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When we went back to our hotel room, we found Hephaestus waiting for us. "Good job!" he said to us with a proud look. "We got a good laugh up at Olympus."

Gulp. What if Aphrodite and Ares found out we were the ones who set up the plan? That would not be good. I didn't want to suffer the wrath of Aphrodite. She would probably make me wear dresses and makeup forever, including my time in the underworld.

Hephaestus laughed, a big booming one. What, did he actually hear that? How come it seems everyone can read my mind nowadays? "Eh, I wouldn't tell them, and I'm pretty sure the other gods won't either, for the sake of more entertainment. Hey, it's my automatons calling! I better get going now. Good luck on the next challenge!"

I sighed, wishing that the upcoming challenges wouldn't be as time-taking. Yeah, the gods would totally go easy on us.

What challenges do you think they would come up with?

I dunno. Ares would probably make us fight him or something. Aphrodite, ugh, I don't even wanna think about. Apollo might make us listen to his poetry. Ok, I'm shuddering at that thought. Forget it.

Suddenly, someone popped out in front of us. "Mom!" I shrieked. "Sorry. You just scared me. You know, popping out like that." My brain barely processed your scream. It was too high.

Because your brain doesn't make enough neuron connections.(A/N: I think that's how thoughts are made... Excuse me if I'm wrong)

Athena gave me a look, seemingly saying, 'that's my girl, using science in a situation like this'. Score! Me: 1 Percy: 0. "Good evening, Annabeth," she said, not acknowledging Percy.

"Hey! What about me?" Percy asked. Okay, his brain really wasn't working. Is he trying to get in trouble?

Athena glared, and even though it wasn't directed at me, I flinched. "Seaweed brain."

"That's already Annabeth's nickname for me."

"Sea spawn."

"Taken."

"Barnacle head."

"Used."

"Kelp boy."

"Thalia's idea."

"Clam shell." Athena actually looked amused, trying out different names for Poseidon's son.

"Thalia's other nickname for me."

"Fish egg."

"Thalia's again."

"How many nicknames do you have?"

"Oh, about twenty."

"Then what do I call you? All the nicknames are taken."

"Just plain old Percy would be fine, thank you." Percy was smirking.

Athena shot Percy another one of her famous glares, but surprisingly, he did not get in trouble. One day, the perks of being the savior of Olympus will not go as far. At least most of the Poseidon/Athena tension disappeared.

"Anyway, as I was going to say, my challenge will be easy. I will give you two riddles. The answer of the riddles will give you a location to go to for your next challenge. Do you have a pencil and paper to write the riddles down on?"

I scrambled for the hotel stationery, and held my pen at ready.

"First riddle: What has roots that nobody sees, yet is as tall as trees? Up it goes, but never grows.

"Second riddle: I have four wings, but cannot fly, I don't laugh and never cry. On the same spot I'm always found, toiling around without a sound. What am I?"

I thought my mom would go easy on us, considering the fact that, well, she's my mom, but I guess not. The riddles left me confused.

"Annabeth," Athena said, interrupting my thoughts. "I brought you pajamas. You seriously cannot be considering wearing that cami in front of Fish Breath, right?" She handed me a silk shirt with owl designs and matching pants. I wasn't sure whose face was redder: mine or Percy's.

"I expect a lot from you on this one Annabeth," Athena said.

After Athena disappeared, I went to the bathroom to change into my owl pajamas. I was tired. You know, go to bed early. Ok, fine. I kinda rushed to the bathroom so Percy wouldn't see my blush. I waited until my face cooled down, exited the bathroom, and flopped down on the bed. What has roots that nobody sees...

I woke up because of a pillow. Yes, you heard right. A pillow, thrown on me by Percy. "Percy!" I screamed, picking up my own pillow and chucking it at him. He laughed, and dodged easily.

"Is this calling for a pillow fight?" he asked mischievously.

I snickered. "You're on." Percy threw another pillow at me, and I ducked. I picked up the fallen pillow, raised it, faked a right, but threw it left just as Percy went in that direction. It hit him square in the chest. One point for me!

"You're not getting away with that," Percy said. I screamed and ran away, like a little girl. I could hear him chuckle as he wrapped a long arm around me. And because it was normal for me, I froze. He has his arm around me! HE HAS HIS ARM AROUND ME! Yes, I do. And being that sensible person I am, I turned around to face him. Big mistake. His face was inches from mine, and all I could see were his deep green eyes that currently held humor. There was so much you could learn from just looking at Percy's eyes. When they shined brightly, you could tell he was happy or excited. When they got darker and seemed to have black flecks, it meant he was angry. Oh, I could spend hours just thinking about him.

Percy's face kept inching closer and closer to mine. I also noticed a bird-like birthmark above his eyebrow. Stupid ADHD. This is embarrassing even though I have nothing to be embarrassed about. Right now, I can do two things. Number 1, I could lean forward and close the gap. Or number 2, I could pull away and give an excuse. Fine, I'll admit I am cowardly. If we did kiss, I swear, I'd die right here, and now. My obituary would probably say something like: died because of heart failure after kissing Percy. That wouldn't be very heroic at all. So yes, I did pick the second option.

"Um... we still need to finish the riddles, right?" I asked awkwardly.

"Oh. Yeah, we do," Percy said, backing away immediately. The tension was so thick, I could almost touch it. Percy decided to break the silence. "So, uh, the first one. What has roots that nobody sees, yet is as tall as trees? Up it goes, but never grows. Any ideas?"

"It can't be alive, I guess. It never grows."

"Yeah. It's gotta be big." (Facepalm moment.)

"Of course it's big! It says up it goes."

"No, I mean because of the roots. The riddle says that it has roots nobody sees, so it's gotta be really deep."

"Oh, right." I guess I shouldn't be underestimating him him anymore. Under all that silliness, there was smartness. There was hope for him, after all. Of course I'm smart! I needed smartness to save Olympus, right? I guess that's true too.

"Ok. So the thing in the riddle is tall, big, and is not exactly alive."

I looked out the hotel window. The sun rising, illuminating the mountains it was behind of. It was such a beautiful view. Oh wait- MOUNTAINS! That thought exploded in my head. It wasn't just because I was super excited; it was because Percy thought of it the exact same time. Coincidences. My life was filled with them.

The answer of the riddle was mountains! It made perfect sense. Now, the second riddle. It seemed harder. "I have four wings, but cannot fly, I don't laugh and never cry. On the same spot I'm always found, toiling around without a sound. What am I?"

"The object is obviously not alive."

"It works hard, too," I added.

"It has to be a machine of some sort." That was a good start, actually. However, I was pretty much out of ideas and stressed by the fact that we might not be able to finish the challenge. All I said before about believing we'd finish... yeah, I don't really think so anymore. Percy appeared to have noticed my stressing out.

"Annabeth?" he asked. "Do you want to go do something fun? We can forget all this right now."

I looked up at him, and slowly smiled. "Sure."

A/N: Review please! :)