We Olympians (A Percy Jackson AU) || BOOK 1

Chapter 11 || Annabeth

Annabeth stared at Percy, her heart pounding. Her stomach fluttered. She knew he was pretty decent-looking when they were young, but now... he looked like a god. But the one thing that didn't change was Percy's beautiful sea-green eyes. Though, something was off about them and she couldn't put her finger on it. She was expecting him to look at them, grinning like he always did.

But he didn't even spare them a glance. He just leaned back, his smirk disappearing and his face looking like a rock. Emotionless. Bored.

"Clarisse La Rue!"

"Here," a girl rolled her eyes, raising an arm.

She looked tough. That was an understatement. "Clarisse" looked like she could kill you just by looking at you. Sure, she was actually not buff and bulky like you'd expect a WWE wrestler to be, but she had the build. Pretty deadly. That's the phrase. Percy bumped her slightly and they both shared a chuckle, making jealousy strike through Annabeth's heart like a kick to the chest.

"Hazel Levesque!"

"Here!"

Percy put his arm up behind him and Hazel placed her chin on it. They both held that pose for two seconds before they went back to normal, shooting looks at the rest of the "group". It must've been an inside joke, because they all rolled their eyes.

"Piper McLean!"

"Here!"

Annabeth saw a gorgeous girl with eyes that seemed to change colors. Her hair was slightly choppy, as if she was trying to look unattractive, but she still looked amazing. When Percy gave her that smirk, Annabeth felt another course of jealousy bubble up inside her. As more names were called, she stared at Percy. She couldn't help it!

"That's... Percy?" Nico whispered in disbelief.

"Apparently... yes," Thalia responded, also disbelieving what her eyes were seeing.

She couldn't blame Thalia. Even she had to blink her eyes a couple times to make sure she wasn't dreaming. But nope. She wasn't. Percy still looked like that. It made Annabeth want to go into a further investigation to figure out if Percy was the one she knew or another one. But with those sea-green eyes? There was no telling.

"Leo Valdez!"

"Here!"

More names as Annabeth stared off into space, thinking about the goofy sea-green-eyed boy she loved. The one who hurt her by leaving. The one she tried to search for all these years. Now, he wouldn't even spare them a glance.

"Frank Zhang!"

"Here!"

"Alright! Let's get this class started. Since today is the first day, we'll be doing a game."

Everyone groaned.

"Now, now," Mr. Sander said, "Would you rather be doing essays? You will all be split up into groups of four. In those groups, each of you will write down four facts about yourself twice on eight different pieces of paper. Then it's like memory. But with facts."

Silence. No applause. Boredom.

"Alright... here are the groups. Piper McLean, Drew Tanaka, Nico Di Angelo, and Frank Zhang."

"WHAT?!" Piper and Drew screamed, glaring at each other--wait... did they know each other?

"Annabeth Chase, Thalia Grace, Percy Jackson, and Jason Grace."

Annabeth whipped her head around to look at Percy, who was busy whispering to Jason. She turned her head to look at Thalia, who seemed deep in thought. When she looked up, her blue eyes crackled with nervous electricity. More groups were called and all she could think about was how Percy was in her group. The boy who had been missing all those years.

Worrying her.

Making her wonder if it was worth it to continue hoping.

Eating her up every single day.

And now he was here.

"Get in your groups!"

The moving of desks went, wood slamming against wood.

"Okay..." Annabeth started when there was silence.

Dread filled her body when she looked at Percy. He had his hood up, his eyes were down at his fingers, where he was playing with a pen. Jason looked like he didn't want to be there, but he was more looking at Thalia curiously. That's when Annabeth almost jumped. In Jason's eyes were the exact same shade of Thalia's electric blue ones. A mirror.

"Look... we better get started with the game," Annabeth said awkwardly.

"Sure," Percy mumbled, not looking up from his pen.

So Annabeth ripped out 32 small pieces of lined paper, handing each of them four.

"Uh... write?" She squeaked the last part. She actually had NO idea what to do.

Percy scribbled down some things, capping his pen and leaning back in his chair. He still didn't look at them. He turned and whispered something in Jason's ear with a smirk. Jason's eyes widened and he began to laugh quietly. But when Thalia looked up at both of them, they both went quiet, fidgeting with random objects like eraser shavings, erasers, pens, pencils, their hoodie strings, shoelaces... etc.

Annabeth placed hers upside down on the table, as everyone else did.

"Uh... who goes first?"

No answer from either of the boys. Percy finally leaned down and he had his head in Jason's lap. He stuck out his tongue at the other boy, who rolled his eyes. It seemed to be an inside joke and Annabeth hated that she didn't know about it. Because Percy was her best friend.

Ex-best friend, her mind chided her.

Thalia finally didn't wait any longer and took a card, flipping it over.

Colorful eyes.

Well that didn't help. They all had colorful eyes. But what did help was that it was written in blue. And only one person wrote things in blue.

"Percy?" Thalia guessed.

"Yup," Percy said, popping the 'p' at the very end.

Thalia furrowed her brows, looking away from Percy with a sweaty forehead. She was obviously uncomfortable from the way she was looking. She flipped one over and shook her head. Turning them both over again, it was Annabeth's turn.

Blonde Superman.

What were these clues? Well, there were only two blondes in the group, and that was Jason and Annabeth. And Annabeth knew she wasn't a man.

"Jason?"

"Duh," Percy said emotionlessly, letting out a yawn.

Annabeth flipped another over and found the exact same words. Quietly, she took both cards. Percy reached over, flipping a card over.

I missed my best friend.

He froze, staring at the card. Annabeth frowned. She knew she didn't write it. That meant... Her eyes widened. Thalia was looking away from the table, obviously wanting to keep her punk-girl vibe going.

"I don't know," Percy finally said.

Both Thalia and Annabeth stared at him in disbelief.

"Jason?" he shrugged, looking at Jason.

"No, bro," Jason laughed, "But I did miss you when you were on that eight-month trip."

"Damn, that thing felt like years. Uhm... I'm gonna say Thalia by the way she's looking away and red as a tomato." Percy said matter-of-factly.

Thalia's face turned even redder, and Annabeth couldn't tell if it was anger or embarrassment. Probably both. Percy turned another one over and took both cards in a perfect stack.