Encounters

AN:I know I shouldn't do this, but I have to. I'M SO HAPPY. The last chapter I uploaded to my story Exceptions, went just like I wanted to, and I'm pretty sure everyone was pleased so I'm just soooo happy. If you guys are interested at all, I'm going to be writing a sequel to that story, so if you haven't read it and want to read my sequel, check out the story. Only if you want to though lol. Anyway, yeah, so excited. Thank you to those of you who reviewed last chapter, every review means something to me.

Annabeth

"Asshole."

"But he's hella cute though."

"Asshole."

"Can you imagine him in his uniform?" I smiled sweetly at Piper as I turned around and walked backwards on the turf.

"No, but I can imagine him in the darkest and deepest pits of hell, I truly can." She gave me a look as she tossed her hair up in a ponytail.

One day. He'd only been in school for one day before some poor, unknowing freshman got benched and replaced by him. Apparently, he was an amazingly talented football player, and there was no way the coach could pass up the opportunity to make playoffs. I hated him. I think people got the point too, but I couldn't express exactly how much I hated him. And I just had to be so lucky that he turns out to be my brother's best friend. I mean, just beautiful. I'd like to kick him in the groin.

Now, though, it was Wednesday, which meant that we had two days to get ready for blinding lights, screaming students, and a marching band playing at half time. Oh, and the football team, but I mean, were they really important?

"I love you, Annie." Piper stated as she laughed and then dropped down to stretch her long, tanned legs. I grabbed my arm from behind and stretched it out.

"Chase! McLean!" Our heads whipped to the direction of the voice, and I met the cold eyes of Drew Tanaka. I resisted the scowl that wanted to print itself on my face and pressed my lips together.

In fourth grade, Drew hadn't been that bad of a person. She was actually, admittably nice. Then, in fifth grade when we came back, she turned into this, for better usage of word, bitch. She wouldn't stop to consider anybody else's feelings, and when she wanted something, she'd stomp over anything and anyone to get it. She was this school's queen bee, and everyone was scared shitless of her.

Well, almost everyone. Thalia slapped her in seventh grade, and ever since then, the entire population of Goode has known that the only person who Drew actually avoided was one of my lovely best friends.

I didn't really give two fucks what Drew thought of me because I knew that the only thing she could really do to hurt me was scratch me with one of her super glued fake nails. Other than that, I was absolutely fine.

I had a pretty good reputation at this school, thanks to my good for nothing brother- can you feel the sibling love? Unfortunatley for me, it wasn't the kind of reputation I wanted. You see, when my brother and I entered high school, I was off in this summer exchange program that didn't end till September, which meant that I'd be missing a month of school. I'd skipped a grade at a very early age, so Malcolm and I were in the same grade. Malcolm, however, did not go on the exchange program with me, so he got to go to Goode alone for a whole month.

My credits from the exchange program carried over when I started at Goode, so there was no work to make up, but by the time I got there, everything had changed. People didn't address me as Annabeth Chase, they addressed me as Malcolm's little sister because when I was gone, he'd made himself known to Goode. All the sports he was in, and his attractive good looks- though I wouldn't know because he's my brother- got him noticed, and quickly, so when I came back, that was my label. I became well known because of it, but I was really kind of just a little pissed the fuck off that I was just Malcolm's little sister to everyone except the people who were close to me.

I didn't even want to be well known! I wanted to go through high school without drama, and with my friends by my side. I didn't want popularity, or high school fame if you will. I wanted a bag of flaming hot cheetos, and an empty computer lab where I could play unlimited amounts of games without anyone coming up to remind me that I had cheer practice, or that I was so amazing, or some other shit that I really didn't care for.

And I swear to you, half the time people came up to talk to me, they ended up dishing out the most useless information and/or questions. The other day, this girl came up to me and asked me what Malcolm's blood type was. I almost spit in her face. I mean, really? Is my brother so popular that people will go through his sister to get answers? I didn't see the point.

Nobody really stopped to think about all this useless shit. No one stopped to think that in a couple years, the popular guy in their school, or the prom queen, or the girl who got knocked up and had twins wouldn't matter! It's not like your college professor is going to come up to you, announce a pop quiz and then ask you who was the most popular guy or girl at your school. But, you know if that ever happened, whoever that happened to could feel free to come up to me and just rub it in my face that I was wrong.

I just didn't understand. I really didn't understand a bit. Why go through all the trouble of trying to keep up with who's popular and who's not when it simply wouldn't matter at all, in the slightest bit. Is Malcolm Chase providing food for your table, and a good solid income? No? Yeah, then get his bloody name out of your bloody mouth or I'll personally take it upon myself to make your mouth bloody in real life.

I just hated it. I mean, my brother wasn't that big of a deal. Sometimes, his popularity just pissed me off, not because I was jealous, but because it was just absolutely ridiculous how much people blew his status up. I just, I can't stress it enough.

Anyway, not the point. The point is, I had a semi-high status that I didn't want, but was impossible to knock down unless you killed my brother. Because of that, Drew didn't bother me at all, not that she would've bothered me if I didn't have a high status because I knew how to fend for myself. I mean, do I have to repeat the Billy story again?

Piper, though, was not as lucky. Drew used to bully Piper so hard it was not even funny. Piper was so perfect in every way, but she had a really troubled life. Now, I'd grown up with this girl, and let me tell you that she's one of the strongest people I've ever met and I loved her. Like, if I was a lesbian, she'd be my wife because I love her so much. Anyway, like I said, one of the strongest people I've met, but everyone has their breaking points, and hers had come pretty early.

Drew's torment started in seventh grade. At first, it was subtle comments. Insults about her hair, insults about her eyes, just insults in general. Then, came the public attacks. She'd catch her in the cafeteria and insult her in public, sometimes shove her 'playfully' or 'jokingly'. I could see the deterioration in Piper's eyes as her depression progressed, but me being the little thirteen year old I was, couldn't put the puzzle pieces together.

I still blame myself for what happened. When I found out, I felt like my world was falling apart around me and I couldn't catch the falling parts. It was the worst feeling in the entire freaking world. I mean, I should've known. It was right in front of me, right in front of everyone and I was just so freaking oblivious. One time, when we were changing in the locker room, I saw the beggining of it. When I questioned her about it, she swore up and down that it was just cat scratches and I stupidly believed her.

Then came the breaking point. Piper was wearing kahkis when mother nature decided it was time for her to officially become a woman. Lucky for her, we were in an empty locker room when it started. Not lucky for her, Drew walked in when I pointed it out to her, and took a picture without us even noticing. Next period, Piper's blood stained kahkis were on Facebook. Piper literally broke down in the middle of the class when she got a notification from Facebook- because Drew seemed to think that tagging her in the picture would be a good idea.

Thalia threatened the fuck out of Drew until she deleted the picture. Luckily, only Drew's friends had seen the picture because back then, pulling your phone out in class was like getting caught with drugs in your locker now. After the picture was deleted, Thalia slapped Drew across the face during passing period, making sure everyone was watching. That resulted in her and Drew going to the principal's office. Thalia fully admitted to slapping her, but then explained why, which got the principal's attention. Drew got suspended for a week for exposing the photo, and Thalia got a week's detention.

Through all this, no one had bothered to notice that Piper had disappeared from public eye. I was walking down with Thalia when I heard the first scream. I heard it, and I instantly knew it had something to do with Piper. Next thing I know, Thalia and I are running out towards the back of the school to find Silena Beauregard screaming at the top of her lungs towards the roof of the school, and Piper on the ledge.

Silena panicked and ran off to find an administrator, and as we ran towards Piper, she jumped off the ledge. Thalia and I wouldn't have made it in time. We just wouldn't have. We were too far away from her. She would've died. But she didn't because Jason Grace, Thalia's brother, rounded the corner just in time to catch her as she spiraled towards the cement. She landed on him, and the impact had resulted in him ending up with a broken arm, and Piper going to a behavioral health hospital for attempted suicide, suicidal tendencies, and major depression.

She came back to school about a month and a half later, and by the next year, she was stable and back to her normal self. She was fine now. She had a counselor that she went to occasionally, and she'd been off her meds for a year now. She was happy. She still had scars, but those were there to show that she'd overcome that part of her life.

Still, I couldn't help but think that Drew was just trying to get back at her again and start up her torture. When Piper had announced that she'd try out for cheerleading in eight grade, Drew decided she would as well. I tried out because Piper had begged me too, and because I wanted to make sure she'd be safe from Drew. Drew was now the captain, something that Piper was really aiming for, and something that everyone on the team was just pissed off about.

So now, here was our captain calling us over so we could start practice. Her voice was like nails on a chalk board, it made me cringe and groan and just... ugh.

"Yes?" I asked snarkily as I got up and shot her a fake as fuck smile.

"We're waiting... You're holding the team back because you can't hurry up. So get in formation, now." I gave Piper's arm a squeeze, sent her a smile, and then trudged my way over to my spot next to Rachel Dare.

It's not like I completely hated cheerleading. I mean, I guess it was fun, right? I just, wouldn't willingly go and try out for it. I did it for Pipes, but now that I was in it, I was kind of glad I tried out, though I wouldn't admit that to anyone.

"I am so sorry for you." Rachel mumbled quietly as we started team warm ups. I refrained from glancing at her and stiffled my smile.

"Yeah, I'm sorry for me too. I'm sorry for anyone that has to look at her god awful face." I smirked as I heard Rachel trying to hold back her laughter. Drew shot me a look from the front and I painted an impassive look on my face.

"Chase! Come on, you're one of the new flyers for the formation, let's go."

"We haven't even warmed up yet!" Someone interjected from the back, and I turned to find it was Silena.

"And? I'm the captain, what I say goes. Front and center, Annabeth." I cringed as she called me by my full name. I hated my name, it was just too... soft for me. That's why I liked it when people called me Chase, and absolutely despised it when people called me Annie.

I walked to the front, trying not to glare at Drew and chewing on the inside of my cheek.

"Okay, everyone, get in you pods! Flyers: Chase, Dare, Pitre, Higgins. Ready?" Nods were spread around the team and my eyes reached the heavens as I balanced myself on Silena and Lauren's cupped hands. I held my breath as the lifted me up and then threw me up into the air at Drew's signal. Most of practice was fine. We spent the majority of our time practicing the same routine, with me being thrown into the air most of the time.

It was frightening. Being up in the air for even a fraction of a second. I'd been thrown up in the air before, and I'd always experienced that small moment of panic when it feels like you're about to fall. It's just scary as hell. But it was also exhilirating. Just being free, and having absolutely no control of what would happen to you while you were up there.

It was great, it really was. That is until a wayward football knocks the breath out of you and you end up toppling over and to the ground. That's what happened to me.

My eyes shot open as the football made impact with my torso, and I sucked in the biggest gulp of air I could manage as my balance was lost and I fell towards the turf. I didn't scream though. That was against my principals. If I screamed, I'd be letting people know that I was scared of hitting the ground, and as far as everyone knew, I wasn't scared of anything, or anyone. Instead of reacting like the normal person would, I pressed my lips together and shut my eyes, waiting for some type of pain to shoot up my leg or my arm, or one of my body parts.

It never came though. Instead, I was met with strong arms, and a pain shooting up my shoulder. There were shouts heard around me, and I slowly opened my eyes to meet Jason's bright blue ones.

"Are you okay?" I let out a breath and smiled tightly.

"Just, fucking peachy." I replied after managing to stand up by myself. I couldn't show affection towards Jason, no matter how badly I wanted to hug him and thank him for catching me. He was a football player. It was forbidden. I mouthed a thank you to him, and then whipped around to see the commotion unraveling around me.

It was like a mob on the football field. There were cheerleaders running around, and football players screaming bloody murder. I let out a breath and marched right up to the crowded cluster of jocks.

"What the hell was that?" I yelled so loud that everyone stopped what they were doing for a second to look at me.

"What was what?" Some unreconizable voice shouted from the back of the cluster, and I brought my hand up to hold the bridge of my nose.

"One of you guys hit the football over to our side of the field, and I almost ended up getting hurt. You know, for football players who are supposed to be the best of the best, you sure do have horrible aim. Refrain from trying to purposely injure us please and thank you." I glanced around the silent group and met my brother's eyes, then the ones of my newest enemy. As soon as our eyes met, I whipped mine away without a warning. I wanted nothing to do with that guy. As soon as the words left my mouth, the shouting restarted. Drew was pointing a finger at a dark skinned guy, Rachel was cussing out some guy who was rolling his eyes at her, and Piper was having what looked like a heated conversation with Jason.

"Anna!" I turned to meet my brother walking towards me, and everyone around us quieting down at the beggining of our interaction. Honestly, me and my brother's sibling relation was the only thing keeping the two teams from commiting homicide.

"Hmm?"

"Hey, I'm going to stay for a meeting with coach, I'll get someone to drive me home, can you take my car-"

"Yeah, of course." I replied quickly, cutting him off. His blue eyes were almost scared, and that made me feel confused.

"Um. You didn't let me finish. I gave Percy a ride here." I tensed as I realized what Malcolm was trying to tell me. I let out a breath and shut my eyes. I thought that being in the same building as the guy was too close of a distance, being in an enclosed vehicle made me wanna go spend more of my own money just to dump more coffee on him.

"And?"

"Can you take him home?" Malcolm asked trying to sound impassive, but I knew that he was really begging me to not put a fight and just do him a solid. After what seemed like hours of us staring at each other, I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest.

"And what do I get out of it?" He let out a breath before scowling at me.

"I'll give you twenty bucks and buy you a family size bag of hot cheetos."

"Make it twenty five and get me two bags." I shot out instantly. That was the only negotiation I was willing to take, otherwise I'd leave Percy's sorry ass stranded in the stadium.

"Twenty five bucks? That's ridiculous! No way." I raised an eyebrow at him and visibly popped my own bra strap, reminding him that his best friend had happened to touch my bra. The scowl reappeared on his face and he huffed. "Fine."

"Okay, then we have a deal." I searched the crowd and found Drew still talking to an unnamed football player.

"Is practice over?" I yelled at her, grabbing her attention and effectively getting her to rip her eyes away from the football player. She narrowed her eyes at me but managed a stiff nod. I walked over to Piper- who was still talking to Jason- and gripped her shoulder. She looked up at me and gave me a forced smile. "I'm leaving, alright?" She nodded, and as soon as we said our goodbyes, I walked up to Percy and grabbed his disgustingly sweaty arm, dragging him away without warning and leaving the other football members shouting.

"Wha-"

"You need a ride home, right? Shut up and walk." I replied with a bored tone. Surprisingly, he did what I wanted and walked with me all the way to where my stuff was, and then all the way to where Malcolm's stuff was so I could grab the keys for the car. The walk to the car was silent, and I managed to shove the keys in ignition and pull out of the parking lot without completely killing the guy.

"I'm sorry about the football." He muttered quietly as I turned the radio up. I almost smacked the wheel when he spoke.

"How did I not connect the dots? Of course it was you who hit the football. Such an obvious connection." I replied almost laughing, but there was nothing funny about the situation at all.

"It was an accident."

"Yeah, well so was our little interaction at Starbucks, yet you blew that up, so following your logic, I should be really fucking pissed off at you for no reason at all, and then I should act like a dick, and then I should touch your boxers because that's what you did." I snapped as we hit a red light. I stopped the car and leaned back in my seat, risking a glance at him.

He was sweaty, and tan, and his hair was disheveled, and maybe I could see what Piper was talking about, but his disgusting attitude just made him seem like an ugly person at heart.

"Touching your bra was an accident! I didn't know!" I laughed at his argument and pressed on the gas as the light turned green.

"You shouldn't touch any girl's bra anyway! What, everytime you see lingerie you have to touch it? No, leave it alone!"

"You know, I'm trying to apologize for the football thing, okay? You're not making things easy for me." He directed me down a street and I turned into it.

"I will never, for the entirety of the time that I'm forced to spend with you, make things easy for you, so I suggest you get used to it now." He let out a breath and glanced at me, but I kept my eyes on the road in front of me.

"Okay, I get it, you despise me, can we move on now?"

"No. You're an asshole. I don't think I'll be moving on from anything anytime soon."

"You know, I'm not the only one who did something bad at Starbucks." He said under his breath. That time, I did smack the steering wheel, and it resulted in my horn blaring.

"You're the one who was being a little bitch first! I apologized before I even saw you, but you were being such an ass the whole freaking time! You didn't even ask if I was okay after the coffee spilled on me, so please just shut up. If things had gone down differently then, maybe now I wouldn't hate you the way I do. You're so horrible." I rushed out as I stopped at a two story red-brick house. "Now get out of the car." He glared at me and I glared right back, watching him closely as he grabbed his stuff and climbed out of the car.

"Tha-"

"Don't even try to act like you're thankful to me. Goodnight." His eyes hardened and he slammed the car door.

"Fine, goodbye." And then I was off.

The next day was hell. My stepmother, Helen, woke me and Malcolm up in the rudest manner possible, I forgot to eat breakfast, and then I got to first period. I hadn't even realized he was in my class until I looked behind me the other day. I decided I'd just ignore him, I mean why make myself miserable when I could just block out his existence completely? It'd been working fine, until the teacher decided it was a good idea to pair me up with him for an assignment.

Apparently, we looked like we could work well together. Obviously, the teacher was on drugs because if Percy and I could work together, then Thalia and my brother could get along. Honestly, where was the logic?

The assignment was about the greek Gods and Goddesses. We had to pick one greek god, and one greek goddess, and analyze the connection they had to each other, and their backgrounds.

The project would be due at the end of the month- so the end of October- and the teacher said that if partners didn't work together, she'd fail both people, which meant that I was being forced to spend time with the walking dick. Now, I was in Thalia's car, trying to get home so I could work on my debate cases.

See, when I was coming in to high school and we got course selections, I had to put down cheerleading as one because of Piper- as you already know. I wanted to take a design class, but Goode didn't offer design classes, so I went for the next thing that interested me which happened to be debate.

Most people think it's a blow off class, but it's anything but. At first, I hated it. It was so confusing, and so difficult. Then I talked to some of the senior debaters, and they really helped me understand some of the basics.

When I first started debating, I was put into the Lincoln Douglass debate form. Lincoln Douglass is basically a debate between two people about one topic. One person is affirming and defending the topic, and the other person is trying to disproove it. Ever since freshman year, I've only let myself do Lincoln Douglass. I haven't strayed from that ever, and I never plan to. Right now, the topic of debate was organ procurement.

Some people thought it was odd for me to be in debate because I was a cheerleader, and to all those people I replied with the same thing. Stop stereotyping. It's ridiculous how much people use stereotyping to justify something else. It's so stupid.

"So he's your brother's best friend?" Thalia asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah. I hate him." Thalia bursted out laughing as she parked the car in front of my drive way and jumped out of the car as I pulled my bag out of the car.

"I can tell, babe." I rolled my eyes at her and ran up the stairs as soon as we got inside, Thalia following close behind me. As soon as I got into my own room, I dumped my bags on the floor, slid on some sweats, and spread out my case files on the floor. After working for three hours straight, a knock on my door made me look up from my just-finished negative case. Thalia jumped up from my bed and swung the door open.

"What is it?" She asked- almost a little forcefully- my brother. She'd always hated him, ever since he cut off her ponytail way back in second grade. He was carrying two bags of hot cheetos in one hand, and money in the other.

"Wait! Thalia, don't kill him, he has things for me." I shot up and grabbed the things from him quickly, placing them down on my bed and shoving the money in one of my piggy banks. "Thanks, Chase." He shook his head at me but cracked a smile.

"No problem, Chase." Thalia looked at me and shook her head in disappointment.

"You two are so fucking corny."

"Well, Chase siblings have to stick together." Malcolm commented, and I nodded in agreement. He turned to me. "Percy's here, by the way." I could feel my eyes widening and I almost slammed the door in his face.

"Why?"

"He said he needed to talk to you about a project." I shut my eyes and groaned as I flopped back on the bed. I just wanted one moment where the guy wouldn't completely ruin my day. Thalia excused herself, telling me she was going home, and brushing past Malcolm quickly.

"Fine, send him up."

"Alright. Listen, I need to go to the store to get some photos copied for a project. I'll be back in about an hour?"

"You're leaving me here? With him?" I almost yelled.

"It's an hour, and he's not going to try anything. Besides, you're a cheerleader, he's a football player. Just trust me, okay?" I narrowed my eyes at him and he sighed, pulling out a five from his back pocket and handing it to me. A smug smile creeped onto my face and I took the five and shoved it in my bank. Negotiations with Malcolm were my main source of income.

"Okay, you can leave now, but be back in an hour or I'll call the police and tell them that there's a rapist in our house."

"Alright, Annabeth. I'll send him up." And then he left. After his exit, it didn't take long for Percy to show up at my door. We locked eyes and I resisted the urge to glare.

"Well come in already." I said after we spent two entire minutes just staring at each other. He stepped in and I raised a hand to stop him. "Close the door." He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Are you sure about that?" I rolled my eyes at him.

"First, my parents aren't even here, so there's no problem. What we could do with a closed door, we could also do with an open door because there's no one here. Second, I would never do anything with you anyway because I'm not into heartless assholes and you're a football player, so no problem there. Third, doors are meant to be closed. I have a thing with open doors that have the potential to be closed. Fourth, yes I'm sure, it's my room." I flashed him a sarcastic smile and tapped my index finger on my knee as he closed the door. He plopped down on the floor next to me and I pulled out a journal and a pen.

"Alright, let's get this shit over with. I think we should do-"

"I'm not starting until we make an agreement." He interrupted, and I raised an eyebrow at him. "I know you hate me," he continued, "and I know that you're probably going to be dissing on me through this whole project, so here's the agreement. Agree to at least try to be civil to each other. We can still hate each other when we're not working on this, but if we're going to be yelling at each other when we're trying to work on this, we'll never get it done. Can we do that?" I bit my lip in frustration and glared at him. He was right.

"Fine, whatever." He held out his hand for me to shake and I grabbed it firmly. "I still hate you." I stated as I pumped his hand up and down.

"I hate you too." We glared at each other, and then I broke our staring contest.

"Alright, let's get started."

AN: I have nothing against gays or lesbians, so I hope no one took that comment that I made in the wrong way. Just wanted to address that. Alright, well, drop me a review, and maybe tell me your favoite quote from the chapter? I love hearing what people's favorite parts were. Till next time- ShyGal