Chapter 10

"handsome stranger, you have made her wonder 'is she pretty?'"
- absolutely smitten, dodie

Now that Annabeth has come to terms with the fact that she has a crush on Percy, it's unnecessarily making life a lot harder.

First of all, she can't even sit next to him without zipping with electricity, and frankly it's a right pain in the bottom. Annabeth knows that Lois's grades are meant to be average as to not raise suspicion, but she does like to pay attention class, and this whole 'crush' thing is making it ridiculously impossible. In English, when the two of them are packed next to each other like sardines, Annabeth's whole body is on overdrive. She's hyperaware of every single inch of skin that is touching, and especially now that it's beginning to warm up and they're both swapping their sweaters and long-sleeves with T-shirts it's skin-on-skin.

Skin-on-skin.

Annabeth has had to seduce people before and yet the fact that she's touching arms with a boy is what's getting her flustered? She's never been so ashamed.

Like. Come on.

"It's perfectly normal," Piper assures her. "Side effects of having a crush."

Annabeth lets out a helpless moan. "Ugh."

"Oh, don't worry," Piper consoles, carding her fingers through her curls. "Having a crush is a beautiful thing. Embrace it."

"I want to throw it in the bin."

Piper looks mildly affronted. "Why?"

"Because it's disgusting?" Thalia suggests. "It's gross? Boys are horrible?"

"Yes, thank you, Thalia."

Anyway.

Long story short, having a crush is just a lot of hard work, and Annabeth doesn't think she's prepared to put it at all in. Especially if by some bizarre chance Percy did happen to like her back and their relationship became a Capital R Relationship, in which case she'd have to manage to balance Lois and Annabeth on a massive scale. Because both Lois and Annabeth like Percy, no problem there.

But Percy only likes Lois.

It's like Romeo and Juliet with an ambiguous third love interest.

"Hey, Lois."

"Not now, Percy. I'm working."

"What does 'ne regardez pas ses yeux' mean?" (1)

Annabeth freezes. "Um. Revision notes."

"We don't do French."

"I've got a tutor at home."

"Oh, cool. What does it mean?"

"Uh. 'He went to the shops'."

Percy frowns at it, and Annabeth holds her breath. She knew it was a bad idea to fill up the back of her hands with little reminders of things generally considered socially unacceptable that she is not allowed to do, but she had been struggling and now needs it to glance down and remember that no, she's not allowed to stare at Percy from across the classroom because a) it's slightly creepy and b) not subtle at all and now her cover's been blown and she just knew it was a bad idea–

"That looks around right," Percy says. "I don't know French to save my life so I'm going to just go with you for that one."

Oh.

Well. Thank goodness.

See, it's not that Annabeth has to periodically remind herself not to lovingly gaze at Percy's eyes throughout the day to the point where she had to write it in French on the back of her hands, but it's kind of exactly that. This whole 'crush' thing is utterly impossible to handle. Annabeth doesn't know how some people do it.

She could probably take down the whole school with her eyes closed, and now one boy with a stupid grin and sparkly green eyes has absolutely ruined everything to the point where she has to remind herself not to stare.

It's humiliating, that's what it is. And she can't even talk to Piper and Thalia about it because they're utterly useless.

("Follow your heart," Piper had urged. "And be patient. Love isn't always instant." "I don't care," Thalia had interrupted through a mouthful of toast. "I want nieces and nephews. Confess, get married and start having kids. Preferably pronto.")

"You've got a lot of French revision notes," Percy notices.

Annabeth shoves her sleeve up, covering the n'écoutez pas son rire (2) and the ne regardez pas son sourire non plus (3). "I've got a test coming up," she fibs. "I want to get good marks."

"Miss Watermann, Mr Jackson?" Ms Dodds calls dryly. "Is there a problem?"

"Not at all, ma'am," Percy tells her, beaming. "Don't let us stop you."

Ms Dodds's eye twitches. "Thank you, Mr Jackson."

When she turns around to write something on the blackboard, Percy winks. "I know how to wrap them around my finger."

"I think it's more like she wants to wrap her fingers around your throat."

"Nonsense," Percy says dismissively. "Ms Dodds adores me."

Ms Dodds turns around. "What was that, Mr Jackson?"

"Nothing, ma'am," Percy tells her chirpily. "I was just telling Lois how well the two of us get along."

"Yes, well." Ms Dodds's hand tightens on the chalk, like she's imagining it's Percy's neck. "That's one way to put it, Mr Jackson. Detention."

"For what?"

"Disrupting my lesson. Get back to work."

Percy rolls his eyes good-naturedly, and then sends Annabeth a smirk that's honestly much too cocky for his current situation. "I told you we're best buds."

Annabeth starts to giggle, before remembering the également ne riez pas de ses plaisanteries, il l'encourage (4)scribbled on the inside of her forearm and swallowing the rest of her laughs.

It doesn't even work very well, because not two minutes later Percy leans to whisper in her ear, "This lesson is so easy, I suppose you can call it a Dodds-le" and Annabeth almost chokes.

Oh well. Également ne riez pas de ses plaisanteries, il l'encourage is overrated, anyway.

(They both end up getting sent out again. It's okay. Annabeth's laughing too hard to care, anyway.)

"What are we even watching?" Thalia complains.

"It's a documentary on whales," Annabeth tells her. "Now shush, I want to listen."

"I don't."

"No one cares what you want."

"Clearly, otherwise I wouldn't be forced to sit here watching sea creatures float around eating krill and making your average mumbly-jumbly aquatic animal noises." Thalia huffs and folds her arms. "This is so boring."

"Then leave," Annabeth reprimands.

Thalia grumbles, but stays where she is.

They're having what Piper likes to call a 'Girls' Night'. Thalia hates the name and frankly so does Annabeth but by the time they had both come to that conclusion Piper had already drawn out a graph titled GIRLS' NIGHT PLAN in which she scheduled the days said Girls' Nights would be happening, which so far has been every night. Annabeth would love to be able to complain, except for the most part Girls' Nights are actually quite enjoyable. Normally they put on a hideously outdated chick-flick, where everyone wears flare jeans and uses a flip-phone, and poke fun at all the dumb mannerisms and clothes, but today for some reason when they were going through the channels they managed to stumble across a peaceful David Attenborough documentary on beluga whales and it's been utterly fascinating the whole way through.

Well. For Annabeth, anyway. Piper and Thalia look like they're about to fall asleep.

"Can we please change it?" Thalia whines. "We'll even put on the Notebook."

It's tempting.

"No," Annabeth says. "Aren't you guys finding this interesting?"

Piper at least has the decency to look apologetic. "Not really."

"Barbarians, the both of you."

"I don't know how you're finding this even vaguely amusing," Thalia grumbles, shoving crisps into her mouth. "At least I can see the appeal of The Notebook. This is making me want to go and pluck out my leg hairs. Individually."

"It's not that bad."

"It kind of is," Piper says. "No offence, Annie."

Thalia reaches over and grabs the remote out of Annabeth's hands, and then switches off the TV before she can protest. Betrayed, Annabeth stares at the now vacant screen.

"What was that for?" she demands.

"We were about to fall asleep," she says bluntly. "Let's do something else."

"Like what?" Piper asks. "Monopoly?"

Annabeth has to stare very long and hard at the quand le Monopole est mentionné ne pensez pas à Percy (5) on her arm, which doesn't even really do anything except make her think of Percy more.

"No." Thalia's smile turns wicked. Annabeth can see the pieces of crisp stuck to her lips and teeth. "I was thinking more along the lines of truth or dare."

Annabeth groans. "Oh, for heaven's sake," she grouches. "That's so pathetic."

"But it's fun."

"That's only because we'll all be able to tell when someone is lying."

"Exactly."

"I don't want to play," Piper says. "The last time we played truth or dare I had to eat a teaspoon of mayonnaise."

"And it was good, was it not?"

"I had tears coming out of my nose."

"Irrelevant," Thalia says dismissively. "I'll go first. Annabeth, truth or dare?"

Annabeth frowns. "Why is it me?"

"Because I said so. Now, pick truth or dare."

Annabeth sighs. Truth is the cowardly option, but she really doesn't fancy having to eat a teaspoon of mayonnaise. Piper spent at least half an hour with her head in the toilet bowl shuddering and retching last time. "Truth."

"Excellent." Thalia's eyes gleam. "Why did you really get sent to New York?"

"Thalia!" Piper admonishes, scandalized. "You can't just ask that!"

"No, it's okay," Annabeth says.

Thalia nods at her triumphantly. If it weren't for the ridiculous amount of crisps in her mouth she probably would have done something mature like stick her tongue out.

Annabeth picks up the remote. "I know who I'm running from, anyway."

The crisps fall out of Thalia's mouth. Piper gapes.

"What?" Annabeth asks.

Thalia shoves the crisps back in her mouth. It's more than a little gross. "You know what person is trying to kill you?"

Annabeth is bewildered. "Uh, yeah?"

"Does the Society know?" Piper asks frantically. "Does Chiron know?"

"Yes? Look, this isn't a big deal."

"Isn't a big deal?" Thalia laughs humourlessly. Flecks of crisp shoot out of her mouth like confetti. "Annabeth, if you know who's trying to kill you the Society can track them down. You don't have to be here. You can be safe."

"It's really not that simple." Annabeth crosses her legs and pats either side of her on the couch. "Come, children. Auntie Annabeth is going to tell you a story."

Piper bounds over right away, shoving her head against Annabeth's collarbone and snuggling into the arm Annabeth throws over her shoulder like an excitable little puppy. Thalia rolls her eyes, but she goes too.

Unfortunately, she brings the crisp bowl. Annabeth hopes she doesn't plan on continuing to shove her face with them when they're all sitting so close.

"So," Annabeth says conversationally, like they're discussing the weather and not a psychopathic serial killer. "First and foremost, his name is Luke."

Piper grunts unhappily. "That's such an average name."

"Yes, well, not all of us are that special. Anyway, so Luke and I grew up together. It wasn't anything massive. We weren't best friends or anything. We just grew up together, kind of like next-door neighbours. Our parents were close, though. You ever heard of the Olympus Circle?"

Thalia snorts. "Is that a trick question? Annabeth, the Society is the Olympus Circle."

"Well, there was such thing as the Inner Ring. You guys probably know them as the Big Three."

Piper stares at her. "Your parents were the Big Three?"

"They were in the Big Three. It got started by three brothers and then got gradually passed down. So there's about twelve of them now. Or. There was, anyway. We'll get to that later.

"So my mom and Luke's dad were part of the Inner Ring. The Olympus Circle is top-secret and confidential, but the Inner Ring was that times ten. It was completely guarded. The only people who knew about it were the people in it and Chiron, who trained their kids when they were in meetings. So the Inner Ring knows basically all the tips of the trade in the international spy industry. If any of that information got leaked it could bring down countries. It was powerful. And of course, the only way you could get into the Inner Ring was by being born into it."

Piper's eyes go even wider. "You're part of the Inner Ring? Holy crap."

"Not exactly. The deal is, is that when a child of any of the members of the Inner Ring turns sixteen, their respective parent tells them all the secrets so they can take their place later on. It's been that ways for decades. Except not this time, because Hermes – that's Luke's dad – noticed that Luke had been acting a little off. And on a whim, he didn't trust him enough to tell him anything."

Thalia whistles. "Ouch."

"Yeah. And naturally, Luke was furious. Hermes did the right thing – Luke's actions only proved it further – but Luke was so, so angry. He got so angry he left the Society completely. But he wanted all the information, right? Still does. And he knew that I was the only one he was going to get it off. He went on a massive killing spree and ruthlessly murdered all the other Inner Ring kids – Chiron reckons it was a scare tactic –, but then he tried to kill me a couple of times and Chiron sent me here so I'd be safer."

Piper gawps at her. "How– how are you saying that so casually?"

"I mean. It's not the first time I've been targeted by a serial killer, actually."

"Oh yeah." Thalia shoves more crisps in her mouth. Annabeth winces. "I heard about that. They talked about it for ages, too. Did you know we had to watch security camera footage and write essays on what you did well and what you could improve on?"

Piper looks even more in awe. Annabeth is mildly afraid that she's going to pass out. "That was Annabeth?"

Annabeth squeezes Piper's shoulder. "Of course."

"I gave you a five point seven out of ten, by the way," Thalia adds. "You didn't impress me until the end when you did that dive. You went so far. Your trajectory was outrageous."

Annabeth is more than a little peeved. "A five point seven? Are you kidding me?"

"I gave you an eight," Piper says. "And I didn't know you at the time so I can't have been biased."

Annabeth preens a little. "Was it for setting the deck on fire?"

Thalia scoffs. "I thought that was the tackiest bit, actually."

"No," Piper says earnestly. "I gave you an eight because you ran in heels and I was remarkably impressed at how fast you were going. We were given to-scale pictures of your footwear and foot size and we had to work out the pivot and the amount of pressure on your toes. You were like Speedy Gonzales in stilettos."

"Honestly, I'm still disappointed that you didn't blow up the whole thing," Thalia says. She picks up a handful of crisps. "That would have been incredible."

"I also would have died."

"Would that have been such a bad thing, though? Like, if you weren't alive I wouldn't be stuck in this crap little apartment babysitting a brat and an overgrown squirrel."

Annabeth hits her with a pillow, and Thalia's crisps go everywhere. They land mainly on Piper, who indignantly squawks and wriggles out from under Annabeth's arm, waddling to the bathroom whilst yelling out, "I'm covered in Thalia's disgusting saliva crisps gross gross gross!"

Annabeth wrestles Thalia into a headlock. "Take it back, you cow."

"Okay, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Let go, you're choking me!"

Annabeth retracts her arm from around Thalia's throat. "Good, that was kind of the point."

Thalia pulls a hideous face, but doesn't push it any further. She kneels to the ground and begins to pick up the crisps that had fallen on the floor. Even though it's disgusting and Annabeth is sure ninety-percent of them have at some point been inside Thalia's mouth she joins her.

"You don't actually mind being here, do you?" she asks softly. "Like, it's not– it's not that bad, is it?"

"Oh no, it's utterly awful. But you guys aren't half-bad, so."

"Aw, Thalia!"

"Shut up. You're still a brat."

Annabeth gives her an obnoxious kiss on the cheek. "I love you, Grace."

"Yeah, yeah." Thalia pushes her off but she's (badly) suppressing a smile. "I love you too, whatever."

Percy is extra jumpy the next day.

Annabeth isn't even sure why, unless he managed to go home and translate the words on her arm. She's added a few more – a few vous ne devez pas certainement penser à la façon dont beau vos enfants seronts (6) and a couple of vous n'avez AUCUN PAPILLONs (7) here and there – and she's pretty sure she's stained the inside of her sleeve from the amount of times she's had to push it up to stare at one of the phrases on her arm until Percy's eyes/hair/smile/general being get out of her mind.

But Percy? It's like he's been overdosed with caffeine, because he will not stop jittering.

It's almost worse than the whole Piper/hot chocolate escapade. All throughout English, he vibrates next to her, his leg bouncing up and down against her like a hyperactive squirrel on overdrive. It's can't be his ADHD, because by this time Annabeth has managed to work out his triggers (it's generally things like tests, schoolwork, lectures and listening to One Direction) but Annabeth is beginning to reconsider it because there is absolutely no logical reason why he should be so nervous.

"Perce?" she asks softly. "Is everything okay?"

Internally, she crosses out également ne lui demandez pas que s'il est bien parce qu'il te donnera un regard triste et vous n'êtes pas immunisé contre ces regards êtes beaucoup car vous insisteriez autrement (8) written above her elbow.

"Huh?" Percy asks. "Yes, I'm grand! More than grand! I'm amazing! Amazeballs!"

Annabeth eyeballs him, and yep, there goes ne le regardez pas (9) as well. "Um?"

"Sorry." Percy shakes his head. His shoes are tapping against like the ground like an inconsistent dubstep drumbeat. "I'm fine. Just– just a little wired, you know?"

"Why?"

"Um. I, uh. Had a lot of sugar this morning."

And if Percy thinks she believes that he must be soft in the head.

Annabeth decides to, for now, leave it. If Percy wants to talk about it, he'll talk about it – and she knows he will, because after so many lessons in evaluating the different kind of human tremours she's managed to pin him down like a butterfly to a corkboard under 'nervousness' but also 'excitement'. He's got an announcement of some sort that he's bursting to say but can't out of fear.

Which Annabeth gets, you know. Ever since she came to the conclusion that she had a crush she's kind of wanted to screech it in his ear and babble about it all day, every day. But she can't. Because that would be weird and Percy probably would never be able to look at her in the eye ever again.

She glances at the clock, and then at the tap-tap-tap of Percy's fingers against the table.

She gives it roughly four minutes.

Four minutes later, Percy turns to her with a slightly wild look in his eyes.

"Um," he says.

Annabeth raises an eyebrow expectantly.

"Okay," he says. He swallows and Annabeth watches his Adam's apple bob beneath his skin – she makes a mental note to add n'observez pas sa gorge (parce qu'elle est étrange) (10) to her arm. "Um. You wouldn't– uh. Hypothetically."

"Hypothetically."

Percy speaks so fast Annabeth almost can't make out what's he saying. "You wouldn't want to come to my house after school, would you?"

It takes Annabeth too long to process what he just said, and Percy takes her silence of dissecting his words and thinking wait what just happened as rejection.

"Only if you wanted to!" he stammers out, looking horrendously awkward as if he believes he has just ruined their friendship. "Like, no pressure. At all. None. It's just– my mom kind of wanted to meet you? But if you don't want to come it's cool, honest, it's really fine–"

"Percy!" Annabeth interrupts.

Percy flushes red. "Sorry."

"Don't be. It's okay." She tries for a smile that doesn't convey the screaming YES YES YES in her head. She thinks she does a good job because Percy doesn't start to look any more terrified. "I'd, um. I'd love to come."

Percy stares. "Really?"

"Sure. If. You didn't mind?"

"I mean. I offered, so."

"Oh yeah."

They sit there for a bit.

"So, you wouldn't mind coming?" Percy asks nervously.

"Not at all. I'd love to meet your mom."

"She's gonna smother you."

"I love being smothered."

She doesn't really, because the last time any sort of smothering had taken place in her immediate vicinity was two years ago and done by an assassin with a plastic bag that had almost killed her, but if Percy is anything to go by the only smothering his mom will be doing is giving hugs. And Annabeth loves hugs.

Especially Percy hugs. But those don't seem to be happening any time soon unfortunately, so she supposes his mom will suffice.

"She's going to adore you," Percy says.

"I hope so. But I'm, um. Not very good with meeting parents."

"Nonsense, you'll be wonderful. My mom's already half in love with you from just the idea of your existence. When she meets you I'm pretty sure she's going to replace me as her only child."

Something stirs in Annabeth's stomach. That's– a really nice sentiment.

Well. Kind of, because if that did happen they'd be siblings and, you know, interfamily crushes are not cool. But it's a lovely thought nonetheless.

"Are you sure?"

Percy gives her an earnest nod, and with his green eyes glittering like that it's kind of hard not to stare. "Incredibly so. She's dying to meet you."

Annabeth smiles. "What have you told her already?"

Percy's cheeks pink. "Um. Not much."

"Uh huh."

"Yeah."

"Right. What have you told her really?"

"Just some stuff."

"Like?"

"Your name is Lois."

"That's a start."

"Um. You're quite smart. You laugh at my jokes."

"Correction: I laughed at one of your jokes."

"Still counts, technically."

"Technically."

"Mr Jackson, Miss Watermann."

They both turn to the front.

Ms Dodds looks incredibly unimpressed. "This is the third time I've caught you talking this lesson, not to mention the countless other times I've busted you this semester. Do I need to separate you two?"

Annabeth blurts out a frantic, "No!" before she can stop herself. Leo does a heart-hand sign across the classroom, and Percy's cheeks darken.

"Well, then." Ms Dodds gives them a steely look. "Make sure you start to pay attention more, hm?"

Annabeth clenches her fists under the table. She wishes Ms Dodds knew that she was a certified child protégée from the age of six and can probably outsmart her in seconds with her vast, knowledgeable brain and the fact that she can speak twenty-eight different languages fluently, but, you know.

She must respect that doing that would probably humiliate Ms Dodds and even she wouldn't stoop so low as to embarrass old ladies.

"What a loser," she says instead when Ms Dodds turns around.

Percy nods promptly. "I agree."

French translation:
(1) - do not look at his eyes
(2) - do not listen to his laugh
(3) - do not look at his smile either
(4) - do not laugh at his jokes, it only encourages him
(5) - when Monopoly is mentioned do not think of Percy
(6) - you must definitely not think about how beautiful your children will be
(7) - there are NO BUTTERFLIES
(8) - also do not ask him if he is okay because he will give you a sad look and you are not immune to these as much as you would insist otherwise
(9) - do not look at him
(10) - do not look at his throat (because that is weird)
Tell me if I missed any more!

A/N Hey guys!

This ended up being a lot more pipabelia than i thought but oh well. I'm not too sure on this chapter if I'm being too honest - i was also originally going to have the scene where they go to percy's house in this chapter too but i had to split it in half or it would be too long. next chapter is all percabeth, promise x

also - guess who turned fourteen? thIS GIRL! It's a new year, guys. new year, new me. my resolutions as a fourteen-year-old are to exercise more and eat less junk food (as i say slumped on the sofa eating chocolate lmao aren't i off to a good start) and hopefully to start writing more. this story has given me the encouragement to start writing again (i was in an awful state of writer's block isn't it horrendous) so woo fanfiction!

speaking OF: thank you all so so much for all your reviews. you literally do not know how much they mean to me. I wish i could like individually write out each and every one of you who reviewed and ramble my thanks out to you to show you how much i appreciate you and i don't want to do just one of you so KNOW i love you all thank you xxxxxxxx

anyway! as always, please tell what you thought, and i'll see you next saturday (hopefully with a much better chapter). Bye xxxx