Hey! I hope you enjoy this chapter, thanks so much for all of the support! Also, I posted (another, I know) one-shot yesterday, and I'd appreciate it if you could check it out! I've had so much time lately, so I've been writing a bunch of them.

Disclaimer: I love PJO and HoO too much to have written them. A writer always sees flaws in their own work, and I see PJO and HoO as flawless, which proves, indeed, I have not written them.

Saturday. Annabeth could hardly believe how long she'd made it through this entire work process. What had it been, two weeks? It seemed like ages. Like entire chapters of her life had passed in the matter of just fourteen days.

She hadn't realized how long she'd been here- just yesterday, she'd claimed she'd been her only for a couple days. But that certainly wasn't the case. It had been weeks. Two weeks to be exact. It was weird how time could fly by so fast and so slow at the same time. The days went by slowly, but they blended together easily. She felt like she did the same thing every day.

Wake up, eat breakfast, ignore Percy as he came into the Bed and Breakfast, catch a cab ride with Piper and head to work. Take a lunch break. Finish work. Head back home, occasionally with a bar stop on the way. She did the rountinue compulsively, she was getting used to it. And it was nice to see the parts of her childhood that she'd left behind.

But it also hurt. It hurt so much, because no matter how much she tried to deny it, the memories she'd had, the memories with Percy, specifically.

She had become so good at blocking it out, but once she moved back to this godforsaken town, all the walls she'd built crumbled, making her vulnerable. It had been so long since she'd felt vulnerable, but it felt good and bad. In California, she was never put on the spot. There was nothing weighing her down there, she had a clean slate.

And she liked and disliked that. For one, it was nice, not having to watch your back. Not having to worry about seeing someone from your past might ruin anything. But on the other hand, she had nothing to be nostalgic about- nothing to take comfort in. The lack of memories there was both a healing thing and a harmful thing. It was a balance Annabeth had disregarded for a long time.

But back at this town, that balance was broken. Utterly shattered. Because she was surrounded by memories. She had been surrounded by memories. And when she didn't have work to occupy her, like today, when it was a Saturday, she was forced to take in all those memories. She couldn't push them to the side and ignore them.

Which is why she decided she would embrace them. She was meeting up with Thalia at the gym, and probably a couple of her own friends. It wasn't closure, and she felt weird even calling anything closure. She'd used it as an excuse for her actions far too much, and couldn't call this it.

It was just a fun time with friends, right? Nothing more. She'd introduce Piper, talk, and they'd fall into an easy rhythm. It was easy peasy. She could do that.

She woke Piper up from her slumber, and told her if she wanted to grunt and groan, she'd have to get coffee by herself. That seemed to wake her up, and they got ready to leave.

Walking downstairs, she surveyed the area, making sure Percy wasn't there. She turned to Piper, who was rolling her eyes, and continued out. Heading to a nearby cafe, they ordered drinks, and drank them quickly. Piper and Coffee never mixed well, causing an explosion of random sentences and thoughts, but if it meant she would shut up about Percy, Annabeth would gladly purchase some for her.

"This is literally the best coffee I've had." Piper said, squeezing her hands together. She looked hyper, too hyper.

Annabeth hummed. "Better than LA's."

"Dude, LA coffee is like…" Piper wrinkled her nose. "Too commercialized. This feels homemade."

Annabeth laughed. Piper had grown up in LA, and she usually only visited other places for her dad's job. Apparently, they filmed a scene here, so it was slightly surprising to Annabeth no one recognized Piper. Because of her dad, she had a mass of Instagram followers, which somehow gave Annabeth more Instagram followers.

"Well," Annabeth said, as she picked up her phone, going to call Chiron for a ride, "You'll be getting used to this, I guess. We have a bit longer to spend here."

Piper clicked her tongue, and then took another sip of her drink. "Honestly, I don't know why you don't like this place. It seems like a dream. I've been surrounded by celebrities my entire life, and this is weirdly calming. Nobody recognizes me, no one tries to convince me to let them facetime my dad, no one even cares. It's great."

"Maybe for you," Annabeth muttered. "This town has so many good memories attached to it, I'm not denying that." She looked over her shoulder, almost as if Percy was behind her. "But I… one big bad memory really destroys it all."

Piper looked at Annabeth thoughtfully. "When is Chiron getting here?"

"I haven't called yet." Annabeth replied.

Piper nodded. "You do that. Gym, remember?"

Annabeth made the call, and they sat in silence next to each other, until Chiron arrived. The drive was quiet until they arrived, to see Thalia, and several other of Annabeth's old friends waiting at the entrance of the gym.

"Annabeth!" Thalia said, "Ugh, I feel like we haven't met up as much as we should. I'm glad you decided to come." She turned to Piper. "Nice to see you Piper." She nodded.

Piper smiled a bit tightly. Annabeth understood why she was nervous. It was intimidating, seeing all these new people. Even for Piper, someone who was forced to socialize with new people on the daily, and have deep conversations with them.

Annabeth scanned the crowd, well, not a crowd, it was about Six people apart from Thalia. She recognized most of them. Hazel, Frank, Nico, Will, and Silena. There was one girl she didn't recognize, she had a fierce look in her eyes, that said, don't mess with me.

From everyone's body language, it seemed most of them had linked up. Hazel and Frank, that was inevitable, they'd been interested in each other forever. It was nice one of them finally made a move. Will and Nico, they'd always had this cute relationship, and they got together nearing the end of Senior year. It was nice to see they'd stayed together. Silena, as far as Annabeth knew, hadn't been in a relationship, but the ring on her left ring finger, she was married, or engaged.

She hadn't noticed that the other day. "Oh," Thalia said, interrupting her thoughts. "This is Reyna."

The girl she hadn't recognized smiled a bit, her harsh gaze turning accepting. Annabeth held out her hand, and gave a firm shake. Satisfied, the girl- Reyna, stepped back, and smiled at Thalia.

"Nice to meet you Reyna." Annabeth said, and then motioned over to Piper. "This is Piper."

Piper smiled, "Hey! You look kind of farmilar. Do you work with Silena or something?" She asked.

Reyna looked her up and down, not impressed at all. Piper looked taken aback, and Annabeth could understand why. Usually, people instantly liked Piper. She was magnetic like that. She was friendly, sociable, and most of all, daring. "Yeah." Reyna said cooly. "I work with Jason."

Piper's eyes widened in realization. "Are you his friend?" She bit her lip. "That Reyna?'

"Obviously." Reyna's lip curled, and Piper winced, ever so slightly. It was enough that somebody who wasn't looking would notice.

For several seconds, there was a silence. "So!" Hazel clasped her hands together, desperately attempting for a subject change. "You look great Annabeth, It's nice to see you again. We haven't talked in ages."

"Right," Annabeth said, and turned away from Reyna. "Yeah, you too Hazel. It's nice to see you and Frank finally fessed up your feelings and got together."

Frank went bright red, and so did Hazel, though it was less noticeable, almost as if she'd gotten used to the teasing. "And Silena," Annabeth turned to her. "You tied the knot? To who." She asked, looking earnestly over. If jumping from person to person would help settle the air between Piper and Reyna, then she'd spare her social anxiety.

"Oh yeah!" Silena's eyes brightened up. "Beckendorf. He's amazing." She gushed. Silena had always been the type of girl to have short infatuations, and being popular meant that she could pursue those. It was cool to see she'd settled down, and found someone she really liked. It was fine, dating people casually, to find the right person, and it seemed that she had.

Annabeth scratched the side of her head. "Beckendorf- I think I work with him. He seems like a good guy, congratulations."

"Thank you," Silena said, and it seemed sincere. "How about we go on in, that was the point of this, right? To work out together, stuff like that, catch up?"

Annabeth smiled. She worked at this place, sure, but that didn't mean she couldn't take advantage of the facility. Plus, she was ninetey nine percent sure Percy didn't work here on weekends, so she didn't have to worry about that. Thank god.

It was time to reconnect- something that Annabeth had been itching to do for a while.

Another filler chapter. I hope it turned out okay- one major plot point is coming up soon, so I just had to set up for that. I think you guys will like what happens next, but obviously, no spoilers.

Anyway, I hope you all stay safe and healthy! Thanks so much for reading!

TheLil'Lion

Replies:

SeaMaster, I can't take it either *shakes head* why won't they just get back together? *looks at plot map* oh… that's why. Thanks so much for reading! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

theonewhoisBEST, thanks so much! I'm glad that you're enjoying it! The slow burn is killing me too.

Ksi, Percy broke up with Annabeth because of both insecurities, and because they would be in a long distance relationship. I hope that you're enjoying the story (: