I'll introduce the story a little more here.

First off-to all of my Maximum Ride readers-this story is set in an AU, so I promise you'll understand everything in the story. I'll be sure to make everything canon-related clear.

This is my first Percy Jackson fic but I have some pretty legit Maximum Ride stories so I'm not completely lost here. It'll just take time to get used to the fandom. (:

And Percy is on a NFL team, the New York Rebels. I'll get into it more later, but in short they exist in place of the Jets.

I know there are a lot of celebrity Percy stories, but I couldn't find any where he plays a professional sport so I decided to try it. Football's the only sport I can do because in baseball, hockey, and basketball they play way too often to squeeze in Percabeth time! I was first thinking baseball but they play every single day and half of the games are out of town. Where's the Percabeth in that?!

Any questions? Just ask in a review or PM and I'll answer.

Without further ado, enjoy Chapter 2!

I tried to keep my heart rate in check as I walked up to the table. It didn't work. The gap between my heartbeats was getting smaller and smaller with every step I took.

Why the heck are you so nervous, Percy? It's not like you haven't done this before.

Alcohol. That's what I needed to loosen me up. But I promised myself I wouldn't drink any tonight.

I took a deep breath. Let's try this again. You can do this, Percy.

This time, I swallowed my fear and walked up to Annabeth's table smoothly, causing her and the brown-haired girl across from her to stop talking and look at me. "Annabeth, is it?"

She adjusted her glasses and stared at me, causing me to panic internally. Had I done something wrong already? "Yeah," she responded. "How'd you know?"

"Jason told me."

"Ah. So what brings you here?"

"I was just gonna ask if you wanted to dance," I said, my nerves on hyper-alert. If someone snuck up on me from behind, I probably would've gotten a heart attack and died on the spot, taking my team's playoff hopes with me.

To my surprise and delight, Annabeth smiled. "I'd be happy to." I felt my chest loosen, and I reached out to take her hand and led her to the floor.

A slow song was on-thankfully-so I took her left hand in mine and set my right hand behind her shoulder. We swayed gently to the beat before Annabeth spoke up.

"So what's your name?"

"Percy Jackson," I answered instinctively.

"Oh, like the football player?" Annabeth asked. Shoot! I shouldn't have said my last name.

"Yeah, just like him," I told her. "I can't play football for the life of me, though." That was my normal cover story. Even though Percy Jackson wasn't the most common name, everybody bought it. I was left-handed, so whenever people asked me to throw a football I used my right to make sure they didn't know I was the actual Percy Jackson.

Annabeth laughed. "You must get mistaken for him a lot, though. You have the same hair and eyes."

"I do, believe me," I said, shrugging. "I get used to it, though." I did an internal victory dance. Annabeth noticed my eyes already?

"I've always wanted a chance to meet Percy Jackson," Annabeth said wistfully. "I grew up watching the Rebels play."

"Don't I count?" I objected, but I was smiling with her. You got your wish, then.

"Only if you're going to make the city proud next week." Believe me, I will. If only you knew who you were talking to right now, Annabeth.

"Dang it," I halfheartedly snapped. "So I take it you're a fan of his?"

"A big one, actually. I know he's a party animal and all, but…I don't know. I just like him. He seems like a good guy at heart. He's also really cute." Annabeth blushed. "Sorry."

"I'll take that as a compliment since you said we looked similar," I said, grinning.

"I take that back! You're not good-looking at all, Percy Jackson," she said, glaring playfully at me.

I pouted. "Fine."

"I kid. I'm not one to spend money fangirling but I have Percy's college jersey." Wait, so did that mean she thought I was attractive or not? Girls still confused me after all these years.

"Which one?" I asked. I actually wore two jerseys: one during freshman year and one during sophomore year. I left college early to go to the pros since I'd be the top overall pick either way.

"Freshman jersey. I thought he was gonna leave first year."

"I did too, actually." Not a lie. I was seriously considering it. "I'm a fan of his, too. Hopefully he can make football good in New York again."

"I hope so, too. I'm seeing him play live in three weeks."

"Against Washington?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yup," she answered. Note to self: play well that game.

Just then, the song ended. Before I let her leave though, I asked, "Nice talking with you. What do you say about coffee on Broadway Street on Thursday morning at seven?"

Annabeth paused a moment before smiling, sending my heart into a frenzy again. "I'd love to," she said, walking back to her friends. I was doing my patented backwards-arrow touchdown dance inside, but something caught my attention. Why did Annabeth pause before saying yes?

Percy, she was probably just checking if the time would work, my conscience said.

Oh. Right. My head is full of kelp sometimes.

I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. I turned to the table where the team was sitting, and sure enough everyone was grinning at me.

"That was smooth, man," Jason told me.

"What'd you think?" I responded. "I'm smooth. Everything I do is smooth."

"You weren't thinking the same thing ten minutes ago," Jason reminded me. He waved his hand. "But that doesn't matter. You got your act together."

"More than that. I got a date with her."

Leo offered me a high five. "Looks like someone's been heavy on the happy juice!" he whooped.

"Not a drop," I told Leo matter-of-factly.

Leo's grin faded quickly into a fake serious face. "What happened to the stuttering Percy Jackson I was talking to ten minutes ago?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. He died. Speaking of death, where's Nico?"

"I'm right here," he said, right behind me. I spun around quickly, nearly elbowing him in the gut.

"Don't scare me like that!" I exclaimed.

Nico shrugged. "Hey, it's not my fault if you can't hear my footsteps."

"How could I? I can't even hear you normally, so forget about a party with loud music. Anyways, let's go, Nico."

"Fair enough."

We said our goodbyes to the team and left Jason's house. "How'd it go with Thalia?" I asked, as we got into my car.

Nico grinned. "Great. We're seeing a movie tomorrow."

"Let me guess-it involves death?" I said, pulling out of the overpriced parking garage.

"You know it."

I grinned. "What's the name?"

"I don't know yet. We're just going to the theater and picking the most morbid title," Nico said nonchalantly, like it was no big deal. Well, to him it was nothing new.

"I'm getting coffee with Annabeth on-" I began.

"Annabeth, Thalia's best friend?" Nico interrupted. "Sorry."

"Yeah, her."

"That'll be awkward."

I raised my eyebrows. "How?"

"Believe me. Just wait until Thalia finds out about you two."

"Nothing's official yet, Nico. We just danced and I asked her if she wanted to grab coffee on Thursday. She might not even know it's a date."

"Does she know who you are?" Nico asked me, already knowing the answer. I never told anyone I was Percy Jackson in fear of the paparazzi. Plenty of guys were six foot two, had green eyes, and had dark hair so nobody really suspected me.

"I accidentally said Percy Jackson, but told her I wasn't, you know, the Percy Jackson. She's a fan of me, by the way."

"The actual you or the fake you?"

I sighed. "Actual me. Probably just because of football, though," I told him. "Actually, she said I was good-looking too," I added.

"That's a start, isn't it?"

They have a date! I know, I know. It was way too easy. I promise Percy and Annabeth will have their share of relationship struggles though! Wouldn't be Percabeth without 'em!

Question of the Chapter: Do you want fast-moving Percabeth or slow Percabeth?