Chapter 1 I Surprise My Own Surprise Party
Everything was going fine until the sun crash landed on the beach.
Annabeth stared at the blueprints in her hand, then back up at the empty place where the cabin was going to be built, then back at the blueprints, then back up at the empty space, trying to picture it in real life. She had been tasked with designing a new Hermes cabin at camp after the last one, well, had a mishap. (The Hephaestus kids hadn't intentionally aimed their new flaming catapult at it, but…) It was probably for the best. Of all the cabins at Camp Half-Blood, the Hermes cabin was definitely the one most in need of an upgrade. After years of being home for all those undetermined kids and housing way more people than it was made to…
It wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway.
"Annabeth?" Someone asked from behind. Annabeth, lost in thought, jumped as she turned around to see a centaur trotting toward her.
"Oh. Hey Chiron," She said.
"How's the new cabin design coming along?" He asked, glancing down at the blueprints she'd drawn up.
"Pretty good. Just trying to visualize it. Not sure if this is the style they're going for though."
Chiron chuckled, "Well, I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask about that. Maybe some of your siblings would be of use?"
"Maybe…" Annabeth sighed. She really didn't want to involve the other Athena kids. They were fine, sure, but all of them had their own thoughts and opinions on the right way to do things. She preferred to design buildings on her own, without others barging their way in. Most of them were significantly younger than her anyway, and wouldn't know much about practical design.
"How have things been outside of camp?"
Annabeth turned to him, puzzled. Chiron wasn't often one to ask personal questions. Maybe it was because she hadn't been around for a while? "Good, I guess. Jason got this cool cabin on the beach a few miles from here. Me and the others go hang out there from time to time. Monsters attacks have been sparse. It's been really peaceful."
If not a little boring, Annabeth thought, but she didn't say that aloud. It wasn't that she wanted more monster attacks or near-death fights, but she certainly wouldn't be sad if something out of the ordinary went down.
"That's good." Chiron nodded in agreement, "Just remember, you are always welcome at camp, as well as the others."
Annabeth smiled at that. It felt good to know she had a place to turn to if things went wrong, but it definitely felt weirder being at camp with all the younger kids. She chose to live outside of the camp now, and only visit periodically, rather than stay there permanently, as did many of her other friends. With monster attacks being scarce as they were these days, they had the option to do that.
And it didn't help that half of her friends lived across the country at Camp Jupiter. Hazel and Frank spent most of their time there, and Jason and Piper alternated visiting both camps. Nico was a wanderer at heart, although he'd been seemingly spending more time at camp. Probably had something to do with that Solace kid. But even with that, Leo was really the only one of her friend group that consistently stayed in New York. That made the decision to live outside Camp's borders even easier. She could always visit if she felt like it.
Suddenly a rainbow opened up in front of her. Someone was sending her an Iris Message. Before the watery screen even cleared she could hear Leo's panicked voice.
"Annabeth?" She heard him say, "Annabeth!"
"Leo?" She asked. The screen finally fizzled into view. Leo was very, very close to the screen. She couldn't see much beyond his face, but it appeared as though something was burning behind him Annabeth groaned internally. Leo only ever called her for one thing.
Something was on fire that shouldn't be.
"Annabeth," Leo said, worried, "You gotta get over here…something happened at the beach house…I tried to be careful and Nico told me not to but sometimes projects just go wrong you know?"
Chiron raised an eyebrow and looked at Annabeth.
"Stop talking, I'll be there in ten." She said
"Thank the gods," Leo said, "See you then."
Annabeth sighed. If Leo had set the beach house on fire again…
"Sorry, Chiron," She said, "Looks like I have to go."
"Well," Chiron said, "Don't let me stop you. Good luck helping Mr. Valdez with…whatever he's doing."
Chiron trotted back toward the Big House, and Annabeth made her way to the edge of camp where her car was parked, muttering about how she was the only one in her friend group with any brain cells.
ooooooo
Annabeth turned into the driveway of the cabin. The sun blazed down on her as she got out. Camp always had good weather, even in the winter, albeit colder and snowier, but the temperatures were always moderate. That could not be said for Long Island summers. Just the initial blast of heat made her want to melt into the ground.
She glanced up toward the cabin. It was small–only one story–and painted a dark blue. Nothing appeared wrong. No smoke billowed out from the top or anything. Maybe Leo was exaggerating? Did she dare hope?
As she got closer, she also noticed that no one was outside. She knew that at least Leo and Nico were both here, and the others had all mentioned coming up for the weekend.
So if something was wrong with the house, then where were they?
She walked around to the back deck, noticing that all of the windows were dark. The table and chairs were all where they had been last time. The grill lay untouched (they had no gasoline for it because, well, Leo) and nothing was out of place.
What in Hades was going on?
Annabeth knew better than to run into a burning building, or any potentially dangerous one for that matter, but she needed to know if her friends were alright. What if some monster had broken in or something? She knew her friends were more than capable of defending themselves, and honestly she was probably the least powerful of all of them in that area, but she was still worried nonetheless.
She slid open the glass door and crept inside to the main room. A small kitchen and dining table lay to the right, the living room (which was no more than a sofa and a couple of reclining chairs arranged in a circle) directly in front of her. Someone sat on one of the chairs; Annabeth was pretty sure it was Nico.
"Dude, you have to hide!" She heard someone whisper from behind a piece of furniture.
"She's already here, Leo." Nico said from the chair.
A head poked up from behind the sofa and immediately fell back down, and then proceeded to curse in Ancient Greek, "I didn't think she'd use the back door."
"You know I can see you, right?" Annabeth folded her arms, "It's not that dark in here."
Leo stood up from behind the sofa, "Well, I guess the surprise is ruined," He walked over to the light switch and flicked it on. Jason, Hazel, and Piper also came out from their hiding spots around the room. Nico remained in the chair, unfazed by any of it. Leo glared at him, "This is your fault Nico."
"My fault? You're the one who was talking! I was gonna hide right before she got here, but then you ruined it!"
"She was already in the room!" Leo yelled.
"Either way, it was still your fault. She barely noticed me, then you went and screwed it all up by being a loudmouth, as usual," Nico smirked, priding himself for having won the argument. Leo struggled to find a comeback and came up with nothing.
"What's all this about?" Annabeth asked.
Jason rubbed the back of his neck, "Well-"
He was cut off by Frank running into the room from the hallway leading to the cabin's two bedrooms, "Surprise! Happy Birthday…Oh. Did I miss it?"
"You didn't miss anything, Frank," Hazel explained, "Annabeth surprised us instead."
"Oh," Frank's face turned red, "Sorry."
"It's fine, Frank," Hazel walked over to him and grabbed his hand, giving him an encouraging smile.
That seemed to help Frank's embarrassment, which was a good thing. Last time he hadn't been able to control it and had turned into a sheep.
Annabeth smiled at him and Hazel and raised an eyebrow, "So that's what this is about?"
"Duh," Leo lightly punched her in the arm, "It's not every day you turn twenty. Two decades. Can you believe it?"
No, actually, I can't. Demigods rarely lived past their teen years, with all the monster attacks and everything. To have officially made it past that point, well…
For most, that was quite the accomplishment.
Granted, her and her friends had grown up in some of the most peaceful times in demigod history. There hadn't been any major wars or battles in nearly three decades. Of course, there was the whole on-going scuffle between Zeus and Poseidon…
But that had started centuries ago, and anyone who wasn't a god wasn't really involved in the whole thing.
"You guys did this for me?" Annabeth asked.
"Of course," Frank said, "You're our friend."
That made Annabeth smile. She'd been a bit of a loner for most of her life. No one wanted to deal with someone twice as intelligent as everyone else in the room. Even at a camp for outsiders she'd still felt like one. To find a group that actually accepted her seemed almost too good to be true.
"We even remembered to get a cake!" Leo said, pointing toward the kitchen counter. Annabeth walked over to find a white cake with the words "Happy Birthday Annabeth!" in squiggly letters and a cute drawing of an owl on it.
"Actually, I did that," Piper declared, "If it had been up to you, Leo, that cake would still be sitting in the bakery and the employees would be wondering if the order had been a prank call."
Leo crossed his arms, "Hey, I can't be in charge of everything. I remembered most stuff. I even got the balloons!"
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. She didn't see any balloons anywhere.
"You mean the balloons that you set on fire and made explode?" Nico asked from the chair.
"Okay, but in my defense, I was excited. They were helium balloons." Leo announced, then, in typical Leo fashion, immediately switched topics, "Oh I almost forgot! I left the drinks in the cooler outside, I'll go get them!"
"Drinks?" Hazel sighed, "Leo, what did we tell you about alcohol-"
Leo looked hurt by this assumption, "Alcohol? Why would you think I'd do something like that?"
Everyone in the room gave him a look.
"Geez, guys, I'm not that bad of an influence." He scoffed, "It's red Kool-Aid with three times the amount of sugar."
"And where on earth did you get that idea?" Jason asked.
"That friend of yours Dakota really knows how to get a party started. He let me try it when we were visiting Camp Jupiter once. After that, trust me, I am never going back." He ran out to get the cooler.
"Oh, gods," Piper muttered next to her, "Normal Leo is already bad enough. I don't even wanna know what this'll do to him."
"Maybe it'll work in reverse?" Annabeth suggested hopefully, "You know, like, he's so hyped up most of the time that an insane amount of sugar will slow him down?"
"One can only hope," Piper shook her head.
"I'm back!" Leo said cheerfully. He pulled out a champagne bottle, apparently filled with red Kool-Aid – how he'd gotten that Annabeth didn't even want to know – and popped the cork.
Leo grinned, "Let's party!"
The party went on for most of the afternoon. They went outside and played Cornhole. The cake was completely gone after only an hour and a half. Annabeth beat everyone at Monopoly for the fifteenth time. And Scrabble. And Scattergories. Then they played a game of Uno and ganged up on her, at one point stacking +2 cards to the point where she had to draw ten at one time. Piper dominated Balderdash (Every one of her definitions was sooo convincing. Charmspeak had a way of finding itself into everything). Eventually, the sun started to go down and the sky turned a pinkish color.
Frank smiled, having won yet another round of Uno (How did he keep doing that?) Annabeth looked around the table. Hazel sarcastically congratulated Frank for the umpteenth time. Jason had an arm around Piper's shoulder. Nico sat silently giving Leo his signature death glare for playing the wrong card. Meanwhile Leo was chugging yet another glass of Kool-Aid, completely ignoring Nico.
"Where's Will at, Nico?" Leo asked, setting down the now empty glass, "I asked if he could come tonight but he said he couldn't make it."
Nico's annoyance lightened a little, "Busy in the infirmary back at camp. Said there was some sort of accident. Something about a flaming catapult, I think."
Leo grinned, "Glad to know the Hephaestus cabin is continuing my legacy. Someone has to cause problems when I'm not there."
"Yeah, well that legacy resulted in half the Hermes cabin in the infirmary and camp in desperate need of a new building." Annabeth folded her arms.
"What can I say?" Leo shrugged, "Wouldn't be Camp Half-Blood if something didn't explode every once in a while."
Everyone in the room rolled their eyes.
"I've never understood why Camp Half-Blood is the way it is," Hazel said, "There's no order! How you guys are all still alive is a mystery to me."
"You sound like Reyna," Leo grumbled.
"Where is Reyna, anyway?" Annabeth asked.
"Camp stuff." Jason said, "Praetor duties and the like."
"Speaking of people not being here," Frank said, "Where's Calypso been lately, Leo? I haven't seen her in a while."
Leo hesitated, "We've been going through a bit of a rough spot. She needed some space, so I haven't talked to her in a little while," He swallowed hard, "But I'm sure it'll be fine. These sorts of things just take time."
"Sorry to hear that, Leo," Jason gave him an empathetic look.
"Like I said, I'm sure it'll be fine. It's normal for couples to go through rough patches, amirite? Now, who's ready to lose in the Game of Life?"
Annabeth looked out at the beach and the setting sun. The room suddenly felt stuffy and hot. She stood up and all eyes followed her, "I'm just gonna go outside and get some fresh air."
A murmur of 'okays' and 'alrights' floated around and Annabeth opened the glass door and stepped onto the deck.
She made her way down to the beach and took her flip-flops off when she reached the sand, instantly feeling better as she left the crowded room. The water floated lazily toward the shoreline, lapping up in gentle waves. The sky was a mix of pinks and purples and reds as the sun set, beckoning in the night. Annabeth gazed out at the ocean stretching on for miles and sat down on the beach, not really caring about the bottom of her shorts getting sandy.
It felt good to be out in the quiet. Something about being in that cramped up room with everyone made her feel sad. It wasn't that she didn't like any of them, it was just that…
She'd never been one to be called a "hopeless romantic". She'd never gone through a boy-crazy phase like she'd watched her siblings do. But seeing the others in there made her feel lonely for some reason. Maybe it was the fact she was no longer a kid. She'd heard that sometimes as one got older the longing for that kind of thing could change. Even if that wasn't the case, she couldn't help but be a little jealous. Piper had Jason. Hazel had Frank. Nico and Will seemed to be getting quite close with each other. Leo even had Calypso, and he was, well, Leo. Sure, they were maybe going through some stuff right now, but they had each other regardless.
Annabeth didn't have that. She had her friends, many of them very close and dear to her, but still…
She decided to stop dwelling on it. There was nothing she could do about it, so instead she turned her thoughts to the ocean in front of her. Since she'd arrived at camp nearly thirteen years prior, there had been warnings about the sea. Apparently a thousand years ago or so, Zeus and Poseidon had gotten into a debate over who was stronger. The two sides hated each other, but had eventually come to an agreement that neither would bother the other so long as they left one another alone.
Of course, that didn't stop her from wondering. The ocean, with its hues of green and blue, just looked so pretty. Chiron had always said to avoid the ocean so as to not tick off the god of the sea, but how could she when it looked like that?
Besides, she could almost feel some force pulling her toward it. She didn't know if Fate was calling her, or just some dumb trick of her imagination. Maybe it was just her longing for an adventure. But what if there was something out there? What if "the one" was out there somewhere-
She forced that thought out of her mind. There was no point to wishes like that. If it was meant to be, it would happen. That was that. Love only seemed to work when you weren't thinking about it.
Her thoughts moved back to her first crush: Luke Castellan, one of the two other demigods she'd come to camp with when she was seven. Of course, he was significantly older than her, but her twelve-year-old brain hadn't really cared. He'd disappeared a few years back. No one really knew where he'd gone, but most figured him dead by now. Demigods didn't survive long on their own.
She heard the sliding glass door shut. She glanced back to see Jason walking toward her.
"Man, Leo is going nuts in there," He said, "I'm terrified to see what he'll do if he ever gets his hands on real alcohol."
Annabeth laughed, "What are you doing out here?"
Jason shrugged, "Same as you. Piper went to go shower, and I needed a break from the noise. It does get really loud in there."
"You can thank Leo for that."
"Yeah." Jason smiled, "Don't know what we'd do without him though."
"For sure," Annabeth agreed, "Someone has to be the immature, chaotic person in the friend group." She turned and continued to stare out at the horizon.
Jason sat down next to her. The two of them had been good friends for a while now. Initially Piper had been jealous and worried Annabeth was going to steal Jason from her, but after countless times of reassuring from both ends that nothing like that would ever happen, she finally stopped being as protective of him.
Annabeth liked Jason, that wasn't the problem. He was a really nice, caring guy. But she didn't see him as anything more than a friend, and she knew he felt the same.
"You okay?" Jason asked.
Annabeth, slightly startled out of her thoughts, took a moment to respond, "Yeah. I'm fine. It's just…"
"What?"
Annabeth hesitated, "You ever feel like something's missing? Or that something's just not right?"
"Sure." He pushed his glasses up on his nose, "Like when I forget my glasses and can't figure out why I can't see."
"I mean on a grander scale," She sighed, "I don't know, I just feel lost right now."
"Oh," Jason said nothing for a moment, "Well, I think we all have times like that. When we don't know where life is going next. I'd say you're having an early life crisis."
"Early life crisis?"
"Well, there's a thing called a midlife crisis, so why can't there be one for younger people?" Annabeth smiled at that. Jason continued, "We're at a weird spot in life. We're all adults now, except Nico, but he's always been the child of the group, but we can't really do "adult" things. Sure we can vote and stuff, but we can't legally drink, or get a hotel room, or rent a car, which is really weird considering you can get drunk before you can borrow a car…"
"Unless you're Piper," Annabeth added, recalling the time Piper had "borrowed" a BMW from a car salesman.
Jason snorted, "Yes, unless you're Piper. But what I'm trying to say, Annabeth, is that it's okay to not have it figured out. These years are a transition between who we were as kids and who we're going to be for the rest of our lives. It's natural to feel lost."
"That's daunting."
"Only slightly," Jason smiled, "Just try not to worry so much about the future. Just focus on today. It's what I do, at least. Focus on the sunset and Leo getting high off of red Kool-Aid rather than existential dread."
Annabeth laughed at that. At the mention of the sunset, she looked out at the ocean again. From their position on the beach, they could just see the sun falling toward the horizon line off to the right.
"Jason! I was wondering where you were!" Piper came running out in a pair of athletic shorts and an old T-shirt, a towel wrapped around her hair. She noticed Annabeth and smiled, "What's going on?"
Jason shrugged, "Eh, not much. Just giving Annabeth a pep talk."
"Mind if I join?" She asked, already sitting down on the beach.
Both Jason and Annabeth shook their heads. Piper rested her head on Jason's shoulder, "Leo's gonna be out here in a few minutes with fireworks."
"With what?!"
"You heard me."
Jason shook his head again, "I feel like there is no possible way this won't end poorly."
The two continued talking but Annabeth zoned them out. She looked at the sun and frowned. Why did it seem like it was getting bigger?
The glass door opened again. Leo came out with a big box of explosives, "Alright! Who is ready to Light. It. Up!"
Annabeth paid him no attention. The sun was definitely getting bigger. And brighter. She squinted, the realization dawning on her.
It was heading straight for them.
"Leo, look out!" She yelled, shoving Jason, Piper, and herself out of the way. She looked up briefly to see Leo run over to the other side of the deck, fireworks box still in hand.
CRASH!
Annabeth shielded her eyes as a big flaming ball landed right where Leo had been standing just moments before. After the light in front of her eyelids wore down, she opened them to find a glowing, red, convertible, Maserati Spyder on the beach.
Oh gods, no, She thought, coming up with a pretty good idea of who this was.
Annabeth stood up, perplexed and a little annoyed, and began walking cautiously toward the car. As she did, a muscular dude with blonde hair and sharp sunglasses stepped out and ran up to her.
Leo coughed from the dust cloud the car had worked up and stood, "Hey dude! Watch it! You almost set all of these fireworks off. I worked hard to personalize them all, and I would be pretty pissed if you ruined them. Trust me, you do not want to see a pissed off Leo."
Annabeth froze. She noted and appreciated the sentiment of Leo personalizing all of the fireworks, but at the moment she was more concerned about how he'd just backtalked a god.
"Who are you?" Jason asked, helping Piper up off the sandy beach and adjusting his glasses.
"Apollo, what are you doing here?" Annabeth asked. Leo's jaw dropped as he realized who he'd just threatened. Jason and Piper groaned, realizing what was probably about to happen. A random god showing up was never really a good sign. Especially the annoying ones.
Which ones aren't annoying though? Annabeth thought absently.
Luckily for Leo, Apollo did not seem in the mood to smite a snarky demigod. Instead, Annabeth noticed, he seemed rather worried.
"I apologize for interrupting you all, but I had no one else to turn to," He looked Annabeth directly in the eyes.
"I need your help."