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CHAPTER THREE : I LOCK ANKLES WITH MY STUDY BUDDY

Percy was, in a way, Easton's quickest friend.

Sure, she had Beckendorf, who had seen the small, nine year old, unclaimed and nervous and had somehow decided he wanted to be friends with her. He was twelve and became like an older brother to the girl. People had thought she would be a daughter of Hephaestus. Everyone, except Chiron, Mr. D, and her. She remembered the godly glow and firm grip of two hands, and the motherly feeling of having her hair tucked behind her ear and a kiss pressed against her forehead. An apology, because her father didn't have a cabin built, and a reassurance that everything would be okay.

Beckendorf was probably the best thing that happened to her at camp. She got to roll around in the dirt with him, laughing and having fun. She tested all of the weapons he built and needed a second opinion on. He had built her the bow she used, a sleek thing that was sturdy enough to whack anyone if they got too close. Which, Beckendorf knew happened too much with Easton, considering she was an archer.

She could feel when the inkling of him liking Selina had started to take root in his chest. He had been there when she realized she could sense who everyone truly liked and had been hit with the tons of emotions, the small crushes each camper had on another camper, or a classmate that wasn't even there. The migraine had put her in the infirmary for three days.

She cared about Beckendorf, who emailed her stupid jokes on their school accounts and had sat down and shared their dreams for the future while the July fireworks went off. But Percy was different, somehow. She saw him everyday, watched him struggle with his ADHD, always moving somehow and couldn't concentrate for too long. There was something intimate about it, seeing him in school instead of as some big figurehead at Camp. He said stupid jokes, snorted a little when he started laughing, had a habit of running his hand through his hair when he got super stressed about math problems.

Easton also never hung out with Beckendorf away from camp. They had maybe snuck out to walk to the convenience store up the road to grab snacks, but other than that, their location was limited to the strawberry fields, the forge, the archery range, or the pavilion.

Percy and her walked block upon block around New York, sometimes with Rachel Elizabeth Dare, sometimes without. Sometimes Percy had his skateboard with him and would declare he was going to teach Easton. In the week after their arcade hang out, Percy and her had spent everyday after school grabbing something to eat together, or walking around, Percy pointing out the cheap but worth it places to go when they were bored. Her mom had thought they were study groups with some of her classmates and Easton stayed up late learning new stuff to prove it to her mom.

And, despite how much her mom did want here to study something STEM related, this means she could reread the Odyssey or the Iliad and look for something she hadn't noticed before.

She was in the library now, after school was out, studying at one of the tables and munching on some berries she had packed herself. Her math and science homework were scattered on the table around her, and she was staring at it as she plopped another raspberry in her mouth. The jumble of thoughts as she tried to get them together to actually do her homework instead of staring at it were interrupted by the imposing figure of Percy.

His eyebrows were pulled together as he frowned, which made him look more intimidating than usual. He was holding his textbooks in his hand, both of them, and Easton was drawn to that for a second, before she looked back at Percy's face. As an invitation to sit, she grabbed some of the papers that would have been encroaching on the other spot on the table and moved them. Percy took it as it was and sat himself in the vacant chair, putting his books on the table.

Almost immediately, he was in motion, his leg bouncing as he turned to Easton, "You're smart, right?" Easton blinked at him. She didn't quite understand what he was asking. Percy sighed, scrubbed a hand over his face and through his hair, clearly frustrated with something. "I need help, with-" he cut himself off and gestured to the books on the table,"-with this. I'm not good with school stuff and I can't-"

This was hard for him, Easton realized. He wanted to do good in school, for whatever reason, and he was trying to ask for help. Easton caught his waving hand as he was clearly trying to search for words and gave it a squeeze in reassurance. "It's okay, Percy. Yeah, I can help you study." She pushed the math stuff to the side, stuff she needed to take the time to figure out and learn for herself.

"I just don't want to disappoint my mom again," he told her, his voice small, nothing like how she usually knew him. It was a vulnerable confession and Easton took it for what it was. So, she grabbed her science notes, told him to grab his own, and they started going through them. Percy learned by doing, if Easton could guess one way, and she struggled a little to think of ways to help him. But, they put their heads together and figured a way out together.

The more they studied, the more Easton got distracted by Percy. She heard people comment about him a lot around her, in the cafeteria, the hallway, and in the girl's changing room. The poor girl who had basically fallen in love with him on the first day had competition, it seemed. But, she could understand.

Percy's was pretty, handsome, cute, whatever adjective you wanted to use. Despite his resting bitch face that had people thinking he was a delinquent, he had that mean, hot guy look. But, he also looked like the sun when he was smiling and laughing, something Easton was happy she got to witness. Plus, it helped that Percy's skin seemed to be staying smooth, unblemished. His features were sharp, but they suited him. It was all angles, all the childhood roundness still a little present but mostly faded with his adolescence. It also didn't help that he had such a unique eye colour, a gorgeous colour that Easton also found herself looking into more often than not.

He was muscular, from all the quests and training and gym class. Percy was chosen at the beginning whenever they played team games in gym. Girls would stare at his biceps and they way his muscles moved when was in motion. And when they had first used the pool? Even Easton, slightly used to the powerhouse that was Percy in his father's domain, had sat and stared at the abs and just how graceful Percy was moving in the water.

Even now, in the quiet of the library, she was starting to stare at him. At the angle of his nose, the curve of his eyes, the thickness of his brows. He had his lip pulled in between his teeth in concentration, his knee bouncing underneath the table. His hands were skimming the page as he wrote, and Easton thought distantly if Riptide, his magic sword, grew to fit Percy as he did. No way did a handle he had used as a twelve year old fit his bigger hands.

Easton could see where he was callused from sword fighting. His fingers were on the more slender side, but she wouldn't describe them as such. Sure, they were Beckendorf's hands, which were strong and thick, but they weren't like Will Solace's, which were slender and stable. Percy's were in the middle, with veins slightly prominent on the backs of his hand and nice nail shape. With that thought, Easton ripped her gaze from his hands, feeling her cheeks blush.

In that same vein, she tried not to think about how soft his hair looked, observing that it almost looked like it was permanently beach tousled. She hadn't even noticed she had been staring again, distracted by just Percy, until his throat cleared and he pointed the end of his pencil at her hand. "You gonna eat that?"

The last raspberry was dangling between fingertips, left there in Easton's distraction. It made her blush more, blinking, before she frowned and threw it at his face. The little shit caught it in his mouth, lopsided playing on his lips as he chewed and smiled. "Thanks."

"I hate you," Easton told him, copying by using her pencil to point at the science problem they were working on. "Get back to your science."

When he was good and distracted, Easton bit her lip to stop herself from cackling as she lightly kicked his shin under the table. Immediately, Percy's eyes were on her and narrowed, before he was gently kicking her back. This continued, a duel with their feet, until the two of them were giggling amongst themselves and their feet were locked together in a standstill of sort. Though, she's pretty sure Percy was going easy on her, by the way his muscles were flexing and tensing against her's. Though Easton was by no means weak, with how much she did train during the summer and tried to keep up with her physical condition, Percy was definitely stronger.

Percy pulled Easton closer by the legs, her chair scraping against the ground and her ribs hitting the table, making the girl shriek with the sudden movement. She slammed her hands over her mouth, before she was lost in her laughter, giggling up a storm, distracted from her work completely and utterly. Percy tried to keep some semblance of working, his pencil still in his hand, but he was laughing himself.

"Shut up," he whispered between his chuckles, "you're going to get us kicked out!"

"It's your fault!" Easton told him, getting ahold of herself, however she was still giggling slightly. This is the most fun she's had while studying. She was glad her mom wasn't here, she could hear the disapproval from here. To her mom, you needed to be silent and focused, and breaks were okay, but you couldn't let yourself get distracted. Here, with Percy, this had actually been very enjoyable.

They got back to work, finishing up their homework, before Percy set his pencil down and sighed, leaning back in his chair. Their feet were still hooked together under the table, neither of them wanting to give up. Easton found herself yawning as she looked at the clock on the wall, knowing her mom wasn't expecting her back until dinner, which they usually had late in the evening due to her mom's schedule. But, she still started packing up her pencils and erasers in her pencil case. She cringed as she watched Percy just throw his pencil in his textbook and close it.

Then, they sat, staring at each other, wondering who would concede their feet first. Easton was really waiting for Percy to, because she wouldn't give this up. Even though, without the distraction of their schoolwork, she was realizing she really needed to go to the washroom. Still, now with even more determination pumping through her veins, she narrowed her eyes at Percy.

Easton's not quite sure how long they sat there, and didn't notice the two of them had started leaning closer to each other, their chairs dragging together, so they were as close as they could be with the table between them. There were very few people in the library now anyway, so it's not like anyone was seeing the two of them being weird. "Hey," Percy whispered in the space between them. "Thank you. We should do this again."

"Anytime, Jackson," Easton said, a small smile making it across her mouth.

Percy opened his mouth to say more, but they were interrupted by someone clearing their throat. They looked around, until they both spotted the rainbow with an Iris Message, Annabeth's stormy grey eyes staring at the two of them with her eyebrows raised. Percy and Easton jumped back from each other, their legs unhooking, and Percy's chair tipped backwards from the sudden force.

Easton is on her feet, shoving her books in her backpack, before she's shouting back at Annabeth and Percy, "Hi, Annabeth, bye, Annabeth, bye, Percy," as she makes her way to the exit. She can vaguely hear Percy whining about something as the door to the library closes behind her.

Rachel finds her at lunch, sitting on the counter near the sinks in the washroom, avoiding Percy, the next day. She doesn't look impressed, her arms crossed over her chest, her curls unruly, and her lips pursed. "He told me what happened."

Easton gave her a confused look. Rachel's shoulders dropped a little, exasperated, as her arms fell from her chest. She jumped to sit on the counter next to Easton, their knees touching. "You run anytime you feel uncomfortable in any situation, you know that?"

Easton hadn't expected to be called out like that, "What of it?"

Rachel looked at the stalls, seeing if there was anybody else in there with them before speaking up, "Being uncomfortable sometimes is a good thing, Easton. We all have limits we need to push a little to better ourselves." Rachel sighed, playing with her fingers as she seemed to get her thoughts in order. "I understand having a shitty family situation. I think Percy does too, but not in the same way as us. I recognized the last name Sawyer and googled your mom when I got home. She's quite the surgeon, huh? Bet she doesn't have a lot of time to raise a daughter."

Easton felt her hair stand on end as she stared at Rachel. The redhead placed a hand on her knee, in comfort, or to prove that she could and it wouldn't hurt Easton. She wanted to say something, to retaliate with something, but she felt like laundry hanging out to dry and Rachel was the wind, sweeping out all of her issues and she barely knew her. "It's okay to accept affection, and Percy has loads of it." The for you went unspoken between them. Which was an odd thought for Easton, considering she and the boy had just become friends not long ago.

Easton could feel that warmth in her brain that told her that Rachel had feelings for the boy. One of the things she was blessed with from her father, amplified by Aphrodite's blessing, knowing what everyone's true feelings were when it had to do with love. Rachel had a big, fat crush on Percy Jackson.

Easton fumbled for a second on what to say, before sighing and folding in on herself a little, looking at her dirty shoes. "He's just so nice, and I'm not used to it from him," she added as an afterthought, "yet."

Rachel snorted, "That's okay. If there's one thing I know about Percy, it's that he's stubborn and he doesn't give up."

Easton barked out a laugh, thinking back to all the quests she had heard about. She's pretty sure some of them were only finished because of the spite Percy had at the gods. "Pretty sure you can mix spite into that combo as well." She bumped her shoulder against Rachel's, seeing the girl in a whole new light, "But you're right, and you should say it."

Rachel looked smug, "I know."

Easton rolled her eyes, jumping down from the counter, "Don't push it, Dare. But we should go find Percy before he gets swarmed by all the girls that have crushes on him."

Rachel deadpanned a look, "When he gets on the swim team, they're gonna be insufferable!"

The two girls chatted as they went to find the boy, a new formed bond between them.