Warning: This chapter contains mentions of family, food, school, drugs (kinda) and panic attacks.

i haven't updated in 10 years lmao sorry about that guys but i was away on vacation

also i wanted to tell you that i'm probably writing a bunch of short stories for the pjo femslash weeks but i'm not making any promises here

anyways i just wanted to make sure you understood how much i like platonic annabeth/percy

and thalia is the queen i want to marry thalia grace someday

(also can you tell i really don't like leo)

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Annabeth started the day with a headache. It wasn't an unusual occurrence (Sally said that it was probably from school stress whenever she had to give Annabeth a pain killer), and she was pretty sure she knew the reason behind it.

Yesterday she had spent a good portion of time bawling her eyes out in a panic attack, and even though it hadn't been bad- at least not by her standards- it had still been pretty hard to fall asleep. She supposed her being tired was what had caused the pain.

Percy kept shooting glances at her, like he was worried she might burst. She was thankful that he was looking out for her, but she was also glad he hadn't brought anything up yet. She really didn't feel like talking about it.

"Earth to Annabeth." Thalia waved her sandwich in front of Annabeth's face, causing her to lose track of her thoughts. "Jesus, what the hell did you smoke?"

"Nothing." The blonde pushed her friend's hand away. "I was just thinking."

"You've been thinking for fifteen minutes." Drew pointed out, taking a sip from her ice tea. "You haven't even touched your food."

She was right, Annabeth realized, looking down at the uneaten veggie burger she held in her hands. "Oh. Sorry, you guys. What were we talking about?"

"We were talking about how Carter is screwing me over." Thalia explained, frowning in the process. "The guy's had it out for me from day one."

"Maybe it was because you flipped him off on day one." Nico commented.

"One time! And that was over a year ago!" The girl snapped back, raising her tone. "It's not fair he keeps giving me the hard assignments because of that."

"It was pretty shitty of him to give you extra homework just because you were doodling in class." Thalia's girlfriend allowed, wiping a bit of ketchup off her lips with a napkin."Specially considering that the English paper presentation is next week. I mean, does he want you to-"

"Wait, hold up." The blonde interrupted, nearly choking on her food in the process. "The what next week?"

She was faced with her friends looking at her as if she had just set her own hair on fire.

"Annabeth Chase," Percy said, finally. "Did you forget about a school thing?"

"Oh. fuck you!"

"You have to admit, it's a pretty rare occasion." Nico pointed out. "You don't usually don't forget about this stuff."

"Yeah, you usually nag me about not forgetting about this type of stuff before I even have time to think about it." Thalia added, raising her eyebrows in confusion. "What's up with you?"

"Oh, don't you like your pen pal?" Drew questioned. "I suppose if I didn't like Gwen I wouldn't exactly look forward to talking about her in front of the whole class, specially with my grade on line."

"It's not that." Percy commented. "If she didn't like Reyna she'd never shut up about it. We would've noticed that."

"Okay," She cut in, punching Percy on the shoulder to get him to shut up. "Can we stop talking about me like I'm not here?"

"Hm? Did you hear something, you guys?" Her best friend jokes, earning him another punch to the shoulder, this one a bit harder. "Jesus, be careful! I need my shoulder for swimming, you know."

"I do like Reyna." Annabeth stated, ignoring Percy's complains. "I've actually been planning out my presentation for a while. I just happened to forget the due date." She confessed, playing with her straw to avoid looking at her friends.

She didn't quite get the reason behind the awkward silence that followed, but she didn't feel like breaking it either. So, she occupied herself with eating her lunch while waiting for someone to speak.

"Well, you're lucky." Her best friend said. "All that Leo and I have talked about so far is the girl that 'friendzoned' him. I'm not really sure how I can make that into a paper."

"Combine that and that pony show he likes so much and you'll have something to talk about." Drew advised. "It might not be a good presentation, but it'll certainly be an interesting one."

Thalia chuckled. "You could name it 'Bronies: The Danger of Society'."

Percy threw a chip at her, but her cousin dodged it and threw a piece of lettuce at him in return, which landed right on top of Percy's nose.

"Gross, Thalia." He groaned, picking the food out of his face. "There's mayo on my face now."

Nico laughed at that, and it took Annabeth a few moments to figure out the joke before starting to laugh too.

"Real classy, you guys." Percy said, while wiping his face with a napkin. "Remind me agains why I hang out with you guys."

"Because we're your friends and you love us." Annabeth answered.

He made a face in reply. "Yeah, okay, Annabeth."

It was then that the bell rang, and all of them were forced to eat their lunches as fast as they could before running off with a quick goodbye. Annabeth was about to run up the stairs in order to get to her maths class when she felt a hand grab her wrist and pull her back. She would've slapped it away if she didn't have a good idea of who it was.

"What is it?" She asked, even though she knew what was coming. She had been half expecting it all morning.

"I, uh" Percy started. "I just wanted to know if you're okay, you know?"

She could feel her eyes watering already. She cursed herself for being so sensitive. "I'm fine."

"Text me if you need to go home or something." He offered, letting go of her arm.

"Yeah." She replied, even though she didn't plan on leaving school anytime soon. "I will, don't worry. Thanks."

"Okay." He had a weird uncomfortable look on his face, which, Annabeth figured, had to do with them being at school. He had helped her go through several panic attacks, but those had all been at home, where she could be alone if she wanted to, she could drink something to calm down and they could always call Sally to help them. "I'll see you later."

"Bye." She turned around and made her way to the classroom again, controlling her breaths so they came slower. It was a good technique for her to calm down. If nobody brought up the subject of her gender while she was in class, and she was certain the nobody would, she would be fine. She was going to be okay.