Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus

I'm back once again! I want to make up for the lack of updating over this last week, so here I am again. Just to clarify, sorry for the confusion, it was brought to my attention that some people are getting confused reading the branching stories. Make sure you look at the title of the chapter, I have it labeled for which branch it is, and don't skip anything! There are some key differences in the stories that are necessary later in the story!

Well, I hope you enjoy this on, Chapter 12 Branch 1!

Percy's POV

I woke up in my bed, and stared at the ceiling.

I couldn't stop thinking about the notes that I'd read the night before, and I couldn't help but smile whenever I thought about them.

I still didn't know what I thought about Annabeth's note. I'd been thinking about it a lot and couldn't figure out how I felt about Annabeth. She's hurt me worse than anyone else ever had, but she'd apologized, and I'm pretty sure the tears were a good way to tell she was being sincere.

I don't know, I can't forgive her for something like that, regardless of the apology.

I decided there was nothing to do but get ready and leave my cabin.

I showered and changed into some fresh clothes and walked around my cabin, pretending to make sure I had everything, even though I already knew that I did.

I finally stopped waiting and walked outside. I had to shield my eyes from the sun after the darkness inside of the cabin. My eyes adjusted after a few seconds and I looked around at everyone going around camp. After my nightmare I didn't see how everyone was having a normal day.

I walked towards the pavilion to eat my breakfast. Everyone was already gone because Chiron was still being pretty lenient with my about my schedule, so I didn't need to be there at the same time as everyone else.

I sat at my table next to Nico like I did every day and started to eat my breakfast.

After a couple minutes of silence Nico asked "Are you alright Percy? You look like you didn't sleep at all."

"Yeah. Yeah I'm ok, I didn't sleep very well."

Nico looked at me curiously, but he didn't ask any more questions.

Once I finished eating my breakfast, we stood up and I looked over to Nico.

"So what are we going to do today? We can go to the arena and practice sword fighting, I still can't find people who will get close enough to me to spar, so it's been a while."

"Sure, I just need to go get my sword out of my cabin."

I followed Nico across the camp to his cabin and stood in the doorway as he went towards the back to get his sword.

I started thinking about the notes again, or more specifically, Annabeth's note. I hadn't been able to stop thinking about it during any quiet moment yet.

I was so far into my own thoughts I didn't notice Nico come back until he punched me in the shoulder "Percy!"

I stumbled back a few steps, "What was that for?"

"You were standing in the way and apparently didn't hear me the first two times I told you."

"Oh." I felt really stupid, but then again, I felt like that a lot lately.

We went across the camp, talking about what we could do during the day until we got to the arena.

The Athena cabin was already there, sparring with each other.

Oh no, I thought to myself.

Nico must've noticed something in my expression change, "What?"

"Nothing… I just had a dream last night." I replied.

Once again, Nico looked curious, but let me keep my secrets to myself.

We walked over to the edge of the arena, so we were more or less away from the Athena cabin and pulled our swords.

"So, think you can still beat me?" Nico asked with a smirk.

"Any time." I replied.

After that, everything just kind of turned into a blur. I was out of shape from the weeks of doing very little, but Nico attacked mercilessly regardless of it.

After a while, we finally took a break to get some water. We walked over to the edge of the arena and were sitting down drinking some water, when I looked over towards the Athena kids, who were still sparring.

Then I saw Annabeth looking over at me.

I wasn't sure what she was looking at, maybe the fact that this was the first time in a long time that I was genuinely smiling. I enjoyed sparring with Nico, it was a challenge.

I looked back at her for a while, then she glanced at the other kids in her cabin and walked over to me.

I stood up, but I wasn't sure what to say when she got over to me.

I waited for a few seconds before she said "So Seaweed Brain, you're finally practicing again."

It was strange hearing her call me that. Usually she was laughing at me, or at least smiling, but now she sounded mostly emotionless, and I could see her shifting foot to foot awkwardly.

"Umm, yeah, Chiron is finally letting me start doing all my regular activities again, and Nico is helping me out."

"Well," Annabeth paused, as if trying to figure out what to say, "If you ever want to, you can spar with my cabin. I don't think they would mind."

"Maybe, I'll think about it I sometime." Gods this was awkward.

"Um, ok, I guess I'll see you later…" She said.

"Ok"

She opened her mouth part way, then closed it again and walked back over to her cabin-mates, ignoring the stares she was getting from them.

I looked over at Nico and saw him trying to hide a smirk.

"What now?" I asked him.

"You are the most awkward person I've ever seen." He replied, nearly laughing at me.

"Come on, let's get back to practice."

We went back over to our corner, but now Nico was destroying me because I couldn't focus. All I could think about was Annabeth's invitation to come practice with her cabin, the past few weeks, the notes, and my dream.

I apologize now, I don't think this was a very good chapter, but I wasn't sure how I should go about writing it. I hope all of you are enjoying the story, but really fast I want to correct an error. It was brought to my attention that a few chapters ago I said Nico was 12 when he met Percy for the first time, when he was actually 10. I must've mixed up the facts with another character, but I hope it didn't annoy anyone too much. Well, that's it, please review and let me know what you think, and I hope to see all of you in the next chapter!