It has been brought to my attention that people have been harassing others I know about my update schedule and what I am doing. It stops now. I update as I do, and no sooner. If someone has questions about me, come to me. I am the only one who knows my update schedule and the only one who knows what's going on with me.

I hope you guys enjoy the chapter, it's been delayed twice cause I'm sick... again... This one is very annoying. Regardless, the chapter is completed and canon has begun!

Come yell at me on my tumblr: Percabeth4Life
Come chat with me on discord: h-t-t-p-s : / discord . gg / 3tGNJhu

OO OO OO OO

I sat awkwardly in the car, Thalia on one side and Annabeth on the other.

My mom was driving us up to Maine, to a school there. I'd long since forgotten the name of it, I just knew that Grover needed us there to handle a monster who had infiltrated the school and to extract the demigod kids he'd found… if possible.

The car ride was over twelve hours one way, so we were really glad that my mom was willing to drive us. It was near Raymond, Maine, I remembered that much.

We'd chatted for parts of the ride, slept for other parts, and Annabeth had read a book for a while too.

I fiddled with my bracelet, running my fingers over the charms. A conch-shell, my trident, the mer stone, and the octopus charm. It was soothing to run my fingers over them, knowing that I had what I needed to protect myself if need be. It also soothed the discomfort of being pressed in-between the two.

It was awkward being stuck in a small space with Thalia, we still didn't… exactly get along. But we did our best to stay polite while in the car at least.

"Do you have any more chips?" she asked, as if my thoughts had summoned her voice.

"Let me check," I dug through the bag of snacks we'd gotten at a gas station, originally holding several drinks and snacks, and handed her the last bag of chips.

"Thanks."

And the awkward silence resumed.

Annabeth nudged my arm and shot me a smile, before burying her head back in her book. I was pretty sure that was one of the ones she got while in the ocean with me, something about strategy.

I'd have to ask her about it later.

We'd been in the car for what felt like forever, and it was definitely not the most comfortable ride. I couldn't wait for it to be over.

"We're almost there," mom said cheerfully, her hands tight on the wheel.

We'd rented the car for the trip, cause we didn't own one after Gabe's- er… overturned. It was a good car for the ride, and camp had chipped in some money, so mom didn't have to cover it all.

"Don't forget that I'll be at the hotel in Raymond, the- White Pines Inn," she said. "But if you need I can wait by the school."

We were driving back with my mom too, the car had three rows for just that. Which is why I didn't understand why I had to be squished between the two.

"We'll be fine, Ms. Jackson," Thalia assured. "We'll meet up in the morning like planned."

I wasn't so sure about that myself, something felt off.

"We'll call you if we do need you sooner," Annabeth offered. "Percy has your number and in an emergency, we can use an Iris Message."

Mom nodded, "Right, of course." She drummed her fingers on the wheel.

"Thank you for the ride."

"Yeah, this was a big help," Thalia added.

The car came to a stop before a large building.

"That's the place?" I asked.

"Westover Hall," Mom confirmed. "It overlooks Jordan bay."

I nodded, though mom wasn't looking, and twisted my bracelet some more.

"This will do, thank you!" Thalia chirped.

"Thanks, mom," I said as I slid out after Thalia.

"Thank you, Ms. Jackson," Annabeth added, getting out on the other side.

There was an awkward pause as Annabeth came to join us, Thalia and I studying the snow.

When she was safely around the car mom waved and we waved back. I let out a breath as she drove away.

I was glad that she was away safely, away from the danger we'd be facing.

Each of us had a backpack, Annabeth and I had packed our water bottles and magical lunch boxes just in case. I had my oceanskin and my knife at my side. Annabeth had her knife strapped to her arm.

She looked much better, though I couldn't see where she'd been stabbed with her shirt hiding it.

But she was moving better, easier, and seemed comfortable enough as we stood there. I was glad, we'd seen each other since the attack but only over IM. It was hard to get a feel for if someone was better over IM.

"Okay, let's get inside," Thalia said. "It's cold."

I blinked, then remembered that cold was a thing people dealt with. Annabeth was already shooting me a faint grin as she led the way through the snow.

I hadn't dealt with the cold like others the last few winters, I suspected it had to do with my ocean heritage. Many in the sea were built far more for the cold than for the heat, and I didn't find it very cold in the ocean anymore.

I shrugged and stepped on top of the snow, pressing my power into it to harden it and make it strong enough to hold me.

"Show off," Annabeth teased as I caught up easily.

"I could help you too, if you wanted, but I thought you'd enjoy the snow, since you're a southerner and everything."

"I'm from Virginia, we get snow."

I grinned, "but not snow like this."

"This is insane snow."

"Can you just let us step on top of the snow too?" Thalia demanded, annoyance sparking from her… literally.

I huffed and flicked my wrist, willing the snow in front of them to harden.

Thalia's foot hit it and she yelped as she toppled over. Annabeth stepped up, well used to my powers by now, and offered Thalia a hand.

Her shoulders were shaking faintly so I knew she was holding back a laugh, I hid my grin and moved over to her side.

"Sorry, forgot you weren't used to my powers," I offered innocently. "You okay?"

Thalia scowled at me, "I'm fine."

We walked over the snow to the doors, pushing them open and slipping inside with a burst of hot air.

"It's so cold out," Thalia grumbled, pulling her jacket and backpack off and stashing them near the door. "What is the point in it?"

I wasn't sure where Thalia had been from, it never came up. But I suspected it wasn't a place that got a bunch of snow. She was not a fan.

Annabeth and I copied her, shedding our warmer clothes and backpacks and shoving them behind a pillar, hopefully out of sight.

"You should probably ditch your… water thing," Thalia added. "It'll draw attention."

I frowned, not liking the thought, but Annabeth seemed to be considering it too.

"If only you could hide it like your trident," she said. "Maybe you can make it look like a belt?"

We wasted precious minutes allowing Annabeth to try to adjust how it looked, then giving up and stashing it with the bags.

I felt naked without my water skin, but I still had my trident and knife. And of course, Annabeth was here to watch my back. That did reassure me.

Plus, if we went outside there'd be plenty of snow to help too!

"What are you kids doing out here?" demanded a voice, making all of us jump and whip around.

In front of us were two people, a man and a woman. The woman's hair was pulled into a tight bun and her clothes looked very professional, military like. The man had a military hair-cut, buzzed short, with two colored eyes of yellow/gold and blue.

I shivered, he watched us with an almost… gleeful gleam in those eyes.

I didn't like that look.

I didn't like the feeling he had either. My fingers reached up to run over my necklace, wondering if I should've taken it off. I wouldn't right then, but… later. Before any fight.

"You don't attend this school-" the woman was cut off as Thalia stepped forward and snapped her fingers.

"We do attend this school, we were just running an errand for another teacher. I'm Thalia and that's Annabeth and Percy."

The man looked entirely unimpressed, but the woman's eyes practically glazed over.

Was that-

"Oh yes, I forgot, my apologies," her voice was almost distant, like she was floating. "Why don't you run along to the dance now?"

"Now hang on-" the man started.

"It's fine, Dr. Thorn, they were just running an errand."

"What errand?" he demanded.

Thalia faltered, and I stepped forward, "We were just checking the generator, because of the snow."

"Oh yes, of course," the woman nodded. "I remember now."

Dr. Thorn only looked more unimpressed, "We don't have a generator."

"Yes, you do," Thalia said.

"Yes, we do," the woman agreed.

"It's new," I added.

Dr. Thorn looked entirely ready to argue more when Grover came galloping down the hall, forearm crutches working overtime.

"You made it! You- uhhh-"

"Mr. Underwood," Dr. Thorn said. "They made it? They are apparently students here, so what would they have made?"

Grover gulped, "They uh- well- they made- uhh- the punch! Yes, they made the punch! It's delicious."

"And what were you doing running down here?"

"I wanted to see where they were! They were taking so long-"

"Sorry, we got delayed checking on the generator," Annabeth said.

"Yes," Grover said. "They were taking a while with the generator."

Dr. Thorn scowled but the woman nodded easily.

"Run back to the dance," she said. "Don't want to miss it. The punch really is delicious."

We nodded and said quick thank yous as we scrambled off.

"Thank the Gods you made it," Grover said when we were out of earshot, though I wasn't quite sure if that was true for the man.

I glanced back, my eyes locking with his for just a moment, before I turned away.

Maybe it was just my instincts from the sea, where bright colors and many colors were often a warning… or maybe something was up with him.

"Who's the monster," I asked. "The one you mentioned."

Grover blinked, turning to me, "Oh, well, you just met him… it was Dr. Thorn."

I thought as much, this wasn't going to be fun.

And on that cheerful note we headed into the dance.

OO OO OO OO

The room looked like any low-effort school dance. Not that I'd actually been to any, but it had some streamers set up and some tables clearly taken from other rooms that had cloths on them. Punch and snacks were in the corner and there was a place open in the center for dancing.

Kids were dancing, but there were also a lot hanging off to the side bouncing basketballs and chatting.

"So, uh," I glanced at Thalia as we lingered by the door. "Did you use the Mist on them, back there?"

"Yeah," she glanced at me. "What? You never learned that?"

"No," I said, biting back a scowl at her nearly smug look. "I just learned ocean magic."

"Ocean magic?"

"Guys," Annabeth said, cutting in. "Where are the kids we're here for?"

Grover nodded quickly, "Over on the bleachers."

Our eyes went over there to find a boy and a girl, both with black hair and olive skin. The girl was older, with an olive-green hat tugged over her hair and sleeves covering her hands. The boy was younger, with a card game in his hands that he was motioning to as he spoke to his sister.

The two were set apart from everyone else, with no one really bothering them. They didn't seem to be paying the party too much attention.

"How old are they?" Annabeth asked softly.

"Ten and twelve," Grover said. "They're pretty private, it was hard to get near them. What's the plan?"

It made my stomach twist unpleasantly when Grover looked not to Annabeth or me, but Thalia for an answer. As if she'd done this before or had been around in recent years. This was just as new to her as the rest of us.

And Annabeth and me had been doing way more planning lately.

Maybe it was petty, but it felt like people kept turning to Thalia despite her not knowing things going on these days yet. Things have changed, and she'd never been to camp.

Thalia studied the room, "Well, right now we're sticking out like a sore thumb. I doubt Dr. Thorn is going to cause too much trouble publicly. Let's keep an eye on the kids as discreetly as we can. If there's an opening let's go over to them, but no one is around them, so we'd stand out going over there now.

Grover nodded, and I frowned.

It wasn't the worst plan but approaching now would save us the trouble of something happening.

My eyes were drawn to the door by the bleachers, where Dr. Thorn was entering. I didn't get the chance to speak before Thalia continued.

"But really, who chose this music?" Thalia grumbled. "Green Day is so much better."

"Green Day?" Grover asked. "How would you dance to that?"

"Ugh, just come on, goat boy."

And with that she dragged Grover onto the dance floor.

"Dr. Thorn is in here too now," I murmured to Annabeth.

She followed my gaze and pursed her lips, "Right, we need to keep an eye on him."

There was a moment of awkward silence, I wasn't quite certain if Annabeth wanted to dance to keep an eye on him like Thalia said. Her gaze was lingering on Thalia.

"It's good to see her having fun," Annabeth said. "Even if it's on a rescue mission."

I glanced at her, "How have things been at camp?"

She tucked a loose strand back, "Things have… been I guess. There's still all the tension because of- of Lu- Luke-" she cleared her throat "-but Thalia is fitting in pretty good. Malcolm, Ava, and she are getting along well."

"That's good," I agreed, though I wasn't sure what I thought about it. Malcolm and Ava were both Athena kids I was pretty sure. The Athena kids didn't really like me. "Good to know she's doing okay."

Annabeth smiled at me, "Yeah, I mean- it's been an adjustment for her but… she's adjusting. Silena has been helping her some too."

"Silena is good at that," I agreed.

"She really is," Annabeth agreed. "Thalia still hasn't quite adjusted to me being… you know, older, much closer to her age than when she saw me before… but we're working on it."

I could've guessed that bit on my own, what little I'd seen of the two of them together had Thalia pretty protective of Annabeth. She hadn't quite grown used to me from what I'd seen, wasn't my biggest fan. Ever since the attack undersea-

Well yeah, I couldn't say I was her biggest fan either.

"So, uh- should we move around? Or away?"

I let my gaze slip across the room, careful not to linger on Dr. Thorn who was eyeing us suspiciously.

"Yeah, we should probably get into the crowd at least a little…"

"So uh-" I paused and mused on what to say as we drifted further into the crowd. "Do you know how to dance?"

Annabeth laughed, "I mean, I know the basics. But I've mostly learned Greek dances at camp for the festivals and stuff. You haven't been around during a lot of those though, have you learned any?"

I shrugged, I'd joined a few lessons for dancing, but land dancing was harder than in the sea. Though I did enjoy watching them at the few festivals I'd been to. Dancing was pretty big in Greek culture, that reflected in the sea too.

"I've mostly learned how to dance in the sea," I said. "Triton dragged me to lessons a few times and I was taught the history of those dances."

"Oh?" Annabeth looked curious. "You'll have to teach me some sometime. In the meantime, I can try to teach you some land dances."

I grinned, even as I angled to eye Dr. Thorn who was doing the same thing to me. I didn't like the way he was eyeing the two of us.

"So, should we dance?" I asked hesitantly.

She grabbed my hand, "Yeah, sounds like a plan. Not sure this music works for any of the Greek dances I know though."

I laughed as she tugged me along, I felt clumsy trying to dance on the floor. Swimming felt so easy, but this felt clumsy and awkward.

But Annabeth didn't seem to mind, easily tugging my arms into position and guiding me through the steps of a simple dance.

The music wasn't anything I'd normally listen to, but I recognized it from Grover's playlist. Something more piano and Michael Jacksony. Not something I'd expect for a dance, but Grover did like it.

And it worked for more slow dances I supposed, which Annabeth was guiding me through right then. Whispering the steps for me to follow.

"Do you think the camp will ever accept what Luke did?" I asked as we swayed with the group, alternating who was keeping an eye on the kids and Dr. Thorn.

"I don't know," she said, lips pursing. "I mean- some have, and some seem to have accepted it but think he did it for a good reason. But… some still- they're all just in denial."

"I… I was surprised you accepted it so quickly," I said hesitantly, bringing up something I'd wondered in the hours between dusk and sleep.

"I didn't at first," she said. "But I listened in on the conversation Mr. D had with the mer that came to talk to Him. And I tried- I tried to contact him and… People don't just go out of Iris Message range, they're cut off. Something has to hide them… he wouldn't have been able to do that on his own."

I nodded, "I'm sorry."

She shook her head, "it's been over a year. I mean- I'm not… I'm not happy. It- it's a betrayal I'm not sure I'll ever really get over. But… he made his choice… he chose to abandon us, to betray us." Her eyes flashed, fury gleaming in them. "I'm not going to forgive that. But I don't want to linger on it."

I hummed, turning with her as the music continued and Grover stumbled over Thalia's dancing, his forearm crutches swinging as they moved.

"You know," she said after a moment of silent contemplation. "I don't think Grover is meant for mortal dancing."

I snorted, giggling with her as we both eyed Grover nearly stepping on Thalia's toes and his right forearm crutch whacked a neighboring

"It's the goat legs," I said solemnly, lips creeping up. "He always struggles to move like us with them."

"Maybe we should've pointed that out," she suggested with a grin.

"I dunno, Grover might've taken offense. He's very proud of his human disguise."

Annabeth laughed, turning us in the dance as the two vanished into the crowd, followed by the grumbling of those attacked by Grover's forearm crutches.

"Maybe he should've tried putting those down for the dance," I suggested. "Or Thalia could've tried including them."

"Yeah," she giggled. "Definitely something to work on for future-" Her gaze locked onto something over my shoulder. "We've gotta move."

I twisted, following her gaze and finding Dr. Thorn speaking to the kids we were there for.

"I'll get Thalia and Grover," she said, pulling away and disappearing into the crowd.

I turned to follow her but faltered, uncertain of which way she'd gone. I turned back to the kids, wondering if I could just stay near them, but they were gone.

I swept my gaze around the room, landing it on the door near the bleachers. Dr. Thorn was ushering the siblings out, ignoring whatever they were saying as he closed the door behind them.

My eyes narrowed, Annabeth would understand. She and the others could catch up, but we couldn't let the kids disappear or worse: be killed.

My fingers tangled with my necklace, unhooking it and shoving it into my pocket.

The room sparked with lightning, whispers of trees swaying and olive oil on my tongue. The room seemed warmer and darker, something soft on my fingers.

I took a deep breath, steadied myself against the surge of sensations, and pushed through the crowd to follow them.

OO OO OO OO

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave a review, they feed my soul.

What do you think of the dance? How about Percy and Thalia? What do you think of their dancing?

I will restate my opening statement: It has been brought to my attention that people have been harassing others I know about my update schedule and what I am doing. It stops now. I update as I do, and no sooner. If someone has questions about me, come to me. I am the only one who knows my update schedule and the only one who knows what's going on with me.

Come yell at me on my tumblr: Percabeth4Life
Come chat with me on discord: h-t-t-p-s : / discord . gg / 3tGNJhu