I followed my mother, or my step-mother I better say, and watched as she spoke with the Queen of the kingdom we were visiting. I listened as the Queen bragged about her two daughters, Abbalee and Rebecca, and her adopted son, Perseus, that they had gotten after they got a curse to never have sons.

I wasn't sure my step-mother, Olivia, noticed I was still behind her and hadn't run off to be with my father, who I loved more than anything. Olivia was new to this family, and she didn't know us too well yet. She and my father had married only three months before, and they had gone on a trip for two months before sending for me and my siblings.

Listening to their bragging made me miss my mother. She never would have done that, as a rule. My mother was Athena, the goddess of Wisdom. She had met my father long ago, when my father almost made a mistake that would have resulted in hundreds of deaths for his people. My mother appeared to him and stopped him, and they fell in love immediately.

Zeus, who was in an argument with Athena, promised her that she could stay with him for ten years before she had to return to Olympus. They married, and the kingdom loved her. Their marriage resulted in three children. They named their son, who was the first born twin, Zeus, to please Zeus, and they named my sister Olympia. When the twins were two, I was born. They had already pleased the gods, so they named me Annabeth.

I was six when my mother was called back to Olympus. They told kingdom that my mother had died, but I knew she was still alive. I also knew that I wouldn't be allowed to see her for a very long time, if ever.

It had been a year since my mother left, and my father had been pushed to marry Olivia. I wasn't sure if I liked Olivia because I barely knew her, but Olympia had decided that she hated Olivia. And I usually agree with my older sister.

"Your children just going to love Abbalee, everyone does!" the Queen boasted again as she brought us to the large door at the end of the hallway.

"I'm sure they will," Olivia agreed.

I took Olympia's hand to stop her from pointing out that we weren't her children, and she squeezed my hand for support.

The queen pushed the door open dramatically and showed us in to the grand school room.

Three children looked up at us.

I could tell who Abbalee was immediately. She seemed to be about twelve, and she was beautiful like her mother. Her long blonde hair swept down her back, and her dark brown eyes looked at us with curiosity. She was wearing the grandest of dresses, maybe even prettier than the one her mother wore. And she had that smug satisfaction of seeing that she was more beautiful than us.

Rebecca was a little plainer, and she seemed to be about eight. Her eyes were the same beautiful brown as Abbalee, but her hair was a dark brown like her father's. She had freckles, and she was wearing a simple dress. Her skin was tanned instead of the porcelain of Abbalee, and she held a book in her hand instead of how her sister had been speaking to a servant.

And then there was the boy. He was different from any other boy I had ever seen. His skin was olive, showing that he was part-Greek like me. His hair was black and fell into his eyes a little bit, though his mother seemed to have tried everything to stop that. I could have stared into his green eyes, trying to figure out if they were more like lake water or the rolling fields I had seen on the way here.

Olivia hurried Olympia towards Abbalee, hoping they would become fast friends, and the Queen pulled my brother towards Rebecca, hoping to make a couple. Perseus and I were left alone, forgotten about.

We both started walking towards each other until we came half-way.

"Prince Perseus," I nodded, remembering how Olivia had warned me to do when I saw other royalty.

"You don't have to do that, or at least not with me. Maybe with Abbalee, but not me. I'm Percy, just Percy," he smiled, acting like a child instead of a prince.

I liked that.

"I'm Annabeth."

Ten Years Later

I groaned as the sun peered through my bed curtains and into my eyes. I didn't like the mornings, and I had hoped to get some good sleep. It was hard to sleep without knowing Zee, my older brother, and Eli, my younger half-brother, weren't sleeping in the rooms next door. They were gone on a hunting trip with other royalty, and I was strangely missing them.

I guess it was because this was the last few months I was going to be a family with my four siblings. I was getting married this fall, and I wouldn't see my family too often after that.

I pushed away the sheer curtain and sat up in bed.

First, I went to the closet and put on simple dress and a pair of sandals before unlatching the door to my balcony.

I breathed in the sweet air and took a look outside. My kingdom was a large island with part of the land on the shore being in our domain. The castle was on the edge of the island, farthest from the short distance to the shore. My room overlooked the sweet ocean, and I had arranged it that way instead of taking the larger room that over looked the bustling market.

The ocean's water was calm, unusually calm. We didn't have dangerous weather, but it was never this placid. I knew immediately that my long-time friend, Percy, was travelling by water. He was the prince of a nearby kingdom, and I was one of the only ones who knew his deep dark secret.

For you see, his mother had been a beautiful heiress whose family owned a fishing empire. Her family was shocked when they found out she was pregnant, and they didn't know what to do with the little boy who was born. She had claimed that she was married before he suddenly disappeared, but she had also told them all of these stories about how the father had let her stay in his underwater kingdom and of all of the things she had seen there. So, they weren't sure what to believe. The son was sent to an upper-class orphanage, and the King and Queen adopted him when he was one. When he was three, they figured out that the water loved him. When he was four, the sea god himself claimed him as his son, and the family swore never to tell another soul. They didn't want word getting around that the new king of their empire was born out of wedlock. They didn't event tell Percy until he was about thirteen.

If there was anything I would hate most about being married, it would be the fact that I wouldn't see Percy much. Rebecca, his sister and my other best friend, would probably be allowed to visit by my husband. But I doubted that Perseus would be allowed because of the rivalry between the two kingdoms.

"Princessa! Princess Annabeth!"

I turned around to see Azabella running into my room.

Azabella was a chubby woman with wiry black hair. She had excited brown eyes that had been there for every important moment of my life. She was very superstitious, and she always wore frumpy black frocks. Azabella had come to work for my family when I was three, and she had raised us from the time our mother left until now.

She liked to call me Princessa because I had loved it when I was child, but she never called me Princess Annabeth unless something was wrong or she was mad.

"Azabella, what is it?" I quickly came towards the aging woman, seeing that she wasn't mad, and I became impatient as she caught her breath from running through the long corridor to my room.

"Annabeth," deep breath, "Your," another deep breath, "Father."

"Father? Is he aright? Is he sick? Should I send for the doctor?" I tried to hurry Azabella along.

"No," she shook her head, "He wants to" deep breath, "see you in the throne room in while."

"Then why tell me now, Aza?"

"There's a visitor," Azabella began.

"Oh, so you wanted to warn me about the visitor. Thank you," I smiled, thinking I had cracked it.

"No, no, Princessa!" Azabella caught her breath, "You do not understand! I'm here because of the visitor!"

"Oh, okay?" I knit my eyebrows, wondering if Azabella's mind had finally gone.

"Prince Perseus is here! He and his father just arrived!"

My face became serious and I placed two hands on Azbella's shoulders.

"Azabella, are you joking me again?"

"No, no, he's here, I swear. In the corridor from the Throne Room. He's staying in the next wing!"

I joyfully hugged the woman before running out the door before she could say anything else, like 'Annabeth, don't be so easy. Just wait for him to come!'.

My sandals slapped against the floor as I ran through the Children corridor and down the stairs to our school room where the servants were putting together breakfast for the two children who were still home. I didn't know the rest of the castle as well as I knew my wing, but I knew it well enough to go to the Guest Wing.

I hurried down the stairs to the hallway leading from the throne room to the rooms where the visitor's stayed.

And there he was, and it wasn't a dream this time.

"Percy!"

I hurried towards his open arms, and I noticed his smile widened. He pulled me off the ground and swirled me around as if I weighed more than a leaf, and I pushed my face into his shoulder, closing my eyes tightly to make sure I wouldn't wake up if this was indeed a dream.

"What are you doing here?" I smiled wide as he set me down, letting me stare up into his green eyes.

"I'm here for a month with my father," he smiled, almost laughing from happiness, "Turns out we're both pretty mad about our marriages."

Usually, Princes didn't get married until they at least eighteen, but every girl loved Percy. He was seventeen, only a few months older than me, but his father was ready to pass down the crown. And a perfect young princess's family was begging for the marriage.

"Don't bring that up," I shook my head.

"Oh why not?" he smiled, "Prince Luke's country is undoubtedly going to prosper, and you've found that one husband who will allow you to really run the kingdom, like you do here."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied.

"I read the latest decree, and it was word-by-word what you had told me you would do if you were King. I know you help your father, Annie," he laughed, and I simply shrugged, happy to know he knew though I could never admit it. I liked it when he thought I was smart and when he told me that or when he told other people.

He loved to brag about my wisdom, and he didn't hold me back like other boys did. Percy treated me like a person, not a girl. He even taught me sword fighting when I was twelve. Percy had told me that it was in self-defense because of all of the journeys I took, but I didn't believe that. If that had been true, he wouldn't have let me use his favorite sword, and he definitely wouldn't have shown me all of those secret maneuvers he had made up.

The throne door opened when I was about to suggest that we go to the beach so that we could talk before someone could track me down to talk to my father.

Percy and I turned around to look at the King, and we separated in the process.

Percy's father, King Paul, was a handsome man though he looked nothing like Percy. He was known for being intimidating, but I had only seen him as a jolly father. He had always liked me, and I had adored him from the day I had seen him roll his eyes at Abbalee's bragging when we were eight.

He had gained quite a bit of weight since the time I had first seen him, but it didn't matter. His brown eyes were those of Rebecca's, but I didn't know where Rebecca's freckles had come from. King Paul's long brown hair was in a ponytail, something I hated, and he wore expensive red garments that must have been Hades to travel in.

"Annabeth," his voice was trying to be a Kingly stern, but it was still full fond cheerfulness, "King Frederick wishes you to come for an audience."

"Of course, King Paul," I bowed, though I rarely bowed to anyone human, "Goodbye, Prince Perseus."

"Goodbye, Princess Annabeth," he bowed, smiling like this was all just a joke.

I scurried towards the throne room, and, as usual, I felt a gloom set over me as I stepped in and closed the door.

The throne room was always cold, even in the hottest of the year, and it set me on edge. The floors were expensive marble that echoed, and the throne was pure marble that was built into the floor. I had never actually sat on it, so I didn't know how it felt. But my mother had always told me that she thought my father was crazy for making the throne like that.

And then there was the actual scary sight.

My father's secretary, James, had a desk nearby the throne, and he was always taking notes in his perfect handwriting. He looked down on me and my sister as if we were below him due to our gender, and I hated him for it.

As usual, James glared at me as I walked into the room and bowed to my father.

"King Frederick."

"James, leave us," my father instructed, "I wish to speak with my daughter alone."

James seemed a little insulted but he stood from his desk anyway.

"Of course, my king," he bowed towards my father and took his special door out.

We both waited until we knew James had really left until we spoke.

"You're flushed, Annabeth," my father smiled playfully, and I blushed.

"Yes, I am."

"May I ask why, dear daughter?"

I looked up at him and saw the humor in his brown eyes.

"Father," I came closer until I was almost standing at the throne, "How long is he to stay? I've missed him so, and I couldn't bear it if he was to leave soon."

I realized I was begging. My father and I were close, very close. I was his favorite daughter. He loved Olympia a lot too, but she was so spirited, and she was also the eldest of the family. I was the youngest child born to Athena, and I was the only one who looked exactly like her in the face. Olympia had her dark hair and her eyes. But I was like a replica, and my dad loved it.

"Perseus is to stay for a month or so. His father and I had business to attend to now that Sparta is nearing another war, and we both discussed how depressed you two had been since your engagements. But I cannot keep him here forever, Annabeth," he warned me, and I nodded.

"Oh, thank you!" I ignored the rules that my father had made about the throne room and hugged him tightly.

"Annabeth," my father started again, "You must remember that you are no longer just a princess."

I nodded, not listening as he continued because I knew it was probably about how I shouldn't put myself in danger or something like that. I was too busy thinking of what I would do with Percy. I had missed him so much that I almost wanted to run out and spend every passing moment with him before he was going to return to his home land.

"I know, Father."

"And, Annabeth," my father hesitated.

"Yes?"

"I didn't do this fully for you. I hoped that bringing him could be used as an exchange."

"An exchange?" I knit my eyebrows in confusion.

"Annabeth, I brought Prince Perseus here to make you stop being against your marriage to Prince Lucas."

I paused, not sure what he had meant.

My marriage to Prince Lucas had been planned since I was nine years old. My mother had told my father not to plan my marriage because she wanted to see what kind of man he was before she gave him her daughter. But my father decided against it and set up my marriage to Prince Lucas when I was nine. I had known since then that I was to marry him, but it didn't set in until I was fifteen.

Prince Lucas and his family came down to our kingdom, and, as was a custom in his land, I was given a golden anklet to show that I belonged to him, in a way. During this visit, I got to see the man I was going to be spending the rest of my life with. Sure, he was handsome with eyes like the sea, but he was strong willed. Luke was distraught, and he seemed to have something against the gods. He didn't have much religion, and he particularly didn't care about Athena.

I knew I could have ended up with worse, but he definitely wasn't my favorite person in the world.

"You've been against this marriage for the last year when you got the anklet. Lucas's country and Perseus's country are the border between us and our biggest enemy. Our people need this, Annabeth, and your duty is to your people."

I nodded.

"I really do wish you could marry for love like I did," my father smiled as he took my hand, "And I hate seeing you distraught, but this must happen. You are the only one who could change those wicked ways before his people are punished for his lack of religion."

I nodded again, feeling sick to my stomach though I had known I must marry Prince Lucas.

As a little girl, I had thought my father would let me marry for love because I was his favorite and all, and I had pictured Olympia marrying for duty. But it had turned the other way around. She had fallen in love with her fiancé last summer when she received his ring, and it had almost been unbearable for her to wait for their wedding. But it was unbearable for me to think of the fact that my wedding was coming up soon and there wasn't one thing I could do to stop it.

"You can get back to Perseus. Just be sure to make it to dinner tonight, Annabeth," he nodded towards the door, telling me my audience was over.

"Of course, Father," I bowed and slowly went back to the door.

For a moment, I doubted that even Percy could make me smile after my latest lecture from my father, but I prayed to every god I could think of that he would.

I've kind of had this Princess Dream since I was a little kid. So, I turned it into Annabeth and Percy and decided to give it a shot.