A/N: Summer break, finally! Hopefully I can post more now. Anyway, this chapter skips all the way to October. Next chapter will be set in November (Thanksgiving), and so on and so forth. I will be writing for Percy's ENTIRE middle school experience, which means he will be in 7th and 8th grade eventually. Thanks for the reviews by the way! Really appreciate it.

The Halloween dance was coming up.

Not that I cared, but everyone else was freaking out about it, especially the people in my class. It was going to be our very first school dance ever. I didn't want to go originally, but my mom already bought me a costume, so I was stuck. The first time she saw the grey streak in my hair, she totally freaked out. Then I told her why I did it, and she praised me for being "chivalrous"; whatever that means.

Guys were even asking out their dates, which I didn't think most of them had the guts to do. I knew Nico wanted to ask Thalia, but he didn't know how. They became really close friends over the past two months. Most of the time, they would hang out with each other without the rest of us. Both of them were obsessed with horror films, anime, and rock bands. Who knew?

Grover was going with some girl named Juniper. He introduced her to us, and I don't know why, but she seemed a little strange to me. She's really nice and everything, but she is obsessed with nature, trees, and the color green. For example, her hair was literally green, and so was her bike. She rides it to school every day just like Grover does. They had so much in common, and maybe that's what freaked me out.

I heard Luke asked Silena Beauregard to go with him. She was a really pretty eighth grader with black hair and blue eyes. She was also popular, and some people stared at her whenever she walked through the hallways (guilty as charged). Of course, Annabeth wasn't too happy about it. She glares at Silena whenever she walks by, but thankfully she's too oblivious to notice.

I wondered if I wanted to ask somebody. I was thinking about asking Annabeth, but why would she want to go with me?

We still argue about stupid things. A couple weeks ago, we were dissecting squids in class, and I "accidently" cut opened the ink sack. The ink squirted all over Annabeth's face, and Mrs. Davidson had to restrain her from stabbing me with a dissecting knife. Afterwards, she made us clean it all up (it was so worth it). Annabeth says I'm more irritating than her stepbrothers; and that if Mrs. Davidson wasn't there that day, I would be in the nurse's office with a dissecting knife in my shoulder.

I was sitting in the cafeteria eating cheese enchiladas, Grover's favorite. Nico and Thalia were busy reading their report cards. We just got our midterm grades today. I didn't even bother to read mine, because I already knew the results. All of my teachers, except Mrs. Davidson came to talk to me. They said that I need to "try harder", and that I was failing their classes. I didn't care. Why can't they understand that not everyone can be a perfect student?

"I can't believe Mr. Satyr gave me B in History," Thalia complained. "That paper I turned in was perfect!"

"Mrs. Dodds gave me a B- in math," Nico said. "It's not my fault she's a terrible teacher!"

"C'mon guys," said Grover. "You didn't do that bad," I watched as he took a massive bite out of his enchilada.

"Yeah right," said Thalia. "Says the guy who only got one B, and by the way, who gets a B in P.E?" She snatched Grover's report card and waved it in front of his face.

Grover angrily snatched it back. "I hate running laps, okay! And Coach Hedge is tough….And mean." I laughed inwardly. Who cares this much about grades?

"Hey, how'd you guys do on midterms?" I turned around to see Annabeth carrying her lunch tray. She sits next to me as I scoot over to give her some room.

"We did okay, but we all got B's. What about you?" Thalia asked. Annabeth had a victorious grin on her face. She handed her report card to Thalia, and her eyes widened with surprise.

"You got straight A's?" Grover said with awe.

"Even in Mrs. Dodds class?" said Nico. "Are you bribing her or something?"

Thalia chuckled and handed the report card back to her. "Good job, kiddo."

Annabeth took it and put it away. She nudged me all of the sudden. "What about you Percy? How'd you do?" I couldn't possibly tell everyone my grades aloud, that would be humiliating.

"I don't know. I haven't opened mine yet."

"Well, can you open it now?"

"It's in my locker," I lied. "I'll look at it later." I thought I was in the clear, but then I felt something leave my back pocket.

"What's this then?" Annabeth held up a plain white envelope that was unopened. It was the one that was in my pocket, and the one that will expose my bad grades to everyone.

"That's, uh, an invitation to my Aunt's wedding." She looked at my skeptically, and smirked.

"Oh really?What's her name?"

"She's my Aunt, uh…..Helga." I slapped myself mentally. Why would I say that?

Annabeth and my friends snickered. "Aunt Helga?" She confirmed.

"Yes. Aunt Helga."

"Who is she getting married to Percy?" Nico said. "Gaylord?"

Thalia choked on her food, and Nico and Grover went into crazy fits of laughter. I glared at Nico, but he was too busy laughing to notice.

Annabeth turned to my cousin. "So Thalia, do you know an Aunt Helga?" Crap, I forgot Thalia and I were related.

"We certainly don't have an Aunt Helga in my family. And I know Percy doesn't either."

"How would you know?" I complained, "She could be on my mom's side!"

"Unless you come from a family of Vikings Percy, I know you don't have an Aunt Helga. You don't have any aunts at all!"

She was right, I didn't have any aunts. In fact, Zeus was the only uncle I had. I tried to snatch the envelope from Annabeth, but she pulled it away.

"I told you that you were bad at names, Seaweed Brain." She began ripping up the envelope. I became more interested in my food as she began unfolding my report card. When she finally saw it, she gasped, and looked at me in shock.

"You got three F's, one D-, and a B?!" I got a B? That's awesome!

"What?" Everyone else said.

"I got a B?!In what class?"

"Science, but that's only because I'm your partner, and I really don't think-" I didn't care for anything else she had to say, as I leapt up from my seat and started to jump around.

"Nico! I got a B! How awesome is that?!"

Nico chuckled. "Congratulations, man. You deserve it."

"Good job Perce," Grover added.

Thalia looked confused. "Why are you guys congratulating him? He's failing four other classes!"

"Percy has never been the 'stellar' student in school," Grover explained.

"He's lucky he's never gotten kicked out," said Nico, "especially after that dodgeball incident."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Dodgeball incident?"

He nodded. "Percy threw a dodgeball at the teacher when he was smoking a cigarette. He dropped it when the ball hit him, and the gym went up in flames. The whole school had to be evacuated."

Annabeth and Thalia looked at me in shock. I held up my hands in defense. "Hey, he shouldn't have been smoking in the first place."

"You threw it at him on purpose," Nico added.

"He never did anything! He just sat there while reading magazines."

"So you couldn't have waiteduntil he put the cigarette down to show your displeasure?" Annabeth suggested.

I grimaced at the memory. "I, I didn't think it through,"

Annabeth scoffed. "You never think things through,"

I shrugged. "That's me for you."

The bell rang, signaling us to go to our next class. I put my tray away and walked over to the lockers to exchange my books. 6th graders automatically got bottom lockers, and I was no exception. I crouched down to pack everything I needed. Then I stood up and turned around, only to meet face to face with Annabeth. She scared the crap out of me, causing myself to jump back into the lockers.

"Did I scare you?" Annabeth teased.

"Not funny, Wise Girl. What do you want?"

"Meet me after school tomorrow."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I'm helping you. There's no way I'm letting you fail the rest of your classes."

"I don't need tutoring," I said stubbornly.

She smirked. "Don't think of it as tutoring. Think of it as helping out a friend."

I cocked an eyebrow. "I'm your friend?"

She gave me an annoyed look. "Of course you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Anymore stupid questions?"

I laughed. "Fine. See you tomorrow, friend." She rolled her eyes as she walked away, and I headed off to class with a smile on my face.

It was Halloween, and I was busy getting ready for the dance. I took a shower, put on my sailor's costume, brushed my teeth, and I was ready to go. However, my mom didn't think that was good enough. She made me brush my hair over and over again until it looked neat. Meaning I had to brush it for over an hour. She also wanted to take a ton of pictures of me.

"Mom, that's enough. Can I go now?" I complained. She put down the camera for a moment.

"Percy, this is your first dance! And you look so handsome in that costume," She pinched my cheeks and I cringed. Then I heard the doorbell ring.

"I'll get it," I said as I ran towards the door. I opened it, and there stood Nico. He was dressed as the Grim Reaper. His costume was a black cloak with a hood. He had a skull mask and was holding a long scythe.

He lifted up his mask. "Hey Perce, ready to go?"

Nico and I decided to go to the dance together, (and no, I did not ask him out). He was a little late on asking Thalia to the dance, and Ethan beat him to it. So, Nico and I were dateless. Annabeth was going to meet us at the dance, and then go trick-or-treating with us afterwards.

"Yeah Nico, let's-" I was interrupted by my mom's excited squeal.

"You boys look so adorable! Come inside so I can take more pictures of you two."

"Er, okay?" Nico said as he walked inside. We were practically blinded by all of the pictures she took, but after a while we were finally ready to go. I put on my sailor's hat that went with my costume, and Nico and I walked out the door.

"Bye, mom!" I said before walking out of the apartment. We got on the subway to get to the school. For some reason, Nico and I were the only ones on it.

"I can't believe how many pictures for mom took," Nico complained. "My face hurts from smiling so much."

"That's what you get for not asking Thalia sooner," I said.

Nico buried his face in his hands. "Please don't remind me."

*Tuesday, three days before the dance*

I was at my locker getting ready to go to my next class. Nico walked up to me, with a really nervous expression on his face. He was so pale, that it looked like he was about pass out. His usually-intimidating dark eyes showed fear. I looked down at him, and he was holding a rose in one hand, and a box of chocolates in the other. His whole body was shaking. It was pretty obvious on what he was planning to do, and it was my job as his best friend to give him a hard time about it.

"Are you asking me to the dance, Nico? Because if you are I swear-"

"Shut up Percy!" Nico whispered through clenched teeth. "I'm scared, alright? How am I supposed to ask someone like her to go to the dance with me?" He took a quick glance at Thalia, who was casually leaning on the lockers with her headphones in. Her eyes were focused on her iPhone, and she didn't look up at anyone.

"Dude, just ask her already," I said simply. "The worst she can say is 'no, you're disgusting'."

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of!" He snapped.

"Oh, you're pretty screwed then."

"Ugh, why did I come to you, for advice?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "If you wanted a wingman, you should've gone to Grover. He has a date."

"Y'know, this is easy for you to say. You're not asking anyone."

I smirked. "Sucks for you. Don't worry, I'll help you out." I began to push Nico down the hall, despite his protests.

"Percy, no! I'm not ready! I change my mind, I-" With one final push, I was able to get him halfway to Thalia.

I took five steps back, and shooed him to make a move already. Just go.

He looked back at me nervously, and then shifted his eyes back to Thalia. I had the enjoyment of seeing it all play out. After about ten seconds, he took a small step forward. Then he took another, and another, one more, he was almost there, and—

"Thalia!" She looked up from her phone, only to see someone coming towards her. It was Ethan Nakamura. He jogged all the way from the end of the hall. Thalia turned around, with her back now facing Nico, who stopped dead in his tracks. I saw her take her headphones out, and I was actually able to hear the conversation.

"What's up Ethan?" I heard Thalia say.

"I, um, wanted to give you this." Ethan handed Thalia a CD case. She looked at it, and a huge smile appeared on her face.

"You bought Queen's best album?!"

He smiled and looked at the ground shyly. "Yeah. I got it for you."

Thalia paused before replying. "Seriously?"

He nodded. "Yep. Would you like to go to the dance with me?" He looked at her with anticipation, and she smiled even more.

"Sure, Ethan. I'll go with you." I saw his brown eyes light up.

"Cool."

They hugged, and Ethan jogged away. Nico, looking defeated, dumped his romantic items into the trash next to him. Good thing he did, because Thalia turned around just after that. She saw Nico, and ran up to him.

"Hey Nico! Ethan just bought me Queen's best album, how cool is that?"

Nico looked at her with sad eyes. "Great," he said with complete monotone.

She playfully punched him in the arm. It must've hurt, because he winced in pain. I don't blame him, Thalia was really strong.

"Come over to my apartment tonight and we can listen to it together, okay?"

He grimaced. "Oh, okay."

Thalia was obviously too happy to see Nico's pain. She punched him again, harder than the last time, and walked the other way. It took a while for Nico to comprehend what just happened before he was able to move again. He walked over my way with his head down in shame. I felt sorry for him.

He ran his hands through his long shaggy hair. "I can't believe that just happened."

"Dude, you just got friend-zoned." I know that it was mean to say, but it was true.

He gave me a confused look. "What does that mean?"

"It means that she will never, ever, see you more than a friend. You guys will be best friends, but nothing more."

He stared at me with the most depressing look ever. "Does that mean she doesn't like me?"

I shook my head, "Sorry man. You should probably get over her."

He hit his forehead on the lockers, "Yeah…You're probably right."

*Present day*

"C'mon Nico," I said. "It wasn't like you were actually gonna to do it."

"Yes I was!" He exclaimed. "You saw the things I got her, and I was almost there! If it weren't for stupid Ethan Nakamura…."

"Yeah, right. You probably would've chickened out or something."

"You were the one who said I should tell her how I feel!"

"I was joking, Nico. Thalia's a grade above you. She's older than you, taller than you, stronger than-"

"Alright, I get it. Sheesh, I don't even like her anymore." Yeah, right.

"Whatever you say."

When we arrived at the school, we could hear the music blasting from outside. After walking through the halls, we entered the gym. The music was obnoxiously loud and there were strobe lights that lit up the room. The decorations weren't that impressive to be honest, but at least they had a lot of food. That's where we went first. After grabbing everything we could, we sat against the wall and watched people dance to 'The Worst Top Forty'. There was a DJ playing music and there were teachers chaperoning. I was surprised that there weren't a lot of people wearing costumes, or dancing. It was mostly the guys who played basketball or talked in the corner. Then I saw Annabeth. She wasn't wearing a costume, only a dark blue dress with an owl necklace and matching earrings. She looked really pretty regardless. She spotted us, and started walking our way.

"Nice costume, Seaweed Brain. It really resembles you."

I looked up at her. "I didn't stuff any seaweed in my head, if that's what you're thinking."

She laughed a little. "You look good too, Nico."

"Thanks," Nico grumbled. I saw his eyes wander across the room where Thalia was dancing with a bunch of 7th graders, including Ethan.

Annabeth turned to me again. "Why aren't you guys dancing?"

I shook my head. "Don't feel like it,"

She rolled her eyes. "That's what all guys say,"

"Well, I just really don't like to dance."

"Especially to terrible music," Nico said as he covered his ears. All of the sudden, Annabeth gripped each of our arms to haul us up.

"C'mon guys, it won't be that bad." Before we could protest, we were dragged to the middle of the dance floor. I thought we might as well get it over with. After about twenty minutes of dancing with each other, we were extremely tired. The gym was stuffy enough as it was. We clumsily walked to our previous spot, and this time all of us sat down, exhausted and fatigued.

"See, that was fun, right? Annabeth managed to breathe out.

"Yeah, so much, fun," Nico said tiredly.

"Hey Annabeth, how are you supposed to go trick-or-treating with us if-"

I stopped myself after I saw Thalia and Ethan walking towards us. Thalia laughed as he whispered something in her ear. I felt Nico tense up next to me. As they approached, he forced himself to look away from them.

"Nice dancing out there Kelp Head. I didn't think you had it in you," I took a good look at Thalia. She wasn't wearing a costume either. Instead she was in her usual outfit of black clothes and combat shoes. The blue highlights were still in her hair. Ethan was wearing a ninja suit, and a sword (hopefully fake) was attached at his side.

"Thanks, Thals. What did you dress up as, Goth girl?" I joked, but she didn't find it funny. She raised a clenched fist, and I used my hands to protect my vulnerable face.

I heard her laugh. "Don't worry cuz, I won't hit you. But you better not call me Goth again, kapeesh?" I nodded in relief. I took a glance at Annabeth who seemed to be scowling at something. I noticed where she was looking; it was Luke talking to Silena by the food table.

"Jealous much?" I teased.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said with folded arms.

"Uh-huh."

She glared daggers at me, but I didn't back down. We finally stopped after we heard Thalia cough uncomfortably.

"I think Kelp Head's got a point there, kiddo."

Annabeth shifted her gaze to Thalia. "What do you mean?"

"You're mad that Luke asked Silena to the dance, aren't you?"

"Pfft, no I'm not."

Ethan spoke up, "If it helps, I don't think you have anything to worry about."

Annabeth gave him an angry stare. "I said I don't care." Speak of the devil, I saw Luke approaching us. He was wearing a burglar outfit, and his ski mask was pulled down around his neck. Annabeth's eyes went wide, and then they turned angry. She looked away from him just like Nico did to Thalia.

"Hey," Luke said casually. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Oh, nothing." Thalia smirked at Annabeth, but she didn't look up. I heard the DJ announce that he was going to play a slow song. Most people groaned and walked off the dance floor. Some guys started asking girls to dance with them. I would be really embarrassed if I ever had to do something like that.

"So, Annabeth," Luke began to say, "would you like to dance with me?"

She looked shocked at first, but then she turned cold. "What about Silena," she said bitterly.

There was mischievous glint in his eyes that I've never seen before. It almost looked evil.

"Silena? Oh, I only asked her out because it was part of the plan."

Annabeth started to show interest. "Plan?"

"We made a plot to get Beckendorf and Silena together," said Ethan. "It was so obvious that they liked each other, but neither of them would admit it." He pointed to Charles and Silena who were slow dancing with each other. The 8th graders were wolf whistling and cheering for them. "See?"

"So you asked Silena to the dance to make Beckendorf jealous?" Annabeth said impressively. "That was…..really clever actually."

"You still haven't answered my question." Luke offered a hand to Annabeth. She blushed as he helped her stand up.

"Sure Luke, I'd love to." He gave her a brilliant white smile, and she blushed even more.

"Also, do you want to go trick-or-treating with us later? All of the 7th graders are going, right Ethan?"

"Yep," Ethan replied.

"I'm coming too," said Thalia.

Annabeth looked disappointed. "I didn't bring a costume."

Luke gave her a mischievous grin. "Don't worry. We'll get some candy for you. Besides, I really want you to come with us." Her face flushed as he smiled at her.

"You guys can come too," Thalia said. Nico still didn't look at her, and I could tell he didn't want to be around them.

I shrugged. "Nah, you guys can go. Nico and I already planned on going somewhere." Nico gave a grateful yet sad smile.

Luke grabbed Annabeth's hand. "C'mon Annie, the song's almost over." I watched as he walked her to the dance floor with Ethan and Thalia trailing behind them. Annabeth put her hands on Luke's shoulders and he put his hands on her waist. Ethan and Thalia followed the same motions. I was slightly impressed how Luke was able to not step on Annabeth's toes. But I also had this feeling, a weird one. It felt like emptiness. I had no idea why I felt like that, but keeping my eyes off of them seemed to help. It must be because I'm not dancing, I told myself. I looked at Nico instead. He had his eyes trained on Thalia and Ethan. They were smiling and swaying calmly to the music. I continued to watch as Ethan leaned in and gave Thalia a quick peck on the lips. She beamed at him. Nico's left eye started to twitch. He was trying not to show any emotion, but I knew that wouldn't last long.

"Hey Nico," I said shaking him out of his trance, "wanna go trick-or-treating early?"

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's get out of here." As we stood up and left the gym, I realized how relieved I actually was. It was really awkward for me watching everyone dance like that, especially Luke and Annabeth, for some reason. We left so early that we didn't even say 'hi' to Grover or Juniper. That was okay though, because they didn't go trick-or-treating anyways. Something about sugar being bad for the digestive system or whatever. Afterwards, Nico and I still had fun. Since it was just the two of us, we got more candy at each house. Nico even convinced me to buy eggs at the local store so that we could throw them at some of the houses. The Halloween dance really wasn't the highlight of my night, but running away from pranked, angry old man that threatened to beat us up with his walking stick, was.