Percabeth Oneshots

Private School

Random one shot with an anonymous author. If you are the author and want to be credited, please drop a message.

It never ceased to amaze Percy that Annabeth's school managed to conform to every existing stereotype about private schools that he'd ever heard. The kids that went there were rich and proud of it, cruising across campus in low convertibles with vanity plates and unnecessary spoilers. They all seemed to have the same haircut, and he had a hard time telling them apart when they were all dressed in the school's fancy uniform.

Percy couldn't help but feel slightly out of place as he drove up in his sputtering green jeep, his own hair sticking up in several different directions. As he sat in the parking lot waiting for her to emerge from the school with the rest of the kids, he attempted to brush it down a bit. But the strands popped right back up again, as mockingly as a jack-in-the-box.

Annabeth was better at that sort of thing; she'd lick her fingers before running them through the knots, attempting to be gentle but ultimately failing. Percy hadn't seen her in weeks, and something a lot like homesickness was toying with his stomach, spurring his fingers to tap anxiously on his knees. He had just checked his phone for the umpteenth time and was about to shoot her a text when the front doors opened. Students poured out onto the front steps, pushing each other around and chattering about their plans for the winter break. After a few moments, Percy caught sight of Annabeth's blonde head, bobbing through the sea of bowl cuts.

What happened next caught Percy by surprise. But there was no way he could've prevented the dark haired, buff kid with the varsity jacket from sticking out his foot. And there's no way he could've stopped Annabeth from tripping, sprawling forward, and knocking into the back of the nastiest looking popular girl he'd ever laid eyes on.

"Watch it!"

Percy heard the remark all the way from the parking lot, and he cringed. The jock and his friends were laughing and the popular girl was giving Annabeth a not-so-subtle once over. She said something else that Percy couldn't hear, and the jocks all laughed again. One threw his cigarette at her feet. Another one spat into the bush. The girl wasn't letting Annabeth pass, stepping in front of her and shifting side to side. Annabeth's eyes looked tired and her expression barely seemed phased, which worried Percy because that meant that she likely dealt with this treatment often. Percy got out of the car.

"Drew. Move."

The girl, Drew, just giggled, tossing her shimmery black hair over her shoulder and smirking. "Look, bottle blonde, I just want to know what you got on the quarter final."

"It doesn't matter."

"So, tell me."

Annabeth lunged to get away, but one of the jocks shot off the staircase railing and caught her strongly by the arm. Percy watched Annabeth hide a yelp.

"Get off her, would you?"

Percy knew he shouldn't intervene, and the look Annabeth shot him was firm confirmation. He was not supposed to try and fight her battles for her, but the match wasn't fair. These kids were nasty.

"Who's this?"

Drew turned her attention from Annabeth and looked at Percy. The intensity in her beady, dark brown eyes almost made him lose his nerve, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Are you deaf?" he spat. "Let her go. We've got a long drive, and you're holding us up."

The girl just stuck out a hand. "I'm Drew."

"I know."

The jock had thankfully let go of Annabeth's arm, and Percy grabbed her hand, hurrying them both away before he got angry and did something stupid. He almost lost it when Drew called out a nasty slur towards Annabeth which sent a burst of laughter through the row of jocks, but Annabeth squeezed his hand and they kept walking. Neither of them said a word until the jeep was pulling out of the parking lot and away from that stupid school.

"You didn't have to do that, you know." Annabeth's voice was calm but Percy knew she was more annoyed than she was letting on.

"They weren't gonna let you leave, Annabeth. I had to."

"No, you really didn't." She sighed a sad, exhausted sigh that made Percy's heart hurt. "Drew isn't like the bullies at camp," she started solemnly. "She isn't physical, Percy. She just makes rude comments for about five minutes and then leaves you alone. It's different but I'm used to it. I've learned that fighting her just isn't worth it."

Percy shook his head. "Why does she hate you?"

Annabeth shrugged. "I didn't let her cheat off me on the quarter final for our architecture class."

"That's understandable," Percy commented.

"Yeah, but it's more than that," Annabeth sighed. "We were friends for a while, and then recently she confided in me that her parents expect her to get great grades in all her classes even though she's horrible at math and really unmotivated. She was crying and everything, and so I told her I'd help her out. I guess she thought 'help' meant letting her cheat off me."

"So you told her no?"

Annabeth shook her head. "That would've been the smart thing to do. But I didn't know that she wanted to cheat until we were taking the test, so I panicked. I filled in all the wrong answers, let her see those, and then fixed them all after she'd finished and had left. I was hoping she would think we both failed it, but she's smarter than I gave her credit for. And now she hates me."

"I'm sorry, Annabeth," Percy muttered. "That sounds horrible."

Percy had spent a great deal of time in private schools with snooty kids who liked to pick on him, but they'd all been very cliche about it; shoving him into lockers or turning his backpack inside out. But Drew was so manipulative in her bullying – she made it seem like Annabeth was in the wrong. Knowing that Drew had made Annabeth feel guilty for no reason, made Percy want to strangle her.

"Are you alright, Seaweed Brain? You look like you're about to tear the steering wheel off the car. And the water bottles are rattling."

Percy looked down and, sure enough, his fists were clenched, making his knuckles look white. He relaxed his grip. The water bottles calmed again. "I just hate that you have to deal with that," he said with a heavy breath.

Annabeth rubbed his shoulder. "Don't feel sorry, Percy. I'll find a way to make it up to Drew. She's really not that bad when you get to know her."

Percy nodded but didn't say anything. He'd always known Annabeth was brave. He'd witnessed her bravery firsthand, having been in battle with her so many times. But this was a different kind of bravery. She wasn't facing a monster head-on or swinging a sword. She was enduring a great deal of emotional manipulation in the hopes of helping someone as obnoxious as Drew. Percy didn't think he'd have the patience for something like that.

"At least Clarisse won't seem too bad now," he pointed out.

Annabeth laughed. "You might be right, but I wouldn't underestimate her."

Percy smiled and took Annabeth's hand despite her lighthearted insistence that he should keep both hands on the wheel. She turned the radio up and he was glad to see her smiling. They could worry about school later. He was just excited to be home.