Chapter 12

"and you were such a mess, i thought it was sweet"
- chasing ghosts, against the current

They're in the middle of watching The Shining when Annabeth says, "I think I'm going to ask Percy out tomorrow."

Thalia absently shushes her. "Shh."

"Are you sure we should be watching this?" Piper asks nervously. "It's a bit– graphic."

"It's a classic, of course we should be watching it."

Annabeth clears her throat. "Guys?"

"Besides," Thalia continues, as if Annabeth hasn't spoken. "You've seen worse than this in real life, haven't you?"

"Yeah, but– that's real life. This just makes me uncomfortable."

"Guys."

"You two are such wusses," Thalia says. Apparently, Annabeth is still invisible. "I put this movie on so we could laugh at how bad it is – like, come on, that much blood doesn't come out when you stab someone. But look at you! You're scared witless!"

"I'm not scared witless," Piper says weakly. "I still have my wits. And don't you go acting all high and mighty! You're acting like you haven't so much as flinched."

"That's because I haven't."

"I have nail marks in my arm, Thalia."

"Well, it's only to be expected, isn't it? It is a horror movie, after all."

Annabeth rolls her eyes. Bloody hell. "GUYS!"

Thalia swears and pauses the movie, and then glares at her. "What, Annabeth?"

"I'm going to ask Percy out tomorrow."

Thalia does not look impressed. "So?"

Annabeth is momentarily stumped. "Wh–... What do you mean so? I thought you were the one rooting for us."

"I am," Thalia says. She even has the nerve to look irritated, which kind of makes Annabeth want to hit her across the face. She instantly suppresses the thought with no I love Thalia I love Thalia I love Thalia. "It's just– we're in the middle of a movie."

Piper nods next to her. "It's kind of true, Annie."

Annabeth lets out a disbelieving laugh and slumps against the cushions. Unbelievable. The amount of disrespect in the room is actually rather borderline offensive.

She tells them just as much.

"You're one to speak," Thalia says. "You made us pause the movie to tell us something we already knew."

"You didn't know I was going to ask him out," Annabeth says.

"We did, actually," Piper says matter-of-factly. When Annabeth gives her a cold glare, she hastily stammers out, "only a little bit, though! It was just a guess!"

"Either way," Thalia says, "I wasn't surprised and I'm not bothered to act like it. Now shut up, I want to finish this movie without any of you brats interrupting me again."

Annabeth rolls her eyes petulantly. Piper pats her hand sympathetically, but once she's sure Thalia's fully immersed in what's happening on the screen she leans up and whispers in Annabeth's ear, "Tell me the deets after the movie's finished, I want to know everything" with a little hair stroke, and Annabeth wants so badly to be annoyed with her but knows she can't because she's patting her curls like she's a little dog and she knows that her weakness, so instead she wriggles around and puts her head in Piper's lap, nosing at her knee indignantly when she doesn't immediately start fondling her head again.

"Can I braid your hair?" Piper asks, a little too loudly.

"If you both do not shut up within the next seconds I'll rip out your veins and braid them instead, how about that?"

"Sorry, Thalia."

The proper conversation happens after the movie has finished. Piper is utterly frozen with fear, long after the ending credits have rolled off screen, and Thalia is in the kitchen making dinner as best as she can with the meagre food supplies they have. Annabeth crawls off her lap and strokes her hair, and Piper's head falls onto her shoulder.

"That was terrifying," she says robotically.

"It's finished."

"I have a boy in my class called Johnny too, Annabeth. Do you know how bad this is going to be?"

Thalia walks through the door, balancing three plates in her hands. "As long as he doesn't slam down a door with an axe you should be fine," she says, throwing herself down on the sofa next to Annabeth. Annabeth takes one of the plates and stares at it.

"You have to be joking."

"Not at all."

"This can't be dinner."

"I worked with what I had, Annabeth. It's not the artists, it's the supplies."

"But–" Piper looks so pathetically disappointed Annabeth almost cries. "It's just a sandwich."

"If that," Annabeth says. "It's bread with cucumber slices on it."

"It's all we have," Thalia says. "And if you don't want to starve you'll eat it."

Piper stares at it gloomily. "I don't even like cucumber."

"Tough."

"I think there's mould on the bread," Annabeth says thoughtfully.

Thalia sighs. "You two are so picky."

"Excuse me if I don't want to get poisoned."

"You won't get poisoned."

"There is a species of fungi growing on my food."

"Quite visibly, too," Piper adds. "I can see it."

Thalia huffs. "Look, are we going to hear more about Annabeth's sudden desire to propose to Percy or do you want to keep harping at me because there is a speck of something on your bread?"

Annabeth sulks. "You'd complain too if there was an ecosystem of something on your dinner."

"Here, you can have mine if you want," Piper offers.

"No, let her eat it. Now. Tell us about Percy."

"I thought you didn't want to know."

"We were watching a movie. I want to know now."

"Do tell, Annie," Piper implores.

"I mean, what even is there to say?"

"You want to ask him out," Piper prompts.

"Yes, well. That."

"I swear he's meant to be the one asking you out," Thalia says.

"I mean, that would be the preferable option, because then I wouldn't potentially risk embarrassing myself on the chance that he doesn't like me at all."

"Don't be silly," Piper says. "Percy adores you."

"Well, of course you'd say that. You're my friends."

"I'm not," Thalia says. "I only mildly put up with you two."

Piper rolls her eyes fondly, and then turns back to Annabeth. "So, what are you going to do?" she asks. "Wait for him to ask you out?"

"Well." Annabeth tries to shrug as best as she can with Piper's head on her shoulder. "Yeah."

"That's a terrible plan," Thalia says. "I say ask him out."

"I can't."

"Why?"

"Because! What if he says no? I need to wait for him to do it. Then I'll know."

Thalia snorts and waves her hand dismissively. "Please, the kid barely has half a pair, let alone a full pair of balls. He'll never do it. He's too shy. You'll have grey hairs by the time he works up the courage."

"She's not wrong," Piper adds. "I'd go for it."

"What do I even say?"

Thalia pretends to think. "Hm, how about: yo, you want to go on a date with me?"

"Do whatever feels natural," Piper assures her. "You guys are good friends. I'd maybe crack a joke or two. Don't make it too flirtatious, because that will just make everything uncomfortable. Just do you."

"Tell him you wouldn't mind having his children later on in life," Thalia said.

"Yeah, no."

"You could make him a PowerPoint," Piper suggests.

Annabeth stares at her, aghast. "On what, why he should go out with me?"

"Yeah!" Thalia chimes in, much too enthusiastically. "Maximum seven slides. You don't want to seem too eager."

"Minimum two," Piper adds. "It'll make you look uninterested."

"I'm not making him a PowerPoint."

"Consider it," Thalia says, pushing herself to her feet. "It's not a bad idea."

(Annabeth does not make a PowerPoint, thank you very much. She has some respect for herself.)

They have PE the next day.

It is welcomed with mixed reactions.

"I hate PE so much," Hazel grumps.

Annabeth nods, but actually she quite enjoys PE. She's in reasonably good shape, despite having put on a few pounds from her wayward diet and lack of exercise, and she likes sports. Back at the Society they'd always muck around with a football or basketball and she was always in par with the boys twice her size. However, you know. Must keep up a role and whatnot.

"Is there a way we can skip?" she asks.

Hazel gives her a wry smile. "Unfortunately not. Frank said that Coach Zimmer isn't here today, so we've got Coach Hedge, and he knows all about how much we hate PE. For every absence he'll go to the office and check it's been authorized throughout the day."

"Crikey."

"I know." Hazel shoulders her PE kit and beams at her. "You ready?"

The PE kit at Marino is hideous. It's not even so much the colour and shape so much as it is the sizing. The only available sizes are extra small and extra large, so while some kids are swimming in their uniform some are straining against it. Chiron had ordered two large, because there was no way Annabeth was going to even try squeeze into a tiny PE kit with a bunch of hormonal boys around, but something went wrong so her shorts were extra large but her T-shirt was extra small.

"You have a great top half, though," Hazel had said when Annabeth told her. "That's a plus, I suppose."

Things don't go very well in the changing rooms, however.

The changing rooms are the central hotspot for gossip and trash talk. Annabeth always walks out much more educated on the love lives of her classmates then she did when she walked in, but it has a nasty side, as all girl-centred things generally do. The girls who talk – namely Drew Tanaka, Silena Beauregard and Nancy Bobofit with the occasional guest appearance from anyone else who has something to say about whoever is unfortunate enough to be the topic of that period's conversation – are shameless, and so there have also been many times where girls have left in tears because Nancy couldn't keep her opinions to herself about the size of their thighs.

Annabeth hasn't been scrutinized yet. She's been taught to get changed quickly, and normally she's in and out within two minutes. This week is slightly different, however.

"Hazel," Annabeth hisses. "I think my PE shirt shrunk in the wash."

Hazel looks appalled. "But it was already small, wasn't it?"

"Exactly. It would fit a five-year-old."

"What are you going to wear?"

"I have no idea."

"Levesque," Nancy calls. She's the nastiest. "Who you talking to down there? Your PE bag? I mean, I knew your mom was cray, but I didn't know being a nutso was genetic."

Annabeth's blood boils. She straightens from where she was curled into a little ball at Hazel's feet. "I do exist, Bobofit," she says coolly. "S'pose it's a bit hard to see through those fake lashes, huh?"

Nancy almost goes as red as her hair. "Shut up, Watermann," she hisses. "At least I'm not fat."

It's a pathetic insult and Annabeth knows it but she glances down self-consciously all the same. She's only wearing a bra, because her normal T-shirt had already been shoved to the back of her locker when she made her discovery, so her tummy is on display to everyone. She knows she's not fat, but ever since Percy walked in on her sans shirt she's been feeling a little odd about it. She has put on a little weight, she knows that, but it's not that much, is it?

Nancy sees it in her eyes and Annabeth hates herself the moment she sees her lips curl up in a smirk. Number one rule: do not show weakness.

"With a stomach like that I don't see any boy wanting to date you," Nancy says rudely.

Silena tries to stop her. "Leave it, Nancy," she says desperately.

Nancy doesn't. She keeps going. "I mean, you're like, ginormous. Who would ever want to love someone like that? They'd break their backs trying to sweep you off your feet."

Annabeth rolls her eyes. "Shut up, Bobofit. Unlike you, I'm not so dumb and co-dependant that I need a boy to survive."

"S'lucky," Nancy says. "I don't think anyone would willingly touch you with a ten-foot barge pole." She starts moving across the changing rooms. Silena tries to pull her back but Nancy shakes her off easily. Even Drew is watching with narrowed eyes. Drew can be mean but she knows where to draw the line. In fact, everyone is in silence as Nancy stalks her way over to Annabeth. She's only in her tight little shorts with her own stomach and bra on display, and with a sinking feeling Annabeth notices her stomach is, indeed, a little fuller than Nancy's.

Bloody hell, Annabeth. Get a grip.

"See?" Nancy reaches over and snaps the waistband of Annabeth's shorts. "So fat and disgusting she has to wear an extra large."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Annabeth says. "I didn't realise wanting to remain decent and cover up automatically meant that I'm overweight. Whoopsies."

Nancy's eyes narrow. "Are you trying to be pathetic, Watermann?" She kneels down and picks up Annabeth's jeans, which have been lying discarded on the floor ever since she shed them off. "Oh, what a surprise. You're a size twenty."

Annabeth puts on a sugar sweet voice. "Actually, if you had the brain capacity to read, you'd be able to realise that the label says eight and not twenty." She pats her shoulder. "Lying is a sin, Nancy, and really just makes you look dumb."

Silena giggles, but as soon as Nancy whips around to give her the most dangerous look Annabeth has ever seen on a teenage girl she wipes the smile from her face and widens her eyes to stop laughing.

"Well, at least I don't–" Nancy pauses midsentence and tilts her head. "What's that?"

"What's what?" Annabeth peers down at her tummy to see what she's looking at.

Nancy looks disgusted. "I'm not actually going to touch you, gross. That ugly thing on your stomach. What is it? It's not a birthmark, is it?"

Annabeth zeroes in on what she's pointing out and immediately feels sick.

It's the scar from where the table leg impaled her back at the bakery. She's got another one on her back. It's big and white, roughly the size of her fist, and on the side of her abdomen, and if you look very closely you can see sixteen smaller ones in either side from where they had to sew her up and then cut the stitches out when she accidentally fell down the stairs and stretched them. There's no way she can get around this one.

"It's a burn," she says. "It happened when I was little."

Hazel is staring at it, wide-eyed. "That's a– serious burn, Lois."

"Yeah. I, um. Fell into a barbecue."

"It's still ugly," Nancy says.

"For heaven's sake, Bobofit," Clarisse says rudely. Clarisse is one hundred and forty pounds of pure muscle and stringy brown hair and she can and will punch you in the nose. She is the only person most people will ever listen to, and that's only out of fear that they'll get a facial if they dare disagree with her. "No one bloody cares."

Nancy scowls at her.

Hazel opens her mouth, as to say something, but then she snaps it shut. "Do you need a shirt to borrow?" she asks instead.

Annabeth nods. "That would be nice, yeah."

Hazel gives her a soft smile. "I'll go ask Hedge if I can rootle around in Lost Property for one. Don't worry." However, just as she's about to leave, she fleetingly pauses. "Also, um. Ignore Nancy. You're beautiful. She's just jealous."

Something like love fills Annabeth's stomach. "Thank you."

Hazel gives her a shy smile and darts off.

Sometimes, Annabeth really appreciates her friends.

By the time Annabeth and Hazel sit down at their lunch table Leo is already halfway through storytelling a dramatic rendition of his PE lesson.

"–and so Hedge has us playing volleyball," he says theatrically. "Volleyball! Can you imagine? Me, a tiny little innocent angel child, having to play volleyball against mountains like Beckendorf and Michael Kahale?"

"Did you get beat up?" Frank asks hopefully.

Leo shakes his head. "I got hit on the head and faked a concussion, so I got the rest of the period off."

Percy frowns. "That's such a disappointing ending."

"You didn't seriously expect it to end with me whooping their butts, did you?"

"Well. It's a thought, isn't it?"

"That's nothing compared to us," Hazel says. "Nancy Bobofit picked on Lois today in the changing rooms."

"Nancy?" Frank asks. "She's the one with the red hair, isn't she?"

"It wasn't a big deal," Annabeth says.

"Yes, it was!" Hazel argues. "She was simply horrid to you."

"What did she say?" Leo asks. "Can't be any worse than what us lads say to each other."

Frank snorts. "No wonder you can't get a date. You know nothing about girls."

"You should have heard her, Leo," Hazel says earnestly. "She was being awful, telling Lois all sorts of rubbish about her size and whatnot. Imagine!" She lowers her voice and flitters her eyes elsewhere nervously, like she's afraid of being heard. "She was acting a bit like a cow, actually."

"But Lois isn't fat," says Percy. "That's so weird."

Annabeth fidgets. "It's honestly not a big deal."

"But you're not!" Percy insists. "I've seen your stomach and it's perfectly ordinary."

Frank laughs. "Since when?"

"Since when what?"

"Since when have you seen Lois's stomach?"

Annabeth suddenly feels very hot. She can see Leo suggestively wiggling his eyebrows and making crude gestures with his hands, and she kind of wants to throw her yoghurt at him before deciding otherwise, to spare him both his clothes and his dignity. Still, it's an option. She sticks out her tongue and points to it so he knows.

"I went to his house a while back," she says. "He accidentally walked in when I was changing."

Hazel looks horrified.

"Accidentally, huh," Leo says suggestively.

"Yes, actually," Percy says. "Unlike you, I have respect. And decency."

"And girls in his life to walk in on," Annabeth says.

Leo pulls a hideous face at her. "Oh, ha ha."

"Girls are brutal, man," Frank says. "I try and avoid them if I can."

"We're not all like that," Hazel says. "Only some. Like Nancy."

Percy shakes his head. "I just don't get it. Why would she say that if it's wrong?"

"Perce, honestly," Annabeth assures him. Where no one can see, she slips a hand onto his thigh and rubs it reassuringly. "You're making this a bigger deal then it needs to be. 'You're fat' is the generic go-to insult for all girls. And besides, as if I'm going to be affected by that. Nancy's stupid."

Percy is still frowning, so Annabeth throws caution to the wind (along with her dignity and all sensibility she might have) and threads her fingers through his under the table, so their intertwined hands are resting on his thigh. She holds her breath, and is just about to pull away and drown herself in one of the toilets when his hand twitches and his fingers tighten around hers.

"I promise, it's okay," she says. "Honest."

Percy nods, and after she experimentally strokes her thumb across the back of his hand she finally feels him deflate. "Okay."

"Good."

"Yo," Leo calls, and Annabeth looks over. "Are you two lovebirds finished yet?"

Annabeth scowls and points at the yoghurt pot. Watch out, she mouths.

To his credit, Leo doesn't even look scared. Annabeth would think twice if she were him. From personal experience once yoghurt settles it reeks. With one flick of her spoon she could make him smell like a sour milk carton for the rest of the week.

Leo launches into another story, something stupid involving a pretty girl and guacamole, but Annabeth isn't listening. All she can think about is her conversation with Thalia and Piper yesterday.

"I say ask him out."

"I can't."

"Why?"

"Because! What if he says no? I need to wait for him to do it. Then I'll know."

"Please, the kid barely has half a pair, let alone a full pair of balls. He'll never do it. He's too shy. You'll have grey hairs by the time he works up the courage."

She looks over at him. Percy is laughing at something Leo said; his eyes are screwed up so she can only see a slice of green and he's doing that thing with his nose whenever he finds something particularly funny, where he scrunches it up and ducks his head, like he's embarrassed. It's honestly one of the most endearing things Annabeth thinks she's ever seen and the fact that he's still holding her hand really doesn't help, either.

She can't stop the bubble of insecurity, however. Will he say yes? Is asking him on a date really worth the risk of losing their friendship forever?

"Don't be silly," Piper says. "Percy adores you."

She looks at their laced fingers on Percy's thigh, and watches as Percy subconsciously tightens his grip when Annabeth accidentally shuffles away.

Yeah, she thinks. Maybe it is.

No it's not it's absolutely not she can't do this.

So. They're standing in an empty classroom after school, Percy watching her expectantly (which she supposes is fair because, you know, she was the one to drag him in here) and Annabeth is ninety six percent sure she's going to throw up.

This isn't going to go well. She might just chicken out altogether.

Then she imagines how Thalia and Piper would react.

Pull it together, Chase.

"Percy," Annabeth announces.

Percy nods. "Lois."

"How are you?"

"Me?" Percy looks slightly taken aback. "Oh, I'm good. Uh, you?"

"Good, good."

"That's– good."

Annabeth nods and shoves her hands in her pockets, tonguing her cheek. Percy rocks on the balls of his feet. The entire room is in suffocating silence and Annabeth kind of wants to tear her hair out.

"So," Percy says. "Um. What did you need me for?"

You can do this, Chase. "I, uh. Actually wanted to ask you something."

"Oh." Percy looks pleasantly surprised. "Oh, cool. What is it?"

"It's a bit awkward."

"How awkward is awkward?"

"Extremely."

"Oh, wow." Percy presses his lips together. "It's not– period advice, is it?"

Annabeth stares at him. "No, what the hell?"

"Sorry! I just thought– you said it was awkward."

"And periods are the most awkward thing you could think of?"

"I didn't know what else! The only other things I could think of were boy advice or a proposal."

Well. "I mean. You're not– wrong, per say."

Percy's forehead creases. "So... it is about periods?"

"No! I mean, um. Boy advice. And/or a proposal."

Cautiously, Percy eyes her. "You're seventeen, Lois."

"I'm not going to propose, don't be silly."

"Oh." Percy pushes his hands into his pockets. "Boy advice. Okay. What do you need to know?"

"Dating," Annabeth says.

"What about it?"

"How would you go about it?"

"How would you go about dating?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Um. Well, you'd have to find a partner, first off."

"No, I mean how to ask said partner out."

"Are you asking me how to ask someone to go on a date?"

Annabeth feels her hands begin to tremble. "Quite right."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Well. You'd have to be nice about it."

"In what ways?"

"You can't demand them. Be polite, I suppose."

Oh, for heaven's sake. This is ridiculous. "Look," Annabeth says. "Do you want to go on a date with me?"

And Percy just.

Blinks.

Annabeth's confidence drains far, far too quickly and she feels her heart float up into her throat. She even feels her eyes burn and she's never hated herself so much. "Oh God, you don't like me like that. I'm so sorry, oh my God, I just, um, must have been reading the wrong signs, I'm so sorry–"

"But I was meant to ask you," Percy says, crestfallen.

Annabeth stops talking, and stares at him. "What?"

"I–I was meant to ask you. I had it all planned out."

"But– I only asked you because I thought you were too scared."

"No, I was just trying to find the right time. I–I was so sure I was going to make it amazing, I even asked Jason for advice and everything."

"Oh." Suddenly Annabeth feels awful. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

"Too late now. You've already beaten me to it."

"I'm really sorry."

"Don't worry. Jason's full of crap, anyway. It would have been awful."

"Not if you were the one doing it," Annabeth admits, and suddenly her entire face flames because that was the dumbest thing she thinks she's ever said. Percy seems to like it, though, because his cheeks go pink and he ducks his head and mumbles a, "Not really."

"I'm sure it would have been romantic."

"Honestly, Lois, it wouldn't have been. He suggested writing a speech."

Annabeth giggles. "You're kidding."

"Not in the slightest. He told me to buy you flowers."

"I'm not actually a massive flowers person."

"I'll remember that." Percy gives her a bashful smile. "So, um. Are we going on a date now?"

Annabeth nods, suppressing a girlish squeal. "I think so."

"Okay." Percy beams. "That's. That's cool."

"Yeah."

They dopily grin at each other for a few moments, before Percy snaps out of his stupor.

"Yeah," he says again. His cheeks are rosy with a blush and Annabeth wants to squeak at how cute it is. "Um. Yes. I need to, uh. Get home and stuff, but I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

Annabeth nods eagerly. "Yeah."

"Text me the details."

"I don't have to plan the date, do I?"

"Oh, you absolutely do."

"Oh, God."

Percy laughs. "Text me. We'll plan it together."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow, Perce."

"You too, Lois."

A/N Hey guys!

I hope you liked that one. I'm actually not that ashamed by this so that's an improvement hopefully, and also thank you so so much for all your reviews. honestly you guys are like the best readers i could ever hope to have thank you for being so so wonderful xx

(also i just want to give a shoutout to my homies TheWritingManiac for being so lovely and not eating me alive when i got the name of her fic wrong [you the best amigo], ImpossibleThings12 for just... existing and being probably the nicest kindest most thoughtful person actually ever and the guest 'musicalbookworm' for sending in i think the best review in the entire world and of course absolutely everyone else you're all absolutely incredible)

So announcement time (aka shameless self promo)

I have a wattpad now? Yeah, that happened. so in case any of you would be interested in reading any of my original stuff it's there (i mean, i probably won't do anything much with it except upload the sporadic one-shot every now and then). My username is herecomesthepun (there's a link in my bio, which should work if you copy-paste it in the search bar) so woo. that's a thing and stuff. yay?

Anyway! I really hope you liked that chapter. As always, please tell me what you thought and I'll see you next Saturday! bye my lovelies xxxx