A/N: I know I haven't written in a LOONG time, but I got a sporadic burst of inspiration and wrote this in one sitting. Which means its probably riddled with grammatical errors and very confusing. I'm sorry, but I honestly think it's kind of cute. :D GOOD LUCK WITH ALL THE (hopefully there) FEELS! :D

Disclaimer: I wish I had an intelligent and clever way of expressing this... I'm not Rick Riordan, therefore I don't own any of his characters or anything like that.

She had almost used his nickname in front of him. On the stairs, leading to the science classroom, which was conveniently super far away from her next class: Drama, which was all the way across campus.

She'd come up with it sporadically, one night, at one in the morning when she should've been sleeping. Her best friend, Piper, and her had been texting about a variety of things, one of which her newly acquired crush on Perseus Jackson, newest student to Goode High.

"We need a nickname for him" she remembered texting. "How about spinach?" And being as tired as she was, Piper had thought it was perfectly genius.

Hazel had laughed when she had told her what Percy's nickname was.

"Spinach?" she cried out, laughing, "Why?"

"I'm not really sure…" Annabeth had said, shaking her head and obliging Hazel's laughter.

It could've been considered a date, but it wasn't. Not really. They had been supposed to meet with a group—Piper, Hazel, Jason, Percy, and her. But Jason had canceled at last minute and Piper, being the supportive girlfriend she was, had been roped into doing whatever it was Jason was doing with him. And Hazel, seeing herself as the "third wheel" had cancelled on purpose, sending Annabeth several winky-face emojis in a row.

She'd been especially giddy that morning, because it was the first time the two of them were going to hang out alone. She'd chosen a cute top and cute shorts, because she was going to look hella cute in front of her crush.

They'd had this whole snapchat conversation previously, both only taking away that they each had a crush and their respective crushes were in the same grade as themselves. She'd been really happy about, making her chances of being his crush, significantly higher, as opposed to the roughly 3.5 billion other females in the world.

She wasn't sure how they'd started talking about it, but here they were, awkwardly talking about crushes. "If you tell me which advisory she's in, I'll tell you mine," she pleaded, trying to persuade him to give away his crush.

He refused this information over and over again. Until she had very quickly blurted out that her crush was on the swim team.

"That's very specific," he'd said, giving her his usual smirk. It was quite annoying, that smirk. She couldn't tell if it was a special little smirk, reserved for her, or if it was just his smile. She'd tried to smirk back, but it could've possibly ended up looking like a smushed duck face.

"She's a mathlete," he'd replied, his smirk only growing.

"I'll have you know, for a fact, that Rachel is not a mathlete," Annabeth had tried. Reyna, another one of her friends, had insisted Percy had had a crush on Rachel, and Annabeth had been secretly hopeful that it wasn't true.

"I know," he persisted. They exchanged eye contact and Annabeth felt her insides melt, just a little. BE STRONG. She told herself. GIRL POWER.

She was on the mathletes. Could it be possible?

O.o

It was like she was taunting him, her grey eyes sparkling. He could swear she saw through his calm façade. I mean, was it really that obvious? His sweaty palms, the way he couldn't keep eye contact without mentally freaking out…

He was on the swim team. Could it be possible?

O.o

"You know him really well," Annabeth tried, trying to coach an 'I like you' out of Percy.

"Are we friends?" he asked.

"I hope," Annabeth said, quickly, not wanting to give away anything. She immediately regretted her decision, as his smirk made a return.

"I should really just tell you, but I won't," she tried to cover up. ARGH. This wasn't working at all. What would Piper say in this situation? But she wasn't uber confident Piper or ever sarcastic Hazel, in the way she had developed after the defeat of Gaea. Perhaps Frank was a really bad influence on her.

O.o

"I think you know who my crush is," she said. The only word that was running through his brain, was a hopeful me?

"No, I don't." he said, trying not to get his hopes up.

"You do," she insisted. God, she was stubborn.

"I don't. I've run through every scenario in my head and I know him really well and…"

"It's the one you're thinking of, for Zeus' sake!" He shook his head, refusing to believe.

"Oh f—" she began, but Percy stopped her, grabbing her head and pushing her lips to his.

"Am I right?" he asked, when he backed away. She was grinning, her cheeks slightly pink, "I think you just might be."

A/N: Nothing like two sexually frustrated teenagers to get your day started, am I right? This fic is sort of in honor of all the back-to-school crushes we may (or may not!) be getting.

PEACE MY PEOPLES! :D

& Have a Great Fall

StrawberryofLife