Pez jumped over the counter and ran out the door, the bell ringing as he rushed out. He followed Annabeth's screams, but he didn't have to go far.

There, in the middle of the Circle K parking lot, was a giant snake. Now, you may think a cobra or a boa constrictor is big, but this…this thing was huge! If it stood still and got painted gray, it could easily be mistaken for one of the many skyscrapers of New York. And twirled in the end of its tail, at least 25 feet up in the air, was Annabeth.

She was kicking her legs, and hitting the serpent over and over again with balled up fists. Her bronze dagger lay on the ground beneath her.

The first thing Pez wanted to do was run. I mean, really? Who in their right mind would just go up to a 30-foot tall snake and fight it? Then again, who in their right mind sees 30-foot snakes in the parking lot of a convenience store?

With that thought, Pez ran up to the giant snake. Why? He obviously was going insane right now, so why not?

The only problem is, he had no weapon. Well, yes, he did have a knife in his back pocket (don't ask), but do you really think that a 6-inch knife is going to do much on that giant thing? No, not really. The only thing Pez could think of is Annabeth's dagger that was lying a few feet away from him. It was also a few feet away from the snake.

He took a gasp of breath, and ran. Ran as fast as his long, scrawny legs could go, which wasn't all that fast. Pez was never an athletic kind of guy. He walked his laps in PE, and stood in the corner of the gym when they had to play sports. It just wasn't his thing.

He was only a few feet away now. Three feet. Two. One.

He bent down and grabbed the knife from the ground. Phew….Now what?

"Pez!" He could hear his name being called by the dangling girl from above. "Pez! You have to stab it in the face!"

"What?" Pez said, more out of disbelief than not being able to hear.

"You have to stab it in the face! Its scales make it invincible everywhere else! The only way to kill –" She cut herself off, and let out a scream as the snake turned around to face Pez, swinging its tail violently around.

He swallowed the lump in his throat. 'You can do this,' he thought in his mind, as the python showed him its teeth. 'I think.'

After taking a breath, he charged, dagger in hand. Stupidly, he closed his eyes, not wanting to see himself die. He felt the dagger pierce through skin, an opened an eye to see the damage. He must've hit the brain or something because it was obviously less vicious after the stab, but still very much alive. He beat it with the weapon a few more times before it finally…turned into yellow powder. Pez rolled with it. I mean, strange colored dust was nothing compared to the snake that sat there earlier.

But Pez didn't have that much time to think about that, seeing as there was a half unconscious girl lying a few feet away from him.

"Annabeth?"

She grunted in response, and opened her eyes a bit. After realizing whom it was and that he was alive, she shot up in a sitting position. "You did it! You killed the Python! You…you saved my life!" With that, she hugged him. Now, hugging was not something that Pez was a fan of. He had only been hugged a few amount of times in his life, and getting hugged by some girl he met a few minutes ago was strange and awkward. She seemed to realize that fact and let go with a quiet "Sorry," and a blush.

They sat there, in the middle of the Circle K parking lot, for a few minutes. "Oh shit," Annabeth cursed under her breath, breaking the silence.

"What?"

"Give me your hand." She got her dagger from beside him and held it up.

"What are you gonna do?"

"Stop being such a wussy, Pez. I'm not gonna hurt you."

He hesitantly gave her his hand. She took the edge of the weapon and touched it to his middle finger, breaking skin and drawing blood. Pulling his finger back quickly to suck off the blood, Pez said, "I thought you weren't going to hurt me!"

But she was not listening anymore. She was too busy with her own thoughts. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," she muttered.

"What's with the triple shits?"

"You're a half-blood."

"A what what?"

"A half-blood. Half human, half Greek god."

"Wow. You're hilarious. You really should become a comedian, Annabeth"

"Shut up and follow me. We're going to camp." She started walking towards a van with Delphi Strawberry Service on the side.

"Where?" Pez asked as he got up as well.

"Camp Half-Blood."

"I'm not much of a camp person."

"Well that's just too damn bad, isn't it?"

"Someone gets snappy when she's stressed."

Glaring at him, she climbed into the front seat.

"I'm not supposed to get rides from strangers," Pez said, pretending to have a lisp and sounding like a small child.

Annabeth sighed. "Just get in the car."

He followed the instructions and Annabeth started the car. "So, are you taking me to your house to rape me now?"

She stared at him, dumbstruck, as he winked at her then raised his eyebrows up and down. Shaking her head in disgust, she said, "And to think that I thought you were sweet when I first met you."

"Yeah, a lot of people make that mistake."

She sighed once more. They drove the rest of the way in silence.

***

They finally arrived at a hill with a pine tree at the top, but Annabeth was in too much of a hurry to get into details. She grabbed Pez's hand and ran across the entire camp to the Big House. Once there, they went inside to find a man in a wheel chair, reading a book, with a boy with black shaggy hair playing with a pen sitting next to him.

The boy stood up and said Annabeth's name as soon as the two entered, but she completely ignored him, telling the entire story of Pez and the Python to the older man instead. "He's a half-blood! I tested it and everything!"

"Oh dear," said the crippled man.

"So you see the problem here?" Annabeth asked, as the man nodded his head a bit.

"I don't."

"Are we even talking to you, Percy?" Annabeth questioned harshly. Pez recognized the name from her story earlier and now understood the tension between the two. He decided to just keep quiet and stay in the corner, like he had already been doing since they got there.

"Annabeth…" the older guy warned.

"What, Chiron? We weren't talking to him!" The man named Chiron just stared at her with cold, hard eyes. She huffed angrily before talking. "You told the Olympians to claim all their kids before they turn thirteen. Pez is obviously a demigod, and he s obviously older than thirteen. Does your seaweed filled brain understand now? Or are you too busy thinking about Calypso to understand anything I just said?"

Percy still didn't completely understand, but he did understand that Annabeth was still mad at him, which he did not enjoy one bit! "Annabeth, you can't still be mad at me? I have to go on this quest!"

"Of course I'm mad at you! You chose her over me!" Yell, yell, yell. That was really all Pez heard, until Chiron shouted loudly and got the two to stop.

"Percy, I think you should go get your bag ready. You're leaving on a quest tomorrow."

He gave Annabeth a pleading look one last time, which she completely ignored, before walking away.

"So…anyone care to explain what's happening to me?" The voice somewhat shocked the two since they had not heard it once since Annabeth and Pez had gotten to camp.

"Ah. Yes, it's nice to meet you Mr.…Pez?" Chiron asked, unsure of what to call him.

He nodded and took the fingertips of his hand to shake. Again with the affection. Not his thing.

Annabeth gave the usual talk of the Olympians and how they were real and blahbitty, blahbitty, blah.

"I'm on Punk'D, aren't I?" he asked in the end.

Annabeth sighed. "No. How would some crappy TV show fake that Python? And how would they fake Chiron?"

"What's with Chir- oh." He stopped once the man started to get out of his wheelchair, and where his legs should have been was half of a horse. "Wow. I know horses are, like, cute, or something, to some chicks, but really? Sleeping with one is a bit intense, don't you think?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, as Chiron looked dumbstruck. "Who do you think his mom is, Chiron?" asked Annabeth trying to clear the air a bit.

He cleared his throat. "I do not know yet. Whoever it was mustn't have known about Percy's request."

"But every goddess was there. And even if his mother wasn't, wouldn't the news still be hot on Olympus for her to find out?"

"Yes, yes that is true." They all sat there in silence for a while. "Well, let's not get too caught up on this. We'll see as time goes on. How about you show him around camp, Annabeth."

She nodded softly, still deep in thought, and got up to leave the Big House with Pez right behind her.

So, I know this took a bit longer than the first ones to post up, but it's a bit longer, so there! Plus, I really suck at action, just in case you couldn't tell! Sorry!

And the next one will probably be, like, I don't know. I'll try this weekend (I'd pretty much stop hoping for a weekday, if I were you. School = female dog, if you know what I mean!), but it's my aunt's wedding, so I highly doubt that. I have Monday off, so maybe then...maybe.

All the cool kids review!

:) Jordan