Percy's PoV

Miria is driving me crazy! She's constantly trying to break up Annabeth and me. Just last week she managed to make it look like Annabeth was cheating on me; I'm not sure why she thought that would work because I know my Wise Girl too well. Then, a few days ago, she framed Annabeth for picking a fight with her, luckily Mr. Bruner was there. Luckily today is a Friday, so as soon as the day is over we get to stay home for a few days. It's also supposed to snow quite a bit, so maybe school will be canceled. That would be nice since school never closes due to snow...Wait. School. I should be paying attention.

I look up to see Paul talking about Hamlet. We were supposed to read outside of class, but I couldn't seem to do it. Now, don't think I mean I picked it up, got two pages in, then got bored and gave up. I stared at that book for hours, trying to decipher what the stupid book said. The other demigods struggled to read it too, except for the Stolls who didn't try and Frank who isn't dyslexic. Needless to say, we were all pretty jealous of Rachel, Juniper, and Grover since they're able to read English just fine.

Glancing to my left, I noticed Annabeth looked stressed. She was frantically taking notes in Greek, trying to make sure she understood what she had read over the last few days. I sometimes forget she's dyslexic like almost every other demigod on the planet because she's so smart.

"-play-acting insanity?" I snapped back into reality for the second time in the hour when I heard Paul. "Miria?"

A few rows in front of me Miria's head shot up from her phone, "What did you ask, Mr Blofis?"

Paul didn't show any emotion as he repeated his question, "Throughout the play, Hamlet claims to be feigning madness, but his portrayal of a madman is so intense and so convincing that many readers believe that Hamlet actually slips into insanity at certain moments in the play. Do you think this is true, or is Hamlet merely play-acting insanity?"

Miria rolled her eyes before responding with, "How should I know? I didn't know the guy."

"It is called an opinion, Ms. Brown, " Paul said as he turned and continued to write on the board, "you were asked to form one fifteen minutes ago."

I heard a small sigh come from my left and turned to see Annabeth smiling slightly. I heard a cough to my right where Jason was covering up the fact that he was laughing by cleaning his glasses. Of course Miria had to hear and whipped around to glare at Annabeth who simply smiled at her in return. This caused Miria to huff and turn away. The rest of class went very smoothly.

After class we ran into Hazel and Frank in the hall. They were talking happily about something until Hazel saw us. They quickly walked up to us.

Hazel smiled at us and asked, "Can Nora Ender eat lunch with us? We met each other in the library today."

Annabeth just sighed a little and, smiling, said, "Hazel, you know you don't have to ask us, right?"

"I know, I was just trying to politely tell you she's eating with us." Hazel smiled before walking off. Frank looked at us and waved before following her.

The next few hours went fine, and lunch seemed to come very quickly. JP, Robby, Alex, Alexis, Nicole, and Sky were still hanging out with us, as usual. Leo's girlfriend, Crystal had started eating with us as well. Hazel and Frank had brought a short girl with red hair and light brown eyes named Nora to eat with us today. Piper and Rachel had befriended Sophie Rose, a pale girl of average height with grey-blue eyes and blonde hair who was constantly reading, or fangirling with Piper, Rachel, and Annabeth over Doctor Who or Sherlock; Frank and Reyna would join them when Harry Potter or DC were brought up.

I was starting to realize how large our friend group had gotten, and I really liked that. Throughout school, I hadn't had many friends. I didn't meet Grover until sixth grade, and he was the first friend I'd ever had. Other than my mom, I didn't have anyone for almost twelve years, so having so many friends now made me really happy. Seeing so many people smiling around me made me realize why I'd fought two wars; I did it so people could just be content with life, so people could smile everyday. I did it so people wouldn't have to worry about being eaten by some Titan or Giant.

Apparently Annabeth could tell I was thinking because she lightly grabbed my shoulder, "You okay, Seaweed Brain?"

"Yeah," I smiled, "just thinking."

"That's why I asked," she replied jokingly.

"Hey!" My response just caused Annabeth to laugh which just reminded me of what I was thinking earlier. It also made me realize that, while I don't want to, I'd fight another war for people to feel joy in their hearts, and I'd do it in an instant.