I am not Rick and therefor don't own the characters!
Chapter 4
Annabeth's POV
Songs, that's what is in the notebook, lots songs. I finally got the time to read through the notebook Percy gave me. I am amazed by some of the songs written in the notebook, they're really good.
I sit in the library, at the back of a row, reading and re-reading the songs. Not looking up at the people who walk by. Someone sits beside me and I look up to see who it is and, you guessed it, it's Percy.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"Nice songs."
"Thanks."
We sit for another couple minutes in silence, me reading my way through the song book, him with headphones in his ears, nodding along to whatever he is listening to. Pick you up if you fall to pieces, I read, let me be the one to save you, no more is written after that, I flip the page, Looking for misery, but she found me, again it ends there, I flip the page, I've come too far to turn around, again it ends there. I look up at him, eyebrows raised; he pulls one of the headphones out of his ear and raises his dark eyebrows back at me.
"How come none of these end?" He takes the notebook and quickly reads what I am talking about. He shrugs.
"Sometimes pieces of songs just come to me," he says, "I look at it like a stroke of genius." I nod a small grin on my face. He suddenly jumps up, grabbing my hand and pulling me with him, out the library door and across the parking lot to an old red truck, he opens the door for me and shuts it behind me when I get in, he then climbs in behind the steering wheel.
"Where are we going exactly?" I ask.
"Somewhere."
After 5 minutes of driving we pull up to a little deserted park with a rusted swing set and a small slide. I look over at Percy with raised eyebrows but he just smirks, and jumps out the truck, I follow his lead. We walk over to the back of the swing set and Percy crouches down next to a grate in the cement, he sticks his fingers in some of the grate holes, pulls the grate up and sets it on the cement next to the hole. Then he starts to climb down the small latter on the side of the tunnel that leads down into the earth. Five steps down he looks back up at me, "Are you coming?" I nod, slightly sceptical, and follow him down the ladder. I count 25 steps before I can finally set my feet back on cement ground. It smells gross down here, each step I take is met with the squishing sound of shoes in puddles, the sound echoes down the tunnel.
"Where are you taking me?"
"My secret place."
Should I be worried? Because I am. He leads me down the tunnel, we take 3 lefts and 4 rights before we come to a door that is well hidden in the wall, he pulls a key out of his back left pocket and unlocks the door, pushing it open. Suddenly, the gross smell doesn't matter; neither does my wet shoes or the ache in my legs from all the walking, I feel my mouth drop open as I step into the surprisingly big room, inside is a desk with a chair, every inch of wall is covered in paper and most of the paper is overrun with the most amazing paintings I have ever seen in my life. Percy steps in and lights some candles I hadn't noticed earlier, the light from the candles covers every inch of the walls and ceiling giving the room a hypnotizing glow. Percy stands with his hands in his pockets, he shrugs, "It's not much but-"
"This is amazing, did you paint these?" I ask, walking over to point at a painting of a brick wall that has two girls standing on it playing patty-cake. Percy nods shyly. "They're really good, Percy."
"Thanks. I come here to do most of my song writing." he tells me as I walk over to the desk and run my hands over the wood, "I found this place one day when some guys from our school were chasing me, I needed somewhere to hide, the key was in the door when I found it. You're the second person I've told." He admits.
I slowly walk around the room, looking at all of the paintings done on the walls, and suddenly I feel sick, here is this kid with amazing talent and one of the nicest people on the earth and yet my whole life all I have done is shoot him down and make his life a living hell, and now that we are forced to hang out, I find out that I actually enjoy being friends wi- my thoughts come crashing to a stop, friends the word swirls around in my head, over and over again.
"Percy, are we friends?"
He shrugs, "Dunno," he says, "do you want to be friends?"
Slowly, I nod, never in my life did I ever think that I would be able to call Percy Jackson my friend, the thought is almost alien. He suddenly walks over to the desk, pulls a piece of paper out of one of the drawers and jots something down on it, then he looks over at me and sings, "Maybe tonight we'll start all over. Like it's the first day of our lives. Right here and now, no second chances, maybe we'll finally get it right." He shrugs, "what do you think?"
I shake my head, "God you're amazing."
He grins, "I know."
"What the hell are you two kids doing down here?" a gruff voice asks.