Chapter 14 - Love Is In The Air
published: Wednesday, 25 March 2020

Percy rapped on the door nervously, shuffling his feet back and forth as he waited impatiently at Annabeth's door.

He didn't quite know what he wanted to say to her, but the main thing he knew he needed to get out was "sorry".

The events that transpired at lunchtime only reminded Percy of how much he had to make up to her. Stopping the rumours once and for all was only the first step.

Yesterday, when Annabeth had so excitedly informed him of her date, Percy had felt a weird discomfort.

Albeit, somehow or other, Percy ended up texting Rachel, taking back his rejection and asking her out for a late dinner date.

In all honesty, Rachel was really sweet. She was also funny, sarcastic and cute in a way that made Percy smile every time he saw her.

He hated to think that she was only here to take his mind of Annabeth. Percy never dated anyone he didn't have feelings for. He just wasn't that kind of person.

But whatever his motives, that had resulted in Annabeth receiving the backlash, so he had that to apologise for.

The third mistake he'd made was being distant this morning. The thing with Annabeth's date had really freaked him out, enough to feel awkward around her.

And that was just stupid. This was Annabeth. She'd seen him with glass in his head. Nothing could really make things awkward anymore.

The third thing he had to apologise for, and it probably wouldn't be the last time he would have to.

So when Annabeth opened the door, naturally, the first thing out of Percy's mouth should've been "sorry".

Unfortunately for him, Annabeth was wearing pyjamas shorts and a t-shirt with matching owls on them, and it absolutely made him blank.

"I tried to get here fast," Percy blurted out. "But I was all sweaty after practice, and I figured you'd kick me out if I didn't have a shower, so I went home and changed, and then I came here. And it's really late, so you're probably eating dinner—"

"Percy!" Annabeth interrupted with a snort. "Slow down, I barely understood what you just said."

He felt his cheeks burn so red he could've sworn they were on fire. "Right."

Annabeth eyed him doubtfully. "Do you want to come in?" she offered politely.

"Uh, sure," Percy said, guessing that it was probably a bad idea to have this conversation out in the cold.

"So..." Annabeth trailed off.

Percy opened his mouth to start, but caught sight of her parents and brothers sitting in the dining room, staring bemusedly at them.

"Can we talk in private?" he whispered.

Annabeth glanced back at her prying family, and her face flushed in embarrassment. "Dad," she hissed with a groan.

So they went up the steps to the second floor of her house.

"Okay, what is it?" Annabeth asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

Percy scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'm really sorry. For everything. The rumours, blowing you off, and now, Rachel."

"You don't have to apologise about Rachel," Annabeth interjected abruptly. "I mean, I don't care." Somehow, her tone didn't match her words.

Percy dismissed it as his own overthinking. "Look, I've been a really bad friend. And I can't believe I didn't see it before — how much it affected you. But I kind of," he paused. "Shut that down."

Annabeth took a step back. "How?" she said worriedly.

Percy winced. "Doesn't matter," he said instead. There wasn't any point in getting her worked up about his declaration at lunch. "Frank told me you were upset, and I should've been there for you. That's what friends do. So I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay, Percy," Annabeth sighed. "Really, I've just...had a bad day. Not your fault."

"And yesterday, when you told me about Brady," Percy shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, I acted a little weird about it."

Annabeth scoffed. "Yeah, Piper got it into her head that you had a crush on me."

Percy snickered. "Please."

"Oi."

"I don't really know what it was," Percy said truthfully. "But that's my issue, and it's gone now. I'm going to try my best to be a good friend starting from now."

"A good friend would leave the house really quickly before my parents have time to show you anything humiliating of me," Annabeth told him.

Percy feigned thoughtfulness. "I mean, is friendship all that important—Ow!" Her elbow jabbed into his ribs and made him double over.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Percy laughed. "I'll go."

Annabeth studied his face. "Gabe's home today, isn't he?"

"Yeah."

"Well," she drew out the word. "I am doing very important school work — family move night, and we're watching 'The Parent Trap'. You could join us, tell him you're doing a project with me."

Percy hid a smile. "That sounds great."

Before she could walk down the stairs to tell her family about the change of plans, Percy blurted out, "Thanks."

Annabeth grinned. "No problem."

+++++

"Okay, so I've got the food, Hazel's bringing games, and you've got music covered, right?" Piper rushed, zooming around the picnic blanket as she rearranged everything to perfection.

Annabeth reached out to hands to steady her friend. "Woah, calm down," she laughed. "Piper, everything is perfect."

Piper shook her head nervously. "It's the first time we're properly hanging out together, all seven of us. What if another fight breaks out?"

"It won't," Annabeth promised her. "Look, it's spring — love is in the air, or whatever. Percy, Frank and Jason are okay, Leo and Frank can be civil, and Hazel's practically interweaved with us now. It's gonna be fine."

Today marked the first day of spring, and two weeks since Percy's heartfelt apology at her house. Piper had organised a friendly picnic as their first group event, and it was an understatement to say she was nervous.

"Pipes!" Hazel, her frizzy hair whipping across her face with the wind, waved vigorously from afar, Frank and Percy traipsing behind her.

She had a large duffel bag slung over her right shoulder, badminton rackets and a soccer ball peaking out of the zip.

"We brought the drinks," Percy assured Piper as soon as he caught a glimpse of her frantic behaviour. He discreetly sent Annabeth a wide-eyed what's-up-with-her look. She grabbed the Coke and juice from his arms and set them down beside the array of food Piper had set out.

"L-look, I know it's s-supposed to be sp-spring, but it's freezing," Frank chattered as he shuffled from side to side in an attempt to stay warm.

Annabeth gave him a strange look when she caught sight of the familiar coat he had on. "Are you wearing Hazel's jacket?"

"He got chilly on the ride over," Hazel explained with a giggle as she sat down on the picnic mat. "I'm from Alaska, it'll take a lot more than this to break me." She pointed at the sky. "Bikini weather."

Jason and Leo later arrived with the fruits, and were promptly berated by Piper for being three minutes late.

"How are you dating her?" Annabeth heard Leo mutter, then freeze up in fear when he spotted Piper's glare.

Pretty soon, they were all sprawled across the ground, chattering and laughing about everything and anything.

"You're welcome," Jason declared dramatically as he peeled the lid off of a tupperware box to reveal a stack of half-burnt blue cookies.

Annabeth snorted. "What in the same of sweet hell are those?"

"You've never had blue cookies?" Hazel and Frank chorused in unison.

Percy looked over at them with shining pride. "I have train you so well," he choked out.

"Sally, Percy's mum, makes the best blue cookies," Hazel vowed. "It's heaven in your mouth."

"And it's definitely not what these are," Percy insisted, wrinkling his nose at Jason crappy fill-in cookies.

"Hey," Jason protested. "Leo and I had to make them a few hours ago." He winced. "Neither of us have ever baked before, and it looked a lot easier in the video."

Annabeth hesitated for only a moment before she grabbed one of the cookies and cracked off a piece. As she popped it into her mouth, Annabeth hummed thoughtfully. "Well, it's better than the time Leo tried to make dinner. But I can't really taste the—"

"Sugar?" Leo asked. "Yeah, we forgot about that."

Frank stared at him. "How. Do. You. Forget. About. Sugar."

"It's hard, okay!"

Annabeth snickered. "That's what she said." Without a second glance, she and Percy shared a high-five in the air.

"These do not count as blue cookies," Percy announced, resealing the tupperware. "You have to get it right to fulfil the bet."

"No," Jason pleaded. "I was so tired the whole time. I'm a great chef, can't you just let me make you pasta?"

"Blue pasta?" Piper echoed.

"Has to be cookies," Percy corrected obstinately. "That's the beauty of it. My mum's the only one with the exact recipe."

"So I'm going to spend the rest of my life making you cookies," Jason deduced.

Percy shot him a thumbs-up sign.

Somewhere along the way, they ended up playing football with the soccer ball.

"I don't understand this game," Annabeth complained. "Netball, basketball, hockey, hell, even soccer,  I understand, but this is over complicated."

"The point," Leo said slowly. "Is to take down your opponent?"

"Well," Percy said doubtfully. "I mean, it depends on the position you're playing. But basically, yeah."

Annabeth cocked an eyebrow. "So I could punch you?"

"No!" Percy yelped, a little to fast. "That's a foul."

"But you just said to take them down!"

"Like a tackle!" Percy protested. He sighed exasperatedly. "Look, I'll show you—"

Leo practically leaped back a foot. "Dibs not it!"

Annabeth snorted. "He'd crush you; Leo, we'd all crush you."

He frowned. "I'm not that scrawny." Leo mentally sized up Hazel. "No, yeah, you guys would destroy me."

When Frank finally managed to drill the basic rules into their heads, they started a game of football in the park, with Leo as a referee, since he didn't really want to get plowed over.

"Okay, when we get this game," Hazel announced. "We'll play boys against girls."

Piper gave her an incredulous look. "Are you crazy?"

"Up to you," Percy said, raising his hands in surrender.

"Okay, wipe that cocky grin off, Jackson," Annabeth scoffed. "You three are taller than us. If we played touch football, I bet we could beat you."

Frank raised a hand. "I usually try to be nice — but, no."

"Hey, I play sports, okay!" Hazel said indignantly. It was kind of comical to see a tiny girl with a personality twice her size.

As they drew into a huddle, Annabeth leaned into her small team.

"We have to beat them," she hissed. "For feminism." Annabeth paused. "And gloating rights."

"For gloating rights!" Piper chanted enthusiastically as they broke the huddle.

Hazel started with the ball, snapping it back to Annabeth, who dodged Jason's arm before sprinting towards their end zone just a few feet away.

Percy's shadow alerted her to his presence before he could get there, leaving her to punt it to Piper, whose hand slipped across it before it dropped.

"Turnover!" Leo yelled.

"That's rugby!" Annabeth returned.

The score kept neck in neck, with both Piper and Frank dropping out due to Lazy Syndrome, as Annabeth called it.

"You are the most competitive person I've ever met," Percy panted as he rolled the ball back to the middle again.

Jason groaned. "Please, this is nothing. You should see her when we play Pictionary."

"It was clearly an octopus!" Annabeth shrieked accusatorially.

"It looked like a broomstick!" Jason insisted.

"Can we stop?" Frank groaned. "I'm bored, and I actually like football. You've been at it for half an hour."

Annabeth eyed Percy furtively. "Fine. Tie. For now," she added.

As soon as the words were said, relieved cheers erupted from the group.

Annabeth and Percy, both with similar thoughts, lay out on the ground, limbs spread-eagled, as they took a short rest.

"It's getting dark already," Annabeth said with surprise. The hints of sunset were starting to peak out from the corners of the sky. They'd spent the entire afternoon together and barely realised it.

Turning her head to the right, Annabeth saw Percy holding up his phone and pulling a face as he snapped a stupid picture of them on the ground.

"Seaweed brain," she muttered, swatting at his arm.

His phone buzzed, and Annabeth watched curiously as his eyebrows furrowed.

"It's Gabe," Percy groaned. "He wants me to get back and do chores. I told him I'd wash his car."

Choruses of disappointed protests bombarded him as he got up, pulling Annabeth to her feet alongside him.

"Keep us posted!" Jason called as Percy shrugged on his jacket and hurried away from the group.

Percy spun around and shot him a last grin before heading towards the bus stop.

Annabeth felt a strange sort of bewilderment mixed with satisfaction as she realised something incredibly ridiculous; Percy and Jason were friends.