I guess all I can say is I'm desperately sorry for how long this took. Many thanks to those who are still reading, and those who have reviewed, followed and favourited. You guys are amazing and keep me going.
Disclaimer: PJO is not mine.
The next morning she's greeted with a rowdy call of "It's... FRIDAY!" in what she liked to call Rachel's gameshow host voice. Unfortunately, Annabeth did not feel the same way as her friends; while they all celebrated that there was only one more day to the weekend, she tried to trudge through another entire day of navigating the teenage social world.
Nor was she cheered any by a multi-coloured cloud of powder paint that greeted her as she opened her locker.
As she hacked and coughed, Travis Stoll ran up with a great grin on his face, which quickly transformed into a horror-stricken cringe as he took in Annabeth's colourful face.
"A-Annabeth!" he choked out.
"Stoll?" she growled. "This wouldn't happen to have anything to do with you, would it?"
"Uh, well I - um... Sorry?"
"Is that a question?"
"Uh, no? I mean, no. I really am sorry, I didn't mean to do it..." He scratched the back of his neck.
"What, so you accidentally broke into my locker and accidentally set up an elaborate device to fire powder paint at me?"
"Uh..." Annabeth's raised eyebrow and tapping foot belied her anger. Travis searched for an excuse quickly, finding nothing. Just as he opened his mouth to - actually, he didn't know what he was going to say - a hand grabbed his shoulder and dragged him down the corridor, through a pair of swinging doors.
"Hey, you better be glad I don't have asthma - I could have died!" Annabeth called after Travis being towed away by his brother. She turned her attention to herself. "Ugh, what a mess." She pulled her (no longer white) top away from her body and let it go, watched the kaleidoscopic dust cloud that arose from the fabric. Heaving a sigh, she looked up, her eyes catching on Percy across the hall. His hand over his mouth, his eyes dancing, he scanned her body. She did not appreciate it.
Pointing at him, she raised her eyebrows, trying to look her most school-matronly. "No," she mouthed sternly. He held his hands up in surrender, biting his lip to hold in his laughter as he walked away.
"Annabeth?" another voice, female this time, called. She turned to find Katie walking towards her, on her phone. "Have you seen - whoa, what happened to you?"
"Travis Stoll and powder paints."
She winced. "Bad combination. Are you okay? I guess you're not hurt, Stoll isn't exactly malicious - unless it got in your eyes. Did it get in your eyes?" She spoke slowly and loudly, "Can you see me?" Annabeth chuckled, then coughed, about to reassure Katie that nothing but her pride was hurt and that, even if she had been blind, she could hear perfectly, when Thalia came through the doors that Katie had. "There you are!" Katie exclaimed.
Instantly, Thalia saw Annabeth and burst into laughter. Holding her sides, she bent double while Annabeth pursed her lips and rested a hand on her hip. As she wheezed to a stop, Annabeth asked, "Are you quite finished?" Thalia held up a finger, took a deep breath and nodded. "Very supportive, thank you, best friend."
"Well, you know what they say, when you fall in a puddle, enemies ignore you, friends help you out and best friends stand and laugh. I'm just doing my bit!" Annabeth smiled and rolled her eyes. "So, what did happen?"
Annabeth opened her mouth to answer, but was beaten to it by the usually timid Katie. "It was Travis Stoll. He used to be half-decent, but recently he seems to have gone downhill. He set up powder paints to go flying when Annabeth opened her locker and they went in her eyes and made her cough and- and - and - how dare he?" She huffed and stomped down the corridor.
"Katie! Wait!" Annabeth called. She continued on more quietly. "I'm actually fine." She turned back to Thalia. "I've never seen her like that."
Thalia looked non-plussed. "Me neither. What're you going to do?"
Annabeth shrugged. Rachel kept a spare pair of clothes in the locker, but they were probably more paint splattered than hers were. "I guess I'll go to the bathroom and wash it off my skin, shake the worst of it out of my hair, put it up and call it style. I don't know, I'm not the most sartorial of people usually. I'd just like to be able to sit down without worrying about leaving a rainbow behind, you know? Then I guess I'll have to clean up the locker and try to get the worst out of the carpet before the cleaning ladies find it." She heaved a sigh.
"Fine, but Silena's going to have a heart attack if she sees you trying to pass paint covered clothes off as fashion."
"Annabeth!" a voice shrieked. "What happened to you?"
The two best friends made eye contact. "Speak of the devil..."
...
OwenSawyer: I just don't know what to do.
AnnabethChase: It's difficult, but you can't push him. How old is he again?
OwenSawyer: 14
AnnabethChase: Yeah, he'd hate it if you interfered now. He's probably at that stage where he wants to prove himself, to be a man. Any interference would feel like an attack. Do you remember being like that?
OwenSawyer: Not exactly, but I'm sure you know what you're talking about. So, is there anything I can do?
AnnabethChase: Just wait for him to come to you, tell you what's wrong or ask for help. If you see something and he sees that you've seen something, then walk over and ask him if he needs any help and only help if he agrees. Put him in charge of the situation. You never know, nothing at all might be happening.
OwenSawyer: I knew you'd have some words of advice. Thank you, O Mighty Wise One.
It was a Monday morning and Owen had raised some worries about his younger brother being bullied at school. He refused to say whether anything was wrong and, so far, no-one had actually seen anything happen, so they couldn't do anything to stop it. He had asked for some advice as to how to carry out his big brotherly role as protector when his brother refused to allow himself to be protected. Annabeth texted him as she navigated her college hallways.
AnnabethChase: Not perfect though, so I'm sorry if that advice leads you astray.
OwenSawyer: Well, even if it does, it was a relief to have someone to talk to who wasn't involved. Thank you.
AnnabethChase: You're welcome. Anytime, Sawyer - that's what friends are for.
OwenSawyer: Friends? Is that all we are to you?
AnnabethChase: What else would you call us, seeing as I already have a best friend and you aren't anything else?
OwenSawyer: Yet!
AnnabethChase: Don't push your luck!
She finally arrived at first period - Physics - and made her way over to her desk over to the side, only to stop dead. In the usually empty seat next to hers sat Percy, dark hair hanging over his eyes, smiling up at her.
"What -"
"- am I doing here? So predictable, Chase. Sir gave us leave to sit where we liked today, as long as we sit in these places for the rest of the term."
"So no seating plan?"
"No seating plan." The seating plan had placed her on her own table for the first part of the term, an arrangement that suited her desire for independence and elbow room perfectly.
Annabeth smirked. "So no seating plan keeping me sitting here next to you for the rest of the term then, huh?" Resettling her bag on her shoulder, she took a step as if to move past Percy. He caught her wrist in his hand, making her blush.
"Hey, Chase, don't be like that. I came all the way over here for you."
"I know, that's what worries me," she deadpanned.
"You clearly don't mind me that much - your blush tells the truth."
She huffed. "I think Kieren proved last week that that is not true." However, she shuffled past him onto the stool against the wall, quickly unpacking her books and stuffing her bag under the desk. I guess we won't be talking about what happened last week then.
Settling her elbows on the table, she looked over at her new science partner to find him staring right back at her - in a creepy way. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Something wrong?" she asked. "You were the one who asked me to sit with you."
He shook his head slightly, "Nah, just thinking how wonderful you looked in this light."
"Come off it Percy, this fluorescent lighting would ruin a model's face, let alone a mere mortal's like mine. It's to do with the-"
He cut her off. "Yeah, my friends are always complaining about fluorescent lighting at our model photo-shoots." Annabeth squinted, examining his completely straight face for any giveaways that he was joking. He held it together for a few moments before his right cheek twitched and a burst of laughter escaped him. "I had you! I so-"
"No you didn't! I knew you were lying!"
He was the one to raise an eyebrow this time. "I so had you. You totally believed me for a minute - eating out of my hand, you were."
She shoved his shoulder, "Yeah, yeah."
A sly grin slipped onto his face. "I guess I should be flattered; you thought I was model material. I'll take that as a compliment." She flushed and looked around frantically for some way to distract him. Stealing the pen that was resting in front of him on the desk, she side eyed him cheekily. "Oi! That's my only pen!"
"I guess you should learn to be more organised then, huh?" Green eyes mock-glared at her, before flicking to their teacher just re-entering the class, ready to start the class ten minutes late as usual. As he stopped glaring at her, Annabeth grew suspicious. "What are you planning?"
"I just thought that, if you refused to return my pen to me, I should report the theft of my property to the proper authorities."
"That was a lot of long words - you feeling all right?"
"Ha ha, we'll see how smug you behave when the teachers see what perfect little Miss Annabeth is really like." That slightly stung, that he saw her as a stuck up, arrogant little Miss, but she shook it off when he called, "Sir!"
"Alright, fine," she hissed, "have your pen back. It's only a pen, for goodness' sake." He cradled his beloved pen and when their teacher turned to answer his call, Percy just shook his head dismissively. Instead, Mr Halliwell turned to the board and began to write an example of a particularly difficult question, explaining as he went along.
Efficiently turning to the right page and beginning to take notes, Annabeth was momentarily distracted when Percy tapped her arm. "Do you have a pencil I can borrow?" She chucked him one and continued scribbling down what was on the board. Another tap. "How about a rubber?" She passed him that as well. Another tap. She turned to find him smiling, with a crudely drawn smiley face on a piece of paper held up next to his face.
Ugh, she sighed. "It's going to be a long half term."
"Yup," Percy agreed chirpily. For the next few minutes, she studiously ignored him as he tapped her arm and squirmed in his seat. Eventually his taps became rather painful pokes.
"Ow! Do you mind?"
"Finally! Although, sorry about-"
"Is there a problem?" Mr Halliwell boomed from the front of the room.
"No sir," the two teens chorused. He harrumphed and continued on with the explanation that Annabeth had long since lost track of.
"Look! There's a red mark on my arm where you've been prodding at me. I bet it's going to bruise!"
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," he glared at the front of the classroom, "I am sorry about hurting you. You weren't paying me any attention though!"
"I'm sorry, are you that needy? And look what paying attention to you has done for me - I now have to do catch up work to actually understand what we were supposed to do today."
He changed tactics quickly. Grasping her hand and holding it gently in his, he whispered, "You know you love me really." She pursed her lips, then rolled her eyes, her lips quirking up into a smile.
"Percy! This is the most I've heard you speak in one go - ever. If only it was in response to my questions - don't waste it by distracting my best student." Accompanied by a glare, this statement from the teacher was enough to finally silence him, although he continued to elbow and make faces at her. Annabeth gave up on paying attention with ten minutes to go - she hadn't been able to concentrate at all during the rest of the lesson, another ten minutes wouldn't make much of a difference. Instead, she played Pictionary with her desk-mate (which he was surprisingly good at).
When the bell rang, the students all jumped up and all but ran out of the room. Annabeth packed up slowly, not as desperate to escape the lab as everyone else. Percy waited for her rather impatiently. "Come on!" he whined, tugging on her jumper.
"Slow down!" she whined back mocking him. "And stop pulling my jumper, it'll stretch it."
He pulled on it again just to spite her. "Will not!"
"Will too!"
"Will not!"
"Will- You know what? I'm not three years old. I'm better than this," she announced in her best posh voice. Nose in the air, Annabeth flounced towards the door, all airs and graces.
"What? No! Annabeth, don't leave me!" he whimpered, trailing after her like a lost puppy, all wounded eyes and bouncy steps.
She stopped immediately. "Well, if you're begging..."
"I'm begging!" he confirmed, nodding his head vigorously.
"Then I suppose I have to forgive you," she said magnanimously, heaving a put upon sigh before bursting into the laughter she had been holding back for several minutes. He chuckled too, chucking his arm over her shoulder and affectionately messing up her hair. When he finally released her, she realised he had guided her over to where his friends were standing there waiting for them.
"Lads, this is the lady Annabeth. You may have heard of her before but now if you speak to her that is how I expect you to address her," Percy commanded. He was met with an immediate response of flourished bows and wobbly curtsies as they all said as snootily as possible, "My lady!"
Annabeth was a little bewildered, but played along, giving them a courtly wave and drawling, "'allo, peasants!" Percy grinned at her, dimples flashing.
"What now?" he inquired.
"I've actually got to go to my locker-" she gestured over her shoulder, "-so I guess I'll see you later?" It came out as a question.
"We can't let a lady travel alone, can we?" a blonde haired boy called Will suggested.
Percy gave him an appraising look. "True. Lead the way, milady!" And so she traversed the corridors to her locker with an entourage of 'guards' behind her, arranged in formation. Percy escorted her, walking by her side and chatting happily away. He finally stopped talking when they reached her locker, leaving her in peace to sort out her belongings. Instead, he stood with the boys, who hung in a group just a metre behind her. She listened in on their conversation.
"New day, new girl, huh Jackson?"
"Shut up."
"Halliwell was right though - never seen you talk so much."
"Crazy! Is it the girl, or has something else happened that has suddenly caused you to open that trap of yours and spread some wisdom?"
Annabeth opened her mouth, ready to tell him that 'the girl' had a name and that nothing that could be called wisdom had been spread, when her name was called - it was Rachel, pushing through the group of boys. "Annabeth!" she breathed. "What are all these guys doing here?"
"Blame Percy. We're now lab partners and apparently all of them decided to tag along after me after class. Fun, fun, fun!" she said sarcastically, but the twinkle in her eye told Rachel she didn't mind too much.
"Oh. Are they are permanent fixture?"
"I don't know. Hey! Peasants!" she called over their conversation. They turned. "Are you a permanent fixture now or what?
"I'll be a permanent fixture on you any day, honey," one of the boys, Lee, she thought, smirked. One of his mates muttered what's that even supposed to mean? while Percy glared at Lee. He balked. "I mean, only if you want us to be milady!"
Annabeth shared a look with Rachel, then sighed. "You can stay as long as you clear up after yourself, yeah?" Percy did a little, mocking fist pump and his mates laughed. "Come on then." She led them down the hall and into a classroom where her other friends were. "Room for a few more guys?" Heads turned, and they were greeted with accepting, if a little confused, smiles. Beckendorf got up from his seat next to Silena and did a weird handshake-head-nod thing with a few of the boys before returning to his place and resting an arm gently around her waist. The newcomers shifted awkwardly as Annabeth dumped her stuff on the ground and swung up on to the table. "Come on - it's not like we bite and I promise we don't have cooties."
Percy led the way, sauntering over to where she sat and settling a little too close to her for comfort. The others followed suit, trying to find room in the circle of friends that were perched on tables and chairs, with a few on the floor. Travis tried sitting on Katie's lap but she pushed him off scowling. "I'm sorry, Katie, darling, but you're just so small-" he patted her head "-and dinky-" he tapped her nose "- that I just didn't notice you were there. I do hope I didn't squash you."
Every time he touched her, she flinched away from him. "I'm not so small that a kick in the right place wouldn't hurt, though," she threatened.
He shook his head, "So violent," and walked away to the last remaining space in the circle.
"Hi," Percy breathed in her ear, making her jump. He chuckled. "I'm afraid Travis is a bit of a trouble maker," he continued in a more normal voice, at a more normal distance. "Always making a scene. I'd watch out for him if I were you. Be careful, that sort of thing. You never know what might happen. Speaking of which, Travis," he called more loudly, "don't you have something to say to the lovely lady Annabeth?"
"Uhh..." Travis scratched behind his ear. "Yeah." He reluctantly slipped off his table and walked over to her. Suddenly, he flung himself down on his knees in front of her. "Please! Forgive me O lady Annabeth, for the great crime I committed against you! How can I ever show you how much I regret what I did?!" He was clutching at her legs.
"Let go of my legs to begin with. Are you willing to cover the cost of the clothes you ruined?"
"What?! No!" Travis looked appalled, letting go of her legs simultaneously. He received a quelling look from Percy. He huffed, "Fine, whatever."
"Cool, then you're forgiven," she dismissed him airily. He looked puzzled.
"So... you want me to give you some money?" he asked slowly.
"No, I just wanted to see if you were willing to. If you weren't, then I would have demanded money. As it is, you're off the hook." He breathed a sigh of relief and moved back to his seat. "This time, at least." He pouted.
"Devious," Percy commented. "And kind of cute."
She smirked. "Thanks. So Travis, why did you rig up my locker to explode with rainbows?"
He shifted. "I didn't mean to."
"You said that before. How does that work? You can't exactly do it by accident."
His eyes flickered. "I got the wrong locker. I didn't mean to do it to you."
"So you were going to do it to some other poor soul anyway?" Katie jumped in. Before she could go any further, Thalia spoke up.
"Travis, why don't you tell us about some of your slightly more successful pranks?"
"Not too bad for two groups talking for the first time, huh?" Percy asked quietly, as the others talked a little stiltedly.
"Nah. I was worried that it would be a little bit more awkward, it normally is in situations like these."
"Me too. Although I would have thought those two would have been more help, as they have more of an interest in seeing these two groups spend time together," he nodded towards Silena and Beckendorf, who were wrapped up in their own little world together, talking in low voices and nuzzling one another. "Sickening, aren't they?" Annabeth nodded in agreement, but secretly envied how secure they felt in one another after such a little amount of time together.
Her stomach rumbled. "Have you not eaten, my lady? How unhealthy. Do you have some food, or do I need to go hunt it down for you?" He stroked his fingers down her arms, her stomach twisting, but not from hunger.
"I have some thanks." He nodded. She reached down and got a sandwich from her bag. Starting to munch on it, she was surprised when, as she took her next bite, she was met by green, twinkling eyes from less than an inch away as Percy stole a bite. Her eyes widened in shock and she swallowed after only a few chews, causing her to choke in her haste to chastise him. He whacked her on the back and her eyes watered.
After her coughing fit was over and she'd had a drink of water, she glared at him. "First, ew, don't eat my food, especially when I'm also in the process of eating it and second, ow, you didn't have to whack me that hard!"
"That's what she said," he smiled slyly. Her response was drowned out by the bell signalling the end of break. "I've got Chemistry now."
"I have a free."
"Well, I guess this is the end of our little chat for today. Until next time, milady," he saluted, bag on his shoulder, before turning smartly on his heel and heading on out.
"Until next time," she muttered.
As the others left to go to their own lessons, only Thalia and Grover were left behind. To avoid their inquiring gazes, Annabeth dug her phone out from her bag.
What? 25 new texts?
Sorry. This isn't a great chapter, which is especially bad as it's been such a long time. I hope I won't be anywhere near as long next time. I really do love you guys xx
