The strobe lights were giving Annabeth a headache. She screwed her eyes shut and swallowed her complaints down with the rest of her saccharin jungle juice. Her architecture groupmates did not strike her as the frat-party types, despite spending endless hours together. She supposed it was because they were absorbed in their work. Fierce conversations and clashing creative visions always came back to building models or presentation setups. Her, Rachel, Leo, and Malcolm; they could name each other's favorite architecture style without hesitation, but nothing about each other's lives outside of the design lab. If blaring music was the cost for deepening valuable friendships, so be it.
The real problem was that the rest of the college was overcrowding their top-marks-finished-project celebration. Everyone else was high off the news from the renowned swim team: they had qualified for nationals again. Or rather, high off the news that classes were cancelled Monday (it was a treat from administration, for all the money the swim team was bringing in). After all, Annabeth had been to her fair share of swim meets and the natatorium never had as many people as this tiny basement had right now.
She tried to hide her shock when Leo winked at her from the opposite side of the room before trying to chat up a cute girl. She hoped her expression was closer to a smile than a grimace. Rachel snorted next to her, and leaned in to talk over the noise.
"We should've guessed Leo was lonely from all the hours he put in for the balcony design. No one to help him occupy free time."
Annabeth rolled her eyes, but grinned back. "By that logic, we're all lonely, Rachel. You worked inhumane hours painting an optional mural on a mini-model and I think every inch of my hands are burned or splintered from putting it all together."
Rachel quirked an eyebrow. "True, but you sound like you're not lonely... Because I love to meet whoever you've been neglecting these past four months. And maybe their friends too."
"Subtle, Rachie."
"First, you haven't denied anything yet and I can't believe I didn't know you had a partner. Second, a shooter's got to sho-oh wow. Look–" Rachel nudged Annabeth and nodded at the door, "–the swim team is gracing us with their presence at this beautiful Phi Psi party tonight."
Annabeth followed her gaze to see a dozen boys pouring in, broad shoulders and damp hair, high-fiving every person they saw. From afar, they were all generically handsome, most of them well over 6 feet tall with lean builds. They would certainly tower over Annabeth and Rachel. Someone caught Annabeth's eye amidst the new uproar.
"Hey now," Rachel teasingly warned, "you don't want your partner to see you making heart eyes at the golden rookie."
"Golden rookie?" Annabeth scoffed.
Rachel stared at her with wide, disbelieving eyes, and Annabeth's amusement melted into confusion. "What?"
"Don't tell me you don't know about Percy Jackson, top recruit of last year, record-breaking freshman who is basically the reason we have Monday off."
"Oh my gods, Rachel, of course I know who Percy Jackson is. His face is plastered on every banner across campus. I just think calling him a golden rookie is really putting him up on a pedestal… more than he already is, anyways."
"Sure, miss I-have-a-mystery-partner-so-I'm-actually-not-obsessed-with-insanely-attractive-Percy-Jackson. No need to rub it in. As for me–" Rachel handed Annabeth her empty cup, "–as I said, a shooter's got to shoot. So here I go."
Annabeth actually laughed out loud as she watched Rachel saunter towards the commotion. Her black dress hugged her figure beautifully and her fiery curls bounced in beat with her. She felt someone come up behind her, and turned to see Malcolm over her shoulder.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"Oh, Rachel's just gone to seduce Percy Jackson." Her laugh calmed into a silent giggle as she watched Rachel place her hand on his arm. In another universe, Annabeth thought, they might actually be a good couple. She and Rachel were frighteningly similar; strong-willed, passionate, visionaries. That was probably why they fought so bitterly at the beginning of their assignment, only to become the closest duo in the class.
Malcolm tilted his head in confusion. "But isn't…" Annabeth raised her hand and nodded, effectively silencing him. His face was still contoured with bewilderment, but he didn't say anything more. Malcolm and Annabeth had spent many all-nighters in the library. Leo and Rachel preferred to stay in personalized studios for their great eurekas. Malcolm didn't know too much more about Annabeth from those times (they only talked about the project), but a certain someone would always stop by to drop off coffee and blue cookies to the exhausted pair. It wasn't hard to connect those dots.
Together, they watched a scene unfold with lightning speed. Rachel beamed, Percy's brow wrinkled in distaste, his teammate (was his name Po?) introduced himself, Rachel shrugged and turned to talk to Po instead, Percy took a couple steps back and scanned the crowd, and locked eyes with Annabeth.
Suddenly Annabeth was breathless as a smile spread across Percy's face, and he politely made her way across the dance floor to her. She didn't register Malcolm's chuckle or departure. All she cared was that his green eyes were coming closer every second until she could see the blue flecks in them and smell the chlorine on his skin. Then everything disappeared as they both closed their eyes and kissed without a spare thought for decency.
When they finally pulled away, she focused on him a moment longer as his hand caressed the side of her face. Suddenly she realized Leo, Rachel, and Malcolm were all burning holes into the back of her head. She smiled back at them bashfully.
"Well, I guess I should introduce you to my partner, Percy Jackson… I don't know if you've heard of him. He's not really a big deal on campus."