"Ooh! We're halfway the-ere, oh OH! Livin' on a prayer! Take my—"

"Percy, shut up!" Jason roared, clapping his hands over his ears. "I can't hear myself think!"

Percy raised an eyebrow, leaning against the fence pole he had just secured into the ground. "Wow, I didn't even know you could think."

Jason shot him a glare while I just chuckled, petting Porkpie's neck.

A section of the paddock had come loose in the rain earlier this week, the rotten wood finally caving to the harsh demands of nature. Not wanting to do it alone, Percy called Jason over to help him. I watched them as I groomed Porkpie. I wasn't going to ride the horse today, but every horse needs a little extra loving, even for no reason.

So as I was brushing a knot out of Porkpie's mane, Percy was belting out the lyrics for "Livin' On A Prayer," and poor Jason was rethinking his life choices, like the one when he decided to become Percy's friend.

"You know, I have every right to just leave and you can do this all yourself," Jason threatened.

Percy grinned, pinching Jason's cheek like an old grandma. "Oh, don't worry, my sweet lumps. You won't do that."

I bust out laughing, more at Jason's death glare than anything. Then he turned that on me, and I sobered up, stifling my giggles behind Porkpie's neck.

"I hate you," he said to Percy. "And you." That was directed at me.

"Dude, you need a girlfriend," Percy muttered. "It's time for you to loosen up."

"You're mom needs a girlfriend," Jason grumbled.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Oh, that's mature. You know, that joke doesn't even make sense. And it's so overused."

"It's the human society, Perce," I told him. "Can't expect too much."

"Ouch, girl," Percy said in a sassy way. I stuck my tongue out at him, and he returned it.

Before anybody could say something else, we heard a voice call to us.

"Kids!" Poseidon yelled to us. A draft of wind came at his next words, so I only caught "Come and meet".

"What did he say?" I asked.

Jason shrugged. "Come and meet something that starts with a 'P'."

"Gods, I hope it's pizza," Percy said, dragging himself off the post. "I'm so hungry."

As we started walking to the house, I said to him, "Yeah, we're going to go meet Pizza. Pizza's the person my mom sent to watch my progress."

He sent his eyes skyward.

That's who this person was, though. My mom had texted yesterday, saying in as few a words as possible that the person coming to oversee me for a day or two was going to need to be picked today at four. So while we did some last few chores outside, Poseidon went to pick the person up. He just got back from the airport, and curiosity was filling every inch of me. I honestly had no clue who my mom would send. I was hoping someone I knew and liked, but my mom was probably going to do the exact opposite.

"Tonight, the foxes hunt the hounds, and it's all over now. Before it has begun, and we've already wo-oon!" Percy sang.

"Why are you so singy today?" Jason demanded.

Percy shrugged. "Don't hate, bro."

Jason gave him a warning glower. "If you start singing Taylor—"

"'CAUSE!" Percy screamed. "The haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate . . ."

He said the word more times than it was supposed to be, his voice deepening and slowing down each time until he sounded like a video on slow motion. Jason huffed angrily while I hid a smile. I caught Percy's wink sent at me, and I shook my head. Boys. Always feeling the need to annoy one another.

We rounded the corner, coming into the view of the entrance to the house. The visitor was kneeling on the sidewalk, petting an excited Mrs. O'Leary.

I instantly recognized the choppy brown hair, small braids woven between the strands.

"Piper!" I said happily, running up to see her. The girl whirled around at my voice, a smile lighting up her kaleidoscope eyes.

She and I collided in a fierce hug. I hadn't realized how much I had missed her. It was so nice to see her again.

Piper and I have known each other for quite some time, and her mom was a huge fashion designer. Like, really big. Aphrodite was her mom's name. So she had some fame from that, and then her dad, Tristan McLean, was a movie actor. He starred in the movie I became famous in, and we both were the main actors. So one day he brought Piper to the set and we clicked immediately. Then, as my career progressed, Piper became my make up artist and personal fashion designer. We both loved it, because then we got to see each other a lot more.

"Annabeth, I missed you so much!" she squealed, squeezing me harder. She leaned back to look at me.

"Girl, you've gotten a tan," she said.

"Yeah, tan lines," I replied. She grinned.

I stepped back, letting her see the two boys who were waiting behind us. Piper smiled at them, and I swear Jason's jaw dropped slightly.

"Piper, this is Percy, he's the rancher's son," I said. "Percy, this is Piper." They shook hands, Percy flashing her a lopsided grin that made my heart do a weird motion. That was so stupid. I mean, all he did was smile, and my heard was flitting around like a mentally challenged bird.

"And, Jason, this is Piper. Piper, Jason is Percy's friend."

Piper leaned forward, offering her hand. Jason stuck his out, then retracted it, looking at it briefly before wiping it on his shirt, attempting to get some of the dirt off.

"Oh, it's fine," Piper said. "I don't care about a little dirt." Well, the boys were pretty dirty. Percy had some dirt smeared on his nose, and his shirt and jeans were dusty. His gloves were sticking out of his back pocket, equally brown with the earth. Jason was the same.

Jason grinned widely at her, taking her hand. They seemed to shake hands for a little longer than necessary, and when I cleared my throat, they blushed and jumped away from each other quickly.

"Anyway, what are you doing here?" I asked Piper. "I thought my mom would send someone else, someone I didn't want to see."

"Well, she was planning on that," Piper replied. She stuck her hands in her jeans, smirking. "But I just took a leaf out of your book. I should become an actress. I managed to fool her, pretending I was extremely mad that you might not be taking this seriously, and that I would beat you to a pulp if you were messing around. She seemed to buy that, so I got to come! Now we can part-ay!"

I laughed with her. Then Percy said, "Take a picture, dude. It'll last longer." His voice was teasing, and we both turned to look at the two boys. Jason had been staring pretty intently at us, but when Percy said that, he turned red and shoved at his friend's shoulder. Percy just snickered.

Poseidon chose that moment to come out, finding Jason who's face resembled a tomato, Percy sneering, me rolling my eyes, and Piper standing awkwardly.

He frowned. "Okay, then. Well, I was just going to suggest that you guys take a break and bring Piper on a trail ride. I got her some boots already. You can show her around the place if you want."

"Sure!" Jason piped up. This just enhanced Percy's snickers, and when Jason noticed how overly enthusiastic he sounded, he turned even redder.

"Um—I, uh—I'm just tired. I'm glad for the break," he managed to stammer out.

"Well, why don't you go get Tempest ready and find Piper a horse," I said to him. He nodded, shuffling his feet slightly before turning and gesturing to Piper to follow him. I watched them walk off, talking a little.

Percy gave me the eye. "So, my fellow matchmaker. You ready for this?"

I laughed evilly. "You bet. They won't know what hit them."

Well, turns out Percy and I didn't have to do that much work. Our matchmaking skills didn't come to the surface. Jason and Piper were doing fine on their own.

I said as much to Percy as we rode side by side, a few meters behind Jason and Piper on the trail between the woods. They were talking, Piper throwing her head back and laughing and Jason looking pleased that she laughed.

"I know," Percy agreed. "Look at 'em. They're definitely getting married."

I snorted, rolling my eyes.

"Well, I'm going to be the maid of honor."

Percy dipped his head. "And I'm going to be the man of honor."

Mentally face-palming, I replied exasperatedly, "Percy. It's the best man, not the man of honor." My voice cracked at the last few words as I tried to hold in my laughter.

He snapped the fingers of his free hand. "Oh! I was thinking about that yesterday, and I couldn't think of the right term. So I just used 'man of honor.'"

A smile appeared on my face. "Okay, whatever."

"You know then we'll have to dance, right?"

Before I knew it, my mind had conjured up an image of me dancing with Percy. Preferably a slow dance, peaceful and . . . Romantic? No, that couldn't have been the word my mind brought up. It's not like I enjoy the feeling of being in Percy's arms—I mean, I do enjoy it, just not—I don't know.

As if wanting to convince me further of my feelings, my brain took me back to that night, after my fight with my mom via telephone. I had been so mad, but sitting in Percy's embrace—he just seemed to drain all the sorrow and frustration. It was so soothing, and I felt like everything was okay for that one night.

Seeing that Percy was still waiting, I managed to say, "Don't you dare step on my toes." My cheeks had grown heated, and I willed the blush to seep away.

"Whatcha guys talking about?" Piper asked. She had slowed Guido down, coming to walk beside me.

"Jason's and your wedding," Percy said simply. "It's gonna be awesome."

Piper grew redder than me, spluttering, "Woah—what?"

Percy, smirking, winked at me before urging Blackjack into a trot, catching up to Jason.

I glared at his back. "Thanks, Perce."

"What did he mean?" Piper demanded.

"Nothing," I said. "Except that you seem to be enjoying Jason's company."

She didn't meet my eyes, twisting the reigns in her grip. "He's just really nice."

"Mhmm," I hummed, unconvinced. "I'll make sure to remind you of that when you two are dating."

My best friend rolled her green eyes, the color being our surrounding of emerald leaves. "You're one to talk. What about you and Percy?"

Not surprisingly, I blushed again.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Piper raised an eyebrow. "Really? Because I know that's a lie. You totally like him."

"Sh!" I said frantically, glancing at the two conversing boys ahead of us. "Don't say it so loud!"

"So you do?" she continued to pester, albeit in a quieter voice.

I bit my lip. "I guess."

It was weird. I had accepted the fact in my mind, but saying it out loud just made it seem . . . real.

Piper grinned. "You two are cute, I'll give you that."

I sent my eyes to the sky, then got serious again. "I don't know. I do, but—but there's really no chance. I mean, he lives here, I live in California. He's a cowboy, I'm a world-wide actress. My mom was clear to point that out. And don't mention Luke. That just puts all my feelings in a whirlwind."

It was nice to get this off my chest—I'd missed having a girlfriend to talk to and share secrets with.

She sighed. "Well, maybe you do like Luke. But you can like two people. You just have to decide and stick with it."

I imagined that. I imagined picking Luke and spending so much time with him. We'd probably go to super expensive restaurants, get bombarded by paparazzi, star in movies together, and have many rumors started about us. It would be a crazy life.

But with Percy, it could be different. We'd spend days at the lake, riding horses together, living in a quiet, off-the-map world. It sounded peaceful and comforting.

However, I was getting ahead of myself. First off, I had just said things would be difficult with Percy, because of all the differences. And second . . .

"He had a girlfriend," I said, trying to keep the whine out of my voice.

"Oh, that sucks," Piper said. "Do they seem strong? Is it a good relationship?"

Well, from the time I've been here, they don't spend a ton of time together, they seem to argue a lot, she gets jealous and has trust issues, he seems to be the one keeping them together, even though she downright cheated on him.

"I think they're doing fine," I lied.

Piper pursed her lips, thinking. "Well, I need to meet this girlfriend."

"You'll regret you ever said that."

"That bad, huh?" She smiled.

My lips curved. Then I remembered something. "Wouldn't my mom have given you the things she wanted me to do? And wouldn't 'Getting rid of any bad feelings' be at the top of the list? She seemed to hate Percy. Didn't she tell you to tell me to stay away from Percy?"

Piper shrugged. "Yeah, but I don't agree with that. Love is love."

"Wait a second, we aren't into love," I stopped her.

"Just wait. It'll come sometime, and for the right person."

"The trick is finding the right person," I muttered.

"Hey, Annabeth?"

I looked up at the person who called to me. Percy's eyes matched the green around us, brighter than the grass.

At my raised eyebrow, he continued. "Now that Piper's here, can she disguise you and can we go to town?"

Glancing at my friend, who nodded emphatically, I turned back to the ebony-haired boy. "Yep! I want to me your friends!"

He gave me a lopsided grin, his eyes sparkling. I returned the smile, equally happy.

I caught Piper's wiggling eyebrow in my peripheral vision as we continued to smile at each other, but I also caught Jason's curious gaze.

"Don't lead him on," Jason had said all those days ago.

He had said don't lead Percy on because it was just going to be a dead end. Everybody seemed like I was destined to not be with Percy—it just wouldn't work out. I was supposed to be with Luke.

Now I just needed to enhance my feelings for Luke, and just try to forget the feelings for Percy.

But each day, that was becoming harder. And I was scared to admit it, but it seemed as though the opposite was happening.

Okay, guys, I'm sorry for the late update. It's just that lately I've been having this thing called "Lack of Inspiration", which is basically every writer's fear. Sorry.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I know I told you guys on the last chapter that my username on Wattpad was the same as on Fanfiction, but I've changed it on Wattpad. Instead of "SoDeSi47", my username on Wattpad is now "Sophia-Dee". So go check it out, I'd be extremely happy! And thanks to the few people who did follow me on wattpad! You guys are awesome! I'm going to be starting a new story on wattpad soon, and I'll put the description in one of the next few chapters of City Girl, Country Boy. Hope you guys are able to read it!

Thanks for all the reviews!

Q&A

Some Aren't Worth It: Oh, don't worry! I read every single review I get and love each and every one! And yeah, Luke would make it too complicated . . . that's why I saved Luke's visit for later. ;) Spoiler alert, sorry.

bmftas: Wicked is amazing. A definite need-to-see musical. :)

AverageCanadian: Annabeth could probably leave right now and quit her life of acting, but she's said over and over that she's in love with acting. It's her passion. She can't just up and leave it. Think of your absolute FAVORITE thing to do, and imagine just quitting it, right there. Hard, huh?

EpicNuby: I'm from the US. :)

rocketgod123: I'm going to try to update on wattpad soon, but like I just said, I've also got a new story coming, and this story I have to take care of. But I'll try! :)

PJOisbae143: Annabeth's going to town next chapter, so we'll meet the others! :)

awesooooooome: Aww. You made me smile so wide. Though I doubt I could get as popular as JK Rowling... that's like... impossible. :) Thank you, though! That was sweet!

cloclothedino: Yes, the whole book will be in Annabeth's POV, and I'm glad you're enjoying the story! :)

Thanks for reading, I'll try and update ASAP. :)