Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Rick Riordan.

AU: Demigod – safe phones are invented. Rachel is allowed into camp. Set after Battle of the Labyrinth. Anyways:

I had just arrived at Camp Half Blood. It was the only place I felt like I belonged. Sure, some half -bloods gave me nasty looks but I didn't really mind. Of course, I wasn't demigod so figures. But atleast here, I could be myself and talk about the strange things I saw through the Mist without people suggesting an appointment with a psychiatrist. This was kinda like a surprise visit. I hadn't told anyone that I was arriving today. And today was my birthday too. Not that I cared. And not that my parents noticed.

As I passed Thalia's Pine, I scratched Peleus's neck. He was kinda fond of me now and it felt good to be recognized. Like I belonged there. I walked down to where the cabins where.

Wherever I went, many people turned to look at me. Some smiled. Some frowned. Some acted like they didn't give a shit. I walked past the Poseidon cabin and saw Grover and Percy in there. I stood out, hoping to surprise them. I heard faint music from inside. I craned my neck to hear it. Oh, it was 'Just the way you are' by Bruno Mars. And they were talking.

Percy was saying, 'Man, this song is so her. I wish I could like tell her how much she means. '

Then I couldn't hear what Grover said except for the last words. 'Favorite song too.'

Oh great!

I walked away from the cabin in a sulk and walked to Thalia's Pine. I climbed up one of the low hanging branches and sat there. The song didn't mean me, of course.

'Her eyes, her eyes make the stars look like they're not shining.'

'Her hair falls perfectly without her trying.'

Definitely not me. My eyes didn't shine and my hair was-(the most decent word) - a mess of frizzy curls. True, I had a massive crush on Percy. I had thought he was cute and hot in Hoover Dam and then I had developed feelings in the Labyrinth and, voila, massive crush.

And I know I'm not pretty or hot. Annabeth was both. And she was smart. And knew Percy for longer than I did. They were the perfect couple. Except for my feelings. Annabeth thought Percy liked me, Rachel. I almost started laughing at that. ME! I turned to look at the direction of the Poseidon Cabin. He had come out now and was heading towards the practice arena. I thought, 'What does it take to make you love me?'

Then I had an idea. An idea so monumentally unlike me that I knew that I was desperate. I picked up my phone and called my driver and hurried down the hill.

I rushed home, a bit like a crazed woman. Mom was in her room, sipping tea and reading her woman's magazines as a maid prepped her nails  for some party.

I went out to the dining table. There, as usual, mom's purse was lying, discarded.

Mom didn't care if the servants pinched cash because we had so much, it didn't matter. But still, I wanted to be careful so as to avoid unnecessary questions pertaining why I needed it. I opened it and took out a hundred dollar bill. As I closed the purse and turned, I spotted a maid staring at me with surprised large eyes. I held a finger to my lips and the maid nodded and went away and I quickly slipped out of the front door of the mansion.

After a stop at a cosmetics store, I went into a public wash room. I returned after half hour of incredible pain and effort. My driver, usually expressionless, widened his eyes when he saw me but didn't ask anything. I rode in the car till the foot of Half Blood Hill and dismissed him. As I was climbing the hill, kinda slowly due to the heavy bag in my hand, I saw Silena Beauregard on her pegasus.

Silena was the nicest Aphrodite kid ever. She was nice to me, too, which was weird. Not a lot of demigods liked me. And especially not popular ones like Silena. But here she was.

She was flying quite low so when she saw me, I waved. She took a look at me and landed the pegasus right next to me and cried out, 'What did you do, Rachel?'

I replied, gruffly, 'Nothing much.'

She exclaimed, 'Rachel, you look like a clown. No kidding. Look!' She whipped out a mirror from her pocket. Trust an Aphrodite kid to have a mirror in her pocket.

Wow! She was right. My lipstick was smudged. My hair was an even bigger mess. And my face-let's NOT talk about it. Silena asked, 'Why did you do this shit? Makeup? Seriously? It isn't you, Rachel!'

I said, kinda dejectedly, 'Coz I thought I could get Percy to notice me. I wanted to be atleast one-fourth of Annabeth. That's all. But guess it failed, huh?'

Silena looked at me sympathetically and hugged me. She said, 'Aww... Come with me. Every Aphrodite kid is a sucker for romance.' She helped me onto her pegasus and she kicked off the ground. This was not my first time Pegasus Riding, but I could still fell the euphoria every time. She landed right next to the Aphrodite Cabin and pushed me in. She shut the door and locked it. Ugh, it smelt like designer perfume. I almost gagged. I whispered, 'Won't your siblings come?'

She happily said, 'Not for another 2 hours, I signed them for fighting 101, because of the battle, and they're gonna take some time.'

She turned on the light. Gods, it was a pink peril. My eyes are turning pink blind.

I looked at Silena, who was scrutinizing me. She said, 'Okay, makeover time!' After that, the next one and a quarter hour was blurred. Silena pulled thousands of cosmetics from here and there. In the end, she took me to a full length mirror and all I could do was gasp. That could not be me. I said, 'I look.....not as terrible as before.'

She said, 'Shut up, you look awesome,' and hugged me. But seriously I looked fine. My makeup was subtle and not overdone. My hair was neatly waved (Silena said straight hair would not suit me) and I was wearing a green dress up till my knees, which had such a low V-neck, it was embarrassing. It also "brought out my eyes" and "accentuated my figure"; according to Silena (I didn't have a figure, seriously, unlike Annabeth).

I hugged Silena again and whispered, 'Thank you,' into her ears. I went out of the cabin and made it look like I just arrived. I saw Percy coming out of the Poseidon cabin. He looked at me for like 5 seconds before realizing it was me. He walked up to me and exclaimed,' Wow! You look great! What happened to you? What's the occasion?'

I might have blushed. I don't know.

I said, 'Um...my birthday. Where are you going?'

He replied, 'Arts Class. And Happy Birthday, by the way, kinda late for it. It's like 4. But still, have a great day!' He paused and added, 'Do you want to come with me to Arts Class?'

I replied in the positive and we went to Arts Class, held by this satyr called Therian. I tried to sculpt a bust of Modern Apollo. I was always fascinated by him, while Percy tried to paint a picture. Trust me, he failed epically.

At the end of the class, an hour later, my bust was almost over. And Percy's painting was a mess of blue. And orange. Percy called it the "Ocean". I looked at him and remarked, 'Percy, did the ocean just drink orange juice?'

He pouted (that was soo cute) and said, 'No, those are the fish! And what about you?' He turned to comment on it but stopped. He breathed out, 'Wow! That's an awesome modern day Apollo! He looks like that in real life.' Then he whined, 'Why can't I find anything wrong in your bust?! It's not fair!' He turned to his picture and dipped a paintbrush in his blue paint. I thought he was gonna add something to his painting but he turned towards me. Realization dawned on me.

I exclaimed, 'Oh no, Percy! No!'

He laughed, 'Oh yes!'

I ran away, heading towards the canoe lake like the idiot I am. He ran behind me, laughing like an adorable idiot. We ran past Annabeth who gaped at us with her mouth open. When I reached the canoe lake, he was almost behind me. He came to jogging pace thinking I was gonna stop but I continued running, in the direction of the Dining Pavilion, because one, my energy was not done; two, I had no intent to get paint on this beautiful face which was all Silena's and three, I wanted to get out of Athena Cabin's visibility.

Finally, near the Dining Pavilion, I got tired and came to a halt. Percy was behind me, panting heavily but smiling mischievously. He gasped for breath and lifted the paintbrush to my face. He painted my face and my hands and ears blue like the idiot he was. I tried to stop him but failed and we ended up falling on the floor. We both stayed there gasping for breath for quite some time.

I got up but Percy looked quite comfortable on the ground but he gave me his hand, silently asking  me to lift him up. I did but he kept his palm in mine for a second after he got up and my heart fluttered.

Stupid heart.

I looked at him kinda angrily and cried out, 'Idiot, look what you did. I looked OK for once in my life!'

He replied, looking at the ground, 'You look better with the blue paint. That was so NOT you.' My heart and brain agreed but I said nothing. I got down on my knees on the bank of the Euros Creek [A/N: REFER TRIALS OF APOLLO: THE HIDDEN ORACLE FOR A MAP OF CAMP HALF-BLOOD].

I scooped up water in my palms and started, or tried to, wash my face. Percy came down beside me and said, 'I'm a son of Poseidon!'

I rolled my eyes and said, 'I know, honey,'

Oops, my bad. He's not a girl. I can't say that.

But he didn't notice, thank God. I continued, 'Your point?'

He smirked, 'Well, you don't scoop up water in your palms when you're a son of Poseidon! You do this!' He willed atleast four buckets of water from the creek and before I could react, it came crashing down on me. I gasped for breath. I was soaked and shivering. My clothes were drenched. My hair was sopping wet and my makeup was gone. I yelled, 'Perseus Jackson! Fuck YOU! I'm drenched and I'm probably gonna get pneumonia or something.' His laughing face immediately turned worried.

He said, 'Umm...I'm so sorry. Just a sec.' He concentrated and after a moment, I could feel all the water (physical, not internal) evaporate.

I gave a cry, 'Wow!' I looked at Percy-who looked pretty exhausted. We both sat down. After two minutes, he said, 'So, you're not gonna talk to me?'

I tried to keep a straight face (he looked so cute) and replied, 'I'm still mad at you! And we have nothing to talk about!'

He looked at me with puppy dog eyes and again I thought, 'What does it take to make you love me?' After a moment, I said, remembering one thing that had caught my attention, 'You met Apollo? When?'

He said, non-commitally, 'Last year. He gave us a ride to Camp from Westover High, where we rescued Nico and Bianca.'

I knew about Bianca dying and Nico getting PISSED OFF about it, but I didn't know the reason. He continued, 'And then he dropped us in Camp. And he also came in the form of a homeless guy. To help us in our quest.'

I queried, 'What was your quest?'

'Well, Annabeth was kidnapped by a manticore and then Artemis went off to hunt a monster and she got kidnapped by the manticore's master, the Titan Atlas. It was in that quest I saw you in Hoover Dam.' He talked about the manticore and the quest and Atlas like they were a piece of cake. He continued, disrupting my thoughts, 'I saved Annabeth.' and then added, 'And Artemis, of course.'

There, the Annabeth thing. Whatever I and Percy talked about- she was there. I looked away for the tears were rising in my eyes. Percy placed a hand on my shoulder. I flinched at his touch and turned. He fixed his eyes on mine, sea green on vivid green and said, 'What's the matter? It's like you talk to me happily and then suddenly you draw away? Why do you do that? And are you crying? Tell me what you're thinking!'

I murmured, 'What does it take to make you love me?'

He widened his eyes and said loudly, 'WHAT? Can't hear if you mumble.'

I gave a watery smile and said, 'Don't talk like Willy Wonka. I said- What does it take to make you love me?'

He gulped, 'You love me? Then that whole dress and makeup shit was for me?'

I shook my head at his stupidness and said, 'Of course, idiot.'

He asked again, kinda looking perturbed (because Annabeth), 'But if you love me, why do you get sad around me?'

I sighed and said, 'Because you don't love me! You love Annabeth and she's flawless. Smart, pretty, hot and a demigod! I'm none of those. I have freckles, bad hair, I'm ugly and hot is something I'm totally not!'

He smiled, 'You girls! You call me an idiot when you guys are dumber. Your hair is amazing and I love it,' He tugged at my hair which had regained it's curly frizziness, 'Your freckles are cute and your eyes are beautiful and you're smart. You don't have to be a demigod because you're a beautiful person- inside and out.'

I stammered, kinda overwhelmed, 'I heard Grover and you talk about Just the Way You Are and you said, "Man, this song is so her. I wish I could tell her how much she means" and Grover said, "Favorite song too" Not my favorite song and it's not like me. That's why I made up my face and all. I guess, to impress you, ' I buried my face in my hands out of embarrassment.

Percy burst out laughing. In between laughs, he said, 'There's a girl in camp, daughter of Demeter, she's depressed and cutting herself. She broke up, hates herself and thinks she means nothing to anyone.'

'Oh,' I said.

He gave me a frustrated smile and said, 'What was that you asked? What does it take to make you love me? Well, being you and you loving me.' He gave me a mischievous grin.

I asked, 'But Annabeth...'

His brow became furrowed and he said, 'I love her but...' He stopped when he saw me. Probably because I must have looked heartbroken. Because I was. He lifted my face delicately and continued, 'But right now,' and then he kissed me.

And at that moment, I think I must have died a million times and come back, thank Hades. I felt myself float away. It wasn't passionate, not tongue-in-mouth, just plain lips on lips, sweet and it was the best first kiss (Yes, it was my first kiss and Percy was the first boy I liked).

As we pulled away, he finished, 'I love you too.' He smiled and I smiled back. I laid my head on his shoulder as we held hands and talked about random shit for hours. When all the campers started coming for dinner, I got up to leave. Some of the campers 'oooohed' when they saw us while some rolled their eyes. When Annabeth came, I quickly rushed away while she started yelling at Percy for no freaking reason.

I stood at the top of Half Blood Hill and saw vague outlines from the dining pavilion. I sighed and was about to descend when I heard a cough. I turned to see the outline of a person. It was too dark to make out who it was.

I asked, 'Who're you?'

The person leaned in closer and placed his lips on mine. Percy. Only one idiot would do that. And though I had only kissed him once, I knew the feel. I knew the taste-sea salt and cookies.

He whispered in my ear, 'I love you,' and ran away while I stood like a statue. And after a minute, I whispered to thin air, 'I love you, Perseus Jackson,' and turned and walked down the hill.

PS:GUYS PLEASE REVIEW!I want to know how was it! A lot of people hate Perachel but I feel really sad for Rachel. I mean, she liked him too. All most all the Perachel I read was Rachel bashing, sad or some mindless smut. I wanted a happy fic so here it is.