Hey, guys... yeah, I know, you probably aren't the happiest with me given that I basically vanished for three months and didn't give any notice about what was going on...

You should know that I'm really, really really really sorry! It probably won't happen again. I don't think it will, at least, and if it does, I'll warn you I'm going on hiatus.

So, yeah. I'm not gonna write out the whole mess of excuses, but it was more than me just lazy. Anyway, here's the chapter. And I haven't written for this story in a while, so if the rhythm isn't exactly the same I'm sorry about that... I mean, it might be. I don't know.

Disclaimer: none of this stuff belongs to me, except for the plot, and Mathew. Credit goes to Rick.

"Annabeth! Annabeth, wait." I grabbed her arm, pulling her around to face me before she could walk away for the tenth time.

"What?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Mathew, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm sorry! But do you seriously need to know why?"

Oh, I knew why. I remembered everything only too well - the sand, the waves, being slammed around and unable to breath, trying to scream but finding my mouth filled with seawater instead.

"Well, are you just not going to be my friend anymore? Flat out pretend I don't exist?"

"Mathew, ever since, like, the last year you've been acting… crazy! I don't even know how else to describe it! You've attacked Percy I-don't-know-how-many-times, almost knifed him once - I mean, how long is it gonna be until you try to kill him? Really? And while I've tried to figure out a fathomable explanation, tried to figure out a way to give you a second chance, I can't! And I have way too much going on right now to deal with you! So until I tell you otherwise, yes, I'm done!"

And she turned around, running out of the front lawn of Hill-Dale and toward the street. Her blonde hair was flying behind her like gold, but for once I wasn't fixated on that. Annabeth had just… what? Platonically dumped me?

She'd made it clear she wanted nothing to do with me.

I stared at the grass.

line break dedicated to Cole, because I just finished In the Afterlight

I didn't say anything to Annabeth for the rest of the year. Well, more like she didn't say anything to me, because I tried to talk to her a few times but she just ignored me.

On the bright side, she wasn't talking to anybody, except for Lily sometimes after school. Which, I told myself, was fine. This meant I could officially withdraw myself from the demigod world. Now, I didn't have to risk my life in some stupid titan war. I could instead spend my summer in my basement, beating Jeremy at Need for Speed.

The last day of school was supposed to be great. Final grades put in, school dance at the end of the day - what could be better, really? A small girl named Ginny had even asked me, and I'd said yes! What more could I ask for?

I tried not to think about how Annabeth would be leaving on a plane tomorrow to spend the whole summer with Percy.

"Hey," Jersey said, bumping my shoulder. "Dude. What's with the face? We're gonna be sophomores next year! Look a little happier!"

I forced a quick smile, and took a bite of my sandwich. "Yeah, well… more homework."

Jeremy made a tsk tsk noise. "Excuses, excuses," he chided. "Are you just sad you aren't going to that camp with Annabeth this summer? Cause you were obsessed with it, like, a year ago. Then you ended up disappearing for the rest of the summer and now you look depressed. So. What's up?"

"Nothing!" I protested. "Seriously! Sure, maybe I want to go to camp a tiny bit… but trust me, I want to be here a hell of a lot more."

There wasn't really much I could say without giving away the whole Greek world thing. It wasn't like I could just tell Jeremy a huge war was going to go down this summer and some of my camp friends were inevitably going to die.

So that left: "I'm just… stressed about the school dance tonight. With Ginny. Because what if I mess up, or she tries to kiss me or something?" I arranged my face into what I hoped was a weary expression, and ran my fingers through my hair for added effect. It had gotten longer in the past few months, almost past my ears now.

Jeremy snorted. "You are the last person who needs to worry about that," he said. "Ginny's half in love with you already and you haven't even done anything together yet. You can do no wrong. Trust me."

If only Annabeth felt that way…

line break dedicated to the feeble hope that you might forgive me…?

My suit felt weird. The jacket part felt too formal, all creased edges and no baggy sleeves like I was used to. And, god, the tie. My dad had to tie it for me, which was possibly the most awkward father/son bonding session in the history of awkward family bonding.

His hands kept bumping my chin up, and my neck was sweating from straining to be in that awkward position. I felt weird, I looked weird, and I didn't want to go to a dance with Ginny Valentine. She was cute, sure, but I wanted to go with Annabeth.

My dad finished with the tie and stood behind me, resting his hands on my shoulders and giving that proud father smile. "Mathew," he said, smiling into the mirror.

I barely got a moment to take myself in - baby blue tie, dress shoes, neatly combed hair - before the doorbell rang. I jumped, startled.

It was about ten minutes before Ginny was supposed to get here, but, well… who knew how girls worked.

I took the steps two at a time, reaching the door faster than I probably ever had before. I opened the door, hastily smoothing my suit jacket down and holding my hand out for -

Annabeth. She stood there in the doorway, blue hoodie, camp shirt, jean shorts and all. This was exactly like how it always happened in my dreams, minus the irritated expression.

"Mathew," she greeted.

"Um - hi," I stammered. "Annabeth. What… What are you doing here? It's the dance, you know, and I kind of have a-"

"You're coming to camp," Annabeth interrupted. "And we have to leave soon, because the plane leaves in half an hour."
"I'm not going to camp," I said quickly. "I don't want to, and I think-"

"Yes, you are." Annabeth pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and fixed me with that stare - the one that left no room for argument.

I wilted. "Well, see, I kind of thought you wanted nothing to do with me…"

"I don't. But camp wants you, because you're a demigod and every demigod needs to fight if we're going to win this war. So let's go, plane's waiting."

Oh, right. That pesky little war that was going to get me killed if I fought in it. "I'm not packed," I tried to say. "I'm not prepared or anything, Annabeth, how can you possibly expect me to-"

"Annabeth!" Someone said behind me, and my dad appeared with that dazed expression on his face. Annabeth smiled.

"Hi, Mr. Harris. Is Mathew all ready to leave for camp?"

"Of course! Just one thing." My dad handed me both celestial bronze daggers, which had previously been hidden expertly in my sock drawer. "You forgot your toothbrush." He handed me Kitrinos. "And your toothpaste." He handed me Kokkinos.

I closed my eyes. Somehow, in the span of about two minutes, I'd managed to get myself dragged into this whole mess just when I thought I'd managed to avoid it. "Fine," I snapped, taking the daggers from my dad and holding them awkwardly in my hands. Annabeth grinned.

"Thanks," she said. "C'mon, taxi's waiting."

She dragged me out the door with her, barely allowing me a last glance.

line break dedicated to Daizel the future hamster

I got surprisingly little looks, dressed how I was and carrying two very lethal weapons in plain sight. The dude at customs barely blinked when I put my daggers in the machine to be scanned by the machine thing.

And on the plane, the flight attendant just smiled like normal and asked me what I wanted. "Sprite," I told her.

"Water," Annabeth said, still focused on her copy of Watership Down that had been translated into greek.

I wrinkled my nose. "Kristin wanted me to read that, but I never did. Isn't it about rabbits or something?"
Annabeth threw me a filthy look. "You sound like Percy," she snapped. "Totally ignorant of classic works of literature."

"So is this what it's going to be like?" I asked, leaning toward the window. The clouds were fluffy and white, almost like snow but softer. "You've been ignoring me for the past two months. You going to keep that up when we get to camp, or what?"

Annabeth closed her book for a moment and looked at me. "I don't know," she said.

"Knew it," I said, turning back toward the clouds. A rock hardened itself in the pit of my stomach.

"Well - hey!" Annabeth said. She poked me. "We can be friends. Not friends that tell each other secrets, but friends that say hi to each other when they pass in the halls. Okay?"

The rock dissolved, and I felt considerably lighter. "Okay," I said, and smiled.

line break dedicated to Leo, who, in my opinion, is under appreciated

When we got to camp it was about ten at night, so I was surprised that about half the camp was still up and running around. The scout at the entrance shouted and called us over as Annabeth began to jog across the boundary line.

It took me about ten minutes to get up the hill, and made me appreciate a whole lot more how amazing sneakers were.

And when I peaked the hill and finally started to go down to the cabins, I was feeling a lot more self conscious of my suit and neatly combed hair. Annabeth had already disappeared off to wherever she was going, leaving me to make my way to the Hermes cabin.

I should have known better than to try to change in the cabin. The minute I walked in, a loud hoot sounded and someone gave me a hard clap on the back, flicking the light on.

Connor Stoll grinned at me, then stopped, as he took in my appearance. "Oh my gods. Dude!" Then, of course, he started cackling madly to himself, muttering things like "pretty boy" and "barbie" whenever he could spare a breath.

After about five minutes, he calmed down enough to gentle wheezing. "Good to be back," I said, my voice dry. Only about six other campers were in the cabin, and they each waved to me as I made my way to my spot on the floor.

Well, all except for a small girl with red hair who was staring at me with wide eyes, but she must have been a newbie.

"Why - the Hades - are you dressed for freaking prom?" Connor managed to squeeze out, following me as he clutched his sides.

"Well," I coughed. "Um. See, I had a date to my school's dance, but then Annabeth showed up and dragged me off to camp, so - wait. Why is there a mattress?"

In place of my usual sleeping bag, a ratty mattress with a threadbare sheet was laying on the floor. "Oh yeah," Connor said. "Second summer, you've graduated from a sleeping bag to a mattress. Congratulations. Now, back to the prom thing - I think we need to take pictures."

Shaking my head, I wondered how I'd ever wanted to skip camp in the first place.

line break dedicated to Meg

Camp was pretty much the same. I got creamed in swordfighting by most of the other campers, which made me wonder, yet again, what the point of me fighting with my daggers was if I couldn't defend myself because I lacked the skill.

Annabeth did exactly what she said she would: said hi when she saw me, but not really more than that. She still spent most of her time with Percy, or with Chiron and the war council, planning missions and discussing strategies.

At the end of June, three campers left on the first big-hit mission of the summer. It was exciting enough, but also made me kind of scared. If Chiron and Mr. D were willing to send campers out without prophecies on things like that, things must be getting pretty serious.

They came back, though, and reported that a bus of fifty monsters had now been exploded due to a handy toilet grenade, courtesy of the Hephaestus cabin. We all cheered and clapped and pounded our fists against the table when the campers came back, Connor even leaping up and doing a quick dance on top of the table.

"You're insane," I muttered to him when he came down. He just grinned.

"I'm wild," he corrected, and winked at a poor girl from the Aphrodite cabin. I smacked his arm.

"Why'd you do that? She's got to be at least three years younger than you. I mean, if you were actually interested…"

"Oh, bro, of course not. But everybody's flirting with everybody now, so who cares? Haven't you noticed? Fireworks are in a week!"

I blinked. This was another one of those things I seemed to be left out of, an age-old camp tradition that no one had ever clued me into. "What's fireworks?" I asked quickly. "Don't people only do fireworks on the… oh, wait…" The fourth of July, which happened to be in five days. But why would CHB care about that?

Connor nodded. "But for us, it's bigger. The Hephaestus cabin does this big spectacle, and it also happens to be the biggest dating even that Camp Half-Blood has. You ask someone to go with you, and then you watch the fireworks together. See?"

I nodded slowly, my heart starting to beat faster. I could imagine it now: me and Annabeth, holding hands as we shared a picnic blanket on the beach and watched pretty fireworks explode across the sky. Then, she would lean over slowly, her head resting on my shoulder and giving me a small kiss.

"- you good? Mathew?" Connor snapped his fingers in front of my face, and I woke up from my day dream with a start.

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, fine…" I had to ask Annabeth to the fireworks. I had to.

I had four days to ask Annabeth. And now that Connor had told me, I did notice a lot more flirting going on between campers. I tried winking at a girl once like Connor had, just to see how it felt. She glared at me, and I quickly looked away.

My biggest problem was the usual one: Percy. I generally tried not to think about him anymore, because that only led to the usual feelings of jealousy, anger, and now… well, let's just say I'd also developed a strong dislike for sandy beaches.

He was bound to ask Annabeth. Of course he would. I'd just have to ask her first. Annabeth and I were friendly, and I think she was beginning to warm up to me again. So.

"Hey," I said casually while Annabeth was coming back from the war council. She had an especially dark expression, but I forged ahead. "So, Connor told me about this thing - Fireworks, I think?"

Annabeth stopped. "Yeah. Were you thinking of asking someone?"
That was practically an invitation. "Yes, I actually wanted to see if -"

"Hey, guys!" A friendly voice interrupted. With a cold feeling in my chest, I looked to my right to see him, waving and stuffing his pen in his back pocket.

I'd managed to go a month without him-interaction, and he showed up now. Of course he did.

"Whatcha doin?" His hair, like mine, had also grown longer over the months, but his only went down to his ears and was much messier. I straightened.

"Hey," I said, forcing my voice into what was hopefully a pleasant tone.

Annabeth pressed her lips together. I stuffed my hands in my pockets. He scratched the back of his head.

"So, listen, Annabeth. I, um, wanted to catch you, but then you left the rec room before I could-"

Oh, gods. No. He couldn't be. Percy was interrupting my asking out of Annabeth Chase with his? No! "Did you know that tomato sauce was sold in the 1800s as medicine?" I blurted out, cutting Percy off. Annabeth and Percy both stared at me like I'd sprouted a third arm.

I nodded enthusiastically, desperately trying to rack my brains for that stupid Weird But True I'd read three years ago. "Yeah! Supposedly it was a cure for indigestion or something, I kind of forget. But, yeah. Um." I blushed.

Nothing like preventing your enemy from asking out your crush by informing the both of them about the ancient cure for indigestion.

"Anyway," Percy said slowly, breaking the silence, "Annabeth, can I…" Percy blushed. My heart thudded in my chest.

Annabeth gave Percy a look, like he was being an idiot. Which he was. "Spit it out, Seaweed Brain. We don't have all day."

"You know how Chiron gave us each a copy of the layout for the next mission ast week? Can I borrow yours, possibly? I… I might have…"

Annabeth's eyes stretched to the size of saucers. "You didn't!"

"I'm sorry!" Percy pleaded, looking genuinely scared. "It's not my fault I lost it, the paper weighs like half an ounce! It flew away! And Mr. D will actually murder me if I don't have it memorized by the next war council! I bet you've already memorized it," he added, his voice taking on a teasing tone.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Fine. But you owe me." She gave him a light shove, and pulled a small folded piece of paper out of her pocket. Then her eyes darkened. "But I swear, by all the gods, if you manage to lose my copy-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You'll find my remains in Tartarus." Percy smiled, taking the paper from Annabeth, and jogged away. Annabeth stared after him with a look on her face I didn't really want to decipher.

But now he was gone. He hadn't asked her out, and now was my chance. Annabeth was going to say yes, right? She'd been nice to me, I'd been nice to her, and maybe I could ask her as a friend. Yeah, that would work! Then Annabeth wouldn't feel pressured or anything.

Before I could say anything, Annabeth gave me a quick pat on the shoulder and smiled. "I have to go, but I'll see you later. Bye!"

"Bye," I echoed.

line break dedicated to green

The next chance I got to talk to Annabeth was during dinner, near the end when everybody was getting up and clearing their places off and mingling. Percy was arguing with Clarisse about something in front of Chiron, over by the table in the front, so he was out of the way. Surprisingly, the only issue was Conner.

"You can't ask Annabeth to the Fireworks," he insisted. "You'll only get your hopes crushed. She's hot, bro, but trust me… she and Percy are meant to be."

I scowled at my potatoes. Stupidly, I'd confided in Connor my plans, but he still had that same insufferable belief that I had no chance.

"They're friends," I argued. "Not dating."

"Eh, same thing. They went together last year, you know. Supposedly after reviving some ancient bronze dragon along with Silena and Beckandorf, but I don't know the details. Plus, I've been going to camp with Annabeth and Percy for years, and they've been doing this little dance with each other the whole time. It's honestly kind of annoying. Sure, in the beginning-"

"Enough," I said. "I get it, alright? They're soul mates, whatever. I won't ask her out."

I got up grumpily from the table, wove my way through the other campers throwing their food away, and pushed my potatoes in the trash. Then I scanned the room for Annabeth - to hell with whatever Connor thought.

Annabeth needed me, more than she ever could some fool like Percy. Yeah, he was powerful, but most of the time he was just a doof. I wasn't. I was smart. And Annabeth had just gotten up from her table.

I hurried my way over to her, smoothly taking the tray from her hands and dumping the contents in the bin. She frowned at me. "I was going to eat the brownie," she said.

"Oh. Um, sorry." I'm pretty sure I was already blushing. "But, Annabeth, I actually wanted to talk to you."

She raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

No stopping now. It was all about confidence. Just spit it out. "Do you… do you want to go to the Fireworks with me?"
Annabeth's face fell before I even finished speaking, her features twisting and lips pressing together. My heart sank.

"Just as friends," I tried to say quickly. "Not, like, a date or anything! Of course not, because…"

I trailed off, watching Annabeth's cheeks turn redder and redder. "I - I don't know if I want to… to do that…" She didn't even finish her sentence.

"I'm sorry, Mathew," she whispered.

At the very least, she did look sorry.

I forced a smile, trying not to cry. I wasn't going to break down in front of everyone in camp. I wasn't. "It's fine," I said. "Seriously. It - it wasn't serious or anything, just cause you're pretty much my only female friend, so-"

"Yeah!" Annabeth said, looking somewhat relieved. "I, uh, should probably get back. Bye." She walked very quickly back to her table, leaving me to slowly make my way back to Connor and his annoying superior and knowing look.

"Dude," he began, spreading his hands. "I warned you. I-"

"Shut up," I grumbled.

line break dedicated to Simon(I've read, like, ten different books with Simons in them, so this is basically to all the Simons out there)

Fireworks was two days away when I heard it: the dreaded and most horrible thing to happen. Silena herself, actually, was the one who told me. Kind of. Well, it was because of her that I found out. She'd apparently taken it upon herself to get a list of every couple in camp who was going to the Fireworks together, because I guess that's what Aphrodite girls like to do in their free time.

She'd taped the list up next to the front door of her cabin two days before the Fireworks. Most campers, including me, had originally been apprehensive and against the idea of just telling everyone who was going together without respecting anybody's privacy, but everyone was still looking at the list.

I waited until after my afternoon session(Beheading for Beginners, taught by Sean of the Ares cabin) to see the list. I casually stopped by the Aphrodite cabin and squinted at the list, campers' names neatly scrawled cross lined paper in purple pen. It was a little windy out, so I had to flatten the paper against the wood wall to keep it flat.

I wasn't sure what I was looking for, really.

Okay, that was a lie. And sure enough, I found her name near the bottom of the list: Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena - Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon

A hard pit tightened in the core of my stomach. Of course they were going together. I should have known. Percy must have asked her after I had. And you know what? Fine. Fine! Annabeth was setting herself up with a dangerous kid, one who barely had any control over his abilities. He would get her killed.

And I had tried to save her from that, but if that's what Annabeth chose, I couldn't stop her. I wasn't even mad anymore, at either Percy or Annabeth. If they were determined to set each other up for failure… then so be it.

line break dedicated to my latin teacher, cause she's great

"Oh, stop moping," Connor panted, wiping some sweat from his forehead. The entire Hermes cabin was doing foot racing with the nymphs today, and it was absolute torture.

Spending an hour with very pretty and athletic girls might sound like a pretty good deal, but trust me, it wasn't. Try spending an hour running as hard as you could, muscles burning, while a couple of girls ran about five times faster and left you in the dust.

Connor and I had given up about half way through. Most of the cabin had, I think, and we were all just jogging around the track at different paces while the nymphs tried to get us to run faster. On the bright side, it left plenty of room to talk.

"What?" I asked, frowning.

"Please," Connor said, breathing hard as we passed the mark for the eleventh time. The green girl standing there giggled and winked at me as I passed. I ignored her. "You really want to pretend you don't know what I'm talking about? I know you saw that list Silena made. You look the same way Travis does whenever he gets rejected by Katie."

"I'm fine!" I protested. "What do you want from me, a signed confession? Percy and Annabeth can go screw themselves! I don't care!"

"That was passionate," Connor snorted.

"Pa - passionate? Seriously?"

"You just need to stop acting so sad all the time! I've told you a crush on Annabeth is hopeless, you didn't listen, and now look what happened. And even so, I don't really get what you're so worked up about. People go to the Fireworks together, sure, but they don't actually do anything. It's not like they're getting a secluded island for a weekend or anything. Couples share a blanket on the sand, and watch the fireworks just like everyone else."

That… did make me feel a bit better. "Re - really?" I panted. Running was tiring.

"Yeah, dude. Most people don't even watch the fireworks. They also give you these cool sparklers that don't go out, for, like, hours, and most of the campers get up and mess around with those. Only the really coupley couples actually sit together on blankets."

"Why is it the biggest dating event of the year, then?"

Connor snorted. "It's the only dating event of the year. Nobody's around when Valentine's day actually comes, and even if no one actually sits together at the Fireworks everybody still asks each other out."

Well. "So it's not really that romantic?" I asked hopefully.

"Eh, it could be. I guess it would be a pretty nice place to, like, make out if you were feeling really turned on by your partner…"

I glared at him, stopping mid-jog and accidentally running into another Hermes camper. "Sorry," I said quickly. Then to Connor, with a glare: "I'm getting water."

Flat out ignoring the angry nymph who tried to keep me from leaving the running track, I pushed my way through the trees and onto the path back to the cabins. I needed a break. This Fireworks thing was way bigger a deal than it should have been.

And after what Connor had just said, I couldn't get the image of Percy and Annabeth sitting together on a picnic blanket together, smiling together under the stars while they're hands brushed and they leaned closer and-

Gah! No! Why did I have a friend like Connor who put images like that in my head? Why?!

My stream of thoughts were interrupted by two voices arguing. Two very familiar voices.

I stopped walking, freezing and ducking covertly behind a bush. I was halfway back to the cabins, close enough I could hear the two people clearly but couldn't really see them all that well.

That didn't mean I couldn't easily tell who they were: Percy… and Annabeth. They were standing in front of the Poseidon cabin. I held my breath.

"...that's what she said! I don't know much more than that!"

Annabeth's response was cold. "And I suppose you're just delighted to hear that wonderful news?"

Percy sounded desperate. "Wh - Annabeth! My mom just IMed me and told me Rachel had invited me on a trip to St. Thomas, it doesn't mean anything!"

"Really?" I could see Annabeth put her hands on her hips, but wasn't close enough to see her face. I kind of wished I could.

"Of course not! It's in a month, anyway!"

"So you're going to go?"

I bit my tongue. I remembered Annabeth complaining about Rachel once before, but I hadn't found out much. She was a mortal, apparently, that Percy had told about the demigod world. Well, whoever she was, she seemed to be causing trouble between Percy and Annabeth.

Thank the gods for Rachel.

I stood up and jogged about ten feet closer, crouching behind the wall of the Hermes cabin. I could see Percy clearly now, but Annabeth's back was facing me so I couldn't see her.

Percy was waving his hands helplessly. "I don't know, okay? I… opportunities like this don't really happen for me. Ever. And it's not just that, Rachel's… a friend. I should be allowed to visit my friends during the summer, shouldn't I?"

Annabeth's voice had taken a dangerous, icy tone. She'd been mad at me plenty of times before, definitely, but she had never sounded like this.

"Your friend," she said flatly. "Of course. How could I be so inconsiderate. Not like there's a war going on, or, hey! The most important mission of the summer that's supposed to happen at the same time as your stupid beach trip? But, wait, sorry. Go hang out with your little mortal friends, and hope the rest of us just wait for you to take your sweet time!"

"It's in a month, Annabeth, and I haven't even said yes yet! And I don't get what you have against her, anyway, she's done nothing but help us!"

"Oh, right," Annabeth scoffed, laughing in a very un-Annabeth like way. "Defend Rachel. Throw away everything we've been working for this summer so you can have you perfect vacation with your perfect girlfriend-"

"Rachel isn't my girlfriend!" Percy protested.

"Sure seems like it. You know what, I don't really want to complicate things further. Why don't you think about your feelings in your cabin, alone, during the Fireworks? I'll go with my cabin."

And with that, Annabeth turned around and stormed off toward the arena. Percy stared after her, mouth hanging open.

"Unbelievable," I heard him mutter. He marched off toward the Big House.

I must have sat there for another ten minutes, trying to comprehend what I'd just seen. Rachel - Percy's mortal friend - had apparently invited him on some sort of vacation, Annabeth had freaked out, and now they weren't going to the Fireworks together.

This was like a message from the gods, right? I had to ask Annabeth again. She could go from a boy who would only ever treat her badly, to one who would treat her with care.

I ran back to the racing track, biting back a grin the whole way. I caught up with Conner, who was struggling along what must have been his twentieth lap. "Hey," I said cheerfully.

He eyed me. "Some drink of water, huh?"

"You have no idea."

line break dedicated to Adrian and Nova

It was maybe two hours before the fireworks when I asked Annabeth. She was training in the arena, as she had been frequently for the last day or so. A row of about ten mutilated dummies were lined up against the far wall.

"Annabeth?" I asked, once I was close enough. There were a few other kids there, but most were wrapping up.

Annabeth spun around, whirling her knife and jamming it against my throat. I yelped, stumbling back. "Hey!"

"Oh," she said. "Sorry." She didn't sound very sorry, but I decided to ignore that.

"Um… I heard you weren't going to the Fireworks with Percy anymore."

Annabeth said nothing, just gave the dummy a particularly violent stab where the arm would have connected to the shoulder.

"Yeah, so, I just wanted to ask again…" It was easier to get out this time, somehow. Maybe because I was more confident, maybe because I wasn't surrounded by the entire camp. "Do you want to go to the Fireworks with me?"
Annabeth faced me, wearing an exasperated expression. "Gods, Mathew. How many times do I have to tell you, I-" Then she stopped, her mouth parted slightly like a thought had just occurred to her.

Something in her eyes hardened, and she gave me a tight-lipped smile. "You know what? Yes. I'll go to the Fireworks with you. Great? See you there!"

She returned to viciously stabbing the dummy. I slowly walked back to the Hermes cabin, half in a trance. She had said yes. Yes. I was going to the Fireworks with Annabeth. For once, I had won! I'd done it! Percy was stuck alone, and Annabeth and I were going together.

Chris Rodriguez gave me a bemused look when I floated through the door. "Something good happen?"

I gave him a shining smile. Oh, I could not wait to tell Connor.

So, this was part one of Fireworks. It was supposed to all be one chapter, but then it got too long so I split it in half. Good news is, I already have most of part two written out, so I should be posting it soon. :)

Thanks for reading!

-blackthornfam13