15: Emotions

Annabeth POV (in Percy's body)

I couldn't believe that Percy was willing to take the blame to help me. It really showed how much he cared. He was a very good person, maybe too good.

Percy knew that this would hurt him. Regardless, he decided to take the fault off of me. Technically, neither of us did anything wrong, but teenagers didn't consider that.

I had great admiration and appreciation for Percy now.

"All right, so we're going to the museum today, right?" I asked on the phone.

I was currently getting Percy's body dressed for the day. I had swimming practice, which was why I was awake so early. I felt bad because I had woken Percy (ie my own body) up when I called him.

I still wasn't used to Percy's early morning routines. For example, fun fact, guys woke up with erections most days, and it took a few seconds to a few minutes for them to calm it.

Guys, am I right?

It didn't hurt, but it wasn't pleasant either. I had to say though that Percy didn't disappoint if you know what I mean.

"Yes, Wise Girl, we'll go there after school," my voice said tiredly.

Clearly, Percy didn't appreciate getting woken up. I wondered how he did it almost every day. "Sorry, I woke you up, Seaweed Brain."

All I heard was an exhausted murmur.

"Seaweed Brain, is there another reason that you're not feeling it today?" I asked softly. I bit my lip nervously as I waited for his response.

It wouldn't be a surprise if Helen gave him crap about doing chores last night.

"I'm just tired, Wise Girl. It was a late night. Your life is surprisingly exhausting," he said slyly. I could practically hear the smirk on his (my) face.

"Shut up," I chuckled.

I made my way downstairs in time for breakfast. Sally had made blue pancakes with chocolate syrup. It was definitely a good breakfast.

"What did my mom make?" Percy asked into the phone.

"Blue pancakes," I smiled as I started to eat. Percy (ie Annabeth) continued to talk as I got prepared for school. That was until Sally interrupted our conversation.

"Percy, honey, who are you talking to?" Sally asked.

"Mom, it's just a friend," I replied quickly.

"Really, you don't sound like you're talking to any ordinary friend," she commented with a hidden meaning in her message.

Percy also quietened on the other side of the phone.

"Mom, seriously, it's just a friend who had managed to wake up early today."

"I don't know, someone that is willing to get up early to talk to you before the day starts seems like more than a friend," she said with a smile. "Who is she?"

"Mom," I whined. "It's not like that."

However, I wasn't sure if I believed it. I mean, Percy did wake up to my phone call, and he didn't try hanging up either after answering my question.

Guys usually loved their sleep, but Percy was still talking to me.

"Percy, you usually tell me about your friends and more. Oh, this must actually be significant," she squealed.

Oh my god. I guess this was a part of having an amazing mother.

"I, uh, I gotta go. I'll talk later," I said to Percy (ie Annabeth). There was silence from Percy until he whispered, "it's so good to hear her voice again. Yeah, we'll talk at school."

The phone call cut after that. Of course, Percy missed his mother. She was fantastic, and she was always so supportive and comforting. She was so different than Helen (in my life) who Percy was dealing with now.

Sally chuckled as she came forward and kissed my forehead.

"You seem happy, Percy. I know that you just broke up, but I think that was the best for you actually. You seem happy and free," she acknowledged softly. "Plus, you seemed to have found someone much better than Rachel."

"Yeah, I think I did," I blurted out without thinking.

Percy was definitely better than most people that I knew. He was kind and loyal and cared so much for those around him. He always wanted others to feel better, and he never wanted to disappoint anyone.

It was a lot of stress and pressure for one person to handle. However, sometimes, it was necessary to let go.

I wasn't sure if Percy knew that.

***

My morning started well, but as soon as I got to school, it went downhill. Morning swim practice was bad. Many of the swimmers didn't attend practice, which made the Coach mad.

Of course, he took it out on those that were here.

Not to mention, I had the way that he looked at Percy. I made one mistake, and all of a sudden, he didn't believe that Percy (I) was a serious athlete.

The practice pretty much put me in a bad mood all day.

Then, I ended up getting detention for being late to the first period again. I swear to god, this boy's life was so filled and infuriating cause of it.

I tried to get out of detention by saying that I had swim practice. However, Percy's teachers already knew that, so they always gave him Sunday detentions (no practice or heats were on Sundays).

It sucked having to spend 6 hours at school on a Sunday. Literally, I realized that Sundays were the only day that Percy had to relax. He had hardcore swimming and school work on the weekdays. His Saturdays usually had swim meets.

"Bro, are you all right?" Jason asked kindly.

"Fine, I got yelled at and got detention, but yeah, I'm fine," I said harshly. Jason simply patted my back as we walked to the cafeteria.

"Bro, you could say something."

"Yeah, like tell the coach to back the hell off because you're the best, most dedicated swimmer than Goode High has ever seen anyway," Piper said.

Gods, I loved Piper as a friend.

"That wouldn't necessarily help," I theorized. Piper simply sighed before walking towards our table. She packed a lunch, so she didn't have to wait in line.

"Well, you won't know until you try. I mean, you stood up to Gabe and fought back against him. That greatly helped your life," Jason said softly.

Who was Gabe? I thought to myself.

I had a feeling that Gabe had something to do with Percy's nasty scar.

I shook my head to clear my head. Then, we grabbed our nasty school lunch. Today, it was the infamous bouncy chicken nuggets. Yum.

Lunch certainly helped lighten my day. And, afternoon classes passed by in a blur of boredom. Percy took lower-level courses than I did, so I already knew all the material. Swimming practice in the afternoon was luckily better than in the morning. I mostly did my own thing, which was practicing a bunch of different strokes.

Once again, I was astonished by Percy's abilities in the water. He was definitely going to place high at States this year.

Finally, it was the end of the day, and I was waiting for Annabeth (ie Percy).

Finally, I saw him (her) walking towards me in the parking lot. "Where's my car?" he asked as my body approached.

"I don't have it. I walk to school in the morning and get a ride in the afternoons," I informed.

"Why? I have a car so that my body doesn't have to walk around," he said slyly. Gods, seeing the level of sass come out of my mouth was the strangest thing.

"I don't know how to drive," I said.

For a second, my face just blinked. then, I watched as my body started laughing. Gods, Percy was actually laughing right now (lightheartedly, of course).

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain, I have my permit," I snapped.

"Come on, let's go home, so that we can grab my car. I can drive us," Percy said confidently.

People were starting to look at us in the parking lot. It's been a few days since 'Percy' and Rachel's breakup, so things mostly moved on. However, it would probably be a little suspicious for people to see us hanging out already.

"Yeah, let's go. Oh, uh, you got detention by the way," I said. Percy's home wasn't that far away from the school, so our walk wouldn't be that bad.

"Were you late to class or did you do something mischievous?" he asked. he was smiling causing my own face to show a glowing smile.

"Late. I'm not like you, Seaweed Brain," I said chuckling.

"Touche."

I enjoyed our time together as we walked to Percy's house and (then) drove to the Ancient Artifacts Museum. Hopefully, we'd get some answers today.

A feeling of deja vu hit as soon as we entered the Ancient Greece and Rome hallway. I loved all of the monuments and structures due to my love of architecture. I, especially, liked the reconstruction of the Athena Parthenos and the Temple of Artemis.

Finally, we saw the stature of interest in the middle of the hall.

We both stared at each other (ie ourselves) before looking at the Janus artifact. We stopped right in front of the stone marble statue.

His multiple heads looked in different directions, including our direction.

"Hello, Mr. Janus, um, we'd appreciate it if we could swap back to our bodies now," Percy said from my mouth.

I looked at him oddly.

"What? It was worth a shot," he commented with a sigh.

My eyes narrowed on the statue's plaque and the detailed scripture below it. It read that Janus was capable of opening metaphysical doors. He opened them and then closed them immediately.

As I scanned the scripture, my eyes caught on something important.

Janus can reopen the gates that he's previously closed. However, the purpose behind each gate must be appreciated and accomplished before the gates open again.

"What does that mean?" Percy asked from my body.

Ugh, did I mention that I hated seeing a confused expression on my own face? Percy displayed confusion a lot, more so when he was in my body.

"It means that we swapped bodies for a reason. Once we fulfill the purpose of us being in each other's bodies, we'll swap back," I explained.

"But, what are those purposes?"

"I don't know. What are our goals?" I asked before getting lost in thought. Then, I realized what we specialized in.

"Swimming and singing," we said simultaneously.

"So, if I could get you, Annabeth, to sing in the talent show next week..."

"And, I could get you, Percy, to qualify for Regionals by performing greatly at Districts next weekend..."

"Then, we'd swap back to our lives," we finished together.

Percy nodded as if understanding everything all of a sudden. I was still slightly confused.

Regardless, at least, we understood the point of swapping lives now. The goal was that we should be able to live and thrive in each other's bodies, which included taking on the most important parts of our lives: music and swimming.

While this was the likely explanation, I was still uncertain.

Why did I need to qualify Percy for swimming? He was perfectly capable of doing that by himself. And, technically, I was capable of singing in front of others.

So, something wasn't right.

My brain screamed that there was some other purpose for us swapping lives. However, our guts were going with the easier explanation.