Note: My attempt at a PJO cliche. I hope I do Rick Riordan's characters justice ;) Get ready for a dark and twisty ride with a few bumps of fluff on the way so...LET'S DO THIS!

A PROLOGUE OF SORTS

Sea green eyes stared haplessly at the crisp, off-white pages of the textbook that lay despondent on his table. The words blurred out of focus as his mind wandered, filling with more interesting, less grammatically challenging thoughts. Maybe the cafeteria was serving pizza for lunch today? Fat chance of that happening, he mused to himself. Not only did his new school have a harsher curriculum, they also firmly believed that all food deemed 'unhealthy' was banned from the premises. Pity, he could use a Dr. Pepper right about now...

"Mr. Jackson?"

"Huh?" Percy replied articulately. Embarrassment tinged his cheeks as he recognized his teacher's quipped voice. Hurriedly glancing back down to read a sentence off his text he gulped, Shakespeare never made sense to him. Had she asked him a question or something? "Um...yes?"

Sighing, Ms. Poly M. Nia the Literature teacher turned to the rest of her class and motioned for them to leave for lunch. "Ms. Chase, could I have a word with you?"

Percy inched his books and binder slowly towards himself. Maybe Ms. Nia would be too preoccupied with bashing Annabeth and forget about him? Come to think of it, what problem would the teacher have with one of the biggest bookworms in class?

"Mr. Jackson this concerns you as well," Ms. Nia declared to the still seated boy as Annabeth navigated through chairs and tables. "About your current marks in my class..."

Oh great, the try-harder-in-my-class-I-know-you-can-do-better speech.

"You don't seem to be improving so I've come up with a solution for your predicament," she continued, forgoing any niceties or preamble. Well, the bluntness was kind of refreshing. Ms. Nia waited for Annabeth to come closer before adding, "I'm assigning you a peer tutor. Ms. Chase would be delighted to help you through the wonders of the written art."

"Peer tutor?" Percy choked out. She was kidding right? His grades weren't that bad were they?

"I'm sure the two of you will make this arrangement work," she said as she herded them towards the door. "Ms. Chase this will count as extra credit and will raise your average up significantly. That is, if you can get Mr. Jackson to improve in his studies. Well, that's all I wanted to talk to you two about. Go on, it's time for lunch."

And with that they were shoved out of the room.

Annabeth sighed deeply as she hefted her bag up. She ran a hand through her tousled blonde ponytail before fixing Percy with an exasperated stare. "I guess we're stuck together then."

"Yeah," he mumbled back. "So...how do you want to do this? Are we meeting up after school?"

"Not today, I'm meeting up with someone important," she replied as they walked towards their lockers.

"Ok then, what about tomorrow?" Percy offered, remembering that they had a test on 'significant symbolisms' coming up.

"Can't," she answered. She chewed on her bottom lip, as if she was mulling something over in her head, before adding. "Actually, I'm pretty much tied up for this entire week."

What? But it the test was on Monday! That was only three days away...and that was including the weekend! Deciding to be civil about it, Percy nodded in strained nonchalance. "That's okay, I guess I'll just grit my way through the next test like I always do."

"Great," she murmured, stormy gray eyes clouding over. "Though Ms. Nia will probably be expecting some kind of improvement by then. Sorry, but just do the best you can; I'll go over everything with you when I'm free."

Percy groaned silently... a few more hours of poring over Sparknotes and staring at his copy of Idiot's Guide to Shakespeare, just perfect. "So what's got you so busy anyway?"

"Someone's visiting," Annabeth chirped, a smile spreading on her face. "I haven't seen him in almost three months now."

"Oh, an old friend of yours?" Percy asked as they paused at a fork in the hall. His locker was down one end and hers in the other.

"Nope, he's my boyfriend."

Note: Whatcha all think? Please don't give up on this story yet PERCABETH-ers! They'll get together...eventually. Reviews are loved~ cya all next week!