The Secret (Percy Jackson AU)

Chapter 2

  Annabeth huffed as she followed John, her grey eyes glinting with anger. He was an asshole! He pointed and said one word before moving on, even if she asked questions. "Gods, I'm tired of this. Can you just let me go back to my friends? You've shown me around," Annabeth snapped, stopping where she stood.

   John turned around, groaning. "Fine! Whatever! Go be a b**ch and throw yourself all over Percy and Jason like all the other girls in this school." Annabeth tensed. "Excuse you? What did you call me?" John smirked, tilting his head slightly. "What, are you too sensitive? Can't take being called a b-" Annabeth slapped him, hard. His head snapped to the side, an angry red mark appearing on his cheek. "You little," he started, snarling. Other students had gathered around, many of them recording. "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" The crowd chanted.

   The noise had caught Percy's attention, as well as Thalia's. "C'mon, guys, we should go check it out. Who knows what's going on?" Percy said, jogging towards the yells. After a few seconds, the group found out what was happening. "I swear, if that asshole doesn't get his hands off my sister," Dylan growled, shoving his way through the crowd. Just as he arrived at the edge, however, a teacher stepped in. "Oi, cupcakes! Cut it out!" Coach Hedge called, storming into the center. He grabbed both Annabeth and John, dragging them to the principal's office with Dylan and the rest of the group tagging along at a distance.

   After about twenty minutes of the two troublemakers sitting in the office, both had a guardian in with them. All of the students had (regretfully) gone to class. Mrs. Chase sat daintily in her chair, legs crossed and hands folded, but her expression was full of barely-concealed anger. "Mrs. Chase, your daughter is said to have started the fight by slapping this young man." Annabeth opened her mouth to interject, but her mother cut in. "Annabeth would not hit someone without reason."

The principal sighed, rubbing his temples. "Look, ma'am, I just have what I'm told. I don't know your daughter and I don't know him." "She hit me first!"
John cried out, holding a hand to his red cheek. Annabeth's eyes narrowed, John's mother glaring at her. "Excuse you? Pardon my French, but you called me a b**ch! What was I supposed to do? Let you walk all over me?" "You didn't have to hit me!" "Listen here you little-" Annabeth's mother laid a gentle hand on her daughter's shoulder. "'Beth," she cautioned. The blond teenager sighed, clenching her fists in her lap.

"May I go?" She asked, her eyebrow twitching slightly. The principal just sighed again. "Sure, go to class. Both of you. I will see you two in detention, however, as well as the students who simply watched and didn't go get a teacher." John, annoyed that his tactic hadn't worked, started to fake cry. "But she hit me! Why do I have to go to detention?" The principle leveled an icy glare at him as his mom echoed the sentiment. "Because, according to Miss Annabeth here, you called her a foul word and provoked her. Now, get to class!" Both teenagers slunk off to their respective classes, anger smoldering in their eyes.

|~~|

At lunch, Annabeth was absolutely fuming. "I can't believe this! Detention? God, that's going to go on my record! That little asshole," she snarled to her friends. Thalia agreed, mentioning that he might have another thing coming to him and Piper said she'd tag along.

The clack of a lunch tray hitting the table made Annabeth look up. Percy had a slight grin on his face, eyes glinting with mirth. "Okay, he's an asshole and you totally don't deserve detention, but you have to admit it's kind of funny," he explained, chuckling. Annabeth wrinkled her nose at him as Jason and Dylan sat down as well. "Hey!" She retorted, frowning. Percy laughed again. "It's your expression! It's so cu- funny!" He changed his word in the middle of the sentence, the tips of his ears slightly red. No one noticed except for Thalia who slyly sent him a text that read "oh, so you think she's cute?".

Percy glanced up at Thalia, glaring, before typing out a "shut up >:(" and promptly devouring his lunch. Annabeth shook her head. "Boys," she muttered. Percy heard her and dramatically gasped, widening his eyes and placing a hand over his heart. "Jason! Did you hear what she said?" The blond turned, confused. "What?" "She said 'boys' like she was unhappy with us!" At this, Dylan chimed in. He let out an equally-dramatic gasp and leaned over to Annabeth. "Beth!" He cried, grabbing her hands and staring at her. "How could you ever hate us?" His sister groaned, a faint smile visible as she rolled her eyes. The group burst out laughing, continuing their conversation as they ate.

   As the bell rang to signal the next period, they all got to their feet. Percy picked up his foam tray, about to throw it away, when someone purposefully crashed into Percy, forcing him to drop the tray. The people around them froze as Percy eyes narrowed into a glare. "John?" Annabeth said, surprised. "Oh! Look, it's the b**ch!" The words barely left the boy's mouth before Percy had slammed him to the nearby wall, pinning him. "You take that back," he snarled. "I don't care what you do to me, but if you mess with my friends, this isn't the least of what will happen to you." John's eyes widened, darting around to see if anyone would help. Unfortunately for him, Percy's very popular, especially since he's the award-winning swim team captain.

"Percy!" Piper exclaimed, grabbing his arm and tugging. "Let go- you don't need this on your record!" Percy turned to look at her, anger at John burning in his eyes. Piper stumbled back, staring in surprise. "Your- your eyes, Percy," she whispered. Her hand lightly touched the feathers in her own hair, intertwined with her braids. Percy frowned, still pinning the dirty blond to the wall. "What about them?" "They- your pupils were slits, Percy!" His eyes widened, pupils thinning even more. Annabeth watched with the abandoned tray in her hands as Percy ran, darting past people and out of the cafeteria with his head down and his hands clutching his face.

   Thalia tapped Annabeth on the shoulder. She whirled around, surprised, them relaxed when she saw who it was. "Thalia! You scared me!" She accused, dumping the tray into the trash can. The raven-haired girl laughed, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Come on, Annabeth, we should get to class." Annabeth looked at her, slightly confused, but slowly nodded. "Right," she replied, the duo walking towards the doors.

|~~|

It's short, only about 1150 words, but it's been a few months so... new chapter. Sorry for the wait.