11:52PM WISE GIRL
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The picture was a familiar sight; Percy had been gazing at it all evening, the form fitting green, the slit that showed just a hint of leg now pulled back just for him, the bare shoulders. If he could only see her face again, it would be perfect.
11:52PM SEAWEED BRAIN
you look beautiful, wise girl
11:53PM WISE GIRL
Thank you! :)
Aren't you going to ask what the occasion is?
11:53PM SEAWEED BRAIN
doesnt matter
ill just be staring at this for the next 5 hours, thanks
11:54PM WISE GIRL
Haha! You flatter me
11:54PM SEAWEED BRAIN
u deserve flattering
11:54PM WISE GIRL
Can I call you?
Percy froze. He was lounging on his bed, jacket long since removed, his tie undone, shirt unbuttoned, and coming to terms with the fact Annabeth was on the other end of his messages.
Should he let her call him?
All he wanted was to hear her voice, but what if she recognized his? Just because he'd been lucky so far didn't mean the Fates would be kind forever.
11:56PM SEAWEED BRAIN
not tonight haha
im babysitting
A little fib couldn't hurt.
11:57PM WISE GIRL
Aw
How is she? Estelle, right?
11:58PM SEAWEED BRAIN
u remembered!
shes a little monster haha
11:58PM WISE GIRL
As she should be.
I hope she gives you lots of trouble.
11:59PM SEAWEED BRAIN
why do u hate me
11:59PM WISE GIRL
You know I don't.
Percy smiled at that, his heart breaking, knowing she very well may hate him.
12:00AM SEAWEED BRAIN
i dont hate u either
in fact
i really like u
12:00AM WISE GIRL
I really really like you.
12:00AM SEAWEED BRAIN
really?
12:01AM WISE GIRL
Really.
9:23AM WISE GIRL
Good morning Seaweed Brain.
9:34AM SEAWEED BRAIN
morning wise girl!
did ya dream of me? ;P
9:35AM WISE GIRL
I wish.
Can I call you?
9:35AM SEAWEED BRAIN
uh
not right now
showering, haha
9:36AM WISE GIRL
You're texting in the shower?
9:36AM SEAWEED BRAIN
...yes
9:37AM WISE GIRL
...How?
Do you have one of those fancy water-proof phones?
9:37AM SEAWEED BRAIN
yeah, that!
9:38AM WISE GIRL
So…
You're not dressed right now?
9:38AM SEAWEED BRAIN
wise girl
r u imagining me nude
9:39AM WISE GIRL
Maybe I am.
I like what I see.
9:39AM SEAWEED BRAIN
shit haha
this is a bad idea
9:40AM WISE GIRL
Why?
It's not like we haven't done worse over the phone
Multiple times.
9:41AM SEAWEED BRAIN
ur making it hard to focus on shampooing
9:41AM WISE GIRL
Am I making other things hard too?
9:42AM SEAWEED BRAIN
...gods
9:42AM WISE GIRL
I could be with you right now
Washing your back
Running my nails over your shoulders
Kneeling…
9:43AM SEAWEED BRAIN
stop stop stop
ha
wise girl
ur gonna be the death of me
9:44AM WISE GIRL
Too much?
9:44AM SEAWEED BRAIN
not enough
but no more right now
i have to focus okay?
later... i want to hear all about what u would do to me later
9:45AM WISE GIRL
Okay.
Later.
2:34PM WISE GIRL
You've been awfully quiet today.
2:46PM SEAWEED BRAIN
oh? i have?
sorry haha, been busy
2:47PM WISE GIRL
Is everything alright?
I didn't go too far yesterday did I?
2:47PM SEAWEED BRAIN
oh shit no not at all!
nothing to do with u, dont worry about it!
2:48PM WISE GIRL
If you say so.
What are you working on?
2:48PM SEAWEED BRAIN
class schedule
boring stuff
2:49PM WISE GIRL
Sounds plenty fun to me.
2:50PM SEAWEED BRAIN
of course youd be into this kind of school shit haha
2:50PM WISE GIRL
If you need any help with your schedule let me know.
2:50PM SEAWEED BRAIN
why, gonna follow me to class and figure out who i am? ;P
2:51PM WISE GIRL
Maybe I will.
Annabeth navigated the halls of the main building easily. It was never crowded after coming back from break, and most people avoided classes so early in the morning. Thalia, however, was a yawning mess, her makeup smudged and a coffee grasped in her hands.
"Why do I have to come with you to this dumb drawing class again?" She complained, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"It's not dumb, and it's because if I don't drag you around you're never going to wake up at a reasonable hour for your own classes." Annabeth smirked, scanning the numbered doors for the right room.
Thalia huffed in annoyance, taking a long sip of her hot beverage, "Whatever man. How's Mister Kelp Face?"
"It's Seaweed Brain." Annabeth reminded her, "And he's… different."
An eyebrow raised. "Different how?"
"I don't know how to describe it." She shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant, "He's more… I don't know, distant?"
"I bet he's just busy with the new semester." Thalia was sympathetic, patting Annabeth on the shoulder, "I wouldn't read so much into it."
"Maybe." The past few days had been a blur. Seaweed Brain hadn't been able to answer her calls in over a week, and the tension in her chest had been building up. Something was wrong, she was sure of it, but whenever she asked she was waved off.
They stopped in front of the art room, Annabeth shouldering her portfolio. She'd been putting off this class, a prerequisite to her drafting unit she'd be taking senior year. She could draw buildings well enough, but when it came to organic material, humans, things with curves and life- Annabeth had little interest in it.
"This is my stop." She smiled, Thalia giving her a salute.
"Then I'm off to pass out in the library. See ya."
"Thalia, you have a class in half an hour!" Annabeth called after her, shaking her head and entering the room.
The workstations were simple, two seats to a table, each surface adorned with easels and other supplies. The center was open, probably ready to house whatever still life or model they would have for a day, and she picked a spot by the window easily. The Professor hadn't even arrived yet.
She had a view of her frozen duck pond, and she smiled.
Annabeth grabbed a book from her bag, enjoying the quiet winter morning as classmates filed into the room over the next twenty minutes, nabbing seats and chatting quietly. The atmosphere was chiller than most of her other courses, and she thought maybe a drawing class wouldn't be so awful.
"Is this spot taken?"
Her heart stopped. That voice. Her heart stopped for a moment at the familiarity, but when her head jerked up it was Percy who was there. She shot him a look as he pulled out the stool anyway, a grin on his face.
"That… I'm… saving it." She felt a blush creeping up her neck, the memory of their little dance now at the forefront of her mind. Annabeth had nearly forgotten it, between everything else going on, but now it was impossible to ignore. Apparently she'd had more champagne than she thought.
His eyebrows shot up, "Really? For who?"
She wracked her brain, "For… a friend."
Percy pointed at himself, "I could be a friend."
Annabeth stared at him. Finally, she slammed her book shut, "Fine, fine, sit here if you want. I don't care."
"You don't? Great!" His voice was cheerful as he slid next to her, leaning forward, "I didn't know you were into art classes."
"I'm not." She insisted, "It's required."
"Required for architecture?" His head cocked to the side.
"For drafting courses, yes." She huffed her bangs out of her face. They were almost too long now, getting into her eyes and being generally annoying.
Percy nodded, as if he understood. "Right, of course." He slid his sketch paper from his portfolio, draping it on the easel, "So, still got that secret boyfriend or do I got a shot?"
She looked at him, incredulousness clear on her face, "You can't be serious!"
He shrugged, grin firmly in place, "Just thought I'd ask."
"It's none of your business!" She snapped, hands moving automatically to follow his lead, smoothing her paper out.
"Ah, so we're back to hating me I see."
"I don't-!" she quickly glanced around before lowering her voice, "I don't hate you, you're just being unbearably annoying!"
"And what is it that I'm doing to be annoying?" His tone was still light and teasing, which only made her more frustrated.
"Just- hush!" She pulled out her pencils, sitting up straight as the Professor entered the room and ignoring Percy's attempts to get her attention.
Well, mostly ignored.
He was unbearable, balancing pencils on his nose, scraping his stool across the floor every time he adjusted in his seat, making faces, whispering silly things to her when the professor took a break from going over the syllabus.
"Are you going to be like this all semester?" Annabeth finally hissed, sketching out the shape of the apple in front of them.
Percy only shrugged, "Until you pay attention to me, yeah."
"I told you, I'm unavailable." She sniffed, dragging the tip of her pencil across the paper lightly.
"Hey, maybe I just want to be friends." He doodled a face on his apple, the cartoon mouth sticking out a tongue, "We can be friends, right?"
"The whole 'our parents are mortal enemies' thing doesn't bother you?" She squinted at their fruit, trying to match the shapes exactly.
"Would it surprise you that it doesn't?"
Annabeth thought about it. "No." She decided, "It doesn't surprise me."
"Well I think we got off on the wrong foot." He put his pencil behind his ear, holding out a hand, "I'm Percy, Percy Jackson. And you are…?"
She couldn't resist playing along, automatically taking his hand, her resting-bitch-face melting into a laugh, "Annabeth Chase."
"A pleasure Miss Chase." He winked, finally withdrawing his hand after a quick squeeze. It sent sparks of electricity up her arm.
"So what are you doing in an art class, Mister Jackson?" She returned to her sketch, frowning at how crooked her lines looked.
He shrugged, "I was curious. You can only take so many courses about monsters and battles and heroes before it gets a little boring, you know?"
"You? Bored of monsters?" She snorted, "Don't make me laugh."
"It's true!" Percy insisted, now doodling stick figures and swords in the margins of his paper, "I'm starting to think there's more to life than being a demigod, you know?"
"I know." Her response was soft, and she stole a glance at him.
His dark hair was mostly covered with a grey beanie that slouched down his head, his eyes focused and concentrated on drawing a cartoon gorgon.
He seemed different from her first impression of him, and he proved her wrong with almost every conversation they had. Could the son of Poseidon really not be so bad?
"Take a picture, it'll last longer." His gaze didn't leave the paper.
Annabeth blushed, "I was just… thinking."
"You seem to do that a lot." He nodded, stealing a glance at her, "Whatcha thinking?"
"I think," she paused, "I think maybe we could be friends. After the campaign, of course."
"Of course." She may have imagined it, but his shoulders seemed to relax and his smile seemed to widen, "Think you could be friends with someone who kicked your ass?"
"Please, you're so going to lose." She erased the stem of the apple, redrawing it carefully.
"Keep telling yourself that, W- Chase."
They spent the rest of the period in relative quiet, Percy getting berated by their teacher for drawing things other than the prompt and him sending another wink Annabeth's way. He wasn't so bad, not really.
Maybe they didn't have to be mortal enemies.
She pretended to ignore his antics, though she couldn't help the smile that came to her lips as he continued to draw anything but the apple in front of them, his sketches consisting of mad scribbles and outlandish cartoons. He wasn't amazing, but he clearly had spent many years honing his margin doodles in his class notes, a pastime Annabeth herself was familiar with and guilty of.
Her own sketches were shoddy replications of the apple, with harsh shadows and shaky lines. She tried to imagine it was an apple shaped building instead, but that helped very little.
"You're too serious." Percy pointed out, "Try to just like… let the shapes flow out."
"I thought you'd never taken an art class." she shot back, brow furrowed in concentration.
"I haven't." He shrugged, "But even I can tell you're too stiff. You're thinking about it too hard."
She rolled her eyes, but adjusted her pencil and tried it his way despite herself. "Not all of us can turn our brains off on command."
"Ah, a jab at my intelligence. Original." he reached over, taking her wrist in his hand and gently guiding it over the paper, "Make your lines light, like Professor Jepson did. Get the basic shape down and then go in with darker strokes after."
Her skin felt hot where they touched and she pulled away after a moment, not meeting his eyes though she felt them boring a hole into her.
"Right. Okay."
"And relax!" He laughed and she realized she was hunched over her paper, her posture straightening.
She stuck her tongue out at him. The corners of his eyes crinkled.
"Mature."
"I know I am."
They fell back into comfortable silence for a moment.
"So… about that dance…" Percy started, and Annabeth grimaced.
"Gods, don't bring that up!"
"What? It was fun! You've got some moves!" His pencil swirled across his paper.
She shoved him lightly, "If you agree to never speak of it again, I'll agree not to beat you up."
"Sounds like a win either way to me." He elbowed her back, laughing again.
Her eyebrows shot up, "If you want me to kick your ass so badly how about you just throw in the towel on the temple?"
"Doesn't count if it's not fair and square."
Annabeth wasn't sure what it was, but there was something so easy about talking with Percy. They fell into a rhythm as if they had always been together, and she wondered if in another life they might have been inseparable. A life where their parents weren't rivals, maybe. Or one where things were easier, where they weren't demigods.
But the Fates worked in strange ways, and they were born into this life. They weren't friends, they hadn't known each other from a young age, and they were destined to face off in a battle Annabeth wasn't sure she even wanted to be fighting anymore.
She always said she'd make it on her own merit. Now she was fighting for her mother to just hand her dream over.
But she had to do it. She didn't see a way out now.
Annabeth Chase had to beat Percy Jackson, no matter how likable he seemed. Could they manage a friendship despite that fact?
She wasn't so sure.