Chapter 1

6 months later

Piper McLean may not have been very girly. She didn't care about her clothes and she didn't wear makeup. But she was still a daughter of Aphrodite. She knew love when she saw it.

Then again, everyone could tell that Percy Jackson was in love with Annabeth Chase. Well...except Annabeth.

Whenever he thought nobody was looking, he would stare at her with pure adoration in his eyes. He would straighten up and smile whenever she was around. And he always went out of his way to impress her; whether it be destroying any challenger in a sword fight, or commanding the water to do anything, or just trying to make her laugh. Percy was always on the lookout for a way to make Annabeth love him.

The trouble was, it was hard to make somebody fall in love with you when they were in love with someone else. Annabeth had been dating Will Solace since after the Second Titan War, and, as a daughter of the goddess of love, Piper could see how much they loved each other. She knew that it ate Percy up inside and even though she wasn't really into the "meddle in other people's love life" thing that all of her siblings seemed to love, Percy was her friend and she wanted him to be happy. And the only way he would be happy was if Annabeth was his.

So she would see to it that she was.

Leo Valdez wasn't all that big on sword fighting. But when Percy went out to fight, all the ladies at the camp followed, so he figured he might as well give sparring Percy a shot. He couldn't be that good of a fighter, could he?

Well he was that good. And Leo was now very much regretting his decision.

He lay on the ground, his sword some hundred feet away from him with Percy standing over him, a big grin on his face. His shaggy raven-black hair lay in a mess on his head like a nest. It had taken roughly five-seconds for Percy to win this "fight".

Riptide prodded into his chest, just below his neck. His head ached from when Percy had jammed the butt of Leo's own sword into his head, and his arm was twisted into a very uncomfortable position behind his back.

"Ok, Percy. I think they get the point. Nobody can beat you. But your sword is dangerously close to either severing my head from my body or puncturing my heart. And honestly, the counseling I've been going to has really made me stop fantasizing about situations like these. So could you maybe just let me up and we could call it a draw?" Leo managed to utter. It was quite a difficult task to talk with a sword jammed into your neck area.

Percy laughed, removing Riptide from Leo's skin and extending his hand toward the ground. "Sorry, Leo. I kinda lose control when I'm sparring and I forget where I am and who I'm up against." Leo took Percy's hand and pulled himself to his feet.

"You could've at least gone somewhat easy on me. All of this camps girls are here and I was trying to show them that I was just as tough as big old Percy Jackson." Percy scrunched his eyebrows together and looked around, noticing for the first time that Leo was right. Nearly every girl who stayed at Camp-Half Blood was in attendance, despite the frigid weather.

"Why is everyone watching us?" He asked.

"Because you're hot," Leo blurted out without thinking. He quickly realized what he had said and then added, blushing, "At least thats what I've heard the girl's say." Now Leo and just about any other guy at camp would have loved to hear this. Have your pick out of any number of half goddesses? Sweet! Percy on the other hand just frowned.

"Annabeth doesn't." Leo sighed. In his opinion, Percy was way too hung up on Annabeth. Yeah, she was hot and a certified genius and practically Percy's other half; but what was one other half when you could have fifty other quarters?

"You're still into her? It's been two years since she started going out with that Bill Solar guy. You're eighteen years old and the hottest guy in five-hundred square miles. I mean, thats what I hear the girls saying. You can't stay hung up on one chick forever!" Percy just stared sadly at Leo. The crowd was starting to disperse.

"Whatever." Percy mumbled. He turned to walk away and was about to leave when Leo shouted at him.

"Wait!" he ran and caught up to Percy. "I need to ask you an important favor." Percy raised his eyebrows and Leo took it as a sign to continue. "If anybody asks would you please tell them that I let you win because your mom is suffering from a life threatening disease and I wanted to make your tragic life a little bit better?"

Percy couldn't help but smile at that. "Sure, man. I'll make you seem like a real hero."

A/N: If I get enough positive response, I'm going to make this a pretty long story. I'm still not sure how to introduce the Titan thing to the camp or anything, so bear with me if it takes a while. I hope you enjoy. Don't forget to review!