Escaping our Shadow - Percabeth AU

CHAPTER TEN

Serendipity
(n.) The effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something truly wonderful, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated.

——— Annabeth's PoV / 8th November, 2023

"So... Luke, this is Percy, we are classmates. Percy, this is Luke, we are..."

"Old friends." He suggested smiling down at me, making me want to melt to the ground, hug him and scream at him at the same time, for leaving Thalia and me after everything we had gone through.

And now he got the nerve to introduce us as old friends...OLD FRIENDS!

I mentally shake my head, even though I haven't spoken to him or Percy since Monday...which was three days ago, not like I'm counting...where was I? Right. Even though I haven't talked to either since Monday, the conversation keeps repeating in my mind.

Or rather the whole day, from Percy and I getting assigned to work together on the project to him coming over, to me giving him my most treasured book (don't tell him), to us picking up the kids...not our kids just kids. Well, not just kids. Brothers. To us picking up the boys. No, that sounds wrong too.

You get it. The entire day keeps repeating in my head like my brain wants me to remember it or something like that. Besides this tiny bit of information, my brain has been stressing about the project Percy and I are supposed to be working on.

We only have 17 days left and while for some that seems enough, all we know is that it's a camp that is far away from the city and that we want to make it Peter Johnson coded; meaning no cell phones, because the real world is where the monsters are, so no connection to that.

That is basically nothing, and Percy has decided that he hates me again and hasn't talked to me since Monday. Yeah, I've mentioned this before, so?

First he was sick on Tuesday and Wednesday, today at school he just walked past me like we don't know each other.

If he wants to hate me, fine! I don't care, at all. But after we finished the project, please? I have hundreds of people that expect me to get an A. I don't want to let anyone down, especially myself.

I am pretty sure that I won't be able to tolerate a B or worse. Not with Helen and Dad looking at me like I failed them, my friends smiling while saying, "Annabeth got an A, anyway." just to see the smile melt down when I tell them I didn't.

"Annabeth? Honey? What are you thinking of?" My therapist, Ms Allen asks, as she takes a sip of her tea, her brown eyes fixated on me. My dad decided that me going once a week to therapy would be "helpful", so now I'm stuck here.

"A school project." I said, technically not lying. That didn't seem to satisfy her though, she put her tea down on the table that stood between us, waiting for me to continue. I took this as a sign to vent to her, I mean that's what she's here for, right?

"So my politics teacher gave my class and me this assignment where we have to create a safe space, which isn't that hard I suppose, only that we have to do this with another person, a person of her choice. Now guess who I got paired with!" I explained, the last bit a little more angry.

I was getting comfortable on the couch I was sitting at, waiting for her to take a guess. She looked at me confused, like, 'how would I know? This is our second session!', oops? I forget that I have to tell her stuff so that she can know everything.