Heroes with Wands

Chapter 1

Annabeth

My dad may not have been my favorite person in the world, but when he told me where we were moving next, I couldn't have loved him more.

His job required him to move to Manhattan. With Percy. And camp. And all my friends. And Olympus, with my mother, plus the fact that I was the architect for the place. But mostly, with Percy!

I missed him so much. I hadn't seen him since after the war with Camp Jupiter. I missed his Seaweed Brain moments, I missed kissing him, but really, I missed kicking his butt.

"Annabeth!" Dad called up. "I made breakfast! A neighbor offered to walk to school with you! She's waiting here, so hurry it up trying to look pretty for him!"

"Ok, I'm almost ready!" I yelled. "I'm just designing Mom's thing for the place she lives! You know, um, the place where Thalia broke her legs?'' What? I couldn't say, 'the place where Percy killed Kronos'. That was too strange for a mortal.

I was working on something for Olympus. I was, after all, the architect. I finished up designing a statue of my mother, Athena. I closed Daedalus's laptop and raced downstairs.

Just like Percy's pen, Riptide, Thalia's bracelet and Jason's coin, Athena disguised my celestial bronze knife in a bobby pin. I tucked it in my hair and secured it.

I grabbed a piece of toast and thought of Piper back at camp. We had a joke about stealing each other's breakfast. A smile crept onto my face.

Then I forgot about dad and the girl. I looked up sheepishly. "Oh. Sorry. Right." Dad winked.

Dad's large goggles probably freaked out the girl, but hey, he was a scientist. His blondish hair stuck up in different directions. "All right. Annabeth, this is Avery. She's in your grade, and she brought your schedule."

I nodded and followed Avery out the door. We walked in silence for a long time. We were almost to school when she spoke.

"Not to be a pest, but I saw your number on your sheet," Avery said. "272. Right in the middle of me and the hottest guy in the school." She grinned. Whatever. I had Percy.

"My boyfriend goes to this school," I said. "I haven't seen him in a long time. I really miss him."

"Aw," Avery said, "at least you'll be with him again. But you're gonna still drop dead when you see this guy."

The school was coming into view. "Every girl has a crush on him, but he insists he has a girlfriend," she said. "He's one of my best friends, but I still like him. Head of the swim team, too. Every single girl tries to make a move on him. It's hilarious when he turns them down."

We walked into the school, into the crowd of kids. I followed Avery to our lockers as kids started filing in to get to their lockers. We opened up our lockers. Avery said, "There he is."

I turned around, leaning on my locker. A boy with black hair and green eyes walked towards us, his arms around a boy and a girl. He was cracking up. With that playboy smile, the smell of the sea.

My heart skipped a beat. Casually, I said in a loud voice, "You know, you still drool when you sleep, Seaweed Brain!"

Percy stopped. He looked around, and said, "Annabeth?" like he wasn't quite sure if he was hallucinating, dreaming, or I was Iris-Messaging him.

Then his eyes settled on me and a smile lit up his face. "Hey, Wise Girl." Wise Girl. I really missed that. I almost killed anybody besides Percy that called me that.

My cheeks hurt because of my huge smile. I ran over to him and he caught me. I had my arms around his neck and he had his around my waist. I felt myself being lifted off the ground as he kissed me, pouring every bit of happiness into it.