Annabeth

Chaos erupted in the group of men. Percy was utterly still—dumbfounded by the arrow that pinned him to the tree trunk. Leo was shouting like a little girl. Frank was looking around frantically, searching for the unseen archer, and the rest of the boys in the group were all shouting and running around, while Nico and Jason attempted to calm them.

Who knew one little arrow could cause so much disarray? But I guess Thalia had that effect. Where is she anyways?

As if hearing my thoughts, she gracefully leapt down from the branch she had been perched on and shot two more arrows in quick succession, effectively pinning Jason and Nico to the same tree as Percy. She never ceases to amaze me by her skill. There was the tiniest amount of cloth showing on the sleeves that she could hit without piercing the boy's skin, yet she does it nonchalantly, like this was as easy as eating breakfast.

All of a sudden, every one of my guards burst through the wall of trees, each fully dressed in armor and on their horses. Thalia was shorter, just standing at the lead in front of them—but her murderous glare adding a couple feet to her stature. Two shining arrowheads stared the group of boys down, knocked and ready to be fired in a second. Everybody stopped moving and cautiously at the opposing group.

Thalia spotted me, and her eyes shone with relief, but they soon hardened up again. She drew the bow back, aiming at Frank and Leo, who had, in the heat of the moment, had grabbed hold of me, making sure I don't escape.

"I'd suggest that you two boys let go of the girl, unless you want to be fired at like those other three guys. And trust me, I don't always shoot perfectly—sometimes I can miss on accident," she threatened. Thalia never missed—she would just adjust her aim. The two boys seemed to get her point.

Leo and Frank each gulped, then reluctantly let go of me. Right away, Thalia, Malcolm, Castor, and Darryn ran up to me while the rest of the guards kept back, weapons at the ready.

All of them started asking questions at once.

"Where have you been?"

"Why didn't you take a guard?"

"Did these boys do that to your arm?"

"You could've been captured!"

I stopped them with a raised hand, "Woah woah! Hold your questions! To answer them all, I just took a walk through the forest, I didn't take a guard, because I wanted to walk alone. No, these boys didn't do this to my arm—hellhounds did." I continued before any of them could ask, "The hellhounds are gone, these boys saved me, and I don't think they mean to capture me."

Thalia electric eyes sparked with disapproval, and she shook her head. "You shouldn't scare us like that, Annabeth. We didn't know what had happened."

"I'm sorry. Can you get me some ambrosia, though? Please?" I asked, feeling my arm more now that the excitement was gone. It throbbed dully, but when I took the ambrosia Castor held out to me, the throb dropped, and I knew the cuts would be gone soon. I sighed in relief and unwrapped the bandages. "Now what should we do with this group?" I asked her.

Thalia looked over at the three boys pinned to the tree by her silver arrows. She squinted in confusion, then took a step and looked closer at Jason's face.

A second later, she burst out laughing.

I exchanged a baffled glance with my brothers and guards. "Why are you laughing, Thals?"

She then surprised me by freeing Jason and giving him a rib-crushing hug. Jason was laughing as well, and he hugged her back. I was shocked—they seemed to be very close, and the Hunters of Artemis had to swear off boys. But then it hit me.

Thalia had told me a long time ago about a brother she had, who had joined a male group of demigods to travel around. They were much like the Hunters, but they didn't have to swear off the opposite gender. And she had said that her brother didn't look like her, except for the eyes. She described him as tall, blond, and nice. And his name was Jason. I felt so stupid that I didn't recognize it earlier.

"Jason! Little brother, where have you been? I've looked for you, but could never find you quick enough before you left for another quest!" she said excitedly, leaning back from their embrace.

Percy and Nico looked as puzzled as I had felt earlier, and Percy asked cautiously, "Jason, you know this girl?"

He said "girl" with disgust, causing Thalia to glare at him and walk over to his body still pinned against the tree.

"He knows me. I'm his sibling, idiot," she said viciously. Recognition dawned on Percy, but he hid it quickly, and continued on with his talent: annoying people.

"Really? Oh, yeah, I remember he mentioned something about a brother! You must be him. What did he say your name was? I forget, could you refresh me on your name again, mister?" he said with an evil grin. I shook my head, amazed at his reckless stupidity. Thalia is gonna kill him.

But instead, Thalia smirked, "My name is Miss Amazing Gorgeous Independent Boy-Hater. Come on, practice saying it with me. Oh, I'm also the one who pinned you to that trunk, so unless you want yourself pinned to the tree by your stomach also, then you would do well to tell me why you took Annabeth."

Thalia had gotten really close to his face, glaring at him directly in the eyes, and as much as I hated to admit it, she probably had a worse death glare than me. It could probably make even Area wet his pants. However, Percy just grinned at her and said, "That was supposed to have sarcasm in it, Missy. I think you need to have your ears checked."

Thalia growled, then turned to Nico, who was snickering. "And you are?" She said coldly.

He grinned cheekily at her and replied, "Nico di Angelo, not at your service."

She rolled her eyes, and was about to answer when Jason interrupted her, "It's okay sis, they're on the good side. We didn't want to take Annabeth. We have been tracking down this pack of abnormally large hellhounds, and found them attacking her. So we helped her out. We found out that she can be as annoying as Percy here."

Thalia snorted and said to Percy, "Wow, you must be really annoying."

"Hey!" I protested.

"I agree with Miss Scary over here, you are really annoying," Percy said with a lopsided grin.

I scowled at him. "You're insulting yourself, stupid. She said we are equally annoying."

"Ah, but I'm insulting you at the same time, so it works out for me." He said with a victorious tone. I raised an eyebrow and scrunched my nose.

"That really didn't make sense." I said.

Percy grinned. "It did in my book."

"And is that the book of Stupidity?" I asked, smirking.

"No, its the book of Wisdom, but you probably aren't familiar with that book," he said, returning my smirk.

"You have no idea," I said, knowing Percy didn't know I was the daughter of Wisdom herself.

"Alright love birds, stop your flirting." Thalia said, and Nico started snickering. Percy and I both scowled at her.

"Oh, shut up, Thalia," I said angrily. She chuckled, then released Percy and Nico.

"So, what are you guys doing up here near Larissa?" Percy asked.

"How do you know this isn't where we live?" I asked suspiciously.

He looked at me like I was the dumbest thing on earth, "Well obviously you aren't from these parts. First off, you must be a daughter of Athena, considering your eyes and your ego as high as Mount Olympus, so you probably live in Athens, if not near. And right next to you is Darryn, a legend, and he lives in Athens. I thought you were supposed to be smart?" he said with a grin, glad that he could best me.

I huffed and turned to Thalia. "I hate him."

She smirked at me, "That's just because he's right."

I glared at her.

"It's fine, you can tell us what your plan is, we're not going to do anything, you know," Percy reassured us.

I sighed, crossing my arms. "We're headed to Mount Olympus for a council about my attempted assassination," I said bluntly.

Percy raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything about it. "Well, we are headed there too, so if you don't mind, can we accompany you?" he asked.

"No," I replied shortly. Definitely no. I could not stand it if we traveled another three days with this annoying, aggravating, irritating, unreasonable, cute boy. Wait. No. I didn't mean that last one. Argh, I need to stop having those thoughts. But I wouldn't be able to live, it would be torture.

"Annabeth, get over your first impressions," the huntress beside me said. "It's fine if they come with us. I believe them to be good, and they could help with protecting you, because we obviously don't have enough guards to keep a watch over you," Thalia told me pointedly. I looked down to my shoes, guilty.

"Why are you going to Olympus?" I asked Jason, ignoring Percy's triumphant smirk.

Unfortunately, the person I was ignoring answered me. "Whenever we finish a quest, we have to report back to the gods—or mainly, my father. And we just finished one."

I still ignored Percy, and asked Jason again, "Who is Percy's father?" Even though I was pretty sure I knew who it was.

Percy answered again. He was making it hard for me to ignore him. "My father is Poseidon, your mother's enemy. Why are you ignoring me, Annie?" He questioned playfully.

I finally turned to him. "Don't call me 'Annie,'" I said dangerously.

He grinned and shrugged. "Okie-dokie."

This boy is so annoying.

So I guess it was settled. We all agreed to pack up camp and head to Larissa to meet Piper, even though my three brothers looked a little hesitant at letting the group of men join us. And I was a little suspicious at first, but I trusted Thalia, and she thought it was a good idea.

Now, the biggest problem: surviving a three-day trip with an annoying boy, who can also draw many girls' eyes (I wasn't an exception, it seems), but is my mother's enemy's son.

This was going to be an interesting trip.