You Belong to my Heart: A Percabeth FF

13. Percy

Chapter 13: Percy

I had enjoyed myself at the ice-cream. More than I let on. I was so glad Tyson didn't understand teenage attraction, or whatever that was. He couldn't see me staring at Annabeth's cute curls, or the way her eyebrows furrowed and she squeaked when the coolness of the ice-cream was too cold for her lips. All Tyson could think about was the ice-cream, and the fact that Annabeth had come with us. I think he viewed himself as the "super-duper cool kid," in his own words. Literally. That's what he had explained to our mom.

My mom didn't say anything to me, and I was glad. I think she suspected something, but thankfully, let me be. I had to catch up on math homework, because the next morning I had a practice swim meet.

~ morning after ~

As soon as the rays of sunshine entered my room, my eyes opened, my eyelids filled with the sweat from nightmares and the summer heat. I jumped up when I remembered that today I had the meet. The meet!

My heart jumped in my throat as I waded my way through the mess of my room to find clothes.

All I could think was I have a meet today. A meet. A. Meet. A MEET!

Yeah, I was freaking out. It was ages since I'd had one. Butterflies erupted in my stomach. My coach was using this to place us in different events for actual meets.

I felt like throwing up.

"You ready, sweetie?" my mom called from downstairs.

"Yeah," I called down, but my voice wavered.

"Sweetie, are you okay? It's just a meet! You only need to swim," she laughed to herself. She didn't understand my anxiety for meets. She didn't understand that I was highly competitive. Or maybe how highly competitive the team was. I didn't know anymore.

I got into the car, and tried to hide my nausea with fake smiles. Even Tyson had come along. Gods that made it a thousand times worse. More faces to see me fail and flop.

As soon as we got to the pool, I jumped out of the car and sprinted towards the team.

"Percy!" my mom yelled, frustrated. I couldn't blame her. I had basically jumped out of a still-moving vehicle.

"Good luck Percy!" my brother screamed.

I felt like puking my guts as I sprinted towards the pool. I was ten minutes late. I was stressed and tired. My mom was mad at me and — AHHHHH

Jason saw me and sprinted towards me. "Bro, you okay? You look like you've suffered through eternal punishment."

I guessed I probably looked dead and angry. Which wasn't a bad analysis. "Yeah I'm just a little nervous," I told him, even though I knew it was a terrible excuse.

He only arched his eyebrows, but quickly shook it off and wrapped an arm around me. "Bro, you're gonna be fine. Me on the other hand..."

I stopped him. How could he think he was going to fail? He was so fast! "Bro no! You're going to be fine. I can't speak for myself, but I know you are going to kick some dolphin butt out there," I smiled.

"You too, bro," he smiled. I smiled like a dork.

"Jackson!" said the voice of my coach. Blofis.

I ran up to him. "I'm super sorry, Mr. —"

"Just start your warm-up," he interrupted. I nodded and went to do the "before-meet" stretches.

Jason joined me with the stretching, and I finally had a second to catch my breath. I looked around in awe. Blue and white banners and streamers were trying to fly away, but they were tied down to the fence of the pool. Booths and tables of bake sales and snacks circled the pool and the stands.