Letters of Love: A Percabeth story

Chapter 2

Thalia sat next to me at dinner until Percy walked up.

"Hey, Annabeth." He seated himself on my other side. Thalia smiled quietly to herself and said, "Gotta go check on the Artemis cabin" or some other lame excuse like that. Then she got up and left, leaving Percy and I alone. As usual, that drew giggles and whispers from the other cabins, ESPECIALLY Aphrodite. I looked down at my plate as I tried to ignore the subtle wolf-whistles the Stoll twins were sending our way. Percy bumped my shoulder with his and I jumped about 5 feet. "Whoa! You okay? You're really... quiet." Percy offered.

"Well, maybe I'm thinking." I said.

"About what?"

About you, I almost said, but I caught myself just in time.

"Architecture," I lied. Percy groaned. "Really? A clever, funny, sexy hero of Olympus sits down next to you and you start thinking about ARCHITECTURE?" He joked.

"Well, someone doesn't have a big head." But I smiled anyway and glanced at his face. He was chuckling. As usual, my heart melted whenever I saw his sea-green eyes and other handsome features. Stupid emotions! Sometimes, I wished I were a dude... maybe then it would be a lot easier to crush on Percy in secret. Ugh, who am I kidding?? Even as a guy, I would still be in this mess. Not that I have a problem with ANYTHING like that- Everyone should be able to love who they want. The problem for me was that the person I loved was someone I could never have... at least, as far as I knew.

"You talk to Rachel recently?" He asked, breaking through my thoughts. I ground my teeth and looked down at my food again, busily stuffing my face. "No, why?" I said.

Look, I know that Rachel's the oracle and forever un-dateable and all that jazz, but... whenever Percy talked about her, I really didn't like her. Which was weird, because she and I were really good friends. Again, blame the emotions!

"What's up with you? You've been acting really... moody lately," Percy said, and I blushed. I didn't think he would notice, but I guess he was more perceptive than I gave him credit for. I smiled reassuringly at him, ignoring my pounding heart. "I'm fine, I promise. Just... it's been a weird day."

"You don't know the half of it," he said. "This morning, some girl from the Hecate cabin threw an enchanted paper airplane at me with her number written on it." I burst out laughing, but on the inside I was less than pleased.

"Are you going to call her at least?" I asked to disguise my jealousy.

"Nah... she kind of looked like Nico in girl form." This time I genuinely laughed.

A comfortable moment of silence followed, and I leaned my elbow on the table and smiled at Percy. He smiled back, and for a moment it was just the two of us, looking at each other and not saying anything while my heart did back flips.

"Percy and Annabeth sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G," the Stolls chanted in unison. My head whipped around and I sent them my best death glare. "VERY FUNNY GUYS," Percy shouted, but his face was just the slightest bit pink (which was actually the most adorable thing ever). He pushed back the bench we had been sitting on and got up from the table, saying "I should probably go sit at my table before Mr. D turns me into a bottlenose dolphin." Considering our camp director was the Greek god Dionysus, this was a distinct possibility. Still, I was disappointed that he had to leave, because now I would have to talk to the rest of my Athena siblings (who were all currently doing trigonometry worksheets. Why? For fun, that's why. It's what we Athena kids do). "Have fun with your cabin," I joked as he walked away. It was a joke because he was the only kid in the Poseidon cabin.

"Hey Annabeth, what's the square root of 169?" One of the younger Athena kids asked, breaking my train of thought. I rolled my eyes and said immediately, "13." Did this kid even know math?

And that's pretty much how I spent the rest of the evening- math worksheets and glancing at Percy every two minutes. I was too distracted to really participate in the camp campfire after dinner, especially when Percy sat next to me and Thalia kept winking and wiggling her eyebrows. I finally got in my bed after a long, disheartening day, less than excited for the challenges tomorrow would bring. The forefront of those challenges: Thalia, and our first letter to Percy.

Oh Gods, what had I gotten myself into??