ANNABETH CHASE

As I dug around my small backpack for my dorm key, Percy was playing with my hair and practically tying it up in knots. Not only was it very distracting it was also very annoying because I knew that I would have a lot of work to do to my bedhead in the morning.

The second I had the key in my grasp, I scowled at Percy over my shoulder. "Cut it out," I hissed.

His eyes shimmered with that familiar mischievous sheen I had fallen for. "What?" he asked innocently.

I glared at him, jamming the key into the lock. "You're knotting my hair up. You know how much I hate detangling it."

Percy rolled his eyes and grinned at me. "You always get worked up at the simplest things."

I opened my mouth in fake-offense just as the lock clicked and I opened up the door. "No, you just have the rare capability to annoy me with minimal action," I stated.

I turned away from him and walked into the room, only to stop in my tracks after two steps. There was a girl sitting on the bed opposite from mine, typing away on a laptop.

"Oh, hey," I greeted after a moment. "You must be my roommate. I'm Annabeth."

She glanced up at me, before promptly returning her gaze to her screen. "Reyna."

I heard Percy take in a small breath of air behind me. "Uh, by any chance, did you used to work in an ice cream place in Manhattan?"

I furrowed my eyebrows at his oddly specific question, only to be surprised once again when Reyna nodded.

"Yeah, actually. Why?" she asked, eventually looking up from her laptop and at my boyfriend. Her dark brown eyes widened. "Wait, Percy?"

He smirked. "That's me. Long time no see, eh?"

"I'm confused," I admitted.

Percy glanced down at me. "Remember that one time, near the end of sophomore year, when we walked around and found that tiny ice cream place right by a park? Reyna was the lovely worker who made me blue ice cream."

Reyna blushed. "Don't leave out the part that happened next, man."

This caused my boyfriend to rub the back of his neck. "Oh boy, yeah that was pretty cheesy, huh?"

"I believe it went something along the lines of 'Don't change for anyone...you're perfect'," she teased.

All the while, I was playing table tennis with my eyes, following along with their easy-flowing banter. "Well, that's neat. It's not every day that your roommate has a history with your boyfriend," I commented.

Reyna looked at me, shocked. "Oh, it wasn't anything like that, I swear. And I didn't realize you two were dating. I would never try to get between something like that."

I smiled timidly. "No worries, we weren't even dating back then."

Gazing up at my boyfriend, I delved into a realm of thoughts I hadn't reached into for a while: life before Percy and I started dating. We had been dating for so long - over two years - that the awkward flirting and subtle hints before he had manned up were almost forgotten. 

I could laugh at how frustrated I was getting with Percy. I had been crushing on him since I was fourteen, and he only ever started showing interest right before his sixteenth birthday. I knew I liked him, so why couldn't he just figure out his feelings so we could date already? But everything happened eventually, so my impatience wore off and my nerve-racking doubts faded.

Percy squeezed my hand. "I should probably head back to my dorm if I want to be settled in before curfew. It was nice seeing you again, Reyna. Hopefully, we can hang out or something soon."

I reached up and hugged him briefly around his neck. "I love you, be careful on the way back."

"Of course. I love you, too. Night, Wise Girl." He grinned and pressed a quick yet powerful kiss against my lips.

I blinked as he waved and waltzed out of my dorm room, only moving from my spot a few feet from the door once I heard the sound of the door slamming behind him.

I collapsed on my bed, exhausted from my first day in California. It was only going to get more tiring from then on, so after a half-hearted "Night" directed towards my new roomie, I passed out.

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8-31-20

I woke up to Californian sun beating into my eyes and the annoying sound of a cell phone ringing. After a solid three minutes of rubbing my eyes and glaring at anything that made a sound, I realized there was a large chance of that cell phone belonging to me.

I sat up and grabbed my phone off of my nightstand, noting the three unread messages and two missed calls. I sped through the messages, each from my dad, step-mom, and Sally, all hoping my first day had been fun and problem-free. One of the missed calls was also from my dad, and he left a message basically saying the same things he had summarized in his text. The other call was from Percy, who also left a lovely message.

"Hello there, my sweet darling. It's me, your boyfriend, the one and only. Well, I certainly hope I'm the one and only. Otherwise, that'd be pretty awkward, 'cause you're my one and only. Anyway, I wanted to tell you something. Call me when you get this. Love you. M'kay, that's it."

I chuckled at his endearing tone and dialed the seven digits I knew by heart. The second that the ringing stopped, it was replaced by a happy shout.

"Annabeth!" 

"Yes?" I murmured.

"You will never believe who my roommate is."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sure I will once I meet him, Seaweed Brain, but carry on."

I could almost see his pout at the fact I debunked his statement. "Whatever. It's one of those kids who was following around Bryce. Not the short, annoying one, but the tolerable one. His name is Dakota, and he's honestly not even half as bad as the other two."

I bit my lip. "Did he talk about Bryce or that other kid at all?"

"They were briefly mentioned," Percy admitted. "The three of them went to the same high school. Bryce has always been a world-class jerk, and Octavian - the scrawny guy - likes to think he's big and tough but follows Bryce around like a lost puppy. Dakota only hangs around with them because he doesn't know anyone else on campus yet."

"So hopefully you can befriend him and save him from that torture," I pointed out.

He chuckled. "Yeah hopefully."

We stayed quiet for a moment, just enjoying the silence. 

"Do you want to do something today?" Percy asked me after a while.

I hummed. "Yeah, we should probably try and meet some people before classes start. Maybe we can check out the lounge."

The lounge was a common area where any OAAA student could relax with minimal supervision, making it a hotspot for hangouts.

"That sounds good. How about we meet there in twenty?"

"Okay, see you in a bit. Love you."

"Love you."

I smiled happily after hanging up the phone. I looked over at Reyna's side of the bed and noticed that she wasn't there and that her bed was made. She must have gone out for breakfast or something.

I climbed out of my own bed and pulled up the grey sheets and comforter. On my side of the room was a dresser with four drawers, a desk, and a full-sized bed. That was duplicated on Reyna's side of the room. I grabbed a pair of denim shorts and the boxy tee-shirt that Percy picked out for me when we went shopping a few days prior.

Quickly throwing on my clothes, I scanned the room for my backpack and spotted it beneath my bed. How it got there, I'll never know. I reached under and grabbed the bag, throwing my phone and dorm keys inside. I pulled on my white Converse. Then, after spending longer than ever should be necessary detangling my hair, I was on my way out of the door.

I skipped downstairs and out of my dorm building. At OAAA, they had all eight dorms circling around a small park almost like a pair of parentheses. The parenthesis on the left was all the boy dorms, going in order of seniority, and that was mirrored on the right side for the girls. In between the senior girl and boy dorms was the lounge, so I had quite the walk to get there.

Along the way, I thought about what the year and future years were going to be like in California with Percy. There were so many possibilities, but I knew one thing for sure: we were going to stick it out together.

After about a ten minute walk I had finally arrived at the lounge. It was a two-story building highly decorated with flowers and OAAA posters on the outside. Once I stepped inside, I noted that the bottom floor was almost like an arcade. There was a pool table, an air hockey table, and several classic arcade games. Not many people were in here, just one boy playing an archery game and two girls in the photo booth. I smiled, thinking that Percy and I were going to be spending a lot of time down there.

But I didn't see Percy, so I made my way up the steps to the second story. There were a few couches and televisions dotted around the room. I also saw two vending machines and a gumball machine. This was more of what I though the lounge would like. Looking around, I saw several groups of people hanging around each couch - a group of boys, a mixed group of guys and girls, and one guy being bombarded by four girls.

Taking a closer look, I realized that that guy was my boyfriend. He had one girl practically hanging off his arm, another tying his shoe for him, and the other two were chatting him up. I immediately rushed over to him.

"Babe!" I greeted, cringing instantly in my head.

Percy looked up with wide eyes which softened the second he saw me. "Annabeth," he called breathlessly. "I was just starting to get worried. It's been twenty-four minutes, and you're never late."

I giggled, although I was practically vomiting inside of my mouth. "I see you've made some friends," I mentioned nonchalantly, trying to give off the impression that I wasn't threatened at all.

Both of the flirters had repositioned themselves next to Percy so that they could still be near him but also glare at me at the same time. Miss Shoe-Tying Extraordinaire stood up and fitted herself between one of the flirters and the girl still clutching Percy like he was a good deal.

I waltzed over and rose on my tiptoes to hug Percy tightly around the neck. He wrapped one arm around my waist, still being restrained by the octopus on his left arm.

"You have no idea how much I love you," Percy murmured in my ear.

I smiled and kissed his neck. "I love you, too, Seaweed Brain. How about we get these girls off your back?"

I loosened my grip on his neck so I could look at him, face to face. I caught his perplexed expression for just a moment before I kissed him a lot more passionately than we typically did in public.

He made a small noise in the back of his throat from surprise and wormed his left arm free to entangle it in my hair. The other arm was wrapped around my waist, making me slightly self-conscious. I pushed those feelings down as I twisted my fingers into his soft, dark locks.

Eventually, we both ran out of breath. I pulled away and rocked onto my heels. Percy craned his neck down so that our foreheads were pressed together.

"That'll teach them, huh?" I joked.

Percy chuckled. "Certainly."

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2006 words man y'all better be grateful :')

although maybe not because this took too long to get out to you guys AND I'm starting school this week so I'm about to be v busy

anyway I hope you liked this chapter and if you did please leave a vote and comment and like and subscribe and turn on post notifi- wait sorry I got carried away