Thank you guys for all of the feedback for the last chapter! It was all super helpful and hopefully it'll help me improve in future chapters/stories! Sorry, it's been a couple days since I last posted, but I decided to take a break day and then I was busy the next so here I am writing this now, hopefully I'll post it today. Anyways, hope you like the chapter!
P.S. Tristan is Triton
Annabeth's POV
"Oh yeah she'll love that." I heard Piper say to Percy when I got to the coffee shop.
"Who'll love what?" I asked, tying my apron around my waist.
"Um... Estelle will love the Christmas present I'm getting her." Percy hastily said, snatching his phone out of Piper's hand and hiding it behind his back.
"What are you getting her?" I asked suspiciously, trying to sneak a peek of his phone screen.
"Oh you know, just a Barbie or something. Anyway, you're here now which mean my shift is over so I'll just get going!" He quickly pulled his apron off and hung it up, before grabbing his bag from where he appeared to have left it on the floor and running out of the cafe.
"A Barbie or something?" I asked Piper, eyebrows raised, "What were you really talking about?"
"Your date tonight." She answered, not trying to hide anything.
"Really? What are we doing?"
"Not telling."
"But Piper!"
"But what?"
"Please tell me! He won't say anything! What if I dress to fancy? Or not fancy enough?"
"Considering I'll be the one dressing you, and I know what you're doing tonight, I think your outfit will be just right Goldilocks."
"Don't call me Goldilocks."
"You have the hair for it." She shrugged, cleaning the coffee machine.
"While I'm sure discussing Annabeth's and Goldilocks's similarities is a very fun subject, I have a class in ten minutes so could one of you make me a coffee?" Thalia interrupted, appearing at the counter.
"Sure Thalia, what do you want?"
"An iced coffee."
"That's two dollars, and seventy five cents."
"Okay." She handed me the money, and I put it in the register, before turning around to make her coffee.
"So Thalia, have you heard about Annabeth's big date tonight?"
"Too much." She groaned and rolled her eyes. "It's all that lovesick boy talks about."
"He talks about me?" I asked, in a combination of happiness and surprise.
"Annie we were literally talking about you when you got here." Piper said, leaning against the counter.
"Yeah but I figured you asked about the date or something."
"Nope, he brought it up, and then asked me if you would like it."
"He did?"
"Yes."
"Well, what are you doing then?" Thalia asked, intrigued.
"I don't know. No one will tell me." I huffed, crossing my arms.
"I''l text it to you Thalia." Piper said, pulling her phone out. She quickly typed in a sentence, before Thalia's phone beeped, signalling that she had gotten the message.
Thalia read it, and nodded her head in approval. "I'm impressed, I didn't know my cousin had it in him to come up with something this good." She said, as I handed her her coffee.
"Will you tell me what it is?"
"Nope, like I said, I've got a class." She said, sipping the coffee and leaving the cafe.
"I hate everyone." I muttered sourly, walking out from behind the counter to go and clean some tables.
For the rest of my shift, I kept asking Piper about the date, but every single time she would just tell me to stop trying to find out. Hazel, Grover, and Beckendorf came into the coffee shop, and Piper told all of them, but they all refused to tell me too. By the time Piper and I were walking home, I'd given up on ever finding out and had instead started obsessing about it, and going over every possibility. What if we go on the date, and then he decides that he doesn't like me anymore? Or what if something happens on the date, and it ends up sucking? Or maybe all my friends are wrong, and I actually hate whatever he's got planned? Or-
"Stop." Piper said, interrupting my mental breakdown.
"Stop what?"
"Stop doing what I know you're doing. The date's in two hours, and you stopped questioning me about it around twenty minutes ago, which means you're now at the stage in which you freak out about it, and start worrying way too much."
"You know me too well."
"That is very true." She agreed, as we walked into our apartment building.
"What if the date doesn't go well?" I asked, anxious.
"It will." She assured me, pressing the button on the elevator.
"But what if it doesn't?"
"Then I will personally kick whoever's responsible for it not going well in the crotch."
"Well that's nice."
"I'm a very nice person."
"Yes you are." I laughed, momentarily forgetting about Percy. The elevator dinged and the doors opened, so we walked in. Piper pushed the button for level nine, the highest floor of our building, surprising me. "Piper what are you doing? We live on the third floor."
"I know."
"So where are we going?"
"You'll find out in a minute."
"I'm fed up of the secrets today." I whined, leaning against the elevator wall.
"You only have to wait a minute Annabeth - you'll be fine." She said, patiently waiting for the elevator to rise to the stopped moving and the doors opened. Piper walked out, "Let's go."
"Okay then." I followed her as she led me to the very end of the corridor. There was a black door, and I thought it was just an entrance to another apartment, but Piper opened it to reveal a thin flight of stairs that lead further up. "I thought this was the highest level."
"It's the highest floor, but it's not the highest you can go." She replied mysteriously, walking up the stairs. Where the hell are we going? "Welcome to the crazy roof." She said, opening the door at the top of the stairs and walking out onto the roof of our building, a roof I didn't know we had. There was a load of planters and pots scattered around, of course all of the flowers that were once in them are dead, but it's December so that's understandable. There was also a large, funny-shaped thing underneath a tarp, which Piper pulled off, showing that it was actually a big swinging bench. She sat down on it and patted the space next to her, signalling for me to sit next to her.
"Why's it called the crazy roof?"
"Because I come up here whenever I'm being crazy, much like you are just now."
"How did you find this? And why is this the first time I'm learning about it?"
"You know how Silena lived here in her freshmen year? She found it one day, and when we moved here she showed it to me. I didn't tell you about it because I was saving it for a day when you truly needed it."
"And I didn't 'truly need it' when I broke up with Luke and was super upset and crying for weeks?"
"Nope. You were sad then, not crazy. Plus, I knew you would get over it eventually, having a secret roof wouldn't help with the healing process. But it will help you calm down when you're being crazy about Percy."
"I've been being crazy about Percy ever since I started liking him."
"That may be true, but it was never this crazy, nor was it this important that you calm down."
"Why's it so important today?"
"Because you have a date with him, and if you start spiralling, you're not gonna want to go out of fear, and we can't have that."
"Fair enough." I admitted, taking a deep breath, while the bench gently rocked backwards and forwards. Piper's right, this roof is definitely helping me relax. And the view is surprisingly amazing, we can barely see anything from out measly third-floor windows - they're blocked by the building across the street. "Thank you for bringing me up here."
"What are friends for? Now come on, tell me all of your concerns about the date, and I'l tell you why each of them are nuts."
"Do you have five hours?"
"No, but it won't take that long, so start talking."
"Okay, what if I do something really dumb, and he doesn't like anymore because of it?"
"That's impossible, I don't think there's anything you could do to stop Percy from liking you."
"How much has he talked to you about this?"
"Do you remember your first calculus lesson with him, and how Jason and I crashed it? Well, when he came into the kitchen to talk to you, he was about to tell you he liked you, but he chickened out."
"He's liked me that long?"
"He's liked you just as long as you've liked him - ever since that first day you helped him with math."
"Seriously?"
"Yes, it's a match made in heaven. Now, what's your next worry?"
"What if the date sucks?"
"It won't, trust me, you're going to love it. Unless there is an external force that tries to screw it up, it's going to be an amazing date."
"What if you're wrong and I actually hate his idea?"
"I'm not wrong, you'll love it. Do you have anymore questions?"
"Not exactly... Most of my other worries are just things I could do to screw it up."
"Well you're not going to do any of those things."
"In that case, unless you have any other amazing words of wisdom, can we go back in now? It's freezing up here."
"Sure." She agreed, standing up. "But help me get this tarp back on before we do." We put the tarp back and went down to our apartment, my mental breakdown over.
Percy's POV
I quickly left the coffee shop, not wanting to be questioned by Annabeth, because I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep the secret. I was pretty confident in the plan I had for our date, but I wanted to go over it with Piper anyway - she is Annabeth's best friend after all. I'm really nervous about tonight, what if Piper is wrong and Annabeth actually hates the idea? It is something that she said she's always wanted to do, but what if she doesn't want to do it with me? Ugh, I thought I would stress less about Annabeth when I finally got up the guts to ask her out, but it seems to be the opposite.
I kept walking away from the coffee shop, and instead of turning the corner that I usually would to get to my apartment, I decided to go straight on and head to the swimming pool. Swimming had always helped me clear my head, sometimes even better than songwriting did, so hopefully it can help me today. I got to the pool and changed into my swim trunks. I always keep a spare kit in my locker, in case I forget it for practice, or for days like this when I decide to be spontaneous.
I put on my goggles and positioned myself at the end of the pool, before diving in. As soon as I hit the water I instantly felt calmer, like it was washing my troubles away. I love swimming, when you're in the water everything just feels more...peaceful. When you're in the bottom of a pool there's hardly anything else around you, just you, the water, and your thoughts. No problems, no other people, just water. I reluctantly surfaced, letting the air into my lungs. My date with Annabeth isn't for a few hours, so I'll just get some practice done since I'm here. I swam a few laps, feeling the waves lap against my skin.
After a while, I stopped at the end of the pool, and heard clapping coming from above me. I looked up to see Tristan standing there. Tristan is...I guess you would say my rival? on the swimming team. I have no problem with the guy, but he seems to hate me. When I first started at this school a month ago, he was friendly enough, but then he saw me swimming. At my first practice here, our coach said that Tristan was the fastest on the team, then I beat him, and the coach took an instant liking to me. Ever since then, Tristan has hated me, and it was getting kind of annoying.
"Wow Jackson, you are so fast. It's almost as if you're half fish!"
"Almost." I rolled my eyes and pulled myself out of the pool, brushing past him.
"What's your secret? Diet, exercise, or is it just natural talent?" He asked, following me.
"Sure, all of those." I replied, not really listening, as I walked to a shower and rinsed the chlorine off of me.
"Are you on steroids?"
"What? What are you- ugh." I sighed, turning to look at him. "No Tristan I'm not on steroids. Are you crazy? It seems like you're the one on drugs here." I went to my locker and pulled out my towel and my bag, before heading to the changing room. "Now if you don't mind, I've got things to do. So see ya." I walked away from him, thinking about my date tonight.
So I didn't get this posted the same day as I started writing it, and nothing really happened, but oh well. They will be going on there date next, and that's gonna be fun. Please remember to favourite, follow, and review!
Replies to Reviews:
SuperPotatoMan: Yay I'm glad you liked it, hope you enjoyed your Chick-fill-A
Guest: Imma hope that's a good ahhhhh
molmeal: I'm happy that you're so happy!
DaughterofBlueFood: Lol
Kaden Flores: I'm glad you liked it. Clearly, this is not the end, there should be maybe 8 more chapters? Not quite sure, but it's somewhere in that ballpark.
Krutarth: I'm sorry you don't like the awkwardness, but I felt like if they just talked like normal, it would be like he never asked her anything, there needed to be some awareness of the fact that this thing that they had been waiting for for weeks had finally happened. I definitely felt that there could have been a bit more build up for the kiss, but I had been working on that chapter all day and I was getting a bit bored of it. I know, not the best attitude towards writing. But I'm glad that you liked the chapter overall.
Yoshi133: Your review made me so happy, thank you so much.
AthenaRavnclaw: No I'm not putting any OC's in this story, but maybe one of my future ones.
SeaMaster: Yes you were.
Kate101: Thank you!
NoAccount: I'm glad you loved the chapter so much, no One Call Away isn't actually a duet, but I just had them both sing it anyway.
Pandas Are Squishy: I'm glad you liked it, I'm sorry if you thought that seemed awkward, didn't mean to make it that way.
IvyAntionette: I'm happy you liked it so much!
Pbeth4eva: Thanks, I will definitely check out that song.
emilyAnn30: I love your idea so much. I'm not going to use it in this story because I have already planned out how their first date is going to get ruined, (did I say ruined? I meant go really well) but hopefully I can use it in my next story.
MANation: I'm happy that you thought I wrote it well, yeah I've also had to be that person and it sucks. I was thinking that it felt slightly anticlimactic, but I was really struggling with how he should say that and eventually just gave up.. Percy wast exactly pissed that she let him go, because he chose to go, and he was kind of just annoyed at himself for choosing that moment to try and ask her, rather than asking her earlier on before Luke got there. I probably should have had a bit more of a Percy monologue, but for some reason I just couldn't come up with it when I was writing. Yeah she was still processing it, but she also didn't want to jump up and down with happiness in front of Percy and Jason, that would be something she would do at home with Piper and Hazel. She is slightly tipsy, and I did say that she lost the bet, but I also said immediately after that she might not have, so I didn't mean for you to take it literally, I kinda just expected people to ignore me. Anyways, I'm glad you liked the chapter.
SilentStorm29: Thank you! No, Hylla, nor Annabeth's mum will be making an appearance. I did consider adding Athena in, but because there wasn't much mention of her, I thought it would feel a bit unnecessary.
Perthabethfan: Thank you!
MaddieJackson: Well I'm sorry you don't like the song.
LukeBoy23: Yep, saw her review, I was kinda confused but then I read yours right after so it made a whole lot more sense. I'm glad you liked it, and yeah I love Frozen (assuming you mean the film) I was actually watching Frozen 2 when I wrote the last chapter!
dodoking666: Yep he did.
All about hope: Lol!
ya6789: It's not finished! I did say it had a few more chapters in the AN
Guest: Thank you! And yeah I've been trying to make it seem as real as possible, not like a flipping romcom (I watched one recently and the kiss scene was ridiculously unrealistic and I'm still a bit peeved about it), I'm happy you loved the chapter!
Hestiaisboss389: I love Max, but I think my favourite is Stephanie.
Kate101: I'm assuming you mean this one, it's here! Sorry it took me so long to write it, I should be going back to daily posting as off tomorrow...hopefully.
vivicorn: He did!
epic95101: Thanks, and I guess you'll just have to live that way.
Anna Robbins: Thank you so much! Your review is so nice, and hopefully I can write the next chapters soon.
GirlsRule16: I'm happy you love it so much, and I'll fix that.