Chp 1

Annabeth Chase, a very disciplined, intellectual, brainiac university student, was not particularly the party type. Let alone full out weddings. "Annabeth, please!" Piper begged. "Pipes, I'm not the party type of person. You know that." She said, complaining at her friend who was disrupting her from her new project.

Piper sighed, cross with her friend now. "Look, I even got Thalia to come. And to wear a dress!" Her friend complained. "But Thalia likes parties, I don't enjoy them that much." She retorted.

Another groan, coming from Hazel, sounded. "Annabeth, this is only due in for four weeks time." She said, pleading her friend. Annabeth loved her university pals a lot, and had a lot of respect for the crazy girls, but they knew how crazy she got if she didn't have all her work up to date or finished a couple days after assigned.

"Annabeth." Piper said, using a tone that I had to look up for. "You are finishing your masters in four months time. We would like to have some fun before you graduate." Annabeth looked among the three girls, then let our a big sigh. "Fine." She said, and the others beamed.

~ At the Wedding ~

She sat, half miserably, at the table her friends and her had been seated at. They came back from dancing with their boyfriends and pulled her up. "Just come sit with us." Hazel said, smiling at her.

She groaned internally as she was pulled over to a table with three guys. She was wearing a mid thigh lengthen dress with a low back and a one shoulder strap. She had also been persuaded into wearing high heels.

She plopped down on a seat the girls indicated, and they sat with their guys. Why? Why had she agreed to go to this wedding? She knew it was a good friend from universities wedding, but she would've preferred staying in the dorm room and finishing the assignment she had. Instead she had driven too hundreds kilometers to a hotel where the reception was being held.

"What's wrong with your friend?" Jason asked Piper and Hazel, and Frank listened in. "Annabeth, come on. This isn't that bad is it?" Piper asked.

She got a 'what makes you think that I feel like this is an absolute waste of time' look, and she replied, "I have a paper I should be doing right now." The girls rolled their eyes and a new song played. "Let's go dance!" Piper said, smiling at Jason. Annabeth groaned. "I need a drink." She said, got up and went to get a glass of wine.

Thalia shook her head at her friends party pooper vibes. She spotted her cousin, coming back towards her after having spoken to some of the girls here. Percy Jackson, ex Olympic swimmer, has every girl knocking at his door.

Percy sat across from his cousin and said, "Hey." With his casual smile, he made a mischievous smile creep onto Thalia's face. "How many girls you danced with tonight, chatted up or what ever?" She asked. He shrugged. "Quite a few, nearly all of them.

Her smile grew even more. "I can bet there is only one girl who wouldn't look your way let alone dance with you tonight." She said, smiling at him. He scoffed with a smirk on his face and said, "It's a bet." He said. She raised an eyebrow at him the smirk still there and her eyes traced out the girl with a glass of wine in her hands making her way back towards them.

The guy followed her gaze. She seemed like the type of girl he had been pin pointed to by his career, gorgeous and holding a drink. She looked familiar. He had possibly had a stream of girls like this join the past two years of his retirement from his career and he loved a good party or three. "Deal." He said. He stood as the girl got to the table.

Annabeth didn't have a fancy for guys, unlike many of the girls at her university. So imagine seeing this jock kind of guy standing up as she arrived back at her table. She recognized him from the year before when she had to go on a holidays ugh Thalia and her family. She didn't see the point in relationships. You have some fun for a while, then it dies and you move on to another person. And guys are so immature. And she didn't need a pesky distraction.

"Hi, I'm Percy." He said, out stretching his hand. She felt her stomach coil, her pulse quicken, her breath hitch. He had a suit on, midnight black hair and he smelt like the sea. But his eyes- they caught her the most. The beautiful orbs of sea green and flacks of blue grey were picked up in the light, and the stared right back at her with a spark of joy in them. She knew him. Percy Jackson.

Why was she feeling like this? She never felt like this around other guys, so why him? She shook his hand, "I know. I've met you before." She said, regaining her composure. She sat next to Thalia and the he sat next to her. "I remember you know" Hesaid, smiling at her.

Percy smiled, showing his teeth, and she gave a smile back. "So Annabeth, what are you doing at the moment?" He asked, taking a sip of his beer. "I'm just finishing my architecture masters at Cornell. You?" She asked, taking a sip of her wine. "Nothing really." He said, shrugging. She furrowed her eyebrows but didn't question it.

"Say, how about a dance?" He asked, standing up and offering his hand to her. Every muscle in her body was screaming yes and her head was whispering no. She tried to fight against it, but failed. She took his hand and they went to the dance floor as a slow song started.

He rested his hands on her hips, her linking her fingers behind his neck. She slow danced with him for a little, but he felt how rigid she was. He laughed and his eyes shone, making her heart flutter. "I don't bite." He said, smiling down at her. She let out a little chuckle. "I've just got other things on my mind." She said, happy for the lighting as he couldn't see her blush.

"Well loosen up, just relax." He said, pulling her closer and resting his hands on the small of her back. Her breath caught in her throat as she could smell him, the smell of the sea and him dizzying her head and making her feel all mushy inside.

She shook her head, gaining her brain cells again. "It's not that easy." She said, looking up at his eyes. A smile tugged at the sides of his mouth. "How hard could it be?" He asked, his deep voice making the top of her head to her toes tingle. "I'm supposed to be doing work, at my desk. Not wasting my time at a wedding, that I only came to because I was forced to by Piper and that I'm good friends with Cassie." She said, sighing.

He shrugged. "I don't think it's a waste. Look who I met again." He said, winking at me. My face went all red and my pulse quickened, making my breathing pattern alter. I controlled myself again and said, "Yeah, about twenty girls who are mostly under twenty two." He shook his head. "I'm talking about you, Annabeth." He said.

I knew who he had been talking about, but I had been hoping it wasn't me. I'm not good with relationships and stuff. Had only ever been in three that lasted for three days or so each. And they were all guys doing masters of either medicine, law suits or engineering.

Someone accidentally knocked into them from behind, and she stumbled into him. She looked up, their noses really close. She cleared her throat, hearing the song end. She pulled away and gave a little smile. "I'm going to get back to my wine." She said, giving a little smile and then turning. But she could feel him close behind with every step she took.

She could smell him, imagine his eyes running over her. She sat down again, Thalia gone and her alone with him. She took a sip of her drink, and sat up straight. "Percy?" She asked, his eyes fluttering back to hers, making her heart pound in her throat again. "When you said earlier that you didn't do anything, what did you mean?"

He gave a smile. "I retired two years ago from being an Olympic swimmer." She furrowed her eyebrows. "Olympic swimmer?" She asked. He looked blankly at her, then a smile spread across his face. "What?" She asked. He shook his head. "I thought you knew who I was, but as you don't if makes you more genuine." He said.

The fact she wasn't even aware of his previous career meant that she wasn't talking to him to become a girlfriend and get rich. As he had lots of the dough. "I'm not really into sports." She said, looking kind of sheepish.

He tried so hard not to stare at her, to smell her scent that made his senses go wild, to look into her sparkling grey eyes. She had an aura around her that made him want to touch, smell, taste her. He wanted so badly to see if she fitted in his side like a puzzle piece or if her lips moved in sync with his.

What was he thinking? He met her last year and had memorized every curve of her body, and he had only seen her again not more than five minutes earlier. And she wasn't his usual type, a pretty model from a Mediterranean country. But she seemed good different.

Two hours passed, and people left in bunches. It was only her, Percy, Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel and Leo, the newly weds already on their way to their honeymoon. They cleaned up around the area, making sure it wasn't too dirty.

The whole time, she had the smell of him intoxicating her mind. And his eyes were burnt into her memory. She said goodbye as her friends all left and she was alone with Percy. "So, you going to bed?" He asked, as they walked out the reception area and down a hallway with rooms. "Yeah." She said. "Then I'll walk you." He said, catching up to her.

She bit her bottom lip, hoping he hadn't come. She was afraid her brain would lose control if she didn't control these crazy senses tingling in her body. She got to her door and tried to swipe the card for the door to open. This thing had to be so stubborn and not open!

"Let me." He said, his chest pressing against her back as he leaned over her, took the card from her hands and with a simple swipe, unlocked the door and pushed it open a fraction for her. She groaned inwardly, feeling stupid she couldn't do that simple thing.

She turned to him. They both just stood their for a while, unsure of what to stay. The difference was he looked calm and collected, whereas she was shifting weight from her feet and wringing her hands. He gave her a smile. He kissed her cheek, that area tingling and everything starting to quicken, her blood pressure, her breath.

He smiled back at her, getting the response he had wanted, and the impression to leave. "Thanks for an amazing night." He said, then turned to the door across the hall, slid the card in and out and went inside, closing him out of the passage again. And she just stood their, unable to move nor think.