Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the Heroes of Olympus series, or any of the characters, songs, or bands mentioned.

Warnings: general violence, domestic violence, cursing, poorly-written if you ask me

;;;

Annabeth cocked her head to the side, deep in thought. To anyone else, it would look like she was immersed in her book. In reality, she couldn't stop staring at the word 'punk' being used as an insult, but ultimately making her think of nothing but Percy.

There were other 'scene' kids, or whatever they tended to call themselves, who attended McKinley High, but none of them had ever captivated her attention for more than a few moments. There was something about Percy—maybe the way his eyes glinted with rebellion every time a teacher ordered him around, maybe the way he walked with a unsure kind of confidence, maybe the way he didn't seem to be trying too hard. He seemed to be a natural at everything he did, and he did everything with a sense of genuineness. It was an odd vibe, one she'd never gotten from a guy, but she had to admit that she liked it. A lot.

Wincing as she imagined her dad's reaction of her bringing Percy home and calling him her boyfriend, Annabeth decided to put things in perspective.

Her dad would never allow her to date someone with such… edge. She would probably end up being in a half-arranged marriage with a pre-med, Harvard-attending, sweater-vest-wearing boy with his hair gelled classily to the left. Oh, and to top it all off, he would have a perfect smile with blinding white teeth; nothing like his cute smile with the few crooked teeth on the bottom row. And never, ever, ever in a million years would her dad let her date a boy with piercings. Multiple piercings.

"Annabeth," Piper said from her side, having to slap her friend's book to gain attention.

"Hm? Yeah?"

"The male version of Avril Lavigne is walking this way."

Annabeth closed her book, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Avril Lavigne?"

"Her old stuff was better," a deep, smooth voice cut in. She heard the flick of a lighter, glancing up quickly to see Percy triggering the flame on and off. "Her new music seems very… try-too-hard pop. Styles do change, though. Gotta keep with the times."

"Right," the blond said, suppressing the need to adjust her shirt or take her hair down just to tie it back up. Pressing her bangs behind her ear, she cleared her throat. Beside her, Piper laughed lightly, but Annabeth looked to Percy. "Do you smoke?" He shook his head, still flicking the lighter on and off. "Why the lighter then?"

He grinned, pulling his bottom lip into his mouth and laughing lightly. His eyes were unfair as he said, "It makes me look cool."

It was far from the answer Piper was expecting, which resulted in a very unladylike snort from her closest friend. Clearing her throat to make up for Piper's lack of grace, Annabeth shot her a look and stared up at Percy. "So, did you need something, or…?"

He smiled at her—well, no, it wasn't really a smile, more of a smirk. It looked something close to sinful paired with his silver lip ring. "What? A guy can't talk to a girl without having some ulterior motive? Damn, have times changed." He glanced around the courtyard, sitting down in the grass before her.

"No, really, what do you need?" Piper asked, not really unkindly but not really in a friendly tone either. Annabeth watched Percy move his bracelets around, her eyes catching on a Paramore one. She loved Paramore.

"Hayley Williams is amazing," Annabeth commented.

Percy seemed pleasantly surprised. "Annabeth Chase likes Paramore? What else do you listen to?"

For some reason feeling the need to gain his acceptance of her music, she rattled off a few more of her favorite bands, to which the boy clad in primarily black nodded in approval. "Well, Chase, I'm impressed. Didn't think people like you listened to things like me."

"Appearance doesn't correlate with music taste," she stated with a shrug. "I mean, before this"—she gestured vaguely to him—"you still listened to the same music. And you looked normal."

"Normal," Percy said, seemingly savoring the word as he dragged it out. "And what's the definition?"

"Conforming to a standard," Piper answered as Annabeth seemed to have zoned out a bit.

"Not the shitty textbook definition," Percy clarified, playing with his lip ring again. Annabeth really wished he wouldn't. It made her realize that he had nice lips, not to mention a great jaw. Face it, she thought to herself, he probably has a great everything. "I want to know your definition." He leveled his eyes with the girl in front of him, and the attention he got from her was intoxicating. Thinking of the previous year, about all the letters and cutesy gifts made him want to blush, but he really hoped that he didn't.

"Not you," Annabeth said, swallowing the lump in her throat, which felt scratchy. Dear God, she was parched; was she going to pass out?

He laughed. "Great elaboration, Annabeth." Bemused, he looked to his left and seemed to remember something. "I gotta go. Shit to do before lunch ends, you know?"

"Yeah, right," she said, finally getting her voice back to normal.

"I'll see you later," he told her, keeping eye contact as he pulled on his lip ring with his front teeth. When her jaw clenched, he smirked at her. "Ah, I see."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing." With a final, simultaneously smug and bashful grin, Percy slid his hands in his front pockets and slouched off. Annabeth watched him leave, too, which served to be extremely embarrassing when he glanced back and caught her gaze. The smile she got from him after almost made the seizing mortification worth it. Almost.

;;

"Please don't fucking touch me," Percy near-growled at the girl.

She raised an eyebrow, rolling her lip between her teeth in an attempt to look sexy. Percy didn't think it worked too well. "I just tapped your shoulder, babe."

"I just told you not to touch me. I even stressed it with a 'fucking.'" She recoiled a bit at his less-than-kind tone, but gave him a predatory smile afterwards as she wiggled her fingertips at him.

"I'll be seeing you later." With a wink, or maybe an eye twitch, she fell into line with her friends, giggling like maniacs.

"I really hope not," Percy muttered to himself, grabbing his math notebook from his locker and pushing it into his backpack. Not even two weeks into the school year and he was drowning in work.

"Dude," a deep voice to his left said, closing his locker on him.

Percy pulled in a deep breath—were his anger issues getting worse? "What the fuck, man?" He met eyes with Luke Castellan, a guy who he'd been lab partners with for a week at most.

"What happened to you?"

The ebony-haired boy crossed his arms. "As if that's any of your business, pretty boy." He sent a pointed look to Luke's Sperry Top-Siders and his pressed button up shirt. "I didn't know we had to check-in with Captain Asshole before we changed."

"This is a little dramatic, don't you think?"

Percy rolled his eyes, shooting Luke a vicious glare. "Listen, if you don't like the way I look, then walk away. But don't be a fucking dick." Turning on his heel and roughly pushing the door that led to the parking lot open, he made a good exit.

Percy knew it started right around the time he started becoming more alternative, but the wholebeing kind to people thing was becoming more and more of an issue for him. He often found himself straining to be nice and polite with rude people. His personality underwent a few changes in the process of it all, he guessed, and Percy no longer felt obligated to be nice to people if they were complete assholes to him.

There was still a part of him that was naturally kind, typically when he talked to people like Annabeth. She was the kind of person that would make him feel guilty if he was rude, so he wasn't. Guilt was one of the things Percy hated most in the world. Feeling like he owed people was another. And as he heard someone nearly scream his name from far behind, he added 'annoying girls' to the list.

Turning on his heel and hopefully telling this girl how much he didn't want to deal with this with a simple facial expression, he ended up dropping the irritation and his backpack right there on the ground. He sprinted over to the red Jeep—the one that he knew Thalia's on-and-off boyfriend drove—and his vision nearly whited out from anger when everything came into focus.

Thalia, holding her arms in front of her face, seemed to be shaking in fear, and her boyfriend, Davis, backed away from her and ran towards the football field. He gripped Thalia's shoulder in a hopefully comforting way, keeping his eyes on the guy until he disappeared beneath the bleachers. At least Percy knew where he was in case he needed to beat some sense into him. "What did he do?"

"I just—" She broke off and inhaled raggedly. "I just said something that he didn't like I guess and he raised his hand and—"

"Jesus fuck, did he hit you?" Percy yelled, pulling his voice down as Thalia jumped.

"No, he didn't, but I t-thought he was going to so I—"

"Stay here. Call a friend for a ride and don't move until they get here, alright?"

"But—"

"Alright?"

Thalia scowled. "You don't have to go all overprotective papa bear on me! I panicked when I called your name, I don't need your help!"

Rolling his eyes at her never-ending, stubborn independence, Percy gave her a stern look. "Stay here." He started running after Davis, football-field-bound and feeling his anger spark again. People could do whatever the fuck they wanted to him, but when it came to his friends, his family, it was a whole new story. He'd shed blood for the people he cared about.

As he reached the bleachers, Percy yelled "Davis!" with white knuckles and more likely than not a face red from anger. He could feel his pulse racing, and it wasn't from excitement. Outrage brought him adrenaline, which left him feeling like he could knock down an entire skyscraper if he needed to, much less a puny kid who felt like hitting a girl was the answer when she said something he didn't agree with.

Cowardly, as always, Davis leaned out from underneath the bleachers. Percy had always disliked him. "Look, man, I didn't even hit—"

Taking two steps forward, Percy decked him without a moment of hesitation. Davis instinctively held his cheek, leering at him and tossing a clumsy punch which probably gave the black-haired boy a bruise and definitely spiked the anger he felt. Percy shoved him backwards. "I don't give a fuck if you didn't hit her. Don't even come near her again, do you understand me?"

Davis tried to land a good punch and maybe would have, but he didn't have the slightest bit of aim. Percy caught his fist easily as it tried to come down on his shoulder. "Do you understand me?" he shouted in his face. Davis scoffed, jerking his head to flick the blonde hair from his eyes. Percy backed him up quickly until the scoundrel's back hit a vertical, metal support bar. "Fucking say something!"

"Get the hell off me!" Davis shouted, struggling to push his assailant away. "Why don't you let her fight her own battles!"

Percy slammed Davis' head up against the bar. "Swear that you won't come near her again! Fucking swear it or I swear to fucking God I'll—"

"I understand, Jesus!" Davis watched the red-hot rage in Percy's eyes peak and he took a deep, slightly scared breath. "I get it, alright?" Slackening his grip on his attacker, he tried to communicate a white flag with his eyes. Percy backed up two steps. "Fucking chill—"

Percy heard a crack when he hit him this time. A bit too high on adrenaline to know whether or not it was his hand or Davis' face, or both, the goddamn despicable guy fell to one knee this time. "Okay, so I'll raise a hand at your fucking cousin and see how 'chill' you are."

"That's not what I meant!" Davis rushed to assure him. "I swear, man. I swear."

Percy glared at him, still breathing heavily. "Stay away from Thalia. You hear me?"

"I hear ya. Loud and clear," Davis replied, wondering if he was walking on ice that was too thin to make an Incredible Hulk reference. He decided he was.

"Good." Without waiting for a response (since he was almost positive it would be something that would make him want to kill the guy), Percy clenched his fists and his jaw as he walked away. On the way back to the parking lot, the feeling came back into his hand and, oh, yeah, he did hurt his hand. Looking down at the split knuckle—would that need stitches?—he nodded almost to himself. An injured hand was a small price to pay for beating up a guy who thought it was okay to beat up a girl.

When he got back to the Jeep, he saw that Thalia was gone, and when he pulled out his phone to call her he saw a text that told him she'd gotten a ride. By this time, Percy's knuckles were starting to bleed a bit more than he would have liked, which influenced him to wander back into the school and at least rinse them off before the walk home. Hopefully wrap them in paper towels and look inconspicuous enough that his mom didn't worry.

As he walked in the door, he saw Annabeth walking out the other door. He rushed inside and she didn't even glance up from her phone as he did so. Breathing a sigh of relief, Percy kept his head down in case there were any other lone students in the hallway and slipped into a bathroom. His face hadn't seemed to bruise, but then again he'd just been hit. It was more red than anything—from exertion and anger as well as, admittedly, a punch Davis had managed to land. Percy started to wrap his hand up when the door to the bathroom opened, causing a small moment of panic. If it was a faculty member, he was screwed.

Trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, he turned away from the door. That's when he realized the first problem: there were no urinals. Only stalls. And when the voice spoke, well, that was his second problem.

"Is there… a reason you're in the girls' bathroom?"

Scrunching his nose up at his lack of observation, Percy sniffed lightly and cleared his throat. "It's uh… cleaner in here."

"Right," Annabeth said, materializing before him with a confused look on her face. "Are you sure about—oh my god, your face!" Inhaling sharply, she took his jaw in her hand and shook his head back and forth as she examined him. "What the—?"

"Shhh!" he exclaimed. "If someone walks in here because you're being loud, I will be in so much shit. I'm in the girls' bathroom, and I've obviously been in a fight. That's double suspension, surely."

Annabeth glanced down, finally noticing his hand, which was already bleeding through the thin towels. "Oh my God," she muttered. "Oh my God, you're bleeding."

"Please tell me you don't faint at the sight of blood." With the way this year was going, Percy could see himself fighting a lot more often in the near future. And maybe he kind of wanted her to be around for that, if she turned out to be any good as far as medical stuff went.

She scoffed. "No. I am worried, though." Delicately taking his wrist, Percy let her take care of him. Maybe it was because he'd liked her forever, or maybe it was because she seemed genuinely concerned, but either way, Annabeth started rinsing off his bloody knuckles again. She seemed to be a lot more intelligent about how to treat wounds than he was, luckily. Rattling off a bunch of facts to him, which he wasn't hearing at all because Annabeth was really pretty and he kept accidentally zoning out, she rewrapped his knuckles. "Who'd you fight?"

"Davis."

"Davis…?"

"Davis Park," Percy said with a sigh. "He can't aim for shit."

"Seemed to land a good hit on that cheek of yours," Annabeth mentioned, laughing at his disgruntled expression. "Joking. Call me crazy, but these bruises might just complete your whole look you got going on here."

Percy smiled, chuckling along with her. "You think so? I may just have to get in fights periodically then. Gotta keep up appearances." Annabeth made a face at that, allowing him to have his hand back.

"Don't get into fights on purpose." Though, she had to admit that guys always had around six times more appeal when bloody and bruised. It was an odd thing, but it was a true thing as well.

"What?" Percy said, that heart-stopping smirk falling on his features. Then, almost as if he had read her thoughts, he said, "I thought people liked the whole 'post-fight' look."

Clearing her throat and picking her bag that she'd laid down during the past ten minutes, Annabeth nodded. "Some do. But don't get in fights for the sake of being more attractive."

Percy's eyebrows shot up for a moment. "More attractive?"

Her throat went dry again. "I—"

The "Strum" ringtone, intrinsic to an iPhone, started playing. Percy checked his phone, but he knew that for one, his ringtone was the chorus of a song, and for two, he didn't have an iPhone. Annabeth, for whatever reason, looked relieved as she answered the call. "Hey. No, no, no, it's fine. Seriously. Don't worry, go to the dinner! It's not a long walk, promise. Like, 15 minutes at most. Yeah, I'll be careful. Love you, too, bye."

After she shoved her phone back in her backpack, Percy lifted a shoulder. "So… did your parents forget you, or something?" He felt like he was treading on sensitive land, but Annabeth shook her head and waved it off. "Do you want me to walk you home, or something?"

"I think I'll be fine, or something," Annabeth teased him. He blushed, feeling it this time and regretting every second that his skin burned. "Don't be embarrassed, oh God, you just repeated yourself, no big deal."

"I'm not embarrassed," Percy insisted, rubbing his uninjured cheek as though it would make the blood rush go away.

"Right," Annabeth said, with that tone she usually had. It seemed to say 'I know what's up' with every syllable she said. He knew she wasn't dumb, not in the slightest, but the way she seemingly had everything figured out was really attractive, especially on a confident and quiet girl like her.

"Promise," Percy said lightly, not really needing to say anything in reply, but desperate for the conversation to keep going. Now that he could freely talk to Annabeth, he didn't ever want to stop.

"I believe you. Totally and completely. More than I believe that blue is a color."

He pulled on his lip ring, which was his go-to distraction when he didn't know what to do or say. He watched her eyes flicker down as he did so, which made him smile. "Dare I say that you have a thing for lip rings?"

Annabeth, with a deer-in-headlights expression, snapped her eyes back up to meet Percy's. Raising an eyebrow, she challenged, "And if I do?"

He smiled, leaning back on his heels and leaning forward again as he pushed his hands into his front pockets. "Then it's pretty convenient for me."

She seemed surprised at his answer, which made Percy's stomach turn in a good way. "And why's that?"

Pulling at his lip ring one last time, he smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow, Annabeth. Thanks for helping me out." Before she had the chance to answer, he turned and left the girls' bathroom, the smile waning into more of a half-grin which didn't seem to go away the whole walk home.

;;;

Part III is called Attention. It's unconnected from the previous two one-shots.