Hey Everyone, please be sure to read chapter 6 before this since it wasn't visible before because the site kept crashing.

….

Annabeth's P.O.V.

Annabeth was alone in her dorm since Piper had gone on yet another 'friend-date' with Jason. After a strenuous 4 hours of studying, Annabeth decided to call her dad. She took a deep breath and clicked on her dad's contact. Surprisingly, he answered on the second ring.

"Hello Annabeth." A gruff voice was heard from the other side of the phone.

"Hi, dad. How're you?" asked Annabeth politely.

"I'm good. How's Grad school?" Annabeth's dad enquired.

Annabeth was sort of surprised, since he usually never asked her about her personal life and always talked about himself during his rare calls and emails.

"Uh—It's good. Tiring but good."

"Annabeth, I know that I haven't been the best dad and haven't always been around but I really want that to change now," he said, his voice barely audible.

"Where is this coming from? Why now?" Annabeth was greatly confused; he had forever, why did he choose now?

"My colleague's daughter passed away recently and they weren't on the best terms. He feels really guilty about never resolving his issues with her and I just don't want us to feel the same," her father admitted.

Annabeth could hear the nervousness in his voice and she really didn't want to hurt him, but on the other hand, she couldn't forgive him so easily, not after what he had done. She had lived with her dad in California after her parents had split, but her dad had barely given any attention to her and instead put all his efforts into working. She had wanted and needed his love and attention as a young girl, but never received from her father or her stepmother.

The remorse in her father's voice made her think that he genuinely cared about her now and wanted to make amends.

"Dad, everything can't be okay right away. But...I'm willing to take small steps," said Annabeth with a sigh.

"Really? Thank you, Annabeth, for giving me a second chance." The relief in his voice was very evident. After the call, the two talked awkwardly for about 10 minutes and then Annabeth politely told him that she had to study. She hung up the call with a smile on her face.

Her phone buzzed just then and she saw that she had a text from Percy.

Hi, I have some free time today. Would u like to get lunch with me? —Percy

Sure. When?—Annabeth

I'll pick u up in 20 mins, just text me ur dorm building no—Percy

Dorm building 11—Annabeth

Annabeth felt a little giddy after their text conversation. She had texted quite a bit with Percy in the week that she knew him but the two of them could have never gone anywhere alone.

He's just a friend. You don't want anything else. Don't be so stupid, she thought. Her mom's words were floating in her head. Boys are a distraction.

She quickly changed into a pair of black jeans and a blue tank top and pulled her hair into a loose ponytail. She felt like dressing up for some weird reason. She usually hated dressing up with a passion and basically lived in hoodies or t-shirts and yoga pants.

As promised, Percy was outside the building 20 minutes later. Annabeth couldn't help but notice that he was looking stunning. His hair was a little damp and he was wearing an orange t-shirt with jeans.

"Hey, thanks for picking me up," said Annabeth, walking towards him.

"No problem. Where do you want to go?"

"Any place which has food. I'm not a picky eater."

Percy chuckled and said, "Okay, I'll take you to an awesome restaurant but we'll have to take the subway."

"I don't mind as long as we're back within 3 hours," said Annabeth. She still wanted to study more so she had to set a time limit for herself.

"Okay. That won't be a problem," said Percy happily.

"So, where're you from?" asked Annabeth as they walked towards the subway station.

"Born and bred in New York. You?"

"I'm from California but I went to Boston pretty often since my mom lives there."

"Let's play 20 questions. I want to know more about you," suggested Percy.

"Sure."

"Do you have any siblings?"

"I have two step-brothers and we don't get along at all."

"Favorite food?" asked Annabeth curiously. She believed that someone's eating habits said a lot about a person.

"Blue cookies" said Percy fondly.

Annabeth giggled and asked, "Why blue?"

"That's a fair question. My ex-stepfather once told my mom that there is nothing such as blue food and she kind of took it as a challenge and made blue food whenever possible and since blue's my favorite color and I love cookies, blue cookies are my favorite."

Annabeth could see from his face how much he loved his mom and that she meant a lot to him.

"You mom sounds really great."

"She really is," said Percy proudly.

They talked a lot more and finally reached the restaurant called Flavour. It was a small and homey looking place and it smelled heavenly.

"This place seems really nice," said Annabeth.

"It is. I come here pretty often but most people don't know about this place which is a shame."

They sat down and looked at the menu. Annabeth was shocked that the prices actually seemed reasonable.

…

Percy's P.O.V.

Percy just checked the menu to see what he wanted to drink since he always got the same thing to eat. Experimenting with food was not really his thing unless his mom cooked it. He decided to get cold coffee to drink and waited for Annabeth to go through the menu.

He decided that he absolutely loved spending time with Annabeth and her personality was even more attractive than her looks. She was funny, smart and her laugh was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.

He was proud of the fact that he had gathered enough courage to ask her to come with him for lunch but he knew that he would think about her even more now.

You need to get over this crush. She is a great friend. Friend.

He knew that his crush could become unhealthy especially since he had refused two girls' offers to go out with them ever since he met Annabeth.

He pushed those thoughts away and focussed on what Annabeth was saying.

They were eating their food when Percy's phone started ringing, he picked it up and saw that it was Paul.

"Sorry, I should probably take this," he said to Annabeth who nodded.

"Hey Paul." Percy was quite friendly with his step-father.

"Percy," said Paul and paused. Percy could tell from his voice that something bad had happened.

"Uh, your mom fell down the stairs and she's unconscious right now. We're at the hospital and I really think that you should come. I'll text you the address."

Percy was panic-stricken and turned white.

No way. This is not happening. Please.

"I'm coming," he said quickly and hung up.

….

A/N

This week has been really bad for me for the next chapter will probably not come out for a week. If you to know the exact reason you can read on. So, I had a really bad stomach infection for many days which resulted in me getting 3 injections and a LOT of medicines. Because of that I missed online school for a few days so I am catching up to that and doing extra studies on top of that. The worst thing is that my mom tested positive for COVID-19 even though we were taking all the damn precautions. My dad and I are going to get tested tomorrow but we will be in self-quarantine for 14 days regardless of the result. So yeah, this week sucks!