I hope you enjoy this chapter! Also, I posted a one-shot the other day, and would appreciate it if you could check it out! It's titled "drop your books and run like hell."

Disclaimer: I'm running out of jokes, but to say the least, I'm not Rick Riordan, and I hope you aren't either (that would be embarrassing).

Rachel was good for Percy, Annabeth decided, as they talked. She was cool, confident, and funny. Annabeth realized this. But the entire time, something inside her- a deep inner envy was trying to take over her. One she knew would not be good if she wanted to be friends with this girl.

So she smiled, and she laughed. Annabeth knew how to be sociable- she had always been fairly popular in school. She knew when to joke, and when to stop. How to laugh, and what not to say. To say the least, despite her slightly sadistic sense of humor, she knew how to have fun. To have a good conversation- she knew how to make the other person feel understood and visible.

And Rachel seemed to like her. She laughed at the jokes Annabeth cracked. She made jokes too, she wasn't afraid to get a little inappropriate, which Annabeth appreciated. She hated when people scattered around topics like that, it made the conversation feel unnatural.

Soon, an hour had passed, and Annabeth didn't even realize it. Her break was over, and she had to head back to the gym, to talk to Mr. D one last time about his plans. They'd gotten most of the measurements done, but now, they had to decide the material to be used, and a feasible plan.

She and Rachel exchanged a nice farewell, and Annabeth started to walk back to the gym, looking back once to see Rachel typing on her phone.

She got the place fairly quickly, Annabeth had long legs after all, and rushed in, flashing her ID at Clarisse, and heading straight to Mr. D's office. She knocked on the door twice, waiting for him to let her in.

Instead, he told her he'd be done in a minute. Annabeth sighed, wondering who could be in there. She checked her watch, hoping that whoever was in there would be out soon. She was impatient, tapping her finger against the door knob, and clicking her phone on and off. She opened her messaging app to see a couple texts from Piper, who was complaining about Jason. She grinned at the phone- the complaints weren't negative, they just illustrated how hard Jason was making it for Piper to act normal. She sent back a shrugging emoji, and shut her phone off as the door opened.

To her surprise, the last person she wanted, and expected came out, his eyes earnest yet resolved. The expression paused for a moment, changing as Percy saw her. Annabeth bit her lip. It was hard to see Percy, especially when he was now in a relationship. She backed away for a second, stumbling back.

"I'm sorry," Percy muttered, his eyes turning down. He looked to the side, and checked his phone. "God," He said, "I'm running late." He clicked it shut and shoved it in his pockets, and looked up to Annabeth once more. They showed something she couldn't discern, and to be honest, didn't want to.

She should say something, right? Okay, maybe she was jealous out of her mind, maybe she wasn't. She shouldn't be- this didn't matter right? It didn't matter to her, because Percy's problems didn't concern her anymore. "Um, congrats?" She finally said, holding the door open to Mr. D's office, and looking in. "Rachel seems nice," She said, turning back to him.

"I don't know why you care," Percy hadn't looked at her, but he hadn't moved either. His voice was low, and gravely, as if a hint of recognition was coming upon his face. "I- thanks," he said, and swallowed audibly, "I appreciate it…" He hesitated, as if he was choking something back. "Annabeth."

Annabeth nodded, and looked away. "Um, sure." She said, and turned away, pulling the door open.

"Before you go in," Percy's voice came from behind her. She jumped, surprised he was still there. "Can you tell me something?" He asked, and Annabeth turned back, raising an eyebrow, and slowly nodding. "Did you really mean that?"

Annabeth blinked, and then sighed, realising what he was asking. "Sure." She said, and turned away once more. She was lying about being happy for them- she wasn't at all. She wished she could be, but she couldn't. It was this endless mental battle going on in her head- one she knew she could never win.

Percy didn't say anything else, he cocked his head to the side a bit, looking at her for a moment, which Annabeth ignored. It would help her if she ignored it. So she walked into Mr. D's office, shutting the door behind her.

Mr. D looked up, and smiled at her. "Hello Amelia Carey," he said, grinning at her. "How's the bar going?" He asked, and Annabeth tried to stop herself from rolling her eyes.

"That's not even close-" She muttered, and then cut herself off, turning her frown into a smile. "Uh, okay Mr. D. So here's the deal, the bar? It can't happen. That's just not how municipal areas like this work. If you want a bar, you need to buy a store, get a permit, and set it up yourself. You can't just…" She struggled, searching a word to describe what she was hearing, "You can't make one appear, and just start it up out of nowhere, okay?"

Mr. D grinned, which surprised Annabeth. She had not expected a reaction like that. "I understand."

Annabeth reconstructed her paper's in her hand, and smiled a bit to herself, "Well that's good, because-"

Mr. D clasped his hand together, interrupting her, "You're saying that we can have a bar, but we can't have it here."

She slapped herself in the forehead. This whole conversation made no sense whatsoever. "If you want to start up a bar somewhere, by all means, do it. I'm not responsible for that. I'm responsible for this…" She looked around at the office, searching for a kind word to describe it. None came. "Place," she finally decided.

Mr. D frowned. "That doesn't seem very fair."

"Life isn't fair," Annabeth said, readjusting her papers. "Look, there are plenty of people around here that would be willing, for the right price, of course," she said, raising her eyebrows, "to help you start up a nice bar. But not me. I'm an architect, not a business consultant."

He clicked his tongue, "A business consultant…" He murmured to himself, and then waved his hand in the air, "You can leave. Thanks for telling me this useful information."

Annabeth nodded, positively flabbergasted (that's a word she didn't think she'd ever use). Since when were business owners so… well, oblivious to the real world. What made Mr. D's interest, even weirder, was that he wasn't even a business owner. He was the director of a gym. He didn't own the place at all.

She sighed, and picked up her papers. That was a question for another day.

The question for today, was how the hell am I going to stop thinking about Percy Jackson?

And that one had her mind racing for answers, urgently.

Thanks so much for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! I hope everyone is safe and healthy!

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TheLil'Lion