Chapter 4
I Just Came to Say Hello
Annabeth's POV
The day was uneventful. Annabeth sat through her classes, studied, completed her homework, trained, and still had way too much time to spare. She thought back to the arrival of the new Big Three kid and realized she had never actually met the guy. He was a Poseidon kid, right? Probably ADHD and dyslexic like other half-bloods. That likely meant he was still trying to finish his homework. Being an Athena kid, Annabeth was great with academics.
She hummed in thought. "Maybe I'll go see what exactly everyone's been talking about."
Annabeth strolled past her siblings as they wrapped up their own homework, grabbing a gummy owl from one of the candy jars in the Athena commons, then walked out the door. No one questioned her. She was head counselor of the Athena demigods. And if they had, she could have just told them it was counselor business and that it was no big deal. This Percy kid being the only known demigod child of Poseidon meant he was automatically head counselor, so she wouldn't be lying. And why would she need to anyway? She was just going to talk to him and that was all.
Annabeth passed the Hephaestus commons, Ares commons, Demeter commons, growing closer to the shell-encrusted doors of the Poseidon commons. It seemed like forever as she crossed the halls towards the doors, passing a few other demigods on their way back from the canoe lake (or at least she assumed that's where they were returning from, considering they were soaked in lake water) before at last reaching the doors. She reached out hesitantly and knocked on the door. The sound of someone playing a video game came from inside. Then the sound stopped like someone hit the pause button and was replaced by nearing footsteps. Then the door opened and a boy who looked about Annabeth's age with black hair that glinted an almost navy blue in the light and deep green eyes stood beside it. Annabeth would never admit it, but she actually thought he looked kind of cute in a lost puppy, I-could-whoop-your-butt-in-water-sports-any-day kind of way.
"Yo, Annabeth!" Someone called from inside the commons. She peered inside and noticed Grover struggling to sit up in a blue bean bag with a slice of vegetarian pizza in his hand.
"Hey, Grover," she replied absently, "so you're Percy Jackson? I've heard a lot about you." Annabeth leaned against the one closed door. Her tone was friendly enough, though her stormy eyes were doubtlessly unsettling the other demigod.
He rubbed the back of his neck with slight discomfort. "Err, yeah. And you're Annabeth Chase. Grover's told me about you." Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him and glanced at Grover, who was still busy wrestling with his bean bag and pizza. She hummed at that, her visage icy calm, not revealing anything about her thoughts.
"Really?" She murmured. Grover was now flat on his face, furry hindquarters on the bean bag, trying to get a bite of his pizza slice.
Annabeth couldn't help laughing at the sight and Percy laughed, too.
"Here, buddy, let's get you upright again." Percy snorted. He strode over to where Grover was tussling with the bean bag and helped his friend upright. Grover only seemed interested in his pizza, though.
"Thanks, Percy." Grover said absently, gobbling down the long-awaited pizza slice.
Annabeth smiled at the scene. She figured this was her cue to go, and turned, starting her walk back to her own commons a little dubiously.
Percy hesitated after helping the satyr and looked over at Annabeth, who was about to take her leave.
"Hey!" He called. Annabeth stopped in her tracks and glanced over her shoulder. "I have another controller, if you wanna join us?" He offered a little sheepishly. Annabeth smiled. She had thought a child of one of the Big Three would be a little snobby and condescending, but the boy before her seemed a little more lost and uncomfortable, like he just needed a friend in this confusing new world he had been recently introduced to.
"Sure, that sounds like fun." She replied, joining in with the two boys even though her intentions were simply to say hello.
And in no time the three were practically best friends, whooping each other's butts at Mario Kart and laughing and binge eating blue gummy sharks to the background noise of Grover struggling to sit up. And none of them cared that it was getting late and it was a school night, they simply kept playing until curfew and then set up a meeting time for tomorrow.
Life was simple.
But not for long…
A/N: hope you enjoyed! I'm having a hard time multitasking all my progressing fan-fics so my updates might get a little slow.
Good luck and good exploring
~Curious Pines