Disclaimer: All PJO characters belong to Rick Riordan.

Chapter One

Percy blamed the old ladies.

Really, truly, honestly if it weren't for them, he would probably be on time for school every day. These three old ladies sat on the side of the road at a fruit stand every day without fail. In Percy's valid opinion, the fruit looked gross and completely inedible, but the tourists ate it up, literally. The sidewalk was packed with people – even more so than usual – and it always took Percy forever getting through the mass. Also, the old ladies were creepy. They sat in their chairs and knitted – which wouldn't seem all that strange, considering that they were old women – but they all took part in knitting one giant sock. Just one, and it was giant, like they were making it to fit a god or something. And every time Percy squeezed through to get to school, all three of them would stare at him like they were watching his life flash before their eyes.

So yeah, the old ladies were creepy and that was the reason he was always late. Yet his school's administration never seemed to understand where he was coming from when he tried to explain the situation to them.

All of this was going through Percy's head as he ran through the school hallways. He'd slept through his alarm clock and woken up twenty minutes before school started, which wouldn't have been a big deal (he lived ten minutes away from the school anyway) except for the old ladies. They added an extra ten minutes to his trip, so now he was sprinting through the halls, trying to get to class before the final bell rang.

Percy burst through the door of his history classroom just as the final bell rang. A triumphant grin spread across his face and he heard a few students laugh at his predictable entrance. He came in like this almost every day. Flashing his classmates a charming grin, he began sauntering over to his seat. The deep, ancient voice of his teacher, Mr. Brunner, stopped him in his tracks, though.

"Ah, Mr. Jackson," Mr. Brunner began, "what a true surprise it is to see you come in late." He paused and shot Percy a fake sympathetic look. "The fruit stand, again?"

Percy brushed off his condescending tone and grinned instead. "Actually, I was on time today, but I heard someone in the hallway say that you weren't the best teacher ever, so I had to beat him up, obviously. My apologies."

The whole class laughed. Mr. Brunner just sighed and told Percy to go have a seat. Percy couldn't keep the victory smile off of his face. He turned and went to find his seat in the second row of desks. Before he sat down, however, he caught the eye of the girl sitting behind him.

Annabeth Chase. Percy was pretty sure that that was her name. Annabeth kept to herself, much to the disappointment of every guy at Goode High School. She was gorgeous. She had these curls that looked like dripping honey and soft, clear skin that flushed red every time she caught anyone looking at her. Her eyes were like the eye of a hurricane. Percy had sat in front of her every day last year and for the first month that they'd been in school this year. At first, it was difficult not to be entranced by her, with her shy smile and graceful movements. The word around school was that she was a competitive ballet dancer. Not hard to believe, seeing as how she practically ran out of school every day after the last bell with a gym bag on her shoulder and a pair of ballet slippers peeking out. Ballet was her life, everyone said, so Percy gave up trying to talk to her long ago. Now, in his mind, she was known as the pretty girl who sat behind him in history class.

Percy shot her a small smile, trying to be friendly. Annabeth swallowed and looked down at her open notebook, her face turning red. Percy allowed himself a small, maybe-a-little-smug smile as he turned around in his seat to face the front of the class.

Percy hated history class. Sure, Mr. Brunner was cool, especially when they had Tournament Fridays and he dressed up like a guy from whatever era they were studying. (Last year, when they were studying the Roman Empire, Mr. Brunner had shown up in a full-on toga. Percy had to give him credit – the guy was committed.) He tried to get everyone involved, but it's hard to get a class full of high schoolers excited about history at eight in the morning. Percy was probably one of the most uninterested students in the class. He fell asleep half the time, much to the dismay of Mr. Brunner. Percy couldn't help it – history didn't interest him.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the bell rang, signaling freedom. At least, freedom during the five minute passing period. Percy jumped up and booked it for the door, almost shoving Annabeth into the doorway in his haste to get out of the classroom. She let out a little gasp and a few papers flew out of her hands and scattered onto the floor.

"Oh man," Percy apologized, bending down to help her pick them up. "Sorry about that. I didn't see you there."

Percy handed Annabeth back the papers she had dropped. They looked like normal history notes and Percy probably would have dismissed them if it hadn't been for the perfect handwriting. Each letter looked like it had been typed instead of written. It was so perfectly aligned.

Annabeth took the papers out of Percy's hands and neatly placed them back in her folder. Percy found it weird how her movements were jerky, like she was nervous, but he shrugged it off and joked, "You have really great handwriting. Hey, do you think you could—" He was going to ask jokingly if she could teach him to write like that, but was cut off when Annabeth briskly brushed past him and into the hall.

"—embarrass me in front of all these people," he finished, watching Annabeth's retreating form. Rubbing the back of his neck, he looked around the busy hallway, hoping nobody had seen him get stood up by a girl. Percy never got stood up by girls. In fact, he had every girl at Goode High School wrapped around his finger. Well, almost every girl. Annabeth Chase sure didn't seem to like him.

Percy was saved from humiliation, however, as a familiar form sidled up to him, wrapping a slender arm around his waist. Percy turned his head to the side and grinned at his girlfriend, Drew Tanaka.

Drew Tanaka wasn't beautiful. Drew Tanaka was hot. She was wicked hot with long, sleek black hair and tan, flawless skin. She modeled makeup and was always getting free cosmetics, so every day at school, she was constantly showing off her new highlighter or lipstick. Today, her cheeks glimmered gold and her lips were a tempting red. She wore a little sundress, much to Percy's enjoyment. Her long, tan legs were definitely one of her best features.

"Hey," he greeted, leaning down to kiss her. Drew complied, her lips moving expertly with his, setting him on fire in all the right places.

"Hey," she replied when they pulled apart. She moved away from him and began sauntering down the hall. Percy had to jog a little to catch up to her, but when he did, he threw his arm across her shoulders and bumped her hip with his. "How was English?" he asked as they made their way to the only class that they shared: Algebra 3.

Drew rolled her eyes. "Boring, as usual," she replied in her usual annoyed tone. Drew was usually annoyed at something at all times. "I swear, Blowfish puts more thought into the books we read than the authors did."

Percy huffed out a laugh in agreement. Mr. Blofis (a.k.a. Blowfish) was the seniors' English teacher and he was probably one of the smartest people Percy knew, which was fine. Good for him. Except that Mr. Blofis expected his students to be as smart as he was when they clearly weren't. Half of Percy's class fell asleep during Mr. Blofis' lectures but Mr. Blofis was too caught up in what he was teaching to notice. Percy should know. He was one of those kids who fell asleep.

"Is he still dating your mom?" Drew asked, bringing light yet again to the fact that Percy tried so hard to forget.

"Yes," he answered darkly. Percy's mom and Mr. Blofis had been dating since the end of last year. Percy had hoped and prayed that it would just be a short little fling that would end soon, but here they were at the beginning of the new school year and his mom and his English teacher were still dating. It made Percy cringe every time he thought of it. "Yeah, let's not think about that right now," he amended, changing the subject. "Are you going to Beck's party tomorrow night?"

Drew's eyes lit up at the mention of a party. Drew loved parties. She launched into a detailed description of what she was going to wear and Percy took that as his cue to tune her out. He began looking out across the crowded hallway, his eyes landing on a pretty brunette who was freshening up her make-up at her locker. She looked like she was a sophomore, or maybe even a freshman, but she was pretty enough to gain Percy's attention. As him and Drew walked by, he caught the girl's eye and gave her a small smile. Her cheeks turned red and she quickly glanced away. Percy grinned to himself. It was too easy, really.

"Percy!" Drew complained as they reached their math class. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," he stammered. When Drew shot him an unconvinced look, he gave her a relaxed smile and said, "Black dress, black pumps, curled hair. You'll look sexy." He gave her a kiss on the lips to calm her down a bit before steering her into the classroom.

Drew kept texting him in class, but Percy's mind was on the pretty brunette in the hall and whether or not she would be at the party tomorrow night.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Percy, you're losing your game."

Percy rolled his eyes and turned to face Ethan. "Please, Nakamura, I'm almost positive I've been with more girls just this first month of school than you had all last year." Ethan laughed good-naturedly and even Percy had to crack a grin.

Ethan Nakamura had been Percy's best friend since freshman year. The two of them, along with Nico di Angelo and Matt Sloan, basically had ruled the school since they started there. Girls wanted to be with them and guys wanted to be them. It was a nice feeling to be wanted and, as Percy had quickly found out, it was addictive.

The party was hyped all around Percy. Charles Beckendorf, quarterback of the football team and a distant friend of Percy's, was hosting it and Beck always threw the best parties. He was rich, so there was great food, great music, and, of course, a big house filled with rooms for fun nights. Usually by now, Percy would already be in a room, either with Drew or some other girl he had picked up in Drew's absence, but he wasn't tonight, for a couple of reasons. For one, Drew was too close to him. Usually, at these things, she would make her rounds, talking with people and dancing around, but tonight, she was staying near to him, making it impossible for Percy to steal a girl and slip away.

Another reason was that he was thinking about the brunette girl in the hallway. He hoped she would be here, though underclassman didn't come to these parties unless invited by an upperclassman. Still, that didn't stop his eyes from searching through the horde of teenagers grinding against each other on the dance floor, looking for her.

"Seriously, man, what's biting you?" Ethan pressed. "Usually, you'd already be upstairs, tangled up with some girl whose name you don't even know."

Percy shrugged and evaded the question by asking, "And what about you? Where's your girl?"

Ethan laughed bitterly. "Not here," he answered, taking a big swig of his drink. "She dumped me."

Percy covered up his snort by taking a drink of his own drink. Ethan was a player, just like Percy, but they had different methods of going about it. While Percy's method consisted of mostly one night stands, Ethan would actually date a girl until he (or she) got tired of it. The latest girl of Ethan's was a small, shy girl that he had met over the summer. She'd had Ethan whipped for the longest time and he had dated her longer than any of his other girlfriends: a whole three months. Apparently, though, three months was all Ethan was going to get.

"Sorry, man," Percy apologized, though he felt no sympathy. "That sucks."

"She caught me and some girl making out at a party," Ethan explained. "She just turned and walked out of the party. Wouldn't even listen to my explanation. She still hasn't spoken to me."

Percy tried to feel bad. He really did. It was just difficult for him, maybe because he didn't understand how Ethan could be so vulnerable in his relationships. That was the thing about Ethan: he got so invested into his girlfriends. He opened up to them as if they were going to get married, only to have the relationship end a few weeks later and leave Ethan heartbroken. Percy couldn't imagine a girl ever hurting him; maybe because he never let himself open up while in a relationship. Drew and him, they had an understanding. Neither one wanted to be tied down to the other. Besides, Drew was too hot to be kept all to Percy and Drew knew that. They had agreed that they were free to fool around with whoever whenever they wanted, as long as it was just that: fooling around. Drew would never agree to Percy's antics at parties, but then again, she didn't have to know, did she?

Ethan was still going on about his breakup when another very drunk member of their group ran up to them.

"Hey," Matt Sloan drawled, a red Solo cup in his hand. "You'll never guess what just happened." He launched into a story about some girl making out with him on the diving board by the pool, but Percy wasn't really listening. His gaze had zeroed in on the pretty brunette from the hallway who had just walked into the house, accompanied by Luke Castellan. Percy had to hold back a sneer. Luke Castellan was also on the football team and he had the looks of an American All-Star, with his perfectly tan skin and shiny blonde hair. He could also have been the poster boy for arrogance, because he reeked of cockiness. Percy hated him.

He slapped both Ethan and Matt and the shoulders. "Excuse me, gentlemen, but I'm going to have to excuse myself. A pretty girl is practically calling my name." Both Matt and Ethan whooped and called out encouragements as he walked away. Percy grinned at the ridiculous antics of his friends before locking eyes with the brunette. She smiled shyly as he walked up, and Percy could tell based on the way that she pulled away from Luke a little as he approached that she was as good as his.

"Hey," Percy greeted, giving her the adorable lopsided grin that all the girls loved. "Saw you in the hallway at school today. Your makeup looked great, by the way."

The girl's smile brightened at that. Percy had found out a long time ago that if you complimented a girl on her makeup, she was five times happier than before.

"Thanks," the girl replied, timidly tucking a piece of her long dark hair behind her ear. "I'm Marianne," she introduced herself.

"Marianne." Percy liked the way her name sounded on his lips. He grinned viciously, thinking that this was just too easy. "I'm Percy Jackson."

Hey, followers. So, yeah, I know, it's been a while. Could I possibly make it up to you with a new story? This idea has been in my head for a long time and I had a whole novel's worth of ideas for it, so I just decided to write it. I'm going to be speed writing this, trying to get out a chapter every couple of days so I can get it done before I go back to school. (It's my senior year, guys. I'm freaking out.) I hope you all enjoy it though! Maybe leave a review? Follow? Favorite?