After swim trials were finished, Coach Hall announced that places on the team and Captain and such would be posted on the Sports board by Monday. After that, everyone jumped out of the pool and walked to the changing rooms, having to vacate the area because swimming lessons for the public were starting to take place.
Inside the changing rooms everyone went to stand under the showers and rid their hair and swim clothes of the chlorine from the pool. Percy stood under the warm stream of water, his eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of the warm water relaxing him. It was quiet, the only thing he could hear was the water, the sounds of whispering boys were drowned out.
Percy could feel the eyes on his skin and opened one eye, raising his eyebrow and looking around at everyone. "I sell pictures for $10 each." Everyone looked away and was silent, embarrassed at being caught, and Percy snorted.
"Okay, but like, do you actually?" Aaron asked after a beat of silence. "You could get a lot of money."
Percy snorted again, "Really? How much d'you think I'd make?"
"A couple hundred at least." A boy shouted from the back of the changing room and a wave of murmured agreement flowed around the room.
"I'm flattered. Maybe I should think about it." Percy replied thoughtfully as he turned off the shower and walked to his stuff. Everyone chuckled quietly, and went back to changing, stopping their staring at Percy, much to his relief. He got changed quickly so he could go see Annabeth, and he told his friends to meet them where she had been sitting during the trials.
Percy walked back into the pool area and was about to walk up to Annabeth who had her nose buried in a book when he heard his name called. He turned towards the sound of the voice and saw Coach Hall.
"Hey, kid!" Coach waved him over to his office. Percy turned and followed him inside, curious about what coach wanted.
"Yes, Coach?" Percy asked as he entered the office, closing the door behind him.
"Look, Muffin, I get that you might be annoyed with me for making you take off -"
"It's alright, I sorta knew it was gonna happen at some point. And it did make me faster, so it made sense." Percy interrupted, cutting off Coach's rambling.
"Good, Good." He paused as if he didn't know how to word what he wanted to say next. "Look, I know that that amount of scars isn't normal, but something is telling me that it's fine and it's giving me a headache. I wanted to ask, just in case and to prevent the headache that will probably come anyways, but is everything alright? Nothing that I should be worried about, no one I need to call?" he paused again, rubbing his forehead. "I feel like this should be a bigger deal, but my brain just won't compute."
Thank Gods for the Mist, Percy thought relieved. "No, everything is fine, thanks for asking. There's no one you need to call, I'm all good." He reassured Coach.
"Good, I just wanted to make sure." Coach Hall replied, relieved. "Alright, you can go now, that's all I wanted to talk about."
"Thanks, see you Monday, Coach." Percy called out as he left the office, walking up to where Annabeth was sitting.
None of their friends had come out from the changing room yet, so the couple were able to have a quiet conversation about what they were going to about what just happened. "Well, good news, the Mist works slightly on scars." Percy muttered in ancient greek to avoid people understanding as he sat down next to her.
"Really? How does it work? I couldn't hear what was going on but it seemed like everyone saw." Annabeth asked, slightly confused as she put her stuff into her backpack.
"It just makes the scars seem natural, or shoves them to the back of your mind when you can't see them. It doesn't work on people you hang out with, like how Paul was eventually able to see through." Percy explained, leaning back in his seat.
"It's better than nothing I guess." She hummed. Annabeth leaned into his side and he wrapped an arm around her. "What did Coach Hall want?"
"To ask about the scars. He got the best view of them, so it must have stayed in his mind more. He was also fighting the thoughts the Mist was feeding him, and was getting a headache, so he complained about that."
"Oof, Mist headache. That would suck." Annabeth scrunched up her nose thinking about it. She heard a small intake of breath from Percy and looked up to see his eyes widening. "Oh no, I'm worried about what you're thinking."
"Okay but, hear me out, Athena was born from Zeus' head, right? And he had a massive headache. So, what if she was born because he was thinking of the knowledge that the Mist was obscuring, and he got a Mist headache and then it got so bad cause he's a god and it just went poof Mist proof baby with loads of knowledge!" He turned to Annabeth alarmed. "Is Coach Hall going to birth a god out of his head?!"
Annabeth stared at him. She blinked. Percy tilted his head to the side, confused by her reaction. She blinked again. "What the actual fuck."
Everything Percy had said seemed to register in his head. His eyebrows raised and his eyes widened again. "Shit. I just called Athena a Mist proof baby with loads of knowledge. Styx, she's gonna smite me."
Annabeth stared at him again. "That's what you took from that whole thing?" She said incredulously. "Not the fact that you just said that Coach Hall - a biologically male mortal - was going to give birth in his office! From his head! Or the fact you just disregarded the whole story of how my mom was born?!"
Percy was silent for a moment. "Okay, yeah I see that now." He thought back through what he had said again. "You know, surprisingly, I don't think that was actually the worst thing I have ever come up with."
"Oh no, it wasn't. Clarisse has a whole book of your weird myth remakes, and this is going straight to her!" Annabeth exclaimed happily, grinning maniacally at the thought of new blackmail.
Percy groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Nooo! Please! She's gonna tease me so bad!"
"Think before you speak, Perce!" She sang smugly, smirking at his despair.
He sat back up and shook his head in mock disappointment. "I thought you loved me Wise Girl, how could you betray me like this? Siding with Clarisse, of all people!"
"Would you prefer I tell Thalia?"
"No!" He cried out his face the picture of horror, "Nope! No! Clarisse is good! Don't tell Thalia!" He pleaded.
"Hmm, I'll think about it. But you owe me!"
"Anything, just don't tell Thalia. Please! Please don't tell her! She will tease me until the end of time. And she can actually do that." Percy begged.
Annabeth laughed and looked over her shoulder to see his friends walking into the seating area of the pool, looking for Percy.
"Hey, Perce, your friends are here." She pointed out, switching to english. Percy turned to them and waved, and the couple got up and walked over to them. As they joined the group, Ash came running out from their changing room, so they didn't have to wait for them before leaving.
"So, it's still sunny, and it's a friday. Pizza?" Ash asked as the group walked out of school.
"Sure, sounds fun." Aaron replied and everyone else nodded. "Should we go to the place on the corner by the park?"
"Ooh, Yes! They do some great dessert as well." Karl agreed happily. "Mmm, nutella pizza."
Percy's eyes widened, "Nutella Pizza?! Oh I can't wait!"
~~~
The pizza place was about a twenty minute walk from school, and they were all talking loudly about the school day. Percy and Annabeth were telling everyone about what had happened in Latin, and they were all laughing and talking loudly. People on the sidewalk were giving them a large birth as they walked along the sidewalk as the boys shoved each other around.
They rounded the corner to the pizza place as paused outside to look at the menu. There was a deal for half priced pizzas if you got take out, so they decided to get take out and sit at the picnic tables in the park.
They sat down a few minutes later with a decent sized tower of pizza boxes for the amount of people.
"Damn swimmers, eating their body weight." Ash said as they struggled to keep the pile balanced.
"Aww, poor lil Ash!" Karl teased. "Don't worry I'll help" He grabbed the few on the top and one just as it was about to slip, much to the relief of everyone.
He helped them set the pizzas onto the table, and everyone immediately grabbed their order, and opened it, inhaling the pieces of pizzas like they hadn't eaten food in years.
Annabeth looked on amazed at the amount of food they were consuming. She had seen hungry demigods eat, but what she hadn't seen was the amount of food hungry swimmers eat. It was similar amounts, which had her surprised because they were mortals.
Percy was fist to finish the normal pizzas and start on the Nutella ones, and as soon as he had taken the first bite, he let out an obscene moan. Hhis hand slapped to his face, covering his mouth with wide eyes. Everyone stopped eating and stared at him, who was turning the colour of a tomato incredible quickly. Even Annabeth stopped, having never heard a sound like that come out of him before.
"I - um, I don't kn- Um, It's really good pizza?" Percy stuttered, bright red and eyes wide.
"Gods! Should I be jealous of the pizza?" Annabeth muttered as everyone stared at him. Aaron burst out laughing, dropping the piece of pizza he was eating back into the box and clutching his stomach. Everyone joined in to various levels of 'I can't breath' and 'I'm going to pee myself, I'm laughing too hard'. Karl ended up nearly falling off the table which made Percy chuckle slightly, but he was still bright red.
"We are never talking about this, ever." He announced once everyone was relatively calm.
"Oh, no, that was insane!" Karl wheezed and wiped a tear out of his eye. "Oh my god, that was incredible!"
"Oh, shut it!" Percy pouted going back to his pizza, face the same colour as tomato sauce.
"Try not to moan again, Perce!" Ash managed to chuckle out as they dissolved back into giggles with Karl, who laughed harder at Percy's expression.
"This is bullying! You are all bullying me!" Percy shouted in annoyance, catching the attention of people walking by who took one look at the scene and pretended they hadn't. "Annabeth! Help me! Get them to stop!"
"I dunno Perce, maybe we should break up and you should elope with the pizza?" She hummed taking a bite out of her own pizza with a smirk as his face contorted into one of mock hurt.
"Annabeth!" He cried out, "You have betrayed me!" He went back to his pizza. "You are all dead to me." Everyone laughed at his expression and he pouted even more.
Everyone calmed down again and Percy ignored them, angrily eating his pizza. All his friends thought he looked quite like an angry toddler, and were chuckling every now and again, until they were all finished.
"You guys are so dead to me." Percy repeated once he and everyone else was finished.
"That was too funny, we couldn't not tease you! Sorry, man." Aaron said, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "You should have heard it, I never thought anyone could make that sound."
"And your face after!" Annabeth added. "You looked so shocked, I think I died laughing!"
"Imagine how I felt!" Percy exclaimed. "I didn't even know I could make that sound!"
Everyone laughed again, and this time Percy joined in. It had gotten slightly darker while they were out, and they threw all the pizza boxes into a nearby trash can. They sat around and chatted for a few while onger, until everyone decided to get back home. It had been a long day, and everyone was pretty tired. Waving goodbye to everyone, Percy and Annabeth walked out of the park and made their way back home.
A/N - unrelated note, what sport do you guys want Annabeth to play? Volleyball or Soccer?