Hey guys! Remember me?

Well, exams are over and summer's here and you know what that means! FREEDOM! I'm sorry for the late update, exams have been over for a week now but I couldn't make myself sit down and write something. I don't know what was wrong with me but when I forced myself to start writing, it started to flow and BAM! This chapter came to be.

It's been a while since I have written for this story (Okay, okay. It's been 3 months) so I apologise in advance if this chapter seem rusty. But think of it this way, my writing is like a machine. It hasn't been used in a while so it gets rusty so it might take a while to oil the gears and to get the machine working smoothly again.

As for this chapter, I would like to thank my new beta reader: LikeTheStars! (Check out her stories, people! They're awesome!) :D

Hope you enjoy this chapter! And sorry for the lame chapter title.

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. If I did, Percy would be shirtless more often. XP

13. Mother, Son (and Annabeth) Bonding Time

Annabeth and I didn't talk for the rest of the journey. She was mad at me for 'kidnapping' her (it wasn't part of my plan either) but I couldn't just let her wander off and tell Ms. Dodds. This may be the only time that I could see my mom, unless Amphitrite changes her mind about me and decides to pay for my plane ticket home for the holidays. Yeah, like that's going to happen in this lifetime. I looked over to Annabeth who was staring out the window. I tried to think of something to say but nothing came, so I just concentrated on the streets ahead. A couple of minutes later, we arrived at our destination and I have never felt happier.

"Come on," I said as I held the door open for Annabeth, "We don't have all day."

Annabeth looked at me with her eyebrows raised but to my surprise, she went inside.

"I assume that this is your mom's apartment," she said as we climbed up the stairs. Seeing that it was useless to lie anymore, I nodded. "Was I that obvious?"

She rolled her eyes, "Oh please, anyone with a brain could figure out that you would visit your mom. It's not like anyone is stupid enough to sneak out of their class trip just to go to a fancy restaurant."

"You don't know that, maybe that's the Stolls brother's plan."

"I think that theirs would be better than yours. They wouldn't get caught this easy."

I pretended to be hurt. "I spent two days planning about this and I skipped dinner with my step-mother, she was quite mad. You know how she is when she's mad don't you?"

Annabeth smiled and my heart jumped. I forgot how nice it felt when she smiled at me.

"We're here." We stopped in front of a familiar door. "Here goes nothing."

I knocked on the door three times. "Coming!" My mother's voice rang from somewhere inside. I was suddenly nervous. My heart was beating as if I had being running a marathon, and my hands were sweating like crazy. What if I came at the wrong time? What if my mom had company and had no time for me? What if – all these thoughts were pushed out of my mind when I heard the lock click. The door flew open.

"Percy?" My mom said, staring at me in wonder and shock. "What in the world are you doing here?"

After giving me her best I-told-you-not –to-sneak-out-and-see-me-you-could-get-into-so-much-trouble speech, my mom gave me a very tight hug. "Oh, Percy. I missed you so much!" she said after letting me go. She wasn't mad anymore, that's my mom.

"And who is your friend over here?" she asked, looking at Annabeth who was standing awkwardly to the side of the living room.

"Mom, this is my friend, Annabeth Chase. Annabeth, my mom." I introduced.

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Jackson." Annabeth held out her hand, expecting a handshake. What she didn't expect was for my mom to pull her into a hug.

"It's nice to meet to you, Annabeth. I have heard so much about you." My mom said, releasing her. Annabeth, shocked by the warm gesture, turned to look at me. "Really?"

I gulped. This is bad. Really bad.

"You're Percy's partner in the Greek mythology project. I bet you did all the hard work." She winked at her, "I know that my boy here doesn't like to do any school work, so I hope you push him nice and hard."

"Mom! You're supposed to be on my side! And for your information, I help a lot." I defended myself.

Annabeth stifled a laugh, "Don't listen to him, Mrs. Jackson. I had to drag him away for the stables and force him to do some work."

I looked from her to my mom. "Why are you guys being mean to me?" I crossed my arms like a spoiled child.
"Aww, don't be angry. We're just teasing you." My mom smoothed my hair, "How about I go and bake your favourite chocolate chip cookies? I think we have enough time before you have to go."

My eyes lit up, "Blue chocolate chip cookies?"

My mom laughed, "Of course, dear. Why don't you and Annabeth go wash up, and then you can come and help."

She went into the kitchen leaving me alone with Annabeth. "Come on, the bathroom's this way." I told her.

Sensing that she wasn't following me, I turned at looked at her, puzzled. "What's wrong?"

Annabeth shifted uncomfortably, looking anywhere but me. "Um… well… you see, um."

I stepped closer to her. I vaguely remember her telling me how she has a bad relationship with her dad and her step-mother, but I didn't think how meeting my mom could affect her. Maybe she wasn't used to having an adult hugging her. I suddenly felt bad.

"Look, I'm sorry that my mom hugged you, she's just the kind of person that likes to show affections, you know." I tried to explain to her but she cut me off with a questioning gaze.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Um, my mom hugging you. It clearly made you feel uncomfortable and I'm apologising."

"That wasn't what I wanted to say at all."

Oops. I guess I over thought it.

"Why would you say that?" she asked, hands on her hips. Not a good sign! Change the subject, Percy. Quickly!
"Never mind that. What were you going to say?" I said, hoping that she would let it go.

She narrowed her eyes at me but said, "I was going to say that I… don't know how to bake." She whispered the last bit.

What I did next, let's just say that Annabeth wasn't too happy about it.

I burst out laughing.

"Percy! This isn't funny!" But it was. Annabeth admitting she couldn't bake? That was the last thing I expected her to say.

"Stop laughing! Percy!" Annabeth was blushing from embarrassment now.

"You… can't…bake? I thought you were going to say something serious, but you just said you can't bake." I took deep breaths trying not to laugh again.

"I know what I said, Percy. And it wasn't that funny." I rolled my eyes, she saw that and hit me in the arm. "Ouch! No need to get physical." I raised my hands in an 'I surrender' gesture.

"Do you know how many accidents happen in the kitchen that involves people who can't cook?" she didn't allow me to answer but kept speaking. "Eighty-seven percent, Percy."

"You are blowing this way out of proportion. It's just a harmless baking session, you don't even have to do anything, just hand me and my mom the ingredients or something."

Annabeth considered my words. "Okay, fine. But if something goes wrong, I blame it all on you."

"Fine, now let's go wash up. The best chocolate chips cookies in the world are just begging to be baked."

A while later, my mom, Annabeth and I were perched on the stools on the kitchen, crunching on the warm chocolate chip cookies that we successfully made without the kitchen being burnt down (Much to Annabeth's relieved).

"Okay, I have to ask," Annabeth said, as she picked up another cookie, "Why blue?"

My mom and I exchanged smiles. "Do the honor, mom." I bit on a cookie as my mom told the story of how 'blue food' tradition came around.

"Well, before we moved here, we used to live with Gabe Ugliano." My nose wrinkled at the thought of my ex-step father.

"He was ugly, messy, stupid and has one of the smelliest body odour in the world." I said, shivering as I recall his scent. Annabeth laughed. "I'm seriously, he smells like moldy pizza wrapped in gym shorts."

"Percy!" my mom scolded, "We're eating."

"Sorry."

"Anyway, we used to have these arguments all the time about blue food. Gabe would always say that there is no such thing as blue food and one time, I was so angry at him—"

"She made the entire dinner blue. Blue pasta, blue cake even blue diet coke." I finished for her.

"That's my mom, creator of blue food!" I took another bite of my cookie.

My mom glanced at the clock, "Oh dear, look at time! I think you two should leave now before anyone notice that you're missing."

Groaning, I got up. "Do we have to?"

"Percy, you know we have to." Annabeth said.

"I know." I replied, sadly.

Sensing that something was on my mind, my mom said, "Can you give us a moment?"

Annabeth nodded and left the kitchen.

My mom put her hands on my shoulder. "Percy, I know that your father may act oddly sometimes but it's not his fault. He just doesn't want your life to get any more complicated than this. He just wants to spend some time with you." I didn't tell her that it wasn't my dad that I was worried about but I didn't trust myself to speak, so I just nodded.

"Let's go. Annabeth's waiting." We walked to the front door together.

"It's nice meeting you, Annabeth." She pulled Annabeth into a tight embrace. "You're welcome here anytime. Just don't sneak out again." Annabeth laughed.

"You should tell your son that. After all, he was the one who dragged me here." I stuck my tongue out at her. Childish, I know, but I couldn't help it.

"I'll miss you, Percy. Be good at your father's, okay?" she said, as she hugged me.

"I'll try."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Jackson. I'll keep him out of trouble." Annabeth said. My mom smiled. "Well, it looks like you'll be in good hands."

"Bye mom. I'll call you when I get back!" She gave us a small wave as we walked away. I was sad to leave her again but somehow this time, walking down the stairs with Annabeth; I didn't feel as lonely as before. I nudged her shoulder with mine, "I told you it was worth it, didn't I?"

She smiled that smile of hers that made my heart jump, "Yes, you did."

We stepped out of my apartment and onto the busy streets of New York. "I didn't believe you at first but…" she trailed off.

"But what?"

"I had fun, and it's been a while since I had fun, so I just wanted to tell you… thanks." Annabeth didn't look at me so she couldn't see that I was blushing.

"You're welcome, Annabeth.

There you go. A cute and non-serious chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it! I actually liked how it turned out. Anyway, please review!

Speaking of review: OMG! 370 reviews? Are you kidding me? Thank you so much! I really appreciate all my readers that are patient with my sucky-ish updating schedule… I love you guys! 3 3

And one more thing: I was just reading this PJO fanfic the other day and I notice that the author made Luke the bad guy and I was like: "Not again! Stop making Luke the bad guy!" but a second later: "OMG! I made Luke one of the bad guys in my own story!" I didn't know what I was thinking back then. I don't know these past months; I'm sort of warming up to Luke so now I didn't want him to be the bad guy anymore… sighs…

Don't forget to review! Thanks for reading! :D