~Matchmaker~

Annabeth Chase has hated Percy Jackson for years with no reason why. When the school sends out a Valentine's survey, she hopes she'll be matched with her crush- Luke Castellan. But this is high school, and nothing ever happens the way one wants.

"Annabeth? Annabeth!"

Startled, the teenage girl looked up from her book. Her grey eyes scanned the lunch table, seeking out the open face of the friend that called her name. Her eyes landed on a beautiful dark-haired girl sitting directly across from her, rolling her blue eyes.

"What is it, Silena?" Annabeth Chase asked, annoyed that her reading had been interrupted. A stray blonde curl dipped in front of her face, which she absentmindedly blew upwards with a puff of air.

With another roll of her blue eyes, Silena said, "Did you even hear what we were talking about?"

"Oh, leave her alone, Silena." A tall girl with spiky black hair sat down in the empty seat to the blonde's right. Annabeth grinned at her best friend, who shot a smirk back.

"Thalia is right, sis," another girl added, taking the seat on Annabeth's left. "You know how she can't get her nose out of those architecture books she gets at the library."

"Hey!" Annabeth protested, pouting. "I thought you were supposed to be on my side, Piper!"

Piper laughed lightly, her choppy brown hair dancing around her head as her shoulders shook with mirth. "You have Thalia on your side! Someone needs to support Silena, since we really don't want Clarisse to get in the middle of this."

A tough-looking girl sitting next to Silena raised an eyebrow, smirking. "You definitely don't, princess."

Annabeth scowled at the nickname before turning back to Silena with a sigh. "You've already distracted me enough, Silena. What is it you were talking about?"

The dark-haired beauty squealed, much to the dismay of Annabeth's ears. "The school has a new fundraiser!"

When she received only four blank looks in response, the girl scowled before elaborating. "Really, you guys need to get out more. How you couldn't have heard about it is beyond me. They've only been talking about it over the announcements every morning of this week! And it's Thursday!"

Annabeth's cheeks flushed as she remembered that she was constantly in the library during the morning announcements. Piper turned bright red next to her. With a raised brow, Thalia held up her phone, from which dangled a pair of earbuds. Clarisse just shrugged, offering no explanation.

Silena sighed again. "You, my friends, are hopeless."

Thalia blew a pink bubble from the bubblegum hidden behind a row of shining white teeth, rolling her electric blue eyes that rivaled the royal blue of Silena's. "Yeah, yeah," she all but snorted. "Tell me something I don't know. Which is what I thought you were supposed to be doing anyway."

"Right! The new fundraiser! They emailed us all a survey," she squealed again, for some reason thrilled with the idea.

"And the purpose of this survey?" Clarisse challenged.

Practically bouncing in her seat with energy, Silena said with barely-contained enthusiasm, "They're going to take our results and match us with our perfect match!"

Her face fell into a pout when her friends continued to face her with blank looks.

"Well? Aren't you guys thrilled?" she tried.

Thalia scoffed. "No. How is this even a fundraiser if all they're doing is making us take a survey?"

Silena shrugged. "We have to pay to get the results for our matches. But it's only a dollar, so that's not that bad."

"I think this is stupid," Clarisse said bluntly. "What if we're already in a relationship?" Out of all the girls at the table, the burly brunette was the only one of them to be in a romantic relationship. Silena thought it was adorable how she and Chris Rodrigues were dating. Clarisse refused to talk about it unless necessary.

"Then you get to prove your love for each other to the whole school!" Silena squealed yet again. Annabeth winced from the high-pitched voice, sure that the table of freshmen sitting behind her excitable friend were all whining that the seniors were too loud. But then again, they were freshmen. She shouldn't be too concerned.

"I actually think this is kind of cute," Piper said before Clarisse could chime back in with a scalding remark. The brunette narrowed her brown eyes at her best friend's sister. Piper continued to explain her beliefs, causing the glare to ease. "Not you and Chris proving your love, Clarisse, but the whole thing in general. I mean, who wants to spend Valentine's Day alone?"

"Me," Thalia said with a scowl. "I'm perfectly happy staying single on Valentine's Day. One less useless boy to waste money on."

Silena opened her mouth, a hurt look on her face and a frown on her lips, but Piper interrupted. "Annabeth, what do you think?"

Honestly, the blonde wasn't quite sure what to think. The idea as a whole sounded incredibly foolish, but there was one stubborn voice in her head, the voice of a hopeless romantic, that urged a better perspective. There was a guy she was crushing pretty hard on...

After a moment of hesitation, Annabeth confessed, "It might not be that bad."

Silena cheered and Piper grinned, while Thalia and Clarisse groaned with disappointment. "Betrayal!" Thalia exclaimed, tossing a handful of raisins at her best and oldest friend.

Annabeth snorted. "I'm not saying it's a good idea, Thals! I'm just saying it might not be terrible! What's the worst that could happen?"

Silena beamed at the blonde sitting across the table from her. "You have study hall next, right?" When Annabeth nodded, she clapped her hands together quickly. "Perfect! Me too. Can we meet at the library? I so want to help you fill out your survey!"

Wondering just what she had gotten herself into, Annabeth nodded carefully. "Sure, why not?"

"Hey, Perce." A gangly boy clapped his best friend on the back as he sat down at the white lunch table. He set his tray of enchiladas down on the not-quite-plastic surface before propping his crutches up next to him. "Hey, Jason."

A dark haired teenager and his blonde cousin both nodding in greeting to the new arrival. "Hey, G-man," Percy Jackson said, swallowing down another mouthful of the disgustingly greasy pizza settled between his hands. It left a liquid smear on the plastic lunch tray, yet more grease from school cafeteria food.

"What's up, Grover?" Jason asked, frowning slightly. "You're never this late to lunch on enchilada day. You're usually the first of us seated. To have Percy actually get here before you? Unheard of." He ignored his cousin's indignant shout. "Something wrong?"

The pale boy shook his head, beaming. "Nope. Everything is perfectly fine."

Percy furrowed his eyebrows, hearing the strange tone in his friend's voice. Setting down his pizza slice on the slimy mark it already left, he uttered, "Spill."

Grover looked at his best friend, biting his lip. Percy could tell that he was obviously dying to tell them everything, but something what holding him back.

Percy stared Grover dead in the eyes, green on brown. Carefully, he allowed a singular black eyebrow to shoot upwards towards his messy hairline.

It was the deciding factor in Grover's silence, he knew. And the curly-haired cripple couldn't help the jumble of words that tumbled from his lips. "So I was talking to Frank in the hallway near our English class. Mr. A assigned us a new project today, something about writing a song and making a video to perform that song. Obviously, I want to be paired with Frank. He's a genius with a ukulele and-"

"Grover, back on task," Percy commanded with a glint of amusement in his eyes. Grover blushed slightly before getting back to the topic at hand.

"Anyways, we were in the hallway, talking, when Juniper comes up to us!"

"Isn't she the one you've had a crush on since, like, the second grade?" Jason interrupted, causing Grover's face to take on a deeper hue of red.

"It was only the fifth grade, Jason, geez! Stop bringing it up! Anyways, we were in the hallway and Juniper came up to us and asked to talk to me!"

"So she just made Frank leave?" Jason questioned, a teasing frown on his face. "Wow."

"Jason, shut up. Keep talking, G-man."

"Thanks, Percy. At least one of you guys is my friend." Grover made a face at Jason, who had to stuff his mouth with a homemade sandwich to stop from laughing. "So Frank left, and it was just me and Juniper. And then she asked me out on a date!"

Jason and Percy spoke at the same time. "She asked you?" "That's great, man!"

The two cousins glared at each other playfully before Percy turned back to his best friend. "We're both really happy for you. When's the big date?"

"Next Thursday," Grover shared enthusiastically. "Valentine's Day."

"Speaking of Valentine's Day..." A voice drawled behind Percy. The dark-haired boy turned around and grinned, laying green eyes on his missing friend, Beck. The tough-looking mechanic grinned back, taking a seat next to Jason, across the table from Percy and Grover.

"Hey, Beck," Percy greeted.

Beck nodded in response before continuing, "You guys hear about that stupid fundraiser the school is doing?"

Jason snorted, rolling his eyes. "Yeah. A perfect match? I bet Thalia is loving that idea."

Grover laughed nervously, thinking about Jason's sister and one of his oldest friends. "She's the biggest feminist in this school. There's no way she would stand for something like that."

"Sarcasm, Grover. Sarcasm."

While the others were laughing at Grover's expense, Percy mulled over the prospect of this fundraiser. He heard about it over the announcements, just like everyone else in this school. They sent out the digital copy of the survey on Monday, demanding it be submitted by Friday so they could process the data. It was Thursday, so he had one day left if he wanted to do anything.

An image of green eyes and red hair flashed through his mind. Maybe this would finally be his chance...

"I think it's a good idea," Percy said suddenly. It was as if a bomb dropped in the middle of their table. The three other seniors stared at their friend with wide eyes. Percy stared back, challenging them. "I'm going to do it."

Jason, the first to react, cleared his throat. "Do what, exactly?" Was it just him, or was there an edge of nervousness to his tone?

"I'm going to participate in the survey," Percy declared, ignoring whatever uneasiness he suddenly felt.

His three friends blinked several times, trying to connect the dots that led to Percy actually having school spirit.

"I thought you hated it here," Grover said, voicing everyone's concerns. "Why the sudden school spirit?"

Another image of bright red hair and emerald eyes danced behind Percy's eyes. He shrugged defensively. "Maybe I just want to see what could happen."

Silence. None of the boys knew what to make of this sudden change. Jason was staring at his cousin as if he didn't know what to make of him anymore. Grover eyed the half-eaten pizza slice forgotten on the tray, wondering what exactly the school put in that.

Finally, Beck said worriedly, "Bro, what are you smoking?"

Exasperated, Percy threw his hands up in the air. "Nothing! Honestly, I just want to see what could happen if I submit this survey!"

"I never took you for the hopeless-romantic kind of guy."

"Shut up, Jason."

"Percy," Beck said, pulling his attention from his blonde cousin. His brown eyes were crinkled with concern. "Are you sure you want to do this? What if you get someone like Drew?"

Truthfully, Percy hadn't thought of that. Drew was a sneaky monster, always trying to get into someone else's pants. It disgusted him to think of how many teenage boys she had already slept with.

Still, Percy couldn't show his wavering resolve to his friends. "I won't match with Drew."

"Dude, this school is hell already. You don't think they won't match you with someone like Drew?"

"No, I don't," Percy answered confidently, staring down each friend separately. "And I'm going to fill out this survey, whether you want me to or not."

They all stared back, looking at him like he had grown another head or his eyes had suddenly turned blood-red. Whispering conspiratorially to the others, Jason muttered, "Maybe we should get Nico over here to do some kind of exorcism. I think he's been possessed."

"I am not possessed!" Percy retorted hotly. He frowned, looking at his friends. "Come on, guys. We're seniors. This is our last year here, and then we'll be off to whatever we're doing with our future. When's our next chance to do something as stupid as this? Besides, you'll always wonder what would've happened if you had just agreed with me and taken this stupid survey!"

"Ha, so you do admit that it's stupid!"

Percy snorted. "Of course it's stupid. But so are we. So, are you with me?"

More blank looks. The dark-haired boy sighed, rolling his eyes at his friends' reluctancy to do something daring. Well, as daring as they could get from a public school.

"I'll do it with you."

Percy snapped his head up to see a grimacing smile from his blonde cousin. Grinning, he said, "Great! Meet me in the library next period during your study hall."

Jason raised an eyebrow, slightly freaked out. "How the hell did you know that I have study hall next period?"

Percy smirked, standing up. Grabbing his tray with half-eaten pizza on it in one hand, he clapped Jason on the shoulder roughly. "I'm your older cousin. I have my ways."

As he walked away, he snickered when he heard Jason shout, "Older by two months! Two months, Percy!"

This would be fun.

This was already humiliating.

Annabeth led Silena into the library after the bell for lunch rang, taking a seat at her table in the back. It wasn't strictly Annabeth's table, but she was there every study hall period and every free moment. There might as well have been a sign on it that read, "Annabeth's table. Sit at your own risk."

She nodded to the librarian as they entered, before quietly taking into account the many others that had taken their example. For a high school library, it wasn't that large. Three dozen people, barring the school staff, was the largest amount of people that could claim seats. And Annabeth's table had four chairs. If any more people came in, they would have to share.

God forbid anything like that needed to happen.

The humiliation part happened as soon as Annabeth set her backpack down on the floor and her bottom in the bright orange chair. The door to the library swung open again, allowing in three guys. One of them she didn't immediately recognize, an all-American-looking blonde, but she knew the other two.

Percy Jackson. Her eyes narrowed in his direction just thinking his name. God, she hated him. He was so full of himself, so irritating, so oblivious. His brain must've been suffering from chlorine overload from all the swimming he did. His grades certainly reflected that belief. Not that he was in any of her advanced classes.

And then... Luke Castellan. God, now he was perfect. He had a rugged jawline, accented by the scar trailing down his right cheek. His eyes were a bright blue that held a sea of knowledge and his tousled blonde hair was imperfect in a way that screamed of perfection. Annabeth knew him from her AP Calculus class, though the two had never had a real conversation.

Annabeth held her breath as Luke separated from Percy and his friend. Would he come sit with them? That would make this perfect.

Luke began to walk towards her table, in the back near the window. There was no one behind her, she was sure. He was going to sit with them! She was so excited, she almost squealed like Silena.

But no, Annabeth Chase does not squeal. She took a deep breath, seeing Luke grow ever closer. When he was within speaking distance, she said as coolly as possible, "Hi, Luke."

Those beautiful blonde eyes flickered over towards her. He lifted the right side of his lips in a half smile, causing the long scar to ripple across his face. Annabeth caught her breath just as it threatened to escape her lungs. "Annabeth," he said. Her name sounded magnificent coming from his lips. She could never get enough of it.

He was close enough to reach for the plastic orange chair...

But he walked by.

Startled, Annabeth whirled around in her seat, searching for a reason he kept walking. There was a wall, he couldn't possibly-

Oh.

Luke bent down and plucked a book off the book shelf built into the wall behind Annabeth's table. He straightened up, holding the book in his hand. Annabeth caught a glance of the title, something about battle tactics from World War II. Still desperately clinging to hope, she waited for him to turn around and now take a seat at her table.

Instead, she watched helplessly as he walked to the counter, checked out his book, and strode out of the library.

She let out a breath, almost a sigh, of disappointment. Bending over to get her phone out of her backpack, her hair obscuring her gaze, she heard a voice say, "Do you mind if we sit here?"

Percy knew this was a mistake the moment he walked into the library. At a table in the back, sitting with her beautiful friend, was Annabeth Chase. He smothered a groan. That girl hated him. She's hated him since elementary school, blamed him for everything, but he hasn't a clue why. All he knows is that she hates him and he stays away from her.

A quick glance around the library showed that the only two seats left were at her table.

"Jason, this was a bad idea," Percy muttered, eyes cast low to avoid eye contact with the blonde demon as he grabbed his cousin's sleeve. "Let's go somewhere else."

Frowning at his cousin, Jason shook his head. "What? No, we have to stay here. I already checked us in and you know how the librarian gets if anyone tries to leave the period too early."

"There's nowhere to sit," Percy tried, desperately trying to change Jason's mind.

Jason's blue eyes scanned the area, searching for the truth. He focused on a table in the back, where a blonde girl and her friend were sitting. Luke Castellan, who walked in with them, was just walking by their table. The blonde girl was practically drooling over him, which was creepy, but the friend seemed nice. And the two seats at that table were the only two in the entire library without a bottom preoccupying them.

"There's two seats in the back," Jason said, oblivious to his cousin's hatred. "Let's go sit there before someone else takes them."

"No, why don't we let someone else sit there? It's the nice thing to do!"

Jason ignored his older cousin's begging, wondering what the hell was wrong with him. He walked away, towards the table, leaving Percy the choice to follow or stand alone and look like a bigger idiot than he was. Sighing dramatically, Percy reluctantly followed.

Stopping at the table, it's purple surface contrasting with the orange chairs settled around it, Jason said politely, "Do you mind if we sit here?"

The blonde, who was reaching over for something in her bag when he spoke, froze. Slowly, she sat back up. Her eyes rolled across his figure, taking everything thing, as if she was memorizing him to describe him to a police sketch artist. As soon as she had him down, her eyes shot behind him to land on Percy. They narrowed, pinning his cousin with a glare full of detest. Shuddering, even though the glare wasn't directed at him, Jason couldn't help but wonder what his cousin did to this girl.

On the other hand, the dark-haired friend smiled brightly at the two boys. Her teeth were probably the whitest he had ever seen on a person that wasn't a celebrity and her skin was perfect, without any trace of acne. Crystal-blue eyes sat above her petite nose, sparkling with some emotion he couldn't quite place. Mischievousness? Possibly.

"Not at all!" The beauty said, at the same time as the blonde spat, "Yes."

Hearing her friend's words, the blonde turned her glare towards her. Stormy gray eyes met the perfect crystal ones. Surprisingly, the blonde's friend didn't even flinch. Maintaining eye contact with her friend, the dark-haired girl said, "You boys can have a seat here. Annabeth and I don't mind sharing."

Annabeth. He knew something about an Annabeth... Thalia was friends with an Annabeth! This was Annabeth? Jason looked her over again. Wow, he hadn't seen Annabeth in years, not since Thalia had stopped inviting her friends over to the house. It had to have been four years since he saw her.

But there was something else... What else did he know about an Annabeth...?

As he wondered, Annabeth slid her glare back towards Percy, who sat down next to the dark-haired girl nervously.

Oh. Right. Annabeth hates Percy.

Chuckling awkwardly, Jason lowered himself into the seat between his sister's best friend and his cousin. All the eyes at the table slid towards him, everyone silently wondering just what was so funny.

Sensing the tension had turned towards him, Jason said uncomfortably, "Just trying to lighten things up!" He gave a small, self-conscious smile. "My name is Jason."

"It's very nice to meet you, Jason," the dark-haired girl said, flashing her sparkling teeth again. "I'm Silena, and I've already introduced Annabeth." She turned her pure-blue gaze on Percy. "And you are?"

"Percy," he muttered, head down, sensing Annabeth's grey glare.

"Oh," Silena murmured softly. Perhaps she also knew of Annabeth's vendetta against the green-eyed swimmer. She cleared her throat, attempting to make some more small talk. "What are you guys here to work on?"

"We're working on that survey sent out by the school. And you?"

Silena beamed. "The same! See, I told Annabeth that it would be fun. Our other friends just didn't agree."

Jason smiled, feeling slightly more at ease. "Is my sister one of your friends?"

"Thalia?"

"That's the one!"

Silena laughed lightly. "Oh, she was appalled at the idea! The funniest thing, I tell you."

Jason laughed along with Silena, thinking that maybe this wouldn't be too bad. As long as Annabeth and Percy weren't left alone, this should be fine. "I won't keep you from your survey, then," he said, smiling.

"Why, thank you. Good luck! I hope you both get matched to someone you like."

Five questions into the survey and Percy was beginning to realize just how stupid this was.

"If they're asking what grade we're in," he groused, "why would they have the option for fourth grade? The summary of this survey says it's for high school students!"

"Maybe they're asking for your mental grade level, so they can match you with someone as equally immature," Jason suggested dryly, sounding eerily like something his sister would say. Percy shuddered at the thought.

He continued to mutter under his breath regardless, causing Annabeth to shoot yet another glare in his direction. Too distracted with the stupidity of the school, though, Percy ignored her. That only made the blonde girl narrow her eyes more, until Silena distracted her by asking a question off the survey. Jason decided to take her example and do the same.

Clearing his throat to shake Percy out of his angry mutterings, Jason said, "Well, the next one is fairly simple. What hair color do you like on others?"

Percy flipped through the choices on his phone. Black, brown, blonde, something called "not-so-blonde", red, and other. His mind flashed to the ruby locks of the pale girl he found himself attracted to. "Red," he answered, pressing the circular button on his smart phone. It was obvious what they meant by that question.

Jason nodded, as if he had either been expecting that or didn't really care. Percy guessed the latter. "Cool. We're making some good headway through this thing already! Let's keep going. What is the best thing you have going?"

Percy read through the answers displayed on his own phone, reading them aloud under his breath, tone growing more doubtful as he continued. "Incredible intelligence, gut-splitting humor, amazing honesty, super looks, compassionate caring, and exceptional enthusiasm? What is this, second grade?"

"It's too bad they don't have captain of the swimming team on there, or else you'd be golden. I have no idea what you're going to pick. Do any of these apply to you?"

"Shut up, Jason. They all apply to me. But I think I'm going to pick my gut-splitting humor."

"I thought you were going to pick your incredible intelligence."

"Shut up, Jason."

The blonde boy rolled his eyes. "Fine. What would life stink without?"

Percy snorted as he read the answers. "Deodorant?" He read off the glowing screen before turning to his cousin with a black eyebrow raised. "They seriously put deodorant?"

"That's what my answer is going to be!" Jason argued, a smirk lifting one side of his face.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say. I'm putting... Music. How do you get others to notice you?"

Jason snorted, reading the best options out loud. "Run and scream down the hall? Follow them around?" He looked up from the screen to stare at Percy with mirth sparkling in his blue eyes. "Isn't that considered stalking?"

Percy laughed. "I think they're trying to encourage that here. But I'm going to go with the safest option and pick 'strike up a conversation'."

"You always were the smartest, Perce."

"Shut up, Jason."

"What are most of your tunes?" Jason asked, ignoring the repeated remark from his best friend. "Rock and roll, rap, country, or... 'borrowed-if you know what I mean'?" He frowned. "What does that mean?"

Percy shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Slightly disturbed, Jason said, "Let's move on, then. Favorite sport?"

"Why isn't swimming on this list?!" Percy exclaimed, frowning deeply. "They have volleyball on here but not swimming? We don't even have a volleyball team!"

Jason shook his head in mock-disappointment, unable to feel that much sympathy for his outraged cousin. After all, he was the one that wanted to do this stupid survey, not Jason!

"just pick other and move on, dude. This school is stupid, I thought we already knew that."

Percy continued to mutter angrily, pressing the button for "other" on his phone screen with all his pent-up aggression. He scrolled down the screen, moving on to the next questions like Jason said. Clearing his throat, Percy read, "If you found $100, what would you do? Pay back money you borrowed, head to the mall, treat your friends to some chow and a flick? Put it in your piggy bank, or donate it to charity?"

"Some chow and a flick?" Jason repeated, a look of bemusement written across his face. "What even is that?"

"It's like the school board is stuck in the eighties," Percy mused, "and they haven't looked up from their paperwork long enough to realize that we're no longer in the time of Disco Fever."

"I'm going to put it in my piggy bank," Jason announced after a brief pause. "Why is there no option to return it to its rightful owner?"

Percy rolled his green eyes at his cousin's desire to always do the right thing. Mr. Perfect. And he wonders why they call him that. "I'm going to treat my friends to some chow and flick! Even if $100 probably won't cover the cost of that in this economy."

"God, Percy," Jason groaned. "Can't you ever let it go that the economy is ruined?"

Smirking, Percy continued to scroll on his phone screen. "Nope!" His green eyes glanced down at the glowing device as he read off the next question. "What is your claim to school fame? The honor roll, athlete of the week, class clown, starring in the school play, or the kid with the nice car?"

"Ah, yes," Jason said dryly. "The five social groups of high school. The nerds, the athletes, the class clowns, the drama geeks, and the people with cars."

Percy snorted obnoxiously. "Obviously, I'm part of the group with the nice car."

"Perce, Paul's old van is a piece of shit."

"Sarcasm, Jason. Sarcasm."

Rolling his blue eyes, Jason said teasingly, "How about drama geek? You were pretty great with Macbeth in the tenth grade."

"Shut up, Jason!" Percy hissed, face heating up. "We all swore to never speak of that again." He was vaguely aware of Annabeth's curious gaze creating holes through his forehead, as if she could peer into his brain and his memories if she glared hard enough.

"Yeah, yeah. Stop being so melodramatic. What do you plan to do after graduation?"

It took Percy a moment to realize that Jason was asking the next question off the survey. He thought his cousin was actually wondering where he was going in life. Clearing his throat in a desperate attempt to clear away his own foolishness, Percy said, "Well, not the last option. I'm not moving into the extra room in the basement."

"That's because you live in an apartment building. You don't have a basement."

"Shut up, Jason. Why's that even an option anyways? Most of us live in apartment buildings. Granted, most are also nicer than mine."

"Your apartment is fine, Percy! For the last time, stop complaining about it!"

"I'm not complaining," Percy complained. He cleared his throat again, trying to change the subject before his blonde cousin decided to bring up embarrassing evidence against him. He didn't doubt that Jason would do it, especially in front of Percy's arch nemesis. Or whatever she wanted to label herself as. He couldn't care less about what was going on in that big head of hers. "I think I'm going to go to college first." He pushed the button, looking up when he felt a gaze on him that wasn't hostile (for once).

Green eyes stared into gray eyes. "You're going to college?" Annabeth asked, surprised. Percy was surprised that she spoke to him without a hint of hostility in her voice.

"Yeah. I mean, that's the plan, anyways." He stumbled over his words, completely unnerved by having Annabeth talk to him like he was a normal person and not a shoe that found itself in a pile of dog crap.

"Where do you want to go?"

Why was she still asking him questions? Why was she still even talking to him? He thought those were the bigger questions, not where he was going to college.

Nonetheless, he answered truthfully. If she was being civil, nice even, then he could be too. "I'd like to go to New York University. You know, NYU. But I'm probably going to end up in a community college, at least to start. I don't want to be buried in fees, you know?"

"That's... Actually pretty smart." Annabeth's gray eyes swirled, calculating and assessing his every move. He felt like she was still trying to pry into his brain and dissect him. The sensation was unnerving, at best.

"Thanks?"

His self-conscious remark made her advert her gaze by rolling her eyes. Now that he really looked at them without feeling like she stared into his soul, Percy noted that they were a lot more unique than he thought. Gray itself isn't normal, but hers were different than any gray eyes he had seen. There was cold and calculating, but held a promise of something softer within them. They were like misted pieces of crystals, colors muted by aged wisdom. They were like the clouds that promised a storm, the very clouds gathering outside the library window.

"It's going to snow," Percy blurted out at the same time as Annabeth said, "You're an idiot."

They stared at each other for a moment. Then, at the same time, the two high school seniors said, "What did you say?"

They stared again. Without speaking, Percy made a small gesture for Annabeth to speak first. "I said that you're an idiot," she repeated, narrowing her eyes slightly. "What did you say?"

"It's going to snow."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is!"

"No, it's not! See, I told you you're an idiot!"

Percy huffed, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at the blonde girl. Jason and Silena exchanged worried glances as Annabeth crossed her arms too.

"I'm telling you, those clouds scream snow!"

"There's no snow on the forecast for the rest of the month! Those aren't snow clouds, they're rain clouds!"

"I've lived in New York all my life, I think I know what snow clouds look like!"

"Well, you need to get your eyes checked because those aren't snow clouds! Is your head really that full of seaweed from all your swimming that you can't tell what a rain cloud looks like?"

"Oh, you think you're so smart! But fine, whatever you say, Wise Girl! Those are rain clouds." Percy snorted, a sneer on his lips. The sarcasm on his voice was nearly tangible.

Annabeth's glare darkened. "What did you just call me?"

"You heard me!"

"Seaweed Brain!"

"Wise Girl!"

"Fish Face!"

"Owl Head!"

"Chlorine Breath!"

"Paper Cut!"

"That doesn't even make any sense!"

"You don't make any sense!"

"Guys," Jason interjected nervously, "maybe we should all just calm down. The librarian is going to come over here."

"Shut up, Jason!" Both teenagers turned to the blonde boy, glaring harshly. Then they turned towards each other.

"Don't talk to my cousin like that!"

"Well, what gives you the right to talk to him like that?"

"He's my cousin!"

"So? That doesn't give you the right to be mean to him!"

"It doesn't give you the right either!"

"Annabeth," Silena tried, pulling on her friend's sleeve. "Let's go sit somewhere else."

"No," Annabeth snapped, pulling her sleeve free from Silena's perfectly manicured grip. Her glare never left Percy. "They can move. This is my table."

"Is your name on it?" Percy sneered. "I don't see it anywhere. This isn't your table and we're not leaving."

"Percy..."

"Annabeth..." Jason and Silena shot nervous looks at each other. Both knew that this was like waiting for a bomb to go off.

"Shut up!" Both shouted, turning to frown at their best friends. "I was winning!"

"What were you winning, Perce?" Jason asked wearily, tired already of the shouting.

"No one is winning, Annabeth," Silena tried to clarify. Neither Jason nor Silena had any luck. Percy and Annabeth ignored them and turned back to each other, glares polished and ready to go.

"We're not moving, Jason," Percy said stubbornly, ignoring his cousin's argument.

"We're not going anywhere, either," Annabeth retorted, nostrils flaring with her rage. She knew Percy Jackson was a self-absorbed idiot! She knew it, she knew it, she knew it! God, he's thick-headed.

"Can we at least finish this stupid survey so we can get out of here?" Jason pleaded, his phone screen glowing around his clenched fingers.

Percy stopped glaring at Annabeth long enough to look at his cousin's puppy-dog eyes and immediately wished he didn't. "... Fine," Percy conceded, turning his phone back on. In a bitter tone, he read, "Would you ever try parachuting?" He stared at the phone screen for a full minute, not moving. He didn't even blink before suddenly, he slapped his phone onto the table. "What does that have to do with anything?!"

"Have you been parachuting?" Annabeth sneered from across the table, unable to resist the urge to annoy him.

"No," Percy said through gritted teeth.

Annabeth laughed coldly. "There you go! Now they know to match you with no one. No girl wants a guy that has no sense of adventure."

His masculinity insulted, Percy retorted weakly, "I have a sense of adventure!"

"Sure you do."

"Ok!" Jason cut in, faking cheerfulness. "What's the next question? Let's see..." He scrolled up quickly, trying to find a question that wouldn't provoke another argument between the two seniors. "What do you do when you're working on a project?"

"Percy obviously does that last option," Annabeth interjected before Percy could answer. "He buys a dog and says he ate it."

"Yeah, right," Percy snorted. "As if a dog could eat the song Mr. Buzz made us write for English."

"You have Mr. Buzz?" Annabeth asked, hostility suddenly gone from her voice.

Taken aback, for he expected another scathing remark, Percy hesitantly said, "Yes."

"So do I."

Not quite sure what to make of this, Percy decided to play it simple. "Ok..."

"What period do you have English?"

Dear God, why couldn't this girl make up her mind?! First she hates them, then she's trying to stalk him! Percy heard himself answer, "Third."

"I have his class fourth period."

Again, he tried to drop the subject. "Ok..."

Annabeth stared at him intently, her gray gaze trying to wrench apart his soul, before she physically shook herself out of her train of thought.

"Ok..." Jason said, looking as unnerved and uncomfortable as Percy felt. Under his breath, the blonde muttered, "Girls."

Percy nodded slowly, still not sure what just happened. He blinked a couple times, to see if this was all an illusion, but upon deciding it wasn't, he reopened the survey. Clearing his throat before speaking, Percy read, "Where do you find yourself? Leading, following, watching, or getting trampled?"

He frowned, as if unsure what to make of this question. "Um... Watching?"

Jason snorted. "You better put leading, Mr. Captain of the Swim Team."

"Shut up, Jason." Nevertheless, Percy selected the first option, face heating up.

"Only two questions left!" Jason cheered quietly.

Under his breath, Percy muttered, "Let's just get this over with."

"That's the winning attitude I'm looking for, Perce!"

"Shut up, Jason."

Ignoring his cousin, Jason read, "You just got punked." He stopped and reread the words on the screen. "Yes, it does indeed say that. You just got punked. What do you do?"

"Punked?" Percy repeated, checking his own phone.

"Punked."

"Well, let's see... My options are laugh, ignore it, become a furious green muscle monster (aka the Hulk), or get even. Since I am not an Avenger and I am not in some kind of book or movie where the protagonist is a bitter, hate-filled dude seeking revenge, I'll have to eliminate those last two options."

"Are you sure you're not a furious green muscle monster? I've seen you when the grocery store runs out of blue food dye."

"Shut up, Jason. Since I was just punked, I'm going to laugh. Hardy har har."

"Great sense of humor, Perce. Now I know that if I punk you, I don't have to worry that you'll go all Hulk on me."

Percy narrowed his eyes at Jason. "You better not."

"If you're going to laugh, then there's nothing holding me back!" Jason said with a smirk.

"Oh, shut up," Percy muttered, punching Jason's shoulder.

"Ow."

"That didn't hurt!"

Jason rolled his eyes, grinning. "Yeah, you're right. Now, let's get out of here, Perce. This party's lame."

"I didn't do the last question!" Percy exclaimed, grabbing the hem of Jason's shirt and dragging him back down into the neon orange chair when he tried to stand up. "This one seems like it's going to be the hardest of them all."

"It's asking for your email address," Jason deadpanned, pinning his cousin with a lazily raised eyebrow.

"The hardest question yet," Percy repeated, staring intently at his phone. Slowly, he began to type out his lengthy email address.

Click.

A second of hesitation.

Click.

Another second.

Click.

A pause. "Hey, Jason, how do you spell Goode?"

"God, you're so slow!" Annabeth burst, unable to help herself. She shot a murderous glare at Percy, who smirked in response. Her face began to heat up as she realized he was playing her.

"Miss Chase! Mister Jackson!" The librarian crowed from the front desk, causing all heads in the crowded library to turn towards them. "Detention!"

Annabeth looked like she was about to cry, while Percy smiled brightly at the weathered woman. "Alright, Ms. Pace! I'll see you then."

"Get out of my library!" the woman demanded, shooting daggers at them with her eyes. After the four teenagers, for Silena and Jason didn't want to leave their friends behind, gathered their belongings and walked past the desk, Ms. Pace muttered, "Those hooligans, trying to disturb the peace."

The door swung shut behind them. The older woman looked around to make sure everyone understood the example she made of the two seniors. Finding every gaze on the retreating blurs of the students through the glass door, she yelled, "Back to work!"

Everyone hasted to obey.

"Good going, Percy," Annabeth sneered as the small group walked away from the library. "You got us both in detention."

"Aw, it's not that bad," Percy teased. "Just a bunch of punks sitting around, conspiring against the better-off, popular students." He paused, tapping his index finger against his chin as he pretended to think. "You know what, we might have been talking about you last time I was there. That won't be good for you, princess."

"I'm not a princess!" Annabeth retorted hotly, gray eyes swirling with hatred.

Percy shrugged. "Okay. Whatever you say." He stopped in front of a classroom door, glancing down at his watch and nodding to himself. Annabeth watched in confusion until the bell rang a second later. Percy placed a hand on the doorknob, about to turn it when he looked back at the distressed blonde. "See you in detention, Wise Girl."

Annabeth would've stared at the door, blankly, until the next bell rang to dismiss them for the end of the day, had Silena not pulled her away. "Come on, Annabeth," she urged. "We have to get to class. Besides, detention really isn't that bad!"

Like always, Silena was right. Detention was more of a bore than anything else. All the students sat in the cafeteria, each at a separate table. No one was allowed to talk. It would've been a nice time to finish her homework had she not already done so. The only unfortunate thing was that she was assigned to a table facing that of Percy Jackson.

He didn't look at her, even once, but his presence so close to her was enough to get Annabeth's blood pressure rising. Who did he think he was, getting in her detention and then pretending that nothing happened? He didn't get to do that.

As much as Annabeth wanted to chuck her thousand-page calculus book at him, she was never one for breaking the rules. And while there was no specific rule against that, she had a feeling the teacher in charge of today's detention wouldn't appreciate her efforts.

After an excruciatingly long hour, detention was over. Annabeth quickly gathered her belongings and rushed out of the cafeteria, heading towards the front lobby to walk home. Only when she reached the large glass doors at the front of the school did she realize with a sinking heart that Percy was right. It was snowing.

"Damnit," Annabeth cursed softly, looking down at her ballet flats and windbreaker. She forgot her hat at home and threw out her only pair of gloves this morning because nearly every finger had a whole at the top. There was already an inch or two of snow on every surface. The way it was falling down gave her the impression that it wasn't going to stop any time soon, and the piles would only be getting larger.

Still, Annabeth hated to trek home in that mess.

"I guess I'm not such a Seaweed Brain after all."

Annabeth whirled around, her blonde hair flying about her face like Saturn's rings, to face the speaker. Seeing the dark-haired swim team captain leaning casually against a pole, she sighed. "What do you want, Percy?"

Percy frowned, hearing the crushing defeat in her voice. As much as she hated him, he never really hated her. Now that he thought about it, her hair really was beautiful. Her perfect curls fell in just the perfect way that had to be natural. And there was no way someone could find a bottle of coloring that would match the honeyed hue of her long locks.

Percy shook himself from that picture, trying to remind himself of the red hair and green eyes of the girl he was crushing on, Rachel. But no matter how hard he tried to imagine emerald eyes, he could only see stormy gray clouds.

After a second of hesitation, Percy said something he hoped he wouldn't forget. "Do you want a ride home?"

"You have a car?" Annabeth asked, sounding surprised.

Percy had the decency to look sheepish. "Well, it used to belong to my stepfather. It's a crappy thing, but it does the job of getting me to and from school, so I guess that's all I can ask for, right?"

Annabeth nodded slowly. "Yeah..." Her gray eyes, shards of crystal embedded in her face, suddenly narrowed. "Why are you offering to drive me home? Is this some kind of plot to kidnap me or something?"

Her voice was so filled with suspicion and paranoia that Percy couldn't help but laugh. And laugh he did.

Annabeth was taken aback when Percy threw his head back and bellowed out laughter. Between chuckles, he gasped for air and said, "You think I'm trying to kidnap you?"

Still suspicious, but slightly less, Annabeth said, "Yes. You hate me!"

Percy snorted. "I don't hate you. You hate me, for reasons I don't even know."

"You're stupid!"

"That's no reason to hate someone," Percy deflected, rolling his eyes as he got over his laughing fit.

Annabeth tried to think up another reason. "You're so full of yourself?" She said, trying to sound confident, though it came out like more of a question.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Then why am I offering you a ride home? Unlike that blonde douche you were ogling earlier." When Annabeth looked at him in confusion, Percy gestured with his chin for her to turn back around and look outside. Warily, Annabeth did so. She watched Luke Castellan walk to his car a little ways away, shooting a glance inside at Annabeth as he did so, before flinging open the door to a fancy red car she didn't know the name or brand of. Without another look towards the school, he started up the engine and sped away.

Annabeth felt her heart sink. He saw her, and he kept walking. He knew she always walked home; she waved to him every afternoon as she began her walk. Why didn't he offer her a ride?

Why did Percy?

"I don't hate you," Percy said again, causing Annabeth to turn around slowly to face him. Seeing the look of despair on her face, his expression softened. She really was beautiful, he noted. "Do you want a ride home?"

Wordlessly, Annabeth nodded.

Percy's car really was a piece of shit, but Annabeth would never say that to him, not after he offered to drive her home. Instead, she said, "It's not that bad."

He snorted. "The last girl I had in here didn't say that."

"And who was that?" Annabeth asked, curiosity getting the best of her.

"Rachel Dare."

"Oh." Annabeth didn't know her personally, but everyone knew that her family was disgustingly rich.

Percy shrugged. "Yeah, I drove her to some party after her car broke down on the road. She hated this car, even though hers wasn't that fancy."

"She hated it?" Annabeth looked around at the interior of the vehicle. Even if it was an extremely outdated car and ran like crap, she couldn't bring herself to hate it. Really, the longer she was in it, the more it grew on her. "I don't see why. At least you have a car."

"That's what I said!" Percy laughed.

"And you didn't have to pick her up and drive her to that party."

"Just like I didn't have to drive you home?" He asked, teasingly.

Annabeth's face betrayed her by turning red. "Yeah. Like that."

The rest of the ride was spent in silence, bar the quick instructions to her house that Annabeth gave Percy. Soon, they were there. Percy pulled up in front, unlocking the car doors. He stared down at the car's wheel as Annabeth unbuckled her seatbelt.

Annabeth swung open the car door, about to exit, before she hesitated. Softly, she said, "Thanks for driving me home, Percy." He nodded wordlessly.

Percy waited for the car door to close, fingers gripping the wheel tightly. Just as he was about to look up and ask her why she was still here, he felt a pair of soft, peppermint-scented lips brush against his cheek. He froze, paralyzed, and only moved when he heard the passenger's side door shut. Even then, he only moved enough to lift a hand up to his cheek.

February 14th came quickly after that. Percy hadn't seen Annabeth since that day when he drove her home, nearly a week ago. A part of him was disappointed. Another part of him thought that this was for the best. She had hated him before that day, why should that change?

Why, every time he closed his eyes, could he see hers? Twin pools of gray, calculating storm clouds that promised a cool snow. He used to see sparkling emeralds. Now, every time he tries to return to that time, he gets stuck in her blonde curls.

Percy dreaded lunch period. The anxiety of wondering about his survey results was haunting him. When he took the survey, he purposefully tried to curve his results so he and Rachel would be matched. Prefers head hair, green eyes, girls of her petite stature. He wished he didn't do that. He wants a blonde, with swirling gray eyes, with a body of an athlete instead of an artist.

God, he never thought he'd say this, but he wants Annabeth Chase.

He's such an idiot.

Since he was dreading it so, lunch period came quickly. Percy was the first of his friends there, having spent the last couple minutes of physics pacing in front of the door. A couple guys shot him sympathetic looks, probably thinking that he was trying to work up the courage to ask a girl out during lunch.

Maybe he would. But that wasn't his original plan. He hadn't seen Annabeth since he drove her home; she was avoiding him. She had to be.

Maybe he'd hunt her down and ask her to dinner or a movie (or both). But first, he had to see his match results.

As soon as Percy's lunch tray containing another piece of floppy, greasy pizza was safe at the cafeteria table, Percy took off towards the results table. He passed Jason on his way there, who was walking in the direction of the table with his own piece of white paper.

"Piper McLean," Jason said excitedly, flashing the paper in his cousin's face. Percy felt a small spark of happiness inside him; even if this didn't work out for him, Jason still got the girl he never worked up the courage to ask out.

(The fool. She was obviously smitten with him, Percy kept saying. They were perfect for each other. Too bad Jason was always too busy thinking up the worst possible outcomes to actually do anything.)

"Good luck," Jason wished, just as Percy blew past him in a half-speed walk, half-sprint.

Percy made his way to the results table quickly. There weren't a lot of people there yet; just a freshman trying and failing to change his results. The swim team captain felt a pang of sympathy for the kid that morphed into one of fear. What if that was him? He didn't want to match with Drew!

There was only one way to know.

Pushing aside the kid who kept shouting excuses and lies at the student council president, Percy stepped up to the hastily set up desk. Placing both hands palm-down on the table, he said, "Percy Jackson."

The student council president, who Percy didn't know very well (was her name Lacy?), smiled brightly, looking relieved that the freshman was gone. "Sure thing, Percy! That'll be one dollar. Uno dollaro."

Thinking to himself that that's not how Spanish works, Percy pulled a single dollar bill out of his jacket pocket. "Here you go."

Lacy (he was pretty sure that was her name) took the dollar between her two hot pink nails. She stretched it taunt, examining it in a joking manner, as if she was worried it would be a fake. Most occasions, Percy would laugh, maybe exchange some witty banter. He was too stressed out right now to do either of those.

"Looks good, Percy! One second, let me find your name."

Percy waited with pursed lips as Lacy dug through a box behind her. "Percy Jackson, Percy Jackson..." She kept muttering his name under her breath. For a heart-stopping moment, it looked like she wouldn't find his name.

"Ah, here it is!" Lacy produced a piece of white paper like that of Jason's from the box, brandishing it like it held a prophecy that would determine the rest of his life.

Relieved, Percy smiled. "Thanks." Without sparing a glance backwards over his shoulder, Percy hurried back towards his table and his soggy lunch.

Now that he had the results in his hand, Percy wasn't sure if he wanted to open them. What if they weren't what he wanted? If he didn't get Rachel, which he was unfortunately sure he would, who would he get? Not Drew, God forbid.

But what if it was? Would she renew her quest from sophomore year to get in his pants? Even if he didn't open the envelope, she might open hers. Would it better to know and be prepared or live in ignorance and hope for the best?

Know and be prepared. Whoever said ignorance is bliss had never met Drew Tanaka.

Percy plopped down at his seat at the table, the pristine white envelope in his hands. He stared at it for a moment, oblivious to the eyes of his friends.

Finally, Jason said, "Dude, just open it!"

Percy almost dropped it, so startled was he. "Jesus, Jason, don't do that to me!"

His cousin rolled his eyes. "You're the one that was so ready to take the survey a week ago!"

For once, Percy didn't have a retort ready. His green eyes returned to the envelope, his mind trying to resume its train of thoughts. "But what if I don't like my match?"

"It's a school match-maker survey, Perce," Grover said, sitting down in the empty seat to Percy's left. "You don't have to marry her."

"What if it's Drew?"

"You're Percy Jackson!" Jason exclaimed, patting his cousin on the arm. "You can handle Drew. After all, you already know how, after sophomore year."

Percy paused. "What if I do like my match?"

Beck looked up from his sandwich to stare at Percy. "You're Percy Jackson," he said seriously. "You ask her out."

Percy nodded one, then twice. "You're right. I can do this!" Before he could talk himself out of it, he ripped open the envelope. His fingers with their close-cut nails reached in and pulled out a thin piece of paper. On it were written two words.

"Annabeth Chase."

"You're avoiding someone," Silena accused as Annabeth sat down at their lunch table on February 14th. Annabeth's gray eyes widened as she looked across the table at her friend.

"What? No! What gave you that idea?" Normally, Annabeth Chase was the best liar in Goode High School. But for some reason, she couldn't seem to work up her usual level of confidence.

Silena detected that in a nanosecond. Raising a perfectly-shaped dark eyebrow, she pinned her friend with a blue-eyed stare. "Spill," she demanded.

For all her credit, Annabeth hesitated. This was a huge accomplishment, as one usually never hesitated when speaking to Silena. It was almost as if she had some kind of super power where she could make a person say something they didn't want to, sometimes without consciously knowing it.

"I..."

Piper, who was already seated when Annabeth arrived, stared at the profile of her best friend. She too raised an eyebrow. Piper possessed the same ability as her sister, which was one of the few things they had on common. "Come on, Annabeth! Tell us. If you killed someone and you're running from the cops, Thalia and Clarisse will clap you on the back before we help you cover up any tracks you forgot."

Despite everything, Annabeth laughed. While Silena's tactics worked best on the tougher, rougher girls, Piper always knew how to get her best friend talking. "Ok, fine. But I didn't kill anyone! It's just... Percy Jackson."

Thalia looked over, pulling an earbud out of her left ear to hear Annabeth better. "What did my cousin do this time?" She sighed. "I swear, I told him to stop pranking Jason's locker, Annie! If it weren't senior year, I'd tell you to switch lockers to one that's not next to one of Percy's friends."

Annabeth sighed, tilting her head forwards and letting her long blonde hair cover most of her face. Thalia and Piper exchanged worried looks over Annabeth's head; if something got her this upset, everyone should be concerned. "It's not that, Thalia."

"Well, that what did he do?"

"It's not what he did," Annabeth admitted, face starting to heat up within its cocoon. "It's what I did."

There was a brief pause of silence. "What did you do?" Piper asked timidly, as if afraid for the answer.

"Yeah," Silena added, trading looks of unease with Clarisse. "You haven't avoided someone like this since freshman year, when you accidently knocked over a Bunsen burner in chemistry and set Leo Valdez's backpack on fire."

If possible, Annabeth's face turned even more red as her embarrassment increased. "It was a one time thing, guys!"

Clarisse shrugged. "Whatever. Just tell us what's wrong."

She didn't use the horrid nickname, "princess". That was new, Annabeth noted absently. Heaving a sigh, knowing she had to tell them eventually, she muttered lowly, "I kissed him."

Unfortunately, Thalia still hear her through the barrier of blonde curls. "I'm sorry, what? You kissed who?" She laughed nervously. "For a second there, I thought you were still talking about Percy. And I could've sworn that you hated him. Since... what? Second grade?"

Silena picked up where Thalia left off. "Yeah, I mean, I saw you last week with him in the library. I thought you were going to pull one of those flimsy plastic lunch forks out of your backpack and stab him in the eye."

"Hey!" Annabeth exclaimed indignantly, looking up at her friends long enough to glare at them before hiding herself in shame. Haltingly, she admitted, "I... I was wrong, you guys."

"Whoa, wait. So you did kiss Percy Jackson?"

"On the cheek!" Annabeth hurried to clarify. "It was on the cheek. God, Piper, not his lips or anything."

"When was this?" Thalia demanded, eyebrow raised and arms crossed. "How long have you been smooching my cousin without letting me know? Not that I want to know all the gross details, because ew, but we're still your friends!"

"It was last week. After he drove me home."

"He drove you home?" Piper asked, eyes wide. "Again, when was this?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I told you, last week! It was snowing and we both stayed after for detention, and he offered to drive me home."

Her friends all had very different reactions.

"Detention?" Piper said, aghast at the thought of Annabeth Chase doing something that would land her in detention.

"Detention?" Clarisse repeated, awe evident in her voice. She clapped lightly, shooting Annabeth with an impressed look.

"He offered?" Thalia said, making a look of shock. Under her breath, she whispered, "Geez, he never offered to drive me home."

Finally, with the loudest voice of them all, Silena shrieked, "Snow?"

Once the ringing in her ears stopped and she regained hearing after the loud shriek, Annabeth blinked confusedly. "Yes?"

Silena narrowed her gaze at Annabeth. "This was the day we took the survey."

Oh, shit. She forgot that Silena had been there in the library when Percy and her were arguing about weather. Now that she thought about it, why were they arguing about weather, of all things?

"Yes..." Annabeth cautiously confirmed. Silena continued to stare before a smile spread across her face, splitting it in two.

"I love it!" She squealed, clapping enthusiastically as an outlet to her energy. "I saw the way you were looking at Luke that day, and Annabeth, let me tell you, he is nothing but trouble."

Thalia interjected with a quick, "Yup," before Silena bulldozed whatever else she may have said.

"And everyone knew that you hated Percy," she continued, "but I don't think anyone knew why. Why did you hate him?" She stopped suddenly, staring at Annabeth expectantly.

The blonde brushed a strand of hair behind her ear self-consciously. "Well, I, uh... I don't think I ever actually hated him, honestly. I thought he was stupid."

"He is stupid. All boys are, especially high school ones."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Yes, Thalia, but I guess that's not a reason to hate someone."

"I just hate all of them."

"And that works for you," Piper cut in quickly, "but we want to hear what else Annabeth has to say about this."

Annabeth wasn't sure whether to thank Piper or curse her. Settling for silent acknowledgement, she said, "Like I said, I thought I hated him because he's stupid. Or maybe I thought he had a massive ego like one of those stereotypical jocks. But then, after detention, I saw the snow and Luke saw me and he kept walking. And Percy was there and he drove me home and then as we pulled up at my house, I kissed him on the cheek." By the end of her explanation, Annabeth's words were sped up dramatically.

Silena grinned. "Only the cheek?"

"Yes," Annabeth said firmly, face bright red once again. Her friend sighed, looking disappointed.

"Have you at least gotten your results from that survey yet?"

The blonde wordlessly held up a white envelope, still perfectly intact.

"You haven't looked yet?" Piper observed, confused. Across the table, Silena pretended to faint.

"This really is horrific."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, putting the envelope back down on the table. She shrugged dismissively, saying, "I don't know if I want to know. I filled out the survey so the school would match me with Luke. Blonde, blue eyes, tall but not excessively so? I wanted to be matched with Luke Castellan, even if I don't anymore."

Thalia pinned her best friend with a raised eyebrow and a knowing smirk. "Oh, yeah? Well, who do you want to be paired with now?" Her electric blue eyes flickered to something behind Annabeth, above her head, but she didn't turn around.

The blonde shrugged again, embarrassed. "I can't say I'd be disappointed to be paired with Percy."

Thalia's smirk grew. Annabeth looked at Silena and Clarisse across the table, both of whom had grinning expressions on their faces. Frowning in confusion, she started to turn towards Piper to see what was so funny when she caught something out of the corner of her eye. Slowly beginning to realize what her friends were laughing about, Annabeth warily turned around.

Percy Jackson was standing behind her seat, looking extremely uncomfortable under the gazes of the five teenage girls. His dark hair was disheveled, more so than usual, and his breath was coming out in shorter gasps like he had run to get there. In his hands, scrunched up in front of his navy shirt, was a crumbled piece of white paper.

"Annabeth," Percy breathed, still sounding like he was having trouble catching his breath.

The blonde in question felt her eyes widen as she came to the conclusion that he must have heard her confession. Quickly, she said, "Percy, I didn't-"

"Did you open your envelope yet?" he interrupted urgently.

She shook her head.

"Don't. Not yet."

Annabeth frowned at the command, lifting an eyebrow in challenge. "And why not?"

"Because I want to ask you out first!"

It took everyone a moment to absorb those words. Percy immediately smacked himself on the forehead, lips moving as he muttered curses under his breath. Silena swooned into the waiting arms of Clarisse, who rolled her eyes at her best friend's antics. Piper grinned at her best friend. Thalia continued to stare between Annabeth and Percy, wondering what universe she traveled to in the short time span between second period and lunch.

Annabeth kept staring into the green eyes of the dark-haired captain of the swim team. She was sure her mouth was open, about to catch flies, but she couldn't force it closed.

Face bright red, Percy grinned down at her sheepishly. "I didn't mean to do it like that," he said before clearing his throat. She noticed that he did that when he was searching for the right words or a subject change. He took a deep breath before blurting out, "Do you want to get dinner with me Friday night?"

It took Annabeth a minute to smile up at him hesitantly and say, "Ok. As long as I get to pick the restaurant!"

Percy nodded his head so vigorously, he looked like a bobble head. He remained standing there, awkwardly, at Annabeth's lunch table, feet now unable to move. That is, until Thalia yelled, "Go back to your own table, cuz!"

His green eyes narrowed into a glare as he stuck his tongue out at his cousin. Then, Percy hurried off, back to his friends to tell them of his victory. As he turned away, Annabeth couldn't help but note the absurd grin splitting his face.

He looked like the happiest man on earth.