Chapter 1

Something's up with Sam

Yay! Another story! I'm going to have so much fun writing this! I hope. If you don't understand the chapter name its from Tim Burton's "nightmare before Christmas" the song is called "something's up with Jack" or, at least that's pretty much all they say. Yeah, so I'm not quite sure how this story is going to go, it might be pretty long or really short so don't get your hopes up about much. Yep! So hold on tight! It's going to be a bumpy ride!

Annabeth's POV

As we strode through the court yard I realized how much we stood out amongst the other school kids.

Some of them had shaggy hair like Nico and Percy, but most of them had short cut hair with a bit of stick-up in the front. They all had jeans or leggings, they all wore t-shirts and thin jackets. But not us.

I was wearing a pair of jeans and a white loose tank top. My grey and blue backpack over both shoulders. Percy had on dark blue jeans with a light blue t-shirt like the colour of water when the sun hits it. He had a black and green backpack, which slung over one shoulder. Nico, well Nico had a black shirt with black pants and a black leather jacket with a black one-shoulder backpack.

I was the only person who wore more than one colour.

Percy and I held hands and Nico simply sulked behind us.

As we walked past the other people they didn't notice us at all, maybe once someone commented on NIco's fashion choice.

It's October now, three weeks to Halloween, what a great time to start College.

We walked trough the doors and reached the registrar.

I handed the dean the acceptance papers. We registered for our courses, most of the classes we took were totally different, since I was studying to be an architect, Percy to be a Marine Biologist, and Nico is just studying the basics before he goes to a training camp to be a federal agent.

I felt kind of guilty about going here with Nico, since he faked his acceptance letter.

I got a full ride, Percy had to pay, and Nico, like I said, did a little misting and changed an old science to quiz into his ticket to college.

The first class was Geometry for me.

I sat near the edge of the class kind of in the middle, right behind a girl who had glasses and this guy who looked like he really wanted to go to sleep.

The professor didn't really give a crap that I was here; she just started class, paying me no attention during the whole thing. Which was great, to be honest, it meant that I didn't stand out and maybe I'd get through this without getting attacked by monsters.

-line break-

After the day was over, Percy, Nico and I headed back to our apartment rooms (which all three of us shared) our room was next to these two girls that are very chatty and this one guy who ALWAYS has his girlfriend over, maybe they live together...

We settled our stuff in and decided to just hang out till we wanted to go to bed. Personally I wanted to get to know my neighbors, so Percy came with me.

We knocked on the door to the left door and a girl opened it, she looked like she just went skydiving, her hair was everywhere.

"Uh hi, I'm Annabeth," I started "this is Percy and um, we just moved I'm over their," I gestured to our door

I figured I didn't need to introduce Nico because he wouldn't be talking to anyone. She nodded "good for you," she said than closed the door.

"Okay then," I said and Percy and I walked over to the other door and knocked we heard a couple voices and what sounded like "Pause the movie!" Then a girl who looked about 21, opened the door. She had blonde hair and it was slightly curly.

"Hey I'm Annabeth and this is Percy we just moved in over there," I said.

"Oh! New neighbor!" She said smiling as if she didn't quite know what to say.

She turned around and yelled "Sam!" And another voice came back "just a second!"

The girl turned around again "sorry, I'm Jessica, I just moved in here too with my boyfriend Sam," she said as Sam walked up. I think he's the only guy on campus that has shaggy hair. He was also very tall.

"Hey I'm Sam," he said simply "you guys just moved in?" He asked I nodded.

"That's nice, it would be good to have some other neighbors rather than these jock guys," he said smiling "So you are...?"

"Oh yeah, sorry I'm Annabeth and this is Percy," I said "and... Where did Nico go?"

"He went back to his apartment, said something about calling his dad," Percy muttered, fiddling with his fingers.

He walked over to our apartment and went in, I stood next to Jessica and Sam, grateful that Percy had noticed I had made up the confusion of missing Nico, and had played along. A moment later he came back out with Nico.

"This is Nico, he's Percy's cousin and he's just staying with us," I explained

Nico looked at Sam, "What?" Nico asked

"Nothing... " Sam replied slowly

"Well, I'll see you around," I said and Sam nodded then we went back to our apartment.

-line break-

The next day after all my classes were done I came into the apartment. It was pretty late and I was tired so I put on my pyjamas and got into bed almost instantly I fell asleep.

I woke to see Nico eating a happy meal at the foot of my bed.

"Nico...?" I muttered

He looked at me and I noticed on his bed was a skeleton.

I raised my eyebrow "you summoned... Jason?"

"Odysseus," he corrected and went back to his meal.

"Uh why?" I asked.

Nico shrugged and mumbled something inaudible since his mouth was full of hamburger. He swallowed and said, "I was bored. Go back to sleep,"

"Well sorry but it kind of hard with a skeleton on the other bed,"

Nico glanced at me "then why don't you wake up Percy and go on a midnight stroll," he said sarcastically, moving his mouth to form exaggerated syllables.

I shrugged "good idea,"

I turned over and shook Percy's sleeping form.

"Mmmmmm... It... It can't be morning..." He moaned.

"It's not Percy it's 2:30 in the morning,"

"Go back to sleep!" He said still not turned over.

"Percy, Nico summoned Odysseus..."

Percy sat up his hair was ruffled as if he just came in from a windstorm. Kind of like our other neighbors, the not-very-nice one.

"What...?" He said, I sighed.

"Nico summoned Odysseus so I was wondering if you wanted to go on a walk with me until he's done,"

Percy's face lit up "sure!" He said and climbed out of bed.

I followed and grabbed my night coat as Percy slipped on a shirt and we both took our shoes and left.

Once in the corridor we smiled at each other and said at exactly the same time, "Race you to the door!"

We took off zooming down the hallway past the silent apartments until we reached the front door.

"HA! I WON!" I yelled at Percy and we both laughed.

"Hey I'm tired," Percy moaned sarcastically, acting like a child, which, we were both doing.

"SHHHHHH!" The front desk person hissed and we both winced and smiled "sorry!" We chorused and walked out the door.

We walked for a while talking about Stanford and camp half-blood until we saw a figure sitting on a fence his head rested on his hands and he was looking at the road that the fence was near.

"Look," I said nodding toward the figure

From his pose he looked deep in thought so he probably wouldn't notice Percy and I unless we talked rather loud or approached quickly.

Percy nodded "so...?"

"Well, he looks about our age he's probably attending Stanford, so what do you think he's doing out here?"

Percy shrugged "Same as us probably," he paused and nodded confirmation, "what else is there to do?"

"He could be waiting for someone," I suggested

Percy frowned "he looks like that dude... Our neighbor."

"Sam," I mumbled rolling my eyes.

"Yeah him."

Now that Percy said it I realized it was true. He had the same body structure, same hair colour, same hair style basically everything was the same.

I shrugged "hey Sam!" I called and tugged on Percy's arm we jogged forward a bit. He looked up and turned, yes it was defiantly Sam.

He got off the fence and smiled.

"Hey what are you guys doing here?" He asked.

"Well, same as you most likely, just out for a walk?"

Sam paused then nodded. There was obviously more than just going out for a walk.

"Do you guys usually do this?" He asked

I shrugged "I couldn't get to sleep and Percy just came with me."

Percy nodded confirmation, "Jessica's asleep?"

Sam nodded "she doesn't really like midnight walks, and yeah I just couldn't sleep and I didn't want to wake Jess."

We started to walk together just talking about our lives and background story.

I really hoped Percy didn't accidentally say something about Kronos, or Gaea or camp half-blood or any camp for that matter. Luckily, none of that happened. Sam told us about his brother, Dean, and his Dad.

Apparently they were big animal hunters. His mom died in a fire when he was young so he didn't have much to say about her.

I said that my parents got divorced and I lived with my father and step-mom until I went to Stanford. Percy said that his Dad was "lost at sea" before he was born but his mom remarried when he was 14. (Which was technically true).

We continued to walk until Sam said, "well, we should probably get back to the apartment building," we agreed and continued on towards the building. Sam entered his apartment and waved goodbye as we entered ours.

Nico was sleeping when we came in. Remains of his happy meal were scattered on our bed.

"Ugh Nico!" I moaned and brushed the garbage onto the floor.

"I'll clean up in the morning," I muttered as I took off my house coat and climbed into bed Percy looked at Nico sleeping peacefully. He turned over and we both saw he had a human leg bone with him, he was sleeping with it like a teddy bear.

"Oh jeez Nico you're sleeping with Odysseus's leg bone" Percy said, laughing slightly then he shook his head and slid under the covers he clicked off the lamp and rolled over. I smiled to myself and closed my eyes.