Hi guys. Sorry bout the late update, I'm over seas now in a camp so not much time to write. This isn't one of my best chapters, but its the most i can write for now. Pls R&R!

Annabeth's POV

I'd love to say that I managed to forget about Percy's troubling words and moved on with the day with a peaceful mind, but I'd be lying if I did.

The truth was that I spent the rest of the day pondering over his words so much that even at work, I managed to get seven orders wrong, and the cook had to call me three times twice to deliver the plates of food. I apologized profusely to everyone about my attitude that day.

Surprisingly, even the boss forgave me, telling me with his strict voice and sharp eyes that I probably had something very troubling in my mind, which was right on the spot.

I sighed as I stepped out of the shopping mall. The place was quiet and other than the lamplights dimly lighting the roads up at the sides of the roads, the whole place was dark. I shivered as I looked at the surroundings.

Even after two years, I couldn't really forget what had happened. I mean, it is kinda impossible to forget almost getting beaten to death. I never dared to walk back home alone again that day. Thankfully, I didn't need to. Percy never failed to show up. Ever since that day, he had never once failed. I wanted to tell him not to try so hard, but I didn't. Call me selfish, but I wanted him to come and walk back home with me everyday. He made me feel safe.

My shivering stopped and I smiled as I saw said boy making his way towards me, with his usual lopsided grin. He waved in greeting as he stopped beside me.

"How's work today?" He asked as we started walking. I shrugged.

"Normal." I lied. How could I tell him that I practically screwed up the entire day? He was no dumb idiot, though he acts that way often. Keyword-acts. He would be able to guess why I screwed up, and would probably go into another round of trying to persuade me to not think about it too much, just follow the advice.

"Hm. Well, anyway, I made some dinner. One of our favorites- curry chicken and lettuce and steamed rice." I grinned widely as I heard him. It was a simple, but really delicious meal, especially when its Percy who's making it.

For some reason, his meals are always better tasting than restaurants and the school canteen's food. It's as though he made his own recipe, and had memorized everything. I even tried to test whether he was following some different recipe of his own once.

It had been a Saturday, and he had been cooking curry chicken again. He always used the usual packet curry to cook, and I had memorized the instructions on the back of the packet.

After observing him for the whole of the cooking, I came to a conclusion that he definitely did not follow the instructions at all. First of all, he didn't even look at the packet. Second, he had cooked the curry for a longer period of time that instructed. He had also added more water, and many other spices.

When I questioned him about it, he smiled and winked at me. "Secret." He said mischievously. I gave up asking him after two weeks.

"I hope it's the same as every other day?" I asked. He grinned and nodded.

"Seeing how your eyes always shine like a five-year old whenever you eat it, , I wouldn't be able to change it, wise girl." He laughed as I glared at him and huffed in annoyance.

"Whatever. As long as it's awesome as usual." He gave me a mock surprised look.

"Did you just compliment me, Wise girl?" He teased.

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain." He chuckled.

"First time I won in three months." He said, his voice full of pride. I rolled my eyes at him.

"That's nothing to be proud of, considering that you practically just admitted that you've been losing every other one for the past three months." His proud look dissipated into a disappointed one.

"Can't you just let me have one moment of glory in peace…" He muttered, causing me to laugh.

"When you get an A for English, Seaweed Brain, than maybe I will." I teased. He glared at me, which caused me to grin cheekily at him. He knew that I knew he would never be able to get an A for English.

"That means never then…" He complained under his breath, almost inaudible, but since it was dead quiet in the surroundings, I obviously heard him. I chuckled at that.

"Correct." I stated. He just threw me a withering glare and looked away, probably not wanting to embarrass himself anymore. We then walked the rest of the way home in comfortable silence.

"Is it good?" He asked me cautiously as I took a sip from the curry. The spiciness of the curry took every single feeling of exhaustion out of my body. It was really good, as usual.

"You know the answer yourself, Seaweed Brain. I've been saying the same thing for the past few years." He shrugged.

"Can never be too safe, y'know." He stated as he took a seat opposite me. I looked at him curiously.

"Want some?" He shook his head.

"Eaten already. I've been telling you this for the past few years." He got back at me. I grinned impishly.

"Good. Means that I can have everything for myself again." I said, and with much vigor, tackled my late dinner. I could hear him sigh in exasperation, but I knew that he was smiling.

"You..." He trailed off, and sighed again. I grinned with my mouth full when I looked up. He rolled his eyes, but the smile on his face told me that he wasn't even annoyed.

"Don't judge me. I haven't eaten for six hours!" I exclaimed with my mouth full, causing some curry to shoot out of my mouth onto the table. As fast as lightning, Percy jumped back, his chair crashing onto the floor. I burst into full-blown laughter when I saw his disgusted face, which of course made me spit all of the food in my mouth out towards him.

It was then that Percy, once again, showed his lightning reflexes and dodged towards the side before any of the food could even touch the floor. I looked at him in astonishment. Even though I've seen it a couple of time already, it never fails to amaze me. His reflexes were off the charts.

"Woah, chill!" He exclaimed, his face filled with disgust as well as amusement. It was a funny sight. The not so funny sight was that the whole table, as well as the floor was covered with curry and rice and stuff I spitted out. It was really gross.

"You're cleaning this up. No question about it." He stated, his face having the "no-nonsense" look. I nodded.

"Sorry, sorry." I repeated, but after a few seconds, we were both grinning like idiots. After all, it wasn't the first time this had happened.

After getting the whole place cleaned up, and eating up the remaining food, we sat around the table in the living room, chatting away about life in school while drinking hot milo.

"It's getting late. You gotta go back." Percy said, pointing at the clock on the wall, which showed that it was already three in the morning. We had, once again, got so lost into out conversation that we did not notice the time. I sighed as I stood up, a little disappointed.

Frankly, these were the times of the entire day I enjoyed the most. Just sitting alone, without much noise, chatting about normal stuff with Percy. He was different from the rest-he was my first friend, and currently my closest, my best, my most trusted friend.

"See you then." I waved as I walked towards the door. As I walked, something caught my attention. It was the picture of a younger version of Percy with his arm around another boy's neck whom I don't know who it is. I could tell that the two of then were real closed, seeing how they smiled and how their arms were around each other.

The strange thing was that I had never heard of him speaking about that person. Whenever I asked him, he would just say that he was an old friend, and would not elaborate any further.

"Bye! See ya tomorrow!" He called as I walked towards my house. I waved and smiled before entering my house.

For the rest of the time, I couldn't help but ponder about that picture. It wasn't the first time I was pondering over it, but it certainly was the first time I felt that there was just something that recently appeared that was connected to the picture. It was right there, but just out of my reach.

Finally, the thought struck me. I had never seen the boy before in reality…the fact that Percy kept his picture around for so long…the boy must have left Manhatten. That's why I've never seen him before.

"Micheal Yew…" I muttered under my breath. Of course, there was a really high chance I was wrong, and that the boy in the picture was not Micheal…I needed to find out more.