Chapter 3

Luke sits down next to me and gently tugs my ponytail.

"Hey Annie girl" He teases. I shoot him a glare but he just shrugs knowing I'm not really mad. He's the only one who can get away with stuff like that. His arm wraps around my waist. I'm pretty sure my heart skips a beat.

"Hey," I smile up at him nonchalantly; half of my brain centered on the nerve endings that are going crazy because he's touching me and the other half is centered on my soccer tryout today.

"Did you hear the news?" He asks, while lacing up his cleats. Funny… I didn't know the boys' tryouts were today…

"What?" I ask feeling oblivious. I'm usually too buried in books to notice things that Luke brings up.

"Not enough people signed up so now we're going to have co-ed soccer teams." He raises an eyebrow while his words sink in. I just blurt the first thing that comes to mind.

"Thalia will love that." I smile, picturing her face as she took on the guys. Luke's expression changes instantly and I realize what I've just said. "She would've" I say, looking down at the bleachers.

"What about you, are you still going to try out?" He wonders; I don't miss the subject change.

"Scared?" I tease, raising a blond eyebrow, willing to drop the subject. Luke had taken Thalia's disappearance worse than anyone.

"I don't think so." He smirks, making a point to look me up and down skeptically. We both laugh at the ridiculous gesture. "But I think Percy should be." He gestures over to Percy, talking to Coach. I shake my head.

"I wouldn't beat up the new kid." I laugh along with Luke, as I look down at Percy. He's taller than me, and probably stronger, but I'm not dumb enough to count myself out yet.

Percy

This school is definitely weird, I mean co-ed soccer teams? The girls are going to get beat up. Soccer was never my favorite sport, swimming always held that prize, but soccer had its perks. I grin as I see Annabeth making her way down the bleachers, speaking of perks…. I smile and nod at her when she trots onto the field. To my horror, it takes me a solid minute of staring to see Luke behind her. They're both smiling and laughing. He wraps his arm around her waist and she blushes before pushing him away playfully. She seems… happy, really, really happy.

My ADHD brain leaps to earlier today, in the hallway and how tense they'd both looked. Could they have been fighting? It doesn't seem likely considering how cozy they are now.

Before I could unravel that mystery, Coach blew the whistle hanging proudly from his neck and called us all to attention. Annabeth bounces on her toes, ready to go at any minute. Luke murmurs something in her ear and she settles down with a glare up at him. Coach gives us the usual speech, "he doesn't do favoritism, he doesn't do gender profiling, and he's going to pick the best players for the team."

He quickly divides us up, and I'm a little disappointed that I'm not on Annabeth's team, but instead with Luke as odd as, that, is. We split up into positions and apparently since no one knows me, that immediately makes me defense. I roll my eyes and take it lying down, no point in starting problems.

I settle into position, I'm a bit of a jack of all trades so Defense isn't that big of a challenge for most of the tryouts. I move up and take a few shots, a few of them sailing into the goal, and always make it back in time to stop the play before it becomes a problem. Luke doesn't even get to show off his goalie skills.

Except when Annabeth and Malcolm sub in; being brother and sister, you'd expect them to have some dynamic but they're scary. It's not even that they're strong or fast, that's only half of it. Their biggest weapon is how smart they are; every play, you think you know what they're doing then you don't…

Annabeth receives the pass, jetting down the field. Malcolm's flying down center. I watch on my toes, as Will attempts to stop her. She Nutmegs him, surprise, surprise. I'm on Malcolm the second he's anywhere near me and Annabeth takes the shot before Lexie can get to her. Luke makes the save but I watch as Will finally catches up again and slams into her. The whistle blows as Annabeth hits the ground rolling.

Luke and I take off for her, in fact, almost everyone mobs around her. Luke's the first one on the ground; he gently touches her shoulder, while I kneel by her side.

"You okay?" He asks quietly. She nods and sits up quickly.

"Of course! It'll take way more than that cheap shot…" She shoots a quick glare at Will before scrambling to her feet. We all back up as she gets back to her feet and jogs off. Luke shrugs like 'I don't get it either.'

"Was that a penalty kick?" Annabeth calls over to Coach, who's still on the sidelines, looking bewildered. He nods as Annabeth and Luke line up.

"Give it your best shot Annie-girl!" Luke teases. She blushes and her stormy eyes narrow. She takes a single step back and takes her shot. I watch, in awe, as the ball sails perfectly into the corner with a satisfying swish. I bite my lip to keep from laughing as Annabeth does a little happy dance and Luke groans.

"And on that note, I think we should wrap it up." Coach calls from the sidelines and, with a few cheers and pats on the back to Annabeth, we head over. I grin at her as she brushes her sweat soaked blond hair out of her eyes. She smiles at me and raises an eyebrow. I shrug like 'yeah I'm awesome'. She just smiles and shakes her head before jogging over to Luke. He laughs and wraps an arm around her shoulders. He doesn't look too disappointed from his missed save when they make their way over to the huddle.

Annabeth

Luke still has his arm around me while Coach goes over some team rules and promises the roster will be up by Monday; and he still has his arm around me while we're chatting and walking out to the parking lot; and he stills has an arm around me when he leads me to his truck, where we lean against the side.

We're both disgusting from tryouts, but I hardly notice as Luke grins down at me. I have to remind myself not to swoon. Luke's a senior; he's smart, cool, athletic, and popular. I'm a dorky sophomore, who doodle's architecture. Luke dates the hottest girls in school. I date no one. I'm sure, to Luke, I'm just like his little sister, and that he doesn't think of me in that way.

He runs his fingers through his blonde hair, almost the same shade as mine, and his blue eyes shine with that mischievous twinkle I had loved so much growing up. I've been seeing it less and less recently. It feels great to see it, like old times before everything got in the way. I reach up boldly and trace the feint scar hidden by his hair.

"It's good to see you smiling." I tell him. His eyes close contently and he takes my hand in his.

"Sorry I've been so glum." He sighs.

"It's unacceptable," I tease, only he would apologize for being depressed.

"You want a ride?" He offers, hopping into his truck and releasing my hand.

"Sure" I smile and climb in, only vaguely aware of how couple-y this is. As he pulls out of the parking lot, a figure catches my eye. I instantly recognize Percy, and as we pull out of the parking lot, ours eyes lock onto each others' for just a split second before he turns away.