I don't own Percy Jackson, and it's sad but true. I'm just a nobody

Mark's POV:

I've known Annabeth Chase for a while. We met in New York when we were just six, in first grade together. I was at Annabeth's seventh birthday party.

When Annabeth ran away from home, I didn't really know what had happened. I was just a kid. My family moved away to San Francisco, California, when I was eight. When I thought of Annabeth after this, I just assumed she'd come back or something after I left.

Then, miraculously, Annabeth reappeared in my San Francisco school one day when we were twelve. I'd had a bit of a crush on her when we were kids and she'd just gotten prettier- blond princess curls and those gray eyes that ruined her California girl image. She told me that in the years we'd missed she'd been mostly at a year-round camp for kids on Long Island. She went back that summer, for her thirteenth birthday.

From then on, her seventh was the only birthday I attended, the rest being at camp. She came back as late as possible and left as early as she could for breaks and summertime. Our little friend group never really questioned her, she was a little evasive of 'camp' questions and when we asked to go always shot us down fast.

"Hey, Annabeth, I've got a question." Amy asked. Our friend group, me (Mark), Joseph (Joey), Amy, and Laura, were playing a game of 'Did You Know' where you asked questions about things you didn't know.

"Yes?" Annabeth was kneeling on the ground with a string in her hand, turning it around and around.

"Who's the closest person to you ever? Like, more than family, like, a best friend/not-blood-family?" Amy shot me a look. Everyone knew of my crush on Annabeth. I smiled at her, anticipating her answer.

Annabeth smiled, too. "Percy Jackson." I swear my eyes bugged out comically. I gagged silently for a moment.

"Who now?"

"Percy Jackson. He's my friend I met when we were eleven. He convinced me to come back here with Dad and everything…I owe him a lot. And look- if he hadn't done that, I would never have met any of you."

"Except me," I supplied. Annabeth acknowledged it with an amused nod, gray eyes sparkling. God, those eyes were beautiful.

"Except you." It was moments like these where I wanted to hug her, or even kiss her, or ask her out or something instead of standing here. "But yeah…Percy's the guy." That made me stiffen, and Laura gave her a quizzical glance.

"The guy?" Annabeth blushed for a moment.

"The person, we aren't dating or anything like that at all." Joey raised an eyebrow- he was a bit of a matchmaker sometimes.

"So how come we've never met the guy?" he wiggled his eyebrows. Annabeth slapped him, hard.

"He lives in New York, where camp is." Camp again. How come we could never go to 'camp'? Why was he allowed? "Percy's not very…high income, he's only met his dad twice, I think, and his mom works in a sweetshop. So he doesn't get to visit unless our camp friend Nico takes him, or something else." I noticed the 'something' in Annabeth's sentence.

"Will we ever get to meet your 'camp' friends? Or actually visit your camp?" Annabeth started to answer but I cut her off. "Come on, Annabeth. It's not so bad in San Francisco for the summer, and we miss you when you take off an hour after school's out. We can't do anything really fun on weekends."

"My camp is very selective," she said at last, "it looks for a certain type of people, and you guys aren't really it. Actually, Percy does come often sometimes, right time right place will do it. And Camp is my favorite place ever! I…if we're friends, you'll let me go." That silenced us, and we shared a look. Threatening our friendship. But I pressed on.

"Selective, Annabeth? What are you that we aren't?" that made her pause and the looks we were giving her, feeling hurt and betrayed by Annabeth's words, and the fact that she adamantly refused to let us go, with a new excuse every time, made her speak again.

"Different." She whispered, and her voice, so broken, made the world of sadness and loss that always lurked under the surface of her gray eyes break free. "You aren't different like I am, like Percy, Nico, Thalia, Katie, Connor, Travis, Will, Clarisse, Austin, Beckendorf, Drew, Silena are. We are different in a way you can't imagine, so drop it, okay?" we were stunned silent. "I'm going to the bathroom." She said, standing.

"Wow." Amy said after a while. "You got more out of her that time. But, uh, I don't think she's going to go out with you for some time after this." I managed a smile, but my heart was turning to dust.

"Yeah. I just…it's like Annabeth has a whole other life that she hides from us, that this isn't the real Annabeth, and I want to know Annabeth Chase without lock and key hiding her life. Where did she go when she was seven? What is camp? How is she different?" I was frustrated and I kicked the side of the couch. Mr. and Mrs. Chase, Annabeth's dad and stepmom, weren't home, and Bobby and Matthew, her twin stepbrothers, were upstairs horsing around.

Laura, bored, rang the doorbell from the inside, and the two twins came running down. "Percy?" they exclaimed. "Connor? Travis? Thalia?" they blinked.

"Where are they? We heard the doorbell. Where's Percy? He's the best ever!"

Wow, I thought. They must really know this Percy person. And love him.

I tried to swallow hurt that they didn't like me like they apparently liked Percy. But it didn't go down very easily.

Annabeth was back from the bathroom. "My turn to ask a question. Hey, Mark, this one's for you. Who's the closest person to you ever? Your best friend, not-blood-family?" I swallowed, hard. The rest of us knew the answer to this, but Annabeth, Annabeth-whose-best-friend-wasn't-really-me, did not. Because the answer was her. And her answer was supposed to be me. That was the way things were. How could your best friend be a person you never saw? That was for adults. We were thirteen.

"You." I said simply, watching her face. A display of emotions came across her face- shock, surprise, joy, dismay, confusion, irritation, anger, grief, guilt, warring across her face like a light display being clicked on and off again and again.

"What?" she said when she spoke again. Why was she so worked up? "That's not right. It's not supposed to be me." Heh. Her answer was supposed to be me, but mine not supposed to be her? Hmph. Why not?

"You aren't supposed to say me. I'm Annabeth Chase. I ruin everything. I ruined Luke. I ruined Thalia. I couldn't save them. I can't save you. That's why I have Percy. You can't. Pick Joey, Amy, Laura, anyone! I can't save you. Nothing I do is permanent. Nothing I build is going to stand up…like a lighthouse in the storm, the only thing is…" I could guess the answer now, and anger built in my throat.

"The only thing is what, Annabeth? Percy Jackson? Your best friend? Your answer was supposed to be me. We're best friends. That's what you've said. But I guess like everything else it was all under lock and key, a hidden part of your life, another lie." Hurt rippled across her face, mouth slightly open, eyes wide. She couldn't believe I'd said that, and I couldn't believe it either. This was Annabeth. The girl I…well, I'd fallen in love with her and I was afraid I would never be free, and Percy had ruined my illusions that she liked me too. It was so obvious! I'd never been the one and I never would be with Percy.

The bell rang, for real this time. Annabeth was actually crying, and Joey, Amy, and Laura looked between us like a ping pong match.

"Percy?" she gasped. She threw herself into the waiting arms of a stranger. "Percy!"

"Wise Girl! Hey!" he studied her face. "Why are you crying?"