It wasn't until he smash his lips into her own that she was able to match a name to the strange emotion in her chest, the feeling that she couldn't breathe, the feeling her chest was so tight it might combust if she was in his presence a moment longer, the feeling if she wasn't in his presents for a second, no millisecond she would die of loneliness. That strange emotion in her chest was, yes love.
Woah, that sounded cheesy even to herself. Right now she Annabeth Chase the popular girl, the one that everyone knew, everyone liked. And right, get this she was kissing, wait, for it… Percy Jackson, that's right Percy Jackson, as in the punky emo-ish kid, with his aura of "Touch-me-you-die". She was kissing Percy Jackson.
But if you rewind to three months ago you'll see where everything started. It was September, 19, 2015. She was in Honors English with her friends Piper, Reyna and Hazel sitting at the desks around her. Piper wearing an unbuttoned flannel shirt over a white form-fitting tank top, and skinny jeans tucked into cowboy boots. Reyna wearing a loose blue top and grey leggings, Hazel wearing a yellow sequined shirt, white jeans, flats and a matching fedora. Annabeth and her friends were practically the only popular girls that weren't cheerleaders, and yes they were pretty proud of that. So here they were playing truth or dare through passing notes. Piper passed Annabeth a piece of paper:
Truth or Dare Chase?
She clicked the end of her pen and scribbled
Dare, duh I never turn down a challenge
She tossed it back and it quickly returned to her desk after Piper rolled her eyes and showed Reyna and Hazel.
Well, then if you're so sure then I dare you to ask to be Percy Jackson's partner for the project in Health.
" You vile human being!" She yelled knocking over her chair as she abruptly shot up from her sitting position. "What is going on over there!" The teacher, Ms. Cott shouted from the front of the class. That's when Piper, Hazel and Reyna burst out laughing.
" Um, we were playing gambling hangman and, ah, she used an extremely unguessable word and won my, ah, phone case. Right guys?" Annabeth then stomped on Reyna's foot. the later shout out a cuss word but smoothly converted it into a violent cough. "Impressive" Hazel muttered. " Um, yeah we used the word auspicious." It was a rough excuse but Ms. Cott seemed satisfied. When the teacher had her attention somewhere else, Annabeth glared intensely towards her friends, who shrugged.
It wasn't until the fourth period of the school day when Health Class rolled around. Her friends sent Annabeth over to where Percy was sitting with his friends Jason, Leo and Calypso. They all eyed her strangely, as though she didn't belong, which she didn't. " Hey, ah, guys I was wondering if you wanted to possibly be my, um, be my partner for, like, the Health Project… Percy" She said awkwardly after taking in Percy's appearance black ripped jeans, with a graphic Tee under a black leather jacket and a bit of guyliner. Percy looked equally awkward, rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand. "Um, sure no one else has offered." "Um, I offer- OW!" "Ok talk to you later, I guess." She walked back to her desk red faced, pretending not to notice the " What was that"s and the " Why'd you pinch my arm!?"s and " At least she didn't say 'TTYL' "s.
"So how'd it go" Reyna asked bluntly. "Terrible." " Why? What happened?" " He said yes." She answered plainly. They all laugh at her response and after awhile she couldn't help laughing along.
It was lunch when she talked to Percy again. She walked across the cafeteria over to the table the occupied by only those of Percy's clique. She sat down hiding her face slightly, " Ok, I gotta to be quick before people realize I'm sitting with people so low on the chain." " Bitch!" Calypso shouted. Annabeth ignored the previous. "Anyway, do you want to meet at the library for the project or what?" he sighed, "Ah, I don't work well in the library it's always really crowded. You can come to my house if you want, it's only me and my mom so it won't be too loud." She bit her lip and replied, "Sure, six good?" " Totally sure." He pulled out his phone and went to " Add Contact" and handed it over to Annabeth, " Type in your number and I'll text you my address." She did so and soon after her butt vibrated, she pulled her phone out of her back pocket and saw a text from an unknown number and saw what she assumed was Percy's number. " Um, yeah see ya later then." Once again she pretended to not notice his friend's comments, " What are you doing this for, she's evil!" " You really want to be alone with that slut?"
At that one she faltered in her foot steps, why would they think that? Sure she's had seven boyfriends and she kissed Drew's boyfriend, but she never slept with any of them. She continued briskly walking to her table where Hazel sat with Frank her boyfriend, and Piper and Reyna seemed to be in a heated argument. Annabeth approached the table, "No, crunchy peanut butter is way better than creamy-" " No way! You're insane!" I sighed, " How are we the popular girls?" I interrupted. " Hey what took you so long, Annie?" Hazel interrogated. " If you weren't so busy making out with Frank you would've noticed she was talking to Percy, really get a room!" Ignoring the deeply blushing Frazel ( That's their "ship name") or at least what there semi-friend Silena calls them. " Really, Annabeth you better not get another boyfriend, or else I might not be able to take being single." "Same, since Will turned out to be gay, and he was my only crush I'm probably going to be solo for a while." That's where Frank butted into the conversation, " Will's gay? You know who would be perfect for him? Nico Di Angelo!" " Since when did you become the matchmaker, Babe? I thought that was Silena's job." Frank blushed, "Well opposites attract, they would be cute, wouldn't they?" Annabeth commented. " Hey, you don't think I'm a slut, do you?" Reyna spit out her milk onto the table, "Did you-" "Gods no! Besides even if I did it wouldn't be very shocking I mean Piper's had sex with Connor-" " That's not fair we were wasted, it doesn't count." Piper defended herself. " If you didn't, why'd you bring it up?" Hazel questioned. " Nothing, I just overheard a conversation that's all." Well it was sorta true. " Well, you have dated quite a few guys, and you kissed Drew's boyfriend right in front of her." Reyna reasoned. " But you are not slut." "Totally, I mean you haven't even had a boyfriend for like four months, which is actually kind of sad, since were supposed to be popular and all but whatever." " Gee thanks that makes me feel so much better."
Annabeth was standing in front of her mirror looking at herself in the fourth outfit she'd considered worthy. She sighed unsatisfied, she didn't know why she was stressing about this so much, it wasn't like this was a big deal, or she was trying to impress him, gods no. Though she definitely wasn't trying to impress him she went back to her closet and picked out another outfit. This one was perfect: dark blue short shorts, that showed off her long tan legs ( Not that she wanted Percy to notice.), a white lacy blouse. a silver necklace with a key pendent, and blue flats. She strode into her bathroom, brushed her teeth, straightened her hair, and reapplied her makeup.
She grabbed her schoolbag, and ran down the stairs, and went into her garage. She hopped into her Dad's grey 2015 Ford Mustang, Google Earthed Percy's address and was there at his door within twenty minutes.
She knocked on the hard oak wood, and waited. Soon enough a middle aged women opened the door. "Hi! You must be here for Percy." " Yes Ma'am. Woah, something smells good." " Oh, please call me Sally! And thank you those are cookies. Come on in." Sally then yelled for Percy. Who then came in wearing his usual sneakers and ripped jeans, " Hey Annabeth. My rooms this way." " Hi," she replied smiling in his direction. That's when Sally said, " Shut the door if you're going to be doing anything … interesting, I do not-" " OH MY GODS! NO-" "HE IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND! WE'RE NOT-" " Ok, ok I got the point, but really if-" "MOM! Stop it!" Percy shouted red faced. " Come on Annabeth." He said sounding defeated. She followed him into his room, avoiding eye contact. She went in and sat on his bed. He said, " I am so sorry." after shutting the door. " I see you shut the door anyway!" Sally shouted from the living room. Percy winced, " It's fine Percy, my Dad would've done the same thing." She pulled her notebook out of her bag and flipped to the middle section, "I have some notes,"
The rest of the evening went by regularly and they were wrapping it up when Sally came in with a platter of cookies, except they were blue. " You guys hungry?" " No, thank you, I was just about to go," Annabeth walked to the door and Percy followed, " Well, see ya tomorrow?" She then fell a pang in her chest but dismissed it as side effects of the late time. It definitely wasn't the fact his green eyes shined in the light escaping through the open door, from the porch light. No, definitely not that. " Yeah, bye Percy." Annabeth said as she waved.
She was halfway to her car when she heard a defiant, " We didn't do anything!" coming from the direct of the house.