I am soooooo sorry, but I started a new high school and I have finally settled in after first quarter. Right now we are studying Greece and we have to give speeches pretending to be Greek heroes running for president and my group doesn't have a guys in it so guess who gets to be gender-bent Theseus. Me! I have to make my costume after this. But anyways I was in a fanfiction mood.

We left the forest and went to Gladiola's house to return him to his owner's house. I felt a pang of sympathy for Gladiola when we dropped him off. An old lady with about a pound of makeup on, swathed in a big, fuzzy, pink robe answered the door. Two small children peeked out from behind her long skirts. When they saw Gladiola they ran out from behind her with tiny gasps. The two of them snatched Gladiola out of Grover's arms. They started pulling at his fur and tail and even though Gladiola had a frustrated look in his eye he put up with it. I had to admit that I was a little jealous of Gladiola, he had a home with a family waiting for his return and I didn't. I couldn't believe that I was jealous of a poodle with pink fur.

"Thank you soo very much," drawled the lady is a nasally voice.

"Your welcome," said Grover, "it was no problem."

There was an uncomfortable silence and for a minute I feared that she was going to remember the money she promised.

"Oh," she gasped, "I promised you $200 for bringing Gladiola back didn't I?"

She scurried off into her house and 2 minutes came back with her wallet. "Here you go," she said and handed Percy $200 dollars.

We said a quick goodbye to Gladiola, Percy with a somewhat resentful glare.

When we got to the station we went up to the ticket station, unfortunately the tickets were only enough to get us to Denver.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Percy eyeing a newspaper stand nervously and with closer look I saw that it had a blurry picture of Percy with what looked like a hockey stick on it.

"Hey it'll be okay, mortal police could never find us," I said. I knew how nerve racking it could be to be on the run but I wasn't so sure what I said was true, some mortals were different they didn't give up so easily.

Percy gave a unintelligent grunt. "I hope so," he murmured.

When we got into our seats the three us settled in and prepared for the long ride.

I knew this was going to be a long two days, Percy and I both have ADHD and could barely stand each other as it was.

About every ten minutes Percy got up and paced the length of the train, when he finally sat still for a while I relaxed the warmth from his body next to mine seeped into my bones.

The swaying of the train caused sleepiness to wash over me and with my head leaning against the window. I closed my eyes and let the sun seep into my pores.

My sleep was riddled with dreams, but none of it actually made since.

I woke up a few hours later to the sound of Percy and Grover crunching loudly on cereal.

"Here, I saved you something," said Percy, handing me one of those adorable miniature boxes of Apple Jacks. "They lady came around about 15 minutes ago."

I took the box without a word, still struggling to wipe the haze of sleep from my eyes. I self-consciously tried to pat down my hair, but it was no use. My hair looks like I had stuck my finger in an electrical circuit whenever I wake up.

I resumed staring out the window and couldn't help think of the song America the Beautiful.

O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

Everywhere I looked reminded me of the song. It sounded incredibly cheesy but we past fields that looked like they went on forever and ever. The long grasses just rolling in the wind like waves. I heard Percy give a gasp every once and a while every time he saw something mythical. It was kinda cute.

With all of the quiet, my brain started to wander. What felt like hours ago, Percy because of the commotion when Grover's fake foot fell off. I got curious about what Percy was saying in his sleep before and questioned him, he told me all about he evil voice in his dreams. I didn't want to make the connection between the evil voice and the pit so I pushed it to the back of my mind. Percy was so easy to talk to sometimes I told him about how I got to camp when I was seven and he told me about his awful stepdad.

Speaking of Percy I couldn't help looking over at him whenever he was asleep. He didn't drool as much he had when we were back at camp, so now he drooled about the amount that a normal person would. Everything about Percy mesmerized me I didn't want to fall for him but that didn't mean I couldn't enjoy looking at him. He was cute in a scrawny way, but compared to how he looked when he first came to Camp Half Blood, you could say he was filling out. I figured that after a few summers at camp he would be more or less gorgeous.

"Annabeth, Grover called, earth to Annabeth," called Grover.

I looked over at him blushing. I had forgotten that he could read emotions.

"If you're done staring at Percy, you could help me come up with a some ideas, Miss Athena Always had a Plan."

"I wasn't staring at him…. I was analyzing him"

"Okay Annabeth, whatever"

And with that we launched into plans.

An hour or so later we passed by the St. Lois Arch and I couldn't help but sighing. "I want to do that."

"What," asked Percy.

"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?" (a/n: FORESHADOWING!)

"Only in pictures"

"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."

"You? An architect?" He snickered.

Color rushed to my cheeks. "Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children o create things not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."

Percy looked down, obviously hurt.

I felt bad. "Sorry, that was mean."

"Can't we just work together a little? I mean didn't Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate.

I thought about it for a minute. "I guess… the chariot," I said tentatively. "My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves, so they had to work together to make it complete."

"Then we can cooperate too, Right?" he said.

My eyes followed the arch as it disappeared behind a building. "I suppose."

We pulled into the station. It was already June 13.

Who loved House of Hades? It was great! I had to limit myself to a hundred pages a day.