A/N: SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY. I could not update last week because it was honor band weekend which kept me so incredibly busy I had no time to write. My 366 days of drabbles series has prewrites, but this however, does not. I'M SO SORRY. :( So, twice as long drabble today? This in no way makes up for that, but I have to try.

TITLE: Prom

SUMMARY: High School AU

Word Count: 2,106

DISCLAIMER: Hmm, I haven't acquired the PJO or HoO series in the past two weeks. Nope, still don't own it. Also, don't own The DUFF, as this is loosely based around it.

"Nooooo. Don't make me go." Annabeth groaned at her friends. "I'm not going."

"Sure you are." Piper responded happily, ignoring Annabeth's cries of protest. She looked up from the article she was working on. "You're going, and you're gonna look beautiful."

"Noooooo. I'm still not going to go." she repeated, a look of exasperation on her face.

"You want to impress someone, right?" Hazel asked knowingly, winking at her. Annabeth frowned at her and stuck her tongue out.

"Nope."

"Oh, boy." the girl with a feather in her hair sighed. "At least dress up for your crush." Piper teased, grinning at her.

Annabeth held her hands up, signaling that they had crossed the line. "No. No, no, no." Annabeth glared at her. "You are not going there. I'm not going to dress up for Percy."

"You are. He's your best friend, and you two have been friends since preschool. And, you have a crush on him." Hazel added. The two girls high-fived, and at the moment, Annabeth could not be more annoyed at them.

"Nope." Annabeth said again.

"You're going to go, and that's final." dismissed Piper, waving the blonde out of the journalism room. Annabeth walked away from the computer station that they were sitting at, but glared at Piper and Hazel before turning to leave.

"At least you have a brain." the blonde sighed, looking at Reyna, a college student who helped out at Half-Blood High, who casually sipped a cup of coffee. The senior smiled, "You should go."

Annabeth had a look of mock horror, "Not you too!"

"You're going to go to Prom." the beauty expert called after her.

"No, I'm not!" Annabeth sang back.

.o0o.

Annabeth fled to her room as soon as she got home, collapsing on to the comfort of her familiar bed. "I hate Percy Jackson."

"Hey." he greeted her, straightening himself up from leaning against a pillar.

"Hey." Annabeth replied shyly, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear. Percy pressed a chaste kiss on her cheek, grinning as she stood there frozen.

"Loosen up, Wise Girl." he teased, extending a hand.

-o-o-o-o-

"C'mon, I want to show you something." Annabeth said suddenly, spinning around to face the other direction. She started jogging slowly, knowing that Percy would catch up. He was a football player, after all.

Percy kept her pace easily. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere."

The two ended up sprinting through the forest, racing each other and leaping over rocks and fallen trees. They ended up near a clearing. Percy could hear the dull, white noise of the river flowing from where they stood. Annabeth ushered him forward and led him to sit on the rock in the middle with her.

"So..." Percy said after a moment. "What should I do?"

"Sit." Annabeth replied. "Think" She paused, and muttered, "For once in your life."

"Hey!" he protested, but didn't say anything else.

"I like you." Percy said quietly, quickly becoming accustomed to sitting on the granite rock. They had sat out there for a few hours, watching the sunset, just like how it would happen in those incredibly sappy movies, also known as 'chick flicks'.

"Huh. It's a funny world. I like you, too."

-o-o-o-o-

Annabeth paced the small clearing. It was time to go to her thinking spot. The star track runner jogged towards where she knew her spot was: nestled between the trees and the riverbank, she went there to think and just empty her mind. Only one other person knew about it, so she knew it would be deserted. As she came upon the small clearing, it turns out it wasn't empty.

Percy Jackson and Rachel Dare were sitting on her rock, on her thinking spot, kissing.

She backed away. That stupid, lying jerk.

I was an idiot for thinking that we could work out, Annabeth thought miserably. He had just led her on. Just like the playboy he was.

-o-o-o-o-

"How could you do that?" Annabeth yelled, her hand balled into fists, shaking with rage. She tried to keep herself from blowing up more than she already had.

"What the hell did I do?" Percy shouted back.

"You brought he-her- that thing to my spot. It was my spot. And you brought her there?"

"What, why is that spot so important to you?"

"Because it was mine. It was my spot. Don't you understand?"

"No, I don't."

"Well, sleep on it." she seethed. "What do you think it meant to me?"

"I have no idea."

"Thanks for leading me on. For thinking I had a chance with you. For sharing one spectacular kiss under the lamppost down on Sixth Street. For breaking my heart, I thank you. Because you're nothing but a jerk. And I would have regretted falling deeper in love with you." With that, she spun around and stormed off.

.o0o.

"Class is dismissed!" Mr. Chiron announced to the class of thirty-two. The journalism students cheered, as this was their seventh period, signaling the end of the day. Annabeth grabbed her papers, straightening them out into sections in her binder and filed them away. She stuffed the binder in her black messenger bag which was covered in buttons that displayed band names, and swung it over her shoulder. Throwing her hair up in a ponytail, Annabeth held a pencil in her mouth as she walked towards the door, planning to head over to her English classroom to talk to her teacher about an assignment. A voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Miss Chase," Chiron addressed, causing her to turn around and freeze, her hands still fixated in her hair. "Please, have a seat. There is something we need to discuss."

Annabeth hated those words. That usually meant trouble, and being the straight 'A' student she was did not allow her to get in trouble!

"Uh, sure." she made her way over to his office and sat down in the plush white chair in front of his desk. The high school student folded her hands on top of the mahogany desk.

"What do you need?" she asked curiously as her teacher took a seat.

"Well, as you know, you are the school newspaper's editor in chief, and every year, they write a major article. This year, the topic I've chose for you is what prom means to you, and everyone else."

"With all due respect, sir, I don't think I can-"

"You'll do it."

Annabeth frowned. "I'm not going."

"You'll have to. You're writing an article on it." Chiron grinned.

"Fine." Annabeth gave in, scowling. Chiron winked at her and waved her out of the room.

.o0o.

The senior cursed under her breath.

"Sorry." Piper apologized, trying not to yank Annabeth's hair anymore than she already had.

"Uh... huh... there. Done!" she exclaimed. The brunette untied the blindfold, and spun the office chair around so Annabeth could see herself in the floor-length mirror.

"I..." she began, taking in the look of herself. "I look like... me."

"Yup."

Instead of a gauzy, poofy pink dress, like Annabeth had expected (Piper's closet was made up of all colors of the rainbow, with the biggest sections pink, purple, blue, and black), she was dressed in a light grey color. The dress had a square neckline which showed her thin shoulders, with a thick black ribbon cinching her middle above her waist. The sleeves were almost like a t-shirt, comfortable but stylish. Annabeth only cared about the former detail, of course. The skirt swished out gracefully around her, ending just below her knees. It ended a bit too high than she'd like it, but this is what she'd get. It had small black beads, sewn in intricate swirling patters that caught light as she moved. Her hair was in a side french braid, that turned into a ponytail. Piper had exaggerated her curls, causing them to fall in a perfect corkscrew that rested on her bare left shoulder. Her charm bracelet with clay beads was fastened around her wrist, and the only other piece of jewelry she wore was a silver necklace with a ruby teardrop that settled on her collarbone. The necklace was a gift from her late mother, one of the only things that she had left of her. But, she looked stunning. Even that was an understatement.

"It's beautiful." she breathed, turning to look at Piper, who was admiring her work from a distance.

"You bet it is." she grinned back. "Now let's go impress Seaweed Brain." Annabeth glared at her friend, but instead, turned to look at herself in the mirror once more.

"It'll be okay." she murmured to herself, touching her bare shoulders self consciously and smoothing down the skirt.

.o0o.

"It's now time to crown our king and queen!" the DJ announced, turning the music down and on to a sweet, slow song. Rachel looked at her cronies knowingly.

She gasped. "Oh, I just know it's going to be me!"

Rachel turned to her friends. "Come on girls, lets go get my crown." she winked saucily at Percy, who scowled in disgust as soon as she left. But Rachel didn't know that, because she had turned her attention to the stage.

The lights stopped glaring around the dance floor, and a single, bright spotlight shone on the stage.

"This year's prom queen is..." Rachel and her friends held hands in a tight circle. "Rachel... Elizabeth... Dare!" the DJ enunciated clearly, dragging out her name.

The circle of girls screamed hysterically, the only one remaining calm was Rachel herself.

"Oh," she said, fluttering her fake eyelashes. "I knew it was me." She flaunted herself up to the stage with a girly air, pretending to cry and wipe away her tears as Principal Zeus set the tiara down on her perfectly assembled curls.

"This year's prom king is..."

Percy turned to look anywhere but Rachel, who smiled brightly as if she had won the lottery.

"Percy... Jackson!" The crowd roared with excitement, as they clapped enthusiastically. Percy was a likable person. Pretty much everyone liked him, and every girl fawned over him, but he just didn't seem the type that held relationships for long. Rumor has it he had a crush since preschool, but would never admit it until he was sure the girl like him back. But alas, it was a rumor. Annabeth stood off to the side of the crowd, her claps slowing as Percy turned to look at her, asking her permission with his eyes. She waved her hand at him, telling him that he should go get his crown.

The blonde shouted over the noise, "Go get your crown!" She was happy for him. He deserved it after all.

Percy looked at the stage, then looked back longingly at Annabeth. He shook his head.

"No..." he whispered, before gaining confidence. The entire auditorium was quiet, except for the slow song sounding quietly in the room. "I'm going to get the girl."

The raven-haired boy strode in the opposite direction of the stage over to where Annabeth was standing. He placed both of his hands on either side of her face and kissed her. The kiss was filled with longing and need, not gentle and sweet like her first kiss with Percy. Overdue longing was harbored into the kiss from both parties and they barely heard the crowd around them. They were too caught up in the moment to care about what anyone else thought. They only cared about each other.

.o0o.

What Does Prom Mean to Me?

By Annabeth Chase

If anyone had asked me that question before the actual dance, I would have said, "Hah, I'm not going. Stupid thing." Evidently, I'm writing this article, so I did go. For other people, it may have meant the world to them, dressing up and spending the night with a boy/girlfriend or their friends. For others, it could have been just some stupid dance. But for me, it meant being extremely happy for a night. A night to remember, one that's a good memory to look back on. Something that makes you feel good, like you're on top of the world. The elation of being caught up in the moment while just enjoying yourself. And that's what it means to me. [continued on A3]