Percy's POV

Percy parked his blue Genesis in the school parking lot. He grumbled something under his breath, but his passenger, Grover, didn't notice.

"I can't believe we're actually starting senior year, Perce," Grover said.

"I know," Percy replied, although he didn't seem very happy. "I just wanna get this school year over with."

"Trust me, I feel the same way." His best friend clapped him on the back and sent him a friendly smile before stepping out the car with his backpack slung over his shoulder. Percy followed.

"I gotta go drop off my stuff for Swim, but I'll meet you by our lockers afterwards, 'kay?" said Percy.

Grover nodded understandably.

Percy hauled his duffle bag through the halls with his backpack barely on his shoulder. Passing everyone in the corridors, he got a sort of nostalgic feeling- Although he despised school, he did have quite a few good memories here.

While making his journey, he ran into his other best buddy, Jason.

"Hey, man!" Jason exclaimed.

Percy grinned and they did that weird bro-hug thing.

"You heading to the lockers?" Percy asked.

"Yeah. Coach is gonna have my ass if I'm not there in two minutes. I'm expected to be there to discuss stuff with him."

"Oh, right!" Percy remembered. "Captain duties now! Dude, that's awesome." He himself understood what it was like to be captain- He'd been swim team captain since last year. "But I guess we better hurry though, huh?"

Jason chuckled as he and Percy sped through the hall, racing towards the boys' locker room.

They made it to their destination and were finally shoving their bags into their athletic lockers.

Percy turned to Jason. "Where's Piper by the way? I didn't see her with you." Piper's Jason's girlfriend.

"Oh yeah. She's cheer captain now. So she has to be at school even earlier that us, considering cheer period is first period."

Percy hummed in response. He didn't know Piper very well, the same with all her friends. They were kinda the populars, but it wasn't bad or anything. And they had good reasons to be popular, rather than a list of guys they've slept with and a big ass. Although the one with the blond curls had a pretty nice ass...

Percy shook the thoughts from his mind. He hated himself when he thought stuff like that- He felt like he was invading their privacy or something. It was disrespectful; His mother taught him better than that.

Percy eventually made it to his locker, right next to Grover's. Awesome, right? (Jason was busy with the football coach. )

For a good minute or two, Percy just stood there as Grover was on his phone. He was pretty sure he didn't even notice him.

Grover finally hung up and jumped at Percy's presence. "Whoa! You scared me, man."

Percy just laughed it off. "Juniper?" he inquired.

Grover's cheeks grew terribly red. It was so obvious the two of them liked each other, everyone knew. Why they weren't an official thing yet, Percy had no idea.

Grover's response resulted in a bunch of stammering. Percy laughed to himself.

"Since we're on the topic..." Grover began, changing the initial subject. "What's up with you and Rachel? Do y'all even talk anymore?"

Percy rolled his eyes. "Nope. I told you man, everything just got awkward with her. She told me she wanted a break and I was totally okay with it, then I never heard from her since."

"You mean the whole summer she didn't send one text?"

Percy shook his head. "I'm not even mad about it anymore. We weren't going anywhere anyways." He shrugged his shoulders and leaned against his locker.

Grover frowned. "I though the bell was supposed to ring at-"

Then the bell rang.

"Never mind then," he muttered. "See ya in homeroom."

Percy waved off and strolled his way to Marine Biology.

The period eventually passed and needless to say, the teacher, Mrs. Ross, was a complete bore. But she seemed to know what she was doing.

Percy walked into homeroom, Mr. Brunner's. (Their homeroom period was between first and second period.)

He found his friends and quickly sat down. "Where's Grace and Zhang?"

"They both got Mr. Titus this year," Leo replied. His deep brown eyes were set with concentration as he fiddled with a bunch of paper before him.

"What're you making?"

"Paper football." Leo looked up with his usual mischievous grin. Percy mirror the expression.

Grover butted in. "Can you please explain it to me again? I don't understand how doing that is supposed to work."

As Leo, annoyed, explained the game for probably the tenth time already, Percy zoned out as he caught eye of someone walking through the door.

She walked in with an aura of confidence, and her honey curls bounced ever-so-slightly. But oh boy... Those gray eyes...

Annabeth Chase.

Percy recognized her immediately. Who wouldn't? She was definitely one of the most popular girls in school, and not for being preppy and hot. She was athletic and fit, seeing as though she played soccer freshman and sophomore year, and now a track star. Her grades were always absolutely phenomenal- Valedictorian was easily her's. She also managed to balance an internship and a job. It was like she could do anything. A badass vibe radiated off of her, warning everyone to not mess with her. To top it all off, she was stunning.

Percy stared in awe. He'd been in the same school with her since sixth grade but she never ceased to amaze him. He never had a real thing for her though- You could call it... infatuation.

She was also dating the hunk Luke Castellan, so it's not like they had any sort of chance anyway.

She sat down a few tables away from him, with her best friends Piper and Thalia in tow. Piper was also drop-dead gorgeous, but Percy never felt any sort attraction towards Thalia. She was too... punk. She was also Jason's older sister (she got held back a year).

Percy decided he should probably stop staring at some point, so he returned his attention to his own table.

"Were you just checking out Annabeth?" Leo asked.

"Maybe," Percy uttered.

"Dude! She's terrifying! Why?!"

Percy lifted his hands in protest. "Doesn't mean I can't check her out."

"You disgust me. Just promise to keep you eyes off Calypso." He winked.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. You act like you have a chance."

Leo scoffed. "Well, excuse you!"

Percy and Grover laughed.

"Wait," Grover piped in. "Isn't Nico supposed to be in here?"

"He's probably skipping. On the first day," Leo chuckled to himself.

"Probably."

The bell finally rang, indicating that homeroom had officially started. Mr. Brunner came into the class on his wheelchair, and parked himself behind his desk.

"'Morning, class," he announced. "I'm just going to take roll and then you may all proceed to whatever stupid teenage things you were doing beforehand."

The class laughed at his last comment.

He said two names then read the next name: "Annabeth Chase?"

"Here," she said simply. Although with such an effortless tone, Percy found her voice strikingly beautiful. He has got to stop thinking like this.

"Nico di Angelo?"

Silence.

"Okay..." Mr. Brunner muttered.

A few more names and,

"Thalia Grace?"

She sighed heavily before replying. "Here."

"Perseus Jackson?"

"Here," he said nonchalantly.

Soon, Mr. Brunner got through all the names with Grover and Leo at the end. The chatter in the room instantly grew to what it was previously.

"Hey Jackson," Leo said to grab Percy's attention. Leo gestured to the paper football figure in his hand and Percy understood. He held his fingers in the form of a hand-field goal.

Leo steadied his "football" as he closed one eye to improve his aim. He flicked the paper and it went right past Percy and towards where the girls were.

Percy scrunched his eyebrows as he looked at the brown haired boy before him. "You suck."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Can you just get the football, please?"

Percy reluctantly got up from his seat and towards the girls. Very hesitantly, he bent down right next to Annabeth to pick up the toy.

"'Scuse me," he muttered through his teeth.

Annabeth stared at him in confusion. Her eyebrows knit together.

When Percy stood up again, he gave her a light smile before walking off.

He couldn't tell if that was an embarrassing moment or not. Definitely was awkward.

Percy returned to his desk surrounded by Leo and Grover. He tossed the paper football to Valdez and sat back down.

Percy still felt a twinge of awkwardness from the very slight encounter he just endured, and his friends most likely noticed it, but he acted like nothing happened.

"I'm gonna say this once more, Valdez; You suck."

Homeroom seemed to last much shorter than it actually was, but Percy figured it was most likely because they weren't spending all their time doing worthless classwork.

Second period was world history- his only good subject. (If you exclude Marine Biology).

The teacher, Mr. Bishop, ordered everyone to line up in the back of the class to assign seats. Percy already had a permanent headache from the guy. The classroom itself was crowded with various annoying posters- some with dumb acronyms for history, others that are supposed to encourage you to succeed, or whatever.

The room felt so enclosed, like there was no openness. Percy had to resist his instinctive urge to roll his eyes at almost every word that fell from Mr. Bishop's mouth. He knew he was gonna grow to hate this very class.

But, he caught a certain blond out of the corner of his eye entering the room, and suddenly he felt like maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

She joined everyone at the end of the thread of students, still waiting for Mr. Bishop to actually assign the seats. And after the bell rang, he found it the appropriate time to begin.

Percy tunneled his hearing, completely blocking everything else out until he heard his name called.

"Perseus Jackson." Mr. Bishop pointed to a table placed off to side of the classroom. Each desk was paired with another, meaning they would be partners whenever partner assignments came up.

Percy shuffled his way to the wooden desk where he predicted a lot of napping to take place. But what the teacher said next took him by surprise.

"Annabeth Chase."

Annabeth Chase?! Desk partner?!

Percy took in a sharp breath but eased himself as quickly as he could. He was already tapping his pencil annoyingly on the desk- Partially for the ADHD, the other reason approaching his presence.

She sat down and pulled out a book.

Very soon, Mr. Bishop finished seating everyone and told the class to do whatever. He apparently had a lot copies to go make.

Percy and Annabeth were both sitting there minding their own business, but the silence was killing him. He had to say something.

"Hey, so-"

"Why are you talking to me?" She retorted, not even looking up from her book.

Percy knit his brows. "Well I figured since we're partners and stuff-"

"You figured wrong. Please don't talk to me."

Well, damn. Okay.

Percy leaned back in his chair. He definitely wasn't expecting a reaction like that.

Did I offend her somehow? He thought. No, there's no way. They've never even exchanged formal words before now.

But that overwhelming silence filled the air after a while, and Percy couldn't take it.

"What book are you reading?" He inquired.

She closed the said book and turned to look at him. "Percy."

"How do you know my name?" He was completely baffled.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Everyone knows your name, moron. You're kind of captain of the swim team."

"Oh. Right."

"Now can you please shut it?" She began reopening her book.

"Well since you asked so nicely," he muttered under his breath.

She immediately shut the book again. "What was that?"

He flinched. "Nothing."

She sent him a daring squint, before opening her book for the third time that period.

Leo's words played in his head: She's terrifying.

Well, there was no doubt about that. And the way her eyes glimmered screamed a whole other level of back off. Yet they were still strikingly beautiful.

Even though the slight bicker sent a foul feeling in him, Percy had slightest excitement about having Annabeth in back-to-back classes. He doubted the feeling was mutual, though.

Percy continued tapping his pencil on his desk- It helped calm him. He scanned the room, taking in several aspects. He read every single poster, but his dyslexia prevented him from actually understanding about half of them.

"Would you stop tapping that pencil?" Annabeth, clearly annoyed, asked.

Percy blinked. He hadn't even realized he was still tapping. He understood that the constant noise could be really obnoxious, so he stopped.

"Thank you," she said. Despite her coldness, she had manners. That's a plus.

He couldn't help but take in the gorgeous sight of her princess curls; As far as he knew, they were completely natural, color and all. Her hair looked like it was truly a gift from the gods. Seriously.

"When are you gonna stop staring, Jackson?"

Percy stilled. Annabeth's face was still shoved in her book, so he didn't expect her to notice.

One thing he's gathered from the day: Don't underestimate Annabeth.

"I- Sorry," Percy said shamefully. He could've sworn he heard a light chuckle from her direction, but he doubted such a thing came from her.

Without knowing, Percy began tapping his foot and his leg was bouncing up and down. His long and slender fingers tapped in rhythmic patterns on the desk.

Annabeth sighed and closed her book. "Percy, are you anxious or something?"

He turned his gaze towards her. He must seem like an absolute mess.

"Wha-? No."

"You seem on edge," she studied. Another thing Percy noted: Annabeth could read right through you.

"It's... I have ADHD. I swear I took my pills this morning." Percy spoke with a tone of nervousness and Annabeth almost seemed to take pity on it.

"Oh," was all she said.

He didn't expect her to write a whole apology or anything, her reactions were completely understandable. I mean, how else are you supposed to reply to that?

Instead of returning to her book, Annabeth sat in her seat cross-legged and glanced randomly around the room. Her interest in the book seemed lost, or rather she was just interested in other things.

There were still fifteen minutes left in class. So Percy settled for a really quick power-nap. Placing his arms on the desk, he rested his head upon them and forced his eyes to shut.

Percy woke up with a start when the bell rang, and found Annabeth already halfway out the door with the rest of the class not far behind.

He shot from his desk, hurriedly grabbing his things, and headed for third period.

Third and fourth period weren't that bad. He had Jason in third (which was his algebra). Apparently Mr. Titus, Jason's homeroom teacher, was a complete ass. Frank definitely agreed when he and Percy were together in fourth period (English). The math teacher seemed alright, but definitely strict. And the English teacher had absolutely no clue what she was doing.

Percy entered the cafeteria for fifth period- Lunch. He was definitely used to seeing the wacky crowd- after all, this was his senior year. He quickly spotted Grover and sped his way to the table he was sitting at.

"Oh thank god!" Grover exclaimed as Percy appeared. "I thought I was gonna be eating alone."

Percy chuckled. "I haven't seen any of the others but I'm sure they'll find us."

Grover nodded and took a bite out of his sandwich. "I don't think we have any classes together this year. What other classes do you have?"

"Culinary, chemistry, and athletics."

Grover dropped his sandwich. "Wait you're taking culinary?!"

Percy nodded as if to say yeah-so?

"Don't you suck at cooking?"

"That's why I'm taking the class, G-man."

"Just one more class to fail then," he joked. Percy rolled his eyes.

Soon, Jason, Piper, and Leo strolled in and sat at the table. Everyone started conversing, and it felt like summer had never even happened.

"Hey, Perce... I see Juniper across the cafeteria so if you don't mind I'm just gonna..." Grover trailed off and shot from his seat, making way to a certain auburn-haired girl. He didn't even give Percy a chance to say anything. Though, Percy didn't mind anyways. He laughed to himself.

From a quick glance around the room, Percy spotted Annabeth Chase entering with none other... Luke Castellan. They strode in together, as if they completely owned the place. They sat down with Thalia, Charles Beckendorf, and Silena Beauregard. Why had Percy suddenly grown this odd attraction towards Annabeth? Even though she was pretty much an asshole?

"Piper, do you know what Tristan is planning for tonight? 'Cause I told-" Leo began.

"Leo, I already told you that he's gonna be gone this entire week. Movie shooting."

Leo's mouth formed an oh as he nodded. Piper and her father were Leo's foster family, so they really were like brother and sister. He'd been their foster kid since seventh grade. Tristan McLean had considered adopting, but seeing as though Leo would be an adult soon, he found no need to. Leo had even insisted that adoption was unnecessary- he hated feeling like a burden.

Piper took a glance at the table that Annabeth was sitting at and turned to Jason. "I told Annabeth I'd sit with her today..."

"It's okay," Jason said. "I don't mind; Go ahead."

Piper smiled and hugged her boyfriend before striding towards Annabeth. That left Percy, Jason, and Leo at the table.

The two other boys continued conversation, but Percy's eyes were set where Piper was heading. For a second, he caught Annabeth's eyes with his. She quickly looked away.

Jason slapped his arm with the back of his hand. "What're you looking at?"

When Percy didn't reply, Leo began grinning and shaking his head. "He's got a lil something for Chase."

"Annabeth?!" Jason practically shouted.

"Shhh!!!" Percy clamped his hand over Jason's mouth hurriedly and looked around to make sure no one heard. No one seemed to have their attention turned to that direction, thankfully.

Percy turned to Leo. "Will you shut up?" He let go of Jason. "I don't have a thing for her. She's just really nice to look at."

The blonde snorted. "Okay."

Percy rolled his eyes. "I'm serious! She's a really big asshole anyways."

Jason and Leo shrugged it off and continued to eat their food. And before Percy knew it, lunch was over. After lunch was free period, which he used to just mingle with all his friends.

Sixth period was culinary. Once Percy stepped inside the classroom, everything looked way too intimidating for him. Sure, his mom was an awesome chef, who he'd seen cook numerous times, but this was a whole other level. What did half of those tools even do? Were they even necessary?

Percy sat down in an empty seat. Each table was set up so you'd be grouped into twos. Sure enough, someone came to occupy it. When he looked up, he found a beautiful girl with chocolate skin and bronze hair. Hazel Levesque.

He grinned at her presence and she returned the smile.

"I was so afraid I was gonna be stuck with someone as clueless as me. Now I'm sure to pass this class," he jokes. Hazel just laughed softly.

Percy and Hazel got to know each other through Frank last year. She was a year younger than all of Percy and his friends, but she was mature enough to be a mother of three, really. She was a true sweetheart, and an amazing friend.

Throughout the entire class, they quietly joked around as friends always did. They were supposed to be reading pages out of some cookbook that Mrs. Mauve assigned, but they only pretended to do so.

He left that period happy. Who couldn't be happy around the Hazel Levesque? Captain of the varsity volleyball team? Blue ribbon winner of national equestrian competitions? Volunteer at the local animal hospital? The list just goes on...

Entering seventh period, chemistry, Percy got a cold feeling up his spine. His first thought was that maybe it was Mr. Harper, the supposedly really strict teacher... but then he saw it. Or rather, her.

Percy spotted her crazy red curls sitting lazily in the back of the dull classroom. She didn't seem to notice him though.

Shit, shit, shit, he thought to himself. They hadn't talked since... He couldn't even remember. It was sometime during the end if last school year, but it didn't matter. Feelings of anger, confusion, and disappointment washed over him. She didn't respond to any of his texts or calls... After a while, he just gave up and accepted the fact that she no longer wanted the relationship. For good.

Percy was definitely over it, but that didn't stop the overwhelming awkwardness he expected for the rest of year. Worst thing was... the only seat left was right in front of her. He swallowed a lump of pride and sat at the desk. She still didn't seem to notice him- She was too involved in whatever she was drawing on her sketchpad.

But sure enough after the teacher introduced himself and ordered everyone to scan through their textbooks, Percy felt a light tap on his shoulder. He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping that she wasn't really trying to get his attention.

But being the kind person he was, Percy reluctantly turned in his seat and met her green eyes. He always thought of them as the color of guacamole, but that wasn't important.

"Hey," she said. He couldn't read her expression.

"Hey, Rachel."

There was a really awkward silence between the two. Just before Percy started turning back around, Rachel spoke up again. "I... Sorry for not responding to you all summer," She said with a small smile at the end as if to say please don't be mad at me.

Percy scrunched his eyebrows together and nodded very slowly. "It's... whatever. It's fine." He turned back around.

Another tap came about on his shoulder. "Percy, I'm sorry. I really am. I hope things aren't too awkward for us."

But they already were.

After school, Percy had a shift at the nearby waterpark, Wave Way (A/N: Not a real place lol). He wasn't really sure why they thought people would be visiting at this time on a Monday. But he had to go anyways.

Being a lifeguard was really easy for Percy, not to mention it made him look like an even better swim competitor to his coaches. The pay was just a above minimum wage, but hey, it was still money.

Percy had his bright red swim trunks on along with his whistle hanging around his neck. Once he clocked in, he grabbed one of the buoys and headed towards his stand. The place was almost empty, but nonetheless, still had visitors.

Percy squinted across the way all on the other side of the wave pool at the other lifeguard stand. Was that... Reyna?

"Hey!" he called out to her.

Reyna's head jerked around to look at Percy.

"What?" she called back.

"I thought you were quitting!"

"Don't worry- I am soon!"

"To where?"

"I don't know!"

"Okay! Cool!"

It was clear Reyna hated being a lifeguard. Percy wasn't sure the exact reason why, but he could tell it bored the life out of her for one thing.

Percy's throat only ached slightly from the loud (yet bland) conversation, but he returned to scanning throughout the small waterpark for any signs of danger.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a group of teenagers walking through the entrance.

Thalia, Silena, Charlie, Luke, and Annabeth. Shocker. They were all laughing and talking as they set up lockers for their stuff. Percy couldn't help but notice how awesome Annabeth looked in her swim suit. It seemed as though it was made specifically for her. Her luscious curls bounced as she and Luke headed for one of the water slides.

I need to stop looking at Annabeth. Seriously.

So whenever Percy spotted Annabeth, he quickly averted his eyes. Nothing eventful was happening and he could've sworn that he almost fell asleep.

But then, he found a kid climbing up the wall of the wave pool (breaking the rules!). Percy blew his whistle and motioned for the kid to get off. He gave Percy an annoyed look before hopping off the wall and splashing back into the water.

Punk, Percy thought.

"Percy!" Reyna shouted from across the way. She was pointing frantically at someone near him in the deep end (12 feet), flailing around. Drowning.

"Shit," he muttered to himself. Percy leapt off his stand and dove into the water. When he surfaced, he reached the kid in no time, handing him the buoy. He came up sputtering water out of his mouth and coughing.

Percy swam swiftly to the "shore" so the kid could actually stand for himself.

"Thank you," he choked out.

Percy nodded his head as in a you're welcome. "Just don't go that far again, okay?"

The little kid nodded his head reluctantly and ran away, probably getting into more trouble.

When Percy turned to head back to his stand, he got a glimpse of Annabeth. And for a second, they held each other's eyes, just like in lunch today. The two quickly looked away and went back to whatever they were doing.

Percy really didn't comprehend everything of that day. It was all blur. So many events occurred, all so different and confusing, that his brain almost exploded thinking about it.

The first time meeting Annabeth Chase was a complete flop. Yet somehow he had this crazy infatuation with her on the spot. He still had no idea what he was doing in culinary. Rachel was in his chemistry class... And now he just saved a kid from actually drowning. In front of Annabeth. He also had a swim meet to worry about for next week. Too much.

Senior year will definitely be one to remember.

Hope you all enjoyed!! I got a lot in store :)