Disclaimer: I don't own PJO
Percy's POV
The ride to zoo was a quiet affair, it was just Leo, Nico and me. The girls shared a car and the other guys shared another. Leo an dNico kept shooting me worried glances, until I finally snapped and said "What?"
"Nothing." Leo said a little to quickly.
"Just spit it out."
"I was thinking, this is the first time you're seeing Rachel again..." He started.
"Right, and?" I said.
"Well... Do you really want the girl you're in love with to be there?" Nico finished.
I sighed, of course they saw me look at Annabeth when I said I'm in love with Taco's. What's the use denying it even?
"Does it matter?" I muttered.
"What do you mean 'does it matter'? Of course it matters!" Nico exploded. "What are you doing? Why are we going to Rachel's, when the girl you love is in the car behind us? Why don't you stop this car and go get your girl"
"Because she's not my girl!" I shouted. "She's not MY girl." I repeated quietly.
"She's Derek's girl, a really nice guy that makes her happy. If she's happy, nothing else matters." I said, ending the discussion, or so I thought. Leo and Nico still had this weird look on their face.
"What?" I asked them exasperatedly.
"Say what you want but I think this is a bad idea." Nico stated.
"What? You guys are crazy!" I told them.
"Bro, think about it. Annabeth is hella possessive, and based on her reactions today I think we can all safely agree that she does not like Rachel. At all." Leo argued.
Shit, he has a point. Annabeth, for some reason, does not like Rachel. I don't see why, Rachel is a nice girl.
"Shit. Okay, maybe this wasn't one of my better ideas, but you were the ones that insisted on meeting her!" I told them.
"Yeah.. But that was before we knew you were in love with Annabeth." Nico pointed out.
"Whatever, I'm sure it'll be fine." I told them.
-Line Break-
It wasn't.
It all went to shit, the moment we arrived...
"So, if you told her you're a college student then does that mean we have to be college students too?" Piper asked me. We were in the Central Park Zoo, waiting for Rachel, since we were fifteen minutes early.
"You know, I didn't think of that." I admitted sheepishly.
"Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said fondly, rolling her eyes. It's moments like these, that really make my heart clench. They're like little moments of 'what-could-have-been' if I weren't a blind idiot, and I both love and hate them.
"We should actually get our stories straight." I told them.
"It's okay, we got like fifteen minuets to get our stories straight." Grover announced.
"Fifteen minutes?! Shit, that's not nearly enough time! We should've thought this through! Abort mission, I repeat, abort mission!" I panicked.
Thalia slapped me out of it, literally. "Get a grip! We can do this, okay Percy? Just don't panic. Take a deep breath and calm the fuck down."
I nodded my head furiously. "You're right, you're right. We can do this, we can totally do this."
Right when I was starting to believe that maybe everything would go okay, the world decided to prove me wrong. I saw Rachel enter the Zoo. Crap.
"We can't do this." I announced. "She's here!" I whispered to them. They all turned their heads to look at her. I pushed them away from her, silently commanding them to walk away. Luckily, they complied.
Jason whistled and said "Damn Percy, nice one!"
Nico nodded appreciatively and said "I approve cuz, I approve. She looks like a screamer. You should find out." He winked
For some reason I started blushing when he said that. "Umm... Well... I ..." I stammered out.
"She's really pretty." Piper noted.
"Yeah, didn't know you liked the artsy type, Perce." Thalia commented.
"Meh, she's okay, if you're into that kinda stuff." Annabeth said off-handily.
"I like her." Grover approved, probably because she was wearing her Greenpeace t-shirt.
"Me too, she looks nice. Doesn't she looks nice Frank?" Hazel asked him.
"She does, not as nice as you though." Frank answered honestly, making Hazel brush.
"You think her friend is gonna show up?" Leo asked me.
"Abort mission, I repeat, abort mission!" I told them.
"Why on earth would we leave now?" Frank asked me, confusedly.
"Oh, I don't know Frank.. Maybe because we don't have our stories straight!" I silently shouted.
"Ah, don't worry so much hermano! We'll just wing it!" Leo 'reassured' me.
"Somehow, that does not fill me with joy." I grumbled.
"Aw, come on Percy! She went all the way here to meet us, we can't leave now!" Piper pleaded.
"Yeah, we really want to make sure she's good enough for you! We care about you!" Thalia reasoned.
"You guys just want to interrogate her!" I accused them. They didn't even try to deny it or even look offended.
"Yeah, pretty much." Hazel dead-panned.
"I really regret every decision I've ever made, because it led me here." I lamented.
"Oh well... Too late." Leo announced.
"Wait... What does that-" I started, but he interrupted me.
"Hey Rachel, over here!" He shouted.
"Shit, dude! What are you doing?" I hissed. "Are you out of your fucking-" And then he pushed me towards Rachel. "Rachel! Hey Rachel, how's it going?" I greeted her.
She greeted me with a kiss and smiled when she pulled away. I'll admit, I was a little dazed after that kiss, but that smile of hers made my mind go blank.
"I'm doing great, although I'd rather be doing you!" She winked.
I blushed and rubbed the back of my neck, very much aware of the fact that my friends were observing our exchange. Predictably, I started stammering like an idiot. "Wow, uhh... I.. That's... I mean, totally... Like.."
She laughed and said "Relax. I was just kidding, mostly.. For now though, I want to meet your friends!"
I cleared my throat, hoping to clear my mind (it didn't work). "You sure? Because we could just bail, go to your place..." I suggested. When I looked over at my friends, they all seemed to be discussing something and had evil grins on their faces. I'm starting to get a bad feeling.
She laughed at that and slapped me on the arm. "I like the way you think, buuut I really want to meet your friends. Rain check for that date?"
"Definitely." I think Leo was getting a little impatient, because instead of waiting for us to go to them, he came to us.
"Hey, Rachel! I'm Leo, you might remember me from the club Ogygia?" Was how he introduced himself.
"Right, right! I remember you, if I recall my friend threw a drink at you." She stated.
His face lit up at the mention of Khione. "Exactly! Speaking of your friend... Did she ask about me?"
"Well... She has talked about you." She conceded.
"Really? What did she say?" He asked excitedly.
"She's mostly been complaining about you and how you annoyed her." Rachel admitted.
Instead of looking discouraged though, Leo actually looked proud. "Perfect! That means I'm on her mind! I love the girls that play hard to get!" He stated.
"Well, she has been talking non-stop about you." Rachel noted.
I groaned and said "Don't encourage him!"
"Yes! Leo Valdez, Bad Boy Supreme, getting in the ladies heads!" He whooped.
I sighed and said "I swear, not all of my friends are like this."
She just smiled good-naturedly and said "Don't worry, I like him."
"Then I think you might actually be crazy. Anyway, here's the rest of my friends." I said, steering her towards my friends, snd most importantly, away from a dancing Leo.
"Ahh, so you're the infamous RED! Pleasure to meet you, I'm Nico Di Angelo, Percy's cousin." He greeted her normally.. Except for the weird British accent. Why the hell was he speaking with a British accent?! I gave him a weird look, but started introducing everyone else.
"This is Jason, he's-" I started introducing him, but he interrupted me.
"- I'm his roommate! I major in political science. At NYU" He stated.
I just gave him a weird look but continued. "So, yeah. He's my roommate. That's Piper, " I said, pointing at Piper, who waved, and said "I'm Jason's girlfriend. I major in Psychology at NYU."
I gave her a stunned look, she just winked at me while Jason was holding his laughter in. Seriously? Do they have to make this complicated?
"Right.. So that's his girlfriend? That'S Thalia, Jason's half-sister-"
"And Percy's ex-girlfriend. An dI major in Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies also at NYU. " She said casually. I gave her a WTF- look., she just mouther 'you'Re welcome' at me. What the fuck is wrong with my friends? Why are they making everything so difficult?
Rachel looked surprised. "Oh, nice to meet you." She said in a tone I couldn't quite place.
"So you guys used to date?" She directed the question to me.
I started sweating, because I realize that if I deny this she'll think that I still have feeling for Thalia. "Yeah, but we're not anymore."
"Yeah, we broke up because Percy was just too good of a lover." Thalia told her.
"Wait, I thought you told me you were a virgin." Rachel told me.
"I am!" I answered.
"Did I say lover? I meant boyfriend. Yeah, Percy was just the best boyfriend ever but I wanted to have casual partners so he broke up with me." She stated matter-of-factly.
"Okay..." Rachel said.
"Moving on, " I said desperately trying to change the subject, "This is Annabeth, you already met her."
"Oh yeah, nice to see you again!" Rachel greeted her.
"I wish I could say the same." Annabeth muttered. I elbowed her and gave her a look.
"This is Hazel, my other cousin and Nico's half-sister." I told her.
She waved at Rachel and said "Hey, pleasure to meet you! I major in, uhh..Classics" With a southern drawl. Damn, they even got Hazel in on this?
"That's her boyfriend, Frank. That's-"
"Hey, I'm a Chinese exchange student." he interrupted me. Rude.
"Oh, that's cool. How do you find America so far?" Rachel asked him.
He looked nervous when she asked him that. Frank never was the best liar. "It's very different, very different indeed from China."
"How so?" She questioned him.
He started sweating. "Well, there are... less Chinese people." He started. "And uh... more American people... and.."
It was starting to get too awkward for me and I was starting to feel really bad for Frank so I said "Rachel, I lied."
"What?" She asked me.
"I lied. I'm not a student at NYU and neither are they, oh and I don't major in Marine Biology. I'm still a student in high school. " I confessed.
"How could you lie to me like that?" She asked me, with a hurt look in her eyes. "You've been lying to me the whole time and even got your friends to?"
"Umm... We're just gonna leave you two alone.." Leo muttered in the background.
It started raining, but neither of us noticed.
"I'm sorry." I told her.
"Why would you even lie to me about that?"
"I don't know.. You were wearing my shirt, and it was so short and I panicked. I wasn't thinking when you asked me where I studied." I explained.
"I don't know if I can trust you anymore." She told me.
"I promise, I won't lie to you ever again." I said in my most serious voice. "I'm serious." I told her when I saw her skeptical look. "I will not lie to you ever again. Starting now: Nico is not British, Jason isn't my roommate,and as far as I know Piper isn't his girlfriend, Hazel doesn't usually have a southern drawl, Frank isn't a Chinese exchange student and Thalia most definitely isn't my ex-girlfriend! Come on, give me another chance Rach. I like you and I want to see where this is going. "
"I don't know Percy... I don't even know anything about you!"
"We can change that! Let me take you out on a date, a real date, this Friday. I'm talking dinner and a movie and stargazing. The works." I said, giving her my most charming smile.
"Dinner AND a movie? How can a girl say no to that?" She answered, and I knew she was giving me a second chance. I am not messing this up. I really like Rachel, a lot.
"Don't forget stargazing." I told her, getting closer.
"I'd never." She whispered, also coming closer. When she was at arm's reach, I grabbed her and twirled her in the rain before kissing her. And yeah, it was pretty much the best rain kiss I've ever had.
As promised another chapter on Tuesday. It's not as long as I would've liked, but I'm kind of stuck in the story right now. Like, I know where I want to go with this story but I'm having trouble getting there. I'm gonna try speeding things up next chapter, because in my opinion, it's becoming a little too slow-paced for me. But hey, leave your thoughts in the reviews I always enjoy reading them. And the feedback is much appreciated. The next chapter will come out either Wednesday or Thursday, I promise. Thanks for the people that have reviewed, are reviewing or will review. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, if not then I'm sorry and I sincerely hope you'll enjoy the next one.
In the last chapter I was seriously considering making Derek a jerk through his back story, I really was so that you guys and me could hate him in peace, and I even started the chapter out like that. But then I realised that there was no way Annabeth would ever date a jerk. She's hella prideful, so she'd never stand for a guy dominating her and cheating on her like that. Maybe a 14-year old Annabeth who's starting to build up a self-esteem, but definitely not a 16-year old Annabeth who knows how great she is (maybe a little too much, if you know what I mean.) I know the characters in this story are OOC, but letting Annabeth date a guy that everyone knows is a jerk would feel like I'm violating her character somehow. Not like that. It would be like making Nico dress preppy, it just isn't done. Or at least, that's my opinion.
To Guest: Thank you! I try hard not to make the character too OOC. And as for Leo: I try dude, I try. Sometimes I worry that I'm not doing his character justice, because he isn't just a comedic relief, you know? He's been trough a lot of shit an dI don't know how to work that into the story, mostly because it's centered around Percy. So thank you, I'm glad you enjoy my writing :)
To other Guest: Aww! Thank you! This is so weird, omg. My story is someone's favourite store. MY story. I'm just here like 'whaaa? you sure about that?'. I never thought someone would ever, EVER, like my story enough to be their favourite story, so thank you!
To NONAME2002: Sorry bro, but I couldn't do it. Annabeth would never date a jerk and I don't think I've got the skills to convince all of you why she would date one. As for perchal... We'll just have to wait and see :)
To another Guest: Thank you! I was really worried that the group discussion would seem to ramble-y, because it kinda felt like i was rambling/writing like that. And I really did consider making Derek a bad guy, but Annabeth would never date a bad guy and I don't have the skills yet to convince you guys otherwise. As for her feelings... Guess we'll have to wait and see :)
To Kale97: Hope you liked this chapter then. I didn't want this to be a pic where all Percy has to do is say 'I love you!' and then he an dANnabeth get together directly. Real life isn't like that and just because you love someone doesn't mean you guys will end up together. I'm trying to make this sort of realistic, although it is hard since I've never actually been in love, so I'm pretty much winging it at those parts. And I'm a firm believer in finishing what I started. I know what it's like to love fall in love with a story, only for the author to discontinue it. I don't ever wanna do that to you guys. Thanks for reviewing, and have a nice day! :)
To CowTits the Udderly Glorious:Thanks! I'm glad I can brighten your day just a little bit with an update! :)
To Guardian'sDragonOfDeath: Thanks! And you lucky bastard! Here I gotta wait 'till I'm 18, before I can even take the practical exam :( But in other news, I am looking forward to the freedom I'll get when I finally get my license. Now just a car...
To BECKENDORK: Thanks dude! I try, I try :)