I Would (Literally) Die For You

by Average Canadian

Annabeth knew she was doomed the moment she burped up a small glass-like heart filled with stars. She was a soulmate. Percy Jackson's soulmate. Goode's bad-boy, heart throb and popular mess wasn't just her life-long enemy but her best friend's life-long crush. How could the universe be so wrong? If she didn't bond with him, she'd die. So she guessed she'd die then. Soulmate AU.

1. Fall

Oh dear. Oh my. In one of the most stressful times of my life I set out to write a goofy little oneshot and then promptly used it as an emotional punching bag for myself. So a hundred and forty thousand words later, here we are. (Cut into four chunks, naturally)

If you remember me planning on making this, welcome back. Thank you for being here.

If you're new to my account (which is the more likely scenario here), then welcome! I am emotionally damaged and that's about to become abundantly clear.

Enjoy.

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Fall

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"HEY JACKSON!"

He wasn't far but my throat already felt hoarse. Anticipation of the barbed words I was about to scream, I guess.

As I stood there, rigid, even stanced, gearing up for a fight, the crowd of people bustling in the halls lulled into a hiss of excited yet stiffened whispers. A few dozen gazes were already flicking between us, framed by giddy smiles at the prospect of another suspension worthy event. But that didn't waver me. I was only interested in one pair of wild green eyes.

Without so much as blinking, Percy glanced up at me. A hard coolness in his gaze, an infuriating nonchalance in his posture as he leaned against his locker. His posse of troublemakers were around him. I doubted any one of them could come up with anything more intelligent than caveman noises. They probably signed all tests 'Ugga Bugga'. (All except Jason who was the only one concerned with my clear rage.)

Percy's expression went deliciously blank as I approached in heavy footed stamps. He straightened slightly. I felt like a rhino.

"In your BRILLIANT prank scheme this morning, you covered not only the whole front of the school with shaving cream, whipped cream and toilet paper, but also the WHEEL CHAIR RAMP!"

Percy's eyes narrowed and he shoved his hands into his pockets. A typical teenager move. "So?"

My eye twitched. "So?! Grover slipped and almost cracked his SKULL open this morning!"

Airily, Percy glanced over my shoulder as if Grover would be there, cowering in my shadow. A throb of blistering heat shot through my veins. Why in hell would he think I'd bring him with me?

"If it was a problem for Grover, then why doesn't Grover come and talk to me? Why are you babying him?"

I wasn't thinking. I could never think clearly when I was that angry. All I knew was that the next moment I had latched on to that smug boy's shirt and wrenched his stupid nonchalant face inches from mine to really get the message across. Gripping my other fist behind my back to cull the temptation of planting a shot right on his monkey head.

"Listen here-" I hissed so lowly only his ears had the privilege of catching my words. "- you little bug face maggot brained nincompoop. Grover is just like everyone else here except for one difference. One difference. Understand me Fred Flintstone? Instead of using the stairs every morning and afternoon to come and go from school he uses the ramp. One ramp. The only ramp this school has which happens to be the only ramp you covered in slippery shit."

His eyes were sparkling green. This manic greek fire green that spurred deep in his iris's the moment he started to get angry too. We'd managed to avoid having fistfights since sixth grade and I wasn't about to break that streak (as tempted as I was). So I released his shirt gently and smoothed down his sleeves in a chillingly threatening manner. "Now we can put two and two together here, right moron?"

Blankly, he stared at me. Half frozen because he never had a response ready for my devastating articulation, and the other half frozen because he knew if he made a wrong move he'd be the one to get expelled. I was a perfect student, you don't toss those out because of a verbal disagreement.

"Forgive me your majesty," Percy sneered, a little raise in his lip as if he was the one privy to disgust. "I didn't mean to get commoner filth on your servants shoes."

I was gonna hit.
I was gonna do it.

I was gonna hit him.

It didn't help that the student body was churning around us. Snickering, fluttering, trying to get a better view- no. My mistake, a better camera angle. I could count at least five phones out of the corner of my eye. My chest burned at the thought of being nothing but a spectacle again…

But Grover.

I grit my teeth, reeling towards him as I leaned up again to get in his space. His personal bubble. A move I always used to let him know I was not backing down. Ever.

"You think it's as laughable as that?!" I seethed. "Grover is sitting in the nurse's office with a CONCUSSION, and you think I'm making a fuss about his shoes?!"

For a heartening moment Percy looked dumbstruck. The chatters and murmurs intensified. Someone shouted out 'oh damn' but I didn't even glance in their direction. Steeling myself, I gripped my fists harder and swallowed part of my rage. Shooting daggers at Percy alone.

I hoped this pig went home and stepped in a kitchen puddle with fresh socks.

"You know Grover's mom will sue anything that so much as touches him. So are you ready for that? Huh? Could you even handle a lawsuit-"

"Hold on, wait. Sorry. I just got confused there. You're not the one suing me, right? Gosh, that's right, I forgot he has a second momma."

I was seeing red. I was already mentally kissing that fight free streak goodbye. I was ready to haul ass and beat caveman until I evolutionarily backtracked him into the slimy fish he was. Heck, I was ready to meet his parents in the principal's office and beat them down for raising an idiot for a child.

When one's offspring is a twat, there is blame to be given.

"I tried to tell them." Jason pulled Percy back with the look of utmost regret behind his glasses. That kind sparkle was coming through his eyes with extra brilliance today. "We'll go clean it up right now. And if Grover needs a ride home, or maybe a drink we could take care of that too?"

Augh. Why was Jason such a gentleman? It made it impossible to stay mad at Percy when he had this angel guy defending him. Even if the stupid boy sulked behind his best friend, my anger for him was waning because of Jason's dumb golden retriever abilities. Seriously, just look at someone who's so innocently earnest and sweet and eager to please, and just try and tell them off. It's impossible. Trust me.

"No," I grumbled, bringing up my hand to rub my aching temples. "Drinks won't be necessary. Rachel's got that covered. Just make sure the ramp is clear."

"Are you sure we can't do anything else? Does his crutches need cleaning? We could get him some spare clothes if those are spoiled-"

"Thank you Jason, but we have it covered," I mumbled. I shot one last fight me scowl at Percy and he threw his hands up like what's your problem?

Lingering faces of students readying their gossip stories started to disappear. I scraped my sneakers against the carpet flooring to flake off the remaining dry shaving cream before heading to my locker. Knowing that behind my back Percy and his goons were already regrouping and probably coming up with some nasty names. Or at least, that's what I'd imagine they'd do after a spectacle like that. At least no one got punched.

I'm sorry, maybe I should give you some context. That little beef written above? Yeah, thirteen years of hallway fights with that monkey. We did not get along. Ever since freakin Percy Jackson told my best friend in kindergarten that he was going to marry her, we've been at war. I couldn't wait to graduate, I couldn't wait to never have to see his stupid face ever again. Nine months till graduation. Just nine months.

With my brain all in a muddle I weaved around the flow of students, still fuming. Everything about Goode high was already pissing me off again. The smell of ripe lockers and of bananas forgotten in backpacks. The tinny lights that somehow always had a flicker in them despite the school's generous budget. The vinyl floors that were streaked with black smudges after last year's seniors rode the laptop cart around the hall like it was a chariot.

School pride? Not in my vocabulary. How could it be when Percy Freakin Jackson was loved by all of the bright eyed loose lipped bimbos walking around here? In a silent rage I counted the black letters embossed into each locker.

15… 14… 13… 12… 11. Double ones was apparently the wishing number, but I didn't see how having locker eleven made me lucky as Rachel claimed. It was right next to the bathrooms so I got a lovely ambient odor every time someone used the can. Ugh, and my locker itself was dented, rusting in the bottom and with an uneven shelf.

Piper was sitting against twelve, an interested expression on her face and her phone gripped lightly in her slender fingers.

"So, you had it out with Percy Jackson I hear."

Let me make this clear now so there isn't a mix up: Piper Mclean is not my friend. She's my locker neighbour, and occasional lab partner but we've never taken it to the next level and 'hung out'.

She's in that vague crowd that would most commonly be labeled as 'popular'. The day she innocently mentioned that we had 'chums potentiality' I decided to keep her at arm's length. There's no way in heaven that I'm going to let myself be associated with anyone who was consciously friends with Percy Jackson. Or that vague 'popularness' where you were just liked by people. (I don't like people so I expect the same sentiment given back to me. I'm uncomplicated. Sue me.)

Besides, I have two best friends, and I don't need anything more or anything less.

"That's light-speed fast news, Mclean. You should open a radio station with those kinds of connections," I said.

Piper turned her phone so I could see the text chain. "Jason tells me everything. He's actually goofy happy with himself right now because he was able to de-escalate the situation. He's so cute that way."

I snuffed and shook my head as I started ruffling through my locker. I wasn't friends with Jason Grace either but from what I saw of him in debate club he was one of the decentest human beings on the planet. At least he was happy with that little show I just did.

"Let your boyfriend know he's a peach. Also if you ever drop him I will gladly adopt him as a pocket pet."

Piper laughed as she slipped her phone into her pocket and pushed off the grey lockers. She scooped up her binders sitting on the floor.

"We're bonded, remember?" she said with a smile in her tone as she started down the hall. Her choppy ponytail swinging in her wake.

"How could anyone forget?" I yelled after her. She was perhaps too far away to hear me at that moment. Maybe it was a good thing, my words would bring back bittersweet memories for her.

How could anyone forget…

The 'Save Piper Mclean' campaign that ran for two weeks last year. No one wanted her to die.

.oOo.

English class was as raucous as usual. Unclaimed papers were on the floor, the shelves of disordered books were crooked against the wall and it smelled particularly strong of burnt popcorn in that room for some weird reason. The only pleasant thing about this english classroom was the wall paneled with windows that allowed in long streams of golden sunlight.

Rachel had saved me a seat next to her on those odd rectangular tables schools decided were okay to use. She could tell the questions in my eyes before I even sat down.

"Yes. Grover is fine. They're not even sure he has a concussion at all but he went home because he called his mom and she flipped."

"Augh, rip Goode High. Mrs. Underwood is going to sue every penny from this joint."

Rachel agreed with a chortle. "Or at least she'll try."

"Seats everyone. Seats!" Mr. Blofis yelled from the front of the class. Perpetually disheveled while trying to fight a pile of papers into order. This poor man always looked as if he were fighting chaos and losing. It was only the second week of school too.

"I hope everyone had a pleasant weekend?" Mr. Blofis continued as shuffling students filed into open seats.

"Are we going to write about how our weekend was again?" Piper put her hand up with a clear complaint in her voice.

"Shhh. I like writing about that." Hazel Levesque, next to her, yanked down her hand.

Rachel spoke up with a perky eagerness. "Can we draw what we did for the weekend instead of writing it? After all, a picture is worth a thousand words."

"No Miss Dare," Mr. Blofis said. It was hard not to feel sympathy for the man. He dealt with toddlers all day and then had to go home to a real toddler. Although dealing with one of the two was more rewarding. (Hint, it's not the teaching.)

"Wise decision sir," Connor stoll said from two rows back.

"Anything we draw would be probably r-rated." Travis grinned. The class giggled.

Yes. It was true, those boys probably burned down an orphanage on the weekend. Or maybe just took people's cats and trapped them in trees for funsies. Either way, they're twits. And cough cough friends with Percy Jackson cough cough.

"Boys!" Hazel started fanning herself. Piper chuckled at her old fashioned friend.

"Could we please pay attention to the task at hand?" Mr. Blofis sighed as he pushed up his glasses to rub his circle heavy eyes. Without thinking twice he passed the rest of the papers to me, knowing I'd instantly get to my feet and hand them out.

No. I'm not a teacher's pet.

When I see someone floundering, I help. Mr. Blofis just got accustomed to getting help. Lord knows he needed it.

I was only just starting to place the papers face down in front of each student when the door banged open, making half of the class flinch.

"I'm late." Percy dejectedly walked in and dropped a late slip on the desk. Leaving his gaze on the floor as if he couldn't face his own teacher for something he did every day. "I had something I needed to take care of."

When he sat down, Percy shot me an aggravated scowl with a clear accusation in those green eyes. I glared back and smacked a paper down in front of him. Ready to take on any more fight he would put up.

"How about dealing with that attitude, eh Jackson?" I growled lowly.

"Shut up Chase. I cleaned the ramp," He hissed back.

"Good."

"Although, I wouldn't have minded if you helped me. You would've looked sooo good with-"

"Mr. Blofis! Percy's being a pervert again!" I yelled over the reinstated class chatter.

A bubble of silence suddenly spilled over the classroom. Prickles raced up my arms. I'd done something that sent Mr. Blofis to the bottom rung of patience. Wait no, sorry. I've misplaced my blame again. Percy had done something that sent Mr. Blofis to the bottom rung of patience. Quietly, rage boiled red on his face. For a few overwhelming moments he looked as if he were fighting a demon; his eyes closed, his face red, his lips pursed hard into a thin white line. One more act of disrespect and I'd bet he was ready to erupt like a volcano.

Violent. I thought.

But why? It was just one of Percy's usual antics? Was there something wrong with Mr. Blofis? Was he just having a bad day? A very very very very bad day? Did his toddler flush his anger management brochures or something?

Unfisting his hands, Mr. Blofis opened his eyes and released his breath. "Percy. Principal's office. Now."

"But-"

"NOW PERSEUS."

Goosebumps and quiet looks iced the entire class as Percy screeched his chair back and stomped out of the room. Taking the time to turn back at me and shoot a fiery green glare. Greek fire levels of anger. Again. Maybe he just hadn't gotten it all out of his system from before.

So I did what I had to.

I blew him a kiss. Admittedly a bit smug.

"Now Piper," Mr. Blofis continued stiffly. "Because you feel the need to criticize the topic 'weekend', you can pick the writing topic today. Okay?"

"O-Okay sir." Piper looked ready to shrivel up.

"I'm stepping out for two minutes to make sure Mr. Jackson makes it to the Principal's office. By the time I get back you should be writing. Okay?"

A resounding wave of affirmatives echoed back to him.

"Alright. Annabeth? You're in charge."

A shiver of pride went through my gut. I tried to hide the obvious shine of power that it gave me. It's always a nice feeling when the teacher trusts you most out of anyone in the class. Really, I'm not a teacher's pet… but I do like the attention and trust teachers bestow upon me when they're feeling stressed.

(Don't lie. You'd like it too if it ever happened to you. Not that it will)

"Let's take out all his rubber bands and put them on the wheels to his chair so it won't roll!" Connor stood up abruptly, the moment the door clicked shut.

"No! Let's switch out the dry erase markers with our permanent ones!" Travis said.

"Or I could slap you with my ruler, old school style," I said chirpily. "See which one of you yelps louder. We could make a science experiment out of it."

Mr. Blofis being in a bad mood = I can get away with murder.

I once duct taped Connor to a chair when I was left in charge and he got in trouble for annoying me. So clearly the boys knew I was serious, and quickly shut up and slumped back into their seats.

Power. I does something to you. I grinned maniacally.

"Soulmates," Piper decided quickly. Before any other antics could start up. "Everyone just write about your opinion of soulmates."

A few people snuffed, but more or less everyone got down to work. It wasn't surprising Piper would choose that topic, being one herself. Scribbles of pens and pencils scraping against paper settled into the background. I kept my eyes off my desk, scouring the rows for anyone who dared step out of line. Ruler ready. A warden watching the pen.

"Y'know you didn't have to do that." Rachel leaned in closer to me, just a whisper on her breath.

"Do what?" I responded, equally quiet.

"Get Percy in trouble."

My lips pinched into a purse involuntarily. Disgust built in the back of my throat. I loved Rachel, but her taste was terrible.

"He was being a snert," I informed.

"Yeah well, he did clean up the ramp. That's why he was late. Did you really have to make Mr. Blofis go off on him?"

"You're biased for him," I said.

"A crush doesn't make me biased."

"No you're right. A thirteen year crush is what makes you biased," I said pointedly.

Rachel's eyes glittered stubbornly. She had her mouth twisted to one side. A telltale sign that she was thinking like a little red fox trying to tease a mouse out of its hole.

"Well as a girl who has been watching him for thirteen years, I can tell you that he's not as bad as you think he is."

"He's probably worse."

"Annabeth-"

"He's a nuisance Rachel. You're gooey feelings for him are clouding your judgement."

"And your thirteen year cat fight is clouding yours!" Rachel hissed back.

From the corner of my eye I began to see students pick their heads up to glance in our direction. As 'left-in-charge-pupil' this was tarnishing my reputation. And as history has taught us, a leader who has lost the faith of his people ends his nation with chaos.

"Whatever. We have a paragraph to write about soulmates." I straightened the paper in front of me with an air of importance and started jotting down the first words that came to mind. I don't even think they were in the lines.

"I'll write about how people who've known each other for years can suddenly show soulmate symptoms," Rachel pondered out loud with clear provocation. Her voice still dimmed so her words reached just me.

I gripped my pencil a little tighter, but kept my expression cool. "That's a super rare occurrence, Rach."

"I know."

It was a challenge. A 'watch me get soulmate matched with Percy Jackson, marry him and leave you' challenge. At least, that's what my overactive mind interpreted it as. Instead of answering, I lowered my head further and started writing facts about soulmates. Drawing letters into the page so hard that the pencil lead strained beneath my fingertips and creased the paper.

Only the bad facts came to mind, probably thanks to Rachel. How even though soulmate magic only affected twenty percent of the population, it destroyed marriages and relationships, split families and even started wars. What more, it killed.

That's right. If you were part of the five percent that got the accidental messed up magic (glitched, love triangle, deathnapped, resistors) there was a very real chance you would die. Heck, if you didn't bond with your soulmate by a certain time, you would die.

Glitched. I glanced at Piper. Writing out the problems knotting in my head. Glitched soulmates were interesting because they were people with soulmate symptoms without any soulmate to bond to. Like false pregnancies or phantom illnesses. Except since they didn't have a soulmate to bond with, they'd die when the time ran out. Unless they bonded with another glitched soulmate. That would save them.

Love triangles are pretty self explanatory. One bond needed to take place and one too many candidates. One death is always expected in those situations.

And then there was deathnapped. People who's soulmates were dead. Either they just recently died or died years and years ago. So essentially since the soulmate magic was telling you that your perfect other was dead, you had to be dead too to bond with them. Bleak.

Resistors were just morons who refused to bond. Either they had this freedom idea in their head, or they were traumatized by the idea of conforming to the magic.

I paused writing. Spinning with emotions and realized that my jaw was clenched so hard my molars were starting to ache. Groaning, I sat back. Knowing that what I had written was total crap, and Mr. Blofis would point it out in a heartbeat. I turned the page over and started again.

Symptoms that show you've met your soulmate and are affected by the soulmate magic:

You burp up hearts (early stage)

Weakness in arms and legs (early stage)

Elevated heart rate (mid stage)

Difficulty breathing (late stage)

Coughing up blood (late stage)

Your head gets all loopy? (undefined)

I don't know, sounds like some sort of movie crap to me.

Frustrated, I rubbed it all out vigorously. I was too focused on facts, on science, on the mechanics of soulmates. Piper had clearly stated to write an opinion. Maybe that's where I was going awry.

But what did I have to say on the system? What could I write? It was faint magic in our world that only affected people when it was pointing out who was most suiting for who. You'd burp up hearts until you bonded with your soulmate and after that it was all peachy.

Scoffing to myself, I started scratching down some half baked opinion of soulmates on the page. They sucked. Did I really think that? I don't know. I'm not a soulmate expert like Piper. All I knew was that it would be terrible to have your life dictated by a saliva covered tiny heart you belched up. Like a tonsil stone but scary.

I wrote about glitched soulmates. The terror it causes and the death sentence it gives. How if you are the only one experiencing soulmate symptoms, and the person of your affections isn't, you are a glitch. And a dead person walking. Your legs grow weak, your lungs feel heavy, your heart slowly starts to just give up.

Piper was thought to be that. She had a bag full of hearts and no one to give them to. She had never spoken to Jason Grace in her life so she just assumed that she was a glitched soulmate. Stung with a powerful magnetic love that would never be fulfilled. Last year she was new, and painfully quiet. She'd sneak through the halls without talking to anyone.

All until she tripped one day in the cafeteria and spilled hundreds of popcorn sized hearts across the tiled floors. Catching everyone's attention with the shimmering tinkles of noise and the look of existential crisis on Piper's face.

It all turned out in the end. Jason came back from a two week vacation, saw the 'save Piper Mclean campaign', realized who his soulmate was and rescued her with one disgustingly sweet kiss.

It was gross.

"Alright class." Mr. Blofis slunked back into the unearthly quiet room. Collapsing in his chair as if he had just had a very long fight with the minotaur himself. "Pass your sheets to the front. Let's move on to our grammar books."

The rest of class was uneventful. Rachel wouldn't look at me. Connor and Travis were apparently still under the influence of my threat so they didn't make a peep. Behind me Piper and Hazel would occasionally giggle and rustle things as they passed notes but that was the usual. The smattering of other students weren't even noteworthy.

Finally the bell chimed through the classroom and a burst of rustling papers, and excited mutters started up. Mr. Blofis stood at the front wishing everyone to have a pleasant day when he held out a hand to stop me.

Expectantly I looked at him, waiting for instructions or a quick favor, maybe even a complaint about my ruling tactics. Instead he looked slightly sheepish.

"I don't normally ask for such a favor," he started. "It's just… You're an excellent student Annabeth. One of the things you soar at is grammar and…"

"Need help marking papers?"

"Not exactly. You see, my wife is trying to start her writing career. She's written a book that she asked me to beta but with my second job, and duties at home I don't exactly have the time."

"So... you want me to beta read her book?" I asked.

I was slightly incredulous. This was quite unexpected. Betaing a book was something you asked a dear friend to do, or a neighbour at least. There was something so personal about it.

"Yeah. And don't go thinking this is just a favor. In return for betaing, you won't have to submit two assignments of your choosing."

I was going to say no. This wasn't my cup of tea. English wasn't even my favorite subject. I was freaking dyslexic for crying out loud! That's when I noticed the fine rings of red rimming his eyes. How his slumped shoulders had forced his head into a broken hunch. The true depths of his sunken eyes still glittering like two black marbles in a pond. How the grim lines etching into the corner of his brows and forehead added years to his expression.

He was the image of desperation. Just a guy trying to be the best of fathers, and best of husbands. Stooping so low that he was asking one of his own students to fill a slot he couldn't.

At least he wasn't asking me to babysit. I am not child friendly.

"Okay sure." I relented. "Do you just want to send it to me by email? Or…"

"Well that's the thing. My wife, Sally, would like, if it's not too inconvenient for you, to come over and talk with her about it."

"Come over? When?"

"Tonight?"

…. Tonight… well then… it's not like I have anything better to do.

He sounded so ashamed for asking such a thing. Both of us were standing there knowing the oddity of a teacher inviting his student over for a favor. Neither of us wanted to say out loud how weird the atmosphere was, and I'm pretty sure he thought I would reject the offer now that I had to step into his home.

"Just give me the address and I'll be there by four."

Quietly he jotted something down on a scrap piece of paper and handed it to me without meeting my eyes. A sort of mourning in his movements as if he had just sacrificed his pride in order to fulfill this transaction.

"My wife will insist on making you dinner. Is that okay?"

"It's fine Mr. Blofis. I have to leave by nine though."

"Alright. Guess I'll see you tonight."

"See you."

I left the room with an unearthly feeling of awkwardness. Somewhat curious and somewhat dreading what four o'clock would bring.

.oOo.

Before I left the school Rachel pounced on me and hugged the living daylights out of my lungs.

"Oxygen!" I wheezed. She let go and dazzled me with an impish grin so wide I thought her delicate cheeks would crack.

"I love you!" she proclaimed, loud enough that it echoed down the empty hall.

"At least one of us does."

"You're an angel!"

"So was Lucifer."

"Don't you know what you've done?"

"I couldn't possibly have achieved world peace. That's a college goal, and I haven't graduated yet. So no. No clue." I rolled my eyes. Rachel was as vague as they came. I would be frustrated with her if I didn't love her to bits.

"When you got Percy in trouble this morning he had to confess why he was late to class. Which meant he had to confess to cleaning up the ramp, which he had to confess to messing it up in the first place. So instead of giving him detention for the rest of the school year, or suspending him, the Principal is making him volunteer for Art Club for the whole semester! THIS IS MY CHANCE!"

"WHAT THE HELL?! WHY DON'T THEY JUST SUSPEND HIM?!"

I cursed the whole way to my car. I cursed on the cracked highway. I cursed at the orange and crimson leaves gracefully fluttering in the stiff wind. I cursed at the dismal clouds that framed this fall day and the heatless sun that made my hair glow.

I cursed while pulling into Paul Blofis's driveway on his rural street. I cursed his nice little green lawn, and idyllic little white paneled house. I told the child's trike to shit itself, and the vibrant marigolds to go to hell. I was listing the things the doorbell could go do (m-rated) when the navy door slid back with a click and lengthy groan.

"Hello Annabeth! Welcome!" Paul Blofis stood there, trying not to look pained by my presence.

"Hi! I hope I'm not too early." I said chirpily with an angelic smile.

"Not at all!" Mr. Blofis made way for me to come into his little home and step into the living room.

If I could choose two words to describe his house it would be: Worn love.

Dusty green paint was chipping off the corners of the walls. Little pathways of tested grey was treaded into the hardwood flooring. On the ceiling I could see spots where cracks and water stains had been loved out of existence with spackle and paint. Not to mention the furniture was definitely outdated and very exhausted telling by the sag in the black upholstery.

But with each dented wall, or curved floor panel there was a sign of love.

A little handmaid shoe rack by the front door. Frames of pictures dotting the walls, mantle piece and shelves. An old jam jar filled with yellow dandelions and white wild daisies sat on the coffee table. A tiny embroidered heart in the sofa where a tear had been patched up and hundreds of crayon drawings taped knee high all around the living room.

I could see traces of a baby too. Little covers on the sockets. A muted animated show bounced on the screen. Baby gates, and handle coverings and soft coloured plushies that sat on the couch expectantly.

It was a fitting nest for Paul Blofis, the ever chaotic bird. But there was a family order to it I sensed was there but couldn't see.

From the small kitchen, through the door on the right, came a pretty middle aged woman. Brown hair bound up with a pencil, a few streaks of finger paint on her cheeks and million miles worth of joy in her smile.

Perched on her hip was a baby girl. Blessed with plump rosy cheeks, big expressive brown eyes and a lick of curly brown hair. Her little face puckered up in wonder as she examined me pensively. She was cute enough to almost make my cold heart thaw.

Thankfully Sally handed off the child to Mr. Blofis before coming to greet me. (What? Children are little germ bags).

"You must be Annabeth," she said with an excited warmth. "I'm Sally Blofis."

And I'm not going to lie, it was a whirlwind after that. Estelle (the baby) was put down for a nap and Paul took off for his second job. Sally and I were seated in the little kitchen with sterile white walls, odd blue counters and an inexplicably yellow stove. (Kind of sixties meet poor life choices.) At a round wooden table layered with stains we sat opposite each other. A bundle of papers in front of each of us as she explained how she expected to do this. Chapter by chapter.

There was tea I think, and some chatter about what led her to write this style of book. (Historical Fiction). And the conclusion I came to, which was: Sally Blofis was the sweetest woman in the entire universe.

She just didn't want me to beta her book and be on my way. She wanted to know me, she wanted to understand me, and most importantly she wanted to feed me because apparently I looked like I needed 'a nice hot meal and some delicious dessert to lure you back'.

Which is like… I'm not complaining. If she wanted to bribe me into coming back for desserts, I gladly would. Food plays a strong part in what keeps me alive, and delicious desserts play a strong part that keeps me happy and alive.

I was content to just sit at that homely little table and talk to Sally for hours when something caught my eye passing the doorframe. Lurking in the living room like a little shadow monster. At this point the sun had well set, and the kitchen held the only light on in the house so beyond was dark. I could've just been seeing things. I didn't want to alarm Sally so I politely excused myself to go to the bathroom and creeped into the darkness. Scanning every corner just in case what I glimpsed at had some merit.

"What are you doing here?" a low unsettled voice muttered from behind me.

I swung backwards without even looking and nailed my elbow into the soft flesh of someone's belly. A muffled grunt irked near my ear, and when I had wheeled around the intruder was bent over in pain. I poised my hands, ready for an attack. A fiery sense of defensiveness raging in my veins with the thought of who was in danger. Sally and her baby. This person would not touch either of them. I would mess up this guy's face so bad he'd cry every time he passed a reflection if he made a wrong move.

"What the hell?! I know you don't like me but that was low Chase."

Nevermind it was just Percy. Turns out it was just going to be a single homicide instead of face shredding.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed. Grabbing him by his hoodie and dragging him back up to eye level. "Breaking and entering is a serious crime you neanderthal!"

"Breaking and… what?"

"OOohhh I see. You're trying to get back at for sending you to the Principal's office. What were you going to do huh? Steal? Vandalize? Or maybe something more sinister like unplug his fridge or steal all of the AAA batteries."

Heat knotted throbs through my heart. A tense ball of fire was lurching around my chest, growling, screaming for justice.

This. This pathetic pile of muscle and skin was the subject of Rachel's affection. This creep who would go so far to get petty revenge he would commit a crime. A stupid little crime. Why did she have to like him so strongly?

Before I could voice any other dislikes I heard a sharp jangle and the sound of a key sliding deep into a lock followed by the click. Mr. Blofis was home. He couldn't see Percy here. By damn, not with his stress level already, he couldn't see the stupid intruder.

Panic scattered through my heart before I had the good sense to grab Percy by the head and stuff him behind the sofa. Shushing his confused protests and kicking him a final time when he was trying to squirm out. He yelped like a puppy.

Tiredly, stumbled in and switched on the light with a casual flick of his wrist. He fought off his shoes and set down a hefty briefcase with his jacket already off and swung rakishly over his shoulder.

When he saw me he flinched like a cat facing a cucumber.

"Annabeth! Why… why were you just standing there in the dark… alone..."

"Helps me get a better understanding of Mrs. Blofis's character's point of view," I said without an expression. Percy was trying to worm his way out again. Kicking a lump behind the sofa would be suspicious. I had to hold back.

My skin started to prick with sweat.

"But… the story is about soviet union peasants living in six months of sun in the north? How does darkness help that?"

"Well nothing compares to the darkness that lies inside sir."

"The main characters are children…"

"Yes. Nature's most despicable creation."

"What?"

"What?"

Just then, Percy finally freed himself from being wedged between the sofa and wall and emerged like a newly born groundhog seeing the surface for the first time. Taking in a large gasp of air while simultaneously glaring at me like I was the problem here.

"Percy?" To my surprise, Mr. Blofis only sounded confused and slightly weirded out but not shocked. Or stress level spontaneous combustible. "What were you doing... behind the sofa?"

"Looking for Soviet Union era children apparently." Percy muttered while rubbing his rump. "By the way, what is this psycho-"

"Percy," Paul warned.

"What's she doing here?" Percy glowered at the floor. Refusing to look up at even my perplexed expression as I watched the two exchange dialogue.

"Annabeth is helping your mother edit her book. Now wash up, dinner will be soon." Mr. Blofis sent me a polite smile before he fell into the kitchen to greet his wife. Leaving me to stare at the ever hated Percy Jackson even more incredulously than before.

"Mother?! She- her, that wonderful woman is your Mother?"

"What of it?" Percy loured. Seemingly in twice the worse mood than before. (Which personally, I thought was impossible but whatever.)

"Nothing," I said defensively. "It's just, well… you're nothing alike."

"No shit."

"Is Paul Blofis your dad then?"

"Step Dad." Percy corrected with a sharpness in his tone. Like a yip a wolf gives in warning when it feels its territory is being invaded upon. "But I just call him Paul."

"So Mr. Blofis really doesn't get a break, does he?" I muttered. "Usually teachers get to leave the problem students at school but Mr. Blofis has to deal with your attitude twenty four seven."

"Pretty much."

"And what. You don't care?"

"Not even a little."

"You're an ass."

"Yeah I have a nice ass, what of it?" He had the audacity to smirk. Again I was struck how my best friend was head over heels for this ape festering mold pit and a physical urge to vomit nearly overcame me. The heat of my loathing started to radiate from my eyes and Percy met my glare with a cool cocky one.

I was seconds from throwing fists. (Again. Le sigh)

"Dinner!" Mrs. Blofis called from the kitchen. I unspooled my muscles as she popped her head around the corner. "Percy could you get Stella up please? We should sit down while it's still hot."

Percy shrugged and brushed past me. Knocking my shoulder as he went. Instead of traipsing down the hall (with his knuckles dragging), he slipped on his shoes by the front door.

I caught the moment the sparkle drained from Sally Blofis's eyes. The way her slight shoulders drooped and the disappointed press of her lips. "You're going out?"

"Yeah."

"Can you at least eat some supper before you go?"

He didn't even answer her. The door slammed shut behind him. Sally and I flinched in unison at the noise. From down the hall a little cry grew momentum until it permeated through every wall in the house.

Dejectedly, Sally followed the cry to the room of her baby, and disappeared behind a white door decorated with silver stars. Mr. Blofis stormed past me six seconds later. Cheeks red and eyes sharp in what I can only describe as 'strict teacher mode'. I watched him bolt through the threshold and catch Percy by the arm at the end of the path. Watching through the window quietly. Darkness made their forms merely shadowed silhouettes in the night.

I edged closer to get a better look. My heart spinning circles in my chest, and my throat knotted with even more hate for Percy Jackson.

Through the crack in the window, propped open by a stick, flowed cool fall air and fragments of a very strained conversation.

"Please. Just once, stay for dinner."

Whatever Percy said it was low and sulking. Too low for me to catch.

"Your mother misses you every night. If you could just-"

Percy threw off Mr. Blofis hand with a wretch from his shoulder. I couldn't catch any of his other brooding words but I saw the snake like venom in his eyes. How they glinted maliciously under the soft glow of the faraway streetlight.

Without another word Percy stomped off. Hood up, with his hands stuffed deep into his pockets. Walking down the middle of the street and slowly fading into the shadows left by low hanging trees. Paul physically slumped down in defeat.

I wasn't supposed to see that.

I wasn't supposed to have a new deep understanding of the true level of need Paul Blofis was in. He was doing everything in his power for his family's happiness, yet he still ended up with a thorn like Percy Jackson.

"Percy he… He's just a little tired." Sally's voice came from behind me.

It was a weak explanation but what other one would she give? She was his mother. She adored him with every fiber of her being. No way in hell would she betray her boy with bitter words about his troubled nature.

I turned to look at her. Noticing that she had Stella in her arms again. Satiated by a little pink binky that bobbed at every suck. With the weight in her arms, and the slanted shadows falling across her face, Sally looked world worn and ancient in the soul.

"I'm sure." I tried for a smile but gave a weak grimace instead. "Now dinner? I've been smelling it all night, and it smells divine."

If he can't be good to them, at least I can.

.oOo.

"Hi Dad," I tried not to sound too interested. I was posed with my homework in the kitchen. The only place we ever crossed paths ever. Nine forty five on the nose. Every night.

"Hey." He was distracted. Probably thinking about work. Or night school. Or both at the same time. My father was the hardest worker this side of the west coast.

"Are you looking for anything specific?" I asked from the island counter without looking up. I could hear the clink of jars and slosh of juice as he pushed things aside in exploration.

"Ham?"

"In the crisper drawer."

"Aha. What would I do without you?" My father didn't even turn to face me. He took off with a fat slice of ham covered and mustard, and that was our interaction for the night.

What would I ever do without you?

Have a real family, probably.

.oOo.

Rachel and I had similar situations. Rich parents who worked their tushies off to provide everything for their only child. Everything but quality one on one time and affection of course. So between the two of us, we raised each other pretty dang well. She was on the up and up to becoming a very well known, and respected artist, and I got good grades. (Yay me)

Between the two of us, we had two empty mansions and tons of money to throw around.

So yeah, we usually spent our free time crowded inside an empty walk-in closet with take in orders of the cheapest chinese food we'd use coupons on.

It's called 'avoiding reality' I'm pretty sure.

Anyways. The walk-in closet wasn't just an empty space with a few shelves inside. I had totally transformed it the year after graduating elementary school. With my excellent online skills I was able to whip up a futon mattress, some dangly twinkle lights that draped around the room, an old tube television, an old game console, and a record player with hundreds of old vintage records.

Rachel had painted colourful murals depicting cartoon characters, and scenic places on the walls and the hardwood flooring was home to an assortment of tiny rugs I found on a suspicious website.

"Have you called Grover yet?" I asked absentmindedly. Sprawled across the futon with Rachel lying over my legs. Half watching Covergirl starring Rita Hayworth and half scrolling through instagram on my phone. Paying attention to neither really. In the other room ABBA was playing on the old stereo. Rachel and I's favorite song, 'Chiquitita'. We'd been dancing to that tune since we were five years old and weren't inclined to stop anytime soon.

"Yeah, I called him at six. He says he'll be at school tomorrow, and his mom isn't going to sue because her regular lawyer retired."

"If I was Mrs. Underwood's lawyer, I'd retire too." I snorted.
"He wanted to say hi to you and thank you for bringing up the ramp problem with Percy but you didn't answer your phone?" She shot a glance over her shoulder. Looking to see if she could find the answer in my face.

"Yeah I was busy. Mr. Blofis wanted me to edit something. He claims I have impeccable grammar," I said.

"Huh. Is that all?" Rachel glanced back at me again. In the dim light of the closet, I didn't know how she was sketching such a detailed drawing into her sketchbook but she was.

"What do you mean is that all?" I shifted slightly and popped my phone back in my pocket. Arching my eyebrows at her as she sent back another look for good measure.

"Well, you're just really muted tonight. You haven't made any dry humor cracks in almost half an hour. Did something happen?"

For some reason the first thing I thought of was Percy's sweatered back walking away with a moody hunch. Then of Sally's eyes that held a quiet sadness. It was like a mud pile of grease was hanging in my gut. Sullied anger.

I looked at my hands. "I just, I got to see his home life. Mr. Blofis that is."

"You went to his house?"

"Yeah."

"Was it bad?"

"Not bad… just eye opening I guess. We give Mr. Blofis a lot of flak for never being on top of things but honestly now I don't blame him. He's got a baby girl to look after, and two jobs-"

"Two?"

"Yeah. Teachers are paid in crumbs apparently. He's just trying his best and…"

And he has garbage for a stepson.

I didn't know if I should say that. What I had seen seemed personal. Not to Percy, but to Mr. Blofis. Plus whatever I told Rachel she'd just try and justify Percy's actions. Yes, she was that deep in this crush.

(Pretty sure half the girls at Goode high were too but that's beside the point.)

"Doesn't his wife work?" Rachel asked.

"No?"

"Why not?"

"Well like, they have a baby to look after."

"And they've never heard of daycare?"

"I don't know the ins and outs of this family Rach, I met them tonight."

"Hmm." I could tell Rachel was frowning. "If you just met them tonight, then why are you so torn up about Mr. Blofis' situation?"

I set my head back against the wall and stared up at the blank ceiling. My settled anger for Percy Jackson started to rise again. I clenched my eyes shut.

"Just makes our class's treatment of him feel so wrong y'know? Like all the disrespect and laziness from us isn't making his life any easier." I said. Twiddling with a curl of Rachel's wooly red hair as I spoke.

"Like making him escort a student to the Principal's office?" Rachel said slyly. Her murky green eyes flashed back at me once more to read my expression.

"Like Percy Jackson's entire attitude," I said sternly. "Like Connor and Travis's cruel pranks, how Piper and Hazel talk over him the entire time and those other kids with the non-stop daydreaming and snarks and excuses it's all just… augh."

The quick patterned scratchings of Rachel's sketch work stopped and she released a heavy breath. "Yeah. I suppose. But do you think we could do anything about it?"

"Probably not," I muttered. Allowing my focus to shift back to the fizzy screen alight with music. Rita Hayworth was singing about something long ago and far away in a teal abomination of a dress. Gene Kelly floated around her in his classic dancelike motions. Enchanted by her whimsical eyes.

I sighed and flicked Rachel in the back of her head. Trying to get her attention again, but instead I got a playful slap in return. She was humming along to the chorus line of 'Chiquitita'. Probably expecting me to jump in and sing with her like I always did.

"Hey!" I caught her arm the second time it came back to bop me.

"What?" She asked absentmindedly. Still sketching away with her free hand.

"Would you really date Percy if you had the chance? I mean, theoretically speaking, if he asked you out, would you go out with him? Could… could you date someone you know hates me, and whom I hate?"

Do you value what I think so little?

Rachel flipped her sketchbook closed and plopped her pencil in the jumbled pile she called a pencil case. Things were getting serious. With conflicted eyes she sat up and perched herself on the corner of the futon. Legs crossed and lips pursed.

"I think," she began. "That if pigs flew, and the sky turned pink and Percy asked me out I'd say yes. Only because I know you two just misunderstand each other. He's a good guy. You just need to see that."

I could make out the truthfulness in her murky green eyes. Even in this twinkle lighted room she shone with an honesty that I believe came from ignorance. I hoped at least.

Still, I was struck with Sally's mournful gaze. The collapsible state Paul Blofis arrived in every morning. There was no way a kid with such good parents turned out this way because of them. He was his own creation.

I tried not to sound cagey. "Why? Why do you think he's so good?"

Somberly, Rachel reached across and clicked the pause button, leaving Rita Hayworth frozen in midair. The music cut short and a slight wrinkle appeared in Rachel's freckled nose as she thought deeply.

'Sing a new song, Chiquitita.' The lyrics flowed in from the other room still now, uninhibited by the movie. My hopes were tied in with that song. If only Rachel would pick up a new tune about Percy.

"He doesn't treat anyone differently based on where they come from," she said. "He's kind."

Kind?

Was this girl blind? Did she not see the way this boy treated teachers and staff members? The truth of what I'd seen tonight burned in my throat. If I only told her how he behaved at home, how his sweet mother looked so broken by his ways then maybe Rachel would pull herself out of it.

Instead, I scoffed. "Kind? A million guys are kind Rachel."

"But not like Percy's kindness. Percy is like this quiet kindness. He does things when he thinks no one is looking and never takes credit when it's noticed. All you have to do is watch him for a while to see it."

"Watch him?" The prospect was desperately unappealing.

Rachel smiled softly. "Yeah. Watch him."

.oOo.

Okay fine. So I watched him. I watched him for two weeks. I watched him eat his lunch like a dog. Laugh like a hyena with his pack of troublemaker friends. I watched him sleep in class. I watched him peg Leo Valdez with eraser bits until Leo whooped his ass with a popsicle stick catapult. I watched him imitate the Principal's walk right behind the Principal. I watched him take out a sharpie and sign his name under one of the desks. I watched when he came in from break on his skateboard and zoomed down the halls high fiving random people. I even sat outside for a few minutes to watch him in detention, half dozing.

Just when I was giving up and about to turn away he did something. One thing. Across the street from the school stood a low stone bungalow blessed with tall trees encasing the land. In the yard was a little girl desolately staring up one of the trunks.

Her remote control helicopter was trapped in one of the branches. It took Percy eight tries to get it down but he did it.

So fine. He had a jot of kindness in him. But that didn't stop how I thought about him. Percy Jackson was still the boy with no regard to the people who mattered most to him. And in my eyes that was almost unforgivable.

Almost.

.oOo.

A week after all that, Rachel came to school with a full face of makeup and her most complimented outfit on. Now normally I'd make a teasing remark but I kept my mouth shut. It was genuinely the first day of Art Club for her. The day they started painting instead of sketching. The day they'd need volunteers. The first day she finally, finally had an excuse to interact with Percy Jackson.

I wasn't pleased, but I didn't say anything. If she hadn't listened to anything I had said earlier, then it was most likely she wouldn't listen to me now.

Besides, deep down I had a dark little hope that in finally talking to the boy she'd come to realize his true nature.

I didn't have time to see her off to Art Club. Mr. Blofis had asked me to see his wife again. I had read chapter one in preparation and had notes and corrections ready. Plus there was a bonus that Percy Jackson would be busy all evening volunteering for Art Club. I wouldn't have to put up with his ugly glob of a personality.

I arrived at the Blofis' a little later than expected but was not unexpected. Sally had a mug of hot chocolate waiting for me and a batch of oddly blue chocolate chip cookies. With the brisk chill outside, and the long day of school I had just faced it was exactly what I needed. Mr. Blofis was already gone for his second job. (Filing clerk?) And little Estelle was babbling incoherent nonsense in her pale blue playpen beside the kitchen table. Being adorable, but at a distance. Just the way I liked it.

Sally was seated right across from me. Her earth brown eyes glowed with a kind happiness, and her perky form was lit with the dying afternoon sun coming in the window over the sink. Radiant, that's what she was. I had struggled to find the right word to describe Sally Blofis but now I knew. She was like the sun, blinding and warm but had a special quality that lit up all the beauty that lay around her. She had the ability to nurture growth and life.

It made giving my criticisms a bit harder to voice, but she never shied away from what I was saying. She took in stride my points on pacing and description and made little chicken scratch notes on a notepad she kept atop the fridge. For a moment I was even jealous of Estelle, because damn, I wanted a mother like her.

(Not to disrespect my own late mother, may her soul rest in peace.)

When I was just about to move on to the grammar mistakes I had knitted out, I did something stupid. An accident. In my fumble to realign my papers I knocked my mug over with the butt of my elbow. For a few heart pounding milliseconds I lunged to save it but it split against the floor with an ear cracking shatter. Launching fragments of white ceramic across the room, under the fridge, under the inexplicable yellow stove and pinging off our feet. A simple splatter of remaining hot chocolate smeared the floor in a less dramatic fashion.

Cringing, I started scraping the pieces into a pile. Wrestling with shame at how I just destroyed a nice mug and made their kitchen a splinter minefield. Not to mention the noise had startled little Estelle into a very shocked wail which drowned out my apologies very efficiently.

Curse children.

"I'm so sorry," I said louder. My face burned more and more with every second. "I didn't mean to. I'm just a klutz sometimes."

Sally didn't answer. I assumed she was trying to soothe Estelle, but the baby screamed on. Only when I came up from my crouch of humiliation did I notice that no Sally was not soothing Estelle. Sally wasn't doing much of anything.

I was struck with the vacancy of her eyes. How she was focused on the table in front of her but not really. How her stiff shoulders placed her rigid arms against the table. Fingers splayed out on the papers as if she were bracing for something. Pearls of sweat grew and gathered against her brow before leaking in a jagged line down her hollow cheeks. Quick shallow breaths came and went through her fluttering rib cage in a pure sign of panic.

"Mrs. Blofis?" I didn't know what to do. I was at a loss. She looked so strangled and in pain yet detached. My heart lurched. "Sally?"

With a gulp of strained air she snapped out of it. Her eyes darted around the room with the same panic before she settled into her own skin again. Trembling.

"Oh," she said softly. "Oh dear. That sounded sharp didn't it?"

There was a smile on her mouth then but it was weak. Stressed. Like she no longer had the strength to even lift the corners of her lips. Her eyes echoed a bone heavy tiredness.

"Sounded just like a beer bottle breaking," she added quietly.

My eyes flitted around her little body again intently. Truly taking in every detail this time. No biases, no pretenses. I was no longer looking at her as Percy Jackson's mother, or Mr. Blofis' wife. She was a person all her own. Her own story mapped out in her appearance.

Little scars on the palms of her hand and back of her forearms. Gained from defense. A hesitance to use her right hand I'd noticed before. Could've been a natural weakness or perhaps a break in the bone that never healed properly. Finally, the tiniest scar on her thin lower lip from continuous biting. A habit of nerves or stress.

My head swam with words like abuse and PTSD. Forming a thick lump in my throat that I had to swallow down before I could even attempt talking to her.

"Are you okay?" I asked simply. Estelle was still crying in the background. Without thinking, I stepped over the mess of shards and scooped her up. Holding her against my shoulder with my eyes still focused solely on Mrs. Blofis.

"Yes," she said in that unconvincing feeble tone.

I sat back down across from her. Rubbing Estelle's back slowly until her little arms stopped flailing and her deep bellied cries fell into soothed whimpers.

"You don't need to pretend around me," I said seriously. "I think I more or less just figured out what that was about."

As soon as I said that, her mask started to crumble. An exhaustion emerged from her shoulders. Her eyes welled to the point of spilling. I thought she would burst into sobs and I'd have to comfort both her and Estelle at the same time. Instead, Sally let her face fall into her hands and squeezed out a pressed breath. Forcing herself into a calm condition.

"I'm sorry," she said with an aura of defeat. "I… I don't mean to fall into these states, it's just-"

"Don't you dare apologize," I said. "It's not your fault."

This time her small sad smile had an ounce of genuinity to it. "You're such a sweet girl."

My questions must have been leaking through my eyes because Sally averted her gaze. The soft sadness enveloping her deepened.

"My second husband, Gabriel Ugliano, was a brash man," she explained. Burdened. "I was with him far too long."

I couldn't think of anything to say. Surely she'd already heard every sympathy on the planet to anyone that knew of that chapter of her life. So, like a stunned fish, I sat there and stared at her.

Sally unfolded her arms and held them out towards me. For an anxiety stricken second I thought she was looking for a hug. Naturally I realized she wanted me to pass her back her mewling baby, and did so without quarrel.

"Did he go to jail?" I couldn't resist this one question.

"Oh, he went to jail. He was sentenced for six months. That was five years ago. He's out now."

I buttoned my lips after that. I had the notion that she felt inclined to give me answers. That she was forcing herself to talk about it just because I'd witnessed a moment that was linked to another time. It didn't stop my thoughts though. I was piecing together scraps of things I'd learned into this web called a family.

For one, Percy's surname was not 'Ugliano'. Therefore it was safe to assume that Percy was born from the first marriage. Mystery male we'll call him. Then, for an undisclosed amount of time, Sally was married to Gabriel. Traumatizing Sally into PTSD (I think? I'm not a doctor), and doing hell only knows what to Percy Jackson.

No, I wasn't feeling sorry for Percy. I just suddenly had a key to his past that explained him a bit better. Made me understand who he was and how he was forged. Forcing me to come to the conclusion that; no he wasn't a self made creation. He was a product of his past and that's what I saw in him. And he was a fighter for a better life, and that's what Rachel saw in him.

My brain chewed on this all night. Through Sally and I's noticeably waning conversation. Through Paul Blofis coming home, and Stella going through all five stages of grief when he left the room for a second time. Through when Percy came back from 'volunteering' smudged with paint and grumpy. I watched him with fresh eyes as he sank into the basement and came up in clean clothes. The moment dinner was mentioned he left the house and even though I was looking at things from a new angle I was still enraged by this action. How Sally's disappointment seemed more poignant now than ever. A sliver of understanding was wedged in the rage however, and it fueled me.

When I got to my car I pulled my phone from my pocket and brought up Google.

'Gabriel Ugliano' I punched into the keyboard with my thumbs. That's where I found his very detailed Facebook profile. His long rambling posts, and unflattering photos weren't important to me.

I knew what I needed to do.

.oOo.

I didn't drive home that night. Normally it was of great importance that I make it home in time but I had an idea that was munching away at my brain tissue. Briefly I made a trip to a sports store, and then I was back on Paul Blofis' street. A few houses down so as not to garner any suspicion from him.

With my lights off the little car clock burned green against the darkness. Eleven fifteen. Dancing shadows edged in through my tinted windows as the fall wind whistled around. Gently, it scuttled the dry leaves against the pavement.

I could see him coming through my rear view mirror. Hood up again like some sort of thug and gliding in closer on his skateboard. Before he could pass my car by I popped open my door, forcing him to come to a cursing stop. I don't think he recognized me in the darkness.

"Get in loser we're going shopping," I said.

"Chase?"

"Don't ignore my Mean Girls reference. It's a good line."

He looked at me as if I were crazy. Not gonna lie, I couldn't blame him. If he sat in a car outside of my house and popped a two thousand's movie reference I'd be calling up every asylum this side of the west coast.

"C'mon. I don't have all night. Get in."

"Why? What are you doing here?" Percy flipped up his skateboard into his hand. A flightiness in his eyes as if he expected to be jumped. That familiar set in his jaw as he started rooting around for a fight.

What a pig.

"We're going hunting," I explained. Gripping the steering wheel because, styx I hated this boy's dumb head. I was not looking forward to the next hour.

"For what? Your self confidence?"

"No. Catharsis," I said. Ignoring his little jab.

"Who's she? Is she hot?" The inevitable smirk rose to his lips. I was tempted to shut the car door on him.

"Even if she was, I think you have enough restraining orders to get into hell anyways. Why overshoot?"

Deliciously, his smirk died. And so did any interest in coming with me apparently because he set his skateboard down.

"Get in," I said again before he could ride off. Inching my hand to the horn to maybe make him jump with a little blare of noise. I didn't actually press it, but the thought was alluring.

"Why?"

"Gee Jackson, I didn't know you were so scared of me."

And bingo, he was in the passenger side of my car in two seconds. Glowering at me with a challenged expression that I laughed off.

"You are so easy to manipulate."

I brought the car to life and took off well before he could make any complaints or give a second thought to being next to me. I would describe the atmosphere in the car but I didn't notice it. Only that Percy glanced at me occasionally, and I'd left the radio on low. No, I was focused on the road, on the plan.

We pulled into a parking lot just outside of a trailer park at eleven fifty five. I switched off of the car to kill the headlights, and left the keys in the ignition. Percy was even more perplexed when I waved at him to get out.

"This place is a dump," he scoffed. "Why are we here?"

He wasn't wrong. Just outside of the concrete lot I could see stubs of cigarettes, old burnt spoons and dull needles hiding in the long strands of shifting yellow grass. Crumpled and flattened pieces of litter speckled the ground in odd clusters. In the light from the single glaring street lamp, the shadows seemed more menacing.

I popped my trunk open and wrestled around with the mass of junk I'd accumulated back there. Knowing, somewhere in that matt, there was the freshly bought supplies.

"So you're a hoarder," Percy said while prodding a few things sticking out.

"Kleptomaniac." I corrected.

I actually wasn't, but it kept Percy quiet for the next five minutes. Plus I'm pretty sure he checked for his wallet and phone. Had to laugh at that.

I threw him a ski mask and a pair of gloves. "Here, put this on."

He caught them with profound confusion.

"Are we robbing somewhere? Am I your partner in crime?! What is this?"

"No," I eased him. "You're not my partner, you're my subordinate."

"What?"

"Alright, shut up and let's go." I had my duffel bag slung over my shoulder, and was garbed similarly with a purple ski mask and leather gloves. Two baseball bats lay on top of the mass of stuff, and I passed one to Percy before shutting the trunk.

He tried to ask me what was going on but I trekked forward. Through the tangle of mobile homes cursed with streaks of rust and fractured windows. Our feet padded against a hard packed and dusty earthen trail that snaked around every ill placed trailer. Signs of life were fringing the area in forms of sagging clotheslines, and abandoned deck chairs. Little washtubs that lay against the sides of the frayed structures, and empty beer bottles. No actual life was to be found however.

"Why is it so quiet?" Percy mumbled.

"First football night of the season." I realized it was true after I said it.

As I walked my eyes followed my faint shadow lumbering ahead of me, drawn in the ground from the silver moonshine. It was bizarre, seeing my own shadow. Knowing I moving it. Moving myself. Walking towards a decision I couldn't take back. Something that could change the entire course of my life if I was stupid enough to get caught.

Wheezing out a cough, I pulled nonchalantly at the collar of my shirt. A strict tension was building in my throat and heart. Forgetting I had a ski mask on, I kept my expression neutral.

We stopped at the opposite end of the trailer park where a second parking lot was laid. A similar, single streetlamp stood fluttering with old crack wing moths in the corner. Parked in the lines of old lemon cars and rust buckets was a sheek blue camaro with round headlights and a pair of black stripes right down the middle.

Masked up, I couldn't see Percy's entire expression but his eyebrows did knit together. I took it as a good sign, and walked straight up to the old car, setting my duffle bag and baseball bat down one over the other.

"This…" Percy uttered. Perplexity filled his tone.

Delicately, he extended one gloved hand out and ran his fingers over an indented scratch that reached over the car's face.

"So you know who's car this is," I said.

Percy swung around at me. The fight reincarnated back into his shoulders. Anger revived his glare. "How?! What are you-?"

"Does that matter now?" I said coolly. "Right now I'm giving you a chance for catharsis. Destroy this car with me, or just walk away and pretend that this never happened."

Percy's eyes were wide and shocked and strangely searching. It was as if he were suddenly seeing me for the first time in my life and it was rattling his core.

"So Percy Jackson?" I held out the baseball bat to him. "What are you going to do?"

There was a pause. A thought. Percy looked as if he were rethinking me, instead of the offer. His green eyes darted over my form, his tongue slid across his lips in a quick snakelike motion. With a quiver in his breath he gave me one more hard look before he stepped forward and promptly grabbed the bulk of the bat, slipping it from my grip. A bitter turn stitched down his lips into a frown. With a sharp tenseness he held it over his shoulder and kept it there. Looking straight at me. Waiting for instructions.

So maybe he wasn't as dumb as I thought.

I unzipped my duffle bag and yanked out two supreme powered fireworks. The kinds with the extra long fuses. I stuffed one under the hood with its string fuse sticking out like a rat's tail.

"Now," I said.

And the jarring sound of shattering glass took over my head once more. Reminding me of Sally Blofis's eyes, her terror, her breathless gasps. I brought my bat down on the mirror and it snapped off in a sparkle of splinters. A war cry broke past my lips, I crushed in the driver's window. Set the bat aside, and tossed the last bundle of fireworks in. Fuse facing outwards. The lighter felt heavier in my pocket but I wasn't ready to take it out.

In the corner of my eye, I caught Percy's ragged motions at work. How his eyes were empty, and his teeth bared back as he thrusted the bat over and over again in a downward motion. Robotic, ruthless, and heavy with memories. In his flailing rage he oddly reminded me of Sally. Something about the eyes perhaps. It wasn't fear it was… pain? I didn't know how to exactly label it. Whatever it was, it made Sally stiffen and Percy wild. Wild enough to wrench a door open and yank on its frame until it snapped out of place and clattered against the ground. Wiggling the car on its suspension. Wild enough to tear out seat stuffing and throb eardrums with the sound from his bat.

It was jarring and heart pounding because damn I'd never realized how powerful he was. But it also delivered a gut sinking element. What did Gabriel Ugliano do to him to make him this enraged?

Percy's arms fell to his sides when he realized I was watching him. Our eyes met in an intense lock, and I tried to pretend I didn't see the red in them. Or the little glimmer of moisture leaking from the corner of his lashes and into the mask. My heart shuttered a little and I let my eyes fall.

Back on track Annabeth.

I made a screeching karate noise and bashed in the back window with the butt of the bat. Percy returned to the work with gusto and sidled back up to the front to scatter the headlights with two powerful swings. Working out a heavy pop noise.

Between swings, I sought the lighter out of my pocket and tossed it across to him. He caught it with one hand.

"Light her up," I commanded while collecting the bats and duffle bag.

Just as the first fuse fizzed in we heard the shout.

Not Gabriel Ugliano. Just some joe trying to be a decent human being. Waving his arms out at us and hollering some mess of words about police. Percy ignored him and lit the second fuse.

When he started to sprint away, I had to snag him by the hood and drag him back.

"Wrong way moron," I hissed and pushed him towards the patch of woods behind the car park.

Percy belted a few curses but fell into line beside me, hearts drumming in our chests. We broke the tree line and leapt into the moonlight blotched forest floor. Snapping and rustling over twigs and leaves.

A powerful squeal cracked the night in two. Our backs were momentarily illuminated with an orange light before it faded. The fireworks began to ignite. One shrill whistle after another popped and banged and flashed with lights that delved deep into the woods. Making every shadow slanted.

Something snagged my foot and my world turned sideways with a dizzying loss of my balance. I tumbled face first to the ground. A lurch of panic skittered up my chest as I went. Then, a hot burning sensation ripped up my ankle following the trail of a log that had scraped me. Percy bounded over to where I was and clasped his hands around my wrist. Hoisting me to my feet.

But it was no use, I realized. It was too dark to make out anything farther than a meter and the heavy trunks surrounding us. Our footing was guesses at best as we clattered through the black. Finally I put a firm hand on Percy's chest and shoved him against a thick tree with gnarled textured bark.

"If we're not being followed, we'll double back," I breathed.

I was blessed in that a shimmer of moonlight had fallen through the trees and landed on his eyes. They blazed with green. Greek fire green.

He nodded slowly, staring at me again as if I were some novice thing to him. In silence we stood there. Trembling with anticipation. The cry of the fireworks stopped after a few minutes. Replaced by the distant noise of sweltering crackles and hungry churrs of a raging fire. I could already smell the salty stench of metal under intense heat.

Closer still were dry crunches. Other footsteps. Lighter, quicker, and definitely more sure footed. Two men. I caught the briefest of glimpses of them when they stepped under a break in the tree canopy. One poised low, and sloppily holding a gun in his left hand.

Aw shit.

Catharsis. NOT Death! Why did the world hate me?

Desperately I shoved my hand against Percy's lips to keep him silent and angled our bodies around the sturdy birth of the tree trunk. Hiding just slightly better in this woodland underbelly.

"C'mon Jack. Them just kids." Their voices were so far away, thank the heavens.

"And that car was almost mine. Ugliano owed me. He was gonna pay me with his ride. Damn kids have ruined everything."

I didn't realize how close I was to Percy until he wrapped his arms around my waist and I got a whiff of chlorine. Our torsos met, and he twirled us around with scarcely a shuffle of the leaves. Then my back was against the rough trunk and Percy was standing over me. His wide eyes alert and focused on the direction of the voices. Blocking me off from them.

"Jack, they ain't here."

"Shutup."

"Jack, yer wasting time."

There was a pause in the movement, and Percy tensed against me. Again our eyes met and I was stuck in his depth. I didn't know what to think just then.

"Aight fine," Jack said.

And then they were crunching away. Slowly edging out of the woods and back to the charred bundle of metal that used to be a car.

The moment I deemed it safe, I let go of my stale breath and shoved away from Percy. Relief washed over me in a delightful sensation.

"That was close."

Percy didn't say anything.

.oOo.

The camaro was indeed nothing but a steel frame and a few charred seats when we passed by the second time. Even though we were at a distance, the light spilling from its splendorous fire reached tendrils of light in all directions. Savage silhouettes danced around the flames, people trying to contain it. I didn't see Percy's reaction but I hoped it was satisfaction.

We drove home in silence.

Pulling on to the dark street again, it was hard conceptualizing what we just did. I wasn't a law breaker (normally). I wasn't expecting to feel so calm. Percy seemed slightly upset but it could've been his teenage boy diet of cheese puffs and energy drinks.

I figured he would leave without saying anything but then he cocked his head slightly, staring at the dashboard with a deep rooted vacancy. A dim gleam of green illuminated his features from the little block numbered clock.

12:55 a.m

"Why?" he asked hoarsely.

The ski mask had upset his cropped raven hair into a sort of disjointed crown. I focused there instead of his eyes. Feeling the tension of the night finally start to completely dissipate. However a sharp sense in my gut whispered it wasn't quite over yet. I shifted my car into park and twisted the key out of the ignition. The thrum of metal and gas at work died, and we sat in an anchored quiet.

"I didn't do it for you," I confessed.

That just made more questions for him, I could tell. His eyebrow twitched.

"I did it for your mom. She's the sweetest person I've ever met. I know I've only known her for two weeks but… she's special. And you being unable to deal with whatever trauma that man gave you affects her directly."

Percy's lip curled back in semi disgust. "So what? I'm just a tool to you?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

My bluntness rolled him off guard. For a moment his eyes widened at me and his shoulders rose with defiance. I didn't have to flinch back from the fight I knew was coming. Or maybe I just didn't care right then. I was tired and my chest was beginning to hurt.

"You're messed up," he scoffed. Already reaching for the door with his skateboard swung under his other arm.

"Maybe," I conceded. "But not as messed up as you are now."

Percy's eyes latched on to mine again. Greek fire burning in his eyes. Like a lion heaving in a breath for a roar, he leaned forward, lips curled back with rage.

"Me? Look at yourself Chase, you dragged me out in the middle of the night to vandalize a car for what? The hope that it would just magically make all my family problems go away? And you call me worse? Are you delusional?"

I tapped his nose twice with a light smile. Knowing that my unruffled mood was driving thorns of frustration all throughout his body. "I understand exactly what's going on in your little ferret mind Percy Jackson."

Tee minus six seconds to Jackson mountain eruption. Even in this subtle light, I could tell his face was flushed and boiling.

"You can't possibly-"

"Because I've been where you are," I cut him off coldly. Changing my expression to ice when I felt like he would charge away instead of listening to what I had to tell him. My actions tonight would be of no use unless he listened. "I've been on the same train as you, Jackson. I know what collison lies ahead and I know what the burn of the flames will cost you."

"Cut the metaphors," he snarled.

"You're angry."

"No shit."

"You're angry at Paul. Paul has nothing to deserve this anger, but still you're angry with him. Your mother loves Paul and that makes you angry at her. Estelle is Paul's daughter and that makes you angry at her. Finally you're angry at yourself because you don't know why you're angry to begin with. So you push them away as hard as you can. You fight to keep away from them, are disrespectful when you feel threatened, you make sure they know that you don't care."

Perhaps if Percy was a little more pride driven he would stop me. He'd tell me I was wrong and deny everything in a flurry of excuses and rage. But he didn't. He stared at me with those green eyes glinting like ocean pearls. Taking me in again. Watching me move like I was a person he'd never met before. Like we hadn't been at eachothers throats since grade one.

"You're angry at Paul because he lies in the same category as Gabriel Ugliano. Step father. You've convinced yourself that you've moved past what happened in your childhood but you haven't-"

"I have-"

"If you really had, would you have helped me destroy his car tonight?" I asked simply.

Percy's eyes smoldered. He knew I was making sense, and if he was anything like me then that would drive him insane.

"Your anger hurts your mom more than anyone. She blames herself, y'know."

I paused to let a heavy silence in. Outside the wind hushed through branches and scraped through the dying brush. Percy let the silence grow stale and I sighed. My chest was really starting to hurt. It drummed with a sharper gassy ache. This had gone on too long. I wanted to go home.

"Now Jackson, are you going to get out of my car or what?"

Percy moved for the door but paused. Latched there by stubbornness I suppose. Disappointment clouded over me when he swiveled his attention back over to me.

"Paul isn't that great a guy," he muttered.

"He's human," I said. "He holds 'stepfather' title and that's messing with your judgement."

"Oh, and you're the perfect judge of character? You can instantly just tell when people are good or bad?"

"Well I've hated your guts for the last thirteen years, and the more you talk to me the more I think I'm pretty damn good at it." I crossed my arms. Percy made a face. "Are you seriously going to try and tell me Paul is a horrible person when he works two jobs to support his family and deals with your sorry arse when your mother lacks the strength to?"

"You know nothing."

"Then prove it. Tell me something that shows Paul is horrible. Give me evidence. If you have an accusation you better be ready to defend it."

Percy's jaw clenched into a hard line that could cut marble.

"He's not worth my mom," he said through his teeth. I decided to drop the fact that that was clearly not evidence. Or even a good defense. Percy Jackson would make a terrible lawyer.

"So your mom is perfect?" I redirected.

"Yes."

"If she were perfect she would choose the perfect partner for herself, yes? So either you're unfairly judging Paul, or your mom isn't as perfect as you claim."

Got him.

Percy stared into his lap. Grinding his teeth slowly while he tapped out a random tune on his knee. Thinking, thinking, thinking. The dim glow from the green clock still outlined the structure of his face, the fringes of his messy hair, and the curve of his lips.

1:05 a.m.

It was late. Or early. Depending on what kind of person you are. I didn't care. I just wanted to be home now. My chest was in pain.

"So this is what it comes down to," he muttered. "You think I judge Paul unfairly, but what if I told you I think you've judged me unfairly? Would you use my same arguments?"

Yes. Something chimed in the back of my head but my conscious answer was no. One was the truth at least. Although, I would never admit it.

"We could argue about this for hours," I moaned. "It's late. We have school tomorrow. Just get out of my car and maybe think about what I said."

Percy rolled his eyes, but he left. Taking his frayed little skateboard with him, and slumping forward into the night ahead. I watched him go up his driveway then switched on my car.

Before I pulled away, I pressed on the overhead light and popped open the glove box. Searching around the cramped manuals and random wrappers to see if I had any Tums lolling about.

Nothing.

I groaned and held a fist to my chest, trying to push down the uncomfortable pain. It was like a bubble was caught there and slowly expanded. Stretching my insides and threatening to split a long slit right up my torso.

Suddenly a lump of air wormed its way up my esophagus and I belched out a long relieving burp of bile breath. It left a little weight on my tongue and I grimaced, thinking I had slightly thrown up in my mouth. But when I prepared to swallow it back down, my tongue hit it against the roof of my mouth and I found it to be hard.

What the?

I spat it out. It fell into the light.

A cold wave chilled me from scalp to toes.

A little life changing heart sat in the hollow of my palm. Slick with spit, and no bigger than a quarter. It glowed softly with silver light, and deep within it's cold smooth cover I could see thousands of little stars living among its walls. An entire galaxy in fact.

A soulmate heart.

A soulmate heart.

I started to scream.

.oOo.

I tried leaving it in my car. Maybe it was a one off thing, maybe it was a spaz in the magic. Maybe there wouldn't be anymore.

But as I lay in bed that night I could only think of the little heart left on the dashboard. Exposed on the driveway of my house. And even though it was three in the morning at that point, I shuffled out in my pink monster slippers and retrieved it. Instantly at peace when it came into my fingers again.

It needs a safe place.

I don't know where these instincts came from but they were there. This little heart was important to me even if I hated its little form. I wanted to be able to chuck into a river but at the same time that thought horrified me. So instead I wrapped it over and over in old scarfs and piled it into an old trunk at the foot of my bed. Safe.

Well not my real bed, my fake bed. In my fake room. That is to say, the room my Dad thought I lived in.

I mostly live out of the walk-in closet. It's snugger in there than in my bedroom. My bedroom's ceiling is too high, the walls are too far apart, and there's too much space. My canopied bed is too big, too soft, too intimidating. Sleeping in the closet on the futon with the tube television nearby, and the twinkle lights above is more familiar to me of the time my mother was around. It made me feel secure.

That night, however, I definitely did NOT feel secure. My world was melting. All that I spun around in my web filled head was that the last person I had talked to had been Percy Jackson. But no, it couldn't have been him. I couldn't've been. I would rather be glitched and die than be Percy freaking Jackson's soulmate.

It could've been anyone I talked to that day. The more I racked my brains, the weirder it got.

Grover? Connor? Leo? Mr. Blofis!?

I tossed all night. Soulmate magic tended to affect people the same age but there had been cases, rare cases, where there was a significant age gap. I didn't want to think about it anymore because first of all; gross. And secondly, there was no use worrying about being alone in bed when I couldn't investigate.

But no, it ate my mind alive all night. What if I really was glitched? What if this was where I was going to die?

I'm too young to die!

At school the next day I slumped in next to Grover and just about collapsed at my desk. All night I had been worrying. It was like my mind refused to be silent.

"You look rough," Grover said while leaning his crutches against the wall.

"Stayed up all night reading,"

"Again? Lady, you're going to fry that dyslexic brain of yours."

I laughed without meaning to. The shadows of stress pulled around my chest some more. "Well then consider me fried. Where's Rach?"

"She got a pass to skip English so she could work on her painting. Rules don't apply to Rachel apparently."

"No, rules don't apply to students who will one day be rich and famous and bring their old schools a bit of light from the dazzles of fame," I corrected.

"That's true." Grover cocked his head to the side. Reading my eyes I suppose. He was one of those people who could just pick up on anything. As if he had a mood reader in his mind.

"Are you okay?" he asked inevitably.

"No," I admitted with a sulk. "I'm freaking out."

"How come?"

Just then Percy walked into the room and threw his late slip on Mr. Blofis's desk without so much as a glance. As he passed by my table desk I noticed that we had matching dark crescents under our eyes. Percy was cloaked up in his usual hoodie, hood up. When he picked a spot three desks behind me and to the right he buried his head in his overlapped arms.

"Annabeth?" Grover leaned in my direction to try and glean at who I was staring.

I waved him off. "I'll tell you later."

"Now now. Settle down class. Settle- Connor, don't make me keep you in here at lunch. Thank you. Now everyone, it's time for our daily writing exercise. No Piper, you can't go to the bathroom now. Everyone, could you please just bring it down to a dull murmur?"

A stack of papers fell in front of me followed by an apologetic look from Mr. Blofis. Normally I'd just stand up and start but today was different. Today I was in frantic mode. Handing out papers meant I needed to hand out papers to everyone. Everyone meant everyone including Percy Jackson. I was scared to even get near him. Breathing the same air as him might trigger something horrible and I didn't want any part in this. If the universe was really telling me that Percy Jackson was my perfect other than I must've been way more messed up than I thought.

Just act natural. I told myself. Natural.

I started from the farthest possible spot from Percy. Making my way through the aisles while taking extra care to make sure that every one of my classmates got a single page. Sweat was itching against the back of my neck and sticking to my blonde curls when I finally reached him.

"Jackson." I uttered.

"Chase," he growled. But the light was out from his eyes. He looked dead.

I simpered. (It was a lie. I was panicking) "Don't tell me what I said actually kept you up all night. I'd have to respect you if that were the case."

"You look just as tired," Percy pointed out. Mirthless. A discerning glint came in his eyes.

"Catharsis, remember?" I reminded sweetly. "Don't mistake my tiredness for anything other than devotion to your wonderful mother. Capiche?"

I turned away just in time to feel another cup of air glide up from my stomach. Somehow, I managed to subdue the burp into a gurgling breath and sure enough another thing lay on my tongue. Bitterness and fear was skittering around my mind in a tornado of panic but I managed to keep my cool.

Practically leaping, I landed back in my seat. Avoiding Grovers concerned expression, I covered my mouth again with an unassuming hand and slipped the heart into my palm. From there I slid it down past the thick knitted cuff of my grey sweater, and into my sleeve.

When I found my chance in the middle of class, I slipped the heart into my fingers and poked it into my pocket, where the first heart lay.

Percy Jackson. I thought hatefully. My soulmate is Percy. Freakin. Jackson.

But then there was another thought. A sour, lecherous painful thought.

What am I going to tell Rachel?

.oOo.

I found her where I expected her to be.

In the art room, alone. Light spilled in through the east facing windows and poured over her little desk. Bringing out the fire in her hair, and the glass quality of her skin. Silently, she painted with tiny delicate brush strokes. Her face knotted with a complicated emotion.

"Rach," I breathed. It had been a fight to get to this room. Lunch break always spilled a river of students into the halls for those first six mintues.

She looked up. Her startling green eyes settled on me and I crossed the room in four long strides. "Am I glad to finally see you."

The relief at just seeing her… I had so much on my chest I wanted to vent out. So much in my mind, making it spin and throb and pulse in an uncomfortable knot of worming sensations. Facts about soulmates, my anxieties, my fears were already bubbling to my lips as I reached her art station. But still, I hesitated. What I was about to say… it would devastate her. The night before, I was plagued with nerves with how she was going to react to the point that I chewed off all my nails.

But she needs to know. You need to say it. You need to tell someone.

My lips parted, my words formed… then everything fell flat.

Rachel was searching my face. Not curiously, not expectantly but fearfully. Like my presence above her was one of a threatening nature. Like I was a crystal ball that foretold of a dark future.

"Hey," she said half-heartedly.

I abandoned the idea of telling her about my soulmate hearts at that moment. She clearly had something difficult on her mind. Maybe her parents, maybe her art applications. Whatever it was, I could shelf my thing. No need to hit a girl while she was down.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I pulled up a stool next to her.

A throat achy sigh slipped through her lips and she let her paintbrush plop back into a cup of grey water. In her gaze I could make out a distant glow, but it clashed with the way she was pursing her mouth down.

"I'm so happy," she whispered. Her words trailed as if they were truly the darkest thing in the world.
"Clearly. You look like you just ate a teletubbie." I deadpanned.

"I really am!" Rachel's tone turned to a hopeful plea. A please believe me. "Yesterday was probably one of the happiest days of my life, but I don't know how to tell you about it."

I was confused. "You don't know how to tell me? Why? Is it something bad?"

"You'll think it's bad," she looked to the floor. "You'll think it's the worst thing since raisin bread."

"Whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Raisin bread is the food of monsters and little children who don't know how to wash their hands."

I didn't mean to sound like I was brushing her concern away with jokes. I was caught up in acting normal. Deep inside was still this desperate flutter of panic at the soulmate hearts resting in my jean pockets. I couldn't talk about them just yet. Not until I knew that Rachel was in a calm state where she could handle the news that her thirteen year crush was soulmates with some unwilling party.

"I'll just…" she trailed off. Grabbing her satchel and dragging it across the streaked tiled floor until she could ruffle around in it easily.

From it she produced a small black velvet pouch pulled closed with drawstrings. She pushed the thing open and tipped it forward. A soulmate heart tumbled into her hand. Same size as mine was, but was shifting and unreal looking. It was like it was made of thick green smoke, or filled with smoke at least. Smoke that permeated out the sides like and wafted away in thin wisps. That glowed an unearthly shade of green and throbbed like it had its own beat it needed to make.

A sharp frozen spike zapped up my spine and embedded itself into my brain. For a moment I felt that light headed dizziness you get after tumbling down a steep hill, or falling face first on a sheet of ice.

"W-what." I couldn't say anything else. My own soulmate hearts burned in my pocket and my fingers twitched in their direction. I felt like I should release them from my jeans and plop them onto her desk right next to her… painting…

Her painting.

I hadn't noticed it before. A portrait. Midnight messy hair, piercing green eyes, and a strong set jaw. But he looked slightly different on that canvas. His eyes were soft, kinder. The lines he usually wore around his lips from stress and anxiety were replaced by smile lines. His shoulders were actually relaxed. This was not the Percy Jackson I knew. This was what Rachel saw. A handsome face, and a kind soul.

"You talked to Percy yesterday." I couldn't swallow. Everything felt weak right down to my core. I tried not to lean against the desk for support but I found that I had no choice. My mind was too heavy to stay upright on my own.

"It happened." She smiled. "I finally had the confidence to just go up to him and ask him about art, and his hobbies and… well just a few moments after talking to him I felt my chest just heave with butterflies and suddenly I'm holding this."

She was cradling her little heart. Loving it every second with her eyes.

I was reminded of last night. How I couldn't bear to even see my heart. How I first left it in the car and then buried it in a chest. Trying desperately to forget its existence. Wish it out of reality.

"Are you sure it's him?" I couldn't look at her. My eyes were stinging. Somewhere in the back of my head was a voice commanding me to sit up, to pay attention, to be a good friend but I let it sink away.

Love Triangle.

Either Rachel or I would die. Whichever person Percy didn't choose, whomever he didn't bond with would inevitably die. Someone was going to die. Rachel could die.

No. Me. I decided then. I am going to die.

"Well, I didn't meet anyone new," Rachel blushed and looked back to her hands. To her little smoky heart. "Besides, it came moments after I talked to him. Just moments, Annabeth. I know you hate him but-"

"I know," I said. Rubbing the ache from my temples. "I know. He's your soulmate. He has to be. I hate it. But even I can't deny what's there. If he's your soulmate, then I'm just going to have to suck it up."

Rachel's head snapped up and her hair flew backwards into the light. When I flicked my eyes up towards her she was smiling so hard her cheeks looked ready to split. There were tears in her eyes.

"Oh Annabeth, does this mean you'll try and be friends with him?"

"As much as a person can be friends with a donkey."

"Ooooh, you're the greatest Annabeth." Rachel strangled me with one of her trademark hugs.

"Oxygen!"

.oOo.

I decided to have my much needed panic attack at the park, six blocks down from the school. It was an unconventionally nice park to do it in. Situated ideally right next to a large flowing stream that rolled soundlessly over the landscape, and blessed with a spacious well trimmed field with emerald green grass. On one side of the park stood a child's play structure made up of colours like canary yellow, firetruck red, and frog green, and on the other was a well maintained skate park riddled with graffiti. Artistic graffiti, Rachel would say. I didn't care for any of those things. What attracted me to the park were the lilac trees that wrapped around the entire property. In spring the air was intoxicated with their perfume, in summer their spade leaves made the perfect shade, and in fall there was a patchy yellow they turned that made me feel like I was in the middle of a giant dandelion crown. I could admire those yellows as I walked the paths, passing joggers and old couples sitting on benches.

I set myself down on the bank to the thick stream and gripped my head in my hands.

It's a love triangle…

I thought I'd be panicking by then. But no. I felt nothing. I felt as if I were drifting through a dream, watching the movie of my life as it played before me. A cold numbness had claimed every part of me.

I'm going to die… It didn't feel real.

Love triangles sucked. The person who wasn't chosen to be bonded with always died. Not like some glitched souls who could possibly pair up with other glitched souls. Death in love triangles was a guarantee. The unbonded would die.

Even if this wasn't a love triangle, I would've still died. I reminded myself solemnly. Trying to make this messed up situation logical.

Yes, one day I would die. Either by getting hit by a car or gasping my last woeful words to a nurse at my old age home bedside. And besides, what had I said before I learned of Rachel's part in all of this? Oh yeah, that I would rather die than be Percy Jackson's soulmate. I honestly would've resisted the soulmate magic and let it kill me.

Being trapped with Percy Jackson for the rest of my life was worse than death.

So what was the big deal? I was going to die. I wasn't going to become an architect, or travel the world. I wasn't going to learn a second language or grow my own business out of my garage. I wasn't even going to pick furniture for my own first apartment.

I wasn't a dreamer. I'd never even thought about these things before but…

Finally a sliver of pain clenched my throat. My eyes started to blur over and I buried my face in my knees. Wrought with a dark leeching sense of repulsion.

So what? Who was I kidding? I didn't want this. I didn't want any of this. Why was this happening to me? Did I deserve this? Was this pay back for what I did to my family?

Maybe it was…

Maybe this was the world righting a wrong. Maybe I was a mistake just being rubbed out.

My lungs were starting to feel soupy, so I paused to tilt my head back and take in a deep refreshing breath. Controlling every second the air was in, still and let out of my chest. Eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of the sun's rays on my face. It probably wouldn't be warm again until spring. At least this was something I could hold onto in the moment.

"Childish water bottle for a childish girl?" Connor's voice sidled up right behind me, and I lashed out before I knew what was happening. Just barely, I missed socking Connor right in the eye and instead grazed his cheekbone with my knuckles. Gaping, he held his face as if he'd been terribly wounded with a sudden and dark twist of his eyebrows. "What the hell?! That wasn't very nice! I was just commenting on your water bottle."

I stuck my chin out. "Be glad, if I managed to hit you just right maybe I'll actually straighten that nose of yours."

The insults came like water to my tongue. I was vulnerable. Desperately trying to tie myself down. I still felt like a balloon hovering over my own body. Feebly, I attempted to calm the thundering in my blood before this goon noticed my red rimmed eyes. All I could do was try and expel him as hard as I could, and that meant insults.

"Look at all these stickers. What are you, a kid?" I could feel the tug on my bag, and my water bottle fell free in someone else's hands. When I swerved around, Travis was standing over me with a cocky grin on his face. Turning the sticker swathed metal water bottle over and over in his greasy little pig hands. Vaguely I recalled seeing Leo and Percy standing a few yards behind him. Holding their skateboards, disinterested.

"Not as much as the kid you are," I sniffed. "Failing two grades takes a special kind of childish power, don't you think Travis?"

Travis's expression turned ugly, but I was too on guard to regret any one of my words.

"Well then, I think I'll keep it." He waved my water bottle around with one hand. "Since it matches me so well."

I didn't have the strength for this but there was no way I was leaving without that water bottle. That was my water bottle. The last thing they gave me before they left.

"Jason would thonk your two heads if he were here," Leo's voice came from up on the bank.

Thank you. I thought silently. Not voicing it because I didn't plan on starting any conversation with Leo Valdez.

Alright. CUT. PAUSE. Whatever. You don't know Leo and you probably should:

In two words? Serial flirt. But he was mostly known as a bonafide genius. It was confusing. Every class he took he scored the highest grades without even trying but was then in your face with the cheesiest pick up lines you'd think he'd just rolled out of a porta potty at a Texan truck stop. Universities had been calling to offer him positions and scholarships since tenth grade. Since he was what you called 'a ward of the state' he landed some rich foster parents who wanted nothing more than to see him grow to his full potential. I heard rumors that they were hoping he'd be the first man on mars one day. Or at least that he would build the rocket that would get there.

However, for all his brains he hung out with scum. Namely Connor and Travis Stoll and of course Percy freakin Jackson. His only good friend, in my opinion, was Jason Grace.

Got it? Okay. Good.

ROLL FILM. Back to where we were. On that ruddy stream bank-

"Jason would insist on passing it back," Travis said with a fake air of gentility. "For you Miss Chase." He held out my water bottle.

I knew better than to reach for it. And I was right, Travis threw it over my head a moment later, and I heard it thunk into Connor's arms. I naively hoped the lid popped open and he was drenched.

"Back over to you, Miss Chase." Connor tossed it over my head again and Travis caught it with a devilish expression. Just the sight of my possession in his meaty little sausage hands was making my heart worm with rage. And by character profiling alone I could tell that Travis Stoll never washed his hands. He was a teenage boy so you just know he's touched a lot of unconventionally disgusting things. (Like his own butt)

Steaming, I looked at Percy accusingly, and gestured to the two boys. "Behold, your pupils." Do something about them maybe? "They take after you, no?"

"No," Percy said emotionlessly. Offering no help, or even making a move to discourage the Stolls with even a word. Percy Jackson was, in fact, useless.

I groaned and rubbed my head. Pressure was building behind my eyes. I did not have the patience. I did NOT have the patience. Between the soulmate problems, my pre-existing problems, and now these damn boys causing problems I was ready to 'thonk heads' as Leo put it.

"Why are you so mean to me?" I gave Travis my biggest, most innocent looking eyes. Sticking my lower lip out slightly to really sell the 'upset' look. And it worked. Travis paused for six seconds, taken off guard by my sudden plea and fragile expression.

Enough time for me to snatch back my water bottle viciously before I thrusted the flat of my hand into his chest, pushing him in one fluid motion. Wobbling, Travis lost his balance and went teetering down the rest of the sloped bank, cursing and flailing about. When his rump met the surface of the chilly water, he yelped one word unholier than the others before a sheet of water sprayed away from him in a resounding clap and he was under the surface.

Unfortunately, he was in a shallow area so all he did was have to prop himself up on his hands in order to sputter in some heavy breathes. Shocked, he sat there drenched with his mouth stuck open impertinently. A new level of rage in his eyes as he glared up at me.

I was too busy laughing to see Connor charging up to my side. He wrenched my water bottle out of my grasp and tried to careen me over into the stream next to Travis. What he had overlooked, however, was that he was a shrimp and I was a tiger. I thumped him forward with one hand and he landed next to his brother with a similar cry and a louder splash.

"Bitch," Connor spat along with a mouthful of stream water.

With a pitcher's hand, he vaulted my water bottle into the air. My heart sunk with it when it plopped into the center of the stream and faded out of sight deep into the rolling waters. Travis and Connor started to hoot with laughter, and my eyes burned.

"Misjudged you huh?" I seethed as I passed by Percy. Tingles of rage arched up and down the back of my neck. "Tell me Jackson, how proud are you of your friends?"
"You're just on edge." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"On edge?!" I hissed. "I stayed up most of the night for you, I'm sleep deprived, grumpy, just wanted a few minutes to sit down and take a breather when your cavemen wander in ugga-ing and bugga-ing about, and you say I'm just on edge? I'm more than on edge. I'm… I'm over the edge right now."

"Oooh ho ho ho." Leo stepped between us. Eyebrows wiggling. "You stayed up most of the night for Percy? My ears are burning."

Well shit.

I glanced back at Percy and could read the royal freak out through his tucked in lips. I was willing to bet that no one knew about Percy's past. Or even that fact that Paul Blofis was Percy's stepdad. I was holding a lot of very critical cards right now, and if I dealt them right I could obliterate Percy.

And he knew it. He was staring at me breathlessly. Waiting for the next altering words that would slip from my lips.

Easy Annabeth. I soothed myself. This is Rachel's soulmate.

Ergo, anything I did to him now would get back to Rachel right after I told her that I would try and be friends with this leech of a human being. But I didn't WANT to. I was still boiling. Anyone near me was liable to get a bite taken out of them.

"Keep your inner gossip girl on a leash Valdez," I growled and flicked him in the middle of his forehead. He flinched back and rubbed right below his hairline. Still staring at me with those dark brown eyes glittering with intelligence. A smirk on his lips.

"Then what were you doing for Percy most of the night?"

Connor and Travis came lumbering up to stand next to the other two. Dripping like two shipwreck survivors and very interested in our conversation. Malice blossomed in their gazes in such a way that made them intent on my explanation. No, they weren't actually curious as to what I had to say. They were looking for any ammo I could give them, ammo they could use to shoot me down.

"Because this nimrod is in a group project with me and didn't do a damn thing. I had to do all the work so my grade wouldn't go down." I finally spat.

"What class?"

"What teacher?"

"Ooh are you two just secretly going at it?"

"I bet you two are-"

I slapped them. Both.

A bitch slap for each. Right across their cheeks. So hard that my own hand stung after each impact and the sound of the clap echoed back from across the field.

I was done. I repeat. I. Was. Done. I didn't have to prove anything to anyone. I'd covered for Jackson's sorry arse and I didn't need to do anything else. I just wanted to be at home, cozied up. Where I could think about my upcoming doom in peace and quiet.

I think the Stolls saw the arctic venom in my eyes and how close I really was to just giving into a full on fist fight because they stood there in silence holding their fast reddening cheeks. Whipped into docility in such a way that it struck them dumb. The tension kept thickening to cold butter consistency as they all stared at me. Astonished at how I'd crossed that line.

"So if you two are done stealing my stuff, and you're done making dumb comments to cover up your intelligence, and if you're not going to ever try and shape up to be an actual person worth value, than I'll be leaving," I said pointedly through my teeth. Glaring at each individual.

They didn't move. I think they were hardly even breathing.

I stormed off across the field to where my little dented car was parked on the street. Furiously clutching my fists to my side and trying to make enough distance between me and them before the thick swell in my throat grew any bigger.

I burped up another heart just then. I don't know if it was the straw that broke the camel's back but I certainly couldn't take it anymore. Tears broke past my lids and burned lines into my cheeks. Details blurred together and the world turned into one large water colour image. I only managed to make it back to my car before the full sob fest began.

I didn't even try to stop it.

.oOo.

I stared at the three little hearts all lined up. Thoroughly cried out and ready to succumb to a deep sleep.

They were beautiful, I had to admit. Little pieces of the night sky right there in my room (closet). When I turned off the twinkle lights, I could make out deeper flecks of stars held in the vast tininess it possessed. It was like the universe's freckles.

Only problem was that I hated them. I hated the two plump curves on the top and the pointed base. I hated the beauty of the stars, mini galaxy's that spelt out death.

I wanted to whip them against the walls. I wanted to take steel hammers to their centers. I wanted to watch them shatter and crush into a fine dust. I wanted them to be dissolved from existence.

But the very thought of even scratching their unblemished surfaces made me reel. I couldn't hurt them just as I couldn't hurt myself.

Flames of anger rolled around my insides. I just wanted these hearts gone. I just wanted things to go back to normal. I just wanted the world to treat me nice for once. Was that too much to ask? Screw the world! So what if I didn't have the perfect track record? So what if I was little terror when I was a child?! That shouldn't mean I should die, right?

Maybe it wasn't even me. Maybe it was all on Percy freakin Jackson. What if I didn't take him to destroy that rotten man's car? What if I'd just stayed home?

Would I still be in this mess? What if I never stepped into the Blofis's house to help beta? What if I rejected the beta offer? Would things have been different?

If I ignore Percy Jackson indefinitely could I undo things? I asked to no one in particular. What if I cut out his whole family from my life?

I would've thought about it all night, except thirst drove me downstairs for a cup of water. Just as I was making my way back up the grand staircase, the doorbell rang.

Rachel.

She'd want to talk about her soulmate connection obviously. I didn't know if Grover knew yet, but it was quite possible that she had invited him over as well. With that in mind I answered the door, quicking up a fake smile to mask my inner turbulence.

But it was all for naught.

No one was there.

It was perturbing. Like the vacancy of a human being was so confusing it was creating a weird silhouette of where someone should be. Wait, but there- across my lawn- there was a figure. Trodding away from my house in that familiarly sulky manner. Wearing a black hoodie, hood up, with a skateboard stuck under his arm.

Percy Jackson.

But why?

Doorbell and ditch. I grit my teeth. Can't he just leave me alone for ONE stinkin-

And then I saw it. My metal cylinder water bottle stood on the door mat. Stickers and all.

He'd rescued it from the cold stream.

Okay…. why?

It was extra cold in my fingers. The stickers were still soggy and one at the top was starting to peel away but it was mine. It was definitely my water bottle that was at the bottom of a stream a few hours ago.

I closed the door and sunk against the wall, rubbing my aching eyes. I felt like my understanding of the world was starting to slip. For the next eight minutes I sat on the floor and stared at the water bottle. Had Percy seen me crying? Would this affect me and the soulmate magic? Why did he even care enough to retrieve it?

I was interrupted by the front door opening unexpectedly. Rachel flinched when she saw me and straightened like she had just received a static shock.

"Did we have plans or is this just a spontaneous hang out?" I asked while hauling myself to my feet.

Rachel shuffled, her hands were hiding something behind her back. "You said you had something to do tonight."

A flush of cold rinsed my body. I slapped a hand over the top of my stupid head. "Styx, I forgot! I was supposed to beta tonight!"

"Well, when you're done that, here-" She held out two plastic dollar store bags filled with chips, chocolate, and cookies. "-You seemed kinda down today so I thought we could have an Alfred Hitchcock movie marathon."

That wasn't a big deal.

We always had movie marathons. We always ate garbage but… I found myself tearing up. I found myself struggling to keep my voice steady as warmth filled my core and bubbled up to my eyes. I blinked away the blurriness and grabbed Rachel. Forcing her into a hug I hoped bruised her ribs a little.

"Rachel. I would die for you." I tried not to hiccup when I said those words.

They cemented it. My nosediving future.

Rachel couldn't sense the dark turmoil knotting up my insides but she still hugged me back and laughed. "Just get back as soon as you can so we can watch as many movies as possible."

I nodded.

.oOo.

I was too late to get any real betaing done. For half an hour we went over the first two pages of the fifth chapter. Every time I apologized, Sally would just shake her head and say not to worry about it. Paul phoned in just as I was packing up my stuff to tell Sally that he wouldn't be home for dinner.

After that, all I could imagine was poor Sally sitting alone at that little round table in the kitchen. Feeding Estelle and quietly munching on the chili she had clearly spent hours on making. It may make me a bad friend, but I didn't rush home to get my movie marathon started with Rachel.

I kept my seat across the table and let Sally serve me some chili.

The smile she gave me as she set the bowl down was worth it. What I didn't anticipate was for the front door to open just then. Someone tossed off their shoes and lumbered towards the kitchen dragging their feet. Bringing with them a draft of cold air and the smell of old leaves rotting on the dirt.

Sally's astonishment matched mine when Percy showed up at the doorway to the kitchen. Hood up, looking moody but present and clearly there for dinner. He dropped his skateboard on the floor less than elegantly then promptly plopped in the seat across from mine. Intent on staring at his flower print placemat with the dull eyes all teenage boys have at some point.

Wordlessly, Sally placed a bowl of chili in front of him before looking up at me with a big startled expression. Practically glittering with excitement.

I should make chili more often, she mouthed.

I hid a chuckle behind my hand. Percy glowered in my direction.

Throughout dinner I tried creating as much conversation with Sally as I could. Percy was making it very clear that he wasn't going to talk at all. (Evident by the few weak questions Sally did ask him, he responded with monosyllabic grunts. Cough cough caveman cough cough). Surprisingly, despite the toxic lack of words coming from Percy, Sally looked simply thrilled.

Once I had exhausted the topic of the joys of Alfred Hitchcock and Gregory Peck in a laid back suit, Estelle made one long babbling noise before throwing a chubby fist into her bowl. Splattering herself and Sally in an artistic flare of deep red and chunky mash.

Sally excused herself politely, and I heard her trod off down the hall and the gurgling splurge of the bathtub faucet being turned on.

I pushed the rest of my chili around my bowl. Thinking of the water bottle that was now snug in my room thanks to Percy. Thinking of his infuriating face when I asked him to intervene with the Stoll boys. Thinking of how he was suddenly at the dinner table, but still as distant as ever.

It was confusing. It was maddening that it was confusing. What was he thinking? Why couldn't I figure him out? He was just sitting there in an insufferable silence.

Pushing back my chair with a dull screech, I wolfed down the last two bites of spiced food and headed to load my plate into the dishwasher. Unfortunately, Percy had the same thought as me at the same time. Both our internal GPS's refused to reroute so we collided. I hit his chest and fell back two steps in order to regain my balance.

"Watch it," Percy said.

"Me?" I hissed. An instant roar of anger ravaged my body. Wary of Sally just down the hall, humming as she washed her giggling baby, I lowered my voice to a deadly murmur. "You should watch it. Watch what stupid friends you have and shape up for once in your useless life."

Bristling, Percy puffed up like a rooster that had just spotted a cat. "At least I don't slap people, Chase." He took a step towards me.

"At least I don't take your mother for granted Jackson," I growled. Equally getting in his face to show that I wasn't backing down. I could feel the warmth radiating off him on my cheeks.

His eyes were those familiar greek fire green. His lips were peeled back like a dog barking warnings to an intruder. Every muscle in him was stiffened to the point he looked like a towering bear. Inside, I didn't feel like a scared hiker. I was a wolf protecting her own.

And I was mad. Mad about the love triangle, mad about my life, mad about death. It was his fault. If he didn't exist none of this would've happened.

"Maybe you shouldn't stick your nose where it doesn't belong," he spat.

"Maybe you should pay attention to what you claim matters to you." I poked him in the chest. "Your own mother shouldn't light up like a damn Christmas tree just because you fricking sat down at the table for dinner. She should be treated like a queen by you."

He must've been at the school pool before coming home because he stank of chlorine and sweat. I made sure to wrinkle my nose so he got the message.

"At least I ate dinner at the table," he snarled.

"Oh goody goody. I should give you a damn gold star."

A twist of regret followed those words. At least he was there. It was one step up from where he was before. However, my blood was still pulsing rock concerts into my skin.

"You learn one thing about me and you think you can just take over my life." Percy came closer. To avoid knocking heads, I had to fall backwards. Trapping myself between the countertop and Percy.

I glared up at him. "Interesting how you perceive me trying to help your mother as 'taking over your life'."

"Interesting how you see me as a threat to my mom and so you literally try to control me."

I could feel his hot breath race across my skin. In his eyes was my own enraged reflection.

"I literally did one thing and I didn't frickin force you. As I recall you took that bat willingly."

"And expected that one act to change me? How pompous is that!"

"I expected that one act to make you think for once in your damn life. Think about where you came from, how it affected you, and how it still affects the people around you." I ranted. Using quick harsh words. Delivering each syllable with a more intense flame in my tongue than the last.

Percy put both his hands on the counter, either side of me, blocking me in. "And what gave you the right to do that? Huh?"

I didn't have an answer to that. Every hair on my body was standing upright. Half of me wanted to break away from his presence and the other half was saying to stand my ground. I grit my teeth. Still glowering up at him like I was in a staring contest with the devil over my soul.

Percy's eyes flickered down at my lips.

Suddenly I could feel how close we really were. My soulmate hearts felt cold in my pocket.

"Aaaannnd now we have a bathed baby!" Sally said gleefully while stepping into the kitchen. Presenting Estelle forward all wrapped up tightly in towels and squirming delightedly.

Percy and I had already split across the room at the first sign of her. We must've looked sullen and rattled because Sally cocked her head.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." We said in unison.

.oOo.

"Hey Dad."

"Hey."

"Hot dogs?"

"Yeah."

"We ate those two days ago. There's leftover pizza though."

"Oh! Well I can't eat like a king every night. Thanks sweetie."

"Yeah… sure… you're welcome… bye I guess…"

Oh and by the way dad. I'll just be slowly dying over the course of this year. Might want to clear your schedule for a summer funeral...

.oOo.

"I'm scared," Rachel admitted to me one day. Saturday actually.

Grover was by the ice cream parlor takeout window. Ordering three large chocolate dipped ice cream cones. One with caramel, two without. It was 'his treat' for us because his mom just successfully sued her hometown hospital for mistreatment claims and won a smooth five hundred thousand dollars. As a result, Grovers allowance had been bumped up for the year and he was feeling generous.

"Scared of what?" I twisted my fingers together on the picnic table. The heatless sun was beating down on our backs so we almost had to squint at each other.

I wasn't scared, surprisingly. I was numb. My impending death didn't feel real. I mean, I knew I was going to die and it was weighing on my chest like a ton of bricks but it was like reality really hadn't hit me hard enough yet. What scared me was that I couldn't think my way out of it. I couldn't even think my way out of the obsessive thinking. It was the world's worst penalty box.

"Scared that I'm glitched," Rachel murmured. "I've talked to Percy twice since I started… y'know. And every time he seems uninterested in making conversation. Maybe he's not…"

I noticed the bags under her eyes just then. How she wasn't holding a pen in her hand, or even sticking out of her pocket. Rachel wasn't whole without an art utensil, our primary school teacher used to say.

"It's been three weeks," I assured. "If Percy doesn't bound out of the woodwork to confess his love within the next three days I'll fill his shoes with mayonnaise and set ferrets after him."

Rachel smiled weakly and shook her head. "You promised you'd be friends with him."

I cringed, remembering our venomous kitchen argument.

"Ferrets will make him more likable."

"Annabeth." She was giggling but I could tell she wanted me to be serious about this.

"I'll still be friends with him," I said. "But he may feel it more as a hostage situation."

"Hostage situation is better than enemies," Rachel said.

"Not for any hostage of mine."

Just then Grover appeared and tapped the table with the end of one of his crutches. "Could you carry the ice cream over for me?" He asked Rachel kindly.

Rachel got up without a second word.

"She seems down," He mentioned when she reached the window. Out of earshot.

"She thinks she's glitched."

"Is she?"

"Probably not. But it's a scary thought for sure," I lied. To hell she wasn't glitched. This was a love triangle, not a glitch situation. If Percy Jackson wasn't affected by soulmate magic that meant that both Rachel and I were going to die. So that boy better have been burping up hearts because I couldn't stand the thought of Rachel dying.

For some reason I could stand my own death… But again, probably because I was surrounded in a cloud of shock and doubt.

"How many hearts does she have now?"

"Five," I answered. I had twelve. I interacted with Percy twice as many times as she did. They were in a special secret pocket I had haphazardly sewn into my purse. I prayed, rather than hoped that they would stay there tight and secure. Undiscovered.

"They messed up the order." Rachel seemed extra glum now. "Two with caramel, one just plain chocolate."

She set the little cardboard stand of ice cream down and took her seat across from us. Slowly trying to nudge one of the caramel drizzled cones out of its pouch in a melancholy state.

"Here Rach." I yanked out the simple chocolate dipped one and passed it to her. "You can have the one you asked for."

"But you hate caramel!"

"Yeah well, I hate moping teenagers more. Just take the serotonin boost so I don't find a sword to fall on."

Begrudgingly she accepted it and bit off chunks of chocolate slowly. Staring into the distance as she ate. Globs of ice cream shimmered down the chocolate and coated her fingers. It wasn't even hot outside, it was nearly cold. It was almost winter for crying out loud. This twit was just letting her ice cream melt.

"Oh my gosh, should we build you a crypt? Are you ready for the firing squad? What's with this mood Rachel." I rolled my eyes. Maybe a tad frustrated because this dope was acting like her life was over when in reality it was mine.

It's hard not to be seen, okay?

"What do you mean what's wrong! I'm-"

"-Not glitched," I interrupted. "It's like a five percent chance, Rachel. Don't lose your head yet. Maybe Percy is just as freaked out as you are. Maybe he hasn't figured out it is you! I mean, the boy is dense-"

"What Annabeth means to say is that this kind of fear is perfectly natural," Grover cut over me to soothe. "It's only been a few weeks. You'll drive yourself crazy at this rate."

Natural.

Yeah. I could agree with that. I remembered when I first held my little heart. The fear that fell through my chest at how I could be glitched. My frustrations and denial of my upcoming death was keeping me from being there for my best friend. I needed to get out of this funk. For Rachel, if not myself.

"I know you're scared," I added as an afterthought. "I'd totally be scared too. I just think you need to give it a bit more time before jumping to the worst conclusion possible."

Rachel twisted her lips in. Thinking. She closed her eyes to release a stressed induced breath.

"Yeah, okay."

"You could talk to someone who's a soulmate," I suggested. Not out of the blue either. Piper Mclean had just parked her car in the lot and was romping over the wind blown grass. Hand in hand with Jason Grace who peeled off a moment later to go order at the ice cream parlour window.

"Piper!" I flagged her over to our table before Rachel could even reject the idea.

Piper looked confused that we were speaking to her. No, not the snooty 'I'm way more popular than you, how dare you speak to me' but that awkward kind of shy 'Me? You want me?'. She stuffed her hands into the larged looped jacket of her (probably Jason's) hoodie and stood at the end of the table. Glancing to each one of us with a question in her eyes.

"You want to answer some questions about soulmates for us?" Grover asked charmingly.

His voice shook however. Curse his perpetual social anxiety.

Piper's eyes sparkled and she slammed her hand down on the table, making my back fizzle with goosebumps at the abruptness.

"I KNEW IT," she bellowed. "I could feel it! Alright, who is it? It's you, isn't it?" She faced me directly and I nearly coughed my ice cream back up.

Weakly I pointed to Rachel who blushed brighter than a pig after it fled a grease run.

"Well thanks for the show Annabeth, it wasn't like this was a secret or anything." Rachel grumbled into her cone.

"Oh no." Piper waved off. "I would've found out sooner or later. I can sense other soulmates y'know, and I had been suspicious of you three for a while now."

"You can sense soulmates?" My previously consumed icecream felt bitter in my gut. From my purse, the hearts seemed to burn again. I tried to look busy by collecting what little trash we had on the table and wedging it between my knees so it wouldn't blow away. Also to keep my knees from clattering together.

"Yeah," Piper took an eager seat next to Rachel, eyes locked on her intensely. A pure shimmer of excitement in every way she moved. "I'm not so good at it yet, so I couldn't tell who it was in your group but I could feel it."

Hiding my nerves, I laced my hands around my icecream cone. "Can all bonded soulmates feel the presence of other soulmates?"

Please no. Please no. Please no.

"No, it's a rare ability apparently. It only showed up after I bonded with Jason."

Phew.

Rachel's eyes expanded, and she glanced in Piper's direction with that mild look of someone who wants a favour but doesn't really want to ask. "So if you can feel soulmates, have you sensed any other soulmates at Goode high?"

Piper's grin tripled and she grabbed Rachel's shoulder. "If you're worried you're glitched, don't be. There's definitely someone else in the school who's got some soulmate magic affecting them."

Rachel's shoulders fell, and a huge smile creased up to her eyes. "Really?"

"Well tell me if this sounds right. Your soulmate is probably either one of the Stoll boys, Leo, or Percy?"

Rachel's blush returned in a fiery wave of crimson that drowned out her freckles. Instantly, all the stress and worry on her face dissolved. The final doubts had been tackled with those simple little words. "Yeah. That's about right."
Seeing her go from ditch-died-depressed to all glowy in a matter of seconds made a calm warmth resonate inside me. Talking to Piper had probably been the best idea for Rachel. I had to smile to myself.

Good call Annabeth.

"Don't tell me who it is," Piper said. "None of the boys have said anything yet and I don't want to breach their trust in finding out from a third party."

Right. She's friends with those goons.

"Okay." Rachel looked so happy she could float away.

"Jeez, you're good." Grover spoke in awe. "I didn't know who it was and I've heard Rachel gush about him for years. She had to tell me point blank."

I elbowed him softly in the ribs, because dude, Rachel's crush is almost common knowledge at this point.

Piper didn't notice. "I hope to get better. Now lets stop with this chat. Show me one of your hearts!"

Rachel fished one out of her soulmate's hearts and held it out to Piper on the flat of her hand. Entranced, Piper looked on, watching the smoke dance and shift but didn't reach out to touch it. The faint glow of the heart just reached her face.

"How many do you have."

"Five."

"I'm guessing you have all five with you? Keeping the hearts close is an almost incurable urge at your stage."

Again I could feel the presence of my own hearts in an almost guilty manner. They were like sins nailed to the back of my neck, not little tokens built from the magnetic love of soulmates.

Rachel nodded in response to Piper and felt the need to take all of her hearts out to prove it.

"Does that urge ever go away?" Rachel asked.

"Not until you're bonded."

"But what if I have too many to carry around?"

"Then you'll spill them on the cafeteria floor with everyone watching, and then your soulmate will realize you were experiencing soulmate symptoms too, and rush to your gym class in order to kiss you for the first time and bind you for life," I recited. Throwing a quick smirk in Piper's direction. "Pretty straight forward, no?"

"Hey," A voice said defensively behind us. Jason stood there holding two ice cream sundaes. His glasses on the tip of his nose like a very tested teacher. "I did my best, okay? I was panicking that I was going to die."

He squeezed in next to Piper, and passed her over one of the cups.

"Also you didn't think your soulmate was me until I spilled that bag." Piper interjected. Delightfully scooping her spoon into the creamy mess as if this conversation had become second interest to her. Who was I kidding, it had become a second interest.

"I'm never going to live that down, am I," Jason groaned.

"Nope."

"Wait, wait, wait." Grover muttered nervously. "You mean you can mess up who you think your soulmate is?"

Piper leaned forward as if delivering a great secret. "He thought his soulmate was this girl in his fencing class."

"And then you tripped on your face and everything just clicked." Jason said simply. "Fate is weird."

"So he's an idiot, meanwhile you knew your soulmate was Jason the entire time?" Rachel asked. Rolling one of her soulmate hearts between her fingers. If Jason noticed her heart, he didn't say anything. I had a hunch that Piper kept him up to date on everything, including suspicions about new soulmate attachments.

"Yeah," she blushed as if he wasn't her boyfriend. "He was my group guide on my first day of school. I thought I was glitched because we never spoke before. The moment I thought oh shit, he's hot I burped up my first heart. See?"

Jason had her first heart on his key chain, and it jangled around noisily before I could grab a decent glimpse.

It was clear, and sharp edged like a pure glittering diamond. Deep within its core was a single blood red rose wrapped with a weave of beads. I could almost have been an expensive pendant except the rose shuttered as if blown with a calming breeze and the beads snaked around the flower in slow dancelike motions.

"It's gorgeous," Rachel breathed.

"Very pretty," Grover agreed.

"Let me guess. You have Jason's heart on your keychain?" I said.

I was right. (Gross. Couples being cute.) Jason's heart was a cloud. Literally. Apparently it shifted from stormy to puffy, to thin, to grey depending on his mood. I'm glad it was light and fluffy when Piper held it out. (Also it was surprisingly holdable for a cloud.)

"So Rachel, who's the lucky guy?" Jason finally asked, scraping the last of his ice cream out of his cup.

"Shhhhh, it's a secret!" Piper scolded. "But I totally hope it's Leo. That boy needs a reason to stop flirting with everything that breathes."

"I hope it's Percy," Jason said. "He needs a level headed person in his life to call him out."

"Surprise surprise, you don't hope it's either of the Stolls." I laughed. A tension coiled in my chest at the mention of Percy.

"Yeah, we wouldn't wish them on anybody," Piper snorted.

"Not until they've grown up a little." Jason agreed.

"Oh gosh, please don't tell me it's one of the Stolls and we totally just dumped on your soulmate by saying that?" Piper cringed.

Rachel shook her wooly head of curls with a mischievous grin.

"So it must be Leo!" Piper announced.

"No Percy!" Jason squared.

They flew off into a bickering match on who was suited better for who. Peppered with pauses where they asked questions of Rachel before returning full force to their little argument.

"See that?" I gestured to the two squabbling lovebirds. "That's going to be you and your soulmate by next year."

Rachel beamed.

And I'll be six feet under, growing maggots and feeding worms.

.oOo.

"Thanks for helping me," Grover said again as we walked. The squeak from his crutches, and their dull thunk's, echoed around the empty length of halls and vacant classrooms. Eerily coming back to us to remind us that we were almost completely alone in the school.

Grover sounded disheartened. I knew he didn't like it when he 'inconvenienced' others for too long. Especially his friends. What he didn't understand was that it was never an inconvenience for me.

The music teacher had shouted at him something fierce, so maybe that had something to do with it. She was an old witch anyways. It wasn't Grovers fault that he dominoed over every single music stand while in band practice. His crutch had simply caught on one of the metal legs jutting out. An accident really.

But did the music teacher see it that way? No. Clearly it was intentional, according to her. So as punishment Grover had to clean the entire music room.

I had just come out of debate club and heard what happened. Two hours later and everything was sparkling clean but it was dark outside. I think Grover was under the impression that he had robbed me of an evening when in reality I just got to hang out with one of my best friends for two hours.

"Maybe you should knock over the drum kit next week." I shot him a sideways smile. "That was kinda fun."

"Really?"

"Yeah." I shrugged while hitting the elevator button. "Besides, it's a good experience for us. When was the last time you had to sweep a floor?"

"Before my mom's first corporation lawsuit?"

"See? Exactly! We need this kind of work."

With a pleasant ding, the silver metals doors parted and we stepped inside the small box. For some odd reason it always smelled like old carpets and cardboard in the elevator, and the mirrors were smudged and cracked. I was willing to bet that the elevator was only used by Grover and the odd teacher. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned in ages.

"Want to get some coffee before heading home?" I asked. "A little pick me up for-"

"Hold the elevator!"

I knew that voice but I didn't have the proper reaction time. Before I could stop my sweet kind friend, Grover had propped up his crutch and stalled the door from clicking closed. Slowly, it fell away again revealing Percy Jackson pushing the computer cart wearing his usual hoodie and his black hair spiked with water. Clearly he'd just been in the pool.

He jolted a little on seeing me and averted his gaze. Sliding the computer cart in with its squeaking wheels and awkward largeness before settling himself near the buttons. What once was at least spacious was now cramped and humid.

I grit my teeth and glowered at the floor. I couldn't make any more fusses with Rachel's soulmate.

"You guys going to the ground floor too?" Percy asked.

"Clearly," I scoffed. "There are only two floors in this joint."

Maybe one more fuss wouldn't hurt.

"Ground floor it is," Percy jabbed the button with a roll of his eyes.

An insufferable silence flooded thickly into the elevator as the whirr of machinery started up. With a gentle shutter through the floor we started to drop.

Grover was staring at me like I was a ticking bomb. Must've been my expression. Or maybe it was my hands fisting and unfisting as I tried to relieve my spring of anger turning my chest into a pressure chamber.

I was just anticipating the thunking stop and doors opening to freedom when something clanked. Not whirred or creaked or cranked like elevators are supposed to, but clanked. An unnatural elevator noise that followed with a hefty lurch. My stomach plummeted. The lights flickered dangerously.

We were stopped.

"Uhhhh," Percy said like a rocket scientist then proceeded to press every button on the board. "I think we're stuck."

"Wow. Masterful deductions Sherlock. You truly are the world's greatest detective." I deadpanned.

"Okay," Grover soothed. "No need to be snarky. All we have to do is press the office call button."

Percy jabbed it once and an even tone buzzed over the speaker. It rang for six more times before an automated voice apologized and asked if we could call back later.

"No one's in the office right now. In fact I think the only teacher left in the school is Mr. Blofis and he's currently having a meltdown over the fact a student used comic sans in a formal essay," Percy said. Then he elegantly stuffed his hands into his hoodie pocket.

"Why don't you just press the giant red emergency button that calls actual emergency personnel?" I asked impatiently. "Y'know, like firefighters?"

Blankly, Percy and Grover stared at me like I was the crazy one.

"What?"

"Yeaaahh, that button was disabled because pranksters kept pressing it to summon fire trucks." Percy scratched the back of his head. "And then they'd throw water balloons of paint off the top of the school to make the fire trucks blue sooo…."

"And by pranksters, you mean you?" I didn't need an answer. I could already tell.

"Okay, let's just leave grade nine me in the past and focus on getting out of here, agreed?"

"Yes," Grover exhaled. Shooting me wary looks all the while. "Please just get us out of here."

Percy pulled out his phone and clicked the home button several times. "Hmmm. Mines dead. What about you guys?"

"Our phones are downstairs," I said, unimpressed. "In our lockers, with our bags."

"Okay. Don't panic." Percy patted Grover on the shoulder as Grover's breathing started to pick up. "We still have devices."

Carefully he slipped one of the laptops out of its slot in the wrack and placed it on the top of the cart. It flickered to life when he opened it.

How to contact emergency services online. Percy typed in painstakingly slow. Grover was rubbing his temples.

"Bad news. The only way you can contact any form of emergency services online is through skype."

I felt like wrenching the laptop away from him. Caveman speed was not an acceptable speed to function at in such a time. "And that's a problem because?"

"Because these are school computers all unnecessary apps and sites have been blocked. Like social media and skype."

"Well you're a delinquent, haven't you found a way to get past these blocks?"

"You're a nerd. Haven't you?"

"Guys. We just need some way to contact the outside world." Grover's voice was shaking. Small places and socially tense circumstances made him anxious. Both at the same time was almost volatile for him.

"I'll email Paul," Percy said. "But it's a long shot he's going to see it. He doesn't check his emails until he gets home. Sometimes days after actually."

"Won't he notice you're missing?" I asked.

"He'll just assume I left," Percy muttered.

Because you often just leave. Damn you.

"Who's Paul?" Grover asked innocently.

For a static moment, Percy stopped and glanced at me. A silent 'please don't' was written in his eyes. All I had to do to crumple his expression was turn to Grover and explain in detail that there was a faculty member with a garbage stepson.

"Oh just some math-help substitute coach guy that hangs around," I brushed aside. "Old student with letting go issues. Hey, is that light flickering again?"

Like a concussed gopher, Grover started focusing on the incandescent lights paneling the ceiling. Small spaces and socially tense circumstances made him flighty. Small spaces and socially tense circumstances in the dark made him hysterical.

"We shouldn't be in here long, right? I mean, someone's bound to notice," Percy said easily.

"Not until tomorrow at the earliest," I uttered. "Unless… Grover, your mom-?"

"She's in New York on a shopping trip with my Aunt Jemma," Grover said miserably.

I looked to Percy.

"I get home late a lot… My mom doesn't wait up for me." Percy said. Finally closing the laptop defeatedly and falling against the wall.

I thought about my Dad in his study. Ticking away hours and reading until his eyes were sore from strain.

I doubted he could even identify me properly in a line up of similarly featured people.

"So we just have to survive the night," I said. "Not the most appealing idea but easy peasy, right?"

"Unless they don't find us in the morning." Grover spoke quietly. Hope empty. I watched as he leaned his crutches against the wall and slid down to the floor. Resting his shaking legs. "I'm the only one who uses this elevator except Mrs. Espetly. And Mrs. Espetly's in the hospital right now because she broke her hip in a fall. Without her, there's nobody to notice that the elevator's not working."

Percy twisted his thumb. "But if we scream for help tomorrow, they'll hear us."

"Maybe," Grover said. "But this is an old building."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Thick walls." I realized. "It's harder for sound to get through."

"Great, so we die here." Percy crossed his arms.

So what? Part of me thought bitterly. I'm going to die anyway. Why should I be bothered about this?

But Grover. He was such a sheltered little sunflower. I couldn't stand the thought of him being trapped in here for more than an hour. I had to get him out at least.

I let my eyes trail over the silver buttons lined up on the wall. The worn brown and red carpet, the mirrors, the fitzing number over the door. If I just… Maybe...

Shimmying the computers out of the way I wedged myself between the door and the cart and placed my hands on the chilled metal. Desperately, I started to pull with all my might.

"What are you doing?" Percy asked in a tone thick with skepticism.

"Trying to hatch a chicken," I said dryly. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"It won't work," he snuffed.

I could feel the lock mechanism underneath straining ever so slightly at my attempt. With a glare, I directed my gaze to Percy and tried my best command face.

"Maybe if you help me it'll budge."

"It won't work," he insisted.

"Well, do you have any better ideas, Seaweed Brain?"

Begrudgingly, and while conscious of Grover watching him, Percy got up and stood right next to me. A prickle of irritation shuttered up my spine when his warmth brushed against my back.

Together we pushed against the doors. Listening to the creaks and whines of stressed metal but getting nothing more than that.

"I told you it wouldn't work," Percy said.

"You shouldn't sound so smart," I growled. "After all, you're the reason the emergency button doesn't work. We could've been out of here by now."

"So this is all my fault?"

"The elevator getting stuck isn't," I said. The beginnings of rage set my cheeks afire. I poked him in the chest. "But not being able to call for help is totally your fault."

Percy threw his hands up in the air. "So I guess just everything is my fault in your eyes."

My own death crossed my mind. I still couldn't believe that I was letting myself die so that rot nosed monkey butt could date my best friend. So that he could live alongside my best friend. My fingernails scorched crescents into my palms from the pressure.

"Wouldn't hurt you to take the blame for once in your sad little life," I seethed.

"Well it wouldn't hurt you to stay the hell out of my business!"

"I try, but somehow you still manage to get us into shenanigans like this!"

"So you do blame me for this whole thing." I could feel the reverberations of his growl roll off his body. Somehow we always ended up too close when arguing.

"Why the hell are you here in the first place, huh?!" I spat. Leaning forward more just so Percy could get a taste of our proximity. "Normally you're at home either sulking or breaking your mothers heart, or both. You should be there right now. Not here."

Percy's lip curled back in a sneer. A jolt flashed my spine when I realized he wasn't looking in my gaze with those greek fire eyes. My lips felt exposed.

"Try telling me how to live my life one more time Chase and I swear…" Percy breathed in a gravelly tone.

An involuntary shiver tingled down my spine. I opened my mouth to rebuff but nothing was coming. I felt like an electric eel without a hole to crawl into and burning up on its own charge.

"This is getting strangely sexual," Grover muttered. "I just want to go home."

His meek voice was a release. I was brought back down to earth from my flaming rocketship when I saw his big brown eyes swimming with panic.

"We need to get out of here, and we need to get out of here now." I said while stepping back from Percy and allowing myself room to fully breath.

Focus Annabeth.

There was a bubble of air stretching pressure up my esophagus but I held it back. Heavens only knew what would happen if I started burping up hearts.

"How're we supposed to get out when the doors won't open?"

"We think outside the box," I said in a quiet realization. I looked up, squinting through the orangey fluorescent light. Following the grooves of the ceiling until I had made out a distinct box. Set, I crawled on top of the laptop cart and placed my fingers on the panel.

"What are you doing?" Percy sounded wildly unimpressed.

"I need to get outside the box to think there, don't I?"

Beneath my fingertips, the panel clicked and fell away with the tiniest hint of pressure. Every old elevator had an escape hatch in the ceiling. You could watch any Tom Cruise movie to confirm that.

Despite Grovers nervous chatterings that might've been protests, and Percy's bored and uncertain noises, I hooked my hands on the rim and hoisted myself up. A gasp of dust and echoing oil tainted air greeted me on the other side. Sprouting from the middle of the elevator was a thick trunk of black cables that reached up to the top of the drafty shaft.

I had only just wiggled and battled my way safely on top before a heart floated to my lips. Out of habit, I pocketed it.

"What on earth could being up there help us with?" Percy asked from below. I loved how distant his voice sounded. I loved how with a flick of my foot I could knock the panel closed and have him locked inside that little box.

"The other doors." I craned my neck upwards. The other doors that were very, very high up. Maybe if I jumped? Were there any footholds? Could I pry the doors open with a skinny pole?

Percy popped his head up like a demonic jack in the box. "Are you trying to give Grover a heart attack?"

"I'm trying to help. If he stays in there any longer he's liable to pop."

"Sorry to say, all you're doing is shaking the elevator around and getting coated in dust."

I wiped my hands on the back of my jeans. "Which is more than what you're doing."

"Because clearly we can't do anything right now Chase!"

"No. We can- All Right. You know what? We can't fight right now. I'm getting Grover out with or without your help. So for the time being-" I held out my dust speckled hand. Hardened with seriousness as I earnestly gazed at Percy, waiting for his response. "-truce?"

For a second Percy seemed to be looking for the joke, the trick. Warily, he eyed my fingers before taking it gingerly and shaking once.
"Truce," he said slowly.
"Cool."

There was only one way out as far as I could see.

So up I went. Painfully, with my hands gripped tight on the black metal coils. My shoes squeaked over the line as I struggled to find a decent grip. From below I could hear Percy's breathing hitch and deepen when I slipped slightly.

Not looking down, I regripped and released a humid breath. Ignoring the trickle of sweat down the frazzled nape of my neck, I tilted my head out and measured the gap between me and the doors. Three to four feet, at least. With a sway I stuck my foot out and managed to reach the ledge of the elevator opening on my first try. I was then suspended between the taut black elevator hoist ropes and the silver doors that taunted me with the firm line that connected them down the middle.

Alright Annabeth. You can do this. I released my iron hold on the ropes and left my calf wrapped around as support. Leaning, leaning, leaning until I was testing the limits of my flexibility. Thank all Styx I was able to reach the doors and pried my fingers between the line. To my surprise (and joy) these doors fell apart with ease.

"Now comes the hard part," I muttered. I fell back onto the metal coil. Sweat was slicking my palms making my hold almost impossible. I had to act fast.

"You're going to break your neck!" Percy called from beneath me.

"I wouldn't give you the satisfaction of seeing that," I yelled back. Then launched.

I was aiming to land through the doors, both feet set on the second floor but instead the tips of my shoes grazed the ledge, and the image of the empty hallway flashed in my vision before I was staring at the concrete wall and iron plumbing zipping past.

I yelped an unholy word with a throat clenching panic throttling me. Barely two seconds, I was weightless. Then I slammed into something. Arms were around me. Percy.

Together we crumpled into the ground with a rattling thud.

The cold metal roof of the elevator was under my cheek when I cracked open my eyes. Below I could make out the frantic pacings of Grover.

"What happened?! Are you guys alright?!"

"Mh fine." I rubbed my head. I'd have a few bruises on my burning legs but no real damage.
Percy on the other hand lay before me, limp. A start flew up my back and bristled my spine.

"Jackson?" I shook him. His head lolled to the side. "Jackson?"

I couldn't see any blood. Had he hit his head? Styx, had I hit him with my big clumsy feet? I wiped his black locks away from his face, scanning for the start of a bruise, or an egg or a red spot.

"Percy!" I patted his cheek urgently. Swarms of panic buzzed in my stomach.

Percy's eye cracked open, an unapologetic twinkle in it. "Gotcha." He smirked.

"You!" I shoved him away as his body started to convulse with laughs.

"Awww, are you hurt that you showed you truly care, Chase?" Percy tilted his head to the side teasingly.

I grabbed the front of his shirt and twisted him closer to me so he could see how much venom was in my eyes. "Do you want me to show you how much I don't actually care?"

"Ah ah ah." Percy was still riding the high from his prank judging on his stupid lopsided smile. He waved a finger at me authoritatively. "We said truce, remember?"

My anger simmered. Damn boy was right.

"Alright fine. But when we get out of here, am I ever going to give you a piece of my mind."

"Promise?" Percy asked cheekily.

"Ugh." I flexed my fingers and grabbed the black metal rope again. "You're the worst Jackson."

"And?" he asked innocently.

Second time round was a success. I managed to kill the landing and even took a hot second to do a victory dance with my tongue sticking out at Percy. I'm happy to report he didn't look impressed by it.

Quicker than a jaybird I hopped through the school and down a flight of stairs. Opening the doors from the outside was much easier than the inside. When they finally fell away I was met with Grover's big scared eyes that melted in relief.

"Thank heavens," he breathed. "I wasn't going to say anything but I really needed to use the bathroom."

He limped off. The clickings of his crutches nicked my ears until he rounded a corner.

"Didn't think you could do it," Percy said. He was midway through coming down out of the hole in the elevator ceiling. I'm sorry to say that he landed on the laptop cart heavily. "I guess you're going to hold this over me for the rest of our highschool life?"

"Eight months, twenty two days, three hours," I recited. "And you can count on it."

Percy shrugged. "I guess you really wouldn't be Annabeth Chase if you weren't a pain in my side."

"And you wouldn't be Percy Jackson if you weren't a constant nuisance," I said sweetly.

Percy almost chuckled at that.

"Well goodnight pain."

"Goodnight nuisance."

Percy passed me with the slightest of smiles on his face. The kind of smile that made Mona Lisa look like she was grinning grotesquely.

"And Jackson?" I don't know what made me call after him. I suppose my curiosity was too thick to handle.

Percy glanced over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow at me.

"What were you doing here so late? Really."

"I thought I'd replace a few delicacies in the teacher's fridge."

"Jackson." I warned.

Percy's eyes fell to the floor. A veil of hesitancy was on his lips. "... Paul needed help reorganizing his classroom. I just had some free time and…"

It was like it was painful for him to say it. I didn't want to press it. Some bubbles were ugly when they burst.

"Oh," I said.

.oOo.

Life was weird. Percy was actually going to the dinner table, Sally was happier, Rachel was a fit of knots and nerves when normally she was a relaxed sprite and Grover had the confidence to tell his mother to not sue the school over the elevator incident. The only thing that hadn't changed was my father. It was like he was on Everest and I was a crab in Marianas trench. Not the band, the actual trench. I sat at the counter at nine forty five every night. He would come in, ask about food, and then go back to studying.

I suddenly had a pressure to talk to him. A 'hey, real quick, I'm dying. Thank you for your time, you may go back to doing whatever it was you were doing'. I was seriously considering just writing a note and leaving it for him when I conked out or maybe just waiting and seeing if he noticed my deteriorating condition. But I also just wanted someone to talk to. Over the last week, I had sunk low. It was getting harder and harder to see the point of getting out of bed, of working through school, of seeing my friends when I wouldn't be around for much longer.

What's the point of life when it ends so quickly? What's the point of trying when my time limit got bumped up by a fresh seventy two years?

I was too tired to cry anymore. I just needed to talk to someone. I needed my Dad.

9:45

I thought I wouldn't say anything that time round. I hadn't had the courage all week. But the moment he collected what food he wanted and made his way towards his study I slammed down my pen. It made him pause. It made him look at me head on. No glances, no side eyes. He was looking at me.

"Can we talk?" My voice shook.

"Uhhhh," My father said eloquently. " Uhh… Can this wait? I-I left a line on hold."

"No, of course. Go take your phone call." I said quickly. A worm of shame was scooting around my gut. Why did I think I could be a priority again? After what I'd done…

"Thanks honey."

"No problem."

.oOo.

I don't think I've ever been violent with a door before, but I was about to be. The Blofis' were taking their sweet time to answer it, that was for sure. My teeth clacked together, my legs felt like cold fire was peeling away the skin, and my eyes stung from squinting against the freezing rain. Fat heavy raindrops splattered around me in a drumming rhythm that was both a sensation and an earache.

I was cursing against that and the frigid wind which had made my bones feel like icicles. My fingers were so numb I couldn't unclasp them from fists less they would crack off. I pounded on the door some more. At least it put feeling back into my hands.

My car had broken down four kilometers away. I had been walking in the rain for thirty minutes. Where were they? I was supposed to beta, was I not?

Finally the lock mechanism clacked and the door swung inwards slowly. I didn't wait for the pleasantries. I was inside, rubbing my arms and hissing out shuddering breaths. The warmth of the house blessed my cold burned cheeks first.

"You're soaked."

No it wasn't Sally. For some reason Percy had answered the door.

"N-n-no shit Sh-Sherlock." I stuttered. Worming around in a little dance trying to get warm.

"What happened? Why didn't you drive?"

"My c-car broke d-down. An-and I had n-no serv-vice on my ph-phone."

Still no sign of Sally, or Paul. I couldn't hear the tell tale sign of any Estelles musical toys so I stared at Percy, confused.

"Where?"

"I think you were supposed to come tomorrow. Not today," Percy said. "My mom and Paul took Estelle to visit his parents in New York City. They won't be back until very late tonight."

So that was for nothing?! I walked four kilometers in sleeting rain, coughing, sniffling, shivering only to be greeted and booted out the door by Percy freakin Jackson? I must've looked pretty pathetic right there because Percy's expression softened. He almost even smiled. Laughing at me for sure.

"Here," he grabbed the sleeve of my drenched sweater after a moment's thought. He led me down the hall. I thought we were going to get towels out of the closet but instead he took a sharp turn and went down the stairs to the basement. Percy's domain.

He took me to his bathroom and pointed at the bathtub draped with a plastic Finding Nemo curtain. "Take a hot shower."

"B-but my clothes?"

"You can borrow some of mine."

I was too cold to be repulsed by the idea. As soon as Percy left the tiny bathroom, and the door was locked, I stripped and hopped in. Thanking the stream of water that burned warmth back into my skin. The clattering of my knees, and teeth ceased slowly and I practically melted into the comfort. Within five minutes I was no longer considered 'preservation level' cold. I happily became quite toasty, and surrounded in a thick blanket of steam.

I got out before I wrinkled like a gummy walnut and found a light fluffy towel on the wrack. A deep sense of satisfaction and calm flowed through me when I was almost completely dried.

I wrapped the towel around myself and had just flicked the lock back to crack open the door in search of clothes when my eye caught on something. Below the mirror, on the edge of the sink there was a shimmer. Something in a glass cup was expelling light.

Otherworldly and enchanting. Like, whatever it was, it had a hypnotic effect that called me to its side. I pulled my hair back and stared down into the glass.

A soulmate heart.

My own real heart dropped and throbbed in my chest. Weakness jellied my legs for a moment as I stared at it entranced. Percy Jackson's soulmate heart.

It was a little larger in size compared to mine. Filled with a clear paradise blue. What really made it special was the light that came from it. Rippled light. Like the light refractions you see at the bottom of a pool or within the shallows of a white sand beach. Light that fractured and danced and sparkled and waved in sharp little lines all over the place.

Without even thinking I tossed the toothbrush aside and tipped the heart into my hand. Intent on seeing it up close.

On contact my chest heaved with butterflies, and a powerful beacon of light blinded me. In shock I stumbled back, striking the light switch with the back of my head before I crumpled to the floor. When I opened my eyes, Percy's soulmate heart was throbbing in my palm. The light that graced its insides had exploded outwards.

Drawing lines against the walls, the sink, the tub, the floor. Cascading around the dark room effortlessly. It was as if I were at the bottom of a pool. My chest burned.

Just when I was getting to my feet I heard Percy's footsteps come charging down the stairs. I tossed the soulmate heart back into the cup and flicked on the light.

"What the hell happened?" he barged in. I forgot I had unlocked the door.

"Percy!" I shrieked. Clutching the towel tighter around my body. Two seconds away from laying a red handprint on his cheek. "What are you doing?!"

Didn't matter if I hit him or not. His face flushed a rosy crimson before he swung around and faced the wall. Stiff with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he buried his face in his hands. "It's just…I thought I felt... did you see it?"

"The movie 'It'? Why would you ask that!" I guffawed. "Get the hell out! I'd be naked except for this towel you creep!"

"Did you see it?" His tone grew serious. And scared. Something about it was so trapped that I had to sigh.

I could relate to that feeling.

"Okay yes," I relented, a bit quieter. "I knocked over the cup and saw… it."

Percy's entire form fell into a hunch of defeat. I could hear his breathing, even and quiet, build up into one large exhale.

"Oh," he said dejectedly.

My gut lurched and a deep rumbling burp stirred another soulmate heart out of my mouth. I masked the noise with a cough and stared at my star riddled heart that lay so small in the palm of my hand. A new heaviness was binding my lungs.

"So… you're affected by soulmate magic." Was all I could think to say.

Me too bro.

Percy rubbed the back of his neck and nodded. His mop of black hair bobbed with his movements. Then he rested his forehead against the wall. Utterly defeated by his own confession.

"Do you know who your soulmate is?" I asked.

He glanced back at me. That desperate glint in his eyes, and a somewhat crestfallen part in his lips. I was too preoccupied trying to hide my soulmate heart behind my back to remember that I was in only a towel. Otherwise I would've slapped him.

"I thought I did," He murmured. "But I guess not."

He seemed so lost all of a sudden. My pulse pounded against my ribcage when the deep realization finally hit me.

He thought it was me. He thought it was me. It could be me but I'm not going to tell him that.

And then I panicked.

"That's rough buddy." I spoke in my best Zuko voice.

Percy looked confused.

"Oh c'mon! Why do I waste all my good reference lines on you? You've had to have watched Avatar: The Last Airbender at some point!"

Percy looked even more confused.

"Whatever. Just get me some clothes you uncultured swine." I huffed. Humiliated already. "I'm starting to get cold again."

He crept backwards to the sink and pocketed his heart before leaving.

.oOo.

While I was panicking/ready to lurch up any lunch I'd eaten there was a soft knock and the promise of clothes left for me on the floor just outside the door. I shelved all the worries ping ponging around my brain, and the fact that when I touched Percy's heart there was a physical reaction, to get dressed.

Lovely. A huge baggy hoodie, and sweatpants I had to double knot to keep up. I was swimming in blue and grey fabric. Goode Swim Team sprayed across my chest in puke orange.

Whatever. I didn't have time for this. I had to leave. I slipped my heart in with the others in my purse and peeked out the door.

The bathroom opened up into a little basement living space. A child free living space, I noticed. No nappies, no bottles, no toys. Clearly Mr. and Mrs. Blofis had tried to make Percy comfortable with his own area because I was looking at a pretty cool room. Tv, couch, ping pong table, and a nice assortment of video games and movies stockpiled on a shelf under the screen. Granted everything was second hand, splitting, frayed, or chipped but that didn't mean it wasn't nice.

It warmed my thrift store heart.

Percy's room was right next door to the bathroom. I could tell because there was a steady stream of funky music emanating past an ajar door. Through the gap I could make him out sitting on a loosely made four post bed. A jumble of laundry sat on top of his dresser, and a desk with a computer cramped the wall across from his mattress. Blue walls caged him in. There was a window pressed up against the ceiling that was being pebbled by cold rain.

I don't know what compelled me to invade his territory, but before I could stop myself I was standing in his doorway with my hand still clutching the doorknob. I probably looked like a nonrefundable ghost, there to curse him with bad fashion and clothes that just don't fit right after a second wash.

"Hey."

Percy jolted so hard I thought he'd finally split his nokia grade head with pure g-force. Lord knows the service bars were down to one already in that skull of his.

Wait, that's right. I walked in there because I needed a phone. My car was still abandoned on the side of a random road. Cripe.

"Do you have a phone?"

"No, we're gremlins who live under a rock, eat bugs, and revel at fire," Percy snarked. Rubbing his probably tender head after whiplash like that.

"Cave-men. Say it with me now. You are cave-men. Gremlins have more class." I crossed my arms. I was trying to look sassy, but with the too long sleeves flopping one over the other I probably just looked like an agitated car dealership air dancer.

"The phone is next to the toaster on the counter upstairs," Percy grumbled. Turning his back at me so he could stare into the glow of his screen. "If it stops working just smash it against a hard surface three times."

He's hurting. My emotion numb brain was able to pick up on that much. The fact that I saw his little soulmate heart shattered his world. I could only imagine the fear of someone else finding such a private secret about me. If Percy ever saw my little soulmate hearts, I'd die.

Whatever. I turned to leave.

But Rachel. My mind turned on itself.

But you don't need to be friends with him now. I argued.

Maybe not friends but totally his mentor! He's going to be your best friend's new best friend and love of her life well after you're gone. You might as well try to shape him into a decent soul while you're still here. I argued back.

This is what you get when your father has a stint as a lawyer and brings his work home for you to rifle through. A near double personality syndrome and this feeling like a gavel is shattering the inside of your skull.

"I'm sorry I saw your soulmate heart," I finally said semi-sincerely. Rubbing my scalp. "I didn't mean to… Also I'm sorry for arguing with you in the kitchen… and the elevator. I was… going through some shit."

Percy paused his mindless scrolling and clicked off his phone. The music stopped. "It's okay, the big secret would've gotten out sooner or later."

I found myself taking a step deeper into his room. Unwilling curiosity itched against my head. "Does your mom know about the whole… soulmate spiel?"

"No? I think she knows something's up but she'd never guess that I…"

"Oh," I said. Intelligent, aren't I?

Percy bobbed his head, still refusing to even look at me. I still had a hunch that he was suspicious of me being his soulmate. He must've felt something when I touched his heart. Why else would he have raced down the stairs so quickly?

"And Annabeth?"

He caught me with his voice just as I was leaving. My skin raced with prickles and for a heart defying moment, my blood stood cold and unmovable in my veins.

I'd never heard him call me by my first name before.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry for arguing with you too and… you were right. About the whole Paul thing that is..." I thought he'd say it still facing the wall but he didn't. He turned to peg me with his ocean green eyes and maintained that look for as long as I couldn't breathe.

"I was still angry over Gabe. I didn't want to be so I directed my anger everywhere else."

It made me stop. Like a subtle little reality check. A pinch.

"Wow…" I said. A little dazed. "That takes a lot of humility. Confessing that someone else was right." I certainly could never admit my wrongs. At least never when the moment was right. I was always too late. My pride was always in the way.

Perplexed, I edged closer, my head slightly cocked to the side. My damp curls swayed in the movements. I tucked them over my shoulder.

"What made you think I was right?" I asked. Now I felt like the one staring at someone new. As you can probably tell, of all the things I expected Percy to ever say, admitting fault was never one of them. This kinda skewed my he's a horrible person, nothing more point of view.

Percy shrugged loosely. "I was mad when I left your car that night. But I couldn't get your words out of my head. I told myself I wasn't angry at Paul for anything but being a lousy guy. But you were right, I couldn't come up with a reason. I couldn't pinpoint why I was angry with my mom either."

A shrill squeak passed over the room from his mattress when I timidly took a seat at the edge of his bed. Percy seemed suddenly aware of my unwavering eyes and blushed. He finally averted his gaze to the floor.

"You made a change." I said softly. "I can see that much. Mr. Blofis and your mom seem so much happier."

"They do?" Maybe he couldn't see it because he sounded so hopeful. Like I was the only one who could really squint through the fog and tell him of the shapes looming in the horizon line.

"Yeah." I smiled. "Mr. Blofis actually had his papers marked on time this week. Your mom doesn't wring her hands before she calls for dinner. Well, at least while I'm here she doesn't."

"Oh," Percy said. Content. A quiet contentment actually.

I rolled back on his bed. A flush in my cheeks, and a mind full of swirling thoughts. My eyes closed tight as I allowed myself to feel the soft plush of his quilt under my back. Cherishing the warmth and security I was experiencing. Readying my thoughts one after the other.
"Thanks for getting my water bottle back," I muttered under my breath.

Man that was harder to say than I thought.

"How did you know it was me?"

"I saw you leaving my house."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Well,-" I felt the mattress dip as Percy rolled onto his back as well. "Thank you for keeping my secrets. You could've seriously damaged my reputation."

"Reputation? Is that what you call your unbeaten detention streak?" I joked.

To my shock, Percy laughed. A plain but deep throated laugh that made my stomach tingle gleefully. It was like this boy was built to laugh, and I had never stopped long enough to hear it.

I couldn't help but glance over at him with his eyes squinted shut, and his lips stretched out. Actual dimples bookending his joy. Who knew Percy Jackson had dimples?

Rachel would've known.

"It's as good of a reputation as any," Percy said, still smiling.

A swell rose from the depths of my stomach and I turned away to mask my burp with a cough. Another little soulmate heart fell into my hand, and I whisked it down my sleeve.

Percy's sleeve actually. I mean, it was his hoodie I was wearing.

"Are you okay? Did you catch a cold from being out in the rain for so long?" Percy's eyebrows were turned up from concern, and I almost belched up another heart.

"No. No I'm fine." I waved him off.

Lies. I was going to die. And it was all freakin Percy Jackson's fault. Not that he was really doing it on purpose. Still.

"Have you always enjoyed the view of the stars?" I changed the subject with a teasing tone. Pointing upwards to a large cluster of faint green glow in the dark plastic stars. All shapes and sizes, and held in place by sticky tack against the crisp white of the ceiling.

"Those…" Percy sounded a bit lost for a second. Or unsure at least. "Those are a reminder from my mom."

His eyes were faraway. As if he were looking at real stars up past the confines of this basement room, away past the clouds and domed sky. Out into space itself.

I didn't say anything. There was something in his gaze that I couldn't quite relate to. A gap in experienced pain maybe.

"When I was little and Gabe was… well being Gabe, my mom would save up every last cent she could and we'd rent this little cabin out on Montauk beach once a year. At night we'd sit out on the sand with a big woolen blanket and she'd point out the constellations. It was our one escape. Throughout the year when things got really bad we'd say to each other 'we'll see the stars soon'. Kinda like code for things were going to be okay. When my mom finally pressed charges against Gabe and we were free, she bought me those as a reminder that we were out. We could see the stars anytime we wanted."

Maybe he didn't realize he was talking to me. Or maybe he just accidently let too much slip. Either way, he rubbed the back of his neck when he was finished in a flustered way and chuckled.

"Yeah, they are kinda childish aren't they? I should take them down."

"No!" I reached over to thump his chest. "Are you crazy? That's really sweet. Keep those up."

"Alright well if you insist-"
"I don't insist. I command. Percy Jackson, you are keeping those stars up on your ceiling until the end of time."

Percy laughed again and looked at me. "You must really like my mom huh?"

"I adore her, she's the kindest woman in the world."

"You'd better let your own mom know she has competition."

"Oh she won't mind. She's dead."

I was so used to saying that, I'd forgotten how weird it must've been for other people to hear it. It wasn't something people said so casually. At least not usually.

Percy's lips instantly created a small o. Shocked, he stared at me silently.

"Really? You don't remember that? I was the hot-goss for the entire year in grade one. I was absent from school for a month, and when I got back the class threw me a party? Because there's nothing like a classroom pizza party to make up for the loss of a parent, but that's besides the point."

"I can't… really remember a lot from that time." Percy said sheepishly. "I had a lot of head injuries that year."

Because of Gabriel Ugliano.

Please stand by as I return to the trailer park to coat that fat bastard in gasoline and then cartoonishly give him a pair of lit firecrackers to hold.

Just kidding.

But seriously, I might.

"Oh, well then; my mom's car was faulty and it ran off the road into a river while she was driving home from some old book store across town." I explained easily.

I think it's expected of me to be torn up over my mom's death. Don't get me wrong, I miss her, it just doesn't hurt as much anymore when I think of her.

Emptily, Percy stared at me. Lost in a battle to remember I assumed. I snapped in front of his face twice and he jolted in response.

"I don't get you." He said before I could utter anything else. It was almost accusatory in the way he said it too. Like I was at fault for not being got. What a dope.

"What's there not to get?"

"How can you be so upset over a water bottle but your dead mom is like yesterday's conversation to you."

I don't think he meant it harshly, but I still bristled slightly. Being nudged by some else's nose as they tried to worm their way into your business was super annoying. I guess that was what Percy felt when I confronted him after the catharsis car sabotage.

"My mom happened when I was super little," I said defensively. "I've had time- no I've worked to heal from it. My water bottle has sentimental value. It was the last thing my little brothers gave me before they left."

Well that part just slipped out. Curse me.

"You have brothers?"

Of course he'd ask.

"Half brothers," I muttered. "My Dad remarried this woman named Helen when I was seven."

From beside me the bed creaked and Percy rolled on his side to face me. Giving me his whole unblemished attention with a flicker of interest in his eyes.

"But you just said your mom died in grade one. That would've meant it was only a year before he-"

"Remarried? Yeah. Less than a year actually. It was more like ten months. Then nine months after they were married the twins were born."

Percy shifted again. Working every little detail out in his brain, I was sure of it. He seemed to be struggling to grasp some of the basics though.

"But they left?"

Here we go.

"Yeah."

"When? Why? How could they just do that?" Buried in his tone was a sliver of offense. Like somehow them leaving me had cut him personally.

"It was because of me," I whispered.

Whatever. I was going to die anyway. What use was holding secrets? Besides, I was curious about this. This hesitante alliance we suddenly had. This shy connection of secrets we shared.

Maybe I could stick around to mold him before he became Rachel's everything. Maybe I could actually teach him a few things before I was in the ground.

"Remember when I said I was on your tracks before?" I asked. Grimacing already.

Percy nodded. Submerged in my words while his bright eyes grazed across my face. Stomach fizzing, I looked up to the plastic stars again.

"When my Dad married Helen, I was mad. Furious actually. I was so shocked that he could replace my mom so quickly like she never even mattered. I think he thought I'd get over it because I was so young but I didn't."
"Because you're stubborn." Percy filled in with a sad smile.

"Because I'm stubborn," I agreed. "Helen tried her hardest to fill the mother role for me. I think… she may have actually really loved me as a mother, but I couldn't see it. I hadn't healed yet, so seeing her so suddenly in the role my mom was supposed to be in just made things so bad. I was angry all the time. At her for being there, at my dad for replacing my mom, and eventually at the twins for just existing I guess. I really just tore the family apart with my terrorizing nature."

"You did not tear your family apart," Percy scoffed. "Their marriage probably suffered from being hitched so quickly."

"Except it wasn't because they were married for six years where I consistently pushed them apart as hard as I could, and when Helen took off with the boys she left a note that pretty much alluded to my involvement in her decision. Something along the lines of 'I'll always love you, but I can't live in a home anymore where I don't feel like I belong'."

Percy looked a little taken aback. "Ouch. That's… pretty harsh."

"I was harsh. I was… well I was exactly like you. Pushing them away, acting moody. Never joining for meals or outings. I made them know I didn't need them every chance I got. I think my Dad felt sorry for me because he'd sometimes side with me. That drove Helen nuts."

I expected him to say something but he didn't. He rolled onto his stomach and started pulling at a frayed thread sticking out from his blue quilt. A tiny wrinkle in his nose.

Maybe he was ashamed?

"If you don't keep trying to shape up for them, things will fall apart." I warned. "I've seen Paul's expressions when dealing with you. They're eerily similar to Helen a month before she left. Things are better now, I can tell, but you really need to keep working at it to help fix things. How would your mom feel if Paul took Estelle and left? She'd be broken-hearted. I can guarantee that she'll never abandon you because you're her son, but nothing can stop her from resenting you if you force away the tiny bit of family she built."

Percy thought about it for a moment. From the side, he glanced in my direction. His lips pursed into a hard line. "How do you… fix things?"

My heart twisted. "I.. I don't really know… I never got the chance to even try."

"Well what would you have done?"

"I would've worked harder to sort out my feelings towards Helen," I said. I had time to hypothesize this through every night after she had left. "Explain to her why I felt that way and maybe asked her to give me space when I needed it. Cuz it's hard y'know? Having a step parent you don't want can be really… really just frustrating."

Percy rubbed the side of his head. "Yeah…"

"Next I would've tried making things right with my dad first. Maybe vent at him a bit about how he really took me off guard by marrying another woman so soon. How he made me feel like an afterthought and an accessory instead of… well instead of-"

"A member of the family," Percy summed up softly.

"Exactly." I swiveled to look at him but he was busy examining his plastic stars. "I guess the last step would've been to find a therapist. It's kinda hard to deal with a person who refuses to heal. They'll just end up bleeding all over you. I know I bled all over my family."

Percy was silent. He was playing with air in his cheeks. Squishing it over from one side to another in slow controlled puffs. Finally he deflated them with a sigh and shook his head.

"Bleed all over. Never saw it from that angle before."

"Well being so dense and all probably doesn't help," I jibed.

"Just the same. Being so dense has the perks of not being able to register your hideous face," Percy spurred back. In mock dramatics he held out his hands towards my face. "Quasimodo, is that you?"

"Oh cut it out, or else I'll send my dog to poop on your bed."

"You have a dog?"

"Hypothetical dog."

"Does your hypothetical dog have a name?"

"Yeah. Jackson. Because it'd remind me of another little bitch I know," I laughed playfully.

At first he scowled, but slowly it chipped away into a relenting grin and he shook his head. Those precious dimples lit up on his face again.

My gut surged, and a quick burp pulled another little heart up from my chest. I covered my mouth to slip it in my sleeve with the other one. They faintly clinked together. Just enough for me to hear and assume that it was the loudest noise on earth.

Percy wasn't even paying attention, he was combing a hand through his raven hair. Still smiling.

"Really. I don't get you."

"I thought we cleared this up?"

Percy rolled back on his side. Facing me. His eyes probed me while they still twinkled with leftover lightheartedness and a deep winding curiosity.

"You've hated me for thirteen years, your words not mine, then suddenly you're fine to sit on my bed and make a joke at my expense?"

"Yes. My social talents are so astounding, they're confusing." I flicked a frizzy lock over my shoulder in mock confidence. "Aren't you just dazzled?"

"Really? Because, to me, it looks as if you realized you misjudged me and now you just can't get enough." Cue cocky smirk.

My laugh bounced again. "Yeah sure," I said. "That's totally it."

I mean, it was. Just a little. I guess. But to hell if I was going to actually tell him that. Proud girl here, remember?

Percy continued searching my face. I don't know what he was thinking, but with the way his eyes sparkled, it must've been something nice.

Rachel.

With a deep sigh, I set my gaze on him seriously. Admitting to myself that he wasn't the guy I thought he was. Maybe, just maybe, with a bit of work he'd be good for Rachel. Maybe she could find real happiness with him. Maybe they truly belonged together, and her thirteen year crush was meant to blossom into something more. Maybe I was meant to wither out of their way so she could bloom into the magnificent person she was born to be.

My death is worth her happiness.

For the first time in weeks, I felt a sense of peace. If everything was for a reason, then my reason was to make sure Rachel was happy before I died. I was meant to insure that Percy Jackson chose Rachel Dare every step of the way. Make them fall in love so hard that Rachel would never be alone.

Maybe a little direction was required. I was okay with being the stage hand, pulling all the ropes out of sight. As long as Rachel was happy. As long as she lived, I would be okay.

"Look," I said solemnly. "The truth is that the dearest person in the world to me asked me to be nice to you. To look at you differently at least. So I'm trying to do that now. Whatever misconceptions they think I have about you, I'm supposed to clear away."

In an instant Percy's dark brooding guarded look came back into his eyes and he sat up. But it froze, and started to melt. He floated back down onto his back with another weak moan coming from the bed and held his eyelock with me. Examining me in such an intense way that I nearly balled up just for a sense of security.

"So are your misconceptions cleared away?" He asked. Slightly on edge.

Again I didn't blame him.

"Wouldn't you like to know who asked me to be nice to you?" I asked instead.

Yes. I would've answered.

"Does it matter?"

"Well it'll matter when you learn that I already knew that you were suffering from soulmate symptoms before I saw your heart tonight."

And again, he was sitting up. Staring down at me. "What?"

"The person who asked me to be nice to you was your soulmate. She's driving herself insane because you haven't shown any interest in her at all."

I was just forming her name on my tongue when Percy's gaze grew distant and he slapped his forehead in a royal facepalm. I had given him all the clues he needed.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare!"

---

Welcome to the end of the first part! Three more to go, my readers.

And here is the posting schedule for that:

November 22nd: Part 2: Early Winter

January 22nd: Part 3: Late Winter

March 22: Part 4: Spring

Since it's pretty massive I devised how many chapters it would've been as a simple book then calculated how much time it would take to post each chapter on a weekly basis. The posting schedule reflects that. This way slow readers won't feel overwhelmed by the amount posted and I get to savor the excitement of waiting to post the next parts.

I believe in your patience :)

Two years ago (when I started this thing), I was in a really really bad place. I was losing hair, losing weight, struggling with panic attacks and insomnia so bad I'd literally go days without sleeping. Something happened that changed the entire trajectory of my life, and my life is still on that altered trajectory. I'm still trying to pick things up from what happened, but it's better now. I'm better now. And hell, I am so much stronger for it.

If you were there when I posted that hiatus message on Useless Wings, and you sent one of those encouraging reviews: from the bottom of my heart: Thank you. You have no idea how not only those messages helped me in the moment, but how they helped me later when I revisited them.

If you were one of the people who not only gave a heartfelt message to me but also wonderful cliched tropes to use in this compost bin of gopey old things than you are in LUCK! We got everything in this. It's gonna be so cliche it makes you SICK! How fun, right?

Finally, I need to point you to the other fanfics that helped mold this one:

- Fangirl Shrieks: 'Call it Even': This one reminded me that I've never really focused on friendships before and the importance of good friends. That's why this one is basically Annabeth being willing to die for the sake of Rachel.

- Seaweedbraens: 'remember remember' and 'cause you've been sinning in this city'. Idk, it just had the goofy, heartfelt vibes I was going for. Plus they were both soulmate AU's. I took a lot of inspo from these two enormous fanfics.

That's it, that's all folks! Remember to review if you're so inclined, and thanks for reading all the way to the end!