My Seaweed Brain (Percabeth AU) (FIRST FANFIC)

Chapter 2

Heyo readers! This'll be the last "set-up" chapter, and we'll get into the Percabeth soon. I just need to establish some characters and backstory before we move on. With that being said, enjoy the chapter!

Annabeth POV:

I woke to the sound of my phone's alarm. 8:30. October 8th. I looked around and started to panic since I wasn't in my room, but then I remembered yesterday. Piper, my step-mom, the yelling, the running, it was horrible. Probably the new worst day of my life, and I've had some pretty rough days. "Today will be better." I muttered to myself, "Just keep believing, Annabeth. You'll get through your sophomore year."

I stood up and stretched my sore body. I was pretty sore after running a lot yesterday, even though I'm usually pretty active, though running in gym and running from your mom's house are two different experiences. It was a nice day outside, and I actually felt like I was going to have a good day, for about two seconds. I reached into my bag for my spare outfit I kept, and it wasn't there. Great. Deodorant will have to do, I guess.

I climbed out of The Castle and started to walk to school. I put my hair up into a ponytail, and dusted some dirt off of my jeans. Thankfully, my shirt was clean, so I didn't need to get another one. I glanced at my phone. 8:51, 9 minutes to get to school. I had only been walking for about 3 minutes before I heard her voice.

"Hey prrrrrrincess!" Piper squealed. Her 0 IQ friends giggled behind her, but one looked at me weirdly, almost sympathetically. Piper looked at me with her kaleidoscope eyes. "Well, Princess, it looks like yo- OH MY GODS WHAT IS THAT." She pointed at me. Her friends all busted out with laughter. I didn't understand why they were laughing, until one of her friends said, "I like the hair, princess!" I felt at my hair, and there was something white, black, and sticky in my hair. BIRD POOP. Now normally I would've shrugged it off and put on a hat, but for some reason this broke me down. Hard.

Right there, in front of Piper and the Piperettes, I started crying. Once the tears started, they wouldn't stop coming out. I let go of all of the sadness left in my body, at the worst possible moment. More and more people were coming over, and laughing at me. I felt like curling up into a ball and sinking into the ground. Life really wasn't going to change. I thought it was hopeless, until a voice spoke up.

"OKAY. EVERYONE SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTHS UP RIGHT NOW. WOULD YOU BE LAUGHING IF YOU WERE ANNABETH HERE?!" I looked up to see the girl who looked at me weirdly earlier. She had a timeless, beautiful face, braided caramel hair, and dark, rich eyes. Her voice was strong and soothing. She chewed out the crowd, including Piper, and they all looked scared. Once they were gone, she helped me up. "Hey, sorry you got bird poop in your hair. It sucks. I have this product that can get it out, if you want." She said. I was still in shock that she had been kind enough to do something like that, so I couldn't find the words to answer.

"I'll take your silence as a yes, I would love that product." She put it in my hair and everything dirty just disappeared. "T-thank you," I choked. "No one's been that nice to me in a while." That was true; my life had sucked for a while now. The girl just frowned and said, "I thought so. I felt really bad for bullying you, that's just never been me. I'm sorry, um- "Annabeth." I blurted. The girl smiled and said, "nice to meet you, Annabeth. I'm Calypso." (yay Calypso :D)

We both walked into school together, and we were greeted by a fuming Piper. "Yeah, let's stay away from her." Calypso said. "She'll be mad for at least another 8 hours." "Wait, how do you know that?" I asked. She shrugged and said, "I was her friend, around 6 minutes ago. Not a great friend choice for me. Piper is evil." Calypso wasn't wrong, Piper was evil. She bullied so many kids she probably lost track of them all. We chatted for a bit, and I told her about my step-mom problems. Surprisingly, she understood me, because her dad was also abusive. That was something else we bonded over. "Hey, I have to go to Science. I'll catch you later, okay?" Calypso said. "I'll catch you later, Cal." I said. Calypso stopped and said, "Cal. I like that." She smiled at me, then went to her science class. I think I just made my first friend in a year. Nice job, Annabeth.

The rest of the day went by pretty fast. I saw Calypso, or Cal at lunch (she insisted she wants to be called Cal now), and I paid attention at least a little in my classes. Even Mrs. Dodds didn't give me a hard time. Piper didn't bother me, but she kept giving me death glares every time she saw me, which got kind of scary. When the school day ended, I went and found Cal, who was talking to a girl with a fearless face, dark hair, and dark eyes. She introduced herself as Reyna, then said she had to leave, which was sad, since I was about to make my second friend in one day.

Me and Cal waked out of school, and into the park, where we got to know each other. I learned some interesting things about her: her dad was abusive towards her and her mom, so they moved to an island. Her mom passed away on that island, and she was stuck there for a year before she could come back to New York. She is a very good singer, and she even has her own garden on top of her apartment complex. Talk about cool. She even said that I could stay at her apartment if I wanted to, but I declined for now, because we had still just met. Eventually, she had to go meet her boyfriend, a guy named Leo, and she left, which left me alone walking in the park. A perfect place to get lost in thought.

As I was walking, I realized I had forgotten to write in my diary. Yes, I keep a diary. You got a problem with that? I wrote about the fight with my step-mom, my sleeping in The Castle, and how Piper humiliated me. I wrote about Calypso and Reyna, and how I had made a new friend, finally. After years of living a nightmare, the nightmare was starting to turn into a whole different dream. When I finished writing in my diary, I began to walk.

Walking clears my brain from stress, and lets my mind wander anywhere it wants to go. I imagined how good my life could be at the end of the school year; I had tons of friends, I was most popular, I even had a boyfriend, even though I'm not sure what he would look like. My thoughts plunged deeper into the possibilities. In fact, I was so deep into my thoughts that I didn't even notice someone walk in front of me.

I was snapped out of my daze as I ran into this tall, muscular dude, knocking me over and spilling my books. He was around 16, with messy raven-black hair that came down in front of his sea-green eyes. He wore skinny jeans with a black and sea-green sweatshirt, matching his eyes. His smell was the most interesting. He smelled like the ocean, like he'd just ran into it, then dried off. It smelled surprisingly amazing.

"Oh my Gods, I'm sorry!" He spoke. His voice was powerful, but also kind of sad, like he'd gone through a lot. He started to help me pick up my school books. "No, I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going." I said. He smiled and said, "Well, that makes two of us. Here are your books." He handed me my books. "Thanks for picking them up." I said. He shrugged and said, "Eh, it's no big deal. Sorry I ran into you, uh, u- "Annabeth." I blurted again. He gave me this smirk and said, "Well, I'm sorry I ran into you, Annabeth." "It's okay, we're all okay now." I said, smirking. He smiled for a second, but then he got a text on his phone and said, "Ah, I have to go."

"Before you go, I never got your name. What was it?"

"Percy. Percy Jackson."

Chapter 2 is done! I honestly didn't expect this to be so much fun to write, so I'll update as much as I can. Again, any suggestions or feedback is greatly appreciated, and stay tuned for Chapter 3! Chapter 3 is where the Percabeth friendship will really begin. Well, that's it for me, and as always, have a good one ;)

1542 words. 3/27/21