Falling for You (A Percabeth AU)

Chapter Eight

Percy's POV

Shit.  

That's all I think when I see a certain blonde sit next to me on the subway this morning.  How is that even possible?  There've gotta be hundreds of people on this train alone, but I end up next to her?  What kind of messed up fate is that?  I don't think she's even noticed who she's sitting next to yet.  Calm down, I think.  Whatever.  I mean, I guess it could be worse.  Annabeth is much better than one of the basic popular bitches.  I'd much prefer her to, say, Drew Tanaka, but still.  Whoever controls this stuff, God or the Fates or whatever, can I just say- not cool.

Other than that, today's been fine so far.  My mom made me breakfast, and my stepdad and I have been getting along well recently, so nothing to worry about on that front.  I'm actually kinda pumped about meeting Jason in the weight room this morning, getting some good training in before the second day of swim tryouts this afternoon.  

I dig through my bag in search of my phone, wanting any kind of distraction I can get from the whole Annabeth situation and to get my mind off of tryouts.  I'm not really nervous, I just gotta text Jason for reassurance I did fine yesterday.  I mean, I thought I did pretty well, but some of those Varsity guys were better than I thought they'd be... I push the thought away as I finally find my phone and take it out of my backpack.  I zip my bag back up, stuff it under my seat and turn on my phone.  I have a couple messages from Jason, which makes me feel great, because he's just the person I need to talk to.  Then I read the message.

Hey bro.  Really sorry but i can't do weights b4 school today.  Family stuff came up... and i may have overslept.  Sorry.  Cu @ school.

Amazing.  The one thing I was actually starting to looking forward to today (other than tryouts, of course) went to crap.  I reply with a quick don't sweat it, ur all good and scroll through the rest of my notifications.  Boring, as per usual.  Snapchat, snapchat, a couple of follow requests on Instagram, YouTube subscriptions, all that crap.  I halfheartedly glance at whatever comes up on my Instagram explore page until the subway finally reaches my stop.  Annabeth and I get up at the same time, awkwardly trying to get around each other with the least amount of physical contact possible.  Yeah, she has definitely noticed me.  

It's more uncomfortable than anything.  I mean, I don't really like her, but it's not like Annabeth and I have anything super awkward between us.  We just aren't meant to get along.  Yeah, that's it.  Conflicting personalities, that kinda thing.  But I can't seem to shake this weird feeling I got when she sat down next to me.  I push the thought from my mind and get off of the train.  I let Annabeth put some distance between us before following her up and out of the station, and down the street to Goode High.

Once I get inside, I go to my locker and shove my backpack in it.  Now that I'm here early, I've actualy got some time to spare.  Thankfully, a couple of my friends have already arrived.  After I get everything situated, I jog over to Frank's locker, where he, Leo and Grover are gathered in a circle, talking.

"Hey guys," I say, "What's up?"

"Oh, hey, Percy.  I'm good, you?" replies Leo.

"I was doing fine, 'til Jason dipped on me.  We were supposed to do weights this morning" I explain.

"Ooh, yeah, I feel ya," Leo says dryly.  "Speaking of which, I gotta get these bad boys to work," he flexes a tiny bicep, which I shove aside.

"Yeah, right,".  Leo's not, should we say, the strongest guy in the group, but he's hella funny and a great guy to talk to.  He's short, Latino, with curly black hair and a little devilish smile that every teacher in the school has come to hate.  He's definitely the class clown of our Goode High, but most are surprised by his grades.  He has pretty much straight A's and even got into some AP classes for engineering, don't ask me how.

Grover's the next one in our little circle to speak.  "So, Perce, how'd swim tryouts go yesterday?". Grover's been my best friend for pretty much as long as I can remember.  He can be awkward at times, yeah, but he's got a good heart.  Since his dad is a famous environmental scientist or something like that, he's big on being eco-friendly, which I guess is cool.  Anyway, back to our conversation...

"Eh.  More of the same. Got some good freshies this year," I return.

"You think the team'll make State?"

"Think?  I know we will," I respond, a little surer than I felt on the subway.  Being with Grover helps boost my confidence.  He doesn't really "do" sports, so he thinks I'm some kind of god when it comes to swimming.

"That's what I'm talking about," remarks Frank.  I turn to face the big guy, smiling.  He's going out for the football team this fall, and he sure looks the part.  He actually might be intimidating, if you don't know him.  But after talking to him a bit, you'll figure out pretty quick that he's a good guy.  He can be a bit clumsy at times, but his heart's in the right place.  He's also great at lifting my spirits.

"Those big shot Queens kids won't know what hit 'em," I say, which gets a small round of whoops.  I grin.  Yeah, I totally got this.

Sorry if this chapter was really cliché.  I'm trying to start picking up the action a little bit, but trust me, there's a lot more coming.  This was a bit of a filler chapter for something coming up... guess you guys'll just have to wait and see ;).  Love y'all, thanks for the reads, and see you in the next one.

-L (Author)

All characters (unfortunately) belong to Uncle Rick.  I don't make any ownership claims over any people mentioned in this story.