I'm just gonna continue straight off from last chapter! Hope you enjoy.

Soz if it's crappy, i'm just writing as I think of it… and its midnight… oh well :D

I don't own PJO!

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Percy

They turned around and headed back down the hallway to try find their lockers when a voice yelled.

"PERCY FREAKING JACKSON!"

…

Percy whipped his head around to the voice; knowing somehow it wasn't anything that could put himself and Annabeth in danger - like a monster.

No, in fact, it was the voice of his mortal friend, Paige. The angry tone of voice matched her face perfectly as she stormed up to him quite aggressively.

Percy noted that behind her, were more shocked faces. But recognisable faces. The faces of his old group. His friends, who would have had no idea where he had been or why he didn't contact them.

They must all be furious with me, percy thought. They all must think that they're not important enough to be told why one of their best friends went MIA 8 months ago.

Paige

Paige had decided to meet her group of friends at school slightly earlier this morning, since they wanted to get everything sorted out on the first day - like their lockers, as well as going over each of their schedules to see what classes they had together, and which they didn't.

What she didn't expect to see, however, was a familiar head of raven black hair strolling through the hallway, just ahead of them as they turned a corner.

Could it really be him? She thought, would it be possible that Percy Jackson had returned?

Paige had once had a sort-of-kinda-semi-big crush on the old captain of the swim team. When Percy Jackson had gone missing, however, she held on to every last bit of hope that he would come around. But after a few months, she realised all the hope had dissipated. She eventually grew out of the crushing phase since she realised pining for a long-gone 'friend' was pointless. She, along with the rest of their group, was worried, of course, especially when Paul, Percy's own stepfather, didn't know where he was.

That's why when Paige thought she saw Percy in the hallway, she had to be sure, since she had thought it would have been unlikely that he would return.

Once the familiar person turned his head, she knew for sure.

Paige nudged Jessie, her best gal-pal (they were the only two girls in their group), who was walking along side her. Her attention had been focused on the two other boys behind them as they were talking about which teachers they hoped they didn't get during their final school year.

"What's up Paige? you look kinda shocked." Jessie asked her.

"Look." Paige directed her gaze to where Percy was. He was standing rather close to someone else, a girl Paige didn't recognise. Jessie's gaze followed the direction of Paige's, and gasped.

She quickly got the boys' attention. James and Sebastian had the same reaction as the girls did.

Paige couldn't hold it in much longer. She needed to find out what happened to one of her best friends. "PERCY FREAKING JACKSON!" Paige broke from her little groups formation up to Percy Jackson. When he turned his head to see who had spoken to him, Paige internally gasped.

Percy looked… different. Obviously, he had grown somewhat, as she didn't remember him being that tall. Percy had dark circles under his eyes, and a different look to those once sparkling green eyes. They seemed more… dull, she thought. He was wearing just a dark blue t-shirt and Jeans with the same old beaded necklace he always used to wear. The girl beside him, Paige noticed, was actually extremely pretty. At least, behind the dark circles under her eyes. She looked similar to Percy in the sense that they looked, almost sad. This girl with the curly blonde hair had an intimidating stare. Paige admitted she was just a little bit intimidated by her and her unusual grey eyes.
But then she remembered. She had probably been friends with Percy longer than she had, and he needed to do some serious explaining.

Jessie, James and Sebastian had caught up to her by now.

"Look who finally decided to show up!" Paige exclaimed. "We've been worried sick! Where the hell have you been Jackson! You could have called us or something!" Paige felt the need to say more, but stopped herself. She looked in Percy's eyes, and knew, that whatever reason he had, was probably a damn good one.

She rushed up to hug him tightly. He let his hand slip out of the mystery girls grasp and wrapped her in an embrace as well.

"Look, i'm really sorry you guys, i'm so, so sorry." Percy started.

Paige let him go to give the others a chance to hug him too.

Sebastian and James gave him one of those 'bro hugs' that guys do. "Jeez Jackson, where the hell were you?" James said.

Percy looked between us and the blonde haired girl next to him.

"It's a really long story, and it's hard to really explain all of it. We'll try explain it as best as we can though…" Percy muttered.

"We?" Jessie questioned, "Who's this Percy?" She gestured to the mystery girl.

"Oh, guys this is Annabeth, my girlfriend. Annabeth, meet James, Jessie, Sebastian, and Paige."

"Girlfriend?!"

"You have a girlfriend?"

"Dude, so he totally didn't make her up!". James grinned to Sebastian.

"So you did think he made me up, huh?" Annabeth said. She had a hint of a smile on her face, and Paige thought she looked just a little bit less intimidating when she smiled.

"I told you guys ages ago, remember? And it's not my fault you didn't believe me." Percy said.

Now that Paige thought about it, she could recall a time, maybe just under a year ago, when the guys had tried to set Percy up with this girl named Maddy in his english class. Percy said no and mentioned a beautiful girl from his summer camp and how they had gotten together on his birthday. The group would have believed him if it weren't for how he described her. Paige didn't remember every word, but she remembered feeling like he was totally infatuated with her. When the others said he was faking it just to get out of going on a date with Maddy, Paige thought it would be best to believe them, since Percy talking about a girl so fondly made Paige feel sadness and jealously. Even if the girl was fake. Turns out she's not after all! Great.

Percy seemed really close with this girl, Annabeth. They always seemed to want to be touching in some way. Like, in that moment, Percy's arm had reached around her and fit his thumb through her belt loop. They had always been super close, in the 4 minutes she had actually seen them together , and Annabeth seemed like she knew something the others didn't. Percy had definitely changed while he was gone, in more ways than one. And Paige was determined to find out what exactly had happened to one of her best friends.

Hey! Thank you all for reading this! PLZ review! How did you like this chapter? How do you like this story so far? What do you want to happen in the story? Should I make Leo return?

Also, School is going back very soon, so I may be a bit messy with my writing and updating times (lol they're already pretty uneven anyway so… XD)