A/N

Disclaimer- Everything in bold except A/N's is Rick's

"Alright that's the end of that chapter. Who's up next?" Leo asked as he dramatically closed the book.

Annabeth extended her hand towards him. "I guess it's me."

4. My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting

This chapter title earned a nod of approval from Jason before Annabeth continued reading.

We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.

"Damn, this lady's on a mission," Leo appraised. "I mean if a goat man came to me in the middle of the night and cursed at my son I don't know if I'd be so willing to help him."

Annabeth's eyebrows drew together, "She's not helping Grover, she's helping Percy."

"Yeah I know," Leo said before muttering unconvincingly. "But like the goat man"

Annabeth gave up.

Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.

Leo kept the shag carpet reference in mind for when he next saw Coach Hedge.

But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.

"Charming," Piper drawled.

All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom . . . know each other?"

Annabeth let out the smallest of sighs. 'Such a kelp head.'

Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."

"Bad word choice," Jason cringed.

"Watching me?"

"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."

"Um . . . what are you, exactly?"

Piper laughed quietly through her nose at Percy's not so smooth social skills.

"That doesn't matter right now."

"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"

Leo and Piper collectively snorted as she read the last word, whilst Annabeth smirked knowingly.

Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"

Suddenly they all burst out laughing, clutching their stomachs and gasping for air in all the proper dramatics. The 'Blaa-ha-ha' which caused the large reaction was preformed in all its horrendous glory by none other than Annabeth. Her remediation and horribly inaccurate impersonation was enough to set her and the others off in giggles.

Once they'd all calmed down Annabeth continued reading, a smile stuck on her lips.

I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realised it was more of an irritated bleat.

"Goat!" he cried.

"What?"

"I'm a goat from the waist down."

"You just said it didn't matter."

Annabeth took a deep breath.

"Blaa-ha-ha!

Leftover giggles remerged at Annabeth's still horrendous impersonation.

There are satyrs who would trample you under hoof for such an insult!"

"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like . . . Mr. Brunner's myths?"

"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"

"Oh here we go," Annabeth thought.

"Of course."

"Then why—"

"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes.

Piper refrained from rolling her eyes too hard. She had not had the best experiences with the Mist.

We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realise who you are."

"Hey Annabeth," Leo interrupted. She paused her reading to shoot Leo an asking glance. "Why are called Kindly ones? I mean they're already called furies why bother with a less macho nickname."

Annabeth attempted to hide her sigh. "Because names have power outside camp and calling someone's name aka. Fury over and over will only attract them to you. So kindly ones is like a codename for when you need to speak about them."

Leo rubbed chin and nodded thoughtfully.

"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"

The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.

Piper and Jason exchanged a glance and the competition was on. Who was the monster?

"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."

"Safety from what? Who's after me?"

Piper inched forward.

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."

Annabeth snorted.

"Well at least the whole 'KINDLY ones' makes sense now." Leo said pointedly to Annabeth. She just rolled her eyes in response.

"Grover!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"

I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination.

"Who admits that?!" Leo exclaimed.

I could never dream up something this weird.

My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.

"You know I've never picked my own strawberries," Leo admitted.

Piper turned to him. "That's because everyone's afraid you're going to light yourself on fire every time you see a bee."

"It was ONE time, Pipes. Jeez."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."

"The place you didn't want me to go."

"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."

"Because some old ladies cut yarn."

Piper cringed at he's naivety. 'Oh hun, you wouldn't be saying that if you knew what that meant,' she thought.

"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to . . . when someone's about to die."

Jason, who had been relatively quiet throughout this chapter spoke up. "Oh jeez, Grover. His mum's right there and your going to freak him out even more than the poor kid already is." The sympathetic nature of Jason's outburst kind of took everyone by surprise, so there was a slight awkward pause before Annabeth hurriedly began reading again.

"Whoa. You said 'you.'"

Jason gave everyone a look as if to say, 'See what I mean.'

"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"

"You meant 'you.' As in me."

"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."

"Boys!" my mom said.

She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.

Piper and Jason's eyes narrowed simultaneously, as they hung off every word Annabeth said, trying to find clues as to what the monster would be.

"What was that?" I asked.

"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

Annabeth felt her heartstrings pull, pleading with Sally for them to make it. Even though she knew what inevitably was about to happen.

I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.

Piper, Jason and Leo all felt the same anticipation as Percy. They were subconsciously urging the car to drive faster, for them to find camp and safety.

Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.

Jason felt a twinge sympathy for Percy, he hadn't gotten the proper training, or even the knowledge of who he was until someone had tried to kill him.

Then I thought about Mr. Brunner . . . and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.

Leo's eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.

'Venti?' Jason thought of immediately, but he couldn't be too sure. The storm spirits weren't the only ones who could strike a car.

I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."

"Percy!" my mom shouted.

"I'm okay. . . ."

I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.

Annabeth's eyes narrowed in annoyance as she came to the same conclusion as Piper.

"Lightning?"

Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road.

Jason had a not so pleasant thought, 'Jupiter.'

Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"

Leo contained his giggle at the 'big motionless lump' comment.

He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!

A small smile fell on Annabeth's lips.

Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.

Annabeth snorted as Leo laughed.

"That kid definitely has his priorities straight."

"Percy," my mother said, "we have to . . ." Her voice faltered.

I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl.

Piper and Jason were practically falling off their seats in anticipation.

It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

'Horns, large, furry.' The key words danced around impatiently in Piper's head looking for a connection to be made.

I swallowed hard. "Who is—"

"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."

"Hurry," Leo muttered under his breath. He had taken to gnawing on his knuckles in worry.

My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.

"Just like me aye," Leo said suggestively. He was desperately trying to diffuse the tension and worry that he was feeling.

Piper rolled her eyes.

"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"

'Camp!' Leo desperately thought. 'They'd practically made it.'

"What?"

Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree–sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

'Like he would leave you behind,' Annabeth mentally scoffed.

"Mom, you're coming too."

"Mortals can't cross, she won't be able to get through!" Piper gasped.

Annabeth nodded.

Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.

"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."

Piper's face twitched up in a sad smile.

"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.

"Not helping dude," Leo muttered.

The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises.

'Grunting, snorting, animal like noises.' Piper's brain was rushing for conclusions. Whilst Jason just sat quietly, eyes closed as went through every mythological beast he knew of.

As he got closer, I realised he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head . . . was his head. And the points that looked like horns . . .

"Le gasp! The things that looked like horns were in fact HORNS!" Leo exclaimed, clutching his chest dramatically.

Annabeth rolled her eyes but was kind of glad that Leo was making jokes, it distracted her from the past.

"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But . . ."

"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."

"Yeah that won't work," Annabeth mumbled.

I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.

'Bull, bull, bu-' Piper's eyes lit up in recognition half a second before Jason's eyebrows shot up.

"Minotaur!" she exclaimed, knocking her chair over in excitement.

"Mino-" Jason yelled half a second after Piper's outburst. He sighed as Piper's words registered, she'd beaten him.

They both turned to Annabeth for quick conformation. The blonde in question was trying her very best not to laugh as she nodded.

"YES!" Piper celebrated, quickly picking up her discarded chair.

Jason began applauding his girlfriend as she curtseyed and sat back in her chair.

Annabeth waited patiently for them to clam down before she continued.

I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."

"I told you—"

"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."

"He's so stubborn," Piper commented.

I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.

Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.

Now that Jason was listening to the story properly without trying solve anything he quickly realised Percy's dire situation and began to worry.

Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin.

"Holy Hera," Piper breathed.

He wore no clothes except underwear—I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—

Leo laughed. "Fruit of the Looms."

which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

Jason twisted his nose up to show his appreciation of Percy's very detailed description.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.

Leo scoffed. "Priorities."

I recognised the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.

"Well you better believe its real pretty damn soon." Leo said with sad laugh.

I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"

"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."

"But he's the Min—"

"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."

Annabeth paused to give a pointed look to Leo.

The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.

"They're not going to make it are they?" Piper asked.

Annabeth decided just to ignore her.

I glanced behind me again.

The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.

"He's deaf right?" Jason questioned Annabeth.

She nodded. "Yeah and his eyesight isn't too crash hot either."

"Food?" Grover moaned.

"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"

"He should invest in some glasses," Leo suggested.

"Who, the Minotaur?" Piper said cautiously.

"Who else."

"But why would we want him to see better?" Piper continued.

"Should've gone to spec savers is all I'm saying."

"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."

As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.

"Good." Jason said with unexpected venom.

"How is that good?" Piper asked.

"It's Gabe's."

Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.

Oops.

Jason threw his arms out to his sides as if to say, 'my point exactly'.

"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"

"Well, at least the chapter title makes sense now." Leo observed.

Annabeth's lips twitched as it dawned on her. "My mother teaches me bull fighting…"

"How do you know all this?"

"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."

"You are anything but selfish!" Annabeth exclaimed.

Everyone stared at her as her cheeks tinged. "Well it's true."

"Keeping me near you? But—"

Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.

He'd smelled us.

Leo had subconsciously started to chew on his knuckles again.

The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.

The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.

"They're not going to make it," Piper mumbled.

My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."

I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.

Leo twitched up his nose.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.

The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing.

Annabeth suppressed a smile. She was impressed with his random logical thinking.

So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.

The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.

Piper and Leo's eyebrows shot up simultaneously whilst Jason chewed hard on his lip.

We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.

Piper sighed. 'I knew it.'

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.

"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"

Jason was shaking his head, disagreeing with Sally's plea. 'He wouldn't do that.'

But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her.

Annabeth's steely eyes melted and turned soft knowingly.

She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away.

"No," Piper whispered.

He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummelling the air.

"Mom!"

Leo was suddenly very sullen. 'No one deserves to see their mother die.'

She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!" Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply . . . gone.

Piper was in utter shock as she shook her head in disbelief.

Whilst everyone else was caught up in the shock of Sally's death Jason felt forehead creased in confusion. Sally was human, why was she melting into a light?

"No!"

Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.

The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.

I couldn't allow that.

Annabeth swelled with pride.

I stripped off my red rain jacket.

"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"

Leo nodded in approval. "Ground beef," he repeated appreciatively.

"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.

I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.

Annabeth snorted. "Story of your life, Seaweed brain. Story of your life."

I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.

But it didn't happen like that.

"Cause why would it?" Leo chimed.

The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.

Jason winced hoping desperately that somehow Percy would get out of this okay. He had no weapon.

Time slowed down. My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.

Jason's jaw hit the floor.

"Dayum," Leo drawled. "The kid's got skills." Piper nodded in agreement.

Annabeth kept quiet but the surprised smile on her lips gave it all away, she was impressed.

How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out.

Jason giggled. His too wide eyes slightly concerned Piper but she decided to let it slide.

A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.

Leo winced.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.

"Fun," Piper muttered, still looking cautiously at her boyfriend.

The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realise that this thing had only one gear: forward.

"Like a kangaroo," Leo commented.

"What?"

"You know, one way only? Forward." He was met with blank stares. "Kangaroos can't go backwards or sideways, okay." Piper slowly nodded but the confusion never left her eyes.

Annabeth hurriedly continued.

Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.

"Food!" Grover moaned.

"He gets me," Leo said.

The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!

"Woah, wait. Did he just?" Jason stammered. "Did he just pull off the Minotaur's horn?"

Annabeth was smiling. "Yep."

The other three demigods were completely flabbergasted, letting the information gradually sink in.

Then Leo broke the awed silence, "Well now I know for sure that he was better than me in gym."

The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock.

"Aww jeez, c'mon Percy." Piper muttered. He was so close to safety.

When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.

The monster charged.

Jason, who was now more than slightly in awe of Percy felt himself leaning into the story, anticipating how Percy could beat the Minotaur.

Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling.

'Without thinking?' Jason screamed in his head. It had taken him years of practice to have that sort of battle instinct.

As the monster barrelled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.

Leo clapped in appreciation.

The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light,

Piper only just then recalled that Percy's mother for some reason disintegrated into the light. Piper knew that this meant that something was not normal about her death.

but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.

The monster was gone.

The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking.

Leo's eyes went soft. He couldn't have done all that at 12. Then Leo had a depressing thought, 'Could I even do that now?'

My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse.

No one spoke a word but you could see in everyone's eyes that they really felt for the 12 year old. He'd already accomplished and lost so much, just a few chapters into the story.

I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.

Annabeth's sad smile crawled back up to her lips.

The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.

Annabeth's cheeks subtly gained a pink tinge as Leo called out. "So that's Chiron right, but who's the girl?"

Piper took one look at Annabeth's blush and smirked.

They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."

Annabeth snorted as Piper simultaneously tried to contain her laughter.

"She's a forward," Leo commented, completely unaware of Annabeth's part in this story.

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

Piper couldn't hold her giggles back any longer as she burst out laughing. Leo quickly joined in.

Jason smiled teasingly as he said, "So the first thing you ever said to your boyfriend was, 'He's the one. He must be.' That's absolute gold."

Annabeth couldn't help but laugh. "It's not at all what it sounded like."

Piper shot her a disbelieving glance that simply said, 'Yeah right!'.

"I'm not kidding," Annabeth said through her laugh. "It's not that funny."

"Not that funny! You told a bloodied up barely conscious guy that fell on your porch that he was the one, WHEN YOU WERE TWELVE!" Leo argued. "How is that not funny."

"Well when you put it that way, it sounds ridiculous."

"Because it is!"

After everyone had calmed down Annabeth closed the book. "I'm starved, do you guys want to go grab lunch." Everyone agreed and they decided to have a lunch break.

Jason couldn't stop looking at Annabeth, the girl he had heard screaming only an hour or two ago was so different from the smiling blonde standing in front of him now. When Piper questioned his stares he simply said, "I've never seen her so happy."

Piper couldn't help but agree.

A/N

HEY EVERYONE!

I'm not giving up on this story anytime soon it's just a long process.

I love all of your reviews and they encourage me to keep writing so keep them coming

Lots of Love,

Wisdomsqueen