A 1

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Percy, you’ll be seventeen in two months. You can’t seriously be
worried about getting into trouble with Coach Hedge.”
“Uh, have you seen his baseball bat?”
“Besides, Seaweed Brain, I just thought we could take a walk. We haven’t had any time to be
together alone. I want to show you something—my favorite place aboard the ship.”
Percy’s pulse was still in overdrive, but it wasn’t from fear of getting into trouble. “Can I, you
know, brush my teeth first?”
“You’d better,” Annabeth said. “Because I’m not kissing you until you do. And brush your hair
while you’re at it.”
For a trireme, the ship was huge, but it still felt cozy to Percy—like his dorm building back at Yancy
Academy, or any of the other boarding schools he’d gotten kicked out of. Annabeth and he crept
downstairs to the second deck, which Percy hadn’t explored except for sickbay.
She led him past the engine room, which looked like a very dangerous, mechanized jungle gym,
with pipes and pistons and tubes jutting from a central bronze sphere. Cables resembling giant metal
noodles snaked across the floor and ran up the walls.
“How does that thing even work?” Percy asked.
“No idea,” Annabeth said. “And I’m the only one besides Leo who can operate it.”
“That’s reassuring.”
“It should be fine. It’s only threatened to blow up once.”
“You’re kidding, I hope.”
She smiled. “Come on.”