Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
oooOOOooo
"Annabeth!" Athena called from downstairs in the kitchen. "Hurry up, your bus is waiting!"
Annabeth checked herself in the mirror one last time, screwing shut the lid to her pink lipgloss. "Coming!" She yelled back, "don't worry, it'll wait a bit longer!"
She could practically hear the frown on her mother's face at her words. She definitely heard the impatience and the disapointment in her tone. "If you miss that bus, young lady, I promise you..." She trailed off, but Annaebth got the threat loud and clear.
She rolled her eyes and grabbed the strap of her purse, rushing out the door of her bathroom to the stairs, practically flying down them to the hall and out the front door. "Bye mom, bye dad!" She called out hurriedly behind her.
"Bye honey!" Frederick Chase yelled back at her.
"Do your best!" Athena barked out after her father.
Annabeth slowed down a few feet in front of the bus, wiping a stray curl of hair from her face. She collected herself, took a deep breath, and stepped onto the bus.
She immediately had to resist the urge to wrinkle her nose. The kids around her were either just that, kids too young to drive, or unpopular teens with no sense of how to arrive to school in style. She looked around and took a tentative step forward, finally spotting an empty seat. She checked it for any signs of disfigurement, any stains or wet spots. When it passed the test she sat down, resisting the urge to stand up and just walk off the large yellow vehicle.
You used to ride the bus all the time, she told herself. Calm down.
She took a breath, clutching her purse on her lap to avoid it touching anything unnecesarily. The bus had just jerked forwards, finally moving, when a moderately pretty girl with brown hair and blue eyes turned around from in front of Annabeth to speak to her.
"You don't want to sit there." The girl said.
Annabeth raised an eyebrow, not used to people telling her what to do. "Why not?"
"Percy Jackson sits there," the girl said hushed, like it was a secret. "Every day since he moved here. He's never let anybody else sit there and won't move for anybody."
Annabeth smiled at the girl, unconcerned. "I'm sure he won't mind me sitting here."
The girl shook her head. "He will," she assured Annabeth. "He doesn't move for anybody."
Annabeth shrugged a shoulder, still trying to think of who Percy Jackson even was. "I'll be fine."
The girl looked at her in disbelief. She was silent for a few seconds before her eyes shot towards the bus doors that had just opened to let on a teenage guy with raven black hair.
"Don't say I didn't warn you," was the last words she muttered to Annabeth before turning back around.
Annabeth stared at the back of her head in shock. What was the big deal about a stupid bus seat? Who was that girl to tell Annabeth Chase where she could and could not sit anyway? From the looks of it, that girl didn't even know how to pencil in her eyebrows right.
A figure suddenly blocked out the sun and Annabeth glanced over to find the boy who had just gotten on standing in the middle of the bus aisle and staring down at her.
He was tan, tall and muscular, she noticed. His body, from what she could see, was definitely attractive. She looked up at his face, about to open her mouth and speak, when she met his eyes and suddenly found her throat going dry.
The black hair complimented his tan face very well, and his teeth were perfectly white and straight. But none of that made any impression on Annabeth. What she was staring at were his eyes. Perfectly sea green, they held so much depth and emotion that Annabeth was breathless. They could be enrapturing, she was sure, if he was happy. As it was Annabeth was still caught up in them.
Even though he wasn't happy. In fact, he looked puzzled.
"You're in my seat." He said stupidly.
She was snapped out of staring at his eyes- because that's what she had been doing, she realized in mortification, staring- to glancing at his lips. They were good lips, she saw. Very attractive. She always had loved guys with nice lips...
Finally she understood what he had just said and frowned. "Excuse me?" She asked him.
Cute or not, nobody spoke to her like that.
He cleared his throat, a bored expression taking place on his face, replacing the almost shy one that had been there for less than a second. "That's my seat." He stated.
So this must have been Percy Jackson. Annabeth didn't really remember seeing him around before.
"Oh." Annabeth said, and glanced down. "Well I'm really comfortable here, so..."
The boy who was sitting across the aisle from her stuck his head around Percy. "But that's his seat," he said, as if that explained everything and was a good enough reason for Annabeth to just get up and move.
"I'm sorry," she said sweetly. "I didn't realize we were in third grade."
The boy, who looked maybe a couple of years younger than Annabeth herself, blushed slightly before pulling back, muttering something to himself.
Percy was quiet throughout the whole ordeal but at Annabeth's answer he snorted. She grinned, assuming he was laughing at the boy, before she looked up and saw he was staring at her with something like disappointment in his eyes.
He was laughing at her.
Well screw him, she thought to herself. But she didn't look away from him.
Percy shook his head slightly before sitting with the boy across from Annabeth, not saying a word the entire time. When he sat down he turned to the boy and Annabeth heard snatches of their conversation.
"Hey Nico," Percy said.
"Perce." Nico said, before glancing towards Annabeth again. She noticed all of that out of the corner of her eye. "Why didn't you make her move?"
She glanced up in time to meet Percy's eyes, turned back towards her. They held contact for a moment, before Annabeth dropped hers and turned, facing forwards instead of sideways in her seat.
She saw Percy shrug out of her peripheral vision. "It's just a seat man. Besides, do you honestly think she would have moved?"
She didn't hear anything after that.
oooOOOooo
Annabeth had practically run over the kids in front of her on her way off the bus, making her way towards her boyfriend's locker where she knew he and her friends would be waiting.
"Annabeth!" Thalia Grace said loudly. "Hey girl, why were you so late?"
"My ride," Annabeth said, pointedly looking at her boyfriend, "cancelled on me and I had to take the bus."
Luke Castellan grinned at her easily, unaffected by her words. He made his way over to her and slung an arm around her shoulder, giving her a quick peck on the lips. "Hey babes."
She smiled at him happily. "Hi Luke."
"So you had to ride the bus," Piper Mclean, who was a year younger than Annabeth and two years younger than Luke and Thalia, interrupted them. "That sucks."
"Yeah," Jason Grace, Thalia's younger brother spoke up. He was Piper's boyfriend and in the same year as her.
"Did you have to sit with anyone?" Luke asked her. "'Cause I swear, if you got touched by any of the slimy guys in this school..."
She smiled at how jealous he was. "No, I didn't." She promised him. "Although it was close. I took this guy's seat and he almost made me move."
"Who?" Thalia asked curiously.
"Was he cute?" Piper asked.
"I have a boyfriend, Pipes," Annabeth answered her smiling, avoiding the question. "And his name was Percy Jackson."
"Jackson?" Luke asked in surprise, while Thalia and Jason asked "Percy?" at the same time.
"Yeah." Annabeth nodded. "You know him?"
"Sure," Luke said. "He's that loser who moved here a year ago. Hangs out with Hazel and Frank from Piper and Jason's grade, and that other guy Nico who I'm pretty sure is a goth loner. Oh! And Grover."
Annabeth frowned at the last name. "Grover? Like from when we were kids Grover?"
Luke nodded. "They're a group of oddballs."
Thalia, Annabeth noticed, was staring at Luke with pursed lips, not saying a word. Annabeth tried to find something to say but couldn't think of anything.
"Anyway," Luke said after a second. "I need to get to class. If I'm late I'm pretty sure I get detention from Mr. Arland. Stupid old sot always marks me late."
"That's cause you're usually late Luke," Thalia said, smiling.
Usually Luke wouldn't have let anyone say that, even as a joke. He would get defensive like he always did. But this time he let it slide, probably because it was Thalia. "Like you have a perfect attendance record, Thals."
She grinned. "Nah, that's Annie over here."
Annabeth smiled. "It's not that hard."
Luke shrugged. "Maybe for you," he said before quickly kissing her. "I'll see you at break." He said, walking down the hall, fist bumping guys and smiling at girls as he went.
"Catch ya later," Thalia said, before rushing to catch up with him and immediately engaging him in conversation.
"We should go too," Piper said, taking Jason's hand. "See ya, Annabeth!"
"Bye," she called out as they walked away.
She smiled and adjusted the purse strap on her shoulder, walking towards her locker as she did so. She unlocked it and grabbed her textbook and notebook for science. It was the only class (except physical education) that she was in that wasn't advanced and she was around the people who were her age and would usually be in her classes if she wasn't so smart.
Half-Blood High was a small school. Only a couple of hundred people went from the small town of Rivers in California. Annabeth had lived here her entire life, as had her mother and most of the parents of current students. One of Annabeth's biggest goals in life was to move, far away from here. To escape, like her mother never did. Annabeth wanted to live in a big city, filled with people and new places, of amazing architeture. She had signed up for travel club in the hopes of going to Greece to study the amazing sights there, and when she grew up she wanted to be an architect.
She smiled as she closed her locker. If things went well for the rest of the second semester, she would be perfectly fine.
oooOOOooo
Science was about sexual reproduction, and since it was grade eleven, Mrs. Mccoy figured the class would be mature enough to conduct an experiment.
"Mr. Jackson," she called out. Percy jerked his head up from his desk, obviously having not been listening. "The one thing needed to reproduce sexually is a mate. To find a mate you need to find someone you're attracted to. Correct?"
"Yeah." He said slowly, obviously unsure, like everybody else in the class, where this was going.
"So," Mrs. Mccoy looked around the room before her eyes fell on Annabeth. "Let's say that you're sexually attracted to Ms. Chase here. What qualities make her attractive to you?"
Annabeth spluttered and Percy sat there not saying a word. "Excuse me?" Annabeth asked.
Mrs. Mccoy looked through her red librarian's glasses with her green eyes at Annabeth. Her brown hair was slightly greasy and in a ponytail today and although jeans were always a good choice for wear, the polka dot baggy shirt that was paired with it definitely did not go. "I think you heard me," Mrs. Mccoy told her.
"You want me to..." Percy trailed off.
"Tell me three characteristics you find attractive in Ms. Chase." The teacher said. "One must be physical."
"You want him to- to evalute me based on my attractive qualities?" Annabeth asked the teacher incredulously.
"Yes." Mrs. Mccoy answered, obviously getting annoyed. "Now be quiet when Mr. Jackson's speaking."
"He's not doing much speaking now," Travis Stoll said out loud, and laughed right along with most of the class.
Percy shot Travis an annoyed look. "Thanks man, huge help you are."
Connor grinned. "That's my brothere here. Always willing to help."
Katie Gardiner rolled her eyes. "Sure," she muttered. "That's what Travis is."
"Class," Mrs. Mccoy said warningly.
"Right," Percy said. "Okay."
He looked over at Annabeth, meeting her eyes. She waited, unsure how to feel about this assignment, but knowing that she wanted to hear what Percy had to say.
"She has nice eyes," he said at last.
She felt a flutter in her stomach at his words. Annabeth had always liked her eyes, although they were an unusual colour. Luke had always liked her lips, but Annabeth had always thought her hair and her eyes were her best qualities.
For some stupid, unknown reason she had to resist blushing at Percy's words.
"Why?" Mrs. Mccoy asked.
Percy glanced away from Annabeth to the teacher. "What?"
"Why her eyes, specifically. Tell me something about them that make them nice."
"Okay," Percy scratched the back of his neck. "Erm... they sorta..." He trailed off, looking at Annabeth again, staring straight at her.
She didn't look away.
"They're kinda like a storm or something," Percy said. "But you can see in her eyes how she's really feeling, while the rest of herself is closed off."
"Ohh..." Some boys muttered, Travis muttered "Awww..." and Katie rolled her eyes again.
"Good! Very good!" Mrs. Mccoy said. "Now 2 other things. Something about her character."
Percy frowned and looked away from Annabeth. "She's smart and nice." He said.
Mrs. Mccoy frowned. "Deeper, Percy, go deeper. Something personal."
Annabeth frowned, suddenly nervous and shy. If she hadn't even known who Percy was before this morning, how was he supposed to know something personal about her?
Again she felt Percy's eyes on her and turned back, meeting his stare.
"She's smart," he finally said again, staring at her. "But she's also alone."
There was a sudden stunned silence after that. After a few seconds, Annabeth turned away from him to stare resolutely at the blackboard in front of her front row desk.
How. Dare. He. Annabeth thought to herself. What gave him the right, the nerve... how could he possibly suggest...?
"Excellent," Mrs. Mccoy said. "That's really good. And why does this make her attractive?"
Percy shrugged. "I dunno. People wanna find out why, I guess. Not me personally, but I'm sure others wanna."
Annabeth didn't know why that comment bothered her so much.
"Hmm," Mrs. Mccoy muttered. "Interesting." There was a pause. "What about you Annabeth?" Mrs. Mccoy asked. "What are three things that attract you to Percy?"
She smiled sweetly, to hide the anger and turmoil inside her. "Nothing, Mrs. Mccoy. I'm not attracted to loners like Percy."
"Ohh..." Guys crowed. "That's a burn man," Connor said from the back but Annabeth didn't look behind her.
For some reason she didn't think she could handle meeting Percy's eyes.
"Right," Percy's voice sounded from the back, hard but loud, cutting through the mutters of the class. "But you act like I could possibly be attracted to a jock's trophy girlfriend."
"Snap, crackle and pop." The Stoll brothers said together.
"Alright," Mrs. Mccoy said. "This has gotten out of hand. Percy, Annabeth, thank you for participating. Your efforts were... commendable."
She heard a snort from behind her but didn't turn to see who it was.
"Let's move on to body language," Mrs. Mccoy continued. "How do you know when a person..."
Annabeth stopped listening, tapping her pencil insistently against the coil of her notebook. After minutes had passed she sneaked a glance back at Percy, trying to hide behind her hair.
He was staring at her, his eyes hard. Behind them there was an emotion Annabeth couldn't read- she hardly knew him well enough for that- but one that she clearly saw. It made her gut twist, made her feel rotten.
Which was completely stupid, of course. He had been the one who had insulted her. He said first that he 'personally, he couldn't find her attractive', had said she was alone. He, Percy Jackson, a guy she hadn't even known about before today, had insulted her, Annabeth Chase, debatedly the most popular girl in school and Luke Castellan's girlfriend.
So why was it she felt so bad?
oooOOOooo
She left the class in a hurry and went through advanced calculus and history in a blur. She hardly remembered a thing. After history it had been break and Annabeth had met up with Luke at his locker again.
Although he hadn't been alone.
There was a group of guys, Luke's usual 'buddies', surrounding a scared looking freshman. The freshman was nerdy looking, with big glasses, big blue eyes and flappy ears. He had curly red hair and pale skin and baggy clothes.
Not one of Luke's friends, that was for sure. Luke liked people who owned flashy cars, rocked major designer labels and dated popular people. Due to Luke's dad, Hermes, being the boss of a huge shipping company, Hermes Express, Luke got practically all of the money he could ever need for nothing but a simple "Please Dad?"
It came in handy when Luke was buying presents for her, Annabeth thought grinning. The diamond bracelet he had gotten her for her birthday last June was laying on top of her jewlery box at home right now.
Right now it seemed like the guys were tormenting the freshman. Ethan Nakamura slammed him against a locker suddenly and Luke smacked the kid's books out of his hands and onto the hallway floor.
Everyone else was in their classes or had somehow been made to disappear Annabeth realized. The guy must have been late or something and been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Hey guys," she said easily, acting like nothing was wrong. "What's up?"
Luke snickered. "See here, Harry," he said. "Now even my girlfriend gets to hear you whimper like a girl."
Annabeth lifted her eyes to look at him in surprise. It had been awhile since she had heard him speak like that to anybody. "Luke," she said. "What are you doing?"
"Dude," Ethan spoke in a whine. "Can't you shut your girlfriend up? I wanna make this guy cry."
"Quiet, Annabeth," he said, annoyed.
Annabeth stood there silently, unsure how to handle the situation. She loved Luke, was his girlfriend, but this was wrong and she knew it. The only way to get him to stop was to distract him, or act like nothing bad was going on.
But could she really do that? Maybe if she said something, pointed out to him that this was bullying...
"Luke," Annabeth said quietly.
"What?" He looked over at her, still slightly annoyed. "It's just some fun, Annabeth, learn to loosen up. What's the problem?"
She hesitated, glancing at the kid in front of them. His eyes were wide and that's what really got to Annabeth.
He was actually scared.
She forced a smile and turned back to her boyfriend. "Nothing," she said, and forced a laugh. "But the bell's going to ring in like, 2 minutes, so we should probably get to class. You don't want Mrs. Delacy to mark you late again, right?"
She heard complaints from the guys around them but didn't look away from Luke.
He studied her for a few seconds before nodding. "Get lost, kid." He muttered to the boy.
Annabeth watched as he picked up his books from the floor with shaking hands before hurrying off to whatever class he was in this period. She looked back at Luke and he smiled at her easily like nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
And that was when she realized; it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Luke did this all the time. He was a bully and he did it for fun.
When had he changed so much? Why hadn't she noticed before? Why had she let it happen?
She met his blue eyes and saw the boy she had crushed on for years, soft and caring, worried that she wasn't okay. He was so amazing with her, so protective and caring. Why couldn't anybody else see that?
He was just misunderstood, Annabeth told herself. That was why so many people didn't like him. Sure, what he had just done to that kid was wrong, but he hadn't really hurt anybody, right?Annabeth wasn't sure and she knew that she wouldn't like what her answer would be if she thought about it any more, so she decided to put it out of her mind.
"C'mon guys," Luke said to the rest of them. "We gotta go to class."
"You're taking me home after school today, right?" Annabeth asked him before he could leave and follow the rest of them.
Luke stopped, closing his locker. "Right, about that. See I got lot's of homework tonight and I need to go see my mom so..."
Luke's mom, May Castellan, was in some sort of mental hospital. Apparently she had suffered from a nervous breakdown a few years ago and had never really completely gotten over it. Luke told Annabeth that she still had 'episodes' sometimes. That was why Annabeth had never been to his place or met his mother. She had only seen his father for a few minutes at a time when he came to the school or picked Luke up when he couldn't drive himself.
"So?" She asked him.
"So I can't give you a ride home tonight," he said shortly. "Find someone else, or take the bus again. Better yet, get your own damn car so I can stop having to drive you around everywhere."
Annabeth stared at him in shock. What was his problem? She thought in annoyance, trying to ignore the hurt his words gave her.
He must have seen something in her expression because next thing she knew his face softened and he was reaching out for her. "Annabeth..."
"Forget it," she pulled her hand out of his grasp. "I'll find my own ride home."
She turned on her heel and stalked away, not noticing the pair of seagreen eyes following her from behind a locker door, and not listening to Luke as he yelled after her, "Call me when you're not so PMS!"
Jerk.
The last class of the day was Phys Ed. and Annabeth's worst subject. She wasn't a bad athlete, quite the opposite actually, but she didn't like sports. Therefore she didn't try and got a bad mark.
Sports got you sweaty and gross. As long as Annabeth was skinny and had good blood pressure and everything she was healthy enough in her book and didn't like doing any excercises except her own.
Percy was in this class, she remembered, since this wasn't an advanced lesson.
Great. Just freaking fantastic. Like she needed to see anymore of him than she already had today.
Today was the first day she really noticed him in gym and she couldn't help but be surprised when she liked what she saw. Even sweaty and gross, Percy was hot. Annabeth found her eyes being drawn over to him more than once in the class and couldn't help but blush when he caught her looking once and smirked cockily.
Damn him.
"Listen up class!" Ms. Lacey yelled out. "I want you to split into partners and do some ladder excercises."
Annabeth looked around and her eyes met Katie's. She grinned and walked over to the farmgirl. "Partners?" She asked.
Katie nodded. "Thank gods," she muttered. "I did not want to be stuck with Clarisse again."
Annabeth snorted. "Looks like Clarisse gets to be partners with Silena."
Katie laughed. "Never thought I'd feel sorry for Clarisse, but everybody knows how bad Silena is at gym."
Annabeth nodded. "I'll get the ladder."
"Cool," Katie said.
They ended up being in between Travis and Connor and Percy and Grover, the latter being on their right while the former were on their left. Travis, Annabeth noticed, kept glancing over at Katie throughout the class. And Katie, she also saw, always seemed to be looking in that direction when Travis had his back turned.
She rolled her eyes. The sooner those two stopped being so oblivious the better.
The class itself was easy. Jumping in and out of floor ladders, hopping, side stepping and other excercises. The only real disturbance was when Grover Underwood, the kid partnered with Percy, tripped and tangled his feet on the ladder and fell on the floor.
"Ow!" He cried out.
Grover had never be agile, even as a kid. He was a major clutz and had some sort of disease in his legs that made it hard for him to move them fast. When he and Annabeth had used to hang out she had made sure to always be careful around him, not wanting him to get hurt.
Around her kids laughed or smiled at Grover. Even Annabeth had to bite back a laugh.
Ms. Lacey called out from the other side of the gym, "You okay Mr. Underwood?"
"Fine!" Grover called back nervously.
"Then get back up and try again!" Ms. Lacey yelled back, causing everyone to laugh harder before turning back to their own excercises.
All but one.
Percy walked over to where Grover was sitting and pulled the ladder off of him gently. "You okay man?"
Grover nodded. "Yeah. Just tripped."
Percy smiled and held out a hand, offering to help Grover up. Grover accepted and Annabeth noticed how Percy's arm muscles bulged slightly at the gesture. He clapped Grover on the back and smiled. "Let's hope I can make it through this thing without breaking my neck, huh?"
Grover laughed and Annabeth watched them carefully as they put the ladder back in it's proper place. She couldn't help the smile on her face at Percy's gesture and obvious attempt to make Grover feel better- or at least less embarrased.
She watched as Percy went through the ladder, hopping first in, then out on either side. In fact, Percy was a natural athlete. Annabeth noticed how far he jumped, how balanced he was and how fast he was.
Huh, impressive.
"Annabeth?" Katie's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she turned her head to meet the girl's gaze.
"Yeah?" She asked after a second.
Katie smiled at her and Annabeth didn't like the knowing look in her eyes. "It's your turn."
"Oh." Annabeth said. "Oh right. Thanks."
"Sure," Katie said, still with that twinkle in her eyes.
After the class was over and Annabeth was putting her and Katie's ladder away, she felt someone brush up against her.
"That was nice," she said suddenly, "what you did for Grover."
Percy looked over at her in surprise before raising an eyebrow. "Are you serious?"
She shifted slightly, crossing her arms. "What?" She asked defensively.
Percy shook his head. "It just seems a bit hypocritical," he said. "You thanking me for helping Grover out when you were one of the ones who ditched him years ago."
Annabeth stood there, stunned for the billionth time that day. "I never ditched Grover," she replied with narrowed eyes. At Percy's snort she continued. "And besides, I wasn't thanking you, I merely said it was nice."
"Well don't bother," Percy said. "Besides, it's what friends do for each other. Anyone else would have done it for their friend."
He walked away towards the boys changing room without another word, leaving Annabeth staring after him with an open mouth, contemplating his words.
Would she have done that for her friend? She'd like to think so. Would they have done it for her? Maybe, a few of them. Thalia, came to the forefront of her mind.
What about Luke? A voice whispered in her mind. You know he wouldn't have, don't you.
"Shut up." Annabeth said out loud, before realizing what she had done and looking around, relief filling her when she realized no one else was there.
Gods this day sucked.
oooOOOooo
The bus ride home had been quiet for Annabeth and she had taken out her book to read, thankful she finally had time to do so. Lately, since she had started dating Luke, she had found she hadn't had as much time to read or draw as she had used to. It was a disappointing thought, since anybody who knew Annabeth knew she loved to read, but if it was what she had to sacrifice for dating the most popular guy in school then it was what she would do.
When she got home she immediately headed up to her room and changed into yoga pants and a loose fitting top, slapping her hair up into a ponytail and removing most of the makeup from her face. Tonight was a night for relaxing and since she wasn't going to see anybody for the rest of the night except her parents, there was no reason to put in any effort to her appearance.
She put her Ipod on her dock, turning up the sound on her speakers until the song "My Blood" by Ellie Goulding was blasting from them. She looked around her room, wondering what she could do for the next hour until dinner.
Her left wall was completely taken up by white shelfs that held books, magazines, little trinkets, pictures and projects from when she was little. Her bed was in the back right corner and there was a desk beside it. On her right wall there was a white wardrobe. Her floors were a deep purple carpet and her walls were a nice, turquoise blue.
Annabeth's eyes landed on her yearbook from last year and sudden curiosity filled her. She walked over and grabbed it, flipping through the pages until she landed on her class candid shots. She scanned the page, flipping through it for last names starting with J, until she found who she was looking for.
Percy Jackson's life goal is to see everybody he cares about happy.
Annabeth smiled at that, despite how cheesy it was. She looked at his picture, noticing a necklace he was wearing that seemed strangely familiar to her. It had five beads on it but the markings on them were too small to make out in the picture. His hair was sticking up and looked kinda crazy but sexy at the same time. He was a skater guy type, no doubt about it, but instead of being repulsed Annaebth was strangely attracted to him. And his eyes, gods those eyes...
She shook her head. Boyfriend, Annabeth, you have a boyfriend.
She flipped back to the page with her on it and looked down to see her life goal.
Annabeth Chase's life goal is to get married to Luke Castellan.
She wrinkled her nose at it. Compared to Percy's, her life goal was shallow, if not self absorbed. For some reason that disappointed her.
She had wanted to say her life goal was to becom an architect, but Piper had told her that nobody would care and had told her to write something about Luke because that would be amazingly cute. So she had erased her goal of becoming an architect and had said she wanted to marry Luke.
Annabeth flipped back to Percy's picture and couldn't help but stare, taking in every detail. He really was cute, she thought. But there was something else about him, something deeper. There was a look in his eyes...
Annabeth closed her yearbook, replacing it on the shelf and moved to her desk, starting up her computer. Hurriedly she logged on and clicked onto Facebook, logging in and searching up the name 'Percy Jackson.'
She was friends with him, Annabeth realized. She must have accepted without really knowing who he was. All of his posts must have been lost to her amidst the others from her friends and relatives.
He was single, she saw, and he liked sports.
Funny, she couldn't remember seeing him on any of the sports teams. Or at any of Luke's games.
"Annabeth!" Athena called up. "Turn that music down! And get downstairs, it's time for dinner!"
"Coming!" She called back, trying not to let her annoyance show through in her tone.
She got off of Percy's page, scolding herself. What was she doing, practically stalking a guy she had just talked to today? Why was she so obsessed with him?
She turned off her computer and headed downstairs, hurrying to her seat at the dining table.
Tonight was chicken breast with a side of salad, Annabeth saw.
"The food tastes wonderful dear," her dad said after a few minutes of silent eating.
"Thank you," Athena replied with a smile. Annabeth's dad was the only one who could still make Athena smile like that. "I used a new recipe I found the other day."
"It is really good mom," Annabeth said.
Athena turned to her. "Sit straight when you're eating dear," she said.
Immediately Annabeth corrected her (slight) slouch and continued eating in silence. There was a few more minutes of silence before Athena spoke. "So, Annabeth, how was school today?"
"Fine," Annabeth replied. When she looked up and saw Athena gazing at her expectantly she sighed. "I got 100% in my math test from yesterday and knew all of my history lesson today. Gym was the same as usual and science... well I did everything Mrs. Mccoy asked me to."
Athena nodded, satisfied, and continued to eat. "Good. You need to keep your grades up if you want to go to Harvard or Stanford."
Annabeth smiled uneasily. "Right."
Her dad complimented Annabeth on her work effort, spoke a bit to her mother and then dinner was finished and Annabeth headed back upstairs to her room. She checked her phone and saw she had two new texts, one from Luke and one from Thalia.
She checked Thalia's first. 'Wat happened with u & Perce 2day?'
'Nothing really.' Annabeth replied. 'How do u kno him?'
The she checked Luke's.
'Real srry bout wat happened. Call me and I'll make it up to u, promise."
Annabeth frowned and sighed. As far as apologies went that was about the best she would get from Luke. 'It's ok, I'll call u tomorrow. Got hw to do 2nite.'
He replied a second later. 'K.'
Thalia replied to her text right after that and Annabeth opened it. 'Percy's Jason and I's cousin. So is Nico.'
'Woah,' Annabeth replied. 'For real? Why don't they hang out with us?'
'Perce and Luke don't get along,' Thalia replied a minute later. 'Plus Percy would never ditch his friends like that.'
Annabeth read the message but didn't reply, Thalia's answer reminded her of what Percy had said to her after gym that day.
She hadn't ditched Grover, not really. They had just drifted apart.
Right?
She shook her head and took her Ipod and earbuds out to listen to music, laying back on her bed. She closed her eyes but was still unable to get the look in Percy's eyes as he had spoken to her out of her mind.
Revulsion.
He judged her so harshly and he didn't even know her. He knew nothing about her, or her life. How could he possibly think he had a right to stand there and deal out judgement when they had barely had a conversation?
She fell asleep after thinking and tossing and turning a bit, Percy's eyes burning the image of themselves into her mind.
oooOOOooo
Good first chapter? Review and tell me what you think! Next chapter will explain background stories more, I just needed an opening!Plus you can be sure of more Percebeth to come! And soon!
Love you all!
Percyjacksonfan3