A/N: Hey mo loves! How are you? I feel like it has been a very long time since I asked you anything so today we are startig with a simple question. Thank you gain for reading until now and I sincerely hope that you enjoy this chapter. This is the longest chapter I have written, so I hope it is still readable. Without further ado, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 11

Later that night Grover drove Annabeth, Thalia and Juniper to the party. Even if Annabeth wasn't ready to admit to herself that she in-fact was very interested in attending the party, deep inside she was quite (quite was an understatement), very much curious about what high school parties in NYC were really like. She had indeed read a lot of novels, where the kids in the parties did some stupid and reckless things. But on the other hand Juniper and Thalia didn't seem to care at all, maybe she was just overanalysing the situation. The car where the friend group sat all in was already oozing pre-party excitement.

The party wasn't hosted by the school, unlike the name would suggest. You see, the start-of-semester-party was hosted by nobody else than the Stroll brothers: Travis and Connor. They came from a crazy rich family where their parents would be on business trips overboard more than at home, which led to leaving the two teenagers alone – Annabeth thought that was a very risky decision from their parents, since the brothers were still teenagers, teenagers with no sense of responsibility. Which later always became a perfect opportunity to throw a massive party. (The Stroll brothers' parties never disappointed.) The Strolls lived in an enormous mansion built on private property in the heart of the city. Since the family owned more than half of the businesses in New York and as the icing on the cake, the also owned the police department. This became helpful when no one could come complaining that the parties there were too loud or whatsoever. Though, the local netizens didn't even know that the parties were thrown by the children, because their parents also hosted grand gala-parties once in a while.

Tonight's party wouldn't be any different. As the girls and Grover arrived at the mansion, most of the other Goode students were already there. As much as Annabeth didn't want to look at the crowd inside the house, her eyes eagerly scanned the room looking for a certain raven haired boy. She wanted to know if Percy was there. To her disappointment, she didn't spot him. Maybe he was in another room, she thought to herself trying to hide the frown that now married her face. The last thing she wanted was to let Thalia or Juniper question her sudden mood dampening.

The first slow song had started and Annabeth still couldn't see Percy. Juniper and Grover were already standing in the middle of the dance floor dancing slowly, admiring each other. Thalia was nowhere to be seen. She had earlier excused herself to get a drink, but she never showed up later. Annabeth didn't bother going after her because she knew that Thalia was probably off talking to some guy she found hot. Thalia had earlier mentioned in the car that she found Nico, another sophomore student from the neighbouring class attractive and wanted to talk to him today. Yes, Thalia was into boys.

The next one hour she spent alone wandering through the house, watching around and admiring the extravagant decorations in some of the rooms in the house. For her dismay, she also happened to see a few, or not so few, students hooking up in some of the rooms. Every time she saw these kinds of activities, she would always bitterly chuckle to herself and hope Thalia wasn't doing this with some random boy or atleast hope that she would see them.

When the clock was getting dangerously close to midnight, the party was starting to get sloppy. The room was oozing with teenage body heat and slightly party-drunk people. Annabeth had found herself a comfortable small couch in the corner of the room, where she could spy on the other kids and always be updated of what happened. Thalia was finally in view. She was talking alone in a silent corner with a tall boy with dirty blonde hair. The boy's back was towards Annabeth, so she couldn't see who he was, but he somehow looked vaguely familiar. Familiar in a bad way. Seeing this boy made Annabeth's chest tighten slightly and it sent a cold shiver down her spine. This boy made her nervous and she hoped that her instincts were wrong this time.

Just as she was going to dwell on the subject more, she noticed a certain raven haired boy with ocean green eyes walking in. Percy Jackson had finally entered the party. He was sporting a black leather jacket with a white v-neck t-shirt underneath and he wore a pair of slightly worn-out black ripped jeans. His hair was a bit messy with a few locks of black hair pointing out in weird directions and his eyes were intense. It was like he was the predatory animal here and all others were his prey. Annabeth wasn't exactly the kind of girl that would gush about how some boy was handsome or anything like that, but this time she had to admit that Percy looked hot, dangerously smoking hot. The way he walked confidently in like he owned the place made his entrance look even a little arrogant. The teenagers inside all stopped for a moment to acknowledge him. His appearance was a perfect definition of what a motorcycle gang member looked like.

Seeing Percy made Annabeth's heart leap a beat and race faster than ever. She watched cautiously as the boy walked further into the party, not looking back once, with determination glowing in his eyes. A pang of sadness hit Annabeth shortly afterwards now that he was out of his Percy-trance – Percy hadn't even shown a slight effort of looking for Annabeth in the crowd. Though, when she noticed the reason for her second mood dampening that night she wanted to slap herself straight in the face. Percy shouldn't affect her this way, no boy should. And who did she think she was? She was no popular girl or anyone Percy would like. She never hung out with him nor had he ever shown any interest in her. Well, this wasn't hundred percent true, the voice in the back of her head shouted at her. The boy had still kissed her and given her a hug. That meant something, right?

After about another half an hour the DJ shouted for the attention of the students and informed them that the last slow song was coming up. Annabeth had at last found Thalia and they were now sitting near the drink table sipping some carbonated liquid that left a slightly annoying bitter taste in the mouth and chatting about nothing in particular. Since the last slow song was coming, Thalia's new admirer, Nico di Angelo, had found his way to them.

"May I steal you for a dance?" the boy asked in a shy tone with his cheeks reddening into a sincere blush.

With Thalia's usual personality, the answer was simple. "What are you waiting for?"

Nico was more than happy to take her hand and lead her to the dance floor.

Seeing her best friend so happy with a boy made Annabeth more than happy, but inside she also envied her a little. She had secretly hoped the whole night for Percy to notice her and maybe ask her for a dance. That had apparently been too much for her to ask. Now she just sat alone sipping her drink that in an instant didn't taste so good anymore. What was happening to me, Annabeth wondered with a frown on her face.

With Annabeth too deep in her own thoughts, she didn't notice a shadow standing in front of her. The person standing there let out a loud cough hoping to grab her attention. Luckily they succeeded and Annabeth's eyes snapped up. Seeing who it was, brought goosebumps to her flesh and sent a cold shiver down her spine. She had gone pale and her heart rate had picked up.

"May I have the honor to be rewarded by a dance with Miss Chase?"

Annabeth felt like she was living her nightmare. She wanted to wake up so badly from it, but vaguely she acknowledged that this was reality. It had already been so many weeks from that traumatic experience, the faithful night where Percy had saved her from this evil monster of a boy, and she thought that finally he might have forgotten her. Now, Luke Castellan stood proudly in front of her with the most masochistic and arrogant grin you could muster on a person's face and asked her for a dance. Maybe this was Luke's new way to harass me, Annabeth thought darkly. There was no Percy here this time… and she was not going to make a scene here now and ruin everyone's party.

"O-okay!" Annabeth answered with a stutter in her high pitched squeal. She just couldn't calm her racing heart.

The grin on Luke's face just widened. It was a mischievous grin.

He stretched out his hand palm upwards towards her and Annabeth had no choice but to slip her hand into his. Then he led them to the corner of the dance floor. If it wasn't Luke's hand that possessed a tight grip on hers, her hand would be trembling at this moment. When they stopped walking – it felt like a century had already passed. Luke placed his hands around Annabeth's waist and pulled her close to him. Hesitating for a second, Annabeth also involuntarily placed her trembling hands on Luke's broad shoulders. In other situations, if Annabeth didn't know him, she would have considered Luke handsome, but unfortunately she knew what kind of person he really was.

Music started playing and the room became silent for a while. They played Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis Pressley. Annabeth wanted to curse, because this was her favourite slow song and she didn't want her partner to be Luke in this dance.

"Huh? You like Elvis, don't ya?" Annabeth had no idea that she was being that obvious. The teasing smirk on Luke's lips didn't ease the situation.

"What's wrong with Elvis?"

"No, I just thought that a girl like you would like something more modern."

"Well, what do you like then?" There was a significant challenge in her voice this time. She was not going to surrender to Luke.

Apparently Luke also wasn't the kind that backed down a challenge. "Hard stuff. Intense stuff that weak girls like you wouldn't understand."

Annabeth's eyes widened for a split second. How could someone be this rude? This guy didn't even have the most basic skills for a polite conversation. "You know that I hate you, right?" If Luke was going to be blunt so was Annabeth also going to.

Annabeth's sudden remark seemed to shake the calm facade of Luke Castellan. He didn't answer her, but instead he slid his hands that were on her waist down to her butt. "Why so fast, princes–"

"May I steal this beautiful girl here to finnish this dance?" a cool voice asked interrupting Luke.

As Annabeth looked up to see who the person talking was, her breath hitched.

End of chapter

A/N: Thank you, thank you for finishing this chapter and hopefully you enjoyed it! Now, any guesses of who this mysterious person is and what will happen next? Please review if you found this chapter pleasant. Your support by reviewing and favouriting this book mean the world to me! Thank you! See you next time! Luv you guys!