Like every morning, I was rudely awakened by my alarm clock. Even though it was a Saturday, I still had to meet Annabeth for our stupid project. My mom worked the early morning shift at See's Candy on Saturdays, and she wouldn't get off until late at night. She worked every day; weekends being her longest working hours, so I wouldn't get to see her a lot. As for Gabe, weekends were the only days where he got off his lazy ass to work. He owns a hardware store in Brooklyn, so I would hardly get to see him either. Thank Gods. Ever since the accident, he hasn't talked to me since. Apparently, it's because of him that we have a roof over our heads. I say it's just another reason why my mom can't leave him, but I get what she means. Times were tough before my mom married Gabe when I was eight, mostly because of money issues. We had to live in a motel and eat fast food every night, which was completely fine by me. At least we were happy, just the two of us. My favorite times, were when my mom and I would go to Montauk beach for my birthday every summer. It didn't matter how much money we had, she would always find a way for us to go, every year since I was born. Sadly, that all changed this past summer. I had just returned home from a swimming competition in Florida, just a few days before my birthday, when my mom said we weren't able to go this time. She claimed that we just didn't have the money, but I knew she was lying. I'd expected Gabe to have something to do with it. He's been complaining about us going to that place ever since my mom married him. She hated displeasing people, especially when it came to Gabe. He would yell at her whenever she didn't do something right. I've learned to fight the urge to yell at him back, especially when my mom would apologize and beg for his forgiveness afterwards. I may only be twelve, but I knew the only reason why she was still with that creep. She wanted me to have a home, an education, and a regular life just like normal kids had. She also knew I liked to compete and travel, and Gabe was the only way I could do that. I've told her countless times that I didn't care about those things, because they weren't important. Then she would tell me that it was important, and that it mattered to her that I would graduate one day. I just wish she would leave him. She would be so much happier with someone who actually cared about her.

My watch read 5:00 a.m., I woke up early so that I would get the chance to surf beforehand. I quickly brushed my teeth and changed into my wetsuit without even bothering to brush my hair. It never seemed to cooperate with me, so now it was in all different directions, mostly sticking straight up. I didn't care. I snatched a granola bar from the kitchen and grabbed my favorite blue surfboard with a trident design on it. Along the way I put on my flip-flops and grabbed my school backpack. I locked the front door of the apartment and I was off.

It was pretty foggy and dark, but I saw the sun rising in the distance, signaling the start of the day to begin. It took a little less than an hour to get to Rockaway beach from Manhattan. I had to take the train just to get there. It's the closest decent beach from where I live. Normally I would prefer Montauk, but it's too far away. Long Island is a close second.

I slept on the long train ride. I felt so beat up from the first week, how was I going to survive the next one, or the next one, or the one after that? Before long I woke up, and I was there.

All I wanted to do was focus on surfing, nothing else. I'm pretty sure I succeeded too. I caught all the waves I wanted and never fell off once. The sun was fully up now, it looked like morning, somewhere around eight o'clock.

Wait a minute.

I checked my watch. Sure enough, it was 8:00 a.m. I over-swam again. I was supposed to be back on the train already. I swam to shore as fast I could, but by the time I got there it had already left. The next one wouldn't arrive until 8:30. Annabeth's words rang into my mind, "DON'T BE LATE!" Oops. On the way back I shifted in my seat uncomfortably; one, because my back was still hurting, especially in my vulnerable spot, and two, I was awaiting the lecture that Annabeth was bound to give me. Still twenty minutes away, I heard my phone buzz. It was Annabeth. One minute after nine and she already wanted to know where I was. Reluctantly, I answered.

"Where are you?" A stern cold voice said. For some reason, I didn't know how to answer. Should I lie or tell the truth? This is Annabeth we're talking about, she's too smart to be lied to. Yeah, but she'll kill me if I don't give a reasonable answer! Instead, all that came out was,

"Uh, duh." I heard her huff in utter disbelief.

"I told you not to be late, and what do you? The exact opposite of what I say! Can't you listen to me for once, Percy? Gods I swear-" Tired of hearing her already, I finally replied,

"Yeah yeah whatever it's your fault for making us work on a freaking Saturday morning, Wise Girl. Anyway, I'm coming now. Where did you say you lived again?" After a slight moment of silence, I got a neutral reply,

"I said I lived on Wisdom Lane. You can't miss it. It's the only apartment complex there." Wisdom Lane, why does that sound so familiar?

"I'll be there in twenty minutes. See you there." I hung up before she got the chance to say anything else. I got off the train and had to take the bus to the street that Annabeth was talking about, Wisdom Lane. It came to a halt, and the doors opened. Revealing the fanciest apartment building I've ever seen, but also one that I already knew of.

The complex was tall, and way bigger than my cheap old apartment building. It looked like a Greek architectural monument. The sign on the outside read Mount Olympus Luxury Apartments. Thalia's dad, Mr. Zeus, owns this building. We used to hang out here too, until the accident happened.

*Flashback*

I was seven years old, having a play date with one of my best friends and cousins, Thalia. We were in the penthouse of her dad's apartment building, where they lived. Her four year old brother, Jason, was taking his afternoon nap on the couch. Thalia was eight years old. We were making posters on the living room floor because we were bored. We already played elevator tag and watched a bunch of movies. My mom was at work, so I had to stay put until she picked me up. There was a bunch of supplies on the floor; markers, crayons, tape, pictures, paper, stickers, and even a stapler. We were making a mess, but it didn't matter because the maids would clean it up. Mr. Zeus was in his office, sounding like he was having an argument with someone. After the yelling finally stopped, he came into the living room with a briefcase, like he was going somewhere. He crouched beside us, rubbing his temples as if he were stressed. I always thought he wore the coolest suits and ties. Today he was wearing a white suit with a dark blue tie that had lightning bolts on them. It was my favorite one. He also had long hair.

"Thalia, Percy. I need you to listen to me." His deep voice caught our attention and we looked up to him. "I have to go meet Hermes," Hermes was Zeus's assistant. "Apparently, there's an important package that is missing. I should only be gone for fifteen minutes, but in the meantime, do you think you are capable of handling yourselves?" We nodded slowly, trying to comprehend what he was saying. He was going to leave us alone. At home, with no one else. I shivered at the thought. I've never been at home alone before. Then I turned to Thalia, and she stayed as cool as a cucumber; a little excited, even.

"Okay daddy. We'll be good." She said and continued to work on her poster. I just nodded in agreement. Zeus seemed satisfied with her answer, and began to stand up. He kissed Thalia on her forehead while heading for the door.

"Alright then. Do NOT to turn on the stoves or answer the door, and make sure you keep an eye on Jason if he wakes up."

"Okay." We said simultaneously. I heard the door shut and lock. I was almost done with my poster. It was a drawing of the bottom of the sea, with a treasure chest and an underwater city I called "Atlantis". Thalia's poster had a bunch of pictures of bands that she liked, including ACDC.

"I can't believe your dad left us alone." I said suddenly. She shrugged, putting her sharpie down.

"Whatever. We're not alone, there's just no adults telling us what to do. Isn't that great!" I nodded uneasily. I turned to Jason, who was still silently napping in the corner.

"Oh, I remember! I have to show you something." She grabbed my arm to help me get up.

"What is it?"

"It's this hilarious video of this guy-"I wasn't listening to anything else after that, but I liked watching YouTube videos, so I followed her to her room. She shut the door, and we began watching one video after the other.

Third Person POV

Jason had just woken up from his nap. He was refreshed and ready to play, except there was no one around. It was really quiet. Jason stumbled over to his dad's office. He wasn't there. Then he walked to his bedroom. He wasn't there either. His house was really big, so he could be anywhere. Jason gave up and wondered where Thalia and Percy were. He was going to look for them too, but then he noticed art supplies on the living room floor.

"Cool!" Jason said, and he sat down and began to play with the art supplies. He was going to draw with them, but then he saw something he's never seen before. It was a stapler. Jason had never seen this in his preschool classroom before. He grabbed the mysterious item, and began to analyze it with his small hands. He noticed that when he pressed it, the stapler would open and close, like how a crocodile would open and shut its jaw. Jason tried to press the object all the way down, but he was too weak. The stapler would reopen its jaw. He tried again, and again. No luck. Finally, giving it his final effort, he decided to use both of his hands to try and close it. By doing this, he brought the stapler close to his face, a little too close. The stapler clicked, and somehow got stuck on Jason's upper lip, and he cried in pain.

Percy's POV

Thalia and I were watching another hilarious video. It was so funny, that I laughed myself out of my seat. Then Thalia doubled over, laughing at me. We were laughing so hard, but we were interrupted by a sudden scream. It sounded like Jason. I looked at her, and her face immediately went from amusement, to worry. We both bolted downstairs, and found Jason, with a stapler on his mouth.

"Oh. My. Gods." Thalia gaped. "Jason, what the heck happened!" She rushed over to her brother, who was clearly in pain and could only answer by crying. We didn't know what to do. We tried to pull the stapler out, but that just made him cry more. His crying made us panic. Thalia put her face in her hands.

"My dad is going to kill us." As if on cue, we heard the door open. I will never forget the look of shock and anger that appeared in Mr. Zeus's eyes. He was able to pull the stapler out, and used tweezers to get the staple from his upper lip. He was bleeding, and had to be taken to the hospital. After we got there, Dr. Apollo only needed to stitch Jason once, and said it should heal okay. When we arrived home, we were immediately scolded. Seeing Zeus mad was probably the most terrifying moment of my life. Even Thalia was scared, and Thalia was never scared. She also looked sad. She hated making her father upset. He was only able to yell at us briefly, when my mom finally came to pick me up. Uh oh. Zeus told her everything that happened, and then my mom got mad. Let me correct myself, seeing my MOM mad was the most terrifying moment in my life. She was even angrier than Mr. Zeus, and that was saying something. It was really hard to get my mom angry, but when she did, I swear it's like a nuclear bomb going off. I was grounded for two weeks. I wasn't allowed to go over to Thalia's anymore. Only because Mr. Zeus had to leave the penthouse more often, and he didn't exactly "trust" us to be alone anymore. I haven't been there since.

*Back to reality*

So yeah, this place doesn't exactly bring back the best of memories. I wonder if Thalia still lives here, she probably does. I could find her later. I entered the building and immediately felt awkward. This place has changed since I last visited. In the lobby, people were dressed up in fancy suits and ball gown dresses. The décor was phenomenal. It still had the Greek architectural look to it, but even greater. There were Greek statues placed everywhere. The ceiling was high, with several chandeliers on them. Obviously, anyone who lived here was rich. I felt really bad ruining the vibe by wearing a wetsuit and carrying a surfboard. Hopefully no one will notice?

No such luck. My flip-flops made loud click-clacking noises on the glossy floor. I walked over to the front desk. The guy, gave me a funny and amused look, which I didn't enjoy very much. His nametag read "Charon". I wasn't exactly sure how to pronounce that.

"Um, hi, Charon?" I said pronouncing the "SH" sound. His face gave me an annoyed look, signaling that I was wrong.

"No lad, it's not "SHARON", it's "CHARON". Say it with me, CARE-ON." He sounded like he had a weird British accent.

"Charon." I say pronouncing it correctly this time.

"Good, now what do you need lad? Are you lost? California is down that way." He pointed west, and this time I gave him an annoyed look.

"No. I'm not lost, thank you. I'm here to see Annabeth Chase? We're working on a project together." His face turned more serious this time.

"Oh, right, Ms. Chase. I do know of her." He called began calling her apartment, and someone answered.

"Yes, Ms. Chase? I have a young, um, lad here. Would you like me to send him up?" After a muffled reply, he put the phone down.

"She gives you permission to enter. The Chase residence lives in apartment 611."

"Thanks." I mumble. Avoiding the stares of others, I hurry to the gold elevator and step inside. As I remember, the elevator buttons are different. The floors go from highest to lowest, instead of lowest to highest like most elevators. For example, Thalia lived on the top floor, which would normally be floor 12, but it was actually called the first floor. I press the middle button, floor 6, and began to ascend while listening to classical music. I stepped out of the elevator and found Annabeth's apartment. I glanced at my watch, it read 9:30. I was exactly thirty minutes late. I just stood there, thinking of what she's going to do to me. I brought my hand up to knock on the grey door, but it swung open. I was greeted by a dirty look, and a confused one. She looked at my appearance, and scowled. I ruffled my messed-up, salty-dried hair with my free hand, and smiled sheepishly at her.

"Um, hi?" I was pulled inside by her fierce grip. She shut the door, and glared.

"So, you decided to ditch me for surfing?" Her intense eyes sparked with fire.

"No, I did not ditch you for surfing. I was in the middle of feeding the farm, when the cow began stomping on the chickens-" I wasn't able to finish my story, because I was kicked, ruthlessly where no guy should EVER be kicked. I fell down, dropping my surfboard and groaning in pain.

"You deserved that."

"Yeah, I-I know." She helped me get up.

"You're lucky my dad and stepmom aren't here." She picked up my surfboard and made it lean on the wall. "Ugh, Percy! You're getting sand everywhere." She began to push me upstairs.

"What are you doing?" Soon, I was standing in front of a bathroom. She went inside, and grabbed a towel. She shoved it on my chest.

"You are showering. Now." She pointed towards the bathroom.

"But I don't have any clothes!" She huffed and went into a room, which looked like a bedroom. She angrily began picking out some guy's clothes. She shoved them on me too.

"You can borrow my brother's. Now hurry up." Before I could reply, I was roughly shoved in the bathroom, and I heard the door shut, along with angry footsteps fading away. This girl had no mercy on guys whatsoever. I guess she had a brother, so that made sense. I started showering, and began zoning out in the hot water. My cuts looked better, they were almost healed. My back felt better too, except not in that one spot. I didn't know if that will ever be the same. After I was done, I put on the clothes that she gave me. They were a little big, but not too bad. The outfit was also really, sophisticated. It was a dress shirt with khaki shorts; something I would never wear in public. I sighed and looked at my hair, which was no longer messed up, instead matted down and wet. It almost looked, neat. I didn't like that. I used my hands to mess it all up, like how it was before. Normally, my mom wouldn't let me leave the house without it looking at least a little presentable. Meaning swooped to one side and not all over the place, but even she knew how hard it was to make it cooperate. It always looked like I came back from a windy walk from the beach. I liked it that way though.

I walked out of the bathroom, and was immediately startled by a pair of grey eyes.

"Do you know how long you shower?" She asked annoyingly.

"No, why?"

"You were in there for thirty minutes." She stated, pointing at my watch. I glanced at it and sure enough, it read 10:00 a.m.

"So?" Taking long showers was completely normal for me. Like I said, I love the water. Apparently, she did not and threw her hands in the air. She grabbed my arm and began dragging me away from the bathroom, towards another room that looked like her bedroom. It was huge. It was all grey, and she had an awesome view of the empire state building. I noticed blueprints and architectural designs on the walls. She had a big bookcase, with, well, books I never wanted to read. There was something that caught my eye. It was a photograph on her bedside table. It was a picture of her, and she looked like she was around six or seven years old. Next to her was another boy, a few years older that had blonde hair and grey eyes like she did. Above them, there was a man with glasses and a laboratory coat, probably her dad. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. Then, beside him, there was a woman. She looked very intelligent. She had grey eyes, with her hands on Annabeth's shoulders. They all looked so happy. I'm not exactly sure, but it looked like they were standing in front of the Parthenon; in Greece, I think?

On her desk, a bunch of supplies were already set up neatly. Paint pens, pictures, and a poster. I gulped, remembering the flashback I had earlier.

"So, uh, what do we do now?" She rolled her eyes, and mumbled something that sounded like idiot. I dismissed that hurtful side comment this time.

"Well, Mrs. Davidson said we had to do our project on the coral reefs." I perked up a little.

"Okay." We began working on the poster. She was writing the title, because I had terrible handwriting. Basically, I pretty much handed her the supplies, and she was working on the poster herself. I felt like I was the nurse, and she was the doctor. I grimaced at the thought. She was also reciting facts that she was writing down, which was kind of annoying. She kept saying one after the other, and I was just nodding. Then all the sudden she stopped. She looked like she was deep in thought, trying to figure out what else to write down.

"What's wrong?" I asked

"I can't think of anything else to say. Mrs. Davidson said we had to write down ten facts, but we only have nine." She began to think again. After a while, I tried to think of something to help. My brain finally came alive to give me ideas.

"You can say that some corals are soft." She looked at me curiously.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Soft coral is made of limestone crystals, so they're not hard like stone." She looked at me suspiciously.

"Percy, if you know things like that, then why do you act so dumb all the time?" Okay, that hurt. She turned away from me and began writing down the fact I told her about. I really irritated her today, and I felt bad about it. I showed up at her apartment, with a wetsuit and a surfboard. I sat on the edge her bed.

"Wow, you must really hate me." I mumbled to myself.

"What?" She turned around to look at me, but I looked down, and scolded myself for saying it too loud.

"Nothing." She walked over and sat on the bed with me.

"No, you said something. What was it?" She asked stubbornly. I finally had enough courage to look her in the eye.

"You hate me. I don't blame you. I'm like your polar opposite. You're smart, I'm not. You're popular, I'm not. I understand, I would hate me too." She sighed and stood up.

"Percy, I don't hate you. I've never hated you. You just really annoy me sometimes. You know? You're so smart, but you act so dumb. Sometimes, I think you do it just to annoy me." I was surprised with her answer, but I stood my ground.

"Well, I don't." I stood up, and she placed a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry okay? What I said was mean." Woah, did Annabeth Chase just apologize?

"It's fine." Ignoring the comment in my head. She took her hand off of my shoulder.

"Good. Now, can you help me with this? I need help gluing the pictures on."

"Sure." I smiled, so did she. It was a relief to know that she didn't hate my guts like I though she did, and maybe I didn't hate her either.

Maybe I liked her.