Chapter Seven
"I sometimes wonder why I even bother."
Unknown (an actual quote by every single student known to man)
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Percy wakes up with someone kneeing his back and someone's elbow in his face.
It took him a minute to realize he was in a bed with two other people.
"What the heck, you guys! You have your own beds, yeah?" Percy groans, shoving Jason's arm off his face and kicking Nico's foot off his back.
The two others groan. "Too early, Percy," Nico grumbles.
"What are you doing in my bed?"
Jason pulls the covers over his head and says with a muffled voice, "You looked all sad last night in this big bed by yourself, so we figured you'd enjoy some company. Sorry for sparing your precious feelings."
Percy rolls his eyes. "I didn't go through a breakup, I always sleep alone."
Nico shoves his face in the pillow. "We know, but Jason insisted."
"I'm getting breakfast. Waffles, anyone?" Percy gets out of the bed, adjusting his t-shirt because it got twisted while sleeping.
The two cousins groan and Percy takes that as a 'yes'.
Percy doesn't bother changing into actual clothes, because, hey, it's eight a.m., there won't be anyone at the diner.
There's this little diner attached to his apartment complex, it's opposite the service elevators and the number one reason Percy is still alive, probably.
Quickly, he puts his phone in the pockets of his gym shorts. He leaves the keys on the counter because neither Jason nor Nico will a) be awake when he gets back or b) check to see if the door is locked; though, if a meteor struck, and Percy gets locked out, he can just use the set of keys they unprotectedly leave under the doormat.
Percy takes the lift with the cute blonde he seems to always see. He takes note of how much she smell so much like peaches (it's a small elevator, give him a break). Once they come to the lobby, she goes to the main doors and exits; Percy, though, takes a right into the small breakfast diner. The smell of the bitter coffee and sweet donuts overwhelms him, though he pays no mind to it, because as soon as he walk in, every single person in the room looks at him with burning gazes.
And, okay, he's used to stares and glances and the occasional not-so-sneaky sneaky photo from behind a box of cereal at Target, but he's an Olympic swimmer. Not that many people are into the Olympics and half of them actually watch the swimming portion. It's not possible that that small number of people just so happen to want waffles at the diner next to Percy's flat.
So, he's suspicious.
And, god, all he wants is some waffles. If anything, just the waffles.
But as he makes the, maybe, four step walk to the counter, a group of three older teenagers walk up to him. A boy with a black hoodie, a girl with super huge curly hair, and another girl with a fancy, professional camera around her neck, and glasses. The boy confronts Percy and the others block his path to the counter. "You're Percy Jackson, yeah?"
Percy recoils from them, but finds yet another teenager, who looks like a film club journalist, behind him. "Uhh," he says, feeling more than uncomfortable. "Yeah, that's me, I guess."
The boy speaks up again. "We were wondering if we could ask a few questions…?"
Percy glances at the counter, in hopes a worker there could possibly take pity on him and save him. But there's nobody there, and the rest of the customers looked weary, but unwilling to step in. "Listen," he says, "I just wanted to get some waffles for my cousins, it's early-"
"Cousins, you say?" one of the girls speaks, the one with the curly hair. "You have cousins that live here?"
"Yeah?" He doesn't understand the questions and why they seem so cryptic for a bunch of high schoolers, but really, he starts to feel anxious, and sweaty, very sweaty.
"Are you sure they're cousins," this time it's the camera one, "or is it a girl, perhaps? A secret relationship you're hiding?"
Percy feels like the walls are closing in on him. Too many questions, too many people, too much. The Boy starts writing what he says down on a notepad. "What?" he says finally. "I don't have a girlfriend, or a secret relationship. My cousins are literally asleep upstairs."
"Is it true you have a soulmate mark?" Journalist Girl asks, quirking an eyebrow at him.
Percy doesn't understand. "Um, no, that's-- no, I don't have a soulmate mark."
"Well, then, what's the 'S' on your arm for? If it's not a soulmate mark, then it's gotta be something, right?" Curly Hair says.
Percy feels like he's suffocating. He really doesn't want to tell a bunch of teenagers about his mom. Especially after what happened yesterday.
Two months.
"Um," Percy panics, he's not sure why the room feels dizzy, "It's a tattoo," the truth is the easy route; lies can create chaos, and Percy's not sure he can take anymore chaos.
"For who?" Camera Girl asks, snapping a picture of his profile. Percy winces, it's too early for the flash in his face.
"Guys, please, I just want some waffles-" he feels disoriented, light-headed if anything.
"One more question, Mr. Jackson." The Boy furiously writes in his notepad, and Percy wonders why he doesn't just record the conversation and take notes later. "Could we please take a picture of your new tattoo?"
Percy wants, with every bone in his body, to say no, kindly shove off, please, but he does have a reputation (?) to uphold and rolls up his sleeve. He doesn't look but each kid crowds his wrist. Curly Hair grabs his hand to hold it there while Camera Girl takes the photo. Journalist Girl adjusts her glasses and smiles at him smugly. "Thank you, Mr. Jackson, for your time. And thanks for the picture." She smirks as she walks away.
The others follow her like ducks, though as soon as they left the front doors, they all crowded around Camera Girl as she showed them the pictures she took. Percy sighs as he watches them, the world subtlety coming back to it's non-dizzy ways, and turns to the counter. Sure enough, a worker stands there, pushing keys slowly on the register and taking curious glances at Percy.
Percy internally groans and walks to the counter. "Can I have three waffles, please? To go."
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Annabeth hates shopping.
It's a fact of life.
It's not just grocery shopping, though. Clothes, food, cars, houses, everything shopping is horrific. Maybe it's the part where she has to stand for hours, looking at small details of almost every item in the shop, and each time, each item is just not good enough. Or Piper's allergic to something that's in the ingredients. Or Piper's vegetarian lifestyle clashes with it. And then it just takes more hours. Or maybe it's the part where so many other people are all out shopping. They all want the specific sauce that lays just above or below the sauce that Annabeth needs, causing them to block the one specific sauce as they read the Nutrition Facts as if it's a really good book.
Whatever it may be, Annabeth hates shopping.
So Tuesday morning, at eight-something-a.m., Annabeth just wants to get out. She has already gotten everything she needs and is in line behind a man who bought two dozen different roses.
And each of them need to be scanned separately.
Except there's no barcode to scan, so the worker has to look up each different rose in her little book, input the code, and press a number of buttons on the machine, and do the next one. The whole process makes Annabeth want to scream. (Also, it's eight-something-a.m. and the one worker is the only one on any of the registers, so she's stuck.)
Her feet hurt, she's very tired, and she knows that she will definitely go back to sleep once she gets home, and she very much wants to give Mr. Flowers ahead of her just a few colourful words of her own.
But then the guy glances in Annabeth's direction and to her pleasure, or indefinite demise, she recognizes him. "Dean?" she says.
He frowns at her. "Sorry, I.."
She shakes her head. "No, it's okay, I'm Annabeth, Piper's roommate."
His mismatched eyes light up with recognition. "I knew you looked familiar, but I couldn't place it. Sorry."
It hits Annabeth then that the flowers are for Piper.
Dean follows her gaze and smiles. "I wanted to get a bunch of different ones, because it's sorta symbolic. Y'know, mismatched flowers, mismatched eyes…. I just didn't think it'd take this long." Unknowing to him, the worker scanning the flowers scowls at him.
"That's very… sweet," Annabeth supplies. She doesn't have the heart to tell him that yellow carnations mean romantic rejection, jealousy, and sometimes disdain.
Dean cringes. "You don't think she'll like them?"
"No!" Annabeth assures. "She'll love them, but, I don't know, I haven't been on an actual date in a while--" did she really just admit that to a practical stranger? "--but, isn't only one date a little early for all this?"
He smiles. "We're soulmates," he puts simply. Dean looks back to the flowers. "There's no point in going slow if we know we'll be together."
He's very sweet, so Annabeth doesn't tell him that Piper thinks very differently.
"I heard you two had a nice time last night?" Annabeth offers, trying to start conversation while the worker had a few more flowers to go.
Dean's eyes light up. "It was amazing. Piper is a very wonderful person."
It kind of hurts to much to listen to this, all the while Piper really doesn't have much intention of ever seeing him again, so Annabeth just nods in agreement, watching the worker hand Dean his flowers and sigh. "Thank you, come again. Next!"
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Annabeth starts to think that maybe the Fates are out to get her.
First, shopping at eight in the morning, and then she has to carry pounds of groceries by herself.
They seem to laugh at her by making the bags so awkward to hold, she can't grab her phone and text Piper.
Then the Fates seem to apologize by giving her a handsome, strong boy.
His name is Jason, she learns, on the elevator ride up. He does, in fact, live with Nico down the hall from them, and he thinks that having their key under the welcome mat is stupid and he'll have to look into fixing that. She also learns that he loves to watch the Olympics and he goes to Piper's college, studying law, in hopes to become a lawyer. She learns that he can't see without his dorky glasses and he is, in fact, very, very strong.
It was a long elevator ride.
He agrees to help her take her bags into her apartment, as it is no physical strain to him, and it's on the way to his flat.
Annabeth bumps the door open with her elbow, knowing it's unlocked because Piper has not one care in the world. "Piper! I brought groceries."
Piper enters the room looking disheveled. "Sorry, Annie, I was watching Netflix, there was this new movie I hadn't seen yet--oh, hi. I'm Piper."
The dweeb with the glasses falling down his nose smiles. "Jason."
Annabeth, sensing something going on, says, "Here, Jason, you can put the bags on the table."
He does as so and smiles at Annabeth. "Lovely riding the lift with you, Annabeth. Piper."
Jason walks out, closing the door behind him.
Annabeth instantly rounds on Piper. "Okay. Ex-Boyfriend? Because that was so awkward? I thought someone was going to explode, the emotions were so condensed."
Piper shrugs. "I've literally never met him before."
Annabeth's shoulders drop. "No. You're lying."
"Nope," she says, shifting through the groceries. "He was hot, though, right? What with the blonde and glasses and did you see that scar on his lip? Cause I did. Also his eyes are the same colour--"
"Sexual tension, that's what it was!"
Piper smirks at her roommate over her shoulder. "Shut up. Also, he's in my English Lit. class."
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hello hello how are you all
i really don't like uploading from my phone but i woke up really late so i don't honestly have a choice????
anyway today's chapter was above 2 thousand words so it's longer than usual and so is next weeks chapter! yaaaaaaaay
(thank you to everyone who wished me good luck with my wisdom teeth thing. it was fine, but of course it still hurt a lot)
anyway i hope you guys have a great friday (and a fantastic weekend!) please don't forget to review!
i larb you all!
(also over 100 favorites, thank you!)
- leigh