I know, once again I took a while. I am in the middle of exams, so I really shouldn't be doing this, I should be revising, but my parents called this a well-deserved break, so I thought I'd dedicate my free time to all you lovely people! I want to say thank you once again to all you who reviewed, favourited or followed. You guys make this so much more enjoyable.

Also I'm aware that a few people asked questions in reviews that I didn't answer. I didn't answer these for a reason, so that may be an answer in itself. You may be asking questions I am not prepared to answer - this sort of story is so clichéd I would hate to spoil the few pieces of actual mystery! Anyway, do keep asking them, and I will answer them if I think it isn't too spoilery. I was also previously replying to any review I received, even if it was just a smiley face. I'm not doing that for all of them now - too much to do - but please keep doing them all the same. Every little helps!

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Read, enjoy, and review!

The rest of the week was uneventful. Late on Thursday night, Frederick had rung Heather's house to check that the kids had arrived safely and they hadn't wrecked the house. In his words, "We haven't insured them against vandalism of other properties through over exuberance. Do you think we should? Do you think we can?" This had been met with suppressed snorts of amusement from both Heather and Annabeth as they listened to his call on speaker phone. The boys were in bed, having finally worn themselves out.

"Dad," Annabeth groaned. "They do honestly have the same amount of energy," and inbuilt need to destroy everything, "as all the other boys their age. I know you think otherwise because I was a nice, calm little girl, but their level of activity is normal. Everyone expects them to act like that, so no, you don't need insurance. Yet," she added with an evil little grin.

"Oh, I know that, but how do you know I wasn't talking about you?"

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Because I'm not the one who gets milk on the walls every time I eat cereal, I'm the one who cleans it off?"

A chuckle came from the other end of the line. "Fair play. About tomorrow, do you know what you're doing?"

"It's not rocket science. We leave here earlier than we normally would leave home, because we need to be at the bus stop on time but Gran's is further away than our house. Then we go through the day as normal, coming home to you as if nothing had changed."

"And..."

"And Gran will keep our clothes and wash them, so that next week we will have a nice set of clean clothes to change into."

"Perfect. I knew I could rely on you to remember everything."

"Then why don't you trust me with the boys? It's not like I don't look after them normally."

"Annabeth," he whined. "I don't want to talk about this now. Or at all. It's our decision and you have to deal with it. It's not that bad is it?"

She spluttered, looking over at Heather. "Well, no, I suppose not but... it's the principle of the matter!"

"If it's only your principles that are being offended, then I think you'll be fine in time. Ha! That rhymed!" Rolling her eyes, Annabeth prepared to hang up.

"Yes, yes, you're a terrible poet and you don't know it. Now I'm just going to shut this phone and go to bed. You should probably do the same."

It was at this point that Heather intervened. "Actually, if you don't mind, I'd like to get a word in edgewise and talk to your father. You go off to bed and stop trying to mother us all the time. Go on! She did it to me just earlier today." That last part was directed towards the phone after Annabeth was dismissed with a mouthed good night and an air kiss.

...

Friday passed as most do, with much boredom and time wasted staring at the clock and wishing that the second hand would suddenly move that tiny bit faster. Everyone wore jeans and a hoodie as they ditched fashion for the comfort that is necessary to survive that fatal last day of the working week.

Of course there were the ever present conversations with OwenSawyer. He was unerringly sweet, never failing to take an opportunity to compliment her. One such occasion was in her history class:

OwenSawyer: Whatre yoo doin atm

AnnabethChase: Pardon?

OwenSawyer: (in my best RP accent) *ahem* What are you doing at this moment?

AnnabethChase: Ah. I wondered why you were referring to automated teller machines.

OwenSawyer: Oh, you're such a sweetheart. So innocent in the ways of the internet. And don't I get any brownie points for remembering what an RP accent is? Maybe even just a brownie? I know I was impressed.

AnnabethChase: Oi mate, watch it.

AnnabethChase: See, I can be normal. I just choose not to murder our beautiful language. Unfortunately, the only thing I can give you are virtual cookies (,:) (:;) (':) (::)

OwenSawyer: Anything from you is the best reward possible.

Of course she smiled at that. The boy was so sweet she was surprised she didn't have toothache. Another message arrived.

OwenSawyer: Wait - I've thought of something even better than virtual cookies.

She looked round at the class. They were still writing the answer to the question she had finished a few minutes ago. Normally her teacher would call someone out on having their phone out - which wasn't forbidden, but was frowned upon as it distracted students. In Annabeth's case however, she knew that the work would be complete and done to the best of her ability, therefore she let her do what she liked, as long as she wasn't too blatant in her rule breaking.

AnnabethChase: Something better than virtual cookies? Not possible.

OwenSawyer: I know. I thought that too. But then...

AnnabethChase: But then?

OwenSawyer: I need some sort of tension music.

AnnabethChase: How about a heartbeat?

OwenSawyer: Perfect.

AnnabethChase: Ba dum. Ba dum. Ba dum. Ba dum. Ba dum. Ba dum. Ba dum. Ba dum.

The bell rang for the end of the lesson and everyone started to clear away.

OwenSawyer: But then I realised a kiss from you would make my day. My week. My year!

BadumBadumBadumBadumBadumBadumBadumBadumBadumBadumBadum. Her heartbeat had quickly accelerated.

OwenSawyer: And okay, a real one would be great, but I accept virtual ones too!

Of course he did. This was the moment that Kieren, one of the most annoying boys in her class, decided to look over. Most people thought he was funny, but he had a scathing sort of humour that bordered on cruel and Annabeth could see the way it affected some people. If anyone ever took actual offence, they were ridiculed because it was only a joke! But it went further than a joke when it actually hurt and it often did for those softer, quieter people, like her.

He sauntered over. "What's got you blushing then?" Her reddened cheeks meant nothing because she blushed if too many of her friends looked at her at once, but she hated it because people thought they had got some huge reaction out of her. "I see you hiding that phone under the table. Who are you texting? Are they naughty texts? Were you..." He paused for dramatic effect, then whispered loudly, "sexting? Shit, I bet you were. The quiet ones are always the weird ones, right?" He appealed to those around her, further humiliating her. She escaped from where he had laid his arm around her shoulder and left without another word. She had nothing to defend herself with.

Blushing a deeper shade of crimson, she answered his most recent message.

AnnabethChase: Xxx.

She hid her phone in her pocket and hurried to find her friends.

...

On Saturday, Annabeth finally got to meet up with Thalia after she had postponed earlier in the week. At exactly 11 a.m. Annabeth was seated by the window, sipping tentatively at a steaming cup of tea. Almost a full ten minutes later, she saw Thalia stride along outside and through the door, before calling out her order and terrifying the employees with her demands for perfection.

When she finally collapsed in a chair opposite her, Annabeth said, "You really need to stop doing that you know. They're more likely to get it wrong if you intimidate them so much."

"I know. But it's just so fun to see them all flustered! I don't really care about the quality of the tea - it's a chain store, so it's always the same (slightly crappy) - it's just the best way to make them get in a flap. And they fall for it every time!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but the fond smile she sent her best friend told Thalia that it was all just for show. The two girls had met age 7, at which point Thalia had insulted her and pulled her hair. Thinking it was the way to gain Thalia's friendship, a few of the other children had joined in picking on Annabeth. Thalia had promptly turned round and punched one of them in the nose and threatened the others, saying "If you want to be mean to her, then you have to go through me first!" with her little fists clenched. They had been friends ever since.

Admittedly, it was an unconventional friendship. They didn't tell each other their deepest secrets and desires, argued often and rarely talked about boys (because there really wasn't much to talk about on either side). Nevertheless, after every argument they remained friends and always had one another's backs.

They sat in silence for a moment. "So, how was your Gran's? Worth ditching me for?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth groaned. "I never liked it in the first place so don't pin it on me like it was my fault. Buuut… it wasn't that bad. It meant I got to spend some time with Gran, which I haven't done for a while because of all those essays."

"And that is why I didn't take an essay subject. Or two, like you did, you crazy woman," Thalia smirked.

"Yeah, well, I didn't realise I would have to write four essays a week for philosophy. Anyway, you know I would work for exactly the same amount of time if I had taken non-essay subjects too."

"You workaholic, you. Enough about college. It takes over our lives during the week. We can't surrender and give it our weekends too." Thalia had risen to stand, hands raised in defiance. Seeing the odd looks they were getting from the other cafe customers, Annabeth chuckled.

"Alright, point made. Take a seat before they ask us to leave."

"They wouldn't dare! You remember how scared they are of me!" Nevertheless, Thalia sat down and strummed her fingers on the table as she thought. Her eyes lit up. In a scarily accurate impression of Silena, their resident matchmaker friend, she enquired, "Well, apparently we don't have anything to talk about, so let's talk about boys! Got a new hunky boyfriend yet, Annie-Bananie?"

Annabeth laughed at the saccharine tone. "Actually..."

Thalia dropped all pretences. "Wait, what?"

Flushed, Annabeth hurried to fill in the details. "Well, no, he's not my boyfriend and I don't think he's really interested, but..."

"Tell. Me. Everything!" Thalia was back to the highly-strung persona, complete with crazy hand gestures, but Annabeth knew she actually wanted to know what was going on.

"It's actually Percy. Percy Jackson?" Thalia's eyes widened a little, but nodded to indicate that she should continue. "It was Thursday night and I was walking home. The boys had run on ahead to the end of the park. He just, snuck up behind me and was like 'I have a new friend to walk home with me now, do I?'" Annabeth quoted him in a weird deep voice that made Percy sound like he should have a hunchback and a beard.

Thalia raised an eyebrow (back to herself again). "So was he a bit of an arse?"

"Actually, no." Annabeth sounded surprised, even to herself. "He was actually kind of sweet. We had a normal conversation and then, at the end when he was saying goodbye, he kissed my hand." This made Thalia, whose eyes had been wandering around observing other coffee patrons, snap her head back to face Annabeth. "And he said this whole thing about how he was going to prove to me that he could be charming. I don't really know what to make of that."

Completely serious now, Thalia held her gaze. "Be careful. We all know what sort of guy Percy is. He's the guy that will date and dump. It is more likely that he has a bet that he can sleep with a virgin than it is that he is actually interested in you. No offence," she said belatedly. Annabeth waved her hands showing it was no big deal. Thalia wasn't cruel, only blunt. She wasn't telling her anything she didn't know already.

"I know. I will try."

"Do more than try. Jackson is not worth the effort of a broken heart and I don't like to see my little baby girl cry." At this point, Thalia smushed the blonde girl's cheeks together and made little mwah mwah mwah sounds, indicating the end of the serious conversation.

"Get off." Annabeth struggled to rid herself of Thalia's claws. "And don't worry, I don't think I have anything to worry about. Someone like him would never be interested in me as more than a game, a pass-time for five minutes, and we've already had our five minutes. I think I'm safe!"

...

Famous last words.

The following Tuesday, she and Percy passed one another in the hallway. He winked at her, one of those sea-green swirls disappearing momentarily, before opening again. She caught an amused expression on his face as he walked away.

Annabeth looked around to check if any of her friends (Thalia) noticed. As their blissful obliviousness was continued, she allowed a small smile to cross her face as she looked down at her hands, before participating in their conversation again, this time with a little more animation.

Ta-da! Um, sorry if it seemed a little fillery, but I couldn't just let a week pass and not say anything about it. That's the difficult thing about this story, the weekly meetings with Percy are spread out (or at least for now they are!) so I have to fill in bits, but there are also a few pieces of other information (especially the relationship with OwenSawyer) that I have to include so... anyway, please tell me what you think. Too fillery? Need more interaction with other people? This is actually my first chaptered story, so I don't really know how to do this sort of thing on the large scale. I would appreciate any feedback.

Thank you for reading/reviewing/favouriting/following in advance!

Much love xx