Chapter 44 - The SATs
published: Wednesday, 21 October 2020

formal apologies for taking basically two months to write this...

—*—

"Everyone, meet Percy and Annabeth!" James declared as he dragged them to the front of the meeting room.

Percy waved brightly at the room — consisting of the precinct captain, lieutenant and three other detectives.

One of the detectives, a middle-aged Chinese man raised his hand. "Which is which?"

James pointed at him. "Don't be dumb, Ollie." He turned to Percy reassuringly. "Ignore him."

Sabrina feigned a bored yawn from her position on one of the desks at the front of the room. "Okay, so everyone in here is on the Mortelli case; which, as you'll all remember, is as close to completion as we'll ever get."

James nodded in agreement. "Now, we don't want him catching any whiff of what we're arranging here, or he'll get spooked and escape to Ecuador or something."

Percy saw a confused expression cross the face of the female detective beside 'Ollie'. She appraised James with an inquisitive look. "Okay, so what's your plan?"

"My...plan," James mumbled distractedly, averting his gaze. Percy felt Annabeth nudge him in the side. When he looked over, she wriggled her eyebrows suggestively, jerking her head in the direction of James and the female detective.

"Nadia," Sabrina cut in, not even bothering to hide the smirk she shot her partner. "Our plan actually involves catching Mortelli in the act — concrete evidence no attorney could dispute."

James, who appeared to have recovered his wits, gestured to Percy and Annabeth. "Mortelli hates them." Ollie raised a hand again, and James continued, "Exactly, sounds pathetic to have your arch rivals be teenagers — but I'm giving him a free pass."

"Because he's a psychopath," Annabeth filled in helpfully.

"Right," Nadia said with understanding.

The captain, who was older than the lot of them, cleared his throat. "James and Sabrina have already briefed me on their plan, which involves using Percy and Annabeth as bait — again."

"Won't Mortelli know what's going on?" the lieutenant questioned. "We already used that tactic once."

"Which is why we don't expect it to work ont he first try," Sabrina agreed. "But we're hoping that the prospect of revenge is enough to lure him out. We'll give it a couple of weeks, and if we don't get anywhere, we'll come up with something else."

"Sorry to have to involve you like this," the captain informed Percy.

"It's okay," Percy reassured. "She broke his leg once." Annabeth shot him a glare out of the corner of her eye.

+++++

"Shaded area, Percy," Annabeth reprimanded. "You found the—"

"Unshaded," Percy groaned. "Now I have to start all over again." He propped himself up on his elbows, the springs of Annabeth's bed bouncing beneath his movement as he glumly picked up a pencil and crossed out his answers. 

"Wait, you can just subtract the unshaded area from the whole area," Annabeth nudged him in the side. She was sitting cross-legged on the foot of her bed with an SAT prep book open on her lap. Percy glanced up at her. This has to be way too easy for Annabeth. Why was she even studying?

When he voiced that thought, Annabeth reminded, "I don't want to get complacent. The moment I stop studying I won't—"

"Hit your target," Percy rolled his eyes. "I know. Only you would set your goal to be 1600."

"It's plausible," she protested.

"Maybe for you," he muttered under his breath.

+++++

"I think I'm going to faint," Piper whimpered, rocking back and forth on her heels. Frank sat next to her, looking just as nervous.

It was the last round taking the SATs for the high school seniors, and even though the scores from this would only be added to their applications later in March, every small effort counted.

Some interviews were already over, but Piper and Frank were two of them who still had all of theirs ahead. Percy's only remaining interview was NYU — next weekend — and he was determined to add his best-yet SAT score to his application.

All those extra hours of gruelling studying beside Annabeth had culminated in this moment. Percy's head was a jumble of a calming mantra and mathematical formulas. He couldn't wait till this was over and he could head to Walter's with Annabeth for their first study-less date in a very long time.

Percy forced everything unrelated to the exam out of his head. Their operation to catch Mortelli had yet to be a success; he and Annabeth had been out on three occasions, twice together and once separately, to no avail. The final decision on Gabe's court case would be delivered this coming Friday, and Percy couldn't think about it without feeling nauseous. The NYU interview was looming like a gravestone...

"Hey," Jason whispered, elbowing him in the side. "Focus, right?"

Percy nodded. Easy for Jason to say; all his interviews were over.

He clutched his calculator, pencil and identification documents in one hand. Annabeth had sent him a message to remind him of what he needed first thing in the morning.

He'd texted her back, 'What happened to the "good morning, i love you" messages?'

Her response had been clear; 'try to distract me and i will never send you those messages ever again'. Annabeth still had her interviews with Princeton and Columbia to go. The Yale panel had loved her, much to Annabeth's relief — though not to Percy's surprise — especially when she had rambled on about her passion for architecture.

Percy knew he wasn't the only person who thought she was adorable — albeit a little boring, though he'd never mention it aloud — when she did that.

Footsteps alerted him to Annabeth's arrival — late, as usual.

"Why are you constantly late?" Leo demanded.

Annabeth scowled. "Shut up. I forgot my pencil case."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Your pencil case."

Her cheeks coloured. "Shut up," she repeated.

Annabeth shifted her weight from left to right every few seconds, a nervous tic making her chew on her lower lip.

"Students!" Principal Brown called out. The chatter descended into silence remarkably quickly. "By this point you know the drill. Please file in quietly and find your seats."

"Oh no," Annabeth gasped.

Percy peered down at her. "What?"

"Which way do you write 'd'?" she whispered frantically.

Percy gave her an incredulous look. "This is what I mean when I say 'smart dumbass', Annabeth." He paused. "Just remember 'bed' looks like a bed. Then you'll remember which way—"

"Got it, thanks." Annabeth visibly relaxed.

"I will never let you live that down," Percy informed her as they stepped into the hall. She shot him a glare before walking towards her seat.

+++++

"Raspberry cordial," Annabeth said as she handed Percy a glass of purple soda. "Try it." She raised her own to her lips and sipped.

It left a stain on her lips that she licked away. Percy smiled at the effort.

"You know, you don't have to swear off alcohol for me," Percy told her, though he took the soda anyway.

"I want you to feel safe around me," Annabeth said with a shrug. "Personally, that's way more important than beer that's not even that good."

She sat down beside him on one of the beach beds by Piper's pool. Piper had given in to pressure and agreed to host the SAT after-party tonight. Her one rule when inviting people was that no one throw up in the pool again.

Percy nudged Annabeth's knee with his, knowing his face was flushed under the moonlight. "Thanks," he murmured. He couldn't help that he always got flustered whenever they talked about anything real.

The backdoor into Piper's house burst open, slamming against the back wall with a deafening bang as a flood of people swarmed them.

Piper and Frank were clinging to each other, words mixing together as they strung together barely intelligible sentences. Jason, who was always the designated driver, supported Leo and Hazel on either side. Drew waved her arms in the air as she danced circles around Silena and her friends, while Matt and Luke stumbled past.

"We came to find you two," Katie whined. "Party poopers. Come back in."

"Or don't," Clarisse muttered. "I'm good with that."
Chris nudged her in the side. Clarisse sighed dramatically. "No, my agreement to be a nicer person does not apply to Prissy."

"Percy," Percy corrected.

"No, Prissy," Clarisse waved a hand dismissively. "I have dyslexia."

Percy scrunched up his nose. "No, I have dyslexia—"

"Okay," Beckendorf cut in. "This could go on all night. Let's talk about something else."

"Yes, what I want to know is when the two of you actually started dating!" Drew pointed accusatorially at Percy and Annabeth.

Annabeth blanched beside him. "What?"

"She's nice drunk Drew," Percy reminded her. "I think she actually wants to know."

"Oh," Annabeth looked up at Drew awkwardly. "Um, September?"

"And you didn't tell any of us," Hazel said furiously.

"Well," Annabeth scratched at the back of her head. "We were trying to avoid any weird situations."

"You mean like this?" Percy hissed.

Annabeth hid her snort behind a cough.

"I mean, you ditched me for him before summer even began," Luke told Annabeth, somewhat depressedly.

Percy grinned. "I like this train of thought."

Annabeth glowered.

"So," Drew said giddily. "He's good in bed, isn't he?"

Almost instantly, enough blood rushed to Percy's head that he almost passed out right then and there.

"Next topic," he snapped, tone serious this time.

"No, no." Matthew's eyes twinkled. "Let's stay on this. Is Annabeth not as good a shag as Drew?"

"Shut up, Sloan," Jason warned.

"Ignore him," Annabeth muttered, standing up and pulling Percy to his feet. "Come on, let's go back inside."

As they tried to move away, Matthew stepped in their path to block them. "Or," he pondered. "Is it because America's favourite couple hasn't actually slept together yet?"

Percy gave it three seconds until he punched Sloan's lights out.

"No answer," Matthew mused. "Interesting."

"You know that you're kind of a massive dick, right?"  Annabeth snapped. "Mind your own business."

"What, so Annabeth's a prude?" Matthew snorted. "Raise your hand if you're surprised." He mimed the look of an epiphany. "Or, even better, maybe she just doesn't like you that much, Jackson."

"I'm a little disappointed," he continued. "I mean, what's the saying, 'A lady in the streets, a freak in the sheets'—"

Percy started forward but Annabeth beat him to it —

Crack!

— and she socked Matt Sloan right in the nose.

Percy had to admit that seeing Matt Sloan come into school the next day with bruises blossoming around his nose was extremely satisfying.