Chapter One
Annabeth's POV
Today was the day. Today was the most important day of Annabeth's life. Nothing compared to this day; not when she moved from Virginia to Manhattan when she was seven; not when she was accepted into the best boarding school: Goode High School. Not when she met Piper, her best friend.
No.
Nothing could possibly compare to this day Annabeth was about to live because today was the day. It was her sixteenth birthday and today she was going to find out her soulmates' name.
At six am sharp, Annabeth's alarm went off and she woke up swearing.
"HOLY SHIT THAT'S LOUD!" Annabeth yelped.
"You know," said Piper from her bed, "I find it funny that the first thing you say is 'HOLY SHIT.' You always seem to start your day by swearing."
"Shut the hell up, Pipes." Annabeth snapped.
"Whatever." Piper rolled her eyes. "Where is it?"
Annabeth jumped out of bed and strode to her mirror (more like Piper's mirror) and examined her body.
Her gray eyes fell upon her right shoulder, where her scar from when she was seven lie pale and wrinkled. On it was slightly messy hand-writing spelling out a name.
Perseus.
"Perseus?" Annabeth said. "Who the hell has the name 'Perseus'?"
Piper shrugged and Annabeth sighed. Looks like she'd have to do a lot of hacking in order to find this Perseus.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Piper.
"You think he's good in bed?"
Annabeth's head snapped around to face her best friend. Piper and Annabeth had only known each other for a few months since May. Now that it was July 12th, Annabeth thought Piper couldn't possibly be filled with any more surprises, but apparently she was wrong.
"What?" Piper asked innocently, "all I asked was if you thought he was good in bed or not."
"But I'm not even eighteen yet. And he might not be, either!" Annabeth resorted.
"You never know. He could be twenty-five with two children and an ex-wife and you'd never know until you met him." Piper argued.
"No." Annabeth did not want to believe that was true. "Perseus is my age and he is a virgin still and I'm going to call him Percy."
"Whatever you say." Piper yawned and closed her eyes sleepily, "what did your dream say?"
Annabeth's eyes widened; she forgot that the night before you got their name, you heard the first thing your soulmate would say to you.
"Um..." Annabeth shut her eyes and concentrated. She saw the memory, but it was extremely fuzzy and couldn't make anything out of it. Suddenly, it cleared and she heard the charming voice in her mind, 'Uh, miss, are you going to order anything?'
"Percy says to me: 'Uh, miss, are you going to order anything?' in the most charming voice."
"Nice - YAWN - well, you've got that figured out. I'm going back to bed. G'night." Piper turned and added one last thing: "You should get some sleep, too. Before you do all that hacking and stuff."
"You're right." Annabeth yawned and fell on her bed with a loud thud. She pulled her gray blankets over her tall, slender body and wrapped herself in them.
"Goodnight." She whispered to Piper right before falling into a dreamless sleep.
~~~TIME LAPSE~~~
"URGH! HOW THE EVERLOVING HELL AM I GOING TO FIND HIM?!" Annabeth screamed and threw down her laptop. A month had passed and Annabeth still had no luck in finding Percy. It was about one thirty in the morning, on August 18th she was so thankful that Piper was out visiting her family at the moment.
"You know what?" Annabeth asked herself, "Screw it. Fucking screw it. I am going to fucking sleep through the whole-fucking-day."
She put away her laptop and crawled under the covers.
"Good-fucking-night."
A few hours later, around twelve thirty, she woke up again.
"I need a fucking cup of coffee."
And Annabeth was off to New Rome Café without another thought.
Percy's POV
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
"Ugh." Percy moaned and hit his alarm clock. Groggily, he got up out of his bed and walked to the mirror. Today was his sixteenth birthday; and the day he would find out what his soulmates' name was. Not to mention it was his first day of work at New Rome Café.
He took a good look at his chest.
Not there.
He looked at his arms and legs.
Not there, either.
Then he looked at his back.
BINGO!
On the small of his back, right on his pale birthmark, was a girl's name that - from what he can see - started with an 'A' and was pretty long-ish. Percy tried reading the rest, but when you have dyslexia and you're trying to read writing on your back, letters can get pretty hard to read.
"MOM! I NEED YOUR HELP!" Percy shouted.
A few seconds later, his mom, Sally Jackson, came into the room.
Panting, she asked, "Where is it?"
Percy showed her his back and pointed to the neat writing.
"Annabeth." Sally told him, "her name's Annabeth."
Percy smiled. He wondered what Annabeth looked like and what her personality was like. He didn't know how to picture her; what came to his mind was blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Now, what did your dream say?" Sally asked him.
"What?" Percy snapped out of his fantasy.
"In your dream, you were supposed to hear the first words Annabeth is going to say to you."
"Oh." Percy though hard. He faintly remembered something about latte's and minutes. Then the memory cleared and he remembered. "She said, 'Um, yes, just a minute.'"
Right when he finished saying the words, the memory vanished.
"Ah, well, are you going to try to find her?" Percy's mom questioned.
"Nah," Percy responded, "if she's my soulmate then I'll eventually find her, won't I? I mean, might as well let destiny take its toll."
"Very wise, Perce. I'm proud of you and I hope you find her soon." Sally kissed his forehead, "Oh! And your letter from Goode got here last night."
Percy got really excited, "And, what did they say?"
Sally smiled, her green eyes sparkling.
"Yes."
"WHOO!" Percy jumped into the air with a whoop. He had always wanted to go to Goode High School in Manhattan. His stepfather, Paul, worked there as an English teacher and had been trying to get Percy in for the past year.
And now he finally was in.
"Well, I'll let you get ready for work, Perce." Sally left his room, closing the door on her way out.
Percy looked at the name Annabeth tattooed on his back once more.
"Annabeth." Percy loved the way her name felt on his lips. "That's a beautiful name for a beautiful girl."
Annabeth's POV
"Oh gods I love that smell." Annabeth groaned as she entered New Rome Café. Just as the warm coffee air hit her, her laptop vibrated; alerting her that her downloads had finished.
"Well oh shit. It completed sooner than I thought." She mumbled to herself before she sat down and opened it. When she did, the beautiful sight of every single boy's name in America greeted her. Recently, Annabeth had hacked into some National Security System to try to find the name Perseus.
She scrolled down to the 'P' section and began searching.
Paavo…
Pablo…
Pace…
"No, I need to find fucking 'P-E.'" She glowered.
Peatea…
Pedro…
Pelton…
Perach…
Perben…
Percival…
Perse-
"Uh, miss, are you going to order anything?"
A teenage boy's voice came from across the booth and Annabeth looked up. A very handsome teenager with raven black and stunning green eyes stood across from her. Annabeth thought he was extremely attractive, given his tan skin and lean body. She took a good look at his face. He had beautiful features she found slightly familiar, like she had seen him in a dream before…
"Um, yes, just a minute." She answered quietly, not breaking eye contact with him.
The boy nodded and walked over to behind the counter and Annabeth followed him.
"Piper isn't here, is she?" She asked him.
"No, Piper actually quit this morning." He responded, gazing into Annabeth's gray eyes.
"Awe man. She normally makes my drink, but whatever." Annabeth groaned.
"So may I take your order?" The boy asked.
"Yes, please," Annabeth looked up at the menu, "may I have a… ooh! May I get a tall Skinny Caramel Macchiato, please?"
"Yes you may." He told her as he grabbed a cup and wrote down the order. "Can I get your name, please?"
Annabeth was taken aback at how polite this boy was; not many teenage boys she met were so kind to her. Most of them wanted something from her, either for her to do their homework or for her to go out with them.
"I don't know," she teased him, "can you?"
"Ha-ha, very funny."
She laughed and he cracked a smile.
"It's Annabeth. A-n-n-a-"
"Yea, I know how to spell it." He interrupted.
"Oh." Annabeth had never known someone who knew her name was a name.
"Annabeth." He said, almost tasting the word, "That's a beautiful name for a beautiful girl. I've heard that name before, but I just can't remember…"
"Um, thank you."
"No problem." He said with a cute smile, "that'll be $3.95."
Annabeth handed him the money and smiled as she went back to her booth. Once she sat down, Annabeth put on her headphones and relaxed. Just for today she wouldn't have her face shoved in her laptop, trying to find Perseus. Just for today she would actually enjoy the day, maybe even go to the mall with Piper and their other friends once she got back. So just for today, Annabeth wouldn't worry about anything.
After what seemed like a minute or so, the boy came back with her drink.
"Here you go." He told her. "Enjoy."
"Oh, thank you." Annabeth called after him as he left.
She blushed when Annabeth caught him staring at her.
Annabeth lifted the drink to her lips and took a sip. She expected to taste the sweet caramel flavor she usually did, yet instead Annabeth had no idea what she was drinking. It was too strong of coffee and tasted extremely rich.
"Urgh!" Annabeth spat. "Black Coffee? How the hell do you mix up a caramel latte with black coffee? Yea, 'enjoy' my ass."
She got up and stormed over to the counter.
"Excuse me, but you gave me wrong drink."
The boy looked up, "Oh, I am so sorry. If you want I make you another one or I could get you a pastry?"
"No thank you. Can I just get my money back?" Annoyance filled Annabeth as she spoke. How the hell you mess up a skinny caramel macchiato?
"Yes, of course." He mumbled, an extremely sincere look washed over his incredibly handsome face. Annabeth couldn't help notice that the irises of his eyes seemed to move in a wave-like movement. She didn't think his eyes were handsome, no, she thought they were beautiful.
"What's your name?" Annabeth asked instead of telling him how mesmerizing his eyes were.
"M-my name?" He uncertainly asked.
"Yes," Annabeth grew impatient, "what's your name so I can complain to your boss about my drink?"
"Oh gods, no." He rubbed his forehead. "First day of work and this already happens. Damn it."
"Well…?" Annabeth persuaded.
"Perseus." He told her, his green eyes filled with sadness, "tell my boss it was Perseus."
Annabeth dropped her latte
"Okay, I know that I have weird name and that I just messed up your order, but that does not mean that you can just drop your latte like that." Perseus complained.
"P-Perseus?" Annabeth asked, her gray eyes gazing intensely into his. "Your name is Perseus?"
"I am one-hundred percent sure that is what I said." He said as he got a handful of napkins and went around the counter to clean up her mess. "Excuse me, I don't want to ruin your shoes."
Annabeth tried to say something but it came out like, "Uh…er…umph." She stepped away and went to grab more napkins to help Perseus clean up.
"So I'll just give you your money back." He said once everything was cleaned up.
"Yea, thanks." She grunted and grabbed her money.
Turning on her heel to go back to her booth, Annabeth thought of the situation the gods put her in: the jackass who screwed up her latte is her soulmate? That couldn't be possible, could it? I mean, there could be so many different Perseus's in New York or in the country, right? There had to be. She just ran into the wrong one and soon she'd find the right Perseus.
Yea, that's it.
Right when she grabbed her laptop and was heading out the door, Perseus called out after her.
"Hey! Do I know you from somewhere? You seem so familiar."
Annabeth stopped dead in her tracks; this wasn't happening. He did not recognize her and she didn't feel the same way. This was the wrong Perseus.
"No, I've never met you before." She looked him in the eye and felt a tug of familiarity. There was something in those goofy green eyes that seemed to move like the ocean waves that was familiar. Annabeth felt as if she had seen him on the streets or at school or in a dream she had.
A dream…
"How-how old are you?"
Please don't say sixteen. Please say that you're twenty-five with two kids and an ex-wife.
Perseus looked hesitant to answer, then he said, "I just turned sixteen today."
Holy. Fucking. Shit. Gods damn it!
"I have to go." She urged. "Bye."
Annabeth couldn't do it. She had to say it to him.
"Happy birthday." She said to him over her shoulder.
"Thanks." Perseus smiled. "Will I see you again?"
Annabeth really did not want to answer.
But that would've been rude.
"Maybe."
And with that, she walked out the door and sighed.
"I swear to the gods I'll be damned if that's the Perseus I'm looking for." Annabeth swore. Then, she opened up her laptop and saw the one name she was looking for: Perseus. She clicked on it and looked at how many guys were named Perseus.
One. And it was him.
"DAMN IT!" She screamed.
Authors note:
Hi, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. This is my first fanfic so if you have any suggestions for me, feel free to PM or comment. Thanks for reading it!
-Beth