WHY ANNABETH DOESN'T WAKE UP LATE

If you need help, please contact the following:

National Eating Disorders Association Helpline: 1-800-931-2237

(Monday-Thursday 9am-9pm, Friday 9am-5pm. All EST time)

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Song of the Chapter: I'm So Tired by the Beatles

Annabeth was exhausted the next morning, more so than usual. She couldn't remember what time she had gone to sleep, but it had been later than usual. She stayed in her warm dark, bed, promising herself she would get back up in another few minutes.

"Annabeth? Annabeth? You up?"

The call of Helen's voice made Annabeth nearly catapult herself out of bed. Holy shit- it was 6:05. Her train left in nineteen minutes.

Annabeth flurried around her room, quickly putting together her backpack and getting dressed. There was no time to try on her outfit this morning, barely enough time to put on mascara and any outfit that required more effort than a fleece pullover and plain gray leggings. As Helen and her father sat comfortably in the kitchen, drinking coffee and chatting calmly, Annabeth whipped around their apartment. It felt so much smaller with three people in the kitchen than it did with just one. This was why she always got up at 5:30!

It was only as Annabeth was yanking on her boots when the grumble of her stomach hit her. She checked her watch. Five minute walk to the subway- she didn't have time to eat. Well, she thought, that's not necessarily a bad thing. She finished tying up her boots, said goodbye to her father and her sleepy-eyed step brothers as they woke up, and sprinted out the door, hoping she wouldn't be late to her train.

Annabeth walked quickly enough that she realized she seriously overestimated the time it took to get to the subway station, and also that she definitely should have eaten breakfast. Her stomach was now roaring unpleasantly at her, and she grimaced as she descended the dark stairs leading into the belly of the station.

She slid into the train compartment and took a seat, a little out of breath as she sat down. Maybe she could eat something at the vending machine at school? No. That was all sugar and processed carbs. Maybe she could bum something off Thalia or Piper, but she didn't want to do that. That was their food, not hers. In her rush, she had also forgotten to bring a lunch. Cafeteria? Absolutely not. Whole Foods? No time to get there before first period.

Annabeth settled back into the seat, resisting the urge to close her eyes and fall back asleep as the subway took off and rattled to its next location. She was thinking about the mac and cheese from last night when Percy Jackson walked by the subway car, and seeing her, got on. Annabeth resisted the urge to grimace, just now remembering seeing him and Jason last night.

"Hey Annabeth."

"Hey Percy."

"Funny seeing you last night. You go there often?"

The answer slipped out before she realized it. "Every day I can." Which meant every day they weren't closed, if Percy could read between the lines. Annabeth wanted to slap herself for saying that to him. She felt like it was imperative no one knew her exercise routines.

He raised his eyebrows. "Dang, good for you. What do you like to do?"

She shrugged, trying to seem passive. "Depends. Sometimes I just run on the treadmill, but I really like the cycling classes."

"Gotcha. How's your morning going?"

Annabeth was a little confused. Had Percy always been this into small talk? More specifically, did he always want to small talk with her? "Not great. I woke up super late and I didn't have time to grab breakfast or anything. I probably forgot all my homework."

Percy's eyebrows furrowed. "No breakfast? Are you hungry?"

Annabeth realized her mistake. "No, no I'm fine." But Percy was already reaching into his bag, pulling out a familiar blue shape. Oh, God no.

"Here, it's a blue chocolate chip cookie. Take them. Better than nothing."

Annabeth was not rude. She let Percy hand her the cookie- cookies, apparently. Three blue chocolate chip cookies nestled in a paper towel. She lifted them up to her nose to smell them- incredible, obviously. She resisted the urge to simultaneously salivate or gag. "Uh, thanks so much. Your mom makes great cookies."

"She does. Try one, tell me what you think." Percy gave her a look, a little harder than she was expecting. He was challenging her.

Annabeth broke one of the cookies in half and took a bite. Of course- it was great. She smiled a little and took another bite. "Are you sure you don't want them?"

Percy waved his hand. "I have about a dozen waiting for me back home. All yours."

Annabeth finished the cookie quickly while she talked to Percy, about easy topics like the swim season and school principal. Then she ate the second one, and then the third, all before they had even reached the stop before school. It wasn't until she and Percy stood up and she clutched the empty paper towel in her hand that Annabeth realized what she had done.

Her stomach plummeted as she registered what she had just eaten. Not a bite of a cookie, not a single cookie, but three big blue chocolate chip cookies. She swore she could feel them in her stomach, getting ready to make her fat. She was going to lose all of her progress. As she and Percy walked up the steps and towards their high school, she had one conversation with him, but another with herself. She was planning all the exercise she would do this afternoon and all of the things that she wouldn't eat later.

As she and Percy prepared to part at the school gates, she gave him another smile. "Thanks so much for the cookies."
"Anytime. See you on the subway tomorrow?"

Annabeth nodded. "Sounds good!" She bit her lip as she turned around, completely consumed with the cookies. If only she had more self control. She could have waited until lunch. She didn't need those cookies. She needed to be better.

For all of her classes, Annabeth was distracted. She was itching to jump out of her seat and go on a run- to do something, anything. She couldn't help it. She felt supremely sick to her stomach.

During lunch, she went out with Piper and Thalia. They went across the street to a vegan place that Annabeth normally liked because they showed the calorie count. She ignored the grumbling of her stomach, thinking about how many calories she had beaten earlier. Six hundred? Eight hundred? She was sure, sure that it was more. She ignored Piper when she asked to hang out after school.

Once Annabeth was done with her spin class, she was ready to drop. Her legs felt weak and she was panting, chugging water like her life depended on it. For some reason class had been so much more difficult today, which was infuriating, because she needed to get rid of the cookies. She had barely surpassed her calorie goal for the ride, so she made her way to the weight room and decided to try out some squats.

It had been a really long time since she had lifted any significant weight, but she piled thirty pounds on the bar and figured- twelve reps? Three rounds? Something like that. She'd push herself if she needed it.

She barely finished her first round as she felt her legs nearly give out. Something wasn't right. Annabeth desperately wanted to keep going but for once she knew it wasn't a good idea. She should go home.

On the walk home, she got a notification from her period tracker app that she should be starting tomorrow. Annabeth nearly smirked. How long had it been since she had gotten her period? It had to have been nine months.

The next day on the subway, Annabeth finally wasn't surprised to have Percy Jackson come sit with her. Instead of sitting in the seat across from her, he sat next to her, which did surprise her. "Hey Percy," she gave him a genuine smile.

He gave her a quick smile. "Hey Annabeth. Uh, I have a question about math…"

"Sure. What's up?"

He reached inside his backpack and grabbed a textbook and a plain blue spiral notebook. "So we just talked about what limits are yesterday and I definitely didn't understand it. Think you could help me out?"

Percy laid his textbook across their laps and flipped through a notebook. "See, these are the homework problems. They're due, uh, in like thirty minutes, so I would love it if you could help me out."

Annabeth resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Sure, Seaweed Brain." She hadn't called him that in years. She saw Percy's eyebrows raise, but he didn't mention it. "Alright, this first one has to do with horizontal asymptotes."

She drew a diagram on the page of a cartesian plane, then drew in a basic function with a horizontal asymptote of 0 as x approaches infinity. She quickly explained what the question was asking, while Percy alternately stared at her face and at the page. Now it was Annabeth's turn to furrow her eyebrows. "Is the diagram OK? Do you need anything else?"

"No, no, it's good," Percy blushed. "Sorry, I'm dyslexic, so it takes a while to focus."

Annabeth's eyes softened. "I remember. I am too."

Percy nodded. "I remember."

They glanced into each other's eyes for a brief second before Annabeth quickly turned back to the page. "Anyways, this question is asking is about vertical asymptotes…"

Annabeth couldn't keep the odd blush on her face as she walked to AP Physics. Percy had smelled good, really good. A little bit of chlorine (obviously) that she found weirdly cute, and a few other scents she couldn't put her finger on. Her face was hot and she could tell she was blushing a little bit, which was odd because she'd never had a crush on Percy.

Well, that was a lie. She definitely did in middle school, especially right before she spent that year in San Francisco. Annabeth had liked Luke all throughout elementary school, but when they stopped talking in sixth grade she had grown much closer to Percy. Then she came back, and the crush on Luke reignited again.

They were the only two boys she had ever liked, and they were so, so different. Luke was put together, top of the class, and insanely smart. Luke, Thalia, and Annabeth were best friends when they were kids- when she used to live far out in Long Island and had space to run around, before they moved closer to the city for Helen's work. Percy, on the other hand, was a bit of a whirlwind. He was definitely more relaxed, and much more well liked than Luke. Leo and Percy weren't super close (only really friends through Jason) but from what he had told her, Annabeth got the idea that Percy hadn't really changed much since middle school. Sure, he was taller and a lot cuter and had really nice arms, but he was still the same Percy.

Jesus, Annabeth sounded insane. She has three conversations with the guy- and now she's acting like a lovesick idiot? She took out her phone and texted Luke.

Annabeth: Hey! You up for lunch today?

He texted back not even a minute later.

Luke: Sounds good!

She let a wide grin spread across her face before walking into the classroom.

"I mean, we'll see what they say, I guess," Luke sighed, talking about his applications.

Annabeth nodded. "Oh, for sure. What do you want to major in again?"

Luke shrugged. "My dad says communications, which is definitely a possibility, but we'll see. Maybe engineering."

"Oh, that's great! I bet you're so excited to see where you get in."

They were walking back to class after lunch, when Annabeth was about to go to APUSH and Luke to AP Lit. "Uh, are you excited for Snow Ball?" Annabeth asked, referring to the late January dance.

Luke shrugged. "I mean, student council members are required to go. I don't know who I want to take as a date yet. What about you?"

Annabeth let out a breathy laugh. "Uh, I don't know. Not really a dance person." He didn't know who he wanted to take yet. That was good!

"Me too. I should probably get going. See you later, Annie," he said, giving her a hug and ruffling her hair.

Annabeth resisted the urge to frown. She hated when he treated her like a kid. "Bye Luke!"

If only he would take her to Snow Ball, she thought, walking away. Lunch had been fun, if not a little awkward. They hadn't seen each other in a while, and Luke was so preoccupied with college applications it was the only thing they ended up talking about. That was fine- Annabeth thought it was interesting, even if it just stressed her out.

Everyone thought she knew exactly where she wanted to go to college- MIT or Stanford, or something of the like, but she had absolutely no idea. She spent most of her time either doing homework for her classes or exercising. She wasn't one of those kids who knew where they wanted to go when they were freshman. All she wanted to do was study architecture. Thinking about college stressed her out so much she just never did it. College was the only thing her mom or dad ever wanted to talk to her about, anyway.

Annabeth walked into APUSH and took her seat next to Piper's empty chair. Piper rushed in seconds before the end of lunch bell, just before their teacher slammed the door shut.

"Guess what!" Piper said, beaming, as they pulled out their notebooks and began writing their warmups.

"What?"

Piper's smile was about to split her face in half. "Okay, so I did what Leo said and I talked to Jason while he was at his locker, just a few minutes ago. And at first all I was going to say was hey, how are you doing, whatever, hahaha, you know! But then as we were talking I was thinking- he's so cute, and this really is a golden opportunity, and I'm terrible at math- so I asked him to tutor me! And he said yes!"

"Oh my god, yay!" Annabeth said, trying to keep her voice down and simultaneously write a thesis statement about if Reconstruction failed due to the part of the Northern or Southern states. "That's so exciting. When are you meeting?"

Piper was nearly bouncing out of her chair. "Tomorrow after school at a coffee shop!"

"I'm so happy for you!"

Piper was grinning widely. "Want to hang out at my house after school?"

It was rare Piper invited Annabeth to her house- extremely. She must've been in a great mood. "Let's do it," Annabeth agreed. She would skip spin class today and do some longer workout later tonight.

"Yay!" Piper grinned widely.

If you need help, please contact the following:

National Eating Disorders Association Helpline: 1-800-931-2237

(Monday-Thursday 9am-9pm, Friday 9am-5pm. All EST time)

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