Partners

Chapter 3

Annabeth's POV

RING

As the bell rang, Percy dashed out of the room, his best friend Grover close behind. I gathered my things and began my walk to English. It was only a few doors down, so I wasn't in any big hurry.

While I was walking out, my best friend, Piper caught up with me.

"Hey how's science?" She asked as she put her braid back into place.

"You know how we have to have a semester long partner in science?" I asked.

"Yeah. Oh no, did you get stuck with Octavian?" Piper laughed. "That would be interesting. You'd probably kill each other before any work would get done."

I smirked. "Yeah, probably. I actually got Percy Jackson."

Piper narrowed her kaleidoscope eyes in concentration. "He's the kid on the swim team, right?"

"Yup."

"The one with the crazy black hair and bright green eyes?"

"Yes?"

"And the kid who set the science table on fire?"

"Yeah I'm the one that put it out."

Piper had her turn to smirk. "You like him."

"What? No!" I exclaimed. "We've only met once, and-"

"Twice actually," Piper said. "Remember last year?"

The memory came flooding back.

{Memory}

"Annabeth, what are you doing?" Chad asked, angered by her actions. I had just stopped Chad from beating up a kid in my grade with a leg disorder, one of Percy Jackson's friends. I judo flipped Chad in front of the whole school, embarrassing him. After I had done that, I walked swiftly out of the gymnasium, knowing that my own safety was in danger. Chad wasn't a very smart idea to take to prom. He was a little too jealous, a little too aggressive, and a little too unpredictable.

"I don't want to be with you anymore. You're selfish and rude, and I was too stupid to notice," I sniffed. How dumb am I? I knew he was a jock.

"Hey!" By now Chad had caught up with me and was pulling me back by my arm. Stupid prom night.

Chad leaned up toward me, his bloody nose that I had given him dropped onto my gray dress. "What the hell was that for?" His brown eyes glimmers with anger.

I stared back at him, trying not to be intimidated by his height. "You can't just go beat up a person because they're different from you. You just can't." I tried to keep my voice from shaking. Could I take him down? There's no way, I barely was able to judo flip him. And that was only because I caught him by surprise.

He raised his hand and swung, connecting with the side of my head. I already knew that I was going to have a black eye at this point.

"Hey!" A voice shouted angrily, "Stop it!"

It was like a knight in shining armor had come to rescue me. His dark hair was messy, his green eyes were alive with anger, and his tie was crooked. Who he had taken to prom was unknown to me.

"What do you want?" Chad yelled, bring attention to the small hallway that I had chosen to run down.

"Stop bullying people that are my friends, and especially stop hitting Annabeth!" Percy yelled as he punched Chad in the stomach.

Clutching his stomach, Chad ran off, probably to go find the other morons that he hung out with, or maybe a teacher to tell.

Percy turned to me and looked at me. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, thank you." I cut off the part where I was going to tell him that I was "doing fine on my own, thanks," but I decided to leave that out.

He stood there staring at my eye. "You might want to get that looked at. It looks..."

"Bad?" I laughed. This guy was a goof.

He smiled and nodded, "Yeah, bad's a good word. Not that your eye's good, but bad's a good word to describe your eye. Not that your eye was bad before, but now it looks bad. Bad in the way that it's sorta bruised, not bad as in, you know, good word to describe your eye, but bad as in a good word for your eye- no wait that not what I meant." Percy was rambling on. I could've stopped him, as I do when Piper rambles, but was... Cute to see him like this.

Similar to the seals that I had seen at the zoo when I was 7, Percy Jackson was... Cute?

"-So your eye is bad and that's not good, but bad is a good way to describe your eye," Percy finished and smiled awkwardly, proud off himself of finally deciding on the proper wording.

"PERCY!" Grover ran/walked/galloped? over to us in the hallway. "I thought Chad beat the crap out of you!" Grover full out sprinted and knocked his friend to the ground in a bear hug.

{End of memory}

"Yeah, only twice, one being he saved you from being beaten up from Chad," Piper said.

"I was perfectly capable of saving myself," I stubbornly decided. "Besides, he was probably looking for Chad to beat him up for picking on Grover."

Piper rolled her eyes. "Sure."

• • •

Hi! Thanks for reading, feel free to leave advice, suggestions, and comments! ^_^
~Cinder