Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter Twelve

Meeting Micah

Andee and I were in the ocean for hours, just splashing each other and swimming around. I also showed Andee what the bottom of the ocean looks like by encasing us in an air bubble, and she was amazed. After a few hours, we both decided we should go back inside.

So after putting our clothes back on, we walked up to the house, laughing and joking the entire time.

"You two seemed to have a good time," Andee's grandmother said, smiling at us.

"We went to the bottom of the ocean – it was incredible!" Andee exclaimed happily.

"Impressive! Son of Poseidon?" Yaya asked, and I nodded. She grabbed a piece of paper off the fridge. "Andee, do you mind grabbing a few things from the marketplace for me?"

Andee took the list and gave it a quick look-over. "Sure, Yaya. I'll be back soon."

"Wait – do you want someone to come with you? That's a lot of stuff for one person to carry," I said. She probably could have managed, but I really just wanted to spend more time with her. It was also safer to go in pairs, especially for half-bloods. But I really just wanted to spend more time with her.

"I'm sure I can manage, but I'll say yes just because it's your first time to Greece and you deserve to see as much of it as you can," Andee said, grabbing a pair of keys off a hook on the wall, twirling them around her finger. "One sec." She ran upstairs and came back down a few moments later with her bag slung over her shoulders. "Just in case."

She led me through one of the doors in the house to a garage where there were two cars, and a cerulean blue and silver moped parked inside.

"It's still here," she breathed, obviously happy. She rushed over to the moped and wrapped her arms around it. "I thought I'd never get to drive you, Bartholomew."

"Bartholomew?" I repeated slowly, not sure if I had heard her right.

"Yes, that's the name of my moped," Andee said, graving a rag off of one of the shelves and wiping the moped down to get off any dust. "My dad got it for me as a birthday present inappropriately early." She mounted it and put the key in the ignition, a low rumble coming from its engine. "Popa must have been taking care of it for me."

"Aren't you too young to be driving that?" I asked.

"Legal age in Canada and Greece is 16. Canada is with a learner's license and Greece is an independent license just for the moped. I have my learner's in Canada and can almost get my N, but it really doesn't matter. I've been driving since I was twelve and I can use the Mist," Andee said before straddling the moped. "Get on."

"No helmet?" I asked.

"There's a helmet on that shelf over there if you really want one," Andee said, pointing to a black helmet in the corner of the garage.

"I kind of meant for you."

"Since when do I need a helmet?" she asked as I climbed on behind her. "Oooo, taking a risk today, are we?"

"Just don't crash," I said.

"I can't promise that," she said with a wink. "You're going to want to hold on." I had barely gripped her midsection before she took off, going faster than I had ever seen one of these go. Actually, faster than I'd seen most cars go. Her hair flew behind her, almost hitting me in the face. I rested my chin on her shoulder and wrapped my arms around her tighter.

I didn't know how much longer I could do this for. I didn't know how much longer I could be this close to Andee without any sort of romantic connection between us. I was in love with her. I knew that for sure now. And I would probably do anything to be with her, but she didn't know that. No one did.

As we got closer to the marketplace, Andee slowed down and parked the moped on the side of the road. The marketplace was buzzing with people as Andee and I made our way through.

"So what's first on the list?" I asked her.

"Let me check," she said, pulling the list out of her back pocket. "Okay, the first thing on the list is – oh, look! A vintage shop! Let's go in and look!"

"I think we should probably get the stuff on the –"

"Come on, Percy!" she begged. "We have time – let's have some fun while we can!"

I looked down at the list in Andee's hands – there wasn't that much on it, anyways. "Fine."

"Yay!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together happily. "See, I knew you were fun!" She grabbed my hand and ran across the busy street, turning back to smile at me before leading me into the little shop. It seemed like everything in the store was covered in a thick layer of dust, like everything had been there untouched for ages. Very little natural light was let in between all the crowded shelves and racks. I suddenly felt very claustrophobic.

"Wow," Andee breathed as she looked around in amazement. Apparently all of this junk was interesting to her.

"I don't get it," I said and she turned to face me.

"You don't get what?" she asked.

"Why is this so 'wow'?" I asked. "It just looks like a bunch of old stuff to me."

"Because…because everything has a story, whether we know it or not. Like…this dress!" she exclaimed, picking up a very frilly, old-fashioned wedding dress that looked like something out of a terrible 80's movies. "This dress could have been worn on someone's wedding, and that wedding could've been the best day of her life! Or the worst! Or maybe she was waiting for her fiancé to come to the chapel when someone brought the news that her soon-to-be husband was killed in a horrific accident!"

"It's kind of disturbing that you would even think of that," I said and she grinned like the Cheshire cat.

"Well, if you're lucky, you'll soon find out that I can be a very disturbing person," Andee said, wiggling her eyebrows.

"I look forward to it."

Andee grinned and it was a sight I could definitely get used to. "Now, let's try on some of these old clothes and see how we'd look if we were born in a different era!"

"You are really strange, did you know that?" I asked and she nodded as she grabbed things off the different racks and dragged me to the back of the store. There were three dressing rooms in the back with just curtains to keep the inside of each room private. There were a few seats facing them and a mirror behind those.

She split up the pile of clothes and handed half to be before pushing me into one of the changing stalls. After trying on a bunch of outfits from just about every decade and getting pictures of each one, Andee let me leave the store after she had bought a few of the outfits she had really liked. Not sure when she'd actually wear them, but that was Andee.

"Oh look! Sunglasses!" Andee exclaimed, and once again she bolted across the street, bringing me with her. We were almost hit by several vehicles but Andee didn't seem to notice – she was too focused on the sunglasses stand.

We got there and she started laughing, pointing out the pairs she thought were funny. She put on a pair of red sunglasses, and each lense was shaped like a pair of lips with little teeth on the top and bottom.

"Oh dear gods," I said and she smiled goofily as I took a picture. She tried on a few more silly pairs before looking at a certain pair thoughtfully.

"These would look really good on you," she said, holding up a pair of navy blue Ray Bans. She slipped them over her eyes and smiled. "I was so right – you look so hot."

I knew it was a compliment, but that was something I really wasn't used to hearing from Andee.

"Come on! Picture!" Andee said, whipping out her camera again and taking a picture of me wearing them. She went to the vendor and spoke with him in Greek so fluently you'd think it was her first language. He said something back and she dug around in her bag before taking out her wallet.

"Wait, you don't have to get me these," I said, even though I really did like them. I never had many occasions to wear sunglasses anyways.

"I know," she said simply, taking out however many Euros they cost and handed it to the guy. "And now," Andee said, taking the glasses for a moment to rip off the tag, "these sunglasses belong to the one and only Percy Jackson, courtesy of the lovely Andee le Fay."

"Honestly, I don't need these," I argued. I didn't really like accepting things from people – it had always felt weird to me.

"Yes, you do. You see, the sun is quite bright in Greece and who knows how long we'll be here for? So your eyes need to be protected," Andee explained. "And besides, I really like how they look on you. Not because they're covering your eyes or anything, but just because they really suit you. And look at it this way, now I can steal them from you whenever I want."

"You're a goof." She gave me an equally goofy smile for that comment.

"Andee?" someone said in the distance. I looked over and saw a tall guy with light brown hair in just a pair of swimming trunks. He looked like he spent every waking hour in the gym and every girl on the street was blatantly staring at him.

"Micah?" Andee asked, her voice taking on a Greek accent. He ran up and hugged her, lifting her up in his arms and kissing her on both cheeks. They started speaking to each other in rapid Greek, smiling hugely and Andee never let go of his arm. He would say something and make her blush while other times she would playfully smack his chest. She said something excitedly before grabbing his wrist and bringing him over to me.

She grabbed him by the wrist. Not by the hand like she had been doing with me lately, but by the wrist. Maybe my ADHD was just acting up, but I was starting to think that my chances weren't so bad after all…

"Micah, this is Percy, and Percy, this is my friend, Micah! He was one of my best friends when we were kids because his family used to live next door to Yaya and Popa!" Her voice had gone back to its normal Canadian accent (did Canadians really have an accent? Because I couldn't really tell).

"She was the little girl who lived next door who always wore these little blonde pigtails wherever she went," Micah said in a thick Greek accent, resting his arm on Andee's head.

"And he was the annoying brat who always came over and pulled on my pigtails," Andee said.

"She hasn't grown much since then," Micah said and she gave him one of those lethal looks she tended to give people.

She smacked his arm away from her. "I'm going to go over there and do the shopping that's on my list, so I'll be right back, but you two – talk!"

She skipped across the street and went into the small grocery store-type of place. So I was left here with Micah, both of us standing around awkwardly, waiting for the other to say something first.

"So, you are Andee's…oh, how do you say it…boyfriend?" he asked and I almost choked on my own saliva. Me? Andee's boyfriend? I mean, sure, I was trying, but it seemed very unlikely to ever happen.

"No, we're just friends," I said.

"Just friends…the bane of a man's existence," Micah said knowingly. "I have a solution for you. See this?" he asked, ripping a flyer off of a nearby telephone pole. He shoved it in my hands so I could look at it, but I couldn't read any of it because it was all in Greek. Even if it had been in English, the dyslexia would have prevented me from reading it. The only way I would've been able to read it would be if it was in Ancient Greek, and even then, I'd still have a bit of trouble because I don't study as much as I should.

"I…uh…I can't read what it says," I said quietly.

"Right! You do not speak Greek!" he exclaimed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "How ignorant of me!" He straightened out the flyer. "Every year since before we were even born, this town and a few of the other neighboring ones have this little…festival, just a few kilometers that way, a little more central and closer to the beach. There are rides, music, dancing, food and amazing entertainment. Anyways, it's open during the day for all ages, but after sunset, it's only for those sixteen or older. It becomes more…adult, I guess.

"Anyways, people hardly ever go with 'just friends' after sunset. It's usually lovers, but there are always a few exceptions. Andee has been dying to go to it ever since she found out about it. If I'm correct, she's turning seventeen in August, so she is the perfect age to get in. Anyways, you take her and I guarantee she'll be your girlfriend by the end of the night," Micah explained in a hushed voice, as if he was afraid Andee might come back any moment and hear what we were talking about.

"She doesn't like me like that, and besides, I don't want to force her into anything," I said.

"It would not be forcing her – the festival has some sort of…magic. Things just happen," he said. "And besides, she will go with you. I can guarantee you that – I have never seen her shine as bright as she does whenever she is with you. It's tomorrow night, right after sunset – just keep that in mind."

Andee came back a few seconds after Micah had finished talking, holding a brown paper bag full of vegetables, bread and other fresh food. "So whatcha guys talking about?"

"I was just telling Percy about the festival," Micah said and her whole face lit up ash she smiled, leaning over to look at the poster in my hands.

"No way," she said, obviously excited. "Tomorrow? Oh my gods, I hope we're still here for it! I've never gotten to go to it after sunset because I was never old enough!"

"Well, I have to get going," Micah said, giving Andee one last hug. "Oh, and Percy – remember what we talked about."

"What did you talk about?" Andee asked as I led the way back to the moped. "What did you guys talk about that was so important that you need to remember it?"

"Nothing," I said nonchalantly. "Let's just call it a guy-secret."

"Guys don't have secrets," Andee said matter-of-factly.

"We can," I defended.

"No, you can't. Guys are worse than girls when it comes to gossiping," Andee said.

"For that comment, I'm not going to tell you what he said now," I said.

"You weren't going to tell me anyways," she pouted.

"You're right!" I said cheerfully for her to glare at me.

"You are so lucky I like you as much as I do. Otherwise, I would've kicked you in the groin by now," she said and I automatically winced at the thought. "And trust me – you're pushing how much I like you at the moment.