Hey guys! Its meeee! So I'm on vacation right now, at a resort, and its 9:30 pm, and im bored, and i rented a computer for an hour. So, let's see how this story goes in an hour...

Also, again I apologize for the suckish last chapter! I was down in the dumps that day and unninspired, so this chapter will be better. Also, this chapter is VERY important for the plot. So bear with me if I haven't skipped to when they are a few years older! ((holds up peace sign))

Chapter 8

"You sure you're done with your work?"

"...yeah..."

"Percy!"

"I'll do it later."

"...promis?"

He held up his hand, sticking outhis pinky to her. "Pinky swear." He said. She looked at him, confused. "What?"

Percy sighed, but he was smiling. "Here, let me show you." He said, grabbing the young Princess's hand, taking her pinky and wrapping it with his. "When you do this by making a promis, it means you can't break that promis. Ever." Annabeth raised her eyebrow. "Why not?" She asked him. "Because you just can't. It's also like a promis, but just special-er."He replied.

"That's not even a word." She told him.

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Anyway, I still promis."

"Um, okay... How do you do the 'pinky swear', again?"

Percy showed Annabeth how to do it another time and he solemly promised to her he would finish his work right after he showed her... whatever he was going to show to her. "It's a surprise." He had told her as he lead her off into the maze of hedges in the gardens.

The two children had come to a small corner around the courtyard. There was a small path through the hedges leading to this side of the wall. The huge sement wall was partly collapsed, and it looked quite old, with a few bricks, stones, and wood lying in a pile, makng up the wall. The sun was at it's peak, as it was high noon, but there was a fairly cool shade in that corner, small light beams, like tiny spotlights, were dancing around, poking holes through the shade. Annabeth peered upwards and saw a huge tree at the top of the pile, it's lush, green, leaves and sturdy-looking branches were casting the shade over them. Though Annabeth couldn't identify what type of tree it was.

"Annabeth." Percy called. He was gesturing toward a section of the collapsed wall. The bricks and stones on that side seemed to form steep stairway leading to the top, to the base of the tree. "Want to check it out?"

Annabeth, as a princess, should've been terrified. She should've told Percy "no" and left, her chin high and an angry complaint being yelled. Instead, she felt a tinge of excitement as a grin slowly etched onto her features. "Okay!" She told Percy. He led the way as they climbed up the rubble staircase, carefully picking on what they were stepping on. About less than a minute later, they reached the top, no one was injured, scraped, or is currently a splatter on the ground.

They were standing at the base of he tree. It was extremely huge, about maybe a hundred years old. It's roots were partly twisted, forming a pattern around the trunk of the tree, with twists and branches around. They found they were on top of a hill, overlooking the kingdom. On the other side of the hill, about twetny feet away, was a cliff, a shear drop down into a rocky river.

"Want to climb it?" Annabeth asked. Percy grinned at her as she grinned back. "You read my mind." He stated.

About fifteen minutes, a broken branch, and a couple of scrapes later, Percy and Annabeth had reached a very high branch, just a couple of feet from the top of the tree. It was the biggest branch, and it looked the sturdiest. It was easily eight feet accross. The branch had kind of curved depression so it formed a boat-like hole in the branch wich four people could easily fit in. Percy and Annabeth were now sitting in that light hole, staring accross the stretch of the entire kingdom below them. The view was perfect, the breeze was wonderful, and theleaves provided a perfect shade, allowing small beams of light to dance bothstared for a long time, until Annabeth broke the silence. "Wow." she said. "This is... this is amazing." "So... do you wanna hang out a bit here?" Percy offered.

They spent an hour just talking ang playing on that tree branch. They had decided that would be their official hang out spot.

"Promis that this place will be for us, and only us, and no one else may come here?" Annabeth said.

"You also have to promis that exact same thing, okay?" Percy countered. They agreed with each other, and concluded with a pinky swear. From now on, that would be the place where Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase would meet and have fun and simply hang out if they wanted to. It would be their sacred spot in wich no one is allowed to go to, but them. And only them.

Sorry for the shortness. This computer has a time limmit... but i did it as best i could. Plus, im in "the mood". So I hope you enjoyed it, the next chapter will be comming up soon! So stay updated! I'd probably post it about next week. That is all for now! Bye guys!

~Apollo'sPirateDaughter (now in a 'Pirates of the Carribean themed resort... MY LUCKY DAY! :D )