A/N – Hello! I am back! I know most of you skip over my notes, but please read the one at the bottom of this chapter. I have some things I want to tell you guys. Presenting the third chapter of The Other Side – "Are you kidding?" This is about the time when Percy and Annabeth went on The Tunnel of Love Ride at the water park. Enjoy!

Disclaimer – All rights belong to Uncle Rick.

Chapter Three:

"Are you kidding?"

This had to be the most embarrassing moment in my whole life. I had never felt more awkward and humiliated.

Percy, Grover, and I had gone to an old, rundown and closed waterpark – Waterland. Yeah, I know. Not a very original name. Anyways, Lord Ares had sent us here to retrieve his shield. Percy had been very angry. If Grover and I had not held him back, he would probably be a dead guinea pig right now.

Percy had been rather disturbed by the fact the though Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, she was dating Ares. For me and Grover, this was nothing new. The whole structure of the Olympian family was disturbing. I mean, there were actual siblings who were married.

We had found Ares' shield along with Aphrodite's scarf in a boat on The Tunnel of Love ride. The ride was like a huge basin surrounded by Cupid statues holding mirrors pointed towards the boat. It seemed like the perfect place for a date between two vain people.

This would have been great. Except, it seemed too easy. Why would the god of war be afraid of this? Clearly, there was some sort of obstacle hidden from us.

While I was pondering on about what the obstacle could be, Percy was getting ready to go down. Grover offered to go with him, but Percy told him to stay as backup.

Then, that Seaweed Brain did something that made me turn redder than a ripe strawberry.

He asked me to go to The Tunnel of Love Ride with him! Did he have any idea what that question implied! If any of Aphrodite's children would have been here, they would probably have fainted by now.

Wait…. was this really a mistake…. or was he aware of the implications of his question? I knew from personal experience that he could be very smart when he wanted to. He just acted stupid and dumb to lower others' expectations of him.

Anyways, I am getting off the point here. What was the point again? Oh yes! That Percy was an oblivious idiotic buffoon. What was I supposed to do? That brings us to now.

Meanwhile, Percy seemed rather confused at my denial to go with him. I blabbered out some undignified nonsense about me going to a love ride with him. His face was immediately covered with a blush, yet he tried to argue with me.

Honestly, he had a valid point. I mean, there really was no one to see us except Grover. And I was sure that he would not tell on us. Well, as long as we convinced *cough* threatened/blackmailed/bribed *cough* him.

As I was going over all of this in my mind, Percy had apparently decided to go into the ride all by himself. Yeah right! He would probably end up creating even more trouble, being the Seaweed Brain he was.

So, to save his sorry butt and ours too, I followed him, grumbling about how stupid and infuriating he was. All the way down, I had a bad feeling, and things never go smoothly when I have a bad feeling.

When we reached the boat, Percy picked up Aphrodite's scarf and brought it close to his face, immediately getting a dazed expression. Uh oh. I had read about Aphrodite's scarf and its love magic. It contained some powerful magic that could make anyone fall in love.

If I had not snatched the scarf away from Percy, he would probably have gone and fallen in love with someone…maybe even me. I internally shuddered at the thought of something as horrifying as that. Though honestly, would that really be bad? A voice inside me asked. Aargh! I need to stop thinking about this.

After I saved Percy from the scarf, I ordered him to get the shield so we could keep going and resume our actual quest. The second his fingers brushed the shield I knew something was wrong. Wait a minute, the Greek letter at the base of the Cupid statues and carved at the side of the boat, Eta, translated to 'H' in English. 'H' for Hephaestus. How could I have been so stupid! It was a trap.

This was why Ares did not want to come here. But I had a feeling that we had not seen the worst yet. We needed to get out of there.

Fast.

But it was too late.

Right in front of my eyes, the Cupid statues turned to each other and shot, creating fine golden net. Grover tried to keep a part of the net open, but wherever he touched it, it wrapped around his hands. We were completely and utterly trapped! But the worst was yet to come.

Percy and I started running to the top. Just as we reached the rim, the mirrors opened. Thousands of disgusting, ugly six - legged creatures started climbing towards us.

Spiders.

My worst fear.

I screamed and held onto Percy for dear life. I clung to him like a toddler as the arachnids got closer. We retreated to the boat. I tried to calm myself down as my fear overpowered me. I could vaguely hear Percy making some plan with Grover. But I was too busy trying to calm myself down to pay any attention to that.

Percy pushed me onto the seat and put on my any other circumstance, I would be extremely embarrassed to have his hands on my waist, but right now I was too busy screaming for my life as memories of my childhood flooded me.

I could see spiders, cobwebs, my stepmother's disbelieving look, my dad's indifference, my terror, all of it.

Suddenly, I was brought out of my memories by a huge wave. Somehow, Percy had managed to make the water flow out of the pipes, carrying our boat forward and drowning the spiders. I mentally rejoiced at the rather happy demise of my foes.

But my victory was short lived. We were faced with yet another challenge. We were going to crash straight into the closed gates!

We had to stop the boat somehow.

Then for the first time in all the while I had known him, Percy had a good idea. I did not understand at first and thought he was crazy, but then I realised that he had a point.

I quickly unbuckled my seatbelt and gripped his hand. It was warm and comforting. I did not ever want him to let go.

*dreamy sigh*

No! Bad Annabeth! You hate Percy, remember? You definitely do not have a crush on his cute, endearing self. No! Absolutely not!

Anyways, back to the life - threatening situation we were currently in.

Percy told me to jump on his mark. Yeah right! I probably had a higher chance of living by crashing into the gates that by listening to them.

I corrected him and told him to jump on my mark.Using simple physics, I got us maximum lift.

Unfortunately, it was too much lift.

We flew straight over the door…...and towards the solid asphalt.

Thankfully, before we fell, Grover caught us. Unfortunately, we were too heavy for him to carry alone. On top of that, our momentum carried all of us straight to the ground.

We fell onto the ground, though it was a softer landing for me as I landed on Percy's stomach. Grover, on the other hand, was not so lucky. He fell straight through a board and became Noo – Noo the Friendly Whale.

Percy shouted something at the Cupid statues, and it was then that I realised something. The whole time, we were being filmed.

I was utterly pissed.

And apparently so was Percy, especially with a certain war god.

Judging by the look on his face, our meeting with Ares was not going to go well.

For any of us.

A/N – So that's it for now. You won't believe how long this took me to write. Anyways, I thought I would set up kind of a timetable for my updates. So, for now, I will update at least twice a week. So that's 2 chapters a week for you guys. Now for the second reason behind this note. I would really appreciate it if you guys Favourited, Reviewed, and Followed this story. In case I forgot to mention this before, this is my first story. So, I really need the encouragement. Especially since I am barely 13 so I don't have much experience in writing stuff. Oh! Here's a little secret. The more reviews and favs I get, the sooner will I upload and the cheesier will my scenes be. See you guys later! Signing out – Just Another Half – Blood!