Aargh! Sosorry for the wait! I feel terrible!

But anyways, here's chapter nine! If you see any mistakes, tell me!

Oh, and just in case you didn't know, this story doesn't completely follow the plot of the normal Percy Jackson books. It's a little bit of a mix between all the books. (And I'm not too sure whether or not Percy has the Achilles thing in this story because that makes it a whole lot harder to write...)

Chapter Nine: The Second Day and Night (Annabeth POV)

Annabeth's Diary: What's Happening Currently

Right now the air is extremely toxic. We have our sweaters pulled up to cover our noses and mouths. We're currently on the move. That's why my handwriting is slightly messy. I'm kind of bored. Whatever. Gotta get going. Bye. See you later I guess.

-Annabeth.

I sighed as I closed my diary and put it back into my bag. We were jogging through the woods. The purple air had become paler now. Before long, it turned back into ordinary, transparent air. The possessed demigods were far away. I removed the sweater from my mouth and gulped for fresh air.

"We've got to run farther today before we settle for the night, considering the fact that the demigods caught up to us by the time it was morning," Percy said.

"Yeah," I replied, and we sped up a little.

After around four hours, we reached a huge field with a sparkling waterfall and lots of mushrooms on the ground.

"We're stopping," I said. "Definitely."

We immediately sat down to catch our breaths. "Okay, we just ran for a long time," Percy said. "Let's eat."

I agreed. We were both tired and sweaty. I pulled out my lunch box and grabbed a dumpling to eat. Percy handed me a small square of his sandwich, then took a sandwich square and a dumpling for himself. The food eased my hunger a bit, but considering the fact that it was only a dumpling and a sandwich square, it didn't really help at all. Sigh.

We found shelter under a nice willow tree. The area was grassy, so we just spread our jackets out onto the ground and lay on top of them. It almost felt like my comfortable bed back at Camp Half-Blood.

Almost.

I slowly closed my eyes and drifted off into a deep sleep.

Percy POV

I couldn't sleep. I just couldn't. I really didn't know why. After a few hours of trying and failing, I finally sat up and looked around.

It was pitch black. Something pressed against my leg as I leaned forward. I bent to pick it up. I realized it was Annabeth's little flashlight keychain. I fumbled in the dark for the switch, and at last I found it. With a soft click, the flashlight turned on.

The light it gave off was extremely dim, but hey—it was something. I held it out in front of me, trying to see my surroundings. By squinting, I could make out the waterfall and the mushrooms. I slowly turned the flashlight to my right, and I could faintly see the figure of Annabeth, fast asleep beside me.

Welp. Nothing terribly interesting. I flopped onto my back once again, about to close my eyes and try to sleep again.

The flashlight slowly slipped out of my fingers and landed on the ground. I couldn't help but follow its light. I eventually found myself staring at a very familiar purple book.

Annabeth's Diary.

…

Don't touch it. Don't touch it. Don't touch it…

Well, of course, being the genius that I am, I reached out and grabbed the book and the flashlight keychain.

"I guess I'll just do a bit of 'light reading' to help me fall asleep," I whispered.

I opened the book. I found a few entries that dated back to a few days ago, ones that I hadn't read yet.

It seems that I'm going back home for the year. You know… I'm going to miss Camp Half-Blood very much. Did you know that last year, when I was reading the book "Holes" out loud to my class in high school, I accidentally read "Camp Half-Blood" instead of "Camp Green Lake"? That's just how much I love the camp.

However, there is one thing that makes me happy.

I'm going to be living in New York.

That's right. New York. I'm traveling by myself from San Francisco to New York.

It shall be my new home.

Why am I going to New York, you ask?

I am going there to work on Mount Olympus. As you already know, I am the head architect. (I'm amazing, right?)

Except that's not the only reason.

I'm also going there because Percy is there. I don't think he knows that I love him, but I do. I really want to be with him, and I'm overjoyed to be moving closer to him. In fact, I'm going to be attending his high school, Goode High, as a fellow student. He'd better be prepared. I really wish that he would fall for me. It would make me the happiest girl on earth.

I stared at the passage, perplexed for a moment. Then understanding dawned on me. This passage was probably written right after Annabeth started heading home.

Okay then.

Next entry.

What the heck…

Okay. Here's what happened today:

I went to Goode High to get evaluated for enrichments and stuff like that. They tested me to see how much I knew. Guess what? I got all the questions right. They were SO EASY. (Not to brag, but seriously?) They kept on making the questions harder, but I answered all except one. They were baffled. You should've seen the look on their faces.

Then they told me that the Goode High science teacher had been fired last year, and that they needed a new one.

For some strange, unknown reason, I became the science teacher.

They just handed me a teaching manual and told me to go teach classes. I looked through the manual briefly. Geez! Teaching looked really complicated and difficult. Oh well. School was about to begin in a few minutes. I had to get prepared for my first… class.

When people filed in, they stopped and stared at me. Most of them stuck their hand out to me and said, "Oh, you must be the new kid here. Hi, let's be friends."

I sighed and explained to them briefly that I was the science teacher, and then of course they just had to begin bombarding me with questions.

AAARRRRRGH. WWWWWWHY?

Why the heck was everyone so interested in me? It's just a teenager being a teacher, not that big of a deal, right? The most annoying of them all were the guys. Those weirdos wouldn't stop hitting on me. I waved them off. I didn't want them. I wanted Percy.

And when he walked into my class that day, my heart seemed to glow.

I'm in love. I can't believe it. ANNABETH CHASE IS IN LOVE.

Percy is destroying my entire life.

UGH.

At lunch, I met up with Percy again and we sat at a table with some girl named Kat. There was also a boy named Jared. I said hi to him and we talked a little. He seems nice. Maybe we can be friends.

Good night.

I smiled as I finished reading the entry and glanced at Annabeth's figure sleeping next to me.

Whatever. Next page.

Oh, diary.

I am literally dying inside.

My life is so screwed.

I'm just hiding in my bed (which is actually the teacher's desk, by the way) and not moving at all. I have no more motivation left to do anything.

I've had many terrible days before, but this one has got to be the worst.

Why?

My heart is broken.

Wanna know why? Because Percy threw an airplane at Sai Nishiki that said "Let's go to the Halloween Dance together" and the airplane accidentally reered off course and went to me. But of course I knew the plane was actually for Sai. I asked Percy, "You're asking Sai to the dance?" He could only stutter in response. I'm guessing that's a yes.

Now I think I'm just going to stop writing and continue to do nothing. Good day.

I stared at the page in disbelief. I never even knew that Annabeth liked me that much. I felt kind of guilty. I flipped another page.

I'm happy.

How happy am I?

I am floating-on-cloud-nine happy. I am frosted-pink-cupcakes-with-smiley-face-sprinkles happy. I love this feeling of happiness.

It was all just a big fat misunderstanding. The paper airplane was actually for me. What an idiot I am.

We're official now, I guess. I'm so happy.

I just really, really hope… he doesn't leave me again.

Her whole life played through my head as I flipped back and forth through those pages. Her glee. Her hurt and anger.

I couldn't believe what I'd done to her. I felt really bad.

My hands found my bag and I unzipped the front pocket, taking out Riptide. There was a bit of space underneath the paragraph, so I uncapped it and wrote something.

I'm sorry, Annabeth.

I put the cap back onto Riptide and set the pen/sword onto the floor beside me, feeling a sense of relief.

That's when I felt something hit the small of my back, and I fell to the ground.