!!!note the pov change!!! :)
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Percy Jackson's POV:
I'd do anything for Annabeth. I know that for a fact; I'd die for her. This loyalty also means that I have to go to school and try. Anything to make her happy, right?
I'm kind of regretting the promise I made to work hard here. Spending time with Annabeth during the day is great, but there's definitely some things about school that I'm not the biggest fan of. To start, I have to deal with Caleb every day, who has it out for me for gods know what reason. He's wanted to kill me since I met him. He gets way too close to Annabeth for my liking, too. I wouldn't say I'm threatened by him, but it'd definitely be better if the guy learned how to back off every once in a while. Or forever. Whichever works best; but preferably forever.
I kind of have to keep my mouth shut about that, though. He's Annabeth's friend, and I can respect that. I'll just keep my dislike of him quiet. That's what I still don't understand; I've been nothing but nice to him and he's just so angry at me. It's pretty obvious why he's one of the downsides of going to this school.
I shuffle through the books in my locker, looking for my biology textbook and drowning out the voice of another downside of this school. I don't know what this one's name is, and I can't quite say I care. She's been talking my ear off about her weekend plans since the end of last period. No one's weekend is that entertaining that they can talk about it for this long, I'm sorry.
I glance over at her, smiling and nodding to give the illusion that I'm paying attention. I don't want to be rude to her; she's done nothing wrong. I just don't have the energy to deal with this many girls talking to me. I'm always happy to make new friends, but there's just...so many of them. I still don't understand why they're flocking to me.
I shut my locker, turning to face this girl. Lucy? Lacey? Lindsey? Something along those lines. I take note of her stance for a second. She's leaning against the lockers, balancing her weight on one foot and resting her shoulder against the wall, bending her spine a bit. Why is she standing like that? Does her back hurt? I glance back up at her face and notice that she's blushing slightly. Uh oh. I'm really hoping she didn't think I was looking at her like that. I just want to know why her back seems injured.
A familiar hand intertwines with mine. Impossibly soft, but still resilient from the years that it's handled a knife. I completely forget Laney's standing there, turning my attention to the only reason I'm sticking around in this school.
"Hey, Wise Girl." I whispered, smiling down at her. She gives me a quick grin, but she was definitely hiding something behind it. Her free hand was fiddling with the beads on her necklace, like she always does when she's upset about something.
"Uhm, hello?" Lexy asks, waving her hand close to my face. I blink in confusion, lightly pushing it away from me.
"Hi?" I responded with equal question in my tone. Lizzie huffs in annoyance at me. Lizzie! That's her name! Well, I guess it doesn't matter now, because she just left. Oh well, I only need one girl.
"How was your first class?" I asked casually, squeezing Annabeth's hand.
"I need to talk to you." She blurted, completely disregarding my question. I tilted my head a bit, thinking quietly about what might be wrong.
"About what, Wise Girl?"
"Not here..." She mumbles, glancing around the hallway like she's looking for an escape route.
"Alright, then where-Wah!" I yelped in surprise as she tugged on my hand, pulling me a few paces down the hall before opening up a door and dragging me inside.
She gazed out into the hall for a bit, practically challenging someone to interrupt her. Then she shut the door of the empty classroom behind her and turned around to face me.
I smirked at her, taking a step toward closer. "Getting me alone in a classroom? That doesn't seem very 'child-of-Athena' of you, does it?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes, but still laughed. At least she's not acting like someone had just died anymore; it was making me kind of nervous. "That's not why I pulled you in here, Seaweed Brain."
I raised an eyebrow at her, considering the options. If it was something super serious, she wouldn't be smiling at all. If it was a monster, we probably wouldn't be standing around in an empty classroom and leaving the mortals to fend for themselves. Although, there are a few mortals that come to mind that I wouldn't protest watching get chased around by an empousa. Not going to name any names...but I definitely could. "Then what's wrong, Wise Girl?"
Annabeth shakily exhaled, reaching into the pocket of her sweatshirt and pulling out a small stack of papers. They were crumpled at the edges, and looked like they had been rifled through haphazardly; kind of like my math homework.
She held the papers out to me silently. The serious atmosphere of the room was freaking me out a little, but I accepted the stack anyway. I was almost scared to look them. What had Annabeth so worked up? The papers felt heavy in my hands, despite the small size of the stack. I think my nerves are just weighing down on them.
I frowned at pages, cursing my dyslexia. Hey, the water powers are fantastic, no complaints there, but it'd be nice if I could read normally.
It looks like some kind of news article, maybe from the Internet? I'll just try to pick out a few key words. Missing...St. Louis...Percy Jackson? My name was within the mess of words on the paper, right below a picture of the St. Louis Arch.
The tension in my shoulders released, but now I'm just confused. I glance back up at Annabeth. I took one hand off of the papers, scratching my head in confusion. "Why did you print out the articles about St. Louis?"
"I didn't." She replied flatly.
"What do you mean?" I puzzled.
"Someone just put these in my locker, which means they know something. I don't know what, but they at least know what you did back then."
"Hey, I didn't do anything!" I protested. Okay, technically I did SOMETHING, but was it really my fault?"
Annabeth shrugged. "I know you didn't, but this person clearly thinks you're some kind of felon."
"So...what does this mean, then?" I wondered aloud.
Annabeth groaned. "That's the problem, I don't know. I have no clue how they found this information, or what they're going to do with it. I don't even know who they are!"
I couldn't stop the scoff that I let out at that last sentence. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think we all have a pretty decent idea of who did this.
Annabeth cocked her head to the side. "What, what was that for?"
I leaned against the wall nonchalantly, having some conflicted thoughts. I didn't want to lie to Annabeth; we never do that to each other. However, I don't want to make it seem like I don't trust her judgment in friends. Although, let's be honest, she could do a hell of a lot better than Caleb.
I shrug innocently, putting my hands in my pockets. "I don't want to call him out immediately, but I think it's safe to say that Caleb isn't exactly happy with me at the moment."
Annabeth's face fell a bit, and her body followed afterwards as she slumped down into one of the chairs at an empty desk. "Do you really think he'd take it that far?"
I shake my head, looking down at the floor and kicking my foot awkwardly. "I don't want to make assumptions, because you know him better than I do, but he seemed pretty pissed."
"I guess I'm going to have to confront him about it later. Gods, why is this so complicated?" Annabeth complained.
I shoot Annabeth a reassuring smile, stepping closer to her desk and pressing my palm down, leaning slightly in her direction. "Hey, look on the bright side! It won't be long until this school year's over, and then we're off to camp."
Annabeth's face lit up a bit. "You're right! I miss everyone so much. Grover, Piper, Thalia, Nico...Leo, even though he's a little shit sometimes. It feels like years since we've seen them."
I laughed at Annabeth's comment about Leo; it was pretty fitting. "That's the spirit. Less than a week and we're away from all this drama for a long damn time."
"A dam time?" Annabeth toyed, emphasizing the second word to poke fun at my inside joke.
"Very funny, Wise Girl. Still not telling you what it means." I chuckled, holding out my hand and helping Annabeth up from her chair.
"Thanks for cheering me up, Seaweed Brain." She grinned, standing on her toes and gently kissing my cheek.
"What, just a kiss on the cheek?" I whined dramatically. "I haven't seen you all morning!"
Annabeth got a playful smirk on her face, giggling and heading toward the door of the classroom. "Hey, you were right before, Percy. What kind of daughter of Athena would I be if I kissed a boy at school?"
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I added another chapter of Percabeth being dorks because I love them.
5/15/20