Thanks for the support! Enjoy part two!

Some try to hand me money, they don't understand
I'm not broke – I'm just a broken-hearted man

~The Script~

Part Two: Twelfth Grade

"Go Percy!" screamed the girls from the stands inside of the small community pool venue.

Percy grinned from the edge of the pool, where he was wearing his sweatshirt and workout pants despite the warm temperature. He sat down on the bench but kept his earbuds in, listening to music and trying to clear his mind.

All he had to do today was swim the 100 meter freestyle once, and that would be that. Hopefully he would win, but considering he had one of the fastest times in the country, he felt like he had a pretty good chance.

It was a shame that Grover couldn't be there, or Frank and Hazel, or Leo. He hadn't expected Piper or Jason to come anyway, since they were always making moony eyes at each other. Hazel and Frank, though also dating, hadn't missed a single one of his matches. And Leo and Grover were usually there too.

Frank and Hazel were going out for their one year anniversary though, Leo had woodshop, and Grover had community service work in Central Park.

Yet half of the girls in his grade were in the stands. Most of them he never even talked to. In Middle School, they hadn't even glanced in his direction or smelled the air in which he breathed. High School really did change people, but Percy wasn't having any of it. To him, those girls were just annoying and fake.

They were always gossiping and looking as if Crayola had decided to punch them in the face. They talked about their expensive cars and purses that Percy didn't really give a damn about. They never helped anyone and just bullied people. They went out with guys who acted the same.

Thank the heavens that Annabeth was there.

She, of course, was sitting by herself on the bleachers, reading her collector's edition of the Underneath, a book that she had made Percy read in fifth grade. It was one of the only books he had ever finished, and only because she had annoyed him into it.

Over the years, Annabeth had seemed to grow more or less away from him. He maybe he grew away from her. He wasn't really sure. Their friendship had stayed strong throughout Middle School, but High School had caused them to sort of drift apart. Maybe it was because Annabeth was in all AP and Percy was in remedial.

But they were still friends, best ones.

In seventh grade, Annabeth had told Percy a quote that had helped him through a lot throughout the years. She really had no idea how much it had helped him out. They'd been trading classes and Percy had been talking about how terrible Gabe was to him and his mother.

"If you're going through hell, keep going," Annabeth had told him. "That's a Winston Churchill quote."

"Who's that?"

She'd rolled her eyes and chastised him for not paying better attention in European History class.

But that quote had helped him. Because life had been hell, and he'd just pushed forward through it all. He'd tried his best and even though everything had been really hard, he'd kept going. Really, it was all thanks to his mom and his friends with their support.

Maybe they'd started drifting apart when his mom had finally kicked Gabe out of their lives and things had started to look good for his family. Like when his mother had met Paul, or when she and Paul finally got married. Percy had been able to move out of the tiny little apartment, buy things for once. Life was pretty good now.

Or maybe it happened when Percy started dating Rachel and Annabeth started dating Luke.

Ugh. Percy didn't even like to think about those days as a sophomore. He and Rachel were still friends, but he hadn't had a girlfriend since then. Neither had Annabeth.

What would it be like to date. . . Annabeth?

No. No. She was off limits. Annabeth didn't like him. They were friends, and she showed no signs of wanting to date him. If he asked her out, that would ruin their relationship.

Percy looked up to find Annabeth staring at him. He waved and she waved back, giving him somewhat of a grin, but then stood up and began to make her way over to Percy, her book folded underneath her arm.

He couldn't help but keep watching Annabeth—with her long legs and curly blonde hair that reached down to the middle of her back and bounced a little when she walked. She wore a jean jacket over a black tank top and dark skinny jeans, and those cute little owl earrings she'd had for years. Her eyes were the same stormy, startling gray that mesmerized Percy a little.

Annabeth had really turned beautiful over the years. Wait, no, she hadn't turned beautiful. She'd always been that way.

But he couldn't keep thinking about her that way. Annabeth was definitely off limits to him. She was amazing, smart, funny, perfect in every way . . . he was the kid who couldn't pull off good grades and had the messed up childhood and abusive step father.

With any of the other girls on the bleachers, his past wouldn't have matter, especially since they really only wanted to get in his pants, but with Annabeth it did. He was the kid from the wrong side of the streets, and she knew that. She knew everything about him. If she dated him, she would only see the loser from fourth grade, too lazy to do any of this work.

It was a wonder she hadn't screwed him off a while ago.

He was determined to keep their friendship strong and alive.

"Good luck, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said, giving him a hug. Percy couldn't help but notice tiny little details that he normally never did, like how his arms fit perfectly around Annabeth little waist or how her hair smelled of lemon and—

"Percy!" Annabeth snapped, sounding slightly annoyed but somehow amused too.

Shit. He'd held onto her for too long. She probably thought he was some sort of emotional freak now. He let go of her quickly, but she popped forward and gave him a sweet little kiss on the side of his cheek. "I know you'll do great, but then again, you always do."

Half of Percy's body had shut down from that small act, but he somehow managed to keep his calm composure and wink at her. "Now, come on, Annabeth. When am I ever slow? I'm always moving. I think I'll be fine."

Some sort of something flashed across her face, and Percy was unable to place what it was. It was like disappointment and wanting rolled up into one. A deep blush spread across her face, and it looked like she was taking those words the opposite of how Percy had meant them. He didn't even know what the opposite was.

Whatever he'd said, apparently it'd been the wrong thing to say.

"Yes," Annabeth said quietly, now staring at the ground. "I'm sure you'll be fine. You are Percy Jackson after all."

Then she walked away, brushing at her eyes and keeping her head towards the ground, and the weirdest sense of déjà vu overcame Percy. It had to be some sort of epiphany, but he was transported back to one of the days in sixth grade, when he and Annabeth had been in class and then walking to the lockers.

"I know who like you."

"Who?"

"I can't tell you. It's a secret. You don't know her, but she knows all about you."

How could he have forgotten that conversation with her? And she'd never given him an answer to the question. For a few days after that conversation, he'd tried to bring it up with her, but whenever that had happened, she would never answer anything that he said. She'd give him those same clues as before.

"She's in at least one of your classes, and you went to elementary school with her. She's very smart and has never had below an A on anything. She's older than you are but not by much. And like I said before, you really don't know her, but she knows all about you."

So as Percy sat on that bench, listening to some more music, he started to wonder again who this girl could be.

Soon enough it was time for him to go into the water and do his freestyle. As he took off his shirt and pants and jumped into the water. It was pretty easy for him to block out the insane cheering from his own personal cheerleading squad, but it was impossible to block out the steady stare from Annabeth's direction.

Her eyes bored into him, like little thunder storms. They were in clear contrast to her smile, which was a little weak but still reassuring. Percy smiled back at her and jumped out of the water, waiting for the signal to go.

Percy finished first place. Water was like a second home to him, and he had gotten an all new best time, which was pretty cool to him. He heard the yelling from the girls, but that was nothing compared to what he heard from Annabeth.

But the entire time he'd been swimming, he hadn't been concentrated on the swimming itself really. That was a second, subliminal thought. He'd been thinking about those words Annabeth had spoken so long ago now. Had it already been seven years since they'd had that conversation about who liked him?

And he still didn't know?

That kind of irked him.

Percy couldn't help but wonder, and perhaps just hope a tiny bit, if Annabeth had been referring to herself. Because Annabeth had said that the girl knew all about him, and Annabeth did know most things. Did she really know everything though?

Besides, Annabeth was that kind of girl that told it like it was, and if you didn't like it, then you just had to deal with it.

So, yeah, it probably wasn't her, and there wasn't anyone else that he cared for it to be.

After he'd dried off and talked to the instructor and whatnot, he was getting ready to leave when Annabeth dropped on by. She grabbed his gym bag. "Don't worry, I got it for you."

"Jeez, isn't it supposed to be the other way around? You're making me feel like the woman in this relationship."

He really needed to think twice before talking, because that just made everything really awkward. Once they'd reached the parking lot, Percy and Annabeth hugged like friends usually did and went their separate ways into separate cars in separate directions.

And as Percy drove away, he knew one thing. He had to see if Annabeth actually liked him. Maybe he was just being delusional, but he wanted to have hope. He wasn't going through hell anymore, and he really did like Annabeth, as he had realized over the past couple of years.

But his friendship with her was important, and he didn't want that to be ruined.

. . .