Hello, again! I've just figured out how the story will end and I 'm hoping that it will be as unpredictable as possible.

So, yeah, Percy is a jerk in this chapter, I'm really sorry. But I will redeem myself in the chapters to come. You might be seeing a little bit of emotional Percy.

Shoutout to IIII Winter Wolf IIII for being so involved in the story and for being awesome in general. You should go check out his profile and stories!

Chapter 3 Part 1: Life Was A Bitch.

Ryan stepped out of the car and walked towards Annabeth as if in slow motion. When he stopped in front of her, they locked eyes and Annabeth somehow understood that Ryan didn't want her to acknowledge that he knew her in front of the cameras.

"Hi, I'm Ryan."

"Annabeth."

"Cool. Can't wait to talk to you more on the beach. What do you do?" he said, even though he knew perfectly well what Annabeth did for a living.

"I'm an architect. What about you?"

"Oh, I play soccer professionally. But I have a degree in management to fall back on." Annabeth was the one that persuaded him to get that degree.

"Um… OK. See more of you on the beach?" She hoped he took that to mean 'Can you please tell me what the hell you and Percy were doing here?'

"You can bet on it."

And he was gone. And Annabeth was more confused than she was before, if that was possible.

Had they come to sabotage the show? Did they think they had a chance with her? Most importantly, why did Ryan try to hide the fact that they knew each other? The show would make a big deal out of it and surely that would work in his favour. He was always the attention-seeker.

These questions whirled around in her mind as she met the other guys to no avail, because she could not get any answers no matter how many times she asked herself this. She was almost in a daze and kept repeating the same phrases: 'I'm Annabeth, nice to meet you.', 'Thank you, see you out on the beach' and so on. She counted the guys on her fingers until she had met fourteen of them. There was one left.

Percy.

Percy was in the limousine and his heart was beating so loud and fast that he was sure the people outside could probably hear it. What did he say? He was planning to just be himself and give the Bachelorette that 'nice guy' vibe, but that was before he found out about Annabeth. Now, he had a different game plan. He was here to get himself kicked off the show and he was about to be the biggest jerk he could possibly be.

He was afraid that if he just saw her, he would break down completely. He was also afraid that Annabeth would say she knew him, and that would ruin things completely. There was nothing he could do now except strut and get his jerk on.

The door of the limousine opened and Percy caught sight of Annabeth.

It was like she was a ghost. Not that she looked ghostly. That face just brought so many flashbacks of them fighting wars together, taking knives for each other and they even held up the freaking sky for each other once. And he was going to pretend he didn't know her and be a jerk.

Percy despised himself.

He did his best strut up the pathway and stopped in front of Annabeth.

"Percy Jackson."

"Hi. I'm Annabeth."

"Uh… did I ask?" As soon as Percy said that, guilt coursed through his veins. What was he doing?

"Oh, well, I guess not…" Annabeth did her best to smile and Percy appreciated the way she was trying to be nice about the whole situation, like she always did. Part of the reason he fell for her.

He was still trying to get himself kicked off the show. Can't be too appreciative.

"That's right. I hate girls that don't know their place and speak when they're not spoken to. Don't do it again and you might have a chance with me, sweetie, alright?" Percy said that because he knew that Annabeth was passionate about equality between men and women, and that would piss her off the most.

"Oh, um, well… see you in a couple minutes on the beach, okay?" She was keeping up a cool front. This was not good.

"Fine."

Percy avoided eye contact the whole time and strutted along to where the rest of the guys were out in a beach house.

"We heard a bit of what you said… what the hell is your problem?" someone called Dylan said.

"You were preaching to me like someone's maiden aunt twelve hours ago." Chris sneered. "Oh, don't insult the Bachelorette. She may well be your future wife. All talk, pretty boy?"

Percy shrugged nonchalantly and helped himself to a drink. They more boys he pissed off here, the better. Percy guessed that they would try to collectively get him kicked off at some point. Then he could go home and forget all about this.

That was the plan, anyway.

Annabeth was nowhere to be seen for quarter of an hour, so she was probably filming something with the host. Meanwhile, the guys got to know each other.

"So… what does everyone do for a living?" Dylan asked. This was always the question that was asked first on T.V shows, because it gave the rest of the guys and the rest of the world a chance to scrutinize them. The camera in the corner and the dozens of cameras that were probably hidden all along the beach house were a reminder that nothing that they said or did would go unnoticed.

"I'm a doctor. Have been for a year or two, I'm still quite new." Sean said, surprising everyone. Usually people on the Bachelorette weren't very ambitious or they would be back home, working. Annabeth would like this guy. She would probably like all the guys here.

"I'm in charge of my own company." Adam said.

"I'm a software engineer." One of the quiet ones, James, piped up.

"I have a chain of sports gear stores." Chris said.

These men had one thing in common; they were all rich, smart and successful. This was highly unusual. Yes, there was the occasional rich guy, but Percy had noticed that the casting directors tended to go for looks more than anything else. He glanced around and saw if anyone thought the same thing. If they did, there was no sign of it. Maybe it was just him, being Athena-like and over-analysing everything.

"What about you, Percy?" Todd asked.

"Marine biologist." He said gruffly. "What's it to you, want to scrutinize me even more?"

"Do you feel the need to add a wisecrack at the end of every sentence?" Sean asked.

"Do you feel the need to open your big doctor mouth and comment on everything?" That was a low blow, Percy admitted it. He needed to get off the show, pronto.

"Why are you being such an asshole? You weren't like this on the plane." Todd said.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, please. Percy just decided that if he was a judgemental, misogynistic dickhead, he would get the girl faster." Dylan said.

Percy stood up suddenly. Everyone backed off.

"Say that again." Percy said. He was ashamed to admit that he was actually enjoying playing the part of a jerk.

"Dude, you're scaring me."

"If you ever say something like that again, I swear I will personally gouge your eye out with a knife." (Divergent reference! You like?) Percy thought he was overdoing it at this point. He would know something was up if someone actually behaved like this.

There was the sound of a throat being cleared. All the guys turned around to see Annabeth in the corner, where she had probably been standing for the past five minutes. Percy smirked. If she saw that, he was probably getting kicked off the show… tonight.

"The host just told me that the rest of the night is going to be off camera, except for the first hour and the rose ceremony at the end. Meanwhile, I want to be getting to know some of you now. Adam, do you want to go have a chat?"

Adam looked more than happy to leave the awkward situation. "Of course."

The rest of the hour passed in awkward silences. No one would look at Percy, let alone talk to him. He wouldn't either, if it were him. He felt really guilty for disrupting the peace on the first day. It didn't really matter. He'd be back home before dawn tomorrow.

Annabeth returned with the guy she'd just gone and talked to and asked another one to go and talk. Within the hour, she'd gotten through almost all of the guys except Percy. And Ryan.

When she returned with the last guy, Sean, she had a huge smile on her face even though Percy knew that she was confused on the inside. "Now, listen, the rest of the night is off camera, so I'll have time to speak to all of you again at some point without those pesky cameras in the way. So, Ryan and Percy, can we talk for a bit?"

Percy knew that all hell was about to break loose.

He got up a second after Ryan and he could feel all the guys watching him as he walked down the path leading to the beach with Ryan close behind.

When they finally got down to the beach, Annabeth sat down on a pristine mat and said "You both have some explaining to do."

Ryan and Percy exchanged looks.

"Uh…."

"We…."

"WHAT! I've been pretending I don't know you all night, I don't know what for! I don't know if both of you are messing with me, or what, I just know that if you don't tell me what you are both up to, you both will be very sorry."

"Okay, neither of us knew that you were gonna be on the show," Ryan said, casting a warning look at Percy. "And we both totally understand if you want to kick us off the show. All I can say is, we're not here to hurt you, and we would appreciate it if you pretended you didn't know us before, because the show would kick up some major drama for all of us if they knew, and they might put the spotlight on us and give us more importance than some of the other, more well deserving guys."

Annabeth's look softened, but she still looked suspicious.

"And Percy, what are you doing? You're not the jerk that everyone thinks you are right now."

Percy shrugged "Maybe I am." He didn't want to talk too much because he was afraid he might break down again.

"You're both not telling me something. And Ryan, you're not the jerk that I remember. I'm sorry. But I hope you don't expect me to drop everything and forgive you after what you did to me. And Percy…"

"Percy, I really didn't know about you anymore."

She walked away, leaving Percy feeling like… shit.

However, he also felt triumphant. Mission accomplished. She would kick him off the show and he wouldn't burden her life for any longer because he knew he was doing that right now and emotionally blackmailing her to some extent. He cared way too much about her than to take her for himself when he knew she would be better off with Todd, or Adam, or even Ryan.

But that conversation sparked something in him again. You're not the jerk that everyone thinks you are right now.

He'd started to care about Annabeth again, and he was about to get kicked off the show.

Life was a bitch.

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-YouCanCallMeSir