Lives Collide

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"Look at this place!" Jason cried as he looked around, "They've destroyed it!"

He was talking about the library and indeed, the old building did look like a shell of its former self. The long windows that ran along the walls were now boarded up with wood because the glass had been smashed. The doors were gone; only the main entrance kept its own tall study ones. Bookshelves that towered over people had been cleaned of their contents and pushed over while there was no area of the floor that wasn't covered in books.

Where Jason and his friends were standing was the centre of the library. It was an open area with desk and lamps and there was a large glass window above it that had been badly cracked but otherwise fine. To the right of this area was a set of large marble stairs that led to the second floor.

Jason looked up to this level, because there was a large wrap around balcony. The bookshelves were still standing like huge wooden posts, but there were books on the floor as well. Not only were the books on the floor, but it was also littered with plastic cups, bottles and bits of food. Cigarette butts were carelessly thrown onto the ground as if there was no paper on the ground at all.

Jason shook his head and looked over at Percy, who was also checking the damage. "What do we do first?" he asked and they all looked at Percy.

Everyone was wearing old clothes and thick work gloves on their hands. Percy thought for a moment and then said, "All the windows and doors are going to be replaced and it wouldn't be a good idea to straighten the shelves until we have the floor cleared. So I guess we'll start with the floor then. All trash can go in the bags and the books can be put in the boxes to be sorted later."

With that, they started to work. Percy was clearing away the rubbish like the rest of them but his mind was elsewhere. He had wanted to start this early; hoping to avoid the Olympia Academy students. But they would be arriving anytime soon. He was constantly looking towards the large doors but every time they opened it was just another member of the community arriving to help.

After an hour, they had cleaned the centre of the library and straightened the tables and chairs. Percy and Piper were standing on the stairs, clearing each step when the doors opened again. Percy looked up by habit and nearly dropped the half filled bag in his hand.

Luke and Conner were walking through the doors. He was frozen, wanting to run for it but unable to move. Piper looked over at him and frowned before turning around just in time to see Annabeth and Grover walk into the library. Her jaw dropped and she looked between Percy and Annabeth. A second later, Percy grabbed her upper arm and pulled her up the stairs.

"We're going to start on the second level!" Percy called to the others, who were still on the ground floor. Percy didn't dare look fully at Annabeth in case she saw him or worse-he fell for her all over again. She annoyingly had that affect on him.

Percy dragged Piper past some bookshelves until the others couldn't see or hear them.

"What the hell is going on, Percy?!" Piper said as she ripped her arm away from him.

Percy took some deep breath and ran his hands through his hair, clenching the stands in his fists. "This can't be happening," he mumbled, "They can't see me!"

Piper frowned at him as she rubbed her arm. Percy had gripped it tightly but he had also gone pale and looked like he wanted to throw up.

"Percy..." she said quietly.

Percy finally heard her and looked at her. He saw her rubbing her arm and he let his arms drop. "I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Its fine," she said, "But what is going on? That-that girl is the one from picture."

Percy paused but nodded.

"So...you know an Olympia Academy student? Who is she?"

Percy glanced at the end of the row, where the balcony could be seen and voices from the ground floor could be heard. "Her name is Annabeth Chase. Her father is a professor and her mother is the CEO of a million dollar company. She's a reluctant heiress and we dated for a while about two years. It...got pretty serious."

"How serious?" Piper asked, her eyebrow rising slightly.

Percy shrugged, "I loved her, Piper. It wasn't puppy love." Percy sighed and kicked some rubbish away with his foot. He let out a bittersweet laugh and said, "We were hoping to go to the same college and get an apartment together. Despite only a few months between us, I was in the grade ahead of her. I was going to take the year out and work and then we would go to college together."

"What happened?" Piper asked but they were interrupted by a helper walking past.

Percy hurried up the row and into the next one. Piper followed him and Percy stopped by a window. It was near the back wall and was intact. Percy turned around and looked out for anyone else.

"Percy, there is no one there!" Piper said, impatient to hear the rest of the story, "How did you get to meet a girl like her? Why did you break up if you loved her that much?"

Percy ran a hand through his hair again before continuing. "I-I met her when I went to the Olympia Academy as a student."

Piper's jaw dropped again but Percy kept going. "I got into that school because my father finally found me after all these years. I didn't even have to pay for it...because he owns the school."

Piper blinked at him and Percy prepared himself for the anger that would be released. His friends did not like Olympia Academy students and he had once been one of them. In fact, he had kind of lead them. Instead Piper frowned and she said, "But none of the Olympia brothers have kids!"

Percy chuckled and replied, "Offically. Hades can't have kids and Zeus can't even keep his wife happy let alone a kid. Plus neither of them are great father figures. Before I was born, the two of them didn't want all the money to go to Poseidon's kids, if he ever had any. So they made a pact not to have any. But my father met my mother. She says that he wanted to run away with her and me but eventually that wasn't case. Poseidon left her and left me and I didn't see him until I was fifteen."

"Oh Percy," Piper said, placing a hand on his arm.

Percy smiled at her and then said, "I went to school there and made friends pretty quickly..." Percy's eyes glossed over, like his mind was somewhere else and he said softly, "Too quickly."

He met her gaze again and continued, "The two you saw walk in first? They're Luke and Conner. I'm sure Connor's twin Travis is here somewhere; they never do anything separately. The boy beside Annabeth is Grover-he was my best friend. There are a few other people who were in my 'inner circle' as they call it."

Percy clenched his jaw and looked towards the balcony again before turning back to Piper. "A few weeks before the start of my final year, I found out that my father had hired them all to be my friends when I first got there. Including Annabeth."

Piper let out a small gasp but let Percy continue. "They were all faking. All of them. Annabeth, Grover and a few others tried to feed me some bull about how they had come to care about me. Annabeth swore that she really did love me too."

"But you didn't believe her?" Piper asked and Percy shook his head. "I left my father's penthouse that night and haven't spoken to him since. He's called my mom a few times but hopefully he's stopped asking for me. I went back to my mom's maiden name and got work at the diner. Actually, I walked into the diner the night I left. It was raining and I had just been walking for hours trying to get my head straight."

Piper bit her lip and Percy could see that she was thinking; it was a lot to take in. She titled her head, her brown hair falling to one side and she looked at him.

This was Percy Jackson; the leader of their small group of friends. He was the oldest, the one they all went to when they had a problem. He was Jason's best friend and her older brother. He always had patience when Leo joked around too much and could bring up Hazel and Frank's self esteem and mood with a couple of words and a joke. He had always dealt with Nico's moods the best. Had he changed in her eyes really?

Piper chose her next words carefully. "Percy, you do know that no matter how far you run from the Academy, you are still the heir to a multi-million dollar fortune?" Percy nodded and Piper paused. But a moment later, she shrugged and replied, "Well, you still seem the same to me."

A wide smile came to Percy's face and he said, "If only all of you will react like that." Piper frowned.

Percy raised his eyebrows at her and said, "You seriously don't expect the others to take the news this well! And don't even think of telling Jason!"

Piper opened her mouth to protest but Percy said, "He will lose his mind if he finds out! He's the last person I want to know."

Piper deflated slightly but knew he was right. It wasn't her secret to tell and the only reason she knew was because she was nosy and saw the picture. "I won't tell anyone, I promise."

Percy smiled at her, saying his thanks before they both went back to the stairs. For the rest of the say, Percy stayed upstairs and out of sight while Annabeth and the others worked closer to the main doors.

-Annabeth; later in the day-

"I smell like stale beer and smoke!" Silena complained as she walked down the steps of the library.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and retorted, "Well, it was you who drank that beer and smoked so it's really your own fault; as well as everyone else at the rave."

Silena wrinkled her nose and replied, "I don't smoke or drink; do you have any idea what those sort of habits do to your skin?" Bechendorf wrapped an arm around her as their group stood on the street after a long days work at the library.

Annabeth smiled slightly when she heard Grover's stomach growl slightly. He blushed and asked, "Do you think there's anywhere we can get a bite to eat around here?"

Connor nodded and said, "That's the best idea you have had all day Grover!"

Annabeth looked around, up and down the street, until she saw a diner on the corner. "What about that place?" she asked and Grover and the twins shot off towards it.

Luke just sighed and said, "I am not eating anything from a place around here. Who knows what they would be serving. I am getting a taxi back to my place. Who's coming?" Silena immediately agreed and Beckendorf shrugged because he wasn't going to leave her. Clarisse couldn't nod her head fast enough.

Annabeth just rolled her eyes again and turned on her heel to walk to the diner. It was a pretty nice place. The outside was painted red with large windows. When Annabeth opened the door, the bell rang out and she could smell all the food from the kitchen. She quickly spotted Grover and the twins sitting at a booth and she hurried over to them.

The place was busy and when Annabeth slid into the seat beside Grover, she could see that a child's birthday party was being held there. It was nearly at the end and the birthday cake had been given out. The cake caught her eye but before she could get a second look at it, the waiter appeared. He was about their age, with short blonde hair.

"Welcome to the Jupiter Diner. What can I get you guys?"

Grover said, "Whatever gets to the table in the fastest time! I am so hungry! Lucky for us, you are open today."

"We weren't supposed to be," the waiter said, "But everyone volunteering at the library needed to be fed and a friend of the owners needed someplace to have a kid's party."

Travis narrowed his eyes and asked, "Have we met before? You look familiar."

Annabeth glanced at his name tag that read 'Jason' before looking back at his face.

Jason clicked his tongue before saying, "I was helping at the library today; cleaning up your mess. A lot of people from the community were, actually."

"Hey, look dude," Connor reasoned, "We're sorry alright. It was a bad idea; trust us, we know. But in our defence, the four of us didn't even know there was a rave going on there when we showed up."

Jason just shrugged and replied, "Are you ready to order?" They rattled off what they wanted and Jason walked off to the kitchen.

"Is anyone else now painfully aware of all the glares we're getting?" Connor asked.

Annabeth looked around the diner. People were indeed sending them strange looks but eventually turned around and minded their own business.

As she turned to look back at the table, Annabeth caught sight of the child's birthday cake again. It was half eaten but she could clearly see that it was blue on the inside.

She folded her arms around herself and leaned back against the seat. She had known one person who had baked blue cakes.

Annabeth stared at Percy as he mixed the batter together in the bowl.

It was two in the morning and she was sitting in the school kitchens watching her boyfriend cook. It had been Percy's idea of course, even though she was just in her pyjamas and he was dressed in his Academy sweatpants. She didn't know if all cooks baked shirtless but she would watch the cooking channel a lot more if they did.

She had her elbows on the table and she was leaning her head on her hand as she stared at him. He was just pouring in the blue food colouring and she could see flour dusted across his black hair.

This hadn't been part of the plan of course. Poseidon had just asked her to be his friend and she could always use the money. Her mother was far too busy to bother with a thing like allowance and she hardly talked to her father. She was just supposed been friendly until he found his own friends, ones that were paid off. But of course, one flash of those sea green eyes and she was done for.

Now she lived every day with the fear that he would find out about the deal, even though she had stopped talking money from Poseidon long ago. She could lose him; it would destroy her. Annabeth was snapped out of her thoughts when she found Percy staring back at her.

He grinned slightly and said, "I know. You are mesmerised by my face, but please, try to contain yourself."

Annabeth scoffed and replied, "Whatever, Seaweed Brain; you have flour in your hair!" The nickname had come from the amount of time he spent in the pool. He called her Wise Girl from her obsession with owls and the fact that she was smartest in her grade.

"When we get our apartment, we have to get a nice kitchen," she said and Percy nodded. He walked around the table, leaving the bowl of cake mixture and said, "Yes...and you will not be allowed in it, in case you burn the place down."

Annabeth gasped at the mock insult and Percy took the chance to swoop down and place his lips on hers. Annabeth stood, never breaking the kiss and let her hands trail up his bare chest to wrap around his neck. Percy's arm looped around her back, pulling her up and against him.

"We really have to stop making out in inappropriate places," she mumbled against his lips.

Percy pecked her lips again before saying, "Oh no we don't."

She smiled and Percy's forehead stayed glued to hers as he stared at her.

"You are mesmerised by my face, but please, try to control yourself," she whispered and Percy's face broke into a huge grin.

He was about to kiss her again but a flash of light caught his eye. Turning, they both saw the security guard's torch flash through the windows in the swinging doors of the kitchen. The guard was in the hallway, doing his rounds.

"Abort mission!" Percy said with a quiet laugh as Annabeth grabbed his hand and they raced though the kitchen and out the back door.

"Annnabeth?" Snapped out of her memory, the blonde haired girl turned to Grover.

"Your food arrived, like, five minutes ago!" he said, pointing to the burger in front of her.

She smiled at him slightly before letting out a shaky breath and starting to eat; just as the door bell rang out again.

-Percy-

Percy walked through door of the diner, with a sigh. He had just finished at the library, being the last one of his friends to leave.

They had all hurried back to open after hearing that so many people needed food. Plus, Mr. D's friend had to have a birthday party at short notice.

All Percy wanted to do was head to the shower and clean the dirt off him. But he groaned when he realised that his friends had probably used his shower to clean themselves to that they could serve the food. He could already see the wet towels left on the floor.

As he walked through the diner, he glanced over at the kid's party near the booths. He was just glad that he had one left in the fridge that could past itself off as a birthday cake.

He froze though, when he saw the Stoll twins wolfing down burgers at a booth. Quickly looking across from them, he saw the backs of two people's heads; one red and one blonde. He knew who they were.

He quickly walked towards the door to the kitchen, grabbing a tray full of drinks from Leo to block his face. Leo gave him a strange look and Percy quickly placed the tray down on the counter and ducked behind it. Leo just headed back to the counter and looked over it to see Percy crouching down.

"What are doing?!" he could only ask but Percy just shushed him and crawled over to the kitchen door. Leo could only shrug and picked up the tray again.

Percy made it through the door and straightened up to hurry past Hettie and to his apartment door. He bounded up the steps and through the door, slamming it behind him. He leaned against, his heart pumping.

That was a close call. And he had a feeling that it wasn't the last one.