Chapter Eight

Disclaimer: The usual, all characters are owned by the awesome Mr. Riordan

I arrived at Percy's house at exactly 5pm. I knocked at door and was welcomed in by the Percy's mom. "Hi Annabeth, it's nice to finally meet you in person," said Sally smiling. I replied, "It's nice to meet you too, Sally." "Percy is upstairs, I'll call him." She called for him and he came bounding down the stairs, a huge grin plastered to his face.

He greeted me, "Hi Annabeth. Before we start the project, you have to try some of mum's famous blue chocolate chip cookies!" He was pointing at a plate of freshly baked cookies.

I grabbed one and slowly bit into it. "Wow this is delicious!" "I knew you'd like it," said Percy smugly. We headed upstairs and into his room.

There loads of pictures in his room. They were mostly of Percy and his family but there were a few of his friends.

A red headed girl with green eyes was in a few of the older ones. I asked, "Who's the red head girl?" "She's one of my close friends. Rachel Dare, she is still in Goode High School but she been gone for a six month student exchange in England. I think you will like her," "Cool. So let's get started with project." We sat on his bed. I was not surprised that Percy had had a close friend that was a girl. He was a sensitive guy sometimes.

We just asked questions about each other, this time they were slightly more insightful.

We suddenly broached a subject I hadn't thought about in a long time, dating. "So have you dated much Annabeth?" said Percy with a wink. I sighed to myself. It had been a while; I was a bit of a wallflower. I had had a few encounters with boys but nothing serious. I'd had a few crushes of sorts as well. "Well my last date was a very long time ago; he was a guy from one of my school clubs. He was handsome but not my type really. It turned out that he was obsessed with Pokémon. I haven't officially actually had a boyfriend!" I was blushing scarlet red. I chewed on my lip because I was feeling nervous.

How would Percy take this news? Would he think that I was a just nerdy, uncool girl? Percy looked mildly amused. He chuckled, "The great Wise Girl hasn't had a boyfriend?" I rolled my eyes at him. I retorted smugly, "How about you?" "Well my last girlfriend was Rachel. We dated for a very short time. We are still friends of course as I said earlier. It just didn't work out, I'm glad she got over it quickly."

"So what do look for in a guy, Wise Girl?" asked Percy curiously. "He should be kind, caring, funny, and nice to talk to, loyal and I think that he should have a smile that I like. Yeah just about it." Percy nodded slowly.

Percy had a mischievous look on his face. I was curious. "What happened?" He replied, "Nothing but are you ticklish?" "Yes." Before I had time to ask why, Percy had pounced on me. He was tickling me! I was giggling so hard that tears streamed down my cheeks. We were rolling around on his bed. I quickly recovered and got him back by tickling his stomach. He wasn't expecting it and doubled over laughter. My fingers delicately traced shapes on his arms. He was twitching with laughter. He got up and I began chasing him around the room.

I grabbed a pillow for defence. Percy took a hint from this and before I knew what was happening a fully-fledged pillow fight had begun. Tyson had somehow got into the room and was attacking us. After a while we all just collapsed onto the floor. Tyson soon fell off to sleep. Percy, being the great older brother he is, picked Tyson up gently and took him to his room.

Percy returned to the room with a smile. He sighed softly, "Little children look so innocent when they are sleeping, so carefree and at ease. Sometimes I wish I could just go back to those times when I didn't have to worry so much about life."

I replied," I know how you feel; college just seems like another scary step of life in the not so faraway future."

"I mean there's just so many people that we need to impress talent scouts, teachers, my parents, everyone," said Percy with furrowed brows. "I really hope that I can get a scholarship with swimming, I'd like to go to NYU."

"Yeah, I'm hoping I could actually get into Harvard possibly! It sounds kind of ridiculous, don't you think? I'm
going to push and try my hardest because that's my dream university."

"Well I suppose if your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough. Believe you can do anything and you will." Percy was staring out of his window at the clouds drifting across the sky. "Annabeth, do you know who my namesake is?" I shook my head, feeling slightly ignorant. "My full name is Perseus, the Greek hero. He slew monsters and rescued princesses, he was great. I just hope I can live up to my name." As Percy gazed at me, I felt his genuine uncertainty penetrate my mind. I looked him straight in the eye, "Percy, with your potential you have the ability to be even greater. Don't just try and match his standards. Raise the bar and shoot for the stars." He just stared at me for a moment before coming closer and hugged me tightly. I settled in quite quickly. "Thank you Annabeth, I needed that."

I left soon after that. The last part of the assessment required individual work from each of us so we agreed to complete it by ourselves. He showed me out the door with a smile. My mind was pondering new questions about Percy but I was tired and fell off to sleep soon after I reached home.

AN: Okay guys you can kill me now. O_O I know I practically disappeared from Wattpad since May. I'm so bad! I put my story on hold for pretty much everything else in my life. I will try and have regular updates but as I have discovered, I am unreliable and inconsistent when it comes to updating. I did a lot more reading than writing over the past few months, I'm sorry guys. I actually finished The Mortal Instruments and a whole lot of other books. Thanks to everyone who has been consistent with my story and keeping up with me since the beginning. This chapter probably sucks but yeah...