Luke is going to ask her to the prom today.

Annabeth doesn't necessarily know this for certain, but she's about ninety-nine percent sure. She means, yesterday he asked her what kind of flowers girls like, and if that isn't an indicator that he's about to prompose, she doesn't know what is.

Tonight Annabeth's dancing around her room, listening to "Dancing Queen" while she prepares for tomorrow. She wants to look her best, so she's straightening her curls into an extra-glossy curtain and selecting the perfect outfit.

She's reaching into her closet to pull out her favorite miniskirt when there's a clang at her window.

Annabeth makes a growling noise in the back of her throat. She has always dreamed of her Taylor Swift pebbles-tossed-at-her-window moment, but instead she gets this: her idiotic neighbor flinging Pepsi cans at the glass.

She pulls back her curtains and tugs open the window. "What do you want?" she hollers across the gap between their houses.

Percy's face is absent of his usual shit-eating grin. "Can you turn the fucking music down?"

Is he serious? She isn't even playing it very loud!

She crosses her arms and scoffs, "No way! You blast that shitty AC/DC garbage at all hours of the day and I never complain."

"First of all, AC/DC is not garbage. I won't take this slander."

"Whatever," Annnabeth says. "If my music is such a big deal, just close your window and put on headphones."

"You and I both know my room is too damn hot at this time of year for me to shut the window. You shut yours!"

"I can't. I spilled a bottle of nail polish and I need to air out the smell."

They both stand there for a moment, glaring, until Annabeth comes up with a compromise.

"I'll put in my earbuds if you let me have the parking space for the rest of the week."

Percy shoots this down immediately. "That's not fair! It goes against our agreement!" he exclaims. "The agreement you made up!"

He has a point; she created a spreadsheet assigning each of them certain days to use the prized parking space in front of their houses and even forced him to sign a contract binding him from the agreement. But the forecast is calling for rain tomorrow and she really doesn't want to walk back to her house from the other end of the street (where she'll have to park if Percy has the space) so she's going to be stubborn.

"Okay, then," Annabeth says. "Enjoy the sweet sound of ABBA."

She spins around and proceeds to dance around like Percy isn't watching, crooning the notes obnoxiously off-key until he calls, "Fuck! You can have the spot! Just please stop the singing."

She laughs and switches off her bluetooth speaker. Percy swears, slamming his window shut.

It's times like these that make it hard for her to believe that, once upon a time, she and Percy were the best of friends. They used to string paper-cup telephones across the gap between their bedroom windows and talk for hours, until their moms yelled at them to go to bed. They had sleepovers in the treehouse Percy's dad built for them and caught frogs and minnows in the creek to bring to school to terrorize the other kids.

When did things change? When did they start arguing all the time? When did she realize how immature, how idiotic, how infuriating he is?

Annabeth turns back to her closet and shrugs it off. This doesn't matter. Tomorrow, Luke will ask her to the prom, and in three weeks, she'll be slow-dancing with him at the country club in a glittery dress. And in three months, she'll be off to Columbia to study architecture in the city, far away from her annoying neighbor.

She just has to refrain from killing him first.

The next morning, Annabeth puts on her miniskirt, red sweater, and ankle boots and sits in front of her mirror to do her makeup. Her back and neck ache from leaning over when she's finished, but her eyeliner is winged and her cheeks are just the right amount of pink.

Once she's dressed and ready, Annabeth wraps Luke's present.

It was difficult to decide out what to get him. What do you buy the guy who has everything? In the end, she made him a playlist of all his favorite songs, the ones he says remind him of the two of them, and burned it on a CD. She doodled hearts all over the CD and wrote ANNABETH + LUKE on it in swirly letters.

She knows he'll love it, and she's already fantasizing about listening to all the songs in Luke's convertible this summer. They'll have the top down and the wind will ruffle her hair and they'll sing along, terribly, laughing uncontrollably.

At seven o'clock Piper pulls up to the curb in her car (a purple Jeep that was a pity gift from her dad). The speakers are cranked up to blast Mitski at top volume.

Annabeth climbs into the passenger seat and slams the door behind her.

"Happy Vally's Day," Piper says, reaching over to turn the music down a little.

"Today is going to be such a good day."

"You're sure in a good mood this morning."

"I'm just so excited. Luke's going to ask me to the prom!"

Piper quirks an eyebrow. "How do you know? Did he tell you?"

"He's totally been hinting about it. And besides, why wouldn't he ask me today? It's the most romantic day of the year!"

Piper rolls her eyes. She isn't Luke's biggest supporter by any means, which Annabeth doesn't get. Her boyfriend is perfect in literally every way.

Piper might complain that he's cocky, but he's really just confident in himself and his abilities. Piper says he talks to too many other girls, but he's just friendly! Maybe she'll finally understand how great Luke is once he sweeps Annabeth off her feet with the sweetest, most wonderful promposal ever.

Annabeth forces herself to concentrate during her morning classes, but by lunchtime, she can barely contain her excitement. She touches up her lip gloss in the bathroom then heads for the quad, where she and Luke eat together.

On her way, she remembers she has an essay she needs to turn in to her history teacher, so she makes a quick detour. As she's walking back towards the doors, she hears a sound coming from the stairwell.

"Oh, Luke!"

The voice is high, feminine, and the name makes Annabeth's blood freeze in her veins. She stops dead in her tracks.

Be reasonable. She's totally overreacting. There are lots of Lukes at this school. And even if the guy in the stairwell is her Luke, he might not be…doing what she thinks he's doing.

Annabeth keeps walking. She holds her chin high, resolute. The guy in the stairwell is not my boyfriend, the guy in the stairwell is not my boyfriend. She repeats this to herself over and over like a mantra. The guy in the stairwell is not my boyfriend. She knows Luke loves her. He wouldn't—

"Fuck," Annabeth mutters, turning on her heel and marching over to the stairwell.

At first, all she sees is a girl, pressing a guy into the wall. Just by the back of the girl alone, Annabeth knows she's Drew Tanaka; she'd recognize that high ponytail, big butt, and the head-to-toe Lululemon activewear anywhere.

Then Drew's head moves and Annabeth gets a look at the guy.

Her heart plummets to her feet as her suspicions are confirmed.

The guy in the stairwell is her boyfriend.