When Annabeth got home she immediately went to her room to find that mythology book on Siren Lake. She thought back to what the boy at the bookstore had said, something about how she might as well be holding the bible and something about superstition. Clearly some people truly believed the stories told in the book and obviously—some did not.

She was nursing the soda she had grabbed from the kitchen and opened up the leather bound book, settling into a comfy stop on her bed. She reached over and into the bedside table and pulled out a notepad, a pen, and a few high lighters. She glanced at the table of contents:

BOOK ONE:

PROLOGUE: A BRIEF HISTORY ON SIREN LAKE. I-X

CHAPTER 1: THE LAKE. 1-15

CHAPTER 2: SIREN'S SONG. 16-31

CHAPTER 3: THE WOLVES. 32-40

CHAPTER 4: NYMPHS AND NAIADS. 41-46

CHAPTER 5: THE FIRST BETRAYAL. 47-57

CHAPTER 6: FARIES AND THE WOODS. 58-65

CHAPTER 7: THE FIRST HUMAN. 66-87

CHAPTER 8: HALF BLOODS. 88-111

CHAPTER 9: CURSES, CHARMS, SEERS, AND MAGIC. 112-139

CHAPTER 10: THE FIRST OF MANY. 140-159

CHAPTER 11: SEDUCTION UN-HELPED. 160-202

CHAPTER 12: CROSS BREEDING AND MORE WAR. 203-239

CHAPTER 13: REVENGE AND RIVALRY. 240-257

CHAPTER 14: PROPHECY. 258-266

CHAPTER 15: THE CURSE. 267-268

Annabeth's eyebrows furrowed. Book one? Were there more books on Siren Lake? She wrote herself a note to search it up later. She had been hoping for some chapter to stick out to her, but they all seemed important and in understanding the complexity of the Lake's history. From the prologue it is then.

Her dreams were confusing. Tonight she was standing in front of the sign that said that Siren Lake was 2.3 miles up ahead. It was suffocating-ly dark and mist crept along the ground and in between the trees. She couldn't see the moon or the stars. Her dream self just stared at the ivy-hidden path until a beautiful song arose from somewhere in the forest and Annabeth's legs began to move towards the sound and the lake. She passed the beware sign without hesitation, entranced by the beautiful sounds coming from the lake.

But before she could reach the lake, suddenly a body stepped out from behind a tree. The figure was tall and broad shouldered and fear gripped Annabeth's heart, until eyes that mirrored the lake met hers. A beam of moonlight came down suddenly and Annabeth could see every freckle that adorned Percy Jackson's handsome face. She gulped. One of the corners of his mouth twitched up, the cute dimple reappearing. His tan hand stretched out and touched her cheek and Annabeth gasped as warmth spread through out her body, causing her toes to curl and her cheeks to blush. Amusement twinkled in his eyes.

"Do not come to the lake, star child." His voice was filled with warmth and concern. "Not tonight—It is not safe for you." Annabeth leaned into the palm of his hand, unable to stop the purrs that rumbled. His grin grew and he stepped closer.

"Why not tonight?" Her dream self asked. It was just a dream, why was it dangerous? The Jackson boy seemed to read her thoughts and shook his head.

"No, the lake—my family will swallow you whole. You must flee for tonight. Do not come back until I call you, star child. I'll call for you when it is safe for someone of your kind to come to the lake again."

The mist began to lap at Annabeth skin and the cold touches seemed to scorch her skin. His eyes were sympathetic. "Do not fret star child. I will not harm you—but you must go."

That morning Annabeth woke up especially early, put on her jogging clothes and sprinted out of the house and down the path that led to Siren Lake. After 10 minutes of searching she found the sign that signaled the path. Stealing her courage, she began to jog down the path—

Only to find herself in front of the school. She blinked. What the fuck? This isn't right, I didn't take the trail towards school— frustrated, Annabeth turned around and followed the path up. It was different this time she realized. There was less ivy and with no amount of searching could she find the warning sign. This wasn't the trail to Siren Lake.

She put her hands on her hips and contemplated searching some more, glaring at the sign that claimed that this was the Siren Lake path. There was a fresh nail in the sign and the tree; someone had obviously moved it recently. But who and why?

Her mind flashed to the warnings in her dream. She shook her head, it was only a dream. Nothing more. She was about to begin her search when she heard an engine and she looked up the hill in the direction of her house to find high school students getting on a school bus. She cursed. Had it really been that long? She wasn't even ready for school—

She tore across the forest floor and to her house. She pushed passed Sue who was making the boys breakfast and into her room where she began to fling clothes on and stuff her homework into the bag.

The blonde cursed all the way down the path that led to school, ignoring the sharp pain in her cheek from where a branch had snapped back and cut her. The school doors were closing when she stepped into the parking lot, sprinting like her life depended on it.

She burst into the doors of AP Euro, startling the class and making her teacher drop the pen in his hand. He cursed and scolded Annabeth while she apologized profusely about being tardy and startling him. Mr. Lane just shook his head and got back to the lesson, her peers however found her entrance and bed head hilarious.

She shrunk down in her seat. Great.

Track was tiring, seeing as Annabeth had just sprinted downhill and through the forest to get to school, which was a good 5 miles, all in 20 minutes. Her ankle was throbbing and purple and when she went to line up Reyna glared at her.

"Sit down Chase. I don't need one of my best sprinters hurting herself anymore." Chase blinked in surprise and tried to protest, but Reyna was giving her this death glare and so she swallowed her pride and took a spot on the bleachers.

30 minutes later, the cross-country team was back from their training and Luke took a seat next to her. Annabeth suppressed the urge to cringe away, especially since Reyna was slinging knives with her eyes. He grinned at her cheekily.

"Saw you sprinting across the parking lot this morning." He whistled lowly and Annabeth glared at her feet, failing to get rid of the blush. "You smoked Reyna's record, hands down. Now we just need you to do that at a meet and we'll get the pleasure of watching everything that bitch has worked for come crashing down." His voice was cruel and, dare she say it, evil. His hate for the Jackson's was something fierce; she just wondered what had caused such bitter feelings.

"I missed the bus." She admitted. Luke laughed and placed an arm around her shoulders. Annabeth flinched but he didn't seem to notice.

"Well track star, next time you miss the bus, call me up. I've got a car, I'll gladly come and get you." She gave him a fake smile, hoping she looked a lot more convincing than she felt. "Besides, I figure she should get to know one another because, you know, your dad works for mine now." Annabeth's head jerked over to him in surprise.

"Your dad's the mayor?"

He nodded. "I said my last name was Castellan, didn't I?" Annabeth was mentally hitting herself over not realizing this obvious and important fact. She was going to have to play nice with this cocky, hateful guy if she didn't want to jeopardize her father's job.

"So you wanna sit with me and my friends today? At lunch?" Annabeth gave him another fake smile.

"I'd like that."

Luke's friends were loud and obnoxious jocks. They laughed and bullied and compared the panties they took from the girls they slept with. It was vile and disgusting and when one of Luke's friends started looking at her like she was his next catch, she had never felt more vulnerable in her entire life.

Luke's meaty arms were still around her and she was beginning to feel claustrophobic. But surprisingly, her blessing came in the form of the punk girl who brought Annabeth's family cookies.

She glared at the bonehead jocks and removed Luke's arms from Annabeth's shoulders, pulling the blonde from his grasp. "You're disgusting, the lot of you pigs. Leave the poor girl alone." She snapped and dragged Annabeth away by the hand as Luke and his friends protested. The punk girl pulled her outside and out to a large oak tree where a few others were sitting. Annabeth recognized the Cherokee girl, but she didn't know the others.

"Everyone this is Annabeth and I just saved her from Luke and his grabby hands. She's sitting with us from now on." Annabeth waved awkwardly and sat next to the girl she knew.

"I'm Piper, remember?" Oh right. Annabeth gave her a pleasant smile. "And these idiots are Leo, Frank, Hazel, Thalia, Grover, and Nico." She waved taking in each of their appearances. Leo was a small elfish looking boy with curly hair and mischievous smile she recognized from her brothers. Frank was the huge guy from Leadership board. Hazel was a cute girl with wild hair and golden eyes. Thalia was the punk girl and Nico might as well have been her male counterpart. And finally Grover was an awkward looking teen with a goatee and crutches. They were quite the band of misfits.

The rest of lunch was spent getting to know them and Annabeth found herself enjoying her newfound company.

Annabeth tried really hard not to stare at Percy Jackson during American Lit, but the task was seemingly impossible. The class was interesting, but it was really hard to focus when every time she looked up from her paper, Percy's back was in the way of the white board. Not that she was really complaining of course.

Her mind wandered, figuring it would be much easier to pay attention in class if instead of using the white board, the teacher just made Percy stand shirtless and write on his instead. She blushed brightly—that was a bad train of thought.

The classes ended quickly however, but just as she was about to start packing up her things, a piece of paper fluttered onto her desk. She bit her lip and picked it up, unfolding the paper.

I thought I told you NOT to go to the lake, star child.

Annabeth gasped and looked up to find that no one was in the classroom except for Percy Jackson, standing there with a serious expression on his handsome face.

"Excuse me?" She asked incredulously. "How the hell—"

"That wasn't just some dream like you've come to delude yourself, star child." His voice was condescending, as if she was some little kid who had disobeyed her parent. "I've warned you, it's not safe to go to the lake right now. Conscious or unconscious. I won't hurt you—either will Reyna for that matter, but my family will." He shook his head. "If you want to live long enough to understand what's going on in this town, you'll listen to me." He closed the gap, stepping close to her and placing a hand on her cheek like he had in her dream.

"There's a lot you have yet to learn and I'm willing to help you, but you must listen to me, or else we're all doomed."

Annabeth's eyes latched onto his and she was filled with warmth, suddenly feeling calmness seep into her bones. His thumb was stroking her cheek and she wanted so badly to curl up into his chest and purr like a cat.

He smiled at her crookedly. "All in due time, star child."

She wanted to ask him why he kept calling her star child, she wanted him to stay with her, she wanted him to explain what he met by the lake and his family being dangerous, what he meant by 'all in due time', but before she could even open her mouth and break out of the trance she was in, he was gone, taking all the warmth with him.

Sorry it took me a little longer to update, my life has been consumed with projects, Grim and Once Upon A Time, mainly Captain Hook. Jesus that man is beautiful. Fair warning, I've got two more stories I want to put into action, one PJO, one OUAT, so keep an eye out for those! RNR!

-E