Chapter Four

*Annabeth POV*

Once we were in, I took in the place. Its walls were covered with metallic gray wallpaper. The floor was wooden, though and on walls had some old fashioned lights that dimmed yellowish. The stairs was made of brick and cement and the railings were made of fragile glass. I couldn't imagine how it's still standing after so many years of being a shelter for boys.

The house looked so modern, the outside fooled us. It was like a Parthenon's but we surely didn't expect this.

"Nice place." Bianca murmurs.

"Thank you." Another voice, says. We turn to see a boy, black hair, wearing Ray Bans shades. He had on a red graphic shirt and black skinny jeans. His sneakers were black. And he had on the most evil smirk I ever seen. Well, not really evil but playful. It reminded me of Apollo.

Thalia and the others gasped in delight. "Michael!" They squealed.

Michael spread his arms wide, hoping for a hug but when no one moved, he put his arms down in disappointment. "I haven't seen you girls the whole summer and what do I get after seeing you again? Nothing!"

I giggle at that. So we went forward and hugged him. "How's your summer?" I asked.

"Amazing. It was awesome." Michael says. "Dad let me drive his car for one whole week, waking me up early as 5:00 AM in the morning. But I didn't mind." I nod.

"So…" Percy says. "Let's go in the living room." He directs us to the room, sitting on the plush dark blue sofa. "I'll go get Grover." He walks out the room and we could hear his footsteps heavy on the stairs.

Then a figure passed on the hallway and we heard someone munching on food. He slowly passes on the hallway this time and I could see him clearly. He had black hair. He wore all black and he reminded me of Bianca. He was munching on a pack of chips and on one hand a cherry coke.

"Nico!"

Startled, he looks at us and says, "Oh hi Bianca." Bianca stands up and smacks him on the head. "Oww." He mutters.

"I haven't seen you for three days and you didn't even miss me?" Bianca demands, pouting. "OMG Nico. You're unbelievable."

With a serious of grumbles, Nico supported the food in one hand and hugged Bianca with his other. "I missed you too, sis."

Bianca pulled away and huffed. Nico grins. "Hey Thalia, Silena, Annabeth." I smile at him and wave. He was much taller now and much built.

"Oh you know them?" Percy arrives with a friend. He has curly brown hair and he attacked on Nico's snacks. Frowning, Nico nods.

"Yeah. They're my sister's friends." Nico looks at Bianca and Percy follows his gaze.

"I see." He mumbles. "A small world. Anyway, this is Grover. He's my best friend."

The curly brown haired boy smiles slightly. "Nice to meet you."

We talked then and talked until we were laughing and kept on laughing. Percy kept serving us brownies and juice. Grover and Michael kept cracking jokes and Nico kinda creeped us out sometimes with his gaze.

And even so, I notice Percy looking at me from the corner of my eye as I laugh and talk with the others, but I didn't let that make me blush.

Time passed by and I looked at my watch. It was getting late. "Oh guys, the other girls would be waiting for us."

"OMG!" Silena says. "They must be starvatious now waiting for us before they start eating." Then she looks at the boys and says, "Thank you so much for the time. It was fetch."

I giggle at that. "Fetch, eh? You've been watching Mean Girls too much." Silena shrugs.

"Yeah, anyway, we have to go in a jiffy." Bianca smiles. "Maybe we'd meet tomorrow in school."

"You sure bet!" Michael exclaims. "It was fun, guys. Thanks." Bianca blushes and I swear I saw Michael grin widely as he saw that.

"Thankies." Silena air-kisses them and waves. As soon as they were out of the door, someone grabbed my wrist and I turned around to see Percy.

"Do you need anything?" I ask him. He dropped my arm and scratched his head.

"Well, since we had so much fun discussing such random things awhile ago, I haven't got the chance to know you more." He says. "So do you mind if we'd hang out after school?"

Silence.

"I mean, I wanted to know more about you." He adds. "You know. A date..as friends. Would that be okay?"

No way. I was about to say 'Yes' if you didn't add 'as friends' to the sentence.

I smile. I was internally screaming in joy. "Sure."

He grins. "Meet me at the courtyard after school, then." I nod. "Okay. I'm looking forward to it. Bye, Annabeth."

I nod. I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted to scream out loud and say, 'Percy Jackson wants to spend the afternoon tomorrow with me! THE Percy Jackson everyone's talking about!'

"Bye, Percy." I walk out the door and the last thing I saw from him, was a smile before he closes the door.

I literally skipped my way to the other girls, who were looking at me curiosity. "What's up, girl? You're all giggly." Thalia asks.

I shake my head. "Nothing."

"Don't 'nothing'me, Annie." Silena demands. "You got that goofy grin of yours on your face. So what happened there with Percy?"

"Spill it out!" Bianca says.

"Well, he said he wanted for us to hang out after school so we could know more of each other." I said.

"So you mean it's a date?" Bianca asks.

"As friends." I corrected. Silena snorted.

"Nu uh it won't as long as we dress you up." I frown at her. "It won't be a friendly date anymore." She smirks and I was starting to be afraid. Heck. When did Athena's children start to get scared? Oh yeah, when you're about to be sabotaged by Aphrodite's children!