Best Game of Capture the Flag in the History of Camp Half-Blood

All right, I was jerk. So the girl I have feelings for, just admitted she felt the same and I treated her just like Luke did. She had been acting so strangely and I was an idiot to not recognize it.

First of all, she wasn't Annabeth with the pink tank top. If she could help it, Annabeth was strictly tee shirt and jeans. She was trying to look nice and she was trying to tell me something so important that she yelled at me because she was scared and she knows I suck at reading girls.

Second of all, Chiron had told me, warned me really, to be nicer to Annabeth when I arrived. I thought it was because she was still broken up over Luke. Who would've thought it was me she was hurt about? I had hurt Annabeth just like Luke.

But I wasn't going to let it stay that way.

I chased after her, even though Annabeth is one of the better runners in the camp, I thought I kept up pretty well. Everyone was climbing the rock wall, lava sprouting left and right so when she slammed the door shut at the Athena cabin, I knew she was alone.

I knocked on the door and yelled, "Annabeth, please let me in!" I heard a muffled cry and then something smacked against the door. When she didn't respond and I knew she wouldn't ever let me in, well, I did what I did best. I entered anyways, knowing that I had to make this right.

She had placed the Camp Half-Blood shirt back on. Her shoulders were hunched and she sat on her bed shaking, crying. No one ever warns you as a teenage boy that if you're a jerk to a girl than they'll cry. You have to figure that out yourself. "Go away Percy," she practically yelled but it was muffled because her hands covered her face.

"Annabeth," I whispered, reaching out my hand to place it on her shoulder. If only she knew how I thought about her all the time. How I was mad at her for never calling or writing because she was the only person I wanted to hear from. "I didn't know, I thought-"

"Well, you thought wrong." She hit her legs with her hands and turned her head to face me. She pulled away from my hand. Her broken eyes were filled with tears. The gray reminded me of storm clouds and the tears reminded me of rain. Her bottom lip trembled. "I should've been wiser, for a daughter of Athena to know that no one would ever like me, especially you Percy Jackson. Not after you've witnessed Aphrodite. Not after you abandoned me for two weeks to be with Calypso."

"I was never in love with them, not like you were with Luke." You really don't understand how much it hurts to see someone you care about crying knowing you did it and that you couldn't comfort them because they wouldn't let you hold them. I wanted to reach out to her and hug her. I wanted to just be Percy Jackson, Annabeth's best friend. But I suppose we couldn't be, not after all of this.

"But I'm sure Rachel is wonderful. I know you kissed her." That I hadn't been expecting. She was right about the kiss happening but it didn't leave me wanting more like Annabeth's kiss had. Curse whoever had felt the need to tell her that piece of information.

"That didn't mean anything," I answered back. "Not like-" But my voice cut off, and I felt myself blush. Why couldn't I just say everything? Maybe because deep down I knew Annabeth was better off without worry about me, someone who could be dead within the week.

"If it didn't mean anything than neither did our kiss," she whipped back. I wanted to retort back that she got it all wrong. That everything else, Calypso, Rachel, Luke, it didn't matter at all in comparison to her but just as I gained some of the necessary courage to speak, a horn blew.

Time for Capture the Flag.

Capture the Flag is the one tradition Chiron made the half-bloods keep since the war started boiling up. As a welcoming to new campers, we were to play a game tonight. For the first time, ever, Annabeth wasn't on my team. She asked Clarisse as a favor to trade teams with her.

Everyone was really surprised, but not as surprised as I was. How could she just avoid me like that? I was standing in the river that separated one side from the other. I knew Annabeth would cross while using her invisibility cap. The water told me when new forces entered. The only person I would recognize above the rest was Annabeth, there was a special way that I knew when she entered the water.

I stood in the secluded area of the river where no one could really see me. I could hear the clashing of metal weapons along the border. Everyone was trying to get to the other side and find the flag unless they were defenders. The sun shone in thick, random patterns through the leaves of the trees. I focused on the current of the river, waiting.

Then, I felt it. The electric current that pulsed through me whenever Annabeth and I were in the same waters started at the base of my feet and made its way up my spine. She was only a few feet ahead. There was a fight occurring just near the thickets in front of her so she was waiting for a clearing. This would be the only time I had the chance.

Cloaking my footsteps with the water's flow, I reached step by step. I wondered for a moment why she remained in the water when she clearly knew my connection with it. Annabeth understood my powers better than most. I could tell she was facing my teams side and that both her sandaled feet were in the water. Even though I couldn't see her, the water told me everything.

I jumped and felt the presence of something solid smack against me. The invisibility cap flung off her head from the fall and we landed both in the water. I picked up the hat before she could and threw it aside so she could put it back on. She glared at me, the orange tee sticking to her from the damp water. "What do you think you are doing?" I had not helped her already annoyed mood with me.

I used my powers to remove the water of her clothes and dropped it back into the lake. She was completely dry except her feet, but that's because we were both standing in the river. My clothes were completely dry because well, son of Poseidon gets some liberties. Annabeth didn't even walk away. I think she finally understood that I had to say something before I let her go. I needed her to make the choice, to say that it was Luke or me.

My feet stepped automatically closer to her. I remembered how two years ago she was taller than me but now, over the summer, I had grown a few inches past her. I stared down at her. The fighting was still going on down the river now and we were completely alone. I reached up and moved a strand of blonde hair away from her face. Her grey eyes were filled with too many thoughts, just like Annabeth always was. I saw hope, fear, happiness, sadness, and worry there in the irises. She was begging me really, not to hurt her any more.

"Luke is a jerk because he didn't know what he had," I observed the way she flinched at his name a bit. But this is the last time I would ever bring him up to Annabeth. From now on, there would be no comparison between him and me. Luke was gone and I was here. He had been the idiot.

I leaned down a bit, inches from Annabeth's face, feeling her breath on my cheek. I could smell nectar and cinnamon from her hair. Her eyes were still intently staring at me. "I'm a jerk because I never told you how much," I swallowed back the fear, "How much I need you Annabeth Chase."

When the distance between us closed, there was this amazing sensation that I was underwater, breathing in the cool misty water because air was so dull compared to this. Her lips were sweet and delicate but they pressed hard against my lips. Her arms were resting against my chest and her fingers were intertwined in my hair. I placed my arms around her waist and held her.

She pulled back and I saw there were tears in her eyes. She wiped them away with the back of her hand. I reached up and held her face so concerned that I had hurt her again. She shook her head, "Percy, I-" Then, I saw the smile in Annabeth that I wished I could see everyday. She was happy, all her worries, fears, and angers, were pushed aside to her joy. Something that rarely happens in the kind of lives we both have.

A blush came across her cheeks, accenting the pale beauty of her skin. She averted her eyes down to her hands resting on my chest. "Gods, to think I wore some stupid pink tank top to impress you because I thought you never felt the same. One of the Aphrodite kids told me it would work." We laughed for a bit. My entire body was numb to the water we stood in. I could only concentrate on Annabeth's touch and the way it practically electrocuted me.

"Think I'm stupid Seaweed Brain?" She asked, clearly embarrassed.

"No, not you, a daughter of Athena. Never." I wanted to tell her love makes you do stupid things. It's the truth after all but just as I opened my mouth, cheers erupted through the woods. I lifted my head over her shoulder to see Clarisse holding the flag in victory distances away. For the moment, no one could see us.

"Who won?" Annabeth looked at me, she didn't both to just look over her shoulder. I stepped back and took her hand in mine. I nodded my head towards the group knowing we'd have to join them. We stood still for a moment though just to relive that kiss, that amazing kiss which I never thought I'd get to share with Annabeth. Then, I answered her question.

"From the looks of it, we both won." She smiled again.