Percy (3rd Person POV)

Percy wasn't having a very good day. First, his old crush, the daughter of a titan, transferred to his school. Then, his girlfriend ran away from him. And now, she was talking to Lucas Huffman, a senior football player. It was safe to say, Percy wasn't a very happy camper. His friends stared at him, silently asking 'why don't you do something?'. And in response, Percy just glared back.

"Hey Percy!" squealed a voice next to him. Percy groaned and looked up.

"I don't have time for you Nelli,"he muttered, "go away." Around her, Nelli's posse of girls giggled.

"What do you have time for then?" she asked innocently, "certainly not your girlfriend. I mean, you're sitting all alone while Anniebelle is chatting it up with hunky Lucas Huffman. You could do so much better!"

"Her name is Annabeth, and I'm sitting with my friends," he mumbled pathetically. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his Thalia looking at him carefully. "And I have no problem with her sitting...wherever she wants." Percy glared at his fish sticks, not wanting to talk about the subject anymore.

"Well I feel bad for you, I mean with your own girlfriend ditching you for a total stranger," she said sympathetically. It was then Thalia spoke up, surprising both Nelli and her posse.

"Annabeth doesn't ditch anyone! She's protective of her friends, and there's no way she could leave Seaweed Brain over here. She-" Thalia's rant was cut off by a loud laugh from where Annabeth was sitting. The whole table turned toward it. There, Annabeth was laughing at something Lucas had said. She was leaning on his arm, and doubled over in laughter. Percy's jaw clenched.

"Oh you poor thing," Nelli said, brushing off Thalia's failed attempt at a fight. "She doesn't even care about how you feel. It must sting." Percy looked up at Annabeth, a sad look in his eyes.

"Yeah, it kinda does," he mumbled, completely forgetting his animosity for the girl next to him.

"Hey, why don't you try out for football?" Nelli suggested.

"Why should I?" Percy asked, looking at her suspiciously.

"Well if your girl likes football players, then why don't you become one?"

"I don't know, football isn't exactly my game. I'm a swimmer," Percy explained.

"Well then come early, I can show you how to play," Nelli suggested helpfully.

"You can?" asked Percy doubtfully, then he narrowed his eyes, "why are you helping me?"

"I don't know, guilty conscience maybe," she replied with a shrug, "I mean you just seem so...sad right now. Anyways, I don't hit on guys who don't have girlfriends." Percy was confused.

"But...I still have a girlfriend," he said, cocking his head like a puppy, "I mean, I think do." Nelli looked at the boy, genuinely sad, surprising the whole table- including herself. She shook her head, clearing the kind thoughts.

"Well, you might lose her at the rate it's going now." Percy sipped on his tasteless chocolate milk.

"Yeah, sure I'll try out," he finally agreed.

"Oh good!" exclaimed Nelli, "I can't wait!" After she left, all of Percy's friends looked at him disbelievingly.

"Gods Percy!" cried Thalia, "can't you see she's up to something?"

"Yeah Perce," Nico agreed, "I don't think this is a good idea." Everybody else nodded their heads, all agreeing to the words of Percy's closest friends.

"Yeah, well do you guys have any better ideas?" he asked rhetorically. At his friends' stoic expressions, he added "I didn't think so."

The bell rang, and Percy got up just in time to see Lucas give Annabeth a parting word before walking away. He clenched his fist, crushing his newly assigned History worksheet, and stormed out the hall. When he was almost to his fifth period class, he heard Annabeth yell something at Nelli. Curious, he turned around.

"-be there."

"Oh good," Nelli replied, "I just can't wait." Percy frowned, wait for what? Before he knew it, the bell rang, and the only ones left in the hall was Annabeth and him. She stared at him, and he glared back. Not being able to stand it any more, he turned and headed into class, leaving a distraught Annabeth behind.


Percy's class was almost over. There was five minutes left, and half an hour before football tryouts. Needless to say, Percy was nervous. He wasn't a football kind of guy. He never interacted with the jocks or the cheerleaders. And he definitely wasn't the kind of guy that like being tackled to the ground. But if this would save his crumbling relationship, he was all for it. Suddenly the intercom came on, and the vice principal's voice echoed through the room.

"Good afternoon Spartans! As you all know, parent conferences are next week. Please remind them to come. Secondly, sign ups for clubs have started. Come into the office before or after school to register. And our final announcement for today is that tryouts for football have will take place after school all week. Students will have thirty minutes to prepare before they are to report to the field. Have a great day, and remember, to try out, students must have a current sports physical." R-i-i-i-ng!

Percy fidgeted nervously with the football. He glanced up at Nelli, and once again wondered what happened to her. Percy was used to obnoxious, bratty, skimpy Nelli. What he wasn't used to was a nice, encouraging Nelli, and that's what she had instantly become in three hours.

"Come on Percy, throw the ball," she yelled, clapping her hands. "just bend your wrist while you throw it, and it'll be a perfect spiral."

"Why are you being so nice?" he asked, "you're supposed to mean mean to me. You're supposed to be annoying." For a moment, she didn't reply.

"My boyfriend broke up with me," she suddenly blurted out before covering up her mouth. Percy walked up to Nelli awkwardly.

"You had a boyfriend all this time?" Percy asked, extremely surprised.

"Yeah," she replied, "until an hour ago."

"Oh," Percy said, rocking awkwardly on his heels, "then why were you bugging me if you had a boyfriend?"

"Oh, he didn't mind. In fact, he did it too."

"But you guys were in a relationship," Percy said. He was confused, even more than when he found out that Annabeth had a belly button. "Aren't couples supposed to be...you know, a couple?"

She chuckled, "Like you and Annabeth?"

Percy gulped, "Yeah, like me and Annabeth."

"I'm sorry by the way," she said.

"Sorry for what?"

"For being such a bitch to you and your girlfriend."

"Oh, that's okay."

"It's okay?" Nelli asked skeptically, "I treated you like a piece of meat for years, and then suddenly it's okay?"

"Well you apologized right?"

"Well yeah but-"

"Then you're forgiven," he grinned at her.

"Oh...thanks," she said, flashing him with a genuine smile. 'She's actually kind of pretty whenshe smiles' Percy thought. He shook his head, this was not happening!

'Oh don't worry Percy. This is natural.'

'Aphrodite?'

'I'm so glad you recognized me!' Suddenly, a thought popped into Percy's mind.

'Hey Aphrodite, can you tell me how to get Annabeth to stop being mad at me?' Aphrodite?' Aphrodite!' The love goddess didn't answer. Percy groaned in frustration, forgetting the girl he was conversing with.

"Percy?"

"Oh, uh hey..."

"What's wrong? You completely zoned out," she asked kindly.

"Oh, I was um, thinking about um..."

"Annabeth right?"

"Yeah..." Percy whispered. Then, Nelli jumped up, startling Percy.

"I forgot! I'm supposed to be kissing you!"

"Yeah! Wait-what!" Percy exclaimed.

"Oh, after lunch, I kinda told Annabeth to come here, and I was supposed to be kissing you by now," she replied guiltily.

"So you set me up?" he asked.

"Yeah, but then Andrew broke up with me, and I guess, well I suppose I felt kind of...bad," she said with a shrug.

"So you were all mean and during lunch, but then Andrew broke up with you, but then you realized the error of your ways, and decided to be a better person?" Percy asked, trying to sum up the conversation in his own Seaweed Brain-like way.

"Well, I guess that's what happened," Nelli replied. After a short silence, she added, "You know Percy, you're the first one I told about Andrew,"

"Really? I beat your best friends?" Percy questioned jokingly, tossing the football at the girl. She caught it with a oof!

"Well they weren't such great friends anyways," she replied, "are you sure you've never thrown a football before?" Percy chuckled.

"Positive."


Alright, two chapters in a day! So I don't have school today or tommorow, so I decided to type out another chapter. I wanted Nelli to play a bigger part in this story than just a bratty cheerleader, so I made her nicer. Tell me if the transition was too quick for you guys, so I can improve on my future stories. Anyways I got a review by Nightwolfxoabout the two kissing, and I'll admit, I thought of that route, but it was just too cliche. I'm already using an extremely overused plot, so I try to stay as far away from cliches as possible. Obviously though, if you can guess where my mind was wandering, I'll have to work on that!

Oh and Athena grl huntress brought to my attention about the five chapter preview of Mark of Athena on Google Books. I must say, I saw a whole bunch of ideas on Fanfiction in the book. If you have time, and can't wait for the release date, you should go check it out. Holy cow this is a long A/N! Anyways, as usual, hope you enjoyed, and please review.