Chapter Text
Annabeth Chase had always been a goal-getter.
She had been the kind of person who made lists before she was old enough to understand why adults loved them so much, the kind of girl who could look at a problem and immediately begin figuring out how to solve it. Raised by a single father and without any siblings to compete with or lean on, Annabeth had grown up learning to rely on herself. She had always dreamed of becoming something greater, of proving to herself more than anyone else, that she was capable of more than what people expected of her.
In high school, there wasn't a subject she couldn't conquer or an extracurricular she didn't excel in. If there was a club worth joining, Annabeth was already looking into it. If there was an exam coming up, she'd probably been studying for it a week in advance. She was the girl teachers trusted, the girl classmates asked for notes, the girl who somehow always seemed to know exactly what she wanted.
She had always had a plan.
It wasn't until her senior year trip, when she traveled through different states with her classmates, that she finally figured out what she wanted that plan to look like.
She remembered standing in front of buildings she'd only ever seen in pictures, her neck tilted back as she stared up at towering glass windows, intricate stonework, and structures that seemed almost impossible to have been designed by a human being. She'd always appreciated beautiful things, but something about seeing architecture like that in person made everything click.
It wasn't just about the buildings.
It was about the thought behind them.
The planning. The precision. The creativity. The way something could begin as nothing more than an idea on paper and eventually become something people could walk through and experience.
Architecture.
Getting into NYU and becoming an architect had been all Annabeth Chase had been striving for since she was fourteen.
And now, one month into her junior year at NYU, she finally felt like she could settle down a little.
Maybe, for once, she could stop looking so far ahead.
Maybe she could allow herself to actually be a young adult instead of constantly worrying about the next exam, the next internship, the next project, the next step toward the future she'd already mapped out in her head.
Annabeth wasn't a loner, of course not.
She had friends.
Good friends, actually.
The kind she'd met during her freshman year and somehow managed to keep around for two full years, despite the fact that none of them seemed to have much in common with one another on paper.
They had somehow become the most permanent part of her college experience.
And it had all started with getting lost.
---
“Hey, you need help finding something?”
A female voice spoke from behind Annabeth.
She stood in the middle of one of NYU's crowded hallways, staring up at a campus map with her eyebrows pulled together in frustration. She had been standing there long enough that she'd memorized the map without actually figuring out where she was supposed to go.
Annabeth turned around.
The girl standing behind her had a strong, pretty face framed by dark hair, with an easy confidence that made Annabeth immediately wonder how she'd managed to navigate college without getting lost herself.
“I'm Thalia. It's my second year here. I could show you around.”
Annabeth hesitated for half a second before nodding.
“I'd appreciate that.”
And that was how Annabeth Chase met Thalia Grace.
Somehow, meeting Thalia led to meeting everyone else.
There was Grover Underwood, an interesting character who was studying agriculture, which Annabeth found both funny and surprisingly cool.
“Welcome! We needed a smart one in this pact.”
Grover had stood from the library table, enthusiastically shaking Annabeth's hand as though they'd known each other for years.
Annabeth smiled politely.
“I'm sure you're all smart enough to be here.”
An older boy, probably around Thalia's age, chuckled from across the table.
“Yeah, maybe Thalia. That's it.”
Thalia immediately rolled her eyes.
“Shut up, Luke.”
She took a seat and patted the empty chair beside her, silently telling Annabeth to sit.
Annabeth did.
She was beginning to realize that this group was a little more chaotic than she had initially anticipated.
“We all know who we're questioning got in here.”
A pretty, dark-haired girl spoke from beside Grover, barely looking up as she fixed her mascara using the camera on her phone. A delicate gold necklace hung around her neck, the name "Silena" engraved across the front.
The entire table erupted into laughter.
Annabeth raised an eyebrow.
“Who?”
Silena finally looked up, a mischievous smile spreading across her face.
“You'll meet him.”
“I'm gonna end my life.”
The male voice came from directly behind Annabeth.
She turned around.
Messy blonde hair.
Bright blue eyes.
A crooked smile that looked like it had gotten him out of trouble more times than it should have.
He dropped into the empty seat beside Grover like he'd been there the entire time, tossing his backpack onto the floor.
"You guys couldn't wait five minutes for me?”
Thalia scoffed.
“We were having a conversation.”
The boy looked around the table before his eyes landed on Annabeth.
He paused.
“Who are you?”
Annabeth blinked.
“Annabeth.”
He nodded slowly, as if considering the information.
“Cool. I'm Percy.”
“I know.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“You do?”
“Thalia mentioned you.”
Percy immediately looked toward Thalia.
“Hopefully nothing good.”
Thalia gave him a look.
“You know me too well.”
Annabeth couldn't help the small smile that tugged at the corner of her lips.
Percy noticed.
Of course he did.
His own smile grew slightly.
And just like that, Percy Jackson became the most annoying person she'd ever met.
---
Annabeth loved her friends.
Two full years of friendship had passed, and she couldn't imagine her college experience without them. They had become the people she texted when she got a good grade, the people she complained to after a terrible day, the people she could sit beside in comfortable silence without feeling like she needed to fill every second with conversation.
They were loud and spontaneous and, at times, completely ridiculous.
But she loved them.
Well...
Maybe she could imagine it without him.
Percy Jackson had a special talent for getting under her skin.
He was childish. He was impulsive. He never seemed to take anything seriously, and somehow, despite all of that, he always managed to get away with it.
Annabeth had spent the last two years telling herself that she simply tolerated him because he was part of the group.
That was all.
Nothing more.
And she certainly wasn't going to admit that sometimes, when he wasn't around, the group felt strangely quiet.
---
Junior year started out like every other year.
Annabeth put all of her effort into academics, spending her late nights studying instead of going out. Her desk was almost always covered in notebooks, architectural sketches, textbooks, and half-empty cups of coffee that she would inevitably forget about until they had gone cold.
Silena had begged her to go out with them more times than Annabeth could count.
Every time, Annabeth had a different excuse.
I have an assignment.
I have class tomorrow.
I'm exhausted.
Next time.
She always told herself she wouldn't enjoy it anyway.
She'd rather be curled up in the comfort of her dorm with her laptop open, working on an assignment or getting ahead on her readings. That was where she was comfortable. That was where she knew what to expect.
She liked knowing what tomorrow looked like.
She liked knowing that if she worked hard enough, she could control the outcome.
But as the semester progressed, Annabeth started noticing all the fun things her friends were doing without her.
At first, she didn't care.
Or at least, she told herself she didn't.
Then came the pictures.
Late-night dinners in the city. Random trips to little coffee shops she'd never heard of. Parties she had turned down invitations to. Silena and Thalia posing together outside some little bar in Brooklyn, their hair slightly messy and their smiles enormous. Grover somehow ending up at karaoke despite insisting he hated karaoke.
Annabeth would scroll through their stories late at night from the comfort of her bed, watching their lives unfold through a tiny screen.
She'd smile at some of the pictures.
Sometimes she'd laugh.
And then she'd lock her phone and stare at the ceiling.
She was happy for them.
Of course she was.
But lately, there was a strange feeling sitting somewhere beneath that happiness.
Something she didn't particularly want to name.
One night, Annabeth found herself staring at a picture of all of them together.
Everyone was smiling.
Everyone except her.
Not because she was supposed to be there, but because she'd been invited.
She'd just said no.
Again.
“What are you thinking about?”
Annabeth broke out of her trance, blinking at the phone screen in her hand.
Her roommate, Katie, was sitting at her desk on the other side of the dorm, one leg tucked underneath her as she worked on her laptop.
Annabeth glanced at her.
“I don't know. Nothing.”
She tossed her phone onto the bed before flopping backward beside it.
The mattress dipped beneath her weight.
The truth was, she did know what she was thinking about.
She was wondering if she'd wasted the last two years.
Everyone else seemed to be making memories.
They had stories to tell, inside jokes Annabeth wasn't part of, pictures she wasn't in. They seemed to know how to simply exist without worrying about whether they were doing enough.
And she'd spent most of that time making sure she stayed on track.
Grades.
Internships.
Architecture.
Her future.
Everything had a place.
Everything had a purpose.
But when had she actually stopped to enjoy any of it?
When had she last done something simply because she wanted to?
“Do you think I'm a loser?”
Katie's head snapped toward her.
“Um... why?”
“You know why.” Annabeth huffed, sitting up. “I don't do anything.”
Katie stared at her for a moment before letting out a small laugh.
“That's kinda on you, girl. Everyone wants you to go out. Why don't you?”
Annabeth sighed, pulling her knees toward her chest.
“I don't know.”
Katie closed her laptop and got up from her desk, crossing the small dorm room before sitting beside Annabeth.
“You have your entire life planned out in your head.”
Annabeth looked down at her hands.
“And that's not a bad thing,” Katie continued. “But life doesn't work that way. You have to be okay with things going wrong.”
Annabeth stayed quiet.
Katie nudged her knee.
“If you don't put yourself out there, you might miss the plot twists.”
Annabeth looked over.
“The people, the places, all the random things that end up changing your life,” Katie continued. “You can't plan for those. Sometimes the best things happen when you're not looking for them.”
Annabeth considered that.
She'd always thought being prepared was the same thing as being safe.
If she knew what she wanted, worked hard enough, and never got distracted, then nothing could throw her off course.
But maybe that wasn't really living.
Maybe she'd been so focused on making sure her life turned out exactly the way she'd imagined it that she hadn't left any room for it to surprise her.
Katie smiled softly.
“Sometimes you just have to say yes.”
The words stayed with Annabeth long after Katie stopped talking.
Was she holding herself back?
All this time, she'd thought she was doing what was best for her. Staying focused. Staying disciplined. Making sure she had a future she could be proud of.
But maybe she'd forgotten that she was allowed to have a present, too.
That night, Annabeth made herself a promise.
This year would be different.
She was going to say yes more.
Even when she was nervous.
Even when it wasn't part of the plan.
Even when she didn't know exactly how things would turn out.
She was going to allow herself to be a little more free.
---
Annabeth walked into her Greek Mythology class determined to start keeping that promise.
The classroom was one of the larger lecture rooms on campus, with rows of seats sloping gently downward toward a wide whiteboard and projector screen at the front. Tall windows lined one side of the room, allowing the pale morning sunlight to spill across the desks and illuminate the dust floating lazily through the air.
The room smelled faintly of coffee, old books, and the unmistakable scent of dry-erase markers.
Students slowly filtered in, talking amongst themselves as they settled into their seats, some still half-asleep and others already typing away on their laptops.
Annabeth preferred the back rows.
It gave her a good view of everything without putting her directly in the professor's line of sight, and, more importantly, it meant she could actually hear herself think.
She slid into her usual seat, throwing her braids over her shoulder before pulling her glasses from her bag and setting her notebook on the desk.
Greek Mythology was one of the few classes she genuinely enjoyed.
She liked the stories, the history, the symbolism. She liked trying to understand why people thousands of years ago had created these elaborate stories to explain the world around them.
There was something fascinating about the way myths reflected human nature.
Love.
Jealousy.
Pride.
Revenge.
People hadn't changed all that much.
She was halfway through writing the date at the top of her page when someone tapped her shoulder.
“Hey, Wise Girl.”
Annabeth closed her eyes for half a second.
She already knew who it was.
Percy Jackson.
The bane of her existence.
Who also happened to be in the same friend group as her.
“What.”
Annabeth didn't even bother turning around.
Percy tapped her shoulder again with the end of a blue pen.
“Do you have last week's notes?”
Annabeth finally looked over her shoulder.
“You forgot them?”
“I kinda forgot.”
“Of course you did.”
Percy frowned.
“I'm sorry?”
Before Annabeth could respond, the professor's voice cut through the room.
“Mr. Jackson.”
Percy immediately straightened.
“Yes?”
“Would you like to answer?”
A few students turned around.
Percy looked toward the professor, then toward Annabeth, as if silently asking for help.
Annabeth gave him a tiny smile.
Good luck.
Percy narrowed his eyes at her before turning back around.
The professor adjusted his glasses.
“Who was responsible for giving Persephone the pomegranate seeds that ultimately tied her to the Underworld?”
Percy stared blankly.
The room went quiet.
Annabeth pressed her lips together, already fighting a smile.
She knew the answer.
She'd read the assigned chapter twice.
Percy, apparently, had not read it at all.
He looked up at the ceiling as if the answer might magically appear there.
“...Hades?”
The professor stared at him.
“No.”
Percy frowned.
“Okay, but he was involved.”
A few people laughed.
The professor sighed.
“Demeter's daughter was deceived into eating the seeds.”
“Right.”
Percy nodded slowly, as if that had been his answer all along.
“Yeah. That's what I meant.”
Annabeth finally let out a quiet laugh.
Percy immediately glanced over his shoulder.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You're laughing at me.”
“I would never.”
“You literally just did.”
Annabeth turned back toward the front of the room, still smiling as she picked up her pen.
Behind her, Percy muttered under his breath as he opened his notebook.
“That doesn't even make sense.”
Annabeth shook her head.
Maybe saying yes this year wouldn't be so bad after all.
Ten minutes had gone by when the classroom door opened again.
Annabeth glanced up from her notes, expecting another student to quietly slip into one of the empty seats in the back.
Instead, a boy hurried through the doorway.
He was tall, with dark hair that looked slightly disheveled, as if he'd been running late and hadn't had time to fix it. He looked to be around Annabeth's age, maybe a junior, and there was a faintly apologetic expression on his face as he made his way toward the professor's desk.
He immediately began apologizing, gesturing toward the clock on the wall as the professor gave him a stern but seemingly understanding look.
Annabeth watched for a second before turning back toward her notebook.
She'd never seen him before.
“There's the transfer kid,” Percy's voice whispered from behind her.
He wasn't talking to her.
Annabeth could tell he was speaking to the boy sitting beside him, but she found herself listening anyway.
“Connor, I think his name is,” Percy continued quietly. “Transferred from California.”
A transfer?
Annabeth's eyes flickered toward the front of the room again.
She wondered if he was in her grade.
The professor finally waved the boy toward an empty seat, and he nodded gratefully before turning away from the desk.
Annabeth watched him walk down the aisle.
She wasn't sure why.
Maybe it was curiosity.
That was what she told herself, anyway.
He walked closer.
And closer.
Annabeth's eyes briefly followed him as he made his way between the rows of desks, backpack hanging loosely over one shoulder.
Then she got a better look at him.
Oh.
He was cute.
Not just kind of cute, either.
There was something effortlessly attractive about him, the kind of appearance that didn't seem like it required much effort. His dark hair fell messily across his forehead, and there was an easy confidence in the way he carried himself despite being the new person in the room.
Annabeth quickly looked back down at her notebook.
Okay.
Maybe she had been staring.
She tried to focus on the professor again, but a few seconds later she found herself glancing up.
He was still walking toward her.
Annabeth's stomach fluttered unexpectedly.
She frowned.
What was that?
She wasn't usually like this.
She didn't get distracted by random guys walking into class. She certainly didn't sit around wondering whether someone was cute.
She had an architecture project due next week.
She had three chapters of reading to finish.
She had—
“Hey.”
Annabeth blinked.
She looked up.
The boy was standing beside her desk.
Up close, she realized his eyes were a warm shade of brown, and there was a slight smile resting on his face.
“I'm Connor.”
Annabeth stared at him for a second longer than she probably should have.
“Hi.”
She cleared her throat.
“I'm, uh... Annabeth.”
Connor smiled.
“Nice to meet you, Annabeth.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
He gave her a small nod before pulling out the chair beside her and setting his backpack down.
Annabeth watched him for half a second before forcing herself to look back at the professor.
Her heart was beating a little faster than it had been five minutes ago.
Why?
She barely knew this guy.
But there was something about him.
Maybe it was the smile.
Maybe it was the fact that he was new, and therefore completely outside the carefully constructed little world Annabeth had built for herself.
Or maybe it was because, for the first time in a while, something had caught her attention that had absolutely nothing to do with school.
She tried not to smile.
Maybe Katie was right.
Maybe she really did need to say yes to things.
Her thoughts were interrupted.
“Hey, dude.”
Percy's voice came from behind her.
Annabeth closed her eyes.
Of course.
“It's nice to meet you. I'm Percy.”
Percy leaned forward, somehow managing to wedge his head directly between Connor and Annabeth.
Annabeth stared at him.
She wanted to push him.
Connor looked between them, slightly amused.
“Nice to meet you too, bro.”
He gave them both an easy smile.
“Man, everyone is so nice here.”
“Yeah, welcome to New York, I guess.”
Percy grinned like an idiot.
Annabeth rolled her eyes.
“You should join us for lunch,” Percy continued. “If you don't already have friends.”
Annabeth froze slightly.
Us?
Connor glanced between them.
“Us?”
Percy turned his head toward Annabeth.
There was a tiny smirk on his face.
The kind of smirk that immediately told Annabeth he was about to do something she wouldn't like.
“Yeah,” he said. “This is my best friend right here.”
Before Annabeth could stop him, Percy threw an arm around her shoulders.
Annabeth stared at him.
Now she really wanted to slap him.
“I wouldn't say that.”
She pushed his arm off her shoulder.
“We're acquaintances.”
Percy looked genuinely offended.
“I'm pretty sure that's not what that means.”
“Nobody cares, Percy.”
Percy put a hand dramatically over his heart.
“Friendship of two years and you treat me this way? I'm hurt.”
Connor laughed.
It was a small laugh, but Annabeth couldn't help looking at him.
Her annoyance with Percy faded almost immediately.
Connor looked nice when he smiled.
Really nice.
She quickly looked away before either of them could notice.
“Yeah,” Connor said, pulling his backpack closer to his chair. “I'll join you guys.”
Percy nodded, satisfied with himself.
“Perfect.”
Annabeth glanced at Percy.
For once, she decided not to argue.
She may have wanted to commit violence against Percy Jackson, but right now, she'd let it slide.
Besides, she had more important things to think about.
Like the fact that she'd just met a cute boy.
A very cute boy.
And maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.
Maybe having a crush was exactly the kind of thing Katie had been talking about.
The kind of unexpected thing Annabeth couldn't have planned for.
A plot twist.
Annabeth looked over at Connor, who was quietly getting his things organized while the professor continued the lecture.
She smiled to herself.
Maybe this was it.
Maybe this was the beginning of her finally letting herself live a little.
Maybe this was the plot twist she'd been waiting for.
Connor Stoll.