Phase Four

The end of this torture could not come fast enough.

Paul had somehow managed not to call on me in class—I would totally thank him for that later—but my head still swirled with letters that refused to do anything even relatively helpful. Why couldn't everyone just learn Greek like normal people?

Wait, normal people? Where had "normal" come from? Oh, no—I'm starting to think my mega-unnatural-reality is normal! This is bad, I thought, letting my head drop down onto the desk with THUMP.

"Hey," some accented-kid behind me whisper-yelled. "Are you okay?"

I turned and lifted my head just enough to see a girl with eyes the size of flying saucers. She was staring at me with those a big UFOs as if she had been watching me struggle through English for a while. Since she was sitting right behind me, I guess she had.

"I'm just not used to reading in English," I told her. "I'm out of practice."

She quickly stole a look toward the front, checking on the teacher's whereabouts, I'm sure, before nodding. "I understand. I moved to New York when I nine, but before that, I lived in Arizona. My family and I only ever spoke Spanish, you know? English was my worse subject for a long time. Are you new?"

That explains her accent, I thought, admiring her honesty. "Nah. I've lived in Manhattan all my life," I told her. "I just never bothered learning the local language."

Thankfully, the bell rang, saving me from having to explain myself to the girl. She probably thought I mental anyway, but at least I wouldn't have to stick around and confirm it for her.

The hallways were full and practically buzzing with that end of the day freedom, but I refused to be shoved aside. I was quite proud of my elbowing abilities, and as Percy would say, "We did grow up in New York City."

I was actually making pretty good time, considering I could barely see more than a foot in front of me, until some idiot shoved a boy so hard that her came flying into me and almost broke my nose. "This is madness!" the boy who had been shoved screamed. "You will all rot in Hades for this!"

"Whoa, Death Breath," I said, recognizing him. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Before either of us got swept aside again, I helped him regain his balance.

"I'm going to skin that guy alive!" Nico threatened, reaching into his backpack for his sword.

I grabbed his arm. "I don't think so," I told him, dragging him along with me. "We'll just find the others and leave the skinning to someone else, okay? Maybe tomorrow if the guy is still bothering you."

Nico let out a creepy chuckle. "Yes, tomorrow... that's perfect!"

"Gods, I was kidding, Nico," I said. "I would be in so much trouble if I let you skin someone alive."

"The world is full of people, Leila! No one is going to miss just one more person!"

"I'm pretty sure someone would notice," I deadpanned. "Now help me find the others!"

Nico snorted but stopped pulling against me. "Thank you," I said, letting go of his arm. "You need to stop freaking out about everything. I mean, not everyone on the planet is a monster or someone trying to kill you, you know?"

He didn't reply so I stopped walking and figured I was about to be on the receiving end of a classic Nico-glare, but when I looked over my shoulder, he wasn't there.

I groaned and took off back down the hall. "Darn it, Nico," I growled.

After literally running into Thalia and Annabeth, they both managed to help me calm Nico down. Annabeth had magical persuasive powers like that, I guess. My idea was just to knock him over the head a few times until he saw sense, and hey, Thalia liked my idea.

After agreeing to meet back at our apartment, Thalia left—taking Nico with her so he couldn't go all crazy on the student body—to go and collect the things she had left in a tree in central park. Apparently, a few nymphs had told her they would take care of it for her until she found a place a live.

"I'm going to go find Percy," I said while Annabeth cleaned out her locker for the day. "We'll meet you out front, okay?"

"Sure," she agreed. "But tell Percy not to make any stops along the way. I want to go home."

"Excited for tonight?" I teased, poking her in the ribs.

"I will find another way home, Leila," Annabeth called after me as I walked away.

I laughed. "I figured you'd say that!"

Once I had battled my way over through freshman, sophomores, juniors, and yes, even a few seniors, I finally reached Percy's locker. He digging in his locker—dangerous task, let me tell you—facing towards me, and none other than Cara herself was yapping his ear off.

I hung back, waiting for the perfection time to cut in, but before I could save Percy from his possible-Prada-bee death, Cara grabbed Percy's arm.

Immediately, my hand dropped to my dagger and braced myself for an attack—but I let out a breath as Cara just dragged Percy across the hall to her own locker.

She put her books into her locker and then starting fixing her makeup—and she was still talking.

Even for a mortal, Cara must be oblivious because I'm pretty sure anyone could see that Percy wasn't listening. He kept shifting from one foot and then the other, glancing around every couple of seconds—looking for an escape, no doubt.

Finally, he caught my eye and behind Cara's back, he gave an expression that screamed for seven different levels of help. I almost laughed, but Annabeth totally would've killed me for not helping him, so instead, I winked at him and walked on over.

"Hey, Perce," I said, putting my elbow on his shoulder ready to stare/glare this Snob into the ground if I had to. "What'cha doing?"

Cara's makeuped face glowed with pride and stuck her chin a little higher into the air. "Nothing," Percy replied as Cara's face fell like she had been expecting Percy to introduce her with a glowing review and lots of gold stars.

"Well, then, let's go! Thalia already took off with Nico and Annabeth said for me to tell you that if you don't hurry up she's going home without you," I told him.

Percy looked at me like he was torn between hugging me and strangling me. I smirked and he huffed. "Okay, okay! I'm coming," he said.

I nodded once, ignoring the mortal's pout, but before we could both completely escape, Cara called, "See you tomorrow then, Percy? My house at like... six-ish?"

I froze, quickly racking my brain for something that would get us out of this mess as soon as possible. There was no way in Hades Percy was going over to Cara's. "Percy," I blurted out, finally thinking of an excuse, "Mom's out tomorrow night with Paul. You have to be home."

Percy gave me a sideways glance that clearly said: Mom goes out every night with Paul, but he mainly looked relieved. "Oh, yeah," he said.

"At your house then," Cara said stubbornly. Gods, she wouldn't give up! Percy and her had obviously been assigned project partners, but seriously, did they have to work on this stuff right away? "That's fine," the girl continued as I struggled with the urge to hit her. "So text me your address?"

"Don't have a phone," Percy told her.

Cara stared at my brother as if the world had actually stopped. "You got have a phone?" she repeated in shock.

"Nope," he confirmed while trying to hide a grin. Not having a cell phone won't stop her, Percy, I warned him with a long look.

"Okay..." Cara stated, blinking rapidly like it was impossible for her to understand why a teenage boy would not have a cell phone.

"I'll write it down for you," I told Cara as patiently as I could. "Percy needs to go get Annabeth and explain." Annabeth would kill me, Percy, and the mortal if they were late on their date tonight.

"Bye," Percy muttered, nodding once to Cara, then as he pasted, Percy discreetly gave me a fist-pump in thanks.

I fought back a smirk by using the most bored tone I could manage. It wasn't hard. Cara could probably put chairs to sleep. "Got paper?"

"Uh, yeah," she said, reaching into her locker. After searching around for a moment, she pulled out a glittery pink notebook with a matching pink pen that had one of those big feather pom-poms on the end.

I sighed, but took the notebook from her. I quickly started jotting down our apartment's address, but had to stop every few seconds to reread what I had wrote. I had to make sure I wasn't writing in Greek. That would weird.

And yet, she would probably never try to visit again.

"Got it?" I told her once I had finished and given her the paper.

She flashed me a big, ultra whitened smile. "Yep! See you tomorrow!"

I couldn't trust myself not to attack her so I just turned and left without another word.

After school, Percy and I talked our mom about Thalia staying with us. (None of us were really surprised when she said yes.) Once we got the all clear, Mom volunteered Nico and I to get the extra cot for Thalia to sleep on out of storage while Percy helped Annabeth push her bed over to one side of the room so Thalia could have room on the other. Oh, yeah, while her friends worked super hard to make sure she had a place to live, Thalia ate fresh baked cookies and got comfortable on the couch.

Typical.

I love that girl.

"So," I said later, throwing my stuff onto my side of Percy and I shared bedroom. "Annabeth's taking this well."

Percy looked up from his Greek book. "About Korra—"

"Cara," I corrected, climbing up onto my bed with the plate of cookies I had taken from the kitchen.

"About Cara," he repeated, catching a cookie I tossed his way, "being my lab partner?"

I nodded, munching on my own cookie.

Percy closed his Greek book—homework done, I thought, rolling my eyes—and bit into his cookie. "She too' it pre'y 'ell," he said, with his mouth still full.

I laughed. "Duh, she's Annabeth. She can handle the silly mortal."

"Are you sure she's okay with it, though?" he asked once he had finished chewing. "I mean, she's not mad at me, right?"

"Nope," I confirmed, propping myself up on my elbows and grabbing another cookie. "She's not mad at you."

"Good," he said, taking another cookie. "Did Thalia get set up?"

"Yep. Annabeth and I helped her unpack everything and we did girly-demigod stuff like make beds and gossip about ugly mortals," I joked. "Where are you and Annabeth going for your date tonight?"

"We're probably going to go get dinner somewhere. After that, I guess we'll just walk around the city for a while."

I nodded my approval. "Cool. Definitely sounds appropriate for a school night," I said with a smirk.

"Hey, there is never a wrong time to want alone time with your girlfriend," Percy told me, pointing at me with half a cookie. "I have been sharing Annabeth with you and Mom and Nico and now, Thalia—and I'm sick of it! She's my girlfriend."

"Percy," I laughed. "You sound like you're five."

"Well, you and Annabeth have been attached at the hip lately," he muttered.

"You cannot tell me you preferred us screaming and fighting all the time," I said in disbelief. "We're friends now. Big deal. I thought you'd be happy that we're finally getting along."

"I am," he said quickly, rolling a cookie around in his hand, "but now that you guys are friends, Annabeth and I don't hang out as much—you know, alone."

I fought against my smile with everything I had, but I seemed to be fighting a loosing battle. "Percy Jackson—," I stuttered through my almost uncontrolled laughter, "—are youjealous?"

At that moment, only five years of hard demigod training saved my life. A heavy Greek book came flying at me at top speed and I had enough sense to roll over before it hit me.

"Did you just throw a book at my head?!" I screamed at Percy. "What the heck?!"

"You were laughing at me!" He shouted.

"Yes," I snapped, "because you are being ridiculous! Annabeth and I are getting along Percy—SO WHAT?! STOP BEING SUCH A BABY! Gods, learn how to share!"

Percy and I glared at each other until a BANG sounded from the hall on the other side of the door.

"Now you've done it," Percy told me as he jumped off his bed and flung open our door.

"Annabeth, open the door," I heard Percy beg from the hallway. "Come on, Annabeth. Please talk to me."

Percy and I always bickered. We were twins—bickering was in the job description—but we rarely ever actually fought. Except, every time we did fight, Annabeth seemed to get caught in the middle. Only this time, Percy and I were literally fighting over Annabeth.

Just as I was considering trying to get Annabeth to open the door myself, I looked up to see our mom leaning against the doorway. "What happened?" she asked, crossing her arms. "Percy looks like you stabbed him again."

"He's the one who threw a book at my head," I said stiffly, climbing off the bed and setting the empty cookie plate on my dresser.

My mom's eyes widen. "He threw a what—?"

"It doesn't matter, Mom," I said, untying my sneakers. "He knew I would move."

She raised an elbow. "Leila, why did he throw the book at you?"

I shook my head, tossing my shoes aside. "Look, I didn't do anything this time, I wear. It isn't a big deal. Percy and I had just had a little fight, and Annabeth got upset."

"She won't come out of her room," Percy said sullenly, joining my mom at the doorway.

My mom sighed and wrapped an arm around Percy shoulders. "You two need to stop fighting," she said calmly, looking between the two of us. "Especially around people that love you. Annabeth cares for you both so much. She must hate to see you fight."

"We didn't know she could hear us," I muttered.

"That doesn't matter and you know it, Leila," she stated firmly. "You're going to drive each other completely crazy if you don't stop."

When neither of us responded, our mom sighed. "I'm assuming you two are now going to try and convince me you can handle Thalia staying here, too?"

"We can do it," Percy protested.

"Well, I'm not sure it matter because Thalia is definitely staying," our mom said. "I'm not letting her go stay at an apartment by herself—that's ridiculous."

Percy shrugged and glanced back at Annabeth's room, obviously still worried about his girlfriend. "Why won't she open the door?" he whined, roughly running a hand through his hair.

Our mom sighed again and walked up to the door. "Annabeth, sweetie," she said, knocking lightly, "can I come in?" My mom could probably charm her way in and out of Hades with that tone. It was the tone only true mother's possessed; the tone that meant all comfort and only what's best for you.

So it wasn't really a surprise when the door creaked opened and my mom slipped inside, ignoring Percy's desperate expression.

"It'll be fine," I told Percy and he paced back and forth. He scowled, but otherwise ignored me.

My temper flared. "Hey," I snapped, punching his shoulder. "This isn't my fault. I was kidding around." He glared at me, not even stumbling back from the punch I gave him—stupid Achilles curse.

Percy could stay mad at me for hours—maybe even days! This may have been a bit desperate or manipulative, but I used the last card only I could ever play: little sister.

I dropped down onto the edge of the bed in defeat. "I'm sorry," I told Percy honestly. He recognized my tone instantly and stopped pacing. "You were being honest. I really didn't mean to joke or anything. I guess this whole Cara mess has all of us on edge."

I have to admit it wasn't my best apology, but it did its job well enough. Percy sighed and I waited for him to call me ridiculous and keep yelling. But as usual, he didn't.

He came over and sat next to me on the bed. "I love that you and Annabeth are getting along. It is seriously awesome. Now I can hang out with my two best friends and not worry about starting World War III." He poked my side and I squirmed.

"I love Annabeth," I said, swatting his hand away, "but I only love her because you do."

"So if I broke with her, you wouldn't care?"

"Of course I would care!" I protested. "But if you did it for the right reasons than I would let it go." I reached around and tapped his Achilles spot. "I told you—I've got your back."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Percy smiled, leaning against my shoulder. "I'm not the prophecy kid anymore, though. You don't have to babysit all the time. There isn't some prophecy possibly predicting my death and the world's fate won't fall to your shoulders if I get into some fatal accident."

"I'm your twin sister, Percy," I stated. "I've been babysitting you all my life and I'll probably continue until I'm convinced you can take care of yourself.

"Oh, with Annabeth, of course," I added.

He grinned. "We've been a mess lately, huh?"

"We're a bunch of teenagers who have been through a lot and know a little bit too much about each other," I said. "We were bound to crash and burn sometime."

"And we knew Mom would say yes to Thalia staying here with us," Percy continued. "But I guess this isn't really fair to her."

"Then for Mom's sake, I guess we are going to have to stop fighting so much."

Percy sighed like I was causing him a huge inconvenience. "Fine," he said. "Just for Mom."

Percy laughed and I stuck my tongue out at him. "You two finished yet?" Annabeth asked, walking in and perching herself down next to Percy. My brother immediately wrapped his arms around Annabeth.

"I still might kill him," I admitted, bumping her knee with mine.

She sighed. "I know, but fight the urge, okay?"

Percy started but Annabeth quickly shushed him with her hand. "No, this is my turn to talk. You two have done enough screaming for the day." She turned and faced us, giving us a serious Athena-stare down. "I want you guys to know... you're both going to drive me completely insane. And I brought fresh cookies," she finished finally smiling and holding out another plate.

"Sounds like the war is over," Thalia joked as the door swung open and she, followed by Nico, joined our little hang out.

"Since when did our room become the place to hang out?" Percy said, echoing my thoughts.

"Dude, you have cookies," Nico said, pointing. "We gather with the food."

Thalia shrugged and kicked off her shoes. "Might as well get comfortable," she said, jumping up onto my bed.

"Get off!" I screeched as she jumped dangerously close to my head. "Thalia Grace, if you kill me, I'll haunt you until the die you die!"

"She's totally serious," Annabeth said over Percy's laughter and Nico cookie munching.

"Get your immortal butt off my bed!" I shrieked, kicking my legs up try and stop her. She tried to avoid me—but accidently jumped too far and fall onto the floor.

I meant to ask if she was okay, but I was laughing too hard to check. I guess since Thalia was laughing, too, then she survived without too many injuries.

Percy and Annabeth left for their date at 4'o clock sharp. By 4:02, Thalia, Nico, and I were crashed on the couch starting our awesome night-long, scary movie marathon.

"Hey, Leila, hand me that blanket," Nico said.

"You have two legs," I told him. "Get it yourself!"

"Come on, just pass it to me!" he begged, whining loudly over the opening credits. "It's right behind your head!"

"Ugh, fine!" I said, moving out of my comfortable position to get the blanket. I reached up and threw it to Nico as hard as I could. It lopped him in the side of the head and landed as lump in his lap.

Nico blinked. "Got to love quality time with cousins," he muttered.

"I could get used to this," Thalia admitted, snuggling deeper into the sofa cushions.

"It's not a bad life," I agreed, adjusting back into my comfy spot. "But being a Hunter sounds amazing."

"Don't tell Will that!" Nico laughed. "He'd have a heart attack."

I scowled at him. The phone rang and we all groaned. "Leila!" my mom called from the kitchen. "Could you get that for me?"

I groaned and let my head drop against the back of the couch. "Yes!" I hollered back. "I'm coming!"

Quickly, I jumped up and ran into the kitchen. My mom was making dinner and smiled at me, motioning toward the phone with her chin. "Go on," she said, still smiling.

I shrugged and grabbed the phone. "Thank you for calling Underwater Castle Incorporated for all your conventional and unconventional sandcastle needs—this is Lily. How can I help you?" I rattled off.

"Leila," my mom hissed, trying not to laugh. "What have told you about answering the phone like that?"

Too late, I mouthed and now, my mom did laugh. She turned away and continued making dinner.

A laugh echoed on the other side of the phone and my heart may have done one of those ridiculous little flips. "Do you answer like this all the time—or is it just special for me?" Will teased.

"I always do," I told him, trying to keep a smile out my voice. "You're not special enough for such an awesome greeting."

"Well, you're grinning like crazy right now so I'd say I'm pretty special," he responded.

"Tell Will I said hi," my mom said, not turning around.

I felt my face heating up—gosh, even my mom knew how crazy I got around Will—but I passed on her message to Will. "He says hi back," I told my mom.

"Oh," I said, talking to Will again. "You are never going to believe what this girl at school—"

"Hold on," Will said. "Could you do my favor first?"

"Sure," I replied, leaning against the counter. Will wasn't just my sort-of boyfriend, he was also one of my best friend so nothing was weird anymore. He could probably ask me to help him kidnap a panda and I'd be cool with it.

"Can you meet me downstairs?"

I almost dropped the phone, but I thankfully, I actually kept my excitement under control this time. "Give me two minutes," I told him and hung up. I didn't bother saying goodbye. If he was waiting downstairs, I wasn't going to waste time now.

"Will's downstairs," I said, kissing my mom's cheek. "I'll be back for dinner."

"Make sure you tell Will he's invited to stay!" she called to me as I quickly got ready to go.

Sneakers? Check.

Extra weapons? Check.

Cute outfit? Eh, sort of check.

Should I brush it? I wondered, glancing at my always slightly messy hair—then I scoffed. Oh, please. This was Will. He's seen worse. I'll make an effort next time, I promised myself. Will can survive until then.