Annabeth came over to my house 5 minutes later.

I do admit, my heart skipped a beat when I saw her. Then again, it usually did. But today, She was wearing a white shirt with stripes on the hems and a mini skirt- and I'd never seen her in a mini skirt before, but it just wasn't Annabeth. She'd never wear it if she had the choice. Which, apparently, she didn't.

"What's with the mini skirt?" I asked, observing the rest of her appearance. She had her curly blond hair cascading down her shoulders with a clip to keep it out of her eyes, and she was wearing her owl earrings that her dad had given her.

"It's part of the uniform," She told me. "I hate uniforms, but I guess I have to deal with it." She smiled at me, making me blush a little.

"So why'd you wanna come?" I asked her.

Her face dropped. "I'll tell you later," She said absently, waving her hand. I hate it when she knows something and won't tell me. It's exactly like when Chiron and Annabeth knew about the former Great Prophecy, and I didn't know about it.

Anyway, my mom had baked my favorite blue chocolate chip cookies. It's funny how we still have that going on even though I'm 16. I stuffed another in my mouth as Annabeth tried to explain a math theory to me. She's Dyslexic too, but I guess she has a better time paying attention.

Last year, I used to go to Rachel's house pretty often so she could help me out. She was basically my only mortal/normal friend who knew about all the greek mythology stuff. But she promised to her dad that she'd go to a finishing school in New Hampshire, so she's gone, and I'm stuck with straight D-'s. Hooray. the best I could probably get is a D+. Yay.

I could tell Annabeth wasn't really trying very hard. In the end, we just ditched homework entirely and was just talking in my room.

I was sprawled across my bed, and Annabeth had her head on my stomach.

"So," I started. "How's boarding school?"

"It's okay," She replied. "The teachers are really nice, and they help me the best they can, especially with my dyslexia, but I really feel like I don't need that much help." She smiled. "The best part is, they have a class on Greece. They teach the class how to speak in ancient greek, even though I already know how." She laughed pleasantly, making me smile. "They also have a bunch of stuff about the economy, the history, and myths. My favorite." She stared at the blank white ceiling with her deep gray eyes.

We sat there a little longer, just looking at the ceiling. Then she spoke up. "Peace at last."

" Yeah." I replied.

"Do you remember when we were eleven?" I promoted, memories drifting back to me.

"yes." She smiled. "I still remember you soaking me in toilet water."

"You'll never let that go, will you?" I said in a flat tone.

"Nope."

We sat there a little longer.

"Remember the Lotus Casino?" Annabeth asked.

"yeah." I said. "I had to drag you and Grover out of there."

She smiled.

"Remember 'nobody'?"

"How could I forget that?" She said, laughing. "And don't forget Circe's island."

"Come on!" I complained.

"You made a cute guinea pig." She teased.

"You always say that." I pointed out.

"not true." She protested half-heartedly. "Remember Thalia showing up a month ago?"

"yeah." I said. "I wonder what she's doing now."

"Probably killing some monsters or something. Or maybe just taking a break."

"yeah, that's possible." I paused. "Remember the flying pig?"

"The Clazmonian sow," she corrected me. "Of course I do. How did you beat it, anyway?"

"I had help from Hermes and a buncha lions."

"What?"

"Automatons."

"Ohh," Annabeth said, laughing. There were a bunch of automatons disguised as statues in New York that Daedalus planted there. We activated them to help protect Manhattan from Kronos's forces when he tried to take over.

We lay there a little longer. Then she sat up and looked at me. "You asked why I wanted to come."

"Yeah." I responded. "Go on."

"I think you know the first reason."

I felt my cheeks grow a little hot, but I said, grinning, "You wanted to see me, didn't you?"

She smiled and nodded a little sheepishly, but her face became solemn again. "The other reason is Rachel."

I sat up suddenly. I recently thought they were getting along fine, but she went on.

"She called me yesterday, in the middle of the night, which is strange," she began. "And she said it was something important that you needed to know."

"Go on." I said warily.

"She didn't tell me exactly what it was, but just that you needed to call her. Right away."