I'm BAAAAACCCKK!

I know, I know, I'm horrible. But, as many of you guys might know, April and May are the absolute busiest months of the year, and I honestly had no time to update. I'm not kidding, all of my teachers decided to cram all of this crap for us in a span of two weeks. I mean really, who assigns 200 point projects when we only have like two weeks left of school? Plus, I had to type up this huge essay for this thing because I got nominated for some huge award or something. I'm really sorry for not updating sooner. But, school ends in two weeks, so I get to update earlier now! *happy dance*

OMG, DID YOU GUYS HEAR THE SNEAK PEEK OF THE MARK OF ATHENA? If you haven't,search RICK RIORDAN, KING OF TROLLDOM, READS THE BEGINNING OF THE. I don't really know why she didn't complete the sentence. *shrugs* Oh, and did you see the pictures of Alexandra Daddario as a blonde for The Sea of Monsters movie? Go search it on Google, right now! It's not fake!

And now, on with the story! XD

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson…Annabeth does! (Thank you,I'mjustthatawesome99 for the awesome disclaimer!)

"Here we are!" Dad announced as we pulled up in the driveway of our house. It was a typical San Francisco townhouse, with other townhouses similar to ours surrounding it. The architecture wasn't very impressive, considering every house was almost identical. I could have done better.

Stupid hubris.

I stepped out of the car, looking around the neighborhood. There were children playing outside, some teenagers shooting hoops, and a couple walking down the sidewalk, laughing and kissing. Just normal people. Nobody would ever expect that a demigod was living just a couple of houses away from them, getting attacked by monsters every few hours or so.

Trying to clear my head, I pulled my bags out of the trunk and followed everybody to the door. As I walked in, I looked around and took in my surroundings. Nothing changed much, just a few new things here and there. Same leather couches, same TV, same decorations. I noticed a couple of new pictures, though. In every single picture, they were all beaming, looking like they were having the time of their lives.

Yeah, they're all grinning because I wasn't with them, I thought bitterly.

"Not too different, right?" Susan asked, shaking me out of my trance.

I nodded my head, managed a small smile, and dashed up the stairs, Dad carrying my bags behind me. I took tentative steps while approaching my bedroom door, not knowing what to expect. They wouldn't have touched anything of mine, right? Although Susan had a habit of looking through my stuff, I don't think she would have snooped around this time, considering she knows that I hate it. I slowly turned the shiny, silver doorknob, anxious to see my room.

I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding when I saw that, like almost everything else in the house, it hadn't changed one bit. I subconsciously smiled while I looked around. The walls were still painted a steely gray, reminding me of Athena. The desk was still covered with piles of papers, the bookshelf was still overflowing with endless amounts of books, and the walls were still covered with pictures of camp and old homework I had sketched buildings on.

It was perfect.

"You know, we've all missed you."

I turned around, startled. There was Dad, leaning against the doorframe, looking like he was deep in thought. My bags were set down beside his feet.

"Yeah, me too…but I've been so caught up with other things…my life has just been so crazy and hectic," I whispered, looking down at my hands.

I had missed them, I really had. But, there was only one person on my mind these days, and I really wasn't thinking about anyone or anything other than him.

"You miss Percy really badly, don't you?"

I peered up at him and met his eyes. I looked away immediately, a tight knot slowly forming in my stomach. Didn't he know that I don't like this topic, at all?

"I-I need to unpack my bags, Dad," I replied, hastily grabbing my bags from beside his feet and locking the door before he could protest.

He knocked again and tried to turn the doorknob, but when he realized that I wasn't going to open any time soon, he sighed and slowly walked away. Great, just great. I had only been here for a few hours, and I already made things awkward and tense.

I groaned and intentionally fell face-first onto my plush bed. Finally, some peace and quiet, I thought to myself. After taking multiple deep breaths, I sat up and decided to do something productive. I opened my suitcase and started putting my clothes in random drawers and in my way too oversized closet. But, as I was about to finish, I noticed a black hoodie hiding underneath my jeans. I arched an eyebrow and slowly pulled out the mysterious garment.

I held back a gasp as I noticed who it belonged to. On the back of the hoodie, in bold, white letters, it said "JACKSON". The faint scent of sea salt still lingered on the hoodie, which brought back happy memories, and terrible ones as well. I just stared at it for what seemed like forever until the sane part of my brain noticed that I hadn't even packed the sweatshirt in the first place. Just like the pictures, it had just appeared. I clearly remembered stuffing under my bed one night, after Drew had commented on it. She ended up in the infirmary after that little incident.

I stood up shakily and walked over to my picture adorned closet, threw the sweatshirt somewhere, and slammed the closet door shut before I could change my mind and dig up that dreaded, creepy hoodie. Percy had worn it the day before he went missing, the day that he told-

"ANNNNNAAABEEETHHHH! Dinner's ready!" Bobby or Matthew shouted, pounding on my door.

"Okay, I'll be there in a minute," I replied, rolling my eyes, even though he obviously couldn't see me.

I heard him mutter something incoherent under his breath, probably something not so nice, which I ignored. I snuck a peek at myself in my small mirror, attempting to make myself look decent and presentable. After a few minutes of trying to untangle my knotted hair, I gave up and went downstairs anyway, not caring what the Hades I looked like.

"Hey," I mumbled as I walked into our overly decorative dining room.

"Annabeth! I was just about to send one of the boys to come and get you down here. I'm guessing you had a problem with your…hair?" she said, smiling widely as she surveyed my appearance.

Percy said I always looked cute, even if I looked disastrous, I thought.

I nodded slowly and plopped down next to Matthew, who was poking his lasagna like it was some road kill, his lip curling up in disgust.

"Mom, I hate lasagna. Can we please go to McDonalds or something?" he complained.

I almost laughed at his complaint. He couldn't last one week in Camp Half-Blood, with our strict diets.

"Matthew, eat your food and stop whining," Dad sighed. Matthew groaned, but obliged.

I looked down at my own plate, and I realized that I didn't have much of an appetite. Don't get me wrong, Susan was a great cook, I just hadn't been eating much these past few weeks anyway, so I got used to not eating normally. I took a couple of small bites and pushed around the food, trying to make it seem like I had eaten enough.

"Annabeth? Is there something wrong with the food?" Susan asked.

I didn't answer. Instead, I was looking outside, my eyes searching around the backyard for anything suspicious.

I sensed something wrong.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Susan pursing her lips. I didn't pay much attention to her though, because I was still staring outside, my eyes narrowing as I scooted closer to the window. I could have sworn I saw a flash of green scales…

"There she is! Euryale, I found her! Oh, this'll be easy, look how skinny and puny she is, Euryale!" a shrill voice shrieked.

Oh, gods.

Well, what'd you think? Good? Amazing? Bad? Horrible? Tell me, please! I know I don't really deserve a review, considering I'm the absolute worst updater ever, but it'd be really nice if you do review! I want to know what I need to work on, and what is good. Okay, I have a deal. The first reviewer gets a review from me and a chapter dedication. If you don't have any stories, then you get a chapter dedication and…something else. I don't know yet. :P Oh, and answer the Question of the Day and look at the contest!

Reviewers get cookies! (::)(::)(::)

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do you think of the cliffhanger? What does it mean? Whoever answers the question right first also gets a chapter dedication!

CONTEST: I really hate the title of this story. Does anybody have any suggestions? A chapter dedication for my favorite suggestion!

Au revoir! (I'm taking French!)

Wow, this chapter was short.