Falling in love with him was the worst thing that ever happened to her. Before he came along, Annabeth prided herself on not getting too emotionally attached. She had always been calm, cool, and collected. She often scoffed at the stupidity of the girls who spent their days giggling and shamelessly flirting and trying to catch the attention of that special boy.
Annabeth simply had better things to do with her life than pine after some stupid guy. Even so, she wouldn't have said she was emotionless; she cried and laughed and loved her friends dearly, yet she never had lost her wits over a boy. Sure, she had liked, maybe even loved, Luke, but that wasn't like how she felt about him. There was none of this messy, confusing, nervewracking, pure emotion with Luke. It had all been more detached. With Luke, she had been able to step back from the situation and analyis.
With him it was so different. Annabeth could barely think straight when he was within 10 feet of her. Her emotions went haywire and her sense was nowhere to be found. She hated her emotions. They made her weak and vulnerable. She tried to stop them. Oh gods, did she try! She would challenge herself to ignore him. She would purposely sit with her back to his table at meals. She would force herself to not look up when he walked in the training arena even though she wanted to so badly she ached.
Just when she thought she was over him and had wiped her hands clean of the situation, he would look at her. No, look was wasn't the right word for it. He would stare at her. His stares made it impossible to ignore him. She could always tell when he was watching her. The hair on the back of her neck would stand up and she would get goosebumps. Annabeth would try and try and try not to crack, not to look, but she always. She would turn and look at him and he would always be looking back.
In a so unlike him move, he was never embarassed, never would turn away. He would continue to stare, boring into her grey eyes with his sea green ones. She would always be the one to blush and duck her head and she wouldn't be able to think of anything else for the rest of the day, earning her many close calls during archery and sword fighting.
But then, just when she was cursing his name, she would look at him at one of the times he wasn't paying attention to her. He would be laughing at something one of his friends said, or he would be completely focused on chopping a training dummy to bits with his sword, or he would be off on his own by the shore just staring at the water.
And those moments of observation made her realize just how screwed she was. Those moments made her realize just how deeply in love with him she was. And it was moments like those that made her think that it really wasn't all that bad being in love with Percy Jackson.