Half-Blood High
Chapter-15
~0O0~
Annabeth awoke with a start, heart pounding deafeningly against her chest and her fingers had her blanket in vice like grip. Outside the darkness of the thunder cloud filled sky was illuminated barely by a waning half-moon, the glass on the window next to her was foggy and chilled and for a moment she felt she saw something else staring back at her. Unexplained terror took root inside of her, and the sound of her breathing was starting to sound too loud- un naturally loud- and she tried her hardest to listen around them for she was positive there was some other sound right in that room, mocking and daring her to listen.
She shook her head wildly and her erratic curls framed her face and she took refuge behind them, shutting her eyes close. She knew she was being ridiculous- there was nothing in here except her room mates sleeping peacefully in their own beds. She knew that- she did- and yet. Annabeth took a few shuddering breaths, took a count to ten which eventually led beyond fifty and it wasn't well after a hundred that she felt her heart go back to its normal pace and her hands cease their trembling.
She felt very silly then when she opened her eyes and surveyed the dimly lit room- she wasn't quite sure what on earth had possessed her before.
Her throat felt parched and she debated only for a moment before swinging her legs off the bed to hunt down her bottle of water- which she found was empty- and she suppressed a groan when she found Hazel's was empty and Piper's was nowhere to be found. She made for the door bravely, pausing only a little at the sight of the pitch-black hallway, and resolutely made for the water dispenser in the common room. She was hardly a child to be scared of a silly storm and she very well knew that if she went back to bed without getting a drink right now, she would never fall asleep- and she would feel even sillier come morning.
The tall windows in the common room let in all the brilliant dazzle of the lightning outside, and Annabeth wasn't sure whether to be grateful for it or not- for while it did lighten up the room and showed her quite clearly it was indeed very much empty, when the light disappeared, she couldn't help feel someone would jump out on her when it came back. She pushed on, refusing to slow down because obviously showing that you were affected was one of the major mistakes one could do, as she had concluded from various horror movies over the decade, then decided that she was quite barmy, because obviously this wasn't a horror film, it was only her tower where she had lived for the last four years, and- oh good she'd reached the water cooler.
She quickly took her fill of two cups of water and then woodenly marched back to her room, spine straight and refusing to glance back, even though she felt positive something was glaring at her from shadows among the furniture behind.
She fell back asleep again, a little more content now that her throat felt cool and soothed, and it wasn't until two hours later, that she woke up again, in imminent need of a wee. She groaned and made her way outside once again, though this time, the storm had stopped and the trip didn't put her heart racing at all.
~0O0~
"Did you have a bad dream last night?"
"What?" Annabeth asked after a pause, hands stilling spreading jam on her toast as she hadn't caught on that the question was directed at her.
"It's just, I thought I heard you mumbling something in your sleep last night." Hazel continued, squinting at her. "And then leave a while later?"
"Oh yeah" Annabeth nodded, feeling her cheeks redden. Come morning all her terror had completely disappeared and she felt very embarrassed at the way she had gotten spooked last night. "I was just going to the loo."
"Why are you so red then?" Leo poked her cheek annoyingly, smearing a bit of butter on her skin and she angrily swatted his arm away. "Did you have a dirty dream?"
"What?" Annabeth asked for the second time that day, completely aghast. "Of course, I didn't."
"You totally did." Leo smirked from beside her, smiling sagely around the table, and the blonde elbowed him in the sternum as hard as she could. "Oh fuck- Annabeth! I think you broke something."
"Then maybe you should stop making stuff up in the future." The blonde muttered, giving him a sweet smile.
Jason leaned in from the opposite side, his sky blue eyes alight with excitement, and Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him. "I think you're being very defensive Annie, which probably means you did dream about some poor bloke. Who was it?"
Annabeth snarled, aiming a kick at him from under the table, but he had come to anticipate this particular attack after years of falling victim to it, and had quickly brought his legs up onto the bench, and had begun to chortle at her in glee. Annabeth could feel her hands stretching out to grab the nearest knife beside her to chuck it at his rotten face, but Piper saved her the trouble by landing a very audible blow to the back of Jason's head as she spooned some sugar into her tea. His head slumped downwards and the only one even remotely concerned about his state was Leo, who looked troubled that he had lost the only other person who seemed to have believed his ridiculous idea.
"So, who was it?"
"Piper!" Annabeth groaned in despair, betrayed by the curiosity laced in her best friend's voice. "Not you too! I didn't have a sodding wet dream! Stop falling for this moron's trap!"
And for good measure she gave another elbow to the stomach of the boy by her side, who grunted over in pain, but not enough pain as she would have preferred, for he brought up a shaky thumbs up even as he was bent over, clutching his mid riff. She was quite satisfied though when Jason looked up, and at the crestfallen expression that he aimed at his girlfriend, who ignored him in search of a scone, still staring at Annabeth in mild curiosity.
"So, you'll tell me after then? In the dorms?" Piper wiggled her brows and Hazel nodded along in happiness.
"What! That's not fair!" Leo sat up straight, looking around the table incredulously. "I'm the one who found out she was having one in the first place!"
Piper blew a raspberry at him and Leo flicked a piece of grilled tomato at her head, though it unfortunately hit an unsuspecting Jason in the eye, which caused him to look even more crestfallen, which Annabeth was very pleased to see. Nobody avoided her attack and lived happily to chortle at her.
"I would have loved to tell you-" Annabeth spoke over the ruckus that Leo was stirring up "- but there isn't anything to tell at all. I honestly didn't have any."
"Didn't have any what?" a pleasant voice interrupted their conversation, and Annabeth turned around to find Luke Castellan smiling down at her, his blond locks perfectly jelled down. Annabeth felt a little breathless at his close proximity and immediately wondered where Jackson was.
"Luke!" the squeal came from a bright-eyed Piper, whose trademark attempt at subtlety, this time in the form of a kick under the table at Annabeth, rattled the wood so much that most of her tea fell out of her cup. "How lovely to see you. Please join us."
"Yes, please do, Castellan." Jason said dryly, pursing his lips at Annabeth, as Luke took a seat next to her. "We were just talking about some of the rather stimulating dreams that Annabeth tends to have."
Annabeth smiled at him murderously, and for all his bravado Jason shrunk down in his seat a little, but before Castellan could inquire further on the matter, Piper jumped in, nearly shoving her boyfriend down the bench as she leaned forward on her elbows. "So, Luke, how are the preparations for the ball coming? I heard you had to cancel the band yesterday from Selena."
"Ah yes, we did. Budget troubles I'm afraid." He winced, and Annabeth quietly zoned out as they continued talking about the ball- it was organized, as was customary, by the final year students every term and Luke was in the planning committee this year. After it was evident that neither Jason or Leo intended to embarrass her further, she felt her eyes roaming the hall for her ever elusive enemy turned broom closet buddy, but before she could properly find him, her attention was brought back to the table as Luke quietly coughed beside her.
"Speaking of the ball-" he began, giving Annabeth a very obvious look, and the blonde felt a mild feeling of apprehension settle over her, which only heightened as Piper gave a small squeal from the opposite side. "I was wondering if-"
"Castellan I've meant to ask you for a while-"Jason perked up suddenly, completely oblivious to the direction the conversation had just begun to go "-what is going on between you and Beauregard?'
"Me too!" Leo nearly pushed Annabeth out the way to lean closer to Castellan "It's all I've heard about in the lockers room for the past few months. Is it true you guys hook up?"
"Boys." Hazel chuckled nervously, surveying the way Piper's face had gone murderously red as she clenched her fork in anger and her boyfriend, still oblivious to the fact the this particular cutlery could become a permanent feature on his forehead, wiggled his eyebrows with a chortling Leo at Castellan, apparently hell bent on making their guest as uncomfortable as possible.
Annabeth, a little relaxed that Luke was clearly distracted from the earlier conversation, found herself looking around the hall once again in search of Jackson. It was like an itch she couldn't calm and her heat seemed to be trapped on a treadmill till she caught sight of him. But when the blonde finally spotted him, in one of the tables away from his tower, together with Calypso Atlas, her heart quite nearly stopped.
She wasn't quite sure why her hands had begun to tremble, or why there was suddenly a lump the size of a golf ball in her throat or why there was an incessant voice in her head screaming at her to punch Jackson in his bloody nutsack. It didn't make any sense. Gods they were barely in any form of relationship- there was absolutely no reason why Jackson couldn't hold a conversation with anyone, let alone Calypso Atlas. The bitch who'd dumped the cola all over her head. Did Jackson know that? Wait, how did he know Atlas in the first place? They weren't even in the same house for fuck's sake, or any classes- there was only one way that Jackson tended to mingle with girls outside his general proximity- and the picture of that made her want to crawl something terrible on his skin. Wait- did he just smile at her? Did Jackson just smile at bloody Atlas who'd forced her to rinse out her hair four times last week? Wait- could Jackson have asked her to drench her in soda? Could-
Annabeth shook her head at the ridiculousness that her mind was coming up with and she tore her eyes away from that vile table with some effort and squashed down the sudden urge to fling herself into Castellan's arms and declare her undying love to him and snog him senseless. Instead, she calmly collected her bag, locked her bout of frustration to the back of her mind, and smoothed her face into a small smile.
"I'm going to head out." The blonde said as she pushed away from the table- Jason and Leo barely looked up from their heavy interrogation of Luke, who in turn looked like he'd much rather follow her out and away from the two morons, politeness be damned. Piper looked like she was having a heart attack and her eyes moved frantically between the butter knife on the table and the two boys cackling beside her.
Annabeth slipped out into the corridor, sincerely hoping Jason didn't end up with a knife on his throat and instead that Piper missed, and it stabbed someone else on the fucking face. Someone who was probably still smiling at something stupid that stupid girl said.
Gods she was going barmy.
~0O0~
Nico didn't think he was particularly intimidating- sure, he may be a little more standoffish and snappier that your average high school lad, but it wasn't like he had murder coming off from his eyes. Or so he thought, but the sight of the absolute terror on the faces of the first years made him doubt that sentiment a little.
They were on the ground, Will and himself, under a bright sun, conducting Archery selection for the first from students. Or more precisely, Will was conducting the lessons, since Nico didn't find archery the least bit interesting other than when it made Will all sweaty and completely irresistible. No, he was stuck here mainly because he had nothing better to do and all his dorm mates seemed to be busy that morning- Percy had disappeared after breakfast and Frank was busy with his plants- the burly boy had quite an impressive patch of dirt behind the stables. Did it bother him just a little that he'd been passed over for a bunch of bleeding daisies? Maybe, but at least he could spend time with his amazing boyfriend, who didn't look all that pleased all of a sudden, and Nico cursed the wimps who was standing in front of him. Will was too kind, and he knew he'd get an earful for allegedly bullying the first formers, which wasn't fair, because what was he supposed to do- not exist?
When one of the boys smacked his head on the bow and send an arrow that nearly took his neighbor's ear off, Will turned to Nico "Maybe you should-"
"Yeah, I'll meet you for lunch later." Nico agreed, not eager to get maimed, and jogged off the field into the mercifully shaded courtyard. He wandered around a little, a little annoyed when his shoes started getting tracked with pebbles, and was contemplating just going back to bed, when he spotted Percy dragging a reluctant Atlas into a shaded part of the courtyard. The black-haired boy seemed agitated as he conversed with the brunette and kept looking around as though to make sure no one was watching, so of course Nico squinted his best to get a proper view of the couple, because fuck if he wasn't a nosy bastard. A movement above caught his attention, and his widened in surprise when he caught sight of Annabeth Chase in one of the windows, stormy grey eyes trained on the couple as well. Huh, weird.
Percy was speaking more gently now, and he placed an arm on Atlas's shoulder, when the girl quite suddenly flung herself onto him, capturing his lips in a frenzy. Nico chuckled in amusement, but it seemed like the blonde above very much wasn't, because she scowled and turned around from the window. Interesting.
Percy on the other hand had pushed away Atlas roughly, grit something out to her, before walking back into the castle. Interesting again.
There was something there- thought Nico wasn't quite sure if his assumption would turn out to be correct- as he flicked his eyes lazily between the window where Chae had disappeared and the arch where Percy had rushed off through.
Whatever it was, he sure was glad Will had sent him off the field. He should probably terrify first years more often.
~0O0~
Percy scowled in frustration as Chace refused to meet his eyes for the twentieth fucking time that day. He'd started trying to get her attention right after he'd recovered from Atlas assaulting him out in the garden. He'd found the perfect place for them to study, and he wanted to do nothing more than drag her there and snog her senseless, but for some reason she seemed hell bend on ignoring him.
He'd spotted Castellan at her table that morning, and had the uneasy feeling that it had something to do with the ball. Of course, he didn't care who she went with- they were only hooking up. And occasionally studying. She was still the same annoying Annabeth Chase. But still, he'd noticed the way Luke looked at her, at the football match, between classes, during meal times. It made him want to smash the blond-haired boy's head onto the table, right into that fucking soup he drank so much. But it didn't mean anything- he was just…territorial. That's all. Hooking up. That was it.
When Chase ducked her head into a glass of orange juice, quite deliberately not looking his way, he'd had enough. He pushed away from his table and made his way over to where the West siders were having their dinner, and paused right in front of her, behind Valdez.
Grace spotted him first, as Chase still stubbornly refused to look at him, "What do you want Jackson?"
He ignored him, because fuck Grace, he hated him. "Chase."
Annabeth looked up in weariness, and he was shocked to find a flash of hurt in her eyes. fuck. Did he do that?
He cleared his throat when she said nothing "We need to work on that project. For Spanish."
Before she could reply Valdez turned around his in his seat, mouth filled with cabbage. Percy didn't even know they served cabbage at dinner.
"What project?" the curly haired boy demanded and he cursed when he remembered that Valdez was in Spanish with them, but he was saved from answering when Chase stood up with her satchel slung her over her shoulder.
"It's an extra credit thing Mrs. Gonzalez partnered us for yesterday." The blonde smiled, and her friends accepted her explanation, but Percy noticed the way her hands clenched and the stiff way her mouth moved. "Come on Jackson."
He followed her out the hall, hands deep in his pocket, scowling at anyone who stared at them on the way. She turned the corridor into an empty alcove, and turned around to face him, eyes glaring at him and lips trembling.
"What do you want?" she snapped at him, tapping her feet on the ground in annoyance and Percy racked his brain to come up with any reason why she could be behaving this way.
"Are you upset?" he finally ventured out.
"No." she snorted, grey eyed swimming in fury. It looked like she was holding herself back from lobbing him in the head.
Okay then.
Percy knew he had to tread carefully here, granted he'd never been in such a confusing situation in his life with a girl- he normally ended things before whatever this was.
"Are you- on your period?" he exclaimed suddenly, blurting it out before really thinking about it and immediately regretted when her mouth fell open in disbelief.
"Did you just really- I- You're a fucking asshole, Jackson!" she glowered at him before turning on her heels and marching up the stairs into the West Tower, leaving Percy alone in the dark.
The East Side boy was in shock- even when he returned back to the dorm, and sunk down on one of the high chairs by the roaring fire. He couldn't come up with one possible thing that he could have possibly done had riled her up so much-he was still half convinced she really was having cramps.
Maybe she was regretting giving it a second go? Percy grimaced at the thought, his heart felt really fucking heavy all of a sudden and he found he hadn't taken a breath for a whole minute. What if she came up to him tomorrow, and ended it? He'd already convinced her once to not to but could he do it a second time? He wasn't sure why the thought of not seeing her made him feel so- terrible. Like he was drowning.
"What's up?"
Percy didn't look up from the fire, seeing nothing but grey eyes flashing in fury. And hurt. The hurt that she tried to hide drove him crazy. "I'm not in the fucking mood Di Angelo."
"I can see that." The dark haired boy chuckled as he settled on the chair next to him, and waited a moment before casually saying "Does it have something to do with Annabeth Chase being mad at you?"
"What?" Percy nearly broke his neck when he turned to glare at the boy next to him "How- did you see?"
"I didn't actually. I've just woken up." Nico smiled languidly, sinking down on the leather "But that way you're looking at me, I guess I'm right."
"Why would you think Annab- Chase is mad at me?" Percy fought the urge to push the sucker into the fire "We don't even fucking talk."
"Maybe." Nico shrugged in agreement, before giving him a sly smile, and Percy felt he definitely was not going to like whatever the boy was going to say next "But I think she wasn't particularly happy to see you snog Atlas in the courtyard today."
Nico watched in fascination at the array of emotions that passed by on the green eyed boy's face. Holy shit, his assumption was right.
"Damn Perce." He clapped a hand on Percy's shoulder in pity "I wasn't sure until now- whatever's going on between you two- I won't tell anyone."
"Nothing's going on between us." Percy grit out, though he still seemed shocked at learning that Chase had witnessed him with Atlas.
"Percy, you're one of my best mates, but if you don't stop acting like a moron, I'll have to sock you in the ear." Nico gazed at his friend, his shoulders rigid with tension "Why did you kiss her anyway? Atlas?"
"I didn't! She fucking hurled herself at me!" Percy snarled in anger "I pushed her away right after!"
"Yeah, pretty sure Chase didn't see that last part." Nico nodded "You could just go and explain that to her tomorrow and everything will be alright."
"I don't have to explain anything to anyone because there's nothing going on between us." Percy stood up in anger, towering over him in fury "Get that shit inside your head, Di Angelo, and leave me the fuck alone."
He turned and went to bed, leaving Nico alone by the fire. Honestly, Nico thought wearily as he sat down again, Percy may be one of the smartest people he knew, but Gods was he full of crap, because he was quite sure there was something going on between his friend and Chase, maybe a little more than Percy himself knew.
~0O0~
Apologies for any mistakes- this was typed out in a rush!