Summary: He didn't want it to happen, it just did. Everything that meant something to him just left. Vanished. Disappeared. He threw everything meaningful aside. He ignored society, the community and his 'so-called-friends'. He ruined his own life, built up a mask to protect himself, to protect others. But he wasn't happy. Not at all.

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT OWN THE PERCY JACKSON AND/OR THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS CHARACTERS. I REPEAT! DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON OR THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS CHARACTERS! ALL THE CREDIT GOES TO RICK RIORDAN.

Harsh Words

She Who Doesn't Give Up

Annabeth didn't go home to get changed so it felt uncomfortable when she saw Percy's expression of disbelief. She felt unhygienic but Percy didn't say anything about the clothes. It was like she could hear his thoughts. He didn't like that she was here but to be fair, it was his fault. The pairing was unbearable but she needed the grades.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" She heard Percy say, screwing his eyebrows together.

With a sigh, she crossed her arms and leaned on one leg. She did not have time for his games. She only had time for their project, which they should be doing.

"I'm here for the assignment, as promised." Annabeth said.

She heard Percy growl "what promise?" but she didn't answer. Instead she followed the path that led to the living room. What she found inside was so out-of-the-ordinary. Annabeth would have been more convinced that Percy learned ballet than finding out that he had female company in his house. She hadn't even known her mouth had dropped open until the pretty girl in front of her blushed and pointed to her mouth.

"I didn't know you had…a guest. I should get going—" Annabeth said, quickly making a move to leave.

"No! I'll go. I've been here for a while now and I heard you have a project together." The pretty girl said, making her way out to the door. "Please. I wouldn't want Percy to fail his lessons because of me."

"Calypso, wait! I can do this another ti—" Percy tried to say.

"Like hell you could, Percy!" Annabeth snapped.

He just gave her a look like all of this was her fault.

"No, do your thing. I'll pop by another time." The girl – Calypso – said, smiling to Annabeth before leaving.

When the door closed, Percy let out a loud sigh and deathly glare towards Annabeth. He muttered some curse words under his breath and stamped up the stairs. Annabeth followed after him, glaring as hard as she could into his back, hoping that a hole would magically go straight through him. They were in his room before she even knew it and wow was she impressed! For a punk like him, Percy's room was a lot…brighter than she had expected. It was all shades of blue, going from neon to navy. All this even made his eyes stand out more.

"Cold War, right?" Percy asked, looking at her in the eyes.

They were both standing in the middle of his room and he had a cardboard box in his hands. His facial expression was hard to read but you could tell he wanted to get this over and done with. Annabeth kind of didn't know what to do since she had it all planned out that she'd force him to cooperate. This was too easy.

"…Yeah. Do you have any ideas?" She asked, looking around.

"Uh huh. I was thinking…"

Then Percy started rambling about their project. It all came at once to her, like she was hit by a train. Before today, she saw nothing but shades in his eyes but right at this moment, shots of all the colours of the rainbow appeared. He spoke about how to structure the soldiers they were going to make and that he'd make the scene and she designs it. This was a win-win, considering she loved architecture.

And before she knew it, Percy was done speaking. Maybe it was because he was rambling like it was stupid, or it could be that Annabeth was smiling and giggling for some god damn stupid reason. Either way, the mood was killed.

"Let's just get started." He muttered.

During that time, Annabeth wondered why he opened up about his ideas. He's never done anything like this since freshmen year. However, this was a good start to their session. They began working on their project almost in silence. A couple of comments on planning and debating what to buy on their tight schedule but all in all, she thought that this partnership thing was working smoothly. It was weird. Never once in her life did she find content in the company of Percy. Annabeth would steal a couple glances at Percy, finding herself nodding in approval of the fact that Percy was actually trying. Once, maybe twice – okay, three times – Percy had caught her gaze but as a response, she got the cold shoulders.

By the time Mr. Blofis had gotten home, it was already 9PM and Annabeth was finished sketching the, what she calls, "blueprints" for their project. Percy had fallen asleep, tired from overworking (though in Annabeth's dictionary she would call it underworking). She called it quits when Mr. Blofis came into the room, knocking the door, of course.

"Ah, Annabeth. Had I have known you were here, I would have made some cookies." Mr. Blofis said, giving her a warm smile.

Annabeth's lips curled up, mirroring his expression as she stood up. She dusted off invisible dirt off her jeans before picking up her bag.

"That's okay, sir. I hadn't planned on staying long."

He nodded and walked past her, pulling the blanket over Percy so that he didn't freeze at night. Annabeth could see the loving look in her English teacher's eyes as they gazed down at the blissful Percy. She could tell that this man loved Percy, though they were nowhere near related, and she felt pity because she knew that the sleeping boy didn't reciprocate the feelings.

"Would you like a lift home, Annabeth?" Mr. Blofis had said, turning his eyes onto her.

With a pleasant smile, she nodded. It would have been safer for her to be driven home rather than walk home in the dark. She technically didn't live near them either. Picking up her school bag and jacket, Annabeth made her way to the door, Mr. Blofis following behind her. It took them a while to leave since he had to find his car keys, which he had forgotten that he left in his pocket and not on the hook.

They entered the car in silence. It was a little weird being in a car with a teacher who coincidently was the foster father of a boy she didn't like. However, the atmosphere wasn't intolerable. Soon enough, Mr. Blofis broke the silence as he turned down the street.

"Annabeth, I'm very glad that you gave part of your time to get Percy to work on his studies. I know he's a handful and quite," Mr. Blofis chuckled weakly, "rude but he's a good kid."

Annabeth nodded though she couldn't ever imagine Percy being good but then again, she should really stop judging him.

"As a matter of fact, he's even gotten a job with mentoring a boy." Mr. Blofis added.

That news alarmed Annabeth and it made her eyes widen. She was so stricken that she had her back to the passenger door, feeling the seatbelt dig into her arm. Annabeth didn't even have kids to tutor or mentor. How the hell did a below average boy like Percy get a job like that?

"I just hope that you two get along well. He's lonely all the time and I know he doesn't like it." Mr. Blofis said before stopping right outside her house.

Annabeth was about ready to leave. She even looked at Mr. Blofis to bid him safe travels. Staring right back at her were her teacher's brown eyes as his brows came together.

"He's a good kid, Annabeth. Give him the chance to prove it." Mr. Blofis said before adding, "and you can call me Paul outside of school."

Annabeth nodded and said her goodbyes before walking up to her door. She took Paul's words to heart, though she didn't mean to and she doubted that Percy treated Paul well. You could just tell whenever Percy and him talk. She wasn't supposed to care since Percy and hers' partnership was only temporary and after that, they'll go straight back to ignoring each other. However, just today; just the fact that Percy had cooperated and worked hard with her; just that Paul had said so many nice things about him, she'll try more than just be civil.

~O.O~

"Is that you, honey?"

Annabeth heard her father call her name from the living room. To be honest, she was surprised her father was even up. Usually on weekdays, Fredrick Chase would come home too tired to do anything other than sleep. Her step mother, Helen, would come to his rescue and help him up the stairs (and Annabeth was help most of the time).

"Yeah, dad. It's me." She replied, walking into the living room.

Surrounding the coffee table were her father, who was reading a book on mechanics, Helen, who was eating a cookie whilst watching her soap opera, and the boys: Bobby and Matthew. Bobby and Matthew were her twin brothers (half to be exact but she never calls them that) who looked nothing like Annabeth herself. Whilst she bore blonde hair, the twins had mops of dark brown locks inherited from Helen. Their eyes were brown like her father's but one thing that they had in common with Annabeth was the smile. Well, the slight smile was something that Annabeth, Fredrick, Bobby and Matthew had in common. Anyway, the boys were playing with their MEGA building blocks they got for Christmas. The twins were already 10 years old but they loved building things then using their action figures to knock them down.

Don't need to warn Annabeth twice that she shouldn't trust them with building her buildings in the future.

"Ah, Annabeth. How come you were out for so long?" Her father asked, peeling his eyes off the newspaper to speak with her.

Annabeth shrugged and took her bag off her back. "I came back from doing a project with my partner. Sorry I didn't tell you. It was kind of last minute."

Instead of her father answering, Helen did instead. Helen was a short and petite Asian woman. Her hair a dark brown with brown eyes. She didn't wear much makeup because she was already beautiful and her skin glowed. It didn't really disturb Annabeth that her step mother was too pretty. She only cared about who Luke thought of her and he told her that she was prettier than Helen.

"At least you could have given us a text. We were very worried when you didn't come home at the scheduled time."

There again the woman spoke about schedule. Yeah, Helen was nice and the "perfect step mother" but Annabeth knew the cruelty behind her words. In front of her father, Helen would be so amazing and caring that you'd think nothing was wrong but every damn day that he was gone, Annabeth was locked behind bars, damned to be instructed with chores. She was basically the Cinderella of the Brothers Grimm tales.

"Sorry." Annabeth muttered. "But…How come you're still…"

"Awake? Active? Alive?" Her father finished for her with a laugh. He didn't need a nod from Annabeth to continue. "My workplace allowed me to finish early today. It was a shame that you weren't here to spend the evening out. We had dinner."

Her heart sank at the words. Her family had dinner without her…again. They didn't even send a text or call to ask. Heck, if they were so worried, why didn't they call her instead of her calling them? It was the more logical thing to do that to complain! But Annabeth didn't say how she felt. She's dealt with this for so long that she picked up her bag.

"…Oh. I hoped you had a nice dinner. I had a meal with my friend and their parents so you didn't need to worry about making dinner." Annabeth said, plastering on a fake smile as she ran out of the living room and up to her room.

As the door shut behind her, tears began to roll down her cheeks. Her lips wouldn't stop quivering as she made her way slowly to the bed. Every step, her stomach growled, begging to feast on something, but she had to calm it. There was no way she could get anything now. She told her parents that she ate, she dug that hole for herself. It's not like they'd care if she was hungry anyway. Annabeth knew of course. It's happened before.

"I'm hungry." Annabeth groaned, sitting up from her bed.

She glanced at her bedside table and saw that it was already 6PM. Judging by the fact that her father or stepmother didn't wake her up yet, it meant that dinner hadn't been made yet. So, joyous and hungry, Annabeth skipped down the stairs, only to halt when she heard laughter coming from the dining room.

Never once in her life had she ever heard laughter come from the dining room. Sure there were exchanges of smiles across the dinner table but everything was serious and silent. However, she guessed today was different. Creeping up to the door, she heard Helen and her father speaking.

"Bobby! Matthew! Stop playing with your food!" Her father said, laughing uncontrollably.

Bobby and Matthew seemed to keep doing it. Not even Helen stopped them.

"Oh honey, these boys are such a hassle, aren't they?" Helen asked.

"Yes, dear. But it's such a perfect night with my perfect family, nothing could disturb this."

Now, Annabeth's father didn't say it loud. His voice was in a whisper but since his seat was opposite the door that Annabeth stood at, she heard loud and clear.

"Perfect family". It was such a cold and hard stab to her heart that Annabeth couldn't move. Her body shook a little. This perfect family they had was surely just between them four, leaving her out. She didn't fit into their perfect family. Why would she when she was a constant reminder of the pain her mother inflicted on her father?

"Wait, we forgot about Annabeth." Her father suddenly said.

A sudden flash of hope sparked her body as she listened closely. He did think of her. She wasn't just a useless part of their family—

"Oh, Annabeth already ate earlier. She told me that she went to eat with her friends." Helen said.

But that wasn't true. Like every other day, Annabeth went straight home from school to do chores. She never even told Helen about her friends. She made a mistake of sleeping because of course Helen would lie. Of course she wouldn't come up stairs to tell Annabeth that dinner was ready. Helen didn't really like Annabeth at all. She'd even let her starve.

Annabeth didn't listen in on what her father had to say. She didn't want him to agree with the woman. She just ran out of the house and onto the pavement. She wandered around for countless of minutes and when she was about to turn back and surrender to the defeat; scavenge around the fridge for any leftovers, she came across a boy.

He was admittedly the most handsome boy that Annabeth had ever met. The boy had sandy blonde hair and Annabeth knew this because the streetlights were right on him. He was taller than her and damn was his jawline sharp. She moved closer and could see his blue eyes. Ones that tempted her closer and closer…

"Hey there, wanderer. I'm Luke."

That was some strange turn of events, eh? I wanted to add in some details as to how Annabeth ended up meeting Luke.

And as you can tell, she didn't meet him during high school…

I mean, how old was she when she met him? I surely wouldn't know… *wink**wink*

I know, I know. You want more percabeth but you need to be patient, guys. I'm building up to that part and before that, they have to overcome some difficult obstacles.

One is mainly the Luke-being-Annabeth's-boyfriend problem…and others like Percy's other love interests ;)

Enjoy this, though!

ThinkStupid (~.~)