Percy's Point of view

A month eventually went by as I trained with Apollo, went to council meetings, and visited my mom and Tyson. I didn't really have much time to really think about my problems so Annabeth's betrayal eventually got shoved to the back of my mind where it didn't bother me as much. Don't get me wrong I was still extremely annoyed with her, but I wasn't as upset about her leaving me as I had been. I didn't cry like a baby anymore when I thought about what she'd done to me So I guess I was at least starting to move on.

One day I was going to visit my mom, but when I got to the apartment I realized that my dad had the same idea since he had obviously gotten there not long before me. I decided I would just let them be so I said I'd come back later and left to let them do whatever they were going to do. I knew that they seemed to be getting back together And honestly I was happy for them so I decided to just let them be.

Instead, I decided I would just take some time to think about everything that had been going on. Using the mist to hide my real eye colour I went for a walk in central park. I walked for a while, not really paying attention to any of the mortals I passed since I was mostly focused on my own thoughts. I eventually became so lost in thought that I eventually bumped into someone due to my distraction.

I was jolted from my thoughts and I realised that the person I'd bumped into was a woman. She looked to be in her early twenties, maybe twenty-one or twenty-two. I reached my hand out to help her up and she accepted it. I helped her back to her feet, and then I said, "Sorry about that, I should have been paying more attention to where I was going,"

She replied, "It's okay, I wasn't really being careful enough either,"

She seemed almost nervous or something, although I wasn't sure why. I had to admit that she was attractive, She had long blonde hair that was currently tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of blue. she was dressed casually in denim shorts and a tee shirt with a flower pattern on it. A blue purse also hung over her shoulder. She also had gold hoop earrings in her ears.

I was taken by surprise when she complimented me on my eye colour, my new eye colour that I'd been hiding via the mist. Any of the other mortals I'd passed would have seen me with sea green eyes if they'd bothered to look at me at all, but it was obvious to me now that she had to be clear-sighted since that would have been the only way she could have seen my real eye colour.

I could tell that she definitely wasn't a demigod, so clear sight was the only explanation. Trying to hide my surprise I thanked her for the compliment, and then she introduced herself saying, "I'm Amber Smith,"

She held out her hand for me to shake. Shaking her hand I replied, "Percy Jackson,"

"Percy? Is that a nickname?" she asked, seeming slightly surprised.

She's smart, I thought, since she seemed to be figuring out all my ways of hiding my real identity.

Deciding to tell her the truth I admitted, "Yeah, technically my name is Perseus, but I prefer Percy,"

"Like the hero and god from Greek mythology, that's not a very common name," she commented, sounding kind of surprised.

I was surprised once again since most mortals don't really bother to learn about the Greek "myths" I knew that most mortals would maybe learn about some of the "myths" in school, and then never really think about them again since they aren't exactly something that mortals needed to know to get a job and go through life. The gods making the mortals aware of me meant that they knew about the original Perseus, the son of Zeus who I was named after, but now they also knew of me and thought that I had been one of the gods since Ancient times as well.

Obviously, like with all the gods no-one except for the demigods at the two camps and my mom knew that I was actually real, but just having the mortals know of me was enough for me to stick around for quite a while. Regardless the fact that Amber knew of me, even if she didn't know my real story proved that she knew at least some of the "myths" she just didn't know that I was real, or that I was actually the Greek god she'd just mentioned.

In response to her question I replied, "Yeah, but how do you know about him, after all, most people don't,"

She replied, "I've always found Greek and Roman Mythology interesting, and I would like to Visit Greece and Rome at some point,"

"I know a lot about Greek and Roman Mythology myself," I replied.

I hadn't really planned on telling her that to be honest, it was like my brain was thinking one thing, and what came out of my mouth was the exact opposite. I'd done my best to hide my amusement when I said mythology since I knew that they weren't just myths and were completely true.

Her interest in the "myths" surprised me since like I said before most mortals couldn't care less about them. For this same reason, she also seemed surprised but happy that I knew about them. I knew there was just something about her that I liked, maybe it was the fact that she didn't appear to be wearing any makeup although I could tell that she wasn't exactly what a lot of people consider "perfect."

For one she obviously wasn't super skinny but then again she couldn't exactly be considered fat either. I noticed a couple other things that some people might consider flaws but to me they didn't matter. Amber may have had flaws, I just really didn't care about them since I thought she was still pretty despite them.

We decided to continue walking, and as we did we talked about many different things, from the Greek and Roman myths to telling each other a little bit more about ourselves. obviously, I couldn't tell her everything about myself but I told her a few things that I could. Eventually she tired of walking, so we went to a café to get something to drink.

Deciding that since it was late September and still pretty warm we got cold drinks rather than coffee, and continued to talk. At one point she brought up one of the myths about Heracles and it was hard for me to hide my anger and distaste toward him. I was enjoying spending time with her, but I was also silently chastising myself thinking, what the Hades are you doing? It hasn't been that long since you were dumped by your first girlfriend, it's still a bit early to be picking up a new one,"

besides, I wasn't looking for someone new I'd planned on waiting a while before finding someone new if I bothered to look for someone new at all. I knew that any relationship with a mortal would eventually end one way or another, so I would probably be better off not falling for a mortal at all. Despite that, I knew I was enjoying spending time with Amber and due to that, I got distracted to the point that I actually lost track of time.

That's pretty hard for me to do now because I always know the time ever since I became a god since it is one of my domains. I eventually realized that I had training before long, and if Apollo or Hermes found out that I got distracted and lost track of time, I knew I wouldn't hear the end of it so I knew it was best for me to leave so I wouldn't be late.

Although I didn't really want to I said, "I'm sorry but I have to go,"

she was obviously disappointed, and said, "Really?"

I replied, "Yeah, I don't really want to but if I'm late I won't hear the end of it,"

Pulling out a pen and a piece of Paper Amber wrote something down on it and said, "okay, but before you go here's my number, call me if you want to,"

I took the paper, said goodbye to her, and then began to leave. Once I was out of sight I teleported back to Olympus, not quite sure what I was going to do about Amber, I did kind of want to spend time with her again, but I didn't know if I was really ready for a new relationship, not to mention that a relationship between us couldn't really last.

I knew that I'd enjoyed spending time with her, but I really wasn't sure what I should do. Amber seemed nice, and she was obviously smart since she'd figured out so much about me. Not to mention that she told me that she'd gone to university practically right out of school and that she'd gotten her teacher's degree.

She hadn't managed to get a job as a teacher yet since jobs were kind of hard to come by these days, but so far she'd been doing rather well all things considered, although for now, she didn't exactly have a great job she was getting by. I wasn't sure what it was but there was just something special about her that made me want to see her again.

I liked her despite her flaws, and as I thought about it I decided I would probably contact her again. I continued thinking about her as the time for my lesson with Apollo got closer.

I soon headed to his palace for my lesson, the downside to having Apollo for a teacher was that he would quite often laugh if I made a mistake, and sometimes he would tell Hermes who would usually also laugh. Regardless despite the fact that I didn't know all my powers yet I could usually get the two of them to shut up.

Even though they can be annoying Apollo and Hermes aren't really that bad despite them liking to tease me, they are two of the gods that are nicer to me so I don't complain too much. So far I think the only gods who have clearly shown that they still don't like me are Ares and Dionysus although I'm pretty sure that Zeus still isn't overly thrilled about having me around.

I'm not sure about Athena she hasn't shown obvious hostility toward me but she hasn't exactly been extremely friendly either. Hades seems to be okay with me, and that's a good thing since I have to sit beside him in council meetings, but I'm still not sure about some of the other gods. It was obvious that Aphrodite is perfectly happy having me around since I quite often notice her staring at me during council meetings.

I wouldn't be too surprised if she tries to make a move toward me sooner or later, but I knew I wasn't interested in her, and I planned on telling her that whenever she did attempt to win me over. We'd decided to let the demigods wonder what had happened to me since we were going to wait to tell Camp Half-Blood until the winter solstice meeting.

We would probably tell Camp Jupiter the same day. Sure the other gods were going to tell Chiron and the demigods that I was fine and that I just wasn't planning on returning to camp anytime soon. Construction of my camp cabin wouldn't start until after then either since the campers wouldn't know about me until then. It's not like I was in a rush for it to be built, after all, I didn't need it. It would just be honorary, at least for a while.