soulmates ⋮ heroes of olympus au

seven.

Annabeth thought about the question for a second, appearing to be writing something down in the corner of her notebook. Upon closer inspection, Percy discovered that she was doodling a small flower. "How about one of the Greek myths? Those are always super fascinating and could be interesting to talk about."

"Oh, I know a bunch of those! My mom would tell them as bedtime stories sometimes when I was little."

"Ah yes, the stories of Zeus sticking his dick in everything that moves and everyone constantly murdering each other. Perfect bedtime stories for small children."

Percy snorted with laughter, and his hand shot to his mouth out of embarrassment. He could see Annabeth laughing at him, but Percy chose to ignore her. "So do you have any Greek myths that you want to do?"

"There's just so many..." Annabeth trailed off in the middle of her sentence, appearing to be going off into a daze as she thought about the thousands of different Greek myths. "How about the story of Arachne and Athena? I love Athena, and I think it could be easy to debate on the story."

"You're kidding, right? There are so many better gods and goddesses than Athena."

Annabeth glared. "Really? Like who?"

"Poseidon, duh," I grinned as I lounged backwards in my seat. "The dude's the god of the sea, probably more powerful than Zeus, and he created horses. You can't tell me that he's not cooler than Athena."

"First of all, did you just call the God of the Oceans a 'dude'? Secondly, I shouldn't have been surprised that you picked Poseiden. You are, after all, a complete Seaweed Brain."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Percy questioned in an annoyed tone of voice, but was still secretly amused by Annabeth's new nickname for him.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed at Percy's insistence, but Percy could also see the corner of her mouth twitch as if she was trying to fight back a smile. "You're a swimmer, and clearly, your head is filled with seaweed."

"That's insulting."

Smirking, Annabeth simply replied, "Good."

Even though Annabeth continued talking about their project, Percy couldn't focus on the words she was saying. Instead, he couldn't help but think about how Annabeth always sounded so passionate when she spoke, and how when searching up images of the Arachne and Athena story, she couldn't but go on and on over the gorgeous artistry of the paintings. Percy also help but notice how pretty her blonde hair looked with the golden morning light shining upon it from the window and how her eyes would light up when she talked about something that excited her.

Percy didn't know entirely what his feelings were for Annabeth. But he was sure of one thing: This was going to be a long few weeks.

☼

After school that day, Percy barely even had time to speak before he was greeted by a tornado of noise. Specifically, a five-year-old little girl tornado of noise. She had rounded the corner of the hallway at top speed, her curly brown hair barely being held back by a bright pink headband, and had now flung herself at Percy's legs. "Percy!"

"Hey, Estelle!" Percy exclaimed with an equally enthusiastic smile as he picked her up and swung her around. "How was your first day of Kindergarten?"

"Awesome!" Estelle giggled. "I made a friend named Quinn, and we got to make macaroni pictures."

"That's awesome!" Percy set Estelle down on the ground before making his way to the living area, where he noticed his mom standing over the oven in the kitchen. "Are those blue cookies I smell?"

"And once again, Percy, you prove to have the nose of a bloodhound," His mom said, laughing loudly in the kitchen. "And please don't eat all the cookies at once this time. I want these to last a couple of days, and you know I don't make them often."

"I know...I know."

His mom rolled her eyes, knowing her son well enough to figure that her goal might be a little unattainable. "Anyways..." She began in an attempt to change the subject. "How was school today?"

Percy shrugged. "Alright, I guess. Nothing interesting really happened."

"Paul said he assigned you guys a project in English, and you couldn't stop staring at your desk partner."

Damn it. Cons of having his step-dad as his English teacher. Normally, he was pretty chill and he never gave me any special treatment, which Percy appreciated a lot. He didn't want his good grades to be based on the fact he had his step-dad as his teacher. The problem was, however, when he would tell his mom some of Percy's more embarrassing moments. Percy was still trying to get over how his mom had chewed him out on the first day of school for falling asleep.

"Seriously, Paul? You really had to rat me out like that?"

"Sorry!"

"Percy likes a girl?" Estelle questioned, staring up at an embarrassed Percy with wide brown eyes.

"I do not like her," Percy responded quickly before attempting to sneak a cookie off the tray. His mom was quick to catch this, however, and snatched the cookie back out of his hand. "Hey! That was mine!"

"If you eat any more cookies, you are going to turn blue," She chastised as she meticulously placed the cookies on a platter. "How's the homework load today?"

"Could be worse. I just have Pre-Calc, US History, and Physics."

For the longest time, school had been a complete nightmare for Percy. With his dyslexia and ADHD, he struggled with learning all throughout his early years of school. But over the years, Percy had managed to get better at learning and it wasn't the horror that it once was.

Plus, it always helped that Percy's step-dad was an English teacher.

Estelle climbed up on the chair next to Percy, resting her chin on her crossed arms that sat on the table. "That looks hard," she frowned as she glanced at Percy's open Pre-Calc textbook.

"It is. Be glad you're not a high schooler."

"But high school seems like so much fun!" Estelle cheered as she began to color in her Little Mermaid coloring book. "High School Musical is the best movie ever."

Percy grinned at Estelle's naive yet adorable enthusiasm and ruffled her brown curly hair. "It's definitely not like High School Musical. High school sucks ass, kiddo"

"Mommy!" Percy's head snapped up from his homework, staring at his sister in horror, and before he could whisper for her to be quiet, Estelle asked, "What does 'suck ass' mean?"

"Percy!"

☼