So this is the (maybe much awaited) second part to this story. I hope that you guys like it as much as you liked the first chapter. Let me know what you think at the end!
There was no way Annabeth was going to school.
She had spent the entire weekend hiding in her room hoping that the covers would erase what she had done on Friday. The sad truth was that it didn't. She had still kissed Percy Jackson, and she was still going to have to go to school the next day. Her hangover had finally faded but she still had no memory of what had happened that night.
When Thalia found out about the picture she was rolling on the ground in tears. She hadn't done anything even remotely bad that night, so she didn't understand. Basically she was being shitty, but Annabeth wasn't going to tell her that. It's not like she really could from under the covers anyways.
She groaned as she rolled out of bed for the first time that day. It was three in the afternoon, and she wouldn't have gotten up at all, but she hadn't eaten all day. She was debating dying, but starvation wasn't really her thing. Annabeth had been seriously considering if she would die from embarrassment the second she walked into school, really.
She figured spontaneous combustion couldn't be that painful, so it was at least a viable way to go.
There was no way she was going to be able to get out of school, though. It was finals week, and after this she was done. She really only had three days left, so if she could make it through those three days she would never have to see him again. They had never talked before. It wasn't like he was going to start magically appearing in her life now.
Annabeth woke up the next morning at six just like she did every school day. Hair, make-up, maybe some breakfast if she was on time that morning. Looking in the mirror she fluffed her hair and walked out the door. She had her math final first that day, so that was all she could really think about. There was absolutely no way she was thinking about Percy Jackson in any way, shape, or form.
Absolutely not.
She made her way into the school quietly. Annabeth gave a nod or a wave to a few of her friends, but other that she didn't really exist to the rest of the world. She wasn't loud so people could hear her, pretty so everyone saw her, or even that well-spoken because that required talking. Annabeth lived in her own little bubble and that was the way she liked it.
Annabeth was putting her bag in her locker when she felt a presence beside her. She figured it was just Thalia like it was almost every day. She looked up smiling, but the smile faded faster that it had come. There standing at her locker was Percy Jackson. The exact kid that she had been trying to hide from. Not only had he come to her locker he had come with a resounding "hey."
"What are you doing here?" she asked him, looking around the hallway. There was no way she wanted people to see that he was coming to her locker. She swore people were going to know something had happened if they saw them together. "Aren't you afraid your friends are going to see you with me?"
"Why would I care of they see me with you?" he asked looking down at her confused. Annabeth had never had an issue with her height, actually she had always thought that she was a pretty good height, but now she was wishing she was taller. She didn't like having to look up at him.
"Because we have never been friends and there is absolutely no way that I am anywhere near your social group. Look if you don't want me to say anything I already wasn't going to. There is nothing for you to worry about."
"First, why would it matter if we were never friends? We are going to graduate in three days, so why not become friends now?" Percy raised an eyebrow. "Second, what does that even mean, 'I am nowhere near your social group'?"
"We aren't going to be friends because there is no point in that. It means that I am already an absolute loser. I do not need to be the girl that Percy Jackson kissed out of pity on top of that!" she whisper yelled at him. She had always known that this kid was ignorant, but this was a whole new level for her. It was like he had no understanding of the social ladder.
He just looked at her dumbfounded for a minute. Annabeth sighed and closed her locker. She started to walk away but he grabbed her arm. "That's all you think it was? Pity?" he asked her grimly. Annabeth had never been good at eye contact, but now he was two inches from her face and she knew she had never been worse.
"That's all I know it was," she responded. He stopped and looked at her. Maybe he was a little hurt or maybe it was something else she thought that she was seeing, but either way she was done. Annabeth has felt his grip loosen around her arm, so she pulled away and quickly walked away. Percy may have the most gorgeous green eyes she had ever seen, but that was not a reason to talk to him. They weren't on an even playing field. Nothing good ever came from that.
Annabeth made it to her classroom without any other issues. From what she could tell, no one really noticed what had happened between Percy and her. That was all that she had been hoping for really. He had gotten his joke in now. He had talked to her and given her hell for what had happened, so there was no way he was going to want to talk to her anymore.
She made it through all of her finals that day with no problem. She had been studying for them for a while. Annabeth had stayed behind to talk to her Physics teacher, so by the time she came out of the room she had missed her bus. This usually wasn't a big deal because it was only a twenty minute walk to her house, and on nice days she liked to walk it. She hadn't checked the weather that day though, so she hadn't known that hell was going to unleash itself on Earth during her walk home.
Annabeth sighed and went to her locker to grab her books before she went home. She packed quickly so that she could get home as quickly as possible. There was no point in dragging it out. Annabeth made her way to the door and stopped just before she made it out of the school. If it was possible it started to rain harder. As if nature was mocking her there was a loud crack of thunder followed by a long bolt of lightning to prove its point. She accepted her death.
Fate seemed to have other plans for her though. Annabeth was taking the first step towards the door when she heard a loud "Annabeth! Wait up!" yelled from behind her. She turned to see a messy mop of black hair loping toward her. Percy was trying to run, but with a back pack he wasn't doing a very good job. That didn't seem to stop him however. "How are you getting home?" he asked when he finally reached her?
"Walking," she shrugged before looking out the glass door.
He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, no way. Come on, I'll give you a ride home," he said, shrugging his backpack up higher onto his shoulder.
"No it's fine. I'll walk. It's not even that far." There was no way she was going to get into a car with him again. Last time that happened she ended up kissing him in her room at some ungodly hour in the morning. She had no intention of anything like that ever happening again.
Percy sighed, "Annabeth, my mother would kill me if I let you walk home in the rain. There is no way that even you can deny the fact that you would get completely soaked. Plus walking in this will ruin your books," he added with a smug smirk. He knew how to get to her; there was no way Annabeth was going to ruin her books.
She huffed and nodded. Annabeth could have sworn she saw a small smile pass across his face, but there was no way she could be sure. "I'll go get the car and pull it up," Percy said.
"No way. I can walk with you; I promise I won't melt," she said giving him a look. Annabeth didn't need pity or help. Anything he could do she could do better.
"Fine lets go," he said looking down. He was right; there was no way she could have walked home in this. It took about ten second of her being outside for her clothes to completely soak through. She was running after him, but it was becoming harder to follow him as he pulled ahead of her. Annabeth probably spent too much time allowing her pride to keep her from calling out, but by the time she was half way through the parking lot she had no choice. Percy had disappeared into the crowd of cars that were still in the parking lot, and there was no way she was going to be able to find him.
"Percy!" she yelled as loud as she could. It was doubtful that he could hear her over the roar of the rain, but it was the only option she had. Out of nowhere she saw a figure appear and reach out to her and grab her hand. Annabeth was being pulled along behind a person she could only assume was Percy. They arrived at a blue jeep, and she saw the lights click to show that the car was unlocked. Percy ran around the car and hopped into the driver's seat as she leapt into the passenger.
When they were both situated in the car Percy looked at her. "Where did you go? I got to the car and realized you weren't behind me anymore."
"You're a lot faster than me," she said breathlessly. "I couldn't keep up. With the rain you just kinda disappeared."
"Yeah, well, it is pretty hard to see," he said shaking his hair off. If it was possible for her eyes to roll all the way back into her head she was pretty sure they would have. It was like Percy the dog, not to mention he got everything more wet than it already was.
Percy turned the car on and put it into drive. It was pretty obvious that there wasn't going to be any visibility as soon as the car lurched into motion. The wipers were going as fast as they could, but even then there was no visibility. The water was falling faster than the wipers could get rid of it. Annabeth found herself gripping onto the sides of her seat as he pulled out onto the main road.
"Maybe you should pull over," she suggested. There was no way they were going to be able to make it to her house in weather like this. She would rather be stuck in a car with Percy for an indefinite amount of time than dead, and right now those were looking like the only two options.
"I've got it. Don't worry," he said but he wasn't looking so sure himself. They were at a stop light when a large bolt of lightning struck. The tree next to the car split and caught fire. Annabeth didn't think she had ever scream so loud in her life. "Shit!" Percy yelled before he quickly switched lanes. Annabeth hadn't realized it, but she had grabbed onto Percy's arm during the craziness. Looking at it now she decided that she was still too terrified to let go.
"A building! We need to get inside!" Annabeth yelled at him.
"I know. I'm thinking, give me a minute," he said never taking his eyes off the road. They were both panting from the sudden scare. It was as if a light bulb went off because Percy suddenly moved the car into action. About five minutes later Percy pulled the car into what Annabeth thought was a parking lot. She had never been to this part of town though so she wasn't sure.
Percy looked at her then at his arm. Annabeth jumped away from him faster than she ever thought she could. "You might want to bring your backpack in. It may be a long night," he said as he reached back for his. She was going to ask what he meant but he was already running out of the car heading for what she assumed was a building. Annabeth sighed, grabbed her bag, and quickly ran after him.
When she made it into the lobby of the building she saw Percy leaning up against the wall by an elevator. "Where are we?" she asked him looking around.
When he didn't answer she looked at him. He had his hands in his pockets and seemed to be very interested in the floor. He quickly looked up and saw her staring at him and sighed. "This is where I live," he said never making eye contact.
"In a lobby?" she asked trying to make him more comfortable.
He looked up at her and smiled. "No not the lobby, third floor. I'm thinking we should take the stairs though because it don't know how much longer the power is going to hold out, and I don't think either of us wants to be stuck in the elevator."
Annabeth nodded and followed him to a door labelled as stairs. Both of them were quiet on the walk up. The sound of the rain echoed through the concrete hall they were in. As the made it to the third floor Percy reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. They came to a stop at the second apartment on the left he entered a key into the lock, and they were let in with a resounding click.
"Welcome home Annabeth," he said holding out his arm for her to enter the apartment. She did without hesitation. As she entered she looked around. It was small but homey. There was a living room that joined with the kitchen, both not bigger than her bedroom. There was a hallway that connected with the kitchen that she assumed led to the bedrooms and the bathroom. She only saw three doors so she was assuming there were only two bedrooms and a bathroom.
"Mom!" Percy yelled. "Are you home?" A women, probably in her mid-thirties, bustled down the hallway and into the kitchen. She had long brown hair and brown eyes. So basically she didn't look anything like Percy. She stopped when she saw that Annabeth was also in the apartment.
"Percy, who is this?" she asked as she walked over to them.
"Mom this is Annabeth. Annabeth this is my mom," he said gesturing to the respective girls. They shook hands and Mrs. Jackson looked both of them over.
"Percy, go change out of those clothes," she woman added. As he started to walk toward his room his mother added "and grab some of your smaller stuff for Annabeth! The poor girl looks like she's about to drown!"
"Oh, Mrs. Jackson, it's ok. I'm only going to be here until the storm blows over."
"Please call me Sally, and that could be a while. The weather said it's supposed to storm like this all night. If you don't mind me asking how did you end up here instead of at your own house?" Sally asked. It didn't sound like she didn't want her there, which was good because Annabeth didn't have anywhere else to go, but like she just wanted to know.
"I was going to walk home. Percy stopped me before I left and told me that you would kill him if he let me walk home in weather like this," Annabeth said gesturing outside.
Sally nodded in approval before adding "sounds about right. If I found out he let anyone walk home in this weather I would probably skin him," she added with a laugh.
Just then Percy came out in a fresh set of clothes. He had another stack in his hand that Annabeth assumed was for her. "These are the smallest I have," Percy said. "But these are probably going to be huge on you."
Annabeth thanked him and headed for the bathroom that Sally had directed her to. He had been right the cloths were massive on her. He had given her a dark blue shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants, both of which looked like she had stolen a giant's wardrobe. She wasn't going to complain though. It felt great to be in dry clothes. Annabeth hung her wet ones up on the shower curtain as she had been instructed and headed for the kitchen.
When she walked in Percy was telling his mom about his day. She was standing on one side of the breakfast nook and he was sitting on the other. Annabeth wasn't really sure where to go so she headed for the chair that was next to Percy. He looked over and smiled at her then resumed his conversation with his mom. Looking at them made her smile. Annabeth had never had a relationship like that with her parents. They both worked a lot, and when they weren't working all they wanted to talk to her about was school. Her life didn't really matter to them as long as they could brag about her to their work friends.
Annabeth sat there quietly and listened to them until Sally looked at her and asked, "How was your day Annabeth?" She was taken a little of guard. She didn't really have an answer ready for them.
"It was good. Went to school, did the usual – well, until Mother Nature decided to play with the weather," she said. Both of them looked at her expecting her to add more. Looking around she added "I got an A on my math test, so that was good," she said looking at them hoping that was enough of an answer for them.
"What classes are you in?" Sally asked her.
"AP Physics, AP English Lit, AP Stats, and AP Gov," Annabeth said not looking at her. Percy wasn't smart like she was, and she didn't want to alienate him in his own home. She of course had other classes like a lunch and two electives, but those didn't matter as much to her. Colleges really only cared about the core classes, though she was still acing those classes.
"Wow that's a very full schedule," Sally said in a small bit of shock. Sally may have done a bit of stereotyping and put Annabeth as a dumb blonde. The girl was pretty, gorgeous even, and the girl had to be rather smart to carry that many AP classes. Sally gave a pointed look at her son.
"Ok so Annabeth and I were just going to watch a movie," Percy said puling Annabeth away from his mother. There was no way he was letting his mom get any ideas about Annabeth, there was no way in hell anything was going to happen between them. They were from different worlds, even if he did think that she was only a little bit pretty.
"We were?" Annabeth asked but was silenced by a look from Percy. He loved his mom, but right now he couldn't wait to get away from her. He agreed that Annabeth was pretty amazing. There wasn't really any way to argue that opposing side. Annabeth quickly fell quiet and allowed herself to be pulled into the adjoining living room. Due to the small amount of space if Sally still wanted to talk them she could have very easily, but she knew that her son wanted to be left alone. She smiled to herself before returning to her room to leave the two alone.
Annabeth sat down on the couch while Percy went to pull a movie from the collection. He made a noise of victory before quickly holding up the movie he had been looking for. Annabeth smiled at the case holding Finding Nemo the boy was so excited about. Leave it to Percy to be one of the only high schoolers to be extremely happy about watching an old Disney movie. He put the movie in and fell onto the couch next to her. Maybe a little too close if you asked Annabeth.
The movie started and the pair sat in silence for a few moments. Annabeth had never been a huge fan of storms, but storms that were this bad were something that had never made her very comfortable. Every time there was a loud roll of thunder shook the apartment she would jump then try to play it off. After about five time this happened Percy look at her. "Not a huge fan of storms, huh?" he said looking at her. She gave a tired smile and went back to the movie.
After about half an hour there was a massive bout of thunder and lightning in a row. It was soon after that the power chose to go. Of course Percy was more upset that his movie had been interrupted, but Annabeth had other concerns. She had yelped when the power went out and now she sat completely still. She was sure if she tried to move she would end up sprawled face first on the floor.
It was pitch black out. The only light was what the storm provided. She saw Percy's face for a split second as lightning exploded outside the apartment, the silver light trailing over his skin. He was calm and looked around the apartment for something.
How he could see she had no idea.
Suddenly she felt him grab her hand. Annabeth gasped and looked to where she knew he was sitting. "Geez Annabeth, calm down. I'm not trying to kill you. I know where I'm going even if it's dark; just stay close and follow me," he said and she felt the pull on her hand as he stood in unison with her. She quickly stood to scuttle after him. There was no way she was going to be left behind in a place she didn't know.
He was moving slowly but she still had a feeling she was going to fall. Getting closer to him she placed her other hand on his waist. At this point she was terrified and saw no point in not doing something because it could be embarrassing in the morning. She could tell that they were in the hallway headed back towards the rooms, but she had no idea which one was his. At the end of the hallway he took a left and headed into a room at the end of the hall.
He walked into the room and stopped beside a bed. "Here sit down," he said as he let go of her hand. There was absolutely no way she was sad when he did that, none. She sat down on the couch and heard him rummaging around in what she assumed to be a closet for a few minutes. Finally the rummaging stopped and there was a sudden burst of light. It was that burst of light that made her realize that there hadn't been and lightening since they had gone in there. Looking around now she saw that the room had no windows.
Percy walked back over to the bed with a lantern in his hands. Sitting down next to her he told her, "Well looks like we are gonna be in the dark for a while. I'm gonna go get some blankets and pillows so I can sleep on the couch." He stood up and quickly left the room. It took her a minute to understand what he said. She quickly got up to tell him that she would just take the couch, but she didn't know where she was going. Turning into the hallway she couldn't see anything other than a faint light that she assumed was Percy around the corner.
She hurried toward the light but she didn't see the figure coming toward her. It was too late when she collided with a large body to do anything about it. They landed with a thump and a thud. "Annabeth? Are you okay?" He asked her. Annabeth found herself nodding but soon realized that he couldn't see her.
"Yeah I'm fine. Are you?" she asked him suddenly realizing that their position wasn't quite ideal. He had landed on top of her, but he caught himself on his arms before he could crush her. It seemed that just then he realized how they had landed too. Pausing he looked at her. Both of their eyes had semi adjusted to the darkness, so it was easy enough for them to see each other in such a close proximity.
"I'm fine," he said shortly but never taking his eyes off of her face. There was a moment when neither of them moved, but it was quickly ruined by another crash of thunder. Percy hopped up and extended his hand to Annabeth. She took and he pulled her up. "Why are you out here anyway?" he asked her.
She paused for a moment to remember. "You don't need to sleep on the couch. This is your house. You take the bed and I'll sleep on the couch," she said looking up at him. Percy hadn't let go of her hand after he helped her, and he started to run his hands over her knuckles while she talked. She was honestly just proud she made it through her speech without stuttering.
"No, it's fine. Plus, you said it, this is my house, therefore it would only be polite that I sleep on the couch." He sent her his signature smirk, but she was already ahead of him.
Annabeth took off, sprinting for the couch. She of course made it there first, seeing as he was still standing where he was, dumbstruck. "No way," he said as he walked over to the couch after her.
He stood over the couch for a few seconds until he realized that she wasn't going to move. Bending down he grabbed her under the shoulders and tried to haul her up. She wasn't going to move without a fight though. Annabeth was thrashing around trying to keep him from moving her. In the end, he was able to sit under her head, but he wasn't able to completely move her from the couch.
Annabeth let a triumphant 'hmph', but other than that they stayed quiet. Neither of them was sure how long they sat like that, but Percy knew he was stuck when Annabeth started to snore. There was no way he was going to lose a fight with her, so he adjusted himself to sleep.
That was how Mrs. Jackson found them the next morning. Annabeth was asleep on Percy's lap, and his arm was draped over her body. Sighing she walked away, but not before snapping a picture. That was one for the record books.
Annabeth was the first to wake up. The first thing she did was take in the warmth of the sun outside. The second was notice Percy. Smiling, she was able to get out from under the sleeping boy without waking him. She quickly grabbed her things and headed for the door. It had been a long night.
Later, Percy woke up alone, but after looking around for a minute he saw a piece of paper in the table.
Maybe next time we can both take the bed. 324-728-2747
Annabeth
So that's it! Is what you guys were hoping for? Sorry it took so long. I was planning on making it about the same length as the last chapter, but this one wanted to be eight pages long. I'd love it if you guys could leave a review and tell me what you think! Also if you have any ideas that you would like me to write about let me know! Thanks for reading! Leave a review!
Emily
Bonus Question: Which ending did you like better? This one or the ending of One Long Night?
