Chapter Text
Percy Jackson loved swimming. It wasn’t just a hobby for him, it was a lifestyle, and because of this he practiced swimming every chance he got. Even if he was on vacation. He knew there was a giant party going on in the resort, but it was more important that he be at the pool.
“Keep kicking high, Percy, and the guys you swim against at state- you’ll torch them.” His dad and swim coach, Poseidon, exclaimed as he stopped his watch and recorded Percy’s time.
“So I’m going high?”
“Yeah, you shoot up from the turn and kick it straight to the finish.”
“Ok, like this?”
Percy torpedoed his way to the other end of the pool, turned, and when he resurfaced he began to kick high again which shot him through the water even faster than before. Poseidon whistled as he stopped the stopwatch.
“That’s it man.”
“Alright, that’s money.”
“Better see that at the meet”
“oh you’ll see that at the meet-“
“Boys.”
Percy and Poseidon were interrupted by his mom calling from the doorway of the pool. She looked all dressed up and nice, but Percy couldn’t seem to figure out why.
“Did we really fly all this way just to do more swimming?” Sally Jackson wasn’t angry, but Percy could tell that she was the slightest bit exasperated by her husband and son.
Percy and Poseidon looked at each other for the briefest of moments before turning back to her and nodded their heads. Yes, they had flown all the way out there to keep swimming.
Sally rolled her eyes before moving further into the pool area.
“It’s the last night of vacation.” She said, “the party, remember?”
Poseidon seemed to stumble back a bit at her words; he clearly did not remember the party.
“Right, the party. The party. New Year’s Eve.”
“Percy, they have a kids party downstairs in the Freestyle club”
“Kids party mom?”
“Young adults. Now go, shower up.”
Percy knew better than to argue with him mom, so he grabbed the side of the pool and heaved himself out of the water, feeling shocked by the sudden cold that struck his body. His dad gave him a hard pat on the back as he passed to follow Sally out the door, and Percy made his way into the pool locker rooms.
He showered and got changed into an outfit that his mother had brought down with her before packing his things into one of the many lockers where he knew he would be returning soon. His parents always joked that he had to be part fish because he would live in the water if he could. He had been swimming since he was a kid, it was all he really knew. Percy stood in front of the mirror and tried to do something with his mess of black hair, but it remained messy with the front falling into his green eyes. Figuring that he looked as good as he could, he made his way out of the locker rooms and back into the resort, heading for the Freestyle club.
As he walked inside, Percy spotted a couple of guys that he had met on the slopes and walked over, figuring spending the night talking to them was probably the most bearable option. A couple was just finishing up a karaoke song on the stage and the guy in charge of the club made his way up, talking about snowboarders and who was going to sing next. Percy didn’t pay him much attention, opting to instead look around the room. He tended to have trouble focusing on one thing at a time in large crowds because of his ADHD, so he was shocked when he was flushed with a bright white spotlight. The boys around him started cheering and laughing as they started to push him toward the stage; he had been chosen to sing the next song.
“I can’t sing,” he insisted, gesturing to one of the other guys, “you go.”
Percy noticed that across the room, the host was going over to a pretty blonde girl and pulling her up to the stage. Percy was rudely shoved by one of the snowboarders behind him, and he lurched toward the stage.
“Look I don’t sing,” he tried again, “I can’t sing. No, guys-“
With all the shoving happening around him, Percy had no choice but to step up on to the stage. The host stood in the middle of him and his new singing partner and said something about thanking him later, but Percy once again wasn’t focused on the words that were being said.
The girl that had been forced up on stage with him was looking down at her crossed arms. She was obviously uncomfortable with being in the spotlight, but that didn’t stop Percy from noticing just how pretty she was. She had these blonde princess curls that were falling into her face as she looked downward. She glanced up at him for a split second and he caught a glimpse of her eyes. They were a stormy gray that seemed to completely captivate Percy. They looked beautiful, but they also intimidated him. The one look from her gave Percy a feeling that she had a million calculations going through her head and each and every one of them could be used to take him down if she had to escape. The host of the night handed the microphone off to Percy and walked off stage just as the music began to play.
The tune was fairly soft and slow. ‘Great,’ Percy thought, ‘a love song with a girl I really haven’t even met. Lucky me.’ Percy kept glancing at the blonde girl beside him, but as the lyrics appeared on his screen to start singing, he figured that he may as well go for it and started to sing. It wasn’t until the blonde girl joined in with her part that Percy truly let go, though. Her voice was beautiful and melodic, and somehow filled him with the confidence to just let loose and have fun with the song. The two of them sang and danced across the stage, getting the whole club into the mood of the song. At one point, Percy almost walked the blonde girl straight off the edge of the stage, but some helpful people pushed her right back up. She looked slightly embarrassed but covered it up by glaring at Percy in what he hoped was a playful manner. The song finished with the loud cheers from all the people that had gathered around the stage to watch the performance. The sound was almost deafening, but Percy stuck out his hand to the blonde girl and managed to shout over the crowd.
“I’m Percy.”
“Annabeth,” the girl responded just as loudly as she shook Percy’s hand.
The crowd calmed down and Percy made his way off the stage, gesturing for Annabeth to follow him over to the drink station where they were giving out free cups of hot chocolate.
“That was incredible,” Percy said after taking a small sip of his hot chocolate, “you were incredible.”
“Are you kidding?” Annabeth grabbed her cup and sprinkled marshmallows on top before looking up at Percy, “I was so focused on not tripping I don’t think I sounded anything but nervous.”
“Nervous? Yeah you could have fooled me. You seemed so confident up there.”
“I usually am really confident, but I have never been put on stage to sing before.”
The noise of the club was starting to get louder again, and Percy really wanted to have a conversation without yelling, so he asked if Annabeth would want to accompany him outside for a bit of air.
“But seriously, you have an amazing voice. You’re definitely a singer, right?” He asked as they made their way through the patio doors.
“Just camp sing-along is all.” She responded with a laugh, “I once tried to lead, and nearly fainted.”
“Seriously? Why is that?”
“I don’t know. I just took one look at all the campers staring at me and the next thing I knew I was staring up at the stars. Definitely the most embarrassing part of that summer.”
“Well, the way you sang tonight that’s pretty hard to believe.”
Percy wasn’t exactly sure what he was doing, but talking to the girl just felt so natural and easy. They had only barely met, but Percy felt as if there was a real connection that had already formed between the two of them. He wasn’t entirely sure what the connection was exactly, but he liked it. Percy managed to bring himself back down to earth to hear the end of her asking if he sang a lot as well.
“Oh-uh- yeah sure. My showerhead is very impressed.” He chuckled.
Inside, the two could hear the countdown to the new year begin. As the count reached zero, the resort set off an incredible firework display that Percy and Annabeth watched with awe. Percy turned to look at the girl next to him and noticed that she was looking over at him as well. Every teenager knew about the tradition of starting the new year off with a kiss. In fact, Percy had overheard a couple of guys talking about trying to find any girl they could to kiss them after the count down. Percy didn’t understand why they would want to do something like that if they were never going to see the girls again, but looking at the fierce gray eyes in front of him, he began to wonder if one kiss would be so bad.
Annabeth suddenly moved backward and looked away from him.
“I should probably go find my mom and wish her a happy new year.” She said quickly.
“Yeah me too.” Percy said, still distracted by the thought of kissing her, “I mean not your mom. My mom and dad.”
There was a slight pause when Percy had an idea, a rare occurrence for him according to his friends.
“Oh, I’ll call you. I’ll call you tomorrow.” He said, digging into his pockets to find his phone.
Annabeth agreed and found her phone as well. Percy snapped a quick picture of her face before passing the phone off for her to put her information into as he grabbed her phone and did the same. They swapped phones once again and Percy looked down at the new contact.
“Just so you know,” he started, “singing with you is the most fun I’ve had on this entire vacation. So where do you live-“
Percy turned to see that while he was distracted, the pretty blonde had disappeared into the crowd. Percy looked all around to make sure she hadn’t just switched sides or gone to take her cup back, but saw no sign of her. He looked back down at his phone and looked at the picture that had just been taken with a smile on his face.
“Annabeth.”