Percy plops himself down on a bench at the side of the university's track with a sigh, causing a small cloud to escape into the cold January air. Looking at his phone, Percy sees that it is only 7:30 in the morning. Huffing again, he questions not for the first time why he agreed to be Jason's running partner if it meant freezing to death at an ungodly hour. Honestly, would freezing to death three hours later have been so bad?

As he decides to just settle in and mope dramatically until Jason shows up, Percy is distracted by his phone vibrating in his hand. Looking down, he sees a notification for a new email pop up. He swipes to unlock his phone, thankful for a distraction from tragically wasting away.

His inbox is currently full of hundreds of unread emails, from both scholarship foundations and his professors reminding him about homework assignments. He and Leo have a running competition to see who can have the largest notification number on their email app, and Percy has been winning for the past two weeks. However, on the top of his inbox is an email with the words "Tutoring Schedule." Tilting his head to the side curiously, he opens the email.

Percy,

Just checking in to see if you wanted to continue our tutoring sessions. If so, please respond with your schedule as soon as it is convenient.

Regards,

Annabeth Chase

Percy squints down at his phone, staring at the end of the message. It had been four days since he had gone to the tutoring session, and he had completely forgotten that Annabeth had given him her email address. To be fair, he rationalizes, who even gives out their email address like that? Percy decides he absolutely would not have forgotten if Annabeth had given him her number like a normal college-aged student.

Percy taps the option to respond but freezes with his thumbs over his phone. While he had managed to forget Annabeth's email address pretty much immediately, he had unfortunately not been able to forget Annabeth. In fact, he had been thinking about her pretty much every day and it was starting to get pretty annoying. Paying attention in class was hard enough without a pair of gray eyes haunting him in his brain.

The worst part was that Percy didn't even know why he was so hung up on this. Sure, he had probably thought she was kinda pretty or something, but he was pretty sure that he had managed to overreact somehow. Percy was pretty sure you could overreact to meeting an attractive stranger. She probably wasn't even that attractive now that he thinks about it, it just was he was still sleepy because it was a Saturday morning. Percy nods to himself, deciding this to be a logical conclusion.

Unfortunately, Percy's body apparently doesn't agree with him as not only do his thoughts of Annabeth disappear, but the weird anxious energy that he is starting to really hate has come back in full force. Shrugging as if he can shake off these dumb feelings, Percy types out a response.

oh hey sorry i didnt email you earlier. is the offer from earlier still open

Percy rereads the message once and nods to himself. That seems casual but respectable, right? He pauses, then rereads the message again, deciding to add a question mark to the end. Punctuation can be important in making impressions. Percy bites his lip and hits send, decidedly not thinking about why he's paying so much attention to punctuation in an email.

Percy goes to pocket his phone as he looks around to see if Jason has finally decided to grace him with his presence (Percy snorts and hi-fives himself) when his phone vibrates again in his hand. Eyebrows raised, Percy looks at his phone again to see that the reply has already arrived.

Percy,

As you can see, I'm available to meet depending on the days you're free.

Regards,

Annabeth Chase

Percy purses his lips and frowns. He's pretty sure that this is passive aggressive, but the email is so professional he can't quite tell. Plus, who formats more than one email in a row? Percy can't imagine putting in the effort to sign one email, let alone multiple messages. Rolling his eyes, he types out another message

im free this afternoon after 1 if thats good with you

Regards,

Percy Jackson

Hitting send, Percy leans back on the bench again with a smirk starting to form. He really hopes Annabeth notices that he was making fun of her because he was 100% making fun of her. Not even thirty seconds later his phone buzzes again and Percy quickly looks to see if his joke landed.

Percy,

That time works for me as well. I will see you then.

Regards,

Annabeth Chase

Percy's smile falls off at terminal velocity as he groans and drops his head onto the back of the bench. It's like she isn't even a person, just a wall of professionalism that spits out emails at students.

While still debating giving up on getting Annabeth to react to anything like a person, Percy is shocked into sitting upright by another email. Hastily opening it, he finds a second message from Annabeth underneath the first.

Also, if you learn this fast at everything maybe you won't be as hopeless as I thought.

Regards,

Annabeth Chase

This time, Percy is absolutely positive he is being insulted, and for some reason he can't stop smiling. The weird, swooping feeling in his chest is back and even though he's sitting on a frozen bench, it feels sort of like he's falling.

"Oof, that's kinda rough dude."

Percy jumps completely off the bench and spins to find Jason standing behind the bench with a knowing smile. Percy rolls his eyes and casually scratches the back of his head to try to play off his over-the-top reaction and says, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Jason raises an eyebrow. "I don't know man, you seem pretty stoked for a guy who just got toasted by a school tutor."

Percy squints at him suspiciously as Jason's smile continues to grow. After a second he gasps and his eyes widen. He points at Jason suspiciously and says, "You've been talking to Grover."

Jason shrugs and hefts his backpack on his shoulders before casually responding, "Well, more like Grover ran up on me and started shouting that you met someone."

Feeling his face shrink into a horrified grimace, Percy decides denial is definitely the way to go. "Would you believe me if I told you he was lying?" His voice raises to a much higher pitch than usual, which probably doesn't help him out any.

Jason huffs out a laugh and pats Percy's shoulder as he walks past him towards the track and says, "Not a chance."

Percy makes a disgusted sound and follows after him. Thankfully, nothing more is said about it as they drop off their bags next to the track and start off at a solid pace. However, after the first couple minutes of running in silence except for the pounding of feet on rubber, he hears Jason say between breaths, "So do I get to know who this mystery tutor is?"

Percy rolls his eyes. Jason is usually a stickler for proper technique while running, which generally doesn't include grilling your friends about their feelings. Instead of answering, he shoots back, "I could ask the same about you and that girl you went on a date with."

Jason's face starts to redden immediately, Percy notices with grim satisfaction. If he's going down, he's taking as many people as possible with him.

After a second Jason clears his throat and and says in a significantly less smug tone, "It wasn't a date, I don't know why you guys think that."

Rolling his eyes, Percy replies, "Yeah okay and I don't have an annoying crush on my new tutor." It takes a full second after he finishes the sentence for him to realize what he actually just said, and he immediately trips and barely manages to avoid eating it completely.

Percy looks back over to Jason with wide eyes and warm cheeks and sees his expression mirrored almost exactly, except for the shocked smile beginning to curl at the edges of Jason's mouth. Percy opens his mouth to defend himself, then thinks better of it and shuts it with a click as he looks stubbornly forwards.

They run in silence for another minute before Percy hears Jason make a louder exhale than usual, and then after a second, "Okay so it might have been a date. Possibly."

Huffing out a laugh, Percy looks over again and asks with a smile, "Dude, how do you not know if it was a date or not?"

Jason's eyebrows raise along with his voice as he replies, "I don't know it was kinda vague? Like she's pretty and smart and cool and she asked me to go hang out with her but if no one says the word date is it a date?" Somehow, he has started to motion with his hands while running, which Percy finds hilarious.

Percy smirks, happy to be focusing on something that isn't him. "That sounds like it hits all of the main points of a date to me. Just think about it, you're crazy for her and she asks you to hang out with her alone, it's getting saucier by the minute."

Jason sputters out something out something incoherent as his face hits the classic Lightning McQueen red as Percy laughs at him unabashed. He is a big fan of how great it feels to laugh at someone else's feelings instead of his.

After he regains the ability to speak and make eye contact with Percy again, Jason mutters reluctantly, "Both of us are pretty obvious about this, huh."

Percy's eyebrows raise defensively as he replies, "I have no idea what you're on my dude but I'm not obvious about anything. The Jackson brand is that of an enigma."

Jason fixes him with an unimpressed stare, which is impressive to do while running. "You literally said with your own mouth that you like your tutor."

Percy's face scrunches up again as he remembers he did definitely do that. At this rate his youthful face is going to look like an overused sponge in a week. In a voice that sounds more like a dying old man than usual, he says, "I think technically I said I didn't have a crush on her?"

One of Jason's eyebrows arches upwards into a flawless People's Eyebrow. Percy thinks Dwayne Johnson would have been proud before rolling his eyes and relenting. "Fine okay sure maybe I have unfortunately contracted, uh, that, but probably not because I've only met her once and how is that even possible?"

Jason's face melts into an empathetic smile as he pats Percy's shoulder. Looking forward, he wisely states, "We're both idiots, I think."

Reluctantly agreeing, Percy decides to speed up the pace to distract from more embarrassing conversations. Jason apparently had the same idea as their run turns into a race around the track, all conversation forgotten in place of burning muscles and the flash of competitive spirit.

Percy totally wins if anyone was to ask.

Annabeth is already at the front of the class with her materials out when Percy walks into the classroom that afternoon. He may or may not be running slightly late, but he figures it isn't that big of a deal to be perfectly punctual to a tutoring session. After all, he has a reputation to uphold.

Sitting in the front desk again, he looks up to see Annabeth writing something on the whiteboard. She continues to do this, with no sign of acknowledging Percy, for so long that he starts to wonder if she even knows that he's in the room.

However, before he can come up with something probably pretty dumb to say to let her know that he has arrived, she caps her marker and turns around with her arms crossed. Percy immediately feels like his heart just took a swing at the inside of his ribcage with a baseball bat, despite the way that Annabeth already looks like she wants to slap him with a textbook. Percy frowns a little as he hears the sound of all of his Not That Attracted To My Tutor theories shattering in the background. Damn it.

"You're late." Percy blinks, almost missing that Annabeth said something, before looking at a clock on the wall. He is, in fact, almost ten minutes late. Oops.

Wincing, he looks back at Annabeth and sheepishly replies, "Better late than never, right?" Her expression morphs from unimpressed to irritated at an impressive speed, and Percy feels his nervous grin die on the spot. Maybe not the best start, he thinks.

Instead of replying, Annabeth moves to the side of the board and points up to where she has written "Writing 101" in large, neat lettering. Percy rolls his eyes. Of course she has good handwriting.

Either not noticing his eye roll or just ignoring it, Annabeth explains, "I looked through your transcripts for this year and I saw that this is the subject you're doing the worst in, so I thought we should start working on this first.'

Percy feels a lopsided grin start to grow as he asks, "Oh, looking me up now are you? Did you find anything exciting?"

Annabeth doesn't react beyond a split second glare before she bends to pick up some notebooks and matching textbooks off of the desk next to her. Percy's smile falls as he remembers he is actually going to have to do legitimate schoolwork.

As she passes him one of the notebooks, Annabeth asks without looking at him, "So to start, what do you want to work on the most for this subject?" She leans back on the desk with a cracked open textbook as she waits for Percy's reply.

Percy frowns, and after a second shrugs and replies, "I don't really know, a lot of the time I'm either asleep in that class or wish I was."

This, apparently, is a bad answer as Annabeth scoffs and rolls her eyes. "Well, obviously you're going to do as badly as you are if you're not even trying."

Percy's brow furrows as he feels anger start to pool up in him. Indignantly, he asks, "Who said I wasn't trying?"

Raising one eyebrow skeptically, Annabeth lowers her notebook. "I mean, what, you're failing half of your classes and barely passing the other half but when you come to tutoring to get help with that you don't even show up on time. Really it seems pretty clear to me."

Clenching his hands into fists, Percy exhales sharply through his nose before retorting, "Yeah well maybe not all of us can be good at school without even trying." He slouches petulantly into his seat and adds on, "Sorry I'm not as naturally gifted as you apparently are."

Annabeth rolls her eyes again and looks up to the ceiling. After a second, she lets out a long sigh and moves from the teacher's desk in the front of the room to the desk next to Percy, turning it to face him before sitting in it. Pursing her lips, she lays out the books on her desk before asking, "Do you have more trouble with the writing part of the class or with analyzing the reading?"

Percy sullenly refuses to turn all the way to face her completely, but mutters in response, "The reading is worse. It's hard to pull of a critical analysis when you have dyslexia and the words like to go on paid vacation."

Annabeth huffs out a short laugh, almost like it was startled out of her, before saying, "Tell me about it. Dyslexia should really be illegal by now."

Percy is so shocked he forgets that he's supposed to be angry right now. He's sure this is the first time Annabeth has laughed in front of him, even just a little bit, and he finds himself filled with a desire to make her do it again.

Suddenly becoming conscious of what he's thinking, Percy grimaces to himself. He is absolutely sure at this moment that being able to feel emotion is the least convenient thing that has ever happened to him. How is he supposed to develop a grudge like this?

Realizing that if he spends to long self-reflecting Annabeth will notice, he quickly throws out, "Maybe if I asked the professor to just bean me in the head with the book the words would transfer better."

Annabeth snorts and shoots back in a dry tone, "I can do that right now and save you the trouble if you want."

Percy can't help the giant grin that has appeared on his face. Is this banter? Percy's pretty sure that he's bantering with Annabeth right now. His heart feels like its using his stomach as a jump rope and he feels weirdly giddy. Wasn't he pissed off like two minutes ago? He can't remember anymore.

Annabeth, now with a smirk of her own curling her lips, plops a textbook onto Percy's desk with a loud thud. His grin falters as he hesitantly cracks open the book before looking at Annabeth fearfully.

Her smirk becomes something more malicious as she opens her own copy and proclaims, "Now I'm going to teach you how to read. I think you might be able to get the hang of it."

Percy is pretty sure that he shouldn't smiling this much about being called illiterate, but his body apparently stopped listening to him a while ago. Shrugging in defeat, Percy figures that it could have been worse, like if he got Leo as a tutor.

He shudders at the thought, but is soon distracted by words that are too large and sentences that run on for too long. Percy misses not being able to read.

A/N: Can you guys tell that I've never actually been to a tutoring session? Hopefully not! Anyways I hope you guys enjoy me projecting how many unread emails I have onto Percy because my number is in the thousands. Maybe he'll deal with that better than I do. Also, I'm deleting the update about me restarting the story because we're in it now and I don't think it really needs to be there anymore. Yay for new stories!