Chapter Text
“Well, I’m happy to see we have some new faces this year!” the drama teacher, Celeste, said with a smile, gesturing toward the students sitting in the audience seats.
It was the last period of the day, and judging by everyone’s faces, acting was the last thing they felt like doing.
“Unfortunately, our schedule changed a bit this year, so we’ll be meeting for class on Tuesdays this time, and right after lunch on Fridays.” She said. “Not exactly the best hours to feel the energy flowing and… connect. But I think we can make it work.”
She started walking around the stage. “Alright, let’s begin! For those of you who are new, this class is about acting, improvisation, learning scripts, and a lot more. But before we get to any of that, the first thing we need to do is get over being embarrassed. You’re all going to spend two hours a week together for the whole year, so the best thing you can do is stop worrying about looking silly. Some of you have probably heard this exact speech every year, but… I still have to give it.”
She let out a small sigh before sitting on the edge of the stage.
The stage lights gave her an almost mysterious aura. She had long layered brown hair, warm brown eyes, winged eyeliner, and wasn’t very tall, and even looked smaller with the purple skirt covered in tiny patterns that she was wearing, and an absurd amount of jewelry. Seriously, an absurd amount. She couldn’t have been older than thirty-five, but she’d been teaching at the school for so long that everyone knew exactly who she was.
Celeste looked around the room before speaking again.
“Before we start the class, I would like to remind everyone to call me Celeste, I don’t like being called Miss. Something, I just like my name. Now, about the classes, these can also help you all make friends, loosen up, and step outside your comfort zone. A lot of people think acting is just memorizing a script, performing it, and that’s it.But it’s not. There’s a lot of work, a lot of effort, and a whole lot of love behind every performance. If you don’t believe me…” she smiled. “You’ve got the whole year to see it for yourselves.”
She jumped down from the stage (it wasn’t much of a jump) and sat in one of the front row seats.
“Now, I want you to come up one by one. I don’t care about the order. Tell us your name, your favorite hobby, your favorite class subject, why did you want to join the drama class, and then improvise whatever scene I give you. Go!”
And just like that, Annabeth felt her stomach drop. She slowly turned toward Percy, panic written all over her face, he just smiled.
“Don’t overthink it,” he whispered to her. “You’re smart. You’ll do great, it’s easy.” His voice was so close she could feel his breath brush against her ear, making a small shiver run down her spine.
“Yeah, but…” she whispered back, leaning closer to him. “What if I don’t know what to say?”
Percy leaned in too.
On the stage, Leo Valdez was currently acting as an old lady getting hit by a bicycle.
“Then look at me, I will try to help you somehow,” Percy said quietly. “Because if you look at… you know who, you’re just going to get more nervous. Trust me.”
Before she could answer, he pressed a quick kiss against the side of her head, it was so fast Annabeth almost wondered if she’d imagined it.
Percy leaned back in his seat, watching Leo’s performance as if nothing had happened, Annabeth stayed completely still for a second, then she turned back toward the stage.
Almost immediately, she felt someone looking at her, she tried to ignore it but after a few seconds, curiosity won.
She glanced toward the row in front of her and there he was, Connor Stoll was looking right at her.
He smiled, then lifted a hand in a small wave.
“I’m glad to see you here, Beth.”
Annabeth smiled back before she even realized she was doing it.
“Oh… uh… thanks. Im glad to see you too, Connor.”
There was a small pause, neither of them seemed to know what else to say so Annabeth simply turned back toward the stage.
A second later, Percy nudged her lightly with his elbow, she didn’t even have to look at him to know he was smiling.
“See?” he whispered. “That wasn’t so bad, and you didn’t even need my help.”
A few performances later, it was Annabeth’s turn, she got to watch Leo getting hit by an imaginary bicycle, Percy dramatically watching the person he loves fall off a cliff, Juniper turning into a guinea pig, Silena finding out she’s adopted, Rachel being a fake fortune teller trying to scam someone, Charles trying to order food in a language he doesn’t speak, Will trapped in a revolving door, and Connor being on a cooking competition.
And it was finally Annabeth’s turn, she got up and felt how her hands began to sweat as she went on stage. With so much light in front of her that she received from the spotlights, she could barely search for Percy with her eyes.
She took a deep breath and waited to hear what she had to answer.
“Tell me dear, what’s your name?”
“Annabeth”
“Beautiful name, what do you like to do on your free time, Annabeth”
She looked again and finally caught Percy’s eyes. “I love to read, and also spend time with my friends, the usual.”
“Your favorite subject?”
“Honestly, none,” all her classmates laughed.
“Fair.” She laughed too. “And tell me, why did you decided to join the drama class?”
Annabeth thought, of course she wasn’t going to say that she joined because Percy told her she had to if she wanted him to help her. She knew he did it because this way she had a class with Connor. But maybe this also will help her act. Pretend like she’s calm. Or let herself be more free.
“I find acting very interesting and… um…. I wanted to try a new class.” she confessed, half lie half true.
“Amazing, thanks for letting us know a bit about you Annabeth, now please do a…” she stopped, thinking. “act as if you are trying to convince me to buy the most disgusting perfume ever.”
Annabeth nodded, she took her phone that she had in her pocket and placed it in her hand as if she were showing a perfume.
“This… this is the new “Fish dream” perfume,” she showed it to the audience from above. “Smells like an ocean dream, once you put a little on you, you will feel the need to go to the ocean and swim with the fishes… is such a refreshing smell.” She then pretended that she poured a few drops of the perfume and faked a gag and turned to the side, hearing how everyone laughed, she was hiding her own smile, she had achieved her task. Then when she turned her gaze she saw Connor smiling and that made her very nervous, for a second she didn’t know whether to continue, or what she should do but then the teacher and everyone applauded her.
“Very fun, I loved it, you were very convincing.” Celeste smiled.
“Thank you” Annabeth said while getting off the stage.
By the time the class ended, Annabeth managed to go through a lot of activity, the last one was the best one, she had to pair with someone random (for her luck she got her friend Juniper) and do some trust exercises in pairs where one guided the other, and it went amazing.
Percy, on the other hand, did not have the same luck since it was his turn with Leo and he forgot to mention that there was one more step up the stairs and Percy fell to the ground, getting a scratch on his cheek.
On the way out while they were waiting for Thalia and Luke to get out of class and get on Percy’s car, he could feel Annabeth holding back her laughter.
“Whats so funny?” he said, rolling his eyes.
“Nothing just…” she laughed again, shaking her head and turned in his direction. He had a scratch on his cheek that would surely give him a small bruise soon. “You will probably need to put some ice in your face”
“Where? What?” He said frowning and touching his face, then when he passed his hand over his right cheek he made a face of pain.
“Yeah, you think no one saw it but I did see how you fell up the stairs.” She rolled her eyes. “Does it hurt a lot?”
“Only when I touch it” he murmured, turning to Annabeth. “Is it too much?” And before she answered he looked himself in the little car mirror, he saw the small scratch and the redness around it and pressed his lips, brushing it with his fingers.
“Don’t touch it,” Annabeth sighed and grabbed his hand, putting it back on his lap, “Let me check” she said.
She grabbed his face with both of her hands and got close to him, analyzing the scratch.
“You don’t have blood coming out so, don’t worry too much,” she said, unconsciously caressing his cheeks with her fingertips. There was a well-known closeness between them, they were lifelong friends this was not the first time that Annabeth touched Percy, but for some reason, the way he could feel her breathing, her hands burning under his touch and how her dazzling brown eyes analyzed his cheek were doing something strange in his stomach… nerves? “Just don’t touch it too much and as soon as you get home put some ice on it, okay?”
He rolled his eyes again, trying to play it cool, “Yeah, Beth. You already said that, I will do it, don’t worry.” he backed up.
She made a noise. “Fine. And stop calling me Beth. I already told you I hate nicknames”
“Well, you didn’t seem so mad when Connor called you Beth. Wow, Annabeth, I see how it is” he put his hand on his heart dramatically.
“What? He did?”
Percy laughed out loud. “Yeah, you didn’t notice?”
“I didn’t.”
Two seconds later Luke and Thalia appeared, they got into the car and neither said a word. For some reason a strange tension between them was noticed.
“Drive.” Thalia said.
Percy rolled his eyes and started driving. First he left Luke at his house and the second he did Thalia started fuming.
“See how he didn’t even say goodbye? He’s such a hypocrite. Not even a thank you to you who drives him home everyday. I am speechless.” She murmured, angry.
Annabeth tried to hold in a smile. “What happened between you two?” She asked, turning to her.
Thalia rolled her eyes.
“Nothing.” She sighed. “Luke is dumb and I hate him.”
“But you two are friends.” Percy said.
“And so what?!” She screamed. “Friends fight and, believe me, I have a lot of reasons to be mad at him!”
“What did he do?” He asked.
“None of your business.” she murmured, crossing her arms.
Percy raised his hands in defeat but received a scream from Annabeth because he took his hands off the steering wheel. “I give up,” he declared.
A minute later they got to Thalia’s house, she thanked him for the ride, said goodbye and left.
“Do you have any idea of what could have happened between them?” Percy asked, the second Thalia left his car.
She shrugged. “No idea, but they’ll fix it.”
“Yeah. Oh I almost forgot to ask you, are you coming to my house this afternoon? Estelle won’t stop asking me about when are you coming.”
“I was literally all weekend at your house last week.” she laughed.
“I know, but she is very insistent, she wants to show you her new drawings and make plasticine figurines.”
“Oh my god, then I’m definitely going! I truly think she will be the next Picasso.” she declared.
Percy laughed. “I would love that, I could be like a nepo brother.”
Annabeth rolled her eyes. “You are so dumb.”
They reached her house and before leaving she reminded him to put ice on his wound, again.
When Percy got to his house, which is just a few streets below Annabeth’s, he parked the car and went inside. The second he opened the door, the smell of freshly baked cupcakes invaded his nose.
“Percy!” A very happy Estelle ran to hug him. He grabbed her and lifted her up so that she could hug him well.
“I missed you so so so so much!” he smiled, putting her down.
“Me too!” she said, full of excitement. “I’m so mad that you start school earlier than me! I’m so bored here while Mom and Dad work! Dad is at school working, and Mom is on her laptop working all morning, too.” She grimaced.
“Don’t worry. You start school next week, and you’ll be starting sixth grade!” He walked into the kitchen and saw their mom putting a plate of pasta in front of him.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Hi, Percy. We already ate. Estelle was very hungry.” his mom said with a smile.
Then she looked at her son and noticed the wound on his cheek.
“What happened?” she asked, pointing at his cheek.
Percy sighed. “Long story.” He shook his head. “Actually, a very short one.”
“Its just so insane to me to think there’s a possibility of us going to the same university.” Percy said, placing his plasticine figure on Estelle’s game table.
Annabeth, Percy and Estelle were around the table making figurines and competing for who made the best copy of SpongeBob.
“Your SpongeBob sucks.” Annabeth declared, laughing at Percy’s attempt to recreate the character. “But yeah, it will be cool to be around each other. Imagine us getting to hang out everyday.”
“But… Don’t you two hang out basically everyday already?” Estelle asked, frowning.
“Yes but it’s not the same, college is cooler. Going out to grab coffee around campus, walking around, doing picnics… is just different. And we are far away so there’s more places to explore.” Annabeth explained. “Mine is done!” she said and placed her plasticine Spongebob on the table.
“But how far is that college?” Estelle asked, her smile slowly fading.
Percy put a hand on his sister’s shoulder. “It’s only an hour and a half from here, don’t worry, I’ll come every weekend I can to see you.” he smiled.
Estelle grimaced. “And what will I do during the week? You dont even care about me!” She exclaimed and went to her room angry.
“I feel so bad.” he murmured, lowering his head. “I just hate to see the way she feels alone when I’m not there.”
“But, she has your parents,” Annabeth tried to reassure him. “She sees it as dark and lonely now, but it’s normal, Percy. She is your sister and she cares about you. Same way you do with her.” She took a deep breath and put a hand on his arm. “Let me talk to her.” she asked.
He turned, looked for a second at her hand that remained on his arm and felt the same thing again as in the car, a warmth coming from the hands that was simply there. And the look Annabeth was giving him.
“Yeah, okay.” he said, nodding and standing up. “I’ll wait for you in my room.”
“Great.” she stood up too and walked towards Estelle’s room.
Percy let out his breath he didn’t even notice he was holding in. He laid on his bed and started scrolling through his phone, before he got a text that would help Annabeth and him a lot.
A little later, when she entered his room she rolled her eyes with a smile, he was asleep with a video playing on repeat.
“Grandma, It’s time for the medicine” she joked. Jumping and lying on his legs. She heard him complain.
“Hey!”
She felt how he grabbed her by the waist and tried to throw her off him but failed because she was a bit far. So he decided on something easier but effective.
“Stop! Stop!” she screamed as he started tickling her ribs. “FINE I GIVE UP.” she yelled and finally was able to stand up once he stopped. Her breath so fast she could barely speak. “You… you… bastard…”
He looked at her with a smile and laughed. Yawned and sat up, sitting on his bed so he could make room for her.
“Come sit. And before you tell me how it went with Estelle… which by your smile I think it was good, I have news for you, good news!” he clapped.
She looked at him with a smile and rolled her eyes before taking a seat beside him, her back against the wall and her legs on top of his. A casual way they did when they lay down and usually spend hours talking.
“What is the good news?” she asked.
“Guess who just got invited to a birthday party this Saturday and look what a coincidence…” He made a mischievous gesture with his hands. “Connor is also going.”
Annabeth opened her eyes wide. “Really? That’s amazing! I… wait.” she stopped. “Whose birthday is it?”
Percy made a grimace and covered his face with his hands before saying it. “Rachel’s birthday.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.”
Annabeth thought for a while. She stayed quiet for a few minutes before saying. “And why did she ask you? She doesn’t even talk to you since you two broke up.”
“Actually… that’s kind of a lie. She doesn’t speak to me but she has been always inviting me to her birthday since we broke up three years ago” he admitted.
“You never told me.”
He shrugged. “Because it was nothing. I just felt it like fake kindness. Not because she actually wanted to. But this year she’s doing a huge party at her house and I asked her who’s going and Connor is on the list, actually the whole school is on the list.”
“Am I there too?”
“Well, not everyone… she only invited me and Thalia from our friend group.” He said. “But I already asked her if I could bring someone and she said yes so… You are invited!” he smiled.
Annabeth was still processing the information when Percy passed a hand in front of her face. She turned and looked him in the eyes and instinctively her gaze went to his cheek, the scratch still there.
“That is actually amazing, but, are you okay with going there?”
He nodded. “Of course, don’t worry. But what we do need to do is improve those flirting skills a little before this Saturday…” he said with a thoughtful expression. “What am I saying… it’s not enough time…”
She shook her head, suddenly feeling a little nervous. What kind of exercise would Percy make her do to help her flirt with Connor? It was a completely unknown world to her.
“It is!” she exclaimed, crossing her arms. “I’m a fast learner, you know it.”
“Fine.” he rolled his eyes, standing up.
She stood up too, his room was filled with music playing very quietly that could barely be heard from his small speaker, looking at him from her height, sometimes she forgot that she had to tilt her head to look at him properly, Percy was quite tall but not enough to hit the doorframe.
“Okay,” he began, taking a deep breath, for some reason the air stopped circulating properly in his lungs. Maybe Annabeth was trying to steal my oxygen, he thought. “First I want you to try something with me. See how in drama class they made us act out a scene?” she nodded. “Well, now we’re going to do the same thing, act out a scene. I’m Connor and you… are you. We’re at the party, it’s Saturday, there’s a good atmosphere, music, the lights keep changing and there’s… wait! I have an idea.” and he ran towards a dresser in his room and found something, connected it to a charger and turned off the lights in his room. Everything went dark for a second but then the party light with shades of purple, blue and pink, lit up and spun around the room.
Percy grabbed his phone and turned up the volume of the music. A melody started playing. Until I Found You by Stephen Sanchez started playing.
Annabeth felt how he grabbed her waist and turned her around to face him, she felt her face blushing a little, she didn’t expect that.
“Now let’s pretend like we are at the party, okay?” he said, letting his hands go off her waist.
She nodded. The dim light coming through the window as it was getting dark helped make it seem as if they were really there. Annabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them she saw Percy in the corner of his room, looking at the walls.
She started walking towards him and he acted like he just noticed her there. “Oh, hey Beth.”
She rolled her eyes at the nickname. “Hi Connor, how are you?”
“Great, how about you? Is good to see you here.”
“Why so?” she asked, starting to get really close to him.
“Because I…” Percy smiled and walked towards her too, both of them getting pretty close. “I really wanted to speak with you.”
“Oh…” she stayed quiet for a bit, with nothing coming to mind. Then, she looked Percy in the eyes and felt like for a second he was trying to tell her something with his eyes. Annabeth moved even closer and for a second she swore she saw Percy blushing, or maybe it was the lights… or maybe it was all in her head.
She took another deep breath, trying to concentrate and get into the role. The role in which she was there, at the party, with Connor. That the boy looking at her had slightly wavy, short, brown hair. Not stupidly pretty blond curly hair.
That the eyes staring at her were brown, not blue.
And that her heart was going a thousand miles an hour, well… that was easy. Since in less than five days she would have to face this situation, but in real life, not in her best friend’s room. Not with Percy, with Connor.
“I can’t do it.” she whispered.
“Why?” he said, frowning. “It’s just me, Annabeth. Imagine im Connor and ask me to dance, or if you want we can start again.”
She shook her head, both of them so close that she could feel Percy’s breathing. It felt the same as in the car before, when without realizing it she got closer than she usually did but… it was Percy, her best friend, nothing was wrong.
She lowered her gaze for just a second and saw how he licked his lips, nervous. And when she looked back up she realized that his pupils had widened, that they were dark and no one said a word. Until Annabeth remembered that he had asked her a question.
“Because I… I know that when this gets real, when I really have to face him I’m going to chicken out.” she admitted, lowering her head. Defeat wasn’t something Annabeth was particularly excited to admit. She had a lot of pride, and she knew it.
Percy took her head between his hands, his fingers on her cheeks, and lifted her head so that she would look at him again, he moved some of the braids away from her face with his fingers.
“You don’t know that yet. You haven’t really tried to talk to him more than twice in like… a year.” he tilted his head, still holding her. “I don’t understand why such a thing as this worries you so much, Annabeth. You are very strong.”
She then backed up, letting his hands go off her, and sat on the bed, in the same position she was in before.
“It’s hard for me because I’ve never done it before. I have never had anything romantic going on, ever. And you know that.”
He sat beside her, his head against the wall too, side by side. “Not even a crush?”
“No.” she sighed. “Well… I did once.”
He turned to her and bumped his elbow against her arm. “Hey! You never told me that before. Who was it?” he asked.
Annabeth covered her head with her hands for a second. “Because I was so shy with it… I’m always confident in what I do but when it comes to… love… I’m so… out of myself.” she finally looked at him. That same smile he always had was endearing, sometimes, other times it was annoying. “Promise me you won’t tell anyone, not even Grover.”
“I promise.”
“I never told anyone… it’s not a big deal though. It’s just… weird.” she looked around, the music softly playing, the lights turned from blue, to purple, to pink in such a soft way Annabeth was calming down because of it. She knew Percy. He wouldn’t tell anyone and it wasn’t a big deal but it was something she kept to herself because her feelings are something private to her. “I had a crush on Piper.”
Percy stayed quiet for a minute.
“Piper?” he asked. “As in, Piper McLean?”
Annabeth nodded, resting her head on Percy’s shoulder, he leaned back a little so that she would be more comfortable on him. “Yeah, that one.”
“Can you please tell me the story? I am very surprised,” he whispered.
“Why? You are surprised because I’m bi?”
He laughed. “Nah, you kind of always gave me a bisexual vibe.”
She laughed too, getting comfortable on his shoulder. She grabbed his arm and intertwined them, holding his hand. “Okay, but it’s a bit of a long story, well, not really but kinda…”
“Take your time, it’s only seven pm.” he whispered. “But dont forget thay you also, need to tell me what happened with my sister.”
“Yeah, that too… mmmm… where do I start…”