Rose's resentment had been quietly simmering away, but when Percy gave a near flawless presentation on Poseidon in English a couple of weeks later, she snapped. She stormed up to him in the hallway after class, eyes narrowed dangerously, and Kelly took a step back instinctually.
"Who's giving you the answers?" Rose demanded. "Who wrote that presentation for you?"
Percy slowly turned away from the conversation he'd been having with Olivia and blinked at her. "Excuse me?"
Rose sighed and repeated, slower and with more force, "Who. Is giving you. The answers?"
Percy raised an eyebrow, amused. "You think I'm cheating in English?"
"You have to be! You don't just magically get this good overnight!"
Percy laughed, and Rose went so red in the face she looked like she was at risk of bursting into flame. "Really, Rose, it's not like that -"
"Don't lie to me," she said, jabbing him in the chest.
And that was when Percy changed. His face darkened, and he pushed his shoulders back, and suddenly his six foot tall frame and broad shoulders seemed more intimidating than they ever had before. He stared down at Rose, who looked like she was maybe regretting a few of her life choices.
"I'm a lot of things, Rose, but I am not a liar," Percy said, voice low.
Rose's earlier volume had drawn a bit of attention, but when she'd hit Percy she'd drawn a small crowd. With this many people staring at her, Kelly could tell she didn't want to appear weak. So she stood her ground, even though she spoke with far less conviction than before.
"What you are is stupid, so I know you're cheating!"
Before Percy could reply, a new voice chimed in. "How'd your nose heal up, Rose?"
Everyone turned to see Annabeth, who'd pushed her way through the crowd and now stood behind Rose, arms folded over her chest and eyes flashing dangerously.
Rose was obviously genuinely afraid at this point, but she scoffed and rolled her eyes, trying to look unaffected. "Fine, no thanks to your terrible aim."
"Oh, I think my aim's pretty good," Annabeth said, taking a lazy step forward. "For example, if I were to aim my fist at your face I'm pretty sure it'd land exactly where I wanted it to."
Rose swallowed and stepped back - right into Percy. As soon as she made contact with him she stumbled quickly to the side. He just smirked, looking composed and absolutely terrifying.
Rose stuttered, "Yeah, well..."
"You might want to get used to people being better than you, Rose. I'm afraid it's going to happen a lot more from now on," Annabeth said scathingly.
The crowd ooohhhed enthusiastically.
"Damn," Olivia whispered from beside Kelly, obviously impressed.
Rose tried to muster up a comeback but failed miserably, and was instead forced to flee with her head down, pushing through the crowd she'd created.
When they realised there wasn't going to be any more of a fight than that, everyone dispersed. It was only when everyone else had left that Percy and Annabeth relaxed.
"That was a good one," Percy said, holding an arm out to his girlfriend.
She ducked underneath it and nestled into his side, expression still stormy. "She deserved worse."
"Eh, she was just trying to make herself feel better about how much she sucks," Olivia said, far too gleefully. "That was awesome, though. You guys - phwoar, you have no idea how scary you looked just then."
They shared an amused look, like they were laughing at a private joke. "Oh, we've got some idea," Percy said, sounding almost like his normal self again.
Kelly wondered what that meant, but thought now probably wasn't the time to say anything.