Don't call it a comeback! (But seriously, don't)

Hey guys. Before you say anything, I know it's been a while. I'm going to try to keep this short, but no promises.

I've been thinking a lot over the past couple weeks and it got me here. I reread my stories and I made the decision to try to finish them.

I'm not promising that that'll happen. Life takes you places you couldn't imagine. I've learned that lesson over the past three years, you can trust me on that one.

I have two stories currently unfinished. I'm going to try to finish one of them at least, but I can't make any promises, like I said above.

I just want you guys to know that I'm back, for now. Let's move on to normal proceedings.

I'm not going to bother with Quote Trivia winners since it would take way too long. If you said Thalia in The Titan's Curse, congrats. Thanks also go out to everyone else who reviewed. You are great support even when I'm not around.

I realize that I left you guys on a pretty big cliffhanger, so I'll get onto the story.

Enjoy Chapter Thirteen of Scars and Recognition.

Disclaimer: I pulled a Leo and fell off the face of the earth. I don't think I'm Rick Riordan.

Chapter Thirteen: Annabeth POV

It was a week after the accident. Percy had yet to come back to school.

Our entire group was worried, but after Thalia came back to school and said he was ok, everyone let it go.

Well, almost everyone.

I couldn't get Percy out of my head. Not because I loved him. I didn't even have a crush on him. But it seemed like the two of us had more of a connection than he was letting on.

The following weekend, I headed over to Thalia's apartment to hang out for the day. When we got up to the apartment, I was surprised to be welcomed by someone other than Percy's mom, but Thalia introduced the woman as her own mom and said she was filling in since Sally was in the hospital. After some chit chat, I found out that we got along great. I could tell where a lot of Thalia's personality came from.

After about fifteen minutes of conversation I asked if Percy was around. The mood in the room immediately darkened.

"Percy's still at the hospital," Thalia told me.

"Oh," I said. Then I thought more about what she had said. "Wait, what do you mean still?"

"Percy hasn't been home unless it was to shower," my best friend told me. "And even that was only every couple days."

"So he's been spending all of this time at the hospital?"

"We appreciate you worrying about him," Thalia's mom responded. "It's been a tough couple weeks, but he's going to be alright."

I turned towards Thalia. "Any idea when he'll be back at school?"

"Hopefully this week," she told me. "Come on, let's go watch a movie. I don't want to be depressed any more than I already have been this week."

Percy didn't come back to school that week, which made me worry more. Thankfully, I got a text mid-week that raised my spirits considerably and got my mind off of the seaweed brain.

Hey, the text read, my parents just found out they have enough airline miles saved up for a round-trip airplane ticket. Mind if I come to NYC for the weekend?

I let out a scream of joy when I got the text around 7:30 that night. My parents sprinted into my room when they heard.

"Annabeth," my dad said, out of breath. "Are you ok?"

"Evelyn's coming to New York!" I could barely contain my excitement. Both of my parents breathed a huge sigh of relief, but soon followed that up by rolling their eyes and giving each other a look. I eventually calmed down and told them it was only for the weekend, but they congratulated me and asked if I was excited, albeit sarcastically. I gave them a look in return. It was pretty obvious I was excited.

The next couple days passed by in a blur, and before I knew it, Thalia and I were waiting in baggage claim for Evelyn to show up.

Why was Thalia there? Well, since Evelyn was my best friend from San Fran, I figured I should have my best friend from New York with me to welcome her for the weekend. That way the two of them could become best friends and everything would be perfect.

Within ten minutes, a recognizable blob of reddish-brown hair made its way into baggage claim.

"Evelyn!" I yelled as I ran across the room. People turned and stared, but I didn't care. My best friend was here.

She turned just in time for me to crash into her with a hug.

"Annabeth!" She said in surprise. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you, too, Eve."

I introduced her to Thalia, who had slowly followed me over, and the two clicked immediately. We grabbed Evelyn's bag once it had come around, and headed back to my apartment.

I had practically forced Thalia into a girl's night, which I felt bad about, but during school the next week she thanked me and told me she needed the time away from everything that was going on.

Once we got back to my place, I gave Evelyn a quick tour and the three of us settled into some bean bags.

"Your apartment is amazing," she said.

"I get that a lot," I told her. "I'm glad you like it."

"You kidding me? I love it. You put a Jacuzzi in that back room, and I probably would never leave." She paused while I looked over at Thalia. She just gave me a smile and I returned my gaze to Evelyn.

"Inside joke," I told her, then decided to explain it. "Thalia said the exact same thing when she first came over."

"Oh," she responded, letting out a short laugh. "What are the odds?" Thalia and I looked at each other again, but didn't say anything.

Evelyn continued. "Anyway, it's been too long. You'll never guess what's going on at school nowadays."

"What's going on?"

"Brad and Emma?" She said. "Are dating."

Before I could say anything, "What? No way!"

Thalia dragged it out so much. It was so unlike her, I had to laugh. Evelyn had a weird look on her face.

"What?" Thalia continued. "I want to be in this conversation somehow." She casually took a sip from her Coke.

Eve looked at me and I couldn't help but shrug. She was going to learn a lot about Thalia in the next several hours.

"Anyway," she finally said. "That's a thing."

"Damn, must be the football player status."

"Probably. He's not that hot." She paused, then quickly looked up at me as if she remembered something. "Oh, by the way, Luke told me to tell you that he misses you."

I'm sure I blushed a little bit. Thalia's head snapped up.

"Whoa, whoa, back up. Who's Luke?"

"This guy Annabeth's in love with," Evelyn said before I could answer. Thalia stared at me in shock.

"What? No," I defended quickly. "I'm not in love with him. We kissed once, that's it."

"Oh, story time. Please, do go on."

I was starting to regret inviting Thalia.

"Wait, let me get some popcorn first." She popped up and out of the room.

I couldn't help but shake my head.

I turned towards Eve. "Thalia's…" I wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Pretty awesome," she finished for me. I tilted my head, questioning. "I see a lot of her in you. It explains some stuff."

"Oh," I said, blushing a little. "I'm glad you like her."

"Well, you like her, so I probably should too."

"Makes sense." I gave my best friend a smile as my other best friend came back into the room.

"Alright, this Luke guy. Tell me everything." I couldn't help but laugh as Thalia shoved several pieces of popcorn in her mouth.

"Alright, alright," I said, grabbing a handful of my own. "It all started in middle school…"

And with that, our girl's night started.

We spent Saturday morning stalking classmates from New York and San Fran through Thalia's Facebook, since I didn't have one of my own.

As my mom called us, saying they were ready to go, I closed my laptop. My family, plus Thalia and Evelyn, were heading downtown for the day.

"Annabeth, you should totally get a Facebook," Evelyn was saying.

"Totally!" Thalia slapped me on the arm, as if the idea had never occurred to her.

I gave Thalia a glare before responding. "I don't know guys, I wouldn't know how it works."

"We'll help you out!" Thalia exclaimed, hitting me on the arm again. "That's what sisters are for!"

Evelyn stifled a laugh. "Come on, Annabeth," she pressured as we walked out of my room. "It'll help you stay in touch with the happenings in San Francisco."

"What's going on Annabeth?" I turned towards my mom, who was standing as my dad made sure Bobby and Matthew had their jackets on.

"These two think I should get a Facebook account," I told her.

"Not a bad idea," she replied. Eve and Thalia both gave me a look that clearly meant Now you have to do it. I ignored them as my mom continued. "Alright, is everyone ready to go?" The group responded in affirmation, so the seven of us headed out the door.

An hour later, we were standing on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

"This is awesome," Evelyn said. I had to agree with her. The view was outstanding.

Evelyn took out her phone. "Let's get a photo. I'm going to post it to Facebook." I rolled my eyes at her. "Mrs. Chase, can you take our picture?"

"Sure dear," my mom responded. Evelyn handed my mom her phone as the three of us lined up along the railing. I was in the center, with Thalia on my left and Eve on my right. I wrapped my arms around the shoulders of my two best friends.

"There you go, Evelyn," my mom said when she was done.

As she handed Evelyn her phone back, I asked if I could see it.

"You'll see it on Facebook," she responded. "Oh, wait."

"Fine!" I said, exasperated. "I'll get a Facebook. Just let me see the damn photo."

Thalia and Evelyn shared a high five as Eve handed me her phone.

"Wow, this is actually a really good photo," I said after looking at it. "Can you send it to me?"

"I'll tag you in it when we get home," she told me.

"You'll…what?"

Eve waved me off dismissively.

"I'll explain later. Where to next?"

I let it go for now. We turned towards my mom, ready for the next stop on the trip.

That night, I was sitting on my bed, Evelyn and Thalia flanking me on either side. My laptop was in front of me.

"Oh, use that one," Thalia said as she pointed toward the screen.

"Nah, that one's better," Evelyn responded, pointing as I scrolled through my picture albums. We were trying to figure out which picture I should use as my first profile picture. Well, the two of them were. I was sort of a spectator.

"Can I just use the picture from today?" I said after we wasted another five minutes.

"That's a great idea," Evelyn responded. "Let me tag you in it."

After a minute or so, she turned back to my screen.

"Accept my friend request." After a few seconds, she pointed towards the corner. "There."

"Annabeth, in the corner," Thalia said helpfully.

"I got it, jeez." Slightly annoyed, I clicked on the little notification and accepted Evelyn's friend request.

"Oh, mine too," Thalia said as the notification popped up. I repeated the action.

"Yay, I have two friends," I said sarcastically.

"Don't worry, you'll have more once I tag you in the photo," Evelyn told me.

After a couple hours, I had managed to accumulate 12 friends, most of which were from San Fran, since it was still daytime there.

I turned to look at my clock. 3 AM. I blinked my eyes a couple times to make sure that was right. I attempted to stifle a yawn, but I couldn't.

"When's your flight leave tomorrow, Eve?" I asked sleepily.

"4 eastern," she said.

I yawned again. "We should probably get some sleep then."

"Oh come on," Evelyn said. "It's only midnight."

I gave her a glare, but in the end I stayed up for another hour. By 4 AM (1 AM as Eve kept reminding me), the three of us agreed we needed to get some sleep, so we hit the sack.

The next day, Evelyn headed back to San Francisco, but we promised that we'd be in touch a lot more in the future thanks to my new Facebook account. She made sure I downloaded the app on my phone as well.

"Just so you're even more up-to-date," she had said.

I had rolled my eyes at the time, but I had to admit it was kind of handy. I kept getting friend requests and notifications every hour.

On my way home from the airport, my phone buzzed. I looked quickly and saw it was a notification, but I couldn't see much other than that. The traffic was pretty heavy, so I was focused on driving. I didn't want to wreck the car I just got. That probably wouldn't go down well with my parents.

After a half hour or so, I pulled into my parking space below the apartment and was finally able to look at my phone. I had a message from Thalia, but below that was a Facebook notification, which was what really caught my attention.

The notification read, Luke Castellan has sent you a friend request.

A/N:

So, what did you guys think? I didn't solve the cliffhanger, unfortunately, but that will happen next chapter.

Before I get into it, I wanted to say thank you to all of my readers and reviewers. You guys are amazing and you make my day so much better.

Onto the Question of the Chapter: I have a trivia question again for you guys. Who was the original owner of Percy's sword, Riptide?

Correct answers get a shoutout.

Make sure you review! I'm interested to see how many of my readers are still around.

Thanks!

-PSON