Hello you all! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Tysm for all the support! Also sorry, no inconsistent updates this week, I mixed it up, it's next week, my bad lol.

Disclaimer: um so like if you're still checking this just to make sure, psa to you: I'm still not Rick.

~headline: conveniently inactive (nice going annie!)~

…

Piper Mclean knows that this is probably a shot in the dark. If Percy's not sorting through the thousands of DM's he probably gets over the course of a week, then he won't see this. She only has about sixteen thousand followers, and although that's actually a lot, compared to the follower count of other people that could be DMing Percy Jackson, then well, it's not that much. Piper does know if by chance he does see it, then he'll respond, because for one, he met her at the meet and greet with Annabeth, so he knows that she isn't lying.

The post he put out— it just felt so like, genuinely meaningful. Piper has half the mind to comment on it, express her support, but she knows things will move faster if it's in DM. And as Piper read through it, she realized that despite her tiny bit of annoyance to Annabeth, they deserve a happy ending. On the ride back, Annabeth hadn't really offered any information up about her relationship with Pylos, so Piper had resorted to skimming through the media, which is known to twist lies and facts to create a good story. All the thoughts Piper before were confirmed when she saw Percy Jackson's post, so some news is actually correct.

That meaningless information from the media, and her predictions eventually helped her form an idea of what exactly had happened between the two, which was only confirmed when Percy Jackson put out that extra long Instagram post. Piper doesn't use Twitter, but it was also there too. People were sharing it all over, a couple of celebrities have talked about it, and reposted it, some bigger and some smaller than Percy. His follower account is going up, though that's normal, it's been growing highly for the past couple of months. He's neared twenty-million, Piper thinks. That's, she guesses, a one-hundred percent growth from his prior ten-million.

Again, like she said, this is a shot in the dark. Maybe one with a flash-light, an advantage, with her father's huge following. This is one of those times Piper is thankful for her parents' fame. Even so, Percy's probably receiving hundreds and hundreds of DM's at this time, so there's still a level of unlikeliness her shot will hit it's target. So she types in her message, "You know I know Annabeth." She writes. That's a good start, unflinchingly blunt. "I saw your post, but Annabeth hasn't because she's kinda just disappeared from social media. I can set up a time for you two to meet." Simple, short, and to the point. She taps the send button, and now, she can only hope that he sees it, only hope for a response.

Almost seconds later, to Piper's surprise, the message is read, and three little bubbles pop up. A response. "Have you told her?" It comes up as.

Piper frowns. If he's even dared to ask that, he must really care about her. Which is entirely sweet, it's cute. "No. Surprise and all that." The truth is, she doesn't know if Annabeth will even come if she tells her, that's the problem. She's been staying home to avoid being a distraction, and also to keep safe. Plus, she's all about the moving on stuff. Piper thinks it's stupid, but that's just Annabeth.

She's glad she wrote her number on Annabeth's arm, because that means the girl can call her. Her family has a land-line or something, but Annabeth, being the person she is, hasn't asked her family for a new mobile phone. It's like she's holding out hope she'll get it back from Percy. Piper doesn't think it's coming back, to be totally honest. Percy put a little note about it on his post, but of course, Annabeth hasn't seen that, and whoever is in possession of the phone is probably too stupid to realize that both Annabeth and Percy are minors.

She doesn't know why she's focusing so much on this situation. But well, it's her friend. Annabeth's the first genuine friend she's ever had, the first person she's even cared to get to know.

Piper startles as a response from Percy comes in. "Are you sure she'd want that?"

Goddamnit. He really is smitten. She can hear it just from the sound of his text.

"Again, no. But it'll be a damn good surprise, so like. I don't think she'll mind." She doesn't want to directly tell him that she probably wouldn't want that, but being honest, Annabeth will probably be happy with it when it comes around. She might get a couple of crude comments or annoyed looks, but it'll be over soon enough.

"Fine. Let's get some details together." He really is on board with this. That makes Piper reassured, because if Percy really wasn't that interested in it all and it was all for publicity, that would be a waste. With the limited time she spent in his presence, he seems genuine and his Instagram post felt serious.

So they fess out the details. Make a plan. Figure everything out. All that jazz. There's a park in downtown LA that's relatively secluded, so they decide to meet there. Having one high profile guy, a girl with a famous dad, and a girl in the eyes of the media isn't exactly an ideal situation, but Piper somehow knows that they'll get through it all. As for how Piper will get Annabeth there, she has her methods. They're trying for three days from now, just so Piper has time to get Annabeth on board. Later, she gets a message from Percy that says he's retrieving her phone.

Okay, well that might have been one thing Piper was wrong about. She really did doubt that Annabeth would get her phone back. Like, it's the Paparazzi? When are they going to actually be civil? Piper supposes that they must have reasoned Percy could do a lot against them because of the fact both are under eighteen, so she shrugs it off. As much as Piper doesn't like to be wrong, she also understands that facts are facts. So Annabeth's getting her phone back. That's good.

She really hopes that this will go well. Although Annabeth has made plenty of mistakes, she doesn't take anything for granted. She's still her friend, and this is what friends do. They help each other out. Annabeth's had a bunch of screwed up things happen to her. Piper has too. Aphrodite, her so called mother cheated, succumbed to the raw idea of fame, feasting onto others, trying to get a grasp at becoming what so many work hard to be. It's one of the reasons Piper has never ever, ever wanted to be famous, because she doesn't want to be someone like her mother. Or like her father, for that matter. He's still a good actor, A-list, been to the Oscars a couple of times, but he's washed out. Whenever he's not working, he's out doing publicity, or with Piper. When he's not doing either of those things, he's sleeping. And it's all her mother's fault.

Aphrodite has actually tried to reach out, a couple of times. Piper's declined each one of them. She doesn't want to see her horrid half-sister Drew's face, smirking at her. Piper really hates her. The girl hasn't had the mind to target her with Annabeth at school, but she's vicious everywhere else. Sometimes, when they walk past each other in the hallways, Drew whispers cutting insults to her as she passes. Piper usually resorts to flipping her off, but they do actually hurt. Knowing that her mother would rather cheat and be famous then stay faithful and secure.

Even if Aphrodite would be able to actually apologize, and get Piper to see her she probably wouldn't forgive. She wouldn't forget. Plus, it would be one hell of a redemption arc if it even felt genuine. Everything that Aphrodite said to the media about her cheating felt scripted and just unnatural. She even sounded like she didn't really care. Like her representatives had to persuade her to say this.

Like years of marriage didn't mean anything to her. Like her family didn't mean anything to her.

Whenever Piper goes through this memory in her mind, she always feels like she's missing something, like her mother couldn't possibly be this way. There was a point she thought about it so much she stopped even seeing Aphrodite as her mother. Started seeing her for who she was— someone who abandoned the family for a short lived fling.

Piper's more than a little bit salty. And she deserves to be.

…

Staying home from school with only schoolwork and nothing else to occupy your time with, surprisingly, isn't fun. Piper's had some of this week's homework sent over, and like. It's so boring, Annabeth can't stand it. Everyday, she wakes up, then decides to sleep in, then wakes up an hour later, and reads a chapter or two of this book for her english class. She makes herself breakfast (a pop-tart as usual), and then kind of talks with Frederick a little bit? Not really. She says hi to them all now. And gives the twins an approving nod, because let's be real, they did help her. Without any motivation. She's kind of seeing them more as brothers now, though that's going to take a lot more time.

Not being on social media is actually relaxing. She occasionally goes on her computer and writes something, but she has absolutely no motivation. She tries to get a couple sentences out, but it's hard, and her mind always flashes back to the horror of seeing her blog trashed. She hasn't checked the news, nor Instagram, effectively staying away from it all. She calls Piper everyday in the afternoon after she's home from school, and she helps occupy her time so she is not totally bored.

The twins and her play Monopoly together. Just to pass the time. They were actually the ones that offered it, with awkward glances they gave each other, it was probably Frederick's doing. The entire time it was ear-achingly silent, and the only words exchanged were, "your turn," or "pay up." But it's progress. She's moving forward with them.

Helen is the one problem. Annabeth just can't seem— she can't seem to accept her. Because Helen reminds her of Athena. They're not similar people, not at all, just Annabeth sees her as the person who split her family apart, the person that caused all of this to happen. She doesn't appreciate Helen's sickenly sweet smiles, and her random remarks during conversations. Whenever the woman says her name, Annabeth feels so uncomfortable, she wants to get it out of her mouth. She— doesn't know if she can accept Helen. Maybe sometimes, but not anytime soon.

It's hard enough with her father. And he has part of the fault. She's still annoyed at him, endlessly, and gets mad at him on the daily. The only people she doesn't blame in the household are Bobby and Matthew, though that's another story. Frederick and Helen are the two people she can bear to look at for more than a couple seconds. She isn't crying that much anymore, which is nice considering the fact that it was a nightly practice before, but she's experiencing other emotions. Anger, irritation. There's still a little bit of sadness, but it doesn't cause her to cry and sob and scream. It's causing her to stay stuck in her own head, thinking about her mom, thinking about Pylos— Percy— thinking about everything she's lost.

She taps Piper's number into the landline phone the Chase's have, which is for once, coming in handy. It's always ringing around with different scammers and random numbers, but just this once, she's grateful that they have it, or Annabeth would have to ask Frederick or one of the twins. Then, they'd probably question her about how she could call from her own phone, and then Annabeth would have to admit that she lost it. They'd get a new phone for her, and all that.

Annabeth is still holding out and hoping that it'll miraculously be returned to her. Because that phone literally had everything. Pictures, Memories, contacts, passwords, blog post ideas, notes, just everything. She'd accumulated so much on that phone, and now it's all gone. She just wants the memory back. Like, she doesn't care about the actual phone that much, but if somehow it's contents could be transferred onto a new phone, she'd do that.

The phone rings three times before Piper answers. "Hey Annie," she sounds pre-occupied.

"Piper. I need my daily talk with someone other than family. Pick a subject."

"Nihilism." Piper responds bluntly.

Annabeth clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "Pick something else." She's trying to be distracted from well, everything, around her, not thinking about how she's meaningless and will die alone. Annabeth wants to make some type of impact, at least.

"If you don't want to talk about that, suggest something else." Annabeth bites her lip. She wants to talk about something mindless, but of course, not boring. Something that'll take the edge off of all the well, feelings, that she's feeling. She wishes she could speak directly about it, but still, she's not ready.

"Okay well, topic: what's Percy Jackson up too?" Okay, she's curious about how he might be responding to this situation. Piper knows that she's taken an internet cleansing, and she also knows why. Most likely, Piper will deny this, because Annabeth did tell her that if she tried to bring it up, she had permission to hang up. Which is what she'll probably do.

Because the thing is, Annabeth is trying to move on slowly. She knows that hoping is a lost cause by now, although there's this feeling in her heart that somehow, everything will get better.

"Annabeth." Piper says, annoyed. "Come on. No."

Annabeth groans. She shouldn't be angry, because Piper is doing exactly what Annabeth told her to do. "Fine. Tell you about your day or something like that."

Piper pauses. "He does really care about you." She says.

"How do you know?"

"I just know." Okay, well, if she's going to be blunt then well, She can be blunt. It's a tiny bit irritating. If you're going to say something, say it straight. Annabeth knows that it's hypocritical to say that, but to be honest, she's been the victim of vague promises and notions for a long time, so it's pretty fair.

Piper doesn't elaborate, and Annabeth wants to prod, but at the same time, she doesn't want to think about it. It's not like Piper has contact with Percy, or anything like that. Piper then pulls Annabeth into a conversation about what happened during her day, but the entire time, Annabeth's struck with Piper's wording. It's not that she thinks that Pylos doesn't care about her, it's just that she hasn't heard any big response. Then again, she hasn't been on the internet at all. If something big happened, she'd probably hear about it verbally from her brothers, and if it was something actually big, Piper.

If Piper isn't telling her anything, then nothing important must be happening.

Which makes her happy and sad. But also it'll help her move on. She's not exactly heartbroken but she is disappointed. She doesn't think she could be heartbroken, they've only met once. She's disappointed, because what could have been isn't. What could have been is a lost hope now. That's the sad part of this all. Annabeth wishes, really, really wishes that she and Percy could have talked longer, even just five minutes. Figure everything out. She wishes she hadn't been so awkward about it all, wishes that she could take those five minutes, and change them.

But time travel isn't real, yet at least, so there's nothing she can efficiently do to change it all. With no phone, a deactivated email, and more than ten news stories still after her story, she's rendered useless. Annabeth hates feeling useless.

"So," Piper interrupts her thoughts. "Are you free in like, three days?"

Of course she is. What would she be doing? "Yeah. Obviously." Annabeth replies.

"Do you want to hang out? We could go around down-town LA, or something like that," she asks, a little bit slyly.

Annabeth shrugs. "Sure, I guess. I'll ask Frederick."

"Cool, I think I need to go for dinner, but we'll talk later, okay Annabeth?"

"Bye Piper." She hangs up. There's something that Piper isn't telling her, and Annabeth's determined to figure it out.

…

Annabeth brings up the trip with Piper at dinner. "I was wondering if I could hang out with Piper in like, three days?"

"Where?" Frederick asks. Tomato soup and grilled cheese is on the menu tonight. The boys are slurping it ferociously, and Annabeth's slowly scooping it up spoon by spoon, dipping her grilled cheese into the thick soup and taking a bite.

"Like, downtown LA I guess?"

Frederick looks at Helen. They exchange a look Annabeth can't quite conceive the meaning of. "Are you sure it's a good time. With everything that's happening?"

Annabeth bites her lip. "Well, I mean, I don't think anyone will think twice. It's just a couple of articles," she tries to downplay it. In truth, there are over a couple. Some include her blog, some include her name, some include a literal picture of her, but it's not the clearest picture in the world, and two other people are in frame, so Annabeth doesn't think anyone would bother to analyze that, and then go out to find her. "It's fine. Nothing too serious."

Helen speaks. "I suppose that's okay." She says, and then sends Frederick a reassuring look. Annabeth relaxes, and then smiles at Helen. And then she frowns.

"Alright." Frederick says, his eyebrows raising. "But call me if you need anything." He still looks concerned.

They still don't know she's lost her phone. Which is kind of not great. But Annabeth can always call on Piper's phone. They've noticed that she's been using the landline more often, but they haven't tried to look into it, so Annabeth's off scot free. When it's confirmed she won't get her phone back, she'll tell them, but for now, it hasn't been long, and Percy could try to reach out or something, get it back.

Annabeth nods slowly, looking nonchalant. She talks over the details with Frederick and Helen a little bit more, and soon, dinner is over. Annabeth clears her dish, and then goes upstairs to her room, where she grabs her english book.

Whenever she looks at the book, she has this vague memory of Thalia mentioning it sometimes, for a project. They always had different english teachers, since Annabeth was in the advanced classes, and Annabeth remembers both Luke and Thalia (mostly Thalia) complaining about it. It makes her smile, but also, it makes her sad, because she and Thalia are still in a fight. Annabeth has her number memorized, she thinks, so she could call her over the land line, but she's worried that Thalia wouldn't pick up. She usually doesn't expect unknown numbers so that's. Interesting.

She continues flipping through pages of the book, but finds she can't really focus. She keeps thinking about how she needs to resolve things with Thalia. How she needs to reconnect with Luke. She hasn't had any contact with Luke, and he hasn't sought her out either. He's ignored her messages, and Thalia has said she can't get a hold of him either.

Grabbing a bookmark from her desk drawer, she slips it into the book, and then sets in on her desk table. Since she's changed into her pajamas for the night, feels exceedingly comfortable, and by the time she leaves her own room, she regrets moving out, because she feels much more exposed in the house. Clomping down the steps, she goes over to the landline, and types in what she thinks is Thalia's number.

It rings through.

So she tries again. It still rings through.

Being the annoying prick she is, she types in the number again, and calls. This time, it picks up. "Why the fuck are you calling me?" Comes a crackly voice, which yes, sounds like Thalia. She sighs in relief, realizing it's the right number.

"It's me Thalia," Annabeth says, and then corrects herself, "Annabeth."

Thalia swallows. "Are you okay Annabeth? I read the news," she says slowly, back tracking a bit from fuck you to comforting freind.

"I'm fine." Annabeth says plainly. "I just wanted to say sorry."

"I've been really worried about you. Luke even texted me about it."

Annabeth bites her lip. "What did he say?"

"Just asked if you were okay," Thalia replies hesitantly. "But shit Annabeth, everything going on I—"

Annabeth interrupts her. "You knew he was Percy."

Thalia pauses. "I had my suspicions."

"I was being stupid, and I should have seen that. I'm sorry that we got mad at each other. I'm sorry for being self-centered. I just— I was oblivious. I don't think I wanted to piece it all together."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you outright," Thalia laughs, "that was dumb. I was just annoyed."

Annabeth shakes her head. "I should have figured it out on my own."

"But you didn't and I should have warned you."

"So this is kind of both of our faults, right?"

Thalia chuckles. "I guess so." She sighs. "Things are crazy for you right now, huh?"

"I'm staying home for the time being. Got practically flogged at school since my name leaked. And the picture. People at my school are apparently better at puzzles than me. Are you— what's going on with you?" She tries for a normal conversation, even though what she's experiencing is nowhere near normal.

Thalia coughs. "Uh," she says.

"Reyna?" Annabeth says, hoping she got the name right. That's her new friend, or something.

Thalia coughs again. "I didn't tell you, but she's actually my girlfriend? Now. I guess."

Annabeth claps her hands together loudly. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wanted time. To figure it out. Had a couple complications." She chuckles. "We figured it out in the end though. So yeah. I have a girlfriend."

"And Luke?"

"All I've interacted with him about is that text I told you about." Annabeth bites her lip, because that's bad. Thalia speaks again, "I think we might need to let it go Annie. I don't know if he's coming back."

"I guess so. I miss him though. Old Luke."

"Yeah. I mean, I think there are better things to worry about now."

Better things. It's still depressing that Luke's actually gone as a friend. This means, Annabeth doesn't even know if she'll see him again if she visits New York. She shakes her head, even though Thalia can't see her. "I should probably go to bed."

"It's fucking late here too. I don't even know why I'm awake. Just thinking, I guess."

"Right," Annabeth smacks herself in the head. "Time-difference. My bad. I didn't wake you up?"

"Like I said, I was thinking. Awake."

"Well, I guess I shouldn't keep you up much longer," Annabeth says, "bye Thalia."

Thalia pauses. "Feel free to call me Annie, okay? Now that I know it's you, it won't take three rings and a fuck you."

Annabeth laughs at that. "I'm glad we made up."

"I miss you lots."

"Same here. Bye." Annabeth says, hanging up. She feels herself smiling. Thalia's always been a really dear friend of hers, they've fought before, but it wasn't about anything serious like this fight. She thinks that they both sort of learned something from it. And she's glad that they talked it out. Now Annabeth has regained just a bit of connection with her old life.

The fact that Luke's actually gone pisses her off though. She wishes he could contact her, or something like that, although she knows he wouldn't because her phone is gone and he doesn't have the landline number. She knows that she'll miss him, and eventually she'll have to confront the past, but for now, as Thalia has said, there are better things to think about.

It's time to try to move on from all of this, and open up a new chapter of her life. When the hype finally dies down, she'll go about life normally as another regular human being. This is real life, not some romance movie or novel where the endings are always happy. In real life, you give up on yearning for that follow-up to happen, and go on with life.

(It'll take maybe a few more days to realize her phone is not coming back, but still. She's moving on.)

…

~life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone~

The quote above is a lyric from John Mellencap's "John and Diane." I don't actually listen to them, but like. I somehow just randomly extracted that lyric from my memory or something lol. No inconsistent updates this coming week anymore, that's next week. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Leave a review, lmk what you think! Stay safe and healthy! Until the next chapter!

TheLil'Lion