Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson series

Chapter One: We Sit By Side

Warm rays of sun heated Annabeth's face causing sweat to dampen her forehead. The spring air was filled with the smell of flowers and fresh grass. The air was damp, humid, and as Annabeth walked along her skin became moist and her hair curled slightly, lifting up at the ends.

Annabeth hummed softly to the song that played on her ipod: Summer Girl. The song coaxed a small smile onto her lips. It was an original song, written for her last summer by Luke.

Annabeth had surreptitiously recorded it and loaded it onto her ipod. Luke's singing voice was low and slightly rough. It was far from perfect, but Annabeth loved it. During her morning walk in the park -something she did during spring every year- she put the song on repeat.

Annabeth crossed a wide empty lawn and stepped over a small fence, cutting onto one of her favorite paths. She liked it because it was quiet and never used by anyone but her and Luke. The city had taken the path off the official map of the park after deeming it too far from the city square. Annabeth could be arrested if she was ever found here. Olympia did not like when anyone strayed far from the city center.

The bushes on the side of the path were overgrown, spilling onto the path and occasionally brushing against Annabeth.

Hands clapped over her eyes and Annabeth heard a familiar voice said, "Guess who?"

Annabeth laughed and slapped Luke's hand away. Luke pulled her into a hug and then quickly released her. They started to walk, down the sloping path and into a section that reminded Annabeth of something she had read about in books: a forest. There were no real forests in Olympia. This part of the path was the closest thing. The trees had continued to grow here, long after the path had been taken out of service, and they arched above the path creating a sort of tunnel.

There were leaves and small red flowers that fell apart at a touch and flew off into the sky. Whenever Annabeth's coat brushed up against the flowers, small red flecks become stuck to her. Long thin leaves fell from the trees above and tangled with Annabeth's hair before Luke brushed them off.

They held hands as they walked in silence.

Then Luke spoke. "The Matching is tomorrow."

Annabeth nodded. "Yes."

The Matching was the system in Olympia for marriage. Whenever an Olympian citizen turned seventeen, they were matched to the person Olympia deemed most suitable for them.

Annabeth was sure that Luke would be her match. The thinking behind The Matching was simple: if you were with a person who was exactly right for you, you would would never be in conflict with them -Olympia hoped to prevent a conflict like the one that had rocked the world fifty years ago.

And in all their years of friendship, Annabeth and Luke had had only the smallest arguments about the silliest things. They had never really fought. Surely Olympia would see that and match them.

Luke stopped for a moment and grabbed a small yellow flower from a bush on the path. He tucked it behind Annabeth's ear and secured it with several strands of her blonde hair. "An early present from your match." Luke said, making Annabeth smile.

She was relieved that he was also sure of the probability of their match.

Annabeth returned home from her walk and tugged the small flower out from behind her ear. She filled a small cup with water and placed the flower in it.

She was smiling all day, even as she worried over a blueprint for a building that she hoped to present successfully at the Architectural Conference in several weeks.

Until an Olympian citizen turned twenty, they could experiment with a number of different professions. But Annabeth had found what she wanted to do when she was fifteen. She had discovered her passion for Architecture in a drawing class. The art teacher had told her to find an item and draw it. Annabeth has focused on a tall building, just outside the art room window. The building was tall, massive, and at the top the building was made completely of glass and spiraled up into the sky in a corkscrew design. Annabeth had drawn it with quick strokes. For weeks after she imagined the inside; she'd carefully sketched her imagining of each floor, just for fun. The drawing had begun to turn the gears of her mind at a speed they had never turned before. Annabeth relished the work.

There was only one problem with her workplace, one that she could easily forget when she was enclosed within her small office: she was the only women there.

There were no rules in Olympia that said that certain genders took certain jobs, but each gender had claimed jobs for itself, and Architecture had been claimed by the men. Annabeth's work hadn't really been taken seriously. She got the feeling that the other employees were hoping that she would leave. Her supervisor gave her extremely challenging projects and put her on the phone with difficult clients. What her supervisor didn't know was that Annabeth loved breaking down the obstacles placed in front of her. Challenges kept her mind sharp. What would have made her throw up her hands and leave would have been the assignment of easy jobs and calls with clients who never gave her a hard time. Annabeth couldn't stand to be bored.

As Annabeth walked home from her workplace the sounds of the city began to die down. Everyone was tired on their way home. Annabeth's phone buzzed and she pulled it from her pocket. It was Piper, her best friend. Piper was asking Annabeth to come over. Annabeth quickly changed her path directing herself northward, towards the complex where Piper lived.

Olympia didn't choose friends for it's citizens, but friendships needed to be approved by an official -again, to avoid conflicts. Piper had taken a while to be approved, and Annabeth hadn't seen her for months. But then she had been approved and Annabeth and Piper had been inseparable since.

Annabeth checked her watch before ringing the bell for Piper's apartment. She had an hour with Piper before she needed to leave to make Olympia's curfew.

When Piper opened the door, she was crying. "Jason and I had a fight," She choked out.

Annabeth was shocked. Then she realized what that meant. If they had had a fight, their chances of being matched had gone from probable, to non-existent.

"Gods Pipes, I'm so, so sorry," Annabeth said, sitting down on Piper's wide couch and giving her friend a hug.

"Jason just exploded this afternoon," Piper sobbed out. "He said that our relationship wasn't normal and it felt like I was acting like we were the perfect couple so we could be paired together. I mean, I kind of was, but I thought that was what we both wanted, to be paired together, even if it made things a little weird now, and a little fake seeming. But now-" Piper cut herself off with a fresh onslaught of tears, and Annabeth watched helplessly, feeling guilty that she was thinking about how happy she and Luke would be.

A/n: sorry for any mistakes that I missed !

Song: We Are Gonna Be Friends- The White Stripes