Annabeth's P.O.V
"Hey Annabeth, what are your plans for the holidays?" My boss asked me, as I finished wiping down the tables after closing. I worked in this little quaint family-owned coffee shop called 'Jackson's', where they decorate the shop for every holiday and the food is all homemade.
My Boss is the nicest lady I have ever met; she's middle aged, long dark brown hair and blue eyes and she has the biggest heart.
She hired me and my friend Piper in our freshman year of college when we had next to no experience, but she still took a chance on us. Now I'm in my final year of college, and it's never been more stressful, I find myself coming to work for a break from all the job applications and assignments. So that's my life college assignments, job applications, work and hanging out with Piper on Friday nights, as she insists, I need to take a break sometime. Don't tell her, but she is actually right about that.
We were approaching December, which meant two things; one Piper was going to try and convince me to go home to my dad's for Christmas, which I really didn't want to do, and she was probably going to enlist my boss's help, and two Piper was going to want to throw a Christmas party like she does every year.
"I haven't got any" I said "What about you?" I asked taking my apron off and hanging it up.
"Christmas at home with my husband, and my kids," she smiled as she said it and I knew those kids were the luckiest kids in the world, from the way she talked about them. I'd worked here for three years and I'd never met either of her kids, but I knew she had a son and a daughter. She asks me the same question every year before we entered December and every year, I could tell she was a little disappointed I wouldn't be going home for Christmas.
"Sounds lovely Mrs. Blofis, do you need me to do anything else before I go?" I asked.
"No, I think I can manage, thank you, have a nice evening Annabeth, say hi to Piper." She said.
"I will, see you on Wednesday" I said waving as I stepped out into the crisp November air in New York.
New York, I've been living here for almost four years and I'm still not used to the cold, growing up in California, I guess I'm just too used to the warm weather. I pulled my Jacket tightly around me as I set off in the direction of the apartment that I shared with Piper.
Annabeth: On my way home, do we need anything?
I sent Piper our standard 'on our way home' message, we'd come up with the system when we first started working there to make sure the other got home safely. If we took too long to get home and had no reason for it, we'd call the other and if we got no response after another five minutes, we'd get in touch with the authorities. It might sound extreme but for two freshmen living in New York, walking home at 10 o'clock, alone, at night, was dangerous, and at the time neither of us knew the city very well.
Piper: Not that I can think of!
I was about to reply when I bumped into someone, quite literally.
"I'm so sorry, I should really look where I am going" a male voice said.
"No, it's okay- I wasn't looking either..." I trailed off because I knew this guy.
"Annabeth?"
"Luke?" I couldn't believe it; I've not seen him since high school.
"Wow! How long has it been?" Like he didn't know.
Luke, Thalia and I, had been really close in high school. They were both a little older than me, but we got on like a house on fire back in the day. I literally followed them everywhere; I was probably really annoying to them, thinking about it. Thalia and I are still good friends, she's working as a veterinarian in the city, she quite often comes into the coffee shop too.
Luke on the other hand, had broken my heart, I'd been looking for a bathroom at a party in my sophomore year of high school and ended up walking in on him and some girl I didn't know by accident. If it wasn't bad enough walking in on your crush sleeping with another girl what he did after certainly was. He stopped speaking to me, he completely shut me out and abandoned me, after promising he never would. Thinking back on it something also happened between Thalia and Luke because they stopped talking too and this was the first time that we'd spoken since.
"A while" I replied feeling really uncomfortable, there was something about the way he looked at me that set me on edge.
"I'm running late, but we should catch up soon" He said, as he continued on, not caring how uncomfortable I was, and not waiting for my reply, in almost typical Luke fashion really. And then, as quickly as he'd been in my way, he was gone. I continued home in stunned silence and forgot all about texting Piper back.
Ψ
"Where have you been?! I was literally about to call you to make sure you'd not been kidnapped!" Piper yelled at me as I closed the apartment door and hung up my jacket.
"Sorry, you'll never believe who I just ran into." I said still in a little bit of a daze as I sat in a chair, in the living area of our apartment.
"No, probably not but you'll tell me I'm sure" She replied sounding a little impatient, which I guess was fair I hadn't replied to her texts, I was later home than normal and to top it all off I was in a stunned state of shock.
Clicking fingers finally brought me back to reality. "Annabeth, snap out of it, what happened?" Piper asked concern now evident in her voice.
"I bumped into Luke, like literally" I managed to get out.
"When you say literally..."
"I literally walked into him, when I was about to respond to your text message." I was still trying to sort out how I felt about seeing him, after all this time.
"Oh wow, okay and then what happened?" She asked so I told her, "So how do you feel about it?"
"I don't know, it wasn't exactly how I imagined seeing him again, would go, but I'm okay about it, I mean it's not like anything happened to change anything."
"Did you want him to?" She asked.
"Did I want him to what?" I asked and she rolled her eyes at me.
"Did you want him to do something that changed things?" She asked, and I thought about it for a while before I responded.
"Honestly? No. Maybe once upon a time, but I'm a different person now to then." Not to mention I don't have time for a relationship at this point in my life, but I wasn't going to tell her that because she'd think I was lying to her.
"Okay, good" She said.
"So how was your day? What did you get up too while I was at work?" I asked.
"Not much, Hazel and I did a little early Christmas shopping," And by that she always means she's bought mine already, "and then we ran into that guy she likes, Frank you remember Frank right? Well anyway they started talking and they really hit it off, so I came back here and left them to it, obviously I texted her to let her know what I'd done. I'm yet to get a reply; I think it's going well." She smiled mischievously at me, which usually meant she was matchmaking again.
Fortunately for me, it wasn't my card that was up in the deck for matching. Unfortunately for Frank, and I did know Frank because he also worked at the coffee shop, and she knew this, his card was up.
Ψ
Percy's P.O.V
Today sucked. No other way to say it, it sucked. Calculus was ridiculously hard as always and if I didn't start improving, I was going to flunk, fortunately my friend Frank was particularly good at it, so he was helping me scrape by and by scrape, I mean scrape, I'm currently averaging a 60% passing grade but if we're being honest, I still didn't get it.
Frank, all credit it to him, tried to help me understand last week's lesson but my brain was just fried, and I needed to go home and unwind.
So, there I was lying on my bed chucking a basketball, that Jason had giving me one year, up in the air over and over and it was literally having no effect on clearing my mind. I knew what I had to do to clear my head, I had to write.
It started when my little sister was born, I started to make up stories for her and as the years had gone on, I'd started writing them down, well typing them, but still, and thank the gods for spell check because my dyslexia is awful.
No one ever saw the stories, but every now and then I would tell Estelle, my little sister, one of the new stories I'd come up with. She still seemed to love them which just made writing them better, knowing one day I'd tell Estelle and she'd enjoy it.
All my stories revolved around a main character I called The Seal. So far, I had about five stories The Seal makes a friend; that was when Estelle was learning to share with another kid in her play group. The Seal and the Lucky Pearl; Estelle wouldn't eat her vegetables and I came up with this one and it helped. The Seal who went to dinner; Estelle didn't want to go to Paul's family for Easter one year this one helped with that.
I mean you get the idea, the other two related more to my life than Estelle's because I'd started writing to help clear my head. They were The Seal and the Walrus; I'll delve into that one another time and The Seal and the Penguin; again, a story for another time. I'd told Estelle many other tales I'd just not written them all down.
Today's title, The Seal who hated Calculus, I got about halfway through when my mom called.
"Hey mom, how are you?" I said, turning away from my laptop.
"Hey Percy, I'm fine, how are you?"
"I'm fine" I replied.
"Just fine?" She always knew when something was up.
"Just struggling with Calculus as always" I confessed, because I knew better than to lie to my mom.
"You'll get there hunny, keep at it, I was wondering if you could do me a favour?" she asked.
"Of course, mom, what is it?"
"Can you work a shift at the coffee house this Wednesday for me? You won't even need to do that much both Annabeth and Piper will be in I just need you to take inventory so I can make the orders on Thursday and close up." I didn't work Wednesdays at the aquarium so I could do that.
"Sure mom, I can do that no problem, what time do I need to be there?" I asked.
"Is 5pm ok?" mom asked.
"5pm is great" I said, and we chatted a little more about Paul and Estelle and then hung up.
I thought about going back to my story, but I didn't really know how to finish it yet, so I closed my laptop and decided to call it a day. Besides, I had an early Sea Mammal Anatomy class in the morning and I actually enjoyed that one!
Ψ
Annabeth's P.O.V
I was in the library working on my blueprint for my Structural Design 101 class. It was one of my favourite classes, and this assignment was so unrestrictive in terms of the brief as well that I was really enjoying it.
"Annabeth!" Piper whisper shouted as she settled in a chair across from me.
"Piper" I replied normally "this is the study section; you're allowed to talk quietly how else would group projects get done?" I asked rhetorically.
"Well, I'm sorry, it's not like I spend all me time in here, oh wait that's you." She said, and I put down my pencil, knowing I wasn't going to get anything done.
"So why have you ventured into the library?" I asked.
"I needed to talk to you" She replied, and she looked like she was going to burst with excitement which meant one of two things, either there was a guy she liked or a guy she thought I would like. Please God let it be the first one!
"Okay, what about?" I asked pretending to have no idea.
"Okay, so I was getting coffee at the end of my shift before class, and this guy came in and ordered, well whatever he ordered I don't know Leo took his order, but he was so... I don't even have the right word to describe how he looked but what I do know is I want to meet him."
"I'm sorry, The Piper McLean, who has never been afraid to talk to someone in her entire life, did not introduce herself to the guy she clearly has a crush on?" I teased because this never happened.
"Oh, shut up!" she told me, and her cheeks tinged a light pink colour.
"Okay, you've piqued my interest, what did he look like?" I asked.
"Short blond hair built like he plays some kind of sport y'know athletic, bright blue eyes that sparkle when he smiles," she said dreamily, and I laughed.
"Okay, come on, I'm clearly not going to get more work done and I doubt you even brought work to do." I said packing up my things.
"Annabeth, where are we going?" She laughed as I dragged her out of the library and back to Jacksons.
"To see Leo" I said.
She was resistant at first but eventually I got her to sit at the counter while I asked Leo about the blond guy he served at the start of his shift. Fortunately, he remembered him because he knew him; unfortunately, he thought it was me that was interested, that didn't last long.
We had a name, Jason Grace. Thalia's last name was Grace, but I didn't remember her saying anything about a brother I decided to text her and ask as we made our way back to the apartment.
Annabeth: Hey :), Do you have a brother called Jason?
She responded relatively quickly – she must be on a break at work.
Thalia: Hey Annie, I do why do you ask?
Ignoring the fact, she called me by a nickname I hated, I answered the question.
Annabeth: Think he might be the guy Piper's crushing on.
Back at our apartment, Piper went on a search of the internet for Jason Grace, I knew I wouldn't see her for a few hours, and I got to work finishing my blueprint for my project.
Ψ
Percy's P.O.V
I got to the coffee shop earlier than mom asked me too and I brought my cousin Jason along with me.
"So how are things?" He asked me as we entered the shop.
"And by that you mean my love life huh?" He chuckled and nodded.
"PJ come on it's been ages since you last went out on a date".
"So, why does that matter, when was the last time you went on a date?" I countered.
"Okay, so not recently, but more recently than you." He said.
"I still don't see why it matters, when I find someone I want to date, I'll worry about it then." I answered and he held his hands up in surrender.
"Okay, okay, I'll leave it alone, so what am I helping with?" He asked.
"Inventory" I replied.
"Wow, if I knew this was the plan, I'd..." he trailed off staring behind the counter where a girl with dark brown choppy hair was serving someone, I smirked.
"You'd what Jason?" I asked teasing, I had a feeling my cousin would be going on a date sooner than I would.
"Never mind, inventory you say? Lead the way"
I laughed and led him into the back storeroom and gave him two of the four clipboards we had. Mom had one for dried goods like flour and sugar, one for wet goods like milk and syrups, one for decorative things like flowers or tinsel and the last one was for miscellaneous things like chalk or new patterns for the coco powder stencils things like that. Mom had said she'd told the people she had on shift that we'd just be in the background, so I decided not to try and engage them and just get on with the lists.
I gave Jason the one for dried goods and decorative things because they were shorter, and he was doing me a favour and I took the lists for miscellaneous and wet goods.
I started with wet goods, that's when I first saw her, she had blonde princess curls and startling grey eyes, and she looked like she worked out or at least kept in shape. She was pouring milk into the jug for the machine to froth, her hair was in a pony tail a few curls escaping each side of her face. She was breath-taking, I had to blink a couple of times to pull my attention back to the fridge I was currently taking stock of.
"Hey PJ, there's not a box for-" Jason started to say when he walked straight into the girl from the counter and the industrial bag of icing sugar, he'd been holding exploded over the two of them.
I couldn't help it I started laughing and apparently, I wasn't the only one to find it funny, because the blonde was laughing too.
"Nice going Jace" I said between laughter. "Here, I'll clean it up why don't you and, I'm sorry I don't know your name?"
"Piper" the brown-haired girl told me, and I nodded.
"Why don't you and Piper go home and get cleaned up?" I said, giving him an easy way to talk to her or at least apologise to her.
"I can't, I still have two hours left of my shift" Piper said.
"It's okay, I'm on good terms with the boss, I'll cover you and help out around here."
If we're being honest, she didn't look like she needed any encouragement, I got the feeling there was a mutual attraction between the two of them. I took the clipboards from Jason and he and Piper left the store. I could see him starting to apologise to Piper before he'd even opened the door.
"Look at you, a regular Casanova" the blonde girl, wait no mom told me their names and if the one who left with Jason was Piper, she must be Annabeth.
I shrugged "Oh yes that's me, match maker extraordinaire" I laughed "I'm Percy" I introduced myself.
"Annabeth, I'll bet you ten bucks, that they have a date by the time I get home." She said.
"I don't bet, but if I did, I wouldn't take that bet, it's a fools bet" I smiled grabbing the broom and clearing up the icing sugar as the bell chimed signalling a someone had come into the shop.
"Perhaps it is" She said before going to serve the customer.
The rest of the shift passed without any more mishaps with icing sugar or the like. Annabeth and I came up with a fairly quick system, she'd take the orders and get the pastries or cake while I made the drinks and in between we completed the inventory. I actually really enjoyed spending time with her we laughed and joked about what Jason and Piper might have spoken about on the way to get cleaned up. I also learnt she was an architect major at NYU, I wasn't surprised that we hadn't bumped into one another on campus her schedule sounded super hectic. Not to mention my own job kept me away from the shop, and when I was in it was usually always Leo or Frank on shift.
"I'll close up, if you want to get going, it's the least I can do after I sent your friend home early and not you." I said.
"It's okay I don't mind" She said, and I smiled, and we continued to talk while we cleared tables.
Ψ
"Which way are you heading?" I asked as I locked the door.
"This way" She said pointing towards the rougher part of town and I frowned, I was only five minutes in the other direction, but I didn't like the thought of her walking home on her own.
"Okay, this will probably sound weird but will you let me walk you home, just so I know you got there safely?" I asked.
"You're right it sounds weird," she laughed, but she did let me walk her home. It turns out her apartment building was only ten minutes from the shop, so it wasn't too far into the rougher part of town, which was good, I guess I worried for nothing, but I was glad she got home safely.
"You'll have to let me know how the whole Piper; Jason thing ended up." I said as we stopped in front of her building.
"Why? Won't Jason tell you?" She asked.
"Oh, hell no! He won't want me to tease him, so the less I know, the less I can wind him up. It's a crime really if you think about it." She laughed; I really liked her laugh.
"Oh, the horror" She laughed again, and I did too.
She agreed to update me and put her number in my phone, I sent her a text, so she had mine. And then I said goodnight and made my way back to the apartment that I shared with Frank. The whole way home I had a smile on my face.
Ψ
~Author's Note ~
Hi All, if you've taken the time to read the first chapter please let me know what you thought! I will update again soon!
Stay safe and happy reading,
Believer1991