AN: Hey, everyone. So I reworte this chapter. Parts of it I like better than the version that's on my paper-weight of a computer, but parts of it I don't like as much. Anyway, I think it turned out well, so here you go. A couple of quick things. First, this chapter has alcohol and one blatant sex reference. Just a warning. I didn't want to change the rating of the whole story because of this one chapter, so I'm warning you now. If you don't feel comfortable reading this chapter because of that, leave a review saying so, and I'll PM you an overview of the chapter. Secondly, this chapter is narrated by Thalia, so yay about that. Thirdly, the character featured in this chapter is a creation of my own and does not feature in the original version of the story. Lastly, I have on last not for you at the end. Enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 11: The Party

Hi, it's Thalia. I thought that before I started talking about the events you're about to hear, I should explain why I'm telling this particular story rather than Percy. You see, for most of the events that you're going to hear about from me, he was rather… incapacitated. You'll see why when I get there. I suppose I should start in the morning.

Friday. Finally, it was the last day of the week. Every day so far had been one exhausting event after another. Yesterday had especially gotten to me, though. Daniela had hugged her Dad and wept saying goodbye to him, both of them realizing that this would be the last time they saw each other in a long time. It brought tears to my own eyes. Watching her, I wondered how many of the Half-Bloods that we'd taken from Goode had left behind parents who were worried about them and how many of them probably had parents that didn't care that they'd disappeared. Like my mom. It had been a tough scene, and a tough day. Added to that, Percy was acting strange. He had had a strange fervour; a strange manic energy that I was sure wasn't healthy. I knew he was trying to hide how exhausted he was, but it wasn't working.

Percy was dead on his feet. I think he knew it, too, but he still insisted on being a Seaweed Brain and stubbornly pushing on. He seriously needed a break. His skin was pale, almost grey, and he had deep purple bags under his eyes. There was no way that he could keep going at this pace. I wasn't the only one who was worried about him, as I discovered that morning when I went into the kitchen for breakfast. Percy's mom was sitting at the breakfast table, which was weird, because she usually wasn't awake this early in the morning. Yet, there she was, sitting at the breakfast table, sipping from a cup of coffee.

She smiled at me when I came in. "Good morning, Thalia."

"Good morning, Sally," I said. When I had first arrived, I wasn't sure whether to call her Sally, or Mrs. Jackson, or Mrs. Blofis (I didn't know whether she had changed her last name), but she had told me within a couple hours to just call her Sally. "What are you doing up so early?" I asked.

"I wanted to talk to you about Percy," she said as I popped two pieces of bread into the toaster. I turned back towards her. She looked upset, and I knew why. She was worried sick about Percy. He was pushing himself too hard, and we both knew it. I went to the table and sat across from her. "He's pushing himself too hard," she said. "I'm watching my boy die from exhaustion."

"I know," I said. "But you and I both know that he won't take a break. He's going to push stubbornly on ahead and there's nothing I can do to stop him."

She nodded. "Percy is like that. But he has limits, even if he doesn't, or refuses to, recognize them. I'm afraid that he's going to meet his match soon, and I don't know how he'll handle it in his sleep deprived state."

I sighed. "I'll take care of him. I promise. He's like a brother to me. I'm not going to lose ano- I'm not going to let anything happen to my brother." Just then, my toast popped up, and I used it as an opportunity to busy myself with my toast while I took deep breathes and tried to calm down. I had gotten close – too close – to talking about Jason. But he was gone, and there was nothing I could do about that.

"I know," Sally said. "Just, be careful. You have limits, too, Thalia."

I sat down and started munching my toast. "Right now, they're not being pushed like Percy's are."

"My what?" came a voice. Percy entered into the kitchen. He was pale, and his hair was even more dishevelled than usual. His sea-green eyes no longer had the shine that they usually did. "Morning, Mom." He set about pouring himself cereal. "What are you doing up so early?" he asked through a yawn.

"Nothing, honey," she said. "I never went to bed. I was too busy working on my book all night."

"Pretty soon you'll be as exhausted as me," he said. Sally shot me another worried glance, but put on a brave face when Percy sat down next to me. Gods I wished that I had had a mom like her. She actually cared about her son with her whole being and loved him more than anything else. Who did I have like that? Artemis was awesome, but she wasn't exactly a mom, and she didn't love us like a mom did.

Eventually, Percy and I made it out to his car. I insisted on driving, and Percy didn't argue. He just nodded through a yawn and threw me the keys, taking the passenger seat. As we drove to school, Percy fell asleep, and I was left alone with my thoughts. Sally was right. The day was fast approaching that Percy would meet his match. Not because our enemies were getting better, but because he was simply getting weaker. It was only a matter of time before he just passed out on the battlefield, or worse, he could start hallucinating from lack of sleep. Neither option boded particularly well with me.

We pulled into the Goode parking lot, and Percy jolted awake. I suspected that he'd been having lots of bad dreams recently, but I knew from experience that you didn't simply ask about bad dreams. If he wanted to tell me, he would, but sometimes, it was best just to let those dreams stay dreams.

"We're here," I said.

Percy yawned. "Yeah, we are. Listen, Thalia, before we go in, I want to give you something."

Confused, I asked, "What do you mean?"

He pulled a smooth black stone out of his pocket. "This is a Stygian Stone. Nico visited me last night. He wants to help us in our fight against Helen. With this stone, all you have to do is think about him and he'll be able to Shadow Travel right to your location."

"Why are you giving this to me?" I asked, taking the stone.

"Two reasons," he said. "The first is that I'll lose it. The second is that I don't need his help. I'm invulnerable, and you aren't. If anyone is going to need him, it's not going to be me."

"Percy, what makes you think that I need Nico's help?" I snapped. "You're dead on your feet. You need him more, or you might actually die."

Percy shook his head. "I don't need him. And I'm not saying that you need him, but I am saying that you aren't invulnerable. You're more likely to be in a life or death situation than I am. Please, thalia, I would feel better if you held onto it."

I sighed and slipped the stone into my pocket. "Fine, I'll take the stone for now."

We walked inside in silence and took our seats in homeroom. It was then that the bane of my existence at Goode decided to show up. His name was Ethan. He was in a lot of my classes. He was this short, scrawny kid that was popular, but only because his family was filthy rich. He always dressed in designer clothes, and always had his choice of the girls at the school, most of which were taller than him. He had tried to make a move on me once, which had result in me slamming him against a locker. Apparently, he didn't get the message, because he continued to chase after me. Annoying? Yeah, you could say that.

"Hey, Thalia," he said, leaning on my desk. "And Percy," he added. "I'm having a party tonight. My parents are going to be out of town, and my brother, who goes to college at Harvard, managed to get a ton of booze. So what do you guys think? Pretty much the whole school is going to be there."

I was about to respond that we weren't interested, when the other bane of my existence at Goode showed up. Her name was Jessica Haines. She was this tall platinum blonde, who was as dumb as a doornail. Yet, because of her looks, she managed to attract the attention of every guy at school. Well, almost every. Obviously not Percy. And Ethan had developed this annoying habit of having eyes for only me. She also always wore shirts that were entirely too low cut. Unfortunately, Jessica was a demigod, daughter of Aphrodite to be specific.

"Party still on tonight?" Jessica asked, batting her eyes at Ethan.

"Yeah," he said. "In fact, I was just inviting Percy and Thalia."

Jessica turned to Percy and leaned over his desk. Percy, for his part, held eye contact perfectly and kept a calm expression on his face. She didn't faze him at all, which she seemed a bit disappointed about, but, nonetheless, said, "Well, I suppose I'll see you there." She winked at him and then left.

"Thanks for the offer," Percy started, "but-"

"But we don't even know where you live," I cut him off. If Jessica was going, then we had to go too. As much as I disliked her, it was our job to save her, and something as chaotic as a high school party where everyone was drunk would put her in danger, either from regular mortals or from monsters.

Percy shot me a confused look, and I shot him an I'll explain later look back. He seemed to understand. Ethan handed me an official invitation. "The address is one here. It really is a nice place. The building overlooks Central Park, and we own the top three floors. The party starts at ten. I'll see you guys then." He walked off.

"Why are we going to a party?" Percy asked. "Not only is this something we shouldn't be doing, but I think I remember you saying that you hate that guy."

"That Jessica girl," I said. "She's a demigod. I don't like it, but if she's going to the party, it might be just the chaos that Helen and Echidna need to kidnap or harm her. We don't have much of a choice."

He sighed. "Alright. But if we're going to a party, then we need to get you some new clothes."

"What's wrong with my clothes?" I asked, incredulously.

"Nothing," Percy said, "if you like 90s Punk. But if we're really going to this party, we need to blend in, and the 90s Punk thing isn't really popular with many people anymore."

"And you know what's fashionable better than me?" I quipped. "You dress in a t-shirt and jeans every day."

"I choose not to be fashionable," he said. "That's not the same as not knowing what fashionable is."

"Fine," I sighed. "But if that's the case, then you have to go to the nurse's office, say you don't feel well, and take a nap for the rest of the day."

"But Thalia…"

"No," I said, "I'm letting you decide what's fashionable, so you have to listen to me and sleep. If there are any problems today, I can contact Nico, but you need your sleep. Especially if we're going to this party tonight."

Percy grumbled but eventually agreed. As Helen's voice came on and started the announcements, I wondered what exactly we had gotten ourselves into.

I stood in the bathroom at home, looking at my reflection. After much argument, Percy and I had finally bought clothes for me to wear to the party. I wore a new leather jacket, which was nice, but it didn't have spikes like my usual one. Underneath I wore a dark blue buttoned blouse (just the word makes me nauseous) over a black cami (which I had never worn before in my life). I wore new black jeans with those ridiculous "stylish rips." Rather than spiking my hair, Percy had told me to let my hair be loose. I wasn't happy about that, but I grumpily let my black hair fall around my face. He'd also made me put dark blue highlights in my hair to match the shirt. That particular part of the trip was spent in a salon, which further irritated me. I wore Aegis in bracelet form on one wrist, and a silver necklace from Percy's mom (again, Percy had insisted). In fact, the only part of my appearance that Percy hadn't designed for blending in was the leather jacket. He hadn't wanted to get it, but I had threatened to blast him with Lightning, so he eventually caved and we'd bought it. I was unhappy with my looks, and I had plans to get Percy back for this, but I went along with it, because I knew that, for once, he was right. We needed to blend, and despite how annoyed at him I was, and how inexperienced he was with High School parties, he was the best to figure out how to make us blend.

I stepped out and went into the living room. The nap I had forced Percy to take earlier had paid off. He was still pale, but the bags under his eyes weren't as dark, and his had the old gleam back in them. He wore dark blue jeans that were "stylishly ripped" and a black button down shirt with silver stripes. The top two buttons were undone, as was the bottom button, revealing a plain white shirt underneath. It made him look like he was slightly dressed up, but also that he was casual, which seemed appropriate. His hair was ever so slightly spiked, which annoyed me. How come he got to have spiked hair, but I didn't? Stupid High School gender views. I was going to find whatever man had invented them and whoop his ass, right after I'd beaten Ethan to a senseless pulp for having this stupid party in the first place.

"Well," Percy said, looking at me, "not completely hopeless."

I rolled my eyes. "Come on, Seaweed Brain, we're going to be late."

He scoffed. "Thalia, the first thing you learn in every movie that has a party, is that you always show up fashionably late. Like, at least fifteen minutes late."

"Why? That doesn't make any sense?"

He shrugged. "Hades if I know. I'm just working from what I've learned from movies and the internet."

"And you take them for completely true?"

"At least in this respect they are," Paul said, entering the living room. "I went to a lot of parties in my college years, and I can tell you that the party never starts at the actual start time."

Percy looked amused. "You went to parties in college?"

Paul grunted. "I didn't say it was smart."

Sally entered the room. "You two be careful tonight, okay."

I nodded. "We will."

"And, Mom," Percy said, "just so you know, we're probably going to spend the night at Camp Half-Blood. It'll probably be pretty late when we make it to Camp, and there's no sense in trying to drive back here that late at night."

She nodded. "I expected as much. Just be careful tonight, you two. I think that tonight, perhaps the drunken students are going to be more of a danger than monsters."

"And find a way to call if you need anything," Paul added.

We both nodded and walked towards the door. "I love both of you," Sally called after us. As the door closed behind us, I wiped my eyes on my sleeve. Sally Jackson had said she loved me. I had a mother.

"Come on," Percy said. "Let's go get some pizza before the party."

After a stop to get a slice, we drove to the address on the invitation. We were a solid 45 minutes late. We entered the fancy building and hit the button on the elevator. We shot up to the top and knocked on the door of the penthouse suite. Ethan opened the door, a drink in his hand. "Hey guys," he said. "Come on in." We entered into the first floor of the penthouse suite. It was an open floor plan. The door opened into the middle of the back wall. The far wall and the one to our right were made completely of glass. I made a mental note not to go anywhere near the windows, lest I get frozen by my fear of heights. To the left was the kitchen area, where several kids were grabbing beers and taking shots. The furniture seemed to have been moved from the room to make room for a dance floor. Music blared from surround sound speakers connected to a TV that displayed an image of some album cover, with the words "Sirius XM Hits 1" across it. Pop music played, and kids danced around, holding their drinks. In one corner of the room was a ping pong table with a bunch of cups on it surrounded by a group of guys. By the kitchen was a grand stairwell that ascended behind the wall and led to the upstairs, where, upon looking up, I could see two more floors with open centers so that people could look down at the first floor from the upper levels of the penthouse. It served the convenient purpose of allowing the loud music to spread to the other floors too, where kids danced in the halls.

"Impressive, yeah?" Ethan said, noticing Percy and me looking around. "Can I get either of you guys something?"

"No," I said.

"Can I have a coke?" Percy asked.

"Sure," Ethan said. He walked off.

"Okay, Percy, here's the game plan," I said.

"I like game plans," he said.

"You stay down here. Mingle, dance, whatever, and try to find Jessica. I'll go upstairs and search the second floor for her. Whether I find her or not, I'll come back in and check in with you before I go up to the third floor. If we do find her, just keep an eye on her until the end of the party. If we don't have to extract her tonight, that'd be great. Sound good?"

"Yeah," he said with a nod. At that moment, Ethan came back, and handed Percy a clear plastic cup with Coke in it. Ethan looked about to start up a conversation with me, when someone called his name, and he, thankfully, ran off.

Percy took a sip of his Coke. "Tastes kind of weird," he said. He took another sip. "Still tastes like Coke, but there's something weird with it."

"Maybe you shouldn't drink it then?" I suggested.

"Nah, it's fine," he said. "Plus, I'm really thirsty."

I shrugged, deciding not to press it further, partly because I wasn't worried. After all, it was just Coke. The other part was I wanted to get out of there before Ethan came back over.

I walked over to the stairs and worked my way up to the second level. I stepped down, trying not to look at the first floor. It wasn't far, but it still made me queasy. There were kids mingling around, leaning on the railing, but there were noises coming from behind several doors, and there were side halls too, meaning that I had a lot of area to check for Jessica. I glanced around at the people in the main hall area, and didn't see Jessica among them, so I turned to the first door.

I opened the door. Several kids were lounging on sofas watching a movie, though several of them weren't really paying attention to the movie and instead were busy sucking face. I glanced around. I didn't see Jessica in the room, so I exited the room and went to the next door. I opened it up and found a bunch of guys sitting in front of a TV with PlayStation controllers. Shooting sounds were coming from the TV, and several of the guys cheered while others groaned. Two TVs in rooms right next to each other? Seemed a little excessive. Still, I felt a twinge of jealousy. If we were back at home, I would be playing Call of Duty right now, but instead I was here at this stupid party.

I remembered when I'd first seen the PlayStation and Wii in Percy's living room. I had asked him how he managed to play them without attracting monsters every time he did. Percy had explained his theory, which was surprisingly excellent for his Seaweed Brain. He said that because New York was such a big city, and because there were so many demigods, using the computer or playing video games didn't tend to attract monsters because the sense was diffused across the city and lost. Cell phones were traced more easily because they were far more direct.

I snapped out of my memory. There were no girls in the video game room, so I shut the door and moved on to the next one. I opened the door. It was dark in the room, but I heard noise, so I flipped on the light to see if Jessica was in the room. What I saw wasn't Jessica. It was a brown hair girl sitting atop a guy's waist area. And neither of them were wearing clothes. I clapped my hands over my eyes and slammed the door. I suddenly felt very very sick. I asked someone where the bathroom was. They told me and I ran off. I burst into the bathroom, which was thankfully empty, and puked out everything I had eaten today. I sat retching over the toilet for a good five minutes. Then I stood, flushed the toilet, and went over to the sink. I washed my hands, then I grabbed the Listerine sitting beside it to wash out the vomit taste. I would never be able to forget that image, that terrible, scaring image. As an immortal maiden, those types of images are the ones that you aren't supposed to see. I took a few deep breathes, resolved to be more careful and opened the bathroom door.

Unfortunately, I was blocked by Ethan. "There you are!" he said, his breathe smelling heavily of alcohol. He stuck out his arm, leaning against the bathroom wall and making me back against it. I was between him and the wall. A rock and a hard place. "Look, I think that it's a pity that a pretty girl like you should be alone at a party. Your cousin is too busy downstairs to pay you any mind, so I thought that we could have some quality time together."

I would have probably vomited again if I'd had anything left in my stomach. "Thanks, but I really don't need-"

He cut me off by forcibly pressing his lips against mine. My vision went red. I pushed him away, grabbed his arm, twisted behind his back, then pushed his head into the toilet, which I then proceeded to flush. After giving him a swirly, I pulled him out of the toilet, slammed him against the wall and punched him in the nose. He fell to the ground, dazed and confused. I sighed. It felt good to let out that pent up aggression.

"If you ever try to make a move on me again," I threatened, "that broken nose I just gave you will be the least of your worries. Got it!" He nodded wordlessly. "Good!" I snapped. Then, for good measure, I kicked him in the groin, and left the bathroom. I spent the next half an hour checking the rest of the rooms on the floor. This time I was much more careful, but luckily I didn't find any other rooms with drunken teens having sex. After I finished checking the second floor, I went back downstairs to check on Percy.

I found him laughing hysterically with a few guys. When I came over, he turned to me and said, "Hey, Thalia. These guys are hilarious!"

"Good for them?" I asked, confused. Percy was acting really weird. He was taking sips from a cup of Coke. "Any luck finding Jessica?"

He shook his head vigorously. "Nope nope nope. You know what? Nope is a fun word to say."

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Of course," he said. "I'm better than alright. I'm great."

I glanced at him, slightly worried, but I didn't let it distract me. "Well, if you're alright, I'm going to go up to the third floor and keep looking for Jessica."

He nodded. "Okay Thals, see you later."

Thals? He never called me that. Something was seriously wrong here. Something was nagging me in the back of my mind, but I went off to search the third floor.

After making it up to the third floor, I found that it was just as extensive as the second. Luckily, the first room I entered was the right one. It was a large room, with a huge projector screen TV, where several kids sat in bean bag chairs and watch a movie. The entire back wall of the room was windows. I walked inside and examined the kids on the bean bag chairs. Sure enough, one of them was Jessica. She was making out with some guy I'd not seen before. Mission accomplished. Now all I had to do was keep an eye on her.

"It won't be that easy," a voice said from behind me. I turned, confused. Standing there, was Helen.

"What are you doing here, Helen?" I snapped.

"Making things complicated," she said. "I know you plan on keeping an eye on Jessica, and extracting her if you have to. Well I'm here to make that harder."

"How?" I asked. "I'm here, and you can hardly just take Jessica without going through me."

Helen smiled. "Yes, well, first, maybe you should check on your dear friend Percy."

I felt icy. "What do you mean?"

"Easy," she said. "He's drunk."

"What? How?"

"He just wanted Coke, but Ethan, of course, thought that he meant a Rum and Coke, so your friend is now thoroughly intoxicated. He didn't realize it of course, he just thought that he was drinking slightly weird Coke, but the damage has been done. So what will it be, Thalia? Stop your friend from doing something inevitably stupid and hurting himself in his drunken state, or saving the Aphrodite girl that you can't stand?"

With that, Helen teleported behind me and into the room, where she stood behind Jessica's bean bag. I cursed, and ducked around the door frame. What to do? Then I remembered that weight in my pocket. I reached in and pulled out the Stygian Stone. I held it and thought Zombie Boy! Get over here!

The stone heated up. Out of the shadows, stepped Nico di Angelo. His long, shaggy black hair was more dishevelled than usual, like he's been asleep. That thought was confirmed by the fact that he just wore a black t-shirt and Pac-Man Pyjama bottoms. He held his Stygian Iron sword in one hand. "Don't call me that," he managed through a yawn. "What's going on? Why do you have the Stone instead of Percy?"

"Long story," I said. "Listen, I need you to go downstairs and keep an eye on Percy. Right now, he's kind of a danger to himself."

"Sure," Nico nodded. "Explain everything to me after… whatever we're doing is done."

He dashed off down the stairs. Just at that moment, there was a scream from the room that Jessica had been in. I dashed inside, pulling out my mace canister and turning it into my spear. Helen was holding Jessica around the forearm and was dragging her back. Of course, nobody saw it as Helen, no. What did they see? Well from the fact that one of them said, "The Joker is real!" I think they maybe thought Helen was the Joker.

She blasted a hole in the window with a purple bolt of energy. I dashed over. "Hey!"

My stomach dropped as wind blew in from the blasted window. I could see out it from where I was, and I didn't like what I saw. We were so high up.

"Ah, so you chose saving the girl?" Helen said. "How noble of you."

"Let her go!" I snapped.

Helen grinned wickedly, and I sensed what was coming before she even spoke. The other kids were still blathering on about the Joker, and I knew what was coming. I was already moving, therefore, when Helen said, "Very poor choice of words," and pushed Jessica out of the blasted open window.

Helen had already teleported away by the time I was out the window. I grabbed Jessica as I fell. Before my mind could register the terror that I felt, I heard a crash and a shape collided with us. All of this happened in less than a second. A voice said, "Pray to every god you know that this works."

We were feet from the ground. I was so afraid I thought I might puke again if I survived this, which I knew I wouldn't. Why was I so stupid? I clamped my eyes shut when we were feet from the ground, but instead of feeling pavement, I just felt cold all of a sudden, and a feeling like the wind was ripping off my face. Strange voices echoed in the background. Then, suddenly, it was over, and I was collapsed on a wooden floor. My eyes were still clamped shut, but I processed several noises. Pop music was blaring, and people were screaming.

I opened my eyes and looked around. We were on the floor of the Ethan's family's pent house. Jessica lay next to me, out cold. In front of me, Nico di Angelo was struggling to his feet. I realized that he must have either seen or sensed me starting to fall (maybe because of the Stygian Stone?) and busted open a window, leaped after me, and had shadow travelled us through the shadows on the pavement, saving our lives. I looked past Nico. People were screaming because the room was being ripped apart by a battle. When I say battle, I mean massacre. Helen was moving around fast, slashing her sword at Percy and sending blasts of magic at him. Percy, in his drunken state, had addled reflexes and couldn't defend himself or land a hit on Helen.

Nico was up now, and he drew his Stygian Iron sword, charging in to engage Helen. Helen apparently saw this coming, and made a copy of herself to meet Nico. The Helen-replica drew her sword, and the two of them clashed in a high paced sword fight. I stood up, then realized that I'd dropped my spear upstairs. I cursed. I held out my hand and concentrated. My bow materialized, and my quiver was suddenly slung over my back.

I was glad that trick still worked. I wasn't sure it would, because I was on leave from the Hunters. I drew an arrow, and aimed at Helen, whose blade was about to connect with Percy's back, who was reacting with pure terror, but moving too slowly to stop her. I knew that she must be close to his weak point. Without hesitation, I shot my arrow and pegged Helen in the shoulder of her sword arm. The pain jerked her arm upwards. Her sword sparked off of Percy's shoulder and distracted her long enough for Percy to finally connect a blow. He cut a gash in her thigh. Helen screamed in pain and blasted Percy backwards with a wall of force. Her copy disappeared, and Nico's next swing connected with nothing but air. Helen grimaced, then teleported away. I sighed in relief. I dashed over to where Percy had landed. He was out cold.

I glanced around. The room was wrecked, and no one was in sight. In the distance, I heard sirens. I knew we had to get out of there before the police arrived. We definitely didn't want to be the only ones there when they arrived asking questions about the trashed pent house and the appearance of the Joker. "Nico," I called.

"Yeah," he said.

"Grab Jessica," I said. "She's that unconscious blonde girl, then come over here and shadow travel all four of us out to Percy's car. We've gotta go."

He did as I asked, and we managed to get out of there in the nick of time, pulling into New York City traffic that was, as always, bustling about, even though, when I looked at the clock, it read 1 A.M. Percy and Jessica were both in the back, still out cold. Nico sat next to me in the passenger seat.

"Thanks," I said, finally. "Without you, I'd probably be dead."

"It's the least I could do," he said. "I am your friend, after all."

Friend might have been pushing it a little. I hardly knew the kid, but still, I supposed that Percy and I were probably the closest thing he had to actual friends. So I supposed that it was okay for him to call me his friend. "Well, anyway," I said, "thanks."

"Sure," he said. "Wanna explain to me what all that was about?"

I nodded. "That was a party that Percy and I were invited to. We only went because there was a demigod there. We wanted to make sure that everything went okay and that she survived the night, and, if necessary, was seen safely to Camp Half-Blood."

"I see," Nico said. "Well, she survived the night at least. What was the deal with Percy? The half second that I was downstairs before leaping out the window after you, I noticed that he was acting really weird. And then when he was fighting Helen, his reflexes were slow."

"When we arrived, he asked for a Coke. He said it tasted weird, but neither of us paid it any mind. Well he had several of them. Helen told me that he wasn't just drinking Coke. She said that Ethan had thought he'd asked for Ruma and Coke, so Percy had a lot of Rum and Cokes. I don't know exactly how many, but enough to get sufficiently drunk. Poor guy. He wouldn't have gotten drunk if he'd known what was in the Coke, or if I'd been more insistent about him not drinking the Coke if it tasted weird."

"Don't blame yourself," Nico said.

We sat in silence for a few minutes. Then I turned on the radio, changing it to the Punk Rock station. Nico started humming along with some of the songs, and I decided that he was definitely on the right track for friendship.

AN: So my last little note for the end of the chapter, no I am not setting things up for shipping Thalia and Nico! That's not going to be a thing in this story. Thalia is a Hunter. She's not interested in any kind of romantic relationship. the whole "eternal maiden" thing kind of discourages that. So, sorry Thalico fans.