Percy

"Sorry! I-, uh…should I come back later..?" Malcom stuttered, then suddenly realizing that they were on his bed, "Hey! I just cleaned my bunk this morning! Do you even know how long that took me? And I ought to tell Chiron! Percy isn't even supposed to be—"

"No! Malcom, please don't!" Annabeth said frantically. Letting go of me, she stood up and smoothed her Camp Half Blood T-shirt.

I, however, sat in Malcom's bed passively and watched the siblings fight. It was quite amusing actually, to see Annabeth angry at someone besides me.

"Fine. Let's make a deal." Malcom replied smugly.

"What." Annabeth rolled her eyes and sighed.

"I won't tell, and you have cleaning duty all month."

"No way!"

Malcom took a step towards the door.

"Fine!" Annabeth yelled, exasperated.

I burst into laughter and Annabeth punched me in the shoulder.

"Ouch"

"Well, you shouldn't have laughed."

"I can't help it! It was hilarious!"

For that, I got another punch.

"By the way, you're helping me clean for the rest of the month."

Great.

Annabeth

Thanks a lot, Percy. Now I've got cabin duty all month. I sighed and muttered, "Oh well." Ha! Too bad for Malcom I'm going on a quest!

I ran to the Big House, backpack on and Yankees cap in hand.

When I got there, everyone was there except Percy. Go figure. In a few minutes though, Percy came running up to the group. He looked like he had either showered or taken a dip in the lake, probably the latter. That dark, windblown hair that I had always loved was now dripping water on his shirt.

I walked over and gave him a hug.

"So, shower or lake?"

"What do you think?" Percy replied with that adorable grin of his.

"I'm betting lake."

"Right as always, Wise Girl."

We laughed and I laced my fingers into his.

"Alright everyone, my name is Leo Valdez, I'm conveniently single, and I'm going to be your captain for this trip on the Argo II. Please remember not to go into the engine room without my permission, touch my stuff, or offend the onboard chaperone, Coach Hedge. Especially the first two."

"Very funny, Mr. Conveniently Single." Hazel laughed

"Who would want to touch his stuff anyway?" Jason murmured under his breath to Percy, who suppressed a snicker.

"Hey! I heard that!" Leo said, folding his scrawny arms across his chest.

"I'll take over here, Valdez." Coach Hedge said. Leo sighed.

"Annabeth, you're in the first room to the right, Hazel is across from you, Valdez is next to Hazel, and I'm on the end. Jason is between you and Percy. We don't want a repeat of last time." He said, stroking his club for dramatic effect.

Annabeth blushed and everyone laughed.

"Let's go." Annabeth finally said to break the awkwardness.

Percy

As if putting Jason in the room between Annabeth and I would prevent anything. Jason sleeps like a rock, and snores like the Minotaur.

My room looked different than last year, definitely cleaner. I think Leo added another waterslide to his private suite.

Once we were in the air, Leo put the Argo in autopilot and we all met in the dining room.

"Chiron told me to set sail for Canada, since that's where Frank grew up."

"Good. I have the address of his grandmother's house. He was pretty upset that he couldn't come, though." Hazel said, "Especially since you're going." She added under her breath

Jason snorted, then got serious. "Okay, so we need to go to his house, but why?"

"Maybe we can find someone or something there that can help us?" I suggested.

"So we're not going off of much here, are we?" Leo said.

"I think we need to contact Mars. The gods sent us on this quest, and Frank is his son, so maybe he can help us." Annabeth put in.

"How do we contact Mars instead of Ares?" Hazel asked.

"Shouldn't you and Jason know that? You two are Roman, after all." I replied.

Jason and Hazel exchanged looks of doubt.

"Great! None of us even know what we're doing." Leo yelled, throwing his arms up in the air and walking out of the room.

"Leo! Come back! I have an idea." Annabeth shouted.

"What's new there?" I smirked and received a death glare worthy of the Ghost King himself.

"Look. If you ask me, this quest is impossible. The gods send us and won't even give us a hint." Hazel said with hatred just as Mars himself appeared in the doorway.