Hey, I just wanted to let everyone know that this chapter is in third person. Don't get confused.

For the last time, I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians! (Or Boom Boom Pow. Or Fallin' for You).

It's an easy trip back—relatively. There are the complaints that are to be expected of four teenagers. Juniper, the one who promised not to complain about the long trip back without the RV is also the one who complains first.

"I am so bored!" she announces. Annabeth agrees.

"I have nothing to do. We don't have internet access, and even if we did, my laptop's dead," she says plainly.

"Well, at least you have a phone. That's charged, isn't it?" asks Percy.

"What does my phone have to do with it?" she replies, whipping out the small silver rectangle. "It's not like I can use it without being eaten." She lays it on the dashboard.

"See?" she asks. "All it does is sit there!"

"What do you want it to do? Sit up and beg?" counters Percy, and Grover snorts laughingly from the backseat where he and Juniper have been sitting, fingers twined since Montana. Annabeth glares at Percy for a minute before she laughs, too.

"Okay, that was a good one," she snickers.

There is silence for a while, until Percy suddenly says, "I'm hungry. And tired." As one, all four turn to look at the clock. The robotic, black lines declare, '10:15 P.M'. The heroes had skipped their lunch in their intensity to get back to New York before the impending war catches up with time. Still, they all know that they need to rest sometime.

"Annabeth, do you know how much money we have right now?" Grover asks.

"Um," she hesitates. "Oh…we had, hmm…" she proceeds with her mental accounting and finally comes up with an answer.

"Oh, good," says Percy. "Then we should have enough."

"Enough for what?" asks Annabeth nervously. She knows that Percy's probably going to get them into some escapade.

"Holiday Inn," he answers simply.

"Oh gods," says Annabeth. He is so going to screw something up, she just knows it.

***

Sure enough, Percy Jackson manages to screw up again.

In another half an hour, they are at the Holiday Inn, checking in. The clerk looks suspiciously at the fake ages and fake names that Percy provides, but what really bowls him over is their lack of real luggage. They're carrying a backpack and a laptop. Still, he has been born and bred on the principle that the customer is always right, and he allows them to pass.

"Here are the keys to room 818," he says, and Percy hides a smirk. Room 818 once again. It seems that they are being stalked by those numbers. The clerk keeps on about the hotel's pet policy, Must be in kennels, and the breakfast program, starts at six, ends at nine, and on and on. Percy assures him that we have no pets, and that no, we don't need an in-room kitchen and that no, we don't have any children, where would they be, in our bags?

Finally, the young clerk allows them to pick up their luggage and enter their rooms. It's spacious, with a private shower and mini snack bar. There is a locked door connecting it to the suite next door, and a closet stocked with extra bedding.

Of course, thinks Percy, we won't need those. We have two beds here.

Wait. Two beds? Thinks Annabeth.

"Percy Jackson, once again, you have screwed up. There are two beds here. And there are four of us! Count! One, two, three, four!" she yells.

Percy succeeds in looking sheepish for a minute or two until their neighbors bang on the wall angrily. He starts laughing at the top of his lungs. "Ha ha! Annabeth, you yell too loudly!"

Annabeth looks at him as if he's insane. "You are sleeping on the floor. Juniper and Grover are sharing, I am on the other bed, and you are so sleeping on the floor."

Once again, sure enough, Percy is sleeping on the floor, and Annabeth is sleeping in the double bed.

***

The four teammates finally get to sleep at around twelve at night. Well, two of them do. Grover and Juniper are passed out on opposite ends of their bed, with more than half of it between them.

Annabeth is feeling too warm and just…uncomfortable to get to sleep. Like she's missing something, the feeling she has when she's just one piece away from solving the puzzle.

Percy is satisfied. He's faced today what he's been denying for a long time. He knows he'll find a way to tell Annabeth what she's forgotten. Still, he's uncomfortable, but for a wholly different reason then Annabeth's. Even through the bedding, the floor is hard.

Slowly, he raises his head with the intention of sneaking up on Annabeth. He doesn't know what he'll do then, but he knows that…well, when you put the two of them together, they'll figure something out.

When he sees wide grey eyes looking back at him, he announces with great dignity, "Gah!" and falls back into his pathetic mattress. Annabeth's silent laughter shakes the bedding.

"You should have seen the look on your face!" she whisper-shouts. "On second thought, you shouldn't have. You'd die of embarrassment!"

He pouts in such a boyish fashion that Annabeth flies into another gale of laughter. "Why are you awake?" Percy demands.

"I can't sleep," confides Annabeth. "Why are you still awake?"

"The same." Of lack of anything better to say, he asks, "Have you noticed that the number of this room is the same as the hospital room?"

She nods. "And your birthday, too," she points out. "818, 8/18, get it?"

"I hadn't thought of that," he admitted.

"And that's why I'm the smarter, more observant, and overall better person in this relationship." He shifts uncomfortably, but not because of her words. "Why are you squirming?"

"I'm not squirming; I'm…doing the twist."

"Why are you doing the twist?"

"The floor is hard."

Annabeth laughs guiltily. "Sorry about that. I shouldn't have made you sleep on the floor. You and Grover should have shared."

"Great! Let's kick Juniper off of the bed so I can get some sleep!" he says sarcastically.

"Um…no. Come up here. It's a double bed; we can share. And it's just one night, right?"

"Are you sure?"

She nods enthusiastically. "Uh, duh! Like, I'm totally, like, sure!" she exclaims in a too high voice that goes with stereotypical cheerleaders and popular girls. This time they both laugh at the sarcasm and in a quick bound Percy is off the floor and on the bed. Annabeth scoots over to make room for him.

"Thanks," he whispers.

"No problem," the quiet reply comes, and then the room is silent. Artemis's moon sees them all fall asleep, and directly twelve hours later, Apollo's sun sees them driving across Pennsylvania, just a little more of a drive to New York.

***

That, however, was the tale of a week ago.

The heroes all got back to camp perfectly fine, and partially in their honor, and partially to relieve tensions of the upcoming, impending war that was almost upon them, Chiron and the gods decided to throw a ball, so to speak, in Le Ballroom Grande, which was actually a hotel located in Manhattan.

Juniper said she was worried that her plant might not like her being gone so much, but everybody knew that she and Grover had had a falling out. Grover didn't want to see Juniper there. Percy refused to go because he didn't like dressing up, and Annabeth refused to go because she didn't like dressing up.

And that is where the dainty-but-don't-let-that-fool-you Silena Beauregard came in. As a daughter of Aphrodite, she wasn't one to miss a party. But unlike a typical child of Aphrodite, she didn't like stealing the spotlight, and she didn't like anybody else doing it, either.

And that's why she made it her mission in life to get our champions to the grand celebration.

After the delicious-as-usual dinner, Silena walked up to the podium that Mr. D and Chiron were standing on.

"Mr. D," she started, "Do you think that it's possible for Annabeth, Juniper, Megan, and I to go to the Plaza tomorrow? It's a Saturday as it is and we'll clean up our cabins/surrounding areas before we leave, I promise."

"Honestly, I don't care. I would rather all you brats just left me alone," he spat, not even looking up from his cards. "Go. I'll get Argus to drive you."

"Um, Mr. D, I can drive them. I'm eighteen."

"Fine, fine. Now go away or else I'll get a picture of you, drunk, dancing on a table with a lampshade over your head!" he threatened. Silena rolled her eyes and left the podium.

"Can Annabeth Chase, Megan Valencia and Juniper Heartwood come here, please?" she yelled unnecessarily, because they were all pretty close to her. They walked up toward her uncertainly.

"We can go for a girl's day out tomorrow…and find us all clothes for the ball!" she squealed happily. Megan and Juniper grinned, but Annabeth said, "Yeah. No way." She started to go back towards her table, but Silena grabbed her wrist.

"Listen Annabeth, you're gonna go with us or I'll find a way to make you regret it, I swear I will!" she smiled evilly.

"Oh, right," scoffed Annabeth. "I'm so sure."

"I wouldn't be that confident," crooned Silena. "Remember, I was the one you ran to when you had that big crush on that what's-his-face, Ryan last year. I don't think you'd be too happy if certain people found out about that little affair!"

Annabeth eyes widened. "You wouldn't," she warned.

"Oh, I would," promised Silena.

After a moment, Annabeth sighed. "Fine," she said sourly. "But I'm not going to some big, fancy department store that prices things at forty dollars for two inches of material."

Of course, they ended up in exactly such a store.

***

"Silena, look," said Annabeth. She was trying to remain calm, but it wasn't working very well. "I don't mind dressing up once in a while, but I don't like dressing up in stuff like this!" she gestured to the near naked mannequin. "I said I was going to go the party! I'll wear a dress, but it sure won't come from here!"

Silena squinted, irritated, looking more like her mother than she ever had. "Megan, Juniper, keep looking over there. I'm going to talk to Annabeth." Megan and Juniper walked off to where Silena motioned.

Grabbing Annabeth by the arm, she dragged her behind a rack of shirts.

"Look Annabeth, I know you like him, Clarisse knows you like him, and so does the rest of the camp."

"I don't like anybody!" lied Annabeth. Silena sighed; she wasn't going to get anywhere, she could see that.

"Fine. Okay, look. If I let you pick your own dress, do you promise that you won't go looking like something from Scream?"

"Okay…as long as you don't put too much makeup on me," countered Annabeth. Silena smiled and nodded.

"Sure." Annabeth turned to leave; she'd seen a promising store a down the street. "And Annabeth?" asked Silena. "The perfect dress is something you like. I'm sure you'll find the perfect dress."

Annabeth grinned and headed down the street.

***

A few minutes later, Annabeth walked into the boutique briskly. The matronly, middle aged lady standing behind the counter smiled warmly at her, and Annabeth smiled uncertainly back.

"Hi, I'm looking for a dress…" started Annabeth, and proceeded to describe the kind of dress she wanted. The woman's eyes lit with recognition and excitement. She nodded excitedly and led her to a back room filled with old garment bags. The owner of the store seemed to go through some mental catalogue and picked out a bag.

For a second, Annabeth worried the dress might be aging and discoloured. Then, in a smooth, expert movement, the lady removed the dress from the bag.

She gasped quietly. The dress was…perfect.

***

Percy was talking to Grover and Nico, under the heavy maple tree deep in the Camp forest.

"So you guys actually want to go to this stupid thing?" asked Percy disbelievingly.

Nico shrugged. "As long as I don't have to wear a Romeo suit like I did for that masquerade."

"And as long as they have some normal music this time around," added Grover.

"I don't know, the music wasn't all that bad…" Percy trailed off when he saw both the others staring at him. "That's not the point! Why do you guys want to go? You don't want to see Juniper, Grover, and Nico, you and Megan aren't officially going out. Besides, you guys don't like getting dressed up."

"Ah, young one," said Grover in a Yoda-like tone. "That is where you are mistaken. Look, if I say I wanna go, then I'll come across as desperate. And if I don't go, then Juniper will get the message that I don't like her anymore."

"Besides, how are we gonna go out if I don't take her anywhere?" asked Nico. "Percy, man, you need to wake up and smell the stinkweeds. Annabeth is going, right?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"If you don't go, she won't really care. You aren't really that great of a 'catch,'" he continued.

"Hey!"

"No offence. Think about it. If she doesn't go, then nobody's gonna want to hang out with you. But if you don't go, well, there's a long line of people who want to go out with Annabeth."

"Who?" Percy asked.

"See?" he told Grover triumphantly. "I told you he'd be jealous! Hand it over."

Grover grumbled and pulled out a few drachmas. "Hello, flowers!" said Nico. "Thanks, Percy. Your possessiveness just paid for Megan's bouquet tonight."

"I'm not possessive," Percy protested. "And for your stupid information, I'll have you know that I'm not a non-date-optioned guy. Katrina's been hitting on me this whole week."

"Oh, that's why Annabeth pounded her during swordsmanship," said Grover.

"She did what? Are you serious? Katrina's a new camper!" Percy complained. "Jeez. And you guys call me possessive."

"Aha! So you know that she likes you!"

"I didn't say that!" Poor Percy; he stuck his foot in his mouth yet again.

"That's it. We need to talk to the Aphrodite cabin," Grover said grimly. "They can fix us up for this."

"Or, better yet," said Percy sarcastically, "We can just not go to this stupid thing!"

"Great idea, child!" commended Nico. "And tonight, when everybody is at the party, we can dig a grave for our nonexistent love lives!"

"Okay, okay, I get your point. But no way am I going to the Afro cabin. Why can't we just get our own stuff?"

"Actually, we can," Nico smiled. He held up a set of keys. "I had our dear friends the Stoll Brothers steal these. They're the keys to one of the camp trucks."

"Oh, great. Now we can, like, totally, like, go, like, shopping!" Percy squealed in a falsetto.

"Heck yeah!" yelled Grover.

Percy and Nico looked at him. He shut up.

***

It was Hades. Really and truly, the three idiots in a formal wear store was a horrible occurrence—especially when they ran into Silena, Juniper, and Megan at the same store. After they finished playing 'spy' and hiding from the girls for no conceivable reason, they finished up their purchases. Luckily, Grover had had the foresight to rob Mr. D's personal bank. Between it and the money left over from the quest, they had just enough for the clothes.

"Oh gods, I don't want to see that price again in my life!" groaned Percy. "It's a good thing we didn't use my money for those things."

"Agreed," agreed Nico.

"Whatever. We need to get back to Camp before Camp comes looking for us."