A/N So I've seen a fair amount of stories where Percy/Annabeth are high school athletes but one thing that bothers me is almost all of them have Percy being this cocky, full of himself jock and that's just not the him to me. The Percy in this story will hopefully be a little more accurate.

The story will switch POV between Percy and Annabeth and pairing is of course Percabeth and probably other canon pairings. I'm a first-time writer but a long-time reader of the PJO fandom so I hope this story will turn out ok. I don't own PJO or the characters or the cover art. And I make no money off this story. This story was inspired by "swish" by tayhill767 if you like this or just enjoy the concept you should definitely check that one out (Edit swish and the account tayhill767 have been taken off the site).

Enjoy

Goode Academy is a prestigious Prep school in Long Island New York. Known for its strict admissions, and rigorous curriculum it also boasts an impressive athletic department. The school skewers the state for the best student athletes to improve its reputation as the best prep school in all of New York.

Percy Jackson is the star player on the men's basketball team at Goode the team looks to end the schools12 year state championship drought. The hope of the entire school nowrests on Percy's broad shoulders. Can he lift the team to new heights while dealing with hisstruggles in the classroom?

Annabeth Chase is the captain on the woman's team which receives much less school attention than their male counterparts. However, with high expectations from her home life to maintain a level of excellence both on the court and in the classroom. Can she continue with her 'perfect' image while her team fights for the respect they deserve?

Annabeth POV

As Annabeth chase arrived noticeably early to school one day, hoping to clear her head before classes started. She thought back to last night when for the umptieth time her mother had come into her room for a talk and stressed the importance of this coming school year and challenged her daughter to achieve perfection this term while also working part time and being the captain of the basketball team. "Absolutely nothing should distract you" she said "you have to really focus we can't afford any slip ups Colombia is a top university and to get inyou need to be perfect" hoping her daughter would follow in her footsteps by attending her alma-mater. However no matter her achievements Annabeth always felt it was never enough to please her loving but over baring mother and seriously wondered if attending Colombia would satisfy her or if she would only increase her expectations. For crying out loud she was a star student in all honors or AP courses, had never gotten in trouble and was the captain of the Women's Basketball team that had championship aspersions.

So here she was an hour and a half before the first bell making her way to the gym to do her favorite thing in the world, play basketball. It was one of the only ways she could relax after one of her mother's infamous talks. Just her, the ball and the hoop. What could be simpler. From a young age, she always loved basketball. The feeling of control when she had the ball in her hands was something she grew to crave as she grew and the chaos of the outside world grew with her she could always feel at ease. Some players panicked when they got the ball, afraid of making a mistake and the embarrassment that would follow, not her she thrived with it. The game slowed down and she felt she had total control. All the noises of the outside world would fall away and she would feel at peace.

That kind of feeling is what she sought now but as she made her way to the door she was shocked to find it was already occupied. 'Who in the world could be here already?' She thought. As she opens the doors she saw that there was already a rack of basketballs out and someone shooting on the far side of the gym. It was non-other than the star of the men's team, Percy Jackson with headphones in, meticulously practicing his handling.

Now Annabeth of course knew him, every student is in Goode knew who he was and he is cousins with her friend Thalia but they couldn't be considered more than acquaintances, havingnever sharedmore than a couple of words with each other. Annabeth always thought there was a mutual respect between them with the shared experience being the best player on their team and knowing the pressure that holds. She always thought he was a nice guy and never heard anything negative about him, he didn't have a big ego like most of the other jocks nor was he a player with the ladies despite being quite desirable according the gossip in the female locker room. She had to admit looking at him now he was objectively attractive he was tall, lean but muscular, had wind swept black hair and sea green eyes. But it's not like it mattered, she had neither the time nor interest in a relationship, not now.

She walked to half court to retrieve a ball from the rack there. Hoping to quickly grab one and start shooting without needlessly disturbing Percy. However, as she just got there the heavy door to the gym slammed back creating a loud echo in the nearly empty gym. Percy immediately jolted and looked behind him and spotted Annabeth. Percy then stopped what he was doing turned to her a took out his head phones.

"Sorry, I didn't think anyone else would be here this early." Annabeth replied hoping to smooth over any potential awkwardness. Which Percy waives off immediately.

"Yeah, no worries, you good splitting up the gym? You get that side I'll stay on this one" pointing to the near and far side respectively. "so, we don't get in each other's way?" He asks politely. She nods, grabs a ball then head back to her hoop.

She can't help but wonder if Percy gets to school early routinely or if it was just a coincidence they both went on the same day. However, once she started getting shots up. Her mind became soothingly clear. It was only her, the ball and the hoop. No school, no over barring mother, and definitely no Percy Jackson.

An hour passed with each player barley noticing. They were both in the zone. Now covered in sweat Percy was working on his three-point shot. And Annabeth was calmly taking free throws. Then the door opened and in came three more members of the men's team. They were Jason Grace, Thalia's brother and Percy's cousin, Charles Beckendorf, and almost hidden behind the two large men was Nico di Angelo who just also happened to be cousins with Percy and the Graces as well. Jason was tall, built and had short Blonde hair, the thing he shared with his sister was the same sharp blue eyes. Beckendorf, as he liked to be called was large, African American and has short black hair, if Jason and Percy were tall Beckendorf was massive, the center of the basketball team stood 6'8 inches tall and wasn't a bean stock either. Despite his size, he was genuinely one of the nicest guys she's ever met. Nico was the runt of the group standing only 5'8 he was the point guard and had long messy black hair that often covered his dark brown eyes, and an olive completion.

Having known Jason for years she stopped her work out and greeted them. "Hey Jason, guys what are you guys doing here?" She asked.

All three greeted her but only Jason stopped to talk. "Well I could ask you the same question. We didn't think anyone else is crazy enough to work out before school. We're here to make sure Percy wraps up his warm up. If we didn't that guy would probably miss his first three classes before he noticed." Jason said laughing at the subtle dig at his friend. "I guess I shouldn't be too surprised your here. I mean you two are the best players in the school. It'd only make sense you'd have similar work out habits."

Annabeth couldn't help but swell with pride after he called her one of the two best players in the school. Just because she thought it was true doesn't mean it's not nice to hear it from someone else, especially someone like Jason who is no slouch on the court himself. "heh thanks I'm just here to blow off some steam though I gotta say I was pretty shocked when I got here at 6:30 and Percy was already in here working up a sweat. That guy must be a machine" she told him.

Jason just smiled and shook his head. "Yeah there not much he'd rather be doing than being on a court." He said shrugging. They said their goodbyes and Annabeth finished up while Jason joined the other guys with Percy.

She made her way to her locker feeling infinitely better as Thalia walked up to her.

"Hey where's piper doesn't she normally give you a ride?" She asked.

"I don't know, I didn't get a ride from her today. I came early to shoot around in the gym." Annabeth replied nonchalantly. "Your cousin was actually there."

"Oh, please don't tell me you're gonna be like that idiot?"

"What do you mean?"

"Yeah I swear that kelp head only eats sleeps and plays basketball! Every morning he's at the Gymat 6 am" She said exasperatedly. Annabeth nods she knows it takes a lot of hard work to be as good as Percy is but she never realized the amount of work he
puts in. She idly wonders what drives him. Everyone is different, some want money or fame, some want to be recognized as the best, others like Annabeth strive for the unattainable goal of perfection. What was Percy Jacksons drive?

So that was the first chapter, let me know what you think. Like I said this is my first story so any reviews would be appreciated.