Chapter three! I'm going to quickly post this and then memorize the world map for geo. -.- fun... but anyway, thank you to those who reviewed!

Disclaimer: if i had all the time in the world to write percy jackson, it still wouldn't be as awesome.

Surprise, Surprise (And Not Always the Good Kind)

I was out of the Big House by the next day with a slight cold. Diana had strict orders to stay in bed until the winter solstice, which made my job a lot easier, because everyone was taking shifts keeping the girl amused. Except she wasn't amused in the first place. After Connor took his turn, he confided in me he wasn't sure if she wasn't brain dead. "She just stares out the window… it creeps me out, Lena," he said as we duelled in the sword fighting arena.

I groaned and ducked a swing. "This isn't going to help with the whole demititan case. We have to get them to be sympathetic of her… what are they going to see right now? A girl who doesn't even want to live. Why bother building a camp for a lot of emo freaks?" I said this in between blows. But not one of them was landing on Connor. It was more as if I was hacking away with my sword.

"You've been working on the case, haven't you?"

"I'm not a lawyer," I glared and swiped at him.

He blocked my attack and knocked the sword away from my hand, and then patted my head. "Yeah, I know, but your chances would be a lot higher if you were one."

"Is this supposed to be funny?"

Connor retreated. "Pissed Lena alert… okay, see you." I watched him practically run to his brother.

I picked up my sword, lying in the snow. I was frustrated… not pissed. And Diana's attitude wasn't helping. You'd think she'd at least act willing to live to repay me saving her life…

Seriously.

Staring at a tree wasn't going to give me sudden persuasive skills so I dragged my sword behind me as I headed to the showers for a nice hot rain bath. To my dismay, it was filled with Aphrodite girls probably applying conditioner for the fifth time (rinse and repeat only meant once) or checking to see if they got every speck of dirt off (otherwise they'd go from dazzling to a hag). They would be in there for another while so I went back to my cabin to crash.

The cabin looked just like how I last left it. Wrappers on the floor, beds unmade, and the desk unused – except for a lone notebook lying on top of it.

Three days, I tried to tell it. Don't haunt me. I have three days.

Three days meant seventy two hours.

Which meant however many minutes…

Things weren't looking good.

Stop procrastinating, one part of my mind said, but the other was repeating that the number of minutes left were far enough. I ignored the lazy part in me and picked up the notebook and pen.

The first page was covered with crossed out words, when I tried writing an address to my speech. Hello… gods. Unsure? Impolite? I would like to thank Zeus for allowing me to speak here today… That sounded like I was sucking up to them. Why was I getting involved with politics of the Olympian gods? I wrote down a few half-hearted ideas, decided they were trash too, and scribbled them out. Then I skipped the greetings and went right into the speech itself. Camp Half-Blood is a haven for demigods, and a place to train them and help them survive. Demitians should have the same privilege… It was like I was writing the persuasive speech for English all over again. That had been pathetic. I didn't think I got anyone convinced that we should save the penguins in the end.

A paragraph later, I said it was great progress for today and left it at that. Then I went back out for some tobogganing. Percy stopped me right outside the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked me.

I scowled. "Tobogganing. Who made you my mom?"

He frowned. "Not to nag you or anything..."

"I know I should be working on my speech," I fumed. "But the only way I'm going to even finish this is if Annabeth writes the whole thing."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Why not what?"

"Why not you get Annabeth to write it for you?" he asked slowly. "I'm sure she'll do it."

"Come on," I said. "Who likes writing speeches for fun... especially if that person has dyslexia? I'm in hell here."

"Okay... but I'm not the one who's going to screw up in front of my uncles and aunts... not to mention quite a few cousins..." he said, referring to the council. Actually, it was kind of weird. If you thought about it, Dionysus was my cousin.

I made a face. "I dare you to ask her. If she agrees, then I'll let her."

"It's your speech."

"She's your girlfriend." I stalked away, pulling the hat down on my head. "I'll be at the hill."

~0~

Despite what I knew about Annabeth, I was still shocked to hear she accepted to help me. Apparently she was writing some huge exam and wanted to use my example as practice.

"But," she laid out the terms, "You have to mention that I helped you. Normally I'd leave you on your own –"

"Thanks," I said sarcastically.

" – but these prep books suck." She looked down at them and sighed. They were huge books, several hundred pages long, and my head spun, thinking about the number of words Annabeth had to read.

"Well thanks," I said, this time not sarcastically. "And good luck with your…" I squinted at the title. "Whatever test you're taking."

She took out a notebook and began writing the word 'practice' slowly. "Time me."

"What?"

"Time how long I take to write this speech. I need to finish within twenty-five minutes." She tapped her pencil impatiently, waiting for me to get out a watch.

I didn't have a watch. So I used the alarm clock by someone's bed. "It's four fifty-two… start." Her pencil began scratching against the paper. I stood around uncomfortably and stared at the ceiling, analyzing the battle plan of some guy named Schlieffmen. "Twenty-five minutes? Isn't that a little short for writing something that'll be presented to the gods?"

"Shh," she said.

I shut my mouth and pretended to study the border of France and Belgium with great interest, secretly crossing my fingers behind my back.

Twenty-five boring minutes later, I told her time was up. She was staring out the window absentmindedly, as if waiting for me to announce that. "Done," she said. "Look over it. Throw it out if it isn't good but it's enough practice for one day." Then she gave me the notebook and left the cabin.

I looked down at the letters on the page, my fingers turning white from clutching the notebook so hard. It took me some time to read her essay. When I finished it, I didn't jump up and down screaming, 'Hallelujah, our problems are solved' or anything, but I managed to release some pressure in my fingers to allow them to turn back into their normal shade.

~0~

"Busy?" I asked Brenton.

He looked up from the sword he was forging, with sweat all over his face from the heat. I was also feeling the heat myself and took off the heavy winter coat some girl in Cabin Ten gave me to borrow. It was covered with fake fur and everything, and looked hideous on me, but at least it was warm.

"Depends. Why are you asking?" he said.

"You're never outside. I think you're the busiest demigod in camp." I flung my gloves and my coat down onto the floor. "If you want, I can help," I suggested unhelpfully because we both knew I was a failure with arts and crafts.

He looked doubtfully from me to the sword. "Do you have time?"

"Finished my speech," I said, waving the notebook in the air. "And feeling good about it too. Annabeth did, but she did it voluntarily. Stop looking so suspicious."

"Who would write a speech for fun?" he asked. "I hated English."

"Annabeth, if anyone would," I said. "Yeah, that's what I thought too before she decided she would help me. But anyway, I've got some time before dinner. Teach me how to make a sword?"

He snorted. "I don't think we can spare any metal. I mean, I can let you if you want, but someone's going to end up with a bad sword."

I sighed. He was the only person who could say that to my face and not lose any teeth. "You're nice. How about you do something we can both do? Get out of the armoury. You're spending all your time in here."

He turned off the heat and threw his gloves into the corner. "Suggest a place."

"Zeus's Fist," I said. "The hills. Strawberry field. The beach. I dunno."

"The beach," he decided.

"Why the beach? It's actually kind of depressing going there. You've got the sand... and the snow. Like winter's mocking you."

"You think everything's against you," he teased as we put on our coats. "Besides, it's a lot quieter down by the beach."

"I never knew you like tranquility. You don't come across as the person who'd find someplace quiet and just think."

"It won't be quiet down there with you around," he pretended to sigh. "With your mouth around –"

"You would say anything to insult me, would you?" I asked him.

"That's a harsh way to put it. Deal with it. We both take jabs at each other and no one gives a damn." He squinted. "Did I just hurt your feelings?"

"Yes," I gasped. "Now I'm going to cry in the corner for a few days because of what you said."

"You're impossible."

"So are you."

"Guess that's just our seriously screwed up friendship."

We marched through the snow covered dirt path. The air changed from fresh and crisp to salty like the sea. I smelled the beach before I got there, if that didn't sound too weird.

The waves were something like a reassurance to me. They were the only steady thing in my life. I imagined my father somewhere under the sea commanding his little fishies around or whatever. There aren't just fishies under the sea, I thought, remembering our fishing trip. We'd driven to Long Island and I couldn't catch a single thing despite my heritage. So I'd watched my father for most of the day as he caught one fish after another. Then I nearly prematurely died from a heart attack when he reeled in a kraken.

I sat on my favourite rock, kicking the mixture of sand and snow around my foot. Brenton seated himself beside me. I shuffled over. There was just enough space for the two of us to sit together. He pointed up at a tree by the edge of the beach. "That's where we met," he said. "Remember the fourth of July?"

"Mmm. I was watching the fireworks by myself when you came up to me and disturbed my peace," I said. "Not very nice."

"Is that true? Because I remember you invited me up to your branch. Then we talked about stuff. After all the fireworks, you said you had a good time." He grinned. I threw a ball of sand at him.

"Do you really remember every single little detail about that night?"

"Why not?" he shrugged.

I stared down at my boots, trying to think of something witty to say back to him. Soon, we lapsed into silence, consciously aware of the distance between the two of us. Watching the waves, my eyelids dropped lower and lower. I hadn't gotten much sleep in the past few days, thinking about the gods and all. I counted the number of waves crashing onto the beach until I was asleep.

~0~

"Wake up. It's dinner."

"Don't," I mumbled, "disturb me." He probably didn't understand my slurred words. So I tried again except by that time, I was awake. My eyes opened to the beach and I suddenly remembered where I was. By the ocean, in Camp Half-Blood, on my favourite rock. "That's a soft pillow."

"Your soft pillow is my coat," Brenton said.

I fell off the rock with a jolt. "Why didn't you wake me up?" I demanded. "I was sleeping on your shoulder!"

"You were tired," he said. "I thought it would be cruel to wake you up."

"I wasn't tired."

"Lena, you have rings around your eyes. Why are you so upset?" He stared at me like I'd just sprouted ten hydra heads.

He knew exactly why I was upset. I waved my hands in the air uselessly as I tried to answer his question and then just left, stomping away, my cheeks burning.

Maybe that was a bit overdramatic. But that was me. Sarcastic dramatic me. I thought about kicking a tree, but then some angry nymph would probably chase after me so I waited until I was at Nico's cabin and kicked open his door.

He was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. "There's something called knocking."

"I'm not feeling polite today," I said.

"Why aren't you at dinner?"

"Look who's talking. You're never at dinner nowadays. Why?" I asked.

"Because I'm an antisocial emo kid who prefers to eat alone like other children of Hades," he said dryly. "Why in Hades did you just kick down my front door? Or is that just your normal behaviour? I'm feeling random today so I'll just destroy Nico's cabin."

I didn't answer for a while. "Fine. I get it. You don't want me around." I kicked at a dirty sock on the floor and then spun around.

"It was supposed to cheer you up," he yelled after me. "Lighten up! This is coming from the guy with a father down under."

"Go and sulk dead boy!" I shouted back. "Why are guys so difficult?"

~0~

If I were still in New York City, school would've ended for me and I would've been pacing my room, dreading the next few days of my family's presence.

Instead, I was here, punching the pillows and tormenting candy wrappers. It took me another five minutes to realize I'd messed up half the cabin and that meant Percy and I would get the lowest mark in cabin inspection, even if the Hermes's cabin was full of slobs. So I cleared my head with a few breaths and threw everything back in place.

Why was I riding on highs and lows? Usually I wasn't this irritable. I regretted shouting at Brenton. He was just trying to be nice. But then I remembered how I'd probably embarrassed myself. What if I'd drooled on his coat or something? My fists balled up in the soft pillow and I broke through the pillowcase with my nails.

Whoops. My cheeks heated up.

And then I felt something like liquid in my underwear.

Did I just wet myself? I hadn't noticed earlier because these days, I was generally wet from the weather. I threw down the pillow and ran to the bathroom to check.

And when I did, I screamed.

~0~

"This is so embarrassing," I mumbled to the pillow.

Annabeth looked kind of embarrassed too, but she said, "It's natural for a girl to get their period. By the way you screamed bloody murder, I'm guessing it's your first time."

"This is even worse than..." After I'd screamed, half the camp rushed to the bathrooms thinking some dracanae took off the roof, and that the border had somehow failed. Instead they found me huddled in the bathroom stall, refusing to come out. I didn't think the guys hesitated before busting into the girl's bathroom. "The entire camp now knows of my... predicament. Oh Zeus." I groaned.

"You could always pretend it was a bad bout of diarrhoea," Annabeth muttered from her corner of Cabin Three. She'd been kind enough to force everyone who wasn't a girl and some girls to go back to the pavilion and continue eating dinner so I could escape. "But a bunch of people are arriving here in about ten minutes so I don't think you'll get to hide out here much longer."

"Who?"

"Campers. People coming along with us for the field trip to Olympus." I snorted at the phrase 'field trip'.

"That's nice."

"Cailey will be here," Annabeth added in a nonchalant tone.

I exhaled loudly. "Finally. A pleasant surprise for once."

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