Hello! So, something I recently realized is that Annabeth didn't actually live in San Francisco until after the Titans Curse, and that the events of this chapter take place when she's in seventh grade, after the Lightning Thief but before all the Titan's Curse stuff… anyways, for the purposes of fanfiction, she's always lived in SF. Except for her years at CHB, obviously. Anyways.

Disclaimer: These things always make me feel stupid. But, because I don't want to risk having this get taken down, I'll say it anyways: I don't own anything Percy Jackson!

Mrs. Maria, as it turned out, was super nice. After roll call, she basically let us do whatever we wanted for the rest of homeroom. So, the second she finished her presentation about herself and dismissed us to do whatever, Lily rushed over to where Annabeth was sitting, with Jeremy and I in close pursuit.

"Annabeth!" Lily squealed, shaking the girl by the arm, which, honestly, seemed a little aggressive to me.

Apparently Annabeth thought so too, because she practically jumped out of her seat. "Gods!" she yelped, and turned to face us. "What is with you? Should I know you or something?"

"Um, yeah you should," Jeremy said, sitting down in the seat opposite Annabeth's. "The four of us were besties back in kindergarten!"

Annabeth leaned back in her chair, looking skeptical. "Besties, huh?" she said, smirking, and Lily rolled her eyes.

"Yes. Jeremy's not always this much of a dork-"

"-Hey!" Lily smacked him lightly on the shoulder.

"But we were, once upon a time, friends. Are you sure you don't remember us?"

I hugged my arms around myself, not quite sure what to do. I didn't want to draw attention to myself, and Annabeth was intimidating.

Annabeth squinted at each of us, considering Lily's question. Finally, she pointed at Jeremy thoughtfully. "Jeremy?" she asked, and he grinned and nodded.

Annabeth smiled a little, and faced Lily. "...Lily, right?"

"Mhmm!"

She turned to face me, and I had to admit, her grey eyes scared me. But they were also so… pretty. And as she stared thoughtfully at me for a moment longer, a memory surfaced to the front of my mind:

"What's that? You don't want to give me your lunch money?" Brendon, a mean third grader who liked to pick on the kindergarten on first graders, had cornered me, and was trying to take my lunch money.

I was crying. I reached into my backpack for the three dollars my dad had given me that morning, and tried to look into Brendon's face. He was big, and bulky, and terrified me.

"Hey!" My head snapped up, and Annabeth, in all her kindergarten glory, pudgy fists and blonde pigtails swinging, came storing over to us.

Brendon laughed. "You want to give me your money too, little girl?"

Annabeth glared at him determinedly, and gave him a hard kick in the shin. It wasn't very hard, but Brendon yelped, and turned to face annabeth. "You little-" he started to say, but Annabeth, learning from her previous mistake, used her fists this time, and punched him in a very painful place for boys.

Brendon never bothered me again, and Annabeth became one of my best friends.

I smiled. Annabeth was maybe the most loyal friend I'd ever had, and she didn't even remember my name. My smile faded, but Annabeth snapped her fingers. "Aha!" she said triumphantly, "You're Matty!"

"Uh, Mathew," I said, blushing. I'd dropped that embarrassing nickname in the second grade, when Lily told me it was "baby-ish."

Annabeth smiled at us. "To be honest, I was dreading coming back here. But I guess my friend was right… maybe I will have a home here."

I had some classes with Jeremy, some with Lily, some with Annabeth, and some with all three. Because pretty much every class on the first day of school is getting to know you, and I had every class with at least one of my friends, by the time it was lunch time, I was pretty well reacquainted.

Annabeth, as it happened, had run away when she was seven, and that was why we hadn't heard from her in so long. She said she'd been at a year round camp, which also provided education, and had to come back to San Francisco when she decided she wanted to try again with her family.

Jeremy asked what camp she'd spent the last five years at, but she was pretty vague on the details, for some reason. She was also very fast on changing topics.

"So, Mathew," she said, in between bites of her sandwich, "What do you think you're going to do for your Market Day project?" My school actually does this.

"Oh," I said, startled. In history, Mr. Spiggots had told us about the big project we'd be doing near the end of the year, called Market Day. Basically, you can either pair up, triple up, or go solo. Each group has to construct their own business, selling their goods or services to the sixth graders, who are each given 20(fake) dollars, on Market Day.

I hadn't thought about it much, as it was several months away and today was only the first day. "Um, I don't know," I replied honestly. Annabeth nodded and went back to her sandwich.

"But," I said desperately, not wanting to lose one of my few good conversation points with Annabeth, "I'd love to hear your plans. Maybe I could… draw inspiration from them?"

Lily glanced at me with a what? expression on her face, and I made a shut up one back. So what if it wasn't like me to say things like that, people can change… and besides, I was talking with a friend. Nothing wrong with that.

Annabeth's eyes lit up, the way they usually did when she was discussing any sort of school/education related topic. That's the other thing I learned about her: Annabeth is crazy smart. And athletic, too, but also really smart.

"Well," she began, "What's the market? The sixth grade. Some teachers, too, but who you really want to attract are the students. And the thing that students want the most is sweets, and my friend's mom has this amazing recipe for blue cookies… they'll sell out faster than anything else, I guarantee it."

I raised my eyebrows. Market Day was months away, but Annabeth practically had the whole thing figured out already. "Wow," Jeremy said, breaking off from his conversation with Lily. "What are you, running the thing, Annabeth? You're a genius!" He grinned. "I'd want you as my partner for sure, but I want to sell my services as a face painter."

Annabeth wrinkled her nose, asking, "You paint?" But my thoughts were back to what Jeremy said earlier. I'd want you as my partner. I guess I was just feeling daring today, because normally I would never do what I did next.

"Hey, Annabeth," I asked her, and she turned to face me. "Do you want to be partners for the Market Day project?"

She looked surprised for a moment, but ended up saying, "Sure, Mathew. But we will have to do extra work, you know."

I couldn't believe it. Annabeth Chase is going to be my partner for Market Day. Lily raised an eyebrow at me, and I blushed. So what if Annabeth practically saved my life from a bully when we were in kindergarten, has beautiful hair, gorgeous eyes, is amazingly smart, and makes my heartbeat a little faster than it normally does? That doesn't mean anything.

Okay, maybe I have a tiny crush. Or maybe a big one. But that doesn't mean I'd do anything about it! I'm twelve!

For the rest of the year, the four of us became a unit. We became close, did homework at each other's houses, got it trouble together, knew each other inside out, and basically became the best of friends.

We'd met each other's families, and it even turned out I had the same name as one of Annabeth's brothers! I was a lot more comfortable around my friends, and especially Annabeth, than I had been on that awkward first day of school. On Market Day, Annabeth's blue cookies sold out in half an hour, and we got an A on our project.

It was the last day of school. We were in the gym, the one class we were all in together, and Lily was squealing about some trip she was going on in the bahamas. It honestly felt like Lily was squealing all the time, but it was something I'd grown to love about my friend.

"So, what are you doing this summer?" I asked Annabeth casually. My family was doing literally nothing, but my dad had said that because it was summer, I could host a slumber party at my house. So maybe…

"I'm going to camp," Annabeth replied brightly. "I'm excited to see all my friends… actually, one of them's coming to pick me up today, so we can head down together. Yes, I am now realizing how completely irrational it would be for Percy to come all the way from New York to San Francisco then back to New York for camp, just to pick up Annabeth, but whatever. Roll with it. It'll be cool for you guys to meet him."

"Him?" I asked lightly, tilting my head up. My crush on Annabeth was less than it had been on the first day of school, as I'd gotten to know her and seen her as more of a friend or a sister, than love interest.

I still liked her, though. "My best friend, Percy," Annabeth clarified, and I stared at her.

"Seriously?" I asked, kind of shocked but also a bit annoyed. "I thought we were your best friends… Lily, Jeremy, and I."

Annabeth winced. "Yeah…" she said slowly, "Yeah, you guys are also my best friends. Anyways, I just feel like you two would really get along. He's coming down from New York, and is gonna stay the night before we both head down to camp."

Of course. Camp. Annabeth never really talked about it much, saying really vague questions whenever we asked her about it, and even managing to avoid Lily's pestering comments. If this Percy figure was from there… well, it didn't exactly make me very happy.

Hey, I reminded myself. He might be a cool dude. Annabeth said he's nice. No making unrealistic assumptions, Mathew.

By the time the bell rang, though, I felt unusually worried. It was weird. Jeremy even had to snap his fingers in front of my nose a few times to get me to come back to earth, I was so far away. "Bro," he said, peering down at me.

He was really tall, and it sometimes annoyed me, especially because I was only average height. It was even more embarrassing now, because all the girls were in the middle or beginning their growth spurts, and were taller than me.

"You in there? Listen, dude, Annabeth told me Percy's coming to town, but it'll be fine! Seriously. She told me he's an idiot, annoying, and stupid. Those were legit the three words she used when describing him."

I blushed, because it felt a little embarrassing to know my minor crush was that obvious, but I also smiled, because if those were the words used by Annabeth to describe Percy, then I had nothing to be worried about.

"Thanks, man," I said to Jeremy, and he patted my shoulder.

"Anytime, Bro," he said, and grinned. "And word of advice: I'm no Aphrodite, but you might want to tone it down a bit. Even I can tell you like Annabeth, dude. You keep staring after her like a lovesick puppy."

I'm pretty sure my cheeks were the color of Jeremy's hair. "W-what?" I spluttered. "I don't stare after Annabeth like a lovesick-wait! Come back!" Jeremy had just spotted his crush, a girl named Jayda, and dashed off to give her some sort of farewell before the summer started.

Honestly, he has no chance. Jayda's one of the most popular girls here at Hill-Dale, and no offense to Jeremy, but… he's kind of a dork.

I just stood there for a good five minutes, probably, letting the floods of students push past me, trying to process what Jeremy had said, before I remembered to go to my locker, because it was the last day of school.

A grin slowly spread up my cheeks as the thought went through my brain. No more school for three months! I dashed off to my locker, spun the dial faster than I probably ever have before, grabbed my stuff, and ran out to the parking lot, where I was supposed to meet up with my friends.

Annabeth, Lily, and Jeremy were all laughing and chatting with each other, but Annabeth was the first to spot me. "Mathew!" she shouted, and waved me over. When I reached them, Jeremy winked at me, and I shot him a quick glare.

"Hey," Lily greeted, her ponytail bouncing and her eyes bright. "Guess what? Annabeth invited us over for a sleepover!"

Annabeth gave a small smile and nodded. Whenever I'd asked before, she'd always just said her house didn't really do sleepovers, and quickly switched topics.

"Percy's staying over anyway, and I want you to meet him… so, yeah. And I won't be seeing you guys for a while, anyway."

I frowned. "Why not?" I asked. "It's just a camp, it's not like you'll be gone for the whole summer."

Jeremy stared at his feet, Annabeth open and closed her mouth like she wanted to say something, and Lily winced. "Mathew…" Lily said slowly, "Annabeth will be gone for the whole summer. She stayed at her camp for over five years, remember? We won't see her until next fall."

What? I looked at Annabeth quickly for confirmation, and she fixed her penetrating grey eyes on me sadly. "Sorry, Mathew," she said, and she did look sorry. I felt like something had punched me. "I really am-"

"-Annabeth?" Someone called out, interrupting her. All four of us spun around to see a black haired dude running up the sidewalk to the school, squinting in the sun and waving to Annabeth.

Annabeth, for probably the first time in her life, made a noise almost resembling a shriek. "Percy!" She dashed over to him and threw her arms around his shoulders, to which he hugged her back fiercely.

Lily, Jeremy, and I jogged to catch up with her, and when they straightened themselves out, Annabeth was standing side by side with Percy, smiling. Practically beaming.

It felt like a rock had fallen to the pit of my stomach. Percy was… well, I'm not gay or anything, but he had black hair tousled in that way that girls usually liked and I could never get mine to, and that trouble-maker smirk that drove the teachers insane and the girls crazy, and his eyes…

The moment I met his eyes, I knew I was doomed. They were a bright, aquamarine color, swirled with bits of green, contrasting starkly with Annabeth's vivid grey ones. While Annabeth's were proud, and calculating, his were more wild. Like the sea.

Lily was staring at Percy a little too hard for my liking, and Jeremy was grinning widely, but he's always doing that.

Percy grinned and slung an arm around Annabeth's shoulders, making my stomach curl with disgust. "Well, guys," Annabeth said, gesturing to Percy, "This is Percy Jackson, idiot extraordinaire."

Percy just raised two fingers in a wave and said, "Sup."

Oh, god. He was so much worse than I thought.

Okay, how'd I do? Anything I should add, can improve on, what do you think? I know this was long, and I honestly don't know how the length will compare to other chapters, but we'll see. Also, yes, the first chapter was in the present tense, and this was in the imperfect tense, but I was already like half way through writing when I realized that, so… if there's one way you prefer, tell me, and I'll write the third chapter that way! Imperfect tense comes more naturally to me, but I'm fine either way. I tend to slip in and out of present and imperfect accidentally, so sorry for that.

Thanks for reading!

-blackthornfam13