Falling for You (A Percabeth AU)

Chapter Ten

Percy's POV 

After the fiasco with Annabeth on the subway, it was nice to catch up with my bros in the hall.  Unfortunately, the warning bell rings all too soon and I have to make my way to class.  It's a pretty average day again, but swim tryouts are still on my mind.  I meet up with some of my friends over lunch to work on a project for my literature class, and the rest of the day passes without issue.  As I'm getting all my swim stuff together from my locker, Piper pays me a visit.

"Hey, Perce, what's up?" she asks.

"Swim tryouts, I gotta go-" I start to reply, but she cuts me off.

"Party.  Friday.  Jason's.  Be there," she says, and she's off.

Piper's parties always get pretty crazy, so it'll be fun.  I grab the last of my things from my locker and head down to the guy's locker room.  Jason and a couple of the upperclassman are already there prepping for day two of tryouts.  After today, only one day to go.  

About two hours later, we're all back in the locker room.  Finally, tryouts for today are over.  I walk up to Travis, whose gym locker is across from mine.

"Hey dude" I say, "How'd you feel about today?"

"Eh.  Could've done better, could've done worse," he replies.  Fair.  I think I had an OK day myself, but yesterday was definitely better.  Not that either will affect the outcome much.  We get our regular clothes on and leave the school and head outside, where I meet Jason.  I say bye to Travis as he approaches. My house is near his mom's place, so we take the subway together.  Once we're on the way back home, we pull out our phones and get ready for a long ride back.  A couple minutes in, I glance over at Jason's phone.  Naturally, he's on Snapchat.  But when I take a closer look, I see he's snapping Annabeth.

"Dude, why are you snapping her?" I demand.  It comes out a little harsher than I meant, but the meaning comes across all the same.

"What?  She seems cool.  And, I mean, she's friends with Piper and stuff, so I-" I don't need to listen after that.  Of course.  Jason's had a huge crush on Piper since, like, the seventh grade.

"Whatever, dude," I cut in, wanting to change the subject.  I don't need to hear Jason venting about his crush right now.  I'm just not really into anyone at the moment, you know?  Don't need anyone reminding me of that.  So, I ask him about the first thing I can think of.  "You psyched for the party Friday?" 

This gets a dreamy smile out of him.  "Yeah," he says.  Maybe not the best thing to change to subject to.  But still.  "She invited you too?" I nod.  Jason's attention returns to his phone.  Annabeth just snapped him back.

The rest of our ride is pretty much in silence, which is fine by me.  I pop in some headphones and turn on some music, just kinda zoning out.  The trip actually goes by pretty quickly, and Jason and I hop off at our stop.  We part ways at the top of the stairs, and I walk the last couple blocks to my apartment alone.  On the way, I make sure to take out the earbuds.  Mom'll go on a rant about me being "antisocial" or some bogus like that.  I reach my building and jog up the stairs to my floor.  

My mom and my stepdad aren't home yet, but that's fine.  I grab a quick snack and head to my room.  I plop down my bed and start a YouTube video.  My apartment isn't the biggest, so I hear my mom come in a couple minutes later.

"Hey Percy," she calls, "you home yet?"

"Yeah," I reply, eyes still on the video.

"You wanna come out for a quick snack?" she asks hopefully.

"Thanks, mom, but I'm fine." I kinda lose track of time, because a couple of videos later, my mom calls me into the dining room for dinner.  

The rest of the night as well as the next school day (and swim tryouts) pass pretty smoothly.  As I get ready for Jason's party, I try to push the thought of how well I did from my mind.  Coach let it slip to me that I'd probably make it on the team, but I s'pose there's still a chance I didn't.  I decide to walk to Jason's place, ready to clear swimming from my mind for a little while and let loose a bit.  The party starts without issue, and I can already tell it's going to be a great night.

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Thanks for reading!  Looks like the first couple of chapters that are really important to Percy and Annabeth's relationship are coming up, so stay tuned!  Like always, feel comment to vote, comment and share if you'd like, and thanks for the reads!

Love y'all,

L (Author)

Disclaimer: All characters mentioned belong to Rick Riordan and I do not make any ownership claims over them.