"All I'm saying is that the gods were really, really inbred." Percy says, an incredibly irritating grin on his face. Annabeth rolls her eyes, turning to Piper as the teacher stumbles awkwardly over his question.

"Chill," Piper blows a tuft of hair out of her eyes, grinning. "We all hate Jackson."

"And yet every day, I hate him more and more." The blond rolls her eyes even harder.

"I've known you since the fifth grade, Annie," Piper is resoundingly unaffected by the glare that she's given for this nickname, "and I have a sneaking suspicion that you hate everybody more every day. It's a miracle I'm not dead yet, honestly."

Annabeth cracks a smile. "There's been a few times where I've considered it, but you're just too darn cute to smother in your sleep."

"I'm flattered."

"Mrs. Chase, do you have something to tell the class?" Their teacher, Miss Aella (a name Annabeth found hilariously ironic), crosses her arms.

"No, ma'am. Piper and I were just…" She pauses, trying to find the words that will get her out of trouble. "We were discussing the musings of our classmate."

"I see." Miss Aella's always much stricter with the other students than she is with Percy; he flustered her, so it's her weird way of asserting herself. "And what did you have to say about the musings of Mister Jackson?"

"They're stupid," Piper calls out, slouched in her seat.

"Greek Mythology is stupid with or without me," Percy shoots back, relaxed as always. "I mean, how much of it is just 'Zeus couldn't keep it in his pants, humanity's fucked for a while, somebody dies, the end'?"

"Percy!" Miss Aella calls, but she's ignored.

"Greek mythology is fascinating, asshole, and the rest of the class shouldn't have to suffer through your moronic chatter just because you aren't competent enough to appreciate it!" Annabeth yells. She doesn't snap much, but when she does, it's scary.

"Oh, so fascinating." Percy's yelling, too, but he doesn't seem strained at all. The grin's yet to leave his face. "Your real life being boring doesn't make this shit interesting. It's just a bunch of stories about the gods, throwing their weight around and ruining things for everybody else!"

"God, you are such an idiot!"

"An idiot with a life outside of ancient Greece, at least."

It's very unlike Annabeth to be violent. Despite her tendency to get in trouble, she rarely gets into anything serious—she knows how to control herself, knows when to pull herself in.

That all goes out the window when she throws a book right at Percy Jackson's stupid, smiling head.

"Both of you, detention, after school!" Miss Aella yells, silencing the whole class. The whole class, of course, except for Percy.

"That's completely unfair! I'm the one who just got a book thrown at me!" He protests.

"You provoked and insulted Miss Chase, and you used language entirely inappropriate for a classroom setting." Straightening her jacket, the teacher turns back to the board. "Come to my classroom after school. Now, back to the creation of Aphrodite…"

.

"I can't believe idiot Jackson landed me in detention." Annabeth huffs, pushing her curly hair out of her face angrily.

"Look on the bright side," Jason smiles, grabbing Piper's waist and laughing as she bats his arm away. "Piper and I are going out anyways, so you would've just been third wheeling."

"Great." She rolls her eyes as they stop in front of Miss Aella's room. "Wish me luck."

"Just don't kill him," Piper grins. "You might get more detention time if you do."

"You always give the best advice, Pipes." Annabeth sighs, opening the door and walking in.

"There's little miss sunshine," Percy says as soon as she walks in, not helping himself in the homicide department. "Oh, sorry. I should probably watch my mouth—who knows how many books you have on you?"

For a concerning moment, Annabeth wants to laugh, but the moment passes quickly. "Shut up, Jackson. Where's the teacher?"

"Faculty meeting," He grins. "She's gonna be gone for like an hour or two. Told us to sit here and think about the consequences of our actions."

"She's not very good at this detention thing, is she." Annabeth says, not looking at Percy, taking out her phone and putting in her headphones. She plans to spend the duration of this time ignoring him.

Of course, he manages to ruin Annabeth's plan by doing something that can't help but distract her: staring at her. Very blatantly. She can only tell through her periphery, and instead of wondering why he's staring, Annabeth can't help but think that he's almost intimidating when he isn't smiling. Not in a scary, he's-gonna-kill-me way. More like—god, she hates herself for saying this—a model. Like somebody who you know is out of your league. Not that she'd ever even want to be in his league. Just…there isn't anything wrong with thinking that Percy's attractive.

Annabeth is so caught up in staring straight forward and ignoring him, she doesn't notice that he's moved to the seat right next to her until he taps her shoulder. Reflexively, she jabs him in the chest with her elbow.

"Dangerous with or without a book," Percy groans, smiling again. She's almost relieved. "I'll make sure to remember that."

"Jesus, you scared me," Annabeth sighs, her face reddening slightly. Percy grins wider. His expression isn't quite as annoying when she can see his eyes; they're really, really green, sea green, and look much more genuine than his smile did on its own. "I study Judo."

"You're a lot cuter when you're blushing than when you're glaring."

And the smile goes right back to annoying. "Why are you over here, Jackson?"

"I wanted to know what you're listening to," He explains, raising his hands defensively.

Annabeth rolls her eyes. "Foster the People."

Percy's eyebrows are always arched when he's smiling, but they stay up as his expression gets a bit more serious—not a serious as it was a moment ago, but backing away from its annoying norm. "I love that band."

"Yeah, everyone loved "Pumped Up Kicks" in 2011," She says dismissively.

"I'm incredibly offended." Percy slaps a palm against his chest dramatically, and this time Annabeth can't help but laugh. "My favorite's "Call it What You Want", actually."

"I'm listening to that right now," She admits, her face growing hot again.

"You should blush more often."

"Do you want me to kick your ass for the third time today?" Annabeth challenges, though she blushes harder. Percy grins for the thousandth time, and for the first time, it doesn't make her feel the need to punch his pretty white teeth out.

"That wouldn't be ideal." He looks down, his black hair falling over his face, and for a moment, Percy looks almost bashful.

"You know, you're cuter when you blush, Jackson." She laughs again, holding out a headphone. "Want to listen?"

Percy takes the headphone, his grin returning. "Sure, that'd be cool."

"Why aren't you listening to anything? Forget your headphones?" Annabeth teases. She feels an awkward need to start a conversation now, uncomfortable with the strange intimacy of sharing headphones with somebody she basically assaulted earlier that day. His expression makes her feel even more antsy than before.

"Don't have one," Percy answers, not quite breezily, staring straight forward.

"Oh." And now Annabeth is bright red. "Oh, shit, I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"It's fine," Percy says, facing her with a smile, one much softer than anything else she's seen. "You didn't know. It's no biggie."

Annabeth stares at him, eyes wide. His face grows serious, very quickly; she has the sudden urge to hide.

"Huh. I always thought your eyes were blue."

Annabeth feels like dying. "No…no, they're gray, yeah."

"Like a storm cloud." Percy drums his fingers against the desk. "It's funny."

"What is?" She asks, trying to gather herself. Annabeth Chase is many things—a fighter, a talker, a Greek mythology buff—but a stutterer had never been on that list.

"You're pretty even when you aren't pissed off." He says simply.

"Um…thanks?"

The song changes before Annabeth can pause it.

"Owl City, nice," Percy nods, turning back to stare at the board. If she didn't know any better, she might say that he looked embarrassed; it makes her feel guilty.

"You're really pretty too," She says suddenly. He turns back, one eyebrow raised, and Annabeth feels like kicking herself. "I mean, pretty in a guy way. Your eyes are nice and green and your hair looks really soft and your lips are super pink, and—I'm going to shut up."

Percy laughs. "Thanks."

"I'm an idiot." Annabeth says, biting her lip. "If you could just, like, forget the past ten seconds, that would be great."

"Like I'd ever forget a compliment like that, wise girl."

Looking up with an eyebrow raised, Annabeth laughs. "Wise girl? Where did that come from?"

"I don't know." Percy shrugs. "The whole braniac thing. Owl city. Your hair's even curly, like they always made gods in ancient Greece. When you put it together, you bear a very striking resemblance to Athena."

"Fair enough." The girl replies. "I feel like I want a nickname for you, now. All I have now is idiot."

"Well, I'm definitely an idiot," He agrees, too quickly, too amiably, and it makes Annabeth feel guilty. "But I can't help you anywhere else, really. I'm boring."

"Seaweed brain," She says suddenly, grinning at her breakthrough. She's even prettier than Percy thought she could be with a smile like that, but he doesn't say anything this time.

"Where did that come from?" Percy runs a hand through his hair, smiling back.

"Your shirt." Annabeth points out his swim team shirt. "Idiot, swimming, sea green eyes…"

"Poseidon, huh?"

"Not as bad as Zeus."

The conversation lulls there, and the two sit for a while, listening to Annabeth's music. When he isn't looking, she switches the playlist; she has some angrier songs on her phone, and she'd rather he didn't hear them. They're silent, in fact, for the rest of detention, up until Miss Aella finally enters the room, as frantic as always.

"Sorry I couldn't be here—wait, you're in detention, I shouldn't be sorry—the faculty meeting went long. Um, right, so, anyways." The teacher is already gathering her things to leave, but she spares a second to look at the two in a way that's not quite authoritative. "Did you two get over your differences? Realize the consequences of your actions?"

"Yes, ma'am, we sure did." Annabeth nods.

"Oh. Okay, good, you two can leave."

In the hallway, Percy stops Annabeth. "Still want to beat me up, wise girl?"

She's clearly surprised that he's continuing the conversation. "Kind of, yeah."

Percy laughs. "Guess I can't ask for too much. Anyways, are you busy on Friday?"

"No," She answers hesitantly, still remembering his comments about her social life earlier. "Why?"

"I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out."

"Why? So I can find a new way to hurt you?" Annabeth teases.

"While that would be great," Percy says, "I'd prefer we just talk. You're fun to talk to."

She does her damndest not to blush, but it doesn't work very well. "That would be cool."

"Cool," He pulls a pen from his pocket and starts scribbling something on Annabeth's arm.

"I thought you didn't have a phone," She says before she can think about it.

"Still don't," Percy laughs, smiling at her blush. "This is my email."

"Oh." Annabeth bites her lip, looking down.

"You should really look in to getting some sort of permanent blush. It looks really good on you, wise girl."

"Thanks, seaweed brain." She rushes away.

"See you fourth period!" Percy calls cheerfully after her.