DISCLAIMER: I do not own Percy Jackson or any characters that I have used. The troll king, Rick Riordan owns it.

CHAPTER 12

ANNABETH's POV

I can't believe how time quickly passes by.

It's been a month since my family moved in New York and I got to say, I loved it. I got new friends who are just awesome, new school that's not half as bad as compared to my previous school and a good neighbourhood.

Today, the gang and I would be having an overnight movie marathon at Percy's place. It wasn't that big of a deal for my parents to let me go have an overnight at a boy's house because I used to do this back then with my friends at Cali.

"Got everything you need, honey?" Susan, my stepmom, asked me.

"Yup! Oh wait," I went to the small table beside my bed and got my favourite book.

"You're going to bring your book? I thought you and your friends are having a movie marathon?" she asked, surprised.

"Oh, that. Well, the last time we watched a movie, well; let's just say I need a distraction when Thalia picks a movie to watch." I smiled.

She smiled as well, "Okay, you better get going now."

"Okay" I kissed her cheek and said my good bye. I went out of my room and said good bye to my dad and the twins then I went out of our apartment and headed to Percy's.

Susan and I are getting along pretty well now. We're now having those 'moments' whenever we talk but I'm not ready to call her 'mom' just yet.

I reached Percy's apartment and knocked on the door. After a few seconds, the door opened and I saw Percy.

He smiled, "Hey Wise girl. Come on in."

I went inside their apartment and settled myself onto the couch. Percy took my things into his room.

"So, I'm the early bird?" I said.

"Yeah, well, you know how those guys are," Percy sat beside me and gave me a glass of lemonade.

"Well, I perfectly understand Thalia being late and all." I grinned and Percy laughed at that.

We talked for about a couple of minutes then we both heard a knock on the door. Percy got up and checked out who was it.

"About time you open up the door, Kelp head." Thalia retorted at Percy.

"Hello to you too Thalia." Percy said and I just saw Thalia rolled her eyes and went in.

"Hey Annabeth." She said and sat beside me.

"Hey Thals, why so hot headed?"

"Well, my brother, Jason forgot to turn off the gas stove a nearly sent our house on fire. It was a good thing though that I was there. I love him but he can be really irresponsible most of the time."

"Jason never changed." Percy said as she brought Thalia a glass of lemonade as well.

"Thanks. Yeah well." She shrugged it off and took a sip of her drink. "So, where are the two?"

"Nico texted a while ago, he said that he'll be running late. His sister made him assist her to do some shopping."

"Ooooh! Bummer for him." Thalia said as she sipped her drink again.

"How about Luke?" And just like magic, someone knocked at the door.

Percy stood up and opened the door. It was Luke. Woah! I feel like a psychic now. I felt Thalia tensed up beside me. I looked at her and soothed her back.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Then she gulped down her lemonade and placed the glass over the table in front of us.

"Hey Luke!" I greeted him. He smiled and greeted back then he looked at Thalia.

"Hi Thalia." She looked at him but only for second and nodded.

"So, shall we get started?" Percy broke off the awkwardness that surrounded us. We all agreed.

Percy told us that each one of us can pick a movie then we'll all have to watch it. Percy picked Batman: The Dark Knight, Luke picked House of Wax and I picked The Bucket List. When it was Thalia's turn to pick a movie, we all warned her to pick a movie that we can all watch without having nightmares or throwing up. She grunted and rolled her eyes so unwillingly, she picked up whatever she grabbed at the rack of dvd and got The Nanny.

Percy stood up to make a call; we're having Chinese take-out as our dinner.

"Hey guys! Can you text Nico and ask him what would he like to eat?"

Thalia was about to text him when someone knocked on the door.

"It's probably Nico, I'll get it." Luke said.

When Luke opened the door there was Nico looking well, looking like Nico but what caught our attention was the perky red headed girl beside her.

"Rachel?" Luke said, looking all surprised.

"Hey guys!" She said happily and went inside.

"What are you doing here?" Percy asked as Rachel clung to his arm. I got to say, I wanted to punch her right at the moment for what she did but then stopped myself.

"Who invited the freak show?" Thalia spat out. Disgusted by the fact the Rachel was here with us; then she looked at Nico.

"Did you invite her?" she said, almost yelling.

"No," he said cooly and went inside.

"Then how is it that you were with her?"

"She was already Percy's door when I came." He sat down quietly and looked through the pile of dvds.

"Who invited you here, Rachel?" I asked as casually as possible.

"No one; I just figured that Percy would love to have me here." She was now hugging and I was now at the brink of punching her still injured face.

Percy squirmed out of her arms and went beside me. To be honest, I felt good when Percy went beside me. Don't ask why.

"So you're crashing out overnight." Luke said.

"Yeah. Percy wants me here right?" she said in her sweetest voice and looked seductively on Percy.

"No." He said plainly and coldly. I held out a laugh.

"No one wants you hear, perky. Get out or we'll have the guard downstairs come up here and take you out." Thalia said as she grabbed on to the doorknob and opened the door.

"No way!" she said as she grabbed Percy's arm. "Tell them that you want me here!" she said desperately.

"Sorry Rachel but I didn't invite you. Just leave."

She looked at Percy in shock then glared. "You'll regret this." She said as she picked up her things and went out. Thalia slammed the door as loudly as possible.

"Well, that was eventful." I said.

"She can never know where her place is." Luke said as he sat beside Nico who has now picked out a movie, Back to the Future.

We all stared at him. He looked at us, "What?"

Then we all shrugged. We all changed into our pajamas and Percy ordered our food. After an hour, our food came and we were now settled in. We moved the table to the side and set up the comforters for us to sleep in, pillows and blankets. Nico was at the far end to the left, Thalia was, well, on the couch, I was on the floor and Percy sat next to me, and Luke was beside Percy. We watched Nico's pick first and then, Luke's—which by the way, had me a bit scared at some scenes so I was grasping onto Percy's strong and muscular arm—then mine.

After watching three movies, Thalia stood up and turned the lights back on.

"I'm bored. I'm getting sleepy watching movies."

"Well, if you're sleepy then you should have slept anyway." Percy retorted back. She glared at him.

"Let's do something fun. Let's play a game." She suggested.

"Okay, I'm up to it." I said. Luke just nodded and so does Percy. Nico just sat there and shrugged.

"Okay. Let's play truth or dare."

PERCY's POV

The night was going well, except for the Rachel thing that happened earlier. I seriously think that she's a stalker now and that creep the hell out of me. Seriously, she doesn't know where and when to stop. She's making a complete fool out of herself.

Anyway, Thalia—being herself—turned the light on in the middle of the movie and suggested that we should play 'truth or dare'. Honestly, I don't feel comfortable playing this game, especially if Thalia's here. The last time I played truth or dare, I ended up streaking around our apartment and got myself grounded for 3 months.

"That's too cliché." I said.

"Then let's add a twist." She got a bottle and went beside Annabeth. She locked eyes on me that I interpreted as you'll-thank-me-for-this kind of look.

"Okay." We sat in a circle and Thalia placed the bottle in the middle.

"So, basically I spin the bottle and when the bottle stops, the person that the tip of it is pointed at would be ask; either truth or dare." Thalia said.

"But here's the twist, if the person picked truth, he or she will have to sit in the middle and the rest of us will be asking him or her question,"

"So, it's like putting the person into the 'hot seat'?' Annabeth asked.

"Yeah,"

'But how do we know if the person is telling the truth?" Luke asked.

She looked at him for a moment, well, actually they both had their uh, 'moment'. I had to fake a cough just to get their attention.

"Uh, yeah. Well, if the person lied, a great punishment will be given to him or her. And trust me, you would rather tell the truth rather than lying." She smirked. Damn! Thalia can look scary when she do that.

"Okay, are there any restrictions on giving out dares?" I asked. I don't want to streak again!

She shook her head. "Anything's fine. Just make sure you do the dare…or else." That made my skin hair goes up.

"Any more question?" she asked. No one answered.

"Okay! Let the fun begin!" She spun the bottle and we waited, crossing my finger that it does not point to me. I think it worked because it landed right in front of her. We all laughed while Thalia swear.

"Crap! Seriously? Can we do a do over?" She asked.

"Nope! Sorry Thals but, we can't do that." I said smiling sheepishly at her. She shot glares at me.

"Fine, dare."

This should be interesting, I thought.

"Okay, Thalia. I dare you to… go down to the lobby of our apartment and ask out our guard. Oh yeah! You have to be all flirty and girly when you ask him." I know that this is not as big as what Thalia made me do the last time but at least this will annoy her to infinity!

"Damn you, Jackson!" She yelled and was about to charge me when Nico stopped her. She looked at him then at me and then somehow, she quickly glanced at Luke, I think.

"A dare is a dare, Thalia." I said smiling playfully at her.

"Fine." She said. She stood up and went to my mom's room to get some lipstick. Yeah, Thalia always does that. Mom doesn't really mind when it's her make-up and besides, Thalia's practically family to us; well a deranged family, in my opinion.

She came out and her lips were all red. Like, thick blood red! I had to hold my laugh back. I was serving it for later.

We all went down the lobby and spotted Stevie, our apartment guard.

"Okay Thalia, now or never." I said and she glared at me and went off.

When Thalia was near Stevie, I was punched, hard! I turned around to see who was it and I saw Luke looking irritated.

"Ow!"

"You're gonna get another one of that later." He said but still managing a smile.

"Whatever."

"Look!" Annabeth got our attention and we watched Thalia flirted with Stevie. She did all the hand gestures and swaying of hips. She even went closer to him, like, dangerously closer. I looked at Stevie looking uncomfortable of how the moment actually was. He smiled a bit then shook his head. Thalia pouted then tapped his shoulder and headed back our way.

When we got to our apartment, Annabeth and I were laughing our heads off while Nico and Luke were smirking.

"You'll pay for this Kelp Head." She said as we all took a sit back down on the rug.

"Okay, who will be the next victim?" Thalia spun the bottle and it landed on Annabeth. She smiled evilly at her.

"Truth or dare, blondie?"

"Uh, I think I'll pick truth on this one." She laughed nervously.

"Okay then, Ms. Chase. Please take your place right at the middle and we will begin… grilling you." She grinned.

Annabeth sat at the middle of our small circle. I can see her fiddling her fingers. I sign that she's really nervous at what's coming ahead of her.

"Okay, shall we begin? Remember the rules to the truth part. You can ask any questions you'd like except very personal stuffs like family and such. A person has one chance of asking the 'victim' a question."

"Now, Nico. Start asking Annabeth."

Nico looked at Annabeth nonchalantly .

"Do you like hotdogs?"

We all looked at him. "Seriously Nico?" Thalia raised an eyebrow.

"You said we can ask anything we like, right? Well, I was curious if Annabeth likes hotdogs."

"You're a weird dude." Luke said shaking his head of how Nico can be a bit peculiar, more often than not.

He looked at Annabeth, "So, what's your answer?"

"Uhm, no?" She said, cautiously.

"Hmmm. Interesting." He smiled creepily.

We just ignored at how Nico can be, Nico. Now, it was Luke's turn.

"Okay, so Annabeth, what can was your first impression about us?"

Annabeth thought about it for a while then she answered.

"My first impression of you was that you looked really nice… and handsome." She laughed.

"Oh, why thank you, Ms. Chase." Luke playfully bowed to her like he's Prince Charming.

"Nico, well, I think my first expression to him was that, uh, well, how should I put this? Uhm, he loves dark stuffs. Like really dark stuff."

He smiled warmly, which was a shock to us. "I take that as a compliment."

"Thalia, hmm, my first impression about you is that you're a cool person but if a person mess with you would be all like, say-goodbye-to-sunshine-my-friend."

"Hah! I like that!"

Then she turned to me. I kinda felt excited as to what Annabeth's first impression of me was.

"Percy Jackson. Well, my first impression of you is that you seem like a great person and a very good-looking" she said and I felt my cheeks felt warm, she was blushing as well. That's weird.

We were all silent and they were looking at me then to Annabeth then to me.

I guess she sensed the awkwardness so she spoke again, "but as I got to know you, I learned that... you're a Seaweed brain." She sticks her tongue out.

"Oh, so that's how it is now?" I went near her and tickled her side. She giggled and then she went back to her place.

"My turn! So Annie, I heard Michael Davis asked you out on a date. What did you say?"

I looked at Annabeth, shocked. How can I not know this? I waited anxiously for her to answer.

"I turned him down."

"Ooooh! Why? Don't you like him?"

"No. He's too egoistic for me."

I let out a sigh of relief. I felt like a sword was pulled from me when I heard her said that.

"Okay, Percy. You next"

"Uhm, okay." I thought of a question I would like to ask her. There were so many things that triggered my mind when I learned that someone asked Annabeth out. I got curious.

"Where there anyone else that has asked you out?"

They all looked at me. Thalia smirked like she planned something and that it was going well. Luke looked at me, amused and Nico, well, he looked like he didn't care.

"What?"

"I said, where there any other guys that had asked you out on a date?"

"Uh, well…" She started to blush.

I waited for her answer.

"Yeah, there were two more but that's just it." She said.

"Who were they?" I asked. Who were those guys who asked Annabeth out?

""Wait now Kelp head. We only have one question for each person." She said teasingly.

"Yeah but I just wanted to know who."

"Uh, well…" Annabeth shifted a bit and was about to answer but Thalia interrupted.

"A rule is a rule Perce." She said and Annabeth stod up and went back to her place.

"Okay then, Annabeth, would you do the honor?" Thalia gave her the bottle and she spun it. Well, would you look at that, I was the next victim. Great.

"Truth or dare?"

"I pick truth."

So! It's the longest chapter I've written so far. What do you guys think? Please review this chapter. I hope you guys are still having a great time reading my story. :)

Also, please forgive my grammar. I am suffering from a headache, colds and coughs but that didn't stop my from updating you guys! That's how much I love you all. Anywho, thank you for all the reviews! :)

'Till next time! Enjoy!

xx