HEY GUYS! SO I POSTED THE CHAPTER A BIT EARLIER THAN PLANNED BECAUSE I'M DOING SOME THINGS AFTER SCHOOL TOMORROW AND I WON'T BE HOME UNTIL AROUND TEN. SO HERE IT IS!

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT OWN. NEED I SAY MORE?

PERCY'S POV-

"Breakfast for the zombie!"

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, taking my time to get up. Under usual circumstances, I would've been alert and holding riptide to the neck of who ever woke me, but at the moment I wasn't concerned. Based on the familiar feminine tone this person held, I could tell that I wasn't in any danger. Plus, I wasn't one to walk around stabbing swords into young ladies. What can I say? I'm a gentleman.

"I'm guessing that you like French toast and strawberries?"

I straightened up immediately when it sinked in that the girl speaking is Annabeth. She may not be a physical danger, but she was still a menace in her own special way.

"What am I doing here?" I asked. My head was throbbing for some unknown reason and I felt strangely parched.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and set down a tray with two plates of French toast and an equal amount of tin canisters brimming with maple syrup onto a coffee table a few feet from the foot of her bed. She already had two cups of milk and a bowl of strawberries out for eating. "Don't you remember? I brought you over here yesterday when you weren't feeling good. You know, a thank you would be nice."

I shook my head in an attempt to speed up my thought process. It must've worked because my memories of yesterday came rushing back.

I got into a fights with Nancy and her goons…There wasn't time to fix any of my injuries, but I went to school anyways…and then what?

I shook my head even harder.

"Why are you whipping your hair around so much?" Annabeth arched an eyebrow. "You resemble a wet dog."

"I'm trying to get my brain to work right." I pushed my palms into my face. "I need to remember the details from yesterday so that the police officers can learn exactly how you managed to kidnap me."

Annabeth huffed. "I'm being honest, and anyways, we both know that it's going to take a whole lot more than shaking your head around to get your brain going."

I stuck my tongue out at her, but froze when it dawned on me that we were both acting friendly towards one another. What had changed yesterday?

Noticing my sudden withdrawal, Annabeth dropped her smile and led me to a comfy chair in front of our makeshift breakfast table. I tried my best to ignore the pang of disappointment rising in my chest.

A few minutes into the meal, I paused and sat back in my seat. "I have a question."

"Shoot," Annabeth replied.

"Why am I not being an ass, and why are you not being a bitch?"

Despite my hope of killing the remnants of our cheerful mood, Annabeth seemed happy.

"You've got a way with words, don't yah?" Annabeth chuckled. "Hasn't it occurred to you that maybe we've gone into the friend zone?"

My nose wrinkled in disgust. Annabeth and I may not have anything going on between us, but I was still a guy and the words "friend zone" still caused shivers to run down my spine.

"We can't be friends." I said this as bluntly as I possibly could, trying to get my exact message across.

"Do you have a legit reason for making that decision?"

I clenched my teeth, annoyed that Annabeth had to be so stubborn. "I don't want you to be anywhere near me."

Annabeth put down her cup with a loud thud. "Why? Is it because The Olympians won't approve?"

I almost stabbed my hand with my own fork. "Where did you hear that?"

Annabeth shrugged nonchalantly. "You. Turns out that you're quite the talker after a nice dose of medicine."

My eyes widened as a wave of horror washed over me. "You drugged me?"

Annabeth blushed. "It wasn't on purpose!"

"Oh, so you just happened to drop a pill in my mouth. Is that it?" I eyed my food warily. "You didn't put something in my milk, did you?"

"It wasn't like that!" Annabeth's face turned an even deeper shade of scarlet. "It's not like you're any better! You admitted to spying on your mother and I yesterday!"

"So what if I did?! How does that affect you in any way?" I got up from my seat at the same time as Annabeth. "If I told you that I robbed a bank, would you believe that too?"

Annabeth's palm met my face with a resounding smack! Her hand had collided with one of my bruises, making the sting even worse.

I turned my head slowly, eyes narrowed, and stood even closer to Annabeth.

"Do that again." I hissed. "I dare you."

Annabeth raised her hand and I had a feeling that she would have probably done exactly that if not for a knock on her bedroom door.

"Annabeth? What's going on here?"

"It's my mother!" Annabeth whispered. "I need to get you out sight!"

"Your mom?"

"There's no time!" Annabeth pushed me towards her gigantic window, grabbing my jacket and shoving it into my arms in the process. "Use the fire escape! I mean you are an expert on them, right?"

I climbed over the ledge. "Are you ever going to let that go?"

"Annabeth? Open the door please."

"Coming mother!" Annabeth frantically told me to hurry up and hide. "I'm changing!"

I peeked into the room from my hiding spot just on time to see Annabeth yank open her bedroom door. I quickly crouched down low before her mom could spot me.

There was no need for her to wonder why a teenage boy had slept in the same room as her daughter.

"Mom!" Annabeth hid her nervousness almost as well as me. "I thought you were in Greece!"

"An even more pleasing welcome would've been something like I love you mom." I heard Annabeth's mom step into the room and close the door. "I thought I heard a commotion coming from this area."

"You must've been wrong then."

"I'm never wrong." I could hear the seriousness in the threat in the women's voice, not towards Annabeth, but aimed at anyone who thought they could challenge her. "Nevertheless, I came to talk to you about a different matter. There was a break in at one of the college's research centers. A very important paper one of my colleagues was working one had been stolen and I suspect that the same thief will strike again."

"You think that someone will try to make away with one of your projects?" The disbelief in Annabeth's voice was evident.

"I don't think, I know and I need your help." I heard the soft pad of heeled shoes on carpet heading in my direction. "Why do you have your window open?"

"I…I wanted to let in some air." A tinge of panic coated Annabeth's voice. "If you want, I could close it."

"Nonsense, I'm closer. It's natural that I should be the one to do it."

"Wait!" I heard a clasping sound, like skin meeting skin.

"Annabeth! What has gotten into you?" Annabeth's mom was a step away from seeing me. I had to act fast. "I'm Dana Morgan! An independent women who can surely close a window by herself!"

By the time Dana had inspected outside her daughter's window, it was too late. I had hidden under the two flights of emergency escape stairs, and I was now looking up through the tiny holes decorating the upper platforms at a women who looked almost exactly like Annabeth except for her brown hair.

I let out a sigh of relief at my slim escape, but my victory was short lived.

"Besides, what I'm about to tell you requires this room to be soundproof to the outside world." Dana's head snapped down in my direction, and I could swear that she was looking straight at me. I felt her stormy grey eyes burning into me, and it took all my willpower not to jump off the side of the building. "We don't want any eavesdroppers. Especially, not any sons of the sea."

She slammed down the window.

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"Last week, I gave you guys your first official assignment, correct?"

The class mumbled out "yes's" and "yeah's" and "when will the class be over?"

"Excellent! Now the real question is, did you do it?" Paul received the same reaction from before.

"Good." Paul nodded, content. "I want us to get started right away, so will you all please go sit with your partners? I would also really love it if you wouldn't make an attempt at ripping each other's spines out. I'm not much of a gory person, and hopefully you'll manage to get along."

The whole room groaned and in a few seconds started to screech their desks across the floor. Thalia once again slammed her desk roughly against mine and plopped down onto her seat. I glared at her.

"Don't give me that look." Thalia snapped. "Let's just get this thing over with and save our hissy fits for later. Capeesh?"

I shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. "Who's first?"

Thalia crossed her arms. "Not me."

I sighed and pulled out a pen from my back jeans pocket. I waved it dramatically in Thalia's face. "This-"I shook my object for emphasis-"Is a pen."

"And.." Thalia waved for me to go on. Our project was to bring and share a "special object" with our partners. We were supposed to do this as an attempt of bonding with them, but I really had no intention of giving Thalia any background story on riptide.

"That's it." I leaned back in my seat.

"There's got to be something special about that thing!" For some reason, Thalia sounded annoyed.

"There isn't," I firmly said. "It's just a pen."

Thalia looked uncomfortable, I could see the anxiety stretching across her face.

"Before I show you what I brought, I want you to know that this isn't a sign of truce. I still hate your guts."

I didn't reply. Thalia's Percy-phobia was old news to me by now.

Thalia blew out a puff of air and ducked her head. "It's now or never."

She pulled something out of her pocket and placed it gently onto the desk. At first, I couldn't make out what the object was, but when I looked closer I saw that it was…a candy wrapper.

Thalia avoided aiming her eyes anywhere remotely near me, and I upon closer inspection it dawned on me why. My eyes widened.

FLASHBACK-

I had found her curled into a ball under the park bridge, shivering and numb from the cold.

She had tried to push me away when I first approached. She wanted to be alone, or at least that's what she tried to convince me of, but I knew better. Behind that icy blue façade of hers, her eyes were begging me to stay…to keep her warm. And so I did.

By the end of the day, I had led the girl over to a Starbucks where I bought us each a cup of coffee, and she revealed to me that her name was Thalia like the one from The Nine Muses.

We'd gone for a walk and were both curled up in one of the few park benches, talking to each other about things that we would never tell any other human being on Earth. Thalia had confided to me that she had gotten into a fight with her father and had been away from home for the past two months. She'd been on the run with a friend, but he'd been caught and sent to the police department for questioning. She wouldn't tell me any more, but that was okay. Thalia had said enough for me to know that just like me, she was an outsider and that's what made us so close.

I remembered how odd it was for me to be so close to someone I barely met, but it felt right somehow. It felt comforting and we had split a chocolate bar when we grew hungry. But I never expected her to keep the wrapper.

FLASHBACK OVER-

The fact that she didn't throw it away gave the wrapper a lot more value. It was our reminder that there had been a time where we weren't constantly at each other's throats. I didn't know what to say so I didn't say anything.

"I kept it because I wanted to make sure that that night wasn't part of a dream. I wanted proof that someone actually cared about me for once and thought I was worth their time." Thalia answered my unspoken question.

"What about Annabeth?" I asked. "And that boy you told me about. Didn't they care about you?"

Thalia shook her head. "This was different. No one had ever approached me before except you. I'd made friends with Annabeth after I stood up to her at school, but it took a lot to convince her that I wasn't really a scary freak. The boy I mentioned…we met under some desperate circumstances that I wouldn't really describe as warm." Thalia pinched the bridge of her nose as if I was giving her a headache by just being there. "That's the worst part. I can't believe that the same goofy boy who sat with my six years ago in the freezing cold is you. I just…can't stand to think about it and whether you like it or not, I'd prefer to call you by your last name. You don't seem like a 'Percy' anymore and I don't want to ruin the image of the one I remember in my head."

"I don't mind." I muttered.

For the rest of the period, Thalia and I both sat in a silence that was neither awkward nor comfortable. It was just there, hanging over us like mist. We were both remembering better times, although neither of us admitted it.

"May I get you attention please?" Mr. Blofis was barely heard above the class's noise. "Seeing as the bell is about to ring soon, you have my permission to go back to your usual seats!"

Like Paul predicted, the bell rang and the class rushed to leave the room, most of them having to go back and fix their seats.

As Thalia got up, not saying a word and dragging her desk behind her, I felt a sudden stab of guilt. Thalia had let out her feelings to me about something that she considered close to her, while all I did was sit on my butt doing nothing. I hesitated for a second, getting up with my backpack on my shoulders, but I did what I had to do before Thalia left the room. "Wait!"

She turned, a skeptic look lighting her features.

"The pen…it's called riptide." I shoved my hands into my pockets. "The place I went to…the one I was at for the past four years…my father found out who I was when I first arrived. I never met him, yet he still knew who I was so I could tell that he was watching." I held back the dam of emotions swelling inside me. "I didn't know what to feel about him never bothering to meet me. At times, I get so angry at him for being such a-the point is, he sent me riptide and he's waiting for the right time to introduce himself. I don't fully understand why, but at least know that by giving me riptide, I now have a part of him."

I didn't tell Thalia the specifics about my pen; how it could turn into a sword in a moments notice, or how it always returned to me if I happened to lose it. Every time it reappeared, I would think that maybe (just maybe) it was a sign from my father. A way for him to say that he would someday return to me too. Either way, Thalia seemed to grasp what I was trying to say.

Thalia nodded and I could tell that from that moment on, something would be different between us. The minute our eyes met, we made a promise to each other that from then on we wouldn't pretend to be enemies anymore because we both knew that it wasn't really true. That it probably never would be.

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THALIA'S POV-

On my way to my car, I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened in Mr. Blofis's class. What had gotten into the kelp head and I? How did one sob story about a day in the snow make any difference to what we felt? I still wanted to stab him with a spork, didn't I?

No. I was starting to feel something stirring inside me; a sisterly love that made me want to grab the doof and bring out the real Percy. But I couldn't be forgiving him so easily, right? I'm the best when it comes to keeping grudges. No one could surpass my talent of passive aggression (okay, no one except Nico) and it couldn't possibly make sense for me to accept a guy that's been humiliating me for the past weeks.

"Oof!" In my distracted state, I had slammed into a kid with weird glasses and toppled him to the ground.

"Sorry dude." I helped the boy up and say right away that he was one of those Asian manga freaks (A.N.-NO OFFENSE TO ANYONE! THESE ARE THALIA'S THOUGHTS, NOT MINE!) with a strong sweater vest fetish. He would've been what I call the epitome of nerd-dom had it not been for the eye patch covering a part of his face.

"It's okay," he replied, waving away the subject as if he was too used to being pushed around by now that he didn't care.

"What's your name?" I was curious to know whom I had smacked down.

The pirate-patch boy stuck out his hand and I cautiously shook it expecting there to be boogers coating most of his palm.

"My name's Ethan," he said, giving me a smirk that I thought would look more appropriate on the face of a criminal. "Ethan Nakumara."

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I HOPE YOU LIKE THALIA BECAUSE IT'S STILL IN HER POV-

I drove down the traffic-filled streets of New York, heading in the direction of my house. It had been a while since my (literal) run in with Ethan What's-His-Face and I could still feel a chill running down my spine at the thought of his creepy smile. I made sure that it wasn't just my car's air conditioning doing this to me, but when I checked I saw that the heater was on. Like I said, the guy had left an impression.

After almost thirty minutes of slowly driving along with the rest of the New Yorker's, I decided that I couldn't take the speed I was going at anymore. My ADHD was kicking in like crazy and I could not take sitting in my seat doing nothing anymore. I pulled out my GPS and searched up a short cut through some lonely street so that I could get home faster. Driving through a deserted street was better then slodging around like a snail in a car that was made for speed. The route I took consisted of crappy looking run-down buildings and dog poo on every corner, not a particularly happy sight, but worth a drive through if it meant reaching home

Halfway to my destination, I saw something that made me stop in the middle of the deserted street. Walking down the sidewalk was Jackson himself. Hadn't I seen enough of him in one day?

Apparently I hadn't because he was standing just fifty feet away from my car, looking around the street like he was trying to make sure no one was following. I couldn't tell whether he saw my car or not, but I decided not to move. He had a strange look on his face that reminded me of the type of thing a hunter wore.

He turned a corner and disappeared. When he was out of sight, I finally let myself breathe. I was starting to have second thoughts about taking a shortcut.

I started forward again on my car, ready to finally get home, when I came up with a crazy idea. Why don't I give him a ride?

I almost slapped myself for even thinking about it. Annabeth was rub off on me, I was certain of it, but at the same time I felt like doing something nice for a change. What would be so bad about giving him a lift? He'll probably decline my offer anyways, so there most likely isn't even anything to worry myself about. I'll at least know that I tried to do my good deed for the day. Okay, now that is a sure sign that Annabeth is influencing me.

Figuring that sitting like a potato thinking about it wasn't going to solve anything, I drove forward in the direction of Perseus (insert middle name here) Jackson.

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PERCY'S POV-

Someone was following me, I was sure of it. Four years of constant battle training made me more of aware of my surroundings than a normal person. It was like sixth sense. The type of sense only a person in danger of getting killed in the blink of an eye could have.

I stayed flat against the wall of the parking lot, ready to get the situation solved already. I had a visitor waiting for me upstairs and I didn't want to keep him waiting. He was the type of person known for busting down doors when you didn't open.

Slam!

Across the street, a car door slammed shut, followed by the sound of stomping feet. Whoever this person was must've been unfamiliar with the word "silence".

tap, tap, tap, tap

I braced myself for attack as the sound of the extremely person got near. I could tell from their approaching shadow, that it was a girl heading towards me. Weird considering that the girl agents were usually the most cautious of their actions.

She took the final turn that led to where I stood, and I was about to pull her down when I saw (with a HUGE amount of surprise) that it was Thalia. I couldn't help but sigh with relief. It was good to know that for once this wouldn't end with a fight. Well, not a bruises and fists one at least.

I pushed myself off the wall and into plain view. "Don't tell me that you're pulling an Annabeth and following me around too."

Thalia almost shrieked. Under her no-fear exterior, I could plainly see that I had scared the hell out of Thalia. She had jumped who knows how many feet in the air and stood there in complete shock. Her eyes were wide, like she was seeing a ghost.

"What's wrong?" I held back my laughter. "Cat's got your tongue?"

Thalia stood still, paling considerably.

"Thalia?" I could hear the concern in my own voice, and I didn't try to suppress it. "What's wrong?"

She raised her arm and pointed at something a few inches past my head.

"Luke", she whispered.

I glanced behind me, and sure enough there was Luke, not that it surprised me. He was the one who I was meeting up with after all. What I didn't expect, was to see him smiling at Thalia like an old friend stopping by to say hello.

"Hey Thals," he said, "I haven't seen you in a while."

OFFICIAL LINE BREAK OF AWESOME SAUCE!

OKAYYYY! CHAPTER IS OVER...BUT NOW I'M GETTING SICK :( I FEEL TERRIBLE. ANYWAYS, I DIDN'T GET TO RE-READ THE CHAPTER LIKE I USUALLY DO BECAUSE I HAVE TO GO TO BED (STUPID BED TIMES! IT'S ONLY 10 PM!) SO I HOPE THERE AREN'T TOO MANY MISTAKES. I'LL POST WHEN I'LL UPDATE NEXT ON MY TUMBLR PAGE SO YUP..RIGHT NOW IT'S UNDECIDED.

I HOPE YOU LIKED THE CHAPTER!

*COUGH* REVIEW *COUGH* WOW I'VE GOT QUITE A COUGH! TOLD YOU I WAS SICK! ;P

REVIEW, FAVE, FOLLOW, AND/OR GRAB YOURSELF A DONUT.