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: 4 of 22

Character introduced: Nico di Angelo (mentioned)

Note: Sorry about the Reyna OOC-ness, it will actually be explained, I hope, but later

wisegirl6 i

san francisco 12/06/13 12:13 utc-8

annabeth chase

greek3fire: Wise girl?

wisegirl6: Ya I'm here

greek3fire: Gods, stop scaring me like that

wisegirl6: I scare you?

greek3fire: Only with your absence

wisegirl6: Is that supposed to be sweet?

greek3fire: I don't know, was it sweet?

wisegirl6: …

wisegirl6: Maybe a little bit

greek3fire: Aww…I'm warming up to u

wisegirl6: Don't get cocky Seaweed Brain

greek3fire: Wouldn't dream of it

[BLOCKED NUMBER]: Hey Annabeth, wanna call me back?

[BLOCKED NUMBER]: Please? we have to talk

[BLOCKED NUMBER]: Annie?

[BLOCKED NUMBER]: Call me back when you get this

Annabeth stirred her noodles with a half-interest, since the showdown five days ago with Luke, the cafeteria had lost all its appeals. Usually Summerville High had a good selection of food (at least, better than the horror stories she heard from other places), but today's stir fry was just a bit weird, with a bitter aftertaste.

"I can't eat this." She sighed dramatically, pushing it away from her. Across the table, Silena was the only inhabitant of their otherwise crowded lunch table. Everything was turned upside down due to Annabeth and Luke's break-up, it seemed that majority of Annabeth's so-called friends preferred to side with Luke (naturally, he was popular longer), leaving Annabeth with only Silena, and possibly Nico di Angelo on rotating Wednesdays.

Silena glanced over at the plate, her fingers seemed to be tapping erratically at the plastic surface for some reason, her bejewelled cellphone lying right next to her, "Well, I'm not going to eat it either."

Annabeth resisted the urge to look over to where Luke and Thalia must be sitting. They were probably having a great time, not eating staled noodles.

"What's up?" Annabeth asked, looking from the jumpy Silena to her phone, "You've been like that all lunch 'Lena, it's not healthy."

Silena's blue eyes were not focusing well, but they suddenly snapped onto Annabeth like there was an elastic, "How's your internet hottie doing?"

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "That Greek Fire dude? I don't even know what he looks like, how are you so sure he'd be hot."

"'Cause we're lucky." Silena said confidently, "We both met super awesome and amazing guys on The Iris Network and you're going to get married and have beautiful blonde and green eyed babies."

Annabeth stated, "How do you know about the green eyes thing?"

"Did you put that on what you looked for in a guy?" Silena retorted.

"No, you did."

"Oh, well, I'd like to think that, it's such a wicked combination, blonde and green eyed." She seemed satisfied with her own response. Annabeth didn't have the heart to tell her the rarity of having green eyes in modern society of brown and blue eyes.

Speaking of blue eyes, Thalia looked over. Annabeth tried to avoid eye contact as much as possible, but it's sort of hard once she got up and walked over to Annabeth and Silena.

"Is your phone out of battery?" Thalia posed the question. Silena raised an eyebrow.

"Nah, I charged it last night."

"I meant Annabeth." Thalia corrected. Her eyes like electricity, but Annabeth disliked getting shocked.

"My phone is working fine." Her fork seem to bend under the pressure of her fingers, she trained her eyes on the plate, "I'm fine."

"I left messages." Thalia frowned, "Annie, we need to talk."

"It's Annabeth, and we're done talking." She said swiftly. Annabeth decided that she'll finish her lunch somewhere peace and quiet, perhaps the library, or even throw it in the garbage. Anything for the quickest escape from the table. Unfortunately, Silena made it hard for her to get and leave, particularly since the black haired girl pulled at her sleeve and forced her to sit down.

"So talk." Silena smiled. It was fake and rude and a bit hurtful, but Thalia deserved it. Annabeth was glad for one friend on her side.

"I'm so sorry." Thalia apologized. That was a first. She wasn't teary or anything but Annabeth could heard that it was something she had rehearsed. As a rule of thumb, rehearsed either meant effort or lying. She decided on the second. "Luke and I, and you, we've known each other since we were seven! I never liked him until recently and I would never go behind your back to hurt you Annie. You're my best friend." She glanced uneasily at Silena, who crossed her arm and dared Thalia to say her next sentence, "I'm your best friend." Silena huffed, "Didn't you use to hate the movies where a boy would get in between friendships? I hate that too, I swear, I would break up with Luke right now if it means that much to you. I can only hope that you can find in your heart that me and Luke can still date, because we love each other."

Annabeth seem to ponder this for a moment. She could see Thalia's passionate eyes on her, and Silena's angry ones. Her oldest friend seem to be pleading, though not as desperately as Annabeth would've liked, while her best friend reflected what she was thinking.

"It's Luke and I." She corrected, and got up swiftly, "Are we done here Silena?"

"Good." She was satisfied. Annabeth walked out of the cafeteria with a new found confidence. She knew that it wasn't her who was trying hard not to look anymore.

"You needed that." Silena smiled, "You needed closure with them."

"I just got Thalia." She told the blue eyed girl. They were in the girl's washroom (how stereotypical). It was the only place they could think to talk without interruption, "I never want to talk to Luke again though."

"Understandable." Annabeth watched as Silena reapplied her mascara. She was naturally pretty, Annabeth didn't understand why she went to all these trouble. Especially since her boyfriend never even seen her face.

"How's Charlie?" She remembered to ask. Silena had been awfully sketchy about her questions on Annabeth's new internet friend (Seaweed Brain, she recalled fondly). Usually she just gushed on and on about her own.

Silena suddenly froze in her mascara applying, and slowly turned around. "What made you ask?"

"That." Annabeth pointed it out, "You would've just said 'he's good' or something."

"True." Silena agreed, "You're good at people watching Annabeth."

"Not as good as you are, apparently." Annabeth sighed. She tapped at her phone, no new messages. "Or I would've asked you earlier."

Without warning, Silena burst into tears, her newly applied makeup ran down her face and successfully made her a very good Halloween monster. Annabeth didn't note this, but jumpy in alarm that she knocked her cell phone off the sink counter (luckily it had a protective case). She quickly rushed to pat her friend's shoulder, though she wasn't really sure of the occasion.

"He-he w-was go-going t-to visit m-me t-this Va-valentine's D-day." Silena wheezed once she could get some words in, "B-but h-he said-" hiccup. "-no."

"No?" Annabeth pondered, "Why not?"

"S-some vid-video g-game co-convention." She hiccupped, with a fresh wave of tears streaming in. She sobbed loudly and spectacularly into her sleeves. Annabeth wasn't sure what to make of it. "Video games!" Silena cried, "Over me!"

"I'm sure it's alright." Annabeth patted her awkwardly, "I mean, it's probably a tradition or something, guys tend to be sort of traditional."

Silena hiccupped again. Two streams of black mascara ran down her tear lines on her cheek. Annabeth grabbed a handful of paper towel and handed it to her. Silena rubbed at her face harshly, it left her skin sort of red. "Yeah." She seemed a lot better. Annabeth noted how bipolar Silena sometimes is, "I mean, guys, them and their video games." She laughed aloud, "Ha!"

"Ha!" Annabeth smiled with her. "Where is it held?"

"Los Angeles!" Silena said as she struggled to keep down the red tones of her cheeks, "Some video game convention or another. It's hosted every few months in a new city, it was Chicago and Miami last year, then New York previously, they figured it'd be nice to have it on the west coast."

"Maybe we can go see him." Annabeth shrugged. It wasn't a serious suggestion, just something to get Silena's mind off of her trouble. But all of the sudden Silena gasped.

"Yes!" She cried loudly, "Yes! Yes! Yes! That's brilliant Annabeth! Why didn't I think of that before! We could go see him!"

"In Los Angeles?" She widened her eyes, "That's a long drive."

"Better than all the way to Arizona!" Silena smiled proudly, as if it was her idea on the first place, "That's where Charlie lives!"

Annabeth wrinkled her nose, "You found an internet friend in Arizona, why am I not surprised?"

"You got a hottie in New York, don't think I forgot about that!" Silena wiggled her finger at her blonde friend, "Oh! He's a gamer too, isn't he? Maybe he'll be there."

A sudden panic rushed through her system. This friend, Seaweed Brain, had already known more about her than some of her high school friend did. Dyslexia and a stickler for grammar, not Annabeth's reputation around here. If she was to meet him…it would be like another Silena (or Thalia or Luke) sprung out of nowhere. She can't handle a new best friend!

"Right." She said awkwardly. Looking down at her phone, no new messages. "Maybe."

After all, February is still long off, maybe she'll get out of this somehow.

wisegirl6: So I was thinking…

greek3fire: Crap

wisegirl6: Ha-ha, very funny. I was just thinking about how much we already know about each other.

greek3fire: Umm…no we don't?

wisegirl6: Sure we do, I mean, dyslexia, do you announce that to the world for everyone to hear?

greek3fire: …

greek3fire: Maybe not…

wisegirl6: Thus, it'll be helpful if I could know more, to prove that you're not a serial killer or something.

greek3fire: You have such little faith, wise girl

wisegirl6: Seaweed Brain, I'm all about faith. I'm also a Cancer, I have two brothers and a step-mother, your move

greek3fire: This is like reverse twenty questions

wisegirl6: Just play the game

greek3fire: Fine, a single mom, two best friends, a crazy girlfriend after me

wisegirl6: Girlfriend?

greek3fire: Ex

wisegirl6: Oh

greek3fire: Jealous?

wisegirl6: I was crossing my fingers, hoping you wouldn't say that

greek3fire: Nah, I was just teasing. Anyways, Reyna was alright, she actually got me into Greek Fire in the first place, sort of crazy right? But then she started going all cray cray

wisegirl6: Why?

greek3fire: Long story

wisegirl6: I've got time

greek3fire: I don't, the time zone difference, remember? I've got stuff to do!

wisegirl6: I'm hurt Seaweed Brain, truly and always

greek3fire: Fine, but I will talk to you later, alright?

wisegirl6: Hey, you said you, not u, improvement

greek3fire: I can be eloquent!

wisegirl6: Wow! Big word!

greek3fire: Shut up.

Next Update: December 7, 2013

Reviews are rewarded by virtual cookies