Disclaimer: All PJO characters belong to Rick Riordan.

This Sweet Lullaby

Annabeth

You didn't catch my eye right away. I won't deny this. But once you did, I swear, I couldn't look away.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Annabeth cursed as the paper sliced her thumb and sent searing pain down her finger. She shoved the injured thumb in her mouth and sucked on it before finishing putting up the flyer. She took a step back and stared at her work in satisfaction. Two hundred flyers covered the freshman and sophomore hallway, attached to lockers and walls and water fountains and even the fire extinguisher. Annabeth felt a little uncomfortable having her face covering Goode High School's hallways, but she was used to it by now. She's been running for student body since she was just a freshman. Now, as a junior, she was running with her best friend Thalia Grace for president and VP of the student body.

Traditionally, a junior couldn't run for either president or vice president, but Annabeth was a special exception. She made better grades than most of the seniors and was very popular with the students. So the principal had allowed her to run for vice president only, and Thalia would run for president.

The flyers were clean cut and neat. Annabeth would have it no other way. In fact, she'd gotten into a huge argument with Thalia over how the flyers should look. Annabeth liked traditional red, white, and blue with little graphics and a more professional look. Thalia favored the neon colors and dirty but catchy slogans that they could probably get suspended for. Needless to say, Annabeth won that argument.

Satisfied with her work, she walked down the hall, headed toward the juniors and seniors lockers, where Thalia was putting up posters. When Annabeth turned the corner, she was greeted with the message "VOTE FOR US!" written across the lockers, the letters formed by the flyers. Annabeth's face broke out into a grin.

"Well, that's one way to go about that," she told Thalia, who was standing back and admiring her work.

Thalia smiled and walked up to Annabeth. "You like?" she asked, gesturing to the message. "I figured that if we were going to win, we should go for a 'wow' factor, you know? Instead of just putting up flyers all over the school, why not communicate with them instead?"

Annabeth laughed. She didn't reply, instead moving towards her locker, where one of the exclamation points were taped on it. She did her combination and opened the locker, quickly grabbing her books for first hour Government. She hated that class with a fiery, burning passion. Sure, one day she wanted to go into politics, but having that class for her first hour was just cruel.

People were rapidly filling the halls. School began at eight, and when Annabeth glanced at her watch, she was surprised to see that it was ten 'til. Time flies when you're having fun, she guessed. Her and Thalia had been up at the school since 6:30, putting up flyers and posters and stuff for their campaign.

"So I was thinking," Thalia said, leaning against the locker next to Annabeth's, "we should throw a big party for our campaign. You know, do it like the real politics. They always throw some kind of campaign party that kind of sets it all into motion. We should do something like that."

Annabeth nodded. A campaign party sounded like a great idea. Not only would it be the first big party of the school year, but it would give both her and Thalia a great opportunity to talk to people and win their vote. "That's actually not a bad idea," she said, ignoring Thalia's eye roll. "My house or your house?"

"My house," Thalia answered. "It could be a pool party, since it's still warm here in good ole California."

Annabeth smiled. Thalia was from New York. She wasn't used to the California heat, even after living here for four years after moving in with her dad. Her dad, who was a multi-billionaire and had a house the size of Buckingham Palace, complete with a game room, movie theater, and saltwater pool the size of the Atlantic Ocean.

"Two weeks," Thalia announced, thinking out loud. "We'll have it in two weeks. My dad will be out of town, so he won't be an issue. Hopefully, it'll still be warm enough to swim."

Annabeth opened her mouth to put in some of her own ideas - who to invite, what food to serve, how they're going to announce it - when a familiar blond basketball player hugged her from behind and whispered in her ear, "Hi, Annie."

Annabeth smiled and playfully slapped his arms. "Don't call me that," she scolded, but her tone wasn't harsh at all. She broke out of Luke's grip and turned to face him. He looked really good today. He was in a pair of khakis and a gray Stanford t-shirt that hugged his muscles in a way that made Annabeth's cheeks heat up. His hair was as carefully styled as ever and his blue eyes were fixed on her.

"Sorry," he apologized, adding on an unnecessary, "Annie," before giving her a kiss on the lips. Annabeth kissed him back for a couple seconds before pushing him away.

"Ick," Thalia gagged. "Can't you two swallow each other's faces when I'm not around?"

Annabeth's cheeks heated, but Luke just answered with a sly grin, "Trust me, we do." That earned him an elbow to the gut, courtesy of Annabeth. They most certainly did not do that. At least, not in the way that he was implying. Sure, they kissed a lot. It was only expected, seeing as they were pretty much dating. Luke hadn't popped the question yet, but still. It kind of went unspoken between them. So sure, they kissed a lot and even had a few make-out sessions, but Annabeth always stopped them before they went too far. And she made sure to never make out with Luke in public. She was a strong believer in being courteous to the people around her. A little PDA was fine, but enough was enough. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, Luke didn't understand that. She's had to push him off of her more than she should have.

Thalia put up a hand. "Spare me the details."

Luke grinned and looked back down at Annabeth. "We still on for Friday night?" he asked.

Annabeth racked her brain because for one panicky moment, she didn't know what he was talking about. Then she remembered that he had texted her the other day and asked her if she wanted to hang out at his house before the big football game that night. She smiled, relieved. "Yeah. We're still on."

Luke smiled. "Good." They heard whooping and calls coming from down the hallway and Luke gave her a sympathetic look. "That's my cue," he said just as his group of friends came down the hall. He gave her another kiss, this one light and fast and more Annabeth's style. "See you in English." Then he ran off to join his friends.

Thalia sighed as she watched him give his friends high fives and crack some joke that they all thought was absolutely hilarious. She shook her head in disdain. "You could do so much better than him," she said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and shut her locker. "Lighten up, Thals," she said. "it probably won't last. He's a senior and I'm a junior. He'll be off to college next year while I'll still be in high school. I don't think our relationship is strong enough to withstand that."

Just then, Nico di Angelo, another senior, walked past them down the hallway. Immediately, Thalia's eyes hooked onto him. Annabeth shot her a knowing look. "You're totally crushing on him."

Thalia gave her a startled glance. "Luke?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "No. Di Angelo."

Thalia rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything. She kept her eyes on Nico and leaned against the lockers. Annabeth smiled.

"You should ask him to your party."

Thalia gave her a dumbfounded look. "I can't do that. He'd say no."

"Oh, I doubt that."

"Easy for you to say," Thalia said bitterly. "Sorry, but not all of us can be as smart and gorgeous as you are. Any guy would drop their girlfriends to go out with you if you weren't with Luke."

"That's not true." Annabeth's cheeks reddened as she said it. Thalia and their other friend Piper were constantly telling her that she could have any guy she wanted. She could have anything she wanted, really, whether it was the most popular guy in school or the homecoming crown or valedictorian. And as much as Annabeth wanted to deny it, it was sort of true. She did have the most popular guy: Luke Castellan, captain of the basketball team. Everyone kept telling her that the homecoming crown was as good as hers. And she was currently the top of her class. So as much as Annabeth wanted to deny it, she was kind of Goode High School's "it" girl.

Thalia was about to argue, but they were interrupted by loud laughing right next to them. Annabeth turned to find Piper McLean walking towards them, laughing at the formation of the flyers on the lockers. "Thalia?" she asked and Annabeth nodded while Thalia smiled proudly.

"I'd say it was a good use of paper," she commented, staring in admiration at her flyers.

Both Piper and Annabeth rolled their eyes. They started talking about things they could do to better their campaign, the party being a major point. Piper was very helpful in coming up with ideas. Annabeth had tried to convince her to run for something, but Piper refused to. While she was a really good speaker, she wanted to go into the movie business as a director or a producer or something. It made sense. Her father was famous actor Tristan McLean and Piper had a way with people. She could get them to do anything she wanted with a well-worded sentence and a sweet smile. It was these very things that would make her a great politic, but Piper refused to believe Annabeth.

Thalia, on the other hand, didn't know what she wanted to do. She didn't even care. She just liked being in a position of power.

"Jason can help with the party," Piper suggested and Thalia rolled her eyes. Jason Grace was Thalia's little brother and Piper's boyfriend. Thalia absolutely hated the fact that one of her best friends was dating her brother, or at least that's what she claimed. She had told Annabeth once that as annoying as it was, she was glad her brother had Piper. Piper was a good girl.

"Oh, please," Thalia said. "Jason is as helpful as a fly."

Piper opened her mouth to argue, but just then the three girls heard loud, obnoxious laughing coming from down the hall. They turned to find that Celeste was the source of the laughter. Celeste Ramirez was Goode High's queen bee; at least, she was in her own head. Celeste was beautiful, no doubt about it, with her smooth, tan skin, dark, long hair, and big blue eyes, but the way she acted kind of cancelled out all the good things about her. She wore teeny tiny clothes that were totally against dress code and she threw herself at practically every guy in school. Most of the time, Annabeth saw her making out with a new guy every week against the lockers or in a supply closet or something. She was rich also and threw parties all the time. Annabeth never went, but she'd heard the rumors. They were not good parties to attend.

Today, Celeste was in a small red sundress. It looked innocent enough by itself, but the dress was a couple sizes too small, so the end of the dress was much shorter than dress code and the bodice was so tight, that her assets were pushed up until they were almost spilling out. The dress had spaghetti straps and one of them was falling off her shoulder. When Annabeth studied Celeste more, she saw the neckline on that side seemed disheveled, like it had been pulled down a little bit then hastily pulled up. Her dark hair was messy and her lipstick was smeared. Annabeth wrinkled her nose. Honestly, didn't this girl have any self-respect?

She was on the arm of Percy Jackson. He seemed very uncomfortable as she kept biting her lip seductively and leaning forward so he could have a clear view of her chest. Annabeth wanted to laugh out loud when she started playing with the strap of her dress. Her mouth moved with words, but Annabeth was too far away to hear what she was saying.

"That girl is so desperate," she commented to Thalia and Piper. "I mean, what is she even doing?"

Thalia muttered something under her breath that Annabeth couldn't hear. Piper ignored her and said, "I heard that Celeste and her friends made a bet. Celeste is trying to get Percy to ask her out before homecoming."

Annabeth snorted. That was a hopeless cause. Percy Jackson didn't date. He didn't seem to do anything, really. He was the school loner, the outcast. He didn't have one friend that she knew of. He was in a few of her classes, but he didn't look like he did any of the work. He barely uttered a word, even when she would try to have a conversation with him. He seemed to be a bad boy, or at least appeared to be one. He would come to school with bruises every now and then. His nose was crooked, like it had been broken many times.

None of the guys liked him, but he was ever popular with the girls. Maybe it was his mysterious aura or maybe it was just because he was attractive, but whatever it was, girls crushed on him like no other guy at school. And he was pretty good-looking. He had black, unruly hair that stood up at odd angles. He was constantly running his hands through it, which really didn't help its messiness. He was super tall at 6'3 and had beautiful sea green eyes. He had ridiculously long and dark eyelashes and full lips. But he always wore zip-up hoodies with the hood up and old, ripped jeans. Annabeth always tended to veer towards the guys who were smart and clean cut. She wanted a guy who was sure of himself and where he's headed in life. Percy didn't seem like that type of guy.

"Celeste should just give up already," Annabeth commented with a small, amused smile. "No one is ever going to get anywhere with him."

Piper laughed and elbowed her. "I bet you could," she teased.

"Oh, not you too."

"I'm being serious. Nobody but you could get anywhere with him. You could get anywhere with anybody."

Annabeth felt her cheeks heat up. "Okay, I'm going to class now," she said as the warning bell rang. She brushed past Thalia and Piper, who were both laughing at her blushing cheeks. She walked swiftly down the halls to her Government classroom, taking her normal seat in the front. She smiled and greeted a couple of her classmates who sat up front with her. She opened her notebook, dating the page and preparing to take notes. She pulled out her homework and glanced up when Percy Jackson entered the room, taking his usual seat in the back. She pretended not to notice him for a couple minutes, but found herself turning around and glancing at him.

She remembered her earlier conversation with her friends. What they said wasn't true whatsoever. She'd known Percy since middle school. She used to talk to him every now and then, but even then he gave her short, one-word answers. Eventually, she gave up. No one was ever going to get through to him.

As if sensing her gaze, his eyes lifted and met hers. Annabeth found herself unable to pull away for a couple seconds, even as her body temperature rose with embarrassment at being caught staring. Finally, after what seemed like two years rather than two seconds, she broke their staring contest and turned around. Her teacher, Mr. Brunner, was coming up to start the day.

After taking attendance and picking up everyone's homework, Mr. Brunner started talking about a new project they would be starting.

"You'll be working in partners," he said. Immediately, whispers rose around the room as students started claiming partners. Annabeth grinned when Mr. Brunner continued, "And don't start choosing partners because I've already chosen them." Groans around the room. Mr. Brunner grinned, but ignored them. "Your assignment is to create a country and a system of government for that country. You can choose one we learned about or make one up yourself. On this paper I'm about to pass out, you'll find the requirements for this assignment. It's due in a couple of months. Now, without further ado, I'll announce your partners." He started listing names and there were groans and high-fives around the room a people found out who they would be working with. Annabeth sat on the edge of her seat, waiting for her name to be called.

"Amy and Josh. Peyton and Audrey. Percy and Annabeth." He continued, but Annabeth's cheeks colored when she heard who her partner was. She slowly turned around to find Percy staring at her. She gave a small smile, which he didn't return. He looked back down at his desk.

Annabeth sighed and pulled on one of her curls. This project was proving very difficult for her already.

So, I know I probably shouldn't be starting another story since I still haven't finished my other one, but I just couldn't help it. I really like this idea. I have a lot of ideas for it and you know how you just get an idea for a story and then that idea just sorta consumes your soul for a while until you finally write it down? Yeah, that's what happened with this story. But I promise, I'll finish my other story, The Most Important Sacrifices. And since I have to finish that, I probably won't update this story as much. Don't expect regular updates.

I do feel like I have to warn you all. This story does contain some dark themes and there might be some triggers in later chapters.

Please leave a review!

"Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty." Matthew 23:11-12