Hey Guys,

I hadn't planned on updating so soon but I just finished HoH this morning since they only released it here on the 15th. Anyway as I finished it, I got great inspiration and so I sat down to write and after an hour of continuous writing voila! I have a complete chapter ready to be posted. Isn't that just great. Anyway you guys can read now. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own this laptop that I am using to post this fic but sadly I don't own the characters that I am writing about. They belong to Rick Riordan, not me. So don't sue me.

Annabeth PoV

That night I lay in bed unable to sleep. No surprise there, I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep for at least another week after finding out what had really happened to Percy all those years ago.

When I had first looked into his deep sea-green eyes that day at the lunch table I had known that he had been through something bad. But I had never imagined it would be this horrible. I mean finding his step-father's dead body, watching his mother who had been his whole world murdered in front of his eyes, being kidnapped by a psycho. It was a miracle he was still sane. If I were in his place I would definitely have gone crazy.

Maybe he did, at first and had just been recovering. His cousins did say something about him finally getting better after he had run off that day. As I lay there thinking about all of this, I felt really guilty for pushing Percy to tell me the truth like I did. I wished I hadn't he had been right when he said I shouldn't pry. It was not my place. Just because we had once been friends four years back doesn't mean we still were. I had no right to demand any answers. I really regretted it.

I will give him his space from now on. I decided. I would focus on my studies and hang out with Silena and Juniper. He had his own little group now and who was I to disrupt their peace. I would stay away and if he want's to be friends well I will happily agree. But I will let him make that decision. He deserved that much and I didn't want to hurt him any more than I already had.

Though I have to say, when he'd told me he had a new best friend I had felt really jealous. I mean ever since I had known him he'd never called anyone except for me and his mom his best friend and it had felt really weird. The last four years whenever I had thought of meeting him again, I had imagined a scrawny, goofy kid. I had imagined him apologizing to me for breaking his promise and calling me Wise Girl like he had used to. I had not expected the tall, well built kid with an aura of sadness around him. And now all that I had imagined seemed like a childish dream.

I lay there blissfully remembering the good old days when we would got to the beach or make fun of the school bullies while eating ice-cream on his porch. I thought about Sally, the way she smiled and her delicious blue cookies that she would make for me and Percy whenever I came over for sleepovers and the way she would scold us when we spilled a bottle of Coke on Percy's bed. And I felt sad because I knew that I would never see her warm motherly smile again. She had been like the mother I had never had and she loved me like her own daughter.

I felt a few tears roll down my cheeks as I thought of Sally and how much I missed her. I thought of how much I missed Percy and the good old days and I cried because I knew they weren't coming back. That, however hard I hoped things would never go back to normal again. Not after what happened.

The rest of the night I lay there just thinking about how depressing that is.

The next day at school, I felt like crap. I had only gotten about an hour or so of sleep last night before the shrill ringing of my alarm clock had woken me up. I had considered staying in sick but I unfortunately had a pop-quiz today for Mrs Dodds's class so I couldn't do that. My whole day I walked around like a zombie and tried not to fall asleep.

I did notice that Percy and Luke still weren't at school today even though Thalia and Nico had finally showed up. Whereas I felt like a zombie, Nico literally looked like a dead man walking. Thalia wasn't exactly cheery either but she wasn't as sullen as Nico.

As I headed to lunch I bumped into Thalia.

"Hey Annabeth." She said uneasily.

"Um Hey." I said feeling equally awkward.

"So, Percy told you huh."

"Uh yeah he did. I kinda feel bad for asking now."

"I know how that feels."

"So, um I noticed Percy's still skipping."

"Uncle P put him on house arrest actually. At least for a while until he thinks safe enough to send him to school again. Not that he minds really. He has been holed up in his room ever since...you know."

"Yeah" I said knowing she was referring to Bianca's death.

"He won't come out or let us in. He's taken it really hard especially since it's the third time it's happened. I can't even imagine how he must be feeling right now. He won't let any of us help him either." She took a deep breath. "Well don't let me keep you. I should go anyway." with that she was gone.

"What was all that about?" I asked out loud to myself.

"Hey Annabeth, you look like crap."

"Thanks Juniper. I feel like crap." I said as I slid into the empty seat next to Juniper on the lunch table and put my head down on the table. Oh what I would give to be sleeping in my bed right now.

"Long night?" She asked.

"I got about an hour of sleep last night." I said not looking up.

"Oh. Boy trouble?" She asked with a teasing tone.

"What makes you think so?"

"You went to see Percy Jackson yesterday and now you are having trouble sleeping. Not that hard to guess."

"Ugh It's not like that."

"Then what's it like?" Said Silena joining our conversation. "I mean there is obviously something going on between you two. That much is evident from the fight you guys had in the hallways your first day here."

"We just used to be friends a couple years back before he moved here and we sort of lost touch. That day we just started arguing about a little issue that had been left unresolved because of his move. I went to see him because I wanted to clear the air between us. That's it."

"Uh huh sure whatever you say." Said Silena. By the look on her face I could tell she was gonna lecture me about how I had to realize my feelings and all that stuff. I knew because Clarrise and Juniper had warned me that she tends to do that. Luckily for me Juniper spoke up then.

"Where is Percy anyway? I mean his cousins are back at school why isn't he?"

"He was in shock after what happened so his dad decided he should take a little vacation." I said quickly. "After all it was harder for him since he'd been standing right there when it happened."

"Yeah I guess that must have been terrible."

"So anyway Annie-" I gave Clarrise who had finally joined our conversation a glare"-tell us a little about your boyfriend-" another glare "-he is a complete mystery no one really knows anything about him." Silena and Juniper looked at me expectantly, I sighed.

"First of all, he is not my boyfriend we used to be friends when we were kids that's it. What do you wanna know about him?"

"Well why is he so distant and introverted?" Asked Clarrise.

"Well, his mom and step-dad died in a car crash," I said carefully. "that was why he moved in with his dad here in New York. Their deaths must have hit him hard, he was really close to them both. But he wasn't like this before that he was quite the opposite actually. He was really scrawny and short and goofy. He was always cracking jokes and playing pranks and just enjoying every minute of his life. He was the kind of guy that could lighten the tension in a room just by walking in. He was a total Seaweed Brain."

"Seaweed Brain?" The three girls asked in perfect sync which kinda creeped me out a bit.

"Yeah that was my nickname for him."

"What did he call you?" asked Silena.

"Wise Girl."

"Hmm weird nick names. Why those?" asked Juniper.

"Well back in second grade, I was helping him with his math homework but he just couldn't understand the concept and he kept asking me stupid questions. Which annoyed me and I got angry and the we started fighting. I said his brain was so full seaweed that he couldn't fill any knowledge into it and said he was the worlds biggest Seaweed Brain. and he said 'and you are such a wise little girl.' and I said 'that's not an insult' and he said 'that's why you're Wise Girl' and I guess they just stuck."

"Wow the old Percy seems like a funny guy." commented Juniper.

"He was." I said slightly dreamily. Biggest mistake of my life.

Silena got this weird glint in her eyes, she looked at Juniper and then they both looked at me and said together "You Like Him!" while Clarrise threw her head back and started laughing really hard.

Uh oh. What had I just gotten myself into?

I have finally started to spark up some romantic feelings towards a certain boy with sea-green eyes into the heart of a certain Wise Girl with grey eyes.

What do you think. Good? Bad? Rotten?

Tell me what you think via review. Those are what motivated me to update faster.