Homecoming is approaching, which means even more time spent after school. It also means Annabeth's inner perfectionist is coming out and she needs to double check everything. (The fact that Percy is beside her, completely exasperated, is just a nice bonus.)

"Come on, Annabeth, Mr. Brunner even left! What the fuck are you even looking for?"

It's true Mr. Brunner had left a few minutes ago and honestly she's not even sure what she's looking for.

"I just want to make sure everything is fine."

He lets out a long sigh. "Everything is fine. Actually, you checking if everything is fine is what's not fine about this!"

"Can you be patient for a minute?"

"Nope. It's like midnight, let's go already!"

Percy Jackson is just as much of a whiny baby as she had thought. She rolls her eyes and grabs her backpack.

"It's five-fifteen, calm down."

"You made me miss the late bus!" He glares at her as they finally leave the room. "It's going to take me forever to walk home."

Oh.

She actually does kind of feel bad about that one. But then again, no one asked him to stay late. Even Mr. Brunner isn't here to enforce anything so why…

Why is he still here? With her…

Her heart starts to pound for a reason she does not have time to unpack right now.

"Do you want a ride?"

Oh god, why did she offer that? Screw him for overwhelming her.

He raises an eyebrow at her offer. "Are you planning to kill me or something?"

She takes back every bit of sympathy she felt for him. Pushing the door open, she steps outside to meet the cold fall air. "Do you want a ride or not?"

It takes him longer than she would think to actually answer her. She's about to tell him to make up his mind already because the wind is starting to pick up when he finally responds. "Yeah, okay."

She just nods and leads him to her car, the silence growing between them as they walk. Clearly something is going through his mind because his eyebrows are furrowed, and he doesn't make a single snide remark about anything.

"Alright," she breaks the silence once they're both sitting in the car. She turns the key and starts to back out of her parking space. "Where to?"

He doesn't respond right away, but once she exits the parking lot, he speaks up. "Left."

It's odd having a quiet Percy Jackson beside her. It's almost unsettling, and for some reason, it bothers her more than his constant teasing.

"Next meeting is the day after tomorrow," she says unnecessarily, just to have something to say.

He scoffs. "I know, princess."

There's actually a bit of a bite to his sentence that shocks her for a second. She hadn't heard that tone in the past few days (solidifying her thoughts that there had been a change) but it's back now.

It angers her but it's still more familiar than just the silence.

"You could be nicer to someone who is literally going out of their way to give you a ride home," she sneers back.

"Left."

She takes a left and he doesn't say anything else. Thankfully a minute later he gestures to one of the houses on the residential road they'd turned down and says, "Right here is fine."

It's not too far from school, but she doesn't know the neighborhood too well, so she turns into the driveway to retrace her steps back to the main road.

But for some reason, Percy glares at her as she does this. "Why the fu—"

He's interrupted by the front door opening, and they both turn to see a woman with long brown hair walking out. Percy immediately gets out of the car, shutting the door forcefully, not saying a single word to her.

"Percy, who is that?" she can hear the woman say. "And why did you slam the door!"

As if he's being reprimanded (which must mean this woman is his mother) he turns back to the passenger seat door and Annabeth cracks the window down.

"Thanks," he says bluntly, his voice seeping through the small crack. "See you tomorrow."

His eyes are different from his tone, clearly glaring at her to get out of here. Percy's mom tries to look over his shoulder.

"Who is that? A friend?"

Annabeth backs out of the driveway without saying anything. A million thoughts rush through her head as she drives home.

Why had Percy been so upset? Clearly, he didn't want his mom to talk to her or the other way around. In fact, he went out of his way to make sure they didn't interact.

Something is up with his home life. He might be an asshole, but Annabeth isn't going to stoop to that level, not when it comes to something this private.

Her parents divorced at a young enough age where kids would ask all sorts of invasive questions and she wouldn't want to put anyone through that. Not even Percy Jackson.

So she tries to forget about Percy and whatever his problems are and focus instead on the pile of homework she has to get through tonight.

-.-

Percy doesn't come by her locker the next morning and seems to be a in a sour mood every time she gets a glimpse of him. Even Jason is spotted walking away and rolling his eyes.

He walks into math class just as the bell rings, in time to hear Mrs. Clark announce partner problems for the first half of class. And of course, they're paired together.

Annabeth passes the worksheet to him and takes a deep breath. Whatever form of kinship they had is clearly completely gone because Percy opens his mouth and, judging by the look on his face, it's going to be mean and horrible.

She cuts him off before he can get a word out.

"You take odds, I'll take evens."

And then she turns to her own worksheet and begins working. She'd caught a brief glimpse at the surprise on his face before she turned, and she can't help now but to look over to see what he's doing.

Miraculously, he actually listened to her and is bending over his worksheet as well. His eyebrows are still furrowed so she quickly looks away before he can spot her.

The silence only lasts a few minutes through because he lets out a loud angry exhale, causing her to look over at him.

"What?"

He directs his glare from the paper to her. "What's it to you, princess?"

Yep, mean Percy is definitely back. But this time she's way too tired to be dealing with his bullshit and something about yesterday evening makes her think all this is more about him than her.

And maybe that's what gives her the confidence to continue.

"I only care if it's about the problems, this is my grade too," she replies as bluntly as she can. "So if you have a question, tell me."

He narrows his eyes at her. "Oh, 'cause you're miss perfect and have all the answers—"

She cuts him off before he can continue.

"Listen Jackson," she starts in a low voice. She is going to end this here and now. "I don't know what the fuck is going on with you, but you need to stop acting like a little kid and get your shit together for long enough for us to complete this assignment."

He actually looks shocked at her words. It's about time she starts to stand up for herself, his reaction makes her confidence grow.

"And," she continues in the same low voice. "For god's sake, stop taking your bad mood out on me, no amount of side remarks at me is going to fix your problem."

She leans back and looks over at his paper. "Now, what question?"

Her heart is racing from her actions, she's never talked back to anyone like that before and for a moment she wonders if maybe she pushed him too far and he's going to blow up.

But then he finally answers, mumbling under his breath. "Five."

There's a tension between them but it's somehow in her favor and she's not about to sabotage that. So she maintains the silence, looking over his work and correcting where he went wrong. She hands the worksheet back to him and watches him scan over her work for a second before turning back to her own problems.

Math fades into the background as she finally processes what she said to him. Ultimately, she doesn't think she's wrong. In fact, it occurs to her that the last time he acted like this was after that nightmare.

And then it hits her that Percy Jackson can't stand vulnerability. Clearly something about the nightmare and his mom are sensitive subjects and whenever he's in those vulnerable positions, he lashes out.

Which usually means making the worst comments to her.

She pauses mid-problem to look over at him. It's like she's seeing him in a whole other light.

Of course, this doesn't excuse his behavior. She's still pissed at the way he talked to her, and he should get his shit together instead of making it her problem, but his words hurt a little less now that she knows he's mostly saying them because he can't handle his own situation.

"What?"

Shit, she's been looking too long.

She shakes her head. "Nothing, just zoned out."

"You were looking at me." There's an edge to his tone.

She rolls her eyes. "Not everything is about you, Percy, there's a whiteboard behind you."

He turns to see the whiteboard behind him where, thankfully, the teacher has outlined some hints on how to solve the problems.

"Whatever," he mutters. But she can see his cheeks turning a little red, as if he's embarrassed.

It brings her an immense amount of satisfaction that she's the one who called him out.

Returning her focus to her paper, she finishes the last two problems and starts to double check them. She's almost done when Percy shoves his paper towards her without a word.

They sit in silence as she checks over everything.

But strangely, it's a calm silence.

A/N: What did you think? Some Annabeth standing up for herself and Percy getting the call out he needed lol But the plot thickens and so hope you guys are interested in the rest of it too!

Please Comment! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

And as always, thanks for reading!