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THE THING ABOUT A HIGH SCHOOL RELATIONSHIP is while it's Percy And Annabeth, it's also very rarely just them. At camp there were always friends around and during the school year nearly all their time together is spent at Percy's apartment, which means Percy's parents. Well, his mother and step-dad. But they're very much a 'parental unit' even if neither of them is the sort of parent that Annabeth is used to.
Annabeth's prior experience with adults looks mostly like Chiron, who (being both an immortal and a centaur) is not exactly a blueprint for a father figure—that and the fact that he never set out to parent her, he was running an entire camp. Then there was Annabeth's mother—the harsh and demanding goddess—who Annabeth had seen less than a dozen times in her entire life. And her step mother—unlike Percy's laid back and familiar step father, her step mother had never really been anything warmer than neutral towards her. Annabeth tended to take it as a win if she wasn't openly antagonistic. Her dad has to be the biggest contrast though. Despite various attempts from both sides over the years, their relationship never got past tumultuous. No matter what well meaning but ill-informed observers said, it was impossible to overcome the level of neglect that led a seven year old to run away and not come home for six years. They had settled into an estranged but functional agreement: he pays her tuition and puts money into her account. There's not much of a relationship there, she's starting to think there might never be. It's just another thing that doesn't make a lot of sense. It's all very complicated: some days it hurts, some days she never even thinks about him.
So it's hard for her to fit Percy's family apartment into her worldview. She always feels like at some point she will have spoken once too often or too loud or show up uninvited or overstay her welcome and the veneer will shatter. But it's been weeks and, impossibly, she hasn't seen anything to validate those fears.
It's a Wednesday afternoon in early October and the air feels more like chilly mist than anyone would like when Percy calls Annabeth.
"Are you coming over?"
She sighs, and stares down at the chaotic ink splotches in her planner. She wants to. "Aren't your parents going to get sick of me hanging around all the time?"
The truth is that her visits to the Jackson-Blofis apartment, formerly reserved for Friday evenings and weekends, had somehow recently become a near daily occurrence. She was midway through the semester and six weeks into a new relationship. She had, however, dodged and declined invitations and implications the past few days because of just that—his parents, who, while they had never given any outward indication of displeasure at her presence, she was nevertheless nervous about presuming upon.
He laughs. Then theres the awkward silence where he has to realize she was being serious. "You're kidding right, Annabeth? My mom loves you. I think she likes you more than me."
"Now that's impossible and you know it."
He laughs again, self conscious. "Seriously, she doesn't care."
