Kindergarten

It was about a month into the school year when Annabeth managed to create her very first arch nemesis.

Annabeth was one of the children who brought lunch from home. Every single day, she would bring her very favorite lunchbox to school; a blue, fabric lunchbox that sported the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the front panel.

She's had this lunchbox for as long as she could remember. She has used it every single day of school, and even when she was in pre-k. The five-year-old blonde was quite stubborn, and her habits didn't change without a fight.

This little blue lunchbox meant the world to the little girl simply because it's been with her for so long, so you can imagine her rage when it was time to go to lunch and it was missing.

Mrs. Beckendorf had just announced that they would take a break from their lesson on the different shapes and told the children to grab their lunches and line up at the door.

Annabeth's grubby fingers set down the triangle tiles reluctantly, the colorful plastic tiles clattering loudly on the desk, and stood up from her chair to walk towards the cubby with her name written neatly on the tag.

As she reached her cubby, nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. There was her winter coat hanging on the hook, and her knitted hat laying on the side. Her eyes scanned the space, and upon further investigation, it dawned on her.

The blue Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle lunchbox was missing.

In Annabeth's panic, she did the first thing that popped into her mind. She started crying.

"What's wrong, Annabeth?" Mrs. Beckendorf asked worriedly as she moved towards her, crouching down to eye level and rubbing the little girl's back.

"My lunchbox–" The distraught girl hiccupped, unable to finish her sentence from the force of her cries.

"Sweetheart, it's okay. What about your lunchbox?"

"It's gone!" Annabeth sobbed, pressing her chubby hands up to her eyes.

"Did you leave it at home?"

"I put it in there in the morning," Annabeth says pointing towards her cubby as she wiped her flushed face and runny nose.

"I'm sure you just left it at home on accident." Mrs. Beckendorf ushered Annabeth into the line. "Come on, you can get lunch from the cafeteria today."

Annabeth dragged her feet as her teacher helped her into line. Her classmates were looking at her with wide, curious eyes and Annabeth found herself dropping her head shyly, her tears dripping from her chin onto the floor.

•

Annabeth was sitting by herself at the table assigned to her class. The other kids were chattering around her, the cafeteria filled with resonating sounds of children's' voices.

Annabeth didn't have many friends at school yet. Many of the kids at her school had gone to daycare together before the days of kindergarten but Annabeth had moved right before starting school, so she wasn't as close with people as the other kids were.

The kids were never outwardly mean, not that they really could be at such a young age, but they never made Annabeth feel as though she would fit in their friend groups. That was okay. She thought they smelled weird anyways.

On Annabeth's right, a group of girls were exchanging thoughts on Disney movies, pointedly leaving Annabeth out when she tries to interject, I like the Lion King. On her left was a boy eating by himself, with raven black hair and sea green eyes.

Annabeth glanced at him, and she wouldn't have glanced again if it hadn't been for the fact that he's grabbing food from a lunchbox. A blue Ninja Turtle lunchbox. Her blue Ninja Turtle lunchbox.

The audacity.

Annabeth felt fury rising from her toes to her head and sputtered, "You stole my lunchbox!"

The boy looks up in alarm. "Wat?" he says, mouth full of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Annabeth doesn't dignify him with an answer before raising one hand to tattle and the other going to point at the boy. "Mrs. Beckendorf! He stole my lunchbox!"

Her teacher walked up to the pair, picking up the confused boy's lunchbox to check the name tag. "It has his name on it, sweetheart," she acknowledged. "It's not yours."

Annabeth, despite being five and tiny, would not back down. "No! It's mine! He just wrote his name on it but it's mine, not his!"

"Annabeth," she sighed. "You left yours at home. Be nice."

Annabeth could barely contain her rage. "It's mine!"

"No, it's not," she scolded. "Don't make me put you in time out."

Annabeth's badly controlled anger prompted her to do what came next. She picked up the milk carton her school had given her, took a step towards the boy, and she poured the contents of the carton onto the boy's head.

"Annabeth!" Mrs. Beckendorf snatched the carton from the girl's hand as the boy looked at his soaked clothes and started to tear up.

A smug smile spread across Annabeth's lips, and upon seeing this, the boy yanked Annabeth's braid. Hard. Of course, Annabeth needed the last word, so she shoved him, and so he shoved her back.

Mrs. Beckendorf separated the two fighting kids from each other. "You two," she let out with a deep breath, "are going to the principal's office." Their teacher led them down the halls by their hands, pulling them apart again as Annabeth got close enough to smack him. The two kids continued to insult each other as they reluctantly followed the teacher to where Annabeth knew her punishment resided.

Honestly, Annabeth didn't really care that she'd be getting in trouble. She taught him a well-deserved lesson and that was good enough for her.

•

Mrs. Beckendorf called Annabeth's dad to the school and the boy who she now knew was called Percy had his mom called to the school.

The two were sat in chairs in front of Principal Zeus waiting for their parents to arrive. Annabeth knew that she shouldn't have poured milk on the boy, but he deserved it because he stole her lunchbox. There was no doubt in Annabeth's mind that she'd get in trouble, but she doesn't regret what she did.

Ten minutes later, Percy's mom walked into the room holding clothes. Percy disappeared for a minute to go change out of his dairy stained clothes and while he was gone, Annabeth's dad arrived.

Annabeth straightened from where she was slouched on the chair to greet her dad with a small-toothed smile, but her smile slipped fell once she saw what he was holding in his right arm.

Her blue Ninja Turtle lunchbox.

Annabeth turned her head towards where Percy's lunchbox was sitting on the chair, her young mind putting the pieces together. Percy had the same lunchbox. Percy had the same lunchbox. She knew she was done for now.

Mrs. Beckendorf walked towards her dad, greeting him. "Hello, you must be Annabeth's father. I'm Annabeth's teacher, Mrs. Beckendorf."

Her dad shook her hand. "Mr. Chase. Nice to meet you."

"Yes, well, I wish we could have met on better circumstances. We're just waiting for Ms. Jackson to finish up with her son."

Annabeth's dad turned towards his daughter, who was looking down in shame. He kept his eyes on his daughter for a moment longer before turning towards Ms. Jackson as she entered the room, hand in hand with her son.

Mrs. Beckendorf waited for Percy to be seated again before addressing their parents. "Ms. Jackson, Mr. Chase. Mr. Chase, Ms. Jackson," she introduced.

The two parents exchanged pleasantries.

"As I'm sure you both know, there was an incident today during lunch. Annabeth couldn't find her lunchbox that Percy just so happens to have the same one of. She decided the best course of action was to pour her milk onto his head."

Annabeth's dad rubbed his head. "I'll just go ahead and apologize on behalf of Annabeth."

Their teacher continued. "The behavior was completely inappropriate and if it continues, I will have to take further action. And while Annabeth's actions were wrong, she is not the only one at fault." Mrs. Beckendorf turned towards Percy's mom. "Percy decided it was okay to pull Annabeth's hair and push her."

Percy's high voice interjected. "She pushed me first!"

Annabeth whipped towards him. "Because you pulled my hair!"

"Yeah, well, you–"

Their teacher cut them off. "Both of you did bad stuff and are both in trouble. You need to apologize to each other." Annabeth crossed her arms. "Now, Annabeth."

Annabeth wrinkled her nose. "I'm sorry," she said begrudgingly.

Her teacher addressed Percy next. "You too, Percy."

The kid whined but did as he was told. "I'm sorry." He did not sound sorry in the least.

"Now," Mrs. Beckendorf crouched down next to them, "Can you both promise me that you will be nice to each other from now on?"

Annabeth muttered a yes while Percy simply nodded his head.

"Okay, good. Can you two please wait outside while I talk to your parents?" Mrs. Beckendorf led the two kids outside the office door and then went back in, closing the door gently to prevent any little ears from eavesdropping.

Annabeth could hear her dad through the door, but she couldn't make out what he was saying. She could tell he was frustrated (probably because he had to leave work because of her.) She knew she was in trouble.

A few minutes later, the door opened. Her dad walked out and towards Annabeth, grabbing her hand.

"Come on," he snapped. "We're getting your stuff and then we're going home, where you will go to time-out." He tugged Annabeth along towards the classroom roughly, grabbing her stuff quickly and then leading her away for the day.

Annabeth passed Percy and his mother on the way out of the school, and she glared at him with as much disgust she could muster. He got her in trouble, and she told herself she hated him for it.

In that moment, Annabeth decided that he was her new enemy.

•

First Grade

Annabeth had the same classmates as the previous year, but she really wishes she didn't. She was stuck with the same meanies but her favorite teacher in the whole wide world was gone! She wishes that the classmates changed instead of the teacher because she liked her teacher, but certainly not her classmates. Certainly not Percy.

Annabeth found herself playing alone at recess on that hot Monday afternoon (and no, it was not because they refused to let her join in their game of tag when she asked).

She sat on the ground, a piece of gray chalk in hand. She was drawing her own city of buildings that, even at her young age, she knew she wanted to build one day when she grew up.

Annabeth set the chalk down to run her clammy palm down the side of her sweaty face. She wasn't feeling too great that day, and while it probably had something to do with the fact that she hadn't had anything to eat or drink that day, she was too young to realize that was the problem.

She had contemplated telling her new teacher, Ms. Lacey, but then she'd have to go to the nurse's office, and that would just make the other kids laugh. She didn't want the other kids to laugh at her; they already laughed enough as it is.

Her shaking hand picked up another piece of chalk and began to sloppily draw another skyscraper, accidentally scraping her finger against the rough sidewalk. She went on drawing, lines crooked seeing as she was beginning to have trouble seeing straight. Her head was spinning.

Annabeth stayed silent for another few minutes until she heard the teachers begin to call their respective students over, telling them it's time to go inside.

She saw the blurs of students rush by her, so she set the chalk down she stood up, legs wobbling. She almost fell over before she caught her footing again. By the time she was sure she wasn't about to fall over again, she noticed all the students were pretty much already gone.

Filled with the fear that her teacher had left her all alone outside and she'd get in trouble, she began running as fast as she short legs would allow her. She did her best to avoid all the toys laying on the sidewalk.

To get inside, she had to go through the doors that were hidden behind the brick wall on her right. As she was still running without being able to see very well, she took a sharp right to go inside.

Instead of going towards the door, her face smacked straight into the brick wall with a painful crack. Pain roared to life inside of her, tears immediately springing to her eyes. She clutched her nose as blood began to pour through her fingers. She started screaming.

Annabeth was in hysterics, terribly worried that no one was there to help her. She was going to bleed out and die right here, with no one to ever know what happened to her.

As Annabeth was still sobbing loudly, someone gingerly tapped on her shoulder.

A young, concerned voice spoke. "Are you okay?"

Annabeth looked up at the kid through her glossy eyes. She realized the kid was Percy. Percy opened his mouth again, but nothing came out, his words seemingly stuck. He turned and started running away from her, leaving her to keep crying alone on the sidewalk.

Figures he wouldn't help me. He's Percy. Annabeth just sat there alone for a few minutes, still barely able to see and nose pouring blood. She didn't even notice the teacher running towards the little girl laying on the ground.

"Annabeth!" Her teacher kneeled on the ground, grabbing Annabeth and pulling her closer to the teacher. Annabeth saw who she thinks was Percy standing behind the teacher's form. "What happened?" she asked in concern.

Annabeth whimpered. She opened her mouth in an attempt to respond, but blood poured into her own mouth. She sputtered, pushing the blood out from between her lips.

Percy responded for her. "She was running and she runned into the wall."

The teacher ushered him off. "Thank you, Percy. Can you run and get the nurse for me, sweetheart?"

Percy nodded before running off once again. The teacher's attention went back to Annabeth. "Shh, you're okay," she consoled. "You're going to be okay." Her teacher ran her hand up and down the girl's back to comfort her.

That went on for a minute before Percy returned with a nurse by his side, the nurse rolling a wheelchair towards her.

The nurse, whose name Annabeth didn't know, kneeled down next to Annabeth. She lifted Annabeth's face with two fingers under her chin before turning to Ms. Lacey. Annabeth could only grasp individual words of their conversation: broken, hospital, father. What were they saying?

Before Annabeth could put the words together, the nurse addressed Annabeth. "We're going to put you on the wheelchair and take you down to the nurse's office, okay?"

Annabeth flipped. "No! I don't want to go on the wheelchair." Annabeth's crying intensified and she couldn't take any oxygen in despite how hard she tried to breathe. Her chin was quivering.

"You need to, baby. We have to get you cleaned up so we can call your daddy." Ms. Lacey's hand was now on Annabeth's shoulder, her thumb gently rubbing up and down. "Does that sound okay?"

Annabeth shook her head. "People are going to laugh at me."

Her teacher pinched her nose. "No one is going to laugh at you." Annabeth didn't respond to the teacher. She sat staring at the ground, unmoving. There was no way that she would be sitting in that chair voluntarily. Her teacher was getting desperate. "If you don't get on it, then we're going to have to call an ambulance to get you. Would you rather go in an ambulance?"

Annabeth scowled, but she nodded her head to say okay. The nurse grabbed her upper arm and helped drag her to stand up. Annabeth settled in the chair and the nurse wheeled her away, the teacher and Percy following close behind.

The nurse maneuvered her in through the doors and led her down the long hallways. Lots of kids started at Annabeth, eyeing the blood that was certainly all over her face and clothes. Annabeth sank in the wheelchair, curling in on herself to hide from all the curious eyes.

A few twists and turns around the ground of the school later, they got to the nurse's office. Ms. Lacey helped Annabeth off the chair and onto the exam table covered with that white paper-like material.

Annabeth was sitting on the edge when she felt her head begin to spin again. This time though, she actually did fall.

She fell off the table and onto the floor, and the last thing she remembers was her teacher yelling her name before everything went black.

•

When Annabeth woke up, she was back on the table laying down. The nurse was leaning over her, her teacher standing beside her.

Annabeth felt very groggy so everything she heard sounded very echo-like and far away.

The nurse spoke quietly to Ms. Lacey. "She wasn't even out a minute. Over in that cabinet is a pack of cookies and juice boxes. Can you please go grab one of each?"

Annabeth turned her head to the side where she saw Percy cowering in the corner. He was looking at her with his forehead creased.

Annabeth's attention was drawn to her teacher at the call of her name. "Have you been feeling dizzy today, Annabeth?" she asked, handing Annabeth a snack to consume.

Annabeth shrugged her shoulders in response, taking a small bite of the cookie. She didn't really know what dizzy felt like.

The teacher's eyes lingered on Annabeth's face. "Have you eaten today? You look a bit pale."

Annabeth shook her head.

Ms. Lacey tightened her jaw. "Well, sweetie, we called your daddy so he's going to be here really soon to take you to the doctor."

Annabeth's heart quickened. "Are they going to give me a shot?" She swallowed visibly.

Ms. Lacey chuckled nervously. "No, of course not. They're just going to make sure your nose doesn't have a booboo."

The nurse, who had walked away to wet a washcloth, came back up to Annabeth's side. "I'm just going to clean your face now. I promise I'll be careful. Is that okay?"

Annabeth didn't respond so the nurse lifted the cloth soaked in warm water to her face. She wiped away at the crusted blood on Annabeth's face and neck. The white cloth was practically red after that.

"And we're all done! That wasn't too bad, was it?" The nurse turned around and put the cloth in a red medical waste bin. The nurse then got new gloves and put them on, going back to Annabeth's side.

"Now I'm just going to look at your nose until daddy gets here." Without any hesitation, the nurse lifts her head again and begins gingerly poking and prodding at her nose.

Annabeth let out a piercing cry, pulling away. "Stop it!" she wailed, kicking her feet around.

"It's okay, I'm done."

The nurse took off her gloves and threw it in the trash, exchanging quiet words with her teacher. Ms. Lacey nodded, looking at the little girl on the table. Ms. Lacey seemed to suddenly remember Percy was in the room.

Ms. Lacey turned towards him. "Percy, why don't you head back to class? The other kids are with Mrs. Marne."

Percy made a face. "I don't want to go to her. She's mean!"

"Percy," Ms. Lacey scolded. "She is not mean. Be nice."

"Can I stay here?"

Annabeth was a little hurt. She had thought he was here because maybe he actually had a heart, but he was really just hiding from Ms. Tanaka. Once a meanie, always a meanie.

"No, Percy. Now, I'm not asking, I'm telling. Please go back to class."

Percy unwisely mumbled incoherently under his breath. Ms. Lacey was appalled but chose to ignore it seeing as she had bigger issues to deal with.

Once Percy had grumpily stalked off, Ms. Lacey sat down next to Annabeth on the table, pulling her in for a side hug. "I'm so sorry this happened to you."

Annabeth sank into the warmth of her teacher's kind arms.

"Ms. Lacey," the nurse called. "Does she have any extra clothes in the classroom that she can change into?"

Ms. Lacey sat straight. "I believe so." She grabbed her lanyard with the keys to her classroom from off the table. "I'll go grab them."

As the teacher walked out of the office, Annabeth heard a distant yell. "Percy, go to class!"

The nurse turned to smile at Annabeth kindly. "Are you feeling any better?"

Annabeth, as though suddenly remembering she was hurt, started to whimper again. "My nose hurts," she whined.

The nurse gave a sympathetic glance. "Your daddy can give you some Tylenol when he gets here. It shouldn't be too long now."

Annabeth chewed the inside of her cheek, and the two went silent for a few minutes until her teacher walked back in with clothes.

"Here you go," Ms. Lacey said, handing Annabeth the clothes. "Will you need help changing?"

Annabeth shook her head no.

Ms. Lacey helped Annabeth off the table, not letting go until she was certain Annabeth wouldn't fall or pass out again. She led Annabeth to the enclosed bathroom, telling Annabeth to call if she needs anything.

Annabeth took off her shirt with a struggle; her dad usually helped get Annabeth dressed. She dropped the bloody shirt onto the floor and pulled the new mint green shirt over her head and onto her arms. She then took off her jeans and put on the white overall shorts, snapping the straps into place over her shoulders.

Annabeth looked into the mirror and saw her face bruised and battered, her heart sinking. Now she'd be even more of an outcast.

She bent down to grab her clothes and then left the bathroom. Ms. Lacey held open a plastic bag for Annabeth's clothes, in which Annabeth dumped them. Ms. Lacey tied off the bag and set it on the floor next to the exam table.

Annabeth climbed back onto the exam table and she sat quietly until her dad arrived, nose throbbing with sharp bursts of pain.

Five minutes into the silence, her dad walked through the double glass doors, looking quite frazzled.

Upon seeing Annabeth's face, her dad grew very concerned. "What happened?" he asked while striding towards her, hands turning Annabeth's face around to examine her injuries.

Annabeth's teacher responded before the little girl could. "She hit the wall face first during recess. We're pretty sure that she was feeling light-headed and so she stumbled into it."

Her father grew angry. "You should have been watching her!" Her dad was scowling. "How did you not notice something that big?"

"I apologize, sir."

He rubbed his hand over his face. "Come on, Annabeth. We're leaving."

Annabeth hopped off her position on the table, stumbling forwards to grab her father's hand. "Are we going home?"

He turned around to pick up Annabeth's stuff. "Yes."

Annabeth was practically dragged out of the school and shoved into the car, too scared of speaking with her dad in his current frustrated state. She stayed silent the whole ride home.

•

It was a few hours after Annabeth arrived home that someone knocked on the front door.

Annabeth was shaken out of her medication induced nap, her head barely lifting from the couch to glance at the door before falling back to the couch and beginning to drowse off once again.

She was nearly asleep when she heard a very familiar voice.

"–and he wanted to see how she was doing. He wouldn't stop asking if she was okay. I hope you don't mind us showing up unannounced."

"Of course not! Come in, come in," her dad replied, ushering the people inside the house.

Annabeth looked up again, eyes darting immediately to whom she now recognized as Percy Jackson and his mother, Sally.

Sally looked around as she entered the threshold, Percy entering alongside her. "I must say, this is a lovely home you have here, Mr. Chase."

"I appreciate it. And, oh please, call me Frederick," he said cordially.

"Well, Frederick, as I had previously stated, Percy was simply begging me to let him come see how she was doing. He even got her a get-well bear and everything," she said, ruffling her son's hair teasingly. Percy shook her hand off his head in response, face flushing as he made eye contact with Annabeth.

Frederick crouched down to Percy's level, patting him on the back encouragingly. "Percy, why don't you go on and give her the bear? I'm sure she'll love it."

Percy let go of his mom's fingers and walked up to Annabeth, the bear and small bag of candy dangling in his opposite hand.

He handed the items to her hurriedly. "I hope you like them. I feel bad you got hurt."

Annabeth sat up further, juggling the things shoved into her arms. "Thank you," she said gently, their parents cooing in the background

"Does your nose still hurt?" he questioned, looking over at his mom only to see her distracted in deep conversation with Annabeth's father.

Annabeth's eyes followed his. "Only a teeny-weeny bit." Her attention turned back to Percy. "Why did you get me this? We are enemies," she said, whispering the last past as though it were a naughty word.

He looked sheepish. "I don't want to be your enemy. I don't have friends at school so I thought maybe you will be my friend."

She analyzed his face, a few tense seconds passing before smiling and giving him a chirpy Okay!

"But this means that you have to always be my friend before anyone else!" she added. "You can't find anyone else you like more than me."

The corners of Percy's mouth turned up, the prominent hole where his bottom tooth was supposed to be showing in all its glory. "Okay, but you can't either."

"Okay. Now you have to pinky promise me!" Annabeth pushed her pinky right up in his face.

Percy stuck his pinky out, interlocking their two fingers before his mom announced their departure. "I have to go now. I will see you at school and you will be my favorite person there," he whispered, or at least tried to by the sounds of their parents' smothered giggles.

"Bye-bye," she said, waving as her dad led her new friend and his mother out the door.

As the door clicked shut, she thought that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't so bad after all.

•

Second Grade

It was Friday morning and Annabeth was practically bouncing off the walls. It was the morning of her eighth birthday and her dad was letting her skip school for the day, which was unheard of in the Chase household.

It was a quarter until nine and Annabeth was parked by the front door, peeking out the window for the first sign of her friend pulling up. Her eyes scanned each car that passed by, getting her hopes up each time she saw a car that looked like Percy's.

Not only had her dad agreed to let Annabeth skip school for her birthday, but he also got Sally to agree to let Percy skip with her! The two were going to go to the movies, and then go get ice cream, and maybe even go out for dinner. To top it all off, Percy would even get to sleep over so they could play the Wii or their Switches all night long!

Annabeth was ecstatic and absolutely certain that today would be the best day EVER.

Her face was pressed up against the glass, and anyone who passed by would've been entertained by Annabeth's marshmallow cheeks sticking to the glass. Oh, how she would've made her marshmallow parents proud.

After about five minutes, Percy's car finally pulled up. Annabeth peeled her face off the glass, her cheek retaining a lovely red mark as she screamed to her dad, "He's here!"

Her dad came out of the kitchen, smirk on his face, drying his hands on a red dish rag. "Is he, now?"

"He is!" she confirmed cheekily.

She turned back to the door, fumbling with the gold lock for a few seconds before successfully turning it and opening the door, nearly ripping it off its hinges. "Percy!" she screamed.

Percy waved excitedly, slamming the door shut. He ran up the front path to Annabeth, backpack full of clothes bouncing up and down, and hugged her for a quick second.

His mother turned their red car off, stepping out of the car with a present in hand. "Forgetting something, Percy?"

Percy turned around, eyes lighting up in recognition. He reached out for the present as his mom approached. "Oh, yeah!" He handed the present to Annabeth. "Happy birthday, best friend!"

Annabeth set the heavy bag down, wrapping her arms tightly around him as he shook her. "It's your birthday!" he repeated. "Open the present!"

Percy's mom laughed and set a hand on his shoulder to calm him. "Let us get inside first. We just got here, silly!"

Percy grabbed Annabeth's hand and her present, leading her inside her own house as the two's parents watched in humor.

The kids sat on the couch and Percy forced the present into Annabeth's hand, immediately dumping his backpack onto the floor. "Open!"

Annabeth stuck her tongue slightly through her lips as she ripped the tissue paper out of the bag, throwing it over her shoulder for her dad to pick up later.

Annabeth squealed in delight, pulling a holographic jacket out of the pink bag sporting a rainbow 'Happy Birthday' on its side.

"Daddy, look! I got the jacket I wanted!" Annabeth beamed, shaking the jacket in her dad's face as though her couldn't see it.

Her dad grabbed her hand to stop the shaking. "It's pretty, don't you think?" he said, turning the material over in his hands. "Are you going to wear it today?"

Annabeth's dimples deepened. "Yes!" She threw herself on top of her friend, squishing him between her small body and the fabric of the couch. "Thank you! Thank you!" She gave him a big smooch on his cheek, a loud, exaggerated mwah resounding throughout the room. "You're my bestest friend ever!"

Percy's body shook with laugher, playfully pushing Annabeth off of him and onto the ground. He wiped his cheek, exclaiming, "Nope! You're mine."

"Can we go now, daddy?" Annabeth looked at him with big eyes.

Frederick adjusted his glasses on his nose. "Are you two ready?"

Percy practically screamed. "Yes! Let's go," he said with expectant eyes while clenching and moving his fists in front of him slightly, looking thoroughly pumped for the day.

Sally's eyes sparkled as she looked at her son in awe. "I guess I'll be going then. You two have fun, okay?" She bent down to Percy. "You better behave, you hear me?"

Percy nodded his head, taking hold of Annabeth's hand once again. "I will!"

Sally gave Percy a kiss on the cheek and stood back up. "Thank you for taking them today, Frederick," she said earnestly. "I hope you all have fun."

"It's no problem, Sally. Anytime."

Sally gave one final wave before opening the door and walking out, shutting the door behind her and leaving for work.

Frederick looked at the two of them. "What do you want to do first?"

The two looked at each other before exclaiming simultaneously, "Movies!"

Frederick smiled. "Movies it is."

•

Percy and Annabeth stood in line for snacks as Frederick went to get three tickets for Ralph Breaks the Internet.

"I am so excited," Percy said. "Wreck it Ralph was the best movie ever. How can they ever make a movie better?"

Annabeth shoved Percy with her shoulder. "It doesn't matter how. All that matters is that they did. And I'm more excited than you!"

Percy shook his head. "Nuh-uh! I'm this excited!" he said, moving his arms holding a bag of gummy worms far apart to prove his point.

"Oh yeah? Well, I'm even more excited! I'm so excited my hands would wrap around the whole Earth!"

"It doesn't count if you can't actually do it," he whined.

"Does too!" She opened her mouth to add some snarky comment, but her dad stepped back into line with them.

Frederick eyed them. "Have you picked your candy yet?"

Both kids murmured yes, handing the candy to Frederick to pay, before returning to the competition on who's more excited.

After everything was paid for and the children's arms were stuffed with snacks, the three found their way to the theatre, picking seats in the middle.

"How much longer until the movie starts, daddy?"

Frederick looked at his watch before presuming whatever he had previously been typing on his phone. "It should start soon."

Annabeth, decently satisfied with his answer, looked at Percy. "Why do they always show different movies before the one you come for? I want to see Ralph Breaks the Internet, not the other ones!" she exclaimed, giggling for no apparent reason.

Percy took a handful of popcorn to the mouth. "Maybe it's so you come back to see other movies," he said, chewing the buttered snack thoughtfully.

"I guess so." Annabeth struggled to open her bag of M&Ms. "Can I have some of your gummy worms?"

"No!" He clutched the bag close to his heart in defense. "I want them!"

She stuck her bottom lip out. "But I'm your best friend."

He groaned dramatically. "Fine, but now you have to share yours too."

She stuck her tongue out. "I was going to anyways, meanie."

The lights began to dim and voices around the room quickly settled. Percy tapped Annabeth on the shoulder. "Did you know you're my best friend?"

Annabeth shushed him. "The movie's starting." Annabeth pushed some M&Ms into her mouth before snuggling her head on Percy's shoulder.

"You're my best friend too."

•

"That. Was. Awesome!" Percy said, swinging Annabeth's hand between them as they trailed in front of her dad into the ice cream shop. "Wasn't that awesome?"

"It was super awesome! My favorite movie forever and ever and ever." Percy and Annabeth got into the small line of people in front of them.

"What are you going to get?" Percy questioned. "I think I want blue raspberry," he said as he put his hands on the glass to weigh his options.

Annabeth got on her toes next to him. "I want mint chocolate chip."

"Eww. Toothpaste?"

She smacked him upside the head, earning a scold from her father. "It does not taste like toothpaste. You just are boring and don't like anything blue because you're weird."

Annabeth mentally high-fived herself at that. Take that, Percy.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Hmph. I don't think I am your friend anymore," Percy said teasingly.

Annabeth unsuccessfully tried to straighten her face. "Bitch."

Frederick looked up from his phone alarmed. "Annabeth! You don't say those words," he scolded. "Where did you learn that?" he said with a sigh.

Annabeth smiled innocently. "Percy."

Percy looked at Annabeth betrayed. "Hey!"

Frederick sputtered and interrupted. "Oh-kay! Let's just not say that anymore, okay kids?"

The two shared a mischievous grin.

After another few minutes of waiting in line, they finally got to order their ice cream and sit down.

Percy grabbed a blue spoon, shoveling the tart blue raspberry ice cream into his mouth. "Is this birthday the best you've ever had yet?"

Annabeth put down her spoon to throw her arms in the air. "It's the best birthday I ever will have too!" she exclaimed.

"It's all because we became friends. You have me to thank," he said factually, waving his spoon in her face teasingly before grabbing another spoonful of his frozen treat.

Annabeth held the handle of her spoon, pulling the front of the spoon back in a threat to fling her ice cream at her.

Percy squealed and moved out of the line of fire. "Hey!"

"Don't put your spoon in my face and you've got nothing to worry about."

Percy blew a raspberry. "You wouldn't actually do it."

"Oh, yeah?"

Annabeth flinged the ice cream.

Percy stumbled for words. "Annabeth!" he yelled, face flustered.

Annabeth laughed, melted ice cream visible in her mouth. "You doubted me."

"Close your mouth." Percy lifted his spoon. "I think it's your turn, don't you think?"

She squawked, dropping everything in her hands to cover her face. "It's my birthday! You can't throw ice cream at the birthday girl!"

Percy pointed at her, amusement sparkling in his eyes. "Oh, yeah?" he mocked.

"You better finish your ice cream, or else," she attempted, but failed miserably to say ominously.

Percy stared at her, his deep, verdant eyes analyzing her. "I love you."

She choked, looking at her father sitting a table over, occupied with a work call. "What?"

"What?" he replied defensively.

"You can't say that! I just turned eight. And, besides, that's for boyfriends and girlfriends only."

"But you're my best friend! And I say I love my mom," he pointed out. "Why can't it just be our secret handshake. But instead of a handshake, we say we love each other because we are best friends?"

Annabeth thought for a moment. "Okay. It'll be our thing."

"So, it's not weird?"

"No, because you are my best friend. I love you too."

Percy gently put his cup of ice cream down and stood up to give her a hug. "I love you. We have a secret handshake," he whispered.

She embraced him too. "It's not a handshake," she whispered back.

•

Later that night, after a long day filled with exciting activities and a birthday dinner at Olive Garden with an off-key Percy singing Happy Birthday, the two kids laid in Annabeth's living room, all changed and ready for sleep.

Percy was laying on the blow-up air mattress, positioned next to the tan couch that Annabeth was currently inhabiting.

Annabeth was turned on her stomach, her Nintendo Switch between her hands. She was currently dominating Percy in a life or death game of Mario Kart.

"Ha!" she screamed, leaning over the couch to kick Percy's hand. "I win again!"

Percy dropped his switch in annoyance. "Whatever. I won the two before that." Upon Annabeth's continuous pestering by the use of her foot, Percy whipped around to grab her foot.

"Stop it," she said, giggling. Annabeth wiggled her foot to release herself from his grasp, and her grey fuzzy socks slid off.

"Ha-ha! I got your sock," he said, throwing it at her face.

She grabbed the sock off from where it landed on her face. She stared at him and Percy began backing away slowly.

"That's a good call, Percy. You better back away."

"You won't do anything to me." Despite his words, he backed off the mattress, accidentally falling to the floor and then rising until only his eyes peeked out from above the mattress.

"I'm going to…" She began to slowly sit up on the couch as she spoke. She stilled for a second to create suspense, and then she full-on jumped onto the space directly in front of Percy. "Attack you!" she finished, laughter racking through her entire body.

Percy fell backwards in surprise, nearly banging his head on the sharp corner of the glass coffee table. Upon Annabeth's loud cackling, her dad walked into the living room.

The first thing Frederick saw was Percy reaching for a pillow to whack Annabeth over the head with, but once Percy saw him standing there, he paused with the pillow overhead.

Frederick raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms sternly. "Alright, kids, let's settle down. Percy, put down the pillow."

Percy tossed the pillow at Annabeth's face before anyone could stop him.

"Hey, hey, let's get ready for bed." Annabeth's dad intervened before someone threw something else. "You two must be exhausted. Come on. It's bedtime."

Annabeth scrambled back into her position on the couch, snuggling under the warm purple blanket her father gave her as a present today.

Percy laid back down on the air mattress, pulling his blanket over his entire body, causing Annabeth to giggle.

Frederick smiled at the two children, walking back towards his bedroom. "Goodnight, kids." He turned the living room lights off. "No staying up all night, you two monsters."

Percy and Annabeth waited until they heard the door to her father's room clicking shut before bursting into giggles.

Annabeth managed to calm her breathing before speaking. "I had fun today," she said with a sigh, her words muffled by the way she pressed her face into a pillow. "Thank you for being my best friend."

"Thank you for being my best friend," Percy said. Annabeth could practically hear the smile on his face.

"I love you," Percy said.

Annabeth snuggled deeper into her blankets. "I love you too."

•

Third Grade

It was just another Monday morning for Annabeth, or so she thought. Every morning, Annabeth's dad would drop her off at school and she'd go to her classroom early where she'd meet Percy.

Annabeth hopped out of her dad's grey car, grabbing her blue backpack and waving a quick goodbye, before making her way to her classroom before school started. She held a drawing of hers tightly in her hand with the intention of gifting it to Percy.

She walked into her teacher's room and began to her and Percy's desks that sat in a group of four only to find it empty. He was usually here early since his mom had to go to work early in the morning, so it was quite odd to find that he wasn't here at almost eight in the morning.

Percy hadn't been absent this school year so she figured that he could just be running late, or he didn't have to come early because his mother didn't have to go to work today.

She sat and waited for him alone, watching the door and getting excited when the weird kid with glasses walked in, only to realize it isn't who she was waiting for.

More kids started piling in, none of them being her best friend, so Annabeth was getting very nervous that she'd have to spend the day by herself. She didn't really like anyone else in this class.

Soon enough her teacher stood up to start the day, but the desk next to Annabeth's was still empty.

"Hey, Annabeth," whispered the annoying kid Octavian. "Your friend isn't here today. He probably ran away because he doesn't want to be your friend because you're ugly."

Annabeth sighed and rested her chin on her hand, rolling her eyes with impressive attitude for a third grader. This was going to be a long day.

•

Annabeth ended up spending recess playing by herself. Some kids had decided to go outside, but Annabeth decided to stay inside instead. She'd normally go outside and run around with Percy, but he wasn't here, so she just didn't feel like doing it.

Annabeth sat at her desk, some colored pencils littering the wooden surface. She had a colorful array of pencils, and she would pick up a new one to add a detail to her drawing. She was drawing a beach, something that strayed from her usual drawings of buildings. Annabeth decided that Percy would like the picture since he loves the beach, so she planned to give it to him as a present whenever he turned up at school again.

Her teacher was strolling around the room, watching over the few kids that chose to stay within the comfort of the classroom during recess. Her teacher had just finished complementing a kid's creation with Legos when she approached Annabeth's small form hunched over the desk in concentration.

"That's a beautiful drawing, Annabeth," Ms. Gardener said. "I love the colors."

"Thank you." Annabeth drops the blue pencil she had been holding and replaced with a brown one. Her tongue was pressed adorably between her lips as she scribbled color onto the palm trees on her drawing, in deep concentration.

"Percy likes the beach," Ms. Gardener said. "Is this for Percy? I know you like to draw houses and skyscrapers."

Annabeth doesn't stop coloring. "I'm going to give it to him as a present."

"That's sweet of you." Ms. Gardener sits down in the empty desk next to her that would usually be occupied by Percy. "Are you going to see Percy later?"

"I don't know. I hope he didn't switch schools."

Ms. Gardener chuckles sweetly. "I'm sure he's just sick today."

Annabeth paused in her coloring. "Is he sick?"

"He might be. Maybe you can ask your mommy or daddy when you get home." Ms. Gardener stood up slowly, lifting herself up with the use of her hands pushing on the desk. "Percy is going to love the picture."

Annabeth watched as her teacher walked up to Octavian, taking feign interest in Octavian's short story he was in the process of writing. Annabeth snickered as she watched Ms. Gardener's face shift into confusion, and a tad bit of worry as Octavian explained the story.

"Oh, that's very…" Ms. Gardener's words died off as she pondered what an appropriate response to Octavian's story would be. "Are you sure you don't want to write about how cute puppies are instead?"

Octavian pushed his glasses up his crooked nose. "I'm sure. Puppies aren't cute. I liked that video my mommy showed be of a girl throwing baby puppies into water. It was funny."

Ms. Gardener gaped like a fish. "Maybe we should write this somewhere that isn't in school, yeah?" she suggested in a tone that tells Annabeth she wasn't really suggesting but rather demanding.

"Okay, Ms. G! My mommy will want to help me write it anyways."

Ms. Gardener sputtered on air for a bit, and then walked away at a loss for words.

Octavian caught Annabeth jeering at him. "Don't laugh at me!" he sneered.

"You're weird. Who likes watching puppies die?" Annabeth insulted.

"I'm not weird! You're weird! I don't know why Percy is your friend because you're stupid." He grinned proudly.

Annabeth clenched her small hands around a colored pencil, and resisted throwing something at him because the teacher would be able to see.

"Oh, wait! He's your friend because he's stupid too!" Octavian went on.

A fire ignited inside of Annabeth. The teacher began to turn around, and Annabeth counted to three.

"Ow!" Octavian screeched as Annabeth threw a colored pencil at his head. Annabeth turned around and continued drawing as though nothing had happened as the teacher approached. "Annabeth threw a pencil at me!"

Annabeth twisted in her seat, feigning surprise. "No, I didn't. I was coloring!"

Octavian began to shed fake tears, and you'd think he was bleeding to death at the sound of his echoing sobs. "You threw it at me!"

Ms. Gardener interjected. "Octavian, Annabeth was coloring. I saw her coloring when you yelled."

"No, she wasn't!" he screeched demonically.

"Octavian," she warned. "It's not nice to try and get your classmates in trouble."

"She hurt me!"

Annabeth kept her face of indifference. "I did not! Stop lying just because you don't like me!"

"Okay, Annabeth," Ms. Gardener said. "Let's just leave Octavian alone for now."

"But I didn't throw anything at him!"

"I know you didn't, so let's just give him some time to calm down, okay?"

Annabeth pouted. "Fine." She turned back around in her seat and grabbed a pencil angrily. She had half a mind to turn around and smile maliciously, but decided it was too risky. She had to maintain her own integrity, after all.

•

Several hours later, when school was finally out, Annabeth rushed out of the doors and towards parent pickup. She spotted her dad's car about halfway through the line, and she sat down on the concrete along with her other classmates as she waited for her dad's arrival.

Annabeth sat impatiently for five minutes, tapping her fingers on her leg and fumbling with the straps of her pink backpack. Once her teacher finally called her name, Annabeth stumbled to stand up, and walked the short distance to her car.

Ms. Gardener held the backseat door open for her as she got in. "Have a good day, Annabeth. I'll see you tomorrow."

Annabeth put her foot on the step and then crawled into the car, scrambling to put her seatbelt on. "Bye!"

Ms. Gardener shut the door for Annabeth, and her dad pulled out of the line and began to drive away.

"How was school?" her dad began. "Anything new happen today?"

Annabeth kicked her feet around the floor. "Percy wasn't at school today," she said sadly.

"Oh, yes. Sally called me and told me that he wasn't feeling well today. He just stayed home for a day."

Annabeth's ears perked up. "So, he didn't switch schools?"

Her dad shook his head, laughing. "No, silly."

Annabeth leaned back and blew air out from her mouth dramatically. "That's good. Today was gross without him."

"Uh-oh." Her dad stopped at a red light. "What happened?" he asked, looking at her from the rearview mirror.

Annabeth was about to explain the whole Octavian ordeal until she realized who she was talking to. She shut her mouth. "Nothing."

"Okay," he said slowly. "Do you want to go see Percy? I'm sure he'd like to have a friend for a bit."

Annabeth gasped. "Oh! Yes! Yes! Can we go right now?"

"Why don't we go get some food first? Maybe we can stop and get him a present as well."

"Can we get Chick-fil-a?"

"Is that really what you want?"

"Oh, yes."

Her dad made a right turn. "Fine. Chick-fil-a it is."

•

An hour later, Annabeth was stuffed full of delicious chicken nuggets and a chocolate chunk cookie. She was holding her small lemonade tightly in her hands as her dad helped her into the backseat of the car.

"We'll head over to CVS next to get Percy something nice, okay?" Her dad buckled her seatbelt for her as Annabeth refused to let go of her drink.

"What do you think I should get him?" she asked.

Her dad got in the driver's seat, buckling up and turning the car on. "I think he'd like some candy. Maybe a small toy."

Annabeth nodded, wrapping her mouth around her straw. "He likes Kit-Kats, I think."

Her dad hummed in confirmation. "He does."

Annabeth dropped her drink from her mouth. "How long until we can see Percy?"

"The store is right down the road."

Annabeth groaned. "That's too far!"

"Don't whine, Annabeth," he reprimanded.

Annabeth pouted her lips and stayed silent for the rest of the five-minute ride, watching the buildings dart by the car.

"We're here," her dad announced, turning the car off. "Let's go in."

Annabeth put her drink in the cupholder, and then she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door to step out of the car.

"Careful," her dad warned as Annabeth nearly tripped over the curb.

Annabeth gained her balance again and ran inside, leaving her dad to lock the car and run after her. She immediately made her way towards the candy aisle, her brain going into overdrive as she took in all of the different colors and candies.

"Oo," Annabeth said in interest, grabbing a large bag of sour gummy worms. "Can I get these?"

"You're here for Percy," her dad reminds her. "You can get it for Percy."

Annabeth shoves it into her dad's empty hands and continues on. "Where are the Kit-Kats?"

Her dad walks over to the left and grabs a king-sized bar of Kit-Kats. "Here," he said, holding up to her eyes.

"Should I get any more?"

"I think we should get something other than candy now."

Annabeth nods in agreement and skipped further into the aisle where small cars and stuffed animals lay. "He likes toy cars."

Her furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm not sure he does, Annabeth."

Annabeth threw her hands up in the air. "I don't know what to get him."

Her dad moved the candy to one hand and reached out towards a small box covered by a plethora of cheap toys. "Here. Why don't you get him a puzzle you can do together?"

Annabeth scrunched her nose. "But not a puzzle with Disney princesses!" she complained.

Her dad set the box back. "How about this one?" he asked, holding another up to her eyes.

Annabeth lit up. "He loves the beach!" she exclaimed.

"The beach puzzle it is." He looked around. "Anything else?"

Annabeth took a final look around, and she saw something that made her heart stop in excitement. "We have to get this!" she said, pulling on a giant stuffed squid that was almost bigger than she was.

Her dad watched as the little girl struggled to hold a giant floppy squid above her head. "Are you sure?"

Annabeth shook, and one would think she was about to spontaneously combust. "Yes!"

•

Annabeth knocked excitedly at Sally's door, squeezing the giant squid between her tiny arms.

Sally opened the door, and her face portrayed her surprise at the unexpected accompanying animal. "Annabeth," she greeted. "Who's your friend you got there?"

"This is a squid," she informed Sally, marching over the threshold and into the house with a purpose. "It's for Percy."

"Oh, is it now?" Sally smoothed Annabeth's hair down. "Percy's upstairs in his room. Why don't you go show him what you've got?"

Annabeth jumped up and down. "Okay!" Just as Annabeth was about to run off, her dad called out to her.

"Give him this, too," her dad said, handing her the bag filled with candy and a puzzle.

Annabeth backtracked to grab the bag with her already occupied hands, before bouncing off and up the stairs to Percy's room. Sally chucked at Annabeth and welcomed Frederick in for a bit while Percy and Annabeth played.

"Percy!" she yelled emphatically. "Look what I got you!"

Percy was facing away from his door, laying down in his bed underneath a few blankets and comforter. Hearing Annabeth shove her way into his room, he lifted his head in confusion, before turning over in his bed to watch Annabeth.

"Why are you here?" he asked, sniffling a few times but still unable to clear his nose.

"You weren't at school today!" Annabeth dropped the bag of candy and walked up to his side. "I got you a squid."

Percy coughed. "I love squids."

"I know!" Annabeth dropped the squid onto the other side of his bed. "You're sick."

"My mommy says I have a fever."

Annabeth looked worried. "It's not too high, is it? My daddy says if it is too high, your enzymes get weird."

"What are enzymes?"

"I don't know, but I don't think that it's good if they get weird."

Percy drew his eyebrows together. "Should I ask my mommy?"

"Your mom probably already knows this."

"Oh, yeah." Percy tried, unsuccessfully, to breathe through his stuffed nose. "Did you do anything fun at school today?"

Annabeth climbed onto the bed next to him, and on top of the giant squid. "No. Today sucked extra bad because you weren't there."

"I think that is good," Percy said as he turned over again to face her.

Annabeth stuck her tongue out. "Why is me having a bad day good?"

Percy laughed, and his voice is scratchy. "Because it means that I'm the reason you have good days!"

Annabeth lay her head back and looked at the smooth ceiling. "Not always," she pointed out. "Sometimes you're there and I still have bad days."

"But if you have a bad day with me, it's not as bad as having one without me."

Annabeth threw a hand over her face dramatically. "I guess so."

Percy smiled with his teeth, and his eyes look like glass. "I know so." He had a quick coughing fit, hacking up a lung by the sounds of it. "What happened at school, then?"

Annabeth brushed her hand across the soft fabric of the squid. "Octavian was dumb."

"That's not new."

"Today, he was making fun of me and you. He said we're weird and stupid."

"What did you say?"

"I said he's the weird and stupid one."

"Aw, that's it?"

Annabeth thought for a moment. "Oh!"

"What is it?" Percy asked in interest.

"He likes to kill puppies. Ms. Gardener was watching him write a story and he told her puppies are gross and he likes to throw them in water."

Percy looked horrified, and with good reason. "And he thinks we're the weird ones? Who is raising him?"

"Maybe he doesn't have a mom."

"You don't have a mom with you, and you don't kill puppies."

Annabeth puckered her lips as she thought. "I'm not that messed up."

"What did Ms. Gardener do after that?" he asked.

"She just told him not to write it at school, and then I–" Annabeth stopped in her words, not wanting to Sell herself out.

"What did you do?" he asked, his voice gaining more energy.

"I can't tell you."

"You have to! You can't start and then not finish!"

"You can't tell anyone. Promise me."

"I promise! Tell me!"

"I started laughing at him and he saw me. He started making fun of you and me, so I – I threw my pencil at him. It hit him in his face."

Percy stared blankly at her and started guffawing. "You hit him with a pencil? Annabeth!"

"What! He deserved it!" Annabeth crossed her arms stubbornly.

"Octavian always deserves it!" Percy took a few breaths to calm himself. "Did you get in trouble?"

"The teacher didn't see me do it. She thought he was lying to get me in trouble."

"Yes! Percy and Annabeth: 1. Octavian: 0." Percy tightened his blanket around him.

"It was funny, but you can't tell anyone or else I'll get in trouble."

"I won't, I promise. I just didn't know you had it in you."

Annabeth giggled. "Neither did I."

The two fell into silence, and Annabeth looked around him room. Her eyes fell onto his blue walls that Percy loved because it reminded him of the ocean.

"I forgot!" Annabeth yelled, darting up.

"Forgot what?" he asked.

"I made you a drawing. It's a beach!"

"Where is it?"

"I left it at school. I can give it to you tomorrow if you go to school." Annabeth faltered. "I hope you like it."

"I always like your drawings. I don't know if I'm going to school tomorrow. My mommy decides that."

"Whenever you come back to school, then." Annabeth crawled over Percy and hopped off the bed, ignoring Percy's pained grunt as she kneed him in the stomach. She bent down to pick up the previously abandoned bag of candy. "Guess what else I got you."

Percy didn't flip over this time. "What?" His voice was muffled as he pressed his cheek against the mattress.

"I got you Kit-Kats! And gummy worms!"

"The sour ones?"

"Yep!" Annabeth set the candy in front of his face. "My dad also made me get a puzzle so we could do it together, if you wanted to."

"Oo," Percy whispered to himself, reaching out to grab the candy. "Do you want to do the puzzle?"

"It's up to you."

"You got it, so let's do it." Percy dragged himself to a sitting position. "We need something to put it on."

Annabeth looked around, and her eyes fell on the trifold that he got for his science fair project. "We can use this," she informed him, running over to grab it and place it on the bed in front of him.

Percy grabbed a blanket and wrapped it over his shoulders, huddling in the warmth and grabbing the puzzle box. "500 pieces are a lot."

"We can do it. We work with each other good." She paused. "Or is it well? Ms. Gardener keeps correcting me whenever I use either of those."

"I have no idea." Percy ripped open the plastic over the box and dumped the small puzzle pieces into a pile on the cardboard surface. "And it's a beach. You sure know what I love."

"I do! That's why you're my best friend, after all."

Percy reached to his side and opened the bag of gummy worms, popping one in his mouth. Annabeth was sifting through the puzzle pieces, searching for edges and corners.

"Do you want one?" Percy offered, extending the colorful bag towards Annabeth.

Annabeth's fingers grabbed onto a blue one. "This is also why you're my best friend."

"I share my candy with you because I love you. And, also, because you brought me a giant squid and defended my name at school today against that wretched kid, Octavian."

Annabeth ignored most of his statement, instead choosing to focus on his declaration of love. "Aww, you love me," she teased, placing a hand over her heart.

Percy grabbed another gummy worm. "I do."

Annabeth smiled at him, stealing the worm from between his fingers. "I love you, too."

Percy felt all warm and happy at her words. Percy was about to respond, but Annabeth decided to steal his bag of candy and grab two more worms, leaving Percy to defend his sugar.

"Hey!" Percy yelled, flabbergasted.

Annabeth smiled sweetly and popped it in her mouth, giggling at his ensuing face of disbelief.

•

Fourth Grade

Annabeth was sound asleep when her dad shook her awake in the middle of the night. She was curled up under her warm fuzzy blanket, and she whined sleepily as her dad persisted in shaking her awake in the dark of her room.

"What time is it?" she groaned, shaking off the hand that was attached to her upper arm.

"Three in the morning. Get up, we need to go." Her dad waited for a second and watched her as she was already dozing off again. "Annabeth."

"Where are we going?" Annabeth yawned, rubbing her eyes that were struggling to see in the dark.

"Helen's mother is in the hospital. We're going to go see her."

Annabeth groaned again and turned her back on her dad to try and go back to sleep. "I don't want to go."

Her dad moved the blanket off of her. "Helen's really upset. We need to go now, so you need to get up."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, the action going unnoticed in the dark of the room. Helen was her dad's girlfriend. Her dad and Helen started dating a little over a year ago, and Annabeth couldn't stand the relationship. Helen was nice enough, but she was also just so basic and boring. Helen also had this vibe about her– it was almost like she had a fake personality, and Annabeth couldn't stand it.

"Now," her dad warned.

Annabeth grabbed her blanket, promptly pulling it tightly over her body again. "Can you go without me? It's an hour-long drive."

"No. Get up, I'm not going to ask you again."

Annabeth whined slightly as she dragged herself upright, ignoring her dad's sharp warning to stop whining.

"You can bring your blanket in the car and sleep on the way there."

"Fine." Annabeth wrapped her heavy fuzzy blanket around her shoulders and stood in the still black room.

Her dad backed towards the exit of her room, calling out over his shoulder, "Go put your shoes on. We're leaving in five minutes."

A little over five minutes later, and Annabeth was nestled comfortably into the front seat of the car, the chair leaned back as far as it would go so that Annabeth could doze off without a care in the world.

"Is your seatbelt on?" her dad questioned as he turned the heater up in the car to protect against the biting Winter breeze.

Annabeth stuffed her face into the blanket, shivering slightly. "I'm trying to sleep, and I can't do that with a seatbelt on."

Her dad put the car into drive and began pulling out of the driveway. "Put it on," he said, though his tone of voice wasn't particularly convincing, so Annabeth didn't make a move to click the seatbelt into place.

As her dad ran the car along the empty streets, a few stray cars being the exception, Annabeth listened to the soothing hum of the ignition. The ride was smooth, and Annabeth looked out the window at the trees that blurred together as one as they left the city. The night sky was covered by the light pollution that made seeing stars an impossible task.

Annabeth struggled to fall asleep again later into the ride, the feeling of sleeping in a car being too foreign to properly allow her sleep deprivation to overcome her. After a while of purposely shutting her eyes tight to feign sleeping, she gave up and decided to continue her stare into the vast darkness.

As the two continued away from the city and towards a more secluded area of New York, the sky became clearer and the stars lining the sky glowed, as though a paintbrush had splattered white paint onto the endless night sky.

Annabeth admired the stars painting the sky in glowing specs and imagined what they really looked like. These stars are seemingly nothing in the constantly expanding space, but up close they must've been something of another universe. Up close, these stars were actually bigger than her tiny brain would ever be able to truly comprehend. The universe was amazing, really. If she wasn't so infatuated with architecture, she could've considered astrophysics, whatever that was.

Annabeth was finally beginning to feel sleep coming upon her, and her eyes were slowly drifting shut. Annabeth was content, the warm air circulating around the car and comfortable in her dad's quiet presence. Everything was seemingly okay, but then something changed.

Annabeth was wrenched out of her sleep, feeling as though someone had pulled her gut out of her body with an iron grip. Something was off, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was.

Her dad looked over at her, alarmed at her sudden jump. "Are you okay?"

Annabeth had goosebumps. Something wasn't right.

Her dad watched as Annabeth shifted around uncomfortably. "Annabeth, seriously," he prompted. "Are you alright?"

Annabeth wrapped her arms around herself in a useless attempt to draw the goosebumps away. "I– I don't feel good."

"Do you need me to pull over?"

Annabeth shook her head and sat up. The road was empty, not a single car in sight on the long road.

"What hurts?" Her dad took his eyes back off the road to look at Annabeth's form. The blood had left her face a minute ago.

"No, nothing– nothing hurts." Annabeth looked at the trees that were whizzing by the car once again. "I feel weird."

"Are you going to be sick?" he questioned.

Annabeth opened her mouth, a wave of something unrecognizable coursing through her. "I– I don't know."

"Sweetie, you're scaring me. Do you need me to pull over?"

Annabeth felt like crying. She didn't know what was going on. "No."

Another five minutes passed by and Annabeth was biting nervously on her nails. The feeling that something was off had only intensified tenfold.

Annabeth noticed how fast the car was going. Annabeth couldn't even see anything outside anymore. Everything was a blur outside the car.

"Daddy," Annabeth whimpered, grabbing onto the leather of the seat. "Why are we going so fast?"

He moved a hand off of the wheel to scratch his face. "We're not going very fast, Annabeth. Don't worry."

Annabeth's eyes darted over to the speedometer. It read 120. She stayed silent, trying to squash her feeling of unease.

"Daddy, can we please slow down? I feel weird."

Annabeth's heart started racing. Her dad looked towards her. "Annabeth, calm down. You're scaring yourself."

Annabeth felt like she was going to pass out. Her dad was still looking at her, his eyebrows scrunched together in concern. She looked out the window, and what she saw made her heart stop.

A car's headlights were beaming right into Annabeth's face, and it was on the wrong side of the road. It was on the wrong side of the road.

Annabeth didn't even have time to open her mouth and warn her dad before the collision.

Annabeth heard the crash before she felt it.

Brakes screeched, the car skidding against the pavemented road. Time slowed down in Annabeth's mind.

The two cars collided, and the bumper of the car indented, the metal of the car crunching under the pressure of the impact. The glass of the windshield shattered into a million pieces, embedding shards deep into Annabeth's skin.

The force of the collision made pain receptor fire at once. Annabeth's small body was flung out through the broken windshield and onto the secluded road.

Annabeth's breath was forced out of her body as her back slammed into the ground. She couldn't breathe; she tried to take a ragged breath, but nothing came out. She felt like she was choking. Everything felt cold.

All Annabeth saw was red. It hurt to keep her eyes open, but she couldn't bring herself to close them. Something was filling her mouth, and it took her a moment to realize that it was her own blood.

Her limbs were on fire, and she felt tears falling from her eyes. Annabeth tried to concentrate on one thing, but the pain was too much to handle.

Annabeth looked up at the stars above her head, feeling the blood dripping down her throat. The stars were gleaming overhead, and Annabeth wondered if this would be the last thing she sees.

Annabeth's vision started to blur around the edges, and her stomach fluttered. Things began to distort above her head. Unfamiliar screams of pain echoed through the night, and Annabeth realized that one of the screams were her own voice, cracking as she tore her vocal cords.

Annabeth's vision continued to blur and darken, and suddenly her father's face was hanging above her. She tried to ground herself to stop his face from looking contorted. Once her eyes managed to focus, she noticed his face covered in blood.

Her dad had blood dripping from his head, and a shard of glass embedded above his eyebrow. His lip was bust open, and he was screaming inaudibly.

Annabeth could only hear a piercing ringing in her ears, but she saw her dad's frantic screaming as he grasped onto his little girl.

Annabeth's vision continued to darken, and her father's face was replaced by a blackness for a second before reappearing as her father shook her harshly.

"-abeth!" she heard as the ringing faded slightly.

"Annabeth! Stay with me, sweetie!" Her dad grabbed Annabeth under the armpits and pulled her into his arms to cradle her head.

"Please," he sobbed, caressing her bloodied hair as he rocked back and forth. "Stay awake, Annabeth. Someone's coming for us."

Annabeth finally got a breath in, her lungs searing painfully as though someone plunged a glowing-hot streak-knife through her front.

"It hurts, daddy," she croaked, hyperventilating.

Her dad sobbed. "It doesn't sweetie. You're going to be okay." He couldn't even fool himself through his words. Both he and Annabeth knew how this was going to end.

Her dad reached down Annabeth's body to tend to a wound, and when he lifted his hand back into her line of sight, Annabeth noticed his hands were dripping with blood. Her blood.

"Daddy," Annabeth whispered, sputtering up blood. "I'm tired."

Her dad squeezed her closer to him. "I know. Don't fall asleep yet."

Annabeth felt her body become warm, and something in her told her that it was her own puddle of blood that she was laying in that kept her warm.

"I'm just so tired," she whispered once again, her eyes beginning to close against her will.

"No, Annabeth, open your eyes!"

Annabeth willed her body to stay awake, but she no longer had control over herself. The edges of her vision blacked a bit more, until the darkness consumed her.

The last thing she saw was her father screaming himself hoarse over her lifeless body.

•

Annabeth vaguely remembered yelling and frantic movement around her. Her eyes blink open lazily, and all she sees is red. There are a few paramedics running around on what she believed to be an ambulance. Her dad isn't anywhere in sight.

Someone catches Annabeth's eyes blinking opened. They don't even say anything before something is injected into her bloodstream. It burns for a few seconds, and then once again, everything goes black.

•

Annabeth gained a hazy consciousness on a table but couldn't open her eyes. She could feel people rustling around her. Her head was taped down onto a plastic stretcher, as well as the rest of her body, to keep her still and prevent any further damage to her spinal cord.

There was an oxygen mask pressed over her mouth, but Annabeth's lungs were still screaming for air. She could feel people roaming over her body and moving around her to examine her body. There was a vitals monitor hooked up to her that doctors kept looking to, especially when it started flashing red.

Though people were screaming, but Annabeth heard nothing but silence.

"Trauma panel. Send blood for a crossmatch," one doctor yelled, imperceptible to Annabeth. "Belly is soft!"

Another nurse pitched in. "Bruising on the chest. Decreased breath sounds on the left."

"Oxygen levels decreasing. Pulse OX 88." A male nurse was staring at the vitals monitor.

Annabeth's ears were ringing, and she strained to hear something, anything, but to no avail. She still couldn't open her eyes.

"Hook up all the monitors, and we need a wide bore IV."

"What the hell happened out there?" a nurse asked.

"A crash on a back road. No one around for miles."

Annabeth's head was still facing up, unable to move. Her heart was racing and all she could think was why couldn't she hear?

A nurse breathed out in frustration. "Her vein's collapsed. I can't get in."

"Put in a central line," said a male doctor. "We got knee swelling."

"Rib fractures on the left with palpable crepitus."

"Someone get ortho in here! And somebody page the chief! We need everyone on this little girl!"

Just then, Annabeth's eyes flashed open and her sight was met with an abundance of navy-scrubbed doctors. She looked around at one of them with her red and bloodied eyes, and they noticed she was awake.

The male doctor mouthed something incomprehensible to Annabeth, and people piled around her to look at her. Annabeth eyes darted around, her heart beating out of her chest. She still couldn't hear a single thing.

"Somebody get plastics in here right now!"

"Annabeth, we're going to do a quick x-ray, okay?"

Annabeth looked at the guy speaking to her blankly, simply watching his lips as he tried to tell her something. Nothing.

Annabeth felt a prick in her left arm, and someone must've put an IV in. The ringing in her ears intensified.

The doctors began to huddle to one side, and Annabeth wondered what they were doing when they suddenly lifted her onto one side. Annabeth groaned in pain, tears building in her eyes.

A few more people rushed into the room and sprang into action. One waved their finger in front of her eyes and she followed them, assuming that's what they wanted.

"No deformity, positive battle sign."

Annabeth continued to whimper in pain.

A doctor hovered over Annabeth and talked to her. "Okay, Annabeth, we need to put in a chest tube because your lung is collapsing. It's going to hurt, so just breathe through it, sweetie."

Annabeth stared at them blankly.

"This is going to burn a bit; we're giving you some lidocaine."

Annabeth felt something slicing her skin on her chest, and then someone was lifting a tube up to the incision. For a second, Annabeth nothing, and then all at once she felt immeasurable amounts of pain as they forced the tube into her chest.

Annabeth gasped loudly, coughing.

A nurse rubbed her arm soothingly. "Breathe, Annabeth. Breathe, breathe."

"Oxygen is back up."

Someone shined a light in her eyes. "No evidence of traumatic brain injury, no focal deficits, uh, except for – Annabeth, I need to you move your fingers."

Annabeth continued staring straight ahead, her mind racing.

The person to shine the light in her eyes hesitated. "Or your toes."

Still nothing.

"Come on, Annabeth. Just wiggle something."

Annabeth still didn't move her fingers.

"She responded to the pain; it just doesn't make sense!" A blonde nurse groaned in frustration. "Unless…"

"Oxygen is dropping again."

"The chest tube is leaking. We need to secure her airway."

The blonde nurse leaned down to Annabeth side, snapping her fingers in Annabeth's ears. No reaction.

"Guys, I don't think she can hear us!"

Everyone stopped. "What?"

The nurse continued snapping. "She can't hear us."

Someone grabbed an otoscope and put it into her ear along with a light. "Evidence of barotrauma, most likely from the impact of the crash. She's right, I don't think she can hear anything we're saying."

The doctors removed her oxygen mask to intubate her.

"Her jaw is locked," the male doctor said. "We can't get in."

"Let me look," a blonde doctor said, hip-checking a nurse to get by Annabeth's side. She pushed suction in her mouth to see if it'll open. "It looks like a dislocation, a possible fracture. There's no way of getting a tube in."

"You have to preserve her airway."

"I know!" The blonde doctor sighed. "If I can reduce the dislocation, I should be able to get her mouth open just wide enough to intubate. It's gonna hurt like hell, though."

The blonde doctor leaned over Annabeth, locking eyes with her. "Okay, Annabeth, we're gonna have to pop your jaw now. I'm sorry, but we have to do it." He looked up, addressing everyone else in the room. "On the count of three, guys."

"One."

Annabeth's eyes dart around the room, nervousness growing as she watched everyone's face look at her with sympathy.

"Two."

The doctor pushes gauze into her mouth, his fingers settling onto the teeth on her jaw.

"Three."

The doctor pushes down on her jaw, forcing it open. It pops open with a loud crack and Annabeth once again feels nothing but pain.

Annabeth passed out.

•

When Annabeth wakes up, she's met with Percy's eyes staring straight into hers as he peers at her over the edge of the hospital bed.

He blinked at her, and she blinked lazily back at him.

"You're awake," he whispered.

Annabeth's eyes drooped, and she felt very lethargic. She looked around the room and saw a girl doctor she recognized from the other room she was in. Her dad was also standing next to the doctor, and then Sally next to him.

"Hey, Annabeth," the girl doctor said lowly. "I'm Dr. Arellano. Don't try to talk, your jaw is wired shut."

Annabeth tried to open her mouth on reflex, but true to Dr. Arellano's words, her mouth was not budging. Annabeth looked at her questioningly.

"Your dad will explain everything to you soon. Your ears might be a little sensitive to sound right now, so we're going to keep our voices down for you. You shouldn't feel any pain because we have you on some strong medications, but just let us know if you do." Dr. Arellano turned towards her dad. "If you need anything, I'll be right outside." She slid open Annabeth's door in the ICU and shut it behind her to give them privacy.

Annabeth's dad approached her bed and leaned down. "Hey, princess," he said softly, running his fingers through her matted hair. "How are you feeling?"

Annabeth just blinked at him.

"That's right, you can't talk…"

Percy jumped in. "They said you lost your hearing for a little bit, but don't worry, it should be back now," Percy whisper yelled.

Annabeth breathed through her nose, inhaling oxygen from the mask still on her face.

Her dad sat on a chair next to Annabeth as Sally called Percy to her side and settled her arms over his shoulders.

"We were in an accident, do you remember?" he asked.

Annabeth nodded.

"They brought you back to the hospital after that, and – I don't know how much you remember now, but you lost your hearing for a little bit. You broke a few bones, so they let you sleep for a little bit. This was a few weeks ago. They put you in a medically induced coma."

Annabeth swallowed roughly, unable to really react with her mouth wired shut.

"You're okay now," he reassured her, resting his hand on hers. "They woke you up today because you're healing more. Your leg is still broken, it's the big bone; the femur I believe?" he questioned jokingly.

Annabeth nodded in confirmation, blinking back tears.

"Percy came to see you a few times. He made sure you were all safe."

Annabeth lifted her head and looked to Percy, who looked at her with fondness in his eyes. She laid her head back down on a white pillow, her eyelids already dropping.

"Are you tired?" her dad asked.

Annabeth nodded.

"We'll let you get some sleep, then. We'll be right here when you wake up. I promise."

Annabeth nodded once again and began to drift off into a numbing sleep.

•

Annabeth was laying in her bed, hot tears falling from her eyes against her will. Her entire body hurt to degrees that Annabeth didn't think was even possible. Her skin was still bruised and battered, and her head hurt so much that she couldn't even think. She couldn't even open her mouth because her jaw had been broken as she was flung out of the car and onto the road during the crash.

Percy sat in silence next to her, watching her tears fall. He eventually decided to lay down next to Annabeth on the bed and watch her with gentle eyes.

"What's wrong?" Percy whispered, his eyes wide and sympathetic. This just made the tears fall faster.

"It hurts?"

Annabeth nodded, her silent sobs racking through her whole body.

Percy stayed silent, unsure of what to do. Her dad and his mom had left to go to the cafeteria for a little bit, so the two kids were alone in the pediatric ward of the hospital.

Percy leaned towards her. "You have a lot of snot," he whispered in her ear. "Come on, wipe your nose, nasty," he said, handing her a tissue from a table on the side.

Annabeth let out a mix between a sob and a laugh, grabbing the tissue and wiping her eyes with it.

"There might be something seriously wrong with you, I mean, you really do have a lot of boogies."

Annabeth shoved his shoulder gently with hers, dabbing her face with the tissue some more. She wished she could talk to Percy.

"You're going to be okay. You're the strongest person I know."

This caused Annabeth to tilt her face to the right to actually look up at him. She certainly wasn't expecting that to come from Percy. She didn't know what she did expect, but it wasn't that.

Percy thought some more of what to say in the one-sided conversation. He came up with something he knew would make her smile.

"I love you."

Annabeth's tears slowed just the slightest bit. She stared him in the eyes and blinked four times. Somehow, they both knew exactly what she was saying.

I love you too.

•

Annabeth found herself sitting in her hospital bed with Percy settled across from her a few weeks later. Percy was keeping her company as she attempted to finish all the schoolwork she'd missed, quite unsuccessfully.

"Come on, Annabeth, just finish it so we can play!" Percy exclaimed, pushing a blue gummy worm into his mouth.

Annabeth shot him a glare. "I wasn't there to learn any of this, so how am I supposed to 'just finish it?'"

Percy snorted. "I want to play Mario Kart already, so you better figure it out."

Annabeth ignored his statement, and instead put her pencil down to run her hand over the white cast on her leg.

Percy raised an eyebrow and chewed thoughtfully. "Does it hurt?"

"Yeah," Annabeth sighed, dropping her hand. "I just want to go home. When is my dad getting back?"

"They went to go get food somewhere." He shrugged. "Speaking of going home. Are you excited? You get to leave tonight!"

Annabeth pouted her lips. "I'm not so sure about excited. Relieved, maybe? I missed so much school that going back is going to be a nightmare."

"Well," he said, pointing at her face. "You did most of the work here, so I don't think it'll be too bad. Besides, you have me!"

"Joy."

"I'm so glad you love me," he replied sarcastically, along with the roll of his green eyes. He pointed back at her homework. "You only have one more question."

Annabeth rapped him sharply on the head with her pencil before finishing the last problem. "Done!" She threw the pencil down.

"Was that so hard?"

"Yes."

Percy looked mildly offended, but he didn't get to respond because her father walked in carrying bags of food alongside Dr. Arellano.

"How you feeling today, Annabeth?" Dr. Arellano asked, picking up a chart on the way in.

"Ready to leave," she replied.

Arellano chuckled. "Only a few more hours, now." She turned a page in Annabeth's charts. "Everything looks good, so it's just that leg of yours to keep an eye out for."

Annabeth's dad set the food down in front of Annabeth. "So, what do we need to do to finalize everything and get out of here?"

Dr. Arellano put the binder she was holding back in its slot. "There are no outstanding balances, so we'll have a nurse bring in discharge papers, and once those are signed, you should be good to go." She turned towards Annabeth. "In case I don't catch you later, just stay safe, little one."

Annabeth smiled. "I will."

Dr. Arellano ruffled Annabeth's hair. "I better not catch you here again."

Annabeth giggled, moving her head. "You won't, I promise."

"Good." Dr. Arellano waved goodbye to the rest of the room. "Goodbye, guys."

The room was silent as she walked out. Once she was gone, her dad rubbed his hands together.

"I think it's about time to go home, don't you think, Annabeth?"

•

Annabeth limped through the front door of her house, the crutches under her armpits feeling foreign to her. Percy was following behind her carefully, making her giggle as he feigned catching her in case she fell. Her dad was somewhere behind them bringing stuff into the house.

She made her way to the couch, where she ensconced with caution. Percy grabbed the crutches from her and shoved them onto the floor before flopping down next to her.

"So," he said, drawing out the word. He fiddled his hands together. "What should we do now?"

Annabeth glanced at him funny. "Sleep."

"Oh, where's your sense of adventure?"

"I left that at the hospital," she deadpanned.

Percy wrapped his arms around her, pressing his cheek to hers. She struggled to get away.

"Let's do something," he insisted, ignoring Annabeth's forceful attempts to get him off of her.

Annabeth finally pried him off of her. "For a second there, I thought I was going to need a spatula to get you off of me."

"Oh, stop with the melodramatics."

"Big word you got there."

"I know you're hurt and all, but you still gotta be nice to your best friend."

Annabeth pretended to think for a moment. "Nah, I don't think that's actually a rule."

"It is."

"Oh, yeah? Says who?"

Percy lifted his chin in the air. "Me."

Annabeth made a psh sound. "You don't make the rules."

"Why not?"

"You are a peasant."

"Ouch."

Annabeth settled further into the couch. "In all honesty, I do kind of want to go to sleep."

"Boring."

Annabeth fluttered her eyelashes. "Please?"

Percy rolled his eyes playfully. "Fine."

Annabeth snuggled up to him. "You have to stay with me."

"Must I?"

"Yes. Best friend rules."

Percy flicked the side of her head, to which she smacked him in the nose with her head. "Fine."

Annabeth rested her cheek onto his face. "Yay. I love you."

Percy didn't even try to move away this time. "Love you too."

•

Fifth Grade

"Are you excited?"

Annabeth tried not to look at him in fear of getting in trouble with the teacher. Instead, she spoke out of the corner of her mouth. "Excited for what?"

"Graduation!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. That was the last thing fifth-grader Annabeth felt like talking about now that her new stepmother was adamant that they didn't attend the silly ceremony. After the accident the previous year, her dad ended up proposing to his girlfriend, sprouting some crap about being lucky to be alive and not wanting to wait another minute.

As if Annabeth couldn't hate her stepmom more, she was now pregnant with twin boys. Annabeth was never ignored before, but it seemed that was all that ever happened anymore. It was always that her stepmom felt tired, or sick, and everything revolved around her. It was sickening, really. The new ordeal was that Annabeth's stepmom would be too pregnant to go to Annabeth's graduation.

"Am I supposed to be?"

He made a strangled noise. "The hell type of question is that?"

"Naughty words."

"Everyone says worse than that."

"Oh, so you're one of them?"

"I don't know why I choose to be your friend. You're always so mean to me."

"Deal with it, loser."

"I'm going to ignore you saying that."

"You're going to get me in trouble. Shut up."

Percy sneered at her. "Teacher's not looking at us."

"Teacher has ears."

"That's not– you're distracting me." He waved his hands around to signify changing the subject. "You have to be excited for graduation! You said we could go do something fun, like maybe go to that carnival."

Annabeth shrugged one shoulder, still not moving her head to talk to him. "I'm not excited anymore."

"But why?"

"I heard the evil stepmother telling my dad that it's stupid and not even a real graduation."

"She said that?" he asked softly.

She nodded slowly. "She tried to talk him out of going because she'll be eight months pregnant and too big to do anything, and something about it being pointless regardless."

"Your dad's wife isn't very nice, is she?"

"Yes, but you've known that."

"She's always so nice to me."

"Do you think I'm lying?"

He elbowed her harshly and she hissed in pain. "No."

"Be quiet. I'm trying to listen."

"This is not over. We have to plan."

•

Later when they're back at Percy's house, settled onto the couch eating a mix of popcorn and cookies, Percy brings up the topic of graduation again.

"So," he dragged, stuffing his cheeks with popcorn like a chipmunk. "Graduation! We have to do something fun."

Annabeth, completely engulfed by Percy's blanket, flicked him. "Why do we have to do something?"

"We're graduating!"

She snorted. "Fifth grade."

"We're going to middle school."

"Talk to me again when we're going to college."

"You're funny. I'm not going to college."

"Don't be stupid."

"But I am, and that's why I'm not going to college."

"Is that why you're so pushy about this fake graduation?"

Percy pulled the blanket off of her head, messing up her curls. "I'm not pushy, but no. I just think it's something to celebrate! My mom is excited."

Annabeth perked up. "She is?"

"Yep! I think you're just not excited because your parents don't think it's important, but my mom does, so it must be important."

"Will your mom be my mom on graduation day?"

"She's practically your mom already, so it's not much different."

"It's official then. Your mom is my honorary mom that day." Annabeth grabbed the blanket and pulled it back over her head, curling into a ball and accidentally kicking Percy where the sun don't shine.

Percy grabbed her foot and pulled, somehow managing to drag Annabeth off the couch and steal her sock off of her foot.

"Give me my sock!" she whined, snatching it from his fingers.

"Oddly similar to second grade, don't you think?" He stole it back and threw it over his shoulder. Something behind him crashed loudly. "Oops," Percy said, eyes wide.

She snickered. "Gonna check that?"

Percy's mom called out from somewhere in the house, and Percy pretended he didn't hear her.

"I will not check that because nothing happened. I heard nothing."

Annabeth climbed back onto the couch without standing up from the floor. She looked alarmingly like a starfish working its way onto a rock.

"Lying to yourself, are you?"

"Am not."

Annabeth forced her feet into Percy's lap, fighting her way past his reluctant hands. "You're gonna get a beating when your mom gets down here."

"She wouldn't lay a hand on me."

She grabbed the blanket that had been discarded from the couch as she was thrown off, working it over her body. "Must be nice."

"Don't do that," he complained, pulling the blanket until it covered the both of them. "They don't actually hit you, do they?"

"They have."

Percy's eyes flashed with something foreign and he sat up in attention. "Have they really?"

She nodded, lifting up her sweater's sleeve to show off the bruise covered a hand-sized portion of skin. "It was only a few times. This one was probably the worst."

"I'll tell my mom," he offered, examining her arm closely and poking once at it.

She tugged her sleeve back down. "Please don't. Most parents hit their kids at least once."

"I'm not so sure that they do." He scrunched his eyebrows. "Why did they hit you?"

"I don't really know. She told my dad something I was doing that annoyed her, and he told her to take care of it. She took care of it alright."

"Do you need a hug?"

"No."

"I'd like to give you one anyways," he said, wiggling around the couch until he was stuck between Annabeth and the couch. "I'd really like to tell my mom. She loves you, and she'll talk to your parents."

She shook her head. "It looks worse than it is."

"It makes me sad. I can't imagine how I'd feel if my mom hit me."

"Be thankful she doesn't."

"But still…"

"Let's talk about graduation."

"Oh, so now you want to talk about graduation."

"It's better than the alternative."

"I don't know what that means."

"Read the dictionary."

"Have you always been so insulting, and I just never knew it?"

"Probably."

"Hm. I'm going to make better friends in middle school."

She smacked him blindly. "You better not."

"No new friends?"

"Not better than me, anyways."

Percy tugged one of her curls lightly. "I'm bored."

"Do you want to play Mario Kart?"

Percy gasped. "Do you even need to ask!?"

•

On May 30th, Annabeth found herself choking back her own tears. The school had put on an entire ceremony and decorated the cafeteria until the point that it was barely recognizable. It was just a stupid little ceremony, but it meant the world to the students and the parents. Well, most of them, anyways.

Annabeth's parents were nowhere to be found. They'd dropped her off at school in the morning, dressed in a plain pastel blue dress and black flats, and drove off to who knows where. She thought they'd be back for the ceremony, but the room filled with parents held neither of Annabeth's guardians.

She was lined up against a wall with the rest of her class, breathing heavily and looking around to distract herself. She did not want to cry on her graduation day. Eventually, she sat down on the floor with a few other kids as the fifth-grade teachers made final preparations. She really wished Percy was with her. He always managed to make her feel better.

"Are you okay?"

Speaking of Percy.

Annabeth looked up from kicking her feet together and met Percy's concerned eyes.

"Yeah."

"You don't look okay."

Annabeth's eyes glistened, and her throat tightened. She shook her head, knowing that if she talked, the tears would fall.

"Hey," he said softly, sitting next to her. "What is it? What's wrong?"

She sniffled and a single tear raced down her cheek. "My dad isn't here," she said, wiping furiously at her cheek.

"Oh." He stared at her, contemplating what to do. "Are you sure he isn't here?"

"He wasn't in the room," she said miserably.

Percy traced his finger down her arm gently. "I'm so sorry."

"I should've expected it. They called it stupid from the beginning."

"It's not fair to you."

Annabeth leaned against his shoulder, smooshing her flaming cheek on his shirt as she tried to cover her tears from the other kids. "This is embarrassing."

"No one will know," he assured. "Do you want me to get the teacher?"

She groaned miserably and wiped her tears on his dress shirt. "No."

"Don't be too sad," he tried. "My mom is here and is your mom for today, remember?"

She breathed out gently, a small smile gracing her lips. "Is she really?"

"She loves you so much. You're my best friend, and she knows you better than your dad does at times."

"I wish I had your mom."

"You do have my mom, so don't be sad. Go graduate fifth-grade, even if it is some silly ceremony."

She smothered her grin in his shoulder. "You always make me feel better. How do you do it?"

He twirled a start of her hair around her finger. "Secrets."

"Ah, this is why we're best friends." She looked him in the eyes now. "Love you, best friend."

"Love you more, best friend."

•

When Annabeth was on stage with the rest of the fifth graders, she looked around the cafeteria once more looking for her dad. There was a pang in her heart when she found her father missing, but it was quickly healed as she caught Sally Jackson out of the corners of her eye.

Sally Jackson stood a few rows from the front, clapping and cheering for Annabeth as though she was her daughter. Sally noticed Annabeth looking at her and blew her a kiss that made her heart soar.

She looked at Percy from across stage, giggling to herself when he winked at her. After feeling so sad and unloved, Percy was always there to catch her and tell her how loved she really is. He managed to find ways to make Annabeth smile and feel on top of the world. She loved Percy so much, and she truly doesn't know what she would do without him.

When her teacher calls Annabeth Chase to walk across the stage and grab her tied diploma, Percy and Sally are the two cheering the loudest, filling her with a warmth she didn't know was possible.

Despite her dad being God knows where, she'd never felt so loved.

•

"I'm so proud of you, Annabeth!" Sally yelled after the ceremony, rushing up to squeeze Annabeth in a hug. "You look so pretty in that blue dress!"

Annabeth giggled, wrinkling her nose as Sally peppered kisses all over her face. "Thank you."

Sally brushed her fingers on the bottom of Annabeth's chin. "You ready for middle school, dear?"

Percy walked up behind Annabeth, poking between her shoulder blades. "Annabeth is the most prepared out of all of us."

"I am not," she said, poking him back in the eye.

"You don't have to pretend. We all know you're super smart," Sally said with a wink before looking around. "Where are your parents?"

Annabeth's face fell. "I don't know."

"They didn't come?"

"I think my stepmom convinced him to skip. She thought it was dumb from the start."

"Oh, I'm sure there's a reason they couldn't make it," Sally said, pulling Annabeth into her side and rubbing her back. "Are they coming to pick you up?"

"I usually take the bus after school." Annabeth leaned further into Sally's side, feeling safer and more comfortable than she has in ages.

"Well, why don't you come home with us? We can go get ice cream to celebrate," she proffered.

Percy wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug, tightening his grip so she couldn't escape. "Yes! Annabeth is coming. She has no choice."

Annabeth threw his arms off her. "Fine. If I must."

"Oh, blow off. You know you want to come."

She tilted her head and grinned. "I do!"

"Well, let's go!" Percy grabbed his mom's hand. "We must go now so they don't run out of ice cream."

Sally grabbed Annabeth's hand with her free hand. "You're both so cute together," she said, giving Percy a big wet smooch on the cheek.

Percy shrank away in disgust. "Mooomm," he complained, wiping his face with the back of his hand.

Annabeth jeered at him.

"What're you looking at, huh?"

Annabeth thought for a second. "I'm looking at you taking too long to go get ice cream."

"Well, come on!"

Percy grabbed her hand and laced their fingers together before breaking into a sprint and running out the doors. Sally trailed behind the two, chuckling like she knew something they didn't, and filming their antics for safekeeping.

Oh, how lucky she is to have Percy by her side.

•

Sixth Grade

"Hold the sign straight," Annabeth snapped, letting her camera hang loose around her neck. "You look ridiculous holding it like that."

Percy dropped the sign. "Why am I even doing this? This was your idea."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. She didn't get what exactly was so hard about holding onto a sign for first day of school pictures. It was rimmed with wood and had basic questions like grade level and teacher, and she'd thought it would be cute to take pictures with. Percy, clearly, had other opposing opinions.

"You promised me you would. That's why."

Heaving a sigh, he lifted it back up. "Happy?"

"I'd be happier if you smiled."

"Take the picture and be done."

She lifted the Canon camera to her eye, holding the shutter down until it snaps a few pictures.

She dropped the camera aggressively. "All done."

He followed Annabeth back into his house, tossing the sign onto the couch. "Are you mad at me? I feel like you're mad at me."

She didn't look up from putting her camera back into its case. "You could've just taken a picture nicely."

"It's the first day of school and I didn't feel like taking pictures all morning."

"It's the first day of middle school."

"Exactly, so let's just focus on that instead."

"Whatever," she said dully. "It's time to go anyways."

Percy snuck up behind her and rapped her sharply on the spine. "We're gonna have a good day today."

"I hope so." Annabeth shrugged on a plain blue sweater. "I just wish we were further along in life, you know?"

He tilted his head like a confused puppy. "What do you mean?"

"We're only in sixth grade. We still have another six years of school, then college and maybe even graduate school. I just hate how much we have left, and that we're already in sixth grade yet only in sixth grade."

"That's a loaded statement."

"You don't feel that way?"

Percy picked up his backpack and slung it over one shoulder. "Not really. Where's this coming from?"

"I'm just not excited when we have so much more to go."

Percy held the front door of the house open for her. "You'll get where you want to eventually, so just enjoy where you are for now. We'll make more friends and have fun in middle school. Hopefully it's not as bad as everyone makes it seem."

"I'm sure it's worse."

"Okay, negative Nancy. Come on, my mom's waiting in the car."

•

Annabeth was right. Middle school was worse than everyone made it seem. It was only the third class of the first day, and she was ready to have a meltdown. Lunch was the next class period, but it couldn't come fast enough.

Percy wasn't in any of Annabeth's classes so far, which made the day so much worse. Ever since she started school, Percy had been by her side. While it helped her to have a friend by her side, it also just made it harder for her to make new friends, so Annabeth was sitting by herself listening to her English teacher drone on and on in a never-ending lecture.

After what seemed like an eternity, the bell finally rang. Annabeth was the first person out the door, desperate to find Percy and bang her head against his shoulder until she passed out. The halls of the building she was in was incredibly crowded, overflowing with preteens and teens, several of whom were making out against the locker-lined walls. She silently followed the crowd that moved to the cafeteria, keeping an eye out for Percy.

"Annabeth!"

She looked up startled, scanning the tables of strangers for whoever called her name. She found someone grinning like a maniac, waving their hand back and forth while keeping direct eye contact with her. She was about to ignore the girl waving but sitting right beside her was Percy.

"Hey…" she said, dragging her feet over to the table full of kids buzzing with excitement, and hesitantly sank down onto the seat next to Percy.

Percy wrapped an arm over her shoulder. "How's your first day been?"

She rested her temple against his arm. "Awful."

"Aw, why?"

"I've just been sitting alone."

"Well, you have to make friends," he whispered.

"I am making friends."

He looked at her dubiously.

"I was going to make friends."

Another look.

"Fine. So what?"

"My mom said you might have trouble making friends, so I made some for you."

"Your mom what?"

"Nothing!"

She shot him a glare.

"Ignore that. You weren't supposed to hear that," he said dismissingly. "Anyways, that's Piper, Jason, Hazel, Frank, and Leo." He pointed to each person respectively.

Piper perked up at her name and stopped her conversation with someone else. "Annabeth! I'm Piper."

Annabeth eyed her. She had choppy hair, and gorgeous eyes that shifted in the lighting. She was drop-dead gorgeous, and she was only in sixth grade. Annabeth doesn't even want to imagine what she'd be like in high school. "You're the person who was waving at me."

"Indeed."

"Nice to meet you," Annabeth forced out.

"Have your classes been any good? I'm hating mine right now."

"It's been pretty boring."

"That seems to be the general consensus." Piper reached into her purple bag by her feet and pulled out a slip of paper. "Maybe we have some classes together."

Annabeth pulled her schedule out from her jacket's pocket and slid it across the table towards her.

Piper grabbed it and set both their schedules down side by side. She moved her fingers across each row of classes to compare them. "We have the rest of our classes together!"

Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief. "At least I have someone nice in my classes then."

Percy snatched Annabeth's schedule from Piper to examine it himself, playfully swatting Piper's hands away. "We have the next two classes together but none after that."

"Why?" she groaned, faceplanting onto the table.

"That looked painful," someone joked.

Annabeth looked up.

"I'm Leo," the boy offered with an impish grin. "Doesn't your face hurt?"

"She didn't hit it that hard," a blonde boy with a scar on his upper lip told Leo. "I'm Jason," the boy said to Annabeth.

"And I'm Hazel," another girl with gold eyes told her sweetly.

"Frank," someone else said, holding up a peace sign.

"Annabeth," she returned to the table.

Percy hugged Annabeth and shook her excitedly. "Look! We're all already best friends!"

Annabeth shooed Percy off of her while the rest of the table was dragged into an argument over the best children's tv show. Leo's face got remarkably red as Piper stated that Yo Gabba Gabba sucked. (Annabeth definitely agrees with Piper there, though.)

"Are you okay?" Percy whispered in her ear.

Annabeth nodded. "I just really want to go home."

Percy bit the inside of his cheek. "Only four classes after lunch," he tried to comfort. "Did something happen?"

"No. I'm just not feeling myself today, I guess."

"Do you want to come over after school again?"

She shrugged. "I'll have to ask."

Percy stared at her for a moment, analyzing her. She was acting different.

"What?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. Come on, let's go get lunch."

•

Annabeth had nearly fallen asleep when the final bell rang, pulling her out of her sleep. Piper had kept the afternoon classes relatively entertaining, but there was only so far that puns and jokes could go.

"You awake?" Piper asked.

She sat up. "Unfortunately."

"Are you going to Percy's?"

Annabeth paused. "Why?"

"Everyone else is."

"Wait. Who else is going? I didn't know he invited anyone else."

"The whole table at lunch is going. Percy didn't tell you?"

"I mean, he asked me, but he didn't tell me anyone else would be there. I thought it would just be Percy and I."

Piper picked at her nails. "Is that okay?"

Annabeth bit her tongue. Honestly, she was kind of annoyed, but what else was she supposed to say?

"Of course," she tried. "I'm just surprised is all."

Piper threw her hand in the air. "Yay! I'll walk with you."

Annabeth pressed her lips together. Percy had only known these people for a few hours, and everyone was suddenly going over to his house after school? He never did that type of stuff, so he must really like these people.

Annabeth knew Percy. He wasn't someone who would just form a party and get deeply involved with a group of people so fast. Making friends, sure. He made friends fast enough, but not to this degree. Something told her that there might've been something more to this.

She thought for a second before it dawned on her. He liked her. Percy and Piper had acted like they'd known each other for years during lunch, and they'd been playfully bantering. Not to mention, Piper was pretty. Like, extraordinarily pretty. Obviously, Percy was attracted to Percy, and seeing as she was a more extroverted person, he probably wanted to fit in with her. Annabeth guesses that's why he invited everyone to his house, and something inside her burns.

She can't pinpoint why she felt so weird about this revelation, but she does and that's enough for her. All at once, she doesn't even want to go over anymore, but she didn't have any way out.

Running her fingers through her blonde hair, she stood up from her desk and grabbed her bag.

"Sounds fantastic."

•

Percy and the others were sitting on the living room floor, fighting over controllers to play games on the Wii. Annabeth stood by the kitchen island, watching the situation unfold from afar.

"Why aren't you out there with the rest of them?" Sally walked into the kitchen and grabbed an empty mug from a cupboard.

Annabeth watched as Sally lifted glasses onto the top of her head and set the mug under the Keurig. "Didn't want to play, I guess."

Sally leaned against the marble countertop as the Keurig started spewing out steaming coffee. "Is everything alright?"

Annabeth avoided eye contact. "I'm okay."

"I heard today wasn't a very good day at school."

She looked at Sally. "Did Percy say something?"

"Nothing bad. Just that today didn't go as you'd hoped."

She scoffed. "I don't know why he said that. Today was fine, it was just boring."

Sally hummed softly. "If you say so."

Annabeth smiled. "I do."

The coffee maker rang to signify the brewing being complete. Sally grabbed the burning mug by its handle.

"You're getting so big," she said, pinching Annabeth's cheek as she walked by. "Go play with them. Go have fun."

Annabeth rubbed her cheek fondly and watched Sally's retreating figure. She stood there for a few more minutes, contemplating just going home and working on some beginning of the school year paperwork, but guilt overcame her. She could suck it up for a few more hours.

She strolled silently into the living room again, dropping down to sit in front of the sofa and lean back on the leather.

Piper plopped down next to her, and Annabeth nearly jumped out of her skin. "You're back! You were gone so long, and I missed you," she said very seriously.

Percy, who was sitting on the couch and sporting one of the few Wii controllers he had to fight for, pushed Annabeth with his sock-covered foot. "Isn't Piper just the sweetest?" he joked.

Piper bat her eyes flirtatiously at him and waved her hand. "Oh, stahp it."

Annabeth's stomach burned with something unrecognizable again.

"Do you want to play?" Percy asked, offering her his remote.

Annabeth decided to be petty, though she didn't know why. "No."

Concern flashed across his face, but it disappeared as fast as it came.

"I'll play!" Piper said gleefully.

Percy handed the remote to her silently, earning him a loud Mwah! From Piper.

"Get a room," Annabeth muttered.

"What was that?" Percy asked.

She didn't say anything else, and Percy dropped it.

"Start the game, Piper. You have player one," Leo said frantically.

Piper pressed start and Super Mario Bros roared to life in front of their eyes. The next hour consisted of the group switching off on remotes every time someone died. Annabeth sat in silence, watching the screen and very pointedly avoiding Percy's attempts to talk to her and make her feel better, even though he had no clue why she was upset.

"Why did you throw me off!?" Piper screamed at Jason.

Jason laughed manically in response.

Leo screamed at the group as everyone pressed A on the controller and formed a bubble, effectively ending the game. "We were so close!" he groaned, tossing himself backwards onto the carpeted floor.

"Don't yell at us, Leo," Frank warned in mock annoyance. "You got into a bubble too."

"Well, that was necessary because I was about to die. You were not."

Percy laughed loudly. "You're all morons."

Piper leaned her head back onto the couch and pouted. "Except for me, right?"

Percy rolled his eyes fondly, shoving her playfully. "Except for you."

Annabeth bit her tongue again, and tasted blood. She felt oddly close to crying; her throat felt like it was closing, and her eyes burned. Instead of joining the conversation and bantering with them, she shot up from her position on the floor.

"I'm going to the bathroom," she tried to say smoothly. She did not want these people to see her crying.

She made it to the bathroom without anyone noticing her teary eyes and shallow breath. She locked the door behind her and stood in front of the mirror. Her hands gripped the sides of the sink as she tried to calm her breathing. Annabeth found herself doing that a lot recently.

She had barely even been in the bathroom for thirty seconds when someone knocked on the door gently.

"Annabeth?"

Annabeth grit her teeth at hearing Percy's voice behind the wood.

"Are you feeling okay?"

Annabeth ignored him, biting her lip so he wouldn't hear her stifling her breaths.

"Can you let me in?" he asked, wiggling the doorknob.

Annabeth blew out a hair from in her face, wishing he'd just leave. "I'm okay. I'll be out in a second."

Percy kept wiggling the doorknob. "Open the door."

"I'm fine, Percy."

"You're not. Come on, tell me what's wrong."

"There's nothing wrong."

"I know you, Annabeth." He wiggled the doorknob again. "Just unlock the door."

Annabeth looked at her face in the mirror. The flushing in her cheeks wasn't quite as bad as it had been a minute ago, and figuring he wouldn't be leaving her alone, she twisted the lock open.

He pushed the door open slowly and close it again behind him. "What's going on?"

Annabeth scratched her cheek. "I'm telling you there's nothing going on."

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No, Percy."

"Then what is it? Do you not want to be here?"

"Of course I do."

"Piper said you seemed disappointed when you found out everyone was coming. Is that it?"

Annabeth didn't suppress the fed-up groan.

"So it is, then?"

"You and Piper are so cute, don't you think?"

"Piper and I are –" Percy broke off in disbelief. "Is this about Piper?"

Annabeth's silence gave him an answer.

"I don't get it. I thought you liked Piper."

"I thought you did."

"I – I do like her." Percy rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm a little lost here."

"Forget it." Annabeth started for the door. "I'm gonna go home."

Percy grabbed her hand. "Talk to me, Annabeth. Just tell me what's happening."

She pulled her hand away and crossed her arms in front of herself protectively. Her eyes turned glossy and her throat felt tight again.

"Hey," Percy said softly, grabbing her hand and pulling her close. "Just tell me."

Annabeth whimpered, shaking her head because she knew her voice would crack if she spoke.

He pulled her in for a hug. "It's okay," he consoled, rubbing her back. "You're okay."

"I don't know –" Annabeth hiccupped. "I don't know what's going on."

"Can you just try?"

Annabeth pressed her face into his chest and tears soaked through instantly. "I just – Do you like Piper more than me?"

Percy's hand froze. "Of course not. Why would you say that?"

"You just met her today and you've already become best friends."

"We're not best friends. Not yet, anyways." Percy rested his head on her shoulder. "Even if we were, she'd never replace you."

"But you like her."

"I like her, but not like that."

Annabeth whimpered again. "Then why'd you invite everyone here if you weren't trying to impress her?"

Percy laughed softly. "I did it for you. You were worried you wouldn't make any friends, and I thought you'd like them, so I invited them over. I wanted you to get to know them."

"Aren't I dumb?" Annabeth said in a wet laugh.

"No," he ensured. "You're not."

"Just – I don't want someone else to replace me."

Percy pulled away. "No one will ever replace you. You're my best friend, and you always will be. Sure, I'll make more friends, but you'll always be my number one."

Annabeth wiped her face. "I'm always going to be your number one?"

"Of course you'll always be my number one. I love you too much to get rid of you."

"Even when I'm dumb?"

"Especially when you're dumb."

"Hey," Annabeth laughed, voice cracking. "I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong, so don't apologize."

"I love you, you know that?"

Percy tugged a curl that fell in front of her face. "I love you more. Now, come on. I've gotta whoop you in Super Mario."

Percy led Annabeth away by the hand, and when she sat down on the couch, Percy sat next to her. He pulled her into his side and handed her a controller, which she took gladly. She leaned her head onto his shoulder and smiled.

Maybe Percy will make more friends, best friends even, but he'll always be with Annabeth no matter what. Oh, how lucky she is to have someone who loves her so much.

•

Seventh Grade

"I'm nervous."

Annabeth stifled her groan. "We've been over this. You're more likely to die in a car than in a plane."

Percy leaned his head against the seat. "Statistics doesn't make this experience any less terrifying."

Annabeth returned to looking out the plane window, running her finger over the tiny hole in the tampered glass. "We haven't even gone onto the runway yet. Are you going to do this the whole time?"

The plane began to back away from the boarding gate and Percy immediately stole Annabeth's hand. "I might." He sounded breathless.

Annabeth took pity on him, relaxing her hand so he could grip it tightly in his lap. "Just look at the whole situation. In six hours, we'll be in California and we'll get to go to Disneyland and Universal in Hollywood."

"Not if we die in a plane."

"You won't die."

The plane continued to move towards the runway inch by inch, and Percy grew more frantic by the second. He'd been ecstatic at the idea of going on a Spring Break trip with Annabeth and his mom, but he should've thought it through. He's only been on a plane once in his life when he was four and it ended with several meltdowns and a sobbing pilot. He was definitely not excited for the second ride.

"Oh, look! We're on the runway now!"

Percy wheezed. "Why would you tell me that!?"

"We're about to lift off! That's the best part."

"Or arguably the worst."

"Don't be a baby."

Sally, who had been sitting in the aisle seat, looked up from the magazine in her hands. "Play nice, kids."

Annabeth pretended she wasn't just scolded for her words. "Are you excited for liftoff?"

"What is this? Little Einsteins? Of course not!" The plane's engine whirred and the vessel began to roll down the runway at an increasing speed. Percy squeezed Annabeth's hand until it actually popped.

"Ow!" Annabeth hissed, snatching her hand back and cradling it. "You almost broke my hand."

Percy's eyes widened and he put his hands together pleadingly. "Please give me your hand before I pass out."

Annabeth dropped her hand to his dramatically.

"Thank you," he whimpered. The plane suddenly sped up to full speed and Percy was jerked back into the seat. "We're gonna die."

The plane lifted up and Percy closed his eyes, muttering something unintelligible to himself. Annabeth stayed silent, watching him to make sure he wouldn't puke all over her. For the minute that the plane was increasing altitude, Percy felt incredibly light-headed and like he would just faint at any given moment.

The plane began to level off, except for the few tilts for passengers to look at the ground from the windows.

"You can open your eyes now," Annabeth told him.

Percy heaved a sigh, peeking through one eye at her. "It's over?"

"It's over," she confirmed. "Do you want to look outside the window? You can see all of New York from here."

Percy paled. "I'd rather not."

Annabeth shrugged and looked out the window herself at the skyscrapers towering above Manhattan and lining the sky.

"Is it pretty?"

Annabeth looked over at Percy again who appeared as if he hadn't said a word.

"It's lovely. You should look for yourself."

Percy's voice cracked as he spoke. "I think I might pass out if I look."

"Well, you're strapped in tight so if you do, you won't be going anywhere."

"You're a terrible influence," he said, leaning over her to look at the ground buzzing with life. "There's a lot of buildings in Manhattan."

Annabeth hummed in agreement as he pulled himself away from the window again. "It's insane, right?"

"Yeah." Percy leaned himself back in his seat. "How am I supposed to survive six hours of this?"

"Distract yourself."

"With what?"

Annabeth's lip curled up into a dazzling lopsided smile. "You brought your switch."

Percy's eyes shot open once again and he gazed at her with his sparking green eyes.

"Say no more."

•

"I swear I was this close to peeing myself the entire flight," Percy said, pinching his fingers together to prove his point.

Annabeth stopped walking to fiddle with her luggage that had stopped rolling smoothly. Percy and Sally stopped walking as to not leave her behind in the Disney hotel they were staying at.

"And I still am about to pee myself just thinking about how terrifying that flight was."

"I think you may have a problem." Annabeth repeatedly kicked her suitcase's wheel until it lodged itself out of being stuck. "Finally."

As they continued moving, Percy looked at her seriously. "You're not allowed to be mean to me since I invited you on this trip."

"Are you going to hold that against me the entire week?"

"Yes."

"Give me the card," Annabeth sneered, snatching the keycard from between his fingers.

"Hey! It's a Donald Duck card and it's mine."

"And yet I have it." She waved the card in his face.

He snatched it back and ran down the hall, counting the room numbers. "Aha! Room 451." He held the card against the sensor until the green light flickered and he pushed the heavy door open.

Annabeth rushed in past him, nearly trampling Percy with her luggage. "I call the bed closest to the tv!"

Percy gasped and stormed after her, leaving his luggage for his mom to drag in. "I wanted that one!"

Annabeth had already plopped down onto the pristine white comforter of a bed. She smirked at him.

"You snooze, you lose."

Percy grabbed her arm and pulled. "Gimme."

"Ow!" Annabeth smacked Percy with her free hand. "Stop it!"

"I'll stop once I get the bed." Percy resumed pulling at her.

Sally huffed as she dragged both hers and Percy's bags over the threshold of the hotel room. She placed her hand on her hip and watched as Percy dropped Annabeth onto the floor with a loud bang.

"Percy," she scolded. "That wasn't very nice of you. We've been here two seconds and we're already going to have noise complaints thanks to you."

Percy sat on the bed and smiled at his mother like a perfect angel. "She took my bed."

"It's both of your beds. I'm not sleeping with either of you kicking children."

Annabeth stood up and laughed loudly in his face. "Move over."

Percy looked dumbfounded at how the situation could've gone so wrong. "That's not how I expected this to end."

"You two are friends. It should be fine as long as there's no funny business."

Annabeth froze and Percy's face flushed instantaneously. "Mom!"

Sally held up her hands in defense, struggling to hold back giggles at their faces. "I'm just saying that you're thirteen now and certain feelings are normal."

Annabeth pulled a pillow over her face to smother herself.

"So long as they don't occur in bed. With your mother in the room," Sally finished.

Percy sputtered. "We get it!"

Annabeth pulled the pillow off her face to speak. "We already get teased at school so please don't mortify us anymore, thanks." Annabeth returned to smothering herself.

Sally pat Percy's cheek. "I'm sure there's nothing going on," she said with a wink.

"I despise you both," Percy said monotonously.

"Nah." Annabeth tossed her smothering pillow aside and rolled onto her stomach to look him in the eyes. "You love me anyways."

Percy looked thoroughly disgusted. "Unfortunately."

•

"We have to do Space Mountain!" Annabeth said, pointing to the white dome.

Percy licked his chocolate Mickey icecream, eyeing the footlong churro she held in hand. "These two snacks cost about as much as this whole trip so we should probably eat them first."

Annabeth adjusted her sparkly pink Mickey ears. "It shouldn't take you that long to eat it."

"Brain freeze is a real threat, okay?"

"Hm. Should've gotten a churro, then."

"Nasty and artificial deep-fried dough. Sounds delicious."

She rolled her eyes, dragging him alongside her. "Let's go do the Laugh Floor first then, so we can finish this."

Percy squinted in the sun, the reflection of Annabeth's shimmering ears being surprisingly bright. "Now I can get down with that."

The two kids pushed their way through the crowd of sticky bodies leaving Sally to trail behind them. There wasn't a long wait for the Laugh Floor, thankfully, but the cast members forced them to throw away their snacks.

Percy took a giant bite of his icecream before tossing it in the trash. "Told you."

Annabeth glared at him. "Shut up."

"Well, I did."

"If you want to get technical, you said we couldn't have snacks on Space Mountain."

"Shut up."

Once they walked into the building, Percy lit up at the tanks of bubbling water. He squeezed himself between the glass and the wall and worked his way behind the tank.

Annabeth snorted at him pressing against the glass. His entire body looked disproportionate thanks to the curve of the tank and the bubbles working their way up.

Sally snapped a picture of Percy and nudged Annabeth to go join him.

"Annabeth!" Percy exclaimed. "Welcome to the tank."

"Thank you." She scooted closer. "Your mom wants a picture."

"You're the one not looking."

She elbowed him.

Percy and Annabeth smiled at the camera from behind the tank and hopped on out again to look at the pictures. The two crowded around Sally to swipe through the pictures. They only looked up when an older girl tried to copy the picture they'd just taken but instead ended up tripping on her face as she dismounted the tank.

Percy gasped and pretended he didn't see. Annabeth choked on laughter which made Percy shove her forwards and out of sight of the poor girl that was being fretted over to make sure she was okay.

"No one told her to copy us," Annabeth laughed out, wiping at her tearing eyes.

"It's not funny." Percy couldn't even convince himself.

"It was pretty funny," she whispered.

"But you can't say that."

"Did she see me laughing?"

Percy looked up and made eye contact with the red-faced girl. He looked back to Annabeth. "I'm gonna say yes because she's staring right at you."

Percy's never seen Annabeth shut up so fast before. She decided to change the subject for the girl who was clearly listening. Her eyes landed on the walls covered in signs and endless colors.

"We should send a joke in."

"What?"

She pointed to a sign on the wall telling people to text a word and joke to a certain number. "I think our joke gets featured if we send one in."

Percy nodded, considering this. "What would we put?"

"How about…" She grabbed her phone from her pocket and put the phone number in. "Why could Cinderella not play soccer? Because she kept running away from the ball."

"That's a terrible joke." He paused. "Put it."

Annabeth snickered and submitted the text. "I wrote from King and Queen Percy and Annabeth."

He winked at her. "So I'm a king?"

"You'd never ordinarily be a king, but this is a magical place, so."

He shoved her head. "Is that supposed to be insulting? I feel like you're trying to insult me."

She lifted the side of her lips and shrugged.

"Oh, we're moving." Percy grabbed Annabeth's hand and together they forced their way through the crowd to get the best seats. "I hope this is worth it."

"I've heard it's pretty funny."

They found a relatively empty row and slid into the hard blue seats. The theatre had weird lamps resting on the back of the seats and a giant screen that was displaying people in the crowd with funny captions.

Annabeth poked Percy's arm until she got his attention. "Look at the screen."

Percy nodded in props. "'The girl who finds texting more important than Disney.' That's harsh."

Annabeth guffaws at the next one that focused on a couple sunburned to the point of looking like lobsters. "'When you forget the sunblock at home.'"

Percy wrapped his arm around Annabeth's shoulders and pulled her in tight. "Are you having fun here?"

Annabeth's cheek was pressed against him. "Lots of fun."

"Good. My best friend has to have fun."

"You were ready to drop kick me for that hotel bed."

"Well, that was non-negotiable."

"I could tell." Annabeth settled her head against him.

"Maybe I would've let you have it. Maybe."

"Mhm. Lies."

"Nooo."

Sally made a ragged inhale. "Hey, you two. Look up."

Percy and Annabeth looked up and noticed a bright light shining directly on them. They were in the spotlight and the camera put them on screen with an embarrassing caption.

"'When you and your best friend can't admit your feelings.'" Annabeth separated herself from Percy awkwardly.

Percy straightened as well, rubbing his neck. "That's…"

She cleared her throat. "Yeah."

"It's funnier when it happens to other people."

"Definitely."

After what felt like hours, the light moved on to focus on another crowd member. Percy and Annabeth locked eyes and broke into belly-aching giggles. Annabeth held her stomach as laughter shook her entire body. Percy had tears falling out of his eyes.

"Why does everyone think we're, like, in love with each other?"

Percy wiped at his eyes. "I have no idea. I don't get it."

Annabeth groaned, calming her giggles. "The price of being best friends of opposite genders."

"It's saddening, really."

"It's the world we live in."

The lights started dimming and the automatic doors swung shut. The cameras that enjoyed embarrassing couples and best friends shut off, thankfully.

"It's starting," Percy said excitedly, grabbing her hand and lacing his fingers with hers over his lap.

Annabeth's heart fluttered but disappeared before she had even noticed it. A smile grew on her face. Being here with Percy had been so fun and she could hardly believe she was here at all. Her and Percy travelled across the country for Spring Break and it just seemed like a fantasy.

With a dreamy sigh, she leaned against Percy and together, they enjoyed the show.

•

After a day in the sun filled with joy and new memories, Percy and Annabeth sat down in front of the castle to watch the fireworks. The sun was almost completely set, lining the sky in beautiful shades of purple and pink. Annabeth's entire body ached from the movement of the rides and long wait times, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

Her and Percy were sharing a small tub of beignets covered in powdered sugar with a side of warm chocolate dipping sauce as they waited for the show to start and more people to file in front of the intricately designed castle.

Percy dropped a glob of powdered sugar all over himself, to which Annabeth groaned.

"That was good powdered sugar," she complained.

Percy wiped at his shirt, eventually giving up as the white only spread around the shirt making it worse. "Don't tell me you were going to eat that mouthful of sugar anyways."

"You doubt my sugar-eating abilities."

"I've known you for eight years now and have seen you devour anything containing sugar, so I definitely don't doubt you."

Annabeth dipped her beignet in chocolate and took a bite. "What can I say? I love carbs."

"Your future self will thank you for it someday."

"I'm here for a good time, not a long time."

"That's one way to look at it." Percy took a bite of the soft dough and chewed thoughtfully. "What was your favorite part of today?"

Annabeth coughed sharply and powdered sugar came out in a cloud of white. "Inhaled powder," she strained.

Percy hit her back sharply, which didn't do anything but hurt her. She glared at him.

"Seriously. What was your favorite part? Mine would have to be when you got shocked by the games in the line for Space Mountain."

Annabeth held up a finger. "First of all, that wasn't funny. It hurt and they really shouldn't have games that can electrocute you. Second, you can't pick a favorite before the day's over."

"I'm pretty sure the fireworks won't be either of our favorites."

"Discrimination."

"I'm not sure that's the right context."

She shrugged as though to say 'Whatcha gonna do about it?'

"Maybe I liked Thunder Mountain the most. And all the hidden Mickeys," Percy offered.

Annabeth opened her mouth to respond but shut it once all the lights turned off. "Be quiet, it's starting."

"I wasn't talking?"

"Sh."

The voice came over the speakers and the lighting of the castle was changed and distorted with Percy and Annabeth watching intently, Annabeth gripping her beignet tightly in her hand.

The world illuminated in front of them and the music began to flow softly, entrancing the crowd with the magic of the environment. Disney was the most magical place on Earth, after all.

When the fireworks sprang above, cracking against the night sky and making the world glow, Annabeth was enthralled. She looked above with the most eager eyes. She was lucky enough to be sitting with her best friend in front of a view that you just don't get in New York. Her face glowed under the fireworks and Percy thought she'd never looked better than here under the stars.

Annabeth was glad she waited to pick a favorite part of the day because being here under the fireworks with Percy by her side would win every time, hands down.

•

Eighth Grade

Annabeth was not having it today.

She had the pleasure of waking up to her stepmom screaming at her for sleeping past six which was followed by a scolding for not helping feed her twin brothers. Annabeth really didn't get why she was getting in trouble all the time, especially since she didn't actually need to be at school until well past eight.

It seemed like she was constantly getting into trouble for one thing or another. It was getting exhausting having to always stay on her toes for whatever was coming next. She was practically raising her brothers because her stepmother, Helen, was too busy going out with friends every day.

"Annabeth! Your brothers are still hungry."

Annabeth grabbed the scolding pan on the stove and scraped the omelet onto a plate. "I'm almost done."

Her stepmother crossed her arms and looking disapprovingly at Annabeth. "You need to do more around the house."

Annabeth ignored her as she split the omelet in half for her brothers and cut it into bite-sized bits on separate plates for the three-year-old twins.

"They're hungry," she continued.

"I'm feeding them," Annabeth snapped, slamming the plates onto the highchairs.

Helen's eyes darkened. "Don't take that tone with me."

Annabeth looked her in the eyes defiantly. "Feed your kids."

Helen straightened and slowly took a step closer to Annabeth. "What?"

Annabeth averted her eyes now.

"I'm not saying 'What?' because I didn't hear you. I'm saying 'What?' to give you a chance to change what you just said."

"I have to go to school, so I don't have time to make breakfast for a kid, let alone two."

Helen looked exasperated. "You're fourteen. You have time to do whatever your parents tell you to do."

Annabeth bit her tongue to stop the 'You're not my parent' from rolling off.

"Drop the face, Annabeth."

Annabeth sneered at her instead.

"Frederick," Helen called, exasperated. "Help me out here."

Her dad barely even looked up from the newspaper he held in his hands. "I'm not involved. Take care of it however you see fit."

Annabeth swears Helen smiled menacingly at her before she took another step towards Annabeth. Helen raised her hand, and Annabeth heard the slap before she felt it.

Annabeth stumbled backwards, her palm raising to caress her stinging cheek. Tears sprung into her eyes and her lip quivered.

Helen flexed her hand and looked at her manicured nails before looking back at Annabeth. She then leaned in close to Annabeth to speak in her ear.

"Maybe next time, you'll think twice before you speak back to me."

Helen trailed off to somewhere else in the house, leaving Annabeth shocked with hot tears falling down her face. Helen didn't hit her often, but when she did, it was usually not very hard and never on the face. This was the worst Helen had ever hit her.

Annabeth stormed past her dad who had been alarming nonchalant about the whole situation and picked up her bag. She needed to get out of this house before she had a meltdown. She didn't even bother saying goodbye; she simply walked out the front door and slammed it shut behind her, wishing she could walk away and never come back.

•

Annabeth hadn't planned on making a big deal out of what happened in the morning. She managed to get herself together with a few deep breaths and push it out of her mind. She was just as surprised as Percy when she started bawling her eyes out.

Percy had smiled and waved at her from across the courtyard before school and Annabeth smiled and tried to wave back. Hell, she thought she had waved back but Percy's face said otherwise.

Panic overcame Percy as Annabeth started breaking down the moment she saw him. He raced across the courtyard, avoiding the few other students that were there early in the morning, to grab her arms and hold her in front of him.

"What happened?" Percy sounded alarmed.

Annabeth shook her head, biting her lip as she tried to look anywhere but him. Every time she looked at him, she just started crying harder.

"Talk to me, Annabeth. What happened?"

Annabeth wiped her eyes furiously and struggled to take a breath, but her throat felt like it was closed up. "I can't –"

He put lifted her chin to look him in the eyes. His green eyes were filled with empathy. "Annabeth, you can't breathe."

"She–" Annabeth choked out.

Percy eyes darkened as he rubbed his hands up and down her arms soothingly. "Stepmom?"

Annabeth nodded and just started crying even harder. She kept trying to take a deep breath, but nothing worked. It was as though she was suffocating on air. Annabeth wanted to explain what happened, but every time she even thought of it again, the crying got worse.

"Don't try to explain. Just breathe."

Annabeth hiccupped and forced herself to stop the frantic rising and falling of her chest. She was getting a bit lightheaded.

"Why don't we go inside for a bit, yeah?" Percy looked at her with so much love and concern in his eyes.

"Yeah," she repeated, her voice shaky and scratchy.

Percy led her inside a building with a gentle hand on her lower back. Annabeth managed to reduce the crying to a few stray gasps. She wasn't paying attention to where Percy was taking her so before she even knew it, they were sitting in their science teacher's room that had a few stray kids wandering around.

"Good morning," their teacher greeted them with a sweet smile. When she looked up and saw Annabeth's red face, she looked concerned. "Are you okay?"

Percy held up a hand behind Annabeth's back and the teacher caught the message and didn't question them any further. Percy led her to the back of the class and sat down at a desk next to her.

Percy leaned in close to her. "Can you tell me what happened now?"

Annabeth tensed again and the tears sprung back into her eyes.

"Don't cry, Annabeth." Percy reached across her desk to hold her hand and rub it with his thumb. "I don't want you hyperventilating again."

A few tears fell from her eyes, but she managed to keep herself more controlled. "I want to tell you what—what happened," Annabeth said shakily.

Percy nodded, encouraging her to go on.

Annabeth hiccupped and forced it out in one breath. "Helen slapped me."

Percy's thumb stopped moving. "She – what?"

She whimpered. "Slapped me."

Percy's jaw was clenched. "Annabeth. You have to tell someone."

"I told you."

Percy was seething. "No, not me. You need to tell someone who can do something. It's not fair to you."

Annabeth took her sweater sleeve and dabbed under her eyes. "It doesn't matter. Lots of parents discipline their kids like that."

"Not a full-on slap. That can seriously impact a child."

"Percy." Annabeth's voice broke. "I can't."

Percy grabbed her chair and scooted it closer to him to wrap his arms around her protectively. "Come with me after school."

"To do what?" Annabeth sounded miserable.

He smoothed her hair down and she laid her head against his chest. She listened to his heartbeat to calm herself down. "Talk to my mom."

"No. They're not abusive."

"Maybe not, but if she's willing to slap you, no one knows what else she'll do." Percy rubbed her back. "She can at least make you feel better at the very least."

Annabeth held her sleeve against her face. "Okay."

Percy pressed a kiss into the top of her head. "I'm so sorry."

"Not your fault."

"I don't like seeing my best friend sad."

"I'll be okay." Annabeth hiccupped again. "Love you."

"Love you more."

•

Annabeth was snuggled into Percy's couch under the weight of several heavy blankets. Percy had gone to take a quick shower since he had gym last period, so she nodded off on the Jackson's sofa for a good hour after school. When she finally came to, Sally was home and chatting hushed with Percy in the kitchen.

"– happened?"

"Something with her stepmom. She was crying when she got to school." Percy's voice, she recognized.

"Did she say what happened specifically?"

"She tried but I'm not sure how much she left out."

"Did she want to talk to me about it?"

"I don't think she wants to talk about it at all, but mom, you should've seen her this morning. She was so scared."

Sally sighed. "The poor girl."

"What do we do?"

"We can't do anything right now, baby. We don't know everything that's going on."

"But mom."

"I know. I'm sorry, baby."

Annabeth heard Percy groan and then footsteps started towards the living room she was residing in. She was stuffed under so many blankets, so her face was covered from Percy and Sally.

Sally walked further into the room and set something down onto the glass coffee table in front of her. She peeked over the mound of covers and saw Annabeth's eyes blinking sleepily.

"Hey there, sleepy," Sally said. "You awake?"

Annabeth nodded slowly and nuzzled her face into the blankets.

Sally grabbed her foot over the blankets and shook it playfully. "Sit up. We need to talk."

Annabeth's heart sped up. "About what?"

"Sit up and you'll find up."

Annabeth wiggled her way to a semi upright position. She kept the blankets over her shoulders. Percy settled down onto the couch beside her.

Sally picked up the mug and took a long sip of coffee. "Do you want to tell me what happened this morning?"

Annabeth sank into the blankets in a useless attempt to find comfort. "Not really."

"I need you to tell me."

Percy traced a pattern on her arm to soothe her.

"She hit me," she muttered, nearly unintelligible.

Thankfully, Sally picked up on it anyways. "Can you tell me why?"

"It was my fault."

"I don't think it was. Tell me, sweetheart."

Annabeth tried to push emotion aside. "She got mad at me for not making breakfast fast enough and told me I need to do more."

"And?" Sally prompted.

"I told her I don't have time to do everything for her, and she didn't like it. She looked to my dad and he told her to deal with it, so she slapped me."

Sally looked appalled, and for good reason. "Your dad condoned this?"

"Well, he didn't not condone it." Annabeth's demeanor fell. "I told you it was my fault."

"That's not your fault in the slightest. Have they hit you before?"

Annabeth threw a blanket over her face. She felt embarrassed being in the spotlight like this. "Never like this."

"Annabeth, look at me." Sally reached forwards to take Annabeth's hand. "This is not your fault. Your parents should never hurt you like that and I'm so sorry that they did."

Annabeth felt uncomfortable. "This is embarrassing."

"Don't be embarrassed. I won't tell anyone. I'm just going to have a chat with your parents."

Annabeth's stomach dropped. "No! They'll know I said something."

Sally shook her head. "They won't lay a hand on you again. I promise. Just leave me to deal with it."

This wasn't what Annabeth wanted. She wanted to just forget it ever happened; that was probably the best way to get past it. She was used to the yelling, and if she got hit once, it wasn't that big of a deal in the whole scheme of things.

On the other hand, she was glad she confided. She was sure the Jacksons loved her more than her own parents, and it was unfortunate, but it was also the truth. Things weren't exactly as she wanted, but something told her that as long as she had Percy, everything would be okay.

Annabeth took a shaky breath, deciding to put her trust with the Jacksons. "Okay."

For the rest of the night, she stayed with Percy in that same living room, watching movies and taking her mind off of the crazy ordeal of the day. She was laying in her best friend's arms, and she'd never felt so loved.

"Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for being my best friend."

Percy tickled her side. "Thank you for being mine."

•

Ninth Grade

Annabeth squinted at her paper that her English teacher just handed back to her. A big red 'F' was scribbled across the top of the paper with a note to see the teacher after class.

Annabeth sighed, dropping the paper from her face. This was the third essay she'd failed in a row. She had no idea what she was doing wrong. Sure, English was never her strong suit, but she expected herself to do better than a failing grade.

She currently stood at a low D in the class, teetering over the edge to failing. If she got another low score on just about anything, she would end up with a failing semester grade since she'd already gotten a D the previous quarter.

Annabeth really couldn't afford to fail a class in only her freshman year of high school. She tried so hard, she really did, but her English teacher must've been out to get her at this point. No matter what she did, it was never good enough.

Annabeth didn't pay attention the rest of class, too distracted by the grade that was eating away at her. She sat with her head resting in her hand for the majority of the class, the dull drone of her teacher's voice nearly lulling Annabeth into a sleep. No wonder she was about to fail.

"Thank god," Annabeth said under her breath as the bell signaling the end of the day rang. She shoved her English binder into her bag and zipped it, ready to bolt out the door and go find Percy. Unfortunately, she didn't make it that far.

"Annabeth," her teacher called out. "Can I speak to you?"

Annabeth mentally cursed, plastering a polite grin to her face before turning around and facing her teacher. "Yes, Ms. Gerald?"

Ms. Gerald motioned Annabeth over to her desk. "I've noticed your grades in my class have been falling."

Annabeth's eyes darted around the room to make sure no one was listening. "I guess."

"You've never gotten grades like this before, Annabeth. I know you're better than this."

Annabeth laughed nervously. "I'm sorry. I've been trying."

"The problem is it's fourth quarter. If you don't get that grade up, you won't be getting the English credit you need to graduate. Make sure you're prepared for this upcoming test."

"I'll do my best, Ms. Gerald."

Her teacher sighed and sat on her spinney chair. "It's not just that. Is everything okay at home?"

Annabeth choked on air. Ever since the previous year, Helen hadn't hit her again. Annabeth strongly suspected it had something to do with Sally, and probably a few menacing threats. Even though Annabeth wasn't physically hurt anymore, things still escalated by different means.

There was a lot more yelling going on in her house recently. Her stepmom and dad fought over seemingly everything, and Annabeth got screamed at more than she thought was possible. Life wasn't the best at home, so to speak, but Annabeth would take the verbal comments over flying fists any day.

She didn't realize it until her teacher pointed it out, but her grades were falling because of her family. She just didn't have time to do homework anymore which left her scribbling words on paper the previous class period and turning in projects days late. She was definitely busy at home, but…

"Everything's fine," Annabeth declared tightly.

Her English teacher looked at her knowingly but dropped it anyways. "I'm always here if you need to talk. If you need help, just ask."

Annabeth brushed hair behind her ear. "Thank you. I appreciate it."

Ms. Gerald looked worried. "Have a good day, Annabeth."

"You too," she called out over her shoulder as she turned on her heel. If that wasn't the most embarrassing moment of her life, she really didn't know what was.

The second Annabeth walked into the hall she was nearly trampled by an upperclassman who didn't to shove Annabeth aside. God, what was it with these juniors and seniors acting as though they could do whatever they wanted with no consequences?

Percy appeared next to her and she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"God, Percy. Don't do that," she said, holding a hand over her heart.

"My bad." Percy slung an arm over her shoulder and pulled her in for a side hug. "What took you so long in there?"

Annabeth huffed and moved his arm to hold his hand instead. "Another failed essay."

"Another one?" he asked sympathetically, swinging his hand in hers.

"Mhm. I have to make sure I don't fail the next one or I'm in big trouble."

"You seem oddly calm about that." He raised the back of his hand to playfully feel for a fever. "You must be sick."

She swat his hand away. "I'll just study and pass the test."

"That's one plan, but if you don't pass it, you might not go on to sophomore year."

"Thank you for the reminder."

He bumped her shoulder. "I'm just looking out for you. I'm a good best friend."

"Oh, are you now?"

"Oh, yes," he said seriously. "In fact, I'm so good that I'm inviting you over to my house to study for this test so you don't fail."

"How chivalrous."

Percy rolled his eyes. "I'm serious."

"Let's go, then."

Percy smiled at her. "You're gonna ace this test so hard. I just know it."

•

Annabeth, in fact, did not ace the test.

She has no idea where she went wrong. She spent literal hours at Percy's the night before the test, reading over the criteria for the paper was about to take. She knew exactly what she needed to include in her writing, so she doesn't understand why she failed this test.

She held the lined paper in her hands, marked with corrections in red pen. The color of the pen is fitting, really. It matches the red Annabeth sees as she realizes that she just failed the whole semester of English.

Tears sprang into her eyes, something that was becoming more often in her life. This time, the tears were tears of frustration rather than sadness or anger. She just didn't know what she was going to do at this point.

She ran a hand through her blonde hair, flipping through the pages of her essay response. It was filled with her teacher's words like 'confusing' and 'further elaboration.' It was becoming redundant, really. It was always the same messages that held her down before and it was the same messages all over again.

Piper leaned over her desk to peek at Annabeth's paper. "What'd you get?"

"Take a wild guess," she answered, slamming the paper on the desk. "I just failed the class."

Piper grabbed the paper to examine it further. "I don't get why she gave you an F. It's better than half the students' writings in this class."

"Clearly it's not."

Piper flipped through the pages. "Maybe she'll let you remediate it. If you fail, it'll look bad on her."

Annabeth snorted. "Gerald would never let me make it up. Her whole life revolves around doing things right the first time."

Piper gave Annabeth the paper back. "Didn't she think there was something going on at home? Just play that card."

"That is literally so unethical, Piper."

"Is it unethical if it's true?"

"It's not true though."

Piper hummed in disagreement.

"I want to go home," Annabeth faceplanted on her desk. "Have a drink or two."

"I know the feeling."

"You better not. You're only fifteen."

"Says the girl who just said she wanted to get blackout drunk."

"I definitely did not say that."

"You definitely did."

"I meant I want to go home and cease to exist."

Piper lit up. "I have an idea."

"Should I be worried or excited?"

"Excited. You won't cease to exist, but I guarantee you'll feel a lot better."

Annabeth perked up. "I'm listening."

•

When Piper said she had an idea, Annabeth definitely did not expect it to involve smoking copious amounts of weed.

"How do I do this?" Annabeth held up the blunt in front of her eyes to look closely at it.

"You light the end and smoke it."

"I got that part, Piper."

Piper shrugged. "I don't know how else to explain it."

Annabeth dropped the blunt. "I don't want to do this. We're going to get caught."

Piper huffed. "We're in my house with no parents. No one is going to find out."

Annabeth looked around as though just now realizing where she was. Piper's enormous house was truly an architect's dream, but she didn't have time to contemplate that because she was about to smoke weed in said dream house.

Annabeth looked at Piper. "This is a terrible idea."

"This is a great idea."

"What if I have an allergic reaction or something."

"You won't."

"Everyone would know what we did if I had a reaction to it."

"I doubt anyone would really care. Do you know how many people have done this at least once?"

"Excuse me, I am a scholar. I do not smoke."

"You failed a class and call yourself a scholar?"

Annabeth blinked at her. "Give me the lighter."

"Attagirl."

Piper lit the end of the blunt for Annabeth and then lit her own. Annabeth watched as Piper lifted the tip to her mouth and took a deep inhale.

The smoke left Piper's mouth a few seconds later in a smooth swirl.

"You gonna try it?" Piper asked, motioning towards Annabeth with the joint. "I took time rolling that for you."

Annabeth nodded, moving it to her lips hesitantly. She took another look at Piper who motioned for her to go on. Annabeth took a small inhale and started sputtering no less than two seconds later.

"That's awful!" Annabeth continued choking and Piper just watched emotionlessly.

"You have to get used to it. Try again."

"You're like a month younger than me. How are you used to this?"

Piper took another deep drag. "No parents equals lots of fun. Go again."

Annabeth spent the next few minutes attempting to get the smoke into her lungs smoothly, and she kind of got the hang of it. She wasn't really feeling any effects quite yet, and she's relieved at that aspect. She's kind of regretting doing this without more people around. Especially without Percy.

"There you go!" Piper encouraged.

Annabeth exhaled, coughing only once this time. "I expected this to be more fun."

"It distracted you from English, didn't it?"

Annabeth dropped her hand from her face. "Well, not anymore. Thank you for the reminder."

Piper smirked. "Do you feel anything yet?"

"Nope."

Piper frowned. "That's weird."

Annabeth paused. "Why?"

"My first time, I was practically a puddle after a few minutes, which was actually pretty embarrassing since it's only weed."

Annabeth's face looked similar to Pikachu's surprised face. "You let me do this knowing I might turn into a puddle?"

"It's just me here, so yeah."

"I'm surprised you didn't invite anyone else."

"Like who? Your boyfriend?" Piper laughed. "You don't want to do this for the first time in front of him, I can assure you."

Annabeth held up her middle finger and took another deep inhale. "Not my boyfriend."

"You two might as well be."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Why can't two people be friends without dating?"

Piper raised an eyebrow. "Ha! You're insane if you think you're just friends."

"We're best friends."

"Percy's practically in love with you."

"He's not."

Piper blew smoke out. "Okay."

Annabeth stuck her nose in the air. "He's not."

Piper held up her hands. "I said okay."

"Mhm."

Piper and Annabeth spent the next half hour talking about anything that came to mind. Piper kept bringing up Percy just to bother Annabeth, so Annabeth threatened to leave several times, though she had no real intention to.

Annabeth slowly became bubblier and quite honestly, funnier. Her words didn't slur but she sounded like deciding what to say was the hardest task of her life. It was an experience, to say the least.

"You doing okay over there, Annabeth?"

Annabeth was leaning her head onto the couch from where she sat on the floor. "I feel great."

"Do you need anything?" Piper sounded amused.

Annabeth was silent for a good minute, simply not responding. Piper hadn't expected her to say anything after the first few seconds of silence, but apparently Annabeth was just thinking over her words.

"No."

Correction: her word.

Piper snickered. "I think you're getting high, babe."

"I expected more than this. I just feel oddly calm."

"You were expecting drunk side effects. Weed and booze are very different."

"Hm." Annabeth started looking around her body lethargically.

"Whatcha looking for?"

"My phone."

Piper reached next to her and slid Annabeth's phone across the floor wordlessly. Annabeth picked it up and tapped the screen to turn it on.

"Oh, shit."

Piper tilted her head. "What?"

"I have five missed calls from Percy." Annabeth tossed the no longer smoking joint towards Piper to give her phone full attention.

Piper crossed her hands over her stomach and closed her eyes. "You should probably call him back."

Annabeth licked her lips and stood up. "I'll be outside," she pointed over her shoulder.

Annabeth walked outside and slid the missed call notifications across the screen to call him back. It rang twice before he picked up.

"Where the hell are you?"

Annabeth noticed he sounded alarmed. "Piper's."

Percy groaned across the line. "Why didn't you answer your phone?"

Annabeth giggled. "Piper and I were busy, so to speak."

"You scared me to death."

"Why?"

"I found out about your test and I wanted to make sure you were okay, not to mention you were supposed to meet me, but you disappeared off the face of the Earth!"

"I'm fine, actually. I feel relaxed." Annabeth sighed pleasantly.

"What do you mean you're relaxed?"

"I'm not worried about it."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it. I have to go."

"You're actually scaring me, Annabeth. What did you do?"

Annabeth was getting irritated. "Piper invited me over so we could take my mind off of it."

"You should've come to me."

"Piper's offer seemed more appealing."

"What exactly is this offer?"

Annabeth hesitated. "I can't say."

"You better tell me because it's late and your parents are asking me where you are."

"You tell them you don't know."

"Unless you tell me what you're doing, I'm going to be telling them exactly where you are, and they'll come drag you home themselves."

"Percy." Annabeth sounded strained. "I can't."

"Why not? You high or something?"

Annabeth stayed silent.

"Annabeth." Percy sounded deathly calm. "Don't tell me you're high."

"Percy."

"Annabeth. Are you insane?" Percy clicked his tongue. "I'm coming over."

"There's no need. I'm fine."

"You shouldn't be high with Piper alone. I love her, but she's not responsible enough if anything goes wrong. I'll be there in twenty."

Percy hung up before Annabeth had time to argue against him. She dropped her phone to her side and rubbed her face with her palm.

Percy wasn't one to usually argue against her choices. He'd usually even join in, but he had sounded incredibly frustrated over the phone. That wasn't something she heard often from him, so she really didn't know what to expect when he showed up.

•

Turns out Annabeth should've been terrified for Percy to show up because he turned up ready to send his fists flying.

"What were you thinking?" he hissed.

Annabeth didn't turn over on the couch to look at him, knowing she'd be met with his disapproving gaze. "Today was bad enough as it is. I don't need you adding to it."

Percy's head appeared over the back of the sofa which forced her to look at him. "Your eyes are bloodshot."

Annabeth swat him away and turned over. "Leave me alone."

"You have no idea how much you scared me."

"Why would I have scared you?"

Percy walked around the couch which forced her to look at him again. "You seem to have forgotten that you said you'd meet me at the library after school. You didn't show up and you weren't answering your phone."

Annabeth stopped. "Oh."

"It's been almost six hours since we got out of school, and no one knew where you were. And to find out you're performing illegal activities with Piper without any real supervision? Cherry on top."

"She's fine," Piper blurted into the dispute.

"You stay out of it," Percy snapped before turning his attention back to Annabeth. "You have a future ahead of you. Don't ruin it."

Annabeth blew a raspberry. "Oh, shove off. Once isn't going to ruin my life."

Piper nodded eagerly. "You should try it, Percy. It's really fun."

Percy's jaw went slack. "Wha – No!"

"No, yeah! You should try it," Annabeth agreed.

Percy crossed his arms stubbornly. "No."

"This is a way to forget all our failing grades. Annabeth might've failed English, but didn't you just fail a test in math?" Piper taunted.

Percy's face fell and his resistance crumbled. To his credit, he really did try to fight it, but Piper's words stung.

"Hand it over," Percy mumbled dejectedly, sliding down next to Annabeth on the couch.

"We corrupted you," Annabeth giggled.

Percy flicked her nose. "This is because Piper reminded me about my failures in life. Don't flatter yourself."

Annabeth rested her chin on Percy's arm. "You're mad at me."

"I'm mad you disappeared without telling me."

"I'm sorry."

"I know where you are now." Percy took a puff of the newly rolled joint. "You do realize Gerald was going to let everyone remediate their essays for full credit back."

Annabeth's smile fell as Percy smirked.

So much for all this, then.

•

Tenth Grade

"Do you see that kid?" Annabeth whispered into Percy's ear. "The one sitting against the locker?"

Percy looked up from his phone to look in the direction Annabeth was referring to. "The one in the green jacket?"

Annabeth clicked her teeth. "No. The one two kids over with blonde hair and the grey sweatshirt."

"Oh," Percy said, slipping his phone into his pocket and reaching for his water bottle for a sip. "What about him?'

"I think I like him."

Percy choked on the water in his mouth. "You – what?"

Annabeth eyed him weirdly as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "I like him."

Percy nodded, shutting his water bottle. "Yes, I got that. Where is this coming from?"

She shrugged. "He's the kid I was talking about yesterday. He's in my Chemistry class and he's really smart. His name is Luke."

"I'm smart too," Percy said begrudgingly.

Annabeth leaned against his shoulder. "You are," she teased.

Percy brought his water bottle to his mouth for a second try. "Okay, well, congratulations, I guess."

Annabeth stared at him. "What?"

"What?" he challenged, dangerously waving his open water bottle around in the air.

"Are you okay? You're acting funny."

"I'm fine," Percy said tightly before sipping his water, this time without choking.

She still looked at him suspiciously, but she didn't push the topic. "Okay."

"Okay. I have to go to third period, but I'll see you at lunch?"

Annabeth nodded, already beginning to walk away. "See you at lunch."

•

Percy sat at his unofficial official lunch table with Piper, waiting for Annabeth to appear.

"Where is she?" Piper asked, popping a fry into her mouth. "She's never this late to lunch."

Percy stole a fry from Piper's lunch, earning a smack in retaliation. "No idea."

"Aren't you her best friend? Isn't there some official rule that you should know where she is at any and all times?"

Percy took her juice. "There," he said, dodging her slap, "is not."

"Lame," she said, snatching her juice back.

Percy smiled snarkily. "How's Jason?"

Piper's eyes shot him daggers. "Shut it."

Percy leaned back and crossed his arms, laughing. "No, seriously. How are you two? Are you official or have you decided to do the whole unofficial official thing?"

Piper leaned forwards, pointing a manicured finger in his face. "Jackson. I'm going to kill you."

"Death threats can get you expelled, you know?"

Piper pointed at her own face this time. "Does it look like I care? Does it?"

Percy snorted before looking around the cafeteria. "Seriously, where is she?"

"Found her," Piper said, looking over his shoulder. "Heads up."

Percy turned around and spotted Annabeth. He nearly did a double take when he saw that she was holding Luke's hand to pull him along to their table.

"Hey guys," Annabeth gestured to Luke. "This is Luke. He's going to sit with us for today."

Annabeth looked at Percy to say something, but he didn't, so Piper spoke up. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Piper," she said with a dazzling smile, offering a handshake.

Luke accepted the handshake graciously. "Hi, nice to meet you too." Luke laughed nervously, turning towards Percy.

"Hi. You must be Percy," Luke offered with a smile. "I've heard a lot about you."

Percy forced a smile. "You too. Nice to meet you."

Luke smiled nervously again, looking at Annabeth who urged him to sit down. Annabeth slid down next to Percy and Luke next to Annabeth. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds as the four people at the table seemingly all looked between Percy and Annabeth.

Piper was the first to break the silence. She began chatting up a storm with Luke, asking him all about his life.

While Luke and Piper were distracted, Annabeth nudged Percy to get his attention. "You sure you're okay?"

Percy settled his hand over hers. "Of course. Luke seems like a pretty nice guy," he said, winking sneakily.

"Shut it," she hissed. "But Percy, you seem hesitant. I can make him leave if you absolutely want me to."

Percy waved his hand in dismissal. "I'm positive."

To prove his point, Percy turned to Luke. "So, Luke, I've head you're on the soccer team."

. . .

•

Percy was putting his textbooks in his locker when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

Percy held a groan of disgust back once he saw Luke. Ever since that day in the cafeteria, Luke had been inserting himself into their friend group and Percy couldn't stand it. Luke wasn't a bad person, per se. He was just obnoxious in Percy's opinion, but he actually would've made a pretty good friend if Percy hadn't hated him so much.

As Annabeth began to get closer and closer to Luke, it meant that she would get further and further from Percy, which definitely wasn't something Percy had been expecting. By no means were Percy and Annabeth not close anymore; they just didn't spend as much time together which Percy despised.

Don't get him wrong, Percy was absolutely ecstatic for Annabeth finding someone she liked so much, but it had to be Luke? Whenever Annabeth wasn't around, Luke got snarky. It didn't help that everyone else in his friend group seemed to love Luke.

"Hey, Luke," Percy addressed, before turning back around and continuing to put things away.

"Percy, just the man I've been looking for," Luke said, patting Percy roughly on the shoulder.

Percy looked at Luke in confusion. Luke didn't typically interact with Percy, so it was quite suspicious that he was here, acting like the two of them were friends.

Percy slammed his locker shut and leaned against it. "May I ask why?"

Luke chuckled with a bitter-sweet tone. "You and Annabeth are best friends, right?"

"You are correct. Is there a problem with that?"

"No. Why would you say that?"

Percy scoffed. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's the way you said it in disgust."

Luke raised his hands. "Dude, I don't want any problems. I'm just here to ask you what I should do for Annabeth." He paused. "Annabeth wouldn't be very happy to hear that you refused to help me out, would she?"

Percy sighed in defeat. "What do you want?"

Luke clapped his hands together. "I'm planning on asking Annabeth to homecoming this year. What do you think she would like?"

"You don't even know what she would like as a homecoming proposal and you plan on asking her? That's a disaster waiting to happen."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Give me a break. I do know her."

"If you knew her, you wouldn't ask," Percy said, shooting Luke a deadly face.

"What does that even mean?"

"All she's been talking about is how badly she wants to go with her friends. She doesn't want a date."

"Her friends will still be there. She won't mind me asking. Now, seriously, what should I do?"

Percy was seething in anger. "She likes owls. Just make a sign saying 'Owl I want is to take you to homecoming. It'll be a hoot.' Something like that."

"Thanks, Percy." Luke pushed Percy's shoulder in a far too aggressive manner to be considered friendly..

"Don't mention it," Percy grumbled, rubbing his shoulder.

•

"Percy!"

Percy jumped as Annabeth yelled directly into his ear. Ouch, he thinks she might've just exploded his tympanic membrane. He tells her such.

"Relax," Annabeth cackled. "I have something excited to tell you!"

Percy put his cold water bottle that was sitting on his desk against his ear, pointedly looking at Annabeth. "What is it?"

"Luke asked me to homecoming," Annabeth bragged. "He did a poster with owls and it was really cute."

"Where'd he get that idea?" he joked.

Annabeth tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"I was the –" Percy faltered. "Nevermind."

"You can't start saying something and not finish!"

"It's nothing," he insisted. "But I'm so happy for you!"

Annabeth's face morphed into a grin. "Can I have a hug?"

Percy reached out and pulled her towards him, squeezing her tightly and swaying back and forth. "You deserve it."

Annabeth's eyes lit up and she settled her face in the crook of her neck. "I love you."

Percy's heart pounded. He rested his chin on top of her curls. "Not as much as I love you."

•

Annabeth was washing her hands in the bathroom when she was jumped by the creature she calls her friend.

Annabeth held her hand over her chest. "Piper!"

"Babe," Piper said in greeting, slapping Annabeth sharply on the ass as she passed by. "We need to talk."

Annabeth resumed washing her hands. "About what, may I ask?"

"You know what," Piper chided. "We need to go dress shopping!"

Annabeth sucked in air through her teeth while drying her hands. "Negative."

"The hell type of answer is that? –"

"Piper," Annabeth urged. "I can't."

"Well, why not?" she prompted.

"Luke doesn't want me to. He says that he wants to see the dress I got so I have to go with him."

"Uh," Piper began. "The whole thing about having a date is that he doesn't see your dress until the actual night."

"That's true, but…"

"But?" Piper inquired.

"He said he wants to be there to make sure I don't choose something he doesn't like."

Piper actually screeched. "You're kidding. You have to be shitting me, right?"

"Piper."

"He has no right to demand you go shopping with him just so you don't choose something 'ugly.' You're the one who's wearing it!"

"Just give me this, please."

Piper stomped her foot like a child. "But you promised you'd go with Hazel and I."

"I know. I'm sorry, Piper, I really am. I really want to go with Luke though."

A muscle in Piper's jaw twitched.

"Please?" Annabeth begged.

Piper exhaled and forced a lopsided grin. "It's okay. I know you're excited."

Annabeth put her hands together in front of her face, settling her hands right under her nose. "Thank you," she breathed.

"You don't have to thank me. I can't stop you if you want to go with him; it's your life."

Annabeth nibbled her lip. "Still. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, yeah," Piper waved dismissingly. "I still get you for prom, though. No excuses."

"No excuses," Annabeth repeated. "I have to go to class now. I'll see you after school?"

"For sure. See you later, sexy," Piper said with a wink, smacking Annabeth's ass again on the way out.

•

It was after homecoming and the friend group decided to go get ice cream. Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Luke, and a few other people all made their way to a twenty-four-hour diner, the large group all squishing into way too small of a booth.

Annabeth found herself forced comfortably between Percy and Luke. Every time someone did something funny, Percy would elbow her repeatedly to get her attention, at which she threatened to steal his milkshake which resulted in even more laughter.

Annabeth was currently leaning on Percy as she watched Leo bang his head against the table in an attempt to cure his brain freeze, nearly snorting up her own milkshake all over Percy as Leo looked up with a red dent smack in the middle of his face.

Tears shone in Piper's eyes as she struggled for breath. "Leo –" She had to break off for a moment in a pointless attempt to regain her composure. "Are you okay?"

Leo gave an impish grin. "I'm great." He coughed. "I think I can feel my brain hemorrhaging."

Annabeth snickered behind her milkshake.

Hazel, the only mentally capable person in the group, spoke up. "If you had a concussion, I'd think you'd be writhing in pain on the floor right about now."

"Honey," Piper said, resting her hand on Hazel's shoulder from where she sat. "It was a joke."

"Oh."

Annabeth shook her head, her dimples appearing, looking to her left while the others continued talking. "So, Luke," she prompted teasingly. "You have fun tonight?"

Luke looked down at her, eyes twinkling. "With you, how could I not?"

Annabeth looked down, moving a strand of hair behind her ear. "You sure know how to make a girl feel special," she teased.

"Only for you," Luke whispered in her ear, snaking his arm around her waist. "What do you say we go somewhere else? Just us?"

Annabeth smirked. "Very funny."

"I'm serious," he whispered. "Let's –"

Both Luke and Annabeth snapped to look at Leo who was screaming after Hazel took his cup of ice cream and was currently holding it hostage.

"Uh," Luke stammered, thoroughly put off by Leo's screeching. "As I was saying, we should go somewhere. I want to be alone with you."

Annabeth shrugged. "We're already here and it's late. Not to mention, I promised I'd be with them tonight and I already ditched them once."

"Come on," he urged. "They'll survive."

Percy leaned over Annabeth's shoulder. "Who'll survive what?"

Luke's eyes darted to Percy. "Oh, I was just telling her that you guys will survive if we decide to head out early."

"You're leaving?" Percy exclaimed rather loudly, earning the attention of those around the table.

"Uh," Annabeth stammered, catching eyes with everyone around the table. "We're just going to head out a bit earlier than expected."

"Already?" Hazel sounded disappointed, her eyes looking at the table as she picked at her napkin.

Piper put her cup down quite aggressively. "Yeah, Annabeth. Come on, you promised to spend homecoming night with us."

Annabeth's mouth dropped slightly, and she looked to Luke for assistance.

"Guys, it's fine. You already had her for the night, now let me get some time alone with my date." Luke squeezed Annabeth's arm reassuringly.

"Unbelievable," Piper muttered.

"Piper," Annabeth tried to pacify.

Piper slammed her hands down on the table, "No! You can't keep doing this to us! Every time your little boyfriend shows up, it's like you drop everything for him." Piper's face was turning red and steam was practically rolling out of her ears. "I am so sick of it."

Annabeth panicked, looking at all the faces of her friends. "You're right. It's fine, I just won't – I'll stay here instead."

Luke spoke up. "Wait, no, no. No. You guys can't make her feel bad about wanting to spend time with other people. What's wrong with you?"

Piper laughed in disbelief. "Look at that! Now your boyfriend's insulting us too," she spat, gesturing in his general direction. "Well, it's your lucky day. Go do whatever it is you planned on doing. I'm leaving."

Annabeth watched helplessly as Piper stood up and grabbed her bag. "Piper, please don't."

Piper didn't acknowledge her; she simply stormed out of the diner.

Annabeth looked at Hazel and Leo who began standing up, her eyes becoming glassy. "You're leaving too?"

Hazel looked hesitant. "She's our ride," she gave with a point over her shoulder before turning around and walking away with Leo.

One by one, people began standing up and leaving, the mood of the diner effectively ruined. Annabeth watched helplessly, her hands shaking uncontrollably.

Before long, Annabeth was left with Luke and Percy by her side. Annabeth sniffled, pinching her nose to stop the tears that were building in her eyes.

"Are you leaving too?" she asked, avoiding eye contact with Percy.

Percy sucked on his straw before taking a deep breath. "No, I'm not."

The three of them sat at the table in silence for the next few minutes, wrapping their heads around what just happened.

Luke was the first to break the silence. "So… do you want to go somewhere?"

Both Percy and Annabeth looked at Luke in utter disbelief. "You're joking," Annabeth scoffed.

Luke failed to mask his annoyance. "Don't let them ruin your night."

Annabeth settled her head into her hands, tears of frustration boiling over. "I just want to go home."

"Fine," Luke snapped, barely withholding his fury. "I'll take you home."

"No." She lifted her head. "Percy will take me. You can go home."

Without another word, Annabeth stood up, Percy alongside her. All she'd wanted was a night filled with fun, but it ended in disaster. She really should've expected it at this point. Annabeth grabbed Percy's arm and together they walked out of the diner in silence.

•

The ride to Annabeth's house was silent. She looked out the window and Percy drove, the hum of the car offering a halcyon atmosphere.

Percy pulled up Annabeth's driveway, putting the car in park, before unbuckling the seatbelt and angling his body to look her in the eye.

"We need to talk, Annabeth."

Annabeth avoided his gaze. "Can we please not do this tonight. I just want to go to cry and go to sleep."

"We need to do this soon. Something is off."

She finally locked eyes with him. "Tomorrow, okay?"

Percy backed down. "Okay, tomorrow."

She nodded and then opened the car door, stepping out. "Thanks for the ride."

Percy stared at her softly. "Always." Before she closed the car door, he called out one more time.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

•

It was the Sunday after homecoming and Percy was currently residing on Annabeth's bed, waiting for her to appear.

Annabeth had told him that she was home, but she was nowhere to be found at the moment. Her dad let him in the house and told him that she'd be home soon, but it's been an hour already and there's no sign of her.

Percy ended up pulling her white comforter back and settling in considering it might be a while until she appeared. He started dozing off when the door to her room slammed open.

Percy's eyes snapped open, catching the eyes of the grey eyed girl he's been waiting for.

Percy didn't move from his warm spot on her bed. "Where have you been?"

Annabeth clenched the Dunkin Donuts bag in her hand. "Oh my god, I forgot you were coming over."

"Where were you?" he repeated.

"Funny story, actually." Annabeth ran her fingers through her blonde curls. "Luke invited me out for lunch, and we –"

Percy sat up. "You were with Luke?"

Annabeth took a step back at his deadly calm voice. "Yeah…"

Percy flopped back onto the bed. "You need to stop."

"Stop what?"

"Do you not remember what happened last night?"

She laughed incredulously. "I do. What does that have to do with this?"

"You can't keep ignoring your friends because of a guy!"

"I'm not ignoring my friends!"

"Oh really? What do you think you did when you promised Piper to go dress shopping with her and then went with Luke instead? Or when you tried to leave last night to do god knows what with Luke?"

Annabeth's mouth fell open, but her words were stuck.

"How about just now when you told me to come over hours ago and then dropped everything to go out with Luke without even having the decency to let me know?"

"I'm allowed to have other friends."

"Yeah, you are. That's not what's going on here though, is it?"

"What are you implying?"

"Ever since you met Luke, you've been treating your friends like shit."

"I have most certainly not!"

"Annabeth! Listen to yourself. I've tried to let things roll off my back because I know that you don't mean to act like this but you're only making your friends feel worse."

Annabeth clenched her teeth together. "Don't you dare try to say I've been hurting my friends."

Percy's nostrils flared. "I'm saying that you're driving away the people who love you so you can go chase someone who isn't even your boyfriend."

Annabeth lost her temper, practically throwing the bag she had in her hands across the room. "I am not driving anyone away; you're choosing to leave. None of what you're saying is true, but you're going to have to get used to whatever it is you think is happening because he is my boyfriend."

"Do you even want him, or do you just want to fuck him?" he hissed.

"How could you even say that?"

"Doesn't seem too far from the truth at this point, the way you do anything just to please him."

"If you really think that, then maybe you should walk away along with everyone else."

Percy could feel the blood rushing through his ears. "I don't think I've ever heard something smarter come out of your mouth."

"Get out."

•

Annabeth spent the next few weeks without talking to any of her friends, and she's not going to lie. It's been hard. That being said, she isn't going to swallow her pride anytime soon.

"You okay?" Luke asked her, bumping shoulders together at their lunch table.

Annabeth picked up her fork, stabbing a potato. "I'm fine."

Luke leaned closer to whisper in Annabeth's ear. "What do you say," he asked, twirling a curl around his finger, "we go to an empty room?"

Annabeth pulled away, distracted by her thoughts. "And what would we do in said room?"

He smirked suggestively. "Use your imagination."

Annabeth caught eyes with Percy from across the cafeteria. "No, I'd rather not."

He pulled away. "You never want to have any fun."

She finally looked at Luke. "We're sixteen. Not to mention, what do you think will happen if we're caught?"

Luke groaned out loud. "Nothing bad."

"I most certainly disagree. I think everything bad will happen."

"Oh my god." Luke cracked his fingers and started grabbing his stuff from the table. "You know what? I have to go make up a test anyways."

Luke stood up, giving her a quick peck on the cheek before walking away without another word, leaving Annabeth alone with her racing thoughts.

Annabeth finished her lunch alone, fishing out her sketchbook to touch up on one of her latest buildings.

Annabeth thought about why she even liked buildings so much. She figures it was always just the thought of building something permanent that truly intrigued her. She begins to really think back to when she was in kindergarten. She really didn't have anyone to rely on back then. She was only five, but even at that young age, she always felt so alone.

Meeting Percy was the best thing that had ever happened to her. Of course, she didn't know it at the time. She was only concerned with getting revenge on him for stealing her lunch box, which wasn't true in his defense.

Percy was the something permanent that she has so badly wanted to build. And she had managed to ruin that.

She liked Luke, she really did, but after spending weeks away from her best friend, she began to wonder if having him was really worth losing Percy. Percy had always been there for her no matter what. She just wanted her best friend back.

Annabeth's heart hurt. She knew she needed to apologize soon. She knew Percy would forgive her in a heartbeat, but could she really swallow her pride?

Annabeth looked up from her building and caught Percy staring at her. In that moment, Annabeth decided that she would apologize. Soon.

She took her phone out of her back pocket.

From: Annabeth [11:37 AM]

can we talk?

From: Percy [11:43 AM]

the park by the library at six work?

From: Annabeth [11:44 AM]

yeah

From: Annabeth [11:44 AM]

see you then

•

Annabeth sat on the swing set, her feet dragging along the ground as the wind blew through her tangled curls.

She wrapped her jacket tighter around her body to protect against the biting cold. The sun had fully set about half an hour ago and Annabeth was still sitting waiting for Percy to make an appearance.

Annabeth shivered, wondering where on Earth Percy was. It was already half past six and he was nowhere to be found.

Pulling out her phone, she shot off a text to Percy asking if he was still coming. With no immediate response, she shut her phone off with a sigh, her dilated eyes moving around in the dark for any sign of Percy.

She waited another ten minutes before coming to the conclusion that he changed his mind and simply wouldn't be showing up.

Annabeth stood up from the swing, struggling to hold back tears. She was nearly through the gates of the playground when she ran right into someone, nearly taking both people down.

"Woah," Percy said, reaching out to steady her. "Sorry."

Annabeth took a step back. "No, that was my fault. I wasn't looking where I was going."

Percy shoved his hands in his pockets. "Sorry I'm late. I got held up at swim practice."

"Oh, it's fine. You're here now."

An awkward silence hung in the air.

Percy cleared his throat. "Do you want to sit on the swings?"

"Oh, yeah. Sure." Annabeth approached the swings again and resettled in alongside Percy.

"So," Percy began, shifting slightly in the swing. "What did you want to talk about."

"I don't even know where to begin, or how to begin. I just – I'm sorry."

Annabeth exhaled. "I miss you. All this time that I've been riding solo, I guess you could say I've had some time to think."

She twirled a strand of hair around her finger. "I was wrong. I was a really, really bad friend. I didn't see it at the time, but you were right. I put Luke before you and I shouldn't have. You were there first and you've always cared for me so much, and I just threw it all away."

She avoided his eyes. "I miss you so much. I should've apologized a long time ago; I should've never let it get this far in the first place. My pride got the best of me, and I'm sorry."

She looked him in the eyes now. "I should have listened to you. I love you so much and I need you."

Percy beat passed before breathed out. "Wow, that was heavy."

She hit his arm. "Percy! I'm serious."

"Annabeth," he said, grabbing her hand and dragging it to his lap. "I forgive you. I know sometimes it's hard to see the truth; it's not your fault. And – And I shouldn't have said the things that I did. They weren't true."

"I deserved it."

"You didn't. No one deserves to hear the things I said. Especially not from their best friend."

"It's okay, you don't need to be sorry. I just want to go back to the way things were."

"Me too. Should we just try to forget everything happened?"

"I don't know about forget. If we forget, then what'll keep us from doing it again?"

"You're right. How about we just forgive and move on, then?"

"Forgive and move on it is." Annabeth hesitated. "That being said, Percy, I'm not going to end things with Luke."

Percy could feel his heart in his throat. "I know."

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be."

"I promise I won't leave you like before."

Percy rubbed her hand with his thumb. "I know you won't. I trust you."

"Can I have a hug?"

Percy looked at her adoringly. "Come here," he said, standing and pulling her close to him.

Percy held her tight, her head fitting comfortably under his chin and their bodies fitting together like a puzzle piece. "I love you."

"Don't make me cry. I gotta do Piper next." Annabeth nuzzled her head into his neck. "I love you too."

•

Eleventh Grade

Annabeth sighed, checking her phone for the fifth time that same minute. Percy was late today, and he had her AP Calculus homework. Annabeth had calc first period, so she was definitely not amused.

Annabeth was shooting another frantic 'where are you?' text to Percy when two broad arms pressed onto the lockers on either side of her, trapping her in their arms.

Annabeth jumped, looking up and being met with her boyfriend's blue eyes.

Hey, there," Luke said, pressing his lips to Annabeth's. "I missed you yesterday. Where were you?" Luke trailed kisses up her neck, nuzzling his face under her chin.

Annabeth smiled, lifting Luke's chin with two fingers to plant a quick peck on his lips. "I was at Percy's doing homework," she said, caressing the side of Luke's face. "You know how it is, taking all these AP classes."

Luke straightened. "You could've at least texted me."

Annabeth sighed in exasperation. "I'm sorry, it just completely slipped my mind."

Luke laced their hands together. "No worries. Just text me next time, okay?"

She smiled up at him. "For sure," she said, accepting his lips once again.

"You okay?" she asked in concern, putting a hand on his chest to stop him. "You're acting funny."

He grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss to each her knuckles. "I love you."

She tilted her head. "I love you too. But seriously, is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, it's just… you know how I feel about you spending so much time with Jackson alone. I just–"

Annabeth cut him off. Wow, he managed to really piss her off in literally two seconds. "Okay, no. He's my best friend, you can't expect me to drop him for you."

Luke grew tense. "I'm not asking you to. All I'm asking is that you don't spend every waking moment with him!"

Annabeth growled. "And all I ask is–" Annabeth broke off her cutting remark as she saw Percy approaching.

Percy slowed as he reached them, eyeing the two of them cautiously. "Everything okay?"

Luke moved from his spot in front of her as Annabeth blew a strand of hair that fell in her face. "Yeah," Annabeth breathed, moving a piece of her hair behind her ear. "Everything's fine."

"Okay then," Percy said after an awkward pause. He held up a finger as though suddenly remembering something before setting his bag on the ground and shuffling around inside.

Percy pulled a few papers out of his bag with a triumphant aha! before handing them to Annabeth. "Your calc homework."

Annabeth grabbed it. "Thank you." She threw a glance at Luke, who had been watching the two interact very closely. She contemplated throwing an I love you at Percy just to dig the wound deeper, and after a few seconds, she decided to hell with it. "Love you."

Percy lifted his eyebrows and smiled tensely. "Uh-huh. Well." He looked up as the bell rang. "Oh, look at that. The bell." He cleared his throat and took a final glance at Luke, before addressing Annabeth. "Shall we go to calc?"

She nodded. "Yeah, let's go." She took his arm, but not before turning to Luke. "Do me a favor and just don't talk to me today, okay? I can't deal with it today."

Percy choked back a laugh as she turned around and grabbed his arm, dragging him along to class.

As Annabeth walked away, Luke muttered "Are you on your period already? It's only been like a week and a half."

Annabeth didn't even bother turning around. "Congratulations! You're not a father!"

•

Percy cleared his throat, lacing his hands in front of him as he leaned onto Annabeth's desk from where he sat.

"What was all that about?"

Annabeth clicked her teeth, shoving his hands off her desk. "Nothing."

"Didn't look like nothing," Percy sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Is something going on that I don't know about?"

Annabeth shuffled around in her bag before pulling out her graphing notebook. "He was just upset that I spent all of yesterday with you. Nothing I can't handle."

"Nothing you can't handle, but it doesn't mean you should," he pointed out, waving the pen sitting on her desk in front of her face as though verifying his point.

Annabeth pursed her lips, reaching for the pen. "It's fine. Drop it."

"The pen or the topic?"

"Both."

Percy dropped the pen, holding his hands up in surrender. "Consider it dropped."

Annabeth held his gaze before shaking her head and grabbing the pen. "What are you doing tomorrow after school?"

"Swim practice until late," he answered. "Why?"

"I wanted to go see Frozen II with someone." She looked up from writing something in her notebook. "Don't make that face. It's a cute movie."

He laughed. "Why don't you go with Luke? He might not be too happy to find that you asked me, the love of your life, first."

"Okay, first of all," she said, tapping Percy's forehead sharply with the pen, causing him to hiss and reel back, "you're not the love of my life. Second, I already asked him, and he said no in about a million different ways and six languages."

He snorted. "One great boyfriend you got there."

"Shut up," she moaned. "Will you go with me or not?"

"I can't tomorrow," he said. "Why not go today after school?"

"I'm already going out with Luke tonight," she said hesitantly.

"Ha. Go figure." He bit his lip. "We can go Wednesday?"

"Good. Do your work."

He groaned loudly, people turning to look at him. "We have a sub today, Annabeth. This is rare!"

"Yes, but then you're going to be stuck doing a ton of derivative work later. Tell me, Percy, do you know your trig derivatives? Natural logs? Absolute values?"

He pouted, his lower lip sticking out. "That's insulting, Annabeth. Of course I know how to do those."

Annabeth raised her eyebrow. "Good, then you won't be calling me for help later tonight, right?"

"Right," he said cheekily. "But for the record, I really do know how to do those."

Annabeth smiled, squinting her eyes at him. "Sure."

Percy gently shoved her shoulder. "Shut up."

Annabeth blew a raspberry in his face.

"Annabeth!"

•

Annabeth grabbed her bag and closed the car door, thanking her uber, before walking up the driveway to Luke's house. She knocked on the front door, shouldering her bag as she waited for Luke to appear.

"Hey," Annabeth said, accepting his quick peck in greeting. "How was school today?"

"Eh, same old," Luke said dismissingly, reaching for Annabeth's bag off her shoulder and setting it down by the front door.

"So." Annabeth ran her hands down her hips, blowing air pointlessly. "What did you have planned for tonight that you refused to tell me about?"

Luke walked down the hall to the living room, Annabeth following behind. "I was thinking…" he paused to pick up two movies. "Movie night!"

Annabeth laughed and shook her head. "This is the top-secret date you had planned?"

Luke smiled, pulling her closer by the waist. "It is. There's a ton of snacks too."

She looked at the table filled with popcorn and an assortment of delectable sweets. "I noticed."

Luke pouted. "Don't you like it?

She cradled his face with her soft palms. "I love it," she said against his lips.

Luke nudged her nose with his. "And I love you."

Annabeth smiled again, leaning forwards into another kiss before Luke pulled back and sat on the couch, patting next to him excitedly. "Come on! Let's cuddle."

She smirked at him, putting her hand on her hip. "You need to put the movie in first, don't you think?"

Luke scoffed jokingly. "The CD cases were for show. We're gonna use Netflix like our very generation does."

Annabeth shook her head, humor in her eyes. "Okay, then let's cuddle."

Annabeth sat next to Luke and he moved the two of them until they were lying down on the couch, Luke spooning Annabeth. Annabeth grabbed Twizzlers from her horizontal position on the couch, offering it to Luke who accepted graciously.

The two decided on watching a few episodes of Black Mirror, which Annabeth jokingly pointed out wasn't technically a movie.

They were about to episodes in when Luke's hand which had previously been safely on her stomach began to trail lower. Annabeth tensed as he ran his hands over the thighs, inching closer and closer to between her legs.

"Luke," Annabeth started hesitantly. "What are you doing?"

Luke pressed his face into her neck. "Shh, just relax."

"Uh, no, wait – "Annabeth began to shift uncomfortably in her position on the couch. When Luke continued to trail his hands over her, she ripped herself off of him. "Okay, no, Luke."

Luke sat up defensively. "What?"

Annabeth stood up and moved away from him, picking at her cuticles. "I don't feel comfortable with – uh."

Luke stood up too, huffing in annoyance. "We were just going to have fun; it was going to be fine."

"Uh, yes, but I just really don't want to, and –"

Luke cut her off. "You're telling me that you don't want to have sex with me," he stated flatly.

Annabeth bit her lip, drawing blood. "Just – just not right now. We were supposed to watch movies today."

Luke clenched his fist and started pacing. "Do you know how long it's been for me? And now my own girlfriend is too wrapped up in her own world to do something for me."

Annabeth's mouth fell open. "Luke–"

Luke stopped in place. "No, Annabeth! You know what? I should just break up with you right now! You are the worst girlfriend this world has ever seen. You're too busy spending time with your supposed best friend to ever spend any time with me!"

"I–" Annabeth tried to speak up, but Luke cut her off.

"Listen to me!" he screamed. "You never sacrifice anything for me! I sacrifice everything for you; I would sacrifice my life for you, and this is what I get in return!"

"Luke!"

"You're just not good enough for me." Luke stepped towards Annabeth harshly, causing Annabeth to flinch and take a step back.

"Get out," Luke said, eerily calm. When Annabeth didn't take to move, he screamed at her again. "Out! Now!"

Annabeth's eyes welled up with tears. She turned around sharply and walked towards the front door, grabbing her back before walking out the door. She slammed the door shut so hard that it rattled the whole wall.

Annabeth grabbed her phone, contemplating calling Percy, before deciding against it. She shoved her phone into her back pocket and began her walk to the closest bar she knew didn't check I.D.s.

•

Percy woke up startled from his Friday nap as his phone started ringing from its place on the nightstand. He groaned and waited until the ringing stopped before rolling over and dozing off again.

It was less than a minute later when his phone went off again. Percy huffed in annoyance before effortlessly reaching around for his phone, grabbing it off its charger and sliding the bar to answer.

"Hmm?" he said in greeting.

"Percy?"

Percy instantly sat up in worry at the sound of Annabeth's voice. "Annabeth? Are you okay?"

"Percy. Guess what?"

"What?" he answered cautiously.

"I think Luke's going to break up with me," she said hysterically. "He's actually going to break up with me."

"What happened?" Percy's heart tugged painfully in his chest as he heard Annabeth's shallow cries over the phone.

"He told me that I wasn't good enough, that I was always with you instead of him. He said he didn't love me anymore," she broke off with a heavy sob.

"But it's okay," she continued, sniffling. "I have you, my best friend. Bestest friend in the whole wide world. Hey, are you my best friend in the world?"

Percy could hear a slight slur in her voice. "Annabeth?" he asked gently.

"Are you my friend? Do you still love me?"

Percy palmed his face. "Have you been drinking?"

Annabeth hiccupped. "Only a little bit. A teeny drink," she giggled. "Or ten."

"Where are you?"

A pause. "I don't know."

Percy pressed his hand to his forehead, slowly removing his covers and getting out of bed. "Can you share your location with me?"

Annabeth's voice got distant as she moved the phone away from her ear to share her location. "I did."

"Okay, stay where you are. I'm coming to get you."

"Are you mad at me?"

Silence.

•

"Annabeth!" Percy yelled to get her attention.

Annabeth looked up from her position sitting on the curb outside of a family owned diner. She tried to stand as Percy approached her.

"Hey, hey. Careful," Percy said, grabbing Annabeth's forearm to steady her. "Let's get you in the car, yeah?"

Annabeth accepted his assistance getting to the car, leaning against the leather seats of Percy's Prius as he put the seatbelt on her.

Annabeth rested her head on the passenger seat, turning to look at Percy as he settled into the driver's seat. "Why did you not say if you were mad at me? Are you mad at me?"

Percy was silent as he turned around to back out of his parking spot. He contemplated his answer for a bit, blowing air through his lips before answering. "I'm not mad at you. I just – You're smarter than this, Annabeth."

Annabeth's eyes watered. "But –"

Percy interrupted. "Let's not talk about it right now. We'll deal with it once we get you home."

Annabeth lifted her head in alarm. "Wait, no, no. I can't go home like this." Annabeth put her hand on Percy's on the steering wheel. "If I go home like this, my dad will kill me."

"Percy, please," she whined when he didn't respond. "You know how they are. Please just take me to yours."

He moved his hand out from under hers, smothering his mouth in stress. "Funny you think my mom won't kill you. She's known you for over ten years."

"She's at work right now. Percy, please!" She stuck her bottom lip out.

"She's going to know what happened. Are you sure?"

"I'd rather she knows than my parents."

"Fine, we'll go to my place. You're lucky it's Friday."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

The next fifteen minutes were filled with a very drunk Annabeth trying, and failing, to talk about anything in existence. As Percy pulled up into the driveway of his house, Annabeth was giggling about when Percy first met Luke.

"Remember, you were so jealous that you paid Thalia to take all his clothes out his locker during gym class," she said dying of laughter. "He totally deserved it."

"Yeah, yeah," he said dismissingly. He pulled the keys out of the ignition. "Let's get you inside and to bed."

Percy led Annabeth inside through the garage, his hand on her lower back. Annabeth tripped over a box sitting in dust, Percy reaching out to steady her again. "You good?"

Annabeth winked at him as he punched in the number into the keypad to close the garage. "We great."

He blinked at her, humor in his eyes. "You ready for sleep?"

Annabeth slumped against Percy as opened the door to the house. "Oh, yeah," she yawned, arms stretching to exemplify her point.

Percy nudged Annabeth gently as he turned the beeping alarm off. "Come on, let's go."

Percy dragged Annabeth down the hardwood hallway to his door, pulling his keys out of his pocket with one hand and dropping it onto a table, his other arm wrapped around Annabeth's waist.

Percy loosened his hold on Annabeth push open his bedroom door, and Annabeth immediately began the trek to his bed. Percy followed her into his room, arms ready to catch the girl at any given moment.

Annabeth flopped down onto his bed, turning over and pulling blankets to cover her slender body.

"Do you want to take a shower?" he asked, setting his keys down on the wooden nightstand by the bed.

"Mhm," she said, face squished against his white pillow. "I'm tired."

Percy sat on the bed beside her, running his hand up and down her smooth back. "Is that a yes?"

Annabeth shrugged languidly. "Yeah, I'll – I'll take a shower," she said lethargically, already dozing off before his eyes.

Percy watched as Annabeth stretched slightly, snuggling deeper into the covers. Percy leaned down, kissing her forehead and saying goodnight, before turning the light off and moving to the couch to sleep.

•

Percy woke up the next morning at the sound of Annabeth calling for him. Percy stretched, his bones popping loudly.

"I'm coming," he yelled with his face in the pillow as Annabeth called for him again.

Percy stood up slowly, dragging his feet to where Annabeth resided in his room. His eyes moved to Annabeth laying on his bed, half of the sheets and all the pillows on the floor.

Annabeth lifted her face off the bed to tell him, "I don't feel good."

Percy climbed over her to lay down beside her, arm moving to wrap around her waist. "You did drink a lot yesterday."

"Help me."

He chucked into her hair. "There's nothing I can do."

Annabeth let out a pitiful hmph, pressing back against Percy. Percy managed to fall back asleep but was awoken again by Annabeth struggling against the sheet wrapped around her legs. She managed to kick them off and stumble her way to the bathroom, nearly tripping a few times.

"Are you okay?" There was no response, so Percy stood up and made his way to the bathroom, slowly pushing the door open. He was met with the sight of Annabeth kneeling on the floor.

"Your stomach hurt?" he asked, kneeling next to her to rub her back.

Annabeth nodded, her eyes shut tight. Her lower lip was trembling.

Percy grabbed her hair that fell in front of her face, moving it behind her back and twirling it to get it to stay before resuming to rub her back soothingly.

"Shh, you're okay," Percy tried to soothe her as she tears ran down her face. "Come on, you're done now. Let's brush your teeth. Sound like a plan?"

Percy helped her stand up, leading her to the sink and handing her a new toothbrush from inside the cabinet. He watched as she put a glob of his toothpaste down on the bristles and brushed lazily. "You should go back to sleep for a little bit, Beth."

Annabeth didn't even try to protest. She dropped the toothbrush onto the rim of the sink and took his hand, allowing him to lace their hands together and pull her along back to his room.

"I'll be in the living room if you need anything," Percy said, grabbing the pillows and blankets off the floor and laying them over Annabeth as she laid back in bed.

"Please don't go," Annabeth rushed, voice trembling. "Stay with me, please."

Percy nodded. "Yeah, okay." He climbed back behind Annabeth, sneaking his arm over her waist to spoon her.

Percy looked over at Annabeth's tear stained face. "Do you want to talk about what happened yesterday?"

Annabeth whimpered. "Are you sure you want to talk about it?"

Percy tightened his arm reassuringly. "Of course I do." Annabeth was silent, so Percy prompted again. "What happened?"

Annabeth moved her hand to wipe the tear that already managed to make its way down her face. "It's embarrassing."

Percy nudged his nose under her ear. "You don't have to be embarrassed with me. I'm worried, Annabeth. Talk to me."

Annabeth squeezed his arm. "Yesterday, I went over to his place. And, uh, his parents weren't home. I didn't know that"

"And what happened?"

Annabeth took a deep breath to keep her composure. "He just put on a movie, and we were just cuddling. Nothing bad, or anything. But he started getting touchy and when I told him I didn't feel like it, he just – just exploded"

Annabeth bit her lip and looked at Percy, salty tears trailing into her mouth. "He told me that I'm a bad girlfriend and that he should probably just break up with me because I'm never going to have sex with him, and – and he just started yelling at me – "Annabeth broke off with a hiccup, struggling to breathe. "He just kept telling me that I'm not good enough and that I should sacrifice more for him in the same way he does for me. I – I thought he might hit me, and – and he didn't but I was so scared he would."

Percy just continued running his hand up and down her back to encourage her.

"He started mentioning that I spend too much time with you and that no good girlfriend spends so much time with other guys. He told me that if I really loved him, I wouldn't be with you so often." Annabeth covered her face with the blanket to hide her tears.

Percy gave her a minute to calm down before speaking. "It's not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong."

Annabeth sobbed. "He said I never sacrifice anything for him. I'm a bad person."

Percy sighed. "You're not a bad person. You sacrificed a lot for him. He says you don't sacrifice things, but he really just meant that you don't have sex with him, which he doesn't really have a right to be upset over."

"You have no reason to be embarrassed, Annabeth. You did nothing wrong and you're better off without him. I promise you."

Annabeth forced a laugh. "I'm sorry you had to listen to that."

"You have no reason to be sorry." Percy kissed the top of her head. "Do you want to keep talking?"

Annabeth shook her head, sniffling. "Not right now."

Percy nodded his head, readjusting his grip on her. "I love you, Annabeth."

Annabeth relaxed in his arms. "I love you too."

•

Twelfth Grade

Senior year was exhausting.

Annabeth had so much going that she barely had time to breathe. She used to study for the SAT and the ACT for hours a week, praying that she got a score high enough to apply to the colleges she wanted. Thankfully, she submitted the applications and was waiting to find out where she'd be attending which meant no more testing.

Keeping her grades up senior year was no less difficult. Practically every class she took was AP level and she was drowning. She managed, but juggling her classes, the honor societies she was in, and her friends was nearing impossible.

At least she no longer had to deal with the drama that came with her boyfriend. Her and Luke hadn't been the same since their fight the previous year. They'd dated for another six months, but it just didn't work out in the end which led to the cheating scandal and breakup two weeks prior.

"What is your problem?" Luke screamed in her face.

Annabeth scoffed. "My problem?"

"Yes! I just got here and you're ready to attack me for nothing!"

Annabeth clenched her fist until her knuckles cracked. "You fucking cheated!"

Luke's eyes burned. "What are you talking about?"

"Why would you do it?"

"Do what!?"

"You're sleeping with Drew!"

Luke played it off. "You're being psychotic!"

Annabeth ignored his protests. "Is it because I don't put out as often as you want? You went after her because she'll open her legs for anything even resembling a dick?"

"I didn't cheat on you!"

Annabeth shoved his chest. "We both know you did."

"Prove it."

Annabeth laughed in disbelief. "Prove it?" She whipped out her phone from her back pocket. "Don't worry, babe. I'll prove it."

Luke rightly grew anxious.

"I got a lovely message from Drew." She held up her phone. "Pictures of your conversations, pictures of the two of you getting frisky."

Luke snarled. "And why would she give you any of that?"

"I don't know. The point is that she did."

Luke knew he was fucked.

"Annabeth," he said reaching for her fists.

She took a step back. "How could you?"

"Babe–"

"Don't touch me." A single tear fell from her eye. "I gave you everything, Luke. I put you before anyone, I trusted you, I gave you my virginity. Nothing is ever good enough for you."

"Please, Annabeth."

"I never would've done this to you."

"I messed up. I'm sorry."

"Why do I feel like you're more upset you got caught than that you did it?"

"I love you, Annabeth. I'm so sorry."

"I loved you. That love was lost a long time ago."

"Why are you doing this?"

Annabeth shook her head, not gracing him an answer. "Goodbye, Luke."

Annabeth had stormed out of the house before he could catch up to her. She ignored the words tumbling from his lips, terrified that if she listened, she'd go running back to him. Somehow, all at once, everything changed from that moment on.

Annabeth recalls the night of the breakup. She didn't cry for more than an hour. She got the tears out that needed to fall, but a part of her was relieved. With Luke, life just felt so frustrating all the time. It was small things that ruined her. She didn't even realize how much she hated being with Luke sometimes until it was over.

Life was still stressful, but it was no longer a product of being with Luke.

Annabeth sat at her desk, studying for a math test she had the day before. She was nearly pulling her hair out as she flipped through the packet of practice problems, so she decided to give herself a break.

She went into the bathroom that was connected to her room and pulled her hair up to wash her face, only to realize she had no hair tie resting around her wrist. She pulled open the cabinet below the sink to grab a tie, but her hand paused at the sight of the box sitting right in front of her. The unopened box.

Annabeth dropped her hair in shock, trying to recall the last time it had been. She traces over the weeks in her mind and realized that it had been over two months.

The box stood taunting Annabeth as though to say 'Surprise! I'm definitely not here and that's a problem!'

Annabeth cursed, panicking. Her and Luke weren't together anymore, and her dad would actually murder her if he found out she had been sexually active.

She was completely, inevitably screwed.

•

Percy was fast asleep at two in the morning. He didn't sleep at all the night before, so he almost didn't hear his phone going off in the godforsaken early hours of the morning.

Percy also almost didn't answer, considering he had a test the next day and really just wanted to sleep if it'll mean he's more prepared. He made the mistake of peeping at the caller ID anyways and then his guilt stopped him from letting it continue to ring.

"Hey," he spoke into the phone, yawning. "Everything okay?"

"I'm outside your house."

Percy opened one eye. "Why?"

"I need you to get dressed and come with me."

Percy sat up in his bed. "What's going on?"

"I'll explain on the way. Please, Percy."

Percy picked up on the anxiousness in her voice. "I'll be out in five minutes. Do I need to sneak out?"

"Yes. See you soon."

Annabeth hung up the phone and Percy stared at it for a few seconds before moving. He didn't know what was going on, but whatever it was seemed important. It had to be important to get him to sneak out at two in the morning.

Percy tugged on sweatpants and a school swim team hoodie that had his name printed across the back and slid into adidas shoes. He shoved his wallet into his pocket and walked down the hall, making sure to walk lightly across the wooden floor of his house and avoid any slabs he knew would squeak. He managed to make it to the front door without any real commotion.

He winced as he unlocked the door, the click resonating throughout the silent house. When he didn't hear his mom stirring, he pulled it open and shut it slowly behind him. He found Annabeth standing in his driveway.

"What do you need?" Percy approached her, barely illuminated by the streetlamps lining the road. He shoved his hands into his hoodie pocket.

Annabeth was biting her thumb nail. "I need you to go to the store with me."

Percy stopped in front of her. "I'll go, but what is this for?"

"I just didn't want to go alone. I couldn't go alone."

Percy didn't press any further. "We walking?"

Annabeth nodded. "It should only be a fifteen minute walk there."

Percy grabbed her hand from her mouth and laced their fingers together instead. She was shaking. "Do you feel like talking about this?"

Annabeth squeezed his hand. "I'll tell you when we get there."

Percy was growing worried. Something was really bothering her, but she didn't want to tell him, which made it even worse. The only thing we could do at that point was offer her comfort until she was comfortable enough to tell him.

The fifteen minute walk was completely silent. They didn't pass many cars on the way to the store so the road itself was deserted.

Eventually, Annabeth dragged him up to a Walgreens, the neon light illuminating the sidewalk red. She stopped outside the automatic doors and turned to Percy.

Percy stood in front of her, towering over her head. He raised an eyebrow. "Why'd we stop?"

Annabeth leaned her forehead onto his chest. "This is embarrassing. Promise you won't judge me?"

Percy rubbed her back. "I promise. Just tell me what I'm dealing with."

Annabeth lifted her head. "It's easier if I just show you." She led him into the store by the hand.

They were greeted briefly by the cashier who sounded as dead as the night sky. Annabeth waved in return and led Percy down a few aisles. Percy followed after her, still completely out of the loop.

"Annabeth," Percy started. "Where are you taking me?"

"It's this aisle here." Annabeth turned the corner and an array of pregnancy tests overwhelmed her sight.

Percy's eyes took in the rack of tests, and everything clicked into place.

"Annabeth."

Annabeth kept her eyes down, ashamed.

"Annabeth. Look at me."

She looked at him and her eyes immediately teared up.

"Are you…?" He didn't need to finish for Annabeth to get what he was saying.

"I don't know," Annabeth laughed wetly. "It's been two months."

Percy tilted his head. "Oh, Annabeth. Luke's?"

She closed her eyes and nodded.

Percy got closer and wrapped her in a tight hug. "You'll be okay."

Annabeth sank into the warmth of his arms. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

He pressed his lips to the top of her head. "We'll figure it out."

"We?"

"I'm not going to leave my best friend with something like this." Percy loosened his grip to look her in the eyes. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Take the test first, and then we'll figure out what comes next."

Percy dropped his arms and grabbed the test that looked the most reliable. "This work?"

"Yeah."

Percy grabbed another box for good measure and held them up. "Take these tonight, okay?"

Annabeth stared at the boxes, terrified. "I – Can you stay with me when I take it?"

Percy grabbed onto her hand again. "Of course. When we get back, you can do it in my bathroom." He tugged her hand. "Come on. Let's pay and go home."

Annabeth laced their fingers together again, still shaking uncontrollably.

Percy made his way to the cash register and set the two boxes down on the table. Annabeth stood behind him, pressing her face between his shoulder blades.

The cashier scanned the two boxes. "Total is 26.14."

Annabeth handed Percy a card that she pulled from her pocket, but he pushed it away. "I got it," he told her, grabbing his own wallet and pulling out his own card.

"Thank you," she whispered into his back.

Percy took the plastic bag from the cashier and smiled in thanks. He wrapped his arm around her waist, and they started the trek home.

The cashier called out a "Good luck, you two," and neither Percy nor Annabeth bothered correcting him. They had much bigger problems going on right now.

The wind began blowing harder as they were about halfway back home. Annabeth shivered in the chilling breeze and Percy took notice.

"You want my jacket?"

Annabeth shook her head and caressed her own arms instead. "I'm okay."

Percy took off his jacket anyways and handed it to her. He wasn't really cold, anyways.

"Thanks," Annabeth said softly, stopping to pull the hoodie over her head.

She breathed in the scent of the jacket. It smelled clean and like the ocean. It smelled like Percy. It smelled like home.

She took a look at Percy out of the corner of her eye. He wore a black tshirt that was tight against his muscles. His black hair blew in the breeze and she wanted nothing more than to run her hands through it.

"I'm sorry for dragging you with me."

Percy shrugged. "Don't be sorry. I'm glad you trusted me enough to take me."

"Of course I trust you. You're my best friend."

"And you're mine." Percy got closer to her and grabbed her by the waist again. They walked the rest of the way in silence.

They reached his house again five minutes later and Percy slowly pushed the door open, praying he wouldn't find his mom sitting on the couch expectantly.

"All clear," he whispered. He pressed his hand to her back as she crossed the threshold. "My room."

Annabeth slowly made her way to his room as he followed behind her with the plastic bag. Percy set the bag on his bed and took one of the boxes out. Annabeth grabbed it and peeled the box open, grabbing the instructions to read over them.

Percy's fingers pulled one of the tests out of the box and turned it over in his hands. It was still in the plastic wrapping, so Annabeth let him look at it.

"I just need to pee on this end and wait three minutes."

"How will you know?"

"It'll have a positive or negative sign in the hole part."

Percy sat on his bed. "I'll wait out here."

Annabeth grabbed two of the three tests sitting in the box and took them with her to the bathroom, shutting the door cautiously. She peeled the plastic open on the both of them and took the caps off.

"Do you need a cup?" Percy asked through the door.

Annabeth managed a fond smile. "I think I'm okay."

She looked over the instructions one last time and followed them carefully, nearly dropping one of the tests in the toilet. She recovered the tests and set them down on the sink's counter to set a timer on her phone. She left her phone on the sink and walked back into Percy's room.

"All good?"

Annabeth exhaled. "All good."

Percy pat the bed beside him. "Come sit."

Annabeth followed his instructions. "Why am I sitting?"

"I feel like you need a hug." Percy pulled her closer, nearly onto his lap, and wrapped his arms around her. "You okay?"

Annabeth snuggled into Percy's arms. "As okay as I can be."

"Are you going to tell anyone?"

"Not unless it's positive, no."

"What about Luke?"

Annabeth made a face. "He's done enough."

Percy pressed his cheek against the top of her head. "You need to go to the doctor. Even if you're not, there's something up with not getting your period for two months."

"I will." Annabeth managed a laugh. "Only you could talk to me about this and not make it weird."

"Well, I've been the love of your life, what, twelve years now?" he asked jokingly.

"Thirteen," she corrected.

"That's so long to know someone."

Annabeth meant to say something but was distracted by the alarm going off in the bathroom. Her demeanor fell and she tilted her head up to look at Percy behind her. Percy looked at her adoringly.

"You want me to check for you?"

Annabeth breathed out a long breath. "No, it's okay. I'll get it."

She stood up slowly, missing the warmth of Percy's body the second she did so. She walked the few steps to the bathroom and looked down at the plastic stick. The stick seemed to stare into Annabeth's soul, stopping her heart but making it race all at once.

She stayed in Percy's line of vision as she reached for one of the sticks, glancing at the result, and then grabbing the next one. Annabeth's shoulder's fell.

She dropped the tests back onto the sink, facing Percy.

"Negative."

Percy breathed a sigh of relief, pressing a hand to his chest. "You scared me there."

Annabeth grabbed her phone and slid it into her pocket again. "I'm sorry."

Percy shook his head and stood up to meet her halfway across his room. "You okay?"

Annabeth initiated the hug this time. "You've asked that a lot."

"The situation is a lot." Percy swayed her back and forth in the hug. "Are you?"

Annabeth breathed in his scent and warmth came over her. "I'm okay."

Percy looked at his wall to find the time. "It's three in the morning. You should probably go home before your parents realize you're gone."

"Probably." She pulled away. "Thank you for coming with me. I really needed you there."

"Of course, Annabeth." Percy walked to his door and held out his hand for her to follow. She did. "Need me to walk you home? It a little far."

Annabeth shook her head as they made their way to the front. "I'll be okay. You need to go to sleep."

Percy opened the front door for her and leaned against the wooden border. "Call me if you need anything."

Annabeth nodded and opened her mouth to respond but her eyes caught something over his shoulder. "Percy…"

Percy looked over his shoulder and Sally was standing in the living room with her arms crossed expectantly. He turned back to Annabeth. "Just go. I'll handle it."

Annabeth hesitated. "But the tests…"

"I'll get rid of them, don't worry."

Annabeth looked at him sympathetically. "Thank you."

Percy pulled her in for one final embrace. "Don't worry about it."

"I love you."

"I love you more."

Annabeth pulled away first. She wiggled her fingers in a wave and then made her way down the driveway, leaving Percy to deal with the wrath of Sally.

•

Annabeth laid awake the rest of the night, her mind too busy wandering over the events of the last few hours. Something about the whole night felt different, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

Her mind kept circling back to Percy. She felt so lucky to have Percy by her side. He didn't even hesitate to follow her into New York City at the latest hours of the night. He made her feel warm and at home; he was her comfort, and –

It dawned on her.

She was in love with Percy.

Percy was someone who was always there for her. Ever since they met, Percy put Annabeth before himself. He never failed to make her feel loved; he never failed to care for her. She doesn't know when it happened. She supposes it was always there in some form.

In fifth grade when she was crying, and he dropped everything to make her feel comfortable.

In sixth grade when she was scared of losing him, he made her feel so loved.

In seventh grade under the fireworks when there was no where she'd rather be.

In eighth grade when she didn't know who else to go to.

In ninth grade when she didn't know what to do and he figured it out with her.

In tenth grade when he stayed by her side even when no one else did.

In eleventh grade when she ventured into the darkness and he was there to help her find her way out.

In twelfth grade when she thought everything was over and he promised to stay by her side.

She was inevitably, unmistakably in love with him.

•

Annabeth slid into the table beside Percy, dropping her bag to the ground. "What are we talking about?"

Percy jumped, immediately shutting off his conversation with Piper.

Annabeth looked at him weird.

Piper laughed and glanced around the room before falling on Rachel. "We're talking about Rachel."

Annabeth tilted her head. "Dare?"

"Mhm."

Annabeth looked to Percy. "Why are we talking about her?"

Percy appeared lost and looked at Piper for help. Piper took pity on him.

"He likes her."

Annabeth's heart tugged painfully in her chest. Keeping her recent revelation a secret had been alarmingly difficult.

Percy scoffed and glared at Piper. "That's not— Big help, Piper."

Piper shrugged and started typing away on her phone.

Annabeth looked hurt. "Why does Piper know that and not me?"

"She's just messing with you. I don't like Rachel..."

"Then what were you talking about?"

Percy looked stuck. "We were talking about her. Just not about that specifically."

Annabeth wanted to keep prodding, but Percy cut her off.

"Look, it's not important. Let's just drop it."

Annabeth nibbled on her lower lip. "Fine."

Annabeth realized he looked almost embarrassed. Whatever Piper and Percy were talking about was clearly important and Annabeth couldn't imagine why he would hide the conversation from her.

It had been happening more and more often, actually. Ever since the night she had the scare, Percy had been treating her differently. She tried to rub it off her back, but it was easier said than done. That is exactly what motivated her to continue asking about Rachel later that day.

"So," Annabeth started, leaning in. "You like Rachel?"

Percy groaned and continued chewing his sandwich. "I thought we went over this."

"Yeah, well, I don't believe you, so."

"Why don't you eat your lunch and leave me alone?"

"Fine." Annabeth stabbed her salad with a fork and watched as Percy took a sip of his juice. "Did you sleep with her?"

Percy choked on his juice. "Fuck, Annabeth."

"Same thing."

"No, that is not what I meant."

"Did you? Is that why you look embarrassed?"

"I look embarrassed because you're embarrassing me!"

"Tell me. Did you two do the dance with no pants?"

"I would've told you if Rachel and I had sex." Percy took another bite of his sandwich.

"Then what were you talking about this morning?"

"I told you. It's nothing."

"It's clearly not nothing or you'd tell me." Annabeth pointed her fork at him. "Does she think she's pregnant with your baby like I thought I was pregnant with Luke's baby?"

Percy nearly choked on his sandwich this time. "Fucking Christ, Annabeth!" His face turned red and Annabeth could sense his patience wearing thin and anger rising by the second.

"Just tell me," she whined.

Percy stood up abruptly and slammed his hands on the table making several heads stare their way. "Maybe you should stop being nosy and mind your own goddamn business!"

Percy grabbed his bag and stormed away, leaving his food behind. Annabeth flushed under the intense gazes of people watching the commotion. She picked at her food embarrassed, smiling awkwardly at the table in front of hers.

•

"I'm sorry."

Annabeth jumped from her position at her white desk in her room. She turned around and Percy stood in her doorway with his hands stuffed awkwardly into his jean pockets.

"How'd you get in here?"

"Uh." He pointed over his shoulder. "Your dad let me in."

"Oh."

Percy entered her room and sat on the side of the bed closest to her. "I'm sorry about today. I was a bit of an asshole."

Annabeth tried to make an excuse. "No, it's my fault for being pushy."

"You were just playing me with me. I had no reason to yell at you like that."

"It's okay."

"It's not really." Percy kicked her foot playfully. "I promise I don't like Rachel like that at all. Piper was teasing that I did, and I just didn't want you to hear it."

Annabeth smiled. "I get it. Some things are your business and you don't owe me anything."

Percy squinted an eye. "It's not that. It's just…"

Annabeth nodded for him to go on.

"Nothing. I just wanted to say I'm sorry and I shouldn't have yelled at you like that."

Annabeth smiled tightly. She knew Percy well enough to know that he was hiding something. She wanted to press on, but he clearly didn't want her to know whatever it was.

"It's okay."

Percy straightened. "So we're good?"

"We're good."

•

College admissions were coming out really soon and Annabeth was nearly bouncing off the walls. Both her and Percy had agreed to attend NYU and they were fairly sure they'd at least get into that school. Of course, they applied for a few more to be safe, but they were dead set on going to the same school.

On the day that college decisions came out, their county was on Spring Break, so Percy and Annabeth were on facetime refreshing their emails.

"Have you gotten anything?"

Annabeth refreshed her email again. "Not yet."

Percy keyboard smashed. "They told us it would be out at noon!"

Annabeth refreshed and a new email popped up that nearly stopped her heart. "Oh my god, I just got an email—"

Percy perked up.

"And it wasn't the school," she finished.

"Don't scare me like that. It's cruel."

Annabeth laughed, refreshing again. "You did it to me like five times in the last twenty minutes."

"Well, that's different because I can do it to you, but you can't do it to me."

Annabeth bit her lip and shook her head, amused. "That's a bit— It's up!"

Percy squawked.

A new email popped up in her inbox and the subject was 'NYU Admissions.' Annabeth didn't hesitate to click it open and read the first line.

[To Annabeth Chase]

Dear Annabeth Chase,

Congratulations! On behalf of New York University, we are pleased to announce your admission to the class of 2020!

"I got in!" Annabeth screamed.

Percy whooped. "Me too!'

Annabeth was grinning ear to ear. She read the letter over again. "We just got accepted to NYU!"

Percy squealed ecstatic and Annabeth laughed at him. "We're going to NYU together! This has been our dream for years!"

Annabeth took a picture of the email she received. "I'm so proud of us!"

Percy clicked around on his computer. "It feels unreal."

Annabeth's email automatically refreshed and something else caught her eye. "Wait a second…"

Percy's smile fell at her tone. "What is it?"

"I just got another email."

"From who?"

Annabeth clicked on the email from a different school. "Dear Annabeth Chase, we are pleased to inform you that you have been admitted to class of 2020 at Cornell University…"

Percy went silent. "What?"

Annabeth's mouth fell open. "I just got accepted to Cornell!"

"I heard that part. You're not actually going, though?"

Annabeth read further into the email. "I don't know. I mean, this is Cornell. They have the top architecture program in the country."

Percy's tone grew sharp. "I didn't even know you applied to Cornell."

"We both applied to a few others. This is just one of them…" Annabeth said distracted.

"You told me we would go to NYU together," Percy said sharply.

That got Annabeth's attention.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't plan on getting accepted to Cornell."

"Obviously it was in your head somewhere because you applied there."

Annabeth smiled nervously. "I'm sorry. I didn't think I'd actually get in."

"Of course not."

"Are you mad at me for getting in?"

Percy bit his lip. "No. I'm just surprised. Congratulations, I guess."

"Percy…"

"Listen, I have to go. We'll talk later."

"Percy—"

Percy ended the video call before she could get another word in. She tried to call him back, but he didn't answer his phone that time, or the next five times she called him. She didn't know what was going on. Yeah, they'd planned on going to NYU together, but going to Cornell would be an amazing opportunity. She'd be stupid not to go.

Annabeth kept trying to call and text him, but he never one answered her. He didn't even open any of the messages she sent.

After another missed call, Annabeth threw her phone across the room. Tears were springing up in her eyes, but she felt more anger than sadness. Annabeth should've been over the moon about the acceptances, but Percy was making her feel like a piece of shit for caring about her future. She'd never react the way Percy had if he got accepted to his dream college.

Annabeth eventually came to the conclusion that Percy just didn't want to talk to her. He didn't answer her calls for the next few days and she figured she wouldn't end up talking to him until after break ended.

Annabeth could deal with being ignored, but when it came from Percy, it hurt just as much as a bullet to her heart.

•

Spring Break had finally ended, and Annabeth was ready for school so she could show up and kick Percy's ass. However, that didn't go as planned considering Percy decided to ignore her every chance he got.

When Annabeth sat down next to him during lunch, he immediately stood, muttering something about going to make up a test. A lame excuse since it was the first day back and there hadn't been any tests to make up in the first place.

Piper raised an eyebrow and watched as Percy trailed away from the table. "What was that about?"

Annabeth ran both her hands through her hair. "You know as well as I do."

Jason tilted his head. "Did something happen over break?"

"I got accepted to Cornell."

Jason's jaw dropped. "Congratulations! That's amazing!"

"Not that amazing. Percy didn't like the idea of me going to Cornell. I'd feel better about it if Percy was just happy for me."

Piper pouted her lower lip. "I'm sorry, babe."

"It is what it is."

Leo butted in. "I mean, Percy did— Ow!"

Piper had kicked Leo's shin under the table.

Annabeth looked to Leo. "Percy what?"

Leo pressed his lips together in pain. "Nothing," he strained.

"No, tell me!"

Piper sighed. "Listen, hon. Percy's probably just feeling upset that you told him one thing and did another."

She scoffed. "I didn't plan on it."

"I know that, but it was a much bigger deal to Percy. His future you two have been planning for years just changed in front of his eyes. Give him some time to get used to the idea; he'll come around."

Annabeth nodded once, pursing her lips slightly. "That's bullshit."

"Annabeth."

"No! I don't deserve for him to treat me like shit just because he's sad I won't be at the same college! It's not like I'm flying across the country."

"We know that, but it doesn't feel like that to Percy," Jason said.

"It's not fair to me."

"Go talk to Percy." Piper hesitated. "There may be more to it than you going to another college."

"Like what?"

"I can't tell you that. It's not my place."

"Well, you just made it your place, so go ahead."

"I can't. You need to talk to him."

•

Annabeth banged on Percy's front door incessantly. "Open this fucking door!"

No response.

"I know you're in there! I tracked your phone, so open it before I break your window!"

When he still didn't answer, Annabeth resumed pounding on the wood.

Annabeth prepared to bang on it one more time for good measure, but it swung open in front of her before she got the chance.

Sally blinked at her.

"Hey," Annabeth breathed, definitely not expecting Sally. "Where's Percy?"

"In his room. Is everything alright?"

Annabeth pushed past Sally, calling over her shoulder, "Everything's great!"

Annabeth stomped to Percy's room and practically ripped the door off its hinges. She was about to give this boy a piece of her mind, or at least a give him a few good knocks on the head.

"Percy!" she snapped at him.

Percy looked up startled. "How'd you—"

Annabeth stormed up to him. "What is your problem?"

Percy's brows furrowed. "What?"

"You heard me. What. Is. Your. Problem?" Annabeth poked his chest with every word.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Are you even convincing yourself? You've been ignoring me ever since I got accepted to Cornell!"

"Not intentionally."

"Yes, you have been. What is it?"

Percy stayed silent.

"Tell me!" she screamed, shoving him backwards.

"Stop it!"

"What? Are you just trying to draw me away now?"

"No!"

Annabeth kept on going. "Are you disgusted that about the Luke situation? Figured it's better to get rid of me now?"

She pushed him again.

"Ever since that night, you've been terrible to me!" she sobbed. "Screaming at me about Rachel, making me not want to go to my dream college! I don't know what it is, but just tell me because I can't take it anymore!"

Percy's face started tinting red. "You can't take it!?"

"Everything you do confuses me! I don't know what I can and can't say anymore!"

"Try having your whole future crumbling before your own eyes!"

"What's that even supposed to mean!?"

"You built this dream with the two of us. You made me adhere to this dream and within a second, you decide that you're too good for it? That I'm not worth it? You teared everything down in less than a second," he gritted through his teeth.

"You're supposed to be my best friend! You're supposed to support me!"

"I can't support you anymore! All I ever do is support you!"

Annabeth felt like she'd been slapped. "Is this about Luke? It all comes back to that night?"

"I tried, Annabeth. I fucking tried."

"I'm not the only person who's had sex here! It could've been you just as easily!"

"I didn't fall in love with someone else!"

"What are you even talking about!?"

"Everything! You're leaving me to go to another college! You fell in love with Luke and nearly had his baby!"

"But I didn't! I don't get it! Why is this such a big deal!?"

"Because I'm in love with you!"

Annabeth froze and forgot everything she had wanted to say.

"How could you not realize?"

Her mind races. He's in love with her. He's in love with her.

"I've been in love with you for years."

/

"I don't know what I'm going to do."

He pressed his lips to the top of her head. "We'll figure it out."

"We?"

"I'm not going to leave my best friend with something like this."

/

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be."

"I promise I won't leave you like before."

"I know you won't. I trust you."

/

"I'm glad you trusted me enough to take me."

"Of course I trust you. You're my best friend."

"And you're mine."

/

"Percy's practically in love with you."

"He's not."

/

"Only you could talk to me about this and not make it weird."

"Well, I've been the love of your life, what, twelve years now?" he asked jokingly.

"Thirteen."

/

Percy's in love with Annabeth.

Annabeth knows she's in love with Percy too.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Is there ever a good time to tell your best friend you're in love with them?"

"You've been in love with me for years?"

"I didn't know it was happening until it was too late."

"You should've told me."

Percy sank back. "I didn't want to destroy us."

Annabeth's heart beats. She wants to reassure him; she wants to tell him a million things.

Percy stares at Annabeth. Grey eyes clash with green.

Annabeth surges forwards and grabs his face, pressing her lips to his. Annabeth wraps her arms around his neck, his arm tighten around her waist, and she feels lightheaded.

Here she is, kissing her best friend. Her heart beats for him, and it always has. She's been destroyed for everyone except him ever since she first laid eyes on him all those years ago in kindergarten.

She recalls every moment Percy has made her feel loved. He was the person she could go to for anything. Every year of her life, she fell in love with him a little bit more. Her heart soars.

Annabeth knows she's in love with her best friend.

She also knows her best friend is in love with her.

There are a million things she wants to tell him.

Only these words come out.

"I'm in love with you too."

•

I have many things to say about this. First and foremost, I hate it. I've been writing this for almost a year now and I just couldn't take it anymore. Second, I know there are a few details not necessarily in accordance to the series and tense switches, so let's just pretend they're not there. Third, I hope the end isn't too rushed, but I just wanted it to be over. Parts inspired by Greys Anatomy and title from The Greatest Showman. (and in case a certain someone ever reads this: did you see that astrophysics line I slipped in there?) Anyways, review if you enjoyed! -j