A/N: Enjoy and leave a review! Fun things start next update~

Part 1: The Anatomy Class

As usual, the words began swimming off the page. Percy was pretty sure the first chapter of his college anatomy text book was talking about the skeletal system, but the words looked like a distorted version of "sholatel."

A junior transfer at New York University, he was determined to try and stay on top of his classes. C's get degrees, he thought wryly to himself. He was fortunate for landing a swimming scholarship and was able to transfer from his community college to such a prestigious university, but his scholarship relied on him getting decent grades. With ADHD and dyslexia combined, Percy was beginning to lose hope.

No. He would not lose hope, Percy resolved. It had taken hours of hard work. It was only two weeks into the fall semester, and he was giving up? Nah, he would never do that.

His mother had been so happy and proud when he received that acceptance letter. Paul, his stepfather and high school teacher who spent hours tutoring Percy into getting as high of grades as he can in community college, had bragged about Percy to anyone who could listen.

But the swirling words on the textbook in front of him was getting to him. Maybe he should take a break or something. Percy checked his watch. Only ten minutes had passed since he first opened his textbook. He let his head bang down on the table, the sound echoing around the walls of the large library.

"Sorry," Percy muttered to a nearby blonde who raised her eyebrow at him. She merely shrugged and went back to browsing books on a bookshelf.

Already bored with studying, Percy landed his attention onto the blonde. She had three books cradled in her arm and her fingers skimmed the spines of more books. Architecture books apparently. Or maybe archaeology? Anatomy? He couldn't tell.

The girl turned her head slightly, and he got a view of her side profile. She was pretty cute, with her long golden curly hair in a ponytail swishing over her back. He got a glance of a shapely nose and pink pursed lips. She was also struggling to reach for a book on the highest shelf.

Percy got out of his chair and easily grabbed her book for her. "Here you go."

"Thanks," the girl said. She peered up at him with intelligent grey eyes. Up close, she was confirmed to be quite pretty, like a stereotypical tanned and athletic Californian girl, if not for those grey eyes that looked at him so. She was also quite tall, just a few inches shorter than he was. Somehow, she looked familiar.

"You're welcome."

With that, Percy strode back to his table and sat down in resignation. Even with his little break, the textbook didn't make any sense. What he did not expect was for the girl to sit down in front of him.

"Seat's open, right?" She said in response to his bewildered expression. The blonde gave him an amused smile, as if to say, oh you poor dork.

"Um, yeah." Percy glanced around the library.

Since it was only two weeks into the semester, there weren't many people in the library, and especially not in the 'A' section of the library. It wasn't every day that an attractive female chose to sit at his table when there were so many empty tables around. Had he fallen asleep or something? Few, if any, girls had ever sat with him during lunch in middle school, him with his acne-ridden face and short stature.

It was only until high school when he made the swimming team and began developing a swimmer's muscular physique that girls began expressing interest in him. Thank goodness for Rachel, his ex-girlfriend, who liked him even before he had his glow-up, and taught him that no matter what he looked like, he could still be deemed attractive. They had broken up after high school though, with Rachel going to some Ivy League and her uptight wealthy father deeming Percy unfit for his daughter. Still, they had managed to remain good friends.

"I'm Annabeth," the girl introduced herself in a low voice so the librarian wouldn't hear. Mrs. Dodge, the librarian, had taken an instant mistrust of Percy the moment he had stepped into the doorway of her domain of books. It was probably the mischievous skater look he had, or so Rachel had claimed.

"I'm um, Percy." He shook her offered hand.

"Nice to meet you, um, Percy," she said, her grey eyes twinkling in laughter. But her tone and eyes were warm in their light teasing, not like the ruthless teasing of the middle school girls about his stuttering whenever pretty girls talked to him. Those eyes were really startling grey.

Percy grinned. "Nice to meet you, Annabeth. Are you studying," he squinted his eyes to concentrate, "archaeology?" Annabeth showed the front cover to him, and he tried hard to make sense of the swirling word. "Ah, Architecture."

"Dyslexia?" She guessed.

"How'd you know?" Percy gaped.

Annabeth shrugged, opening up her backpack. "That's what I do, too, when I'm trying to read. Squinting leads to bad eyesight though."

"You have dyslexia, too?"

She grinned, "And I'm in the same anatomy class as you are. Anatomy 101, right?"

He's never met someone he could converse with so quickly. He found himself falling for her charm and quick wit, though most of the time she was teasing him. In hushed whispers, they talked, studying long-forgotten. Pretty soon, the conversation got noisier with giggles loud enough for Mrs. Dodge to kick them out.

For the next anatomy lecture, Annabeth was already there, saving a seat for him. Perhaps he needn't give up so easily into his new university career.

Percy groaned and flopped onto the floor from his beanbag. "This is way too hard. There's so much to memorize! I'm just going to accept that I'm going to fail this quiz."

"Percy, why are you taking anatomy?" Annabeth patiently asked.

"So I can get my minor in veterinarian science. Then, I can become a marine scientist who can take care of hurt marine animals. And then, I'll take revenge on my sixth grade science teacher who claims I'll never amount to anything in life."

"Exactly." She placed the textbook he dropped back in his hands. "And you, Perseus Jackson, are going to do more than pass Anatomy. You hit your goal of B last quiz. This time, you are going to get at least a B+, or my name is not Annabeth Chase. I'm sure your sixth grade teacher will have nightmares of you shoving A grades into her face."

Oof, she was using his full name. That always meant business. "Aye, aye, ma'am," he saluted. That B was pretty much a miracle for him, who often got grades just enough to pass the course. Perhaps this time, he'll actually get an outstanding grade in anatomy, which he considered the hardest course of his semester. In the month that he's met Annabeth, she'd already decided to take charge of Percy's academics. He managed to keep a B average in all his classes since then. An amazing feat for someone who only managed a D average before college.

Percy took his anatomy book and tried once again to commit to memory every muscle in the upper body.

They were studying in her bedroom, where she lived in a single within a three bedroom apartment. Percy had been impressed with her living situation, with such a large and cozy apartment in the infamously expensive New York City. He himself lived in the dorms, sharing a double. Her apartmentmates were filthy rich, explaining how Annabeth could afford to live in such luxury. Piper Mclean was the daughter of THE Tristan McLean and Thalia Grace was the daughter of some wealthy businessman and former actress.

"Why are there so many muscles in the body?" Percy wailed. The quiz was three days away, and Annabeth had insisted they start studying yesterday. If he hadn't met Annabeth, he would have probably started studying tomorrow night or even the morning of the quiz.

"Hmm," she murmured. "Have you heard of the auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning theory?"

"Yeah. I'm a blend of all three, apparently. But mostly kinesthetic."

"Good. Then, we'll try this." Annabeth pulled her beanbag next to his. She lifted her right arm and flexed her biceps. She really was quite athletic, with her lean muscular arms. "This one is easy, since you've got pretty nice biceps."

Percy grinned and flexed his biceps proudly. "Damn right I do. Been checking me out lately?" He teased, waggling his eyebrows up and down.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and lightly smacked his shoulder. "My point is that to help you study, you can use your own body as a sort of memorizing tool. Like this is your triceps. Easy." She gently squeezed her underarm. "Then we've got the deltoid and the trapezius."

"So you want to touch the corresponding body part when I'm memorizing?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't make it weird, Seaweed Brain."

By the next day, Percy was able to name quite a few of his muscles. He was even going over his muscles as he got out of the swim practice that day. His teammates might have thought him crazy as they heard him mumbling "pectoralis minor" every now and then. He was so focused that he barely registered colliding with Annabeth when he got out of the pool.

"Woah, careful there, Seaweed Brain."

"What-Annabeth?" He wore nothing but his Speedo, so he felt every inch of Annabeth's body against his when she ran into him. She was delightfully soft against his harder ridges.

She grinned at his flushed face. "We agreed to meet up after your practice to study, remember?"

"Oh, right." Percy suddenly felt unconscious. He was by no means the most muscular swimmer on his team, but his muscles could still be seen as impressive, right? He'd always thought his rectus abdominus formed a nice six-pack.

Annabeth wrinkled her nose, which was starting to seem adorably cute in his mind. "Go get showered, Seaweed Brain, or else you're going to make my room smell like chlorine." With that she walked away, leaving him behind sputtering. She wore a sweatshirt and jeans, but damn did those jeans emphasize a shapely gluteus maximus.

His teammate, Travis, slapped him on the back. "Her room, huh? Wow, Jackson, didn't think you'd get Annabeth as a girlfriend. I'm impressed."

"She's not my girlfriend," Percy muttered. "You know Annabeth?"

Travis shrugged. "We went to the same high school. She and Luke were like the 'it couple', so practically everyone at school knew who she was."

"Who's Luke? And what do you mean were?" As far as he knew, Annabeth wasn't dating anyone. His heart fell. Of course, somebody as intelligent, sweet, and pretty as Annabeth wouldn't be single.

"He's her ex-boyfriend. Look, Luke's going over."

Percy's head immediately snapped towards the direction Travis was pointing. A tall blonde strode over to Annabeth. Percy could tell from her tense posture that she was not happy about seeing her ex, which he was felt a sense of petty gladness at. Within moments, the pair seemed to be arguing. Luke stepped closer into her personal space, his tall figure looming threatening over her. Annabeth stood her ground, however shrugging off Luke's hand when he placed it on her shoulder. Luke made to tug her, pulling her a step forward.

Immediately Percy started heading over. But he didn't need to as he watched Annabeth aim a well-placed kick at Luke's crotch, bringing him to his knees. A girl who was smart, attractive, and can take down butch guys? Sign him up.

"Everything okay?" Percy said. He was ready to pummel the punk at any moment's notice.

Annabeth laced her arms around his waist, not caring that he was naked or dripping with water from the pool. "I'm fine. Luke here was just about to leave. Right, Luke?"

Luke looked up and gave a grimace. He was about to say something, his lips forming a swear word when he looked behind Percy and Annabeth. The whole swim team had gathered. Some out of curiosity, and some like Travis and Connor Stoll, stood in protective stances. Luke's expression was apparent: he probably couldn't take on a whole team of muscular men who were all glaring at him, as well as one not amused ex-girlfriend who could easily judo flip into the pool. He scrambled up, wincing at his injured area. Annabeth's ex sent Percy a baleful glare and left the swimming pool.

Annabeth blew some golden strands out of her hair. "Honestly, how annoying. Anyways... Um, hello, earth to Percy?"

Percy's mind was going haywire ever since she had wrapped herself around him. Gods, she smelled so nice and fresh, like lemon with a hint of cucumber. "Er, I'm here."

She gave him a quizzical look, then wrinkled her nose adorably again before disentangling herself from him. He missed her warmth instantly. "Ew, you smell like chlorine. Hurry up and go wash yourself so we can go study. The quiz is only two days away."

"Aye, aye, ma'am."

He can feel her eyes on him as he walked away, hopefully feasting on his well-kept physique and his own gluteus maximus.

"Okay, where's the masseter muscle?"

Percy pointed to his cheek.

"Orbicularis oculi?"

He circled around his eyes with his finger.

"And what's the muscle around your mouth?"

"Orbicularis oris." Percy grinned. He'd managed to get at least 85% of her questions right. If he got over 88% right, then Annabeth had promised him a reward.

A couple more questions correct, Percy pumped his fist in the air. "Yes!"

"Not bad, Seaweed Brain. You're missing just some of the obscure muscles though." Annabeth pulled her calculus homework towards her. "As promised, you get a small reward. What do you want for dinner?"

Percy considered for a few seconds. "That Italian place you brought me last week? Their lasagna was fantastic."

"Carmine's? Sure." She moved to start packing up their books.

Now was the time or never. Percy took a deep breath, trying to get his confidence up. "As a date. Er, I mean, if you're willing. If you don't want to, then that's totally okay." Oh no, he could feel his face flaming up, his words stumbling like his tongue had grown three sizes in his mouth. "And I'd totally understand if you don't want to study with me after this-"

Annabeth shut him up with a kiss on his lips. Not just any small chaste kiss, but lips melding together, nibbling on his bottom lip until a low growl erupted in his throat. She angled her head in return, letting their lips lock better. He was barely conscious of her hands roaming under his shirt to trace his spine. Then one naughty hand traced the edges of his six-pack, or rectus abdominus, as he had learned. Then she pulled away, moving to focus on her calculus homework as though it was more interesting than the kiss with him was. He thought he had been a good kisser so far.

"Get a B+ on the quiz and we'll see." Her voice was even but he thought he detected pink on the apples of her cheeks. He'd never studied so hard for a quiz in his life after that.

A few days later, he proudly showed her the 89% on his laptop screen to Annabeth. Almost an A-. Percy pulled Annabeth into a hug and swung her around, both laughing even when he accidentally stumbled and they landed in a heap on the floor.

"Woohoo! I did it! Thank you so, so much!"

Thalia stuck her head in to see what the fuss was about. "Damn it, Jackson. I had a bet going on with Piper that you two would get together after the semester was over. Now I owe her a hundred bucks and a blind date with my brother."

That night Percy and Annabeth celebrated at Carmine's, clinking their glasses of Coke in celebration.