Chapter Nine: Light Fuse, Run Away
Annabeth
I could barely believe what had happened the next morning. Leo had gotten his experiment working. Check. Saw the sunset. Check. I… Kissed Percy? And then he drove me home… Did he kiss me goodnight? Nah. Not possible.
I seriously couldn't think straight. I keep trying to wrap my mind around Percy. He took my perfectly organized and categorized life and threw it out the window. God I hate him for it.
Needless to say, I didn't sleep all that well.
The next day I drove to school and the only song that the radio stations seemed capable of playing was 'Best Day of my Life'. And then a year passed and I felt like I'd slept through it.
I'm kidding. But seriously, the day blurred a crapton and I don't have much memory until Italian, where Leo (and Calypso, but in a much lesser capacity) were trying to convince Ms. Dino that they were quite capable of teaching mechanics in Italian. Leo, by the way, sucks at any language other than English, Spanish, and Morse code. In the back of the room, Percy tried to impress me with his knowledge of… well, stuff.
"Did you know the Hoover Dam can flood the entire state of New York?" Percy whispered while leaning over to see what I was doodling on my notes (the Eiffel Tower).
"Yes, and it's 726 feet tall, built from 1931 to 1936, contains 28,537,000 acre-ft of water in the reservoir, and has 2700 miles of transmission lines going to LA."
Percy looked at me with something resembling a combination of annoyance and amusement. "Yeah… well… Frogs can't swallow with their eyes open."
"You're making that up."
"No, I heard about it on TV. On a show. It happened to be called Psych."
"You are such a Seaweed Brain."
"Odd, because I don't think you would have kissed me if you really thought I was a Seaweed Brain."
We locked eyes. My stomach did a little flip as I started to feel like I was being pulled into his seafoam eyes. Dang Chase, you have a problem. I cleared my throat and broke the silence. "I don't think you're that much a Seaweed Brain." I mumbled.
He leaned in even closer, tipping his chair dangerously. "Sorry, can I hear that again?"
I looked around quickly to make sure no one, especially Ms. Dino, was watching. I was already not her favorite. "Shut up." I whispered, and quickly kissed him. His face was almost the same as yesterday during the sunset, kind of like an adorable shocked puppy.
Unfortunately the laws of physics still applied and Percy's chair tipped over toward me, sending me flying out of my seat toward the wall and leaving Percy in lying across my seat. I was laughing my butt off despite having banged my head on the wall, "That is why I call you Seaweed Brain!"
He was grumbling about how the chairs sucked until Ms. Dino called out, "Percy! See me after class!"
Calypso and Leo (who had returned to their seats and were pretending to learn while passing notes) crowed "Oooooooooooh" in unison. Percy waited out the bell to talk to Ms. Dino at her desk, and me having all these feelings and stuff, I waited nearby in the classroom. Ms. Dino's a shorter Italian woman, though she speaks English quite well. She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes, resting her face in her hands. "You two have become close, I see." I flushed, not looking at Percy. She then focused at Seaweed Brain. "Percy, your grades are dismal and terrible at best," she continued. "I am assigning you a tutor. In one of my other classes a Miss Rachel Dare is offering to tutor and you shall take extra lessons from her."
As soon as Dare's name came up, Percy's left hand started to shake a little. I stepped forward to the desk and resisted the urge to yell, 'I volunteer as tribute!', "Ms. Dino, I can tutor him. It would be better for both of us. He's already helping me with Biology and I can always spend some time helping him with his verb conjugation and vocabulary."
She looked at me with suspicion. "Ms. Dare is more than-"
"With all due respect ma'am," Percy said in a tight and controlled voice, "Rachel Elizabeth Dare and I do not get along whatsoever."
She looked back at me. "Ms. Chase, I will be looking to you for a change in his grades."
I stepped closer to Percy and took his curling and uncurling fist in my hand behind our backs. "I understand Ms. Dino."
"Good. Now get going."
We grabbed our backpacks and headed to the Biology class were already late for. In a particularly empty hallway Percy wordlessly took my hand and held it almost until we got to the door. I couldn't fight the small smile on my face. When Dr. Jacobs saw the two of us enter simultaneously, he threw up his hands and lecture notes and cried out theatrically, "I don't even want to know where you guys were!"
Thalia gave me a thumbs-up and that blonde arrow-tattoo guy shot Percy a grin.
A few weeks later, actually more like a month and a half, I went to Percy's house for the first time on a Saturday night. We'd had two tutoring sessions, but tonight was tutoring and later a movie. Technically it would be our third date. We'd only had lunch on a weekend once, as an official date. I nervously knocked on the door of his two-story. It was a quaint house on a nice piece of land, about an acre and a detached garage that was almost the size of a small barn.
It was Percy's stepdad who answered the door. "Annabeth, come on in!"
I stepped in and closed the door behind me. "Hey Mr. Blofis. Good to see you." The smell of cookies baking was intoxicating. I saw a brown-haired woman in the kitchen, pausing over something before looking up and smiling at me. "You must be Annabeth. I'm Sally Jackson."
I looked questioningly at Mr. Bofis. He looked back until he figured it out. "Oh, right the name change. She decided to keep her last name because of her writing novels."
I took another look at Ms. Jackson. "Wait, you're the Sally Jackson? Two time New York Time Best Seller for fiction?"
"And baker of blue cookies." She added, pulling a pan out of the oven.
There was a sudden tumble and a large shape fell down the stairs. Oh, Percy. "I smelled happiness in the oven," he announced. Percy didn't say anything when he looked at me, he just smiled and I'm pretty sure my heart backfired like Leo's car.
"No! They're not done! Out! Out!" Ms. Jackson exclaimed, lightly hitting Percy with the oven mitts. He laughed and took my hand to pull me up the stairs to what I assumed was his room. It was simple and small, and not actually very messy. There was country music playing softly on the radio, which he turned off when we walked in. I opened my backpack on his bed and pulled out my bio notes while he took a seat on the floor. "So what should we start with?"
"Let's go with…" I flipped through the most recent notes. "Sodium and potassium pumps from the nervous system."
"Okay, so here's how it starts…" and Percy continued explaining for an hour about diffusion, electrochemical signals, speed and hormones. He actually understood all this crap.
We switched over to Italian for an hour and then we picked a movie to watch on his laptop (Mulan. Hey, I like it) and inhaled blue chocolate chip cookies.
Midway through, I stood up and felt the blood leave my head. "I have to go to the bathroom."
Percy glanced up at me. "Downstairs, near the kitchen."
After doing my business, I took my time going back to Percy's room, partly because I was avoiding more biology, but mostly because I was admiring the artwork around the house. It was everything, pencil stuff, acrylic paintings, charcoal, pastels, watercolor. I was studying a particularly beautiful black and white drawing of what I thought was a blue whale when Ms. Jackson stepped up next to me. "Percy did that when he was eleven. He loved the blue whale. Wanted to be one if he could."
I turned to her and smiled. "He's very good."
She smiled back. "Yes he… well, he was. Percy stopped after he broke up with Rachel."
"Well that's not surprising seeing as how he had to recover his from the burn she gave him."
She looked at me quizzically. I thought this was odd, but I babbled on anyway, "You know, the triangle scar on his chest that Rachel gave him? From the burn-"
I suddenly had a thought that unfortunately coincided with the look of horror on Ms. Jackson's face. Without taking her eyes off me, she called Percy down. "Percy would you please come down here?" Her voice was filled with emotion. He appeared seconds later. "Yeah?"
"Lift up your shirt please." Ms. Jackson asked. I was too ashamed to look at him and kept my eyes on the tile floor.
"What's going on?" I heard Percy say.
"Just do it," she pleaded.
Against my will, I looked up to see Percy lifting his shirt. Ms. Jackson gasped. "Paul! Get down here! Now! Percy, how did- Annabeth said you- Rachel- how long?"
Percy dropped his shirt and looked at me. The green eyes I'd come to love were stormy, "You told her?!"
"Percy I-I-"
Mr. Blofis arrived. "What's going on?"
"Rachel gave Percy a-" But Percy yelling at me drowned anything else out.
"How could you tell her?! I trusted you with it and this is how you hurt me?! Why!?"
I felt like I was back at my dad's house. But this time, it hurt more because it was about someone who I really cared about, so the tears started forming sooner. I swallowed and ran to Percy's room just in time to hear Mr. Blofis yell, "What the f-" and then I shut the door and let out the tears that had threatened to spill, I sobbed into Percy's pillow for a long time.
About an hour later someone knocked on the door. I stood up and made myself as presentable as I could in my state hoping all the while, Please don't be Percy. It was Ms. Jackson. Her own eyes were tinged red and she immediately wrapped me in a hug. I folded up and started crying a little bit again. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry."
"Shhhh, it's going to be all right Annabeth. We'll make it through this. All of us. You included." She pulled away slightly, keeping contact with her hands on my shoulders.
I nodded mutely, unable to say anything. Ms. Jackson picked up my backpack and notes. "C'mon. Probably not best you stick around with Percy like he is."
I nodded again and followed her down the stairs. On the landing she hugged me once more after giving me my stuff. "Give Percy a while. I know he'll come around. He likes you a lot, you know."
I wiped away residual tears and let out a shaky laugh. "I like him too."
Ms. Jackson smiled sadly. "See you later Annabeth."
I turned and walked to my car.
It was a lonely drive home.
