Percy & Annabeth

Early Monday Morning

Percy's POV

Jacksons are known for being sly, graceful, and very quick-on-their-feet. They're very aware of what is going on around them and are smart...when they want to be.

I was...not.

"Ouch, son of a..." I whispered to myself for about the twentieth time after returning home, sneaking out, then proceeding to climb over the Chase's mansion wall. And I thought that getting past my guards would be the hardest part...no. It's this dumb wall that just so happened to have very course bushes on the other side that I didn't know about until landing in them.

Now, you may be wondering why I didn't look before jumping and I have a couple reasons: 1) It was dark so I couldn't see anyways, 2) It was late and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open as it was, and 3) I was hoping to get to Annabeth as quickly as possible.

I snuck as quietly as I could through rows and rows of grape vines. I didn't realize until then that I was still in my robes. By now, they were completely covered in mud and partially scratched up because of the bushes. My mom won't be too happy.

I turned a corner and my ankle got stuck in a gopher hole. In my attempt to get it out without making too much noise, I fell on my back. However, instead of getting up, I stayed on the ground.

It was the first time that I had sat (moderately) comfortable since I met Annabeth. When I got home, I just knew that I needed to see her again, Chase or not. I didn't even really know what I was hoping to accomplish when I left to come here. All that was on my mind was the thought of seeing her beautiful grey eyes again and that was all the drive that I needed.

I sighed and touched the corner of my lips, remembering how soft hers were on mine—how right it felt. I had never had that much confidence to just go up to some girl and make out with her. I mean, saying it like that probably doesn't sound too good, but whatever.

I had never really believed in love at first sight, and I guess it would be clichéd to say that that changed after seeing Annabeth, but this girl already had me ignoring a long-lasting feud, breaking my parent's rules, and falling into bushes.

And I've only known her for two and a half hours.

"Ugh," I heard someone say from somewhere around me. I was quickly trying to hide myself with in the grape vines until I saw the glow of a candle coming from above me. I peered out to see Annabeth walking out on a balcony—and she didn't look happy.

Annabeth blew out the candle and sat down on the ledge of the balcony, dangling her legs in mid-air.

She rubbed her temples. "Why? Why of all things does he have to be a Jackson?" she mumbled to herself.

She leaned back on her hands and said, "I mean, I honestly don't even see why it's such a big deal in the first place; this isn't even our fight, so why does it matter?" I leaned forward, clinging on to every word.

"Honestly, Percy," she said, giggling to herself. "if I had the chance, I would swear myself to you and then we could both be Jacksons!" I really couldn't even believe what I was hearing—Annabeth was openly admitting that she hated this stupid feud as well and that she wanted to be with me.

She wanted to be with me.

"The only thing that keeps me from being with you at this very moment is our names. But names don't really matter, when you really think about it. I mean, roses would still smell good even if they weren't called roses, right? And I'm sure you would still be just as perfect if you weren't a Jackson, so how about we make a deal: I'll ignore being a Chase if you ignore being a Jackson."