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The entire quest had sucked, in Annabeth's correct opinion.
Considering the very first encounter they had was with Janus and then Hera. Neither of them were particularly helpful.
Then they found and broke Briares from his imprisonment from Kampe on Alcatraz, only for him to abandon them and demoralize Tyson.
After that, they had the entire ordeal with Geryon, Nico, Eurytion, and Bianca's ghost.
Then the sphinx. (She didn't want to focus on that one too much.)
Followed almost immediately by her and Percy splitting off from Grover and Tyson, as they searched for Pan and Percy blew himself up at Mount Saint Helens.
Two weeks later, when Percy turned back up, very much not dead, he wanted to find Rachel.
Then they were back in the maze, with Rachel joining her quest. (Not that Annabeth wanted her to in the first place, but it's not like she had a say in the matter anyway.)
And once they were back in the maze they found Nico again, barely escaped Deadalus' workshop as it went down in flames, she lost Luke to Kronos, and they found Tyson and Grover only to watch Pan fade from existence before making their way back out of the maze, again.
All to barely make it back to Camp Half-Blood just before Luke launched his attack on Camp, nearly destroying it if it hadn't been for a string of good luck for them, finally.
It took Annabeth another day to realize that Luke hadn't been the only 'love' in her life she'd lost that summer.
Honestly, she should've seen it happening sooner. Hades, they'd been doing it in front of her the whole time. The very first time she'd even met her was the scene of Rachel writing her number on his arm. Percy had been taking her side the entire time she'd been on Annabeth's quest. They'd probably been dating this whole time, and he just hadn't wanted to tell Annabeth.
And why would he? She was just Annabeth, while she was Rachel Elizabeth Dare.
"Hey, Beth," Every single time Annabeth got her hopes up, foolishly, that things could go back to normal, "Rachel and I were gonna go to the beach this weekend, do you want to come with?" and every single time she was even more disappointed.
"No, thanks, Percy." His expression didn't even waver in the slightest. "I've got too much work to do with Deadalus's laptop. You two have plenty of fun without me anyway."
That one at least got some reaction. "What is your problem with Rachel, Annabeth? She's never done anything to you! And you're just so mean to her, all the time!" But of course, that's how he reacted.
"Just forget about it, Percy." Annabeth replied, keeping her eyes glued to the laptop's screen, no matter how much she wanted to take every second she could have with Percy, especially while She wasn't around to taint it, "I'm just busy, and stressed that's it. You go have fun with Rachel, and I'll be right here if I'm needed."
"Whatever." Percy groaned after a minute of silence, "If, if you change your mind just IM me, alright?"
The offer alone was more than he'd given her all summer. "I will," Annabeth promised, "now go Percy." And he did, without another word.
Even if it had been somewhat of a white lie, Annabeth had never been more grateful to actually have the laptop. The many, many, many plans and blueprints left behind by Daedalus would be plenty to keep Annabeth occupied enough that she hoped that every waking second she spent from now until, well she didn't how long, but at least until the end of the summer, when Percy would go back to school in New York with Her. The plans left to her by Daedalus would have to keep her distracted until then.
Her fifteenth birthday came and passed.
She got a phone call from Dad and a hug from Chiron. It seemed that spending nearly 20 hours a day for nearly a month straight tended to isolate oneself from well, everyone. It was a good thing Annabeth had always found some painfully ironic comfort in being completely alone. She was always the only person she could count on, for over fifteen twelve years and counting.
"Where the Hades have you been for the past month, Princess?"
Annabeth didn't even bother looking away from the laptop's screen as she asked, "What do you want, Clarisse?"
"Well, I've had a very peaceful past month," Clarisse started, making her way into the Athena cabin uninvited, "and as soon as I realized that not only were you and Prissy not fighting like normal, but that neither of you were even around, I figured I see what was wrong with you, Chase."
"Aw, I didn't know you cared, Clarisse." Annabeth replied, "And as touched as I am, La Rue, it's fine. Just go on back to whatever you've been doing to terrorize the younger campers."
It was weird talking to Clarisse now. Last year, they were quite literally fighting and arguing at every turn like children. But now, well, they'd both grown up quite a bit in a year's time. They'd reached an agreement, of sorts, and could somewhat happily co-exist, or at the very least they could both be at Camp Half-Blood without trying to kill each other every other minute.
"Just spill your guts so we can get this over with Chase," Clarisse groaned after Annabeth was, clearly, not going to give her anything to work with, "don't make me sick Silena on you. That won't be any fun for either of us, and you know it."
"No need to go that far, Clarisse." Annabeth returned, shutting the lid of the laptop, "I didn't think you cared about emotions and feelings and all that stuff." She'd expected to get some kind of response from Clarisse at that, something reminiscent of their younger, childish feud. But she didn't get anything from her, she just gave her a look, or glare, for her to actually say something of substance rather than continue dancing around it. "Fine, but you can't tell anyone else, okay? Not even Silena."
Annabeth wasn't entirely sure what was compelling her to be honest with Clarisse, especially about something as stupid and childish as this when they were in the throws of preparing for a war before next August. But she did anyway.
"I won't say anything, I promise." Clarisse told her. Emotions and feelings had never been an easy thing to deal with for the daughters of Ares and Athena, which kind of came with the territory of being children of war.
"Okay, well, uh you know Percy's friend, Rachel?" Annabeth started, figuring that it would be the best starting point. Once Clarisse gave her a sincere, short nod, Annabeth continued, "Well, apparently they met last December. And uh, she, she goes to his school, now. I don't know if you've seen them together, but they're so close, and touchy."
Then Clarisse just had to remark, "Oh my Gods, you're jealous."
"I am not!" Annabeth immediately shrieked back, luckily it was only her and Clarisse in the Athena cabin at the time, "It's not, it's not that. It's just, I mean I just would've thought that if he had started dating her months ago that he would've told me as much, especially before I, never mind."
"Chase, first of all, you are an idiot." Clarisse started, which was an amazing launching point, "Second of all, don't feel ashamed or whatever about your feelings. Third of all, what the Hades did you do with Percy?"
It wasn't every day that Annabeth was being called an idiot. Normally she was the one calling other people, typically Percy, an idiot.
"Why am I an idiot?" Annabeth returned. Rather than start on the other two points that Clarisse had mentioned.
"Prissy and his friend aren't dating," What? "you know that, right?"
And all Annabeth could respond with was, "What?!"
"Gods, you are an idiot." Clarisse repeated with a laugh, "Prissy is not dating her, I can tell."
"How do you know that?" Annabeth returned, a bit too quickly admittedly, "Not, not that I care or anything." No one in their right mind would ever believe that claim, let alone someone who'd found amusement in challenging just about everything Annabeth said for literal years.
And just as Annabeth would've expected her to any other day, Clarisse rolled her eyes at the sheer gall of her pitiful proclamation before elaborating, "Well, considering that when he's bothered to stick around Camp for a day or two, all Percy has been doing is annoyingly pestering all of your siblings if everything was okay with you."
"He has?" The question slipped out of her mouth before she could think them over. "Why didn't he just, Gods he's an idiot." Of course Percy would avoid going into Athena's cabin without one of her siblings, or Annabeth herself, since he really didn't need to give her mom any more reasons to dislike him.
"Actually," Clarisse contradicted, "I'd argue that Prissy not trying to offend your mom has been one of the smartest things he's ever done."
Annabeth nearly immediately replied, "Of course you would say that!" but couldn't help the fit of carefree, stereotypical teen girl slumber party laughter that escaped her. The fleeting five seconds of time where Annabeth could've just pretended that she was having a sleepover with Clarisse, of all people, back at her Dad's, gossiping about boys. Normal teen girl stuff. Not normal demigod children stuff. "Well, I would argue that he's a lot smarter than you like to give him credit for."
"Sure, Chase." Clarisse retorted with another eye roll, "He's totally smart and it's not just because you have a giant crush on him."
"Shut up!" Annabeth hissed at her, grabbing the pillow from behind her and hitting Clarisse with it, "I never said that!"
Despite being hit by Annabeth's pillow a few seconds prior, Clarisse still laughed as she replied, "Annabeth you're so red right now, just admit that you like him already. Make all of our lives easier."
"I hate you." Annabeth told her, even if there was no sincerity in it. Not anymore at least. "Okay, fine, maybe I kind of sort of like him."
"Well, isn't that just absolutely adorable." She hadn't even heard the cabin door open when Silena had let herself in, evidently. "Don't you think so Percy?" Oh no.
If Annabeth's cheeks had been just slightly tinged pink before, they were most definitely burning, bright red now. As Annabeth whipped her gaze to the door of Cabin Six where, sure enough, she found Silena grinning like mad and Percy blushing a fourth as much as Annabeth was, all while Clarisse just laughed, nearly knocking herself off Annabeth's bed as she did. "How, uh, how much did you" Gods this was embarrassing, "how long have you been there?"
"Long enough, Annie." Silena cooed, obviously taking a great deal of joy from the whole situation. "Now, while you two sort all of this out," Silena continued, giving Percy a bit of a shove further into the Athena cabin, "Clarisse and I will make sure you two have plenty of time to talk everything out."
In the blink of an eye, Clarisse and Silena fled from Cabin Six, leaving Percy, still standing by the door of the cabin, and Annabeth, sitting stunned on her bed, completely alone. "Hey, so, uh," Annabeth started after a painfully awkward silence of them both glancing at the other before forcibly redirecting their gazes literally anywhere else, "I can, I can explain um, all of that."
"You can?" Percy returned, carefully making his way from the door frame to Annabeth's bed, staying a solid foot or so from it, "That would be great actually, because I don't think I've ever been more confused." When Annabeth had been avoiding looking at Percy, she would've thought that he was genuinely confused about the whole situation, but as soon as she looked up from her bed at his stupid face, she knew he was being a Seaweed Brain.
"Gods, you are so annoying, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth just about shrieked at him.
But even that didn't deter him in the slightest. "Perhaps," Percy started, his smirk still plastered onto his face, "but it sure sounds like you want me to be your Seaweed Brain, Wise Girl."