A/N: Hi guys! Chapter 2 is here as promised! It's a little longer than the previous one. :) I was going to post earlier in the weekend, but we just started our vacation so it's been hectic because we're visiting our family and suffering from jet lag. Thank you to everyone who read Chapter 1! Don't forget to follow this story and also review! If you want anything to happen (or not happen) you have to review in order for me to think about it. Lots of love. xx
Chapter 2: The Blueberry Pancake Club
Annabeth hit her alarm and rolled out of bed. She walked over to her kitchen and looked around. Normally, she ran whenever she felt like it, but she decided she should start trying to put some kind of order into her life, so that is how Annabeth ended up standing in her kitchen at 6:10 am in work-out clothes, wondering if getting up at such an hour was worth a paparazzi-free run before work. Her thoughts insisted it was, so Annabeth walked back to her room for her laptop, which she placed on her kitchen table, and got a bunch of fruits out of the fridge. Annabeth started looking through her playlist, but decided she should brush up on Percy's band's music. She knew she had some of The Argo II's older music on her laptop, but she bought the rest of it without hearing it and put their entire discography on shuffle.
The first song was one she remembered from when she really liked rock music, before she decided that too much rock might influence her music in a way she wasn't ready for. But as soon as the first chords of "Siren" struck, Annabeth was dancing around the room. Going over to the fruit and starting to chop it up, she immediately began singing the lyrics and head banging. She kept singing and putting strawberries and the like in her blender. Suddenly, the doorbell rang.
Annabeth dropped everything and walked over to the door, trying to remember if she ordered any packages recently and if mail even came before 7 am. Without checking for an axe murderer, Annabeth opened the door and deadpanned "What?"
"Now is that any way to speak to your boyfriend?" Percy teased. Annabeth realized that the bane of her existence had arrived and she moved to close the slam the door in his face. "No, wait!" Percy protested, shoving the door open.
"What do you want, Percy? It's bad enough that I have to date you, but now you come here during some of the little time I have to myself and destroy my peace? Don't you not even wake up until the afternoon? What do you want from me?"
Annabeth thought she caught a glimpse of hurt in his eyes, but the next second, Percy started speaking in the most 'I don't care' voice she'd ever heard. "Well, Chiron's making me get up early like a normal person, so I thought that we needed to talk before we went on a real date. Plus Reyna told me how you sometimes get up at 6, so I took my chances and here I am." He grinned as he said those last words.
"Just so you know in the future, getting up before 6 is not normal, so spare yourself the trouble. But how much caffeine have you had?" Annabeth asked, stepping aside to let him in.
"Well… I bought at least $20 worth of espressos at Starbucks, so I'm thinking I should invest in a coffee machine," he smiled, and Annabeth noticed that his hands were shaking.
"Well, are you hungry? I usually make a smoothie before to drink after my jog and make pancakes or something after I'm done, but since you're here and I've lost my peaceful morning, I might as well not jog and make pancakes for two. Sound good?
Percy, who had taken up a spot on the counter and knew he was welcomed by the offer of pancakes, smirked at Annabeth. "Is that my music I hear?" Percy asked, realizing that his own voice was singing in the background.
"Oh shut up, Percy. I just bought a bunch of your music so that I didn't seem like a complete ignoramus about my own boyfriend's music."
Percy walked over to Annabeth's computer and clicked around. "Well, you did just buy The Last Olympian and The Lost Hero, but it looks like you already owned The Titan's Curse." Percy looked at Annabeth knowingly. "Aw, fetus Annabeth liked us as fetuses! Let's see what else you've got here… Hm… yeah… pop ok… yeah… ew… oh they're good!... well, One Direction's to be expected… You listen to rap?... ugh more pop… Skillet!... no… ew… eh…" Percy continued, doing a running commentary on everything on Annabeth's playlist.
"Not all of your music is bad, Annabeth," Percy joked, turning up the volume on her computer. "Now make me some pancakes! Preferably blueberry!" he called as he positioned himself back on the counter.
Annabeth contemplated dying of embarrassment, but didn't want to give Percy the pleasure, so she pulled out all of the necessary ingredients and started mixing them together. Sometime after she started pouring the batter into the pan, she realized that Percy was singing along to the most recent song. His voice sounded even better than it did on the track, and he clearly didn't use auto tuned. Annabeth switched from humming along to the song to singing, doing her best to harmonize with Percy during the slower parts. Annabeth looked over at him and saw that he was very visibly impressed. She kept singing and finished making the last few pancakes.
"All right! Get up and set the table if you want any."
"Or what?"
"Or I will eat all of them, Percy Jackson. You do not want to test me."
"Well actually, I do. If you know what I mean."
"EW! That was terrible." Annabeth hit him, trying hard to suppress a laugh.
"I know, but it was worth a try."
"You never give up, do you?"
"Well do I ever look like a lady's turned me down," Percy smouldered.
"I don't know about turned down, but I think some lady's definitely slapped that face."
"Shut up, everyone loves me."
"Except for me, Jackson," Annabeth said sitting down.
"Which is why I'm not giving up, Chase," Percy said, following her lead.
"Percy, why did you agree to this?" Annabeth turned serious.
Percy sobered up as well. "Well, you obviously know that my reputation's turned to shit and is going down the drain. My band's worked harder than you'll ever know to get where it is, especially in a time when pop rules the mainstream, and I can't ruin my friends' success just because I like partying. I mean, they do too, but theirs is socially acceptable. It's like…" Percy paused searching for words. "Ladies love me-" he started.
"Seriously? How self-centered can you be?"
"Let me continue. Ladies love me and the idea that they might have a chance with me since I like girls, but if they see me with too many girls and I seem too 'easy'" Percy looked at the shock on Annabeth's face, "Yeah I know, more guys think of girls as easy than the other way around, but anyway, they're not going to feel special if I sleep with them but also everyone else. So Chiron is trying to make me seem more exclusive to boost my image, you need to get back in the public eye, yadda yadda. Plus, you're super hot, so who could say no to that?"
"OK, I understand what you're trying to say, vaguely, and from the perspective of someone who doesn't agree, but why don't you just get a real girl friend? Because let's face it- I'm not sleeping with you, and you obviously need that in your life."
Percy had a strange look in his eye. "I don't think it's fair for someone to fall for me and for me to not feel anyone. There's no one I connect with that way. But don't be too sure about that, Annabeth," he said a little too bravely with a wink that seemed a little too forced. Annabeth couldn't tell if she didn't know Percy well enough or if he was hiding something, but they'd known each other for only a few days, so she didn't know how much she should care or how much he was willing to share.
"Ok, let's eat before these pancakes cool down anymore," Annabeth quickly responded.
Percy gratefully sat down at the table and started heaping pancakes onto his plate, drizzled them with syrup, and started shoveling them into his mouth. Annabeth, who was eating copious amounts of food quickly as well but was at least cutting if neatly beforehand, looked at him in disgust. "Ew," she started, "You are literally such a pig. I can't believe you've gotten so many women in bed."
"Hey!" Percy protested with a mouth full of food. He finished chewing. "I'll have you know, this mouth is good at everything."
Annabeth contorted her face in disbelief. "I just made you amazing pancakes and this is how you thank me?"
Percy, realizing he had inadvertently started using innuendo, saw the window of opportunity open before him. "I can thank you so much better if you let me," he said, leaning across the table.
Taken aback, Annabeth leaned away from him. "Literally, shut up," she said flicking the pieces of pancake on her fork at him.
Percy and Annabeth polished off their pancakes and Annabeth grabbed her smoothie. She looked at the time on the clock and realized it wasn't even 8 o'clock, so she still had at least two hours to kill before she could go into the studio. "So…" Annabeth started. "I have at least two hours until I have to be at work. What do you want to do?" Percy was glancing interestedly at Annabeth's house. "Are you interested in seeing my house or is the caffeine you had making your head twitch back and forth?"
Percy looked down, abashed. "Maybe… But I do want to see your house too."
"Ok, the Annabeth Chase Home Tour is beginning; please step this way," Annabeth began. They walked into the living room, which had brown leather sofas with tartan blankets over the backs, bookshelves, and antique decorations sprinkled around. "The room we are entering is the living room, aka the 'you can use it to entertain professionals in the music industry but also to eat ice cream and jump on the sofas' room because what's the point of paying for designer furniture if it's not both comfy and pretty," Annabeth rambled. "There's another one downstairs, but unless you want to play pool or watch a movie on a bigger screen, this one is probably better. Anyway… Next room…"
Percy trailed behind Annabeth, silent for most of the tour, but occasionally making snarky comments about a decoration choice here or there. The thing was, though, that despite the fact that Annabeth made her house far more vintage than Percy would like or expect, she had an eye for detail and she made the house look better than any professional could. Finally, Annabeth stepped into the last room on the second floor.
"And finally," she began. "This is my room."
Percy looked around and smirked. "I knew I'd make it up to your room, Chase."
Without having any time to register what had happened, Percy found himself leaning against the door frame for support, realizing that Annabeth had pushed him very hard.
"What the heck, Percy! I thought we were going to be able to get along pretty well! We may not be dating, but we'll be spending a lot of time with each other, so I wanted to try to be friends with you. But you clearly don't want to. You know what—I can't take this anymore. You'd be much better off with Drew—she'd actually want to sleep with you. And I don't even care if your career flounders or if the public forgets about me. We all deserve what's coming to us, and this train wreck of a plan won't save anybody."
Annabeth fished her cell phone out of her pocket, but she felt a gentle but firm grip on her wrist. "Annabeth," Percy said softly, looking her in the eyes. "I am so sorry about that. I'm not used to not getting what I want, and I didn't think you actually meant not wanting me. I won't do anything like that again." He became embarrassed all of a sudden. "Please just give me another chance. My band—er—I need this."
Annabeth didn't know Percy well enough to know whether he would keep flirting with her—in all honesty, he probably would—but she did know that everyone deserves a second chance. She sighed and hoped she was making the right decision. "Oh all right, you have one more chance. But that's it. And you better make our first date absolutely spectacular." Percy nodded. "Now I have to get ready for work, so please leave my room," she said glaring at him. "The paparazzi are out, so we can drop you off at your studio if you want."
"Sounds good," Percy responded. "I'll wait by the front door." He ran out as fast as he could and Annabeth closed the door firmly.
As Annabeth quickly showered, she contemplated Percy. He was a straight up asshole with no discernable depth of character, save for the fact that but he did put the needs of his friends and his band ahead of what he wanted, which made her wonder what other surprises he had up his sleeve besides a bag of innuendos. Annabeth got dressed in a loose, flowery dress, brushed her teeth, and decided that whatever it was she'd find out soon enough. She met Percy at the door where he was drumming against the door itself very lightly. "Come on," said Annabeth. Percy nodded and followed after her.
