Today

Swimming camp is the step towards a sports career. Annabeth's father is adamant that she can get to that level, but she's not even sure she wants to go to the Olympics in the first place. And then there's Percy, the best swimmer at camp, who has practically everything figured out – including her.

Chapter One

"Twenty-nine-point-five-two seconds, Annabeth." Chiron looks at me sternly. "Not your best score this summer."

I'm still panting, but his words ring in my ears. Thirty. That was over my best score by at least three seconds. I feel warm with dread and disappointment as I lift my arms up onto the ledge of the pool and squeeze my eyes shut. "Can I go again?"

"You had your turn." Chiron leans down to level with me. He's always had a soft spot for me; I've been coming to his swimming camp since I was seven. Ten years. He shows me his clipboard, flipped open to my page. "It's okay. Look at your past scores. You're just having a bad day."

"But I -"

"You will try again next Friday, as always. Hit the showers, Miss Chase."

Trying not to grumble, I hitch my body out of the pool and head towards the picnic tables where my towel was, stripping off my goggles and swim cap on the way. I couldn't slack off. Maybe I hadn't been training enough this week. I had to fix that.

Swimming was my life. At least, it was the only thing besides reading that I was really good at. Since I was seven, my parents had seen real potential in me when I'd picked up swimming so quickly, and sent me off to this camp. It runs programs for beginner swimmers to hardcore Olympic training.

I love it here. The outdoors, the homey cabins, the campfire. The beautiful big pools and training equipment. Away from my parents' fighting and constant pressure from my dad. He's sure I'm going to get to the Olympics. It still seems like a pipe dream to me.

I get my towel from one of the benches campers' things are piled onto just as Thalia, my best friend, comes up with her food. Hot dogs. I am definitely not going to eat that if I wanted to keep up my training. Not that Thalia isn't a wonderful swimmer or doesn't train hard, but she does it all for fun. It's a challenge to her - not her life.

But I want to win.

"Annabeth, I swear you're part fish," she says longingly, sitting down in front of me on the bench. "Your movement is so natural."

I shrug and pull my towel along the back of my neck. "Wasn't my best today."

"What'd you get, over thirty?"

"Almost," I say gloomily.

"Shut up Annabeth, my best is still twenty-eight." She takes another huge bite, opting to speak with her mouth full. "And today I got thirty-five seconds."

I grin. "That hot dog is not helping."

"Then quit drooling over it."

"I am not drooling over a hot dog."

"That's right, you're drooling over Percy," she says, swallowing before grinning fully at me. I scowl. "Look, he's about to do his fifty metre test."

My eyes dart towards the dark-haired, green-eyed boy talking to Chiron and entering the pool. Percy Jackson. The only person in my age group, boy or girl, that has a lower best score than I do. I hate his swimming ability with a passion - he always beats me by one second - but I have to admit, that boy is hot as hell. And it is swimming camp. He barely ever bothers to wear a shirt before dinner.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with that boy. And his body.

If Thalia thinks I'm graceful, it's nothing compared to Percy. I watch as he dives in smoothly, perfectly, darting to the other side of the pool before he takes another breath. My oxygen requirement is my weakness. Sometimes it's as though Percy can breathe underwater.

He comes up to us about a minute later, when he's finished his test. Another thing about him: no matter how he does, he's always happy with his score. This confuses the hell out of me, since he's as competitive as I am.

Well, almost.

"What'd you get, Percy?" Thalia asks as he grabs his blue towel. He throws it over his broad shoulders, giving me a heart-stopping grin before turning to Thalia.

"Pretty good," he says cheerfully, eyeing her food. He's known for always being hungry. "There are hot dogs for lunch today?"

"If you hurry," she advises. I roll my eyes. Processed leftover meat fat always went fast with campers.

"You coming, Annabeth?" he asks me, tugging off his goggles and cap and shoving it to the bottom of his bag. "Or are you too good for hot dogs?"

"Chicken breast for me," I reply. Given today's performance, I need the extra protein to lean up a little more. I stand up and gather my things. "I need to shower first."

"I'll meet you outside the showers," he says. I wave goodbye to Thalia as we leave. She is wearing a smirk, hidden behind her hot dog.

I will forever regret the day I admitted having a tiny, itsy-bitsy crush on Percy.

But it's not like it really means anything! It's just physical attraction. And begrudging admiration for his swimming and breathing skills. Nothing more than that. Other than the occasional heart stopping, talking to Percy was like talking to anyone, honestly.

I shower quickly and meet up with Percy outside the shower stalls. Since it's Friday, and the only swimming we do is a warm up and tests, he is unfortunately wearing a shirt. Older campers have seniority and do tests first, and like me, he is done tests for the day.

He tugs at my blonde curls when I approach him. He always does that for some reason.

"Hey," I say, ignoring his hand in my hair. My voice comes out a little wobbly, and I hope he doesn't notice.

"Took you long enough," he jokes, beginning to walk towards the food line. I follow beside him. "I'm starving."

"Me too."

"So how'd you do today?" he asks. "Flawlessly, as usual?"

I try not to blush. He's very nice to everyone, so he's really not flirting with me. But I wish he was. "Worse than usual, actually," I admit, somewhat painfully. He's very modest of his talent, but I'm embarrassed anyway.

"Same here."

I avoid his eyes. "Thirty. Twenty-nine-point-five."

"Twenty-eight," he says, almost apologetically. "It's fine. Just a bad day."

"That's what Chiron said," I say, referring to our instructor. I did my best to recover. "Butterfly test went well, though."

"I slept through mine," he says sheepishly. Butterfly tests were always before breakfast. We reach the back of the line, and he cranes his neck to check the food. "Annabeth, you're in luck."

"Yeah?"

"You are the only one who will be eating rubbery chicken on a Friday."

"It's healthy!" I defend as he laughs teasingly. "Protein is good."

"Doesn't taste like a hot dog, now does it?" he tells me, passing me a paper plate to me before reaching for his own. He began to pile his plate with fries. "Our ancestors may not have had this much food. We shouldn't be ungrateful."

I roll my eyes and try not to smile. "Sure."

He collects a hot dog from the pile and heads to the condiments table. I find my (admittedly) rubbery chicken and attempt to shake some salt on it for a bit of flavour. So what if it doesn't taste like a hot dog? It'll be easier to swim.

Our entire friend group knows about my eating habits that feed my competitiveness, and they love to tease me about it. Percy and I aren't that close - he's closer to Nico and Jason - but he still makes a point to shove unhealthy food in my face. I will never understand how he eats all that junk and still has a somewhat muscular body that moves so well in water.

I join our group of friends on the patch of grass closest to the beach and sit next to Thalia and Piper. When you think about it, my friend group is pretty big, but it was more so connected through individual people. We aren't all very close, but Percy and Thalia are cousins, Thalia and Jason are siblings, Jason and Piper and Leo are good friends, Jason and Reyna are friends, Jason and Percy are best friends and Nico and Percy get along well with Rachel. A bit confusing, but we all enjoy each other's company. And swimming.

I put my bag behind me and attempt to cut my chicken with the plastic fork. Piper watches curiously as Thalia snickers.

"Why'd you get that stuff?" Piper asks, frowning as she held up her own hot dog. "Looks slightly undercooked." I sigh and stick my fork into the top of the chicken breast. I opt to cut it and chew with my teeth instead, which works a lot better.

"Trying to stay in shape," I explain after I swallow. "My scores are going to get worse otherwise. Maybe burning body fat will help me swim faster."

"I thought you got a minute," she argues. Piper had her hundred-metre butterfly right before mine. "That was one of the highest scores this week."

"I'm talking about the fifty-metre."

"Oh." Her brow furrowed further. "Well, you shouldn't try to burn body fat with crappy chicken. Your form is good, better than Percy's, even." My gaze flickers to him. He's talking to Rachel and Nico. "You just run out of air really quickly. And you should tuck in more when you flip on the wall to swim back."

My eyes snap back to Piper's. I hadn't thought of that. "You think so?"

"Yeah. Talk to Chiron about it."

"Oh, I will," I mutter, biting into my bland chicken again, thinking hard. If I'm being realistic, I don't really need to burn body fat - I already had the muscles to propel me forwards. I'm just running out of ideas to make my time faster.

Maybe some breathing exercises...

My eyes automatically found Percy - no. He was my arch-nemesis in swimming, as far as I was concerned. There was no way I was going to ask him for help. Ever.

Thalia is speaking to Piper. "Did you ask Jason yet?"

A blush immediately rose to her cheeks, making her look prettier. Piper is very beautiful, but she hides it under baggy clothes as much as she can. She hates standing out, but she's also half in love with Jason, so she has a bit of a dilemma.

"No," Piper admits, glancing inconspicuously at Jason. He is well out of earshot, but Piper lowers her voice anyway. "I was going to, but I saw him talking to Reyna, and…"

"You're asking him to the campfire tonight?" I ask, and she nods. I grin. "Good for you."

"If I can get the words out," she corrects. Thalia laughs. "Hey, don't laugh at me. I really did see him talking to Reyna, and she had her flirty face on!"

Piper is convinced Jason and Reyna are dating in secret. Hell, if I didn't see Jason stealing glances at Piper every now and then, I'd be convinced, too. I finish off my chicken and put down my plate and fork. "Just ask him, Piper. He'll say yes either way, you're best friends."

"She's right," Thalia agrees, nodding encouragingly at Piper. "Friends give each other chances."

"For the most part," I say, thinking back to last summer. Rachel asked Percy to the end-of-summer fireworks, and they were pretty good friends. We were all surprised he'd turned her down, since we found them kissing earlier that summer. Percy always insists that was a one-time thing, but I'm not so sure. Thinking of it makes my stomach feel funny.

But there was also Frank and Hazel, who were pretty close when he asked her out. She was a bit skeptical, but she said yes, just to give him a chance. Because that's what friends do. And it worked out all right.

"So what should we do after lunch?" Thalia asks, bending her paper plate in two. "Please don't tell me you want to read again."

"What's wrong with that?" I say defensively. Friday afternoons are always free time for older campers, spent swimming in the lake, playing card games, gossiping or watching the younger campers take their tests. I like using this time to read.

"There's nothing wrong with it," Piper says reasonably.

"Except that it's boring," Thalia teases. "Why don't you play cards with us?"

"I'll join later," I reassure her. And I fully plan to. But after swimming tests and lunch, Friday is my day to have some time to myself. Relax. Take my mind off swimming, though that rarely works.

Only when I'm safe up in my favourite tree, book in my lap and watching the younger campers take their tests do I allow my mind to wander. The camp runs weekly, and most campers go home to their homes on the weekend, but not me. The trip to San Francisco for a weekend is exhausting, and with the amount of shouting going on – either at me, or in between my parents – I don't really want to go back, anyway.

But I really don't know if I want to stay.

I sigh and watch a younger camper struggle to complete their backstroke test. His form is all wrong. He's too scared that he's going to sink that he's struggling to stay floated on his back. This isn't exactly uncommon for such a young camper, but I never went through those types of struggles. This stuff just came to me. It's logical. What isn't logical, however, is my career choice.

As much as I'm a great swimmer, I'm beginning to wonder if I want to spend the rest of my life doing this. That if I really have a passion for this. Because I see Percy in the water all the time, swimming flawlessly, and then he uses his free time on Friday to swim in the lake. Even now, from this tree, I can see him, Jason and Nico playing some game. Everyone can tell he belongs in the water.

I don't think I've ever felt that in my life. About anything.

But I'm eighteen, and I just graduated from high school. I'm not going to college, despite the grades I worked so hard for. I'm set to train with Chiron all year, every year, working towards the Olympics. My records are only seconds away to qualify, and then I'll spend then next ten years dedicating my life to this – but I'm already exhausted. From swimming, or camp, or this lifestyle of going back and forth from home to this sort-of second home. I just need some consistency somewhere, and so far, that's been swimming.

As I'm climbing down the tree later, sure that Thalia must be looking for another player in her card game, it occurs to me that I'm not nearly old enough to be making such a big decision about the rest of my life.

And it had better be the right one.

A/N: New story! What do you guys think so far? Please let me know all of your thoughts in a review :)