percabeth ; the babysitter

chapter 3

"See you around, I'm late and my English teacher is going to kill me," I called back to Rachel as I prepared to get on my skateboard.

"We are? I thought school started at 8:00?" she called back.

I smiled a little and looked back at her. "Nope, that's only Wednesdays when we have late star-"

"Oh shoot! Okay, see you there, Percy!"

I could have sworn she winked at me before she left. It looked like she was hailing some type of taxi, but I have no idea.

Who hails a taxi for a short walk? What a waste of money, I thought as I sped off on my skateboard. Her car thankfully took a wrong turn, so there was no awkwardly-riding-next-to-each-other-after-saying-goodbye moment.

Surprisingly, I was only 5 minutes late and there were a few people standing outside talking. I left my skateboard at the bike rack and speed walked to my English class.

We were switching seats today since it's the first day of the second trimester. My best friend, Grover, is in my English class so I really hope I get to sit next to him. This class is thankfully taught by my mom's boyfriend, Mr. Blofis.

I strutted into the room with a huge grin on my face. "Hi, Mr. Blofis! Or should I call you Paul?" I winked, mustering all the courage that I could.

Mr. Blofis rolled his eyes. "Percy, please go ahead and sit down at the seat I assigned you. I will be having a chat with your mom about this tonight."

While walking past his desk, I whispered, "You would already be seeing her tonight anyway," and raised my eyebrows playfully. He looked slightly thrown off as he cleared his throat and started blabbing about stupid English essays.

I made eye contact with Grover, sending a silent plea for help, while walking to my new seat at the back of the classroom.

You have 3 seconds to guess who is sitting next to me. 3...0. C'mon, you don't need that long. Yup, it's the wonderful Annabeth Chase! If you didn't see that coming, you're either dumb or you lack common sense. Or both. Sorry not sorry.

I slipped into the seat next to her and both of us glared daggers at one another.

"Can't you sit somewhere else?" she snapped.

"Look around, Miss Brainiac. There are none," I retorted.

Annabeth huffed in response and proceeded to ignore me, not that I was complaining.

First period went by pretty fast, with me dozing off and staring off into nothingness. Mr. Blofis finally dismissed us and I shuffled over to where Grover was.

"Dang, Perce! That entrance has to be on your Top 10 most snarkiest things you have done this year so far," Grover said, patting me on the back.

"Thanks, bro," I poked him with my elbow. "My gods, Mr. Blofis put you next to Juniper? Isn't she that girl you've liked since-"

"Bye Juniper!" Grover cut me off and waved.

Juniper smiled and waved back, causing Grover's face to turn pink almost immediately.

"Wow, what a simp. I could never," I teased. (AN: we'll see about that, Perseus.)

Grover glared menacingly at me and punched me kind of hard on the shoulder.

"Ouch, that actually hurt!"

"I would apologize but you deserve it, man."

"Fine. You're no fun," I said dejectedly as we approached our lockers.

Pasted on my locker was the flier for this trimester's athletics. Big bold letters spelled out, "Tryouts for the Boy's Swim Captain are TOMORROW AFTER SCHOOL. Please contact Coach Hedge for more information."

Stuck on the bottom corner, a small, crinkly sticky note in Coach Hedge's scraggly handwriting wrote, "Annabeth told me you're joining this season. Looking forward to seeing you there, Cupcake."