"Princess!"

She turns around, already rolling her eyes. "What?"

Just as she suspected, he's got a wide smile on his face. "What makes you think I was talking to you?"

She hates that she actually responded to the annoying nickname and hates even more that her cheeks are warming up in embarrassment.

"Well, who else do you call Princess in that snarky tone of yours?" She retorts, determined to fight the blush and hold her own.

"Would it make you jealous if I told you the other girls I do it to?"

Yeah right, as if he actually calls other girls prin—but what if he does? A frown appears on her face before she really knows what she's doing. (In her defense, she was just thinking, not jealous).

It's the perfect opportunity for Percy to pounce on.

"So you would be!"

"I could care less," she deadpans, rolling her eyes. Give the boy and inch and he takes a mile. Though it does help the plan if he thinks she is jealous.

Before he can say some other idiotic thing, she cuts him off. "Did you need something?"

He grins. "The math homework?"

"You can't be serious." There's no way he thinks that she's just going to hand over her homework to him.

"This one is hard…" he whines like the baby he is.

She really just wants him to tell him to suck it up, but she holds herself back with an amount of self-control that he clearly does not possess.

"I'll…help…you." She regrets the words as soon as they leave her mouth. She's not entirely sure why she volunteered for this, or what could have possessed her to say something that would result in seeing Percy more, but she's dug the hole now.

"Library?" he asks. "After school?"

It's also a little surprising that he actually takes her up on it. (Without a single snide remark, too).

She nods and he shoots her a grin.

"Don't be late, princess," he calls as he walks back down the hall.

Nevermind, there it is.

-.-

She still isn't sure why she's doing this, it's actually one of the few days she doesn't have to see him after school because of homecoming committee and she's seeing him anyway.

Not only that, but he's late. She's been standing by the doors to the library for almost five minutes and her patience is wearing thin.

She's about to give up and go home when light laughter fills the hallway next to her. Since she's got nothing better to do, she pokes her head in.

The sight makes her sick.

Percy's leaning against a locker with a wide smile on his face, talking to Rachel Dare who is clearly laughing at something he's saying.

Anger surges through her. She had specifically told him not to flirt with anyone in the homecoming committee and he straight up ignored that.

Her frown deepens as he leans closer to Rachel to tell her something in a quieter voice, clearly only meant for the two of them.

"PERCY!"

Her voice is louder against the empty hall and actually causes Percy to jump away, which gives her a grim satisfaction.

"Annabeth," Percy calls, taking in her angry state with a smile on his face. "I'll be with you in a second."

She will not be dismissed like this.

Spinning on her heel, she simply walks away. Why had she thought being nice to Percy would lead her anywhere? Let him suffer, she's done. She's out.

She makes it around the corner before he catches up to her.

"Hey Princess—"

"No," she cuts him off, stopping to block his path. "You don't get to 'hey princess' me like it's some sort of joke. In fact, just don't talk to me at all."

With that she continues down the hall but naturally, the asshole doesn't leave her alone.

"No need to get jeal—"

"I told you,"she thunders, turning towards him. "That people from homecoming committee are off limits."

The sight of the two of them leaning in to talk flashes before her mind and twists her gut.

His smile drops. "Seriously? That's what you care about?"

She throws up her hands. "You disrespected me, again. In fact, you never stopped, I don't even know why I bothered offering to help you when clearly all you think about is yourself!"

And with those final words ringing out in the empty hall, she stalks off.

He doesn't follow her this time, and for some reason each step feels heavier and the twist in her gut gets tighter.

She tries not to think about how he doesn't stop her.

It's what she wanted, anyway.

-.-

By the next morning, she feels awful. Maybe she took it too far. He was just talking, after all…and maybe she shouldn't have yelled.

But the words are out now, and she can't take them back.

Her pride prevents her from looking for him in the morning and he doesn't appear by her locker either. Neither does he throw any remarks down the halls as he normally would.

She would've thought he wasn't even in school but when she walks into math, he's at his desk, bent over the homework.

The one she'd said she'd help him with.

She feels even worse.

They don't talk and the class ends up being one of the most quiet ones, so much so that Ms. Clark comments on it. Her eyes pass over Percy and, for some reason, her, and for a second she worries they're going to get partner problems but class ends normally.

She really should go apologize to him, but that feels a little like admitting defeat and there's a part of her still fighting against that. Mostly because it's Percy Jackson.

Silently, she walks past him again on her way out the door, pretending she doesn't see him.

She doesn't have to pretend for long, because she doesn't see him at all the rest of the day. Which is surprising because by now she would have heard around four "hey princess" remarks.

"What happened?" Piper asks in between classes.

"Huh?" But she has an idea what Piper is referring to.

Piper knows this too and shoots her a look. "I just got out of English with Percy and it's the quietest he's been in a while."

"Why would that have anything to do with me?" She needs to cool down her ego, it's Piper she's talking to.

Piper who just continues to shoot her a look until Annabeth sighs, relenting. "I yelled at him after school yesterday, called him selfish and said he disrespected me."

"What?" The shock in Piper's voice makes that twist in her gut come back. It does sound bad when she says it like that.

"He was flirting with Rachel, I specifically told him not to mess with homecoming committee members."

It's a valid enough reason. He has no business stepping on her turf like that.

Something fills Piper's eyes, an emotion she doesn't have time to analyze as the bell rings. She just shakes her head. "Oh Annabeth."

"What?"

"Just talk to him," is all her friend says as she hurries down the hall.

"Talking to him" proves a harder task when he doesn't show up at her locker after school. They have a meeting today; he's supposed to be here.

But after seven minutes of waiting, she gets fed up and starts to walk towards the room by herself.

Okay, so maybe she shouldn't have said all that, but he is supposed to be going to the meetings and that's on him.

But when she sees him lurking by the door to the classroom, she almost stops short. So he is going to come to the meeting, just not to her locker.

For the first time today, she manages to look at him. He's uncharacteristically quiet and she doesn't like the way his lips are pressed into a thin line instead of that usual annoying grin he seems to constantly wear.

He looks back at her.

She drops the gaze, unable to hold it.

Instead, she leads the way into the classroom. She nods at Mr. Brunner before sitting back in front of the computer. Percy silently slides into the seat beside her.

The tension grows as the silence continues to stretch and though she pulls up the flyer from the last meeting, she barely types out Thursday's theme (couples costumes) before it gets unbearable.

"Will you…say something!" she bursts, turning to him.

Okay, so that was not the best way to handle the situation.

He raises an eyebrow. "You're the one who told me not to talk to you."

It's such a petty thing to hold on to. She tolls her eyes.

"I tell you to shut up every day, since when do you listen to me?"

"Since I respect you, apparently," he snarls back.

That shuts her up.

Every time she talks to him, he springs something out of left field, something she never saw coming. Navigating Percy Jackson is like a roller coaster, and she hates that right now he has the upper hand.

The next few words feel like pulling teeth. Her pride is wounded, and she hates him, but hates even more that she can't hate him. Not for this. This one is on her.

"Listen…I'm…sorry, about yesterday. I was a little…" she pauses, trying to find a word that isn't embarrassing.

"Bitchy?" he helpfully supplies, arms still crossed over his chest.

She wants to strangle him.

"Out of hand," she finishes through gritted teeth.

"No shit."

She wants to yell at him for not making this easier but then again, she's the one apologizing. It's not on him to make it easier. But given that he's generally an asshole, he should at least try not be one now.

She lets out a sigh. "I'm sorry," she mumbles again, turning back to the screen. The unfinished flyer stares back at her. It needs to be finished, printed and hung up before the end of today.

But even just moving her fingers over the keyboard seems daunting right now. Slumping back, she looks at Percy, a little surprised to see him already looking at her.

Running a hand through her hair, she tries again. "I saw you guys there and I thought that you…"

She pauses again, hating the feeling swirling in her stomach at the thought of Percy and Rachel like that.

"I just…" She flounders then starts again, in a different direction. "I shouldn't have said that all you care about is yourself, I know that isn't true."

Percy looks at her for a long time. Or at least long enough for her to shrink under his gaze. But she holds eye contact. She might have had to push aside her pride to apologize, but she won't be embarrassed this way by him.

Finally, he leans back, shaking his head. "You're feisty, princess. Next time you get jealous, though, we can take it somewhere more private."

Her face burns at his words. "I wasn't jeal—" she forces her mouth shut even though she can still feel the heat on her cheeks.

She's supposed to be apologizing and if this is Percy's forgiveness, she's going to have to take it.

"Sure, is that why you changed the color to green?" he nods towards the screen where her cursor is stopped at Friday.

Never mind, she'll take his anger. This is far more embarrassing. On the bright side, it seems like at least things have returned to normal between them.

"That's such a bad joke," she tells him, turning towards the screen, "And I wasn't jealous."

"Whatever you say." She can hear the mirth in his tone and yep he is very much okay. Choosing to ignore that, she starts to type out the theme (Disney).

"By the way," he adds, his is voice suddenly a lot closer. "We were just talking about math."

His breath ghosts over her neck causing her to freeze, fingers hovering over the next letter. She doesn't dare to move or turn around.

"So you really don't need to worry." He's so close she can smell his cologne. "Princess."

He leans back, but she can still feel his gaze on her. She takes a stuttering breath, her mind suddenly completely unfocused at the task at hand.

Trying desperately to gather her thoughts all while feeling breathless and hating him for throwing her off her game, she attempts to formulate a response.

"Annabeth."

She jumps at the sound of her name turning to see Mr. Brunner. "How is the flyer coming along?"

"It's done," she replies automatically. "Just need to print and then we'll go hang them up."

Mr. Brunner nods. "Make sure to send a copy to Travis and Connor so they can promote it on the website.

"Will do."

Mr. Brunner turns to Percy. "And how are you doing, Percy?"

She still isn't looking at him but she can hear the grin in his voice. "Amazingly, Mr. Brunner. Ready to go hang up the flyers with Annabeth."

Mr. Brunner looks at him for a second (probably because that was a weird thing to say) before nodding and going back to his desk.

The interaction is enough to spur her on and she finishes typing the last few letters and emails it to Travis and Connor. Setting it to print out some copies she stands up, Percy mirroring her move, that grin still on his face.

"Stop smiling," she grumbles, stalking over to the printer.

"Why would I do that?" he sings back.

"Yo Annabeth, got the flyer," Connor says, walking up to them "You did a great job."

"Thanks!"

Percy's smile drops and Connor looks over at him. "What's his deal?"

She should just keep quiet and move on. But this is the first thing to wipe the grin off of his face and after that stunt he just pulled, she can't help it.

"He's just jealous."

Connor quirks an eyebrow. "Didn't know the great Percy Jackson could get jealous. And of what exactly—?"

"Are you done?" Percy cuts in, not nicely. "We have work to do."

Reaching around her body, he grabs the freshly printed paper. His cologne once again invades her nose as he does this, proving that he was unnecessarily close to her.

It's over in a second though and he's holding up the copies as proof as he pushes past Connor. "Let's go, Annabeth."

She follows him wordlessly because it's a rare form to have Percy address her by her actual name.

Pulling up beside him as they exist the classroom, she feels a smile of her own form.

"Who's the jealous one now?" she sings back.

Percy shoots her a frown. "In your dreams, Chase."

"Ooh, feisty," she teases back. "Listen Jackson, next time you get jealo—"

Her sentence cuts off as he pushes her against the nearby lockers, locking her in. He leans in until they're about six inches apart.

"Next time, what?" he asks, a smirk forming on his face at her obvious shock. "Exactly," he says when she doesn't reply.

He smiles, leaning back now that he's successfully called the bluff on her teasing. "Can't finish that sentence now can you princess?"

Her face burns, half in embarrassment and half in something she doesn't want to think about. How does he always manage to do this? Turn every situation so it's in his favor. She narrows her eyes.

Percy starts to back up. "Careful what you wish fo—"

Having regained enough of her senses to realize that he's not only messing with her but has succeeded in doing so, she grabs his shirt and pulls him back to her.

Actually, she ends up pulling in a little too hard because their bodies are brushing against each other which brings more heat to her cheeks, but she's not about to back down from a blatant challenge.

"Don't make assumptions about what I'm capable of, Jackson," she says, her lips mere inches away from his.

It's way more exhilarating than it should be, especially when his green eyes widen in shock. She preens at leaving him speechless. She's in the lead now.

With a smile, she leans in just a hair closer and his eyes definitely flicker to her lips for a second, but then she pushes him away.

He stumbles back as she starts to walk down the hall, heart racing so fast she can feel it in her ears. Thankfully no one was around to see that because she's not even sure what happened, did she really do all that?

(And she can't even begin to comprehend why he looked at her lips, so she ignores that part entirely for now).

She pauses at an empty stretch of wall, still trying to calm her heart and erase the memory of his touch and cologne (both of which aren't leaving).

"Tape," she asks, holding her hand out as she presses the flyer against the wall.

When he doesn't answer, she turns around and almost runs into his neck. He's stepped up right behind her and his arms move around her to put a piece of tape on the flyer she's holding up.

His chest just lightly bumps against her back, and that's when she realizes she's started something much bigger than she thought. And this is a game that he excels at.

Shivers run up her spine.

This can only end in disaster.

She turns around when he backs away, plastering a smile on her face. "Thanks."

Game on.

A/N: I think this is a messiest fic I've ever written but given that they're high schoolers I think that makes sense. Anyway, what did you think of the chapter? Have things finally turned towards something different? What does this mean for our two characters? Tune in two weeks to find out!

(Does anyone find the tv announcer blurb funny or is it just me?)

Please Review! I'd live to hear your thoughts!

And as always, thanks for reading!