Chapter 2

The next period was Lunch, so Percy and Annabeth were bound to see each other again. Even so, they were on a mission to keep their secret, so they tried avoiding each other's eyes for the beginning of lunch. However, their friends seemed to be on a mission of their own to expose their plan, whether they were aware of it or not.

At Annabeth's table, her friends were discussing her and Percy's little conversation in Greek class. At Goode, word spreads quickly when it involves Percy Jackson.

"Come on, Annabeth! What were you saying to each other?" Nora exclaimed, exasperated.

"It was nothing, and I didn't even really know what I was saying anyway. It was just a bunch of random bonus phrases you can get off the internet, ok?" Annabeth answered, looking down and playing with her food.

Her friend just stared at her with a raised eyebrow, "Annabeth Chase, the know-it-all, didn't know something? I doubt it."

Yeah...maybe playing dumb should be left to Percy. Even Annabeth was having a hard time forcing herself to act like she didn't know what she was saying last period.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter anyways. Just drop it," Annabeth ordered, letting her leader-voice drip in subconsciously.

Her friend looked a little taken aback, but another look from Annabeth silenced any protests.

"I still can't believe you even talked to Percy," Noah said, a look of fake wonder on his face, "I mean, you're just a nobody, and he's Percy Jackson."

Annabeth couldn't resist the urge to roll her eyes. Everyone thinking Percy was some kind of untouchable object was starting to get on her nerves. Sure, at camp, new campers seemed to practically worship them, but here? All they know about him is that he went missing for 8 months, came back different, and is amazing at swimming.

Mortals need to raise their standards on what's to be considered cool, that's for sure, she thought.

At the same time, Percy's friends, Mike, Jack, and Chloe were starting to interrogate their own friend. These three people were Percy's closest mortal friends, mostly because they didn't care about popularity. All they were interested in was Percy, not his status. And it was them that knew he didn't randomly have a full-fledged conversation with a stranger in another language.

"Seriously, what happened? I heard from the grapevine that you and somebody named Annabeth Chase started screaming at each other in Greek and it ended with you both getting suspended. But obviously, that can't be true because you're sitting here with us right now, so...what happened?" Jack asked.

His words seemed to silence everyone at the table, even the fake-friends. All were interested in the true story of what happened, even if it wasn't that big of a thing. Anything involving their popularity producer demanded listening-to. Or something like that.

"We just talked for a second. It wasn't that interesting," Percy tried to answer cryptically.

"But why were you talking to a complete stranger?" Chloe asked, joining-in on the conversation.

"She isn–We just finished our tests at the same time and started a little talk. I honestly can't even remember what was said," Percy said.

That was a lie. Percy remembered every word that was said, especially the end. But his friends didn't need to know that.

"Come on, man! Give us something! I'm starving for a rumor!" Mike exclaimed.

That caused Percy to glare at him and say, "Just drop it."

Mike's eyes widened in shock, and he looked like he was about to start a fight, but one look from Chloe, his girlfriend, silenced him.

Then, just like it had never happened, Percy went back to normal. He regained his signature troublemaker smirk and finished eating his lunch.

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Percy and Annabeth had separate 5th period classes, so they saw each other after another hour. The second class they shared was PE, and it was during 6th period.

As soon as the bell rang, signaling the end of 5th period, Percy was bolting towards the locker room. This was because today was the first day of the swimming unit, and everyone knows Percy is obsessed with water.

Annabeth, even if she did walk a little faster, attempted to hide her excitement. She speed-walked into the girl's locker room, grabbed her swimsuit, and changed as quickly as possible.

Unlike Percy, she had the sense to ask Lady Hecate if she could use the Mist to hide her more gruesome scars at school. That way she didn't have to explain why she had claw-marks running across her back.

By the time she was walking out of the changing room, the rest of the class had arrived, and Percy was waiting by their teacher, bouncing from foot to foot in barely-contained excitement. The sight brought an involuntary smile to reach Annabeth's lips, and she was forced to hide it before anyone caught her looking at Percy so lovingly.

She walked up to the teacher and joined them in waiting for the rest of the class to change. In an attempt to stay away from Percy's bubbly energy, Annabeth stood six or so feet away from him with a stoic expression. This was the face she wore when she was intentionally masking her emotions. It may have been a mistake using it at school, but it was a part of her, and a daughter of Athena should never be afraid of being who they are.

Once everyone had shown up, the teacher took roll and started giving instructions, "Alright class, today we're just going to be practicing basic form while doing laps around the pool. For those of you on the swim team, you can choose to practice some more advanced strokes, ok? Now, let's get a volunteer to show us a good breaststroke. Anyone?"

Percy literally jumped at the opportunity to get in the water, and before anyone knew it, he was performing a perfectly-formed breaststroke. The sight caused Annabeth to smirk and think, showoff.

Once he had finished showing off, Percy jumped out of the pool, careful to make himself wet, and walked back over to the group. He had the biggest smile on his face, and it was hard for everyone to not smile along.

"That was great, Percy! I see why they made you the captain of the team! You have a natural talent in the water!" their teacher said, not realizing how true his words were.

Annabeth and Percy couldn't help but catch each other's eye with a knowing glint in them. It was hard not to when the one person in the entire student body that actually knew the other was standing right in front of you.

Fortunately, it wasn't caught by anyone who cared to speak up. The only person who seemed to see it was Addison, and she didn't think it was necessary to put any thought into it at the time.

"Yeah. That's what a lot of people tell me," Percy said, shaking his hair out.

Little did he know, that little act made most girls in the room swoon. Percy was so effortlessly handsome, and he didn't even know it!

It would've made Annabeth laugh if she wasn't a part of the swooning. But unlike the others, she knew how to hide it. All that changed in her demeanor was her lips twitching up ever-so-slightly.

That little hair flip almost made her decide to call off the entire plan and just kiss her boyfriend. However, she was able to snap herself out of it before any rash decisions could be made.

The rest of the class was spent by Percy and the few other swimmers working on their own while the left-over students would work on their breaststroke form. Annabeth could've kept up with the swim team members, but she had no interest in doing so. The only reason she was any good was because she had trained at camp with Percy, and it felt wrong doing it with other people around. Swimming was something she did in the demigod world, and right now, she was in the mortal world. That meant that she was a nerdy new girl.

"Ok, class, go get changed. Class ends in five minutes," their teacher announced.

Everyone but the swim team members started to head to the locker rooms to take their showers, dry off, and change. Nobody was in any hurry because this was the last class of the day.

The swimmers stayed in their suits because they had practice right after school. They just grabbed some towels to dry off and that was it.

Annabeth was the first one to finish changing, and the bell hadn't rung yet, so she just stood by the pool and the swim team members. They were in their own conversation, but as soon as she had walked towards them, Percy had drifted over to Annabeth. It was instinctual; he acted without thinking about it.

Percy did a lot of things that way.

Annabeth acted like she didn't notice his presence beside her, but he knew she could sense him. Demigod senses were too highly-tuned for them to not realize when someone was standing next to them. Instead of initiating the conversation, Annabeth decided that the best way to maintain their cover was to just keep staring at the water. Unfortunately, Percy didn't catch the memo.

"So...my friends keep asking me what happened in Greek," he said softly.

"Same. And it's your fault; it was your idea to race. Now there's suspicion," Annabeth said back, finally looking up at her boyfriend.

She had recently started to really appreciate the moments when she gets to look at his face head-on more. How, despite going through Tartarus, his eyes still held that happy glint. And how his mouth was always holding that troublemaker smirk. His eyes seemed to be sucking her in, and if she didn't watch herself, they would find themselves kissing without a care in the world for the people around them.

"It was so not my fault! You started it!" Percy's voice started to rise slightly.

"Quiet down! We need to keep anyone from suspecting our relationship," Annabeth reminded him.

Percy sighed, "Why do we have to do this again? I'm getting tired of waiting to kiss you until we're home."

"Remember, I promised you a reward for all your hard work tonight," Annabeth said in Ancient Greek in an attempt to keep her boyfriend from destroying all their hard work.

"Oh yeah...do I get to choose this reward?" Percy asked, not even realizing he was speaking in Ancient Greek, too.

What neither of them realized was that they were slowly starting to step closer and closer to each other in a challenging stance.

"Maybe...depends on what you want," Annabeth answered.

"I think I might have something in mind..." he said, drifting off into his imagination.

It was then that Annabeth finally realized how close the two were standing. Using her usual quick-thinking, she found a way to distract from what was happening.

Annabeth pushed Percy into the pool and stormed away.

She may be acting like she was mad, but she really wasn't. Annabeth just needed the newly-arrived rest of the class to forget about what had happened before. When she listened, Annabeth could hear people gasping and Percy sputtering in the pool. He had figured out that he needed to act like he had gotten caught by surprise and that he wasn't someone who could breathe underwater. He had also needed to focus so that he stayed wet.

The only one Annabeth's plan didn't work on was Addison, who had stayed in her spot, unmoving (unlike everyone else), and watched Annabeth exit the room with narrowed eyes. Addison may not know what was going on between Percy and Annabeth, but she did know that they knew each other, somehow.

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