➵ how about some raw toast

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“annabeth, hurry up!” piper mclean repeatedly knocked on her friends bedroom door.

“i'll be there in a second!” annabeths muffled reply came through the door “don't leave without me"

piper sighed dramatically and swung around the banister and walked downstairs to her waiting friends.

after texting seaweed brain last night annabeth had a great few hours sleep, the only problem was that she had over slept. 

annabeth flung open the door, it hit the wall and resulted in a load bang. she ignored it and rushed down the stairs.

“relax i'm here” annabeth said, sitting down on the bottom step to tie her trainer's laces.

“want some breakfast?” hazel levesque asked “we're already going to be late” she pointed out to piper who had just exhaled heavily.

“the toasters broken” annabeth said.

katie strode across to the counter, “how about some raw toast”

her friends were silent for a second, thinking over what she just said “do you mean bread?” hazel asked sounding confused.

“that's what I said”

“um ok? i'll have some”

katie handed annabeth two slices of un-buttered, un-toasted bread

“great now we can get going” piper exclaimed, stealing one of annabeths two breads. this didn't phase her, they have an inside joke of taking the others breakfast. “i told jason i'd meet him by the gate”

as they were walking outside katie punched annabeth lightly in the arm, “now i'm not going to be the one who always oversleeps”

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the four friends piled into pipers car, as they always did. piper driving, annabeth in shotgun, hazel and Katie in the back.

annabeth fought back a smile at the familiarity of it all.

“how we're your summers?” hazel asked. “i really didn't do anything”

“my dad dragged me to the bahamas” piper replied “he was shooting a film there”

“sounds terrible" annabeth said sarcastically, piper's dad tristen mclean was a famous actor although nobody at school seemed to make the connection between the two mclean's yet.

“i couldn't even go outside, there was paparazzi literally everywhere. i had to hide in my hotel room the entire time”

“still sounds better then my summer” Katie grumbled “travis stoll tried to prank me once but got the wrong house. so i got grounded for a month because my neighbors garden was decorated with chocolate easter bunnies and thought I did it"

"that prank is pretty tame for the stolls, it doesn't sound that bad”

“apparently my neighbor's lactose intolerant and deathly allergic to rabbits so he thought I was trying to send a message”

they all snorted. everyone knew that travis stoll had a big fat crush on katie, but didn't know how to express it. last year he filled katie's locker with shaving cream every day for a week, he only stopped when katie filled up his entire car with the stuff.

the pranks had subsided a lot since then.

hazel turned to annabeth “what about you annabeth?”

“i spent most of the summer in my room because bobbie and matthew are now obsessed with minecraft and keep screaming whenever they see literally anything”

“wow i feel bad for you” hazel said. “nico used to be obsessed with mythomagic, he still is really he just pretends not to be, but I missed most of that” hazel and nico didn't know the other existed untill a few years ago when bianca died and Nico found out about his dads affair.

the car was silent for a few seconds so Annabeth changed the subject “and my number neighbour texted me last night-”

“your what?”

“number neighbour, his number is one digit away from mine. it was a twitter trend a while ago.”

piper took one eye of the road to look at annabeth “you better not get murdered”

“i'll be fine piper. he seems nice”

“they say ted bundy was very charming”

annabeth brushed her away “i'll keep that in mind, but i've sat through enough stranger danger assemblies I don't need one from you”

piper rolled her eyes and then yelled “STREET SMARTS” at the top of her voice.

annabeth snorted and leaned against the car door, she had been too preoccupied that she hadn't noticed they had arrived in the car park.

they all exited the car “and besides” annabeth said “thalia said she knows him but wont tell me his name”

“well if thalia knows him” katie pointed out “he could be literally anyone”

“true”

piper looked like she was going to say something but caught sight of her boyfriend jason waiting for her with a few friends. “see you guys at break” she said before walking off.

“bye!” hazel called after her and then turned back to the conversation “so you really don't know who he is?”

annabeth shrugged “no idea” but as katie said he could literally be anyone.

the three girls started walking in the direction of the building “what do you know about him?”

annabeth thought about it “uh he's 16 and on his schools swim team”

a new person walked up next to the group. “who's on the swim team?” reyna ramírez-arellano asked.

“some guy annabeth's been texting”

“what's his name?”

“that's the thing, she doesn't know”

“what do you mean?”

annabeth sighed “my number neighbour texted me last night, all I know about him is that he's 16, on his high school swim team and apparently knows thalia”

“well everyone in new york knows thalia”

“that's what I said!” Katie said triumphantly.

reyna smirked as if she just had an idea “what if it's percy?”

“percy jackson?”

“who else?”

“nah that's stupid”

“think about it annabeth, he's 16, captain of the swim team and thalia's literal cousin”

“it's not percy jackson” annabeth said firmly “i already have his number in my phone” she pulled out her phone to show percy's contact that she got through their mutual friends.

hazel shook her head “that's his old number”

“you have to admit it does makes sense.”

“do you know how many 16 year olds live in this city?”

“a lot?” katie guessed “just give us his number and we'll see if it matches with percy's”

for some strange reason annabeth didn't like this idea, it felt wrong violating ‘seaweed brains’ privacy. anyway if it did turn out to be percy jackson she wouldn't even know what to say to him.

you see percy jackson hated her. they had mutual friends, in fact most of annabeth's friends were also percy's, hell thalia and hazel where his cousins. But percy and annabeth never really talked one on one and last year he started actively avoiding her.

at first it was hardly noticeable, it's not like they ever talked but after a while it was undeniable. whenever they were in a room together, even with other people, he would find some excuse to leave.

and the worst thing was annabeth had no idea what she had done. whenever she voiced her concerns to her friends they assured her there was nothing to worry about. however that only made annabeth more certain something was up.

before she could protest the bell rang and she excused herself to go to her first lesson despite it seeming very cliché to be saved by the bell.

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