Oh my gosh, hey guys! It's been so freaking long since I've updated and I deeply and sincerely apologize. This is the longest chapter yet and it's the last so I wanted to make it the best... Even though I half-assed it towards the end.. But I hope you all love it and I need every single one of you to vote in the poll I put up on my page. If you don't have an account and therefore can't vote, just leave a comment/review about which one you choose.

TheAvidReader: I think I was happy when I wrote Ch. 24, but I don't actually remember writing it right now to give you a 100% factual statement about that. haha. And OMG IKR ALGEBRA II TOTALLY SUCKS BALLS. I totally agree with you! I hope you will stick with me and my writing through my upcoming stories. We should start penpaling each other or something because I think you're awesome and don't wanna lose touch with you! You've stuck with me through this shitty story from the beginning and it means so much to me! Love you!

Percabeth02: The big deal was that it brought back a lot of emotions she didn't want to go through again and it was sort of painful for her. And you and I should PM back and forth because, you too, are awesome and I don't wanna lose touch with you either! Love you!

Chapter 25

Annabeth POV

I woke up as my alarm sounded. I had set a different alarm to wake up to this morning since it was an extra special day. It was my birthday! The alarm I chose to wake up to today was Drink In My Hand by Eric Church. What song could be better to wake up to on your birthday?

I went into the bathroom to shower as soon as I woke up. After my shower, I went back into the room and found some clothes on the bed with a note from Percy.

Wear this today. I think it'll look great. Oh, and happy birthday.

~ Seaweed Brain

I unfolded the clothes to see a knee length, sea green dress with a skinny pink belt for around the waist. I have to hand it to him, the outfit was super cute. Maybe he was too good at picking out my outfits… Nevertheless, I put on the dress and saw that he hadn't picked out shoes, so I added my touch of Annabeth to the outfit and put on my black converse. However, before I put my sneakers on, I took note to the weather. It was December so I decided to put on a pair of black leggings too. I mean, black goes with everything, right?

While he showered, I went into the kitchen to grab some breakfast. I put a bagel in the toaster and waited for it to pop up and out of the toaster. Once it did, I grabbed a plate and spread peanut butter on the bagel. I was half way done with my bagel when Percy walked into the kitchen. He, too, grabbed a bagel, toasted it, and spread peanut butter on it.

"You found the dress, I take it?" he asked, looking at me.

"What gave it away? The fact that I am wearing it?" I asked sarcastically.

We both laughed and he rolled his eyes at me. "Ha-ha. I see you added your own touch to it, though," he said, continuing to eat his breakfast.

"Did I? Huh, imagine that," I said, once again unable to resist the perfect opportunity to be the most sarcastic person ever.

After we had finished breakfast and brushed our teeth, we started towards the school. The drive to school was suspiciously quiet. Well, not quiet so much as silent. Neither one of us spoke a word. It wasn't one of the comfortable silences though, but it wasn't necessarily awkward either.

"Is something wrong, Perce?" I asked, tired of the strange silence.

"What could possibly be wrong, Annabeth?" he asked smiling at me. And not one of his playful ones, either. Nor was it his famous lopsided smile. It was more like a smirk. An evil one at that, and I didn't like it. I could only imagine what was going to happen.

We got to school and sat in the car for another minute longer, enjoying its warmth, before entering the cold, frigid morning air.

We entered the tall, old, yet still gorgeous architecturally, brick building of a petty teachery. As we walked towards our lockers, many people complimented me on my dress, which got me thinking that, yes, Percy was indeed way too good at putting together an outfit, which I therefore took the liberty of pointing out to him.

"Percy?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you ever think that perhaps you're too good at picking out an outfit?"

He pondered the thought for a moment. "I only picked out the dress. You actually put the whole thing together. So, no. The thought has never crossed my mind, Wise Girl," he replied, winking.

"And the outfit from this past Monday?"

"Lucky guesses, Annie."

"Don't."

"What? It really was just lucky guessing," he said defending, more like protecting, himself.

"No I'm not saying that you're lying. I'm saying don't call me Annie!" I said firmly.

"I used to be the only one who could call you that, and now you won't even allow me to call you that! Am I not as special to you anymore?"

"You special to me, though! Do you think you would be my boyfriend if you weren't?" I asked, starting to get furious.

I'm assuming that my eyes were flooded with anger because his became engulfed with fear. For some reason this slightly amused. I mean, I'm really not all that scary. Sure, I had my moments occasionally, but I'm not scary or anything all the time like he was acting as if I was.

"Okay, okay! I was just joking!" he said half in laughter, half disguised with alarm and worry.

"Oh my gods. I'm honestly not that scary!"

"Umm, Annabeth, if you can say that and believe it then you need a reality check. You can be incredibly frightening. Occasionally, you can even be bloodcurdling."

"No!"

"Yes."

"Wrong."

"Just ask anyone else," he replied, keeping his cool.

"Fine," I said, going to find someone to settle this. I knew just who to go to as well.

After a minute of roaming the halls, we arrived at the auditorium. I went in search of a friend of ours from Technical Theatre, whom I knew would side with me. I found Will on the ladder, without somebody spotting him, which is super stupid to do.

"Shouldn't someone be holding the other side of the ladder on this unstable platform you set the ladder on, Will?" I asked him laughing and taking a hold of the ladder to steady it and spot him.

"Eh. Technically, yeah. But, when you've been doing this as long as I have, it's not that big of a deal anymore," he said, shrugging, and coming down off of the ladder.

"So what do you need?" he asked.

"Well, Percy here," I started, gesturing towards Percy, "thinks I'm scary. I'm not all that scary, am I?"

"Personally, I do not find you scary at all. Only at certain moments are you actually scary. When you want to be, you can be, but generally, no, you're not scary."

"I told you so!" I said, turning towards Percy. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love him with all I have, but I was not about to be wrong. No way.

"Well, technically, I said you can be. Not that you necessarily always are. So, technically we're both right."

"Fine," I mumbled.

"Come on, Anna. I have a surprise for you."

"Dammit. I was hoping we could skip that part of today. You know how much I hate surprises, and yet you still insist on having them for me."

"You'll love it. I promise."

"Fine," I said yet again.

He led me to our lockers… Which are on the other side of campus, sort of. When we got to our lockers, there was no surprise thank gods. But I guess I spoke, or thought for that matter, too soon.

We got to homeroom and there was the surprise. All of our friends were there, the classroom was decorated, and Thalia was standing there handing me a crown. This was going to be a really long day. I mean, it's only my eighteenth birthday. What the hell is the big deal?!

She forced the crown onto my head, despite my pleas for her to not place it upon my head. Then again, it's Thalia. When had she ever followed someone else's requests, wished, and / or pleas? Oh yeah, that's right, never. I sighed and accepted my fate for today. It was going to be a long as hell day.

After a special time of torture in homeroom, Percy and I made our way to English. Thankfully, though, we didn't do anything for my birthday. All we did was classwork, which made me probably the happiest person in the world. I mean, yeah, I got the occasional 'happy birthday' but it wasn't anything like the torture in homeroom.

I wish I could say the same for Physics, though, but unfortunately I can't. Mrs. Elder made a big deal about it (shocker, shocker) so naturally she had everybody sing 'happy birthday' despite my protests. I just kind of hid behind my book for it since I hated all of the attention this fucking crown was getting me. I will get back at Thalia for this one of these days. I promise her I will. Anyways, after the class sang 'happy birthday', we took our test on Chapter 15 and had time to free read after that. I was the first one done, so I had plenty of time to read.

Technical Theatre wasn't too bad. It was more like English was than Physics, thank gods. Just the occasional 'happy birthday' from some of the class and one from everybody on lighting and sound crew and that was it. It was nice. We focused on the work at hand, which I was really appreciative for. Call me crazy, but I do like to work.

Lunch was a totally different story, however. As Percy and I left the Auditorium for the cafeteria, I tried to slip away. Needless to say, it didn't work. Within a matter of seconds, he had his arms wrapped around my waist and he was dragging me back to him.

"And just where do you think you were going, Wise Girl?" he asked, smiling down at me.

"Anywhere that Thalia and all of them aren't," I said laughing, "I don't want to know what else you guys have planned! First it's this horrid crown, what's next?"

"Oh, come on! It's not that bad!"

"What's not that bad? The crown or what you guys have planned for me?"

"Eh. Both, I guess. But, we have a surprise for you tonight too! You'll love it, I promise. But, you have to come to lunch with us, if you want the surprise," he explained with a mischievous grin lain upon his face. I was honestly growing to hate that grin with a passion.

"You do realize that I hate surprises, right?"

"What? You don't trust me to surprise you without you getting pissed and / or scared out of your mind?"

"Sometimes, Perce. Sometimes…"

"Come on!" he said, literally dragging me with him.

Right before we got to the cafeteria, Percy covered my eyes with his hands claiming that it was a surprise and that if I looked, it would ruin the surprise. Oh great, I thought, this is going to be horrible. He led me through the cafeteria to where we normally sit.

He uncovered my eyes and I thought I was going to kill someone. It was very similar, if not the same, as homeroom. So naturally I did what anyone like me would do. I simply left.

"Guys, I appreciate the thought, I really do, but I don't like this type of stuff. It's seriously just a regular day, guys. I love you all, but, no. And you of everyone, Percy, should know that, or so I would think," I said walking towards the door.

I exited the cafeteria and went down near the woods. I wasn't angry per say, or even upset. But, I wasn't exactly happy either. I felt kind of suffocated, if anything. I mean, sure it was better than not feeling anything at all, but who's to say that even? All in all, I guess I didn't know how I felt. All I knew was I wasn't happy. I had to think for a while. After about ten minutes of sitting alone in the woods, a poem popped into my mind. I don't really know where it came from, but I was glad I had my notebooks with me so I could write it down. Once I was almost done writing it down and perfecting it to imperfection, Percy came along walking to me like he knew where I would be and was just giving me cool down time.

"Hey, Wise Girl."

"Hey."

"You okay now?"

"I don't know, Perce. I really just don't."

"Whoa. Annabeth Chase doesn't know something?" he asked in a mocking tone.

"Yeah, shocking, I know," I said laughing.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just, I hate parties, especially ones for me. You know that, Perce. It's suffocating, really. I didn't really want to celebrate, ya know?"

"Yeah, I know. That's why I did it, though."

"W-what?"

"Well, I wanted you to know that there are people here that are living and care about you and would like to be, well, ya know, living. Thalia, Nico, everyone else, and myself would really hate it if you were dead. Everyone needs to feel loved, Anna. This is our way of making sure you feel loved."

"Oh. Well, you didn't really need to go all out, ya know."

"Yeah I know. I did that really just to irritate you."

"Of course you did."

"So what was it that you were writing down right there?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing."

"Good, then you won't mind if I read it," he said, taking the notebook out of my hand and reading it aloud to the both of us, though I already know what was written. I mean, it was my poem for gods' sakes.

"Somewhere deep inside my soul

Is where I keep the monster

That consumes me as a whole.

And now that it is hissing,

Though I don't know why,

I realize something's missing

And I'm struggling to get by.

In my way is myself

And now I understand that to just get through the day

I need to pull myself away.

So now I have a choice:

In one hand is a friend

In the other is a knife.

So which will I choose?

To hang in there day by day,

Or to end my life?"

He stood there taking the whole thing in. After a minute he looked completely flabbergasted and astonished. I wasn't quite sure if it was good or bad, though. But that just goes to show you, never underestimate Perseus Jackson. He just went on and told me what he thought without a single thing being carefully processed in all probability.

"What the fuck is this? What does this mean?" he asked with a worrisome tone.

"Nothing," I sighed.

"Well, it obviously means something. Everything means something. Even the definition of nothing is something therefore making nothing something."

"Can you even follow what you just said right there?" I asked him, laughing.

"Not really, but I'm assuming you can."

"Lucky for you, your assumption is right. And, right now, at this very precise moment, I have no clue what it means. It just came to me, sorta. I felt the need to write it down, though, so yeah it's gotta mean something. I'll figure it out eventually."

He studied my face carefully before deciding upon the fact that I was lying. According to him, I am a terrible bluffer. I'll give that one to him, however because I am and always will be.

"You know what, Percy? Why don't you tell me what you think it means and I'll let you know if you are right or not?"

"Okay, well I think that you're saying that while you have fantastic friends, and let's not leave out the part about having the best boyfriend in the world, you feel that something is missing. You feel like that after all you've done, and despite the fact that it's all in the past and behind you now, that you are some sort of monster who doesn't deserve a second chance. You feel a void of happiness in your life despite all the good things you know you have. You love where you're at right now and don't want to regress to what you were and where you were a few months ago. Hell, even a few weeks ago. You don't know what's coming for you and you're scared of it, but that's okay, Annabeth. That's why Thalia, Nico, and I are all here for you no matter what. I can't speak for all of the others but I sure as hell can speak for them."

"So, if you really knew what it was about all along, why did you flip out about it a few minutes ago?"

"Because, it sort of scared me for a minute and I didn't want it to mean what I originally thought it meant. So are you saying I'm right, just out of morbid curiosity?"

"Yeah, you're right, mostly."

"Mostly?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, you covered most of it. You left out some things that I'm not even sure about so therefore you got it mostly right."

"Fair enough," he conceded.

I guess we hadn't realized how long we had been sitting in the woods arguing over this because the next thing we knew the bell was ringing meaning that we had to make our way to our last class of the day, which just so happened to be our favourite class: Latin.

When we got there, I had to accept the fact that we were having a party. I couldn't escape it this time. It was better than homeroom though. I don't really know why, but it was. If I had to make a bet on it, I would say it was because of Percy's explanation. We didn't do a lot of classwork, though we did some. It was mostly just chatting and eating junk food. For the first time in a few days, the other students weren't giving me weird looks about my arms or the letters or anything. I was trying to figure out if it was because of my birthday or because they just got used to it.

Before anyone knew it, the dismissal bell was ringing. Percy and I were the only ones that stayed to clean up. Even Mr. Brunner left! We cleaned up rather quickly since we had competitions on who could clean up the neatest the fastest. Of course, I won. But while Percy was still cleaning up, he struck up conversation.

"So, do you have plans for tonight?"

"Um, no. Why?"

"Well, you do now."

"Oh good gods, Percy. What did you plan this time?"

"We're going clubbing, duh!"

"We?"

"All of us, Annie. Me, you, Nico, Thals, Silena, Beckendorf, Rachel, everybody."

"All right. Fine. I'll actually go and have fun tonight."

"Finally!"

"Just one quick question."

"What?"

"Will there be alcohol?"

"Replacing one bad habit with another are we?"

"Ha-ha you're hilarious. No. I just find that sometimes parties are more fun with alcohol…"

"Yes," he sighed, "there will be alcohol."

"Awesome," I said smiling at him. Tonight is definitely going to be fun I assured myself. And for once, I was actually right.

When we got back to the apartment, we started getting ready. And by 'we', I, of course, meant me. We didn't get home until five o'clock and we were leaving at seven thirty. I had time to get all girlied up so I decided upon straightening my unstraightenable hair, though it's really only unstraightenable when it's dried curly. I spent an hour and a half on my hair which seemed super unreasonable, but I had the time. I moved on to make up after my hair. I just stuck to the simple stuff. And by simple stuff, I mean strictly eye liner and mascara. I then had to decide what to wear, and who better to ask than the fashionista herself, Silena?

"Hello?" she asked as she picked up her cell phone.

"Hey Silena, It's Annabeth."

"Oh, hey Annie!"

"Call me that one more time and I swear to gods that I will rip all of the hair off your head, burn all of your clothes, and throw out all of your make up."

"You wouldn't."

"Do you really wanna test that?"

"No ma'am. So what's up?"

"I need your help deciding on an outfit for tonight."

"Oh, that's simple. Go into your closet and on the floor is a box. Happy birthday, Annabeth," she said and hung up.

I did as she said, found the box and set it on my bed. I stared at it for a minute before deciding to open it. I was amazed at what I pulled out. It was a skin tight, strapless silver dress that went down to the middle of my thighs and there was also a pair of silver espadrille heels. I put on the dress, but had to call Percy in to zip it up in the back since I have never been good at doing that nor will I ever be.

"Hey, Perce!"

"Yeah?"

"Come here."

"What?" he asked as he walked through the door, shirtless since he had just gotten out of the shower. His abs were glistening from the water and his hair was messy and wet.

"Can you zip up my dress?"

"I can, I don't want to, but I can," he said as he zipped it.

"Gods, I hope you meant that in a perverted way."

"What?" he laughed.

"Oh, shut up, you know what I mean."

"You know I do," he said winking.

That's when we both lost it. Next thing we knew we were making out like there was no tomorrow. Hell, like there was no tonight. We soon found our way to my bed and he lay down on top of me, our lips never separating from one another's. That is, until the doorbell rang.

"Ugh," we exclaimed simultaneously.

Since I was the only one who was fully dressed (after he zipped the dress back up…) I had to go answer the door. When I opened the door, I was surprised to see Nico, Thalia, and everyone else standing outside. Then I looked at the clock. Damn. Percy and I were making out for, like, half an hour. It was seven o'clock already.

"Hey!" the all exclaimed as they walked through the door. I could tell they were already pumped up and ready to go. I was expecting that. What I wasn't expecting was the tequila shots we took before Percy even came out of his room from putting on a shirt. He saw me taking a shot, which was my third, and started laughing.

"Jesus, Annabeth. Couldn't even wait until we got there to start taking shots, I see?"

"What can I say? I love me some tequila."

"Yeah, I can see that… How many shots have you had?"

"Well, this," I said rising up my now filled shot glass, "will be my fourth. I think."

"Nico, get the god damn tequila away from Annabeth. NOW."

Nico sighed and took the tequila bottle back.

"Chill, Percy. It's not like I've never had a drink before in my life. This is nothing."

"At least wait until we get to the club."

"Fine. But I will tell you now that I plan on getting absolutely fucking drunk."

"Yeah, and by the looks and sounds of it, you're already halfway there."

"Good," I smiled.

We all piled out of the door and went out to the parking lot. Thalia, Nico, and I all rode with Percy while Silena, Rachel, and Grover rode with Charlie. Clarisse and Chris rode together as well. Percy, however, made Nico give the tequila to someone else so I couldn't have anymore.

After about thirty minutes, we arrived at the club. Surprisingly, we didn't have to wait at all to get in. I guess there was some kind of telepathic communication between Percy and I because he immediately answered saying that he knew the owner. I shrugged. It didn't really matter to me.

We got in there and all of us, with the exception on Chris, Percy, and Beckendorf, started taking more shots again. We started off with tequila then moved on to vodka. I was completely shit faced by ten thirty. Despite being drunk, they all had me make a speech anyways. I didn't really get why, but I did it anyways.

"Well, you guys, I'm kind of drunk, but we'll give it a shot anyways. I came here a few months ago, looking for nothing but a place to stay. I went to you, Percy, because you were the only one I knew that would even consider taking me in. I came, running away from myself. I hated who I was. I got here and hadn't stopped anything I meant to. I guess you could say that I was addicted to cutting and taking pills. Anyways, I met you guys and felt kind of insecure and like an outcast. But, I soon started dating Luke. Possibly the biggest mistake of my life. But, if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have tried to kill myself, I may not be standing here right now today, and I wouldn't have the best boyfriend and best friend in the whole world. I came here for one thing and I've finally found it. Happiness."