soulmates ⋮ heroes of olympus au

five.

A n n a b e t h

☼

After the school bell rang, Annabeth quickly made her way over to the school library. Her entire friend group, minus Reyna and Calypso, were meeting and I needed to claim a table as quickly as possible. Library tables filled almost instantly up after school, so Annabeth knew that if the group wanted to sit together, she had to be there as quickly as possible.

It'd be much more difficult if the entire group was meeting. However, since Reyna had debate team practice every day after school, and Calypso always seemed to be working for her father or participating in some sort of club, it would be rare that they would join them after school.

After claiming a seat at a large open table, Annabeth sat down and pulled her math notebook and textbook out of her backpack in order to start working on her homework assignment. The first thing her Calculus teacher had told her class was to expect a year of math like no other, and the twenty problem assignment he had given them for that afternoon certainly proved that statement. One earbud sat in her ear, quietly playing a classical piano piece that Annabeth couldn't entirely recognize but loved nonetheless.

The peace and quiet didn't last for long, as her friends all came bustling in, a blur of loud conversations, laughter, and brightly colored backpacks. Out of the corner of her eye, Annabeth saw the librarian and several tables of freshman sending them disdainful looks. Normally, Annabeth would've been embarrassed. But with her best friends beside her, she didn't mind the annoyed stares.

Despite her trying her best to focus on her math work, Annabeth couldn't help but notice the almost dopey smile on Hazel's face. Nudging her in the side, Annabeth teased, "What's got you so smiley?"

"Nothing!" Hazel blurted out, her brown eyes widening out of nervousness. The librarian shushed her and Hazel flinched, lowering her voice. "It's nothing."

"That's a load of crap! It's not nothing." Rachel whisper-exclaimed as she grabbed her beat-up sketchbook out of her backpack and several colorful pens. "Her and Frank were flirting for almost the entirety of art class."

"Awww...Frank Zhang?" Piper questioned, taking a seat next to Thalia. A small chunk of her hair hung down in front of one of her eyes, hiding the excited gleam in her eyes. All four girls turned to Hazel with practically identical mischievous grins. "Frank's really sweet and cute too. Nice job, Hazel."

"We were not flirting!" She exclaimed in a defensive tone of voice as she pulled her sketchbook out of her backpack. "Frank's sweet, no denying that. But we're just partners for a project in art class."

Thalia's smile grew even wider than what it was before. "Do you think he's cute?"

Hazel shrugged. "Yeah...a little bit." She tried to appear nonchalant, but Hazel almost began to curl up in her seat, a clear sign that she was a little embarrassed and wanting to change the subject as soon as possible.

That, unfortunately, did not happen for her. As the conversation turned to Hazel's potential "interest" in Frank, Annabeth happened to look out the window at the entrance of the library that looked into the school hallway. She recognized Percy, Leo, Jason, and Nico sitting outside, seemingly teasing Jason, who was beet red in the face and looking as if he wanted the floor to open up beneath him and suck him in whole.

After a while of working on her homework, Annabeth heard Rachel say her name in an attempt to get her attention. Annabeth looked up expectantly to see what Rachel wanted to say to her.