The next day Percy had gone to school feeling extremely glum, kicking rocks all the way down to the bus stop. He snapped at everyone at school, only apologizing when he snapped at Jason or Piper. He had spitwads flinged in his hair by Leo, who was normally a pretty chill guy, and Percy got so mad he turned around and snapped the dude's pencil in half.
When Annabeth approached him during lunch was almost physically unbearable.
"Hey," Annabeth said. It's wasn't a very friendly "Hey," either, more of a get-your-hands-off-my-sandwich kind of "Hey," like Percy was somehow being rude by just existing.
"What do you want." Percy said, struggling to keep his voice flat.
"I just want you to know that none of this was my idea, got it? I enrolled in the tutoring program to help kids who need tutoring, not boys with weeds growing in between their brain cells. You, I can't help. I get the feeling you don't really want my help though, do you?"
"Who needs help from pretentious little snobs like you who can't eat a cafeteria lunch without gagging or who think the whole world is inferior to them? Oh yeah, that's right, no one."
"Well I'm glad you don't want my help," Annabeth looked at Percy, only mildly offended and extremely irritated. "Because you're not getting any of it."
Percy walked away backwards with his arms spread wide open, ending the conversation saying, "Look at all the fucks I don't give."
He ended up in the library eventually, sitting at the only table not occupied. The library was set up so most of the space was shelves with books on then, with a thin aisle that held ten two-person tables, like the kind in his English classroom. Annabeth hadn't shown up yet, which was weird, considering Percy thought she'd be the early-to-everything kind of person. He had just gotten out his notebook and was about to start when the door opened with a loud wham and Annabeth walked in, hair all over her face, her messy bun torn apart by the autumn winds. She looked around a little bit, hunting for a seat, any seat really, besides the empty one next to Percy. She eventually huffed and sat down in the chair beside him, completely disregarding the backpack he had placed there in hopes she would go somewhere else.
"Decided to show up then?" Percy didn't look at her, just aimlessly rifled through his notebook. "You're late."
"Like you care," came the response. "I thought I could just not come so I went home but my dad-I don't have to explain myself to you." Annabeth huffed and straightened in her chair, carefully avoiding Percy's sea-green eyes as they peeked curiously at her through the corner of his eyelids.
Annabeth pulled out some things from her backpack, big heavy books that looked to Percy like they would break your back if you even tried lifting them.
"What are those? How to Be Nice for Dummies? Trust me, you need it."
"Oh, like you don't."
Percy turned, his anger rekindled after the cooling period it briefly had by her remark. His jaw worked, wanting to say something but not able to think of anything to say. He turned to his work, still miffed.
He had only been a few seconds into his problem when Annabeth huffed again, in that way she had that made you feel like a toddler about to get spanked.
"That's not how you do it. You have to divide by the radical and then multiply these by six, and then-"
Percy sat back in his chair roughly, throwing his pencil down on his paper and ruffling his hands through his hair, stretching his back just enough so a thin strip of skin showed just above the waistline on his sweatpants.
"What, I thought I was supposed to help you?" Annabeth looked at Percy, annoyed both by his personality and by the fact that she found that stretch just slightly attractive.
"Oh no, please continue doing that problem for me."
"Oh, so you don't want to learn how to do it?"
"No, I want to learn it, I just don't want to learn it from you." He tilted his head and gave her his best sarcastic smile. Annabeth set her jaw and went to work on whatever she was working on, grinding her teeth.
"What is that?" Percy asked after a few seconds, his curiosity getting the best of him.
"An architectural display of the Parthenon in Greece. It was supposed to be a temple to the goddess Athena-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know what the Parthenon is but what are you writing out?" He leaned over to get a better look at the paper, oblivious to the surprised look on Annabeth's face.
"I-it's the dimensions of the pillars and things like that. I'm going to build a scale replica."
"Cool." Percy leaned back over to his side of the table, locking his fingers together and putting his hands behind his head. After a few seconds, he realized that he was staring at Annabeth and smiling, like they were friends or something. He was so flustered that he didn't even notice Annabeth staring right back.