Story Name: The Iris Network

Author:turquoiserainlilies

Disclaimer: Do not own Percy Jackson or anything related, just the plot (really, not even that original). THANKS RICK!

Summary: He's a gamer. She's the Queen Bee. Percy struggles with unwanted fame from his father. Annabeth can't forgive her best friend for falling in love. Living miles away doesn't stop two people's fate from meeting, after all, the best thing to fall in love with are someone's words. AU!AH.

Chapter:18 of 22

greek3fire ix

new york 02/01/14 15:38 utc-5

percy jackson

greek3fire: Wise Girl?

greek3fire: Annabeth?

greek3fire: Hello!

greek3fire: You're just ignoring me right now

Percy had gotten detention about a total of three times in his entire school career. It was quite the record actually, most people assumed he'd be the troublemaking kind, and he was. It was just that he usually also had good friends to talk him out of drastic measures.

One of the said former best friend sat across the classroom, scribbling and appearing to rewrite the entire Declaration of Independence. In front of the class, Mrs. Dobbs stared at the pair with her beady monstrous eyes, lingering on Percy especially.

He shot back a cheeky smile, which was his first mistake.

"Is there a problem Mr. Jackson?" Mrs. Dobbs glared pointedly.

"Nope." He said hastily, and resumed to what he had been trying to do before, nothing. It wasn't like he could concentrate on his homework with the devil herself staring at him. How Grover could get any work then was beyond him.

"I hope you realize that this is punishment, honey." She said nastily, "That there is a lesson to be learnt from this."

"Yeah, don't get into fights, that part was evident."

Either Grover laughed but covered it up with a cough, or the flu that's been going around had finally hit him. Percy pretended he didn't care.

"If you behaved well in the first place, both of us wouldn't be in this mess." Mrs. Dobbs jabbed sharply, "Now be quiet!"

He was going to retort by saying that he was quiet in the first place, but it didn't look like that was going to do him any good. Mrs. Dobbs hated him so much that as much as a second look would get him suspension. Instead he resolved to capping and uncapping his pen over and over again, waiting until the clock strikes the next hour.

When he had first been caught punching Grover in the face, Percy's sentence was one day of detention, which stretched to a week. Strangely Grover didn't seem to process, just get to the class every day, and leave immediately after, not stopping to talk to Percy. They never talk any more, and it was quite the inconvenience since they pretty much sat together in every class they shared (at least three times a day). It drove Bianca nuts.

"Why can't you just apologize!" She cried with exasperation, earlier that day during lunch. Grover was sitting with his eco buddies, leaving Percy and Bianca to their table next to the window. Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang were also sitting with them, but per usual, they were too busy in their couple-y ventures to pay much attention to the cousins.

"I have nothing to apologize for, he asked out Reyna and expected me to be alright with it."

"Well, it's not like you still like her, with that online girlfriend you're pining over." Bianca rolled her eyes, "I swear, you're so much like Ann—"

"What online girlfriend?" They both turned their eye up to find the last person they expected. "OOhhh…Percy, you've been holding out on me!"

"Drew." Percy said flatly, "Now is not a good time."

"Yeah, heard you had that big fight with your bro Groovy the other today." She wore a faux smile on her face, "Wish I'd been there to see it."

Drew winked and squeezed herself into the table that's really only meant for four people. Percy shuffled over awkwardly. "Umm…not to be rude, but what are you doing?"

"Your table is in direct eyesight of Grover and Reyna." Drew said, pointing her finger at the eco freaks without shame. "I wondered if you picked this spot on purpose."

"We sit here every day." Bianca deadpanned.

"So it was he who chose to sit there then! Directly in view." Drew nodded, "Interesting…"

"Why do you care again?" Bianca huffed. She never got alone with girly girls, having been raised with a brother for most of her life.

"I don't." Drew laughed, as if she just told a good pun. "Just doing this as a favor to a friend."

Percy can't imagine Drew being friends with anyone that is interested in some fight between two guys. He can hardly imagine Drew with friends, period.

"Junebug is asking about Grover." Drew plucked a fry from Percy's tray, to his annoyance, but his mind is too occupied on another detail to care.

"Junebug? You mean Juniper?" He gasped.

"Sure, you know that she likes your best friend, yeah?" Drew smiled knowingly. "She heard that you were fighting about her, and instead of being a good little girl and enjoy the attention, she had to take the high road and try to reconcile you two." She rolled her eyes, "She's so boring."

"So why are you helping her?" Bianca said sarcastically.

Drew narrowed her eyes at the di Angelo girl. "Because I'm nice." There was an awkward pause in the air, "Oh, and I wanted to talk to Percy here, of course." She looped her arm around Percy's elbow. "Hear his side of the story on the whole Greyna situation."

"What the hell is Greyna?" Percy wondered aloud.

"Grover and Reyna, everyone's talking about it, and everyone wants to know what you think." Drew squirmed closer. Percy felt her nails digging into his skin uncomfortably. "You're a celebrity Percy Jackson, you know."

He gritted his teeth. Yeah, he knew. The word that he is going into business with his dad must've spread around somehow, as words always do. Now the entire world was looking at him that was again, something he thought was lost since two years ago when the news first travelled. He was so differently back then, still dating Reyna, still clueless about girls, still friends with Grover.

Well, one thing's the same, you haven't heard from Annabeth for a while.

He supressed that haunting thought, it was far to morbid to think about.

She's been awfully quiet for a while, are you sure she's alright?

"Whatever!" He cried, detaching himself suddenly so that Drew almost toppled off of the table. "I'm going for a walk!"

"Percy." Bianca said warningly, "Are you—"

"Peachy!"

The first place he thought he could clear his head was the beach, which unfortunately wasn't a walking distance from Goode High school, so he figured that the pool would do. There wasn't a swim practice that day, so his trunks were still at home, but just being around water had that calming effect.

Two things had that, actually.

He opened his phone and checked all the previous messages. The last time Annabeth texted him was a little over three days ago, long enough to be worried since she was never this late. The last thing he sent her was a joke and shellfish, and then…nothing.

He was frustrated on so many levels, with Grover, Drew, Reyna, and now Annabeth, the one person he thought wouldn't leave him. He knew that they haven't known each other for a very long time, but he thought that they had a genuine connection.

But then she goes to ignore him for three days.

"Percy?" He looked up, expecting Bianca or maybe Drew, but certainly not Juniper. "What's up?"

"What are you doing here?" He asked quickly.

"My brother left his textbook in the lockers, so he asked me to pick it up." June supplied, holding up the Grade 9 Science book in her left hand. "I thought I heard someone?"

"Me." He raised his hand half-heartedly. "Trying to figure shit out."

She smiled sadly. "Well, I'm really sorry, I've been wanting a chance to talk actually, if you're not busy—"

It would be really nice to get an impartial opinion from someone. It was usually Annabeth who talked to him when he's at his lowest in the past two month (two month anniversary since the first day they've talked, he thought in the back of his mind), but she was MIA. June was nice enough, but Percy couldn't.

"Actually, I think you should talk to Grover."

Her eyes widened. "Grover? I thought he has Reyna."

"Yeah, I doubt it very much." Percy had to hide his laugh. Grover and Reyna, about a good of a match as him and Drew. "He likes you, he'll kill me for saying so. And I'm pretty sure you like him too."

June's hair went as red as the root of her auburn hair. "Well, he's very nice to me, and loves the environment. Most guys these days just talk about video games and sports!" She thought about it for a moment, "No offense."

"None taken." Percy said quickly. He decided not to mention Grover's level 9 satyr character in Greek Fire. He became the Lord of the Wild in the game, so that sort of evened things out. "But yeah, just sort of avoid talking to me for a while, and show some interest in him, and I think that'd be good."

June shuffled her feet for a moment. It was a lot of information to take in. "You cared a lot for your friend." She noted. "I can't help but to ask though, do you wish you had someone?"

He looked towards his phone. No new message per usual. "I've got what I needed." He told the half-truth, if only what he needed wasn't across the country and not picking up her cell. "Thanks Juniper."

"Yeah." She said thoughtfully. "I'll talk to Grover after school."

"Er…he's got detention."

"After that then." June decided. "I've got to stay behind for Art Club anyways."

It was after school now, and detention had just let out. Percy watched as Grover shuffled out of the room quickly, not even bothering a second glance back. He sighed and followed, waving a cheeky goodbye at Mrs. Dobbs that may or may not have caused him another week worth of detention.

Grover was headed towards his locker, a thing that made it more awkward since Percy's locker was just as close by. The last week had been torture, but if June came through with her promise, it would end soon.

Sure enough, a pretty auburn hair girl made her way around the corner into the hallway, and lit up when she saw Grover.

"Your girlfriend's here." Percy's friend mumbled, the first words he said to him in the past week.

"Dude, I'm pretty sure she's all yours." He grinned right back. Grover shot him a confused look, but didn't have time to retort before June tapped him on the shoulder.

"Summer volunteer program at EcoWorld, the orientation's on Sunday, you want to come?" She smiled brightly.

Grover looked like he's been told he's won a cruise to Hawaii.

"He'd love to." Percy poked his head over Grover's shoulder. "Just mark the date!"

"Great." June said, but mostly towards Grover, and skipped away considerably lighter than she had been walking towards him. Grover slowly turned around, not trusting his limbs to move quickly.

"Did that—"

"Yup." Percy nodded. "I know it's not much, but you'll be going on solo dates in no time."

His face flamed. "Shut up."

"Never."

They awkwardly stood next to the locker for a moment. What did they do when they weren't fighting again?

"Oh right." Percy snapped his fingers suddenly. "Dad's got three tickets to VidGameCon over Valentine's Day, as a gift for going to business school and stuff. You and Bianca are in, he arranged everything with the teachers so you don't miss out on stuff."

Grover smiled. "Hell ya!"

The celebration of a renewed friendship was marked by three hours of Greek Fire marathon, in which Percy unlocked the god Apollo and the defeated the titan Atlas, while Grover had gotten the first hint at the return of the god Pan. Finally Sally yelled at them to take a break, only luring them from the TV screen by some blue chocolate chip cookies.

"Excuse a second." Percy said. He could hear his Skype tone all the way from the kitchen. He didn't even pause to hear their reply before tripping himself over to the bedroom. Could there be an answer to Annabeth's absence?

"Wise Girl?" He asked as soon as her face popped up. Yeah it was her you dumbo, it was her screen name.

"Percy." Her face lit up the screen. Her bedroom was very dark, was it night in San Francisco? He never understood the time difference. "I don't have a lot of time."

"What's wrong?" He asked.

Annabeth took a deep breath, like a doctor would before telling you that your mother had cancer or your sister broke her hip bone or something. "My mother got me into a college."

"That's great!" He said immediately. It was what he was supposed to say. What he wanted to figure out was when the hell Athena Williams made her way back to Annabeth's life.

"It's in Greece." She said.

That's the real problem of all this, Percy realized. She looked just a tormented about telling him this as he was receiving it. "Does that—" He paused, gathering his thoughts, "Do you have to go?"

Childish reply, he realized, but he needed to know if this long distance thing was going to become a longer distance thing.

She opened her mouth to reply, but not before another figure stormed into the room. Blonde hair, grey eyes, Percy was about to ask when Annabeth was going to tell him that she had a twin before he realized that this new girl was a woman and twenty years older.

"Annabeth! I told you no computer." She screeched, and before Percy could explain, a hand reached towards him and the screen went black. He sat there for a moment, nursing his heart attack and wondering what had happened.

He didn't even realize that Grover made it back into the room.

"Dude, that's Bianca's friend." He pointed at the screen.

"Were you there the entire time?" Percy wondered, slightly embarrassed and turning around.

"Nah, just before she cut off, that was a little rude." He frowned. "Seriously though, she's in some of Bianca's vacation pictures. The blonde chick with grey eyes?"

Percy's heart might've collapsed, or maybe exploded. "How come I've never see her."

"Don't make me laugh Percy, you never pay attention to Bianca's stories."

He turned his mind to the screen. Wise Girl, Annabeth, Bianca's friend, whomever she was, Percy was definitely in love with, despite the distance. Worst of all, the distance just became a lot bigger than just across the country.

New update: February 4, 2014

Okay, just a heads up, the update after that would be on February 12, and then 13, and then 14, so that's three chapters over three days (it's Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I believe). So just brace yourself for it.

I've been practically dying over the past week because of a flu, so that sucked. John Green was apparently sick too, who knew?