Game Day – Annabeth

"Rachel! No!"

"C'mon, Annabeth! You owe me. I went to that architecture exhibit in the city. You have to come with me tonight."

"If I knew this was the consequence of taking you to that exhibit, I never would have taken you."

Rachel placed her hands over her heart dramatically. In an overexaggerated rich snob tone, the redhead replied sarcastically, "How dare you! I enjoyed that exhibit."

Annabeth raised one perfectly formed eyebrow, "You enjoyed the exhibit on the recent developments in specific dimensional arcs in modern-day lobbies in relation to the size of their chandeliers?"

"That's what it was on? I got lost looking at the pretty arches."

"Point proven, Red."

Rachel blew a piece of hair that noted her nickname out of her face, "Seriously, Annabeth. It's one game. What's so bad about seeing a basketball game? Everybody is going to be there."

Groaning, Annabeth tilted her head back against the headrest of the car, "Fine. To the basketball game."

Rachel grinned, fistpumping the air, "Aha! The famous nerd queen of Ecclesia Prep caves before her friend, the brilliant Rachel Elizabeth Dare."

Annabeth gave Rachel a side-eye, "Do not push it. I will drive this car into a building."

Rachel's grin did not move, annoyingly, "As long as it's the basketball court, you can crash the car into the building as often as you want."

A momentary thought of actually crashing the car briefly flitted through Annabeth's mind, but ultimately she decided a basketball game was worth not having to explain to her step-mother why exactly the car was totaled. Of course, statistically speaking, if Annabeth were to crash a car at 40 miles per hour into a solid brick building, most likely she would not have to explain a totaled car, as she herself would also be totaled.

However, despite her misgivings, Annabeth did indeed allow the car to direct itself to the parking lot outside of Ecclesia Prep's basketball gym without any unfortunate accidents. Rachel practically bolted from the car upon seeing some other friends of hers also attending the game, leaving the already out-of-place Annabeth scrambling to turn off the car and catch up to her eccentric best friend. The two friends in the end joined the group that Rachel had noticed and run up to. Even without finding a consistent group of friends beyond her constant redhead companion in the few months she had been in town, Annabeth did more or less know the group of four decently well. Thalia, Piper, Reyna, and Hazel were all friends of Rachel, so Annabeth had, by extension, been absorbed into their group as well.

After a quick stop at the concession stand for snacks, the group made their way to the top back corner of the stands. The specific seating gave Rachel and Reyna a bird's eye view of the game, while simultaneously letting the other four non-basketball fans space to not be overwhelmed by the crazed students scattered around the bleachers. Annabeth and Hazel were soon involved in a conversation about specific metals and their uses in architecture. Through talking with the golden-eyed girl, Annabeth had learned of Hazel's own passion, which worked well with Annabeth's fascination with architecture.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Rachel's snapping fingers appeared in front of Annabeth's eyes.

Annabeth blinked, jumping back a bit on the bench she was uncomfortably seated on. Rachel's fingers had interrupted the sentence about how efficient the Romans had been in their designing of the Colisseum. "Gah! Rachel! What?

Rachel's fingers immediately moved from Annabeth's face and towards the court. "Isn't that your barista boy?"

Annabeth blinked, "Who? Percy?" Her eyes followed Rachel's arm until they landed on a tall, dark haired boy standing in front of a blonde boy with the basketball. As the blonde boy began sprinting right, the black haired boy shuffled his feet sideways quickly, cutting off the opening the blonde boy had seen. The blonde boy crossed the ball to his other hand and tried to go left, only for the black haired boy to somehow poke the ball away with a quick hand. Lunging for it, the black haired boy sprinted down the court, dribbling twice before picking it up and carrying it for two steps. On the second step, he soared through the air and slammed the ball down with one hand, the rim shaking even after he landed. And wow, did he land.

The black haired boy screamed in triumph at the top of his lungs, pounding his chest a couple times and grinning wildly before sprinting back to the side of the court he had started. The blonde haired boy said something unintelligible from Annabeth's vantage and the black haired boy only smirked, purposely bumping into the blonde boy's shoulder and knocking him slightly off balance as they passed each other.

"That… that can't be Percy." He's too… confident. Percy is hesitant, always. That has got to be someone else.

A loud boo erupted from the crowd surrounding Annabeth, displaying their displeasure at the antics of the player. The black haired boy merely looked up at the stands and sarcastically blew a kiss before waving with his hand, his sea-green eyes flashing with mischief and confident joy.

No one else has those eyes. It has to be a twin. Percy would never. He's not even close to being that confident.

Then the PA announcer said, "That dunk is the first basket of the game, credit to Percy Jackson for the points."

Shell-shocked is a word with much historical context surrounding it. During World War I, doctors and scientific experts commonly used this phrase to describe soldiers who had been in combat and had come back mentally and emotionally changed. Eventually, a more nuanced and descriptive phrase would be used to describe this change: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. However, in modern-day English, shell-shocked is a word used to describe someone who has become shocked or confused due to an alarming experience. In this situation, Annabeth Chase found herself shell-shocked as the barista boy, Percy Jackson, who she had thought of as an axious, hesitant, and soft-spoken, if a bit cocky, teen was revealed to be someone entirely different on the basketball court. He acted confidently, decisively, and with a rather audacious demeanor. Her mental picture of Percy Jackson completely shattered upon watching that short series of events. Maybe it is just a one time event due to the adrenaline rush.

It was not a one-time event. Or it was the longest adrenaline rush in history. Annabeth leaned towards the former, rather than the latter, even if her heart could not believe the change Percy's demeanor had undertaken. She found herself completely absorbed into the game, despite not understanding much of it. Her sole focus was watching Percy and how he acted, while simultaneously trying to reconcile the image of him on the court with the image from the café.

He seemed to be everywhere on the court. Sometimes he just stared his opponent down after a play. Most of the time, the vast majority of the time in fact, he would crow and react with such intense emotion, it was infectious to those cheering for him and disheartening for those against him. The away crowd on the other side of the stadium was rowdy. The home crowd surrounding Annabeth matched the subdued nature of their star, Octavian Attero.

From what Reyna had said, Octavian normally was the superstar, scoring pretty much at will. Percy had utterly humiliated him. There was no other word for it. Octavian's head was hidden underneath a towel on the bench as the game's final minutes slowly ticked away. Percy's face was filled with jubiliation, sea-green eyes reflecting sunlight across an ocean on a perfect beach day.

Saturday Afternoon – A Day After the Game

Annabeth anticipated the need for Percy's full attention, so she delayed her weekly visit until she knew the café would be more or less empty of customers. Upon arrival, she threw the door open, eyes landing directly on Percy's face. It was back to normal. Cocky teenage mischief played through his eyes, but masked no small amount of pain and mental exhaustion. The sea was now tired, the sunlight that gave it strength just a day ago having been covered once again by clouds. Before she could stop herself, she felt her voice erupt from her mouth as she stared at him.

"PERCY JACKSON!"

Annabeth stormed straight up to the counter, slamming her palms down on the top of it. She leaned forward, her nose inches away from his own. God, I could kiss him now.

"Why the hell did you never mention that you played basketball and that you are absolutely brilliant at it?"

Annabeth watched Percy absolutely freeze, save for his fingers tapping incessantly on the counter. A couple heartbeats passed as they both awaited his response. Percy took a deep breath and with all the creativity, wit, and brilliance of his mind, responded with the following mind-blowing statement.

"I just… didn't?"

Annabeth could have slapped him. I am falling for an absolute idiot. And yes, she was admitting it to herself. For whatever reason, she was falling for the barista boy in front of her. Perhaps it was because she enjoyed puzzles and the puzzle of the dichotomy of Percy's anxiety and confidence intrigued her. Perhaps it was his absolutely terribly hidden desire to get her positive attention. Perhaps it was a mix or perhaps it was something else. Regardless, she knew she was falling for him.

"Yes. Thank you for that incredibly insightful explanation." Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

Percy flushed and looked down at the counter, "I don't know. You're just such a smart person. I didn't think you'd want to know about anything related to sports."

"Maybe I do not like sports in particular, but I do want to know about your interests. You sat through a rant of mine on architecture. It is only fair that you eventually return the favor."

" I suppose." Percy brought his eyes slowly back up to Annabeth's face, "Irish Cream, like normal?"

Annabeth tilted her head, until Percy handed out the premade coffee. "Oh… yeah. Thank you, Percy." The smile crossing her face was genuine, a rush of happiness racing through her brain like the Usain Bolt of happiness hormones.

"It might be a little cold. I made it a bit ago. I thought you'd be in earlier, but you weren't. I really shouldn't have anticipated you coming in like such a pattern. I mean you have your own things to do besides ju—"

"Percy. Thank you."

The barista boy flushed again.

"But do not try to distract me from the topic. I watched you out there last night. I did not understand a lot of it, but I do know that you looked… different out there. More confident, decisive. I almost did not believe it was you. I still do not fully. You looked fantastic."

Percy's face could not get redder, but he could stammer more.

"No need for a response, Percy. Just know that you can rant to me about basketball as often as you let me talk about architecture."

After that final sentence, their entire fates were changed. The next moment would set them down a course of history that they would not diverge from, nor would they ever want to. Obviously, the two of them had been slowly growing more and more comfortable around each other. Yet this moment, this exact action that Annabeth Chase took, would forever alter their destinies for the better.

Annabeth dropped a dollar into his tip jar.

It had a note with her phone number attached to it.

AN: So uh… I have been gone for a bit. Sorry *insert that sheepish apple emoji here* No real excuse, tbh. Just… life. Y'all know how it is. Anyway! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I obviously can't stick to any sort of schedule, so the next chapter will be out… when it is. Know that I'm always working on this, it just sometimes doesn't come easy. Favorite, follow, review, all that jazz. Love y'all.

~KCReal