Annabeth's attendance record had never been great, but it got even worse over the course of the next few months. She was in and out of classes for the rest of the semester, and there was no pattern to when she decided to show up to school. Brett always tried to talk to her when she did show up, but she had no interest in talking to anybody. In class she spoke to no one unless it was absolutely necessary, and she still hadn't reconciled with Mara, so she sat alone at lunch everyday. Every time she came to school she looked progressively worse. She was exhausted, and it seemed to Brett as though she was a thousand miles away.

Brett still kept an eye out for her, and he didn't give up on the idea that he could help Annabeth, but now his mind was also preoccupied with someone else. Jake still hadn't come back. Brett and Randy had both tried contacting him, but had gotten no answer. They had gone to his house, but his mother hadn't been able to tell them where he was.

"You don't need to worry about him," she tried to assure them, even though she looked plenty worried herself. She nervously fiddled with her necklace, and the bags under her eyes suggested she hadn't been sleeping well. "He's alright. He's just away visiting family."

She closed the door before Brett could point out that it had always just been Jake and his mother.

After a couple months Brett stopped expecting Jake to be at school, but he hadn't stopped worrying, or wondering where he could possibly have gone.


As the weeks went on Brett fell into a sort of routine. He watched for Annabeth and Jake, but never really expected either of them. If Annabeth showed up, he would keep an eye on her, but her schedule never changed. She came to school, went through the motions, and then would disappear as soon as the school day ended.

However, that all changed one day when a brown-haired woman showed up to pick Annabeth up from school one day. She was older, with a handful of grey hairs, and she stood a couple inches shorter than Annabeth. But when Annabeth all but collapsed into her arms when the woman hugged her, she seemed taller. Was this Annabeth's mother?

"Thanks for picking me up, Sally. And for letting me stay with you."

"Of course, Annabeth," the woman- Sally- reassured. "You are always welcome at any time." Annabeth clung to Sally for a moment longer before releasing her and stepping back. Sally took Annabeth's hands in hers and asked gently, "have there been any changes in his condition?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Nothing." she let out a frustrated sigh. "I keep waiting and hoping for him to wake up and there's nothing I can do."

Sally squeezed Annabeth's hands. "I know, Sweetie. That's the hardest part- the waiting, knowing you can't do anything. But that's all we can do. We can only wait and hope that Percy will get better."

Annabeth shook her head again. "How do you do it? How can you keep going when you know he's out there somewhere, in danger all the time?"

Sally pulled her into another hug, rubbing soothing circles into Annabeth's back. "You get used to it. The worry will never go away, and I won't even say that it gets easier, but I have to get used to it. Otherwise I would never be able to get out of bed in the morning."

"I hate this," Annabeth said, her voice cracking.

"I know,"

Brett continued to watch as the two women comforted each other. It was a few minutes before Sally pulled away and wiped her eyes. She shook her head and said with a small smile, "Come on, Sweetie. My son wouldn't want us moping around worrying about him. Let's go home."

Annabeth nodded, and left with Sally. Brett watched them go, his mind reeling. That was Percy's mother? But she seemed like such a sweet woman. How could someone like her end up with a troublemaker like Percy as a son?

Annabeth had seemed incredibly close with Sally, and Brett remembered her mentioning that she did live with Percy and his mother. It didn't look good for Brett's chances to make Annabeth see Percy for what he was. If she was so attached to his mother, she would put up with a lot from Percy in order to stay close with his family.

But maybe with this new angle Brett could talk to Annabeth. He knew more now about what was holding Annabeth back, and Brett could use that to his advantage.


But Annabeth didn't come back to school. Brett looked for her everyday, but as each day passed with no sign of Annabeth, Brett lost a little more hope that she would ever come back. The semester creeped slowly to its end, and when the last day arrived and Brett still hadn't seen Annabeth he knew that he had lost his chance. School had been the only place where he even had a little bit of a chance of running into Annabeth, and he knew that the chances of seeing her sometime over the summer were slim.

So summer came and went and Brett tried to forget about Annabeth. Instead, he focused on hanging out with Randy, and worried about Jake, who still hadn't come back from 'visiting family.' By the time the new school year rolled around, Brett had almost managed to push any thoughts of Annabeth completely out of his mind.

That didn't stop him from doing a double take when Annabeth walked through the doors on the first day of school, holding hands with none other than Percy Jackson himself. What was he doing here? Didn't he go to another school? Brett watched as Annabeth laughed at something Percy said, and he couldn't help but notice how much better she looked from the last time he'd seen her. The dark bags under her eyes were gone, and she looked lighter, like she was no longer carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said as she dragged Percy past Brett and down the hall. "I'll show you around."

A horrible feeling settled in Brett's stomach. Annabeth wouldn't need to show Percy around unless Percy was going to go to school here. He must have transferred. Maybe to keep an eye on Annabeth? Brett didn't know, but he hated the idea of Annabeth having no escape from Percy's influence.


Brett continued to watch Percy and Annabeth over the next couple days. It wasn't hard to keep a relatively close eye on them given the fact that Brett shared many of his classes with either both, or at least one of them. He had never really seen the two of them together for an extended period of time before, but he got plenty of it now. It was almost impossible to catch Annabeth alone. Percy was always somewhere nearby. But as he continued to watch them, Brett had to admit that Annabeth did seem happier when Percy was around. She laughed more, she smiled more, and Percy really did seem to care about Annabeth. But Brett knew that people could put on a show in public, then become a completely different person behind closed doors.


It was one of those rare times when Percy and Annabeth were apart that Brett finally caught a glimpse of Percy's true colors.

Brett had been walking to his first class of the day when he noticed Percy out of the corner of his eye. He was standing on the school's front lawn, and Annabeth wasn't with him, but he wasn't alone. He was talking to a young black girl who couldn't have been more than fourteen. She had dark curly hair and she wore a purple t-shirt and ripped jeans. Brett shouldn't have been surprised that Percy was willing to manipulate a girl so much younger than him, but it was still disgusting to see. Percy hugged the girl, and Brett turned away. He had seen enough. He needed to tell Annabeth.

He caught her alone as she was loading books into her locker. "Annabeth!" he called, out of breath. "Annabeth, I need to tell you something."

She merely raised her eyebrow. "What?"

"I saw Percy outside the school-"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, Brett he does actually go to school here- has for a couple weeks now, so I'm not surprised that you would see him."

"No, but Annabeth, he was with another girl!"

"Oh?" She raised her eyebrow again, but instead of looking hurt, she just seemed amused.

Brett pressed on. "Yeah, probably a freshman- she looked really young. Can't you see? He's cheating on you."

"Oh really? What did this girl look like?" Annabeth asked. But before Brett could get a word in she continued. "A young black girl? Curly hair, about yay high?" She held her arm up to indicate the approximate height of the girl Brett had seen.

"Yes…" Brett agreed tentatively, sure he was missing something and having no idea how to proceed.

"Yeah, that's our friend Hazel," Annabeth explained, exasperated. "She is visiting from California with her boyfriend."

Oh. Brett supposed that made sense, but he couldn't give up just yet. "She and Percy seemed awfully close,"

Annabeth rolled her eyes again. "Yeah, of course they did. Hazel is like a little sister to Percy. To imply that there is anything romantic in between them, though, is laughable."

Brett opened his mouth to argue further, but he found that he didn't have anything else to say. If Annabeth couldn't see what was right in front of her, then how was he supposed to convince her? He needed concrete proof of Percy's wrongdoings; something that even Annabeth couldn't deny. But for that he would need to do some digging.