Sadly (but at the same time not sadly), my annual summer hiatus is approaching. I'll probably won't get another chapter in before I go, so I want to say thanks so much for your readership and I hope you have enjoyed reading these stories as much as I've loved writing them! Next year will probably bring more anime related fics, as that is what I am currently consumed by. So, follow me as a writer and keep an eye out for that ;) I'm also hoping to update my "Marauder's Mysteries" series… maybe…

Now, onto the chapter!

Percy

I floated face up in the pool, water submerging my ears so all the sounds around me became muffled and distorted. I could block out the faint voices of the rest of the swim team and Coach's incessant yelling about one exercise or another. I shut my eyes and sighed, still feeling like I was on top of the world, then took a deep breath and collapsed into a ball, immersing myself completely.

I sank to the pool floor and opened my eyes. The chemically pool water tended to bother most people's eyes, but I had grown so accustomed to it and didn't mind.

All of a sudden, I felt a tapping on my head and looked up to see the Luke nudging me with his foot and dipping his head to look down at me, eyes squinting and face contorted from the chlorine-riddled water.

Letting out what was left of my air, I launched myself up from the bottom of the pool and surfaced.

"Jackson! Get your head out of the clouds and back into practice," Coach ordered. I looked up at him with slight exasperation. However, I couldn't keep a smile from tugging at my face.

"Last I checked," Connor pointed out, "Percy was the exact opposite of up in the clouds. He was way under water." Coach growled at him threateningly.

"Sorry, Coach," I said, throwing an amused glance at Connor, who was only discernible to me by his blue swim trunks as opposed to his brother's green ones.

"Yeah, whatever," he mumbled. "Don't think I forgot about you skipping out on practice to find your lady friend," he snapped. I felt my face start to burn as the entire team joined in a chorus of scandalized "ooooohs" and sunk down in the water so only the top of my head showed. Travis slung an arm over my shoulder and forced me to face the persistent questions that begged for the true identity of the mystery girl.

"I know who it is," a voice cut in cooly. It was Luke. He lounged in the corner, his arms slung over the side of the pool and his legs floating just below the surface of the water. I gave him a sideways look that fell somewhere between confusion and desperation. Had he really caught on? I mean, it wasn't as we had been so discreet about it, but I wanted to hold off on the teasing I knew was to come for as long as possible, especially since, according to Annabeth, we weren't technically dating yet.

"God, calm down Percy," Luke laughed. "I won't tell," he promised slyly. "But you and I are gonna have to have a talk later." I felt a knot growing in my stomach. Luke had always seemed like a good friend to me, but ever since Annabeth entered the picture, he'd begun to grow cold, almost devious. I wondered again just what their past together truly entailed. The minimum detail Annabeth had given me definitely didn't explain why it cause her and Luke to be so bitter when it came to the other.

"Alright, enough chit-chat, Cupcakes!" Hedge barked. I want six lengths from each of you, front crawl! Jackson, tack on an extra two." I sighed and leaned back again, finding comfort in the memory of Annabeth's warm glow.

After practice, I left the change room hurriedly, knowing I'd need to book it in order to get to work on time. If I was late twice in the same three days, I'd never hear the end of it from Mr. D.

As I fumbled with my keys, the car creaked slightly. I looked up to see Luke leaning up against the hood of my car, a towel still hanging around his neck.

"About Annabeth," he began immediately. I tensed up at the sharp look in his eye. "That chick is a psycho. Don't let her fool you with the whole innocent book-girl act." I narrowed my eyes at him and tried to stand up taller, suddenly becoming extremely defensive of Annabeth.

"I don't know what 'act' you're talking about. From what I've seen, she's way more than just books. And from how she talks about you,"—or refuses to talk about, I added silently in my head—"I wouldn't be surprised if you aren't the one putting up an act. Don't call her a psycho ever again," I said menacingly. I wondered briefly where the poison in my voice had come from, and determined it must have been Annabeth's intoxicating effect. Luke drew a similar conclusion, although he phrased it much more unkindly.

"Looks like the crazy's rubbing off on you," he said, chuckling. "Look, I'm only trying to watch out for you. If you knew the whole truth about her, you wouldn't be so quick to fall head over heels." Despite the malicious nature of his tone, I still found myself getting flushed at the mention of falling for her. He smirked knowingly at my redness.

"Leave it alone, Luke," I finally managed to splutter out. I wished desperately that I could have thought of a better retort, preferably one that made more sense than the one I'd gone for. Before another word could be said, I hopped into my car and drove off, causing Luke to stumble away in haste to avoid getting his toes run over. I gripped the steering wheel angrily, any lightness in my mood having completely disappeared. As much as I hated to admit it, he'd gotten to me. I could feel the paranoia setting in as I wondered what Annabeth was still hiding from me, and how I could find out the whole story.

Annabeth

Percy had gone to Jason's early to help with the party set up. Piper invited me over for dinner with her and Hazel to hang out and get ready, and also to make sure I wouldn't chicken out and skip the party, not that I would have. It seemed to mean a lot to Percy. He called it a "right of passage into our family", referring to his friends which had quickly become my own. Despite the promise of becoming closer to the already tight-knit group of friends, I still felt an undeniable knot in my stomach. Part of me began to seriously regret agreeing to go to the party as I stood in front of the massive Roman-style columns that framed the front door to Thalia and Jason's house.

"Are you okay?" Piper asked, putting a hand on my shoulder lightly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said half-heartedly.

Hazel smiled kindly at me and opened the door. A few people looked at us as they milled about in the foyer, but the music coming from the next room told me that was where the real party was.

People were strewn all around in groups, talking, laughing, and enjoying snacks and drinks that she spotted Frank refilling across the room. Hazel made beeline for him, bidding us a quick good bye.

"Hey, I'm gonna go find Jason," Piper said, her eyes flitting around the room.

"Oh, uh, okay. Yeah, sure, I'll just wait here," I said, but Piper had already slipped away, looking behind me mischievously, then turning away into the crowd. For a moment I felt a cold loneliness pressing around me, but it vanished in an instant when a familiar voice spoke close to my ear.

"You made it," Percy said happily. His fingers curled around mine causing an instant rush of warmth to fill in my chest.

"I couldn't miss our third date," I said, unable to help the smile from creeping up on my face.

Despite my original insistence that this party would be our first date, it was pushed back into being our second, then our third. Our real first date, Percy claimed shortly after my agreement to go to the party, was our afternoon at the beach. The third was when Percy had picked me up from the hospital a few days before to check on Malcolm—he was still sleeping, though the doctors told me his vitals were perfectly normal—and brought take out from The Burger Palace.

He guided me through the crowds of people to a couch where Leo was sitting, cradling a chip bowl and occasionally throwing them at the back of Grover's head who was talking—or at least trying to talk— to his potential girlfriend, Juniper.

"Leo, no, let the magic happen," Percy hissed, snagging the bowl out of his lap and plopping down on the couch.

"Boo you," Leo snapped childishly, crossing his arms tightly across his chest. I rolled my eyes at him and settled on the couch comfortably beside Percy, leaning into him slightly. He slung an arm over the back of the couch and smiled at me. It was almost unsettling how easy and natural it felt to be so close to him, and in public too. Although I was aware of people around us sending suspicious glances our way, I didn't care.

"I am back, and I got the good snacks," a new voice sang. It was Rachel. She looked between Percy and me, acknowledging our appearance with a tight nod and smile, her cheerful demeanour dissipating.

"Hey, Red, pass," Leo said motioning for her to toss the unopened bag of Cheetos. She obliged and slumped down, her eyes flickering back to me, then resting on Percy. I wondered if there was something unrequited in her softened gaze. After a while, she stood up and mumbled something about needing to find someone, then disappeared into the crowd. Percy stared after her, confused, but her odd behaviour was quickly forgotten when Juniper and Grover started holding hands and Percy's attention was consumed by raving excitedly about the couple.

We stayed there for pretty much the entire night. Hazel and Frank joined us a little while after, but Jason and Piper were missing for most of the time—"Probably making out somewhere" Leo had guessed—though they did pop up every once and a while to check in and say hello. I caught a glimpse of Thalia hanging out with her archery friends. She waved and wiggled her eyebrows at Percy, to which I rolled my eyes.

Contrary to my old party-related fears, I was really enjoying myself, most likely because I had someone who stayed by my side unrelentingly, even following me around when I stood up to grab a snack like a lost puppy. After a while, I had to go to the washroom, somewhere Percy really couldn't come with me. Leaving him to feign misery at my leaving, I began my voyage through the sea of party-goers towards the washroom.

The one in the front of the house was occupied and had a long line up, so I took advantage of my knowledge of Thalia's house and snuck down towards the basement bathroom. The door to the stairs was in the laundry room, so if anyone happened find themselves in there and didn't know any better, they would have dismissed it as a storage closet.

I opened the door to the laundry room and froze. Sitting on the floor, head pressed against her knees was Rachel, discernible to me primarily by her voluminous red curls.

"Rachel?" I asked hesitantly. "Are you alright?" She looked up at me and her eyes, red from having been crying but now dry, widened in shock. She clambered to her feet.

"I'm fine," she spat. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to use the bathroom," I told her, trying to stay calm in the face of her hostility.

She scoffed slightly. "This isn't exactly a bathroom, Hun." Her tone was condescending and it put me on edge.

"Did I do something to you?" I asked abruptly, not bothering to defend my stance on trying to get to the bathroom. "You're always giving me the cold shoulder, and I don't deserve that." Her expression was startled for a moment, and a bit defensive, but sorrow melted into her eyes and she sunk back down to the floor.

"You're right," she murmured, her voice teetering on the edge of a crying fit. "You didn't do anything, I'm just an idiot." It was my turn to scoff.

"Rachel, you're an executive member of pretty much every club at school, something an idiot is not capable of," I told her earnestly. She looked up at me, her eyes growing watery, and showed her first genuine smile towards me. It was small, just a crinkle beside her eyes and slight twitch of her mouth, but I felt oddly gratified nonetheless.

"Why are you so upset?" I asked her softly after a short pause. Her lightened expression dropped off. "You seemed really happy when Percy and I first came in, but then-" An almost involuntarily sob escaped Rachel's lips and she clamped a hand down to block out any more. She seemed almost like she were in pain. In one look, the suspicions I had were confirmed. "Oh," I said softly with realization.

"I'm just… God, I thought maybe, maybe he liked me, but of course not. I was so stupid," she muttered. I bit the inside of my cheek, uncomfortable with the conversation topic. I knew I couldn't just run out and leave her on the ground crying, but I didn't particularly want to stay either. Nonetheless, I felt somehow obligated to say something—anything to make her feel better.

"You aren't," I insisted. "Percy… he's the idiot. He chose a complete mess like me over you." Rachel whimpered and I realized that reminding her Percy and I were together wasn't the best course of action to make her feel better, although it made me giddy. "Oh, god, I'm sorry, I didn't mean... Piper is so much better at this than me," I muttered under my breath. "Look, Rachel, I know you're upset and you hate how you feel and you might even hate yourself for feeling the way you do, but you can't control how your emotions, so don't get down on yourself. It may take time, believe me, I know, but you'll get over him. You deserve to be with someone who is going to put you first." I looked at her for some sign I had condoled her remotely well.

"I know," she sniffled, then wiped her eyes and stood up. "Thanks, Annabeth," she said softly without meeting my gaze. Then, she sidestepped me and headed out the door.

So, there's that chapter! I won't be back here for a while, but when I come back there will be an actual conflict-resolution type thing.

Have a great summer!