Chapter Text
Annabeth POV:
“Hey! Beth! You gotta wake up or we’re gonna be late for school!” Is the first thing Annabeth hears. It takes her a few seconds to register that she is in Piper's room. The giveaway, though, is the faint vanilla rose scent and fluffy gray blanket overtop her.
“Mmmmpgrgphm” Is more or less her very graceful reply.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, you don’t want to get up. Neither did I, and look at me!” Piper says with enough energy for Annabeth to hypothesize that she has been up since five and had an energy drink already. Afterall Piper did have a very comprehensive morning routine.
“Has anyone ever told you that you are way too energetic?” Annabeth says, turning her head to the other side of the pillow and closing her eyes again.
“Yes, you said that to me last night.”
“Oh good. I’d be worried if I hadn’t.” She says sleepily, drifting off again.
“Nope. We are not doing this today!” Piper says, shoving the sheets off her friend and gently grabbing her ankle, trying to yank her off the bed.
“Ugh! Fine. I’m up.” She says, still very much not up. “What time is it anyway?”
“6:30”
“So you wake me up now because?”
“Because I want to spend time with my best friend.”
“Even half asleep I know you’re lying.” She says, shoving her face in the pillow.
“Okay fine!” Piper says in surrender “One, I didn’t want to be late and two, uhh… I kinda had plans to meet up with a guy before class started.” She admits tentatively, looking at the ground.
“Piper! You could’ve just said so!” Annabeth says, jolting up from her place on Piper's bed, now suddenly more awake. “I’m happy for you Pipes! So who’s the guy?”
“Uhh.. Jason Grace..”
Annabeth pauses like a deer caught in headlights. She thinks her brain might have just short circuited.
“Wait, hold up.” She finally replies, “You mean THE Jason Grace? As in, one of Percy's best friends?”
Giggling slightly Piper replies “Yep, that one.”
“I cannot believe you right now!” Annabeth says in giddy disbelief. Her best friend is talking to the best friend of her, whatever you want to call it, crush she supposes. But that terminology doesn’t feel quite right.
“Hey, if this all goes south, I’ll be the world's best wing woman.” Piper says smiling from her desk chair.
“I guarantee this will not go south for you Pipes. There’s like a 7% chance things will go horribly wrong.” Annabeth says, grabbing her clothes and heading to the bathroom.
“Wow, thanks for the bode of confidence babe!” Piper shouts after her.
“Love you too!” Annabeth says, closing the bathroom door behind her.
When the door is finally closed Annabeth just stares blankly in the mirror. What the f*ck. She examines her face and the acne spots that won’t go away, the oil that’s building up on her scalp, her teeth that are slightly yellow no matter how much she tries to whiten them.
This isn’t typical for her, she isn’t sure what possessed her all of a sudden to scrutinize herself in the mirror. But all she can manage to think is He is never going to be impressed by me. Why did I tell Piper? Now she’s going to make a big deal out of something that will never happen.
She checks her phone, a bunch of random notifications, twitter and instagram, Life360 from last night saying Reyna got home safe accompanied by her text saying just that, snapchats, but one notification that is severely lacking is from her father. As if on cue though, her brothers text her.
Bobby: Hey. Dad is worried but mom told him not to text you. Told him if you wanted to leave and not be here, he should let you.
Matthew: yeah annie, he noticed you were gone. we did too if it matters. we miss you. pls stop leaving, or at least take us with you sometime. it sucks here.
Annabeth: thank you guys really. I appreciate it more than you know and i’ll be home today after school. well, depending on what homework i have. I’ll make it up to you two. promise.
Matthew: if it was a competition you’d get best half-sister of the year for sure
Annabeth: you are an absolute weirdo matthew.
Bobby: Hey he is just speaking the truth
Annabeth: alright go get ready for school you two, i don’t need helen coming after my neck any more than she is already planning to. me keeping you two from getting to school on time is more fuel to that fire.
Matthew: eye-eye captain
Annabeth sets her phone down with a smile on her face, thankful someone is looking out for her. As much as she might not like her stepmom, her half brothers are pretty cool people.
She changes from her pajama shorts to a pair of leggings but keeps the same hoodie on. She walks out of the bathroom, noticing her friend smiling down at her phone, much how she was the night before.
“Someone is excited about this.” She clearly startled her friend because Piper's head snapped up like a puppet on a string.
“Beth, he is bringing me starbucks. He might be perfect. This might be my peak in life”
“I wish you well with that my friend.” Responding with a smile as she packs up her backpack. ”Although I would be really concerned if this truly was your peak in life.”
“Shut up” Piper replies looking like she is trying so hard not to smile. “Need I remind you, I know about your crush and maybe I could get him to tag along.”
“Piper.” Annabeth says, shocked at the stern tone that came out of her mouth. “Look, I love you so much and I am so happy for you about this. But you’re you. You are actually able to get guys. I’m not.”
Taking a deep breath she tries again, “I-I guess I’m just really scared Pipes. I don’t want to think about this because I know there is such an unlikely thing.”
“Oh Beth.” Piper looks utterly defeated. The sadness in her eyes is making Annabeth feel really guilty for lashing out the way she did.
“Come here for a second” She says, patting the section of bed next to her.
Annabeth complies, because of course she does. This is her best friend we’re talking about.
“Annabeth” Piper takes her hands “You are able to get guys, and I promise you, it isn’t everything to be involved in situations with guys, or girls for that matter.”
Annabeth's eyebrows shoot up at that last comment. Not that she’s necessarily surprised, she just wasn’t expecting that this morning. That does make a few more things click into place, but that isn’t important right now, so she stores that in the back of her mind for the time being.
“And just because you haven’t been in a romantic situation yet doesn’t make you any less of a human being. You are one of the best people I know, and guys not seeing that doesn’t reflect on you. It reflects on them and proves what we already know, that guys are absolute stupid idiots.”
Annabeth tries not to let the grin take over her entire face because wow did she win the best friend lottery.
“Piper, how did I get so lucky with you?”
“Duh. Cause I’m amazing and you saw that before most people did.”
“You ass. Let's get to school before we have another breakdown therapy sesh.”
“Sounds like a plan!”
“Oh and I’m getting aux in the car. You are going to have to listen to Taylor Swift this fine morning.”
“One, you say that like I hate her. Two, fine! But you cannot play anything sappy or depressing. If you do, I'm texting Jason to bring Percy when I meet up with him and forcing you to come with me.”
“I hate you.”
“No you don’t! I explicitly remember you saying that you got lucky with me.” Piper teases
“Shut up” Annabeth says, trying to playfully slap her friend.
“Okay, okay. Let’s go, I don't want to be late.”
“Yeah I bet you don’t.”
“Okay now you need to shut up”
Annabeth smiles a cheeky smile and sticks her tongue out at Piper before getting into the passenger side.
Annabeth connects her phone and selects a song that Piper has to scowl at her when she sees what it is.
“Sparks Fly??? Really Annabeth?? You’re more down bad than I thought.”
Annabeth grins over at her friend before throwing her head back in laughter.
“Okay you need to cool it missy.” Piper says in fake anger while making the left turn into the parking lot. Annabeth only laughs harder
Maybe everything will be okay after all she thinks as Piper pulls into her parking spot and shuts off her car.
---------------------------------------------
Percy POV:
“Mmmmpgrgphm.” Is the sound that comes out of Percys mouth when he wakes up.
He shoves his head into his pillow and debates screaming at the notion of being awake and having to go to school, but decides against it.
On instinct he reaches over and checks his phone. He didn’t remember plugging it in or hearing his alarm.
The display shows 8:30 am
“Fuck” He says jolting up from his bed realizing that he has now missed all of first period.
“MOM” he yells trying and failing to get out of bed. Somehow Percy managed to take half of his blanket with him and he makes a mental note to thank whoever that he didn’t go crashing down to the floor.
“Oh! Good Morning sweetheart!” Sally says turning around with a frying pan in hand flipping a pancake.
Percy is officially the most confused he has ever been, and that is saying a lot. He sits down on one of the barstools in the kitchen, crossing his arms and resting them in front of him on the counter.
“Paul and I decided to let you sleep in and I would take you to school once you woke up.” She explains as she places a few pancakes on a plate and places it in front of her son.
He continues to look at his mom with confusion; eyes wide, jaw all but dropped to the floor. Slowly he reaches for a fork trying to wrap his mind around what is going on. In all fairness he is still partly asleep, and also just was not expecting this today.
“Oh.” Is the reply Percy finally settles on “Okay. Thanks… I guess. I appreciate it. You really didn’t need to do that. It wasn’t even bad or anything, I would’ve been fine. But pancakes in the morning are always a plus.”
He is trying really hard to not sound ungrateful because truthfully he really is grateful. It’s more the fact that as much as Paul is a nice guy, there is still part of him that doesn’t trust him. Having Paul see him when it gets bad was not something he wanted to happen, not for a while at least.
“Well even if you didn’t need to sleep in you got to.” She replies “And you’re welcome”.
He finishes eating and sets his plate in the kitchen sink. Heading back to his room, he all but slams the door. He fights the urge to shove his face in his pillow and yell a string of curse words that have never been conjured up in the centuries of language. Instead, he opts to take a deep breath and get ready for school.
And by “get ready” he means throwing on a pair of dark blue flannel pajama pants and a t-shirt. You know, comfy, simply, epitome of “I genuinely could care less how I show up to school.”
Splashing some water on his face, he looks back at his reflection. His bright eyes and dark hair, a stark contrast to his pale skin. The dark circles under his eyes are more prominent and there is a new collection of missing skin on his lips.
Shaking his head out of this trance he picks up his toothbrush. Midway through brushing his teeth, his phone buzzes. In an attempt to check the notification, his toothbrush hangs out of his mouth as toothpaste starts to drip down his chin.
Grover: Hey man you good?
Percy: yeah i just overslept. ill be there in 20
*grover liked “yeah i just overslept. ill be there in 20”*
Percy finished brushing his teeth when his phone buzzed again with a text from Jason.
Jason: bro. BRO.
Percy: whats up
Jason: i might’ve gotten Piper starbucks this morning…
Percy: of course you did lmfao
Jason: you can’t say ANYTHING with the way you always make googly eyes at annabeth
Percy: oh shut up
Jason: you coming to school today?
Percy: yep!
If one more person asks him that, he might actually scream. He doesn’t like lying to his friends, but he isn’t really lying, just not going into detail about why he is showing up late.
“Are you about ready to go?” Sally asks after swiftly knocking on his door.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” He replies, throwing his backpack over his shoulder.
Somehow the New York morning traffic isn’t 0 mph, bumper to bumper today. A fact which shocks both Percy and Sally as they make it to his school in record time.
“Alright, see ya! And thank you for letting me sleep in and making pancakes!” Percy says before shutting the door of his moms car.
“You’re welcome sweetheart. But you should really thank Paul for that, "she says, offering a kind smile to her son.
Percy tries not to let that get to him. Instead offering an amicable smile and saying “I will.”
“Oh! Did you remember to take your meds?”
“Shit.”
“Don’t worry, I’m always prepared for this kind of stuff. I’ve only been your mother for the last seventeen years.” She holds out a small water bottle and two small orange plastic bottles.
Reluctantly he takes them, a small wave of humiliation floating through him as he hands them back to his mom.
“Okay bye!” He shouts back as his mom pulls away, trying not to sound too dejected.
Pulling the straps on his backpack a little tighter, taking a deep breath, he walks into the school.
“Hello. Please sign in with your ID.” The kind lady behind the desk says to him.
A quick beep of the scanner, a quick scratch of a pen, and the lady hands him a pass.
“Thank you, have a good day!” He says with a smile, turning on his heels towards his English class.
In short order, he arrives in his class and for a brief moment he stands in the doorway, looking out for one person in particular. It just so happens that his arrival finds her head snap up, their eyes meeting for a brief moment until he feels his cheeks heat up and he has to look away.
That and Paul, well Mr. Blofis, coughs lightly to get his attention.
But his mind drifts back to the gray eyes he saw. The eyes that seize his psyche more often than not.
“Shit- I mean shoot, sorry. Here” Percy hands his step-father his hall pass.
“Thank you Mr. Jackson. Please take your seat. We’re working on essay template outlines and I was finalizing partners for the project.” The small smirk on Paul's face terrifies Percy.
He finds his desk, fourth back, second row from the left, direct view of the door to his right and the clock above it.
Percy cracks open his computer, typing in his password and promptly staring directly at the screen for what could be minutes or hours. He honestly doesn’t know or care. He sits there zoned out, arms crossed over his chest for several minutes until Paul gathers the class’ attention.
“Alright class. As you know we are starting our final project of the semester. It is a pretty straightforward research project on one of the different critical approaches to literature. There are seven of them but we’re going to split up the seventh into two parts for slight differences. There will be eight groups, six groups of three and two groups of two…”
The more Paul yaps, the more he zones out. It’s not that he doesn’t care about what Paul is saying, it’s more so that he just isn’t engaged in it. Also it doesn’t help that Annabeth is a two seats ahead the next row over.
How can the back of someone's head be so pretty..
“...Percy Jackson is with” Paul starts, effectively snapping Percy out of his daze. His heart is pounding for these few seconds, blood rushing to his head.
I REALLY need to get it together
Somehow these few seconds are ticking by like hours. How does it take the guy so long to read off something he has on a spreadsheet?
“Annabeth Chase.”
Annabeth's head snaps backwards towards Percy. He swears there is a small blush on her face, but he could be making that up. He is praying to whoever is out there that the grin on his face isn’t too ridiculous.
He offers an awkward hand wave, a small gesture of just lifting his wrist off the desk.
Somehow this brief moment feels uniquely their own. No one is paying attention to them as Mr. Blofis reads off the next set of names.
And for as much as he tries can’t read her face, it’s a mix of what looks like anger, shock, and nothing at all. He really hopes Annabeth isn’t upset about this otherwise his master plan is ruined.
Eventually she turns back around in her seat, furiously texting something.
Wait… she can’t be upset about this right? Percy chill out, this is getting sad.
Pulling out his phone he shoots a quick text to Grover and Jason.
Percy: grover… it happened. by some miracle it worked. shes my project partner dude.
Percy: jason holy shit. annabeth is my project partner.
He sets his phone face down on his desk, and tries to focus on the class.
“Now that you all have your partners, I’d like you to go sit by each other. I’ve put a few resources for you guys to look at, so research those and we will pick your criticisms with the last ten or so minutes of class. If there are any questions, comments, or concerns please let me know. I can switch these partners now but once you pick your topic I cannot switch them.” Paul instructs.
Annabeth walks over to Percy before he can even gather his things. Her backpack slung around her shoulder, still an indiscernible expression on her face.
“Hi.” She says and it sounds like the briefest chord of a symphony.
“Hey!” He replies trying not to sound too enthusiastic, but still working his charms with his trademarked grin.
Coincidence or not, Annabeth turns her face away from him after his reply. Sitting down in the desk to his right, she pulls out her computer, logging in and pulling up the list of criticisms.
“Okay so I really do not have a preference what we pick but I’m open to whatever.”
“Okay.” Annabeth states “I’ll read through these, but I should warn you, I’m not the fastest reader so if we want to divide and conquer so I do the first four and you do the last four, it’ll go faster.”
“Oh I thought that was going to be the plan. I’m not gonna make you do all the work, that's just cruel.”
“Okay” She says smiling and looking back at her computer.
Oh dear. I am a goner.
After about 15 minutes, Paul calls it time to pick each group's topic. By random chance they go through each of the groups.
“Okay Percy and Annabeth, what have you two picked?”
“Gender Criticism” Annabeth says.
“Alright, sounds good. Now…”
Percy taps out yet again, focusing on the minutes tick down til the end of class.
“Alright that is all for today! We will go over outlines and further project details tomorrow. Have a good one!” Paul says when the bell rings
In some brief moment of mental clarity, Percy approaches Annabeth.
“Uh.. hi. So uh, okay, since we're project partners and everything,” Annabeth looks so pretty, but also like she's trying not to laugh at his awkward attempt to talk to her “..do you think I could have your number?”
“Yes, of course, you’ll probably need it since I’m sure you’ll have tons of questions and make me do most of the work. Gotta check in and make sure I’m on track.”
She’s messing with him. Somehow in 20 minutes they’ve gone from classmates to messing with each other.
He hands her his phone to enter her number. “I’m wounded Annabeth, truly. I cannot believe you think so low of me.”
“Keeping that ego in check. That's all. Can’t let Mr. All Star Swimmer think he can get out of stuff.” She replies, handing his phone back to him.
“Well clearly I won’t be able to work my charms with the ladies on you.”
“Nope.” She grins back at him. A cheeky, all teeth smile. And Percy thinks he might collapse.
“... Um.. okay. Right. Well. Thank you for this, I gotta get to class.”
She snorts. “Okay seaweed brain. See you tomorrow”