Chapter Eight
Percy sat awkwardly on a couch between a couple that were currently eating each other's faces and a girl who was flopped over the side of the couch, muttering something under her breath to herself. She looked sick and Percy was wondering if he should go find a trashcan for her… just in case. He wasn't willing to let her turn on him and throw up.
"You look like you're having fun." Percy looked up to see Leo holding a bowl of popcorn in his arms and grinning at him.
"Oh just loads," Percy said, rolling his eyes.
"Popcorn?" Leo asked, holding the bowl out. Percy took a handful of it and tossed it into his mouth. "Where'd you get the popcorn?" He asked.
"I brought if of course, you know the rule with parties: you bring a snack that you can keep to yourself and not share with anyone. And of course, I've learned the hard way not to try the brownies." Percy wasn't sure he wanted to know this story.
"Did you make this?" Percy asked.
"Of course," Leo said. "Do you see a Walmart around here?"
"You would buy your popcorn from Walmart?" Percy asked.
"Of course," Leo repeated. "Where else could you wear a Captain Toolbelt costume without getting any strange stares when it's not Halloween?"
Percy rolled his eyes again, but decided not to press the issue. He was pretty sure that they had already established that he was crazy. "I'm hoping that you didn't try to use the blowtorch when you tried to make this popcorn."
"Don't worry PJ the Dining Hall is still standing… barely. I mean the microwave is pretty damn hard to use. Have you seen the instruction manual for that thing? It's as bad as a college textbook."
"And you would know what a college textbook is how?" Piper asked, coming up behind Leo and reaching over his shoulder to grab a handful of popcorn. She popped a piece into her mouth and slowly chewed it. "It needs less butter Leo, seriously it's butter with a side of popcorn." She nodded to the girl who was now lying on Percy. "Is this your date for the night?"
"He has superior tastes in women," Leo said. "First Annabeth Chase and now… this lovely lady."
"Will we be expecting wedding bells soon?" Piper smirked. "She looks very enthralled by your presence."
"I think she's going to hurl soon," Percy said. "Leo I might need that bowl."
"You are not letting some random crazy girl puke in my popcorn," Leo said, protectively holding his popcorn in his arms.
Piper grabbed Percy's arms and pulled him up. The girl flopped over onto the snogging couple, eliciting a squeal from the girl. Leo snorted. "Where's Nico?" Piper asked as they walked away, weaving their way through a group of kids who had pushed all of the couches and chairs to the side to create a make-shift dance floor. Percy wrinkled his nose at the smell of sweaty bodies pushed up against each other.
"Yeah where is the Ghost King?" Leo asked, popping a piece of popcorn into mouth. "He came with you right? Tell me you didn't allow him to skip out on this public display of some teenagers inability to control their hormones."
Piper looked at him with her kaleidoscope eyes. "I cannot believe you just said that," she said, shaking her heads. "I cannot believe that I'm friends with you."
"It wasn't my choice, it was all yours," Leo said, grinning.
"Hey Pipes." Percy saw Piper instantly cringe as she refused to turn around and acknowledge the boy who was making his way towards the trio. Her fists clenched together as if she was ready to turn around and throw a punch.
Which Percy had a feeling she was about to do.
"You're looking pretty good tonight," Jason said. He gave her a goofy grin as he reached out and grabbed her shoulder. Piper whirled around and grabbed his arm, twisting it around, causing him to grimace in pain.
"Can't say the same thing about you Sparky," Piper bit out. "You're drunk," she sniffed the air and then wrinkled her nose.
"Ah come on Pipes, drunk just means more fun," Jason wiggled his eyebrows.
Piper rolled her eyes. "No drunk means idiotic and stupid. There's a reason you're not supposed to drive when you're drunk. You do stupid things. Same thing applies at parties. But then you're an idiot always so maybe it's okay if you're drunk.
No one would notice the difference."
Percy saw in the corner of his eye Leo grinning to himself, munching on popcorn as if this was a movie.
"You talk a lot more than you used to," Jason said, frowning. He grabbed her waist and this time Piper pulled back her arm and let the punch she'd been holding back fly. There was a sickening crunch and Jason stumbled backwards, holding his nose, his hands turning red. He looked up at Piper, realization dawning in his eyes.
"Oh my gods Piper… I didn't," he started.
"Oh just stop with all the shit and shut up. Here's a tip for you Jason Grace. If you touch a girl, even as a joke, and she pushes you off, leave… her…alone. Don't touch her again. Anywhere. Your touch just sickens her."
Piper turned, looped arms with Leo, who had set down his popcorn bowl on a table and was glaring at Jason, and Percy. She then saucily flipped her hair and started walking away, causing the boys to follow her. They got to the front foyer where there was no one and she let go.
Piper did a little squeal and clapped her hands together. "That felt so good," she said, grinning. "He's such an idiot. No idea why I ever had a crush on him or why I dated the imbecile in the first place."
"Because he wasn't always an idiot," Leo pointed out.
"Okay I'm still confused," Percy said, raising a hand. "What happened between you two and Jason Grace?"
"We," Leo said, motioning to Piper and himself, "Used to be best friends with Jason Grace. Like we've previously mentioned, I share a dorm with Jason and Frank, the one Hazel is obsessed with, the one that thinks he's an elephant in the middle of the night and oh gods does that get annoying. Honestly sometimes I just-"
"Focus Repair Boy," Piper said, snapping her fingers under Leo's nose to get his attention.
"Right," Leo said, straightening out his thoughts. "Anyway, we were pretty popular back then wouldn't you say Beauty Queen? Then Sparky's, that's Jason by the way. Quick tangent: Jason's crazy like his sister. They have this weird thing with lightning. I'm pretty sure his sister, Thalia you know the one who got taken away, got struck by lightning at least six times. And she's still alive!
Jason has this thing too where he thinks he can fly sometimes. There were bars on our windows for our dorm because he tried to open them and jump out in the middle of the night. Anyway then we both wizened up and realized that popularity is for all of the jackasses in the world and that we didn't need to be popular to feel good about ourselves.
Jason however didn't agree with us and pretty much ditched us when we told him that we were sick of people and all of the backstabbing bitches and bastards, hey that's alliteration, you owe me," Leo said, pointedly to Piper. She rolled her eyes. "Pretty damn good alliteration to," Leo muttered.
"Jason always had been a bit unstable after his sister left and when we told him that we were done with hanging around with the more 'popular' of the crazy kids…"
"Just goes to show that popularity doesn't only exist in public schools. There will always and always have been the people that think they're better than the rest of us," Leo interrupted.
"Yes, yes, history repeats itself, congratulations on paying attention in history class Leo," Piper said. "Anyway, he just sort of snapped afterwards. Completely ignored Leo and I unless it was to harass us."
"It was hardest for Piper because she dated him for a while," Leo pointed out. Piper turned red and looked down at her feet.
"It was a mistake."
"A lot of the time, what we think is love, turns out to be just a mistake. The most amazing and beautiful things in life turn out to be the most dangerous."
They whirled around to see Hazel sitting on the stairs, flicking through a magazine. She looked up at them and smiled with her pearly white teeth. "Did you know that blue is apparently the new black. Sounds like a bruise." She looked back down at her magazine.
"I told you she was crazy," Leo hissed in Piper's ear.
"Well so are you," she hissed back.
"Someone's fighting upstairs. You should go look at it Percy Jackson," Hazel said, licking her finger and then turning the page.
As if on cue a scream lit up the dormitory.
Well it wasn't exactly a scream. It was more of a loud, guttural cry of pain which might have bordered on being a scream. Percy looked quickly at Piper and Leo before rushing up the stairs to see what had happened.
He saw a door cracked on the first floor and pushed it open with his shoulder. "What the…" His voice trailed off at what he saw in the room.
Inside was a frazzled looking Annabeth, whose shirt was skewed and lips looked swollen, she was looking down at the floor where a moaning blonde was lying clutching his groin. "What the hell Annabeth?" The figure moaned.
Percy realized that it was Luke. He raised an eyebrow quizzically at Annabeth who just shrugged, brushed her hands together and walked to Percy. "I told him to stop, he didn't stop. The bastard," she muttered to Percy, hesitating for one moment before heading down the stairs, her blonde curls trailing behind her.
"What on earth did you do?" Percy growled, suddenly feeling incredibly protective of Annabeth Chase. Luke groaned something incoherently. Percy rolled his eyes and hauled the blonde haired boy up by his shirt's collar, looking him in the eye.
"What did you do?" He spat.
"Nuthin," he slurred, his cheek was swollen and there was evidence of a handprint. Percy was slightly surprised that Annabeth hadn't completely killed the guy. For some weird reason he wondered who would win in a fight: Annabeth or Luke?
From the looks of it, Percy would probably bet on Annabeth to win.
He couldn't hold back the anger that was suddenly boiling in the pit of his stomach. And it almost scared him what he was feeling. But he pushed away the fear and tightened his grip on Luke, feeling powerful as he glared at the head boy.
"Whatever you did it was obviously something stupid," he smirked smugly. "But for some reason that doesn't surprise me."
"You don know anythun Jackson," Luke slurred again, blood coming out of his mouth. He spat it to the side and Percy grimaced.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to spit in public?" Percy asked.
From the doorway to the dorm Piper and Leo watched in rapt attention. "What's going on?" Nico said, appearing behind them and peering into the doorway.
"This is as good as that movie I saw before I got stuck in this place," Leo muttered. "I'll be right back." He pushed past Nico and Piper, heading down the stairs, muttering something under his breath.
"Let go Jackson," Luke spat as twisted out of Percy's grasp. He stood now, face to face with Percy, his cheek beginning to swell. The two boys looked at each other, blue eyes of thunder meeting green eyes of hurricanes. Percy automatically moved his feet into a fighting stance when he noticed Luke's death glare.
He didn't trust Luke to act civilly.
"What happened," Percy repeated, coldly and collected as he stared back at Luke. Luke had a good two inches on him but Percy was confident in his abilities of dodging out of the way when people used their height to their advantage.
"It's all your fault really. The bitch didn't want to do it. Kept telling me to stop. She hasn't been the same ever since you came here," Luke snapped, wiping the blood that trickled out of the corner of his mouth away.
"Did you just call Annabeth Chase a female dog?" Percy asked, his eyes blazing. There were a lot of words that could be used to describe Annabeth: stubborn, proud, arrogant as hell, smart, pretty... but bitch was certainly not one of them.
"Shut up Jackson," Luke yelled again. His breathing became labored and heavy as he stared at Percy. "I knew that you were trouble."
"Isn't that a song?" Percy asked, tapping his jaw with a finger.
"SHUT UP!" Luke yelled again.
By this time Leo had reappeared with the large bowl of popcorn, looking pleased with himself. "What did I miss?" He asked.
"Percy is succeeding in completely aggravating Luke. I think he's wanting Luke to throw the first punch so that Percy can just say that he was defending himself," Piper said. She could not believe what was going on.
Everything seemed to be falling apart.
And it all started when Percy Jackson came to Goode Academy.
Nico inched away from Leo, "Is that corn?" He asked him suspiciously, looking at the bowl.
"I'm pretty sure that they call it popcorn Ghost king," Leo said, his eyebrow raised. "Why are you… dare I say it afraid of corn?"
"Shut up," Nico muttered, folding his arms.
"And here I was, thinking that we were going to be friends," Percy said, spreading his arms out. "You made me feel so welcome when I showed up. Or was that all a ploy?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at Luke. "That's all you are Luke, a ploy. Did you ever actually even love Annabeth or even like her? Or were you just dating her because she was popular."
"You know nothing about Annabeth and I," Luke hissed. "We go a whole lot farther back than you do."
For some reason Percy almost said 'Well actually we go all the way back to around the Mesopotamian times but who's counting?'
Why would he say that? Hell he didn't even know what Mesopotamia was.
"Then you should know better than to treat her like every other girl here," Percy said. "Obviously you don't care."
Luke growled.
"I wonder why you're here Luke, why are you crazy?" He studied the blond haired boy with the long scar across his face.
"I'm not crazy!" Luke roared and then he attacked.
For all of the rumors about Luke Castellan and his fighting ability, Percy could say from experience that every single one of them was false.
He was better than all of the rumors.
Luke moved like Annabeth did, calculating and cold but Luke had more anger when he fought while Annabeth held most of her anger back and kept her face completely calm.
That was one of Luke's faults. His anger betrayed him, causing him to fight with a sort of reckless abandon that Percy sometimes fought with.
After dodging a few punches, Percy fell backwards, a foot to his gut. He grunted as he flew across the floor on his butt. "Frick that hurt," he muttered to himself. And something suddenly happened. He lost all control and blacked out, letting some instinct inside him take over. It was like a voice in his head was telling him what to do. He jumped up and blocked Luke's next punch, grabbing his arm and spinning around to twist it around his back. Percy kicked his knees and Luke fell down onto the ground, letting out a groan.
Percy pressed against Luke harder, causing him to let out a scream of pain. "You will apologize to Annabeth the next time you see her," he said, gritting his teeth. When Luke didn't respond Percy twisted his arm harder, Luke's body began to shake in pain.
"And you will never go near her again unless she wants you to which I'm guessing she won't want you to do," Percy growled.
"Percy stop!" Piper yelled. "Percy you're going to snap his arm!" Piper's voice cut through the anger which was coursing through Percy's veins as he glared at Luke, his knee digging into Luke's back.
Percy looked down at what he was doing and suddenly let go. Luke crumpled to the ground.
He turned around and faced his friends. "Let's go, I'm done here."
They all stared at him, mouths wide open. Popcorn was falling out of Leo's.
"Leo shut your mouth, you look like a goldfish," Percy grumbled as he hurried down the stairs.
Percy brushed past his friends and hurried back to the room where the main party was happening. Everyone looked incredibly drunk as they danced. His eyes scanned the room for Annabeth and when he didn't see her, he turned and headed out the door.
"Where are you going?" Leo called after him.
"To find Annabeth!"
AThousandYears AThousandYears AThousandYears AThousandYears
Sometimes Annabeth Chase let her façade fall away.
She had worked so hard to make sure no one ever saw her without her calm and cold demur. It was the only thing that kept her from literally going crazy. She figured that if she could form her own persona of someone that she would like to be then she would make it out of here just fine.
So she pushed everyone away, she fought hard, studied hard. Just so that she would make it through fine without anymore scars.
She already had far too many.
She hated being considered crazy.
But somehow deep down she knew that she was crazy.
The only person she had let in was Luke. Well she had let in Thalia but then Thalia had left her, left her to rot in this hell. Just another reason to never be friendly.
People often hurt more than they help. Without meaning it they can wound someone for life. And that person will never be the same.
Too many people were broken in the world.
Luke had been her one last link to humanity, her last grasp at trying to love.
And then Luke had been an idiot.
Annabeth shuddered as she remembered his hands crawling up under her shirt. She had made it very clear when they had begun dating that she wasn't ready for that. And yet he still did it.
So she slapped him.
And kicked him in the place where the sun didn't shine.
She had warned him. She had told him no.
But he was too hard of hearing.
"Hey."
Annabeth turned her head as she sat on the dock, feet in the water to see Percy Jackson standing behind her, hands in his pants' pockets.
"Hey."
"Might I join you?" Percy asked.
Annabeth shrugged. "My name's not written on the dock is it?"
She was expecting him to grin at him, smile and laugh but instead he just nodded and sat down beside her, pulling off his shoes and socks.
They sat there in silence.
"I'm sorry."
"Why? It wasn't your fault. You weren't the one who did it."
If there was anything Annabeth Chase hated most in this world, it was pity.
"I know…. I just… didn't know what else to say."
They sat there again, staring at the blue.
"You know that I once tried to drown myself."
She didn't know why she said it. It just sort of slipped out.
That happened a lot when she was with Percy Jackson. Her well constructed walls tumbled down all around her, leaving her vulnerable.
"Why would you do that."
Annabeth shrugged. "Why do most people try to kill themselves? I didn't want to live anymore." She paused a moment. "They say I'm crazy."
"They said that about me too. I'm pretty sure you're not the only one here."
"No, I mean like legitimately crazy. Like the doctors didn't think that I should even come here because I was that crazy."
"How so?"
"When I was little, five or so, I used to have these nightmares. They were terrible. They weren't about monsters or any of that little kid shit. They were about death.
I used to die every night.
The doctors actually said that my heart stopped for seven minutes each night when they were monitoring me."
Annabeth saw shivers run down Percy's spine.
"I used to scream so loud that I would wake up my neighbors. I would wake up bloodied and bruised. The doctors were convinced that I was hurting myself while I slept. I was only five mind you yet they treated me like I was sixteen.
They wanted to lock me up in an insane asylum. I was out of control at night. They had to strap me down. Thankfully Chiron was willing to take me in here when I was only six. I've been here ever since then.
My parents never visit. My mom's dead. Dad's too busy and my step mother thinks that I'm the devil incarnate… or at least possessed. She doesn't want me anywhere near my little step-brothers in fear that I'll hurt them."
Annabeth unbuttoned her shirt and shrugged it off, leaving her in a tank top. Even though it was fall the air was still humid and sticky. She brushed away a piece of hair that stuck to her forehead.
"Last year I collapsed. I didn't want to live anymore.
I was depressed and crazy.
So I tried to drown myself." She shrugged. "But somebody pulled me out of the water. No one knows who it was. But maybe I'm just imagining it and it really was no one and I just pulled myself out. But the weird thing is that I was too far gone.
When you were where I was, you don't stop yourself. You just want to get it over with. You don't change your mind at the last minute.
I was lost in the labyrinth of my mind.
And I couldn't get out."
She paused, not knowing what else to say.
"Did you ever get out?" Percy asked quietly.
Annabeth shook her head. "I'm still trying to find my way out. But it's pretty damn dark in here."
They sat there, the sun sinking in the distance. Anyone who would have seen them would have thought it romantic.
But it was anything but.
"I really don't have anything to say," Percy said.
That was new.
"We're all just broken people telling other broken people how to deal with this broken world," Annabeth said, shaking her head.
"True."
"I have no idea why I told all of that to you."
"For what it's worth I'm glad that you did."
"Glad that I made you glad."
"If it helps, I don't think you're any more crazy than I am."
"Yeah that doesn't help Percy, you're pretty crazy."
The corner of Percy's lips quirked up.
Annabeth heaved a sigh. "Why does shit always happen to the people who don't want it?"
"If it helps I left Luke lying on the ground in the dorm, crying for him mommy," Percy offered.
Annabeth looked at him, raising her eyebrows. "You did what?"
"I only finished what you started really," Percy said, defending himself. "I must say, that slap left a very beautiful bruise. He's going to have that for a while."
"Good," Annabeth muttered. "The douche bag."
"True, I knew that he was a douchebag from the beginning," Percy said.
"Why because you're one?"
"Ha ha ha. You make me laugh. No I can smell douchebag from miles away."
"You and Malcolm both," Annabeth muttered under her breath.
"What?"
"Nothing, just one of the boys in my literature class who volunteers at the library with me sometimes said the same thing about Luke."
"I need to meet this Malcolm, he sounds like my type of guy."
Annabeth stretched and stood up, Percy following her lead.
"Thanks for listening to me," she whispered.
"Anytime Chase."
AThousandYears AThousandYears AThousandYears AThousandYears
Percy followed Annabeth back to the party. He thought that she was brave for going back. He watched as she reconstructed her mask and stood up, looking stern and solemn. Her lips were still slightly swollen from the brutality of Luke's kisses and her hair was a mess but her eyes were alight with fire and he knew that she was going to be okay.
"Do you want a hug?" He blurted out.
Annabeth's forehead wrinkled and he cursed himself for saying that out loud. Of course she didn't want a hug. She was Annabeth Chase, the ice queen. She probably froze over countries and then sang about it.
Then Annabeth did something he would never expect in a million years.
It made him almost question his sanity.
Then again he was pretty sure that he wasn't sane anymore.
Annabeth tentatively wrapped her arms around Percy. For a minute Percy felt high. He smelled her lemon shampoo in her hair and nearly fainted. Gods that was amazing. He wrapped his arms around her and smiled.
It ended far too soon for his liking. He found, with a scary realization, that he wouldn't have minded standing there for the rest of the night, her arms wrapped around his.
"Come on, they're probably wondering where we are. We wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea," Annabeth said.
I wish that their suspicions could be true. Percy nearly slapped himself. What was he thinking? He was contemplating voluntarily checking himself into a mental asylum. Annabeth Chase was making him go crazier than he already was.
Were those butterflies in his stomach?
If they were then they better be very, very manly butterflies.
Percy trailed after Annabeth back to the senior's dormitories. Piper and Leo were out on the porch. Nico had disappeared once again. "There you are we were freaking out, afraid that you had gotten eaten by one of the monsters in the woods," Leo said, flinging himself on Percy awkwardly. Percy saw Annabeth smirk out of the corner of his eye.
"Um… glad to know that you care," Percy said, pushing Leo off of him. Piper laughed from her spot on the porch and then turned to Annabeth.
"You okay Chase?" She asked, concerned.
Annabeth nodded. "I'm fine."
The door flew open and Luke came running out, or more hobbling out. He had an icepack pressed to his face. "Annabeth I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened. I…"
Annabeth cut him off with an icy glare. "Oh go fuck yourself Luke."
Okay I'm sorry I added in that last word… well no I'm not that sorry. Since I've rated this story PG-13 for language, a few future scenes and violence I decided to use my one f word. You see in PG-13 movies, they're allowed one f word. So I decided to use my one f word. Sorry I just felt like it really fit for Annabeth to say that. So yeah…
