Annabeth wasn't expecting this.
She wasn't expecting to see that her roommate was a pretty boy with black hair, green eyes, and a shy smile to boot.
How was she to know that the dorms were co-ed?
While Annabeth was eying the boy in front of her warily, he smiled nervously, shifting on his feet once or three times.
"Hey," he said, smiling a little too widely, "I'm Percy."
"Right," Annabeth replied, snapping out of her stupor. "I'm Annabeth."
"Pretty name," Percy remarked, after which he immediately blushed. "No, sorry, I misspoke. Pretend you didn't hear me."
Annabeth smiled, unaffected, but what a strange boy. "It's fine. It's nice to meet you, by the way." Abruptly realizing that she was dumbly standing outside with her suitcase and belongings next to her outside, she asked, "May I come in?"
The realization seemed to dawn on Percy at the same time as Annabeth, and frantically gestured his answer. "Of course! Your room is upstairs on the right."
Annabeth nodded, and gave him a small smile. "Thank you."
Finding her room, she set her things down and took a good look at her dorm room. It was blank and standard. There was a Queen sized bed off to the side, with a small nightstand next to it. A window to the right to let light in, a small closet to her left for her clothes, and a medium sized workspace in the corner.
Not bad, though the desk may get unbelievably messy very easily.
Annabeth breathed a heavy sigh, and set off to unpacking her things one by one.
After unpacking, Annabeth was at a loss as to what to do. Her first thought was to rest, but she grudgingly thought that it would probably be better to get to know her roommates a little bit better, though her aching bones said maybe not.
Walking down the spiral staircase (how fancy), she found that Percy had settled down on a chair in the dining room, mindlessly looking at his phone.
Scrolling through Tumblr or Instagram probably.
Approaching him hesitantly, she sat down in a chair in front of him. Percy glanced up at her, and Annabeth gathered her courage to say, "Hello!"
Percy nodded and smiled at her, and Annabeth hastened to say, "Do we have any other roommates?"
Percy finally gave her his attention and said, "Yeah, we do. Grover Underwood, and Drew Tanaka."
"Oh." Annabeth blinked owlishly, not expecting that answer. She probably should have, but now she'll have to deal with three people in her space. "Are they nice?"
"Uh… Grover certainly is. Drew however… depends."
Annabeth made a face. "On what?"
"Her mood… Whether she likes you or not," Percy answered, and then promptly laughed loudly at the sight of Annabeth's horrified face. "Don't worry, she won't, like, attack you every chance she gets. She's more of a 'stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours' kind of person you get what I mean?"
Annabeth nodded, the slightest bit relieved. "Yeah, kind of. So, you go here right? No—wait—of course you do, you live here; you wouldn't live here if you didn't go here. Um, so. How is York College?"
Percy crossed his legs, and then a moment later, uncrossed them. All the while he was drumming his hands. "Um, well, I'm a little new here too. From what I've seen, it's a nice campus. The students are nice. Sometimes you see students from Cornell and you can tell by their obnoxious red sweatshirts. God, can they be any more arrogant?" He rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "They don't come here often, don't worry."
Some of the tension on her shoulder's eased. It was easy to talk to Percy after breaking the ice, and the conversation flowed easily. She never once felt like she was talking too much, as Percy listened to her as best as he could. Honest to god, she appreciated that.
Occasionally, Grover (or who Annabeth assumed him to be, who else could he be?) popped in to grab something from the refrigerator, and Drew settled in front of the small TV in the living room, allowing a cursory glance to Annabeth.
Long after the conversation was over, Annabeth finally felt like she wouldn't go through the hardships of college alone. The reprieve might be temporary, but it was nice while it lasted.
Annabeth stared at the campus map of York College, the colors and words swirling together in a colorful blob.
She rubbed her eyes, hoping it would help somewhat, but it only made stars appear in her vision.
Annabeth let out a noise of frustration.
She needed help, and it hurt her pride to admit it.
Who would help her though? She was way too unfamiliar with Grover to ask him, and she was not in the mood to confront Drew Tanaka and ask her for help. That only left Percy, which was fine by her. They'd had a fair few conversations, and Annabeth was more than comfortable asking him for help.
Annabeth stood up from her workspace and walked over to the left side of the upper floor, and knocked on the first door she encountered.
She knew for a fact that Percy was here because she had seen him pop out into the living room a few times, or even better: when he stubbed his toe on the wooden furniture and let out a few curses earlier that day.
The door opened to reveal a disheveled Percy with sleepy eyes. He looked grumpy but visibly came to be in a better mood at the sight of Annabeth.
She'd be lying if she said her pride didn't swell a little bit at that.
"Hey," he greeted.
"Hey," Annabeth said. "Since you're new here too, do you want to explore the campus with me? I tried memorizing the map but all the colors and words melted together."
"Dyslexia?" Percy questioned with a slight tilt of his head.
"Yeah," Annabeth confirmed, a little surprised.
"Cool," he said, smiling. "Wait, no, not cool. But for the record I have dyslexia too."
"That's…" Annabeth trailed off, averting her gaze.
"Cool?" Percy supplied her with a sardonic smile.
"Yeah," she agreed, smiling as if she was part of an inside joke.
The two nodded like a pair of idiots before Percy replied, "So, yeah, I'll come along with you. Do you want to see if anyone else in the dorm wants to come with?"
Annabeth's heart dropped a little so she said dismissively, "Nah, let's not disturb them. Besides, I asked you didn't I?"
"Sorry?" Percy asked, eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Did I stutter?" Annabeth said in a manner that was rather brave of her.
"N-no, we'll just go together," Percy stuttered. "Just let me get ready."
Annabeth nodded and turned away. She immediately scolded herself for being so bold and brash. It wasn't really like her to so rashly go about things like she did just now. 'Did I stutter?' Honestly.
A few minutes later, Percy emerged from his room looking a little less like a sleep monster, wearing a hoodie and skinny jeans.
Annabeth herself was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, appropriate for outside wear.
"Alright," Annabeth said. "Let's go!"
Walking outside their dorms, Percy asked, "Where do you suppose we go first?"
"I don't know." Annabeth shrugged. "Look at the map. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did." She handed him the map.
Percy scrutinized it, squinting a little bit. "Maybe the—Dining H-hell? What?"
Annabeth laughed at the slight error. "It probably says Dining Hall."
"Oh, that makes more sense."
"But anyways, good idea. Let's go."
Walking the few minutes to the Dining Hall, the two made idle chitchat, talking about the pointless and mundane matters of the world.
The Dining Hall, they found, once reached, was large and expansive. What college needed a hall this big? Oh, wait, York did.
"They just cleaned it, I think. I kind of want to slide across the hall to the other side," Percy commented.
"Sounds fun," Annabeth remarked, mulling the idea over in her head. "But better not. Wouldn't want to get in trouble before we even start college, right?"
"You sound disappointed though," Percy pointed out to her, turning slightly to face her.
"What?" Annabeth said defensively, her voice going up an octave or two. "It feels like it would be a lot of fun. It reminds me of that one iconic scene in Brooklyn Nine Nine."
Percy smiled faintly. "Funny. We've both got good taste then, don't we? It's what I was thinking of."
"Were you? Do you like the show?" Annabeth asked excitedly, eyes twinkling with mirth.
"Do I?" Percy scoffed. "Of course I do! Who do you think I am?"
Annabeth was about to retort, but was interrupted by a janitor asking them to leave, telling them that they weren't allowed to be here.
Reluctantly, Annabeth stepped away, exiting the Dining Hall, with Percy following suit.
"Where to next?" Percy asked.
"Guess we check out our lecture halls?" Annabeth suggested, looking questioningly at Percy.
"Maybe. But from what the janitor said…" Percy glanced doubtfully at the Dining Hall behind them.
"Right…" Annabeth's lips twisted into a frown. "Oh well. I kind of already know where I'm supposed to be for my classes. How about you?"
"As best as I can," Percy confirmed with as slight nod of his head.
"That's good." Annabeth's stomach growled, and she blushed slightly. "Actually, do you want to get lunch? I'm getting hungry."
Percy laughed. "Yeah. There's a nice café not too far away, and it's open twenty-four seven."
Annabeth snorted. "For the students that stay up all night, presumably."
"Likely." Percy shrugged. "That's going to be us in not too long."
Annabeth shrugged in response.
The rest of the afternoon was spent eating and conversing, and flicking the occasional piece of food at each other as play.
Annabeth had never felt so at ease—her own high school life had mostly consisted of busying herself with school work, pushing her rank up into the top ten, getting scholarships, and the lot. She never really did make time spend time with her friends (now long gone at their prospective colleges and universities).
Annabeth could admit quietly to herself that that was a mistake.
Maybe it was time to change that. Starting with Percy.
Hey, I'm back with a one-shot. When I wrote this, that was what this was meant to be. There might be more parts to this in the future, as Percy Jackson is kind of my obsession right now.