Thank you all for reading! Here is part two! (and tbh i have no idea how this got so long. read: this was a pain to write)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own PJO, HoO, all songs mentioned in this story, and any other familiar references. All rights belong to their respective owners.

If every simple song I wrote to you

Chapter two

Were they even friends to begin with?

Annabeth had her head down as she tried not to look at the students entering the classroom. Her hand gripped her pencil tightly as she pretended to scrawl down some notes, and she tried with all of her willpower not to grab her iPod, which she always sought when she wanted to distract herself.

But then amongst the noise of the other students was the sound of muffled music being played through a pair of headphones, and Annabeth just knew that the object of her frustrations just arrived.

She couldn't help it; she looked up to see him.

'Lo and behold: Percy Jackson entered the classroom in his scowling glory. He had one of his backpack straps slung over one of his shoulders, and he had on a pair of dark skinny jeans and another one of his band shirts (Green Day, this time, with what looked like a bomb on the print). Unlike the last time she saw him, his face was free of eyeliner and his hair was free of hair gel. He was sporting bedhead underneath his dark blue headphones.

It was as if nothing had changed at all.

But for some reason, Annabeth thought he looked just as handsome as he did the last time she saw him.

And oh dear gods that thought alone meant that a lot had changed since then.

She groaned internally and suppressed the will to smack herself. She immediately looked down once he sat down on his usual seat a few desks in front of hers (because, despite his amazing poems, Ms. Hudson still thought him as a troublemaker and made him sit at the front). He hadn't noticed her staring, so she sent a silent thanks to whoever was up there. She resumed her nonsensical scribbling.

But then a few seconds later she felt someone looking at her, so she brought her head up, and sure enough, she was met with a pair of green eyes.

And a smirk, apparently. Percy was smirking at her, his body angled in such a way that his elbow was on the backrest of his chair and that he was facing her. He held up one of his hands and he gave a small wave to say hello.

Ms. Hudson suddenly entered the classroom, so the class immediately settled down.

Percy sent a wink before turning back to the front.

What was wrong with Annabeth and why was it she wanted to die suddenly?

Thankfully Ms. Hudson chose the moment to put the class in order. She stood up straight in front with her usual stack of papers in hand, before making her rounds and giving everyone the poems they submitted the week before.

Then came her usual smile for the boy in front. "Amazing as always, Percy," she said.

That's usually the part where Annabeth's blood begins to boil. That's where her pride is wounded, and that's where she gets the fierce determination to do better again next week.

But instead her mind went back to last Friday night, when she drove almost to the edge of the next town and where she met Percy Jackson in his final form (or really just with his eyeliner and guitar).

And then suddenly, it was as if a bright, shining light bulb appeared at the top of her had.

Because she understood now.

Oh dear gods she understood the guitar and the music and the amazing poems and the—

Once the bell rang for next period, she stood up quickly along with the rest of the students, which was weird and something she didn't usually do. She'd usually stay back in class, taking time to arrange her things or asking the teacher some additional stuff about their lesson for the day. But today she was quickly out the door, even pushing some of her classmates that got into her way.

Percy usually went in the direction opposite of her next class, and today was no exception. She, however, had to make the detour.

"Percy!" Annabeth called out to him, ignoring the surprised looks the other teenagers gave her because why was Annabeth Chase going to talk to that creepy kid?

She wasn't sure herself.

Even Percy looked just as surprised. He had one of his eyebrows raised as he greeted her. "Chase."

"I get it now," she said quickly and direct to the point. "Your poems. Why Ms. Hudson thinks they're so good."

He cocked his head to the side. "Huh?"

"I used to just think that she had a massive crush on you," she continued. "Because you know, she makes you sit at the front and she thinks your poems are amazing. But I get it now. You write songs!"

"So, I do." He shifted his weight onto his other leg, one hand still clutching the strap slung on his shoulder. "Um, your point?"

"That's… that's amazing, actually," she allowed. Weird. She wasn't used to giving someone compliments; usually she was the receiving end of them. She wasn't even sure why she was being nice to Percy Jackson, even after all the times he unconsciously annoyed her for writing better pieces than she did.

But his ability to be better in English class made sense now.

He wrote songs.

And the thing was… Annabeth liked musicians. And maybe that was the reason why she couldn't get Percy out of her head during the last weekend. Maybe that was the reason why she kept thinking about his band and what kind of songs they played. Maybe that was the reason why she just had to run after him despite the consequences being a tardy slip from the next teacher.

"Your band." It was her turn to adjust herself. So maybe it was kind of awkward that they stopped in the middle of the hallway with a lot people giving them weird looks. "Do you guys play your own songs?"

He actually smirked. "Maybe you'll just have to find out for yourself, Chase."

Her eyebrows scrunched in confusion, so he laughed and actually reached out a hand to muss up her hair.

"Hey," she complained.

He snorted as he placed the offending hand in his pocket. "We play every Friday night. Masen's bar in the next town. You should come with and see the awesomeness."

She thought about the impending exams she had on the next week and internally cringed. "Um…"

"Oh, no," he started laughing again. "Don't tell me you're going to study!"

Her cheeks were starting to color, like she hadn't been embarrassed since the beginning. Still, Annabeth managed to glare at him. "What's wrong with that?"

"Liven up a little, Chase." He grinned smugly, taunting her. "It's just one night. You have the whole weekend to work on school."

"No, thank you," she said, mainly because she was just annoyed that Percy got her to blush. Okay, this conversation was seriously getting out of hand. She needed to end it before she could conclude that she was delusional and that she could actually like him.

"And here I was thinking I was starting to get to you." He shrugged. "Oh, well. Suit yourself."

The bell rang again for its final warning.

"Aw," Percy teased her. "Now I got you to be late to class. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were starting to have a crush on me, Chase." He ruffled her hair once more, giving her another wink once he pulled away. "I'll see you around."

He left her standing alone in the hallways.

She was late to her next class, all right.

The shouting was becoming too much these days, and her iPod was failing her to no end.

Rolling her eyes and shutting her book, she turned off her night lamp and stood up from her desk, moving towards her bed instead. It didn't take long before she buried herself under her covers and even under her pillows, but her senses were still hyper aware of the screaming match that was occurring in the next room.

Athena's opportunity to work in Greece was becoming more achievable in the passing days, and Frederick's frustrations of having to move to a different country were growing at the same time. Annabeth's parents both wanted different things. They always have. It was a miracle that they managed to stay together this long for Annabeth.

Debussy's Clair de Lune was up next on her iPod, and for a while there was an ugly contrast of soft piano music against the loud voices of her parents. Annabeth remembered a certain green-eyed rock star and a particular conversation about this piece that occurred exactly a week ago.

Suddenly she was struck with an idea.

And Percy was right, anyway. She had the rest of the weekend to study.

In the next few minutes she stood in front of her closet. What do you wear to a bar, exactly? She wasn't even sure what type of place it was, nor what kind of people frequented there. Did she have to dress up the way Percy did—all dangerous-looking and dark and punk and extremely hot and—

Whoa. Okay. One thought at a time.

Percy was going to be there for sure.

Did she… did she want to impress him?

Pushing all embarrassing thoughts aside, she finally settled for a pair of black skinny jeans and a red flowing blouse held together by thin shoulder straps. She managed to dig out her own pair of black Converse and a black handbag she hadn't used in a while.

Okay. So she'd never been out for something like this before. Dear gods, she was going to need all of her luck and confidence.

As she stepped out of her house and headed for her car that night, she convinced herself that she was doing this for her to get out of here, and not because she wanted to see Percy.

When she turned on her iPod to make it resume playing, Clair de Lune was still on.

She tried not to smile.

Yup. Definitely for her.

The place looked like it was actually jumping to the beat playing inside.

When Annabeth entered Masen's, she felt thoroughly out of place. Inside there were people dancing to the band playing on the small stage at the front. There was a counter with people holding their glasses up and shouting the lyrics to whatever song was playing. And since her entrance, she could've sworn she already counted three couples making out.

On the stage were four people in the same type of clothing she saw Percy wore. By the front microphone and probably the lead vocalist was a blond guy with blue eyes. By the keyboards was a lanky guy with curly brown hair, and the drums a dark-haired boy who was really pale.

And then there was Percy, who was to the right of the lead singer and was holding a sleek black electric guitar. He was bouncing to the music as his hands worked its magic on the instrument, and it looked like he was biting his lip to keep himself from grinning too much.

Annabeth had to stop in her tracks because he looked really, really great, okay?

It wasn't long before he finally caught her staring at him from down below the stage, and his expression when he saw her almost made the trip to this town worth it.

It was as if he couldn't stop himself; Percy waved at her mid-song… and there was suddenly a missing beat to their performance.

The rest of the members continued playing, but the lead singer immediately turned his head to where Percy was standing and raised an eyebrow. Percy went back to the song immediately, but this time he wasn't biting his lip to keep his grin from showing. The blond guy followed Percy's gaze and his eyes landed on Annabeth. He shot Annabeth a confused look, before turning back to Percy and shrugging, resuming his singing as if nothing happened.

For the millionth time since her first conversation with Percy Jackson, Annabeth had to keep herself from blushing.

She didn't know much about the scene in front of her, but she was certain about one thing – Percy's band was good. The longer she listened, the longer she actually wanted to join the jumping crowd in front of her. She wasn't into this type of music, no, but she figured she could make an exception to what Percy's band was singing.

And it didn't help that Percy was looking at her from then on. Sometimes he'd sing back-up, and he didn't actually sound so bad. He looked like he'd been playing for a really long time.

Finally, the blond in front cried out, "Thank you, Masen's! We're The Excursion and we'll see you next Friday!" All four members of the band waved enthusiastically before hopping off the stage.

It didn't take long for Percy to find Annabeth, awkwardly standing with the rest of the crowd.

"Looking good, Chase!" He grinned at her, pushing past all the people and ignoring those who wanted to talk to him. He surprised her by hugging her when he finally reached her. "Hey, you actually came!"

She stood frozen in her spot.

Someone pulled him away from her and he playfully pouted. Annabeth peered to see the three other people who were up on stage with him. The lead-singer-slash-blond had his hand on Percy's shoulder. He grinned sheepishly at Annabeth.

"You'll have to forgive him," he said. "He's usually the one who gets the worst performance high. I'm Jason." He extended his hand for her to shake.

Annabeth nodded, shaking Jason's hand. "You guys were great." The other members were staring at her with amused looks on their faces. "Uh, hi."

The one she recognized as the keyboardist bonked Percy on the head. "Introduce us to the pretty lady, you idiot."

Percy swatted his hand away. "Go away; she's my guest." He stood next to her and playfully wrapped an arm around her shoulders and ruffling her hair like he did back at school when he invited her. "Boys, meet Annabeth. Annabeth, this is The Excursion. Jason, lead vocals. Leo, keyboards and sometimes bass. Nico, drums. And then of course, there's the hottest member—"

"You don't have to introduce me twice, Perce," the one named Leo snickered, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Nico snorted. "Yeah, I'm going to go get some drinks. You guys in?"

Jason and Leo murmured their approval, but Percy stayed put with his arm around Annabeth.

(And she, of course, was left trying not to be flustered at having him so close to her.)

"Nah, I'm good." Percy looked down to grin at her. "Annabeth?"

"Uh, I'm okay, thank you."

Nico shrugged. "Suit yourself. And take your arm off the poor girl. You're sweaty as hell."

Percy made a show of nuzzling his head onto her hair. Jason waved his hand in goodbye, shooting Percy an amused look and moving to follow Nico.

"You're a freaking flirt, Jackson," Leo snorted before jogging off to his friends' direction. "It was nice meeting you, Annabeth!"

"Nico's right, you know," Annabeth said once the rest of the band disappeared into the sea of people. She carefully removed the arm on her shoulders, stepping slightly away from him. "You're really sweaty."

He chose to smirk at her instead, all hyperness from earlier probably wearing off. "What changed your mind about coming, Chase? Couldn't stand not seeing me in my most amazing glory?"

She scoffed. "You wish, Jackson."

"Oh, how I do," he snickered. "But seriously, though. What brings you here?"

Something on her face must've gave it away, because suddenly his expression changed. His eyebrows furrowed and he actually looked… concerned?

"Parents?" he guessed.

She didn't know what made her trust him. She nodded mutely.

"Oh," he said. "Well, do you want to get out of here, anyway?"

The place wasn't actuallsy that bad, despite it being definitely weird and definitely new to her world, but she had enough experimenting for the night. "Please?"

She saw him nod against the dim lights, a serious expression on his face. He surprised her by taking her hand and using it to guide her outside the mass of people. Outside was a whole lot colder than the inside of the bar, and she shivered once she remembered what she was wearing.

"You okay?" he asked once they were safely outside. Muffled party music could still be heard from the inside, but it was finally relatively quiet.

"Yeah. Uh, won't your friends wonder where you are?"

He smiled slightly. "Nah, they're used to me just disappearing. Unfortunately, that usually ends up with me not having a ride home."

She finally noticed that their hands were still entwined. Her cheeks burned as she slowly tried to pry his fingers away.

"I can… uh," she stuttered. What was wrong with her tonight, seriously? "I can give you a ride home."

"Why, Chase." He playfully clutched his chest with one of his hands. He had a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

Annabeth scowled at him. "You're making it difficult to be nice to you."

"So I've been told." He cocked his head to the side. "Seriously, though. Is that okay? I have a feeling you don't want to go home yet."

"I don't," she agreed. "But… I've got nothing else to do, anyway. Might as well stock up on the good deeds."

"I like the way you think," he said before his eyes widened. "Hey, I've got an idea. Hold on. I'll just grab my guitar and then we'll go, yeah?"

She nodded. "I'll be here."

Percy reentered the bar but just as quickly emerged with a guitar case on one hand and a black leather jacket draped on his shoulder. He took the jacket with his free hand when he saw her, and he extended said hand towards her, offering the item.

"Here," he said. "You look cold. Where's your car parked?"

"Uh… thank you," she muttered, not at all refusing to take the jacket because she really was cold. What weirded her out, however, was how he was being a sweetheart to her right now. Granted, he was also sweet the last time, but she couldn't figure him out since he easily shifted to his cocky self.

She led him to where her car was parked a few lots away from the bar. Just like the last time, he shoved his guitar into the backseat before hopping onto the front next to her.

"Is that your electric guitar?" She asked once she got into her side, using the rearview mirror to eye the guitar worriedly.

"Uh, my acoustic," he said, strapping himself onto the seat with the seatbelt. "The guys like to fool around before shows, so I bring that thing along. It's the first one I ever got, actually."

"Really? How old is The Excursion?"

"Almost three years." He grinned. "We started out freshmen year. We kind of sucked then. I mean, Jason and the rest of the guys all went to another school, so we didn't have practice that much. We're just kind of being serious now because apparently, a lot of other people enjoy our music."

"And you write the songs."

"I write the songs." He turned to her and smirked. "Why? Does that turn you on, Chase?"

"Shut up." Her cheeks weren't burning, no. "Who came up with the band name, anyway?"

"Eh, Jason did." Percy shrugged. "He's actually kind of smart and thought of the name. He said it means something like… deviation? Did I say it right? Anyway, I think it describes us perfectly."

Annabeth snorted, though she was kind of impressed. "Because you guys are deviants?"

He playfully glared at her. "Because we're different."

She managed to laugh. "Okay, uh, where to?"

He grinned at her. "Just drive back to town, then I'll take it from there."

"Huh," Annabeth muttered, stepping out of her car. She waited before Percy was out of his side before speaking again. "I always thought you hated school."

"Oh, I do," he said, moving to grab the guitar case from the backseat. "We're only here because it's the quietest place in town. Of course, I'd take you home, but my mom's finishing a book or something. She'd yell at me to shut up."

"Isn't it a little too early for me to be meeting your mom?" She joked. "What are we doing here, anyway?"

"I told you." Percy motioned for her to follow him. He ended up sitting a few spaces away from where her car was parked. "It's quiet here."

"Um, okay." She sat down next to him hesitantly. "Won't we get in trouble for being here after hours?"

He snorted, waving a hand. "Nah." He started unzipping his guitar case to reveal a blue acoustic guitar. By the base of it was the name Perseus engraved. "All right. What we're going to do tonight… you're going to learn how to play the guitar."

"What?" She sputtered. Sure, she's loved music all her life, and she listened to a few pieces that involved the guitar, but she never actually learned how to play one. Heck, she's never even held one before. "No, it's all right. You can just play for me or something."

"That's not fun. You haven't even tried yet. Here." He handed over the instrument to her and moved closer to her to help her cradle it in her arms. For the second time that night, he held one of her hands that was situated at the neck of the guitar, and he placed three of her fingers on certain strings in particular positions. "These boxes right here are called frets. Your pointer finger goes right… here. Yeah, that's right."

Annabeth held her breath as Percy continued to guide her fingers. "Your other two fingers go into these frets. Yeah, that looks good. That right there is a C chord. Why don't you try strumming?"

She did and immediately winced. Percy laughed at her expression. "Sounds good, Chase."

"I'm terrible," she groaned.

"No, you're not," he insisted, chuckling.

It wasn't hard to fall into rhythm after that. A few learned chords and several attempts to sound good later, Annabeth looked up to see that Percy had inched closer to where they were sitting cross-legged, and she could actually feel his breath on her face and oh gods his face was so close to hers and—

Okay. So they're being extremely close right now. Whatever.

"…this is called a bar and it's going to take some practice to get this right," he was saying and maybe she wasn't really paying attention. "This chord—it's called a B, and… hey, Chase?"

She snapped back to reality. "Sorry, what?"

"Are you okay? You were gone for a while there."

"I'm fine," she insisted, internally cursing herself and settling her gaze back on the guitar and not on his stupid, stupid green eyes. "So… a B chord?"

She looked back at him when he didn't answer. Percy was smirking at her and had a look in his eyes that was definitely teasing.

Her eyes narrowed. "What?"

"You, Annabeth Chase…" He grinned widely and playfully reached out to tuck a loose curl behind her ear. "…you're starting to like me."

"What?" She said again. "What—no. No, shut up," she sputtered, face immediately turning the offending shade of red against all her wishes. "You're an idiot. Just—shut. Up."

But he wouldn't stop smiling and he looked really, really adorable. "Yup," he said. For a split second, Annabeth thought that his eyes dropped down to her lips. But, really, there was no way.

She could hear her heartbeat thumping frantically in her chest as Percy slowly leaned down towards her face. It didn't help that his hand carefully cupped her cheek, and that both of their eyes were fluttering close and—

Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik started playing and Annabeth's phone was vibrating in her purse.

Percy's eyes shot open and so did hers.

Stupid, stupid, stupid why didn't she just leave her stupid phone in her stupid car—

"Dad?" She answered. Percy had already dropped her hand from her face and chose to study her instead. "I'm fine. No, I don't know what time it is. I'll be home soon, I promise."

There was a weird silence when she finally ended the call. For some reason, Percy wasn't feeling as bitter as she was.

"Interesting ringtone you've got there," he commented, a small smile gracing his face.

"I am so sorry," she said, though she didn't know what she was apologizing for. For ruining what was going to something? Or for actually trying to kiss him? Oh gods, she even felt her neck burning despite the cold.

He shook his head. "It's all right. Anyway, we've got to get you home."

"Yeah, uh, okay." They both stood up. Percy took the guitar from her and gingerly placed it back in its case. There was another quiet moment before she spoke again. "Thank you for tonight, Percy. Really." She started taking off his leather jacket and handing it to him.

"No problem. Oh, you forgot this," he said, fishing out her iPod from the pockets. Before she could apologize, he grinned and decided to grab something from his own jean pocket. It was a black music player similar to hers. "I've got an idea. Switch music with me?"

She eyed Percy's iPod with interest. "Really? You can live without this for a few days?"

"Sure. Can you without yours?"

She's never went long without her music. Her iPod was practically her baby. But—

"I'll try," she promised. She was smiling as she took the black item from his hands. "Does this have your songs?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. Here, you can take this, too. You're kind of shaking." He carefully draped his jacket over her shoulder. "And it looks good on you. Come on, before your dad thinks I really am a deviant."

When she finally dropped him off at his house, he smiled and gave a little wave, saying a "Good night, Annabeth" before jogging off to his front door.

It was when she finally got home that she realized that he had called her Annabeth finally.

And it was when she was finally back in her bed with unfamiliar music blasting from her earphones that she didn't deny that… yeah.

She liked Percy Jackson.

part two of five

Songs used: Clair de Lune by Debussy; Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart

Tumblr: itsscaryyoke.

Thank you for reading! Comments? Questions? Leave a review! :) -YJ