed her stepmother, who told her husband that she was not afraid to play the bad cop. Helen had twin boys, Bobby and Matthew, but she never let Annabeth play with them, saying she was too young and would hurt them. Annabeth and her family frustrated each other, caught in a constant tug of war- Annabeth demanding attention, her father not giving it, and her stepmother telling her to be quiet.

Finally, after Helen grounded the seven year old for screaming about spiders every night, the girl ran away. She was already a clever child with a strategic mind. She forged a note from her dad, stole forty dollars, and secretly called a cab to take her to her brother's school. What she didn't plan on was the cabbie realizing she was a runaway halfway through the trip and having to ditch the taxi in some big city. She lived on the streets, sleeping in the garbage, begging for change, and stealing from fruit carts; it was terrifying, being lost in a sea of strangers with no one to talk to and potential monsters- burglars, kidnappers, murderers- everywhere. She wanted to cry for her mother and brother, but she didn't know how to reach them, and she was even more scared of what her father would do to her if she turned herself in.

The only good thing that came out of it was meeting Thalia and Luke: two other runaway kids who left behind broken homes like her. Luke's father abandoned his mentally ill mother, leaving the boy to take care of her until he snapped, and Thalia's mother, a washed up 80s star addicted to fame, booze, and drugs, had her children taken from her while she went into rehab. Thalia ran away after being separated from her baby brother Jason. The three runaways teamed up; Luke and Thalia fought off predators, gangs, and thieves while Annabeth posed as their little sister, begging people to buy them food or distracting them while Luke picked their pockets. Annabeth adored their makeshift family, but Luke and Thalia felt funny about letting a kid tag along on their dangerous exploits.

After three weeks of living on the streets, Luke and Thalia decided that they couldn't keep a seven year old on the run with them without serious moral and legal consequences. They tried to leave her at a police station, but Annabeth's sobbing protests led to all of them getting busted. The police quickly contacted a relieved Dr. Chase, who was crushed with guilt, and Athena Parthenon, Annabeth and Malcolm's absentee mother, forced to step back into the picture after a four year hiatus. The Child Protection services launched a thorough investigation into how the Chases raised their children, and the longer their daughter was missing, the worse it reflected on them.

Athena and Frederick loved their children. They once loved each other. But they were very busy people who couldn't balance professional and personal lives, let alone save their marriage and raise kids. Long story short, instead of actually addressing their problems, they decided to do what they had done with Malcolm: send Annabeth away. Athena knew Chiron Brunner and Bacchus Dionysus, two old high school friends, had opened a camp for troubled youth. She wasn't ready to step back into motherhood after failing so miserably, but she knew Annabeth couldn't go on living with her father. Camp Half-blood took care of her daughter for the summer; in the winter, there was boarding school.

Annabeth learned to accept her lot in life. Her father didn't want her? Cool, she hated him too. Her stepmother treated her like a freak? Fine, she didn't have to live with her. Her mother couldn't be bothered to notice her? Well, Annabeth was grateful that her mom sent her to Camp Half-blood, so she couldn't hate her too much. There were also occasional presents and brief letters. Athena was trying, so Annabeth swore that someday she'd get her mother to see her. Malcolm was her only true support beam; he called her whenever he had time, making sure his sister was alright and telling her to promise to never scare him like that again. Besides Luke and Thalia, he was the only person she could talk to about being thrown away by their parents.

She thrived at camp. Chiron was like a second father to her, while Mr. D was the grumpy uncle who hated kids, tried to smuggle in alcohol, and played pinochle. Chiron offered to take in Luke and Thalia for the summer while their incompetent parents, who had also been contacted, got their acts together; after mountains of paperwork and hours of phone calls with social services, he negotiated for the trio of friends to stay together in a healthy environment.

Annabeth thought of Camp Half-Blood as her real home; every morning she woke up in the Owl Cabin, ate breakfast in a pavilion with her cabinmates, took reading and writing courses to help her dyslexia, then set off for the day's adventures. It could be anything, from archery to swordplay to canoeing. Chiron didn't believe "troubled" children needed lecturing or cheesy group therapy, although there was counseling available.

"They need to be treated like heroes, for braving a long and treacherous journey," he said. He made sure camp offered a diversity of activities, from reading to arts and crafts to scuba diving. Kids who'd been labeled difficult all their lives could get some fresh air, burn off some energy, sort through their issues. Annabeth adored it and became the most seasoned camper, having come back every year.

Thalia wanted to stay longer, but her mother got out of rehab and was allowed to take her and her baby brother back; she refused to waste any more money on summer camp. Luke's absentee father paid for him to spend the summers. At first he seemed to be healing; he excelled at fencing, track, and dodgeball. His kind, friendly nature that first attracted Annabeth spread to other kids. He became head counselor of the Snake Cabin, where older, more jaded teens stayed, but the years of neglect weighed him down. After Thalia left camp and his father continued to remain aloof, leaving him to take care of his mother during the school year, Luke turned bitter. He became more aggressive, more prone to getting into fights and getting suspended. Annabeth still cared for him, developed girlish feelings for him, but even she could see her old friend changing.

Camp Half-Blood was focused on nature and healing. The kids took long hikes in the woods, where they learned which plants were edible and could be boiled into medicine or poison. They canoed over a small lake, down the creek, and sometimes (under adult supervision) into the sea. They rode horses on the beach and down the trails; every June there was a horse race around the track. Luke and Annabeth made bets on who would win; Luke usually won. The Fourth of July consisted of a fantastic fireworks show; Chiron let kids actually light the flares, which meant the world to people who'd been treated like criminals all their lives. There were monthly games of Capture the Flag, which was a heavily strategized war involving cabin alliances, battle plans, and subterfuge. Annabeth was the best team leader; she always had a plan. At the end of the summer, everyone got a bead commemorating the year's biggest event to add to their camp necklace. Even while at boarding school, Annabeth wore her beads proudly.

Boarding school wasn't bad; she didn't especially care for it compared to camp, but she was a smart girl. Athena and Malcolm cared about her education, so they encouraged her to take advanced classes. The short workshops at camp helped her get her dyslexia under control; even though English was her hardest subject, Annabeth adored reading and devoured Greek mythology, Shakespeare, and nonfiction. She was good in history, alright at science, and exceptional in math. But her real love was art; she inherited Athena's knack for crafts. She loved pottery, being able to shape wet clay with her hands into something solid and useful. She appreciated beauty and practicality; she believed you needed both to make the world perfect. By the time she was ten, Annabeth decided she wanted to be an architect; she was fascinated by the ancient monuments of Greece, Rome, and Egypt, and she wanted to build something permanent. Something that would last forever.

Annabeth had been at camp for five years when she met the new kid. She'd become head counselor of the Owl Cabin, the most veteran camper besides Luke, and arguably the smartest girl on the block. She helped Chiron sort paperwork and arrange activities, gave craft and reading lessons to new kids, and led the Capture the Flag blue team. Camp Half-Blood was her home, always would be. But lately, something was lacking. Annabeth wasn't sure if it was the repetition of the summers, the same people showing up, or the fact that Chiron had to cut down a lot of unique activities due to money issues. She just knew that as safe as camp was, the world was waiting for her. She survived it at seven, why not at twelve? She wanted to do things, prove herself, get Athena to notice her. She was a little sick of playing it safe and following the rules. She felt ready for more.

That was the summer she met him.

Green eyes, messy black hair, tan skin. He was her age, but shorter and clumsier. Like almost everyone at camp, he had issues. His dad walked out before he was born, his mom married a smelly, drunken bully, and he'd been expelled from six schools in six years. He had dyslexia, ADHD, and a history of getting into trouble. His mother decided he needed to get away after they got into a car crash due to his stepdad's drinking- no serious injuries, just an angry walrus and a wake up call.

Annabeth got assigned to show him around. She resented him at first; the kid was sarcastic, homesick, and clueless. He had no idea why he was being sent to camp and carried his mommy and daddy issues like a chip on his shoulder. Annabeth didn't blame him for the last part, but being constantly reminded that none of the kids' parents cared about them didn't help her insecurities. Back then, he was another kid she had to babysit, to show the ropes. Normally that was Luke's job, but he was nineteen, too old to be a camper and instead taking classes at a college in Seattle. Oh yeah, that was the other reason Annabeth was sick of camp: her first friends were adults, attending university, getting on with their lives, and struggling to make time for her. Unlike skyscrapers and buildings, families weren't stable or permanent; they stretched and twisted until they fell apart altogether.

She spent the first week as his guide. He failed her reading classes, nearly shot her at archery, and got lost in the woods, where he encountered poison ivy. She thought he was an idiot, and he thought she was stuck up. They weren't enemies, but they squabbled. They irritated each other with their sarcasm.

"Why are there reading classes here? I thought this was summer camp."

"It's to help with dyslexia."

"I get that at home!"

"And it clearly didn't work. Now back to Homer."

"This is stupid and boring. Why do I need to study this?"

"Because it's world famous literature. It's the freakin Odyssey."

"I can't even pronounce the name. I thought this was something to do with the Simpsons."

"You're impossible."

Now, Annabeth isn't sure what first drew her to him. Maybe it was his laid back sense of humor. Or the fact that he tried his best despite constantly failing at everything but canoeing. Perhaps she sensed his loneliness, his anger, his desperate need to prove himself to his parents that she recognized in herself.

She does remember when they first started becoming friends. A week after he arrived, they were playing Capture the Flag. He had recently ticked off one of the Boar Cabin kids, a ruthless wrestler with anger management issues named Clarisse and captain of the other team, so Annabeth stationed him in the bathroom. Clarisse and her cabin mates would dunk him while Annabeth got the flag. It was a perfect strategy.

The only problem she hadn't counted on was the Boar kids jumping her after he managed to outwit them. She was coming back to help him after she got the flag, but instead she found a gang of burly, soaked, disgusted, and seething kids. Apparently he managed to unleash the plumbing and run out while Clarisse and her friends got sprayed with toilet water. Upon seeing her, Clarisse and her goons surrounded Annabeth, who was proudly waving their flag over her head like an idiot, and were ready to pummel her.

"This was a trick!"

"Cream the punch!"

"I'm gonna hit you so hard your big brain will fly out!"

"Too bad you don't have one," she saucily retorted, but her voice started shaking. Annabeth wasn't a bad fighter, but she could never overpower a wrestler or any of her friends.

"Hey!" The new kid showed up, armed with a hose connected to the bathroom building. He had the spray gun aimed straight at Clarisse. "Leave her alone, unless you want more toilet water. There's plenty where that came from."

Clarisse probably would have beaten him up too, but Chiron showed up just in time. He made the Boar kids clean up the bathrooms, which were overflowing with gross water, but the look he gave Annabeth was cutting. Without her saying anything, he knew why the new kid was by the toilets. As if Annabeth hadn't felt bad enough already.

She visited him after the campfire and singalong. He was sitting on a log on the beach, staring out into the sparkling blue ocean. Annabeth awkwardly sat next to him, not sure what to say. She never sought him out when she didn't have to. But she needed to make things right.

"Um, look, about the bathrooms…" she began. "I'm really sorry that Clarisse tried to dunk your head. I'm glad you got away."

"Yeah, after you put me there," he mumbled. "I was bait, wasn't I? I was going to get pulverized while you got the flag."

"Er… yeah. Clarisse likes to torment new kids, and after you insulted her cabin's smell, I figured… it was selfish to put you in danger for a flag. For a game."

"So?"

"I really want to apologize. It was a shitty thing to do. I'm glad you got away. And I rarely apologize, so this is a big deal." She hung her head before looking at him. "Why did you help me?"

"Hm?"

"Why did you threaten Clarisse with the hose if you knew I set you up?"

"I don't know. I guess it seemed like the right thing to do." He cringed. "That sounds cheesy. I mean, you're on my team, and you've been showing me around, and I don't really want to see anyone get jumped. Especially by Clarisse. Besides, five against one? Not fair."

"That was really nice of you. If it had been me, I would have just left them."

"Wow. You are mean."

"Yeah. No! Argh!" She kicked herself. "Look, I just like to win. I like to be the best. And I always have a plan. Even if it's kind of mean."

He laughed. They lapsed back into awkward silence. The only sounds were the waves lapping at the beach and the wind rustling through the grass and trees.

"Hey, I'm sorry if I've been a pain," he confessed. "I got lost in the woods and almost killed you with the arrow and… look, I didn't really want to come here. But my mom said I had to go. I've got issues."

Annabeth remembered how she felt toward him all week. Despite his exasperating tendencies- like smuggling food, being restless even for an ADHD kid, asking dumb question- he grew on her. She felt bad; she probably was just like him at seven.

"It's not a problem," she assured him. "Anyway, this is the troubled kids camp. Where kids whose parents couldn't handle them get dumped."

He weakly smiled but just looked sadder. Annabeth miserably kicked herself again.

"If it makes you feel better, we're all in the same boat," she continued. "But you mentioned your mom writing to you, which is more than a lot of kids here get. She must care about you."

"Yeah," he whispered. "She does. She's the only person who matters to me."

"I heard you got in a car crash." Chiron briefed her on the basics: the accident, his mom, ADHD and dyslexia. But she didn't know about the rest.

He would later tell her about Smelly Gabe, who trashed their apartment, insulted him about his grades, and threatened to punch him if he didn't fund his gambling. He would praise his mother to heaven and back, detailing how she raised him alone after being orphaned at five in a plane crash, forced to drop out of high school to take care of a sick uncle, and getting dumped with a kid at twenty-one by some rich businessman. He would show her how to make blue food, his favorite, as a way of keeping his mom close. He would confess that he got kicked out of every school attended for bad grades, fights, and getting into trouble on field trips. He really hated field trips. He would convey his amazement at his mother's unending patience, how she never lost her temper with him for being such a screw up, and wish aloud that he could be a better son. But for now, it was just two awkward twelve year olds talking on a log on the beach, staring at the sea. The beach would become their special spot, the place where they first started feeling like friends.

They befriended with Grover Underwood, a lonely kid whose mom owned a cabin deep in the woods and got picked on at school. He tried to play big brother to them, but he was a scrawny kid who needed braces to walk, adhered to a strict vegan diet, and passionately outed himself as an environmentalist, making him an easy target and the one who needed protection. They ditched camp activities to wander the woods together, finding hidden trails, climbing trees, and throwing nuts at each other. Annabeth also let Grover participate in camp stuff; her boredom disappeared as she watched the new kid and Grover fall in love with the place like she had all those years ago. The new kid's favorite activities were swimming and canoeing; he loved water. Grover preferred foraging for wild plants and playing bad pop music on bagpipes. They made her remember why she loved Half-Blood Hill. They'd play cards or chat beneath a giant pine tree Thalia used to like.

The new kid and Grover were the first people besides Thalia, Luke, and Chiron to hear about Annabeth's dysfunctional family. She told them the night they snuck out of camp, breaking the rules (a first for her) to go to see the festival that came to town. They rode the Ferris wheel, the Tilt a Whirl, failed at the rigged carnival games, wandered into a closed waterpark, accidentally activated a waterslide, nearly got killed when the ride swept them toward a closed metal gate, and eventually ended up hiding in a zoo truck back at the festival while security searched for them. Annabeth would remember how furious and scared she felt, but thrilled. If they could just make it back to camp undetected, she'd mark this as the best day of her life.

She also had to thank the new kid for saving her life again. While they were flying down the waterslide toward the gates on an inflatable raft, certain they would be smashed, he'd come up with the idea to use the impact to jump over the metal fence. She calculated the physics of it, the best time to jump, and they sailed upward, holding hands, over the gate, over the small pool, and into a pile of smelly towels that hadn't been cleaned since the park closed down. After that, the three of them had to dash back to the festival while alarms blared.

"We did pretty good together, huh?" she remarked.

"Yeah, we were a good team." He stretched and yawned. Grover was already sleeping on a feeding sack. Any minute the owners would come back and find them. The truck reeked; Grover fretted that the animals were being mistreated based on the soiled cages, but Annabeth reassured him that was not the case. Hopefully.

Strangely, even though they were about to get busted, sent home, and punished, Annabeth felt peaceful. Happy. She'd had the craziest day of her life, something she'd tell her kids, and it was with two amazing people. It felt just as good as the old days with Thalia and Luke.

"I'm gonna miss this when we get busted and sent home," the new kid said, reading her mind. New Kid wasn't a good name now. She knew his real name, his screwed up backstory, his favorite color and food, his parentage. She called him Seaweed Brain, first as an insult when he annoyed her, now as a pet name. He shot back with Wise Girl. He'd been at camp for a month. He wasn't the New Kid anymore.

"Me too." She worried that Chiron wouldn't let her come back, but that wasn't likely. However, Seaweed Brain and Grover would probably get in worse trouble. She hadn't thought of that.

"I didn't think I'd like camp this much, but I really do. I feel like… like I'm at home. Like I can actually do something right. I mean, we just pulled off the greatest adventure of my life. We get to go hiking and swimming. I get to play with bows and arrows and swords. There's rock climbing and a track and an ocean. There's just so much that I never knew existed." His voice became depressed. "And now I might never see it again because of tonight." He hung his head. "I screw everything up."

"No." Annabeth wasn't going to let him get down. "You're not getting sent home. If we get caught, I'll talk to Chiron. He can't punish you two without me. I'll work out a minor punishment. Maybe kitchen duty or cabin inspection. If he sends you home, I'm going too. No matter what Chiron does, I'll be at your side."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"You'd put your neck on the line for me?"

"Yeah."

"Why?" It was a simple, disarming question. But Annabeth didn't have to think about the answer.

"Because we're friends, Seaweed Brain." Friends. She never called them that. But it was true. After everything they'd done together, they were more than acquaintances or pals. It was weird, satisfying, and sentimental.

"Well, if we do get caught, at least tonight was worth it," Seaweed Brain joked. "I mean, what we pulled off was pretty awesome."

"Mmhmm."

"Annabeth, can I ask you a question?"

"Hm?"
"How'd you come to camp? I mean, it's a camp for screw ups like me, and you seem on top of things. You're wicked smart, you can read, you do okay in school, and you don't seem to have issues. Is Chiron your dad or something?"

"Gosh, no! I-" She hesitated, but she just called him a friend. She hadn't made any lasting relationships since Thalia and Luke. He deserved to know more. So she told him about her dad, her mom, her brother, her stepfamily, running away, living on the streets with Luke and Thalia, and coming to Camp Half-Blood. It was paraphrased, rushed, and sounded a little whiny to her sensitive ears. But her friend listened and told her sorry, even if it was a lame response. Annabeth got a little choked up thinking about all of it, but she appreciated the gesture.

The trio somehow managed to escape the truck and slip back into camp unseen. They slept in the next day like babies. But Seaweed Brain remembered everything that happened and was said. They spent the rest of the summer goofing around, playing pranks on Clarisse (Seaweed Brain was deadly intelligent when he wanted to be- filling her pillow with shaving cream, replacing the ketchup with hot sauce, taking advantage of his messy cabin to recreate a murder scene with "Clarisse did it" scrawled on the wall in ketchup), and sneaking out for more crazy adventures. They had a party in Percy's cabin during a terrible lightning storm. They played Capture the Flag and beat Clarisse again, together. Annabeth found herself admiring Percy's dark hair and green eyes more and more; she surprised herself when she involuntarily grabbed for his hand as they watched the Fourth of July fireworks show together, stopping herself just in time. When it was time to leave, Annabeth almost cried; she loved the summer so much, and now it was ending.

"Keep in touch," the trio agreed. The OG three, the first pranksters, would always be friends.

The school year was going to be different for all of them. Seaweed Brain's mom kicked out her husband, filed a restraining order for domestic abuse, and found a new apartment a few towns away from Olympus, where Camp Half-Blood was. Grover's mom was taking him to stay with relatives on an island off Florida, where he'd be getting treatment for his legs. Annabeth's father realized he'd been a lousy parent and asked her to come back for the first semester, to try living at home and going to school like a normal kid. He didn't live too far away from Olympus, so Annabeth agreed more readily than she expected. But Seaweed Brain had that effect on her; if he could give his mom a second chance after Smelly Gabe, maybe things would be better at home.

That was her fifth summer at camp. The year she broke the rules, played pranks, and decided to try living with her father again. Her first year without Thalia or Luke at camp. The year where life sped up and her adolescent life began.

The summer she met Percy Jackson, her Seaweed Brain, at Camp Half-Blood in Olympus.

Now, as Annabeth charges away from the beach where they had their first real conversation, her eyes sting with tears. Camp Half-Blood will be gone. The woods where she played with Percy and Grover will be razed. The reef Percy dove with her will be ravaged. Even the Argo II, the stupid old boat she, Percy, and some friends from later summers refurbished, will be destroyed by Octavian. By Rome Inc. Everything that meant something to her will be gone.

Just like Percy.