Half-Blood High
Chapter 13
~0O0~
The wet skies had decided to take a break and the annual football championship had hit Half-Blood High in full force. The standard grey uniforms that were otherwise pretty bleak, save for the house ties, were now accessorized with scarves, jackets and brooches of their favourite house team. Most students had decided to stick with their own house teams but there was a section of girls who had also added another house colour to their own and the overwhelming popularity of green among them was homage to Jackson's faithful years of flirting and attention to the female population.
Annabeth, who as a rule, remained quite unaffected by these traditions, was accused quite suddenly of sporting enemy colours by Leo at lunch one afternoon, for wearing a light green eyeshadow. She forgave him- partly because he seemed extremely stressed out about the upcoming match and mainly because if he did know that she wore it because she wanted to see what Jackson thought about it, she would be in huge trouble. Jackson had liked it though- a lot, and Annabeth was once again forced to check twice for any more suspicious, incrementing marks that could give them away after her exchange with Leo.
For all the thrill that their reckless meet ups brought her, the blonde had started to grow wary of the affair. It had been two months now, and while they had never done anything but some heavy make outs, mostly still fully clothed, her heart still missed a beat every time she left a closet, every time she saw someone look at her for a second too long , every time her eyes would stray over in Jackson's direction without even realizing it.
If by chance her mother did ever find out, dear lord- she didn't even want to contemplate that crate of rage. Her friends would be another series of betrayed emotions and hurt egos-Jason would probably run off before even hearing the full story and sock Jackson in the face and Leo would be right behind, probably with a screwdriver of some sort. She was counting on Piper and Hazel to put them in line, right after they'd chewed her out for keeping it a secret from them of course.
Annabeth bit her lips, mulling over her thoughts tiredly, hugging her pillow close to her chest. She watched absently as Piper neatly combed her hair into pigtails in front of the mirror.
"Hazel and I'll head out to the grounds at eight tomorrow, okay?" Piper said, tongue sticking out in effort as she wrestled a stray strand of hair into submission " What do you want from the concession stand? I think we've got a new candy aisle-"
"I'll come to the match tomorrow!" Annabeth blurted out suddenly and then coughed a little awkwardly when Piper looked at her, incredulous.
"Annie, Jason and Leo aren't playing tomorrow." Piper said a moment later, her face returning back to normal as she assumed that the blonde had simply got the match dates mixed up. "It's South vs East tomorrow. I hope they don't run out of caramel popcorn like the last time -"
"I think I'll come anyway." Annabeth shrugged, hoping she didn't sound as guilty as she felt. "I feel like watching a game right now."
Piper whirled around and gaped at her for a good five minutes, in which Annabeth pretended to nonchalantly study her nails, her heart hammering against her chest. She really started to wish she had shown a little more enthusiasm about the whole football thing in the past. Then again, how was she to know that she would end up christening random closets with the Captain-
"But you never-what about the homework-" Piper's dumbfounded sputtering broke Annabeth's mindless thoughts and she looked at her innocently; but then the brunette's face erupted into a sly smile.
"HA! I know the reason why you're so eager to show up for the game! You just want to see the captain!"
Annabeth, caught quite off guard, screamed a little, before getting hit by a pillow in the face from Hazel, who had been sleeping in the bed nearby.
"Give me back my damn pillow and shut up for the sake of god!" the curly haired moaned, turning round in her sheets. Piper tossed her own pillow vaguely in Hazel's direction and nodded satisfactorily as it hit her on the rump. Hazel grunted in her sleep.
"I do not like him!" Annabeth winced when she realized how squeaky she sounded even to herself. There was no way Piper was going to believe her after that awful attempt at lying. She faced up to confessing her dirty laundry and was trying to figure out where to start when Piper spoke again, looking a lot like the turtle from Kung Fu Panda.
"It's alright Annabeth" she said, smiling serenely "Crushes can last a long time. Besides- I thought I told you it's a pretty good choice?"
"Really?" Annabeth sat up in shock "You seriously think that Ja-"
"Yeah, I mean Castellans quite a nice guy." Piper nodded thoughtfully and Annabeth nearly bit her tongue off. Right. Luke. She had completely forgotten about him. "It's too bad he's dating Selena at the moment, but altogether not a bad sort to have a crush on. I hope he destroys Jackson tomorrow. "
"Right" Annabeth nodded vigorously "Absolutely."
"I'll try and get you something yellow for the match. I think Hazel has a scarf in ochre." the brunette hummed as she twirled around the room, resembling very much a mischievous elf in her tiny pigtails, as she hunted for her toothbrush.
~0O0~
Frank glanced nervously in Rachel Dare's direction- her green eyes were trained furiously in their direction, her beautiful face morphed into a vicious scowl. He gulped as she tore a page from a nearby notebook and slowly shredded it into tiny pieces, her blood red nails standing out threateningly.
"Did uh-did anything happen between you and Dare?" Frank asked a little fearfully as he turned back in his chair and lightly kicked Percy's feet, who immediately pulled them up onto the sofa he was sprawled luxuriously across.
"What?" Percy asked distractedly as he looked up from his phone and glanced over at the red head's direction. He didn't seem to be very concerned at the sight however, and only shrugged vaguely as he returned to typing aggressively on his phone.
"He's been turning down her advances for almost two months now." Nico accused shrewdly as he leaned forward from where he sat at the base of a chair, on which Will was curled up cozily, his nose a little red from the cold. "It's very unusual."
Percy said nothing, though Frank noticed his grip on the phone had tightened a little.
"It's also very weird that he keeps disappearing between classes and practices." Nico continued after a pause "He also seems to have gone off girls as he hardly ever looks at any these days. Quite unusual indeed."
"Maybe he's switched teams." Frank chuckles uncomfortably a moment later, eyes darting between the two boys.
"I wonder." Nico hums as he settles back down, leaning against Will's legs, his eyes still sharply trained on the green eyed boy's face.
"You can stop wondering, Di Angelo." Percy snaps suddenly, without taking his eyes off the screen "There's nothing very interesting going on in my schedule right now, I assure you. I'm just simply taking a break from girls."
ACHOOOOO!
Frank nearly fell off his chair when Will sneezed- a truly uncomfortable sound of such decibel that even Percy looked up from his phone for a brief moment. Nico handed him a tissue wordlessly from his spot on the floor, his posture exactly the same as before.
"Will has a cold." he said quite unnecessarily a moment later and Frank nodded sympathetically as he settled back into the cushions and turned towards Percy again.
"Are we going to have a warm up session tomorrow, Perce?"
"No, we're doing quite alright. We can do without it." Percy said confidently "We can't have one anyway. Castellan has already booked the grounds tomorrow morning before the game."
"He seems pretty serious this time around. I saw him nearly kick Dakota out the team last week for flunking the push ups" Nico said, handing Will a flask of hot tea. Will loved tea. "It seems like he's hell bent on winning this time around Perce, seeing it's his last year."
"Let him try." Percy snorted, the two boys coming to an unspoken truce over their testy exchange "He's rattled already and that's definitely going to give us an edge."
He got up from his chair and stretched, a little excitedly "Get some rest men. We destroy the South tomorrow."
~0O0~
"-and the farms are supposed to be quite nice this time of the year." Hazel shrugs sadly, as the five of them made their way to the grounds the next morning, all of them sporting various articles of yellow, except Hazel who had a green scarf. They had been discussing their break plans and Hazel was stuck going to the same family getaway that her step mom loved this time around too.
Jason and Leo had been skeptical when Annabeth had shown up at break fast, a pretty yellow ochre scarf around her neck. Leo remarked she'd been acting absurd for the past few days but she was saved quite unexpectedly by Zhang who chose that moment to come and talk to Hazel. Leo didn't say much after that and instead looped his hands through Annabeth's as they left for the match, his bright yellow cap facing backwards over his rusty curls.
Jason found them seats at the far top and Annabeth and Piper volunteered to get them snacks from the concession stand, the blonde hoping to catch a glimpse of Jackson as the changing rooms were right next by. She hadn't seen him for a few days owing to his ridiculous football practice schedule and was feeling uneasy- a fact that she truly hated.
He didn't turn up however, but Piper drew her attention to a secret admirer that she apparently had.
"Why on earth is Nakamura staring at you?" Piper whispered as they chose the flavors for the popcorn "He's been standing there doing nothing all this time we've been here. Oh- get the cheese one!"
"What?" Annabeth asked distractedly as she looked up from the container of cheese popcorn "Uh, I don't know. I think he sort of asked me out to the last village trip but I said no."
"Huh." Piper frowned, turning around to stare at Nakamura, crossing her arms "Well it's still pretty rude. He should stop staring so much."
Their stare match continued for a while; by the time Annabeth had finished the popcorn and sorted out the drinks(they only had one can of Pepsi left), after which Nakamura broke away from Piper's gaze and shuffled off toward the East stands. Piper gave a smug nod as she grabbed the popcorn from Annabeth.
They started their way back, both struggling under the many boxes of food, when they were greeted by a tall boy in yellow and black; Castellan- his hair all shiny from the sun and face a wide grin.
"Hello ladies" he said, smiling at the two of them "Supporting us, are we?"
"Yeah well, it's either you or the devil" Piper dimpled back, just as Jackson walked by past them, his back shoes crunching across the gravel. Annabeth sighed as she realized that he had probably heard Piper and was confused about why this made her so unhappy. He did not look back and headed straight to the ground. She found herself tapping her foot anxiously as she discreetly followed his movements, wishing Castellan would hurry up and leave.
"And you look quite ravishing in yellow, Annabeth" Luke gave her a bright smile before jogging off to his teammates.
"Whoa whoa whoa, look at that! It's raining men, Annie!" Piper giggled excitedly as they walked towards the stands "First Nakamura and now Castellan! Maybe yellow is a good colour on you."
"Castellan is taken, Piper." Annabeth reminded her, though she had to admit it was extremely weird that she felt absolutely nothing at all when Luke talked to her. It looked like her previous crush on him had been completely erased. She wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. "And I'm pretty sure he was just being nice seeing we're cheering his team on."
"Pretty sure he's not." Piper muttered giddily but the blonde shushed her as they reached their friends. Leo lunged for the only can of Pepsi and Jason cursed darkly- before promptly tackling him to the floor, both of them shuffling around at their feets. Leo cackled hysterically as he won, though it was only because Piper had caught Jason by the ears and yanked him up.
Jason looked so forlorn that Annabeth gave him some of her hot dog; he looked a little cheered up, though he did keep shooting longing glances at the Pepsi, which Leo had taken to drink in the noisiest way possible. He choked suddenly- brown liquid gushed out from his nose and Annabeth had to thump him on the back to get him in order. Jason had a shit eating grin on his face after that. Leo gingerly kept the can by his feet, pointedly away from Jason and grabbed some popcorn.
"The match will start in a moment. Everyone please take your seats and clear the grounds." the announcer's voice prompted the late hagglers into the stands.
The teams made their way to the ground; The South from the right and the East from the left. Zhang looked up towards them and grinned as Hazel lifted up her dark green scarf in excitement. Jackson followed his friend's gaze up to the stands and Annabeth felt her own scarf burn around her neck. She tried to give him a small smile but he looked away almost immediately. They assembled at the center of the field, Jackson and Castellan at the front of the line, staring each other down. Neither refused to look away. She found it immensely funny.
"Today's competitors are the South, headed by Mr. Castellan-" Luke gave a small wave as their stand erupted into cheers; Annabeth clapped along excitedly, the cheery atmosphere getting to her. "And the East, headed by Mr. Jackson. The winners of this match will move onto the semi finals."
The stand opposite to theirs whistled and stomped their feet and Jackson gave a playful bow that resulted in even more applause from the spectators. Annabeth squashed the urge to whistle and instead just grinned maniacally. Seeing him with the sunlight bouncing against his chiseled cheeks and the way his eyes focused on the ball did something funny to her. All her trepidations about their relationship evaporated and all she could do was smile. She wondered if this was actually how having a crush felt and was amused how she was both content and scared when she thought of him. Luke hadn't exactly brought up the same feelings.
The match began and almost immediately Jackson had rammed the ball into the South's net. The East siders jumped up and yelled their hearts out and Annabeth herself followed Jackson's movements keenly. Jason was muttering anxiously by her side, staking up the defenses of both teams. Leo was considering the Pepsi seriously and Annabeth made sure to keep an eye on him in case he ended up choking again.
"Wait-Castellan's too close. He's going to-!" Jason was cut off by the referee's whistle, who was walking angrily towards the side of the ground where the two captains were laying on the ground. It looked liked Castellan had deliberately rammed into Jackson and the dark haired boy was on the grass, rolling around, his hands clutched over his abdomen.
Annabeth watched anxiously as Castellan argued with the referee and Zhang helped Jackson up, one hand still clutching his stomach. The people around her had started to boo and throw their small yellow flags down at the ground.
"We're going to have quite a show next." Leo mused, and nudged his chin at the opposite tower where a whole group of boys had started shouting and tumbling around. Annabeth kept her gaze on the ground though, unlike a lot of the students in the stands, who were now busy watching the other side- one of the east siders had slipped and rolled down a few rows, right onto a unsuspecting Coach Hedge, their gym teacher, who swung his baseball bat wildly and thumped someone else on the head.
It was at that precise moment that Jackson, who had hung his head the whole time, suddenly looked up, met her eyes for the most heart stopping moment and gave that tiny smirk that she always saw inside dark, dingy closets, before stepping in between Castellan and the referee.
Annabeth felt herself freeze; her heart seemed to be no longer in her chest and the air abandoned her lungs at the small, silly gesture. She felt a chill down her spine and had to swallow twice as she trained her gaze on Jackson- who was now walking up to his teammates, yelling something- no sign of that seducing curve anywhere on his face.
She was in huge trouble, she thought morosely as the game continued. It looked like she had started to develop feelings for Jackson and along with her trepidations of the whole secrecy of the affair, this was another blow to her. Would she really be at peace if she called off whatever it is that they had?
The match continued, after Luke was flashed a yellow card and both teams managed to pull off a goal each before break- courtesy Zhang and Castellan. The score now stood 2-1 for East. Annabeth found it hard to join in on Jason's misery at the East's good performance and hoped her trailing the captain into the changing room wasn't really that obvious.
"Excuse me" a nasal voice startled Annabeth's focus from the grounds and she had barely looked up before she felt something cold trickle onto her scalp. "What the-"
"Sorry" said Calypso Atlas, clad in a bright green jacket, not looking very sorry at all. She looked at the empty cup in her hands and at Annabeth with a surly glare as though it was somehow the blonde's fault that she had spilled her drink "Could you move? I want to go down."
"You've literally got all that space right there!" Annabeth snapped, aghast at the south sider's response "Are you fucking blind?"
Calypso shrugged , gave their group a lazy glance before shuffling over to the other side of the stand.
"There's something seriously wrong with her." Piper shook her head as she accepted a checkered handkerchief from Leo, who was staring at the retreating girl's back, just like most of them. "Here let me wipe it off- oh dear. It's all over your hair. We'll have to wash it off."
Annabeth grumbled slightly as she and Piper left their seats and walked into the castle, holding their jackets over their faces as the wind suddenly picked up as they were halfway across the grounds. The pale blue sky rumbled softly.
"It looks like it's going to rain soon" Piper remarked and they both jogged the rest of the way into the stone foyer and then into the nearest ladies. The tap sputtered and coughed and Piper scooped up water onto the blonde's hair as they both tried to untangle the sticky tangled mess.
"You'll need to comb it out and tie it up with something. "Piper said critically as she wrestled with a particularly stubborn strand that had been right in the line of attack ."We'll have to go up to the dorms before heading back to the match."
"Nah. Why don't you go grab whatever we need and I'll stay here and get this stuff off my hair?" Annabeth grunted, her neck cramping from bowing so long. Piper agreed immediately and raced out the door.
Annabeth sighed as she lifted her head up for a short break and felt all the water seep into her scalp and jacket "Ah shit. That stupid bi-"
"Chase" a male voice chuckled behind her and she felt her heart stop for a moment. For a crazy moment Nakamura's smiling face flashed across her mind.
"What the- oh Jackson." Annabeth felt her heart slow down then pick up pace a second later, even more rapidly than before. She suddenly felt very awkward- she hadn't talked to him in what felt like forever and now couldn't remember what exactly she used to do when she was with him. Not to mention her hair probably looked like it had got electrocuted. Very awkward indeed. "Uh-what's up?"
Jackson raised an eyebrow, as though to say she couldn't possibly be serious, before covering the distance between them in a few long strides and pulled her to him by her waist. His lips met hers determinedly and she found herself easing her hands around his neck and pulling his hair.
Ah yes. This was what they did.
"Ah I missed this." he rasped in his deep voice as he continued his onslaught onto her neck. Annabeth hummed in satisfaction for a moment before gently pushing him away.
"Piper will be here any second. You should leave." She said as he looked at her questioningly.
He cursed for a moment and Annabeth basked in the warmth that was slowly spreading across her body as she watched him passively, hair tousled and still clad in his football jersey.
"Wait- what happened to the match? You didn't-? " she gasped all of a sudden. Did he actually leave in between? Why? Maybe because he saw her leaving? Maybe- " You can't take this so seriously-"
"It's raining. They moved the rest of the match to tomorrow." he said, looking at her weirdly.
"Oh." Annabeth felt her cheeks warm up. What the hell was she thinking? They weren't like that. "Well- you should leave now. I don't want to be caught today."
"Yeah okay. Just after I do this." Jackson said seriously, reaching out to her again and she prepared herself for another kiss. Instead he undid the scarf around her neck and pulled it off in one smooth pull.
"Let's lay off the yellow, shall we?" he cocked his head as he looked at her betrayed expression, holding up the scarf "It really doesn't help when I'm trying to play."
"Give it back, Jackson." Annabeth crossed her arms, a little miffed "I borrowed it."
"You really went to such trouble to get this then, didn't you?" he muttered softly, glaring at the yellow fabric "I'll return it tomorrow after the match. After that you'll never have to wear yellow again. Castellan is going down- that fucking prick."
With that ridiculous sounding threat he walked out the door, twirling the scarf around his hand as Annabeth watched in disbelief. What an idiot.
~0O0~
Leo hurried to the library hoping he hadn't misunderstood what Calypso had said. In the split second that everyone was focused on Annabeth, she had mouthed the library to him. At least he hoped it was addressed to him, else this was going to get very awkward.
He found her at the back, the same place they had met before. She was leaning against the desk, a bored look on her face as she watched him walk towards her.
Leo held up a hand as she started to speak, cutting her off " First of all, if you have a problem with me, don't take it out on my friends. Why the hell did you do that to Annabeth? I know it wasn't an accident."
"I had to get your attention some way." she shrugged unbothered "You were too focused on your drink."
Leo cursed inwardly- he had forgotten about the Pepsi after Calypso's fiasco. Jason was probably sucking it dry right now.
"Damn." Leo shook his head, hoping to get rid of the disappointment. He looked up at her and felt his breath hitch. She was still very much beautiful. He channeled all his annoyance into his words. "What did you want to say to me?"
"You must be very close to this Annabeth?" Calypso asked innocently.
"Yeah." Leo answered cautiously, unsure where this was going. He really hoped Calypso wouldn't insult her. Leo was actually starting to like her a little.
What she said was much worse.
"Well then. How much do you like Jackson?"
~0o0~
Heyyy guyssss. Don't kill me! * ducks behind Jason *
I'm so soorryy for not updating for like a year. I had to take a break year to prepare for my medical entrance exam and thanks to Corona the date kept getting pushed back this year. Anyway it's over and I got in! I'm gonna become a doctor ya'all!
I'll try to update as often as I can. I admit I have forgotten a lot of the plot for this story. Right now I'm at a loss at how to tie this whole thing together. I'm sorry if it feels a little unconnected here and there, I'll do my best to fix it.
P.S- Isn't BTS freaking awesome? They were the ones keeping me going through this year. I'm currently hooked on some of the old MVs( Just one day and boy in love). Any ARMY here ;) ;) ;) I purple youuu 3 3 3