The Events of Olympus Resort | A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Chapter 9

Percy POV

I love my job, but sometimes it has its downsides. I love working at such highly regarded place, I love the idea that I'm actually helping people, and most of all, I love having a job that requires me to be by the water 24/7.

What I don't love, however, is the 'authority enforcement' aspect of my job, especially since it sometimes leads to confrontation with people my own age. Teenagers can be dicks.

I'm currently at work, sitting in my assigned lifeguard chair by the Colosseum pool and am watching one of these dicks just, well, be a dick. He's a guy about my age with a dark tan and cleancut brown hair. He's wearing a Dallas Cowboys football jersey and a smile so bright it should come with a warning label ("WARNING: Do not look at teeth directly, blindness may occur"). The dick strolls over to the pool with two other guys who are pretty much his clones and tells a couple of freshmen, who had come to the pool early to grab the best seats, to scram, taking over their seats for himself and his goons as soon as they do.

You see, one of the reasons I find my job particularly frustrating is that even though I have all this authority, I can't use it unless someone is actually breaking the rules. And unfortunately, simply being a dick isn't against the rules. So I'm forced to sit here watching in silence for large periods of time as dicks come and go, spreading their dickish disease everywhere.

Well, I think as I lean back into the comfort of my chair. At least it's entertaining.

And part of me is thankful for that much at least. Anything to get my head off of last night.

You see, last night was probably one of the best nights of my life. And that sounds like I'm exaggerating, but when I really look back on it, I genuinely think that it was. I've known Annabeth for less than a week, and I already think I'm crazier about her than I ever have been about any girl in my life. She's super intelligent; in a way that's intimidating and attractive at the same time. You can always see the wheels of her mind turning behind her eyes and she uses big words not as a way of showing off or trying to seem smarter than other people, but because she really just appreciates the beauty of language and loves the fact that there are words out there that are able to convey what she feels and thinks. Annabeth is fun to be around, and I find that I just love hanging out with her. I love being around her in a way that's different from how I feel when I hang out with my friends, but somehow, just as powerful.

We had an amazing time last night, dancing and talking and laughing. I don't think my smile left my face once the whole time that we were together. And then, there was that one moment on the dance floor when I could've sworn that we were going to kiss. She had looked gorgeous in her dark blue dress, with her blond curls falling messily around her face. I had felt the muscles in her back tense under my hands as we had leaned in closer and closer to one another, just before the music changed and I had felt the moment slip out from under us like a wave being pulled back into sea.

So, I had gone to get us drinks. And when I returned, not even fifteen minutes later, Annabeth was gone. As if she had never been there in the first place. There was a moment there where I toyed with the idea that maybe she never had been. That I had merely been so desperate for her to be at the dance that I had conjured up the whole thing in my head, but I knew it wasn't true. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not crazy. Well, at least not crazy enough to fantasize entire evenings with pretty girls down to the last detail. And everything that had happened between Annabeth and I had felt too real to have been imagined. I mean, if I think back hard enough, I can still feel her hands in mine. I can still smell the scent of her hair and feel the warmth of her body. I've been known to get pretty creative with stories, especially when it comes to making up excuses as to why I didn't do my homework, but there's no way my imagination was that good. Which just leaves the question of why she left.