The early morning sun seeped through the trees in the forest. I blinked once, then again. My vision was blurry and the trees seemed to be spinning. I let out a groan of desperation as my stomach did a flip. My tongue was like sandpaper, rough, dry, and covered in my inflamed taste buds. Slowly and carefully, I rolled over. Luke Castellan lay with his arms wrapped tightly around me, bare naked and covered in vomit. Wait, what!?

I struggled to stand but when I thrashed to get out of Luke's grasp, his eyes shot open. He reacted just about the same as me, shooting to his feet. But, when he stood, he did so steadily and easily, where as I stumbled and nearly fell from the rock that we were on.

Luke inhaled deeply before saying "I think we had a little bit too much to drink." He grabbed his trousers and pulled them on hastily.

I nodded and said, "Let's just... forget about it. We can do that, right?" I pulled my dress back on over my bare body.

"Yeah," he agreed, wiping off his stomach with his tuxedo jacket before slipping back off to camp. I was alone, bewildered and feeling ill.

Unlike Luke, I had a very low alcohol tolerance which meant that on the way back to camp, I had to stop and vomit in the bushes at least twice. When I finally made it back to the Apollo cabin, I put on a pair of sweat pants and an old t-shirt, hoping to sleep off this hangover. After lying down for at least twenty minutes, it didn't get any better.

I moaned when the door creaked open and Will Solstice stepped into the cabin. "You okay?" He asked when he saw me, still in bed at 7:15 when we were required to be up by 6:30. "We missed you in archery."

The sound of Will's voice was torture to my splitting headache. "I have the worst hangover ever!" I whisper-shouted. I could hear the rest of my cabin mates coming from the archer's range.

"Oh... from that awesome party last night? I can help you with that, just give me a second," Will rummaged through the drawers in the dresser that we all shared until he pulled out a bag of Ambrosia and handed me a square. Why didn't I think of that!

"Genius child I tell you!" I yelled as I ran out of the cabin after ranting to Will about how amazing he was, feeling way better.

I carried out my daily schedule as normal except today, I didn't say hey to Luke when he walked passed at meals. In fact, I didn't speak to him at all for a few weeks.

Nearly four weeks after waking up in the woods, I raced across the volleyball pit after the volleyball. Annabeth was at my side, Thalia behind us. Other campers dotted our side of the court, Dryads opposite us. When my feet left the ground to preform a perfect spike, the stomach cramp that I'd had all day flamed up. I landed square and put my hands on my knees, breathing slowly. My team cheered. Thalia jogged up to me and gave me a hard pat on the shoulder. I stumbled forward and forced a smile.

I continued to play. After a few rounds, the ball was in Thalia's hands as she prepared to serve. Annabeth shot her eyes at me as I rubbed my stomach. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I lied. At that very second, my stomach grumbled. I stood up straighter and prayed that it would go away. When Thalia began to call the score, I knew better. I abruptly turned and bolted from the court and around the corner of the Big House.

"What in Hades! Where is she going?" I heard Thalia yell as I doubled over, puking. When I stood up, Annabeth was by my side, holding back my hair.

"You have been acting so strange lately! What gives?" She said jokingly.

I faked a smile and asked, "what do mean?"

"Well, for one, you haven't spoken to Luke for... who knows how long!" It was true, but I didn't think that anybody noticed! "And even with us, you seem so... shy. Is there something you need to tell me?"

"Well, for those things, there is an explanation..." Who was I to think that Luke and I could go back to normal and nobody would find out? I had to confess sometime, why not now? And it was only Annabeth, I trusted her so much! "Do you remember that night, the night of Nico's party?"

"Not real well, no, but I know bits of it."

"Do you remember... that I made out with Luke?"

She looked confused before starting to laugh, "How could I forget? You two were crazy!"

I swallowed hard, "Well, we were both pretty drunk so... he took me out to the woods, and he..." I broke off when I bent over and threw up, "we... uh..." I said, standing back up. I wasn't sure what to say.

Annabeth nodded like she knew what I was trying to tell her. "I think there is only one thing to do," She said, laying her arm across my shoulders. "Come with me."

We walked to the Athena cabin with me leaning most of my weight onto Annabeth. When we walked into the cabin, she opened a drawer in her dresser. Pulling a box from the dresser, she said, "I always keep a few of these just in case. It'd probably be best if you try one." I grabbed the box and looked down at it. An at-home pregnancy test. I almost protested and said that I wasn't pregnant but, it made sense. I turned around and walked into the cabin bathroom.

Tears ran down my cheeks as I took a deep breath and pushed open the door 10 minutes later. The minute I got the results, I burst into tears. I finally got control of myself and built up the courage to face Annabeth.

I stood for a minute in the doorway, silently crying. Annabeth stared at me, open mouthed. She immediately knew what the crying meant. I was pregnant.

I slowly sunk down against the wall, sobbing louder. Annabeth sat down next to me and pulled me into a hug. When she let go, she grabbed the test from my hand to have a look for herself. She then sighed and threw it onto her bed. "It's going to be alright."

"But what if it's not?" I cried into her shoulder. We sat on the floor, hugging, until Thalia burst through the door.

"What the hell are you guys-" She dropped off, mid-sentence when she saw me crying. I glanced over at Annabeth. Her eyes were red and welled with tears. Neither of us looked at Thalia but went back to our original position.

Thalia walked over to Annabeth's bunk, noticed the test stick and picked it up. "Oh my gods... whose is this?" she asked, looking at us nervously.

"Mine..." I whispered.

"When did you..."

"After Nico's party," Annabeth stepped in.

"With..."

"Luke." I stated tearfully.

Thalia's eyes went wide, "Whoa..."

"He's going to hate me!" I said, starting to cry again.

"No he's not!" Both of them said loudly. "Your best friend. This is minor compare to everything you guys have been through." Thalia assured me but, she didn't seem too sure herself.

I knew how I would keep it a secret: I wasn't going to tell him... yet.