Meeting Percy Jackson Chapter 9, a percy jackson and the olympians fanfic

Me: Do I own you guys?
Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, Percy: No!
Me: Does Rick Riordan own you?
Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, Percy: Yes!
Me: Do we like Sally's cookies?
Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, Percy: Yes!
Me: Do I own the song 'Where Did The Party Go?', 'Young Volcanoes', or 'Hallelujah'?
Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, Percy: No!
Me: Does Fall Out Boy own 'Where Did The Party Go?' and 'Young Volcanoes'?
Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, Percy: Yes!
Me: Does Leonard Cohen own 'Hallelujah'?
Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, Percy: Yes!
Me: Can I hug you guys?
Thalia, Annabeth, Percy: No!
Nico: Yes! *holds out arms*
Me: Yay! *runs into Nico's arms*
Thalia, Annabeth, Percy: *silence*
Nico: What?
Thalia: You're letting her... hug you.
Nico: Well, yeah.
Thalia: ... Okay.

"Okay, first I need to pick up my guitar from Will. He owns the best music shop in town. He and Apollo are pretty close." He glanced down at my iPod, that he had somehow set up to play out loud on his bike. "I also apparently need to teach you some better music."
"What's wrong with my music?" I asked, slightly defensive, but mostly worried that I'd done something to upset him. I wanted to impress him, not disappoint him.
"Nothing. You've got some good tracks, like McFly and The Script, but you need more. Ever heard of Paramore, or Fall Out Boy?" He replied. I shook my head against his back and he sighed. "Such a rookie." He mumbled.

We eventually arrived at 'Tunes of Solace'.
"This is it. C'mon." He got off and motioned for me to follow him. Opening the door, he called out. "Hey, Will. What's so interesting under the counter?"
A boy, roughly Percy's age, popped up from behind the counter and grinned at him. "Hey, Perce. Thought you were my dad there." Will had sandy-blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Typical pretty-boy with no brain.
"I'm not sure whether I should feel insulted or not." Percy said, looking to be genuinely confused, but something in his eyes told me he was just joking around.
Will laughed. "Neither am I. But you managed to see me pretty easily. I might need to find another hiding place." He then promptly disappeared and I didn't see him again until we went to pay.

Percy pulled me through the many CD racks and started shoving CDs at me. Guess you don't question Percy's music taste, then. Finally, he picked up a few music magazines and CDs for himself.
When we got to the counter, Will had finally returned with something in his hand. A guitar, which was obviously Percy's. "Here you are, Perce." Will gave it to him over the counter.
"Thanks, Will. Man, am I glad it's you who babysits Lila and not one of your sisters."
"Me, too." Will laughed. Hang on. Who's Lila?
"Here's what we need to buy, man." Percy piled the CDs and magazines on the counter. Will looked at the titles and snorted.
"Dude, the only ones you don't already own a copy of are the top three. What's the point in having two of the same CD?" Will asked.
"I dunno. Ask Athena. I know I have them, but Annabeth here doesn't. I'm teaching her what good music is." Will laughed at Percy's statement.
"If you say so, man. Since I know you so well, you can have a 75% discount. It's an only-Percy offer. Nobody else gets one." Will persuaded. I gaped. 75%?! That's crazy!
"Okay."
"That'll be $218." (A/N: Obvious random pricing.) Will announced the price.
"Are we gonna split or...?" I started to ask before Percy (kinda rudely) interrupted me.
"Nah, I'll pay. I am your tour guide, after all." Percy grinned and a part of me melted.
I opened my mouth to argue, but Will said, "Don't bother. There's no point. It's impossible trying to get Perce to change his mind once it's been made up." I gave up then, partly due to what Will had said and partly due to the face that Percy had already stuck his debit card into the credit-card-thingie.

Percy started walking out, lugging two heaving bags, but I hung back to talk to Will.
"Hey, Will?" I asked, still staring at Percy's muscles through his shirt as they flexed and unflexed unconsciously.
"Yep?"
"Who's Lila?" I turned to face Will now.
"Lila is the name of his guitar." Will shook his head. "That boy names everything of his. His bed has a name, his pen has a name, God, even his bin has a name!" He looked over at me, slyly. "Why d'ya ask?"
"No reason." I said, though I was pretty sure that my blazing cheeks gave my lie away. "Percy's pretty serious about his music, huh?" I swiftly changed the topic.
"He's got ADHD and dyslexia, like most kids around here. His way of dealing with his ADHD is through listening to music, which helps my business."
"Huh. Cool. Well, see ya later."
"Bye, Annabeth."

Percy was waiting by Blackjack, listening to his iPod with his eyes closed. He was tapping his foot along with the beat and was softly humming. I thought I recognised the song, but I ignored that thought. I walked up to him and yanked out his earphones, but before he could realise it was me, I was already strapping on my helmet.
"Crazy girls." Percy muttered. Lila had a special area reserved for her on Blackjack, I found out. She was hung on the side of the bike in a way that didn't annoy the rider and let it stay in position. It was an amazing design. "Now, I have my shift at the small, but popular, diner. C'mon."

After a lot of swerving through traffic, we arrived at 'Elysium's Own'. Percy was right, it was a small diner, but it was packed full of teenaged girls.
"Great. Just great. Now, I have to deal with them." He muttered, angrily. He smiled at me, slightly apologetically, and helped me off. Then, we entered the diner. He showed me to an empty booth.

A girl almost immediately sauntered up to him. She had soft, brown, wavy hair; brown eyes; and the same tan skin as Percy and me. "Hey, Percy." She purred.
"Oh, hi, Calypso." He seemed confused to see the girl, but he shook it off and introduced me. "Meet Annabeth. She's a new friend." Her head whipped around to see mine. She looked at me critically, as if gauging to see whether or not I was a threat. Apparently, I wasn't.

"Hi, I'm Calypso Ogygia." Great. A good-looking girl with an exotic name. I looked around the diner and noticed that, compared to the other waitresses, Calypso had customised her uniform. She had cut it so that maximum skin was show. Her neck-line reached just above the lacy lining of her bra and her hem-lie was cut so far up that if she bent down, you could see her panties. Slut of the millennium.
"I'm Annabeth Chase." Not too much info, not too little. She nodded.

She turned back to Percy, only to find him surrounded by girls who wanted him to take their order.
"Um... Calypso? A little help? We'll split up. Half each."
"Whatever you say, Percy." She answered, sweetly. I just wanted to rip the little slut's head off. Not that I was jealous.

After taking down all of the orders he needed to, Percy came back to my table.
"I am so, so sorry. Do you want anything? A drink or a snack?"
"Well, I've heard that the coffee frappaccino with whipped cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, chocolate and exactly half a crushed hazelnut is good." I motioned my hand towards a teenaged girl who had ordered just that and had wasted at least five good minutes of Percy's time by telling him how good it was and how he had to try it and oh! why don't they meet up and try it together. Percy was patiently standing there, listening to her blabber on and on, but I could see how much he was willing to punch the girl to get her to shut up.
He laughed and said, "Okay, but really, what do you want? And it's on the house." He added.
"Well, a mochaccino with cinnamon sounds good." I admitted.
"Then, a mochaccino with cinnamon it is, my fair lady. How would you like it: small, medium or large?"
"How small is small and how large is large?"
"Small is 100ml, medium is 200ml and large is 500ml."
"I'll have a medium."
"A medium mochaccino with cinnamon coming right up, my fair lady." Percy bowed to me and I giggled, which was strange because Annabeth Chase does not giggle. Ever.

Calypso was watching the little scene very carefully, as were all the other girls.
"Percy? Why don't I fill in Table 18's order?" Calypso asked, her voice full of fake sweetness. I looked at my table number by reflex. Table 18. Calypso wanted a fight.
"Nah, I'll be fine. Can you do Table 17 and 19, though? I'm already doing quite a few, and Table 19 has just filled up."

I could see Table 19. At it was a boy and girl. African-American and with frizzy brown hair, the girl looked out of place. What struck me as odd about this girl was the fact that she had gold eyes. 'Cos, seriously, who has gold eyes? The boy had clear muscles, but a baby-face. He had a clear Chinese background.

"Sure." Calypso tried to hide her glum expression. It failed. Luckily, Percy had turned away and caught sight of Table 19's inhabitants.
"Hazel! Frank! Long time, no see!" He called out, happily.
"Yeah, a voyage on a ship for two years does that to you." Frank joked. "And that's just Hazel and me. What about you? Every time we get a letter or stop off here, you're off in some remote part of the world on some trip!"
"Yeah... about that..." Percy said. "I do have an excuse. Um... yeah, sorry. Just too bored to do anything else." Frank and Hazel laughed. Hazel's laugh was like a little tinkle. "Oh, Frank, Hazel, meet Annabeth. She's Thalia's best friend and my new friend."
"Hi. Any friend of Percy's is a friend of ours." Hazel said, extending her hand. I took it, smiling.

After a while, Hazel and Frank left, as did most of the girls. "Thank God." Percy muttered, as the last teenage girl left, not failing to try to flirt with him.

Suddenly a couple walked in. The girl looked absolutely stunning. She looked Native American, with feathers braided into her hair. She wore vintage clothes. The boy looked like a distorted version of Luke. The only difference: he had brown eyes. Luke. I remembered the reason why I was here and not at home. I suddenly got the urge to punch something.
The girl stared at Percy for a while as she entered, but her eyes travelled back to her boyfriend after about five minutes. Personally, I couldn't blame her. Percy looked like a fucking Greek god!
Her boyfriend, however, was another story. Percy had disappeared into the storeroom and Calypso was taking their order. She had bent right down so that any idiot could see her cleavage. She had also bent so he could see her panties a number of times. And did the girl's boyfriend have any shame and look at his girlfriend? No. In fact, he encouraged it by staring at Calypso's boobs and panties. I'm pretty sure that if his girlfriend wasn't there, that that boy would be fucking Calypso in the middle of the floor right now.
The poor girl was trying hard not to cry. "I'm... I'm gonna go to... to the restroom." She muttered.
"Uhfjef." Her boyfriend made some weird noise of acknowledgement whilst staring at a slight wetness in Calypso's panties.

"Annabeth." Percy sat in front of me. "What's wrong?"
"How could he do that? He hurt her and he's just sitting there!" I said, nearly crying myself.
"Annabeth, I can tell someone hurt you in the same way. You go talk to the girl, while I break up Calypso and the idiot." I cowered under the glare he sent towards the boy and, for a split second, I felt sorry for him.
I nodded and walked towards the bathroom. The last thing I saw before the door swung shut was Percy slamming his hands on the table with a murderous face on.

"Um, hi. I saw you come in here a second ago. I'm guessing it had something to do with your douche-bag of a boyfriend back there." I said to the only locked stall-door.
"Yeah. I can't believe I'm actually still with him. He does this all the time." She came out of the cubicle. "I'm Piper."
"I'm Annabeth. You have no reason to be ashamed. I mean, I didn't know my ex was cheating on me, until my best friend's cousin showed me a photo of him and the head cheerleader kissing." Soon I had told Piper the entire shenanigan, up to the present moment.
"And now you love Percy." She said, simply.
"What?" I nearly choked on my own saliva. My cheeks were probably burning red.
"I'm kinda good with non-first person love. You love Percy, right?"
"Yeah. I... I guess so."
"He cares about you. That much is evident. How much is not." She smiled. "I'm glad I met you, Annabeth."
"So am I, Piper."

We left the restroom together, chatting and laughing. We saw Percy glaring at the boy and Calypso sulking, confined to the till.
"Piper!" The boy got up. In a flash, Percy was in front of Piper and was in a protective stance. "Hey! Don't touch my girlfriend!"
"Dylan! I've had it up to here with all of your antics! You flirt with every girl you see, even though we've been together for three years, and you're a fucking ass! We're done!" Piper yelled around Percy.
Dylan looked stunned, before stuttering. "You can't break up with me. I have to break up with you."
"Leave. Now." Piper said. She tried to sound confident, but her voice quivered.
"No. I don't have to do what you say." Dylan said, boldly.
Percy stepped forward with a look that would send anyone running for Mama. "Get out of this diner. Get out of this diner before I throw you out." He growled. Apparently, Dylan took Percy's threat a lot more seriously than he took Piper's, because he was out, quick as a flash.

Piper turned and hugged us. "Thank you." She said to us both.
"No problem. Come here whenever you need a friend. I've been told I'm a great hugger." Percy smiled.
"Here." Piper grabbed a napkin and scribbled down a number. "Here's my number. Maybe we can get in touch sometime."
"That'll be great." Percy pocketed the piece of paper. "Just to be sure, write it on this, too." He gave her a piece of paper. "I'm infamous for my ability to lose things. You want something lost? I'm your guy!" She smiled back at him and wrote her number again.
"Okay, well. See ya, guys." She bade us good-bye, picking up her bag, before leaving.

Later, another couple walked in. Calypso was still confined to the counter, so she couldn't hurt this girl like she hurt Piper, but that didn't appear to be the problem. This couple seemed a bit backwards: the girl was verbally abusing the guy.
"You idiot! You moron! Just 'cos I kissed him, you went and talked to her?!" The girl shrieked.
"Reyna, I told you, I'm sor-"
"'Sorry' doesn't cut it any more, Jason!" Reyna threw her braid back over her shoulder and said, "We're through!" With that, she marched out.
"Thank God." Jason said, after a while. "She was so annoying. She was always watching my every move. I didn't have any freedom."
"Hey, man. My name is Percy." Percy introduced himself.
"Yeah, I know. You're pretty famous around here. I'm Jason." The boy - Jason - had blonde hair and bright blue eyes.
"Listen, why don't you give this girl a call? Tell her that Percy told you to call her and who knows? Maybe we'll be at your wedding in the future?" Percy suggested, and I looked on, amazed, as he gave Jason the piece of paper with Piper's number on it.
Jason stared at the piece of paper for a while, before going, "Yeah. Yeah, okay. I'll give it a go. But, if it fails, I'm blaming you."
Percy laughed. "Yeah, okay."

After Jason had left, Percy sat down opposite me with a steaming cup of black coffee with a lot of sugar, and sighed in relaxation.
"How did you -" I started.
"Know to give Jason Piper's number?" Percy finished. I nodded and he sighed again, in defeat. "Every so often, Jason and Reyna come here and have a little argument. Reyna always storms out and Jason follows her, begging for forgiveness. Normally, it's Reyna's fault to begin with. Very, very rarely does Jason actually do the thing that Reyna blames him for. Piper and Dylan come here every weekend. Usually, Calypso doesn't work on the weekend, so that's probably why they didn't break up earlier."
"So... in effect, you knew this would happen eventually?"
"Yep. I've kinda always wanted Jason and Piper together. I've always thought that they'd make a good couple." He glanced at the clock. "Well, my shift's over. See you, Calypso!" He called over his shoulder to Calypso.
Calypso turned and I swear she tried every form of flirting to get Percy's attention. Not a chance. Percy's attention was on me.

We rode further down into town, Percy pointing out places here and there. Suddenly, we stopped at a side-walk.
"Why are we stopping here?" I asked, confused.
"I busk here for about twenty minutes." He said, simply.
"Why?" I asked, even more confused. His family is fucking rich! Why does he need more money?
"The people walking past like my music. I give the money raised to charity shops." He said, as if it was obvious. He's so sweet.

He put Blackjack behind a bench. Then, he proceeded to set up Lila and he began to sing. Before he had even started, girls had put in cash.
"This song goes out to someone special." Percy said, winking at me. Loads of girls squealed, thinking they were the one, but I knew better and ducked my head to hide my blush.

"Na na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na na na

I'm here to collect your hearts
It's the only reason that I sing
I don't believe a word you say but I can't stop listening
This is the story of how they met
Her picture was on the back of a pack of cigarettes
When she touched him he turned ruby red
A story that they'll never forget
Never forget

And all the boys are smoking menthols
Girls are getting back rubs
I will drift to you if you make yourself shake yourself fast enough
My old aches become new again
My old friends becomes exes again

Whoa where did the party go?
We're ending it on the phone
I'm not going to go home alone
Whoa where did the party go?

Na na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na na na

I know I expect too much
And not enough all at once
You know I only wanted more when you got me lost in love oh whoa
Oh I looked for your name on the Ouija board
And you're making magic
Oh dear Lord
You and me are the difference between real love and the love on TV
Love on TV (A/N: I made this verse more child-friendly, as I am pretty sure Percy won't sing songs with swear words in on the streets of New York.)

Whoa where did the party go?
We're ending it on the phone
I'm not going to go home alone
Whoa where did the party go?

Na na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na na na

We were the kids who screamed
"We weren't the same" in sweaty rooms
Now we're doomed to organising walk-in closets like tombs
Silent film stars stuck in talking cinema life
So let's fade away together one dream at a time

Na na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na na na

Whoa where did the party go?
We're ending it on the phone
I'm not going to go home alone
Whoa where did the party go?"

Girls clapped and threw money in. Mentally, I started to count up the cash. £1... £21... £51... £91... I soon lost count.
"How 'bout another?" Percy asked his growing audience, who screamed 'Yes!'

"I heard there was a secret cord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing hallelujah