Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

My Tutor

Chapter 1

Percy

I stared angrily at Mr. D, the principal of Goode High Boarding School. He looked smug at the information he just gave me. His face made me even angrier.

"You aren't serious, are you? Tell me you aren't serious!" I practically yell at him from my seat directly in front of Mr. D's desk. He narrowed his eyes dangerously at me.

"I am serious, Peter Johansson." Mr. D tried to sound as calm and collected as possible, but he looked like he was fighting the overwhelming urge to strangle me to death and then blame it on his secretary. I opened my mouth to tell him that my name was Percy Jackson. But I knew he was just trying to piss me off by calling me by an incorrect name, so I shut my mouth. Besides, even if I did correct him, he would purposefully call me by another incorrect name as soon as the next time he spoke.

Mr. D rubbed his bloodshot eyes. I had always suspected that they were the result of a hangover. There were rumors going around school that Mr. D liked to show up to suspected booze parties held in dorms and instead of shutting them down like a good principal, joined the partying, under-aged students.

I never went to those parties (and not because I wasn't invited, I was) but because I just don't run with that kind of crowd. I prefer smaller, more intimate get-togethers with people I actually knew.

"I don't have time for your bullshit, Mr. Jackman." Oh yeah, in addition to partying with the students, he also regularly disrespected us. "Whether you like it or not, you are at risk of academic suspension which means if you don't get your grades up by the time basketball conditioning starts, you are ineligible to play for the whole season."

My jaw dropped. It didn't occur to me until now the seriousness of my situation. If I couldn't play basketball this fall, how the hell am I going to survive the semester? Join chess club? Yeah, no.

"And judging from your transcript," He continued, glancing at the computer monitor on his desk and then smiling at me, "You aren't very smart which means you most likely won't have your grades up by basketball conditioning in one month and you certainly won't have your grades up by spring." I hated how happy he sounded. "So I guess that means no swimming in the spring for you."

"What? But I'm captain!"

"Does it look like I give a damn?" He deadpanned.

I wanted to bang my head on Mr. D's desk in front of me. How could I be so stupid and careless? Junior year had started a little over a month ago and here I was, already flunking. Dammit!

"Now get out of my office!" Mr. D shooed me out and slammed the door in my face as soon as I turned to face him.

"My backpack is still in there!" I banged my fist on the door so hard that the secretary started giving me dirty looks. Mr. D quickly opened the door to his office, shoved my backpack into my arms and then slammed the door even harder than the first time.

What a jackass.

I grumbled as I slipped my backpack on and headed towards the outdoor basketball courts where my basketball buddies usually hang out at as soon as school was out. With them, I could bitch about Mr. D all I wanted.

"I can't fucking believe this! How am I supposed to get my grades up in just one month? I dribbled the basketball a few times before shooting it through the hoop. Conner Stoll caught the ball as it descended but his brother Travis stole it from him. Ha ha, that wasn't even intended to be a pun. Never mind.

Travis smiled at me and kept the ball away from his brother.

"I don't know, study?" Well, no fucking duh. I rolled my eyes at him. Of course I was suppose to study! Only, I'm not exactly the smartest person around and am not that amazing at studying. Plus I have dyslexia and ADHD, which makes sitting down in one place and focusing on schoolwork all the more difficult. I signed. Dyslexia and ADHD? Really? I just had to be stuck with a combination like that. The gods must hate me.

"This is all that jerk Mr. D's fault, I bet. He hates me so he probably lowered my grades on the school's computer so I can't play." I was sure of it. Nothing made more sense to me at the moment. It was all a conspiracy against me. That had to be the only explanation.

"Or," Grover, my friend since forever piped in. He wasn't much of an athlete; instead he was the equipment manager, which is just as important as the players. At least that's what he always says. He was loosening the tie of our school's uniform, which for the boys was just black slacks, a white button down shirt, a black tie, and sea green cardigan sweater with the school emblem on the left. Nothing too fancy and it was easy to move around in. I just couldn't stand the tie. "Maybe you haven't been trying hard enough. I can't even remember seeing you do your homework or even open any of your textbooks since this year started." We had shared a dorm since freshman year.

I was appalled at what I was hearing coming out of his mouth. He was my friend and was suppose to listen to my complaints and agree with me on everything.

"That's because I study while you're sleeping," I countered. But it was all lies. Grover just gave me an annoyed look.

Travis passed the ball to Will Solace who dunked it.

"Maybe you should get a tutor. The school has free tutoring sessions from four to seven o'clock." No way was I going to that. I went for one day in the beginning of freshman year. There were way too many people in one room and only about five tutors juggling all these kids' questions. For all the money that students pay to attend this school, you'd think they could have better tutoring programs.

"Tutor for who?" Beckendorf asked. He was walking towards us with his girlfriend Silena Beauregard. They had started dating last year.

"Percy is at risk for being on academic suspension." Connor laughed at my misfortune and I clenched my teeth.

"It isn't funny, Connor. Percy should start taking school seriously if he wants to be accepted into colleg – Hey!" Travis had bounced the ball against the back of Will's head, effectively silencing him.

"What I don't get is how do you get on academic suspension when I'm doing perfectly fine." Travis said and then attempted a slam-dunk but Beckendorf, being as tall as he is, simply held up his arm to block it. Travis gave him a look that said, "Really, man, really?" and Silena giggled.

"Hell if I know." I sighed and was about to continue on with my complaining when Connor gasped.

"Look!" He smiled and nodded his head in the direction he wanted us to look. A pretty blond girl with tan skin and her eyes distracted with a book was about to walk through the basketball courts towards the school store. She apparently felt our eyes on her as she looked up from her book and made a face I interpreted as, "Why did I have to walk this way?" She closed her book and turned the other way, deciding to take the long way to the campus store instead of just cutting through the basketball courts.

Annabeth Chase. I mentally groaned.

"She looked at me! She looked at me! Did you see?" Conner was freaking out, getting hopped up on happiness.

"She looked at all of us." Will pointed out.

"But she looked at me the most."

I rolled my eyes at Connor. He would probably get it on with anything that moves and has breasts.

"Why, Percy, why?" He put his arm around my shoulders.

"Why what?" I wrestled my way out of Connor's grasp.

"Why couldn't you have stayed friends with her? If you had stayed friends with her, any one of us could have had a better shot with her and probably gotten with her."

Beckendorf and Grover held up their hands as if surrendering.

"Taken." They said.

"So what's the deal with you two?" Connor pressed on. "I've always been curious as to why you guys aren't friends anymore. In fact, I bet that had you guys stayed friends, you'd be dating her right now."

"Its none of your business." I never wanted to admit it, but I was sensitive about the topic of Annabeth. She and I were best friends until seventh grade and then everything went to Hell after that. I was hoping that my friends would know better than to bring her up in my presence. But as always, Connor never picked up on obvious social cues. "It doesn't matter. Besides, I'm not interested in being friends with her anyways."

Grover grinned at me, mentally communicating in a smug voice: "Yeah, sure."

"It's all your fault, Percy." Connor just didn't get the hint that I didn't want to talk about Annabeth. "We were all friends with her too but then you two broke up as best friends or some shit like that. After that, we had to choose sides. And be glad that my hormones weren't activated back then because if they were, I would have chosen to stay friends with her instead of you." What a great friend he is.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Shut up, Connor."

I stared off into the direction Annabeth went. Too bad she and I aren't friends anymore. She was the smartest person in our class. I bet she has the highest GPA and is the favorite for valedictorian. If anyone could help me improve my grades in a month, it was Annabeth. But why would she want to help me? We haven't exchanged words in maybe three years besides the few times in the hallway when Annabeth told me to "get out of my way." Back when we were friends, I could get her to do pretty much anything with enough begging and sprinkles of flattery here and there. But those techniques wouldn't work on her now, especially when all she could do was scowl whenever she saw me.

In middle school, even without the coaxing, I knew Annabeth would help me out whenever I needed it because we were friends, and she was the kind of person that would help out her friends no matter what because that is just what an amazing person she is.

That's it! If I could win back her friendship, she would help me get my grades up! But how was I supposed to do that? The thought discouraged me but I grabbed my backpack and headed to the store anyway. Eh, I wasn't one for planning ahead. I could figure it out later.

I waited semi-patiently for Annabeth to exit the campus store. I saw her inside from the windows standing in line for check-out so it shouldn't be too long now. It was pretty convenient to have this store located on our campus. Goode was about fifteen miles away from any city so we couldn't leave campus to go into the city just to buy bubblegum or pencils. The store, which everyone just called the bookstore (I don't know why, it doesn't even sell that many books), was pretty much a Wallgreen's so it's merchandise was pretty diverse.

The automatic doors opened and Annaebth walked out looking at her receipt. Her blond curls were in a low ponytail and all I wanted to do was run my fingers through her hair. She used to let me touch her hair in middle school and it wasn't a real big deal. But I think that if I tried that now, she would judo flip me or something like that.

She was dressed in the school's standard uniform for girls: black skirt that stopped about four inches above her knees, white button down shirt, and sea green cardigan sweater. It looked pretty similar to the guys uniform , ya know, minus the skirt, and it wasn't flashy or anything. But Annabeth made it look cute and stylish. I even liked how it looked on her better than how it looked on Silena.

Annabeth stuffed her receipt into the side pocket of her backpack. As soon as she looked up at me, I put on my friendliest face and waved at her. Her expression immediately tensed. She balled her fists and began walking away and I ran to catch up to her.

"Annabeth, wait up!"

"What the hell do you want?"

"No need to get all pissed off, I just wanted to say hi." I thought that I'd sweeten her up a bit before asking her to tutor me.

But she wasn't buying it. Her eyes narrowed and she walked faster. I matched her pace and then stood in front of her, halting her. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.

"So," I felt so awkward and tried not to notice how intense and threatening Annabeth's stare was. "How are you?"

She rolled her eyes and tried to side step me, but I wasn't letting her get away that easily. Frustrated and probably figured out that I wasn't giving up, she huffed and stopped trying to escape me.

"Cut the crap and just tell me what you want. I don't want to waste time talking to you." Harsh.

My eye twitched. I did not like the attitude this girl was giving me. I was already embarrassed and humbled enough trying to ask her for help and her attitude was not making it any easier for me. Maybe deciding to be her friend again was not the best idea.

Annabeth cleared her throat, still waiting for an answer. I just decided to be frank.

"Okay, listen up. I'm at risk of being on academic suspension which means I can't go out for sports-"

"I know what it means." She interrupted.

"-if I don't get my grades up soon." I finished.

"So?"

Did she want me to get on my knees and beg?

"So, I was hoping you could help me out here."

Annabeth was silent. She seemed to be genuinely clueless about what I was getting at. And Annabeth was usually never clueless.

"Tutor me." I finally said, unable to take her silence any longer. She was caught by surprise, I guess, because her jaw dropped.

"I am not obligated to do you any favors." Her voice was full of venom as she spoke to me. "We aren't friends."

"Then why don't we be friends?" Annabeth gasped and looked offended. I had no idea being my friend was such a dishonor.

"No, thank you." I had the feeling she didn't really mean the "thank you" part. She tried to walk away again but I stepped in front of her so fast that she bumped into me. I stared down at her and she stared up at me. I was a little over a head taller than she was.

"Come on, Annabeth, I really need your help. It wouldn't even have to be a favor. I can pay you. You're here on a scholarship, right? I can pay you any amount you want." Did I mention how expensive tuition was at Goode High? It was practically like paying for college. The high tuition was no problem for me. See, my dad, Poseidon, owns several maritime shipping companies and controls major ports on both the West Coast and East Coast. So, yeah, I'm practically set for life. I was probably set for several lifetimes. But anyway, only super rich kids could afford Goode. I was one of them and I knew Annabeth was not. Her father was a college professor and her step-mom was a housewife. She had no hope of paying for this school without a scholarship.

I guess my comment about her being on a scholarship and me being able to pay her whatever amount she wanted sounded pretty self-centered because she glared at me.

"I don't want nor need your daddy's money." Damn.

"I'll do whatever you want. Just please help me out here." I pleaded with as much sincerity as I could muster.

Annabeth stared up at me and thought for a while. Then she diverted her gaze and a blush crept upon her cheeks with a smile. God, I haven't seen her smile like that in such a long time. I missed it. She used to smile at me like that all the time. I felt my own cheeks heat up. I hadn't been this close to Annabeth in such a long time, too, affording me the opportunity to get a good look at her face. She was even more beautiful than she was back when we were friends, which I use to think was impossible because she was already so stunning.

"Anything, right?" She looked back up at me. Her smile disappeared as soon as she faced me but her cheeks were still flushed.

"Yes, anything."

"Promise."

"You really don't trust me?"

"Well, you haven't given me any reason to trust you lately."

"Fine, I promise to do anything if you agree to tutor me."

"Introduce me to Luke Castellan."

I felt my face grow hotter, but this time, it wasn't because of Annabeth's face, but because I was now officially pissed off.

Next Chapter: Percy and Annabeth share a moment that feels like the good old times then Annabeth rememebers why she and Percy are no longer friends.

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