A/N: Heyy…how are you all? I think that this is going to be my update schedule, like once a week.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize
"...And the value of this integral would be… Mr. Jackson, would you care to answer?" As Percy lifted his head from the desk, he sighed. Mrs Dodds knew that he pretty much sucked at math yet, she continued to pick on him. On several occasions, Percy had called her "the devil's spawn" and had been proved right every single time.
"Zero, Percy, the answer is Zero." Annabeth hissed at him. Percy repeated the answer to the teacher, and as she nodded, he sighed with relief. The bell rang and Percy grinned. He looked at Annabeth. "Do you think you could- "
Annabeth knew what he was about to say. "After my date, Perce."
Percy nodded and calmed down. It was lunch, so they moved towards the cafeteria. There, they were joined by Piper and Grover. Piper took one look at him and Annabeth and grinned at him while nodding at the two of them. Percy gave her finger and glared at her. As they took their seats, Piper nudged him with her foot and whispered, "Perce, you made a move? I'm so fucking proud of you my dude." Percy gave her a look and she shut up.
But. Piper was Piper so she decided to fuck subtlety and straight up ask Annabeth, "Yo dude. How's Luke?" Percy was kicking her leg under the table to get her to stop and so she pinched him. Now, Percy would deny allegations but from the table they were sitting at, there was a screech that sounded quite close to the velociraptors from Jurassic Park.
Grover cried with laughter.
After Grover managed to regain control of himself, Annabeth gave him an inquisitive look and deeming Percy's weak smile and thumbs up as acceptable, she sighed. "Honestly, Piper I have no clue. I mean we are supposed to go on a date tonight but neither has he texted me even once today, nor has he picked up my calls. It seems… weird. Like yesterday he was fine and texted me goodnight- the usual."
Percy's ADHD started acting up. He couldn't stop fidgeting, nor could he stop tapping his foot. His eye twitched. Piper laid a hand on his knee. Their message to each other to just breathe, everything would work out.
Annabeth, oblivious to all this, continued, "Like you know, I've always wanted to attend Columbia. It has this amazing architecture program and it's only like an 8.2-mile drive from NYU so we would be pretty close-relatively speaking."
Piper's eyes sparkled. "NYU, huh? Isn't that where you applied to too, Perce?" At Percy's nod, she mused, "Well won't that be cool? To be so close to your best friend. Honestly, I don't want to say goodbye at the end of the year, and I'm pretty sure, neither does Grover. Do you?"
"Absolutely not." Grover agreed. "Like, I have some bets to win and money to collect and the end of the school year means that I'm might have to lose fifty bucks, and I have no clue how I can rack up that cash without telling my parents dude."
Piper snickered. "Well it is your fault for making such a stupid proposition. It's not like I forced you to do it."
Grover glowered at her. "Fuck off." Piper smiled sweetly at him.
The bell rang, and Percy sighed. "C'mon Piper. Let's go torture ourselves with Physics. Catch ya later Annabeth, bye Grover!"
He dragged Piper with him to their lockers. "Do you have any clue how fucking painful it is to hear her talk about Luke that way? It physically hurts Piper." He hissed. "I introduced her to Luke. They most probably wouldn't have even met without my interference and yet I'm the one pining with this giant-ass crush."
Piper glared at him. "Well, they're dating, yes. Kudos to you for getting her to open up to someone else." She softened. "Look. You made a mistake. And yeah, it was made with good intentions but honestly, Percy, you have no one to blame but yourself. And look on the bright side! At least you get the best friend card to pull!"
The warning bell rang. "C'mon Percy, let's get to class. She won't be coming over till nine right? Okay, I'll come with you when we leave school. You need to help me with Bio-how you are so damn good at it, I will never know-and we'll talk over cookies."
"Fine." Percy conceded. "But you need to help me clean my room before my mom gets back from this author's thing that she has."
Piper grew pale.
Percy grinned.
Later that evening:
"That's the fourth time you've needed my help, Pipes, and you've done five questions. Get your head in the game dude."
Percy and Piper were lying on their bellies on Percy's bed trying to finish their bio homework. Well. Percy had already finished it; Piper was still struggling. The sun had just set, and it was still light outside.
"Please Percy, just this question I know the answers to all the rest anyway." Percy glanced at her worksheet. She just had the one question left. Which organelle takes up the most space in the cytoplasm, in plant cells?
"Vacuole, Pipes. That's the answer. See? You're pretty fucking good at this shit. You just lack the confidence."
Piper grinned. "Remind you of anyone?"
As Piper's shit-eating grin grew wider, so much so, that she looked suspiciously like the Cheshire cat, he shook his head. "Nope. No. We are not dragging her into this. There is absolutely no need for you to- "
"Well, I did help you clean your room before your mom came back from her Author's meet, sooo…"
"Ugh. Fine. We did agree to anyway. What do you want to know?"
"It's not so much as what I want to know but rather what you are feeling. I mean you are so obvious, the fact that she hasn't noticed is very clearly contradicting the fact that she's so fucking smart dude. Straight A's. How the fuck does she manage that? Anyway, you need to tell me how you feel about her. Bottling this up ain't healthy."
Percy looked at her. She wasn't smiling anymore, which told Percy that she was being serious. He ducked his head to hide his blush. "It's like – she has the cutest smile, and her laugh is honestly so adorable. She so fucking smart, Piper that it borders on weird. She's a really great person and today morning, she was the first thing I saw, and I was instantly positive. Like, she has this way of just brightening up my day that- no offence Pipes- no one else can and it fucking sucks that she's going out with the guy that I introduced to her and it makes me so damn jealous of him that it hurts. And I know that we're just friends but I could be so nice to here and treat her much better but she only sees me as a best friend so it just sucks."
Piper was smiling at him when he looked at her. "Wow." She said, softly. "That was amazing." She opened her mouth to continue, but before she could speak, the doorbell rang. Percy frowned. His mom was already at home and Annabeth wasn't supposed to come for at least the next hour.
He exchanged glances with Piper. "Is that her?"
"I doubt it. She told me that she'd come over after her date. I'll check it out."
Piper nodded. "If it's her, then I'll leave. Third wheeling is the absolute worst, Perce, I am not staying if she's here. I am confident that I will catch a disease. We'll finish this conversation later."
Percy walked over to the front door and froze.
Annabeth stood there with a crestfallen look on her face and as Percy pulled her into a hug, she mumbled against his chest. "I've been waiting for him for an hour. He's never been this late. Something is really wrong. I called his mom and she said that he spoke to her at 3 in the morning and was at his dorm and- "
Percy hugged her tighter. He mouthed a goodbye to Piper and shut the door with one of his hands behind her. He gave Annabeth a cookie and told her, "Come to my room. I'll bring the cookies and you can tell me what happened." Reminding himself that they were just friends and not knowing how Annabeth would take it, he resisted the urge to press a kiss to her forehead.
As he followed her to his room, a plate of cookies in his hand, even he couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong, and that it would have a major impact on Annabeth and his friendship.
He had no idea how right he was.
A/N: So that's all for now. Please tell me what you thought of this chapter, stay safe and healthy, and I will see you all next week.
Bye!