Well, I would definitely say that the amount of reviews last time was less than gratifying...thank you DaughterofPoseidon for being the only person to leave a comment! But the author writes not for the results but for the thrill of it, so here I am again :) A random postseries fic...inspired by my Monday off washing my sister's junky, disgusting car. Lovely.

P.S. I'm not Rick Riodan.

"One, two, three, four..." Shelby dashed downstairs from where her little brother was counting into his pillows, trying to remember why she had agreed to play hide and go seek with her deranged little siblings. Oh yeah, because her mom had made her promise to babysit them while she and Dad went out to that nice and quiet restaurant by the sea.

Murmuring bitterly to herself about her stupid life, Shelby quietly opened the front door and tucked herself into a small ball behind her mom's neatly trimmed rose bush. A thorn pricked her hand and soil sank into her manicured nails she'd just painted earlier that day. Great. Just great.

"..." Shelby stopped her incoherent jumble of words from tumbling out of her mouth as she heard the door crash open from the apartment complex right across the street. From behind the thorny bush Shelby saw her neighbors Sally and Percy Jackson walk towards the parking lot, talking loudly. The boy was about four years older than her, kind of cute with good hair and amazing eyes. Shelby immediately tried to make herself as invisible as possible, knowing she couldn't handle the humiliation if her hot neighbor saw that she was playing a child's game with her annoying siblings.

"Percy," the mom chided, "you didn't wash the car! Don't you want it to look nice before your date with Annabeth?" Shelby glowered at the bleeding cut on her finger. Of course he was taken. This was just so, so typical.

"I'm sure it's not that bad," Percy replied nonchalantly, rounding the bend. He then stopped in his tracks as the car came into view. "Holy Hades..." Shelby could have sworn he mumbled under his breath. What the heck? This was one weird family.

Sally sighed. "Honey, I'm not handing you your keys until the car is washed. Annabeth is simply going to have to wait, this is just embarrassing. Come up and show me when you're finished." She walked away, shaking her head at her son with all the shame every good mother had. When the apartment door slammed shut, Shelby watched the boy look over his shoulder nervously, as if checking to make sure no one was watching. He then quickly filled up a bucket of soap water and took a deep breath. Shelby leaned forward, curious to what the strange boy was up to.

Percy raised an arm and suddenly all the water rose into the air in a perfect sphere. Shelby's breath left her, every inch of her body paralyzed with disbelief. The boy waved his hand through the air and all the water swirled around the dirty car at a dizzying speed. What was happening? Was this some sort of optical illusion, new technology that no one knew about. Surely Shelby was dreaming! Her whole body was numb with disbelief as she peered with wide eyes through the rose petals.

The soap was now becoming thicker around the car as if a massive invisible hand were lathering it into the metal. And then suddenly Percy drew back his hand and the water was sucked right back into the bucket as if nothing had happened. Shelby blinked. That couldn't have just happened.

"Ready or not, here I come!" her brother's loud, piping voice from inside her house snapped her back to her senses. Percy must have heard the noise too, because he quickly dumped the dirty bucket water into the azaleas beside the parking spot and walked swiftly back into the apartment. Shelby could only come up with one conclusion for the bizarre phenomenon that had just occurred. Her neighbor was not normal. No, he was far from it.

Hahaha, if only she knew! Please review :)