Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Chapter 3: Wait and See

Percy's POV

I was so happy to be back at camp. The new camp was incredible, but Annabeth had me worried. She's right, there were so few campers here even this early in the summer. Annabeth thinks something bad is happening. I hope she's wrong, but that hardly ever happens. We'll just have to wait and see. Annabeth and I walked hand in hand to the mess hall. We walked inside, I sat at the new Poseidon table and Annabeth over at the new Athena table. Our tables were right next to each other, so that was a lot better than the old mess hall. I still couldn't believe how big this place was. The campers started to trickle in, I could see Annabeth counting them as they walked in. I hope there weren't any new campers because I know Annabeth would make them nervous counting them as they entered. I didn't have to count to know that there were a lot less campers than usual for this time of the season. I hoped more would come in the next few days, but I was starting to get that feeling in the pit of my stomach that told me something was wrong.

Chiron and Mr. D. walked into the mess hall and sat at the lead table. The lead table was located in the center of the horseshoe of tables. Chiron stood and walked to the front of the tables near the hearth.

"Campers, I know it is early in the season, but I welcome you to Camp Half-Blood. Cabin leaders remember to bring any new campers to the big house for registration as they arrive. Please enjoy yourselves and if you have any questions regarding the new facilities you can speak to me, Mr. D. or Annabeth Chase, cabin leader for the Athena cabin." Chiron said as he gestured to Mr. D and then to Annabeth.

All the campers walked to the buffet line to get they're lunch. I marveled at the spread, even the food at the new camp was incredible. I tossed some food into the hearth and prayed to Poseidon, Theseus and Athena. I even tossed a prayer in to Uncle Zeus and Uncle Hades as well. I sat down and ate my lunch, again the food was great.

After lunch Annabeth and Thalia walked over and sat down next to me at my table.

"Enjoy the food, seaweed brain." Annabeth said sarcastically.

"How many plates did you have?" Thalia asked.

"Three!" I said enthusiastically.

"Your gonna get fat Percy!" Annabeth said not even trying to laugh.

"No I'm not, I didn't have breakfast today and don't worry I'll work it off." I said.

"How?" Annabeth asked.

"Well that's a surprise, excuse me I have to go to my cabin." I said.

"You don't want to stay and talk with us?" Annabeth said with her best puppy dog eyes.

"I'm sorry, I need to unpack and then I want to IM Theseus to see if he's heard from Grover." I said, trying to make up some excuse to leave.

"Alright, I need to unpack anyway. Thalia, you can help me." Annabeth said as she grabbed Thalia by the arm and dragged her out of the mess hall.

When I walked out of the mess hall, I saw Thalia and Annabeth head to the Athena cabin and close the door behind them. I knew my excuse wasn't sufficient, so I wasn't surprised when I saw Annabeth and Thalia peaking out of the cabin window at me. I acted like I didn't see them and just walked to my cabin and entered, but I made sure to lock the door. I knew Annabeth and Thalia would be sneaking around outside to see what I was doing. I walked to the large fountain in the center of the cabin and threw in a drachma.

"Goddess please show me Theseus, god of heroes." I said.

The mist cleared into an image of Olympus, Theseus was clearly in the garden with Athena.

"Hello!" I said.

"Percy, good to see you, brother." Theseus said.

"Percy, how are things at camp?" Athena asked.

"Annabeth's fine, but we are both worried about the number of campers here so far." I said.

"I know I've already talked to Chiron. We just need to wait and see how many more show up, but I agree we are well below the normal count for this time of year." Theseus said.

"How are the surprises coming?" Athena asked with a smile on her face.

"Well, better if I didn't have to worry about Annabeth sneaking around trying to find out what I'm doing. She saw the drafting table in my room and she made a big deal of me keeping secrets." I said frustratedly.

"Well she is my daughter so she's going to be curious, I have faith in you. You'll make sure the surprise stays a secret." Athena said.

"Thank you for the vote of confidence. I can't wait until Nico gets here." I said.

"Why is that?" Athena asked.

"Well Annabeth has Thalia helping her and it is a lot more difficult to keep a secret when there are two spies around." I said.

"I see, we'll try to do something about that." Athena said.

"I'll talk to Hades to see if he can bring Nico back to camp." Theseus said.

"Thank you." I said.

"Alright so how are the designs coming?" Theseus asked getting down to business.

"Well, I have all the ideas, are you sure you want three?" I asked.

"Yes, three is what we need." Theseus said.

"Have the facilities been constructed?" I asked.

"Yes, I just finished talking to Ares, both facilities were completed yesterday." Athena said.

"Good, Theseus have you heard from dad, is he going to have the materials we need to begin construction?" I asked.

"When you're ready all you need to do is have Hermes deliver a message and the materials will be there." Theseus said.

"One last thing, have you heard from Grover lately?" I asked.

"Yes, I sent him on a mission to bring back a young demigod from upstate New York two days ago. I haven't heard from him yet, but that's not unusual. I'll let you know tomorrow. I should be in camp by lunch. Take care Percy."

"Both of you take care as well, good-bye." I said as I waved my hand through the mist and broke the connection.

I looked up toward the window facing the sea and I saw the shrub near the window move. I knew immediately that it was Annabeth. She must have on her invisibility cap. I acted like I hadn't seen anything and walked into my room and closed the door. I pulled closed the curtain in front of my bedroom window and unpacked. When I finished unpacking I began to work on the three surprises that Theseus had discussed in our IM message. I knew that Annabeth had probably given up by now because it had been at least three hours since I began working. I heard the dinner bell ring. Theseus had installed a safe in my room, it was in a secret compartment in the wall behind my desk. He told me that I would need something like this to ensure that I could surprise Annabeth. He said that I should know by now how hard it was to keep a surprise from a daughter of Athena. He was right, when they said curiosity could kill the cat I think they meant Annabeth. I put the materials that I was working on in the safe and locked it. I walked out of my room and out of the cabin. I headed for the mess hall. I didn't see Annabeth and Thalia any where. I bet Annabeth is sneaking in my room, right about now, I thought as soon as I walked into the mess hall. I saw Thalia staring at me curiously from the Zeus table and I didn't see Annabeth at the Athena table.

I walked to the buffet line and filled my plate with food and then scraped my offering into the hearth and prayed to the gods. I walked to my table and then I saw a familiar face, my little brother Tyson. Well, he's not little actually he's a twelve foot tall Cyclops.

"Percy, how are you big brother?" Tyson asked.

"I'm doing well. You're looking great. Are all of your wounds healed now?" I asked.

"Yes, but …" Tyson said quietly.

I forgot Tyson was still very upset because most of his Cyclops army was killed in the war last summer.

"I'm sorry Tyson did dad tell you about the surprise I'm working on?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yes, I know it's a big secret, I promise not to tell." Tyson said as he crossed his chest in the form of a X.

"Good, Annabeth is really trying to discover the surprise and we wouldn't want that to happen would we?" I asked.

Tyson looked at me with large eyes and shook his head. "I promise on the Styx not to tell her." Tyson said.

"You're a good little brother. How long are you staying?" I asked.

"Not long, actually I just wanted to eat dinner with you and then I have to go back to Atlantis. Can I come back when the surprise is under construction?" Tyson asked.

"You sure can, I'll need your help." I said happily.

"Good, I'll bring Triton if I can." Tyson said as he stood up gave me a hug that almost crushed the life out me and then walked out of the mess hall.

Five minutes after Tyson left the door opened up and in came a very frustrated looking Annabeth. She walked over to the buffet line and filled her plate. After making her offering she walked to the Athena table. I saw her look over at Thalia and shake her head. I noticed Thalia lower her eyes in defeat. Yeah, she had been in my room alright and she didn't find anything. A big smile spread across my face as I put my plate away and walked out the door. I didn't say a word to Annabeth or Thalia. It served them right for spying on me. I walked to the training facility. I entered the sword training area and began training with one of the new sword dummies. I set the difficulty level to expert. The dummy nearly took off my head with its first swipe. This thing is serious I thought. I concentrated fully as Theseus had trained me and surged into battle. After about five minutes the dummy was sprawled out on the floor. With half of its sensors flashing red, meaning that I whipped its mechanical butt. I put my sword away and left the training area.

I exited the training facility and ran straight to my cabin. I ran straight passed Annabeth and Thalia as they exited the mess hall. They probably thought that I didn't see them. I did, but I needed to get the first part of my work on the surprise completed before Annabeth figured out what I was doing and ruined the surprise for the whole camp. She could be such as wise girl sometimes, I thought.

Annabeth's POV

As Thalia and I exited the mess hall I saw Percy run towards his cabin at full speed. Either he didn't see us or he was avoiding us. He didn't even say a word to me after he finished dinner, he just ran out of the mess hall. He was up to something, I just knew it.

"Annabeth, did you see Percy run straight passed us?" Thalia asked.

"I did, I think he's avoiding us." I said.

"What do you think he's up to?" Thalia asked.

"No good probably, he's acting like the Stoll brothers." I said.

"I can't believe the seaweed brain is making a plan." Thalia said incredulously.

"Thalia, he has grown up a lot, especially since Theseus arrived. He graduated high school the most improved in his class and I didn't tell you this, but he's starting college in September." I said.

"Where is he going?" Thalia asked surprised.

"The SUNY Maritime College, it's in New York City." I said.

"Wow, then maybe he is smart enough to devise a plan, but he's definitely not smarter than you." Thailia said proudly.

"Problem is, he doesn't have to be smarter, he just has to be good with keeping a secret and I hate to admit it, but Percy is pretty good at keeping a secret." I said.

"He's been keeping secrets from you, that's not a very good boyfriend." Thalia said.

"I mockingly told him that I was hurt by his secrets, but so far they only dealt with things that he calls surprises." I said.

"Like what?" Thalia asked.

"Like learning to play the guitar and yesterday I found out that he took a class on drafting." I said.

"Some secrets! I guess to the brain those would be significant." Thalia said mockingly.

"Well at least my boyfriends not always running off to who knows where for his daddy." I said sarcastically.

Thalia just looked at me angrily, then her expression cleared and she said, "Why are we arguing, we need to find out what Percy's hiding, right?"

"Your right, well we can keep spying on his cabin in case he makes a mistake, it is seaweed brain after all, no matter how much he's grown up he can always make a mistake." I said.

"We can try that, but maybe there's another way." Thalia said mischievously.

"What other way?" I asked.

"How about seduction?" Thalia said.

"What? You want me to seduce him?" I asked with a shocked look on my face.

"Now I don't mean lose your virginity over it, but you can always get a guy to tell you something if you just use the idea of sex to persuade him." Thalia said.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Well, I watch television." Thalia said.

"Too much I think." I said sarcastically.

"So you're not going to try it?" Thalia asked.

"Let's leave that as a last resort." I said.

Thalia and I walked to Percy's cabin and tried the door, of course it was locked. Percy never locked his cabin door, so he was definitely up to something. We walked around and looked in the bay windows of the cabin that faced the lake. No sign of Percy, he had to be in his bedroom. We walked to his bedroom window and of course he had the curtains pulled. Thalia and I both tried to look inside through any cracks or openings in the curtain. All we could see was someone moving behind the curtain and of course it had to be Percy.

"Well this is hopeless, we can't see anything." Thalia said.

"I can't hear anything these cabins were designed to be soundproof." I said.

Thalia and I waited by the lake and watched Percy's window for at least three hours. It was starting to get dark, so we were getting ready to call it a night until we saw Percy's bedroom light go off. We thought maybe he had gone to sleep, but instead we heard the door to his cabin open. Percy came around the corner of his cabin, Thalia and I were hiding behind a large rock lying on the ground. When Percy came into view he was wearing swim trunks that were lime green in color with a navy blue stripe down the side. He wasn't wearing a shirt but had a blue towel rapped around his shoulders. I froze when I saw his upper body his shoulders were broad and muscular and he had six pack abs to die for. His arms were muscular, but not overly so, it had been a year since I had last seen Percy with his shirt off and he had only gotten better looking, thats for sure. I heard Thalia humming to herself and I realized she was in a daze looking at Percy's body.

"Thalia, snap out of it, Percy's my boyfriend, you've got your own." I whispered loudly so Percy didn't hear me. Thalia snapped out of her daze and her cheeks blushed fiercely.

"Sorry, but I never knew Percy had a body like that." Thalia said.

"It's called a swimmer's body and that's what he's getting ready to do swim." I said sarcastically.

We watched as Percy laid his towel on the beach near the lake and then I saw him walk down to the brand new dock. I hadn't noticed that there before. This dock was at least twice as big as our old one. It had several moorings along it's sides to allow boats to tie up. Percy walked to the end of the dock and jumped head first into the lake. He didn't come up for air because he didn't need to. He just swam around the lake underwater.

"Thalia, nows our chance, let's see if Percy left any clues in his cabin." I said.

Thalia and I stood up and ran to the Poseidon cabin's door and it was unlocked, so far so good. We walked to Percy's door and found his door unlocked as well. We walked in and looked around, then I saw a letter near a Hermes delivery package. The message was from Percy to Poseidon. I read it out loud.

Dear Dad,

I hope this letter finds you well and I hope Hermes got this to you quickly. Your going to love them when you see them. The tall one, she's the best and I lover her. I know you will too when you see her Please send the package as soon as possible. I'll make sure that everything is completed on time. Athena and Theseus know what's going on and they are happy for me. It was hard to do, but I couldn't pass this opportunity up. Thank you for helping me, this will certainly change my life.

Love your son,

Percy

"Who is the tall one, is it a girl?" Thalia said, not believing what she read.

"Percy is in love with a girl that Poseidon hasn't met yet." Thalia continued. I just looked at her, that can't be right Percy loves me, we have to be missing something.

"What did he mean by them and then he said the tall one? Are there several new girls coming to camp?" I said completely stunned.

"I know and then he said that Theseus and Athena know what's going on." Thalia said.

"And they are happy for him!" I added.

"He said it was hard to do, what did he mean, cheat on you?" Thalia said.

"Then he said that he couldn't pass up this opportunity, what his opportunity to dump me?" I said.

"What about the last part when he says this will definitely change his life." Thalia said.

"Oh, his life will be changed, if he still has one after I'm done with him." I said, I was mad now, was Percy really cheating on me with some new camper that would arrive with others, probably her sisters, I thought.

"What about the package that Poseidon's going to send him and what about when he said we will be ready on time?" Thalia said.

"I don't know, but we're going to watch Mr. Secrets and if he is cheating on me, he's dead." I said menacingly. Thalia just looked at me and nodded.

"I'm with you." Thalia said.

We put everything back where we found them and left the Poseidon cabin. Thalia went back to her cabin and I went to mine. That night I had the worst dream about Percy dumping me for some tall unknown girl. I woke up and cried myself to sleep. What am I going to do without Percy? That's all I could think about.

I hope you liked this chapter, a little drama never hurts, well maybe just a little.