Disclaimer: I don't own characters from Percy Jackson

Piper's POV

I stood next to Annabeth and waited for someone to announce Homecoming king and queen. I had forgotten about it until now, and now that I knew about it, I still couldn't care less.

Finally, none other than Perseus Jackson walked on stage.

"I thought some student council kid would announce the king and queen," I whispered to Annabeth.

"Percy is on student council," She replied.

I stared at her. "Really?"

Annabeth shrugged. "He could entertain an audience for an hour just talking. I guess they saw that too."

"Hellllllloooooo, Goode High!" Percy said in an uplifting voice that I don't think anyone else could pull off.

"Are you guys excited?" He was answered with applause, which was rare from a group of teenagers.

"Yeah, that's what I thought! Now, I was going to get a cheeseburger, but instead, I'm going to announce who you all voted to be your king and queen."

"You think Reyna threatened him?" Annabeth murmured.

"Most likely."

"Going by the timely, and, in my opinion, unfair, tradition of 'ladies first', your homecoming queen is..." Percy opened a slip of paper dramatically. "Oh, wait, no, that's the king's name, give me a moment..." He patted his pockets and pulled out a different piece of paper. "Ah, yes, your queen is... oh, uh, Rachel Dare," Percy's voice dropped with the name.

"Does he not like Rachel?" I asked Annabeth over the muted applause.

She shrugged. "Percy and Rachel used to date. Things got a little... let's just say they fell way off track."

"People don't seem very excited about her win."

"They probably think her dad pulled some strings for her," Annabeth explained.

I raised an eyebrow. "They, huh? So you don't agree?"

She shook her head hesitantly. "Rachel's a good person. Her dad wants a lot out of her. Some of which she can't provide. Maybe he did tamper with the results, without Rachel knowing."

I looked at my girlfriend. She didn't look back at me. Did she look... sympathetic? No, not Annabeth. When we were 7, she pointed out that 'sympathetic' was 3 letters away from 'pathetic'.

I looked back at Percy, promising to store this in the back of my mind.

"And, for your king..." Percy barely stifled a groan, instead rolling his eyes. "Luke Castellan. Yay."

Who?

The muscles in Annabeth's arm flexed and tensed. I looked at her questioningly, for which I got a tight smile, which I assumed was supposed to be reassuring, before she quickly looked back at the stage. Lips pressed in a firm line, eyes cold and hard, avoiding looking at me, yes, there was bad blood between Annabeth and Luke Castellan.

"You think he pulled some strings?" I asked Annabeth.

She laughed, almost bitterly. "He's the captain of the baseball and basketball team and girls are drooling just to breathe in the same room as him, I don't think he cheated. He came here just a few months ago, I almost forgot he was here."

True. But he's mostly a jerk. A smart jerk, yes, but those are usually the worst kind. Which is why it made perfect sense that he would've been voted Homecoming King. But what did Annabeth have to do with him?

"So, uh, yeah. That-that's it, guys. Try to have a nice rest of your evening!" Even Percy couldn't maintain pretending to still be enthusiastic.

Annabeth turned to me. "Wanna go home?" I asked since it was pretty obvious she wanted to.

"Yeah, unless you wanna stay," She responded.

"Nah. That kinda killed the vibe, huh?"

"It certainly killed mine."

We hopped in our separate cars and drove home.

I walked in the front door, kicked off my shoes and waited for Annabeth to come home. She wasn't that far behind me, so 5 minutes later she walked in.

She walked over to the kitchen and threw a bag of popcorn in the microwave. When it was finished, she plopped down on the couch and sat the bowl down on the table. She looked at me (I was just standing there) and patted the spot beside her. I breathed in a sigh of relief, previously thinking Annabeth might want to be alone. I grabbed a fistful of popcorn and sat down.

Annabeth turned the TV on and put it on... something.

The last thing I remembered was falling asleep leaning on my girlfriend's shoulder and feeling her hand stroke my hair.

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