zumzumdelicia suggested another young Percy and Annabeth chapter, and both ThePersonThatsHere and ElishaCastro3 wanted them to be thirteen/fourteen years old, so...Here's bonus chapter number four for 3000 reads!

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"What do you think you're doing?" Annabeth asked skeptically, raising a thin eyebrow.

I smiled, looking up at my best friend. "I'm building a snowman. Want to help?"

She rolled her eyes. "Percy, I'm busy sketching out my blueprints. Didn't I tell you that Matthew and - "

"Matthew and Bobby spilled your ink all over your desk and ruined your papers, yeah I know." I looked at her notebook disparagingly, before transferring a much kinder gaze onto Annabeth. "But wouldn't you rather spend the last day of Spring break having fun with your best friend?"

She sighed, standing up. "One second," she told me, turning around and walking up the stairs to go inside of her house. She returned after a moment without her notebook and with a nice smile. 

Annabeth's long, golden hair was down for once, held down by a pair of earmuffs. She was wearing a grey winter coat over a dark blue hoodie, and she was just wearing jeans tucked into her black snow boots. I wasn't wearing anything over my sweatpants either, and I had on a dark green coat and my hair was tucked into a dark grey beanie. A few pieces of hair kept escaping, which was really ticking me off.

Technically, it was spring. It was the last day of March. But New York decided that the weather didn't want to agree with the calendar, so we still had a couple feet of snow and the air was frigid.

Annabeth stomped down the steps of the Chase's back porch and walked over to me, where I had began assembling a snowman. She wrinkled her nose up.

"This looks awful."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically.

"The bottom is too lumpy and not big enough. It won't hold up any more."

I glanced at the snowman before looking back at Annabeth. "Well, maybe you're right."

She nodded. "Oh, I am. Come on, let's keep going. You keep going with that one and I will start the middle."

I rolled the ball around Annabeth's back yard, checking in every once in a while until it was deemed satisfactory. Annabeth brought the center piece over and hefted it up on top of the base.

"Now we have to do the head."

I nodded, gathering snow together. We pressed together enough snow to give the snowman a proportionate head, then dragged it over to the rest of the body. Annabeth stared at the snowman.

"That thing is almost as tall as both of us."

She was right. I was only five feet two inches tall, and Annabeth was - embarrassingly enough - an inch taller. The snowman must have been five feet, and it's very hard to lift something generally heavy up by your head.

"We'll just lift it together," I suggested.

She shrugged, walking closer to me and leaning over to get a grip on the mass of snow. I followed suit, accidentally getting a mouthful of her hair.

"Bleh!" I commented quietly.

She straightened up and brushed her hair back. "Did you just eat my hair?"

My cheeks flushed, making them ten times redder than usual because of the cold air. "I - I didn't mean to."

Annabeth smiled amusedly, grasping the snow again. I grabbed it too and we hoisted it together and onto the snowman.

"What do you think?" I asked, switching my gaze from the snowman to her.

"It's good," she admitted. "But we need to decorate it."

"Duh," I remarked. "We need rocks and sticks and - do you happen to have any spare carrots?"

She laughed. "I'm not sure. We can go check once we are at that point."

We gathered materials to transform the trio of snowballs to an official snowman and added them on. Eventually, all it was missing was some winter gear and a nose.

"Let's head inside," Annabeth suggested, "and grab some old gloves and a hat and see if there's any carrots in the kitchen."

I grinned, wading through the crunchy snow behind Annabeth to get inside of her house. We kicked off our boots and slid off our other outerwear. She motioned for me to follow her and we went to the kitchen. Annabeth opened up the refrigerator door and searched for a carrot. She stood back up and shook her head disappointedly.

"No carrots. The only vegetables we have are potatoes, and technically those are considered a starch."

For a moment I was bummed, but then I figured we could make do. "Can you pass me one?"

She raised her eyebrow and grabbed a potato. She set it on the counter in front of me. I took a knife from the drawer and looked at Annabeth for approval. She shrugged.

"I have no clue what you're doing. Go for it, I guess."

I carved the potato so that it was shaped like a medium sized carrot, with one end more narrow than the other. I glanced at Annabeth excitedly.

She glared at me, but her lips twitched like she was trying really hard not to smile. "You really are a seaweed brain."

I smiled. "Come on, it was a great idea."

Her lips released and she laughed. "Yeah, whatever. Let's go back outside."

We headed back to the back door and climbed back into our numerous layers. Annabeth also grabbed another set of gloves and a hat for the snowman. We reentered the wondrous outdoors and wandered to our snowman, who was set in the middle of the backyard.

I shoved the potato into the snowman's face while Annabeth set the hat on top and slid the mittens on. We stepped back and admired our work.

"Pretty good," I admitted.

She smirked. "Of course, it's easy work for a thirteen year old architect and her assistant."

I gasped. "I thought we were partners!"

She pursed her lips and shook her head. "Nope, I was playing you all along!"

I dramatically parted my lips and stumbled backwards. "How could you?"

She cackled. "This snowman will forever be owned by Chase Corp. It's legally mine, and built on my property."

I slowly shook my head. "And to believe I thought that we had a connection."

Annabeth grinned. 

I stepped closer. "No, I declare that this snow man is ours!"

"Never!"

"We either co-own it, or the snowman gets it," I warned teasingly, holding out my arms as if I were about to shove the snowman down.

"You wouldn't dare."

I planted my hands on the center piece. "Oh, I would."

Before I could react, Annabeth was charging toward me - she was pretty fast considering we were in two feet deep snow - and shoving me away from our masterpiece. I toppled over, Annabeth falling with me.

I brushed her hair off of my face and rolled onto my left side to face her. "How'd that work for you?" I asked sarcastically.

Annabeth laughed. "Fantastically."

I chuckled, twisting back onto my back. The clouds had a slight tinge of pink, indicating of the impending sunset.

"You know, Perce, we have about three months of school left. Then it's summer, but then we have high school."

I grinned. "I can't wait for summer." I paused. "And high school," I admitted.

"Yeah?"

I nodded. "Yeah. This summer is going to be great, I can feel it. Then, as for high school, it's our first year going to the same school. My mom's boyfriend works there, remember? I already have, like, a golden pass."

Annabeth breathed out a laugh. "Basically. So, you like your mom's new boyfriend?"

"Definitely. He is so much better than Gabe, and I know he's a good guy." I hesitated, but I knew if there was anyone I could tell about my worries, it was Annabeth. "I still worry sometimes that the nice guy act is a facade, and he's going to turn into a monster just like Gabe," I said quietly.

She reached over and clasped my hand. "I get it. That makes sense, Percy. You just have to remember that he is a great guy, nothing like Gabe."

I sat up a little, looking over at her. "That reminds me, he really wants to meet you. I told him a bit about you, and both Mom and him decided that he should meet you soon. Do you...do you want to meet him?"

She smiled. "Yeah, I don't see why not. Plus, I've got to watch out for your mom too, you know. Check this guy out for myself."

I laughed, relaxing back into the snow. "So, high school, yeah?"

Annabeth groaned. "I'm not good with change, you probably remember."

I nodded. "Yeah, I know."

"I just - Of course we are great friends. We're best friends. But we've never been to school together and I just don't know how it's going to go," she admitted.

"What do you think is going to happen?" I asked.

"That we're going to part ways. That our friends aren't going to like each other. That - that you are going to get caught up with the cool group and leave me in the dust."

I squeezed her hand tighter. "You never have to worry about me leaving you, Annabeth. No matter what, I promise. Plus, since when have I been one of the popular kids?"

She breathed out a laugh. "Yeah, I guess that was irrational."

I shook my head. "It's okay to be nervous. Just remember I'm always here for you, Annabeth."

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The last bell of the day rung, and everybody jumped out of their seats.

"Class, don't forget to complete the reading over the weekend," the teacher called, but I was already out the door. 

I raced to my locker and quickly sorted out my backpack. Then I basically ran down the hallway and out of the school, immediately crashing into the one and only Annabeth. "Hey," I breathed out.

She laughed. "Are you in a hurry for something? Something coming up?"

"Yeah, something," I said, chuckling.

"Anything in particular?" she teased.

I rolled my eyes. "You know what's up," I remarked. "It's the weekend! You're coming over to meet Paul, and then we're having a sleepover!" I squealed dramatically.

She rolled her eyes, a small smile dancing on her lips. "Of course."

"Do we need to stop at your place on the way home?" I asked.

Annabeth shook her head. "No, I had my dad drop my stuff off earlier since he was already running errands around noon."

"Makes sense," I said. "You almost ready to leave?"

She laughed. "You're quite eager." She shut her locker door. "Yup, let's go."

We walked together and began the trek to my apartment building. Mom and I had moved to a new complex at the start of the year, seeing as her and Paul had gotten more serious and she was slightly ashamed of our old home. That place was a shabby building that we had hastily moved to right around my thirteenth birthday, when Gabe had departed our family.

The weather had begun to warm up, finally realizing that it was April. The one downside to that was that, with all of the snow melting, all of the roads, sidewalks, and other pieces of land were muddy and sopping wet. I had to be careful of where I stepped as to not drench my black Vans.

The weather was not quite warm enough for us to ditch jackets all together, so I was wearing a blue hoodie over my plain white tee shirt and medium wash jeans. Annabeth had on a thin lavender rain coat, unzipped, over her navy and white flannel and black jeans. She was also wearing black Vans, although hers weren't high tops.

We walked in silence, taking in the constant soothing sound of water dripping from people's gutters. When we got to my apartment building, I led her to the stairs. It was only her second time coming to our new complex, so she trailed behind me.

I walked down the hall and unlocked our door. I let Annabeth in the apartment and followed behind her. She slid her shoes off and shrugged off her jacket. I kicked off my Vans and set them on the shoe tray beside the door.

"We're home!" I called.

"I'm in my bedroom, Percy! Come down!" my mom replied.

I headed down to her room and motioned for Annabeth to follow. I pushed Mom's door open and revealed her sitting on the bed, folding laundry.

"Hello, kiddos," she greeted happily. "How are you?"

"I'm great," I stated.

"Yeah," Annabeth agreed. "I'm pretty excited."

Mom smiled kindly. "That's nice. Paul will be here soon, maybe in an hour. Your stuff is in Percy's room, dear. You'll be sleeping there, if that's alright."

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah, that's fine, Sally."

"Great. You two enjoy yourselves."

I smiled, exiting the room and crossing the hall to get to my own. We headed inside and I noticed a duffle bag on the floor, presumably Annabeth's things.

"I can set up a bed on the floor later," I told her. "You can take my bed."

She frowned. "You don't have to sleep on the floor. It's your room, I'll take the floor."

I shook my head. "It's fine."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Alright."

"I have a bit of homework," I said. "Do you have any?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I was hoping to get it done sooner rather than later. Do you want to work on it now?"

"Sure."

We climbed onto my full size bed and took out our work. Annabeth started on it right away, but my mind was a bit distracted. I hadn't thought about the fact that our new apartment didn't have a guest room. Thinking about Annabeth sleeping in my bed sent shivers down my spine. It felt very intimate, even though we wouldn't be that close to each other. Being asleep was a very vulnerable state, and my bed is where I felt that way. Having Annabeth slip into unconsciousness in my bed made me almost giddy.

I shook my head a little, concentrating on the words of the textbook. I slowly read the chapter that was assigned for my history class, which took me about fifteen minutes. My dyslexia had an impact on that, but my wandering eyes did as well. When Annabeth focused, she gently bit her lower lip, I noticed, and squinted her eyes. Her baby hairs that escaped from her pony tail long ago framed her face nicely when she tilted her head.

I eventually completed the questions that went with the reading, and all of my frustration was relieved. Luckily, I had no other homework. I glanced at my alarm clock, noting that it was a little after four o'clock. Paul would be home soon.

I scanned Annabeth, realizing she wasn't doing her math work any more. She was reading a book.

"What are you reading?" I asked.

"Animal Farm," she related. "It's pretty good, but I'm at a boring part. What do you want to do?"

"Well, when we first moved in Paul gave us his old Wii console. Want to play?"

She smiled. "Remember the first time you came to my house and we played for hours?"

I chuckled. "Of course. And when I challenged you at the real bowling alley, you crushed me, which totally wasn't fair."

Annabeth smirked. "It's all about the trajectory."

"Blah blah, all I'm hearing is 'rematch'!"

She laughed and sat up. We got off of the bed and ran to the living room, where I started up the Wii and we began playing.

The time flew by, and suddenly the sound of a key in the lock stirred me back to reality.

"That must be Paul," I stated.

We finished up our round of boxing - I crushed Annabeth, for your information - and turned off the T.V. The door swung open and Paul stepped inside.

"Hey, guys."

"Hi, Paul," I said. "How was work?"

He smiled, a little tiredly. "Good enough. We had a meeting talking about what needs to be done to better instruct all of our students with learning impairments, so hopefully some teachers will become better adapted to teach students like you two. Speaking of, hello there, Annabeth."

She smiled and waved. "Hey, Mr. Blofis."

Paul shrugged off his blazer and untied his loafers. "Please, anytime beside in the classroom, call me Paul."

"Alright," she answered. 

Mom rushed out from her room and smiled at us. Her smile broadened when she saw her boyfriend. It made me happy to see her so overjoyed.

"Hey, sweetie," she said. They gently hugged and Paul kissed her cheek. "I'm starting dinner soon. Pesto chicken with carrots and mashed potatoes."

Paul grinned. "My favorite."

I looked at Annabeth knowingly. She was gazing at Mom and Paul, almost dreamily, but must have felt my stare. She looked at me and dissolved into a fit of giggles. I followed suit.

"What is so funny?" Mom asked amusedly.

Neither of us could answer, we were laughing so hard. 

"Do they do this often?" Paul asked curiously.

"Oh, all the time," Mom answered.

When we finally calmed down, I told them cooly, "Potatoes are nice" as if it explained everything that had just happened.

Paul raised his eyebrows and Mom just smiled.

"Come on, sweetie," she told him. "Let's start dinner."

They left the two of us in the kitchen, probably for the best unless they wanted to get caught in the midst of another laughter fest.

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After an amazingly delicious and hilarious dinner, Annabeth and I hung out in my bedroom and just chatted. Around eight o'clock, Paul said goodbye to us before leaving to go back to his own apartment.

Annabeth told me she typically showered in the morning, but I always showered at night. So after Paul left I went into the bathroom to quickly clean myself. I made sure to be fast, getting out after ten minutes. I dried myself and threw on a plain blue tee shirt and grey sweatpants. I typically slept shirtless but I didn't want to make Annabeth uncomfortable.

I wandered back into my bedroom and saw Annabeth looking at all of the things resting on my dresser. I had a couple of middle school awards displayed there, as well as some trinkets from my limited travels.

Annabeth picked up a thin, steel ring. I cleared my throat.

She whirled around. "Oh, hey."

I smiled. "Hey."

"Sorry, I was just - Was this your dad's?" she asked.

I nodded. "The night before he left to go to work and...and never come back, he sent his wedding ring to the cleaners. Mom gave it to me for my thirteenth birthday, telling me that she thought I was responsible enough."

Annabeth gently set the ring back on my dresser and smiled sadly at me. "Do you want to watch a movie or something before we head to bed?"

I nodded, grateful for the subject change. "Sure. I'll set up my bed in here. Can you go choose a movie? I'll meet you in the living room in, like, two minutes."

She nodded. "Alright." Then she headed out of my room and to the living room.

I laid out several blankets and a pillow, calling that good enough. I ran out to the living room and plopped onto the couch. Annabeth inserted a disc and came over to lay down.

I was sitting with my legs out, my head turned to the right to view the T.V. Annabeth was laying on her left side, one of her legs draped over my own. I hit play on the remote and the starting screen of Back to the Future blazed on the screen. I grinned, remembering how much Annabeth loved that movie.

We watched the movie in peace, commentating every so often when the characters did something mildly amusing. By the end, it was past ten o'clock at night. Annabeth had fallen asleep.

She looked so peaceful while she slept. Her typical stern expression softened into an almost angelic one. I reluctantly got off of the couch, then after a moment of hesitation I slid my arms beneath Annabeth's body and lifted her up. She subconsciously curled into my body, sending my heart rate flying.

I slowly walked to my bedroom, not wanting to startle Annabeth awake. I laid her on my bed and covered her with a blanket. I gazed at her, hoping she was still asleep. I bent and pressed my lips against her forehead. As I straightened back up, she reached her arms up and tugged me down.

"Annabeth?" I asked.

She mumbled, "Don't sleep on the floor. I'll scoot over."

My cheeks were as red as a tomato. "Are you sure?"

She hummed her approval, rolling over. "I don't want you to wake up with a sore back. You'll be cranky."

I smiled, grabbing my blanket from the floor and laying beside her.

"Goodnight, Annabeth."

I fell asleep to the soft sound of my best friend's breathing.

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Freshman year was starting in three days, and I was both nervous and excited. Grover, Annabeth, and I decided to spend the day at the park.

"Percy, pass the chips," Grover requested.

I handed him the bag of potato chips and he began happily munching on them.

"Annabeth," I said, "do you remember when we first met in the woods over there?"

She nodded, smiling. "Yeah, of course. What were you doing in the woods again?"

"Exploring with Thalia," I admitted sheepishly.

Grover perked up. "That sounds fun. We should do that now."

Annabeth shrugged. "I don't see why not."

I smiled and shook my head amusedly. "Alright."

We picked up our things and got up, heading into the woods. We wandered along the familiar path, pointing out some creatures and cool plants.

"Look," Grover whispered excitedly. "It's a deer!"

We all stared at the majestic animal, not daring to make a sound.

"Come on," Grover said. "Let's try to get closer."

We crept closer, doing our best to stay silent. We got pretty close to the deer before it realized we were there and ran off.

Grover groaned. "Aw, man."

Annabeth was about to say something, but I noticed a large group of boulders over her shoulder.

I pointed. "Whoa, look at that, guys."

They both turned. "Let's go check it out," Annabeth suggested.

We all agreed, rushing over. We realized that it wasn't just rocks, it was a cave.

"Want to go in?" I asked.

Grover shook his head frantically. "That sounds like a bad idea."

"No way," Annabeth countered. "It sounds fun. Come on."

She charged into the narrow opening. I followed suit, as did a whimpering Grover.

"Wow," I said. The cave was much larger once you were inside, with several passages leading in all different directions.

"We have to explore it," Annabeth stated.

I nodded in agreement. "You in, G-man?"

He nodded. "No way am I letting you two on your own."

We wandered through the cave, taking in the whole thing in awe.

"This is crazy," I said.

Annabeth nodded. "I've never seen anything like this."

"Guys," Grover piped, "I really need the bathroom."

I smiled, remembering my friend's tendency to fill up his bladder when he was nervous. "Go on, we'll wait right here."

He stared at us wide eyed, before nodding and scurrying off.

I walked closer to the wall of the chamber we were in. The rocks were smooth and had a pretty purplish tinge to them. "I'm so glad we checked this out," I stated.

"Yeah," said Annabeth, her voice much closer than I anticipated.

I turned to face her and found her less than a few inches in front of me. "Annabeth?" I asked nervously.

She shut her eyes and leaned closer, gently pressing her lips to mine. My eyes were wide, my lips motionless. She stepped back and whispered, "Please don't leave me."

I was blushing so hard and my brain wasn't really processing what was going on. Before I could answer, Grover stomped into the room. "Guys, I almost got lost! I was really scared for a minute! Why didn't you answer me when I was shouting?"

Faster than lightning, Annabeth bolted away, leaving me alone and dumbfounded. "She kissed me," I blurted.

"What?" he asked.

"Why did she...she kissed me."

He laughed a little nervously. "Let's get out of here, Percy."

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Sksjksksks. What do you think? That was 4025 words, you better appreciate it lol!

For your convenience, I will remind you when each lil segment takes place. The first one is on spring break of eighth grade, the second one is on the first Friday back to school a few days later, as is the movie night. The last segment is several months later. It is set right before the first day of freshman year. All of them take place (relatively) two years before the regular story line. The pair is thirteen in all of them except the last one, where they had just recently turned fourteen.

Now, if you remember, in chapter 11 grover tells a story about Annabeth and percy kissing. That was the last lil segment, and now you know why she kissed him. She wanted to make sure that he didn't leave her when they started school, so that was her way of showing him. It wasn't really that romantic.

Anyway, I really hope that you enjoyed! Thank you so much for 3.1K reads, 235 votes, and two very impressive rankings! See you soon :)