Close Encounters

PROMPT: "We were both skipping class at the same time in the bathroom but someone passed by and now were hiding in a cramped stall" percabeth AU, that would be awersome!"

Annabeth didn't always skip class.

No, she was better known for her spotless attendance record and strict regard for the rules. She came in early most days, huddled in the back of the library, nose deep in her textbooks and soaking in as much information as she could before the first rays of sunlight spread out against the morning sky. Her grades reflected her meticulous study habits and the harsh expectations she set for herself. She was a straight-A student with a flawless permanent record.

And she intended to keep it that way.

Annabeth's best friend, Jason, had clued her in on a certain pop-quiz in Chemistry coming up today. He had the class first period, and in his exact words, "It was a doozy."

It wasn't that she doubted her ability to ace the quiz, not at all. She merely wanted familiarize herself with the facts that were already stuck in her mind like stone. There was no point in having previous knowledge about an assessment if she didn't take advantage of the opportunity.

That was how she found herself in the girl's bathroom fourth period, standing in one of the two empty stalls with her Chemistry binder held up against the wall. The smell was less than pleasant and there was probably toilet paper sticking to her sneakers, but she wasn't put off enough for her to head back to class – she was only missing P.E. anyway.

She flipped through her notes, silently muttering to herself, "Q equals M times C times Delta T."

None of the material was new to her, but that didn't stop her from reading it over for the third time. She was adamant about being prepared for the quiz as well as not having to go back to gym. They were running the mile today, and by no means did Annabeth find that more useful than study time.

She sighed as she started a new section on heat of fusion. The late bell had gone off at least thirty minutes ago, and from what she figured, she had about twenty minutes minutes left.

Even if she was doing this for her own necessary benefit, there was still a rising sense of frustration that overcame her. It was always overwhelming to force yourself into work you felt too familiar with. It was like eating when you were already stuffed—unpleasant and didn't serve much of a purpose.

She tried to convince herself otherwise, flipping to the next subsection. Heat of vaporization.

It was at least five minutes later when she decided she deserved a break. Not that she needed it or anything, she just felt a little overwhelmed in the sheer amount of unnecessary material she was forcing down her throat—what was Mrs. Lorenzo thinking anyway? What pop-quiz could decently cover three subjects and a separate unit on solving equations in word problems with given formulas? Not any that Annabeth had take, and it was safe to say that she had been assessed quite frequently throughout her days.

Bending over to push her binder into her already stuffed backpack, Annabeth used the moment to stretch out the seemingly endless stiff muscles in her back. She probably hadn't gotten enough sleep last night, but when did she ever since she started high school?

As soon as she had unlatched the lock to the stall, she heard the sound of the bathroom door being shoved open harshly, and she couldn't help but to jump backward in surprise. The next thing she registered was her stall flinging open and a body crashing into hers in a reckless mess of limbs.

"What the hell!" Annabeth pushed the girl off of her, trying her best to keep her own balance before she fell into the toilet. Automatic flush was not getting near her new shirt if she had anything to do about it.

"Oh fuck," the girl muttered, her voice surprisingly low. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-" When she looked up, hands spread with an embarrassed smile, Annabeth soon learned that she was actually a…he.

"Get out!" she screeched, curling her hands into fists and pounding the guy's shoulder. "You pervert! Get out of here!"

"I swear I didn't mean to!"

Due to their disoriented struggling, the stall door slammed shut behind him before he had been able to flee, and the lack of open space had Annabeth crammed right up next to him. "Just get out of here!"

"How?!" he shouted, shoving his back into her as he tried to open the door. Before he even started pulling, Annabeth could see that it was no use—the door swung inward, and there wasn't even enough room for them as it was. The only way he was getting out was if she flushed herself down the drain.

"Fuck," she muttered. Her eyes flung around the area of space in the stall, looking for a solution to their problem. After seeing none, she promptly picked up her Chem binder and whacked him across the back of his head (at least some use came out of it). "What are you doing in here anyway, you moron? Do you always spy on teenage girls in the bathroom!"

He spun around, seemingly horrified. "No!" His hand came up to rub where she'd hit him. "I already told you it was an accident!"

"An accident! You ran into an occupied stall in the girl's restroom on accident?! What do you take me for?" She did her best to bend down in the even more limited room as she stuffed her binder back in her bag. It might have been easier had they at least been in the handicap stall, one wall over. But Annabeth's luck had never been that great anyway.

"I heard someone coming down the hallway and I panicked, okay?" He squeezed his eyes shut. "I didn't mean to perv on you in the bathroom!"

For some reason, her cheeks burned. "I wasn't using the toilet! I was trying to study, which you so kindly ruined for me! Now I won't have any time to go over heat capacity!"

Charcoal brows furrowed, and Annabeth felt the urge to look away from him just then. He wasn't actually bad-looking. His black hair was long, like it should have been cut weeks ago, and his hoodie was pushed up to his elbows (which sort of defeated the purpose of it in the first place, she would think.) He must have been some kind of skater from what she could tell with the bright neon wheels showing through the black mesh pocket on the side of his book bag. "Why are you studying in the ladies' room at the middle of fourth period?" He asked, jarring her from her embarrassing musings.

She rolled her eyes. "I have a pop-quiz next block. I was freshening up on the material."

His look told her he thought she was crazy. "You skipped class to study for a pop-quiz?" he deadpanned.

"Shut up!" She pushed him away from her defensively, but it didn't do much. He only swayed a bit in the small space. "You ran into the girls' bathroom after hearing someone in the hallway! I'm not the embarrassing one of the two of us."

He held his hands up. "I didn't want to get caught! If he catches me cutting one more time, Principal Davis will have my ass."

Holding her hands to her forehead to relieve the oncoming headache, she sighed. "Why are you even skipping in the first place?"

The boy lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "I don't like Algebra."

"So that gives you an excuse to raid the girls' room?!" She tried not to let her voice crack in disbelief.

"No!" He yelled, thrusting a hand through his hair. "I've told you a hundred times-"

"Twice."

"-a hundred and two times that it was an accident. I thought this was the boys' room."

She narrowed her eyes.

"I'm dyslexic, okay?!"

Her eyes dropped and she willed herself not to break into tears of insanity as she counted to ten. "You need to get out of here. I cannot breathe, you're taking up all the air."

"How do you expect me to get out!"

Promptly, she took him by the shoulders and shoved him down toward the floor. "Crawl under."

"Ew!" He squealed, trying to force his way back up. "It's dirty down there! Stop, stop, stop!"

"Quit being a wuss and get on the floor!"

"No," he whined, whacking her hands away. "Stop forcing me into things I don't want to do."

Her eye twitched.

"I have a chemistry quiz in-" She glanced at the silver watch wrapped around her wrist. "-ten minutes. Get out of this stall or so help me God, I will end you."

Just as she was about to make another grab for his shoulders, the sound of the bathroom door squeaking as it was opened met her ears. "Shit," she muttered, squeezing her eyes shut and dropping her hands.

"Quick!" Percy whispered. She tried not to pass out – from anger, definitely anger – when he grabbed her hands and hauled her on top of the toilet seat. They stood on their tip toes, quietly shuffling around and trying their hardest not to slip into the water as the stall next to them became occupied.

Both of his hands were tight on hers as the two of them balanced on the cold, white porcelain. She tried to rip her hands away, but almost toppled over as she did. He snatched them back, pulling her forward with even more force this time. Her face collided with his collar bone.

Embarrassed and probably blushing, she bit his neck.

It was funny to watch him try not to yell out in pain.

But the urge to laugh ebbed away rapidly, taken over by the single most awkward moment of her entire existence.

Standing on top of a toilet in the ladies' room, hands clasped and body pressed into a strange boy's, she evened a glare at him as they remained quiet, the sounds of trickling echoing throughout the room.

She mouthed, "I. Will. End. You."

He swallowed.

It seemed like hours before the girl finally finished up. The toilet flushed, and the sinks turned on before they heard the door close again.

The boy in front of her sighed in relief, letting his head drop onto her shoulder as he mumbled, "Oh, thank God."

She shoved him as best as she could while still holding his hands to keep balanced. "Get off, you goon! You almost got us both in trouble!"

"It's not my fault someone had to pee!" he protested.

Frustrated, Annabeth could have yelled at him for hours about just how annoying he was, and how he would pay for messing with her study time. She was only beginning to give him a piece of her mind went everything went south…again.

Too busy yelling at each other, (or in Percy's case, meekly trying to defend himself) they didn't hear when the door opened again, a certain staff member stepping into the ladies' room after hearing so much noise leaking from it.

But her footsteps, a steady click-clack of heels against tile was enough to break through their argument. Only it was too late now. Percy cut himself off, eyes growing wide as his voice resonated off the walls and his mind registered what was happening. In his surprise, it was only their luck that the clumsy perv would slip.

Annabeth was going to end him. For real this time.

It all happened too fast for her to stop, Percy crashed forward before she could push him away; get him out of her personal space.

He got right up in her personal space.

By sheer chance, Percy's face collided with her own as she fell back against the wall, desperately trying to stay perched on the toilet seat. Their bodies rattled the walls of the stall, leading the unlocked door to swing open from the force of the quake. Just as the intruder walked past.

Annabeth knew how it looked.

The teacher's eyes went wide, and she stumbled backward. "M-making out in the girls' room! What do you two hooligans think you're doing?!"

"Oh, no," Annabeth tried to explain, shoving Percy away from her and feeling a red hot blush invade her cheeks, neck, and ears. Her lips tingled. "I can explain-"

"Principal Davis's office," the teacher interrupted with a squeak. "Now."

"But, Miss-" Annabeth tried. Surely, she would have to hear her out. Annabeth was most certainly not a hooligan, and she was most certainly not swapping spit with this boy on her own accord.

The teacher's head shook quickly, refusing to listen. "I said now."

Quickly, the pair of them hopped off the toilet. Annabeth grabbed her book bag before following the woman out of the bathroom with Percy trailing behind, blinking and stumbling like he had just woken up out of a fog.

Annabeth Chase, with the perfect attendance and straight-A's, missed fifth period Chemistry to have a meeting with the principal, a mess of a black-haired boy in the hot-spot next to her.

Although her permanent record was not tainted, she seethed when she was told she was being given detention for "osculating on school property while class was in session." Her partner in all of this mess, who she soon learned was named Percy Jackson by the familiar greeting from the principal, was being forced to serve these detentions with her for the next two weeks.

How convenient.

The first time she kissed a guy in months, and she was going to detention for it.

(But when he offered her a late ride home from school each day, she learned not long after she accepted that it wouldn't be the last kiss she'd receive in the coming months. Not by a long shot.)

A/N: Originally posted on November 25th, 2014. For more Percabethy goodness (and other ships!) head over to the pjowriters page on tumblr. I'm pretty sure you won't regret it, but if so, there's a 100 percent money-back guarantee! (I'm lying. Enter at your own risk.)