The first time he noticed her was in his Biology class one humid afternoon when nearly everyone was driven to insanity by the maddening heat. Contrary to the stereotype of nerds, Annabeth Chase did not wear freakishly huge glasses nor did she wear overalls and sweats. Annabeth Chase wore leather pants that hugged every inch of her athletic legs and left Percy's mind in a disarray of perverted thoughts that would make his mother wash him out with Tide Pods. She wore five inch stilettos with extremely skinny heels that Percy was sure only models could wear and not fall to a harrowing death. She also wore a loose grey top that didn't quite cover her shoulders, instead the sleeves fell just below them, enticing him to trail a hand lightly across the deep tan.
Her face was framed by long blond curls that resembled the colour of honey. Her eyes were a light grey that seemed to pierce right through him in X-ray vision, seeing the most intimate of his secrets, his deepest desires and worst fears. Her eyes weren't intense or stormy as most would say. In fact, they were light and contained just the tiniest hint of amusement as if she shared a private joke with life about all that she saw. The nose was dainty and delicately molded and rested above a mouth that drove him crazy. The mouth in question contained a pair of light pink lips that were full and lacked artificial colour. The fuller bottom lip was often the subject of bites when Annabeth was deep in concentration or frustrated.
On this particular afternoon the heat seemed to radiate through every available surface and made everyone discard their jackets and sweaters, leaving a classroom full of whiny students complaining about the heat yet reveling in the fact that they had an excuse to attend class in skimpy attire. Annabeth Chase was the exception it seemed in Percy's eyes. She remained calm and collected and simply put her hair up in a high topknot pulling together every strand of golden curls. It was a bit loose but looked gorgeous in Percy's eyes. He had never paid much attention to her before, but this afternoon his eyes were glued to her, drinking in the sight of her in all her slightly sweaty and definitely glowing glory.
He was watching her, the devastatingly handsome guy with the intoxicating green eyes and jet black hair that stuck out from his head in wild unruly tufts. Annabeth was surprised he even saw her, usually he traipsed in and took a random seat and listened with bored interest to the lecturer. Something seemed different about him this afternoon and she just couldn't put her finger on it.
Maybe it was way his eyes took in everything around him, watchful and impatient, or maybe it was the way he never could seem to sit still and always seemed to be drumming his fingers on the desk or tapping a random beat with his fingers. It could also be the hair which was even messier than usual today. She wondered what it would feel like to run her hands through the unruly mop and tug on each silky strand. Maybe it was the scruff shadowing his sharp jawline that made seem particularly appealing today, or that dark blue almost black denim jacket over the gray v neck t-shirt he wore that hinted at the defined chest beneath the clothes. It could have been his shoulders that seemed ordinary under his clothes but definitely did not look ordinary when they were drenched in sweat and pumping furiously to lift weights and do push ups in the gym. It also could have been the lips, oh the lips. Lips that were not quite full but not thin either. Lips that had harassed her dreams late at night as she thought of him. Lips that would come crashing down on hers in her thoughts and drive her wild.
Or maybe it was the hungry, primal look in his green eyes that appeared when he looked at her, maybe it was the way his pupils dilated when he caught her staring and just maybe it was the crooked smile that appeared on his face when she didn't look away but instead held his gaze, grey eyes boring into his, refusing to back down. Yes, it definitely was that look that made her feel things she didn't even know it was possible to feel at all for another human in the first place.
Forty five minutes later she could still feel his gaze on her and refused to look at him, he could play his game, while she definitely was interested she wasn't going to show it. sure, he didn't play around like Luke and his friends did but she was still wary, he could be dangerous. And fun, her subconscious added. All she knew about him was that he was on the swim team and part of the nature club with his friend Grover. And that he visited the gym five days out of seven, and that he always ordered pizza off campus rather than eat the cafeteria's pizza. Yeah, she definitely didn't know much about him except that he visited his mom as much as he could and had this weird obsession with blue food. And everyone knew Rachel and Drew both had a crush on him but he had turned them down gently because he wasn't interested. He also seemed really into marine biology and got angry when he saw people dump their trash into the ocean and rivers. But she didn't know much about him. Maybe someday.
He was staring and he knew it but he couldn't help it. She was really pretty. Over time he had thought of a hundred ways to ask her out and hated them all because they were so damn cheesy. He'd thought about slipping her a note but decided that was cowardly and his dyslexia wouldn't allow it done in a proper manner anyway. She seemed so intelligent and put together and always stood up for herself and what she believed in. She didn't wear much makeup, not that he minded when girls did, but it showed her naturally tan complexion and he thought that was extremely cute. She worked herself to the bone when she was studying, that much he knew because during finals week he hardly ever saw her and when he did, it was when she turned up to write the exams. She was in his engineering class and often had little spats with the professor when she disagreed with something he said. Honestly, he loved it. He loved that she wasn't a pushover.
Maybe someday he would ask her out, but for now he would keep his distance and work up his courage for when he felt confident. Annabeth Chase deserved the best, and he would make sure he was the one could give her that. Someday.