Here's another AU story, a high school Percabeth.

#5: Heart Beats

"Oh, I don't know, Brittany. I think that it'd be way more romantic if he didn't wear the gray socks."
"Really, Molly? Because that's biased."

The girls scowled at each other.
"You know what's really romantic?"

They turned to their other friend, Elle, who flipped her long, blonde-streaked brown hair over her shoulder.

"Having hearts that beat at the same pace."
"Oh, god!" Annabeth said, walking by.

The three girls looked at her.

"Seriously? Gray socks? Heart beating at the same time?"
They scowled at her. "Who asked you?"

"Everyone else, basically," Annabeth replied, glaring. "Everyone who's tired of your stupid theories about love."
"Love isn't stupid," Brittany sniffed.
"I never said it was. I said that your thoughts on it were."
"Which thoughts?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes and shifted her weight. "Love is mental—just because you love them doesn't mean you fit with them or your heart beats are aligned. And the gray socks? Please. Boys don't think like that."
Molly scowled. "Whatever."
"Whatever," Brittany echoed.

"Ha, whatever," Annabeth mocked before stalking away.

"Bitch," Elle said savagely after her. Annabeth scratched her back with her finger—not her pointer finger.

"Mr. Sharpe! Annabeth flicked me off!" Elle whined. Their teacher didn't look up from her magazine.

"And you called her a bitch. Fair is fair."

Elle huffed and decided to wait for revenge.

Revenge came at recess. Annabeth was leaning against the brick school wall, watching the boy's kickball game when they flocked on her.

"So, Annabeth." Molly smiled, showing her gum.

"So, Molly." Annabeth mocked.

"Don't you believe in love?"
Annabeth sighed. "Do we have to have this conversation? Because, no."
They all glared. "You're wrong," Brittany pouted. "I've been with Josh for three months, and he totally loves me and I love him."
Annabeth smirked and rearranged herself on the wall. "There are three reasons he 'loves' you. One, your boobs. Two, your ass. Three, you sleep with him."
Brittany rolled her eyes. "Um, duh."
"Oh, four." Annabeth grinned. "You're an idiot."

"Three on one?" Elle sighed sadly. "I wish we didn't have to do this."
Annabeth pushed off the wall. "Do what?"
Elle flung herself at Annabeth, who easily sidestepped. Elle went flying.

She landed on her hands and knees and stood, her back to Annabeth.

"Oh," She sighed, staring. "He's perfect."
There, walking up the sidewalk, was a boy.

"Mr. Jackson?" Irene, the front secretary, hurried to him. "Welcome to our school. This way, please."

Annabeth was pretty sure she imagined it, but she thought the boy turned and winked at her. She couldn't really tell, because she was busy ducking around Brittany and Molly's jaws.

Two periods later, it was almost homeroom. Five minutes until, in fact.

"Oh, and Ms. Chase?" Mrs. Finkle called. Annabeth put her book down and refocused her attention. "Since Ms. Mclean is out of town, you need a new partner for the project."
"But I had it all ready-" Annabeth protested.

"It's not just for you," Mrs. Finkle interrupted. "Because we have a new boy, he needs a partner, someone who can catch him up in time. I trust you'll redo the assignment to fit him in?"
"It's due in a week!" Annabeth exclaimed.

"Then have him over and power work!" Mrs. Finkle called over her shoulder.

Annabeth slumped in her seat. The boy, who'd stopped the fight unintentionally earlier, shrugged his shoulders at her and sat down.

"Sorry, I try not to move when there're projects due."
"Not your fault," Annabeth said, opening her planner and scribbling absently in it.

"That didn't look fair earlier," He told her.

She raised an eyebrow. "I would've handled myself."
"I meant it didn't look fair for them."

Blinking in surprise, Annabeth closed her planner and slid it to the side.

"Sorry. I'm Annabeth." She offered a weak smile.

"Percy." His smile was much more successful. "Do you think we can do the assignment in a week?"
She shrugged. "Finkle's right, we can't do it just at school. We need to present something, along with typing a report. I have my report to go off of, if that'll help."
He nodded. "Yep." He studied her thoughtfully until she sighed.

"What?"
He smirked. "You basically just said that we're going to see each other outside of school...at our places where we live."
She stared at him. "Um, yeah?"
"And my mom would kill me if I had company when there are still boxes all over."
Annabeth sighed. "Oh, look. The boy you just met invited himself over to your house. Smart."
"Are you talking to yourself? Only crazy people do that."
"Do you?"
"Yeah."
"What's in your head?"
The bell rang, and he muttered something under his breath.

"Did you just say seaweed?"
He looked incredulous. "What? No! I said-"
"Seaweed. Seaweed Brain."
"Shut up-"
"See you tomorrow, Seaweed Brain. Unless you have my homeroom."
He didn't have her homeroom, or any classes with her in the next morning.

Until science.

The bell hadn't even rung, and Elle had already started arguing about the heart beat thing. Percy walked in, and Annabeth barely saw him.

"That's not a thing," She said calmly to Elle, who was getting really worked up over it.

"It is too! I've had a bunch of boyfriends, and our hearts are sort of aligned, but not really-"
"Duh."
"So that's why we broke up!"
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I told you, love is mental. Your body doesn't react to it."
Elle looked wounded. "Just because you don't believe in love doesn't mean the rest of us can't."
Annabeth opened her mouth to reply, but Mr. Sharpe snapped his magazine closed and took his feet off the desk.

"I'm tired of this argument. We'll settle it tomorrow."
The girls nodded, not wanting to start again.

The rest of class passed mostly without incident, and then it was lunch. Annabeth sat by her and Piper's group, made of them, Piper's boyfriend, Jason, Frank, his younger girlfriend, Hazel, Leo and his girlfriend, Calypso, and a few others who came and went. Today it was just them and Percy.

Leo and the others were arguing over something or other, and Annabeth was staring off into the distance.

"You're spacing," Percy said, taking a bite of macaroni.

She refocused. "Huh? Oh. Sorry."
He grinned and bit into his apple. "S'okay. Did you find out if I can come over?"
"Yeah. We can walk to my house today after school, and you can stay for a bit. Tammy's making pasta. Do you like pasta?"
Percy shrugged. "I like food," He mumbled around his pizza.

She raised an eybrow. "I can tell," She muttered, eying his plate.

"Who's Tammy? Your cook?" He licked his popsicle.

Annabeth snorted. "I wish. She's my stepmom."
"Ah."

"You realize it's gone, right?" Annabeth stared at Percy, licking furiously at his popsicle stick. "You're going to get a tongue splinter."

"There's no such thing as a—Ow!" He jumped and dropped the stick and started feeling his tongue. "Got it!" He said after a few seconds, showing her something so tiny she couldn't see it.
"It ruined the rest of your macaroni, though."
He looked down. "No it didn't."
And he ate the rest, maneuvering carefully around the slobbery stick.

"I'd better text her to tell her to make two pots of pasta."

"Do you have siblings?" School was over, and they were walking to Annabeth's house.

She nodded. "Yeah, two stepbrothers. Bobby and Matthew. You?"
"No." He sounded wistful.

"Lucky. All they do is barge into my room and leave toys everywhere."
He laughed, a pleasant sound that Annabeth liked.

"So what's this report about."
"Oh, it's a science project—you have to experiment something, and write a two page report on it, and then make a poster board with pictures."
"Huh." He wrinkled his nose. "I think I did one in seventh grade."
"What'd you do?"
He shrugged. "Food coloring and celery. What'd you do for yours?"

…...

He blinked. "Sorry, what? I didn't get any of that."
She sighed. "I guess that's out."
He grinned at her, earning a sideways eye roll so he couldn't see she was grinning.

"Here we go," Annabeth said. They stopped in front of a large, eggshell blue house with a white porch. There were bikes and scooters scattered around, along with balls. "Sorry," She told him. "We're going to do spring cleaning soon."
"I hate spring cleaning."
"I imagine you do."

They entered her house. It smelled cinnamon.

"We're here," Annabeth yelled, tossing her bag onto the counter.

Silence.

"Dad? Tammy?" She went into the kitchen, Percy on her heels. There was a note on the counter.

"Dear Annabeth and Friend," Annabeth read. "We've gone to the store to buy noodles as we don't have any for supper. We're leaving at about 3:45 and we'll be there for almost an hour, so if you need anything, call. And don't try anything."
"Try what?" Percy asked innocently as she led him into the living room.

She didn't look at him, just subtly stepped around Spider-Man, lying on the floor.

"Ouch!" He exclaimed. When he looked for whatever hurt him, his face lit up.

"Spider-Man! He was my favorite!"
"So you stepped on him."
"It was an accident!"

"And squealed like a girl."
"I'd like to see you step on this without sqealling," Percy sniffed, dropping it on the floor again.

"I could step on a million things and not squeal like that."
"Okay. We could make it into the project, if you like. Eggs, nails, legos, and...vaseline."
"You're on," She replied, knowing what he was getting at. "If you'll excuse me for a moment, I must make a call."
She dialed while he bowed his head graciously. "You are excused."
"Shut up, Seaweed Bra—Hi, Dad."

He smirked at her.

She stuck out her tongue. "No one. Well, yeah. But anyway, could you and Tammy pick up some eggs, like four cartons, and nails, and a bunch of vaseline? A lot of all. Yeah. Okay, thanks." She hung up the phone and tossed it onto the couch. "We're set."
"Excellent." He rubbed his hands together.

"You look like an idiot."
"That's a mirror, Wise Girl."
"Gooood one."
The front door banged open. They went to the sound to see a young boy, brown hair and red-faced, panting.

"Bobby? Where's Matthew?"
"We...raced..." He gasped out. "I...won. Can I...can I have a...popsicle?"
Annabeth sighed but retrieved two popsicles from the freezer.

"Go outside and wait for him," She instructed. Bobby obidiently obeyed.

"Can I have a popsicle?" Percy asked.

"You had three at lunch!"
"Not that kind."
"What do you say?"
"Please."
She handed him a popsicle.

He licked it contentedly for a few seconds, then eyed her. "You can have one too."
And nimbly ducked her fist, laughing.

"Where'd you live before, Percy?" Tammy Chase asked. After arriving home and unloading groceries, she'd gotten right to making dinner so that Annabeth and Percy would have plenty of time to work on their project.

"New York City," He replied.

"Oh! Is it a big change to go into a small town like this?"

He shrugged. "Not really, actually. My mom's fiance, Paul, lives here, and we came down on weekends to visit. So I knew the town pretty well before we moved."
"What does Paul do?"
"He's a teacher at high school."
"Do either of you have him?"
They both shook their heads. Percy quickly took several bites, hoping it would hold of questions.

It did. Bobby and Matthew argued on favorite Legos, Annabeth managed to secure dozens for the project, and Fredrick was staring out the window, lost in thought.

"Well, thanks for the meal, Tammy!" Annabeth said brightly. She grabbed her dishes and kicked Percy on the ankle. He got up too, still chewing, and managed a nod in her direction.

For the next several hours, they each stood or walked on all of their materials and took notes. Annabeth had the task of making a report out of it, and Percy had to make a poster board with their visiuals.

It was almost dark when he left.

"Thanks again, Mr. and Mrs. Chase," He called into the living room. They smiled at him and waved before Annabeth dragged him onto the porch.

"You're walking home?" She asked. He nodded, shouldering his bookbag. "And you'll have the poster done by next week? And-"
"Annabeth." He set his hand on her shoulders and looked her squarely in the eye. He didn't have to look down far. "I've got it. This isn't my first, you know."
"I know."
He let go of her and went down the steps.

"See you tomorrow," He called over his shoulder. She managed a half-hearted wave.

The next morning alternated from flying to crawling by.

Until science.

Mr. Sharpe wasn't in the room, but several objects covered in sheets were. Elle was, lounging on a desk near Annabeth's.

"Annabeth!" She chirped.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"This is going to sort of be a contest, you know."

"Okay."
"And I think that if you find someone who's heart beats at the same exact pace as yours you have to go to prom with them."
"And what about you?"
"I won't go to prom with anybody."
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Yeah, no thanks. I'll-"
"Attention!" Mr. Sharpe opened the door with a bang, causing the majority of the students to jump. "Elle, Annabeth, I want you up front. The rest of you form yourselves into two equal lines by them."
The class hurried to do as he said while he uncovered the things.

They were four heartbeat monitors, old. He carefully hooked one of them up to Annabeth and one to Elle.

"Okay, you're going come up here and test your heartbeat's against theirs. After you finish on one side, go to the other. Understand? Okay. Let's get started."
Annabeth rolled her eyes. Percy, at the end of Elle's line, waved at her.

Heartbeats echoed in Annabeth's ears. Thu-thump. Thu-thump.

"Next!"
Thump thump. Thump thump.

Elle finished first, and had decided she'd won because one of the boys' heartbeats had almost exactly lined up with hers when Annabeth heart it.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The two machines were in perfect synchrony. Slowly, Annabeth raised her head.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Percy was hooked to the other machine, grinning at her.

"Their heartbeats," Someone whispered.

"No way!" Elle whined. "You can't—they can't—Ugh!"

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Percy?" Annabeth whispered.

Thump thump thump.

And then the sounds sped up, still in synchrony.

"It's a sign," Percy said dramatically. "Our heartbeats are aligned."
Elle stomped her foot.

"She has to go to prom with him!" She wailed. "And I have to go alone!"

Bad ending. We'll probably come back to this storyline for prom. Review, please!