This story draws inspiration on the estranged relationship Jason and Reyna have in the book.

Just to reiterate myself, this story will have no one antagonized. There is no "bad guy" stopping them from getting together, only themselves. This will mostly be told from Percy's perspective in third person. There won't be that many characters and all of them will have the characteristics they had in the book. Although there may be some slight situational differences due to the difference in back story of the characters.

There are no gods in the story and everyone's step-parents will be their biological one is this AU. There are also some slight changes to everyone's back story like I said before to help with the plot

Chapter I: Chance

Percy used to know Annabeth Chase, they had been friends when they were younger. To Percy they were best friends even though they only met once a month. It was always the highlight of the week for a nine year old boy to go over to his best friend's house for a whole day to play games and watch TV.

Everything ended when Percy's parents got divorced. Percy didn't want his friendship with Annabeth to end. It just seemed to come to a complete halt when his parents split up. Percy was preoccupied with his family, everyone was preoccupied with his family. Annabeth suddenly seemed to be a secondary concern.

Now it's been seven years since that and Percy's life has gone relatively back to normal. He was now living with his mom, Sally in a small but comfortable two bed room apartment in Manhattan. His father, Paul Blofis was nearby living less than five blocks away. Why his parents got divorced was a mystery to him. All he knew was that his father did it for their own good.

Percy went to Goode High School, it was one of the better schools in the city but it was nowhere near to the top schools. Even though it wasn't prestigious to graduate from his high school Percy was completely fine with it. They were taking the same exam in the end anyway.

Annabeth on the other hand seemed to be much better off. Her family was still together and they were living in Elmont, New York in a sizable house. She had managed to enrol into the top tier Madison High School. She remembered Percy fondly but she never chose to do anything about it since she was always busy, she just accepted it as something that had passed. Although all of this was unknown to Percy.

Under normal circumstances the two would never meet. Percy lived in city while Annabeth stayed in the suburbs. Annabeth went to one of the top schools in the Tri-state area while Percy went to a regular, run of the mill school. As things would have it they met again anyway completely by chance.

Percy didn't know why his mom insisted on using this dry cleaner all the way out in Elmont. There were plenty of dry cleaners just as good in the city and he bet there were loads of them across the Lincoln Tunnel. So Percy had to make the arduous forty five minute journey taking two trains and a bus just to get two of his moms dress washed.

'Why does she make me do this?' Percy mumbled to himself as he alighted from the bus carrying a bag full of clothing.

He started to walk towards the small group of stores that the dry cleaner was located at. How his mom had found out about an obscure dry cleaner was a mystery to him. She did always read too many online reviews about the best places in town.

Percy walked with a noticeable slump with his eyes glazed over day dreaming about being on holiday. Summer had just ended and he had just started a new term in school. Like every student he wasn't thrilled about have to wake up early to go to school again. Now after ending his first week at school he had to go across town to run an errand. Percy loved his mom and knew it was hard for her to be a single parent but sometimes the things she got him to do were just ridiculous.

Unknowingly while he was walking in slammed right into another person. The shock jolted him out of his stupor and caused him to fling his bag forward in the process.

'I'm sorry.' Percy said alarmed as he snapped out of his day dream.

'No honey, I'm sorry.' A woman said as she picked up her shopping. Two girls were following her that looked younger than Percy but not by much.

Before Percy could pick his bag and continue the woman called after him. 'Hold on!'

Percy's head snapped back in surprise. She seemed like a nice lady, Percy had assumed a simply sorry was adequate.

'I know you, you're Percy. Percy Jackson.' The lady replied with a smile on her face. Her two daughters looked just as confused as Percy was.

Percy was scared to answer. He didn't know if he was supposed to know this lady. Being dyslexic he sometimes forgot people's names and faces, even some members of his family he didn't see often. He wasn't scared of the lady at all. He was a head taller than her and she had two children, the last thing that was going to happen was violence. He was scared of making a fool out of himself.

'Urm…' Percy said as he debated what to say in his mind.

'Oh you probably don't remember me. I'm Mrs Chase. Annabeth's mother.' Percy said smiling as she moved close to talk with him.

'Mrs Chase?' Percy said stunned. He hadn't heard anything from the chase family for seven years. She used to be friends with his mom until the divorce. Percy guessed that after his parent had split up his mother also lost contact with some of her friends.

'Yes! I haven't seen you in seven years! You've gotten a lot bigger.' She exclaimed. Percy could tell her children were just as clueless as to what was going on as well.'

'What's happened to you? Which high school did you go to?' Mrs Chase continued to ask bombarding Percy with questions.

'It's nice to see you again Mrs Chase but I really need to drop off my mother's dresses for dry cleaning.' Percy replied as he picked up his bag.

'I understand dear. I hope I'll see you soon.' She said somewhat disappointed. Percy guessed she wanted to know how he was doing as compared to Annabeth. They used to be best friends after all.

'It's not like that Mrs Chase.' Percy replied. Percy hoped that she didn't think he was trying to escape a long conversation. 'I can talk to you after I drop this off, it will only take a minute.'

'Can I meet you in the café?' Percy continued.

'Sure Percy. I owe these two ice cream anyway.' Mrs Chase said smiling.

Percy went into the dry cleaner to quickly drop off the dresses before leaving to go to the café. Percy remembered that Annabeth had two sisters, Natalie was seven when they were still friends and the youngest Samantha was five at the time. Everything was all hazy since the divorce was the most significant event of the time and it over shadowed all other memories he had.

Percy entered the café and took a seat a Mrs Chase's table. The two girls were off playing a remake of Space Invaders at the arcade machine and looked pretty content.

'So Percy, how have you been?' Mrs Chase asked. Percy had always liked her and treated her like an aunt when he was younger.

'I've been good, school hasn't been too great though,' Percy replied.

Percy, well, wasn't exactly popular. He wasn't labelled a dork or a loser either. He was just sort of invisible outside his regular group of friends. Percy and his friends did play on the baseball team, but since their school wasn't one of the top it was mostly for recreation since they only played one competition a year.

'What school did you go to?' Mrs Chase asked.

'I went to Goode High. My father used to teach there before he moved up to teach college so I thought I go there.' Percy said.

'Oh! Annabeth went to Madison High.' Mrs Chase replied.

Percy suddenly felt slightly ashamed. Annabeth had made it into one of the top 10 schools in the region while he was just in an everyman's school. He remembered that Annabeth was smart, be he didn't think she'd be so brilliant.

'What she doing there? Sports? Drama?' Percy asked. He was now curious about what Annabeth was doing.

'She's in the art club and the infocom club.' Mrs Chase replied.

'Infocom?' Percy asked. Goode had nothing like that.

'It's basically the computer club Percy.' Mrs Chase replied. Annabeth now struck Percy as a nerd. Goode barely had a functioning computer lab with most of the computers in there broken down or old and barely working.

'What's her GPA?' Percy asked. His GPA was not very impressive at slightly under three points.

'She's at 3.7 the last time she told me.' Mrs Chase replied.

Percy was impressed, she was definitely an honours student. But Percy bet that she was a complete nerd has well.

'Percy are you still suffering from your dyslexia?' Mrs Chased asked. Percy remembered that Annabeth also had dyslexia and ADHD.

'It's not as bad as before, I can read fine but my spelling is still slightly messed up.' Percy continued.

'Mom! Can we go now?' One of the girls interrupted. Apparently they had run out of quarters.

'Okay Nat, in a minute.' She replied before turning back to Percy.

'It's okay Percy, don't be too impressed.' Mrs Chase said. Apparently she knew what Percy was thinking.

'Annabeth is also quite awkward sometimes. She not popular either, but being popular isn't important.' Mrs Chase continued as Percy nodded his head. She always was nice to Percy, she didn't want him to feel intimidated or any worse that her daughter.

'Wait, if Nat and Sam both go to school, where is Annabeth?' Percy asked. By now every school for have finished for the day. Annabeth should be here with her sisters.

'She's still at school finishing an art piece.' She replied.

'Mom! We want to catch the show.' The girls interjected again.

'Okay, we're leaving.' Mrs Chase said as she got up. 'They're a little impatient sometimes, but I can't blame them. Their fourteen and Twelve.'

'Percy can you pass me your mothers number. It's time we get in touch.' Mrs Chase said as she held out her notebook.

'Tell Annabeth I said hi.' Percy replied as he uncapped his lucky pen.

Percy quickly scribbled down the digits before Mrs Chase hurried off with her shopping. Percy wondered how Mr Chase was doing. He couldn't remember what he did for a living but he knew that he earned a lot.

The whole trip back took an hour and a half since he got caught in rush hours and couldn't board three trains. The whole time he thought about Annabeth. His memory of her was hazy despite him having fond memories of her. Did she still have her golden hair? Percy wonder if she had finally grown a little taller. Finally Percy thought back to her grey stormy eyes. They used to scare him when he was younger but over time he realized how beautiful there were.

Percy only got home well after seven o'clock and he was starving for dinner. He was thankful that tomorrow was Saturday.

'Mom! I'm home.' Percy said as he entered the apartment. 'What's for dinner?'

'Spaghetti, it's on the table.' She called back.

Percy sat down his ate his food in silence. He was slowly trying to recover all the memories he had of Annabeth. Most of which were mired in a mix of memories of the divorce.

'Percy,' Sally called out from her room. 'I got a call from Mrs Chase earlier today. I am meeting her for lunch tomorrow. Do you want to come?"

'I've got baseball tomorrow.' Percy replied his mouth half full with bolognaise sauce and half a meat ball.

'It's later in the afternoon at three.' His mom replied.

'Is Annabeth going?' Percy asked. He already had quite a chat with Mrs Chase today, unless Annabeth was going Percy felt there wasn't much of a point showing up again.

'She said that Annabeth has to finish a project. It's only going to be Mrs Chase.' Sally replied. Percy was amazed at that. It had only been one week since school started but Madison High had already given out lots of work. He guessed that's what set a top school apart of a regular one like Goode.

'No thanks, I think I'd rather rest at home.' Percy replied as he finished up his food and brought it to the sink.

Percy head to his room to lie down. He still felt grimy from the overly packed train he was in on his way back but he was too lazy to get up a bathe just yet.

'Percy?' His mother asked as she opened the door. 'I got a message from Mrs Chase, Annabeth wants your email address.'

Percy's heart skipped a beat before he answered 'Email? Why not my phone number or Facebook or something?' Percy was curious why she wanted his Email. He barely used his email. For that matter he was sure that his friends only used their email for the occasional school project and to sign up for stuff online.

'How would I know?' Sally asked.

'Maybe Mrs Chase told you?' Percy replied straight back.

'Just write it down.' Sally said. Percy wondered if he asked too many questions sometimes.

Percy scribbled down his address before lying back down on his bed. He felt weirdly excited even though he hadn't met her in seven years. There was this strange air of mystery that made him both eager to meet her again yet scared.

He thought of all the possibilities that could happen. Would she be angry that their friendship had come to a sudden end? Would she be as conflicted as him about talking to her? Would she even remember him? As the thoughts raced through Percy's mind he heard a ping from his laptop.

Percy jolted up and hopped out of his bed into his desk chair before swivelling to face his desk. Percy switched tabs to his email and searched for Annabeth's message among all the unopened spam that had cluttered his inbox over the months of disuse.

Finally he stumbled upon a message from 'WiseGirl'. Percy quickly opened it expecting a whole paragraph from Annabeth based on what her mother had told him about her intellect. All it read was just a simple 'Hi'.

Percy replied quickly before he could think and simply sent her a 'Hi' back.

Another ping came out from the computer and Percy quickly scrolled down to read the new message.

'It's been a while.' It wrote plainly.

'Yeah it has.' Percy wrote in replied.

'Why the name "SeaweedBrain"?' Annabeth wrote back asking.

'Long story…' Percy wrote down as he hesitated before sending. Annabeth was he friend, although a bit distant. He decided that if he wanted to be real friends again he shouldn't splash around with all the small talk. 'I fell into the Hudson once.' He continued before hitting send.

'What!' Annabeth wrote back. Percy could imagine her voice yelling that out in disbelief. 'I forgot you were pretty funny sometimes.'

'So why "WiseGirl"?' Percy asked in return.

'Nothing like how you got your nickname. I'm a nerd.' Annabeth wrote back very frankly. Percy liked that, she didn't pretend to be someone she wasn't. And she seemed pretty proud of it.

The computer dinged again with Annabeth next message. Before Percy replied he took a minute to think about everything that happened. A dull errand had turned out to be something incredible. Now he was wondering what would happen now.

So that's the first chapter. Please tell me what you think since I don't think this story plot has been done a lot. Also this is likely to be a short story of about fifteen chapters. It also may involve occasional time skips of one or two weeks to a month.