Chapter 2: The Fight

Author's Note: Hey, what's good everyone? It's Simple back here with another new chapter coming at you. I promised to upload every Friday and as long as my school work doesn't get in the way of that I will be doing exactly that. Anywho, I truly appreciated all the feedback I got from last chapter, you guys are the best, honestly. And one last thing, I would really like to thank SeaweedOwlBrain and MattyICE for all of their help on this story. She's by far the best beta reader you could ask for and MattyICE is the bestest friend you could have. Now who's ready for a dope ass fight scene? I sure as hell am so let's get to it.

-Simple

Percy POV

What the hell just happened? Did Annabeth just tell me to beat her boyfriend in our fight? I watched as she sauntered away with a swing to her hips that's most likely illegal in some states. Damn she was F-I-N-E FINE. I stood there for a few moments, totally awestruck.

What was I doing? Letting her distract me from the fight wasn't a great idea, especially if I wanted to beat Luke to win her over.

Yet there was another problem: Rachel. I knew she was into me, but it really showed when I returned to the cafeteria. She was waiting there for me, hands on her hips.

I grabbed my stuff and looked over at her.

"What?" I asked after noticing her glowering at me.

"Do you realize you were gone with Annabeth for ten, maybe more, minutes? Why'd you abandon me with them?" She indicated the now empty table and to all of our friends who had left. Or, at least, my friends who'd went onto class. The way she said 'them' made me cringe inwardly. It made it quite obvious that she only hung around us for one reason: me.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize we had been gone that long Rachel." I apologized.

"Hmph," She made that sound whenever someone really ticked her off. "Well what did you even talk about?" She asked, the coldness still slipping into her voice.

"Umm, we just talked about the fight that's happening today…" I trailed off hoping she wouldn't broach further.

She jumped onto the statement like a hungry piranha would a piece of meat. "What fight, who's fighting who?"

I forced out a laugh at something that wasn't all that funny. "Down girl," I said. "It's nothing, just a little spat I have to resolve with Luke. No big deal."

"That sounds like a big deal to me." She said. The look of excitement in her eyes told me everything I needed to know. She couldn't wait for a fight between jock Luke and me and knowing her, she'd try her best to get one. For now, I wasn't sold there had to be a fight but if Luke wasn't willing to hear me out then it will definitely come to a brawl.

I brushed off Rachel's comment and glanced at the clock in the cafeteria. It showed I was already late to my next class by 5 minutes.

"Great," I said sighing. "We're late again Rachel, we better get to class, like, now."

She looked up at me with a glint to her eyes. "Remember that time we were late to Chem?" She asked.

"Yes, I remember Rachel all too well." I stated, forcing a smile as I continued walking to class.

She smiled mischievously as she latched onto my arm. "That had to be the hottest makeout session, like, ever."

"I can't agree more." I replied.

I remember it like it was yesterday. Somehow, Rachel and I had ended up making out in the girls bathroom. Don't ask me how, it just sort of happened. Not a process I hope to repeat in the future. Lets just say she wasn't the greatest kisser, almost like she was trying to shove her tongue down your throat. And yes, you can say at times, that I'm sort of a bad boy. But this fight with Luke didn't seem necessary and if I could avoid bloodshed then I would.

I finally reached the door to my class and went to slip away but couldn't before Rachel pulled me into her tight embrace. Her hug didn't make the butterflies awaken in my stomach like when Annabeth had done it.

She let me go after a second and I scooted into Mr. Bublé's Music class. He almost didn't notice me, but of course, my luck was slim.

"Ah," Bublé started, "Mr. Jackson has finally decided to join us." The class laughed. Great, I thought to myself, this is going to be a great rest of the day.

-Scene Break-

I was in study hall when a piece of crumpled paper hit me in the back of the head. I turned around to see Luke glaring at me. He pointed at me, then at him and punched his fist into his palm. It was kind of cliché, but I immediately got the gesture. There was no way that I could avoid this fight.

Cursing, I watched as he wrote something down, folded it into a paper airplane and threw it my way. I caught the thing and turned to see if the teacher had noticed. It seemed she was just as oblivious as always.

I unfolded it and it read:

Behind the school, 3:00 sharp.

And to think I had a chance of avoiding the fight.

-Scene Break-

The bell rang dismissing school for the day. I looked at the time, it was 2:45, I had 15 minutes before the fight. I whipped out my phone and hit up the squad. I typed up the text Meet me in the cafeteria, it's urgent and hit send. I knew they'd get the memo.

I went to my locker on my way to the cafeteria to gather my things. The hallways were eerily quiet, almost as if everyone were already gathering behind the school preparing for the fight. I guess Rachel was right, this was going to be a big deal.

I made it to the cafeteria without a hitch and caught sight of my friends at our usual table. Don't ask me why but I had decided to include Rachel into the group, at least for now.

"What's going on Percy?" Grover asked me as I approached the table.

"I already told you Grover, Percy is going to be fighting Luke." Said Rachel.

"Who said I believed you Dare? For all I know you were lying to try and start drama like usual."

"As if," She replied. "I don't start drama, I end it and if you want a piece of me…"

"Alright, knock it off." I said, already regretting my decision to include her. "I already have to deal with one fight today and I'd rather not deal with another one."

"Right," Said Grover. "Sorry Perce."

"So what's the fight about anyways?" Asked Frank, speaking up for the first time.

"Annabeth." Came my response.

Rachel's face dropped right away. You could tell she had something against Annabeth, though I didn't know what it was. I had an idea it just hadn't been confirmed yet.

"Oh boy," Grover said. "This doesn't sound like it's going to go well."

"Yep, I couldn't agree more." Hazel stated. "I don't think you'll be able to avoid this fight Percy."

"Well what happened with Annabeth that pissed Luke off to the point that he feels he needs to defend his turf?" Asked Frank.

"Look," I replied "Currently, that's unimportant. We just need to get to the back of the school in the next 3 minutes. I brought you all here for moral support and so I wouldn't be outnumbered. You don't have to come if you don't want to but I don't have time to play 50 questions right now."

They all immediately began to protest.

"Alright," I said. "That's what I thought. So let's haul ass and get back there."

A few minutes later we were out of the back doors and into the alleyway behind the school. There were no cameras watching the alleyway so it was a perfect place to host a fight. I would know, I'd been to quite a few back here.

We approached the large crowd and I instantly spotted Luke with his goons and Annabeth, standing off to the side. Everyone had their phones out ready to record the fight in the hopes of getting it on WorldStar, in one of their popular fight compilation videos.

"You're late." Were the first words out of Luke's mouth.

"I thought you had the time," I responded, dropping my stuff on the outside of the forming circle before walking into the middle. "Considering you're the one who wanted the fight in the first place."

"You were flirting with my girl!" He said as he pointed towards Annabeth. His pals all nodded their agreement.

"You're taking what was said way out of context Luke." I said trying to diffuse the situation. "Flirting was the farthest from what was happening earlier today."

"That's bullshit and you know it Jackson! You're just a pussy, scared he's about to get his ass handed to him."

"Owwwwww!" Said the crowd. Luke was trying to turn them in his favor, a smart tactic, if I do say so myself. Annabeth was one of the few people I noticed who wasn't impressed by her boyfriend's antics.

"I'm doubtful." I remarked. "You sure you want to do this Castellan?"

Then someone yelled, "Start the fight already!" and I was shoved forward toward Luke, right into the jaws of the beast.

The first thought to race into my mind was Who in the hell shoved me? I knew it had to have been one of the people behind me which I counted all of whom as friends.

The more important thought came a little late as Luke uppercut my jaw. It hurt like a bitch and I stumbled back, head spinning.

I fell toward the crowd but someone caught me and pushed me back toward the middle of the tight ring that had formed.

Luke had almost KOed me in one punch and that alone was scary, so I knew I had to get my fists up to protect my head.

He eyed me like a Lion stalking his prey. He seemed aware whereas I was just trying to stay standing.

He threw a light right jab at me to get me off balance and he succeeded. I dodged right into his incoming left fist.

I took his bone-jarring punch to my right cheek, effectively knocking me almost to the ground for the second time.

I caught myself to stand-up to a hail of blows to my abdomen. They came quicker than a flash of lightning and the ensuing thunder. After about 7 good hits I got my guard down low enough for him to come at my face. He hit me directly in the nose, breaking it on impact, following with a spray of blood in every direction. It wasn't a pretty sight. I heard the crowd go "Ouch!" through the pain. Tears began to form uncontrollably in my eyes as the bridge of my nose went into the back of my head.

Then something unexpected happened. Annabeth jumped in-between us in an attempt to try and stop Luke's pummeling of my oh so beautiful face.

"Stop it," Yelled Annabeth. "Can't you see when you've already won?!"

And then Luke did something even more unexpected, he hit her. No, he didn't push her or anything like that, he full on slapped Annabeth across the face about as hard as he had been punching me.

I'm not entirely sure what did it but something about that truly set me off. Maybe it was the fact that she had been defending me or maybe it was just the sight of watching her body fall to the ground from the force of the slap, but something inside me was awakened. A deep burning hatred that even I can't describe.

I fell on Luke like you wouldn't believe.

I don't remember all the details but in my anger I had Luke hospitalized. Frank had to pull me off of Luke's bent over form as he tried to protect himself against my rain of blows.

In my fury I broke free of Frank's grasp but Grover tackled me to the ground.

"You won Percy, you won." He said.

I didn't feel like I had won. I finally came to my senses and saw the bloodied mess that I'd made of Luke. It was really bad. It made me sick to my stomach that I had been capable of such an atrocity.

"Oh my God Percy, what have you done?!" Annabeth asked me incredulously.

"I… I defended you…" I said. "What was I supposed to do? Not protect you?"

"You almost killed him! Do you even realize that?!" She asked me with a horrified expression displayed across her face.

"I… I didn't mean to…" I said. "It went out of control."

"You disgust me Percy." And with that Annabeth walked away towards Luke's crumpled form.

Rachel showed up at my side a moment later. "You were AMAZING Percy! Amazing! I can't believe how badly you whooped his ass. It was so impressive."

She started to stroke my bicep, succeeding in making me all the more uncomfortable. The fact that Rachel was impressed only brought the feelings about what I had done to Luke even lower.

A minute or two later an ambulance and the police arrived, coming over to interview me. This is going to be a long night I thought to myself.