A/N: I'd like to thank some of the people who helped me out: AlEmily360, SapphireTrafficker, tigerlilycorinne, AshenMoon42, Lesbian101, Shiuanc2, and LadyHW.
"Piper," Annabeth breathed. Piper's look of surprise faded into guarded displeasure. She crossed her arms in front of herself. Annabeth felt bad for waiting so long to make up with her. This was long overdue.
"Piper, can I talk to you?" She pleaded. Piper raised an eyebrow at her, and she made her best begging face. Sighing, Piper leaned on the door frame, resigned.
"Sure, but try to be fast. I'm meeting someone." Piper's cheeks tinted pink.
"Is it Jason?" Annabeth teased. She missed this. The teasing, and being friends. It had only been a few weeks, maybe even less, but it felt like more. It felt like eternity.
Piper broke into a quick grin, but then shook her head and her grin disappeared. "That's not the point. Why are you here?"
"To apologise," Annabeth said. "Can I come in?"
Piper opened the door wider and gestured for her to enter. Annabeth stepped into the familiar living room. It looked even messier than it had last time. There were bars of chocolate left half-eaten on the counter and an empty ice cream carton on the couch. The blinds were drawn and only one light was on. Piper moved around the room to turn on more lights.
Annabeth looked closer at her. She was wearing a pair of clean-cut jeans and a stylish top that stopped right above her belly button, but it was wrinkled and had a strange stain, as if it was just taken from the floor. She had her hair in her usual braid, with some of her loose hairs pinned back with multi-colored barrettes. She was wearing makeup, a Piper rarity, but hadn't bothered to cover up her dark circles. She looked nice, date nice, but it was obvious that she hadn't been sleeping. Annabeth hoped this wasn't all her fault.
Piper sat cross legged on the couch. She shoved some books off of the other side and patted the cushion insistently. Annabeth sat down and mirrored her position.
"So?" Piper asked. Annabeth took this as her cue to speak.
"Piper, I am so sorry," she started. "I got mad for no reason. I know that there hasn't been any proof and that it's hard to believe. All of your points were completely valid and I definitely overreacted. I am so sorry. And I haven't gotten back to you, I've been ignoring your texts, and I've been such a bad friend, I—" Piper held up her hand and Annabeth stopped talking.
"You haven't been a bad friend," Piper said, laying her hand on Annabeth's knee. "It's fine."
"Piper, I have absolutely been a bad friend."
Piper laughed lightly. "Okay, yeah, you have, but so have I! I should have taken you more seriously; it was obvious you were freaking out. I shouldn't have wasted our time by being mad at you." Annabeth deflated with relief. "And I believe you now."
"What?" Annabeth was in shock. What changed her mind?
"I believe you. At first, I didn't know what to believe, but… I realized you're too smart to make up some kind of delusion like that. Or maybe smart is the wrong word… practical? Maybe sensible?" Piper quieted for a second, thinking.
"Piper." Annabeth prodded.
"Sorry, um, anyways, I've never known you to lie to me. I guess I just thought it was too good to be true. My own doubt in the world, in life, made me think that it couldn't be true. Losing you is already hard enough...I didn't want to allow myself to hope."
Annabeth nodded and reached out to squeeze Piper's hand. She didn't like to think about what would happen to her friends after she was gone, it was too painful. "I get that. I didn't want to hope either but something happened."
Piper leaned across her folded legs and took Annabeth by the shoulders. "Speak!" She commanded, grinning.
"I may have found him again," Annabeth admitted, beginning to smile again too. Piper gasped and shook Annabeth back and forth.
"What?! Oh my god! Where!?"
Annabeth laughed happily. She was so glad she had Piper back; she needed her a lot more than she thought she would. "He's in my English class."
"The creative writing one?"
"Yeah, I sat next to him without realizing it."
"Wow, it must be destiny," Piper said, completely serious. Annabeth laughed and slapped her shoulder lightly.
"Please. Destiny?" She laughed again. "Weren't you going somewhere?"
"Oh shit."
Annabeth stood up as Piper tripped over her coffee table in a rush to get out of her apartment.
"Wait, wait, wait. Stop." Annabeth said. Piper looked at her. "You can't go on a date like that."
"How do you know it's a—"
Annabeth gave her a withering look. Piper looked down at her shirt and grimaced.
"Help me find a new one?"
"Of course. Text Jason that you're gonna be late." Annabeth followed Piper into her bedroom, which was even more covered with discarded clothing than the living room. "What's clean and what's dirty?"
Piper looked around her room hopelessly. "Oh god, I have no idea."
As they sorted through clothing, Annabeth talked to Piper and told her about what had happened to her in the last few days. She told her about Hazel and Leo and the mystery of Calypso. She didn't mention Percy again, for some reason she didn't want to give anything away about him. Of course, Piper would probably be able to recognize him from their day at the park, but still… it seemed wrong.
Then Piper told her about what was going on in her life. In the past few weeks Piper had cried, a lot, eaten way more chocolate than she should have, and had lost sleep over her fight with Annabeth. Annabeth felt bad for worrying her so much, but after about the tenth time she had apologised, Piper promptly told her to shut up.
Ironically, while Piper had become such a mess, Jason had decided to plan a romantic day trip. And that was where she would be going.
"Have you texted him to let him know that you'll be late?" Annabeth reminded her. Piper's eyes widened as she scrambled for her phone.
Annabeth spied something purple and half-folded sticking out from under Piper's bed. She held it out. "How about this one?"
Piper grabbed it and took off her crinkled shirt to put on the new one. She stepped in front of the mirror and then turned to Annabeth, who nodded and gave her a thumbs up. Piper looked good, despite the dark circles under her eyes.
"Okay, I'm gonna go," Piper said, grabbing her keys and a light jacket. Uncertainly she said, "You can stay here if you want…"
"I'll be here when you come back," Annabeth said. Piper smiled, reassured. "And then you can tell me all about it."
"I'll do that," Piper said, hesitating to leave.
"And I'm going to clean up while you're gone," Annabeth added. Piper opened the door, laughing.
"Don't! I don't know what you'll find." Piper stopped for a second in the hallway, letting the door hang open. She leaned in abruptly, pulling Annabeth into a hug. "I'm glad we're back."
Annabeth wrapped her arms around her friend, resting her chin on her shoulder. "Me too." She pulled back. "Now go! Have fun!"
Piper beamed and blew Annabeth a kiss as she walked backwards down the hall. "See ya." When she turned around, Annabeth watched her leave before turning back to the apartment.
:::
Annabeth knew three things about Percy:
First: Percy was loud. Everything he did and said was done in a manner that filled the room. It wasn't even just that he liked to talk, which he did, Cavan loved him because he always had an opinion ready to share, but even his presence was loud. He didn't walk, he strode. He didn't just sit, he'd spread his legs and lean back into his chair like a throne. He didn't just enter a room, he entered the center of everyone's attention. He allowed himself to take up space in a way that Annabeth never had before. It drove her crazy.
Second: He was enthusiastic about everything. Everyday he seemed so happy to just be. He greeted the professor, ask about her day and share bits of his. If he answered a question correctly you could always count on a celebratory high five with Leo. And God forbid he got a good grade on a test, because he'd beam bright enough to blind and the rest of class would be shot to shit.
She hoped that wouldn't happen today; she was exhausted from deep cleaning Piper's apartment. She had worked past midnight, barely realizing that it had gotten dark around her. She then stayed up an extra hour to finish because she was a perfectionist and if that picture doesn't just stay straight or so help me god. Annabeth had ended up falling asleep on Piper's couch and waking up to Piper getting back early that morning. So if she didn't want to deal with Percy's over enthusiastic-ness nobody could blame her.
The last thing Annabeth had concluded was that Percy was frustratingly hard to pin down. He was unpredictable—one minute he'd be sarcastic and scathing, the next he'd be friendly and goofy. He'd be silent and brooding, but then turn and smile brightly at her to ask her a question. He seemed to flirt with everybody. Everybody. Girls and guys. But when someone asked him out, he turned them down. He never did what Annabeth expected, and trying to figure him out was like doing a thousand-piece puzzle with her eyes closed.
The worst part was that he seemed to like her. They already had a few one sided inside jokes. He whispered to her in class when she was trying to listen to the teacher and asked her for pencils when he'd forgotten his own. It was like he was completely oblivious to her ire.
He frustrated her beyond belief, and he didn't even seem to realize it. Annabeth liked a challenge, but only one she could find a definite solution to. She didn't even know what she wanted from Percy. A friend? A bodyguard? Annabeth wasn't sure if being friends was possible. He was just too…too everything that she wasn't. But… he was also her key to a longer life. She felt bad about using him. She didn't really want to, but once she had had that tiny sliver of hope, she couldn't forget it. Definitely not now that she was so close.
"I am going to be handing back your Algernon tests now." Professor Cavan waved a clump of papers that must have been their tests in her hand. Annabeth sighed. She knew she would soon see another one of Percy's distracting 1000 watt smiles.
Percy may have acted like an idiot 99% of the time, but Annabeth knew he was smarter than he let on. While his grades weren't always perfect, he had well researched thoughts and opinions that he shared throughout class discussions. And although usually unasked for, his blurted-out answer or opinions on a topic were usually right. Annabeth just found it hard to connect that person to the person whose motto for life was probably YOLO.
Professor Cavan began handing piles of tests to each row. Hazel passed Annabeth the pile and Annabeth took out her test, handing off the rest to Percy. She had gotten another A. She chastised herself for getting a point off for spelling, but it couldn't be helped. Her dyslexia mangled up the words in her head. Although she knew her professors would make exceptions for her learning disorder, a small and nagging part of herself stopped her from telling them about it. It said, "if you can't do this like everyone else, you've failed." She knew it was ridiculous, but she'd gotten this far, and she only had a year of school left, so it hardly mattered anymore.
Annabeth braced herself for what she knew would happen next. Percy nudged Leo, showing him his paper and earning him a loud clapping handshake. He shoved his test into his bag, crumpling the paper. Then he turned his smile onto her, green eyes shining.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Put that away."
Percy just laughed and turned back towards the front of the class, leaning back in his seat and kicking his feet up to press against the back of the seat in front of him. Lounging.
Annabeth rubbed her temples, already coming to terms with the fact that she wouldn't get any more work done this class. She was so tired she felt like collapsing.
She couldn't believe that this was the guy who changed her timer. That this was the guy who would help her extend her life. Annabeth didn't want to spend one second more than she had to with him. Destiny. Annabeth would laugh if she wasn't so tired.
:::
Annabeth began putting her laptop into her bag and collecting her things before Professor Cavan even told them the class was over. She had decided that today would be the day she tried to befriend Percy, or at least find some way to integrate him into her life. She wasn't exactly sure what she would do yet, but she knew she had to do it fast. Percy was always in a hurry to leave right after class.
Annabeth was lucky she had thought ahead because as soon as Professor Cavan said the words "Have a good day," Percy was up and out the door. Annabeth darted out after him, sending Hazel a swift goodbye. Once she had caught up with him she had to jog slightly to keep up with his fast pace.
"Hey, Percy. How'd you do on the test last week?" Annabeth winced. Already a bad start—she didn't want to come across as competitive, plus she already knew his score, and he knew that.
He glanced at her sideways but grinned good-naturedly. "Well, I guess I did pretty well. What about you?"
Annabeth could tell he didn't want to talk to her and that he was just asking that to be polite. She cut to the point: "I did fine. So I was thinking that maybe for the next partner project we could—"
"Could we talk about this some other time?" Percy interrupted. "I have to run. I've got swim practice." Annabeth told him to go ahead. He jogged off, leaving Annabeth behind. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at his receding figure. This would be harder than she thought….
:::
…though apparently not that difficult, because the next time Annabeth had her English class her professor announced the beginning of a new partner project.
"Ok everyone, I am assigning a new project. Everyone must work with one partner—" Everyone in the class cheered and Annabeth looked at Percy. This would be the perfect chance. "—of my choosing." The cheers turned into groans and Annabeth slumped down into her seat.
"Everyone will create a socially relevant story with their partner. Remember how we've been studying how Orwell took elements of the world around him to create his dystopias? It must be fictional, at least ten pages long and about the main characters' thoughts and actions around a moral dilemma." That caught Annabeth's attention. She could just write an autobiography and turn it in. It seemed ridiculous enough to be fiction and god was it a moral dilemma.
"Ok, here are the partners. Listen carefully for your name: Katie Gardner and Travis Stoll; Leo Valdez and Clovis Kurasmenous; Lou Ellen and Cecil Lathraia; Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson…" Annabeth stopped listening as soon as she heard her and Percy's names.
Finally. A chance to be around him. A chance to get to know him without creeping him out.
Professor Cavan kept listing off names. Percy turned to her with a smirk. "Looks like we're partners."
Annabeth looked at him and then nodded in a delayed reaction. He chuckled and she mentally shook herself.
She straightened up and looked at him pointedly. "We're going to get an A on this project." Percy nodded. "Start brainstorming ideas tonight, okay?" He nodded again. "Hold out your arm," she commanded. He complied. She took out a sharpie and wrote her number and email on the inside of his un-timered wrist. He stared down at it and then looked at her. She suddenly felt self-conscious. "So you don't lose it," she said, letting go of his arm.
He nodded. "And what are you going to do?"
"I'm doing the same thing, of course. Let's meet up on… Monday? At noon? Then we can go over our ideas. Text me so I'll have your number, and I'll tell you the place." She put the sharpie back in her bag and wondered if she was being too bossy. She'd been told she had a tendency to be a bit domineering sometimes, but it wasn't her fault. She just liked to make sure things were done right.
Percy stared at her for a second and then broke out into a smug look. "So, it's a date?"
"Ugghh." Annabeth shook her head and then stood up. "Just… text me later."
Percy stood up too and pointed a finger gun at her. Annabeth mentally face-palmed. "Will do." He swung his bag over his shoulder casually and strode away. Students seemed to part for him like the red sea as he walked out the door, fist-bumping Leo before he was out of sight.
Annabeth took her bag and began walking out of the classroom towards her dorm room. She felt her pocket vibrate and rolled her eyes.
Unknown Number- What up! It's Percy.
She changed the contact name in her phone to 'Percy,' jostling her phone when someone bumped into her. Even so, Annabeth couldn't keep from smiling, and she was afraid it wasn't even from a job well done. Annabeth bit the inside of her cheeks. What an idiot.
:::
Annabeth waited outside of the ice cream shop impatiently. Percy had decided that he got to choose the place they'd meet. Annabeth didn't think the atmosphere of the ice cream parlor was exactly conducive to school work, but Percy couldn't be persuaded otherwise.
And now he was twenty minutes late and Annabeth was getting weird looks from some of the parents who had come to the shop with their kids. She did look a little scary. She had once again not gotten enough sleep that night because she had procrastinated until the last minute to come up with ideas for the project and it showed. And she had decidedly not put an effort into getting ready for their 'date.' She was wearing all black with a pair of Doc Martins and shoved the majority of her hair into her navy blue Yankees baseball hat. One mother looked at her suspiciously and pulled her children closer, but Annabeth ignored her, or tried to, at least.
Soon enough, Percy sauntered up to her. Annabeth huffed and pretended to check her watch, although she knew that he was exactly twenty three minutes late.
"Twenty three minutes late."
"Well I—"
"Twenty three minutes." She held up her hand. "Don't even." Percy shrugged and followed her into the ice cream parlor. They each ordered their ice cream (Annabeth noted how he specifically asked if they had anything blue) and they sat down on one of the blue vinyl booths that lined the side of the room.
"So who spat in your orange juice this morning?" He asked, pulling the plastic spoon from his mouth. Annabeth glared at him and he smiled back innocently.
"Why do you ask?" she responded sarcastically. He looked her up and down and she squirmed under his gaze.
"You look just about ready to kill a man."
"That's cause I am," she gave him a pointed look. Percy raised his hands in front of himself in a sarcastic self-defense gesture.
"Scary." He took another bite of his ice cream and leaned against the window. Annabeth rolled her eyes. The more time I spend with him— it wasn't that she hated Percy. She just found him annoying. Like, really annoying.
She pulled out her laptop from her bag. "Let's just share what we've got, okay?" Percy looked at her for a second before slowly nodding and pulling a laptop out of the blue backpack he had brought with him.
"Okay," he said, pulling up a document and angling his screen so she could see. It had several thorough-looking pages of bullet-pointed story ideas. "I was thinking that maybe we could have a main character with two dueling desires. Like, the person wants one thing but at the same time wants something that will contradict it. Or the character will have a moral code that has to be broken for something to get done."
Percy's green eyes brightened as he talked about his ideas. Annabeth could tell he was pretty proud of them. She considered what he was saying. They were a little vague, but could be easy to work with.
"Yeah… that could work," she said. Percy leaned forward excitedly. "What kind of social issue should we apply? I was thinking maybe something environmental, or maybe something like immigration?"
"Those sound pretty good, but kind of... far away?" Percy said, scrunching up his thick eyebrows. "Like, they aren't all immediately relatable. I mean, the environment is, I guess, but—"
"No, I get what you mean. You want to put our protagonist in a situation the readers could easily see themselves in," she said.
Percy smiled. "Exactly." he breathed. "Like, climate change could work, if that's what you were thinking of, but our audience is students here. And Professor Cavan, of course. And we're experiencing climate change, but not like experiencing it. Not like people who are actively suffering from it, like people whose islands are sinking or whose houses are being caught in forest fires."
Percy had obviously thought about this a lot. "So what are your ideas?" Annabeth asked him.
"I was thinking we could do the timers," Percy said. He scraped the bottom of his ice cream cup as Annabeth opened and closed her mouth.
Her hands clenched into fists under the table. "I don't—I mean, is it really that controversial?" she asked.
Percy nodded, building up steam. "Yeah, don't you see the anti-timer protests? There's one every other month."
Annabeth could feel her nails pressing half-moon dents into her palms, so she tried to flatten her fingers against her legs. She did know about the protests, more than he could imagine. But she didn't want to think about Thalia right now. "I don't know..."
"But it's perfect! It'll be good because it is relevant to everyone!" Percy said, already typing loudly on his keyboard.
"No." Annabeth heard herself say. Percy stopped typing and frowned at her.
"What? Why?"
"I just… I don't like that idea." Annabeth tried to cover up her distress. She tried to look at her list of late-night ideas, but none popped out. He was right, timers were good, but she wasn't sure she could keep up her lie if they were dancing so close to the topic. She couldn't tell him about her timer change, not yet, maybe not ever. There's no better way to scare someone away than telling them that they are destined to save your life and so you must be near them at all times even though you barely like them.
"I don't really understand—"
"Fine," Annabeth snapped. She didn't have an explanation for him and she didn't want him to think into her reaction anymore. She would just have to go along with it.
"Um, okay," Percy said suspiciously, still frowning. "Do you—" He paused. "Do you have some kind of problem with me?" Percy sounded annoyingly confused, like he couldn't think of why she wouldn't like him.
"No, it's just…" Annabeth should lie. Annabeth should lie and say he was great, he was someone who didn't treat her nerves like a trampoline, someone she wanted to be friends with. But instead, she found herself saying, "Yeah. You really annoy me."
"Wow. Blunt," Percy said, unperturbed. Annabeth shrugged, trying not to look like someone who regretted opening her mouth at all. "Fair enough. Not everyone has to be in love with me."
Annabeth's eyes widened slightly. She was under the impression that he did want everyone to love him, and needed it too. He just winked at her and she returned to her previous glare.
Eager to change the subject, Annabeth turned back to her own laptop and wrote down Percy's idea. "Okay, so we'll do timers." Percy gave her a smug look. "Do you want to start hashing out the story now or later?"
He snapped his laptop shut and put it in his bag. "Maybe later? This took longer than I thought it would and I've got to—"
She just nodded. "Yeah, no problem. So do you want to meet up on...Friday? Until then I can work on developing the story a bit more and you can focus on coming up with the character?"
Percy nodded, hefting his backpack onto his back and putting his hands in his pockets. He lingered by the table for a second and Annabeth paused her own packing, looking up at him. "I think this project is going to be really good," he said with a level of sincerity she wasn't expecting. Then he gave her one of his famous troublemaker smirks. "This was very enlightening."
Annabeth blinked and tried to stutter a response. He just grinned, eyes glinting with something she couldn't name. When no answer came out of her mouth, she opted to just nod.
"Well, see you then. I have to go—swim practice." He walked away, his hands still in his pockets, and his head was bobbing to music only he could hear.
Annabeth looked down at her ice cream. It had completely melted, pooling at the bottom of her cup like strawberry soup. She sighed and picked up her stuff, throwing her unwanted ice cream in the bin by the door as she left. She shivered slightly once she stepped outside. It was colder than it should have been for early September. Rubbing one of her arms, she took off in the direction of… she realized she wasn't headed anywhere specific, only following in the direction she had seen Percy leave.
She still couldn't figure him out. Every time she thought she got a handle on him, he turned around and surprised her. But she had to admit, there was something kind of magnetic about him, something that drew her closer—and she didn't think it was just the promise on her timer.
She looked down at her wrist as the numbers decreased back to her original time. At least now she knew where to find him. Swim practice...
