Fine By Me- Andy Grammer
Annabeth
I stared at the bowl in front of me, wondering how I could've let this happen. How I could've failed so miserably and degraded my daughter so horrible.
Dora the Explorer- the breakfast set.
I'd tried so hard. I'd bought her Teletubbies, The Wiggles, Clifford, and The Big Comfy Couch, but she was just so obsessed with Dora that I just couldn't sway her.
After battling humans, monsters, Gods, and Titans, I'd been beaten by a five year old.
What was the world coming to?
She sat, watching cartoons idly and humming a song as she put down some cheerios and sprite. I'd been drinking my morning cup of coffee, which was usually followed by a Starbucks at lunch, but I was thinking of stopping on the way. It'd been a long night.
"Mommy," She said, pointing to the screen. Her big eyes shone with excitement as she held out her arms dramatically. "Can I watch Barbie Thumbelina?"
I smiled and nodded. "Yeah baby, just a minute."
Taking one last sip, I set my mug in the dishwasher and moved to the DVD player. The door opened as I was putting the disk in the slot, and I peeked over the couch.
"Malcolm?"
"Hey Annabeth." Footsteps clambered on the carpet until I heard Kennedy giggle and Malcolm, let out a short laugh.
He'd still been living at home when I moved in with my dad and was always there for us. He was my stepmother's son, but I considered him to be my actual brother from the amount of care and protection he gave me and Kennedy after she was born. He'd always been there in her life, and was the closest thing to a dad I thought she'd ever had, so we treated him like such. Malcolm was always the first one I would call when I needed something.
"Thank you so much, Mal." I breathed out, rushing behind the kitchen island and pouring my coffee into a travel cup. He jumped on the countertop, smiling.
"Take it easy." He said, smiling. "How's school going?"
I almost laughed. "I'm finishing up this small-business project, and it's driving me insane. My partner's not doing anything."
"And that internship?"
As I slapped a lid onto the cup, I let out a groan. "Don't even mention it. The Professor's announcing who was accepted today.. God, I'm so nervous."
"Nervous because you're scared you won't get it?"
"Nervous because I might get it."
He tilted his head.
With one final thank you and kiss to Kennedy's cheek, I jumped outside and into my car, driving down the road.
It was about a fifteen minute drive to get to my class. Professor H was at his desk, clicking busily on his laptop as we all filed in. There were thirty of us, and most were high functioning, bright, aspiring architects. Then, there were the few that were there for the sole purpose of spending daddy's money.
"Good morning," He began slowly, standing. "I trust you all finished your projects, because I'll be bringing them to the shelter owners this evening. You'll be graded according to their scoring, and like I said, the highest scorer will have their design used."
He set his glasses on the table and leaned against the wall behind him, watching all of us.
"Now before we begin today, I'd like to talk about something I know you're all wondering about; the internship."
A buzz set off in the room.
"It's true that I've sent off a few applications to New York in the past month, and they've received them. I'm happy to inform you that five of you will be going to New York on an expense paid trip to complete your semester of this course. We'll talk about all the fun stuff at the meeting, but for now I'll announce those five names."
Before he continued, he crossed his arms and looked down on us, as if he was a father sending a daughter off to prom.
"I'd like to remind you all that these five applicants were not random. They're the hardest working, most talented, and capable architects in this class. You all should strive to be like them. So without further ado…"
The room went silent.
"Reyna Arellano ."
I looked across the room. Reyna was a tall, warrior looking girl with long black hair and shockingly brown, almost black, eyes. She was grinning, sitting back in her chair like she knew she'd be going before she was even called.
"Octavian Stulte."
Oh God.
Octavian was a guy sitting three rows in front. I could've sworn he was crazy.
He was white blonde hair and strange blue eyes. He tried to correct the teacher even when he wasn't wrong, and always- always- had an opinion about everything. I couldn't count the number of times he'd asked me out and always twisted my, "No," into a situation where it seemed like he had changed his mind rather than the hard reality that he'd just been rejected. No one could stand him, but he was an incredible architect, which I hated to admit.
"Dakota Bibo."
Yes. Dakota was a sweetheart and my closest friend in the class. He drank too much, smoked too much, and had too little confidence, but I loved him. He was awesome.
"Gwendolyn Renascentia."
Ah, Gwen. She was gorgeous, sweet, talented, and totally head-over-heels in love with Dakota.
"And lastly, Annabeth Chase."
There it was. My heart dropped into my stomach and my jaw tightened as I forced a smile.
You probably would never even see him, I reminded myself. It's just New York.
But god, I was scared.
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Professor H pulled the five of us aside after the session was over, purely to educate us on the trip. He gave us pamphlets, brochures, and piles of papers to read through. He explained it'd be a nearly all expense paid trip to New York for four months. We'd work together to design different buildings, we'd live in the same apartment building, and we'd have food cards with a daily monetary budget. Also, it'd get us a scholarship for attending UFS or UNY the next year, along with a recommendation to different architecture firms in the country.
It sounded perfect.
By the time I'd gotten home and sorted through all of the papers, I was halfway sold. The only thing holding me back was Percy.
I threw him from my mind.
It took about three weeks for me to make my decision. By that time, the group was leaving in a week.
I called Luke.
I called Malcolm.
I called Professor H.
"Count me in."
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Percy's POV
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"Did you count the shipments when they came in?"
I leaned out of my door, shouting down the hall at Grover. He held up a thumb, silently letting me know he did, and I went back into my office. It was 8:17 at night and I was closing down my laptop when my phone rang.
"Percy?"
I smiled. "Rachel."
"Where are you?"
"My office."
She laughed. "You work too hard. Why are you still there?"
"Late shipments. What are you doing?"
"Waiting for you to ask me out for drinks."
"You know, some guys want to initiate contact."
"We both know that's not you."
Grinning, I said, "Okay then, Rachel, come to drinks with me."
"You know," She mocked, teasing me. "Some girls like to be asked."
"We both know that's not you."
He laugh rippled through the phone. "Well then. Okay."
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Back to the alarm. Every day, always the alarm.
I thought about calling into work, but stopped myself when I realized today was the day. I was meeting with Gleeson Hedge, the architect from San Francisco who was in charge of the intern program.
"Turn the alarm off, baby."
Rachel's fingers ran absentmindedly over my chest. I touched the snooze button and looked over at her, her bare shoulders showing but her chest covered by the white blanket.
"I have to go to work." I said, pushing myself up into a sitting position. She rolled her eyes.
"Work. Pathetic excuse, really."
It took a minute to realize she was joking.
See that was the problem with her. Her sarcasm was so thick that it was sometimes hard to distinguish it from genuine attitude. I'd screwed up a few times with it, but was getting better at telling the tones apart.
"Sorry babe."
After pulling on a pair of nearby sweatpants, I jogged out of the bedroom and down the stairs to put a Keurig on and lay a piece of bread in the toaster. I pressed a button on the radio and made soft rock pour through the speakers. Almost simultaneously, the bread was done toasting and the coffee finished serving itself, so I grabbed them and headed back upstairs to change.
"So what's going on at work?" Rachel asked. "You've been busy lately."
"We're opening a new store." I said, climbing into the closet. Clothes were scattered everywhere. I gotta pick this up, I thought.
"Where is it?"
"Colorado."
She sighed, and in the corner of my eye I could see her moving across the room, pulling on her clothes.
"What?" I asked. She shook her head.
"Nothing."
The scowl on her face made it obvious something was up, but I was tired. I didn't want to ask.
She left, and twenty minutes later I did the same. My receptionist, Drew, gave me a flirty smile as I walked in, which I ignored. She was great at her job, but expected… Well, "perks," that I wasn't going to give her.
"You have the meeting with Mr. Hedge in an hour. She reminded me. I nodded and closed the door to my office behind me.
Grover met me at 8:55, five minutes before it began, and immediately my office was filled with noise.
"Man, the craziest thing happened last night." He said, running his fingers through his hair. I leaned back in my chair, not bothering to suppress a grin.
"What happened?"
He was practically bouncing.
"She's pregnant!"
My jaw dropped as I smiled and jogged up to him, hugging my friend. God, I couldn't believe he was gonna be a dad. We'd been friends since high school. For god's sake, we'd gone trick or treating with each other. And now..? A dad? Time goes by way too fast.
"That's awesome." I laughed out, taking a step back. "So Juniper's excited?"
"She spent all of last night on pinterest."
"Good, then she's healthy."
Grover chuckled as a man walked in. He stood 5'0 and strode with a confidence you couldn't fake. His beard stuck out around two inches long with a curl at the end that reminded me of a billy-goat.
"Hello, boys." He said, as if he was the CEO and we were the teachers.
"Mr. Hedge," I said, stepping forward to shake his hand. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Percy Jackson."
"Grover Underwood." He added, moving forward just as I did. Mr. Hedge shook both of our hands and looked us up and down, and it felt a little like high school for a minute.
"So you're the owner of this place?" The man asked, not really wanting an answer. Before I nodded or agreed, he continued with, "You can't be more than thirty, though, right? Gods, that's young. You could- Well, you know what? We'll have lunch someday and talk. Now, enough chat. Let's talk about the students."
As he moved over to one of the chairs in my office, Grover raised his eyebrows at me. I shook my head, just as confused as he was.
"We have the best architecture school in the country," He began. "But I'm sure you already know that. However, this year our senior class is exceptionally talented, and they needed a challenge. So thank you for the opportunity, boys."
We both nodded and smiled, a little relieved this guy wasn't as crazy as he initially seemed.
"I brought portfolios of the students for you to look over. You both got the memo I sent over about meeting them at their first team meeting on Monday?"
"Yeah," Grover said. "Percy, I already cleared your schedule."
I rolled my eyes sarcastically. "Thanks."
"Here are the folders."
He set the five tan files on my desk, but I didn't have a chance to go over them yet. For the next hour, we went over the budget, marketing, general ideas, and talked more about our "lunch date", which I was sure Grover would never let me live down. Eventually, he and Grover made their way out of my office, Hedge talking about how big of a "wussy-game" baseball was. and Grover pretending not to laugh.
I picked up the files and flipped through them absentmindedly. They were good. The blueprints were nice and clean, and their ideas were fresh. Reyna Arellano, Octavian Stulte, Dakota Bibo, Gwendolyn Renascentia, and…
I froze, staring at the paper. That couldn't be her. It had to be wrong.
But there, staring up at me directly from the paper, were the cold, black marks looking up at me, saying Annabeth Chase.
And I didn't know how to react anymore.
A/N
SUCH an overdue chapter for you all! So, so, SO sorry it took so long to put up! Anyway, how are you all? I'm pretty good. I've update all 3 stories of mine this week, which is good. I've got to get better about that…
So what do you think? Next chapter is big stuff…. Guess what! Also, if you have any character ideas or people you'd like to see from the books show up in this fic., PM me! I'd absolutely LOVE to hear your input! Okay, so next chapter is going to be better, but don't get mad because it's moving so fast! The beginning I'm just rushing through to get Annabeth into NYC, and then it'll all slow down JBy the way, this chapter is not Beta'd, so there are probably a lot of grammatical errors! I'll have them fixed ASAP!
Last thing… Follow me on Instagram icywriter098 for updates about the story! It'll have sneak peeks and visuals of the chapters JLove you all!
-Icy