It seems that I can't finish anything I start except super sad short stories. So, that's what I will write. Enjoy, in the bittersweet way I hope this creates. For you.

Based on the song She Already Knows by Erick Willis, which is amazing (I prefer the acoustic version)

I do not own Percy Jackson, or the song.

I sigh and run my hands through my hair, it's getting late, the party is winding down, and I'm getting tired. I'm not exhausted, yet, but I can feel my neck getting stiff. I roll it out and take a look around from my vantage point in the corner of the gym.

There are still a few people dancing, though not as enthusiastically as earlier, and there are some people lazily picking at the leftover food. Most however are just sitting down at the round tables with white tablecloths placed throughout the room.

This is the end of our senior prom.

"Percy," my mother looked very stern, "I don't care what extra curricular accomplishments you have, you're going to your senior year of school and getting your diploma."

"Mom, surely fighting in a war counts for something, right? Why do I have to go to school still? I just kinda wanna lay around and play video games."

"No. You are going to school. Because eventually you will need a job, and you can't put "stopped the rise of Gaea" on your resume. No arguing. You and Annabeth are finishing school at Goode."

"Wait," I said, suddenly very serious, "Annabeth too?"

"Well, yeah. We can't very well separate you two. So she's just going to stay here. I talked to her-"

I cut my amazing mother off with a hug, "Thank you mom!"

She chuckled and returned the hug, "of course Percy."

I looked around for my friends. Not like, demigod friends, they're all either at one of the camps or some other school. Or Jason, who is kinda all over the place because of his new job. Rachael goes here though (does a clear sighted mortal who is also an oracle count as a demigod friend?)

It was good that she went here with Annabeth and I, cause she already had a couple friends. So we just sort of merged in with them. They were pretty cool, and Annabeth gets along great with them too. Especially this one kid, Ethan, he's too smart for his own good. He's real big into astronomy. If I didn't know any better, I'd guess he was Athena's kid too, but he's not (we had Grover check).

I liked Ethan well enough and we were close friends, but I got along great with this kid named Jake. Dirty blonde hair, scruffy beard. Real big gamer.

Not a weekend went by where he and I, Ethan and I, or all three of us weren't at my house playing the PlayStation 4 with some blue cookies.

I answered the phone, "Hey Wise Girl, what's up? SON OF A BITCH!"

Jake chuckled from his spot beside me.

On the other end of the line I heard, "Uh, you alright?"

"Yeah, Jake just got a headshot on me and it scared me," I paused for a moment, "more than it should have…"

Annabeth laughed at me, "well, I'm just calling cause I have a question for Leo and I almost have our miniature rocket with mapping sonar done. We want it to fly across the Atlantic, or as far as it gets, and create a terrestrial map of the sea floor."

"Uh, alright," I said, scratching my head a bit, "that seems like something way above my pay grade, what do you need to ask me?"

"Ha, seaweed brain," she muttered to herself, then, "well, we're sending it over the ocean. That's kind of you're home turf. So, what should we name the rocket? Poseidon One, or Perseus One?"

"How about Zoe 101?"

I could hear Leo laugh in the background, guess I was on speaker, then Annabeth groaned at me, "No Percy. I gave you your choices, pick from those."

"hmm… call it Poseidon, I don't want cool things named after me, makes me feel weird. Especially when I didn't have anything to do with it, you guys built it."

"Alright great," she paused for a moment, then I could almost feel her smirk, "now, since you named it, would you mind going to retrieve it wherever it lands? It is your home territory. And you owe me for letting you name it."

I knew there would be a catch.

I found Rachel sitting at a table with Ethan, leaned back in her chair in a very unladylike way. They were laughing softly as they watched Jake try and make his way over there with plates of food balanced on his arm. I started over to sit with them while I waited.

"Hey Wise girl," I said with a smile. The final bell had just rang and I was waiting for her to get out so we could walk home.

"How was your Calculus class?"

"Incredibly boring," she started, "why does Mrs Duncan's voice put me to sleep so easily?" She laughed a little to herself.

"Ha, nice. Hey I made something for you," I pulled a green piece of construction paper out of my pocket, it was folded in half.

Annabeth gave me a funny look and then opened the card. She read it out loud, suppressing her smile, "Dear Wise Girl, would you go to prom with me? Pretty please with ambrosia on top.

Love Seaweed Brain." She looked up to see me grinning from ear to ear, she had smiled at my card, that was my only real goal for it.

She laughed again at the look on my face, "Why is this written with a purple magic marker?"

I blushed a little bit, "Uh. Cause I lost my pen…"

She was quiet for a minute, then burst out laughing. I smiled at the sound. Then she reached around my neck and got on her toes to give me a kiss, "you know that that's ironic in every possible way, right? And of course I'll go with you seaweed brain." I smiled and she kissed me again.

I passed Jake on my way to our table and took two of the plates off of his arms before he dropped them. He smiled in thanks and we walked the rest of the way to the table. Where we put all the plates in the middle so our whole group could reach them. I plucked a particularly juicy looking grape from on top as I sat down forcefully. Rachael looked at me worried in that motherly way she does sometimes.

"You making it alright?"

I gave her a halfhearted smile, "yeah, I'm making it."

She met my eyes, and the sincerity in her eyes wouldn't let me look away, "You're lying."

It wasn't a statement that left room for argument, so I simply sighed. Then I caught her eye again and she nodded behind me. I turned around and saw Annabeth coming out of the bathroom. I stood to meet her.

"Annabeth! Annabeth! They accepted me!"

She looked up from her forty pound textbook, "What are you talking about seaweed brain?"

"Somehow Dad got me into their marine conservation program! I'm going to college! Somewhere actually took me even though I never made it through a full year except this one!" I knocked on the wooden end table beside me. There is still plenty of time for me to destroy the school (accidentally of course).

Annabeth grinned and jumped to hug me, I caught her.

"Well," she asked, "where? Who's the lucky school?"

"Florida," I said clearly and loudly, proud of my success. Then I watched her face slowly fall.

"Have I told you you look beautiful today," I gave her a crooked grin.

She took half a second to compose herself, then looked up from her shoes with her shoulders set back and smirked at me, "Maybe a couple of times."

"You deserve to hear it your entire life," I told her with complete sincerity in my voice and eyes.

She faltered, only for a second, but I saw it. Then she smiled, "C'mon seaweed brain, there's still time for one more dance." Then she took my hand and lead me to the floor.

"What's wrong wise girl?" I asked, confused about why she would be upset about such great news.

"Oh, up, nothing," I knew she was lying. We always know what the other one means, so I waited on her to continue. "It's just that, Ethan's dad is the Dean of a school, and Ethan is going to that school. He told me that he convinced his father to take a look at me, and I was just offered a full ride." she smiled here, but it looked pained and I could see the tears in her eyes. "no working through school, no student loans, none of it. I can get through college without selling my soul. I may be smart but I've missed so much school in my life because I'm a demigod that I would never get any kind of scholarship normally."

By this time the select few still dancing had decided it was time to start finding their jackets, ties, high heels, etc. So it was us on the floor, alone.

"Wise girl that's great!" looking at her, it didn't seem like she thought so. She looked confused. Like she didn't know what to do.

We danced together for the first song, it happened to be a slow song, and we held each other close, gently swaying because neither of us really knew how to dance.

"Percy it's… the School…" she looked down.

"Go on wise girl, whatever it is, we'll be ok."we'll figure it out. By this time I had a pretty good idea of what she was going to say.

She looked me in the eyes, "Percy it's on the west coast. Our schools are on opposite sides of the country."

The DJ played a more upbeat tune after that. But Annabeth's and my emotions were running so high at that time we didn't change position at all. Forgoing the need to stay on beat with the much greater desire to have each other as close as possible.

"Oh."

"yeah."

A long silence filled the room. Eventually, I had to break it. I could see Annabeth getting upset, and that is the last thing I wanted.

"Well," I forced a smile, "we don't have to worry about it now."

She scoffed at me, "seaweed brain we can't just ignore this."

I thought for a moment, "well no, but how about we just, procrastinate a little," I grinned, "how about we just enjoy the rest of our senior year. And deal with it later. How about right after prom. That's still a while away." as if somehow saying out loud that that was plenty of time would make it so. But I knew nothing would ever be long enough.

Nonetheless, she smiled, "alright, we'll procrastinate. Not ignore," then she stick her pinky out at me, "Right after prom?"

I looped mine though hers, laughing at how we could make such a real world issue childish, "right after prom."

I guess the DJ noticed we weren't really in the partying mood (since we were the only ones on the floor still, and two out of about a dozen still at the dance at all at that point) because before the third song he announced it would be the last. And he played another slow song, I'm assuming for us. Not once did we change position.

Then, halfway through the song, I worked on the courage to separate enough to look her in the eyes. They were red rimmed, but she was still beautiful.

I took a deep breath and said what neither of us wanted to, "we need to talk about this, don't we."

She nodded. I sighed. And for a moment the silence between us was tactile, but not necessarily uncomfortable, simply alien.

I leaned back and looked her in the eyes one more time before it ended, "Annabeth… whatever happens in life. Just know I love you. I love you now, and I always will."

She buried her head in my shoulder, finally sobbing, "I know Percy. I know, I love you too."