Disclaimer:

I do not own any of the PJO characters.

After a few minutes of scolding from Chiron for lifting everyone into the air, Mr. D spoke up, "We were just talking about you, Teressa," This got a laugh out of me.

Good old Mr. D and his names, I thought.

"We came to the agreement that you should go up to Olympus and the other gods can check you out and try to get this under control," He said pointing at me.

"Can I bring Coral with me?" I asked.

Mr. D muttered something to himself before answering, "Fine," and walked away.

"Percy will be taking you on his pegasus, Blackjack. You seem to be getting along well with him, so I want you to teach him a thing or two about calming down a notch," Chiron said with a slight annoyance to his voice, I just laughed. Just then Annabeth walked in with a pouting Percy behind her.

"But, Annabeth!" He whined with a pleading look on his face.

"No, now how many times do I have to tell you."

"But-"

"NO!"

"Mmmm, how 'bout, yes?"

"Ugh, fine, if it shuts you up, then yes, you can get it."

"Get what?" I asked.

"Oh, just the most stupid thing I've ever seen!" Exclaimed Annabeth.

"Oh, come on Annabeth. It's just a Nemo costume."

This is about a Nemo costume! Typical Percy, I thought.

Percy looked over at me with a grin on his face like nothing had just happened between him and Annabeth, "So you ready to go for a ride on Blackjack?"

"Yeah, just let me quickly go get Coral," and with that, I was off to see where the little squirt had gone off to.

As soon as I had left, I was back with a quite squirmy two-year-old just in time to see Percy bringing a very majestic black horse with wings by the Big House.

Blackjack, I thought as the horse got closer. I walked up to the pegasus and Percy offered a hand. I just ignored the offer and somehow heaved myself up over the back of the horse with a now crying Coral, "But I don't want to go on the scary pony!" yelled Coral.

I whispered in her ear, "You want to see mommy, don't you?"

"Yeah," she whispered back, tears in her eyes.

"Well, this is the quickest way to get there, and Percy is going to make sure that we get there safe and sound, okay?"

"Okay," Coral responded.

"You're good with her, you know." Said Percy as he mounted onto Blackjack behind us.

I chuckled, "Well I kinda had to be when her father died."

Blackjack slowly spread his wings out, and with a mighty gust we up off the ground and soaring through the air. I looked down to see Jamie leaning up against Thalia's pine tree. I waved to him, he waved back with a huge grin on his face. "So, what's up with you and that kid?" Asked Percy.

"Well, he was my best friend before the incident," I explained.

"What incident?" I turned my head and glared at him, "Ooohhh, that incident." He said gulping.

"Anyway, if you weren't listening when he and I were talking, before we knew who exactly we were talking to, we kinda, um, confessed to each other, that we, um, like each other," I said shyly.

"What's wrong with loving your best friend? I love mine."

"Well, it's difficult, I mean, have you ever, um, had something that you liked, like a tv show, and you wanted it to change but at the same time not? Well, it's kind of like that. I've always wanted to tell him, but I also didn't want to make our friendship awkward. So, at the same time, I didn't want to tell him."

We sat in silence for maybe a good five minutes, but who knows, it could've been longer.

"Are you ok? Your face is red," asked Percy.

"Well, um, I'm not really into the whole lovey-dovey crap. So I-, you see I have tons of anxiety and am very socially awkward and I can get stressed easily and that's not good because when I get stressed I tend to, ka-boom!" I said making an exploding gesture with my hands.

"If you so socially awkward then how was it so easy for you to talk to me?" He asked.

"Well, for one, you're Percy Jackson. I've read all the PJO, HOO, and TOA books, so I feel like I know you pretty well even though you don't know me that well. And two, I have a better time talking to people when it's just me and them, no one else. I don't know, my brain is weird." This got him laughing, maybe a little too much.

We again sat in silence until we had arrived at the base of the Empire State Building. We walked inside. Percy strode right up to the elevator, looked over at the guy who was standing at the front desk and nodded. They know each other? I thought. Soon after, the elevator door opened, and we walked inside.

Thanks again for reading! Also, I didn't know what the abbreviation was for Trials of Apollo {(yes it's toa *facepalm*)} so I just kinda guessed, but I hope I got it right. Anyway, thanks again!

-Lou Ellen Sydney the amazing editor