By Monday, word about Annabeth and Percy has spread like wildfire.

In any other situation she wouldn't be pleased at all about this, but she's thrilled the news traveled so quickly. It won't be long before Luke finds out she moved on. He'll be crawling back and returning to her arms in no time. He has to.

The morning classes pass without event, besides the whispers and glances in her direction. She does her best to ignore them, and it isn't too hard when she has two chapters of A Tale of Two Cities to read for english, grueling problems for calculus, and an outline of her final project in architecture.

Her classmates can gossip all they want. It'll be fine. This is nothing like that awful rumor from seventh grade.

The fucking flashbacks come as she's walking to lunch, rushing past the floodgates she tried so desperately to keep closed.

Percy grabbed her shoulders. "Annabeth, he's stupid! Everyone is stupid! You have to ignore them or you'll—"

A tear slipped down her cheek. "But Percy, what if… what if they weren't lying? Not entirely..."

It still haunts her, the piercing heat of everyone's eyes on her. The sound of their laughter. The things they said.

She got her revenge on the asshole who started it, ratted his vaping habit to his mom and pranked him with fake snakes so badly he pissed himself, but the damage had already been done. People stared at her, or even worse, simply ignored her. She lost her best friend.

"You're supposed to be on my side! What happened to having each other's backs?"

"This is different from elementary school and you know it!"

"Percy—"

Annabeth sighs heavily and forces the memories away. This is completely different from then. Now she knows exactly what everyone's whispering about. She started the rumors herself. She is in control.

She stops to fix her hair and touch up her makeup, then meets Piper and Rachel. Of course, the first thing Piper asks her as she sits down is, "Are they true? The rumors?"

"The ones about me and Percy?"

Piper's eyes get wide and she nearly drops her Hydro flask. "Holy shit, they are true. You just called him Percy."

"How does that confirm anything?"

"Annabeth, you hate him," Rachel says. "You always call him by his last name."

Annabeth opens her mouth to reply, though she isn't sure what to say? Would it be more convincing to try to downplay the relationship, or spill all the details? Before she can say anything, a pair of arms wrap around her.

"Hey, babe," Percy says, dropping a kiss on her cheek. "You look super pretty today."

She recovers from her slight surprise quickly and nearly laughs, because he told her just a few weeks ago this dress looked like something out of his grandma's closet. "Thanks," she replies, squeezing his hand.

Percy waves at Rachel and Piper. "You okay, McLean?" he asks, giving Piper a slightly concerned glance because she looks like she's about to have an aneurysm.

Annabeth, though, is more interested in another reaction. Luke's.

He's standing by the fountain with Drew, eyebrows scrunched, expression horrified and furious. He definitely saw Percy hug her, and he's definitely upset. The bottle of Mountain Dew he was drinking from is lying crunched up on the ground, like he tried to crush it or possibly fling it in his hurt.

It's clear—they got a reaction out of him. Annabeth can't keep a satisfied smirk off her face.

She asks Percy, "Are you heading to the cafeteria?"

He nods. "Yup, just wanted to pop over and say hello to my girlfriend first," he says, twirling a strand of her hair around his finger.

"Mmm, say hi to Jason for me," She presses her lips to his jaw and lingers there for a moment so she can murmur, "Good job, Luke looks pissed."

"I'll see you later, Annabeth," he says, pulling away and giving her friends another wave. As he walks off, he mouths over his shoulder, Stupid plan, huh?

Ugh, what a jackass. She'd love to chase after him and snap his neck off. Instead, she keeps a smile on her face and says, slightly sheepishly, "So…Percy and I are together?"

Piper sets down her water bottle. "Um...I so did not see that coming," she says. "What happened to being unable to stay in the same room without trying to kill him?"

"Uh, well…he's hot?"

Rachel laughs. "This is fucking crazy, but also not really at all. It's always been kind of obvious that you were into him."

What the hell? Annabeth frowns. "What are you talking about?"

"It sure wasn't a secret that you thought he was hot," Piper says. "Remember that one time when we were having a sleepover and his curtains were open and he was walking around his room shirtless and you—"

"Okay, you can shut up," Annabeth says, and throws a carrot at her.

Rachel and Piper both cackle.

She could've let the conversation end there. Instead, she continues. "It's not just that he's hot. He's…nice, too. On Valentine's Day, we watched movies together and ate ice cream and it was really fun. And he was really sweet. We kept talking and I guess I realized that he doesn't completely suck and…now we're dating."

"Wait, that's actually really cute!" Rachel exclaims, clutching a hand to her chest while Piper practically swoons. "You guys have that enemies-to-lovers thing going on."

Annabeth's cheeks get hot. "Thanks?"

Piper leans forward, eyes sparkly. "Okay, tell me. Have you guys made out yet?"

Annabeth resists the urge to reel backwards and says, "God, no!" Noticing Piper's confusion, she quickly clears her throat and tries to sound less disgusted. "Uh, I mean, we started dating like, three days ago. It's way too soon for that."

They both giggle.

"This whole thing happened pretty fast, didn't it?" Rachel observes.

Oh, shit. She struggles to keep the smile on her face. This is the one thing she hoped they wouldn't point out. "Uh, I mean, I guess so," she says, "but I never really considered that. It all sort of exploded as soon as we let our feelings out and time seemed irrelevant."

Rachel tugs Annabeth's hair gently. "I'm happy for you, I really am. I'm only worried about how this looks. People…they'll probably think you're Percy's rebound. Or that he's yours."

"I know how it looks, Rach, and I don't care. I really like Percy and he likes me, so why should we have waited? Why should we worry about what everyone else thinks?"

Annabeth knows she's not just saying this; she really believes it. She and Percy are going to be that couple and how the school sees them doesn't matter…well, everyone minus Luke.

"I just want you to know, they will talk."

Annabeth tosses her hair over her shoulder. It's in a ponytail, which kind of diminishes the effect, but she tilts her chin up and says, "Well, then, let them talk."