"Nathan! Hurry up or you're going to be late for school!" Annabeth heard herself yell. She was in a kitchen, she knew that much. It looked like your normal kind of kitchen. White cupboards, white counters, Frosted Flakes sitting on top of the white refrigerator, dishes in the sink, and bright lights hanging from the ceiling. Normal. But she wasn't normal. When Annabeth looked down at herself, she was definitely . . . bigger. And she thought that she fully developed at 16. Psh! She was also much taller, and had on a suit. What the hell? And who the Hades is Nathan?

"Coming!" The voice startled her and made her turn around quickly. Coming through the kitchen doors was a small boy, around 8 or 9. He had black hair, and kept his head down. After sitting down on a chair and laying his head onto the table, he groaned.

Annabeth didn't exactly know what to do. "You alright?" she asked.

"Tired," 'Nathan answered. "Can I have some cereal?"

Was she supposed to make it for him, or just say yes and let him make it himself, or is he lactose intolerant or something and not allowed to have cereal? She had absolutely no idea what to do. "Sure," she said. After seeing no movement from the boy, she got the Frosted Flakes she saw earlier down from the top of the fridge, and opened it to get the milk and set the stuff on the counter. Now for the bowl and spoon. Uh oh.

She tried to discreetly open up the different cupboards and drawers searching for the dishes. She silently thanked the gods that the boy was so tired and didn't lift his head off the table. Finally, she found a cupboard filled with numerous amounts of bowls. Yes! She continued looking through the drawers for a spoon, but she couldn't find one. Maybe the kid was a slob and didn't eat with utensils. Maybe he was like that kid from a Christmas Story and would show her how to eat like a pig. She could only hope.

"Here," she said as she placed a bowl of Frosted Flakes in front of him.

He looked up, and groaned once more. "Mom, I've told you before, I don't like Frosted Flakes."

Well that's just too damn bad, little kid -

Wait . . . what?

What!

Did he just say . . . mom?

Yes, yes he did. He called her mom.

Mom!

She is not a mom!

Not at all. Maybe Pez wanted her to be, but no. She is not a mom.

Gods, she hated this dream.

"Well, we don't have any other cereal, so it's that or nothing."

He sighed and went to grab the spoon, but there wasn't one. "Where's the spoon?"

"Uh, there weren't any clean, so . . . just drink it."

He looked up at her, and the sight made her gasp. His eyes . . . they were startling. One was that perfect sea green that she had fallen in love with when she was twelve, and the other was that dark, dark brown that was so close to red that it was scary. "Are you feeling all right?" he asked. Annabeth didn't answer. She was too mesmerized by his eyes. And not only Nathan's eyes, but the two-faced god floating behind him, tossing a gold key from hand to hand. "Mom?" Oh, not the mom thing again. "Mom?"

She felt her head getting light, and Nathan's image began to blur. She was just about to hit the ground when she sat up from her make-shift bed with a gasp.

It had all been a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream.

"You all right?" Pez asked from beside her, still half asleep.

His voice made her gasp once again. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

"Ate?"

"No."

"Percy?"

"No."

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No, I'm fine. Just a little dream of the Boogie Man."

He smiled, even though his eyes were still closed. "You're still afraid of the Boogie Man."

"Shut up!" she yelled as she hit him in the chest.

"Don't worry. I'm here to protect you." He opened his arms and she went into them gratefully.

Annabeth lay in thought while she watched Pez go back to sleep.

Why did she say that last night? Why, why, why?

She shouldn't have told him she loved him. No, no, no.

Yes, she did like Pez - a lot, possibly even love - but these past few weeks without Percy have been horrible. She hated not having him there to protect her, and comfort her, and love her. She could even handle not having him as her boyfriend - she already had to wait 4 years for that before - as long as he was her friend. Fighting with him was the worst. She absolutely hated the feeling it gave her inside, and now that she was with Pez, she just felt terrible.

Pez was fantastic, yes, but . . . it just wasn't the same. She didn't get that same fuzzy, tingling feeling that she got when she was around Percy. But being around Pez . . . she just seemed to have more fun. Her and Percy would never have a tickle fight on the beach, or get pooped out of a monster together. It just wouldn't happen.

Annabeth felt bad. She hated this. Having to choose between the two. It sucked. A lot. She didn't know how she could do it. She wished she could just combine the two. And Matt Bomer's looks. That would make the perfect boyfriend. Stupid Janus for making her choose. Stupid Aphrodite for making her love them both. Stupid Percy for being so . . . him! Pez too! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

"Wakey, wakey," Pez whispered in her ear. His breath tickled her neck, not helping her situation at all.

After yawning and stretching, Annabeth asked, "Do we really have to be pooped out today?"

He nodded his head. "Yep." Did she hear excitement in his voice?

She groaned, but then regretted it. It reminded her of Nathan, her . . . son.

"You all right?" Pez asked. He seemed to be asking that question a lot lately.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Remember," he said, "you'd rather be dirty than dead."

In just a few minutes they had gathered their stuff, grabbed Trevor, and was ready to go. Now they just had to wait.

"How long do you think it'll take until she has to go?" Annabeth questioned.

"I don't know, probably sometime soon." And just like magic, they heard the rushing sound of water.

They grabbed each other's hands and ran over to the hole where Dana disappeared.

"One," he said.

"Two," she followed.

"Three!" they shouted at the same time before they jumped down into the hole. All they saw was black. Everything was black. The only thing that assured Annabeth that Pez was there; the feel of his hand in hers gave her a certain comfort she couldn't explain. Suddenly, they weren't falling anymore, and the smell was absolutely horrid. There was a bit of light above them. Annabeth started climbing up, towards the light, and was soon greeted by the sight of a beach. Pez broke free of the poop right next to her and then gagged at the smell.

"Oh my gods! It smells so bad," Pez yelled.

Annabeth was about to answer, but when she saw Lamia just a few yards away, she shut up, grabbed his hand once again, and climbed down the dung mountain. Luckily, Lamia had stayed on the same island, and their boat wasn't too far away. As soon as they had grabbed their weapons and gotten on board, they pulled up the anchor and floated away.

"You take a shower first," she told Pez, pushing him towards the bathroom with a disgusted look on her face.

"You need to take a shower, too."

"Yeah, but you can go first. I don't mind waiting."

"Why don't we take a shower together?"

"Pez . . ."

"I'm going, I'm going."

After both were showered and clean, they decided to just lie down on the deck and relax. They had gone through a lot today. You might think that they didn't do crap, but going through it is just as tiring.

"I'm bored," Pez said.

"What am I supposed to do about that?"

"Entertain me."

"How?"

"Strip tease." She hit him. "Ow! No need for violence. You asked," he told her as he stood up.

"Well, I wasn't really expecting you to say that!" She stood up as well and gasped when she looked out at sea.

"Calypso's Island," Pez mumbled.

"How do you know?"

"From that sign on the hill. I'm gonna take a guess that Ate made it."

Annabeth looked over at said hill and read the sign. 'Little Titan girl and idiot Poseidon boy are NOT being held captive here. Thank you!'

"Wow. And she's a god?" she asked.

"Guess so. I'd hate to be her kid."

That enough Percabeth for ya?

Now, trust me, I wanted to post this this weekend, but FanFiction wasn't like telling you when things happened and what not, so I wanted to make sure that it was working before I posted the chapter.

Also, like, forever long ago I posted the Twisty Tie fic. I don't know if all of you knew that, so I thought I'd just tell you.

I don't own anything mentioned above except for Pez. No matter how much I want to own Matt Bomer, his lawyer says that the president already has dibs. Lucky.

All the cool kids review!

:) Jordan