Hi. I decided to procrastinate today and updated the story instead of writing my English paper. Please bear with me, as after I publish this chapter I will notice a bunch of mistakes and then edit it. This chapter is very cringy as well and probably a waste of time. I hope you enjoy it regardless!

Annabeth POV:

The next half hour flew by. The only thing I could think of was the stupid smirk of the stupid stranger. The stupid stranger who bumped into me. The stupid stranger with the beautiful sea-green eyes.

I barely heard Thalia when she said "Earth to Annie?"

"Huh?"

"It's nothing, I was just telling our dear friend Luke here about that one time you fell in love with a stranger," Thalia said, smiling.

"What do you mean? I would never fall in love with a stranger." I said, taking a bite out of my pizza.

"Funny. I seem to remember an interesting encounter in the restaurant, dare I say, a very loud encounter during which you spent most of the time staring at a stranger's eyes. Remember that?"

I could feel myself blushing. "I'm not in love with a stranger. I would never be so foolish."

"Aww. Look at that, Thalia. Annie's blushing." Luke teased.

I punched his arm. "Shut up."

Luke put his finger to his chin, tapping it exaggeratingly. "What was that far of look that was on your face then? Don't tell me you're already doing your future homework in your head already."

"First of all, that stranger was very rude and I was not staring at him. I was glaring."

"They say love is the same thing as hate," Thalia argued.

"Shut up. I had forgotten all about him until now, and you just reminded me of a very unpleasant interaction."

"Whatever." Thalia got up. "Should we go get ice cream?"

We paid for our pizza and left.

"So Thals. Any special people in your life." Luke said, nudging Thalia as we walked towards Ben and Jerry's.

"No." Thalia said, straight to the point.

"Ok then."

We spent the rest of our short walk talking about what to expect from my future teachers until we got to Ben and Jerry's.

"Mint Oreo and Coffee Cheesecake?" I guessed. Thalia and Luke nodded. I walked into the store as they went to get some outdoor seats. I walked towards the counter, where a wavy-browned-haired teenager stood.

"Well hello, Annie, what would you like on this fine summer evening?".

I glared at him. "Don't call me Annie, Travis," I said to him.

"Wow, Annabeth. I thought that after two years of sitting next to each other in English, you would know my name. I'm obviously Connor." He waved his hands around his body.

"Well Connor, I would like to think that you would know that we have never sat next to each other in English and that you wouldn't confuse your name tag with Tarvis's."

Travis frowned. "You know, sometimes you are too smart for your own good."

"And you're too stupid. Can I have a small cone of Mint Oreo, a medium cup of Coffee Cheesecake, and a small cone of Dulce de Leches?

"Fine." Travis turned around. "Connor!" He yelled.

Connor came into view from the back of the shop.

"You're not my boss."

"I'm the oldest."

"Well, I'm more responsible." I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah! Travis and I have the same amount of responsibility, and since he is a year older than me, he should be more responsible. So relatively, I'm more responsible."

"Whatever. Just get me my ice cream please."

I looked at my phone while Connonr and Trwvis worked on the ice cream. I had a text alert from Piper.

Hey

theres going to be a few new kids this year in our grade!

Ok

Maybe there will be a new boy in ur class!

Not interested, Piper

Fine

Ur no fun 😑

I turned off my phone and looked up at Connor and Travis who had the ice creams ready.

"Thanks, guys." I paid for the ice cream and started walking to the table.

"Hey, Annie!" Connor yelled after me. "If you do my homework for a year, I will give you free ice cream for a year!

"I second that!" Travis called after him.

I ignored them and kept walking.

We finished our ice cream and Luke and Thalia dropped me off at home.

"Bye Annie," Thalia said, while Luke waved at me.

I hugged them and then went inside the house.

While getting ready for bed, the only thing I could think of was the stranger from the pizza shop.

Get him out of your head! I scolded myself, getting into bed. But the last thing I saw before falling asleep was a pair of sea-green eyes.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I can see you"

(I'm hoping that by now some of you have identified the muse-thetic of this story)