A/N: *surrounded by sharp weapons and angry readers* Okokokok, I know it's been almost three weeks, but I had a lot going on-let me explain! Until a week ago I was still on vacation and I had posted all of my already written chapters, and I barely had time to work on this one. I didn't even know the direction I wanted to go, except for the girls getting ready, some drunk Piper, and setting it up for the next chapter. Then I finally got home and I started packing for university. I also had an awesome concert to go to on Saturday (guess where I was; this incredibly amazing chapter title is a hint ;) ), but that's not helping my case. Anyway, I'm working on the next chapter, but I'm leaving for college next Sunday so idk exactly when I'll post.
Another thing: someone asked if Percy and Annabeth knew each other in high school. The answer is no. Annabeth was already famous and they did not go to the same school. She was Percy's celebrity crush (he had pictures of her in his locker, etc.). I tried to clarify more in this chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it! Remember to favorite and follow and review!
Chapter 5: Life of the Party
Annabeth burst into Piper's house with arms full of junk food and baking ingredients. "Piper," she called through the house. "I have arrived."
Annabeth was met with silence, so she made her way to the kitchen and dropped her bounty onto the counter with a thud. As she began organizing all of the food she bought, she felt someone come up next to her and start helping her out. She looked up and saw her and Piper's good friend, Hazel Levesque. Hazel was one of the newest big talent in the movie industry. She could make a log feel emotional. Hazel stood there looking as she usually did, with her dark skin, beautiful golden eyes, and curly, caramel-streaked hair. Hazel always looked and carried herself in a way that politely screamed 'Old Hollywood', but when Annabeth looked down to take in her outfit, Annabeth saw that Hazel was not wearing sweats like she was, but a flowy, semi-formal purple dress.
"So Hazel…" Annabeth began. "How's it going? Did you go somewhere nice today?"
"No," Hazel laughed. "Piper said to dress nicely because she wanted to go out."
"Oh…" the panic began to mount in Annabeth. "Sorry Hazel… I—uh—gotta go do something…"
Annabeth turned around in a hurry, knocking over half of her purchased food, but Piper, dressed in a lacy pale pink dress, blocked her exit out of the kitchen. "There you are, Annabeth," Piper said, grinning evilly. "Just in time to help me with makeup."
"About that, Piper…" Annabeth trailed off uncomfortably. "I remembered I have urgent business… Reyna called… I'd love to celebrate 21 with you another time…"
"Nice try, dear, but I invited Reyna and she's meeting us there. Now come on," Piper finished, jerking Annabeth's arm violently and leading her up the staircase as an amused Hazel followed. When they got upstairs, Piper locked her door and sat Annabeth on her stool. "Makeup or hair first?" she asked brightly.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I don't have anything to wear so I couldn't possibly go out with you. You brought me here under false pretenses, remember?"
"Ah yes, that," Piper giggled. "Don't worry. I have something—loads of somethings, actually. Wait a moment."
Piper reappeared with a bundle of clothing. She spread it all out on her bed and some on her floor. Holding up different dresses to Annabeth's body, she quickly moved everything around, muttering to herself. Finally, she picked something up and her eyes lit up. "This is it! Put it on!" Piper pleaded Annabeth.
Annabeth grumbled her disbelief at Piper's disrespect for her feelings but walked into the bathroom anyway. She put on the two bundles of lace in her hands. "Oh hell no," Annabeth muttered to herself. Putting her arms around her midriff, she reentered the bedroom and glared at her friends, who stopped their conversation and began laughing at her expression.
"Looking good, Annie!" Piper exclaimed while Hazel stared open-mouthed at Annabeth's outfit.
"Shut up, Piper! I am not wearing this crop top! Or this skirt! It's tight and short!"
"Honestly, Annabeth, you love lacy dresses, and this is practically a dress. Less than an inch of your midriff is showing and that skirt is past your finger tips and no tighter than other things I've seen you wear and like." Piper grinned evilly. "Plus, it's my birthday, so I will accept no other present than you wearing this to my party."
"Speaking of party, why are Hazel and I going? You're going to want to do shots probably and neither of us is 21."
"Nice try, sweetie, but you're going and wearing the dress."
"Drat."
"I can't believe you substituted 'drat' for 'damn'."
"Shut up."
Piper chucked teal heels at Annabeth, which after a few minutes of protesting, she reluctantly put on. Piper then did everyone's makeup as Annabeth complained about how the shoes were too high. Finally, Annabeth felt something hit her side as Piper chucked a matching clutch to appease her and exited the room. Hazel and Annabeth followed, the former giggling and the latter sulking.
When the girls finally got downstairs, Piper opened the door and gestured to a limo waiting for them. "Tonight we ride in style," she announced.
Annabeth went through the door first and saw a window of opportunity. "Peace out suckers!" she called, taking off running down the driveway, for Piper and Hazel would be too surprised to follow and the driveway was big enough that the driver couldn't block her. Reveling in her newfound freedom, Annabeth almost didn't notice when she tripped and let out a yelp. She came back to her senses with skinned palms, a throbbing ankle, and her friends standing over her trying and failing to stifle their laughter.
Annabeth sat up and blinked. "I think I hurt my ankle. I can't go out tonight."
Piper, who had been losing in her attempts to not laugh let it all out. "Puh-lease, Annabeth. I may have barely seen it, but I saw how you fell, and the probability that you even sprained your ankle is miniscule. It's probably just from the sudden movement. It's happened to me before."
After cleaning Annabeth's palms and icing her ankle, Piper and Hazel ushered her into the car. The car ride was silent with the exception of some pop music playing in the background. "This is abuse," muttered Annabeth. "My ankle is broken and I'm being forced to go to a stupid party."
Hazel felt Annabeth's ankle and rotated it. Annabeth merely whined a little. "Hon… It's not broken. You would feel way more pain if it was."
Annabeth eventually stopped complaining aloud and started making a mental list of all of the ways in which she would pay her friends back for this night.
Finally, the girls arrived at their destination, some hip club that Piper booked for the night. Music blasted from inside and the walkway in front of it overflowed with crazy fans of Piper and people who enjoyed seeking out famous people, as well as slews of paparazzi.
"Piper, I can't leave this car," Annabeth said panicking.
"Relax, dude," Piper sighed. "I thought this might be a problem—wait just one second."
As Piper said those words, ten security guards emerged from the building and five stood on each side of the car door, creating a path between their door and the club's entrance. The three girls briskly walked down the path and they almost got to the door before the paparazzi realized it was them. The flashing of the lights increased and they were bombarded with questions.
"Hazel, any projects in the works?"
"How does it feel to be twenty-one?"
"Tell us about you and Percy Jackson!"
All of the girls ignored their respective questions. The security guard let them in quickly, and Annabeth sighed. "So it begins," she groaned, in reference to the questions about her and Percy.
The party had just started, Annabeth and Hazel sat down and had drinks (non-alcoholic for Annabeth, obviously, since she was under 21) while Piper made sure everything was ready with the DJ and the bartenders. Hazel and Annabeth chatted at their table and bobbed their heads to the music until Piper rejoined them. "The room's full enough now!" she shouted over the music. "Let's dance!"
Annabeth started dancing very badly and very self-consciously, but as she the songs went on and more of her friends arrived and danced in a circle, she began dancing and relaxing and—dare she say it?—having fun. Suddenly, she felt a pair of arms snake around her waist. Annabeth immediately stiffened and turned her head slightly to glare at the offender. A familiar smile greeted her and she felt the overwhelming relief that a stranger wasn't touching her before remembering that Percy Jackson was just as bad as some pervert.
When Annabeth turned to face him, Percy put his hands on her waist. "Percy Jackson! Get your filthy hands off of me!" she said, feeling very irritated and making very large hand motions.
"Annabeth," Percy whispered calmly. "I don't know how many of your friends know this is fake, but we're in public and someone has probably already taken ten phone pics of us, so you have to act like this you're at least somewhat into me."
Annabeth gulped and opened her mouth to retort, when she felt Percy's lips meet hers. She stayed still but closed her eyes and thought about the feeling. The kiss wasn't unpleasant—Percy's lips were soft, he smelled nice, and the kiss made Annabeth feel kind of warm in a hey I could do this more often type of way, but she figured that was because she hadn't kissed anyone in about two years. Percy kissed her for a few seconds before stepping back and smiling cheekily. Annabeth giggled in return. She wanted to hit him really badly for springing their first kiss on her, but his smile was contagious, and anyway, everyone undoubtedly assumed this was standard for them by that point.
"Keep your hands off me, Jackson, and you may make it through the party," Annabeth whispered, smiling.
"I don't know if I can. You look hot as fuck," Percy replied, nibbling on her ear and grinning.
Annabeth turned around, not giving him the satisfaction of a response. Her friends had mostly stopped dancing in order to stare at the new couple. Annabeth turned red and realized she wouldn't be able to skulk away. "Guys, this is Percy, my boyfriend," she choked out. "Percy," she continued, "This is Piper, Hazel, Rachel, Silena, Calypso, and Thalia."
Percy grinned at all the ladies and gave a quick hug to Thalia, who Annabeth assumed he already knew. "Hey ladies. Annabeth, I guess beautiful women flock together." Half the group blushed and rolled their eyes good-naturedly while Piper and Thalia cackled and Annabeth, absolutely mortified, dug her stiletto into Percy's foot.
"Don't over-do it, buddy," she whispered.
Knowing she had to spend time with Percy now, Annabeth grabbed the excuse and headed to one of the tables outside the dancefloor. She looked up and saw that to avoid being alone together, it was between a booth of slightly older people sitting with Piper's dad, Tristan MacLean, and four boys looking at them that were probably Percy's band mates from the wave he gave them. Annabeth said a quick hello to Mr. MacLean and let Percy lead her to the rest of The Argo II.
The boys all stared at them with various states of shit-eating grin on their faces. As Annabeth slid in next to Percy, one of the boys, who had curly hair and an impish expression, cried out, "Oh my God! You're Annabeth Chase! I'm Leo Valdez, your biggest fan—right after Percy, that is," he smiled and raised his eyebrows at Percy.
"Nice to meet you too, Leo! Biggest fan, ey?" she asked Percy.
Percy pretended not to hear her. "ANYWAY," he said loudly. "Guys, this is Annabeth. Annabeth, this is Leo, Jason, Frank, and Nico."
Annabeth looked around and surveyed all of the boys. It seemed that Leo was very hyper and funny because he'd tried at least five different jokes on her since she sat down a minute ago, but at least he wasn't pretending to be cool, and hey, it worked for him. Frank seemed very serious and nervous from what Annabeth could tell, but that nervousness coupled with his big build just made him more endearing. Jason was very clean cut and affable, social, but not too much—Annabeth didn't know how much of this image was him and how much was for publicity, so she decided to be wary around him. And finally, Annabeth almost missed the last member in her survey of the band. Nico sat in the corner and seemed to be able to pull the shadows over him to envelop him. He was quiet and seemed nice enough, but Annabeth didn't want to provoke him. When they made eye contact, she couldn't tell if his smile was kindly or mocking her. Overall, she thought him more emo than anything else.
"So…" Leo wiggled his eyebrows. "How'd you two meet?"
As Annabeth opened her mouth to formulate an answer, Percy started speaking. Thank God, Annabeth thought. I don't have to lie.
"Well…" Percy started, smirking. "Chiron told me that her manager reached out because Annabeth really wanted to meet me. We met, she was all over me, and the rest is history."
Annabeth gaped. She could not believe that Percy would be this ridiculous to her in public, even among his friends. Percy's friends all laughed, which spurred Annabeth into motion, no matter how futile. "In your dreams, Jackson." She addressed the other boys. "Reyna called me really early in the morning and made me come over. This idiot would not stop coming on to me and here we are."
"Liar!" Percy exclaimed. Annabeth held her breath and waited for the other boys to respond. Though she didn't know them personally, she didn't know what she would do if anyone actually thought that she was fawning over Percy.
"Nice try, Percy," Jason said, smirking. Annabeth decided that she liked him and that his affableness was probably genuine. "We all know you had a huge crush on Annabeth back in high school."
"Oh really?" Annabeth asked, grinning at Percy. "Do tell…"
Nico finally chimed in, grinning evilly. "He had posters of you in his lock—" Percy tackled Nico and put a hand over his mouth.
"Alright, that's enough of that," Percy said. Annabeth could have been mistaken, but she was almost certain there was a blush rising on Percy's cheeks.
In that moment, Piper saved Percy's ass. The slightly tipsy girl stumbled over and led the rest of Annabeth's friends, minus Silena and Calypso but with Reyna instead, to the table. The boys all got up and rearranged themselves to let the girls sit in between them, while Piper and Thalia immediately sauntered off to go harass someone.
Annabeth felt she really should have told the rest of the girls that she and Percy were in a fake relationship, as she knew her acting had to be really convincing in front of them. Luckily, all of the boys were nice people and the girls got along with them so the conversation flowed easily. Annabeth even saw Frank and Hazel giving each other shy smiles—bless their cute souls.
Finally Thalia sauntered back with a stumbling Piper and Silena and Calypso following her. "All right, everybody!" Piper cried out. "Time for cake and birthday shots!"
Everyone whooped and Annabeth rolled her eyes at her friends' antics. Percy helped her up and they walked over, his hand on her waist. Annabeth frowned at him, but he just grinned in response. They all sang 'Happy Birthday', after which Piper cut and handed out the cake, trying to move on to the next phase. Finally, when everyone had eaten some of the delicious cake—partly due to the threats Annabeth and Piper had made to their skinnier, healthier celebrity friends—the bartender brought out a round of shots.
"OH YEAH!" cried Piper.
Percy reached out for two and put one in front of himself and the other before Annabeth. Annabeth pushed it away timidly. "I can't drink this," she said, expressionlessly. "I'm not 21 yet."
"You think it matters, Annabeth?" Percy replied. "We're separated from the dance floor by a wall, and nobody that can see us has a phone out."
"I've only ever had wine though in Europe, and even that took a lot of getting used to before it tasted okay…"
"Look, I'm not saying you should get drunk, but it's one of your best friends' birthday parties, and I think you should have fun and try something new. Besides, I'll be here if the shot is poisoned or something. You trust me, right?"
Annabeth looked up at Percy and couldn't help but laugh. "I totally do not. I think you'd be the one to poison my shot if anything."
Percy mocked hurt. "I. Am. Offended, Annabeth. How could you not trust me?" He batted his eyelashes.
Annabeth gave him a light push in response. "You have an untrustworthy face," she said, giggling.
Percy's face softened—whether in response to that comment or not, Annabeth did not know. "Let's do them together," he said, referring to the shots. "Are you down?"
Annabeth knew he was asking the same thing Piper would ask if she wasn't already four shots deep and separated from Annabeth by a whooping Thalia. Besides, trying new things with friends was a good way to make friends, and God knows Annabeth was trying to do that with Percy. And besides number two was that Annabeth was twenty one in about a month and didn't even plan on drinking anything else so it was fine.
So Annabeth raised her shot and clinked it with Percy's raised one. "Cheers," she said softly. Annabeth started pouring the shot into her mouth but plugged her nose the second she tasted it. "This is disgusting," she said, with a very disgusted look on her face.
Percy meanwhile, laughed his ass off at Annabeth's reaction. "It's an acquired taste," he told her. Before Annabeth could kill Percy for convincing her to take that shot, a very drunk and unsteady Piper teetered up to them supported by an equally drunk but infinitely more stable Thalia. Annabeth got under Piper's other shoulder and they supported her to the dance floor where they began dancing. Percy watched as the girls alternated who saved Piper from falling while he sat at the bar and talked to his band mates.