"So, have you ever thought about joining the swim team?" I asked Annabeth, wiping my soaked hair with a towel. I didn't typically wear a swim cap during practice, only at meets.

"Um, no thanks. You've seen me swim before, Seaweed Brain."

I laughed. "Yeah, that's definitely not a pretty sight."

She gasped, exaggerating her shock. "I'm always a pretty sight!"

I raised my eyebrow. "Keep telling yourself that."

Annabeth giggled and playfully shoved my bare chest. I smiled back.

"I'll go get dressed. Be right back."

I quickly dressed into my tee shirt and jeans again, and put my shoes on. I looked in the dusty mirror and ran my hands through my hair. I never tried to fix it unless I thought Annabeth's parents would be around. Her dad always scolded my habit of messing with it, and Helen just gave me that look.

I finished making myself neat and rushed back to the pool room. Annabeth was sat on the bleachers, typing on her phone with a slight scowl on her face.

I walked up to her and dropped to my knees, back facing her. "Come on," I told her. "Chop chop!"

"What's this about?" I could literally envision her raising her eyebrow skeptically.

"Hop on," I said eagerly.

She laughed before clambering onto my back. I easily stood and left the pool room, heading to her house.

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"Honey, I'm home!" I shouted obnoxiously, swinging the Chase's front door open.

"Percy, sweetie, quiet! The kids need silence!" Helen chastised.

Annabeth smacked my shoulder. I glanced back and saw her face was radiant with a bright smile on her face and perfect grey eyes glistening.

I squatted down and allowed Annabeth to stand normally. "Better?" I asked her.

She nodded, although I'm not sure if she knew what I was asking.

"Go grab a snack," she told me. "I'll be in my bedroom."

I walked over to the snack cupboard and selected a bag of tortilla chips. I rummaged through their fridge and found a salsa jar. I poured some into a dish and put the jar back, before finally taking the goods down the hall, as well as my bags.

I nudged the door open with my foot and entered. I closed it behind me, but not all of the way. Helen was touchy and specific about things like that, but I understood. I wouldn't want my teenage daughter shut in a room with a boy, no matter how long they had been friends before.

I sat down across from Annabeth on her carpeted floor. She already had several textbooks sprawled out around her. I set the salsa bowl and chip bag down carefully.

"So, what do you need help with first?" she asked me, reaching for a chip.

"Math first, but I'll need help with English, physics, and geography too."

"Alright, we should get started."

Annabeth first had me explain what I had learned during my math class, then wanted me to tell her how I would solve the first problem. She corrected my thinking and we repeated the process for each problem until I got the hang of it. While I finished my math homework, she quickly completed her own.

We moved on to English. We had to ask our own questions about our assigned reading, and answer them ourselves. Paul had specified that they had to be questions that required deep thinking, and not just simple ones like setting, characters, or main events. If he hadn't said that, I would have been fine by myself, but I needed a little extra help.

Annabeth provided that perfectly. First she slowly read the chapter to me, and I had to focus really hard not to get lost in her voice. She had a very nice reading voice that almost transported you into the story if you were listening carefully enough. She asked me what I had learned from that, and made me come up with questions revolving around that. She did the same herself.

Finally, for physics and geography, she assisted me with each individual question, since they were each different.

"Are you sure you don't want to be a teacher when you grow up?" I asked her.

She laughed. "I'm positive. Architecture is the only way for me."

I frowned. "Your mom got you into it, right? When you were very little?"

She nodded. "Yep. One of my oldest memories is of her teaching me how to sketch in 3-D when I was about four or five years old. Ever since I've known what I've wanted to do with my life."

"Since you were five? That's dedication."

"It connects me to her. It helps me cope with the grief."

I softly smiled.

When Annabeth was six years old, her mother passed away due to cancer. She was still very upset about it over a year later, but her father had seemingly forgotten and moved on. He married Helen and had the twins with her. It was a lot of change much too quickly for Annabeth's young mind, and she ran away at the age of seven. She ran into my older cousin Thalia and her good friend Luke on the Virginia/Pennsylvania border, where the young pair had been vacationing with Luke's mother.

Annabeth eventually found herself back with her parents, but she was confident that somebody still cared about her. The still slightly dysfunctional family moved to New York five years later, when she was twelve. That was the turning point for Annabeth's relationship with her father, when everything started going well again.

I grabbed the chip bag and munched on a few. Annabeth gestured for me to hand it over, and I sadly obliged. I made sure that she knew how upset I was about it, and she laughed.

"That was everything, right?" she asked me.

I nodded.

"Do you still want to stay for dinner?"

"What are you guys having?"

"Tacos."

I grinned. "Yeah, I'll stay."

"Great. You can come help me chop vegetables."

I groaned. Annabeth stood and held her hands out. I grabbed on and tugged. She either wasn't strong enough or got taken by surprise, because she fell onto me.

I was flat on my back and Annabeth was between my legs, sprawled across my chest.

"On my gosh, I'm so sorry!"

I chuckled uneasily. "Don't worry about it. Hold on a second, you're in a bad spot. Here, let me..."

I sat up grabbed her underarms, carefully lifting her off of me. I set her gently beside me on the ground.

"I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" she asked. A ferocious blush was prominent on her cheeks.

I grinned. "I'm doing pretty well, and you?"

She playfully shoved my right shoulder. I stood up and pulled Annabeth up, learning from our mistakes.

We wandered down the hallway and took a right to the kitchen. There, Helen was silently stirring a bowl of ground beef with seasoning.

"Hey, Mrs. Chase," I greeted politely.

"Good to see you are still able to speak at a normal volume," she remarked back. My cheeks flushed red.

"Need any help, Helen?" Annabeth cut in.

"Yes, actually. Annabeth, could you bring me the cans of beans we have in the cupboard? And, Percy, come help with the tomatoes."

Helen handed me a very sharp serrated knife and passed the container of cherry tomatoes. I carefully sliced each in half, tossing them in a Tupperware after each chop. Once I cut up all of those, Helen passed me a different knife and a head of lettuce. I set to work on cutting that up while Helen continued cooking the meat and Annabeth cooked the beans.

Less than twenty minutes later every component was prepared. Annabeth searched for all of her family members, and I set the table with plates and silverware.

Eventually, the entire Chase family and I had gathered at the table. We piled our food onto our plates before sitting down and munching on our tacos.

We all began to ate, and I glanced at everyone's plates. I noticed that Malcolm had two types of tacos: one beef, and one fish.

I dramatically gasped. "Really, Malcolm? Fish? You've got to be kidding me!" I smirked.

"Get over yourself, Jackson."

"Ooh!" Bobby, Annabeth's nine year old brother remarked.

"I'm really touched, Malcolm. Calling someone by their last name is a form of flattery, in my opinion, Malcolm."

"Got 'em!" Matthew, Bobby's twin brother commented. Helen planted a hand on his shoulder and quietly scolded him.

Malcolm's eyes narrowed.

"Who do you think you are, Percy? Coming into our home and talking badly to me, unbelievable."

"It's not your home," Annabeth whispered.

I'm not sure if whether of the adults heard her, because Frederick was still shoveling food in his mouth and sketching some sort of air craft on graph paper, and Helen was telling the twins off. But Malcolm heard, and showed evident proof. He immediately stared down at his plate and silently finished his meal.

I shot Annabeth a look. She sadly stared back.

The rest of the meal was quiet and very, very awkward.

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I've decided to update this chapter bc it's ready and I want your guys' feed back. Please tell me anything you want me to change!I
Please vote and comment if you liked it!
Now, imma go eat some ramen. Byeee!