Story Name: The Iris Network
Author: turquoiserainlilies
Disclaimer: Do not own Percy Jackson or anything related, just the plot (really, not even that original). THANKS RICK!
Summary: He's a gamer. She's the Queen Bee. Percy struggles with unwanted fame from his father. Annabeth can't forgive her best friend for falling in love. Living miles away doesn't stop two people's fate from meeting, after all, the best thing to fall in love with are someone's words. AU!AH.
Chapter: 2 of 21
Characters introduced: Annabeth Chase, Luke Castellan, Thalia Grace, Katie Gardner, Travis Stoll, Rachel Elizabeth Dare (mentioned), Silena Beauregard, "Charlie" (mentioned)
prologue ii
san francisco 12/01/13 15:16 utc-8
annabeth chase
"We're over"
The words bounce around Annabeth Chase's skull like a ping pong ball, echoing so loudly that she was sure that she couldn't take another moment. Never, for her entire seventeen years of existence, did she think that she could say that to her boyfriend, for the simple reason that Luke Castellan was much above the social hierarchy that she was, and that she was sure her popularity couldn't suffer from the break-up. In fact, up until just a few moments ago, she was so sure that Luke would be the one saying those dreaded words, uttering them as Annabeth's world was shattered at his mercy.
Well, her world was certainly shattered. Would she admit that she saw this coming? Not in a million years. The entire event was so unexpected and incredulous that she didn't even believe them until he repeated the worlds twenty times.
"I'm love Thalia." He said, pausing to take in what he just had said.
Dead silence.
"Annabeth?" He tried again, "Did you hear me?
"No." She had said, unsure of what to think, Thalia?"
"I'm in love with her." He earnestly, "I'm so sorry Annabeth, I really tried not to. But it had come to my attention that I can't supress my feelings anymore. It wouldn't be fair to anyone of us, or Thalia."
"Shut up!" She yelled in his face, "Just shut up! You're not breaking up with me!"
"I'm not." Luke said, "I'm not sure if there was anything to break to begin with!"
"OH FUCKING GODS!" Annabeth screamed in his face, "You're not sure if there was anything to break to begin with? What the hell was that? We were dating for three years Luke! Three. Fucking. Years! And you don't think that was anything to break?"
Luke looked scared, something impressive since he was the quarterback and saw death in the form of a two hundred pound football start more than once, "I just mean that…well, maybe we started too hazily, maybe we weren't really in love!"
"We weren't really in love?" Annabeth exclaimed, "Is that the best you've got? How about the whole, it's not you, it's me, speech!"
"Annie!" Luke cried, "I said I was sorry."
"Sorry isn't fucking enough." Annabeth said, willing her tears to go back into her eye, she cannot cry in front of him, "We're over."
Hell yeah it was over. Annabeth wasn't sure why she had to confirm it by saying it dramatically, following by dumping her lunch of apple juice, spaghetti and meatballs, and a cheesecake all over his neatly pressed suit. That was Luke Castellan for you, wears suits to school, has an impressive vocabulary, and cannot break-up with girls very well. All those things (maybe except for the last one, that she didn't really think about too much) was what made Annabeth find Luke so endearing. They were childhood friends, Annabeth had a crush on him since they were seven! SE-FREAKING-EVEN! It had been ten years of absolute and undying love for him, and then he just crush her like she was a little spider.
Annabeth hated spiders.
Adding salt to the injury, the girl that Luke fell in love with was none other than Thalia Grace, Annabeth's best friend, or ex-best friend, at least. There was no way Annabeth was letting Thalia live this down either, after all, Luke couldn't have just fell in love with her if she wore a potato sack and never look his way. Nope, the Grace girl was almost as beautiful as Love herself, with a badass fashion sense that Annabeth couldn't dream to pull off, plus the fact that she had been friends with Luke just as long as Annabeth had, maybe more. In the beginning of the relationship, back in freshman year, Annabeth had been a little bit jealous of her, though it quickly was squashed by the fact of her long friendship with Thalia.
She struggled to stop sobbing, this was pathetic. What would people say when they see her cry? Annabeth never cries, not even when her parents divorced when she was seven, not even when her hamster died when she was thirteen, and not even when Luke said I love you in front of the entire eleventh grade class of Summerville High at Junior Prom. She was not going to cry now.
"Get it together." She mumbled to herself, dodging the sparse crowd of lunch, which would be so much easier if she wasn't Annabeth Chase. Left and right, girls and guys alike kept trying to make conversation with her, oblivious to the fact that she was close to tears.
"Love your earrings!" Katie Gardner gushed from her locker.
"Love the shirt." Travis Stoll winked at her, earning an elbowing from Katie. Annabeth didn't think of it much, but the shirt was a little too low cut for her usual style. She immediately resisted the urge to cross her arm over her chest.
"Annabeth! Did you get the third question on the algebra test?"
"I think I saw Rachel Elizabeth Dare kissing Luke the other day!"
"How do you feel about joining the school paper!"
"Just shut up!" She yelled, the poor little sophomore on recruitment duty at Summerville Newspaper ran away in fear. Annabeth stood there numbly for a second, she never yelled at anyone.
"Annie!" The familiar nickname was heard in the hallway, usually it would be Thalia saying that, but Annabeth haven't seen Thalia since this morning, she didn't want to either. This time though, the voice belonged to a much chirpier, much happier, and much girlier person.
"'Lena!" Annabeth complained, "You know my name, don't bother to change it."
Silena Beauregard pouted, "I know you're in a bad mood, but that's no way to talk to a friend." She said obnoxiously. Annabeth loved Silena to death, but sometimes she can be just a little bit blunt, for example, "So I heard you and Luke broke up."
The entire hallways was immersed to murmurs.
"I don't think New York heard you." Annabeth said wryly, the cat was out of the bag now, the very ugly, very tear jerking cat, "What do you want?"
"To cheer you up!" Silena said innocently, a bit too innocently actually, "Come on, I've got this website, The Iri—"
"No way." Annabeth said immediately, "I'm not signing up for a dating website."
"It's not a dating website!" Silena said with exasperation.
"Says the girl who claimed to have found her soul mate on it." Annabeth retorted, "Oh Charlie! Tell me all about the new notification feature!"
"No one talks like that." Silena deadpanned, flipping her long, black hair over the shoulder, Annabeth always envied that, her own blonde hair just added to the whole 'head-cheerleader-queen-bee' reputation she built up, which isn't necessarily bad, but just kind of…restricting. For instance, Annabeth Chase could never be caught signing up for a dating website, it will crush her image.
Just Annabeth though, was a little bit intrigued, but she wasn't going to tell Silena that.
"Fine, but it is still really sketchy." She shuddered, "I mean, an anonymous social network? It basically spells rape and stalkers."
"I'm pretty sure it's spelt T-H-E I-R-I-S N-E-T-W-O-R-K." Silena said, "And it'll do you wonders! I've been trying to persuade you for weeks."
"And I've been saying no for weeks." Annabeth replied, "What made you think I'd do anything different now?"
Silena smiled mischievously, making Annabeth suddenly worrying for her dignity and purse, "Because you owe me a favor."
She groaned, "Please, Silena, I'll literally make it up any other way." The unfortunate thing that happened in Cabin 6 at Summer Camp was not going to make Annabeth surrender to this terrible idea.
"Either that, or sneak me out of school with Arizona to meet Charlie." Silena said firmly, planting her feet on the ground and staring at Annabeth with a fierce look, they were the same height, but when Silena's got her glare on, Annabeth feels about two inches tall.
"Fine!" She gave up, it was her senior year, she couldn't afford to miss any of her classes, "I'll sign up for this stupid Iris Network."
"The Iris Network." Silena corrected, "I really wish people would remember that. It'll be fun, you'll see Annabeth! Meeting new people and all that jazz, I think Charlie might be visiting for Valentine's Day!"
That's how, after school on the early December day, Annabeth was roped into going to the Beauregard Chocolate Shop. It was Silena's dad's shop, and rumored to be where Silena was conceived, but Annabeth didn't really want to know about that. Like her, Silena's parents are also separated, but unlike Annabeth, Silena didn't have any memories of her mother, and therefore she wasn't haunted by Athena's grey eyes, identical to Annabeth's, or her smile and comfort.
Or the fights that burst on in the living room, when Annabeth was pretending to sleep.
There was a computer at the back of the shop, and since Silena was family, and therefore couldn't really be fired, she usually took her shifts to surf the web at the back, claiming to be doing inventory. Annabeth never knew what doing inventory meant, and evidentially, neither did Mr. Beauregard.
"" Silena typed into the URL bar, but even as she typed in their—, the website came up. Quickly, she logged out of her own IrisProfile, and started at the registration page. Annabeth glared at the happy greeting and design that read Welcome to The Iris Network! Sign up today!
"Username." Silena murmured, "Superhotqueenbee."
"Hell no." Annabeth protested, "If we're doing this! I've got to agree to everything."
"Aww…" Silena frowned, jabbing at the backspace key repeated to delete the words, "It was taken anyways."
Annabeth didn't want to know what kind of person would've chose that username, and she didn't ask.
"Supermegaawesome—" Silena had started to type, but Annabeth took over the keyboard immediately, backspacing everything again.
"Don't bother try to guess by perfect username." Annabeth typed in cabin6girl in the bar, though it was taken (she wondered briefly how the hell was that taken?), so she added 123 at the end, "It's pointless."
"Summer camp." Silena said approvingly, "Why? I thought you hated that place?"
"No, I just hated the fact that I owe you this because of that place." Annabeth's mind drifted into the sunny sky and picturesque green grass fields of camp, but eventually snapped back to the Beauregard Chocolate Shop to answer Silena, "Besides, I needed something vague enough so that people don't know is me, but specific enough so that I can remember."
For the password, Annabeth typed in her mother's name, hardly anyone knew about that. A few more personal information clicked in, and Annabeth was onto her homepage.
"I'm done!" She declared quickly, "There, can I leave now?"
"You've got all this info to complete!" Silena protested, "Favorite color, best rainy day movie, stuff like that!"
"I thought you said this wasn't a dating website." Annabeth whined, she was so close to getting out of there, but was eventually pulled back into the chair but her forceful friend. For a small girl, Silena has a lot of bone strength, "Why do I need my best rainy day movie?"
"To get your IrisMatch!" Silena smiled, "Oh, don't give me that look. Your IrisMatch can be platonic or romantic, depends on your interests. It just gives you a list of people with common hobbies for you to chat with."
"Chatting with strangers." Annabeth murmured, "Ever heard of internet security?"
"Ever heard of I don't care?" Silena retorted, looking quite gleeful and clasping her hand together excitedly, Annabeth haven't seen her this happy since there was a sale on velvet at ClothWorld in September.
"Yes." Annabeth sighed, "I hate I don't care."
"Favorite color: green." Silena typed, at then added at Annabeth's look, "What? You love sea-green, like the ocean by camp when you—"
"Okay, okay!" Annabeth stopped her immediately, "Yes, I love sea-green, but not when you mix it with that memory."
Silena smiled in triumph, and started to fill out everything. Annabeth was surprised at how much her chocolate loving friend knew about her, even things that Annabeth didn't know about herself.
Favorite animal: anything mythological
Favorite chick-lit movie: hate them
Favorite books: Harry Potter
Favorite subject: architecture design
What to do with a million dollars: start my own architecture firm, donate to charity, buy her bestest friend in the world a diamond tiara
Best features in a guy:
"Not applicable." Annabeth said immediately, "Definitely not applicable."
"What?" Silena frowned, she was doing so well into tricking Annabeth to fill it out this section, "Why not?"
"I literally just broke up with someone this morning!" Annabeth cried, tears filling up her eyes, but strangely, after filling out this IrisProfile, she didn't feel that bad, "Silena, I'm not looking for a relationship."
"Humor, green eyes, and has a passion for what they love." Silena said aloud as she typed, and before Annabeth could help it, clicked sent. Immediately, names started to pop up, Annabeth's IrisMatches.
"What?" Annabeth scanned the names, "What am I even going to do with all these people? They're all strangers."
"Add random people into your IrisProfile and hope that they'll talk!" Silena started mass clicking all the names, so fast that Annabeth couldn't even respond, "You wanted to go to NYU right? There's tons of listings for New Yorkers here." She clicked some more, so fast that the page crashed, which was the only reason that Silena stopped to talk to her.
"You didn't." She said in horror, "I said I'd make the profile, not actually use it."
"Oops." Silena giggled, "Too late, now you'll have to be sociable."
"I am sociable!" Annabeth pouted. She wasn't one of the most popular girl in Summerville High for nothing. Though truthfully, how many people did she spoke to other than Silena, Thalia, and Luke? When people greet her as she walk down the hallway, how did she reply?
Annabeth stowed that thought away. There was no time when she wasn't being her pleasant and friendly self, she wasn't sure what possessed Silena to want to do this, but it'd be better to just go along with it right now. Silena can be scary when she doesn't get her way.
"First IrisMessage!" Silena squealed, clicking on the purple squared with a little flower in the middle, Annabeth was sure that she'd forget where it was once it disappeared. In its place, a window popped up, with the name greek3fire across the top.
greek3fire: About time, how long does it take for you to find me?
"What?" Annabeth shoved Silena out of the way, "Who is this guy?"
Silena shrugged off the pain of being shoved onto the floor, brushed off invisible dirt on her cashmere sweater, and clicked a few minutes with a frown upon her face, "Crap, you've got one of those Greek Fire fans."
"What?" Annabeth repeated, "What the hell is Greek Fire?"
"Popular video game." Silena said dismissively, "Just ignore it, the fans are super vicious."
Annabeth stared at the chat screen, greek3fire kept popping up with new messages, with the horrible grammar, even if he, or she, wasn't obsessed with a video game, she wouldn't have bothered talking to him.
"Perfect though!" Silena returned Annabeth to the real world, "You've for your IrisProfile, you've got your IrisMatches, and now you can IrisChat!" She laughed at her own joke, and tapped a few more buttons, "There, I'm belledechocolat, feel free to message me about stuff, any time."
"Thanks Silena." Annabeth said hesitantly. This was a nice gesture, she supposed. Silena must've thought that she was cheering Annabeth up, setting her up on a social networking website, trying to make some new connections. Annabeth knew, however, that this was going to be the last time she'd ever use The Iris Network.
greek3fire: I know I'm not your favorite person, but at least say something
cabin6girl123: I'm not whoever you're looking for, thank you very much.
greek3fire: Aren't you cabin5girl123
cabin6girl123: It's cabinSIXgirl123, genius
greek3fire: Dam it
cabin6girl123: It's damn it, if you're going to swear, at least spell it properly
greek3fire: Look who's such a wise girl
cabin6girl123: Wise girl? Says the person who's brain is obviously full of kelp. Just stop messaging me!
greek3fire: No can do, it's fun to mess with you
cabin6girl123: You're insufferable
greek3fire: Yet you're still here
Arshey: I do have mentions of some HoO characters in here, I think the next chapter has a hint of Hazel (like one word though don't get your hopes up). A lot of the major cast is going to be PJO only. I do love the original characters better than most of the new series character (except Leo and Frank, Hazel's a lucky bitch). You'll get to see hints of them new characters though ^_^
yolcholl: merci beaucoup
Yukibrooke: ditto
That Was Such A Face Palm: i do love trying to be creative
Next Update : December 2, 2013
Reviews are welcome ^_^