Chapter 22

-Annabeth-

The days following New Years, Annabeth, Percy, Piper, and Jason all hang out at various places. One day, they hung out at Annabeth's apartment where everyone reunited with Thalia, since she had a day off work due to New Years. The day after that, they went to a restaurant as a double date, after which they went to Piper's house where they watched movies until late. The day after that, everyone just did their own things separately. Percy spent some time with his family while Piper and Jason went out of down to meet some extended family, leaving Annabeth alone in her apartment. Thalia had to go back to work, but didn't forget to make Annabeth's 'favorite' breakfast (even though she doesn't have a favorite to pick. She loves her cooking all the same.)

Since she didn't have anything else to do that day, Annabeth just browsed the internet on her phone or read more from her architecture book that Percy got her for Christmas. She hadn't noticed it the first few times she'd opened it, but just under the cover he had written a quick note, just simply wishing her a Merry Christmas, encircled with a poorly drawn red heart.

'He's such a mess', she had thought to herself, although she couldn't stop the smile from forming.

Now, the last day of break was upon them and even Annabeth had to admit it felt too soon. Nevertheless, she was trying to get Percy to get back to his normal routines, which meant no staying up until after midnight playing video games or facetiming her. (She couldn't deny she would miss the late night calls, but she wasn't about to admit that, either.)

"I would miss seeing you every night, though," Percy says, being annoyingly whiny.

Annabeth looks at him with her arms crossed and raises her eyebrows. They're currently in Percy's living room, with him reclined on the couch and her standing above him.

"You'll see me every day starting tomorrow, so quit whining."

"In all seriousness, though," he says, sitting himself up. "I'm not looking forward to more homework. Or lectures. Or Luke."

"I, for one, enjoy homework. But yeah, definitely not looking forward to seeing Luke," she says, shuddering at the thought of what happened.

"I'm still going to punch him first chance I get," Percy says.

"Percy, don't," Annabeth sighs, settling down next to him. "That will only get you in trouble."

"We've been over this, Wise Girl," he says, locking eyes with her. "I'm willing to accept the consequences. After what he did to you, he deserves it!"

"I don't care if he deserves it or not, and I don't care if you're willing to accept the consequences. I can't accept you potentially getting kicked out of the school, or worse, getting arrested."

"Annabeth, it's okay," he tries to say but she interrupts.

"You want to know why I'm not okay with it?"

He studies her face for a moment before answering. "Why?"

She smiles softly. "Because if you're gone, you wouldn't be able to protect me. Not that I need your protection, anyway."

"Ah, wait a minute! You just admitted you need me to protect you!"

"No, I said that I wouldn't, but you won't have that option."

"You need me," he teases, poking her side and stomach. She squirms and slaps his hands away, laughing.

"No I never said that!"

"You admitted it!"

"Sto-op!" she laughs, falling onto her side while Percy continues to tickle her. "You're twisting my words!"

She manages to twist out of his reach and she runs down the hallway towards his room. She hears Percy chasing her, his joyful laugh ringing in her ears. She ducks into his room and tries to close the door before he gets in, but before the door can latch, he's pressed up against it in an attempt to keep it open enough for him to slip in. If it wasn't for the dresser next to the door, Annabeth wouldn't have been able to keep the door closed for very long since her sock-covered feet kept slipping on the wood floor.

"Hey, that's my room!" Percy calls from the other side.

"Too bad," Annabeth taunts. She feels another firm shove from the door and her right foot slips a little. Her left is propped against the heavy dresser so the door doesn't move much. She peers through the crack in the door, searching for Percy. She sees his silhouette for a moment before his green eyes pierce her grey ones. As hard as she tries to keep up her resistance, just seeing his eyes distracts her long enough to allow Percy to slip through the small opening.

Before she can react, his arms are wrapped around her and he's holding her close, his smiling face looking slightly down at hers.

"Gotcha," he declares victoriously.

"You cheated," she replies.

"How did I cheat?"

"Your eyes are too distracting."

"Oh so now you think I'm distracting?" he asks, staring straight into her eyes.

She doesn't answer him, opting instead to keep gazing back into his eyes, letting herself get lost in them. She remembers when she had told him that she loved him the day after Christmas, then just a few days ago at the New Years party at Leo's he said it back to her. His tone made it sound almost taunting, but his eyes shown sincerity. Her heart starts to beat just a bit faster. Her hands find his chest and she feels his heartbeat as well.

"Maybe a little too distracting," she murmurs.

"Is that a bad thing?" he asks, just as softly. His eyes flicker to her lips for just a split second before returning to her eyes.

She slides her arms around his neck and pulls him into a kiss. Her eyes close as he holds her a little tighter and kisses her back, keeping it slow and soft. Annabeth, however, doesn't want it slow and soft right now. She guides him towards the bed and pushes him on it before kissing him again. She bites his lip, hoping he gets the message. She isn't disappointed.

Twenty minutes later, her lips are slightly swollen from the kissing and biting, and the base of her neck and her collar has a few dark spots, strategically placed so she can easily cover them up to avoid questioning from Piper and Thalia. She's cuddled up next to him while he scrolls on his phone, looking for a video to watch with her.

"Percy?"

"Yes?" he replies softly.

"Did you mean what you said at Leo's?"

His eyebrows furrow with thought. "Leo's house...?"

"Yeah. The New Years party?" she asks.

His face relaxes a little and he smiles softly. "Do you want me to mean it?"

A blush forms on her cheeks. "I mean... is it okay if I do?"

His smile widens a bit. "Yes."

"Good," she says. "Because I mean it, too."

"So to change topics," he begins suddenly. "Not that this isn't an interesting topic or anything, but have you made up your mind on a youtube video?"

Her jaw slackens a little with mild surprise at how easily he changed the topic. "Rude. But yeah, I like the look of this one." She taps on his phone screen, starting up a Food Theory video.

...

-First day of school-

-Percy-

"Hey Perce!" Jason calls across the commons area once Percy enters the building.

There's already a lot of students waiting around for the first bell to ring, though that won't be for another thirty minutes. Regardless, Percy snakes his way through the crowd and meets up with Jason at his table. With him are Leo, Grover, and Frank, who all greet Percy.

"Hey how was your break?" Frank asks him.

"You mean after the party at Leo's? It was good. Got to see some extended family. What about you?"

Frank shrugs. "Eh, I didn't really do a whole lot. Just stayed home most of the time."

"That's it?" Leo asks him, almost criticizing him.

"Come on, Leo," Frank says. "We all know you didn't do much either."

"I was being productive," Leo declares.

"Oh yeah? What were you doing?" Percy asks. "It better not have anything to do with Halloween."

"Actually, it was more stuff like that, but it wasn't related to Halloween for once. I just think it's fun making that kind of stuff."

"He's got an armory coming together," Cal says out of nowhere.

"Woah, when did you get here?" Jason asks her, startled.

"Not too long ago. I just need to have a word with Leo really quick," she replies.

Leo gets up and bows. "Whatever you need, m'lady."

Cal's nose wrinkles and she sighs. "Just come on, Pyro..."

Leo follows her to the far end of the commons, leaving everyone else guessing what they could be talking about.

"Maybe she's asking him out?" Grover suggests.

"Cal? I don't know. Percy did say something about her liking him though, didn't you?" Jason says, looking at Percy.

"I did, but she's admittedly tricky. She's harder to read than the others."

"Maybe her way of showing she likes someone is being a bit mean or rude to them?" Frank suggests.

"That's what I'm thinking, but that's the problem," Percy says. "That can be hard to know for sure."

"I never thought I'd see the day where Percy doesn't know," Jason teases.

"Me neither," Grover agrees. "Also surprised Annabeth isn't with you, Perce."

"Hey, she has a life, too," Percy says with a shrug. "It's not like I won't let her have friends."

"Yeah, we know," Jason says, throwing an arm over his shoulders. "It's just not your style."

"It is Luke's though," Frank says. He turns towards his right a bit and cocks his head. Percy looks over and frowns when he sees Luke with his arm around some girl, who's clearly enjoying his company. But it's not just that sight that makes him mad. Luke's eyes keep drifting over to where Annabeth is, though Percy can't see her from where he's standing.

"The moment he even touches her, I'm knock him into next week," Percy grumbles.

"Piper told me he tried to get to Annabeth through her," Jason says, glaring towards Luke. "Even tried 'sweetening the deal'. He's disgusting."

"I can only imagine her response," Percy chuckles.

"Oh she was pissed!" Jason exclaims, throwing his hands up. "Honestly, she has the best replies to people like that and for the life of me I can't remember exactly what she said to him."

"If it's the best, how do you not know what it is?" Frank asks.

"You try remembering something when you're falling over laughing," Jason challenges.

"I dunno," Percy says. "I can remember quite a bit."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Leo calling him part dolphin," Grover says.

"Wait, when was that?" Jason asks.

"Thanksgiving last year," Frank says.

"Oh yeah," Jason says, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I remember that."

"Wasn't that funny," Percy says. "But I'm not surprised you couldn't remember."

"Oh shut it."

The starting bell finally rings and Percy picks up his bookbag to get to homeroom. He spots Annabeth along the way and he waves at her. She waves back when she sees him and jogs over to him.

"Hey, heading to homeroom?" she asks.

"Yup. Where were you headed?"

She rolls her eyes and looks down at a tablet computer. "My computer won't start up and I have an important project file I need to work on."

"What's this project?" he asks her, walking with her to the computer lab.

"It's nothing school related, per se," she replies. "It's something that could help me get ahead in my career field once I get to college. A local architect saw some sketches I posted online and was interested in my ideas. Turns out he has a high position in a small, but very successful architecture company and he has connections in the University."

"Wow, that's really great!" Percy exclaims, grinning wildly.

"Yeah, he says he could put in a good word for me when I apply," she says. "Not like I need a good word. My work speaks for itself."

"Naturally," Percy says. "But now you can't access your file? When does he want to see it?"

"In a few days," she replies. "It's not finished yet but I wanted to work on it a little in homeroom. I'm hoping that this would not only make me look better to the University, but maybe even catch eyes from the other architecture firms down the road."

They turn down the hallway for the computer lab and the bell rings, meaning everyone should be in homeroom. A teacher is standing out in the hallway to catch tardy students and spots the pair.

"What are you two doing out of your homeroom?" he asks.

"My computer won't start so we were taking it to IT," Annabeth explains. "Percy was just walking with me so I wasn't alone."

The teacher hums in thought for a moment. "Does your homeroom teacher know?"

"She knows about me for sure," Annabeth says. "At least she should... I asked Piper to tell her where I was."

"She doesn't know where I am," Percy sighs.

"I'll give you both a pass this time," the teacher says. "I'll call up your homeroom and let her know. Which teacher do you have?"

Percy tells him and he calls Mrs. Dodds. A few words of dialogue are spoken before the call ends. "Alright, you're both good. Just this one time, though."

"Thank you," Annabeth says. She takes Percy's hand and drags him after her, hurrying to the IT room.

...

"Welcome back to homeroom, you two. Ms. Chase, did you get your problem solved?" Mrs. Dodds asks, her eyes narrowing at Percy.

"I did, thank you," Annabeth replies as she sits down at her desk.

"And you, Mr. Jackson," Mrs. Dodds grumbles. "You shouldn't have been out there anyway. You're lucky I was told where you were and why, otherwise I'd give you detention."

Percy sighs and sits back in his seat while Mrs. Dodds takes roll call. He looks through his backpack and pulls up a sheet of paper with his new class schedule on it when his phone buzzes in his pocket and he sees a text from Jason.

Jason: She looked like she was about ready to murder you

Percy: She looks like that every day, even on a good day

Jason:Is she even human? I don't think anyone can look as miserable as her.

Percy:What, you think she's an alien?

Jason:Is that too much of a stretch?

Percy:Maybe.

He looks up at Mrs. Dodds, who isn't paying any attention to him at the moment.

Percy: on second thought, you're probably right

He glances over towards Jason, who's trying not to crack up. Unfortunately, it's his turn to answer to his name.

"Jason Grace!"

"Here," he says, coughing a bit in a poor attempt to cover his chuckling.

"Is something funny, Mr. Grace?" she asks him, glowering at him.

"No ma'am," he replies, failing to hide a grin.

Mrs. Dodds hums, unsatisfied, but continues her roll call.

"Percy Jackson!"

"You know I'm here."

"Just say here, or stay silent if you want to be counted as absent!"

"I did," Percy replies. "As a part of a sentence."

"You think you're so funny, don't you?"

"Not at all," he replies.

Mrs. Dodds' face reddens with fury but to Percy's surprise, she doesn't start yelling at him. She begrudgingly continues her roll call and Percy's phone buzzes again, this time from the group text.

Jason: I swear I could almost hear her blood pressure rising lmao

Grover:me too. Are you trying to get detention again?

Percy:I didn't do anything but point out the obvious

Jason:And you know she hates that

Percy:Exactly why I do it

The last name is called and she allows everyone to do whatever they want as usual. Percy glances over at Annabeth and sees she's studying something on her computer. He decides to let her work since she did say that's what she wanted to do. He waves Jason over and he steals an empty seat from the desk next to Percy.

"You can hear blood pressure?" he asks once Jason sits down.

"Bro, I swear I could hear it," he laughs.

"Grover probably could actually hear it," Percy says.

"I think she almost broke her pen, too," Grover says, dismissing Percy's comment.

"Wouldn't be the first time," Percy says. "I think this would be her... actually, how many pens has she gone through?"

"Hell if I know. I don't count these things," Jason says.

"I still don't know why she hates Percy so much, though," Grover says. "I mean, I've been his best friend since childhood and I don't get it."

"I think it's because she hates how much sass he tends to give," Jason says. "She hates when people talk back."

"I haven't done anything," Percy defends himself, although grinning since that's exactly what he does. He enjoys the rare occasion of pushing her buttons and not getting in trouble for it.

"Oh hey, I never saw your new schedules!" Grover exclaims.

"What's your schedule?" Percy asks him.

"I have Math first hour, LA3 second hour, PE third hour, then lunch," Grover says, shuddering when he lists PE. He hates PE, especially since he has it right before lunch.

"Good news, then," Percy says. "I have PE third hour, too. You're not alone."

"Thank goodness," Grover sighs.

"My classes aren't far off from yours, Grover," Jason says. "LA3 first hour, science second hour, math third hour, then lunch."

"All three of us have lunch at the same time," Percy says. "I wonder if the other guys have that."

"Anyway," Grover continues. "After lunch I have a free hour, perfect time to watch my shows-"

"Boring nature shows," Percy coughs. Grover punches his shoulder and glares.

"Not boring. It's interesting to see how nature works," he retorts.

"Okay, moving on," Jason urges.

"Alright. So after that I have science fifth hour, mythology sixth, and art seventh hour."

"You end the day with art?" Percy asks.

"Yeah. Is that a problem?" Grover asks.

"No. I end the day with art, too," he replies. He looks through his schedule again.

1st Hour: Chemistry

2nd Hour: Math

3rd Hour: PE

Lunch

4th Hour: LA3

5th Hour: Study Hall

6th Hour: Mythology

7th Hour: Art

"So close to having the same free hour," Percy says. "I have that fifth hour."

"You won't be alone," Jason says. "I have study hall with you but I have Mythology at 7th hour"

"I wonder what we'll be learning about this semester in that class," Percy says.

"Roman mythology," Jason suggests. "We spent most of last semester on the Greeks. It's the Roman's turn."

"Guess we'll find out later today," Percy says. "Though the Greeks are better."

"No way! The Roman's tactics were much better!"

"Can't we just find a middle ground and say both sides had effective militaries?" Grover asks.

"I'm not saying Rome had a good military," Percy explains. "I'm just saying the Greeks were better."

"But they weren't, otherwise Rome wouldn't have been able to conquer them," Jason says.

"They just took advantage of a weakened Greece. If they were in their prime when Rome showed up, they wouldn't be a challenge."

"Oh okay, sure. Keep telling yourself that," Jason taunts.

Their bickering continues until the bell rings signaling 1st hour. They keep their argument going until they couldn't see each other anymore.