You Wouldn't Understand
Ch. 7
AN: Over 1000 words! Yayyyy
"You meant it?"
"Of course I did, Zoey."
"You said she's hot?"
"Um, yeah. But-bro, Jack, bro, that's my girlfriend."
"But she's hot?"
"My girlfriend! Mine."
"You idiots are like a bunch of dogs barking over a freaking bone. And Jack, you don't even know what that bone looks like."
"She's hot! That's what she looks like!"
"Dude! She's my girlfriend!"
And that was what came of Perseus Jackson's great coming out of "I Have A Girlfriend" in 2010. His friends have suspected it, of course. To turn down the objectively (in Zoey's opinion, and Zoey is always objective. And yes she was aware that that statement was very paradoxical and she was a second away from screaming "Jack don't you dare ask what "paradoxical" means", but yes: paradoxical yet true.) hottest girl and nicest in school, he either has a girlfriend or is very, very rainbowly.
Rainbowly with unicorns floating in his general personality.
Gay.
The latter seems rather unlikely, so girlfriend it was. The rest of the crew (who were they kidding it was just Zoey and Jack and Percy) were very excited yet justifiably afraid of who "The Girlfriend" was, however. For Percy to worship her and speak of her like his best friend ("Jack stop clearing your throat we know you're there"), there must be something special.
And to Zoey, whose dyslexia was top notch to the point that it was frustratingly comforting whenever letters were twisted up like a pretzel, "special" was definitely not a good word.
It was a swim meet. It was the first swim meet the crew has ever been in, actually. Between Zoey's peculiar new allergy to chlorine ("We went to the pool last year? Well, erm, yeah, my allergy is new. Very, veeerrryyy much new.") and Jack's general avoidance with swimming ("What? Coach scares the crap out of me. Erm I mean, swimming is not a very manly sport, Perce, and I am manly, so therefore I don't swim, or go to swim meets, or do anything related to Coach."), they had never been able to come to any of Percy's swim meets.
But this was apparently "a special occasion" and they were invited to come.
After all, nobody could say no to Percy's puppy eyes, not even his friends.
Jack was bored.
He has had enough of watching Zoey bury her head deeper and deeper into her new book, What'sitsface, and was now painting invisible patterns with his fingertips on the plastic bench.
The bench was very uncomfortable, but Jack took momentary pride in the fact that the invisible pattern turned out pretty great.
And then, all of a sudden, a streak of blonde hair burst in from the door, accompanied by a loud thump of metal.
When the blonde hair slowed down enough for Jack to see, he tried not to let his jaw drop to the floor (he did, he really did), but his jaws seemed quite stubborn that day, and the blonde was hot.
It was when she walked towards them, however, when Jack began to be suspicious. Out of everyone in that building, a hot blonde was walking towards two middle/lower peasants of the high school hierarchy. She could have been carrying a message for coach, or even one of the swimmer's girlfriends, but…
Jack saw the exact moment Zoey worked it out. That look on her face, along with the sudden connection of the word "hot", and the fact that Percy mentioned his girlfriend was blonde took shape of a theory in his brain.
And he realized, oh that's why Percy rejected every single girl who asked him out.
"Hey, Jack and Zoey, right?"
Zoey could tell the immediate moment the girl sat down next to her who she was.
Unlike Jack, whom she could tell was spacing out when Percy was describing his girlfriend, Zoey had been listening.
She was blonde with grey eyes, a little shorter than Percy, and was really, really smart. And yep, this was her.
"Yeah," she answered for Jack who was staring jaw-slacked at what seemed to be a piece of blonde hair, "Percy's girlfriend?"
"I'm Annabeth. How did you know? Percy talked about me?"
"Or course he did," she held out her hand, "Zoey, though I'm guessing he talked about me, too."
"Yep, he did," Annabeth looked at Jack, who still didn't talk yet, and Zoey kicked him in the shins.
"Hey, I'm Jack," he managed without much stupidity, "It's nice to finally meet you. I thought Perce was gay at first." Scratch what she thought before about stupidity.
Luckily, Annabeth just laughed, "I can get why you'd think that."
"Really? Gimme the details."
Annabeth laughed again, "Sorry, Jackie, I don't fall for those sorts of things… However, if I get, I don't know, 10 bucks for the last of my architecture book fees, I may be able to overlook that."
And they've already been hooked. Jack, of course, because she was hot, and bribing is one of his top rated attractive characteristics in a girl. And Zoey because, well, architecture books…!
By the time Percy came onto the crude, plastic benches (that Jack didn't seem to care about anymore), dripping with the smell of chlorine on his body (Zoey was surprisingly okay about that, considering her allergy), the group was already talking like old friends.
Annabeth and Zoey were in an intense debate about some type of window style that Percy didn't care enough to ask about, and Jack, whom Percy had never seen a sliver of sophisticated intellect in, was chiming in with arguments to back up Zoey's side.
He liked art, who knew?
Then he just grinned and sat down next to them, not wanting to interrupt.
And he wondered what would happen when he introduced Jack and Zoey to the Seven. Maybe he can smuggle Nico and Thalia in, too. But of course, if the monsters sense them, then there would be a pretty big problem.
