Hey! Sorry for the late update but this will be your new years/Christmas update. Don't be worried. All of my stories will be the same except for my Mortal Instruments one-shots :)

Hope you like this :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Read and Review. It makes me feel better (yea! spread the positive!)

~waterbluewings

Chapter 5

After lunch, Annabeth went to the library, scouring the whole place until she stood in front of a little alcove surrounded by bookshelves. It was a secluded place, somewhere no one would easily stumble upon. A perfect place to sketch statues of the gods.

She sighed in relief as she plopped down on the satin bench and set down her bag, looking around keenly. The narrow, arched entrance was tucked away secretly in one corner of the alcove. On the stone walls in glass displays were Greek inventions, most of them being of Daedalus's designs. A few of them even had some scale models on a table below, a lot of them almost as realistic as the original scale models, (and she would know if they were), but of course, they weren't. They were far too valuable to be kept out in the open with no security whatsoever; she had searched every part of the library's floors and had found no cameras.

Sighing, she rounded and seated herself back down. Opening her laptop and putting it on the cherrywood table in front of her, she started sketching. Art and architecture tied in a lot with design. It was a relief that she had a decent talent of both. A line here and there, and she got the basic outline of Aphrodite down. She wrung her hands and looked at her checklist, (in alphabetical order, for the most part. Just categorized with A's before B's, and so on, no alphabetical detail.) Ares.

She looked out the window, meaning to rest her eyes from concentration of the dim white of paper. Outside, she could see the faraway horizon, the background with purple mountains that had faint greenness and occasional red-orange rock. She wasn't quite facing the bright sun that had started to slowly set in the west, though it was still high up in the clear blue sky. More of a southwest, or was it northwest? Either, way, she didn't care; geography didn't much interest her in the least.

Annabeth scanned her eyes downward. A barrier of pine trees that outlined the boundaries of the academy, the smoothly paved sidewalks with no sign of cracks in the concrete. That could only have been the work of professional demigod architects-regular cement wouldn't have lasted that long, and as far as she knew, this school hadn't needed any repairs since it was built. But mostly, the grounds were tiled. And spotless, of course.

There was also a view of the swimming pool with people streaming about, practicing flips and dives, racing. Probably swimming practice.

Without realizing it, her eyes searched the throng of people for someone. They found their target, and she watched as Percy dove into the pool from the plank on the highest platform.

He did a couple of mid air somersaults and flips before his lean figure landed neatly in without so much of a splash. Within seconds, he was across the pool, on the other side, and kicking off again.

She turned away, and tried to sketch Ares, though she knew very well she couldn't. A few seconds later, she was looking at a disfigured lump, and crumpled the paper with a growl of frustration.

Again, she looked out the window. He'd surfaced, completely dry. Annabeth, despite herself, stared at him, watching as he grinned at his peers and waved at them.

As he rubbed a towel unnecessarily on his perfectly dry hair, she noticed the bulge of his lean muscles, flexing when he stretched back in a yawn.

Fiercely, she thought to herself, I don't like him. I don't like him. I don't like him. I fuckin' don't like him!

Then why are you mooning over him? a voice inside her head smirked.

She blushed. I am not! Mind your own business!

Why? 'Cause it's true?

Augh! Shut up!

It did, which gave her a bit of satisfaction. She looked out again, one last time, promising herself she would concentrate on work afterward.

It hadn't occurred to her that Pretty-Boy would glance up at her with a knowing smile plastered to his face, a smile she suddenly wanted to badly to punch off his pretty little face. He caught her eye, and his smile widened into a grin. He waved at her eagerly, or maybe it wasn't eagerness, maybe he was mocking her.

-stop copying at previous line!-

Now he was really getting to her. Don't you dare play that game again, Percy, don't you dare!

She whipped her head around, determined not to look at him again and give him ideas. Then, something dawned her, and she fell into a brief period of panic. What if he decided to come up here? Then she'd never get peace!

She groaned and face palmed herself.

Hopefully, he'd seen the look of disdain on her face, (or at least, she hoped it'd been a look of disdain. Gods, who knew what else it could've been?), and would be smart enough to catch on and would be nice enough not to come up here and be a pain in the neck to no end.

When Annabeth finally summoned up the courage to look out the window again, she froze.

Blinking, she frantically searched for him, but to no avail-no Percy.

Where could he have gone? She frowned, going back to sketching.

"Hey," someone said and sat down next to her. She felt the couch shift beneath her.

She looked up. "Hey, Percy." She critically looked at the Pepsi can he was holding in his hand.

"Did you see the 'No Food or Beverages' policy sign in the front?" she asked.

"Nope," he said, swiping his hair from his eyes, giving her a rouge boyish grin that made her heart flutter.

"What are you doing?" He asked, wiping his mouth with his hand, then thumbing through a book. Annabeth wrinkled her nose and looked as his hand in disdain.

"Drawing," She said vaguely, fluttering her hands around her workstation. "It's my free period,"

"Awesome," He thumbed through another few pages, then the book landed on the table with a low thunk.

"Do you have any food?" Annabeth sighed then stared at Percy, "What?" He asked, his hand s in the air.

"I repeat, Did you see the 'No Food or Beverages' policy sign in the front?'" Annabeth punctured every word.

"There was one?" He asked, frowning, "I'll have to go check,"

"Percy," Annabeth frowned, "It's in your student handbook, a sign on the school bulletin, and a metal sign right when you walk in, how can you miss it? It's the same bulletin that you signed up for swimming,"

"Really?"

"Percy,"

"Fine, what are you doing?"

"Drawing," She said flatly.

"Drawing what?"

Annabeth closed her eyes, just spit it out. Just spit it out. It's okay if anyone knows, "Oh, I'm designing-." She stopped, "I'm just drawing the gods," You are such a wimp Annabeth!

"Interesting, any gods in particular?"

"Ares... Aphrodite," She muttered.

"I thought your mother is Athena?"

This is getting awkward. Think Annabeth, Think! Why are you drawing Ares or Aphrodite?

"Uh... because I think that... Ares... has cool muscles? Aphrodite is... really pretty?" She choked out.

"You think that Ares has cool muscles? And isn't that Aphrodite's job, being pretty? I think you should draw Poseidon. I mean, he has cool muscles too, just ten times better, and is really pre-" He coughed, "Handsome, I mean, handsome."

She just stared at him and said sweetly, "What if I'm don't want to draw him?"

"Then draw... me!" He said, showing off his muscles.

Annabeth averted her gaze and said a tart, "Nope, never,"

"I can't beleive you like Ares's muscles but not Poseidon's." He muttered.

She just smiled, "Look, it's almost time, I got to go,"

~*LINE BREAK*~

Architectural Design was pretty boring. It was the basics. The basics basics. Like first of all, all pieces must have support beams, and they had to build something with marshmallows and toothpicks. Sixth-grader stuff, she was looking for College and beyond things. She had a talk with the teacher, and had to ask her if the class is going to get harder.

The teacher's reply was, "Yes, in a few months,"

She'll have to stick to advanced library books again. And again. And again.

It's like it will never end. Sometimes, she thinks she needs to do something else, instead of reading colledge level books that made no sense. As she passed the bulletin again, something caught her eye. A blue flyer.

Swimming lessons.

Please go to the swimming pool tomorrow at eight. You will be assigned a teacher.

Maybe I'll join... she thought, as she unpinned the flyer from the board.