AN: I wrote this entire thing listening to Justin Timberlake's Rock Your Body. Good song, but in no way does it relate to the plot at all. It's always weird when you listen to a song that has nothing to do with what you're writing, isn't it? XD

To Nyuko: Pure evil? That's… … …EXACTLY RIGHT! BWA HA HA!

To ShadowsOfATridentTattoo: I don't have a problem with me using curses; I just put the potty-mouth thing because I've seen a few stories where the characters curse once or twice, and the reviewers completely blow up. So…yeah. It's just a warning.

To EvenTheSunsetsInParadise: o_O I hope you didn't hurt yourself! Geez, you're making me start to think I should have people sign a waiver or something…

To SergioAguero: MCDONALD'S; I'M LOVIN' IT! :D

2015

Early next morning, a knock sounds on Annabeth's window.

A knock. On her window.

She pulls herself up from another depressing night with no sleep, heading over to the window. When she peers at it, she sees Percy grinning like a maniac on the other side.

Confusing emotions fill her. She really does like Percy, and she really, really likes talking to him. But whenever she things about him, she remembers Cupid's game. It isn't Percy's fault, she knows, but…

"No, I changed your fate to make sure that it was fun. For me, at least."

That gets her angry. Three steps past angry. It gets her really pissed off, knowing that she could have lived her life without a hundred years of unbearable solitude. Then what's even worse is that all this time she thought it was Luke's fault she wandered this world alone for so long.

"So that you may be released from this oblivion, you must get Percy Jackson to fall in love with you."

That makes her kind of sad, because Percy seems like a good guy, and she has to take advantage of him by making him fall in love with her. Then she has no idea if she'll get to actual live for a long while, or if she'll die instantly and leave him heartbroken.

"My friends and girlfriend are there for me…"

Yep. Percy's line take's the cherry on top. He's got a girlfriend. That means there's someone Annabeth has to take him from, just like how Kronos stole Thalia away from Luke.

Realizing it might be a little creepy, just staring into space like she is, and she shakes herself out of her thoughts. She turns to Percy and opens the window. He crawls through, landing on his feet with an excited huff.

"Hey, Annabeth!" he says, wrapping his arms around her in a friendly hug. Annabeth has a feeling that these kind of embraces will be his greeting for her, at least when his girlfriend isn't around. He pulls back. "I'm inviting you to breakfast with me and my family."

Her eyes widen, and she lurches forward slightly. "Wh-what?"

"I said I'm inviting you to breakfast."

"I know," she grumbles under her breath.

She wants to accept his invitation. But this is what Cupid wants.

A show.

A game.

Entertainment.

Louder, she says, "No."

"C'mon," he presses. "My mom made blue pancakes! And her famous hash browns! I mean, seriously. If we don't get up there right now, then all the food will be eaten." She shakes her head.

Then, he lowers his voice to a whisper, leaning close like they're sharing a secret in a crowded room. "If you're worried about…it…then don't; I only told my mom about it, and she wouldn't tell a soul. No one else knows, I promise."

She stares at him. That's so…considerate of him. She certainly doesn't want his little brother to know about her (mistakenly thought of as) suicidal tendencies.

Most teenagers she's watched over the years would jump at a piece of gossip like this. They'd immediately spread it around their school or home to knock the suicidal person down a few pegs for personal gain, thinking it will make them more popular. (It usually always does, but also comes with another suicide attempt, and possibly blood, on their hands.)

But not Percy, apparently.

"Fine."

The word slips out of her mouth before she can stop it. She cringes, wrapping her arms around her frame and drawing her knees together, but there's no going back now.

"Fine," she repeats, "I'll go."

His face lights up like Christmas. He brushes a lock of black hair out of his eye before grabbing onto her arm. No chance to escape now, then.

"Great!" he crows, dragging her out the window and onto the fire escape, much like the day before, instead of leads her up the ladder. "Mom can't wait to meet you! Don't worry; everyone'll love you. Tyson likes everyone, and I have the feeling that you and Jason, my cousin, are a lot alike, so you'll click instantly."

They stop on the floor just above Annabeth's, and Percy goes to open the window.

Okay, she tells herself in her head, you can handle this. You've thought of lies about you're past in hopes you might get to talk to someone for a while now. You got this, Chase.

He pushes up the window, jumping into the apartment, and she takes a deep breath before joining him. She nearly falls when her ratty sneaker (she collapsed in her clothes the night before, not bothering to change after her world was turned upside down) snags on the sil, not used to going through windows without phasing, but she quickly recovers.

She hops down on the wood floor next to Percy.

There a lot more people than Annabeth expected, and she almost stumbles in surprise.

A small boy with ratty brown hair clutches onto the jeans of an olive-skinned girl, obviously vying for her attention, but it's being given to a girl around Percy's age with fiery red hair. Another boy, this one older, chats with a golden-eyed girl and a tall boy sporting close-cropped blond hair.

All eyes turn to her and Percy, and she feels like hyperventilating. She just–She hasn't been stared at by this many people in a while, okay? It's kind of imitating.

The small boy runs over to her with a shout of excitement, throwing himself at her. For a moment, she's scared that he'll phase right through her, but her hands make contact when they go to catch him.

"Hi! You must be Annabeth!" He gives her a toothy grin, his front teeth missing in a way that's unbelievably endearing. He large brown eyes give off a blissfully innocent look, but she can see the matureness hidden beneath childhood mirth. "I'm Tyson!"

"I, uh." One of her arms is curled around his lower back, while her other hand clutches at his arm to make sure he doesn't fall. "Ummm…"

"Oh, Tyson," an older woman scolds, coming out of the kitchen. She has lively blue eyes, an equally lively smile, and curly brown hair held up in a ponytail. "Don't crowd her."

Tyson laughs, hopping off of Annabeth like a pro. There's a smudge of dirt on his arm where her hand had been, and she's suddenly feeling very self-conscious, cleaning her hands on her ugly hoodie. She hasn't taken a bath in, like, forever.

The woman smiles at her before tackling her with a hug. First Percy, then Tyson, and now their mother…Greeting hugs must run in the family, or something.

"Hi!" she chirps, pulling away but keeping her hands on placed on her shoulders. "I'm Sally Jackson. Percy's told me all about you!"

She feels like blushing. Too bad she can't (or maybe it's a good thing), having no bodily functions and all. "Uh…Hi."

"Don't crowd her, Mom," Percy mocks. Sally sends him a look, air-flicking him, but removing herself from Annabeth all the same. "Let's introduce you to the rest of the group, shall we?"

He encourages her closer to the rest of the people. He points at the olive-skinned girl, then at the boy with matching black hair and eyes. "That's Bianca di Angelo, and that's her little twin brother, Nico. Their half-sister is Hazel Levesque."

Hazel, the golden-eyed girl with dark skin and curly cinnamon hair, waves at her shyly. "Hi."

"That right there is Jason Grace," Percy tells her, nodding at the tall boy with blond hair and sky blue eyes.

A jolt races up Annabeth's spine. Is Jason somehow related to Thalia? She wants to ask, but…Well, questioning someone about their great-something grandmother by name might give off a stalker-ish vibe.

"They're all my cousins," Percy announces. Then he smiles broadly at the only one left unintroduced. "That's Rachel Elizabeth Dare. My girlfriend."

"Hey, there! Nice to meet you." Rachel smiles at Annabeth, walking over and shaking her hand, and guilt clogs up her throat. This girl with bright green eyes, thousands of freckles, and curly orange hair will be the one Annabeth might steal Percy from.

Somehow, she finds her voice before Rachel drops her hand. "I, uh…The name's Annabeth. Annabeth Chase."

;

1891

Athena cries.

That's pretty much all she does for the rest of the day. Sobs on her bed.

Bobby and Matthew let loose a few tears, too.

Matthew grabs the plates while setting the table for dinner, and then Bobby has to tell him that they only need six, not seven. That's when they start crying, running to their mother for some comfort.

When Frederick and Malcom come home, Malcolm goes to join Athena and the twins, and Frederick sits down on his chair, his head in his hands, not moving for the next couple hours.

Annabeth feels bad as she watches, knowing that her family's sorrow is because of her. She places a kiss on her father's forehead, of course the touch not connecting.

Then it all becomes too much for her, and she runs out of the house. She takes quick breaths, hyperventilating, but she doesn't feel air going to her lungs.

"Why can't you jus' tell us what's wrong?"

She looks in the direction of Katie's voice. She and Silena follow a red-eyed, sniffling Thalia. Annabeth immediately goes to them.

"Yes, Thalia, dear," Silena says, "keeping things bottled up isn't good for your complexion." Thalia furiously wipes a tear away from her eye. "Is this about Luke?" she asks. "If it is–"

"Fine!" Thalia shouts, spinning around to face them. She stops so quickly that Katie nearly trips over her. A few people on the street crane their necks to look at them. "I was going to bring you to a less crowded area to tell you, but I guess I'll just tell you now! Annabeth's–"

Her voice breaks off with a sob, and Katie and Silena obviously get the gist that something bad has happened. Silena's expression softens. "Annabeth, what?"

Katie nods. "Did she say she hated you? Did she quit being your maid of honor?"

"Ooh," Silena says. "Don't tell me!" She continues in a whisper. "…Did she start courting your brother?"

"Annabeth's dead!" Thalia finally blurts. She presses the heels of her palms to her eyes and weeps brokenly.

The two girls stumble back, shock written all over their faces. "What?" Silena whispers harshly.

"Luke–" Thalia cuts herself off with a sob. She regains her composure, continuing with hiccups and deep, watery breaths.

"Luke said he found her body in the woods. Bl-blood was everywhere. The person that dragged her-her out there stole her shoes, and her dress was all ripped from be-being hauled through the woods. Oh, God, she's dead!"

Katie stays completely still, not moving a muscle while she tries to register this new information. Silena collapses right there on the sidewalk, crying her eyes out.

Pain twists at Annabeth's heart. She wants to cry, too. She tries really, really hard. But she can't. Her phantom-body-thing won't let her.

She turns on and heel and walks away, frustrated noises coming from the back of her throat. She heads down the street to Mr. Thanatos's house. Maybe he'll have some answers about her murder for everyone else.

Once she gets there, she places her hands on the wood of his door, concentrating hard to remember how phasing felt like. She grasps onto that thought, squeezes her eyes shut, and–

She's inside the house.

There's a blanket thrown over something in the corner, and Annabeth has a sickening feeling it's her body, judging by the lumpiness of the object and the trail of blood leading to it. Mr. Thanatos, Mrs. Thanatos, and Lou Ellen all sit at the dark wood table.

"Why is it all smashed up like a flapjack, Father?" Lou Ellen inquiries, prodding at a flattened bullet that sits on the table. Her bottom lip trembles and red brims her eyes.

"Lou Ellen Thanatos," her mother, Hecate, chides, smacking her hand away. "That just came out of a dead body! Don't poke at it."

"Sorry, Ma," Lou Ellen says, placing her hands on her lap.

"Because the bullet hit her spine," Mr. Thanatos answers her earlier question. "It crumbled up from the force, but that doesn't mean her spine wasn't fractured, too. That means I ain't going to find out what gun it belongs to anytime soon."

"That's…disgusting."

"What's disgusting is that dead body." Mrs. Hecate gags, fanning her face with one hand and covering her mouth with the other. "No offence to Annabeth, the poor dear." She stands up. "But I cannot take another minute down here with a dead body. You got the bullet out, Letus; give the poor girl's body back to her family." And, with that, she goes upstairs.

"Yes, of course." Mr. Thanatos stands up, too, sighing. He goes over to the lump in the corner. "I'm going to take this back to the Chase's. Are you going to be fine, dear?"

"Yes, Father," Lou Ellen mumbles. Mr. Thanatos nods, picking up the stretcher, and, with the blanket still on it, heads outside.

After he's gone, Lou Ellen picks the bullet up, examining it with curious eyes.

"Somethin's fishy here," she mutters to herself. "Why would Luke be wanderin' all alone in the woods with an injured hand?

"It just ain't addin' up." She turns the chunk of metal over, laying it in the middle of her flat palm. Determination flares in her purple eyes. "And I'm gonna get to the bottom of it."

;

2015

Rachel grins. "Nice name, Annabeth."

"Uh, yeah. You…too?" Annabeth replies hesitantly. She glances at Percy, giving her a help me look, but he just smiles and shrugs.

"Breakfast is ready!" Sally announces. "Percy, Jason–help, please."

The cousins disappear into the kitchen, and Annabeth has this horrifying thought that maybe she'll disappear, too.

But, apparently, Percy's still close enough to her that her soul stays in physical form. Rachel, Tyson, Nico, Bianca, and Hazel don't yell out that she's fading, at least.

Jason and Percy come back out of the kitchen, the former carrying the hash browns, the latter holding a plate of oddly blue pancakes. They set the plates on the large dining table, and everyone sits down. Annabeth ends up in between Hazel and Tyson. Everyone digs in, except for her.

"Don't you like it?" Sally asks worriedly, her eyebrows drawn together.

"Hmm? No, it's great," Annabeth says, picking up her fork. She cuts and stabs a chunk of blue pancake, putting it in her mouth. It gives no kind of sensation to her taste buds, and she can't feel it when she swallows. "It's really good. Thank you, Ms. Jackson."

"Oh please, call me Sally, dear."

"Right…Sally."

The older-looking woman smiles, and Annabeth piles some hash browns on her fork.

"So…" Nico starts awkwardly. "How did you and Percy meet?"

She and Percy share a look. "Well, um–"

"He spilled my expresso on my shirt at Coffee Cloud," Annabeth cuts him off. "He…um…bought me a new one. …A new expresso that is, not shirt."

"He's such an adorkable, clumsy idiot," Rachel says, leaning over to place a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek. His cheeks tint pink.

"Yeah," Annabeth mutters, shoving the hash browns in her mouth.

"Where do you go to school?" Jason asks.

"I…don't go to school," she admits. Can't really go to school when no one can see you. "I want to, though."

At everyone's questioning looks, she explains further. "I'm an orphan. No parents to administer me into school."

"Oh." Hazel's eyes are wide. "When did they die?"

"Oh, come on, Haze," Rachel scolds, mock-smacking her upside the head. "Leave her alone. She probably doesn't want to talk about it."

"Right. Sorry. I didn't mean to pry," Hazel apologizes, ducking her head.

Annabeth shrugs. "It's fine. They died a long time ago."

Silence fills the table.

Until Rachel breaks it. "What do you like to do, Annabeth? Hobbies? Skills?"

Hobby: People-watching (pretty much the only thing she can do in this state of suspended animation). Skills: Phasing, being dead.

None of these are things she really wants to share, so she just blurts the first thing that comes to mind: "Music."

"Really?" Rachel asks eagerly. "What kinds of music do you like?"

"Umm…All of them?" she suggests with a slight raise of her shoulders. She's liked all the music over the years; '60's music, '70's (except for disco, of course. That was a bad phase for humanity), '80's, '90's, and now the 2000's. All is great.

"I have to show you the stuff on my iPod!" the redhead exclaims. "C'mon!"

"Oh, no, I'm fine."

But Rachel has already latched onto her arm, dragging her out of her seat and over to the couch. Rachel grabs her iPod out of her bag, already scrolling through the music to find a particular song.

"I saw these guys in concert a couple days ago," she gushes. "I almost had a level ten fangirl attack when the lead singer pointed right at me."

"O-Kay…?" Suddenly, an image of Rach and her brunette friend fills her mind. "Wait! I passed by you at that concert."

"Really?" Rachel's eyes snap up to hers'. She nods. "So you're a fan of theirs', then." She grins widely. "I can already tell you and I are going to be the best of friends."

A smile plays on Annabeth's lips, too. "Yeah. Totally."

"How about you join us at the mall tomorrow?" Rachel suggests, and Annabeth's eyes widen. "Percy and me and everyone else will be there, too, plus a couple of our other friends."

"Yeah!" Percy shouts from the table. "You should come! It'll be great!"

"Sure." The confirmation slips out of her mouth, and she groans mentally. Why can't she say no to Percy?

"Great!" Percy and Rachel say at the same time.

She looks in between the two.

They seem like good people, and they seem good together. Why did Cupid have to mess with her life all those years ago?

If he hadn't, then Annabeth would've been married happily and without conflict–not a part of a dramatic love triangle.

AN: Kinda bad, kinda rushed, and all-around short. I'm not really proud with this one.

But hopefully you guys liked it!

I WANT TO MAKE SOMETHING CLEAR: RACHEL in no way at all is the bad guy. CUPID is, okay? So please don't start hating on her for "stealing Percy away from Annabeth," because I have made it VERY clear that Annabeth is the one doing the stealing. I hope to make Rachel an awesome character that gets you guys that aren't already to fall in love with Rick Riodan's version of her. Okay? Okay.

This was not beta'd, so all mistakes are mine. If you find any errors, please tell me what they are so that I can fix them.

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any other kind of product I might have mentioned.

Constructive criticism welcome, and reviews really do mean a lot to me!