Disclaimer: I have no rights to the Percy Jackson series. Rick Riordan has given a small liberty for us to use his characters unofficially on this site and that is all it is. Fan-fiction.

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I was getting pretty good at parallel parking. I hadn't nicked my new car (second-hand, but she's a beauty) for weeks and no one was prouder of the fact than me. My parents were relieved that I was not the stereotypical trouble-causing teen, one would expect. Really, I liked being nice.

Although, I wish I could say the same about my fellow-mates from school. This was the last year in high-school and instead of realizing that we were a few short months away from the real world, most of the senior year had taken it upon themselves to attend and gate crash every party, cause at least a bit of ruckus during classes, bunk a couple of hours and so on.

I was caught off guard into one of Keegan's trap, a Christmas party, where I had no choice but to spend, at the least, three hours since I was helping him set it up.

I still wasn't sure how I had been roped into that one.

"Yo, Jackson!"

I swung my bag over a shoulder, auto locking my ride. Walking towards the main school building, I spotted my friends from the swim team, Keegan Solt and Lance Marrow. They were sporting red, green and white clothes in the Christmas spirit. I couldn't help but laugh at them.

Lance scowled. "What's so funny?"

"You."

Keegan rolled his eyes and said, "Dude, this is in. Everyone else is gonna show up wearing these colors. You'll be the odd one out."

"Okay." I nodded. "Who told you that?"

"Annabeth." Keegan said with such confidence that I laughed again. There was no doubt that she had been kidding them.

The day had been pretty normal. We had our regular classes, made the counselor run out crying after she tried to lecture about 'talking to family' (I had honestly tried to listen to her, but fell asleep along the way,) saw four guys racing on inline skates in the corridor, witnessed Annabeth smacking Josh the Football Jock (again,) ran out screaming from the cafeteria when some of the food had started to move on its own and of course, had one of our last sessions in the pool before Christmas holidays.

Our coach seemed to be on his toes, making us hurry up with the drills and spills, keeping an eye on our timings and the clock. He probably wanted to get out sooner than us.

"Marrow, Solt, Chase, Dana hit the showers. The rest of you finish the laps and if you stop for a breath, you have to start over again. Only five left, come'on."

He blew the whistle, which went straight through my ears. I immediately dived in, the need to finish first, becoming more intense.

I tried to not focus on Annabeth getting out of the water and reach for her towel. I tried hard to not think of her showering. I really tried hard to not think of her like that.

Even though I had sworn to not run after her, it was not easy. She had a boyfriend. (A tall and ripped one who looked tough enough to beat up an army.) She was off the market. She had made it clear that she was not interested in anyone else.

I hadn't told a soul about her boyfriend. It seemed the right thing to do. I wondered why she didn't tell anyone. She could've had people to stop asking her out. She could've had less problems since there were new rumors that she was being a 'prude' or was 'in the closet.'

These gossips were affecting me more than her. She seemed unperturbed at the barely hidden malice of the whispers floating through the school. Any other girl would have crumbled or lashed out at them all, but she was different.

I almost hated her for it. It made me like her even more.

"Croft!"

I just hit the edge of the pool and looked up. My heart fell. I was the last.

Coach glared at me. "That's the second time this week! Your game's slipping!"

I got out of the water, ignoring my teammates. "Sorry Coach. Tomorrow's gonna be better. I swear."

"It better be better. If you don't improve by Friday, I'm making you stay back another couple of hours. And that's for anyone who thinks it's okay to slack off even a bit!"

I groaned silently, cursing Annabeth's flawless nature for my failure.

.

On the way out, Keegan and I had been discussing about our party on Friday night, when Annabeth strolled up from behind and said, "No invite for me?"

We spun around, stammering at the same time, but she laughed. I mentally sighed. She had sounded angry. It was hard to tell when she's kidding and when she wasn't.

"Don't do that." Keegan moaned. "It gives me the creeps. And yeah, sure you're invited. You usually don't go to parties as a rule, so I thought –"

"Yeah, well it is senior year." Annabeth explained shrugging. "One party can't hurt. Besides, most of my backlogged work is done, anyway."

My eyes widened. "And…"

She grinned. "I'm in the top five for Valedictorian post!"

Keegan whooped and I gave her a high-five.

"That's brilliant! You're celebrating with the party?"

"Yup. A couple of my friends from the Chess and Debate Teams are also looking forward to it."

"No probs. The more the merrier!"

Annabeth still had her infectious grin. I couldn't stop smiling. She looked so pretty. Her hair was starting to curl through the wetness from her shower. It framed her face in a way which looked almost like a da Vinci art piece.

"The time?"

Keegan looked at his watch.

"No." Annabeth said, biting her lip, to keep herself from laughing. I couldn't find anything humorous in that. Her lips looked so soft…

"No, I meant what time does the party start?"

"Seven." I blurted. "We open at seven. People start filing in about a half an hour later. Party's in full swing by eight."

"Cool."

With those awesome words of departure, Annabeth departed while Keegan shook his head at me.

"You've got it bad, man."

"I know."

"Why can't you just grow some balls?"

"Don't be crass."

"No, seriously. I know you said you preferred to be her friend, but –"

"No buts."

"Jackson…"

"Keegan…"

"Alright, fine." Keegan relented. But then he grabbed me by the shoulders and shook so hard that my head wobbled back and forth before I could pull away.

"Solt! What –"

"Wake up! Either you ask her, or you lose the chance forever! What if someone else decides to ask and she says yes to them? What then? You'll be left wondering where the hell you screwed up! And then I'll have to pick up the pieces!"

"Keegan!" I yelled. He was really starting to get me down, now. "I'm not her type! She'd never say yes to me! Believe me, I know this!"

My best friend narrowed his eyes at me as though trying to detect some evidence of hidden guilt but I glared at him and he backed down.

"Fine. Do what you want. Don't come crying to me when you see her hooking up with a guy who has guts."

I did not have the patience and self control like that of Annabeth Chase. My face burned as I hissed, "She's already got a boyfriend, dumbass."

Silence, awkward silence took over. It made me realize that we were the only two people in the parking lot. My car was the only vehicle in sight and I looked at it rather than at Keegan who stared at me as though I had said something alien.

"Boyfriend?"

"Yeah."

"A real one?"

"No, a mannequin."

"Wait! An actual boyfriend? Are you serious?"

I rubbed my face tiredly. I wanted this to blow over casually, but no one would let it.

"Yes. She has a boyfriend, a real guy, movie-star looks, tall, dark and handsome, the whole deal. Now will you drop it?"

I sounded stressed and didn't bother to hide it. Shooting a scowl at Keegan, I got into my car and turned on the engine. He was still standing out and I started to feel bad.

Curse my good persona!

"I'll drop you home?" I asked, hesitantly.

Keegan gave me an apologetic smile and nodded.

.

Friday's party started better than I could've expected. People were filing in in small groups, not bursting through like they were executing Guerilla Warfare. The soft drinks hadn't been spiked yet, (Keegan gave it another twenty minutes,) all rooms except, hall, kitchen and bathrooms were locked. (He didn't want to burn anything afterwards.) The music was still within the safe decibel level.

Of course, if things went too much out of hand, we could kick them out, but I wanted to enjoy the scene. It looked relatively safe. No one was hooker dancing, yet. No one was swearing, yet. And no one looked shifty enough to deliberately break one of Keegan's parents' nicer showcase pieces.

Birge Dana, our DJ, gave me a thumbs up from across the crowded room and I grinned back at him. I was determined to not get trashed. I kept looking over to the drinks and snacks table, checking if someone was loitering around it, a bit too casually. I kept an eye on the glass and other breakables around the rooms.

Keegan was already executing seizure like movements on the dance floor. He didn't look drunk or hyped, just sucking out the energy of the party into his lungs.

As the minutes passed, the music became louder, the teens started to scream along to the lyrics, people kept dropping their drinks and I was still waiting for someone I should not have been.

Annabeth and her friends still weren't on the scene. I took a seat by the french window which looked out on the backyard. Sighing and moaning about it wasn't going to get me anywhere, but I just couldn't help it. She was in a relationship and here, I was a hopeless melodramatic romantic, falling for her.

I swallowed. I hoped that I wasn't in love. Being in love in high school was fantasy. People this young didn't understand the difference between singing hormones and heart aches.

I've seen people display so much PDA in one week and ignore the other later. Singing hormones.

People looking at each other, undressing the others with their eyes. Singing hormones.

People unable to keep their hands off of each other. Raging hormones.

And yet, here I was, wondering if I just like Annabeth or loved her.

I looked out at the main entrance and then scanned the crowd. I knew I could pick out Annabeth's form from the scores of 'adults' here. I searched for glowing golden curls from the heads bobbing to the music and then, sighed again.

Keegan was shaking his assets way too much. The drinks were probably spiked. I didn't feel like checking them, opting to just sit in my spot and be left alone.

Unfotunately, one of the guys caught my eye.

"Hey! Hey you!"

He pushed his way through the dancers with difficulty. One girl with glazed eyes threw herself on him and they fell on the floor in a tangle of limbs. The shocked look on his face was so humorous that I rolled my eyes and got up to help him.

Pulling up the villian by her shoulders, I set her on my chair and took away her drink, to replace it with an unopened water bottle. She muttered her undying love for me and I said, "Ditto, stranger. Just sit here."

The guy she had tackled had gotten up, brushing his jeans for dust and giving me grateful look. I realised that I knew him from somewhere since the 'caught off guard' impression he was emmitting seemed familiar. But I shook it off and said, "You're not from Selory's right?"

He blinked, "Huh?"

"Our school, Selory Whit High. Yeah, it's a nonsensical name but what can we do?"

The newcomer grinned. "That sounds like something my girlfriend would say. Nonsensical."

I shook my head, leaning over and pushing the half-empty punch bowl out of sight. It had a different smell to it than the squash we had poured in it before. I couldn't understand why high school parties couldn't ever be done with only legal activities. I turned to watch atleast ten people stumble through their dancing and just went to sulk next to the newcomer.

He looked at me sympathetically. I got the feeling that he seemed genuinely concerned and gave him a placating smile.

"I've seen you before. You're Jackson Croft, right? You were the reason I even joined in the YMCA swimming contest. I caught a few of your races, you're really good. Great for that. It was an amazing experience!"

I nodded, not really listening. The girl behind us was talking to the air. Seventeen and eighteen year olds were doing exotic dancing. Someone spiked the pucnh as a 'joke.' Annabeth was not here.

Was this how high school was supposed to be?

"I'm from Goode." The guy continued. I barely heard him over the noise. "I don't mean to brag or anything, but it was my school's first time at the competetion for the Strom Trophy. It took me a couple of weeks to get my coach and the dean to sgree to travel all the way from New York."

I turned towards him when he said that. "You're from New York?"

He grinned at that. "Yeah. It was worth it, though."

I nodded faintly, "You guys won, right? Yeah, I remember now…"

I swallowed. I was talking to Percy Jackson. Annabeth Chase's boyfriend. Oh, this was a fine night wasn't it?

Someone screamed. Before I could even turn, Percy moved, slipping a pen into his hand so fast, I would've thought he was completely wired. He held the pen like he was about to jab someone with it, his eyes darting around, skin turning pale. I stared at him.

It turned out to be a girl dancing with Keegan. He'd swung her around the room and she looked drunk.

Percy stood up awkwardly. I watched him fiddle with the pen and rub the back of his neck.

"You okay?" I asked even though he didn't look it.

Percy gave a weak smile and said. "Yeah, just great. Uh… have you see a blonde? Curls and –"

"Annabeth." I guessed. His face brightened automatically at that. I felt my heart sink.

There was a light in his eyes that reflected from the nearest dim lamp, but I could see the happiness in it. It seemed very intense and hopeful and it made me want to back down immediately.

"You know her?"

"Um, yeah. She actually said that she'd be here…"

Percy grinned. "She invited me."

"Cool." I managed to say.

There was a commotion outside the house. A group of boys were roaring in laughter and I heard Josh Rodney's rabunctious voice through the catcalls. "Damn, she's fiesty!"

"Oh no." I muttered. I had a bad feeling where this would be going. Josh always got cocky only with girls who avoided him too much. And there were very few in that category.

I rushed outside, determined to stop any scene was that of Annabeth's friends being surrounded by Rodney's gangs.

Annabeth was stunning. This was the first time I had seen her with make-up. She had put some kind of liner which made her eyes stand out and shine under the lights from the house. A glittering top and skinny jeans to fit her face and it was no wonder Josh couldn't help himself.

I felt Percy stand next to me and saw that his face was set in hard lines. I wasn't going to miss the quarterback. Annabeth turned her face to catch her boyfriend standing at the doorstep of Keegan's house.

I thought Percy would rush to her defense, but he just folded his arms.

"No, Rodney. I'm not interested."

Annabeth's voice was clear cut. I shivered. Her eyes turned into stormy crystals.

Josh laughed at that. "Seriously, just tell me why. If it's competition you're afraid of, don't worry, we can spend all our time together…"

His voice had so much insinuation in it, I cringed. Percy looked more like a statue and Annabeth tilted her head.

"Hm… why?"

Josh stopped. "What do you mean, why?"

"Why would I want to spend time with you?"

Her blasé words caught him off guard. "What kinda question is that?"

Annabeth sighed like the conversation was exhausting. "I said, why would I want to spend time with you when I have no feelings for you?"

"Doesn't have to do anything with feelings, babe."

He leaned closer to her. Annabeth glared.

"I have a boyfriend."

FINALLY!

When she said those words, she seemed even more unattainable even though it was clear that she had been attained.

I leaned against the door. It was like a turning point in my life. The age of Annabeth was over.

It strangely felt relieving for some reason. I smiled.

Annabeth's friends didn't seem surprised by the revelation. She'd probably told them in confidence. They were the kind of people who wouldn't spread rumors unlike some others. Josh's friends looked taken aback and the leader was dumbstruck.

The situation was starting to turn funny.

I gave Percy a knowing look and he shared it back. At least, I was on the safe side.

"No, you don't." Josh said.

"Yes, I do."

"Well, it doesn't really matter. He's not here is he?"

"Doesn't matter if he's here or not. I'm not lowering myself to touch you."

And 'Oooh!' went through the gathered crowd.

Josh's smile faded. "I swear Chase, why can't you just be a normal wench?"

I edited that out. He didn't exactly say 'wench.' But you get the gist.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Wow, you're a real smooth-talker. I'll definitely hook up with you now."

"Really?"

"No. Get out of my way. I want to 'spend time' with my boyfriend."

And then, she pushed him aside, walked up the steps and gave Percy a hi-boyfriend-let's-make-out-in-front-of-the-jerk's-face kiss.

.

The rest of the party went peacefully. For me at least.

Annabeth and Percy 'spent time' on a couch in the living room before leaving early. Probably to spend more time together. And I was okay with that. She seemed distant and more like a friend. Besides, I felt it was better. It was easier to watch the couple now. Sure, they were kissing and I looked away when it got heated, but I didn't boil or feel down about it.

Josh would be the butt of all jokes for the next month. I'd be looking forward to them, especially since Keegan would be the one making most of them. He had already roared it to the party making Josh leave in anger.

I no longer felt awkward about the situation. Annabeth and I were friends. Percy was a good guy to hang out with, whenever he visited here.

In the following days, I would discover the new found peace making me a slightly wiser person.

"Jackie buddy!" Keegan shouted, tumbling his way towards me. I caught him before he tripped and tried to lead him to the dining table. The kitchen was slightly less crowded than before. Keegan fell on a chair and smiled dopily. I took his drink away from him and sat in the next seat.

"You look weeeird."

"Just different from before. I have come upon an epiphany, Keeg."

He slapped his hand on my back. My breath left me in a 'woosh!'

"Rad!" He slurred. I laughed. "You're one of a kind, man."

He looked at me. I was about to say something else, but he had this look in his eyes. I've never noticed his dark brown eyes before, but now, even though it looked clouded due to his inebriated state, there was a gaze that had made me speechless.

He leaned in and kissed me.

I hadn't even considered the possibility of not liking girls, or Keegan just being drunk, but really, that kiss changed my life. I was in the Age of Keegan Solt.

Keeg and I double dated with Annabeth and Percy a few months later. I have never looked back.