Percy

Winter break was super uneventful.

I hung out with Jason, Nico, Grover, and Leo a lot. My mom and Paul hosted one of his work parties. Super awkward to come home from the skate park to teachers from my school all packed into the living room. I made small talk for a couple of minutes then made my escape.

Rachel and I had spent a lot of time together. She was really easy to talk to; we didn't have a whole lot in common, but that didn't seem to matter.

The biggest event was the car crash my mom and I got into on our way back from the store.

We were okay, with only some small cuts and bruises. I wouldn't say it was her fault, but I'm not going to say it wasn't (if you get my drift).

We were at the hospital, just as a precaution because mom was pregnant. Paul was worried sick, but the doctor said everything was good and all three of us were fine. That calmed everyone down, and it was pretty much a waiting game until we got the all-clear to leave.

I went up to the vending machine to get a soda and some chips. That's when she slammed into me, all I could see was red frizzy hair. I caught myself falling down from Rachel's tackle as she wrapped her arms around me. I embraced her back, all my eyes could see was the red of her hair.

She pulled back and cupped my face with her hands, " Paul called me on the way to the hospital. I thought something was seriously wrong Percy."

I chuckled. Before I could get a word out she kissed me. It wasn't a bad kiss, I liked how her lips tasted like cherry chapstick.

As we pulled apart I looked at her face. The realization of what she had done seemed to set in.

She stepped back, "I'm sorry... I don't-don't know why I just did that. I was so worried that you weren't okay, and on the ride here all I could think about was you and if you were hurt."

She was going to keep on rambling before I interrupted, "No Rachel, it's okay. I'm glad you came here. I'm glad you're here."

She blushed. " Good, now you can buy me a coke."

I went home that night a lot more confused than I had been before my car accident if that was possible.

Did I have a girlfriend now? Was Rachel just worried and acting on impulse?

I had no clue.

—

Annabeth had become kind of two different people in my mind. There was biology Annabeth, the nice (and pretty, but I didn't say that) girl who got more answers correct than Grover did.

Then there was English and Luke Annabeth. She was different, more stoic. I wouldn't call myself friends with her, but I would only call her an "enemy".

Did she laugh at Luke's jokes at my expense? Yes. But then in chemistry, she would be nicer and help me with problems on quizzes. It made no sense to me.

Now sitting here in English class with them, all I could think about was how dumb Luke's arm looked around her. Paul's voice brought me back into reality.

"So class, we are going to begin a new group project today!"

Groans around the classroom chorused in response.

"It'll be fun, don't look so sad. The book of choice will be Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Now don't think you can just go and watch the movie, no matter how good or accurate the depiction of the book may be. You may give a presentation about any aspect of the book, but it must be done in groups and it must be 10 minutes long."

Our entire table looked at each other.

Thanks, Paul!

Now Annabeth, Luke, Jason, Piper, and I would have to spend multiple nights a week together. At least I would have Jason and Piper to help me out, but they had grown close over the last month. I feared I'd be the odd one out here. On top of that, I'd have to deal with Luke and Annabeth for the foreseeable future. That wasn't exactly my idea of a good time.

"Percy you can handle it, I'm sure you will be fine." Rachel smiled at me.

Rachel had finally invited me over to her house to watch a movie. It had been about a week and a half since our kiss. It hadn't been awkward, but we hadn't kissed again. What that meant I had no clue. She didn't say I was a bad kisser or that it was a mistake.

She had not said anything about it, which was almost just as worrying.

I sighed. "I hope so. It's just Luke and I don't get along eye to eye."

She looked at me intensely, "Yeah I've noticed... what happened there anyway?"

I hated telling people this story. Everyone at Goode had heard about it. I wasn't very popular, but Luke was, and that usually meant that stories like ours traveled quickly.

"Luke and I used to be friends. He helped me find my way around Goode when I first transferred. I started to hang out with his friend group and get close to some of them. I guess he didn't like that. So he spread some rumors about me being with a lot of different girls, and how I was a player who used everyone. Which could not be farther from the truth." I paused and looked at her. If she was feeling some type of way, she didn't show it.

" It caught me off guard and pissed me off. He had stabbed me in the back and made up lies that were more true about him than me. I don't think a lot of people believed it, but some did. It didn't make sense why they did because I'm not the smoothest guy."

Rachel smirked and interrupted, " You can say that again."

I blushed, "I must not be that bad, because you kissed me didn't you?"

"Okay, point taken. Did anything else happen?"

"Not really. I steer clear of him now, when we do come in contact it's not a subtle affair."

She brushed her hair with the blue hairbrush that was seemingly her support brush. She was messing with it when she was nervous or just in deep thought.

"Well, if you get into a fight with him good luck. He's a pretty big guy."

I frowned. No shit Rachel. Please, tell me more about how much stronger he is than me. Why don't you go kiss Luke while you're at it?
She must have seen my face and realized I wasn't a happy camper.

"Not to say that you're not. I'm sure you would do just fine."

"Yeah, okay Rachel. Let's just pick out a movie."

She picked out 'How to Lose a man in 10 Days', which wouldn't have been my first choice, but it wasn't bad. The entire time my mind kept going to the blonde girl I would be seeing a lot more of.
—

Author's note:

Hey guys, I hope you liked this chapter. Little drama heating up, who doesn't love that? I'm trying to pace things reasonably, so I hope you enjoy a little slower development with the characters. I promise there will be more Annabeth and Percy stuff going forward!

Love you all,

Ciao