"Annabeth?" Luke calls for the third time. He's outside my house and wants to be let in. But I can't. I left the beach because he accused me of liking Percy when I kept zoning out when he was talking to me, but really I was just thinking about his Ancient Greek message to me. How did he know my last name? Did he recognize me as Athena Chase's daughter? Nobody does, as Athena's grey eyes are her only similarity to me. Anyway, I got fed up and left to go think in peace. The pounding on my front door makes me jump. Then I groan in frustration.

"Juniper!" I yell. My Yorkie comes running into my room. I bend down to pet her. "Hey girl, you wanna go tell Luke to go away for me?" I ask. Juniper pants and barks, wagging her tail excitedly. I smile. "Yup, yup you do! Go, girl, say get out!" I pet her one more time before standing, and Juniper runs off to bark at Luke to go away. The skill is handy for annoying solicitors. It takes another ten minutes for Luke to leave. Left in peace and quiet, I let my thoughts drift back to Percy Jackson.

When the knock hit my door five minutes later, Luke wasn't finished knocking before I was out of bed, marching down the hallway to throw open the door and tell him to stop being selfish. When I opened the door, fuming, my mouth opened to speak and froze in mid-motion.

"Hi… Did I do something?" Percy asks. Why is he here? I blink. How does he know where I live? I shake my head, making the anger vanish.

"No. Sorry. I thought you were someone else. How did you get here?" I ask. Percy raises an eyebrow.

"Um, because you have a sign in your front yard that says Math Award Of The Month - Annabeth Chase, maybe?" He smirks at my sigh. "Anyway, I came to ask you if you wanted this." He holds out the bronze sword to me.

"I think you can keep it," I say, a little surprised he hunted my house down to give me a sword. Percy smiled.

"Cool. See you around, then, Annabeth." He turns to leave, but I have too many questions for the boy who saved my life.

"Wait," I say suddenly. Percy turns. "What do you mean, by your Greek?" I ask. Percy's eyes widen, and he looks around to make sure nobody's watching.

"You can read it?" He asks in a hushed tone. I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, it's Greek. I started learning that when I was five." I say. Percy nods.

"What school do you go to?" He asks, ignoring my question and returning to his normal, casual tone.

"Uh… Goode High. Why?" I cover my mouth, disgusted by my rhyming. Percy laughs good-naturedly, flashing brilliant white teeth.

"Me too. I'll talk to you at school, yeah?" Percy keeps his even tone, but I sense unease underneath it. I nod. Percy smiles a movie star-worthy smile before turning to leave. I don't like his ability to evade my questions.

"Yes. We will talk." I call after him. He chuckles.

I sit down in Marine Biology. The class is relatively small, with a lot of carefree kids. It should be an easy class. Maybe I can take Pre-Ap next year. The door opens just as the bell rings and I look up, expecting to see some Detention kid who's going to be late to class every day. Instead, I'm pleasantly surprised to see Percy Jackson walk through the door and take the seat next to me. I turn to him.

"So, Mr. Evade All My Questions And Promise To Talk To Me At School. Answers. Now."I hiss quietly. Percy smirked.

"I thought you were a nerd who pays attention in all you're classes, and the class has begun," Percy says, evading me once again. I raise an eyebrow.

"And you know this how?" I ask. Percy's face turns slightly pink.

"Because we have English together and I watched you glue your eyeballs to the teacher all class, scribbling in you're color-coded notes." Percy says quickly. I grin.

"You watched me, eh?" I smirk. Percy reddens.

"I was seeing if you would notice me." He says quietly. The he smirks. "But you were busy being a know-it-all."

"I'm done arguing with you. Answers. Now." I repeat. Percy laughs.

"Okay, what do you want to know?" He asks.

"How am I in danger?" I ask. Percy bites his lip.

"Okay, this is gonna sound crazy and insane, but you gotta believe me. I don't know. I only noticed I'd written it until after, and now that I know you could read it. I have some friends who can do it too. And they all have some crazy specialty that they're crazy good with. Like Nico, over there?" Percy points at a boy I'd dismissed as emo and unimportant. He wore dark blue jeans, and black T-shirt, aviator jacket, and kept his black hair over his face.

"He has this thing with, like, death. He can look at a dead person and tell you when, where, why, and how that person died. It's kinda terrifying. You know Thalia Grace, yeah?" Percy asks. I grin.

"Uh, who doesn't? We're friends. Why?" Really, really, really, really good friends. But saying that was unnecessary. Percy nods.

"She's like, electric. When she shocks you, she shocks you-"

"I know, right? And when there's rain, she goes outside and all the sudden it's thundering- sorry, I interrupted, please continue." I say, embarrassed. Percy waves it off.

"No, I mean, I totally agree. She's… something else. But her brother… I swear every time Jason gets excited he floats." Percy shakes his head, smiling.
"And what is your skill?" I ask. Percy raises an eyebrow.

"Uh, water, duh." He grins. I sigh.

"And mine?" I ask. Percy, puts a finger on his chin, pretending to think, mocking me.

"Know-It-All." Percy decides, smirking again at my expression. His smirk, as cute as it may be, is getting tiresome.

"Okay, call me that, but all you're doing is confessing that I'm smarter than you." I say, and feeling sassy, I flip my hair over my shoulder and smirk. Percy rolls his eyes.

"Okay, Wise Girl." Percy says, trying to act serious, but betrayed by his smile.

"Seaweed Brain." I retort. Percy shrugs and pulls a twix bar out of his pocket and peels it open taking a bit. Seriously?

"Smartie." Percy says.

"Dumb-Dumb." I shoot back.

"Nerd."

"Air Head."

"Sour Worm."

"Sucker."

"MR. JACKSON AND MISS. CHASE!" The teacher calls. I jump. "Please stop yelling candy names in the middle of my class." The teacher makes eye contact with Percy. The teacher smiles. He turns back to the class. I raise an eyebrow at Percy. What relationship does Percy have with this teacher to give us pardon?

"Anyway, Wise Girl," Percy continues, "Next question?"

"Yeah. Who are you? You show up and I get stabbed by a greek sword, thrown underwater, and then you walk away writing in Greek."

"Well… It's a long story." Percy sighed.

"Then after school. My house." I decide, and at that moment, the bell rings, and I leave, wondering why I just invited this boy to my house.

"So-" The doorbell rings. I've just sat down at the table, prepared to hardcore interogate this guy, and the doorbell rings. I groan in frustration. I get up and open the door. It's Luke. Crap. I will Percy to go away. But I know he won't, so I keep the door cracked.

"What's up?" I ask casually. Luke raises his eyebrows.

"The sky. You know better then to ask me that. Can I come in?" He asks. I opened my mouth to say no, or find an excuse, or come outside, or anything, but Luke pushes past me into the house. Pushed off balance, I stumble out the door. When I come back in a moment later, panicking, Luke and Percy are having a staring contest.

"You're supposed to be dead." Percy says, disbelieving. Luke shakes his head.

"Annabeth, why is he here?" Luke asks, his eyes not leaving Percy's.

"Tutoring me." The lie slides out of my mouth before I can catch it.

"You don't need tutoring." Luke argues.

"She's lying." Percy agrees. "I'm telling her the truth. The truth you hid from her." Percy glared harder. "You're supposed to be dead." He says again. My head is swimming.

"Luke, why are you supposed to be dead? Percy, how do you know him? WHAT IS GOING ON?" I hate secrets. I hate not knowing. And this conversation is making me feel really stupid.

"Luke was a super evil villain a year ago. Then he died. Why are you back?" Percy hisses. Luke sighs.

"This is a disaster." He announces. Percy mutters something under his breath.

"I can't believe you're alive," Percy says, shaking his head. "I watched you freaking dissolve." Percy puts his head in his hands. "Thalia- I can't believe- Nevermind."
"Well, I'll be going, then." Luke turns and sprints out the door I haven't managed to close before I can stop him, leaving me with less answers and more questions then I had five seconds ago.