I received many reviews for my first story, so I decided to try my hand at another story.

Disclaimer - don't own anything you recognize.

"Percy, I'll meet you outside!" Annabeth yelled from her locker.

"Alright," I replied, waking toward the front door, following the stream of students down the front steps.

I breathed in the summery air. It was going to be a nice day. I smiled and closed my eyes, titling my face up to the sun, absorbing its warmth. In a couple days, Annabeth and I would be off to camp.

I opened my eyes when I heard some giggling off to the side. I saw a couple of girls, probably a year younger or so, eyeing me from behind a shady, oak tree. They were hugging their books and looked like they were whispering something to each other. When they noticed me looking at them curiously, they started whispering more and squealing – even blushing madly. Weird.

I shook my head. Girls were just so ... confusing sometimes. I shrugged, walking away. It's not like it was the first time girls did strange things.

Girls were these mysterious puzzles that needed to be approached with caution.

I felt a pair of eyes staring at my back. When I turned, I saw Josh, the guy who hated my guts, glaring (surprise, surprise) at me. His eyes shifted over to the girls who were giggling and then back at me.

Not wanting to get into some stupid fight with Josh on this good, good day, I decided to go to the little café across the street from my school. I figured I could get me and Annabeth some coffee and pastries before we went to the movies.

The bell at the door jingled as I left the café. I was holding the pastry box with the two cups of coffee stacked on top of it. I started to head back to the school, my mouth currently stuffed with a yummy cinnamon roll.

As I was walking down the street, passing by many stores and some alleyways, I heard my name.

"Percy," said a mocking voice in the darkness of an alleyway.

Curious, I swallowed my cinnamon roll, and settled my pastry box with the cups of coffee to the side before I wandered over to the dark alleyway. Maybe not one of my brightest ideas – after all, curiosity killed the cat.

I looked down the alleyway. There was nobody. Maybe I heard wrong? I was about to walk away when I heard the voice again.

"Over here." The voice sounded familiar.

I walked into the alleyway and looked around.

Suddenly, I was slammed against a wall, hard. On the unfortunate off-chance, there was a brick slightly jutting out of the wall, and the small of my back smashed directly into the brick.

I gasped, feeling completely winded, like someone punched the air out of me. My whole body felt like it was being shocked by thousands of volts of electricity. A small, particular spot on my back was burning, like I was in the Styx again, radiating outward.

My Achilles heel was hit.

My limbs went limp, but the two hands holding my shirt were pressing me up against the wall.

Black dots danced in my vision and I fought to stay conscious. Don't black out. Don't black out. Don't black out, I muttered to myself.

I glanced at the person holding the front of my shirt. It was Josh. Of all people, it had to be him! I swore under my breath. His gang (which consisted of two people) circled us (well, tried to), backing him up, in case I attacked him. Not that I could've – at least, not in my condition right now.

"What do you want?" I managed to say. My voice had an airy quality to it, like I just ran a marathon.

I was struggling to stay standing and not scream in pain, but Josh didn't notice. (He wasn't the slightest bit observant when he was in his self-centred speech mode).

"What do I want? You want to know what I want? Well, I'll tell you Jackson! I want you to say away from those chicks that have a crush on me! And more importantly, I want you to stay away from my girl!" he screeched at my face, which was not helping with my weak condition.

"What ... girl ...?" I wished Josh would hurry up and tell me what the issue was. I wanted more than anything else for Josh and his gang to leave so that I could crawl into a hole and die.

"Well, I'll admit she doesn't know that I like her yet, but I'm going to ask her out so you stay away from her!"

Figures.

"Okay ... okay ..." Anything to get him to leave. My forehead was beaded with sweat, and my breath was coming out in short, rapid breaths.

"It's bad enough that Cindy and her clique are admiring you..." he rambled on.

"...Cindy? Look, I don't ... know ... who Cindy is," I gasped out. This was becoming seriously ridiculous – Josh was telling me to stay away from people I didn't even know. The small of my back was burning away, scalding hot.

"I saw her and her clique staring at you just a moment ago at the front of school. Don't deny it!" Josh growled, shoving me back harder. His gang was stupidly nodding in agreement to everything Josh said. My poor, poor, abused Achilles heel scraped against the brick. I bit my tongue to stop the scream from escaping me. It hurt more than ever. My head felt like it was burning up, ready to explode.

"Alright ... can we ... talk about ... this ... tomorrow?" If there was a tomorrow. Everything looked blurry and out of focus. The small of my back felt like it was being whipped continuously. My whole body throbbed and ached. I felt like my life source was slowly draining away.

"No! Jackson, we're going to settle this today. Stay – away – from – Annabeth. I'm – going – to – ask – her – out. Got it, moron?" He jabbed me with each word.

Momentarily, I was so shocked I was numb from my hurting back and body. It was like being suspended in time while Josh continued on about how much he liked her and how their wonderful first date would be. He liked ... Annabeth? No wonder he hated me...

When the shock died down, anger seeped into my body. This whole situation was absurd: I was dying here, but Josh didn't even notice, too busy telling me fantasized stories of him and Annabeth. His gang, similar to sheep, followed Josh, stood behind him, but probably didn't even know why they were there. I felt an adrenaline rush pump through me, and I was suddenly strong again.

"Dude, she's my girlfriend. I think you should be the one staying away."

I removed his grip on my collar and punched him in the face. About time, too!

I landed another punch, and was about to deliver a third with my newfound burst of energy when pain shot up my arm and I saw blood.

Apparently, one of the two guys in Josh's gang drew out a switch-blade and sliced me in the arm while I had all my attention focussed on Josh. Which shouldn't have been possible – the cut, I mean – but maybe my invincibility somehow weakened/disappeared because my Achilles heel was hit.

Seeing my blood made me feel dizzy and abruptly, the strength I had vanished as quickly as it came, replaced by unbearable pain once again.

I collapsed onto the ground, leaned against the wall and generally found it difficult to breathe.

My heart was fluttering rapidly and weakly; I could feel my pulse against my temple. My vision began tunnelling. I was fading away. Darkness wrapped around me, but not before I saw an odd little occurrence that made me wonder if my mind was playing tricks on me:

The guy with the switch-blade jerked sideways, as if punched by an invisible force. His switch-blade flew out of his hand and disappeared down the alley. A tall, blond, beautiful girl appeared out of nowhere, her hair windswept and gray eyes blazing fiercely. She had a blue cap in her hand, which she smoothly tucked away in her bag.

A boy gaped, stupefied. He stammered, "You ... you ... where ...?"

The girl turned to him. "And you, lay off my boyfriend," she said, before aiming a punch at his nose, knocking the boy down. The girl glanced glaringly at the other kid, whose eyes widened before he retreated.

It really was odd – I could've sworn I'd seen a scenario similar to this one before some time in my lifetime.** It was like déjà-vu or something.

The girl turned towards me, her face paling considerably and eyes full of concern.

"Percy? ...no, no, no, no! – PERCY!" She hurried toward my dying figure, but the suffocating darkness came long before she reached me.

-x-

My head felt feverish and my body was sore all over, but I was alive, surprisingly enough. It was good to be breathing, though I was terribly weak.

I opened my eyes.

We were still in the alleyway. Annabeth was feeding me nectar, which tasted like liquid blue chocolate chip cookies – homemade. My throat still felt parched, despite the nectar.

"Seaweed Brain! I thought I lost you there! Thank the gods you're alright." She put down the thermos and hugged me tightly.

I winced. My body hurt like hell with contact.

"Can't – breathe –!" I rasped.

"Sorry." She gave me a teary smile and a small sniffle.

I smiled back, though it was half a grimace.

"You almost died, Percy..." she whispered.

"Hey, if I ever did die, I'd just sneak out of the Underworld to be with you," I croaked, to lighten up the mood.

"Still ... Percy..." I could see in her eyes that she was very afraid that she almost lost me.

"I'm not that easy to get rid of," I joked.

She glared at me. "Really, Percy. You were this close to dying."

"I'm fine." I tried to raise up my hand to comfort her, but it only made me groan.

"No, you're obviously not. You're such a seaweed brain. You have to be more careful next time," she told me.

"No, I don't. I've got you to watch my back."

She smiled simply. "It's a tough job with your luck and all the trouble you get in, but yeah, I'll always watch your back."

She looked at me thoughtfully, came to a decision, and said, "Here, come on." She helped me up carefully, supporting my weight, all the while with me moaning, wincing and complaining.

"Oh gods, what time is it? Are we still going to the movies or is it over by now? I bought some pastries earlier and left them over there..." I indicated to two cold cups of coffee sitting sadly on a forgotten box of baked goods near the side of the alleyway.

"With you in this condition? Hell no."

"Then... where are we going?"

"We're going to some park to find you a saltwater fountain you can bathe in."

** can you guess where the scenario came from? Well, it's from The Sea of Monsters. I even took Annabeth's exact quote (though I changed 'friend' to 'boyfriend').

So, did you like it? Review! Seriously... you should.

*S-jar