High School AU in which the children of the two opposing sides of an ancient rivalry find they have much more in common than they first expected. And as hard as they try, they can't resist what's happening between them. Percy/Annabeth, Leo/Nico(/Calypso), slight Piper/Jason(/Reyna) and Hazel/Frank

Chapter One: Percy Meets His New Tutor

Percy Jackson hated his dyslexia.

Mr Brunner had been his teacher for the majority of his sophomore year and this was in itself both a good and a bad thing. Good, because Mr Brunner never made Percy feel inadequate even when he couldn't understand half of what he was supposed to be learning from the textbook. Bad, because Mr Brunner had a certain look about him, that when Percy got another F- on a weekly pop quiz, made him feel like a major screw up.

Mr Brunner didn't embarrass him; instead of calling him out in front of the whole class, he simply stopped by his desk and said in a low tone, "I'll see you after class?"

Percy slumped down in his chair and huffed.

The class ended and Percy made sure he took his time packing away his things, even when his best friend Grover Underwood tapped his shoulder and exclaimed, "Come on, man, they're serving enchiladas today!"

Percy inwardly groaned – even if he didn't like them as much as Grover did, he liked enchiladas as much as the next kid – and swung his backpack over his shoulder; he was aware Mr Brunner was tapping his pencil expectantly on his desk from the front of the room.

"I'll meet you in a bit," Percy said, "I just need to collect something."

He knew that Grover knew about his academic problems, but he never said anything about them. Now was one of those times. He nodded, glanced helplessly at Mr Brunner and then walked out – slowly, because he still had a limp from an old accident and had to rely on a walking stick.

Mr Brunner waited until Grover was gone to address Percy, who was twitching in anticipation. His mind was spinning with all different scenarios. Would Mr Brunner call his mom again? Would he make him take one of those workshops after school which never ever worked? Would he make him take a class with freshmen?

Instead, Mr Brunner said, "I think we need to get you a tutor."

"A tutor?" Percy repeated. "Like that lady who helps Grover with his Spanish?"

Mr Brunner stared at him blankly, and Percy wondered whether or not he was supposed to say that. "Perseus," his teacher said, and he flinched at the mention of his full name, which was only ever used when Percy was being uncooperative. "I think you need to take this a little more seriously."

"I am taking this seriously," Percy protested, although he would admit he snickered a little at the thought of Grover bragging about having a really hot tutor when all Percy had was Mr Brunner who occasionally gave him lunchtime recaps. He wondered what his tutor would be like, and how Grover would react.

"I know it's hard for you," Mr Brunner was saying. Percy almost wanted to tune him out, because everybody from his mother to Grover had said this to him a dozen times. He'd heard the lectures and the pitiful pep talks but he never got anything from them except annoyance.

Mr Brunner scribbled on a piece of paper and handed it to him. Percy looked down at it, momentarily distracted and said, "Huh? What for?"

His teacher narrowed his eyes and sighed. "I just told you. The classroom number and name of your tutor."

"Oh," Percy said.

"She knows you're coming, by the way, so I wouldn't recommend meeting Grover yet. She's not somebody you want to disappoint."

"Wait, I have to go now? What about lunch? I'm starving!"

"You're always starving," Mr Brunner noted, and then he slipped his glasses onto his nose. He might've frowned a little. "It's the only time she's available, and she'll only keep you for a little while. She has lots of other students who need her help, so you're lucky to get this opportunity."

"Right, right." Percy sighed. Well, he'd better be going. He didn't want to disappoint somebody else – at least without meeting them first. He waved goodbye to Mr Brunner and left, feeling slightly bummed out that he wouldn't be meeting Grover for enchiladas until later on. He hoped his best friend knew to save him a few.

He walked on through the halls of his high school, kicking a piece of crumbled paper along the way. He hoped his tutor would go easy on him; really, with having ADHD as well as dyslexia, it was hard for him to pay attention even in one-on-one lessons. It wasn't just his reading that was the problem.

He reached the classroom, which was unfairly situated right next to the cafeteria, so he could smell the food. It would be so hard to focus on learning with that there, but at least he didn't have to run from Africa to get to the cafeteria. Maybe it would even motivate him.

In his food-centered thoughts, he barely realised he was standing in the doorway of the classroom, his hand raised to knock on a door that had since been opened. A tall, burly girl with dirty blonde hair and a horribly ugly snarl glared at him, and he tried for his winning smirk. (Usually, it looked more like a confused grimace, but nobody ever told him this.)

With no luck, as usual, the girl barged past him, cursing, sending him flying through the doorway and banging his leg on a table. In the few seconds that it had happened, a blonde girl who had been leaning over a table looked up, a look of pure distaste on her face.

"Clarisse was that really – oh. Percy Jackson."

Percy was staring. The blonde girl had a deep tan and looked vaguely familiar, but it was her eyes that both scared and hypnotised him. A startling gray, they were narrowed in his direction, looking like she was studying him on a battlefield. He could almost see her mind whirling with thoughts of dislike towards him already. She was really pretty, but pretty frightening too.

"Uh, hey," he said. He wanted to reach down and rub the sore spot on his leg where the mean girl had banged him into the table – which sent a few stationary pieces flying – but he was wringing his hands together instead, nervous.

Completely ignoring him, the girl looked down and carried on helping somebody work out what looked like a complicated math equation. Percy wondered, amused, whether or not Ms. Dodds was his teacher – if so, he was majorly screwed. The woman, if you could call her that, was the scariest living thing he had ever met, with a strange liking to picking on teenagers.

"Hi," Percy tried again. "So should I just sit here or–"

Slowly, the girl looked up. She was glaring again. Great. Percy had already managed to screw up – although he wasn't quite sure what he'd done wrong – and he'd only been there a good five minutes.

She sighed, and instructed the boy she was helping to close his math book, saying loudly that she'd have to help him another time and sorry for the interruption. However, Percy noticed cockily that the boy gave him a look of thankfulness. Glad to know he wasn't the only one scared in there.

"Well?" the girl said once the door swung shut behind her other student. "Are you going to stand up for the whole session or are you going to sit down so I can help you?"

Rude, Percy thought, but all he did was sit down at one of the front desks and drag out his English book hopefully.

With what seemed to be amusement, the girl, who reached from behind her ear to pull out a pen, looked down at the book. "You need help finding Nemo?"

"What?"

Dazed, Percy looked down and saw that, sure enough, he hadn't pulled out his English book but his school planner where he kept his timetable and homework schedule. On the front, his friend Piper had plastered a large sticker of Nemo the clownfish. Percy felt a lot like a clown at this moment.

"It's an inside joke. I'm captain of the swim team," he said, but he felt like he was blushing a lot.

Thankfully, the girl didn't seem much like the joker type, and she pulled out a chair to sit opposite him. "I'm Annabeth Chase," she said, "but I trust Mr Brunner has already told you that."

Percy remembered that on the little piece of paper from his teacher, Annabeth's name was written, but that piece of paper was in his schoolbag and he'd forgotten straight away. "Percy Jackson," he told her, "but you already know that. Brunner told me he told you."

"Yeah." Annabeth frowned for whatever reason. "Brunner – I mean, Mr Brunner" – she looked at Percy disapprovingly – "told me. Sure."

Percy felt a chill rise up his neck. Annabeth was acting weird, and though he wasn't brilliant at reading people, he had a feeling she was hiding something from him. But, as soon as the feeling appeared, Annabeth shook her head and her natural expression returned.

"Put Nemo away," she ordered. "We have work to do."

...

He sat with Annabeth for longer than he'd liked – and expected – and after a while he was starting to feel tired. Annabeth had asked if there was anything Percy really struggled on. He said yes, and pulled out his Latin book, which was the other class Mr Brunner taught him besides English. He didn't want to admit that he struggled with anything – really, Annabeth had stacks of books on her desk and he wanted to impress her with all his knowledge – but she could tell when he was bluffing.

"Nah. I'm actually really good at algebra and – what are you doing?"

Annabeth pencilled in 'algebra' on the mock timetable they were making. Annabeth was writing whatever subjects Percy struggled on most, and so far they were most of them. At least P.E. wasn't there. He felt smug knowing that he was actually very athletic, even though Annabeth appeared it too. Whatever, he thought.

"I thought I said I didn't need help on math."

Annabeth sighed. "Percy, I'm sorry, but looking through your math book is hard for me. It seems dyslexia isn't your only problem."

Percy had been slumping in his chair while Annabeth wrote. Of course she knew everything, that much was clear even in the short amount of time they'd known each other, but he tried to call her out on things occasionally, which only made her appear to hate him more.

He thought about this as finally, finally, Annabeth packed away her things and tightened her messy ponytail which had fallen looser over the course of the tutoring session. Percy gripped his pen tight, searching for a last minute opportunity to own Annabeth, when she turned and addressed him.

"So we'll meet every lunch–"

"After I've eaten–"

"Don't interrupt me, Seaweed Brain. We'll meet here and for each marked day you'll bring the appropriate textbook for that lesson. Am I clear?"

"Crystal," Percy said obediently, although he was still a little miffed he couldn't find something that he was better than Annabeth at. Maybe over the course of the next few weeks or however long these sessions where to go on he would find something.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Alright. See you tomorrow then."

"See you."

Just as he was leaving, another kid in his grade walked in and waved to Annabeth, who smiled at him. Percy left, wondering why it was him who Annabeth – should he call her Ms. Chase? – didn't like. Had he really offended her when he bumped into the table? That, to be fair to him, wasn't his fault. Clarisse La Rue, who had had it out for him since they were freshmen, was the one at fault there.

At least he still had half an hour of lunch left to enjoy enchiladas with his friends. Pushing open the door, he went over to his typical table where Grover and a bunch of other kids in their year sat, chatting over empty trays. He walked up, stomach rumbling in anticipation, when Grover looked up and frowned.

"And just where have you been?"

"Getting my butt handed to me by a girl by the name of Annabeth Chase," he answered, sitting down and unfolding a foil-wrapped enchilada Piper had just handed to him.

Leo Valdez, who was constructing little pipe-cleaner airplanes and making them fly across an impressive length of the cafeteria, whistled lowly. His curly black hair was mussed with oil, as usual, and his impish grin implied he'd recently gotten away with a great prank that Percy had no doubt he'd start telling him all about soon.

"What?" he asked through a mouth full of enchilada. He wasn't really talking to Leo as much as he was Grover and Piper, who were giving him impressed/worried looks.

"You don't know Annabeth Chase?" Piper asked with a little laugh. Percy shook his head.

"Should I? Did she win the spelling bee last year?"

"Probably," Leo said. "She's, like, a total genius. But does anybody even care about those types of things? I think not."

Piper rolled her eyes. "Leo, you know Grover competed in one of those."

"In third grade!" Grover said. "And I only didn't win because of that little Puerto Rican girl. What was her name?"

"Who cares?" Leo said. "She competed in a spelling bee. She's obviously not cool enough to know the name of."

"Leo!" Piper said.

At the same time, Percy looked between his friends, annoyed. Couldn't they just give him a simple answer? He didn't care about spelling bees – although the idea of Grover competing in one was pretty hilarious – all he wanted to know about was why Annabeth Chase was such a big deal.

Piper noticed him looking lost and gave him a sympathetic pat on the hand. "She's just not one of us, Percy," she said, which didn't explain anything, but gave him enough ground to stand on.

"So that means she can't tutor me? We have plans for the rest of the week at least."

"Good luck," Leo said as one of his latest airplanes landed on the hairnet of a dinner lady. He snickered, looking to the table innocently, even though it was clear by a mile who was the culprit and he knew it.

"You'll need it," Grover added.

Percy felt defeated. "Pipes?"

"Ignore them losers," she said, hitting her two friends upside the head, earning two low groans from each of them. "Annabeth's nice and you'll be fine. In fact, she lives near me. Sometimes she gets my bus."

Percy thought about that, even after lunch had finished. Piper was rich, albeit not Drew Tanaka rich but more humble and even embarrassed at her wealth. She hated it. But that was a long story. If Annabeth lived near Piper, who lived in a gated community, did that mean Annabeth was rich too? Is that what Piper meant when she said Annabeth wasn't like him?

But she'd said us...

As he walked into the hallway, the final bell ringing, his last math class of the week behind him, he spotted his friends Beckendorf and Jake and relaxed a little bit. Who knew tutoring could make him so tense?

"Jackson!" Jake called obnoxiously loudly, raising his hand for a high five. Beckendorf rolled his eyes, but crushed Percy in a one-armed hug.

"Ready to be slaughtered at practise?" Jake asked, ringing his calloused hands. Really, Jake didn't excel at athletics and Percy was the real star athlete, but they liked to kid around. Same way Percy didn't know anything about building and engineering and mechanics like Jake and Beckendorf did.

Will Solace, another jock, walked up to join them, and they settled into their usual relaxed mode. Distracted, Percy glanced to his right to wave at Rachel Elizabeth Dare, one of his closest friends, but instead locked eyes with Annabeth Chase.

As fast as lightning, Annabeth looked away, crossing her arms. Percy cocked his head to one side, still watching her, watching as she smiled at something Silena Beauregard was gushing about. Probably Beckendorf.

On that note, Beckendorf slipped out of the conversation and tapped Percy's shoulder, which shouldn't have hurt but with his huge hands hurt a lot. Percy rubbed it, finally looking away, while realising why Beckendorf was so tense and uptight all of a sudden and –

"Oh, no, man. Not Silena." Percy shook his head, and then cleared his throat. How should he put it? Telling Grover and the others was fine, but Beckendorf and Will and especially Jake... they were a bit too much, a bit too like typical teenage boys. "It's... never mind."

Beckendorf shook his head, glanced tentatively at Silena, and then sighed. "Come on, dude. We're gonna be late."

Percy nodded. For some reason, as they were walking away, he glanced back at Annabeth, something compelling him to. As if by script, Annabeth turned, too, equally compelled or maybe not really looking at him but still...

They locked eyes. This time Annabeth didn't break it and neither did he. But she was glaring and he tried his – bless him – confused smirk and she just shook her head, crossed her arms and disappeared around the corner.