Chapter Eleven: Disaster Party
Since her mother's visit, Annabeth had spent every waking minute trying to avoid Percy, much like she had when she was a freshman. Of course, it hadn't worked – because he was Percy Jackson, and he was impossible to stay away from.
He was also just plain impossible. Impossible, annoying, irritating, frustrating – but Annabeth had to admit, it felt good speaking to him again. Ignoring, avoiding him – that had been too much hard work. And she wanted to tutor him again, if anything to prove how she could turn him around.
It was Friday lunchtime when Annabeth figured something was going on. She was excellent at reading people and working out puzzles – and Percy was pretty much a human enigma today.
Each second he would sneak a glance inside the school as though he were looking out for someone. Since Annabeth had banished Percy's moronic friends from sitting near them (long story), she knew he couldn't be looking at one of them while they made faces behind her back. And as well as looking devious, he looked slightly nervous.
"Alright," she said, slapping her hand down on the Latin textbook Percy was struggling to read from. "What's going on?"
Percy looked up, startled. "What? Nothing."
Annabeth poked her pencil at him. "Don't lie to me. I know that something's up."
Percy looked like he was debating whether or not to tell her what was going on. For his own sake, he'd better fess up. After a moment he sighed. "Alright. Swear you won't tell?"
Annabeth shrugged. "I swear it on the River Styx."
Percy opened and closed his mouth. His eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Forget it. Go on," she prompted.
"Okay. I don't understand that reference but okay." He inhaled a deep breath, and then said in a tremulous voice, "A few of us were planning on sneaking into the swimming hall tonight for a small get together – like, a pool party, I guess."
Annabeth waited to see if he was joking. Then, fast as lightning, she whipped up her textbook and hit him across the head. "Are you insane?" She struggled to keep her voice to an acceptable volume, and she didn't want to draw attention to them. "Seriously, Percy, even you're not that stupid."
She scowled at him.
Percy faltered. "It wasn't my idea! And we were just thinking. It's not like we're actually going to go through with it."
"You better not," Annabeth warned.
Percy shrugged his shoulders and mumbled something Annabeth didn't care to ask him to repeat. He was probably just complaining, because he knew she was right and his and his friends' plan was incredibly idiotic. Still, she felt bad that he'd trusted her and she'd slammed it down.
On the other hand, it was one of the stupidest things she'd ever heard – and she'd spent a lot of time with Percy. They'd never get away with it.
Percy flicked over the page and groaned at the lengthy amounts of text. He looked up at Annabeth sheepishly.
"Go on," she said. "Unless you want to get an F on your final exam."
Sighing, Percy focused back on the page and prepared to read. Annabeth smiled smugly, already forgetting all about the breaking-and-entering party plan.
...
It didn't take Percy long to (involuntarily) remind Annabeth of what an idiot he could be. A little while after they'd finished their lesson, Percy's friends ran up to them as they packed up their things. Excitably, their incoherent sentences slipped into one another's as they spoke over each other and high-fived at one another's brilliance. Annabeth rolled her eyes so hard she saw darkness.
Percy crossed his arms, his face red. He kept looking over at where Annabeth stood, giving little shy smiles.
Jake noticed this, and he stopped what he was saying immediately. "Hey, you invited your girlfriend, didn't you?"
Annabeth ignored him, but Percy adamantly abolished the idea.
"He was about to," Annabeth said, shrugging. For the first time, the boys turned their attention to her. They were all quiet now. "But you guys interrupted." She shrugged again. "Oh well."
Percy's friends turned their attention back to him. Will slapped his arm and muttered something under his breath, and Annabeth had to hide her smirk.
"Um, Annabeth," Percy started.
"Hello," she said.
"So did you want to come to the party or something?"
Annabeth crossed her arms. "What's my other option?"
"I mean, do you want to come? Like, with me, I guess." He gave her a look, like, You're not making this easy for me. Annabeth didn't plan to; he'd have to get used to it.
"As a date?" she questioned.
Only some of Percy's friends concealed their laughter well enough for them to have straight faces – other than small smirks and raised eyebrows at Percy. The boy in question looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there.
"It'd be a pretty bad date," Percy admitted.
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. She dared him to try and get out of this.
Percy shot a glare at his friends, who regarded Annabeth now with a level of respect. Morons. Annabeth kept her eyes on Percy, who looked ready to flee.
Finally, he shrugged his shoulders. "Um, so I'll just meet you outside at, like, seven."
Annabeth punched his arm playfully. "Not picking me up from my house?"
She knew how much of a bad idea that was, especially with the latest elections and their parents being back in town. On the other hand, nothing would infuriate her mother more than if she went to the party with Percy.
"You know what," she said. "That sounds great. I'll text you."
She flipped her hair behind her shoulder and walked away, smiling as she imagined the bewildered look on Percy's face.
...
Predictably, the school stood amongst a field of other redbrick buildings in the moonlight, with nothing hinting that anything wrong was about to happen inside. The lights were switched off, save for a lambent moonlight that guided her way towards the swimming hall's back entrance. With Silena chatting excitedly beside her and with her not needing to contribute, she had time to think.
God, she couldn't believe she was being so stupid. But it was too late to back out now. Anyway, a small part of her wanted to go. It had nothing to do with seeing Percy. Maybe she just had an instinct to make sure he stayed out of trouble.
Silena clutched her hand, pulling her out of her thoughts. She relaxed the scowl on her face into a neutral expression. "Is that Charlie?"
Annabeth followed her gaze to the doors, from which she could hear happy shrieking and water splashing and people having fun. That couldn't be good. How many people had Percy invited?
"Suppose it is," she said.
Percy and Beckendorf stood next to each other and held open the door for Annabeth and Silena. Percy shivered, considering he had nothing on but a pair of swim shorts. Annabeth decided not to look at him.
Silena smiled as she sauntered through the doors. "Thanks for inviting me, Charlie."
Silena was the only person who called Beckendorf Charlie. Annabeth wondered how she got away with it, but then, she had a pretty good guess.
Even in the darkness she could see Beckendorf was blushing. "Um, you're welcome. Hey, Annabeth. Shut the door, Perce, its freezing."
He bounced into the swimming hall, following Silena. The poor guy was more socially awkward than anybody she'd ever met – maybe besides Nico di Angelo. Speaking of him, she swore she could see him through the sliver of the door sitting next to his new best friend Leo Valdez. Annabeth shook her head. Who knew how that happened?
"Hey," Percy said as she walked past him, glancing around her at everybody.
There were a lot more people than she expected. A lot. She saw Percy's friends and their mutual friends. Grover sat with his new girlfriend, a girl who ran the nature committee in the council, and waved at Percy and Annabeth. Leo sat at the top of the bleachers playing red hands with Nico. Annabeth really couldn't imagine how that friendship had come about. Piper and Jason were playing water polo with a bunch of the swim team, and the Stolls were rooting in Katie Gardner's bag, which sat idly on the lifeguard's seat. Typical.
Despite the people she knew, there were others, too. Was that the other swim team from their rival school? Annabeth had heard all about them. Reyna used to go to their school. Apparently so did Octavian, but Annabeth didn't like to think about him much. He was probably a spy. He was crazy enough.
Percy couldn't have known many of them. Sure, there was the swim team – but the others? They were strangers.
Annabeth turned to look at Percy. Surprisingly, it seemed he had kept up with her thoughts. "The news spread," he said, raising his shoulders, like, What can you do?
Annabeth raised her eyebrows. "You think?"
Percy didn't reply. They'd reached the bleachers where all their friends sat. Will Solace waved at Annabeth and winked at Percy, who was blushing. It made him look endearing. The worshipped Percy Jackson could get flustered. It was almost cute – but she wouldn't dare say that to him.
Grover introduced his girlfriend to them. "And that's Annabeth. She and Percy are – you know what? Never mind."
The sharp looks Percy and Annabeth had given Grover had affectively shut him up.
For the most part, the party was tame. If a little loud. Annabeth sat with Piper and Hazel and shared interests as the boys challenged one another to a game of water polo. Frank kept on muttering how it wasn't fair since Percy was practically a dolphin. Annabeth smiled. She liked Frank.
Eventually, Annabeth hit the water. Percy was still playing, introducing Jason and Frank to Will and Jake and Beckendorf, who managed to pull himself away from Silena for a second. Silena went off to reapply her makeup and talk to Drew Tanaka, who secretly rolled her eyes at Silena. Piper wrestled with Frank, who playfully dunked her under every few minutes. Hazel went over to see her brother while Leo cannonballed in the deep end.
"So what's going on with you two anyway?" Piper reappeared and shook her choppy hair so bits of water flew at Annabeth. Annabeth herself shrugged.
"Nothing," she said.
"You know you like him," Piper said.
It sounded like teasing, but Annabeth still had her guard up. After Luke... she couldn't afford to think of a guy like that. Of course Silena and Piper were the only two who knew about her crush on Percy, but it didn't mean anything.
"He's cute," Annabeth said. "How about Jason?"
Piper's eyes found Jason. Annabeth saw a blush creep up her neck as Jason got out of the pool and shook himself dry, then stretched so his athletic body was on full show. When he opened his eyes, immediately he saw Annabeth and Piper looking at him. He blushed and stammered something incoherent.
Annabeth and Piper grinned.
Another hour or so passed. Moonlight flooded into the ceiling windows and created, evidently, a perfect kissing atmosphere. Everybody who wasn't single immediately partnered up. Everybody who was single relaxed on the bleachers, chatting and snacking.
Annabeth stayed by the edge of the pool. Percy found her a few minutes later and handed her a bottle of Diet Coke. "Hey," he said. "Having fun?"
"More than I expected," she replied.
"Is that a compliment?"
Annabeth cracked a smile. "If you say so."
"I'm glad you came," he said. "I didn't think you would."
"You have little faith in me." She nudged his shoulder with hers. "We're friends, aren't we?"
Percy didn't reply. The moonlight seemed to shine down on them like a spotlight. "Yeah," he said quietly after a moment. "Friends."
Annabeth didn't know how to respond. To her right, albeit a few metres away, Piper and Jason were kissing. Leo and Nico had disappeared. Grover was playing with his girlfriend in the shallow end. Everybody seemed to be paired up – and she sat with Percy, with a moonlight spotlight and no idea what to say.
The calm silence was broken by an ear-piercing, petrified yell. Annabeth was immediately on full alert – especially since the section of the pool she was dipping her feet into had suddenly turned red.
"What happened?" she demanded, pushing past Jake Mason, who stared at the pool with a horrified expression. Thankfully, Percy had swam over to help... oh, god. It was Will.
Percy hauled Will up over the side of the pool, panting. Others had started to gather now, questioning everything. Jake had paled. When Annabeth turned Will onto his side to assess the gash on his head, Jake ran away to throw up.
"Oh my god," Piper said. Jason stood mute by her side.
Annabeth barely registered anything else as she tore off a piece of somebody's shirt that was handed to her and wrapped it around the cut. "We need an ambulance. Now."
"We need a healer!" somebody else protested from the crowd.
"Will was the healer!" somebody else said.
Leo ran over. Annabeth swore she had seen him holding hands with Nico when they'd re-entered the hall, but that was beside the point. People were being too loud and some were crying and she was getting distracted.
Leo handed her some clean bottled water to pour over Will's head, which was covered in blood. She thanked him. Even though she was trained in first aid, she couldn't dress the wound herself. It was too big. But she cleaned the outside as best she could and once again yelled for somebody to call an ambulance.
"If anybody complains about being caught," she said, glaring at the crowd, "I swear to all the–"
"Annabeth," Percy said. "It's okay. Nico called the ambulance."
Her shaky hands grasped together and she stared straight ahead. Blood didn't bother her much. It was the panic surging through the crowd, the tears and the worries and the fears, that made her anxious.
People were already disappearing. Annabeth stayed, kneeling over Will. She didn't care about the others, whether or not they were going to flee as well.
Red and blue lights flashed through the door crack. She swallowed the lump in her throat.
They were screwed.
A/N This chapter was based on the episode of Gossip Girl in which they sneak into the school's swimming pool. So credit where credit is due!
Damn though. I love you Will.
Also, fun fact: Thalia was supposed to be in this chapter. Girl, where'd you go?
Leo (my bby) next! (Maybe soon depending on stuff because I've already written it. Excitement, okay?)