Thanks to everyone for the great response to this story. I was going to wait a bit longer to post this, but I couldn't not share it with you.

I've decided to post this story in two parts, and Part 2 should be out very soon. Please leave any feedback below!

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO

Part 1

She looked at him from across the room. Well, 'looked' was a bit of an understatement, as she had been staring at the back of his head for the past half hour. That wasn't a particularly abnormal act for a teenage girl who was sitting in the middle of her algebra class, but this was Annabeth Chase, and Annabeth Chase had never not payed attention to Mrs Walker, no matter how boring her classmates found the lesson to be.

The clock above the blackboard was ticking by agonizingly slowly, and you could almost hear the impatience of the twenty teenagers in that room who were watching it, eager to bolt out of the door and escape into the sunny afternoon.

But one boy was neither watching the clock nor Mrs Walker, and was instead gazing out of the window onto the grassy field of the Goode High School oval. He was tapping the end of his pen against his desk so loudly, that Annabeth could hear it from her seat two rows behind him. And apparently, she wasn't the only one.

"Mr Jackson?"

Both Annabeth and the boy were jerked out their daydreaming at the sound of Mrs Walker's voice. He sat up straight and stopped tapping his pen, and Annabeth smiled as he ran his fingers through his dark, shaggy hair before addressing their teacher.

"Yes ma'am?"

Mrs Walker sighed before answering, "I would appreciate it, Mr Jackson, if you could take a little time out of your day to pay attention in my class."

The boy grimaced, knowing that that was the last time he'd be called out without getting detention. Annabeth muffled a silent laugh that escaped her lips as she picked up her own pen, hoping she'd hear the sound of the Goode High bell – her ticket to freedom. And also partially because she hadn't completed more than three of the Worked Example problems that Mrs Walker had set for them that lesson.

Luckily, her wish was granted and she heard the school bell echoing throughout the corridors.

"Make sure that you've completed the Chapter Review by tomorrow's lesson," Mrs Walker called out to the bustling class. "Oh, and Mr Jackson? Make sure you are on time tomorrow."

Just before she left, Annabeth saw him salute and grin widely. "Sir, yes sir," he said. "You can count on me."

Mrs Walker smiled. "I hope so, Mr Jackson. Now go on, get out of here and enjoy your evening. You too Miss Chase."

Annabeth blushed as Mrs Walker gave her a knowing look.

"We will," the two answered together and hurried out into the corridor.

"Saved by the bell yet again," a voice said filled with obvious smugness.

Smiling, Annabeth replied, "Percy, your timing never ceases to amaze me."

"But it's just because I'm that awesome, am I right or am I right?" Percy said.

"Well, I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong." Annabeth shot back, leaving Percy frowning and contemplating the meaning of her remark.

"Anyway," Percy said catching up with her. "We're still on for tonight, right?"

They had reached their lockers by this time, and while she was already organising her books ready for the next day, he was banging on his locker door after its refusal to open.

"Of course," Annabeth said, trying to ignore the hypnotic aroma of Percy's shampoo. "Is Sally going to be there?"

"Mom's going out with Paul tonight, but she said that she'll leave some cookies in the oven for us. But, yeah, it's just us."

Annabeth's heart raced at the thought of the two of them being alone together, even though they had studied together countless times before.

"Awesome," she said, slamming her locker door shut and swinging her bag over her shoulder. "What are we working on tonight?"

Percy checked his phone before answering her. "We have that Chapter Review for Mrs Walker and I have an essay due next week."

"So you've been using that study app I got for you?" Annabeth asked, smirking.

Shoving his phone into his back pocket, Percy grabbed his own bag and began to weave his way through the mobs that cluttered the hallways.

"Yeah, I have," he said. "It has honestly saved my life this year."

"I knew it would."

"How'd you know that?"

"Because I know everything."

Percy scoffed. "You totally do not know everything."

"I beg to differ."

And so their contest began. There was an ongoing rivalry between the two and Annabeth won more times than Percy would care to remember. However, when competing against their other friends as well, an unspoken agreement ensured that they would always work together. They worked better as a team, and they preferred to be together anyway.

"The Trojan War."

"Fine. What's the capitol of Germany?"

"Berlin."

"The square root of pi?"

"1.772453."

"Mrs Walker's maiden name?"

"Stanley."

"How the hell did you know that?" Percy asked, completely baffled with his friend. He had googled a list of questions to ask Annabeth – who was sitting smugly in the driver's seat of his car – to try and get her to admit defeat. Of course, his attempts were unsuccessful and Annabeth claimed her victory.

"She was only married last year, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth smiled, rolling her eyes.

"Oh," he said. "I knew that."

"Of course you did."

Annabeth laughed as Percy grumbled silently to himself in the seat next to her. He knew how much she liked his car, so he let her drive every time they were together. So she ended up driving it more than he did. Sometimes Annabeth thought that Percy got annoyed by this, but he always smiled and said that he didn't mind.

Percy leaned over and turned down the radio as Annabeth pulled into the parking lot outside his apartment block. They greeted Argus the Door Man as they always did and made their way to the sixth floor. Unfortunately, the elevator was broken so they had to use the stairs. Annabeth didn't mind the extra exercise, but Percy, on the other hand, made his way into his apartment with staggering breaths and a sweaty forehead, complaining about the lack of maintenance in their side of the city.

After making herself at home, Annabeth began her work on her History project. She and Percy didn't share that class, but she had enough time to get a good start while he was pigging out on his mom's infamous blue cookies.

"What'cha doin'?" Percy's voice was muffled by the fact that his mouth was indeed filled to the brim with cookies. He handed one to Annabeth, who accepted graciously, before getting out his own workbooks.

"History project," Annabeth replied, taking a bite of the cookie in her hand. "It's on the Russian Revolution and the irony of the goals and ideals of a Utopian society that ended up being worse than the government that the Soviets had originally planned to overthrow."

Percy looked at her blankly. "You lost me at 'History project'."

"Well," Annabeth said, closing her book. "You're starting History next semester. You should probably get a head start. Read Animal Farm, that should help you understand it."

"What has a farm got to do with the Russian Revolution?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes for what felt like the thousandth time that day. But when you're friends with Percy, eye-rolling becomes almost natural.

"Animal Farm was based off of the events of the Russian Revolution, but the author used animals to represent the characters from history. It was a rather ingenious idea if you ask me. The pigs who end up taking over the farm are actually supposed to be the corrupted Soviets who took control of their country. But the ironic fact of the story is that…" Annabeth trailed off as she realised that Percy had zoned out and was just blankly staring at her face.

She sighed. "You weren't listening to anything that I said, were you?"

"What?" Percy asked, blinking a few times before coming back to his senses.

"Never mind, it wasn't important."

Shaking her head, Annabeth decided that working on the Chapter Review for Mrs Walker was the most productive thing for herself and Percy to work on, as she knew that he was struggling with the unit.

While Annabeth was in the middle of explaining the process of rearranging formulas, Percy was tapping his pencil against the edge of the desk so hard, that it split in two, causing both of them to jump. She looked at him and raised her eyebrow.

"Really, Percy? Really?"she asked him while he just looked at her, smiling innocently.

"I'll be back," he said before leaving Annabeth at the coffee table. She didn't ask where he was going; he was either looking for a pencil or for his secret stash of blue cookies. Annabeth picked up the shards of what was left of the poor pencil and put them in the bin, before heading back to her seat and almost bumping into Percy.

"Whoa!" Percy said, steadying himself and Annabeth. "Where's the fire, Wise Girl?"

She simply rolled her eyes (again) and poked Percy's chest. "Well, I'd watch where I was going if I were you."

"I can see why. You're going to injure someone one of these days."

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain."

The two sat down at the coffee table once again and Percy laid his new pencil on the table top next to his books. Then, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a…something.

"What's that you got there?" Annabeth asked, curiously looking over his shoulder.

Annabeth saw Percy smile. "It's us."

It was indeed. What Percy held in his hand was a photograph of them from who knows how long ago. They had their arms around each other and their clothes were covered in what appeared to be cookie dough. Annabeth could tell that they were at Percy's house because the cookie dough was stained blue, as it had always been. They were smiling widely, Percy's two front teeth were missing and he also had some flour sprayed in his raven hair.

"My God," Annabeth breathed. "We look so young."

"We are," Percy agreed. "How old were we? There's no way that we're older than seven."

Annabeth laughed. "I was seven and a half, for your information. That's your seventh birthday party."

Percy didn't reply; he was staring at the picture with his head cocked to the side. At last he said, "That was ten years ago, Annabeth, can you believe that?"

"No," she said quietly. "I can't really."

"I'm surprised that you've put up with me for that long," Percy said.

"To be honest with you Perce, I am too," said Annabeth, slightly annoyed that he ruined their moment. "And although how lovely this little reminiscing thing we've got going on here is, we should probably get back to our algebra now."

Percy nodded his head and resumed the motion of tapping his pencil against the table.

Annabeth was starting to get worried about Percy. This constant tapping meant that something was on his mind, and he wasn't making any progress with his maths homework. He seemed to have forgotten everything that they'd learnt in the past three weeks and he kept zoning out with his eyes fixed on a blank spot on the wall.

"Are you okay, Percy?" Annabeth asked him.

He sighed before answering, "Yeah. I suppose."

Annabeth put down her calculator and closed the textbook. "Are you sure about that? You don't seem okay."

Percy put his head in his hands. "I don't know, Annabeth. I don't know."

"What's up?" Although Annabeth may have sounded nonchalant, she was genuinely concerned for Percy. Over the past week, she had noticed a significant change in his behaviour; instead of disrupting class with stupid comments he was gazing out of the nearest window, instead of joking in the cafeteria with her as he usually did he was significantly quieter and somehow more jumpy around her. Annabeth had shrugged it off, thinking that it was a phase, but now she seemed sure that it's something bigger.

Percy didn't look at her. "I don't know."

Moving closer to him, Annabeth cautiously nudged her shoulder against his, afraid that if she touched him, he'd shatter into a thousand pieces. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

He drew a shaky breath. "Yeah," he said. "I know."

"So?" Annabeth asked. "What's wrong?"

Percy mumbled something incoherent before blushing profusely.

"What?"

Sighing, Percy ran his fingers through his hair and looked at Annabeth. He closed his eyes and she couldn't quite comprehend what was making him like this.

"It's a girl," he said.

A million things went through Annabeth's head in a span of no more than three seconds. Most of it was shock, that Percy – forever dateless Percy – actually liked a girl. It wasn't that girls didn't like him, quite the opposite, actually. He was quite the catch with the ladies, which often lead to Annabeth glaring at them a lot more than would be considered normal.

But after the shock subsided, it hit her: Percy liked someone.

It felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest and crushed under the Empire State. Percy liked someone. Someone that wasn't her.

Smiling weakly, Annabeth sighed. "It's a girl, huh?"

"Yeah."

She paused for a moment. "What's the problem then? Did she reject you?"

Percy groaned. "It's worse than that, Annabeth. She doesn't know I like her. Heck, I don't think she'd ever like me in that way. She's just so…perfect."

Feeling the words tumble out of her mouth, Annabeth said "Well, what do you want to do about it then?"

"Tell her," Percy mumbled. "But I don't know how."

"Have you tried?"

"More than once."

"Then it seems that we've got our work cut out for us," said Annabeth, reaching for a blank sheet of paper. Although it hurt to know that Percy liked someone else, she wanted him to be happy, and she had a couple of ideas.

"Wait," Percy said. "What do you mean 'we'?"

Annabeth turned to him. "I'm going to help you, Seaweed Brain."

She saw him smile. "Oh. Okay."

Looking away from Percy's grin, Annabeth sighed and wished that she could disappear.

There's Part 1 completed. Keep an eye out for Part 2, which should be out very soon.

Thanks again everyone!

Kisses,
Daphne