NEVER BE THE SAME . . . percy jackson

twenty four: the scheme.

BROOKLYN WASN'T PROUD of it, but she ignored Percy for the next month and a half. Almost.

It helped that they didn't have any classes together now. It also helped that he didn't care much about popularity, while she was in the middle of it. And they were busy with volleyball and basketball.

Funny, she used to go to every one of his practices that she could, waiting for him to be done with conditioning and being done with practicing. It was exhilarating, watching him shoot three-pointers or whatever with barely any effort. Especially when she was up close to him, alone in the court on a day without practice because they were bored and waiting for Mr. Blofis to drive them to Percy's apartment, watching him shoot hoops from right next to her. She'd been decent at basketball, through playing with the Apollo cabin at camp, but she wasn't as impressive as Percy was.

And when he'd make a last second point that easily won them the game . . . well, even though their fake dating agreement forced them to have a public facade, her excitement and her happiness when she ran onto the court and tackled him into a hug and a kiss to congratulate him for his win were some of the realest feelings she's ever felt.

Now? Brooklyn spent her time in the middle of a crowd of people who cared about her popularity but didn't care about her, trying to ignore the growing ache inside of her chest that was caused by the rift between her and Percy.

Her adoring crowd had asked about them. "Are you two still together?" "Is the hotshot basketball player single?" "Are your nights not taken by your boyfriend anymore?"

Needless to say, she didn't know what to say. So she didn't say anything. No comment was the best answer, right?

So she played volleyball. She struggled to do school. She survived.

And then winter break happened. Goode High's started surprisingly early, though maybe it was because Brooklyn was still used to her old school's schedule.

She was planning a trip to Aruba, Barbados — she didn't know, just somewhere in the Caribbean, maybe multiple places if she was feeling really ambitious. And then Annabeth called.

Brooklyn didn't know how Annabeth got her number — now that she was thinking about it, it was probably from Percy — but they've been talking for the past few months. Annabeth came over to the penthouse to get inspiration for making Olympus at one point. That had been a nice time. At least, until Francesca Hayward started comparing Brooklyn to Annabeth. That was not fun.

But they had a spin on the helicopter that Brooklyn had because she'd taken classes on how to fly it. They managed to not crash it.

That was why she was okay with Annabeth calling, though suspicious as to why.

"What's up, Chase?" Brooklyn grumbled, her voice groggy. It was, in fact, seven in the morning, which was way foo early for her to be awake. Even for school, she barely survived. She woke up at seven thirty for school and barely got to school on time every day. Whoops.

"Can you come to camp?" Annabeth asked, clearly talking to someone else on the other side of the phone — who? Brooklyn didn't know or care, but it wasn't Percy. She'd recognize his voice from anywhere, even if she was blind and in a room full of fifty thousand people.

"It's too early to go to camp," Brooklyn fell back on her pillow, about to hang up and fall asleep again when Annabeth added, "I finally have time to make some renovations on your cabin, but I need your input. Come by around noon?"

Brooklyn laid there for a solid fifteen seconds, closing her eyes because they were too tired to stay awake.

"Brooks?"