Chapter Seven is here! I hope you guys enjoy it. This may or may not be when our lovers reunite (I'm not telling you…)

Disclaimer: I'm not cool enough to be Rick Riordian.

Percy shrugged his shoulders as he walked into the Bed and Breakfast, ready to work again, but this time, in the upstairs. Apparently, a couple people were coming tomorrow to stay for the long term, which meant Percy had the amazing job of cleaning out the room.

The last costumer's they had, had done some questionable things around the room, which they left for the staff to clean up, which the staff (subject: Percy) had faithfully ignored.

But because they didn't want their online rating to go down (it was pretty high), Percy was fated with the task of cleaning that, which he dutifully did, just as any good guy would.

Two hours later, and even more disgust later, the room was clean. Percy flung the bag of trash that had been slowly accumulating more and more over his shoulder, and brought it out of the room. He stretched his arms, and walked downstairs to the restaurant, beginning his night shift as a waiter. A handful of people came in for quick bites, and soon left after they were served.

Dakota- his hyper co-worker greeted people (that's all they trusted him with) and Percy would take orders and serve food. At eight pm, Percy's shift ended, and he and Dakota closed the restaurant up for the night together, while then going their separate ways.

Percy went to a nearby bar, where he ordered a drink, and drank to himself, sitting on the bar table. This was his normal routine- although he had friends, he always ended the night feeling lonely.

"Hey," A voice came from behind him, and Percy smiled as he turned around.

"Hey." Percy said, looking up at Rachel. Rachel had moved here last year, and she and Percy had become past friends. Sure, they had stepped those bounds before, once, but Percy still, after all these years, couldn't take being with someone that wasn't' Annabeth. And Rachel understood, he hoped.

"You come here often?" Rachel said, her eyes bright as she sat next to Percy.

He smiled. "Yeah, every night."

Rachel shoved his arm, and Percy looked away, still smiling. "You loner. Why don't you ever invite me?"

"I don't know." Percy said. "I just don't."

"Well now I'm coming every night, just to bother you." Rachel said, and put her hand on Percy's neck, guiding him over to look at her.

Percy shook his head. "I guess so."

"So," Rachel asked him. "What's new? I feel like we haven't talked in a while."

That was partially Percy's fault. He'd been avoiding her since he had told her he just wanted to be friends. "I'm doing okay. Some new people are renting the place above the restaurant so I had to clean that up. The swim lessons have been okay. The gym's getting renovated. How about you?"

"Well, I got a position as the art teacher at a middle school. I sometimes wonder if the kids there have more sophisticated humor than me, but then I remember they still laugh at fart jokes, so I'd call it even."

Percy laughed. This was Rachel, random, funny, and happy. This is why he had wanted to be her friend, he remembered. This was the reason he had talked to her about just being friends in the first place. "That's awesome. Which school?"

"Hampsbrooke." Rachel told him, "Weird name, I know."

"I actually used to go there. It's a pretty nice school. I mean, I hated it there when I went, middle school sucks ass, but looking back on it, the teachers were good."

"Well, I hope I can make art good, at least a little bit. They're still trying to find a cover for the old art teacher who they fired for arson to school property. Apparently he'd burn random stuff and call it art."

"I never took art, but I had friends who did, and they definitely complained about a Mr. Williams who did exactly that. I think one of my friends had their pants set on fire." Annabeth. She'd come to lunch one day in new pants (really ugly ones at that) from the lost and found, and complained the entire day about it.

Rachel laughed again, "That's funny," she said, checking the time. "I gotta go, but I'll see here tomorrow, it was nice catching up." She got up from her seat, and turned to him, pecking him on the cheek.

"Rachel…" Percy said hesitantly, reminding her of what they had agreed.

"I give all my freind's kisses on the cheeks." Rachel said. "It's french, makes me feel a bit more sophisticated than a middle school art teacher."

Percy nodded hesitantly, "Okay, but you remember what we talked about, right?"

Rachel's smile dipped in the slightest, and if you hadn't been paying attention, you wouldn't have noticed. But Percy was, and when this happened, he felt his heart drop the tiniest bit, an overwhelming feeling of dread coming over him.

"Yeah," she said, her smile returning as fast as it had fallen. "I remember, and I respect your wishes. But if you ever change your mind-" she said, her eyes looking hopeful.

Percy placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'll let you know." He pulled out his wallet, and left out enough money for both Rachel, and his drink. Handing it to the bartender, he smiled at Rachel. "Bye. It was nice talking to you."

"Yeah, it was." Rachel said, her tone almost… sad. "I'll see you tomorrow. Same place, same time, right?"

Percy nodded. "Right."

Oh, did you think they were going to reunite?

Okay, to be honest, I thought they would, but the story didn't write like that, so here we are. And you guys know I would never keep Annabeth and Percy apart forever.

But, we need some Drama. So boom! Here it is, I introduced another character that may cause conflict. I didn't want to show her as mean or rude because that wouldn't be Rachel, that would just be a rude, carbon copy of her, but I do want to make it so she can stir up the story a bit. (Sorry Rachel)

Anyway, what did you guys think? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter. What do you predict will happen in the next few chapters?

Oh, and about the sequel: Because it looks like a lot of you wanted it, I'll be working on the sequel for the next couple of weeks, since because of COVID-19, I have a lot of time on my hands. It may be a bit shorter than I originally intended, perhaps ten chapters, but it'll have a lot more Percabeth fluff moments than Knelt By Her Notebook did. More information on my profile, and on a separate chapter on KBHK.

TheLil'Lion