Hello! I hope you are all doing well! A fair warning: this is where la merde goes down!
Disclaimer: please tell me who hasn't gotten the message, because if you haven't, then idek what to say…
~headline: holy shit what the hell~
…
Annabeth smiles slightly, probably for the first time in awhile. She's in her father's car, as he drives her and the twins to school. Ever since her conversation with Piper, there seems to have been a break-through between the two girls. Piper is way more open with her, and she doesn't completely ignore her most of the time. Annabeth's also gotten to know Hazel, a girl from her fourth period History class. They were partnered up for a project once by Ms. Morgendorffer, a teacher who is extremely brainy with an equally sardonic sense of humor to go with it. Annabeth thinks she's okay, and she's thankful, because she probably wouldn't have met Hazel without her.
Hazel is a quiet girl with dark skin and dark, curly, cinnamon brown hair. She's extremely sweet, very soft-spoken, but can also hold a good conversation. After Ms. Morgendorffer partnered them together, they started to talk more and more and even grouped up together a couple more times with Piper. Piper barely did any work, which really just allowed her to get to know Hazel even more.
Originally, Hazel was living down in New Orleans, before moving to California after her mother disappeared. Hazel didn't elaborate about this, it seemed like something that she didn't want to talk about, which Annabeth understands. She'd never want to talk about her mother to a random stranger either. Hazel's father took her in once she moved, and she had been here ever since. Annabeth had gotten most of this out of their conversation, but also personal deduction, something she had gotten rather good at. She's glad to have another (sort of) friend.
The car stops in the school parking lot, and Annabeth hops out, not even sparing a glance at her step-brothers. Not that they care. They're glued to their phone and their friends, so of course Annabeth doesn't matter to them, she probably never will. They walk for a while in silence towards the school, until—
"Hey," she says outloud to them because they're getting dangerously close to knocking right into a park bench. She's not sure why she warns them, it's not like they'd do the same for her, but it just comes out of her mouth. Matthew looks up at her, but Bobby doesn't stop walking. It makes sense, he's the most standoffish of two.
"What?" Matthew looks at her quizzically. "Do you need something?"
She points to the bench in front of them. "You're going to trip on that bench." She informs him, but it's too late, and Bobby's already on the ground.
Matthew snickers and Bobby glares. "Thanks for that." Matthew says.
"Coulda said it sooner." Bobby grumbles, but Annabeth shrugs, and rolls her eyes, skipping ahead of them. She hears them exchange quick words, but ignores them, because as sad as it is to say, even talking to them for ten seconds is a breakthrough in their relationship.
She stays ahead of them, holding onto the sides of her backpack, and enters the school, heading straight to Dr. Brunner's office.
"Good morning." She says brightly.
Piper grumbles, "g'morning. Why are you so… awake?"
"Finally fixed my sleep-schedule." It's true. In New York, she would stay up late talking to Pylos, because of the difference in time zones, and although it's taken a while to adjust, she's finally gotten used to the difference in times here. For a while, she would purposely stay up late to work on blog posts, homework, or to just talk to Pylos but now she's finally fixed those bad behaviors. Well, mostly.
Dr. Brunner is looking over some papers, and Piper is sitting on the beanbag chair near the door. Annabeth awkwardly sets her stuff down, and sits next to Piper because there's a while until the bell rings. "What's up?" She asks, because she can't think of any other insightful conversation starters.
"The sky," Piper says.
Annabeth shakes her head. "You're so unoriginal."
"I try." She pauses. "But I guess Percy's new single is coming out tomorrow. Girl in My Corner, or some shit like that. I hope it's good, but I don't even know anymore."
Annabeth agrees. She has no clue whether this song could be a new reinvention of Percy's career, or just another failure, in her eyes. "Yeah. I see you. But I guess I'm excited to listen to it. He's advertising it like crazy on his instagram story."
"Yeah, I mean, publicity is key."
She nods along with Piper like she completely understands. But she doesn't, and she never will really. Her blog isn't that popular so there's no need to endorse it on social media at all, not that anyone from her blog follows her other social media, except for a couple choice few. Pylos doesn't, which makes sense. Their relationship is strictly anonymous. Her Instagram has three types of people following her. A few people that came from her blog, old New York friends, and random people from Goode that follow her solely because she attends the same school as them. Annabeth hasn't posted on her Instagram and ages, but she occasionally puts stuff up on her story, but even that's hard for her. She sometimes gets self-conscious pressing the blue share button, even chickens out occasionally, which is stupid, because not many people actually see it. She wonders how hard it must be to share music to ten million plus people. Or, to just share posts. You're judged on every single thing you put out, and if that's on a larger scale, it must be terrifying.
"Do you think Percy Jackson gets self-conscious?" She directs this at Piper, but instead, Dr. Brunner answers.
He looks up from his papers. "I'm assuming this is a famous individual, correct?" Annabeth nods. "Everyone gets self-conscious. It's not an exclusive feeling left for people who are considered 'underlings' by society. Confidence is important, but it's impossible to be that way all the time. So yes, that young man probably does."
"So like, do you think he'd feel that way with people who judge him?" She asks Dr. Brunner, because he's a psychologist and probably knows this kind of stuff better than anyone.
"Not necessarily. Consciousness comes from your own self, so the views of other people won't necessarily affect how he thinks of himself. How he thinks of himself, in simplest terms, will."
Piper lets out a groan from the bean bag. "That's lame."
"And why is it, Ms. Mclean?"
"Well, I mean, he's rich and famous. He's lucky. I mean, I'm lucky too, but he shouldn't feel bad about himself."
"Well, if you two are similar, then let's make a comparison. Do you feel self-conscious sometimes Ms. Mclean?"
Piper scoffs. "Well yeah, of course."
"So isn't that the same thing?'
"Well, no!" She protests, "he's famous, he's in the public eye."
Dr. Brunner chuckles. "I guess those magazine interviews you did mean you aren't in the public eye."
"Dr. Brunner," she pronounces each individual syllable, dropping to a lower octave at the end. "It's not the same thing."
"I'm not going to argue with you. It's just something you should think about," he replies, and as if on cue, the bell for first period rings. Piper slowly picks herself up and Annabeth waits at the door for her to grab all of her things.
"Piper," she whines, because Piper's incredibly slow, "I don't want to be late."
Piper slings her headphones over her neck, and then puts her backpack over her shoulders. "Impatience doesn't look good on you. See? Did it take that long?"
Annabeth rolls her eyes, and they leave the office, saying goodbye to Dr. Brunner. "So I thought you were all about looking at the other side of the story and stuff. Why'd you argue with Brunner?"
Piper grumbles. "Because I just think there's a huge difference between any kind of potential self-consciousness Percy feels, and what normal teenagers feel. He's like a literal greek god. It's just an unfair comparison."
Annabeth bites her lip as they pass a couple groups of people in the hallway, trying to avoid bumping into anyone or anything. The hallways in high school are literally murder. "Well, I mean sure, but I don't think that was what he was saying. More just like, everyone has self-consciousness. He never said it was in the same way."
"I thought you didn't like Percy."
Annabeth smiles. "It's your fault. I understand everything a little bit more now."
"It's a curse." Piper groans, and Annabeth pats her on the back, grinning gleefully.
They continue walking to Chemistry in a comfortable chatter, and Annabeth feels really happy, because she feels like Piper is really her friend, and to be honest, she hasn't had a new friend in a very long time. It's nice to connect with someone new, and yes, it's also taking a chance. Trusting yourself with another person can be a hard thing to do, and after her mother, Annabeth found it even harder to introduce new people into her life. So in a way, Piper's an exception. And she's glad to have her as a friend.
…
Annabeth falls asleep later at night with her phone resting on her chest and her heart buzzing with excitement. She had a quick conversation with Pylos, where they basically just exchanged jokes which is probably one of her favorite things to do with him. It seems they've been talking about serious stuff a lot lately so an easy conversation does their relationship a lot of good. Annabeth smiled amidst her sleep, actually really excited for the release of Percy's song. On any normal day, she would stay up all night, to be one of the firsts to view it, but she actually really wants to get her sleep schedule back on track, so she goes to sleep at a normal time.
Her night is dreamless. It's blissful, she's not thinking about the problems of the world. Sure, she's probably dreaming, but it's not as vivid as it has been the last couple of weeks. She's not mumbling her mother's name in her sleep. In fact, it's peaceful and silent. She shifts around in her bed, trying to find a comfortable position, and then stays in that position for the rest of the night.
Hours pass by, and when she wakes up the next day, she sees it's four o'clock. On any other day, she'd fall back onto her pillow, grateful for more sleep, but today is different. She grabs her phone from where it's charging, and then goes quickly to Youtube, and then over to Percy Jackson's channel. The channel has turned from solely a verified creators channel, to a full on music channel, but all of the old videos are still there. She feels slightly nostalgic looking at them, but clicks onto his newest video, a recording of his new song.
Girl in My Corner — Percy Jackson
Unsurprisingly, it already has one million views because Percy Jackson's channel is no longer in a creators brand, most of his new subscribers come only from his music. On his youtube, he has roughly nineteen point eight million subscribers. Obviously, he's super popular, and the video's been out since midnight in LA, which was technically, only four hours ago, but that's normal for Percy Jackson. Some of his music might be shitty, but he has an avid and active following. And a huge one, at that.
She pauses the video, and then takes a deep breath before pressing the "play" button, and Percy Jackson's smooth voice begins to sing sweet lyrics. A guitar strums softly in the background, and a bass, layers over it, a little bit louder. Then, a couple piano notes come in, and Annabeth's eyes widen, because this song is actually really good. Like, extremely good, one of the best songs she's heard in a very long time. She's so distracted by it's legitimate beauty, she almost misses a couple lyrics.
Almost.
Because then—
"There's a girl in my corner,
I see her, I warn her,
Stay away, I'm bad energy,
There's a supernova within me."
What the fuck?
Annabeth feels her eyes widen, and she hits the space button on her computer, pausing the video as fast as she can. That's— that's her lyric, right? Or something that resembles it. This— this isn't right. She must have imagined it, or something. She must have, right? How would Percy fucking Jackson, have the lyric she gave to Pylos in his song. She shakes her head, it has to be a mix up, a coincidence, maybe she was just dreaming. Yeah, maybe it was just some weird flash-back, but to the future maybe, so like a— flash-forward.
Jesus christ, who is she kidding? Time travel doesn't exist and even if it did, Annabeth of all people wouldn't be doing it.
She exits youtube, swiping it away, because she doesn't want to see it anymore, she's too overwhelmed, and heads straight to her email, and goes to their conversation. She scrolls past all of the conversations, until she gets to the right one, one from weeks ago.
Pylos: Hey A, are you there?
Acropolis: Yeah, what's up?
Pylos: I'm trying to compose a new song and I was wondering if you could help me out
Acropolis: Sure, what do you need?
Pylos: You're good with words, could you give me a sentence?
Acropolis: Like, for a potential song?
Pylos: Sort of
Acropolis: What about: "I'm all bad energy, there's a supernova in me"
The lyrics aren't exactly the same, that's something, right? The one's she gave him, go I'm all bad energy, there's a supernova in me, will the ones he has are, Stay away, I'm bad energy, there's a supernova within me. There are a couple key differences. Plus, his lyrics are integrated so effortlessly, there's a chance it's just a coincidence.
Or, she could just be trying to convince herself of this shit. The only person she can really get the truth from (because there's no way in hell Percy fucking Jackson is going to respond to her) is Pylos. So she types out a message.
"Can you tell me what the hell PJ's new song is?" She writes furiously, and sends it to him. "Please please respond."
It takes him a while to respond, almost as if he's pointedly ignoring her previous message. But then he does type back. "What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean Pylos."
"Acropolis, I don't know." They're using full usernames now.
"Do you know Percy Jackson or something?" She says, forward. It seems like the only approach that's going to give her a straight answer. "Because there's a certain pair of lyrics that feel very similar to the ones I gave you. And cut the bull-shit with me, I'm not stupid. Do you work with him or something? You know, we're supposed to trust each other, and this is making it pretty damn hard for me to trust you."
When he doesn't respond quickly, in realization of something else, she adds another message, double-texting. "Are you his ghost writer? Literally, I did not think he'd stoop that low. Exploiting girls on the internet? What the actual fuck."
In that moment, Pylos chooses to respond. "I swear, whatever you're thinking is not true. Believe me Acropolis, I just, I can't really explain, but please believe me when I say that whatever you're thinking about me isn't true."
Annabeth doesn't calm down, but her shoulders relax. "So what the hell is happening Pylos?"
"I swear, I'll explain it soon, okay? I promise you that I'll put it out straight to you one day, but for now, can you please trust me."
She sighs, because she does trust him. She's not sure what to think at all, and she's still terribly confused, but it's Pylos, okay? And of course she's more than a little bit ticked off, and yeah, her hands are shaking a little bit as she types, but he says he'll tell her at some point. And that's better than constantly poking at him to tell her. As much as she wants to fight back, she knows it'll be no use. That's one of the cons of their whole relationship being over the internet. He can press the do not disturb button in an instant, they can block each other in an instant, and she'll never get to hear about it again. So she relents, because she's a little bit of a pushover, and to be honest, she doesn't want to lose their relationship.
"Fine. You promise?" She writes, sighing to herself. Her eyes are watering, but she forces herself not to cry. This is a situation where she doesn't need to cry, okay? She has school, she has to hold herself together, and because Piper's strangely amazing at reading emotions despite her own reserves, she'll know in an instant something's up.
"I swear Acropolis, I promise."
She falls back onto her pillow, and realizes her hands are still shaking a bit. She's not sure why, but they are, and she can't stop them. Even when she tries, she can still see them slightly shaking, so she rests them by her side, until they finally stop, ten minutes later. When she picks up her phone, she has two messages from Pylos.
"I know you're probably a bit frazzled, but I had a question." The sides of Annabeth's lips turn up at that, her mouth turning into a smile, but she's still really fucking confused.
His next message is of course, the question. "What did you think of the song?"
Annabeth hasn't listened to it all, because she shut off her phone the second she heard those words sung from Percy's mouth, but overall, it was really good. And as much as she wants to continue to rant, she doesn't. "It was beautiful. Surprisingly, I really liked it."
"Yeah, should be proud of them."
Annabeth stops herself from smiling more, because no, she's confused, and slighted and mad at him! "He should." She replies, and despite her anger and confusion, it's genuine.
…
She accidentally calls Thalia in the middle of the girls first period class, forgetting the major time difference. It's six in LA, and as self-centered as it seems, she always seems to think everyone around her is experiencing time the same way. Thalia, thankfully picks up, she was in the bathroom, and starts the conversation with a kind, "what the fuck is up?"
"Thalia," she says, "I have to tell you something, and could you be serious for a sec?"
"I'm always serious," Thalia says, seriously. Annabeth giggles a bit to herself at that, but then gets back to the point.
"So you know that guy I met through my blog?"
Thalia pauses. "Yeah. Like Pace or Pablo or something like that, I guess."
"Pylos." Annabeth quietly corrects.
Thalia makes a noise that closely resembles a cat dramatically hacking up a furball. "Do we need to do this now? I'm pooping."
"We both know you're skipping class Thalia."
"Shut up. You're not even here."
"But I know you." Annabeth points out, finally picking herself up, because it's time to get ready. She brings her phone to the bathroom, and insects herself in the mirror. There's an annoyingly large pimple on the bottom of her chin, so she pokes at it a bit. "Anyway, back to what I was saying. He's a musician, right, or an aspiring on, at least."
"I didn't know that up until now, so sure." Thalia says, and her voice is lowered to a whisper, probably because she's in a storage closet or something now.
Annabeth rolls her eyes. "Okay, so we've gotten pretty close, and he asked me once if I had any lyric ideas, and I gave him one."
"Was it good?"
"He said it was."
"He was probably being nice," Thalia says bluntly. "You are no musician Annabeth Chase."
Annabeth protests, "neither are you! Now shut up and let me finish my story."
"Does this story have any significance in my life?"
She thinks about it for a moment, and then decides on the fact that in an alternate universe, it potentially could. And that's reason enough to say yes. "Of course, I wouldn't want to waste your time." She says innocently, harping on her.
"Fine. Go." Thalia says, "but I gotta get back to class soon."
Frowning, Annabeth sets her phone down, and gets out some pimple cream. "I thought you were skipping."
"Times change."
Annabeth groans. "Okay well, then a really similar version of my lyric appears in Percy Jackson's new song, and I'm like, what the hell? How did it get there?"
"That's weird."
"And then Pylos says he'll explain it to me later."
Thalia stops, and then lets out a chuckle. "For a smart person, you can be really dumb sometimes Annabeth."
"What?" She shakes her head desperately, spreading some of the pimple cream on her chin, and then putting it away. She retreats back into her room, and grabs a random t-shirt and pair of jeans, flinging them onto her bed.
"Figure it out on your own," Thalia says, and then hangs up the phone.
Sometimes, she really hates that girl.
But she loves her at the same time.
Just really hates her, simultaneously.
…
Annabeth is a smart person. She's good in school, has a great physique and knows way more fun-facts than the average person. She could tell you that in Switzerland it's illegal to own just one guinea pig. She could say that the Incas considered bridges so sacred, that they would kill anyone who tampered with one. She could tell you hundreds of random facts, but what she doesn't have a clue of, is what the hell Thalia is talking about. It's like, the dots are right in front of her, but she doesn't have any clue how to connect them in a logical way. Illogical, sure, but logical? No. The thoughts she's thinking aren't ones she can rationalize, which is frankly terrifying.
She tries to go about her day normally, but she and Piper, as they do, fall into a conversation about Percy's new song, and it's not something she can avoid any more. What's even worse, is that her news feed is blowing up with news on him. Headlines, upon headlines, all with similar sentiments on them.
Percy Jackson drops a new single! Will Girl in My Corner be the next bill-board topper?
Is Ms. Calypso Atlas Percy Jackson's so called, "girl in his corner?"
Girl in My Corner: Percy Jackson's song is an immediate hit! A lyrical analysis.
Our favorite musical heartthrob drops a new, romantic single, likely about his new lover.
Frankly, they're really fucking annoying. Why can't LA get their little fingers out of business like this? It annoys Annabeth to death. Okay, fine it's how some people make a living, but that doesn't mean Annabeth can't be irritated by it. Because she is. Really, really. And now, there's no way she can't think about those lyrics. Those stupid lyrics that she hopes Pylos tells her about soon, because she's impatient and confused. Two feelings that really don't go together in a positive way, really ever. She wants to know what's going on, but at the same, she doesn't think it's going to be explained to her until much later on, at least, that's what her head tells her. Her head is usually right, to be honest.
And as much as she tries to rationalize it, rationalize everything, she can't. Because her life is surrounded by Percy Jackson, and right now at least, it feels like there's no escape from these shaking, confused, irrational feelings— feelings that she can't quite place. All she knows is that there's something wrong. The problem is, she can't tell what.
…
~life doesn't always make sense; in fact, it rarely does~
Fyi: Annabeth's obliviousness comes mostly from her surprise, and to an outsider it seems pretty obvious what this stuff means, but irl, it would be really hard to rationalize something like this. I know I'd be hella confused, for one lmao. But yeah! I hope you liked this chapter, because these next couple of ones are going to be packed with plot and stuff. Leave a review, lmk what you think! Stay safe and healthy! Until the next chapter!
Replies!
MilaKuhn: Q1: there'll be more elaboration to that in future chapters. Q2: yeah, that's right! I'm glad you're enjoying the story, it means a lot! leoisthebadboysupreme: puns are ftu lol I got most of them from cheesy joke websites.
TheLil'Lion