PAINT AND PROTESTS [PERCABETH HIGH SCHOOL AU]

ONE: PAINT-SPLATTERED FINGERS

Annabeth Chase always thought of Percy Jackson as a loner, plain and simple.

No, he wasn't angsty, and no, he wasn't some antisocial freak who associated everything with death and darkness. He just didn't like people other than his family and Grover Underwood, though Grover was pretty much family.

He could talk to them, sure, and he could have some pretty interesting conversations. He just didn't enjoy them.

He had friends, but never ones that stuck to him for his whole life. He would say hi to a few classmates as he walked down the halls, but he didn't have anyone to go to when he felt bored and was in need of company. The only person closest to having a relationship like that with Percy- other than Grover and Percy's brother, Tyson- was Frank Zhang, but even they didn't talk everyday.

Frank was part of a clique, you could say. He hung out with Jason Grace, Leo Valdez and Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, the only girl in the group. But it seemed that Reyna didn't mind. Rumours claimed that she was lesbian, but Percy couldn't care less about her sexuality. They weren't his friends, after all. Just another face that went to the same school he did.

Annabeth was different, but not only different from Percy. She was different from the whole school but, mind you, hated the whole 'I'm not like other girls' thing going around. She was similar to many other girls, obviously, but she was still her own individual.

She was best friends with Piper McLean, and together they would laugh loudly in the hallways and pull down Octavian's pants whenever he wasn't looking.

They weren't bitchy, though. They were just... girls who liked to have fun, they'd say. They were carefree, kind and probably the funnest people to be around in school. They were seventeen, but acted eight.

Yes, they could solve math problems and memorise periodic tables, but where was the fun in that? They much preferred to solves stupid one minute riddles and memorise the plots of trashy anime.

Annabeth and Piper only had each other, but sometimes they hung out with Hazel Levesque, though the girl was mostly with Rachel Dare. The only times the four were together were in art class, when Annabeth had the brilliant idea to spill paint down Leo's shirt or when Rachel decided to steal all of Calypso's paintbrushes.

Today in art class, however, Annabeth had a different idea. She didn't want to dye Frank's hair golden with paint- which, by the way, had gotten her into serious trouble. She wanted to do something else. Maybe she could draw something on Travis' shirt when he wasn't paying attention? No. It was a fun idea, but she wasn't looking to start something with Travis and Connor Stoll, the only people that could rival her pranks.

So she opted on ruining every colour on Percy Jackson's palette. It was harmless fun; he could just wash out the paint and put in new ones, right?

Wrong. It was a very, very bad idea.

But she didn't know that, and by the time she did, it was already too late.

She crept next to where Percy was standing with his canvas, and snatched his palette from his hands, snickering to herself.

"Hey!" Percy said, pointing his paintbrush aggressively at Annabeth. "Give it back!"

"Nah," Annabeth grinned. She used her fingers to swirl red paint with green, and yellow with black. When she was done messing around, her fingers newly painted, she placed Percy's palette next to him, before bopping him on the nose, leaving a mixture of colour smudged on his face.

Percy frowned. "That wasn't funny."

"Was it not?" Annabeth tilted her head. She was smirking. Percy hated it.

"It wasn't," he said. "You wasted perfectly good paint. You're being childish."

"Ah, I'm sorry," Annabeth apologised with fake sincerity. She scanned the classroom. "Oh, looks like Miss Della is coming to check on our artworks! I guess you'll have to explain what happened to your palette."

Percy rolled his eyes as Annabeth shrugged and walked away, back to continue with her painting. He wiped the paint of his nose, feeling annoyance bubbling up inside of him.

"Mr Jackson, what is the meaning of this?" Miss Della demanded. She gestured at his palette. "Did you seriously waste all that paint?"

"Annabeth did it, miss," said Percy. He pointed at where she was standing, her fingers still splattered with paint. "See, she has the paint on her fingers!"

"It's always Miss Chase," Miss Della sighed. "Continue with your painting, Mr Jackson. Go get new paint."

Percy nodded obediently. "Won't she get kicked out? I mean, she's caused enough trouble."

"We can't do that." Miss Della shook her head. "She's intelligent. It'd be a waste of her brains if we kicked her out."

"Bias," Percy muttered, but Miss Della didn't hear. She was already heading towards Annabeth.

"Miss Chase, I see you have caused more trouble today?"

Annabeth scowled. Percy had actually gone and told Miss Della that she was the culprit of the whole paint fiasco. She wasn't used to people ratting her out. Usually they'd laugh it off and get on with their day, never really dwelling on her prank. She supposed Percy was different, though she didn't know how she had never guessed that before.

"Yes," she said reluctantly, deciding that it would be useless to hide the truth.

"You'll be suspended for a day, Miss Chase," Miss Della said. Annabeth's eyes widened.

"For mixing paint together?!"

"No, for all the other pranks you've done the past week, plus this one," Miss Della informed her. "If you don't put an end to this foolishness, Miss Chase, you'll be suspended for longer. You need to learn your lesson. I don't want any more of your silly acts during my class, or outside of them."

Annabeth pursed her lips. "Fine."

"And...?"

"I'm sorry," she grumbled.

Once Miss Della was satisfied and left to check on the other students, Annabeth stormed up to Percy.

"What the hell, Jackson?!" she whisper-shouted. "You got me suspended for a whole day!"

Percy turned to look at her calmly. "You deserve it."

"Did you tell Miss Della to suspend me?" Annabeth said. "I bet you did."

"I encouraged it," Percy said. "But she did it all on her own. Your actions were enough to help her make the decision."

"My mum will kill me!" Annabeth growled.

"Then next time think about your actions and their consequences." Percy shrugged. "Not everyone enjoys your stupid pranks."

Annabeth didn't reply. She shot one last nasty look at him, and then trudged on to complete her painting.

She couldn't believe it. She was fucking suspended.

And it was all Jackson's fault.

A/N: welcome to paint and protests! I'm really excited for this book and love what I've written so far, so I hope y'all enjoy reading!

also, before we continue, here's a lil' warning for you, dear readers: I apologise if any of the scenes in this fanfic are overdramatic and unrealistic. I wrote this when I was twelve (as of 2019, I am still twelve), so I tend to not know the exact details. if you find any holes in my story, please tell me so I can improve! thank you xx