two.
Despite her better judgment, Annabeth told Piper about her encounter with the hot skateboarding stranger. The more she talked about it the more idiotic she felt, and the more unattainable he seemed to become. Piper was of an entirely different opinion, her eyes lighting up at the mere mention of her friend meeting a guy. She was probably already planning double dates with her and her crush Jason by the time Annabeth had finished the tale.
"How many Percys can there be at this school?" Piper said brightly. "He can't be too hard to find."
"I'm probably never going to see him again," Annabeth said, aiming for casual indifference and instead hitting sad desperation. She sighed. "I made an idiot of myself, anyway, it's probably for the best -"
"Whoa, wait, did Annabeth just call herself an idiot? What's going on in there? Is the world ending?" Rachel stuck her head around her bedroom door, one earbud dangling in her hand and charcoal smudged across her cheek.
Annabeth huffed. "I did not call myself an idiot. I meant that I acted like an idiot."
Rachel took out her other earbud and came to join them in the lounge. "When?"
Annabeth recounted an abridged version of the story, this time with frequent interjections from Piper.
When she was finished Rachel nodded serenely, her green eyes wide. "Yeah, that was pretty embarrassing."
Piper gasped as though she was the one who'd been offended. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare!"
"Thanks," Annabeth snapped.
Rachel shrugged. "Just saying. He sounds pretty hot and you were pretty flustered. What's his name, anyway?"
"Percy," Annabeth said. Her heart did a weird little stutter and she felt like she might die, because this was very much not how she operated.
Rachel sat up straighter at that. "Percy?"
"Yeah, why? Do you know him?" A strange combination of hope and jealousy flared inside Annabeth's chest.
"The name sounds familiar…" Rachel tapped her chin, leaving streaks of charcoal on her freckled skin. "Do you know his major?"
"Marine Biology."
"Hm." Rachel stood and wandered back into her room, muttering to herself. This happened frequently enough that her housemates had learned not to bother asking what she was doing.
"You talked about your majors?" Piper exclaimed, gripping Annabeth's knees and staring into her eyes. "This is amazing! We can definitely find him now. And look, you've already chatted and gotten the pleasantries out of the way, so now you can move on to -"
"To what, Piper? Happily ever after? Don't you think that if he was interested, he wouldn't have bailed like he did?"
Annabeth's stomach twisted. She hated to think that way, but she was logical, and she had to try and bring some sense back into this entire nonsensical conversation. She'd run into a guy on her way to hand in an essay and made a fool of herself, and that was that. This wasn't fate, there wasn't any divine intervention - there was just Annabeth and Percy and a chance encounter. That was all.
"You said he was on his way to hand in an assignment, too. He probably had a deadline, just like you," Piper persisted.
For a second, her words made Annabeth feel better. That was a logical explanation; he did say he was on his way to hand in an essay, and he had looked a little sad when he'd told her he had to go…
No. She shouldn't allow herself to get swept up in this.
Annabeth shook her head. "He didn't give me his number, or ask to add me on facebook, or give me any indication at all that he liked me. You're reading into this way too much."
"Or maybe you're not reading into it enough. Boys can be obtuse like that, you know. Maybe he was overwhelmed by your beauty and your intelligent wit and he lost his nerve."
Annabeth laughed so hard she was shaking.
She only stopped when Rachel called from her room, "Is this him?"
Annabeth and Piper scrambled off the couch in a tangle of limbs and raced over to Rachel's desk. In the midst of a scattered layer of charcoal sketches sat the redhead's laptop, with a familiar handsome face on the screen. It was a headshot, not of the best quality, like a student ID photo, but Percy was smirking at the camera in a way that was entirely inappropriate for any kind of official ID. His sea green eyes were glinting as though he knew a secret you didn't, and his skin was even more tanned than Annabeth remembered, like he'd spent weeks on the beach.
Annabeth made a strange little noise, halfway between a squeal and a squeak. "How did you find that?"
"Perseus Jackson. He was in my orientation group," Rachel said, sounding very pleased with herself. "He was a bit of a smartass, from what I remember. Totally hot though. Like, damn."
Piper was looking from Annabeth to the picture and back again. "Oh. I thought he'd be more…"
The other two turned to her, eyebrows raised in disbelief. Annabeth found it impossible to concede that someone could look at that face and not feel some kind of primal attraction stir within, but Piper's pretty face was scrunched up as though she'd been sucking on a lemon.
"More blonde?" Rachel said with an eyeroll.
Piper pouted and scuffed her toes on the carpet. "No, I just -"
"Can't find anyone but Jason hot," Annabeth said. "Which is fine, because I guarantee I have enough competition for him already without you liking him, too."
Rachel hummed. "Yeah, about that -"
Annabeth hit Rachel's shoulder, a little bit more forcefully than she'd intended to. "Hands off, Rachel Elizabeth Dare."
Rachel rubbed her shoulder and shot the blonde a deadly glare. "You're welcome, by the way," she muttered.
Annabeth patted her shoulder, making sure to be gentle. "Thanks."
"So do you know how to contact him?" Piper asked.
Rachel clicked off the photo and it shrunk back to icon size. Annabeth leant forward to try and scan the accompanying text, but copped a faceful of red curls as Rachel shifted in her seat.
"Not from this… but…" She grinned maniacally. "Leave it with me."
Annabeth hesitated. "What are you doing?"
"Working some magic, Chase. Now bugger off and let the master work. I'll call you when I'm done."
Piper gripped her arm and tugged her from the room, ducking carefully under the watercolours strung up across the top of the doorframe.
"She scares me when she gets like that," she whispered once they were back on the couch.
Annabeth glanced back, but she couldn't see anything. She could just hear furious typing and the occasional click of a mouse. She tried to quench the little flame of hope that had ignited when she'd seen Percy's face again. Even if Rachel could figure out a way to contact him, what was she going to say?
Oh hey, it's Annabeth, you know that girl you saved from being hit by a car earlier today? Yeah well I spent my afternoon stalking you until I found a way to contact you, tah-dah! Please message back because I am desperate and sad.
No. Definitely not.
"I can't just sit here and wait," she announced, jumping to her feet and startling Piper so bad she dropped her phone. "I'm going to clean my room."
Thing is, her room wasn't really that messy. There was the dress she'd discarded the night before to put away, two pairs of tights with ladders to be thrown out, and a few loose pieces of graph paper and some textbooks to be filed away, but it wasn't actually messy. It was just Annabeth messy. So it only took her about five minutes to straighten it all up, and then she was left standing in the middle of a tidy room daydreaming about how Percy Jackson's bare chest had felt beneath her palms.
This was getting out of control.
Just when she was about to yell out to Rachel and tell her not to bother, a triumphant shout came from the other end of the apartment. There was the sound of scuffling paper followed by feet padding down the hall and then Rachel was standing in her doorway, beaming. Piper scurried up behind her and stood on tiptoe to peer over her shoulder.
"Here," she said, holding out a piece of paper.
Annabeth took it. A rough table had been drawn on it in pencil and each square was filled in with Rachel's handwriting. The left hand column listed classes, the middle one listed buildings and the right hand side listed times. Annabeth scanned it, took a second to comprehend it, and then read it again just to make sure she hadn't read it wrong or misunderstood it.
"Is this -?"
"Percy Jackson's timetable, it is indeed."
She blinked at her housemate, properly stunned. "How did you get this? Did you hack the school system?"
Rachel winked. "I work in mysterious ways, Annabeth. Just take your prize and be happy."
Piper pushed around her and ran in to get a proper look at the timetable. She pressed herself up against Annabeth's side and clapped her hands together. "You can bump into him after one of his classes! Look, he's got a break tomorrow from one to three, and you're off for lunch from one to two. It's perfect!"
Annabeth shook her head, slightly dazed. This was not the reaction she'd been expecting to the news that she'd happened to bump into a hot guy. "What will I say to him?"
"Hi, Percy, what a surprise, I didn't expect to see you here!" Rachel offered sarcastically. Her expression softened when she saw Annabeth glaring at her. "Just start with hello and go from there, maybe?"
"But -" Annabeth faltered. She glanced from Rachel to Piper and then down to the paper she was still clutching. She felt like this was an awful idea, but she couldn't deny that she wanted to see Percy again… Surely it couldn't do any harm to see him just one more time. If he blew her off again, fine, she'd leave it be. But maybe she could make a better impression this time. Her egotism overrode her fear. She took a deep breath. "Okay. I'll 'bump into him' on my lunch break tomorrow."
Piper threw her arms around her in a hug and Rachel grinned.
"But," Annabeth said warningly as she tucked the timetable into the front pocket of her bag, "if he's still not interested you have to promise to let it go. And if I embarrass myself again I'm blaming the two of you."
This was a stupid plan, doomed for failure. Annabeth felt shaky, which was ridiculous, because Annabeth was brave and composed and not one to get emotional over a boy, especially one she didn't even know. And yet.
She sat on the bench out the front of the Biology building, wiggling her foot back and forth and waiting for Percy's lecture to finish.
It was twelve fifty seven. She'd been allowed to leave her design tutorial early after finishing the assigned work, and she'd practically raced over to the back of campus, where all the older buildings were. The Biology building had been built in the 1800s but was inspired by Greco-Roman architecture. White columns stood on either side of the wide, blue door, and ivy laced its way up the brickwork. Annabeth peered into the windows and prayed that Percy wasn't in one of those front facing rooms and couldn't see her sitting there.
Twelve fifty eight. This was ridiculous. Why was she here? What was she going to say to him? Was she going to approach him? Or should she just wait, and see if he approached her? But what if he didn't see her? She didn't know how many people were in his class, what if they all came out at once and he didn't even see her through the crowd?
Twelve fifty nine. She stood up, contemplated walking away, took two steps and sat back down. Her fingers twitched. She swung her bag up onto her lap and pulled out her laptop so that she could pretend to look busy. When she opened the screen the clock in the corner ticked over to one pm. It took all of her willpower to keep her eyes on the screen and not run towards the door of the building across from her.
It opened, and she chanced a look. A small group of people filed out, laughing together. A girl followed, yawning, and then came a guy talking on his phone. There wasn't a massive crowd, but a steady stream of students continued out the doors, and Annabeth continued watching, trying to be subtle about it. Percy didn't appear.
The stream of traffic stopped, and the door swung shut. Annabeth felt the thud of it closing from all the way over there. Or maybe that was just a bitter effect of disappointment. She waited a moment more, but no one else appeared.
She shouldn't have gotten her hopes up. She'd been over a thousand different ways this could have played out, but this had always been scenario number one - he wouldn't even be there. She tried to convince herself that this was a good thing, that it just saved her from more embarrassment. The odds had always been statistically slim, anyway. She'd known that.
It didn't make her feel any better though.
Annabeth shut her laptop and tucked it back into her bag. She spared one last glance at the blue door before leaving. She felt cowardly, like she was retreating from something she should have fought for, but she didn't know what else she could do. She wasn't one to put much faith in fates and destiny, but maybe… maybe that one chance encounter really had been her one chance.
"Annabeth! Hey, Annabeth, wait up!"
The call came from behind her. She spun around and her breath caught in her throat.
Because there was Percy, jogging towards her with a stupid troublemaker grin on his handsome face. He had a shirt on, this time. It was white with little blue waves printed across it. He was holding his skateboard, but he didn't have a hat on today. His hair looked fluffier than it had in his ID photo. He stopped right in front of her and she had to remind herself how to breathe.
"It is you," he said, smiling down at her. "I was worried I was yelling out to a stranger, for a second there. But I'm really glad it's you! I was hoping I'd get a chance to see you again."