Hello! I hope you are all doing well, and thanks so much for all the kind reviews, they truly make my day. Also, there's still a couple of things I have to set up in the plot for Percabeth to meet, but like I said in the last chapter, it's coming soon!

Disclaimer: Every time I write one of these, it feels like I'm rubbing salt directly into my own wound, which is quite painful, because the constant reminder that I'm not Rick Riordan is really not good for my self esteem.

~headline: attention, attention, annabeth chase actually has a social life~

…

Annabeth's getting a little bit used to an average day at school. She manages to find her way around the massive building, and doesn't really need Piper to tag along anymore, but still wants her there because she likes having company. And despite her appearances, Piper isn't bad company. The girl is nowhere near a ray of sunshine, but she's certainly a pleasant person to be around. Okay, maybe that's not exactly right, pleasant isn't a great word to describe Piper who wears baggy flannels, grass stained cut-off jeans and beat up Doc's, but what she's saying is that Piper's isn't horribly rude like some people. Bright neon purple headphones are constantly over her ears, and she listens to music a lot, but she's also the only one that talks to her by choice, so Annabeth doesn't care. Plus, Annabeth listens to music a lot too. Just not in school, because she's a self-admitted goody two shoes. Thalia always used to tease her about it, but she was the one with straight A's, so yeah. Take that Thalia.

God she misses Thalia. And Luke too. But right now, mostly Thalia. She should really call her sometime soon. Piper's nice, but she really, reallyneeds someone familiar. And obviously, someone in real life who's familiar.

The big problem though (amongst many others), is that it's her fourth week at school, and she's still following Piper around like a lost puppy. Maybe it's because she knows Piper won't misguide her, but it's actually mostly the fact that she doesn't have any other friends. Annabeth Chase is living a sad, sad life right now. She doesn't even know if Piper considers her a friend per say, though Annabeth certainly does. The only thing she knows about the girl is that her father is famous, she likes to sleep in class, and she's absolutely beautiful. And to be honest, those are pretty superficial things to care about, so truly, it's not much.

It's currently a bright Tuesday morning. January has thankfully passed by, and she's at the one month mark of living with her step-family. February is the month of love, and so far, Annabeth isn't feeling any of it at all. Not a pinch. She watches as her father's car passes by a row of Mcmansions and perfectly trimmed trees. She cringes at the symmetry in them, because it's obvious the owners put a lot of effort into making them all look the same, all look perfect. In Annabeth's opinion, perfection is bullshit and doesn't exist. The idea of something being without flaws is impossible, there's always going to be one little curve to a line, one false angle. And those flaws should be embraced. People should be able to find beauty in everything they see. Of course, no one can completely have that perspective, Annabeth doesn't, but it's something people should aspire for, rather than aspiring for perfection. Even once perfection is earned, that doesn't mean it stays. Everything could be absolutely flawless for one moment, and then gone in the next, at the blink of an eye. Hell, just thinking about it, perfection could have already been achieved. Annabeth figures people are only able to trigger full perfection once in time, and most likely, that time has already passed. It was probably during a period where it didn't exist.

Or maybe she's overthinking it all. She's in a damn car, riding to school of all things. It's definitely not a place to be pondering what perfection is. Even so, it's impossible to stop thinking about it once she lands on the subject, so she spends the rest of the ride analyzing the outside. The green blades of grass that are lined almost at a perfect angle, the vibrant tint to each home, each figure. And then, when Fredericks car pulls up to the school, and Annabeth and the twins get out, she looks up at Goode, in all its glory. Unlike her father's house, it really looks like a museum. The walls are thick and white, and small grooves between each slab of brick show that it was painted over. It's an extremely gorgeous school. The doors of it are a light blue with the words, "Goode is good," imprinted in yellow against them. The script is fancy enough to look like effort was put into it, but also too pristine for there not to be a couple refined coats of paint on top. Annabeth cringes at the pun, "Goode is good," just as she has every other day because it's boring, tacky and unoriginal, just like the school. Although Goode is pretty, and sticks out because of its size, Annabeth finds the institution itself pretty average. The people, despite their high financial status are basic, and most of the teachers are truly unexceptional. She likes the fact that they have variety though. There are dozens of clubs and courses, all of which Frederick has suggested her join. He brought up a Newspaper and Journaling club, which got Annabeth interested, but she's scared to go, and mostly worried she won't have any friends.

Piper hasn't joined any clubs. Annabeth knows this, because after everyday at school, she gets into this long, black limo (which is crazy, because who even rides in limos for anything other than prom), and leaves the school parking lot. Annabeth doesn't ever see her until the next day. It's become a routine of sorts: Annabeth arrives at school, and searches for Piper for a good ten minutes. Once she finds her, usually hanging out in Dr. Brunner's office, she corrals her out, and they head to class; Chemistry with Ms. Byers. It's not just easy chemistry with compounds, periodic tables and heterogenous mixtures, it's the nitty gritty stuff, because that's just how Goode High School is. Annabeth isn't bad at chemistry, it can even be fun in some cases, but she gravely dislikes it just like any other sane twelfth grader should. Who likes school these days?

Then, after another three periods of classes, she follows Piper to Dr. Brunner's office, and they quietly wait and eat there for the forty-three minutes that are lunch (she's not sure why it's exactly forty-three minutes). They then continue with their regular brain-washing activities (or classes, as some may call them), until it's gym. Mr. Quagmire, the teacher, doesn't really care what they do as long as they're not sleeping or doing drugs, so Piper and Annabeth sit on a park bench and chill. Or well, Piper chills, listening to her music, while Annabeth stares in front of her, trying to avoid eye contact with students passing by.

Annabeth follows this same routine today, almost perfectly. But then today at Gym, she gets fed up with being outrageously bored, and pulls Piper's headphones right off her head. She lets out a little yelp, and Annabeth plops the headphones between her ears, trying to get a gauge at what she's listening to.

And it's… Percy Jackson's first album, Falling in Fear. She recognizes the song immediately. It's called, Of Misery. She thinks it's track four. Percy's first album is probably his best so far, because it was before he got too deep into the industry. She looks at Piper in awe, because she never thought that she would ever listen to Percy Jackson. Maybe she's the judgmental one.

"Give me my headphones back you little shit!" Piper shrieks, and tries to pull them away, but Annabeth's already handing them over, so she accidentally scratches her arm. "Sorry, but what the hell was that for?" She snaps.

"I didn't know you listened to Percy Jackson," Annabeth exclaims, putting her hand to her heart, like she's about to sing some heartfelt ballad.

Piper frowns, "why, is it something I should broadcast over all radios?"

Annabeth bets her father has the money to do so. "No," she replies, "I'm just surprised."

"Why?" Piper sounds like she's daring her to say something boring and shallow.

Annabeth shrugs nonchalantly, or at least tries to. "Because I listen to him. Well, not his third album because—"

"It's trash," Piper finishes. "Yeah, they kinda go down hill. I got hooked to him right when he got big on youtube, but when he got picked up by the industry—"

"It fell down hill," Annabeth nods. "I was one of his first subscribers."

Piper looks kind of impressed, and Annabeth smiles, feeling cool, because it seems she's gotten The Piper Stamp of Approval. "That's pretty cool. Well, it's not cool that you stole my headphones, that was shitty, but it's cool you were one of his first subscribers."

Annabeth pulls out her phone, because obviously, Mr. Quagmire who quite fortunately doesn't care what they do isn't watching, and checks the time. They still have another twenty or so minutes in class, and now that Annabeth's actually started a conversation with Piper, it might be the time to continue that conversation, so she can actually get to know her apart from like, three dumb fascts. To have a so-called bonding moment, a metaphorical "cradled you in my arms," type situation. "Have you ever seen him live?" Annabeth questions, because that seems like the kind of thing Piper would be able to do, having a famous dad and all.

"What?" She narrows her eyes. "Just because my parents are famous?"

Annabeth holds up her hands in a surrender. "Well, yeah." She says bluntly. "Exactly."

Piper eyes soften a bit. "Yeah. Once or twice. My dad is friendly enough with his manager, so I've gotten tickets a couple of times. Backstage, but I've never gotten to meet him, obviously."

"Have you seenhim in person?" Annabeth questions incredulously like it's no big deal. Like she sees world famous pop-stars every day. Which she doesn't, but whatever, because Piper probably has, and she's cool, and Annabeth wants to sound natural.

She bites her lip. "Kind of?" She answers. "I mean, not really, because he wasn't paying attention to me, but I was in front of his manager, and Percy was waving him over, so I guess that kind of means he waved at me."

Annabeth is absolutely appalled, because as much as she doesn't like how Percy Jackson has changed, she still really likes his old music, and has listened to his first album on repeat more times than she's willing to admit. "That's so cool," she sputters, " but he's changed a lot though," Annabeth adds to the conversation, and it's just an offhand comment, but the way Piper responds makes her think a lot. Well, more than usual. She's always thinking a lot, stuck inside her own head.

"Well, obviously. Everyone does." Piper looks down at her phone, and scrolls through a playlist, full of songs Annabeth vaguely recognizes the covers too.

Cocking her head, Annabeth responds. "What do you mean?"

"The music industry changes everyone." She says simply, continuing to scroll through her phone, as if it's not a totally coded answer.

"But why?"

"Well think about it," Piper sighs, and sets her phone down, putting her full attention onto Annabeth. Her eyes, which are almost like kaleidoscopes turning from brown, to blue, to green hold gaze with hers. "If you were a freebie, someone who made music all by yourself, didn't have any management, you'd feel a lot more comfortable in your skin. Let's say you get picked up by a company, like a lot of famous musicians have. Well, they put their own expectations on you, which make you start to become uncomfortable about who you are, and what you like. So of course you'll change. Your music will morph into what they want, whoever they are, and that'll eventually cause you to change. It's the dark side of fame. I know it because I've seen it."

"I never thought about it that way," Annabeth confesses, "how have you 'seen' it?" She asks, because she's still a little confused, and if Piper's seen it first-hand, then it must be even worse than she's describing.

Piper looks like she really doesn't want to talk about it, and after what seems like an internal debate, she speaks. "My father. My mother. They were in love once, you know? And then she cheated on him." She averts her eyes from Annabeth. "I don't really like talking about it, but it's something I have to face every day. If not for fame, I don't think Aphrodite would have cheated on my dad. It sort of left them both with something to hold onto. My dad, he's still not over it. Aphrodite got a scandal on her back. And I'm the by-product of their epic failure to love." She scoffs, "Lucky me. So I guess that all kind of rubbed off onto me, and I saw them both morph into things I was scared of. My dad, he's good now, but—" her eyes turn from warm to cold in a split second as she mentions her mother's name, "—Aphrodite walked away like it didn't matter. And I despise her for it." She says it so matter a factly, that Annabeth wants to laugh, but she holds it in, because it's definitely not the time. It's the first moment she's had Piper properly open up to her, even have a good conversation, and she doesn't want to ruin it.

"I'm sorry about your mother," Annabeth instead says, and she means it. Piper seems like a good person, and she doesn't deserve— correction: nobody deserves to have that happen to them. Annabeth wishes she'd realized all of this as she was writing her blog posts, because now, looking back on them, they seem a bit insensitive. Maybe that was what Pylos was always pointing out. That she wasn't seeing the other side of the story. And as she thinks about it, if she ever wants to make it in the journaling world, she'll have to look at not just a single story, but at multiple ones. But then again, the hollywood tabloids aren't necessarily doing that. Not that Annabeth wants to end up there, because just how low could she get?

Piper is quiet for a moment, and then she speaks again. "Thank you Annabeth." She looks back into her eyes. "You're pretty cool."

"You too Piper." Annabeth replies, smiling at her, because she thinks she's just confirmed that she's made a new friend.

…

Once school has ended and Annabeth has been dropped off at home, she immediately logs onto her computer, and takes a look at her blog posts. Most of them are fairly innocent, but she cringes at herself when she reads some of the ones she's written about Percy. Now that she really knows why his music is… shifted, she feels extremely bad for what she's said. She doesn't take them down for some reason, just lets them burn a hole into her stomach. And she feels so bad. Obviously, Percy's not seeing these, but they're up on the internet, so technically, he could potentially see them.

So she does all she can do: she messages Pylos.

"Okay, so maybe you're right." She writes, a frown on her face as she types it. There's still this hole in her stomach, this lump in her throat. She doesn't know how she'll get it out, or even if she will, but this seems like the next best thing to do.

His response comes quickly, and it's way too playful for the subject matter, though he obviously doesn't know what that subject matter is yet. "About which thing? There's so many."

"About Percy."

"What about it?"

"I had my eyes opened by someone."

His response makes her laugh, when it really shouldn't. "Like physically? That sounds like it would hurt."

"You're hilarious P," she writes back, "but like, a friend made me reconsider my views on Percy Jackson. I think I've been way too judgemental of him."

"You think?"

Annabeth rolls her eyes, absolutely exasperated. "Yes Pylos, that's why I'm saying so. Can you be serious for a sec?"

"Fine, fine." He types back, and Annabeth feels her shoulders relax, because she has a feeling he's really listening right now.

"I haven't really thought about what he's experiencing. Yeah, he's this famous pop-star with tons of money, but I guess I didn't realize he was a human being, like me, and he has struggles. I guess what I'm saying, is that he probably has a lot of pressure on him, and now I can see why you're a bit defensive, you should be."

Pylos seems to be taking his time to read and respond to the message. It feels like forever, until he responds. "Thanks for saying that," he says and it's an awfully short message compared to the amount of time it seems he took to write it. But Annabeth of all people knows that sometimes it's hard to say or even think about certain things, so she doesn't push him on it. The good thing about Pylos is that they can go days, when her mother died, it was weeks without talking, and still fall back into easy conversations. Even sometimes, uneasy conversations. Annabeth doesn't know how long it will last, but their relationship right now is timeless, and she loves it. To be completely honest, she kind of really likes him. More than likes, even, loves. It's weird, definitely, there's nothing not weird about their relationship, but it's true. And she can't help but wonder what life would be like if they met each other. She wonders what she'd even do.

Perhaps they'd both laugh, and maybe he'd pull her into a hug, and tell her that it's nice to see her in person. Maybe it'd be rushed, and awkward, and Annabeth would stumble over her words, trying to figure out the right words to say. Or maybe it'd be easy, just like their conversations are now. As natural as breathing.

She'd like to think that appearances don't matter, because in the grand scheme of things, they really don't but when she imagines him, he's handsome (maybe LA's rubbing off on her). Not that she'd be disappointed if he wasn't particularly. Just that in all her daydreams, she imagines him as a certain super-star. Not that he'd ever be that. But obviously, it's easy to dream about it. Dreams can both lower and higher expectations. For one they can make you disappointed when you come back to reality, but they also, strangely, can make you reassured about said reality. Annabeth doesn't know how it works, and it could be an interesting future blog post topic, so she writes it down in a notes document, and then closes her computer, leaning back into her chair.

She pulls out her phone, and switches back to her conversation with Pylos. Although she was just talking to him on the computer, it feels a bit more personal on her phone. Also, her step-brothers are stomping around in the background, and she'd rather not have them see her conversations with Pylos. They're way too personal, and she's not comfortable with the twins seeing into that side of her life. Sure, they didn't do anything to her, and as Annabeth thinks about it, that's part of the problem. They aren't particularly kind, they aren't particularly mean, they aren't really… anything.

It's like they're nothing to her. She feels no connection to them, and it's kind of really sad. They're supposed to be her half-brothers, right? She's supposed to feel remotely attached to them in some way, but she doesn't. Annabeth doesn't know if she ever will, even when they get old. Maybe she'll live her life without any attachment to her new family, and be forced to cut at lines when she grows up. Will she have them to relay on at all? Will she go into the world without anyone to depend on financially after college?

She really doesn't like to think about where she might be after college. Because to be honest, she has no clue where she'll stand with her family— if she'll even have a family to rely on. Yeah, she'll always have Luke and Thalia and such, but is that really the same?

Like she says, it's really not something she likes to think about.

…

~there's a grave danger in a single story~

Okay so oof I'm currently writing this one-shot and when I started, I wrote like 4k words in one sitting but now I'm stuck and working on it super super slowly which is annoying because I really want to get it out before late July since it's summer themed. So yeah that's a bit annoying! Also there's this brilliant song by Will Jay called "Lies" which this fic is partially inspired by! It's v good and I highly recommend it!

Thanks so much for reading! Leave a review, lmk what you think of the chapter! As low key as this chapter feels, it actually is really important to the story. Stay safe and healthy! Until the next chapter!

TheLil'Lion