Artemis:

"Arty!" a gentle voice somehow managed to penetrate my deep sleep. I felt something shaking me, probably to wake me up. I tightly shut my eyes, thinking the sun was about to shine into my eyes, but it didn't happen. The warmth didn't blanket my skin. It was then that I realized something was going on. Forcing my eyes open, I started to wake up. The first thing I saw was Zak, trying to wake me up. Around him, it was dark like a pitch black night. I looked beside me at my alarm clock. Four AM.

"Zak, what is it?" I foggily asked. My body begged to restore its once peaceful sleep, and it took all my will power not to give in.

"Joel's here."

XXXXXXXX

Hearing that my sister's ex-boyfriend was here woke me up better than coffee and Red Bull combined. I had spent the last ten minutes hearing Zak's description of what happened. Apparently, the son of Hermes wasn't as safe as he thought he was. We don't know how yet, as he hasn't woken up to tell us everything, but from the looks of the initial wounds he was attacked by a Hellhound. Zak contacted camp to find out if they knew anything, and Joel had been appointed a quest. The quest led him as far as to Washington. His quest-members, seventeen year old power couple, Holly and George, are nowhere to be found. Zak found him when he was out picking up orange juice. I have no idea why Zak was shopping for orange juice at four in the morning, but he was. He helped fight off the Hellhound, and Joel passed out right after the thing died. Again, I have no idea how he got Joel up all of those stairs to get here or why he brought him here in the first place, but he did. Annie was getting up for a glass of water and almost had a heart attack when she saw Joel unconscious on the couch, sending a glass into shatters. I don't blame her. I would have done the same. I sent her to bed, saying I'd tell her everything in the morning. Still slightly hyperventilating, she did as I requested. Zak was tired. So, I sent him to bed as well, saying I'd wake him up to watch him in two hours.

I looked at Joel. I hadn't seen him since our senior prom. He had grown what looked like an inch or so. His brown curls had grown about the same and fell in his eyes. His brown eyes were closed in slumber. He was wearing ripped up jeans, a blue tee shirt, a brown hoodie, and a necklace he picked out with Annie. They had bought matching ones. The necklaces became good luck charms to both of them. Annie left hers in her bedroom in New York. He still wore his apparently even though she dumped him months ago.

"Does she love him?" Joel's voice was horse, but he managed to say it. I looked down at him in astonishment. Well, at least I didn't start ranting about something or another and he heard me.

"Does who love who?" I asked, still surprised at how fast he woke up

"I've been talking to Zak this entire time. One we've been talking for an hour, nothing is off limits. I know everything that's happened since you got here," Joel smiled.

"Everything?" I asked, hoping he was just over exaggerating.

"Everything. I even know that Nikki was mean to your roommate so that she had to move out with two girls that she's joining a sorority with," Joel shrugged, but stopped from the pain of doing so. I almost blushed. We had started classes today, and my roommate moved out yesterday. It wasn't exactly something I'm proud or happy to say, but it did happen. We won't be getting a new roommate. So, from now on, its me and Annie with an extra room. Nikki offered to move in with us, but I cant imagine how much redecorating I would be looking at if she did so. So, Megan's room has been untouched since she left. I haven't talked to her since she moved out. She was a sweet girl, but she associated me with Nikki. The relationship just went downhill from there. The place is much too big now. It reminds me of the first apartment I lived in. My mom was living in a three bedroom about this size when I was born. My Uncle Malcolm and Aunt Mia used to come over to watch me all the time to help my mom out. When Malcolm was out of town on one of his many meetings for the company that he went to because my mom couldn't just leave me alone to go, Mia used to stay in the other room. My grandfather used to do the same. When I was five years old, my mom and I moved to a large loft that was closer to both my school and my mom's work. Seven years later, we moved in with Percy. I still wonder who moved into the first apartment. I still think about if someone painted over the little stickers I pinned on the closet door or if they found where I had doodled my initials into the corner behind my bed.

"Perfect," I mumbled, "Okay, but does who love who?"

"Does Annie love Marcus?" the question seemed to pain him as he asked. I didn't blame him. If I had asked if Zak loved someone else, I would have felt like a hydra was burning me alive. I knew that whatever I was about to tell him wasn't going to help the pain. So, I might as well tell him the honest to god truth.

"I don't know. I suppose that…-" I cut myself off and began in a new direction, "She had a crush on him, and she got scared from that because she still wants to be in love with you. Marcus likes her a lot, from what I can tell, and she pretends she doesn't like him," I began.

"Like she used to do with me," Joel's voice was small and heartbroken, like the wound from her leaving him had just been reopened. I've never seen his brown eyes so sad. I mean, they've always had that cute puppy-dog look about them, but this time he looked completely crushed, like he just watched Annie marry Marcus, not just have a crush on him.

"Yeah, I guess," I looked down at my grey pjs and felt a slight tension enter the room. That's when I looked up again.

"You do know he hasn't won yet. You could still fight for her," I let out a weak smile. The look in his eyes told me that the thought had occurred to him, but he just didn't know just how'd that work. If he did and lost, he would lose every bit of at least a friendship with Annie. If he did and won, he'd get her. It was a risk-it-all kind of move. It was one that evil twit Marnie tried years ago, and she lost. She lost everything.

"If you really love her, you'd at least try," I told him. He looked at me like he couldn't believe what I just said. I didn't believe it either, but it escaped my lips, now didn't it? I should have felt some guilt, but I was right. If he did love her, he'd try. I'm just telling him the truth. Why feel guilty about that?

"Yeah," Joel didn't seem to know what to say. His voice was distant as if he were really thinking it all over. Did he love my sister?

Even more important:

Does she still love him?

I know it totally sucks, but I had this in my head before writer's block got the best of me. Now, do you like Marcus or do you think she should end up with Joel? I really don't know which one I should chose for her. I'm going to try to get back into this and I promise that there will be longer chapters