Chapter 7: A Grade to Remember

I had to admit that the lack of comments from Professor Argus had left me both confident and confused for the rest of the night. I had sat and watched him critique other's photos into oblivion, but all I got was a 'well done.' In my head, that could only mean one of two things: the picture was great, or it was so bad that he didn't even know where to start. Either way, I was happy to take his lack of comments over the intense grilling he had given to the others in the class. Practice Thursday morning was actually really relaxing. Coach Hedge still pushed us to improve, but just being in the water made life feel better. I had to admit, I was a little sad when it ended.

"Hey Perc, Luke and I are throwing a party Saturday to celebrate the win, you should come and hang out!" Travis took a seat next to me in the locker room while I was putting on my shoes.

"And I am sure Katie wouldn't mind your help making the snacks, if you don't mind." Luke sat on the bench across from us with a towel around his waist from the shower.

"Yeah, that sounds fun! Do I need to bring anything?" I smiled at Luke and looked over at Connor who was joining us.

"Just your killer ping pong skills, and a plus one if you want." He took a seat next to Luke and pulled his shirt over his head. "Otherwise, when I get a date, you'll be the only one alone." Connor flashed a smile at the group and let out a small laugh at his overconfidence. I suppose he was right after all, if he did manage to get Annabeth to go with him then he would have her, Travis would have Katie, and Luke would have Drew.

"Yeah, about that," Luke interjected like he could hear my thoughts, "Drew and I broke up last night, so don't feel pressured to find a date." I could hear a tinge of sadness in his voice, but his face didn't match the emotion.

"I am sorry to hear that man, everything okay?" I was asking genuinely, but I also wanted to see his reaction to talking about it further.

"Yeah, I'm alright. We just never really talked and got close to each other ya know?" He was packing his stuff into his locker as he spoke so it was hard to see his face, but when he turned the far off look in his eyes told me he was upset. There was a moment of silence in the group until Luke slung his bag over his shoulder to leave the gym and go to his morning classes. "But hey, nothing a little party can't fix!"

I walked into my algebra test to find 30 faces of students who all looked just as scared as I was. I had spent the better part of a week studying on my own and getting help from Piper, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to malfunction in my brain, and I would forget everything I had ever learned. You see, math and I have always had a troubling relationship because we are of different natures. I am a creature of contingency; I like situations that are dynamic and can be tackled from multiple angles to find a solution. Take swimming for example, I can always make a split-second decision during a race that can alter the outcome wildly. I think that is why I enjoyed photography and theater so much (don't tell Will that last part) they allowed me to express myself from all kinds of dynamic angles. Math however, math had a correct answer and only one way to reach it. Math does not allow for contingency plans, in fact, it does its very best to ensure they don't exist! So, in short, math and I were not friends.

I finished the test in about half of the period and was surprised when I turned the page to see that there was nothing left for me to work on. The questions felt a little too easy and my suspicion immediately kicked in. Even though every bone in my body wanted to turn in the test immediately and get the hell out of Dodge, I couldn't help but imagine Piper's face when she asked if I double and triple checked my answers. To my surprise, I found the same answers the second time over using the formulas. With much confusion, I turned in my test and started to make my way towards the humanities building.

"Oh, hello Mr. Jackson, please come in." I decided to take the time to go and see Professor Argus during his office hours to ask about my picture. He had not posted our grades online yet, but I know he usually takes a look at them early.

"Good afternoon professor, I was wondering if I could ask you about my assignment from yesterday. I was a little confused based on your lack of notes compared to other students." If you couldn't tell, I was putting on what my mom called my 'professional Percy' voice. She said I used it a lot when applying for schools. He smiled at me and turned to rummage through the folder on his desk.

"Right, the image of the painter." He looked over the grade sheet and photo for a moment before placing it in front of me. "I was quite impressed by your use of lighting and attention to the subject matter."

"Thank you, sir." I looked down at the grade sheet and found all of the notes I had been missing. I took a glance through them and felt a small tug in my gut. It was silly really, but I couldn't remember a time that a teacher had commented on my work so positively.

"Truly, the pleasure was mine. I look forward to seeing how you can improve upon this in the future." He gave me a small smile as I stood. I returned the gesture and nodded to him as I turned to leave the room. The verdict was still out on my math grade, but one thing was for sure, I had picked the correct major! Or at least, so far!

On Friday I had a small bounce in my step on my way to study hall. Not that I was excited to work on the project, but I really wanted to throw my discussion with Professor Argus in Annabeth's face. 'One of the better photographs he has seen from a freshman' he had said. Of course, she would probably have some kind of stupid comeback to try and dampen my spirits, but between the swim meet win and this new grade, I really didn't think that was possible. I waltzed into the room to see Annabeth already working in the back where she usually was. I waved hello to Dr. Chiron; he smiled back at me and went back to his book. Making my way to the back of the room, I sat in the chair across from her and tried to play it cool so as to not spoil my big moment. My giddiness clearly did not interest her as she kept her eyes glued to her screen.

"Ahem." I cleared my throat. She jumped a little and looked up from her laptop with genuine surprise in her eyes that I was there.

"Oh, nice of you to show up." She sat up in her chair and glanced at her computer to look at the schedule for last week. "Did you spend time on Wednesday taking pictures?" This was my moment. I couldn't help but get a small smile on my face as I answered.

"Yeah, I actually did, and look at this." I held out the paper in front of her with Professor Argus' comments. She reached over her computer and looked at me with confusion before reading it. I sat back in pride and satisfaction while she looked over his comments. She handed the paper back to me and leaned on her elbow.

"Well, well, well. I guess my grade isn't in as much danger as I first thought." I was a little thrown off by her comment. I had prepared myself for something snarky, but she was actually being genuine.

"Oh, um, thanks Chase." I took the paper back from her and put it back in my bag. I pulled out my laptop to tell her about all of the things I had learned that week that could go towards our final project.

"So, can I see the picture?" I looked over at her and noticed that she hadn't moved back to working on her computer. Her eyes looked at me expectantly as if she was actually interested in my work. I nodded at her and looked through my computer to pull up the picture. I turned the screen to her, but she reached over and picked it up off the table to get a closer look.

"So what do you…" Annabeth held up a finger as she continued to look at the image. The screen of my laptop kept me from seeing her expression, but I could tell she was deep in thought. After what felt like a very long and awkward moment, she lowered the laptop and shot me a small smile.

"I have to say, I'm impressed." She handed the laptop back to me. "I can see what your professor was saying about the lighting. It really does a lot to reflect the calmness that painting brings your subject." I raised an eyebrow at her as I placed my laptop to the side.

"Don't tell me, you're an expert in all things photography?" She let out a small laugh.

"No, but I have been listening to you talk about your class for the last month. At some point I was bound to pick up on something." Her smile was genuine, and she was clearly proud that she was able to keep up with her own classes, this project, and apparently my class as well. I was honestly impressed, and a little embarrassed that I hadn't learned a single thing about architecture. I was really going to have to start paying better attention to her rants.

"Well thank you, I thought it was some of my best work." I opened the document on my computer where my notes were for class and started to add to the shared document Annabeth had made for us to centralize all of our project information. We worked in silence for a few moments before she spoke up again.

"Speaking of your work," she took a moment before completing her thought as if to think about how to say it, "who is that?" I looked up to see that Annabeth was still looking at her screen, diligently working on her assignments. She made no attempt to catch my eye. It took my brain a moment to register what she was asking me.

"Oh, that's Rachel. She is a friend of a few people I met at this little cafe on campus." I suppose I wasn't lying; I had only met Rachel because she was a friend of Piper and Jason's that liked to hang out with them. Annabeth was looking at me with a knowing look on her face. It reminded me of my mom when I would lie to her about doing my homework which made me uncomfortable in more than one way.

"Your friend?" She raised her eyebrows at me with an almost pity filled look. I understood what she was insinuating, but that doesn't mean I was following her thought process. Had she met Rachel? Did she know something I didn't? I didn't peg Annabeth as a social butterfly, but I had little doubt that she tried to learn as much about those that affect her life as possible.

"Yeah, why?" I knew that Rachel and I were just friends, and we had worked everything out regarding my little misunderstanding, but I was still nervous about her answer. She sighed and rolled her eyes and she sat back in her chair.

"No reason, it just didn't look that way when she practically leaped into your arms after you won your race." She deadpanned eye contact with me like she was trying really hard to make me connect the dots. I truly didn't think of it when it happened other than Rachel always being at a 10 with energy, but I guess someone who didn't know her could see it as a sign of more. Regardless, I wasn't exactly pleased with her tone or the 'you're an idiot' look on her face. "Congrats by the way."

"Thanks, but that's just Rachel. Physical touch is definitely her love language." Annabeth's blank stare turned into more of a relaxed look as she went back to tying on her laptop.

"If you say so," She smiled at her screen and shook her head, "But from my perspective, the seaweed in your head may have shifted from blocking academics to blocking common sense." She couldn't help but let out a small laugh at her own joke. I had to admit, whether she was right about Rachel or not, that was pretty good. I also wasn't fond of the demeaning pet name she had settled on, but honestly, it beat being at each other's throats all of the time.

"Anyway! Thanks for coming to support us. I have to say that I was a little surprised when Luke told me you were there." She looked at me in confusion.

"Why? It's like the only school event going on this early other than football, and we suck at that." She wasn't wrong. I remembered back to how miserable my high school team had been and sighed at the fact that I was doomed to always attend a school with a homecoming game material football team. Come to think of it though, I didn't mind that swimming was more successful than the other sports at Rome U. Our first meet had been packed and I could only imagine how many more students would show up if we kept winning. Thinking about winning brought my brain back to the breakfast we had on Monday. I didn't really realize that I had skipped lunch until my stomach remembered those pancakes. Of course, my brain then jumped to the conversation about giving Annabeth Connor and Luke's numbers, and in all of my brain's beautiful gymnastics I blurted out a statement that had no context to Annabeth at all.

"So, are you dating anyone?" She stopped typing. Her face showed little emotion other than the slightly reddening cheeks that gave away how caught off guard she was. I mentally slapped myself in the face for throwing such a dumb question at her. "Oh! Um, because my friend Luke, you met him at the meet, he brought you up at practice…" the red in her cheeks began to deepen as she stared intently at her computer screen. My nervous rambling really wasn't helping the situation either. "...and my friend Connor, the guy who swam backstroke, he thought you were kind of cute and…" She looked at me in the face with pleading eyes begging for me to stop. I let out a sigh, hung, my head in defeat, and took a moment to process my thoughts.

"Would you like to try again?" I looked up at her face. Her cheeks still resembled fresh tomatoes, but she had a small smile of amusement that let me know I hadn't completely offended her.

"Thanks, sorry about that." I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I looked through my contact until I found Luke's and handed it to her. "Luke is throwing a party tomorrow night for the win at the meet. If you want to come meet Connor, you can." She took my phone from me and thought for a brief second before typing something into it and handing it back to me. I was a little confused at first when I looked at the screen to see that she had put her contact into my phone instead of taking his. "Um…?"

"Look, if this guy really wants to meet me then cool, but I am NOT making the first move. Give him that, and maybe I will see you tomorrow." It took me a moment to process before I realized what she just said. Did I really just invite her to a party being thrown for me? I mean, we didn't fight anymore, but I wouldn't classify us as friends yet.

"Students, that is 3pm. Thank you for your diligent work, and I hope you all have wonderful weekends." Dr. Chiron had wheeled himself to the center of the room before he made his dismissal call and instantly students began to stand and buzz as they left the large study hall. I turned back to Annabeth, but she was already packing her stuff into her bag to leave.

I made my way off campus over towards the student housing where a lot of the upperclassmen rented out older houses that had been remodeled. The average house was nowhere near as big or nice as the one Charlie had held the back-to-school party in, but they were still way bigger than any dorm. I walked my way down the main street and turned the corner to Luke's house that he rented with Travis. I made my way up to the front door and knocked. The door swung open, and Katie smiled up at me holding a bowl of brownie mix. The house smelled like chocolate goodness, and I practically floated inside.

"Hey Katie, where is everyone?" Upon asking I heard a loud bang from the other room.

"I'm okay!" I heard Connor yell followed by all three guys laughing. Katie rolled her eyes and pointed in their direction before returning to the kitchen. As fun as the other room sounded, I decided to follow my nose. The chicken was full of baking trays, bowls full of used eggshells, butter, and milk, and small plastic bags adorned with blue ribbons. Katie had clearly been hard at work for a while with the number of brownies that were made.

"It all smells great!" She poured the contents of the bowl into a baking tray before turning to smile at me.

"Thanks! These parties are a lot of work, but I like getting to share grandma's recipe with others." She opened the oven and removed the brownies that had finished baking, only to replace them with the newly filled tray she had just poured. She looked over at me and moved her head over to the small bags to gesture for me to help. There must have been at least 4 baskets full of individually packaged brownies for the party goers to enjoy. Katie cut into the new tray and began to hand me a brownie to package before her hand stopped. She turned to meet my gaze. She darted her eyes to the other room before placing her finger over her lips in a hush motion. She split the brownie in half and gave me part. Note to self, I need to call Katie's grandma and thank her personally.

"Thieves! Swindlers! Liars!" We both turned to see the shocked face of Travis Stoll who seemingly appeared out of nowhere at the chicken entry. He grabbed his heart in the betrayal of being left out of our baked treat. He dramatically entered the room and adopted a very bad British accent. "My dearest Katie, you said that these delectable squares of heaven were off limits to us common folk, but here I have found you breaking bread with another man!" Katie held back a laugh and began to fan her face like she had been caught red headed. She took the rest of her brownie and gave it to Travis. He took it and wrapped her in a big hug. The moment was sweet to watch but was interrupted by Luke and Connor making their way to the kitchen as well. Seeing our little snack party, Luke made a move for an open brownie tin.

"Oh no you don't!" Katie reached forward and grabbed the tray away from him before he would take one. With the attention of Luke, Connor slipped past me and grabbed a brownie from the tray she had just cut from and stole a brownie. He broke it in half and tossed a piece over Katie's head towards Luke. Everyone shared a laugh save for Katie, who crossed her arms in defeat. "Ya know, I am sorry about you and Drew, Luke, but one of you idiots needs a girlfriend ASAP because I am outnumbered here." She smiled at us all and turned back around to start placing brownies in bags. Seeing that she had shared with me, I decided to join her in her work.

"Speaking of, have you texted Annabeth yet?" We all looked over at Connor who sheepishly shrunk and avoided eye contact. I had sent him her number after I left study hall earlier that day.

"Oh, come on bro! Getting cold feet?" Travis reached out and punched his younger brother in the arm. Connor laughed it off and swung back only hitting air.

"Listen, I appreciate you trying to help me out Perc, but I have never really dated anyone, and I don't think I would even know where to start." He slumped his shoulders and looked at the floor. Luke stepped forward and wrapped Connor up in a side hug.

"Don't worry dude, that's totally normal. Hell, even I was nervous before my first relationship." Connor looked up at him and Luke shot him one of his signature charismatic smiles. "But, just in case you work up the nerve by tomorrow night," Luke took out his phone and sent a message, "I just invited her."

"Thanks man, I owe you one." Connor smiled back at him and put his fist out for a knuckle bump.

"All of you owe me one for those brownies you enjoyed." We all turned to look at Katie who had her hands on her hips. She turned and picked up the small plastic bags from behind her and handed them to me and Travis, then gave Luke and Connor the brownie tray. "Now be good little kitchen helpers and bag up the treats for tomorrow."

I spent most of Saturday just lying in bed and looking over algebra work. I knew that I would most likely freak out and forget most of it before my test this week, but the idea of having to tell Piper that all her hard work tutoring me resulted in a D was a scary thought in and of itself. A lazy afternoon drifted by and the time to leave for the party approached. I hopped out of bed and threw on a black dress shirt with some jeans and turned to walk out the door. Right as it was about to shut behind me, I thought better of it and turned to knock on Nico's door.

"Well, what do you think?" I put my arms out and did a slow spin for him that ended in a little dance. My cousin smiled at me and shook his head.

"Honestly? Not bad, but I think you're missing something, hang on." He turned back into his room and walked over towards his closet. He pulled out a small black box and opened it to reveal a watch. Taking it from the box he gestured for me to come forward and placed it on my wrist. The strap was black to match the hands and numbers. The trim around the watch was golden and the face was a mixed blue/green wash that looked like crashing waves.

"Wow, this looks expensive." I held it up into the light to see the numbers better. The face presented the name Movado in gold lettering.

"It is, and it's also my dad's, so be careful with it." Nico looked at the watch and then stepped back from me framing his hands like a camera and closing one eye to look at me. "But, it goes with your outfit well, and that makes it worth it." He turned back and jumped onto his bed to finish his dinner.

"Thanks man, I will protect it with my life." He waved his hand at me dismissively as he shoveled more food into his mouth, I laughed and turned to walk out of the room.

Campus on a Saturday was a bit of a dichotomy. Houses and dorms practically shook as music played and people partied inside. Lights flashed and spilled into the streets, which by comparison were quite peaceful. I was about to turn and walk down the street that led to Luke and Travis' house when my phone started to ring. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at the screen, but the number wasn't saved. I chalked it up to one of those telemarketing calls and hit ignore. I was about to put it back in my pocket and keep going when it rang again. The same number appeared on the screen, and I had to say, my curiosity got the better of me. I hit the green button and lifted it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey Percy, it's Annabeth. Are you at the party yet?" Istopped in my tracks.

"Um, hey, no I am still on the way." I tried to hide the surprise in my voice, but apparently, she could hear my confusion

"I asked Connor for your number." I relaxed a little as her explanation was far less intrusive than I was imagining.

"Cool, so what's up?" There was a pause in her voice before she broke the silence with a quick barrage of words.

"So, I don't really know anyone at this party other than you, and walking alone at night is scary, even if it is just off campus, and…" her voice trailed off as I could hear her mentally slapping herself in the face. I had never heard her so vulnerable other than when she was talking with Dr. Chiron about her ADHD. I tried my very best to remain calm and keep from upsetting her. She took a deep breath, "Look, I would really appreciate it if you would walk me over there."

"Oh, yeah, sure, where do you live?"

"Just meet me outside of C Building in 15 minutes." She hung up. I kept walking in the direction of the party while we talked. When I realized where I was, I could already see the house around the corner. I let out a sigh, turned around, and walked my way back towards campus. So much for being on time to my own party!

The dim streetlights that lined the campus walkways guided me towards C Building. Lucky enough for me, NRU was nice enough to label their buildings by simple letters as opposed to old donors with tricky last names to remember. When C Building came into view there was only one person standing out front. The blond curly hair made it impossible to mistake Annabeth for anyone else. However, I had never seen it down before. Her ponytail had been exchanged for a mane of princess curls. It draped down just below her shoulders and covered her face from the side so she hadn't yet noticed me approaching. As I got closer, she turned to and met me with a smile as she waved and began to walk towards me.

"Hey Percy, you look nice, for a change." Her not-so-subtle dig went right over my head as she came into full view. She wore a black dress that made the light color of her hair pop. Her face didn't look different than usual, though I assumed she was wearing makeup. My mom always used to tell me that the biggest sign of success a girl could have was making someone believe she wasn't wearing any makeup when she was. She wore a pair of brown Docs and carried a pair of red heels in her hand. It took me a second to realize I was staring before my brain caught up with her comment.

"Thanks Chase, you don't look half-bad yourself." She looked a little bit caught off guard by my remark, but her face quickly softened into a slight rosy tint. She had stopped in front of me and we were standing in the dimly lit path of the University dorms. "Ehhem." I cleared my throat and turned to the side, extending my arm out towards the brick path in front of her. "We better get going, I would hate for you to be scared of all of the squirrels I passed on the way here." She looked up at me and swung her heels around to hit me in the chest. I had to admit, it was a pretty good strike that knocked the wind out of me a little. She smiled and walked past me towards the off-campus housing. I caught up with her and we walked a little way in silence.

"Thank you for coming."

"No problem." My thoughts got the better of me and I spoke up when I shouldn't have, "So, what do you think of Connor." She let out a small laugh, to my relief, and shook her head.

"He's really nice, but I was glad he called off the blind date." She started to swing her heels as she walked. "In all honesty, I'm not really sure I want to date anyone right now, but who knows," she looked down at her feet, "Maybe he will sweep me off my feet and woo me tonight." She paused for a moment and popped her leg up while crossing her hands in an exaggerated fashion. She fluttered her eyes at the moon for a second before cracking a smile and laughing at her own joke. I couldn't help but smile at her enjoyment.

"Well, you are right about one thing, he is nice, and a pretty good friend too."

"I think that would be a great place to start." We walked in silence again as we turned the corner onto the road that led to Luke and Travis' house. As we got closer the music inside began to get louder. I could only imagine how loud it was inside. We got to the yard and Annabeth stopped to change her shoes.

"Little word of advice before you go in," She looked up from placing the second heel over her foot and picking up her Docs. "Grab a goodie bag from the kitchen on the way in and on the way out, Katie's brownies are to die for!" We walked up to the front door and made our way inside. I pushed through the group of kids talking in the front hallway and into the main living room. My entrance was met with smiles and people patting me on the back and congratulating me on the win. In all of the chaos of people I noticed a hand slip into mine and squeeze down. I turned to see that Annabeth was right behind me with a slight look of dread on her face. I pushed through the crowd to the back of the room where a little space was available by the back windows to stand and breath.

"Wow." Annabeth let go of my hand and looked around the room.

"Not a big party person?" I smiled down at her with a teasing glance. "And here I would have thought that Annabeth Chase was a seasoned partier." She hit me on the arm and I let out a laugh at her expense. She shrunk a little into the wall.

"I have been to parties before," She looked at the floor before raising her gaze back up to the room full of kids. "Just not one like this."

"Percy! What's up man?" The moment was interrupted by Luke turning the corner and reaching out for a high five. I smiled back at him and returned his gesture.

"Heck of a turnout, huh?" He lifted his arm and gestured around the room as if showing off his kingdom and its many subjects. When he had completed his turn of victory, I noticed that his eyes landed just to the left of me and a smile shot across his face.

"Oh yeah, Luke, this is Annabeth." I moved out of the way which is when I saw that she had almost been hiding behind me.

"Hey Annabeth, thanks for showing up! It's nice to actually meet you." Luke extended his hand and Annabeth took it. It was nothing short of incredible to see Luke transform from a larger-than-life party host into an individual that made you feel like you were the only one in the room. He wasn't even talking to me and I felt a little more at ease in the room full of party goers.

"Where are Travis and Connor?" Luke looked back at me and pointed into the back of the house.

"They're in the garage playing ping pong. Last I checked they had pulled out a whiteboard and were adding names to a bracket." Luke laughed at the idea of a ping pong tournament breaking out in his house, but I was more than intrigued!

"Well, this might just be a fun party after all." I started to walk towards the back of the house before turning and remembering who I was with. "Are you coming?" Annabeth looked over and I could still see a small amount of discomfort in her eyes. I took a step closer to her and looked around at the crowded room. "At the very least, it gets you away from everyone." She gave me a quick nod and we made our way over towards the back of the house and into the garage. We walked into a very heated match between Connor and his friends who I didn't recognize. I looked over at the white board for a hint, but I assumed 'Rodriguez' was his last name.

"Percy, you want in!" Sitting on a few chairs in the corner were Katie and Travis. The latter stood up and walked over to the board to grab a marker.

"Only if you guys want to lose." Travis shot me a smile and added my name to the list of competitors. Katie made her way over to us and gave me a hug.

"Hey Percy," she stepped back, "And you must be Annabeth, nice to meet you, I am Katie." Annabeth's face looked confused for a moment and then turned slightly red. It was just now setting in for me too that for Katie to know her name just by jer appearance that I must have talked about her at least a little.

"Nice to meet you too Katie, are they always this loud?" She pointed to the two brothers. Travis was not attempting to hold back Connor's arm to make him miss the point during his game and Connor wasn't going down without a fight. Katie looked over at the boys and rolled her eyes.

"Unfortunately. I am honestly surprised that this one hasn't joined them yet." She nodded her head in my direction which earned a laugh from Annabeth. I turned to look behind me and whipped back around in a dramatic fashion with a hand over my chest.

"Whoever are you talking about? I am a perfectly normal and well-behaved person." That earned a laugh from both of them. It was still a little strange to me that Annabeth was here, but I was starting to get used to it and settle into the environment.

"If you want, you can come with me to the kitchen to make sure we still have enough snacks. We have to go back through the party, but there is a brownie in it for you." Annabeth smiled and nodded at Katie, and they turned to leave. I tried to follow behind but Katie stopped and held out a hand in front of me.

"I want a snack too!" I put on my best puppy dog eyes and stuck out my bottom lip.

"Sorry Percy, but the animals have to stay here in the zoo. Maybe if we are feeling generous we will bring one back." With that, The two girls turned and left the garage leaving me standing there hungry and sad.

"I am glad she still showed up, I was worried I upset her." Connor came up from behind me and slung his arm around my shoulders. "She wasn't too mad, was she?"

"Honestly, she didn't even bring it up, so I think you're good man." I spun around removing his arm from my back and gave him a light punch in the chest.

"Sweet, then all I have to worry about is kicking your ass in Ping Pong." He threw a punch towards me but I dodged out of the way and walked over to the table. I stood there and watched Travis and Chris, the true identity of Rodriguez, play for a minute before my phone started to ring. I took it out of my pocket and Rachel's name was over the top of the screen.

"Hey, Rachel, what's up?"

"Hey Jackson, I think I need your help." Her voice sounded more nervous than scared, but I was definitely intrigued.

"Of course, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, Piper and I went out downtown and she did a little too much. I am not nearly as bad, but I can still feel it."

"Is that Percy?! Tell him if he fails his math test, I'll kick his ass!" Hearing Piper drunkenly slur her words over the phone brought a small smile to my face. It was nice to know that even brainless my friends thought about me, even if it was a threat.

"As you can hear she has had better moments, do you think you could come down here and walk us home? I need not remind you that you owe me one after using me as your muse." I could hear the dramatic tone in her voice and I let out a small laugh. I had to admit, I was a little surprised she was asking for my help. I had come to know Rachel as a very confident person, but I guess I had felt the same about Annabeth before tonight as well. I guess even the most independent people still want help every once in a while.

"No problem, Dare, send me your location and I'll be right there." I hung up the phone and turned to tell Travis and Connor to erase my name from the list when I noticed that Luke had joined us.

"Hey guys, something just came up and I need to help a friend get home."

"Aww dude I just got out here, do you really have to go?" Luke looked a little hurt by my early departure from the party. Before I could answer, his smile returned, "It's all good man, the curse of having good friends is that sometimes they're going to need to be with others." He reached out his hand for a knuckle bump, "I'll see you Monday, and be safe out there."

"See you, Percy." Travis and Connor called out at almost the same time. They turned to look at each other with disgust before breaking out into a laugh. I was about to turn and go when I remembered that Annabeth was still at the party. I made my way up to the kitchen where I assumed she and Katie would be and only found Katie bagging up a few more brownies.

"Hey, where did Annabeth go?" Katie looked over and smiled at me as she placed another bad into the to-go basket.

"Um, she went to use the bathroom a minute ago, are you headed out?"

"Yeah, I got a call from a friend who needs some help getting home." I think Piper could read the worry on my face as I looked around the corner into the mob of people for Annabeth.

"Don't worry Percy, she is in good hands here. We will make sure she gets home safe." I had to admit, I did feel my shoulders relax a little when she said that. I looked at her with a soft smile.

"Thanks, just let her know it was an emergency." I turned to head out the door when Katie called out to me.

"Hey Percy," I popped my head back into the kitchen to hear her. "She is really sweet." I put on a small smile back at her and made my way towards the front door. I made it all of the way to the street corner before my head fully wrapped around what Katie had said. Annabeth was nice, sometimes, but sweet? As a boy whose mom worked in a candy store for years, I would give Annabeth bittersweet at best. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for me, I didn't have time to consider what Katie was implying. I had made my way around the block and was headed for the downtown bars, time to save two drunk girls!

A/N

Hello all!

Wow, there are more of you since the last chapter was posted three weeks ago! Thank you all so much for the reviews and comments on the story!

Percy finds himself in a pretty good spot this week with a positive response from Argus, a somewhat working relationship with Annabeth, and, of course, so many of Katie's brownies!

In what state will Percy find Piper and Rachel in? Did he pass his algebra test? What exactly did Katie say to him?

Thank you all for your support and interaction!

As always, thank you for reading!

GRNLEP1309