Warnings; mentions of alcohol and some dudes being creeps later in the chapter.
About halfway on the walk home, Annabeth stopped dead in her tracks. Oh, no. Please, please, please no. That couldn't be possibly right.
She fished her phone from her pocket and scrolled through the texts earlier from that day. The one group chat where Percy Jackson added her to. Along with his other friends. Unfortunately, she was right. Percy freaking Jackson was her number neighbor. Great!
The captain of the swim team. The cocky attitude. The absoulute idoticness.
How could she not know him? He was one of the best swimmers in the country, placing only second nationwide. He brought popularity to the school along with a respectable reputation. Speaking of popularity, that one word could pretty much describe him. Percy was always swarmed with friends and fangirls alike. Annabeth's mind went blank as she remembered that one time she lended a extra pen to him when he forgot his one day. They sat next to each other in the class, so what was the problem? A lot of things actually.
The cold and unforgiving states of his fans never left her frame as she continued on with her day. They were jealous, as she confirmed herself later. Understandable. But did they have to go through the trouble of giving her the dirtiest looks they could evey second of the rest of the day? The worst part, Annabeth thought, was that Percy himself didn't notice. Insufferable. Oblivious.
Annabeth continued walking, but with each step she got even more nauseous. She had told them her name. Not her last name, but she gave enough information for them to connect the dots. For once in her life, Annabeth wished that someone could be as dumb as Percy. If she wasn't screwed over before, then she definitely was now!
She scrolled down to see if it was marked with read, and unfortunately it was. All Annabeth could do know was hope for the best and ignore him if he every approached her at school. Then a memory popped into her mind. The deal they made with each other when she helped him study! Sure, Annabeth wasn't sure if he would stay true to his words, but still. If Percy even made the slightest attempt to go up to her, Annabeth would simply walk away.
If only if it was that easy.
!Annie!
Hey, Thalia?
You know that guy iv'e been texting?
Thals
Yeah, what about him ?
!Annie!
I've made a terrible mistake -_-
and now im 100% sure he goes to our school.
Thals
You? make MISTAKES? what kind of mistake, by chance?
!Annie!
Percy Jackson. Percy Jackson is the guy iv'e been texting. And worst of all, they knOW MY DAMN NAME.
Thals
AHAHAHAH LMAO WHAT !? THAT FAMOUS SWIMMER DUDE?
THATS CRAZY
and who's 'They'?
!Annie!
He might've added me to a 'all bros' gc with his friends, and uh well,
they thought i was a guy and asked some...weird questions.
Thals
Do i want to know what that means?
!Annie!
Please don't ask.
Thals
Well, thats great, Annabeth! why don't ya go talk to him when you're at school?
!Annie!
ha, NO FUCKING WAY. Not a chance in HELL.
Thals
:(
The morning after was pretty low-key. Wake up, change, eat, prepare. A daily routine that was practically carved into her brain by now. For today, she decided to wear a slightly oversized collared grey sweatshirt and a white pleated skirt. Simple, but comftorable. the best part was that the skirt had pockets! As for her hair, she tied it up into a neat ponytail with a few loose strands standing out.
"Morning, 'Beth!" Matthew, little brother #1 greeted her as she walked down that stairs.
"There are some pancakes on the counter for breakfast," Bobby, little brother #2 announced as he stuffed his face with food.
She hummed in response. Annabeth's dad was gone for the day as usual, and Helen was already ushering the kids out the door to get to school. And that left Annabeth with an empty house, texting Thalia for a ride to Goode.
Yawning, Annabeth stretched in the passenger seat of Thalia's sleek black car, still tired from studying and homework from the draining night before.
"Morning," Thalia greeted, blasting her loud music before Annabeth could respond. She had no complaints though, the green day music was already starting to wake her up, bit by bit. Annabeth slumped back in the leather seat, looking at the passing scenery as the neared their destination.
Annabeth bidded goodbye to Thalia before sliipng into the large crowd of arriving students, mostly because she could see Percy a few feet in front of her. She sharply turned to the left, not wanting to get noticed by him. But soon enough, it would happen for sure. Because Annabeth Chase has the worst luck of the worst; having to sit beside him in homeroom and science. Not to mention P.E, which they shared the same class.
She groaned quite loudly. Students in the hallways turned their heads to the sounds of the pained noises of the students council's president looking as miserable as ever. Most of them wondered what could've possibly made one of the best students in the school act out like that.
And not a few minutes later, Percy was at his desk, staring intently at Annabeth as she plopped down beside him. He flashed his famous smirk at her.
"Hello!"
"Fuck off," Annabeth muttered.
Percy gasped at Annabeth's harsh greeting, clearly offended. Thankfuly, the teacher nor the students heard their little exchange.
"That isn't a way to treat your number neighbor!" He exclaimed mockingly. "Bro."
"Didn't you make a promise that if you ever saw me, you would stay ten feet away from me?" Annabeth questioned, focused on the ringing sound of the bell.
"How is that possible when we're seatmates? And you know I can't keep promises," Percy batted his eyelashes innocently, a smile to match. Annabeth resisted the sudden urge to flip him over. But just as a menacing glare formed on her face, the homeroom teacher, Mrs. Hera, came in. Annabeth looked straight forward at the board. She decided on it. She was going to simply avoid him all day!
That seemed the best and most rational option, since she could praticaly feel his friends and fans staring at the back of her head. Gods, she hated this. Why her? What did she do to recieve such a curse?
The seemingly normal day, was now turned not-so-normal. Percy stole glances at her in class, the caffeteria, and yes, the hallways; even when he was surrounded with many others. Not that Annabeth cared, really. When she was with at her locker sorting her books out, he shot a wink at her and a group of girls just so happened to be in front of her. They thought the wink was for them and squealed at a volume Annabeth thought no human could make, and she lowered her head in disgust. She wished the wink wasn't for her but no, nothing ever went the way she wanted.
"Thalia, he's not leaving me alone." Annabeth said to her friend in the library; a free period.
"Who's ass do I need to beat?" Thalia asked boldly, giving Annabeth a look. "Wait, is it that Percy guy?"
She sighed into her chair. "Yeah, him."
"Oh." Thalia paused, thinking about what to reply with. "You could just tell him to stop."
"Iv'e tried, multiple times."
"Have you tried flipping him off?"
"Again, multiple times."
"Want me to knock some sense into him myself then?"
"Only if it comes to that, which it probably will soon. Annabeth sighed, placing her textbook down on her lap.
Thalia slumped back, hands rested behind her head. The library was quiet except for the quiet scanning of the librarian scanning books at the front of the large room. The ringing of Annabeth's phone intterupted the well-needed silence. The librarian glared at the two of them.
"What did I do!?" Thalia whispered loudly, shooting a glare right back at her.
With a quick hand Annabeth looked across the glowing screen and frowned immediately. A notification from Percy showed up from her screen, and she dismissed it in a heartbeat. He was persistent and Annabeth hated that. Its not like she could block him. Well, she could, but he would talk to her and keep this up nonetheless.
The bell rang and most of the students started to get up and leave to their next class. Annabeth thankfully had Thalia in her next class which was history and the last period of the day. It had passed surprisingly quickly, leaving the daily student council meeting.
"Wow, Katie and Travis aren't arguing for once." Beckendorf said amazed, when he entered the quiet room hand in hand with Silena.
Connor Stoll yawned, laying himself on the table where he sat. "Can I go home now? I barely got two hours of sleep today." His eyes opened and shut slowly as he fought of another yawn.
Clarrise threw a bunched up piece of paper at his head. Connor jumped up frantically and fumed. "Who just threw that?"
"Oh no, definitely not me." Clarrise mocked.
"Clarrise, I swear to god-"
"Lets get back to what we were talking about. That souns nice, doesn't it?" Annabeth intterupted, slaming her bag on the ground.
"Yeah, sure."
Everyone remained silent except for the snickers coming from throughout the room. He sat back down apparently not tired anymore. The meeting was cut short with nothing to talk about, with the exception of everyone fooling around. Today was a rather relaxed day, with everyone eating crackers, cheez-whiz and playing video games or ping pong. In the background noise, you could hear Travis and Katie silently arguing between themselves.
Annabeth found herself locking up the room for the night. The hallways weren't quiet this day, due to the sounds coming from the pool room. Swim practice? Annabeth cursed mentally for not telling Thalia to wait for her after school.
'Oh well, the bus it is.' the bus stop was a bit far away for her liking, but she could manage the walk. The sun was starting to set, and she couldn't help but feel warry at the creeping darkness. And the group of creepy guys watching her not too far away. She could pratically smell the alcohol reeking from their way. She unconciously pulled her skirt down just the slightest as she felt their stares linger on her for longer than what would be socially acceptable.
!Annie!
Hey, thals?
there are some weird guys watching me, can you pick me up?
thals?
Thalia if you don't answer rn-
Unknowing to her, Thalia was currently busy with singing at the top of her lungs in the shower, her phone buzzing silently in the background.
'Great.'
Annabeth texted Silena, and Katie, and even Beckendorf. No answers for some odd reason. The much, much older guys were now starting to creep closer to her. Annabeth pulled her bag closer to her body, hoping that they went away. Desperate times call for desperate measures. She very hesitantly started to type some word to Percy Jackson.
wisegirl
hey um
ther are som creepy gys watching me, are yu near the bus stop near school? Could you maybe pick me up? And im sorry for asking this and you don't have to if you don't want to.
pls hurry.
She had made some typos in the rush of her texting, but it didn't matter. The guys had started to become quite close for comfort now, only a few feet away. One of them had the guts to speak up.
"Hey, what's a pretty girl like you doing here?" He said, inching his way to her. He looked to be tipsy, and Annabeth winced at the sight of him and his friends.
"I'm not interested," Annabeth stammered, slowly walking off to the side a bit.
"Aw, now thats not very nice," Another one said, placing a disgusting hand on her waist. "Why don't we show you what you're missing?" His eyes trailed over her frame, and Ananbeth wanted to throw up right there and then. It was the final straw when she felt his hand inch down, painful centimeter by centimeter. It was headed in the direction where she most definitely didn't want it to go.
'These guys are disgusting.'
"Please leave me alone." Annabeth said, a unfamiliar feeling bubbling up in her stomach. Fear. She terribly hated the feeling so much. The three guys however, started to do the complete opposite. Her vision was blocked with the bodies of them, and Annabeth was about to kick one of them when she saw a familiar figure behind the guys.
'Percy?' Annabeth felt the sensation of relief wash over her, immediately calming herself down. 'W-when did he get here?'
"What do you guys think you're doing?" Percy snarled, hands deep in his pockets. His black hair was slightly damp and tousled, and his sea green eyes were menacingly galring down at the three guys.
"What? Who are y-?" One of the creeps scowled, but was cut of harshly by Percy. Annabeth broke out from the wall of bodies and went to Percy's side, and he took a bold step forward in front of her.
"Keep your fucking hands to yourselves, got that?"
The three stood there dumbfounded and slightly intimidated. But who wouldn't be? The tall boys glare was unwavering and continued to drill holes in her heads, relentlessly.
"Alright, we were just messing around. No need to act so serious. God." He brushed it off casualy. They threw a couple of insults back at him before taking their leave. And as they left, the air started to clear from the horrible stentch of smoke and alcohol leaving Annabeth to breathe freely once again.
Percy turned to Annabeth's trembling figure. "Are you okay? They didn't do anything, right?" He scanned her features. "I swear, if they did something to you will-"
"Thanks." Annabeth fixed her posture and ran a hand through her hair. "They didn't really do anything, but... Thank you. I owe you one." And she really did. What would have happened if he didn't arrive? Annabeth didn't dare to imagine what would've went down if that happened. Gods, she was seriously thankful for his arrival. Maybe he wasn't as bad as she originally thought.
"You don't owe me anything. But are you seriously okay? I'm so stupid, I should've gotten here sooner."
"Y-yeah. I just... I just want to go home." Annabeth let out a ragged sigh, smiling gratefuly at Percy.
"Oh. Would you like me to walk you home?"
"Really? You shouldn't, its getting dark anyways and-"
"I insist." Percy smiled down at her.
And so they walked back together, Percy secretly keeping an eye out for anyone who even looked threatening. Annabeth, wanting to get her mind off the recent events, talked about whatever came to mind. It was nice to talk so stress free with someone. Though Annabeth didn't know why she felt so comftorable with Percy. But she wasn't complaining; he was very good company. And he was a interesting person himself, unsurprisingly.
"Oh, my house is this one."
Against her will, Annabeth had to retreat back into the safety into her own home. Percy and her stood in front of her house, and she started to walk up the steps.
"Thanks, again." She looked back at him before opening her door. "And i'm sorry if I was uhm. A little rude before."
"A 'little' is an understatement. And its no problem. I guess i'll see you later, then." Percy joked and turned back, waving curtly as he started off to his apartment which wasn't too far away.
"Yeah, see you..." She trailed off.
And as soon as she closed the door, a small smile creeped itself across her face.
"Oh, I thought you were dead." Bobby blurted when he entered the hallway, his head peeking over from the wall.
"Me too!" Matthew said, muching on a peice of cany that was threatening to drop on the floor. Annaebth rolled her eyes and placed her bag on the ground. She kicked her shoes off and turned to her two step-brothers.
"Wheres dad?"
"At the store with mom," Matthew replied. He went back into the living room with Bobby where they were previously watching some cartoon. Annabeth dashed up the stairs and slammed her door shut, sprawling herself on her bed. She looked up at the ceiling that was decorated with the glowing stars you can stick on walls. She remembered that it wasn't her who put them there, but some of her friends did. Annabeth couldn't remember why.
Her phone buzzed beside her. Begrudgingly, she picked it up.
Thals
hey! You good? I saw your texts from earlier.
care to fill me in?
7:48 pm
Annabeth nearly threw her phone through the wall. She was rethinking her life choices now, and thinking hardly on how she didn't ditch her best friend sooner.
HOORAYYY SCHOOL WAS MOVED TO ONLINE! MY PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED! (FINNALY)
also, protective Percy makes my heart go *doki doki* lol