Chapter 15

Recap: She lifted her head, and her gray eyes gave off a glint of hope, and replied, "Yeah, yeah that sounds good. At least it sounds better than the plan I had, which was that we go and help them."

She sat up and leaned slightly forward and brought her knees into her neck, lowering her head, then said, "Alright…Let's go to Olympus.."

Julie went to her and comforted her saying stuff that I couldn't hear.

Derek's POV

I sat on Blackjack and looked over a Percy, Annabeth and Julie. Annabeth sat near the back, curled up, and Julie sat with her, her arm over Annabeth's shoulders.

Then Percy stood in the front, arms crossed and a serious look on his face.

From my point of view it looked as if Annabeth were having some sort of a break down, and Percy was holding himself back.

I lightly tapped Blackjack's head and asked if we could catch up to Percy.

He nodded his big black head and sped up. We were with Percy within a couple of seconds.

I looked back and saw Rob, still nodding on and off on Porkpie.

I called out to Percy, "Hey you OK?"

He shot his head in my direction, and he must have been off in la-la-land or something because the expression on his face was startled.

"Huh? Uh… Yeah… I'm just fine…" he said turning his head back towards the water.

"Is something on your mind?" I yelled over the increasing wind coming from behind us… looks like someone was paying attention to his son after all.

"Yeah.."

"Give me a minute and I'll be down there!"

Blackjack apparently heard me a lowered down a bit after racing ahead of Percy.

I dove off of his back with a big enough splash to wake up Rob, when Porkpie was trying to catch up with us.

I landed in the water and immediately shivered. I swam over to Percy, sopping wet, and shook me hair, just to annoy him.

"Alright… What's your problema?" I asked.

"You trying to speak Spanish or something?"

"Not really."

"Huh… I don't if Kronos sent that attack to kill me so that he can continue his plan or what… It's just killing me that all of them are fighting him because I wasn't there."

"Chiron sent you to come and get me, don't go blaming yourself over something that you had no control over." I said, lightly punching his shoulder.

"You sure that was it? It looked like there was something else going on with you and Annabeth." I said with a sly smile.

"A little… Like you and Julie." He replied giving me his own smile.

"Hey… shut up…" I said looking at the water below me. I crossed my arms and bent me knees so that I was in an OK sitting position.

Percy sat next to saying, "I knew it!!"

Annabeth and Julie both looked at us with questioning eyes.

Percy ducked his head a bit and I laughed at him.

"Now that is called karma." I said laughing at him.

"No, wait.. Take that back, that is called being a Seaweed Brain." I said, bursting out laughing again.

He punched my arm and laughed a bit to.

"So… how long have you crushed on Annabeth?" I asked him.

His face changed colors and I knew that I had gotten him pretty good.

"Pretty much since she told me that I drool in my sleep.."

"And when was that?"

"When I first came to camp… and right after killing the Minotaur."

"I knew something was up between you two."

"Yeah, just like you and Julie." He said in a mocking tone. I swore that if he started to sing that damned "K-I-S-S-I-N-G" crap, I was going to jump him.

But for his own luck, he didn't.

"yeah…" I said in a quiet tone, looking forward and AWAY from his face. I felt heat rushing up my face and I knew that I was now at least a light shade of red.

Then I had a quick change of mood, and turned towards him, and said,

"But it looks like you and Annabeth are more serious."

"More serious about what?" Annabeth said, leaning over Percy's shoulder.

Percy turned tomato red, and I doubled over and started cracking up.

"What's wrong with him?" said Julie coming up besides Annabeth.

I slowly stopped laughing and sat up.

Julie pushed my shoulder a little, telling me to scoot over. I shifted and gave her space. Annabeth did the same to Percy and he moved, allowing her to sit next to him.

I looked at Percy out of the corner of my eye and saw him lean in a bit towards Annabeth, who had brought her legs up near her again and leaned forward a bit.

Julie sat next to me in criss-cross style while I bent my knees up a bit and leaned back on my arms.

I looked at Julie to out of the corner of my eye, and saw HER leaning into ME,

I didn't know how to react. I thought about leaning away, as saying that I didn't totally care, then I immediately thought against that and leaned in a bit to.

I looked back at Percy and Annabeth and saw that they were talking. I thought "what do I got to lose?"

"Hey Julie, what was up back there?"

"We were just talking about random stuff."

OK.. Curiosity got the best of me… though the little voice in my head chanted "Curiosity Killed The Cat." Over and over again…

I sighed on the inside and asked, "What kind of stuff?"

She blushed a bit and her ears turned red, meaning that she was OBVIOUSLY lying to me, saying "Oh, just our parents."

"I know your lying." I said in a mocking tone.

She replied in a low voice, "How?"

"For one your ears turned red, and obvious give away. And… for some reason… you blushed." I said hesitantly.

OK, OK I know that I took FOREVER updating this, but being overseas (Europe) equals that you travel a lot over the holiday breaks. Which also means that I can't take my laptop with me whenever I go somewhere, and not like I could use a PSP or something like that. Whatever… Forgive me.. PLZ? At least R&R so that I'm actually FORCED into finishing this, because I'm a MAJOR procrastinator.