this was previously called"annabeeeeeth"

annabeth is his math tutor, and percy hates math.

"Blah, blah, blah, math sucks, let's be done."

That's most likely not what his math teacher said, but that's how his brain interpreted it, and he went with it, slamming his textbook shut and resting his head atop it. His teacher didn't even flinch. She was used to this.

She was also used to the question he always asked at one thirty, and she answered it this time before he asked- "Yes, you can go to the bathroom, Mr. Jackson."

As he stood up, he caught the eye of Annabeth Chase, his tutor. She was glaring at him, gray eyes angry, as though she knew he was ditching and trying to make him stop. Instead of doing what she was thinking, he saluted her and walked out of the room. He wasn't staying in that stupid classroom for another minute.

He was halfway down the hallway when he heard his name. "Percy! Percy Jackson!"

He rolled his eyes so far back into his head he thought they'd roll out of his ears, but he stopped. He didn't turn around. He didn't have to- he knew who it was. Annabeth.

"What?" He snapped without feeling. He knew exactly why she was here.

"How do you expect to understand the problem if you don't sit through the lesson?"

"That's the whole point." He muttered angrily. When she asked him to clarify, he said, "I don't! I can't sit through it, and I don't give a flying fig about it, so why would I sit through it, even if I could?"

"You hate me tutoring you, but you don't make an effort to even try and learn on your own!"

Oh how wrong she was. And she didn't even know it. "You know, I didn't come out here to be judged by you. So you can go back to class now. God knows you can't miss a math lesson. You have to try to understand it."

He didn't wait for her answer. Grover was waiting for him by the cafeteria, and that's where he went.

***

She didn't understand what his problem was, but she finally understood why he didn't remember learning what she tutored him on.

She took her notes and listened; he slammed his book and left.

She had always noticed that he didn't sit still. He was always bouncing, always moving. Never still- or, if he was, still and very, very unhappy.

She loved Mrs. Jackson (not the song, though that was good too). Percy's mother was sweet, and always had a blue cookie for her when she showed up to tutor him. Even if he didn't end up learning anything, she got fed. Although she tried her hardest to help him learn at least part of what she was teaching.

There had been a time where she thought it was her teaching that was the problem. That the way she was trying to explain it had been too difficult to understand. But Percy's mom had told her otherwise.

"Oh honey," she'd said. "It's not you, sweetheart. Percy just has trouble sometimes."

She wasn't so sure now that it was his learning issues that prevented him from learning.

Well, that makes a whole bunch of sense, doesn't it, Annabeth?

Their teacher gave her Percy's work that he missed, and told her to give it to him when she had the chance. He'd be getting it sooner than the teacher thought- Annabeth had an appointment with him tonight anyway.

She gathered his books that he'd left behind like she always did, and when she didn't see him the rest of the day, she brought them with her and dropped them on top of his locker.

***

"Percy? Is that you?"

"Yup!" He yelled into the house. Closing the door behind him and kicking his shoes off, he sighed. Closing the door behind him and kicking his shoes off, he sighed. He'd remembered on the bus ride home that Annabeth was supposed to be there at five, which meant she'd stay for dinner and probably tell his mother about all the classes he'd missed since she last came, on Tuesday. Before he could think any more about that, his mother showed up around the corner, wearing an apron stained with a blue hand print and her hair in a sloppy ponytail that swished back and forth when she walked.

"Honey, how was your day?"

Percy grunted as a response. Sally Jackson rolled her eyes. "That's not really an answer, kiddo." But that was all she said about it. If her son wanted to give her an animal answer, then that was that. She'd had those days, too.

"I don't know if they make you as crazy as they used to, but I made a whole bunch of blue cookies..." she'd trailed off, but Percy was grinning. He leaned down (he was way taller than his mother now, had been since seventh grade), and kissed her on the cheek, dropping his backpack on the couch. (Annabeth had given him his books... again.)

"Thank you, Mom," he said, following his mother to the kitchen. "These will always make me crazy."

"I think you mean crazier," she said, but she was smiling, too. Percy took a seat at the counter, rapping his knuckles against the granite.

"How was your day, Mom?" he asked, but he was glancing at the clock. He'd come home on the late bus, spending an hour after school to fool around on the football field with a few of his school buddies- you know, those people you hang around in school but aren't your actual friends? Like you'd talk to them in class and stuff but never invite them to your house? Yeah, those friends.

"Long, kiddo," Sally said. "Very long. Haven't got much done except for these cookies. I just can't think."

"Writer's block?" He asked, shoving three cookies into his mouth at once. His mother started to talk, then saw what he was doing.

"Percy, don't do that, you'll choke-"

He tried to tell her he was fine, but he ended up coughing out his cookies. Sally walked around the counter and clapped his back, and he coughed once more, then was done, catching his breath. 

"What did I tell you?" She said, shaking her head. "But yes, writer's block. Always a killer. Lemme tell you something, Percy," she folded her dishtowel against her leg. "Never  become an author. And if you do, know that you're never done on the first try."

Percy nodded, not really knowing what to make of his mother's statement. "Okay, Mom."

She grinned, "Sorry about that, kiddo. I expect we'll be having Annabeth for dinner?"

He groaned but didn't mean to. He was kind of hoping his mom forgot Annabeth was supposed to be here. "I guess. If she ever shows up." 

He had muttered the last part and didn't repeat it when his mother asked. But he regretted his choice of words when the doorbell rang, and into the apartment came Annabeth Chase.

***

He was glaring at her when she uncurled her scarf and entered the kitchen, but she barely had time to think about it when Mrs. Jackson came over and hugged her. She was going to smile, even if he wasn't.

"Mrs. Jackson, it's lovely to see you again!" 

"Oh, Annabeth please, it's Sally. And to you as well! I expect you're staying for dinner?"

"If you don't mind," she said, stretching the mind  while she looked at Percy. He was staring at the two blue cookies on the counter in front of him, left leg bouncing restlessly. He almost seemed to be refusing to look at her. 

"Of course not, honey," Mrs. Jackson, (Sally ), said. "I really enjoy having you here! And it's the least I could do, with you helping Percy and all."

Annabeth felt her cheeks burn bright red. "Oh, it's really not a big deal-"

"Why?" Percy barked, looking up at her finally. His green eyes were stormy. "Because I'm such an easy case? Because I don't even try  to understand my lessons, so we get nowhere? Because all we do is sit in silence for an hour?" 

He got up from his seat so fast that the stool he was sitting on flew back on the floor. Sally gasped and called his name. He glared at them both.

"Percy, apologize to Annabeth right now! Pick up that stool."

He pretended not to hear his mother. "Go eat without me. I'll be in my room when you're done."

Then he stalked off. Annabeth took a moment to recover, then moved to right the stool. Sally cleaned up after the mess of cookies and crumbs on the counter, apologizing profusely the whole time.

"Annabeth, I'm so  sorry, kiddo," Sally said. "He's not usually like this... did something happen today?"

Annabeth felt guilt rise up from her toes to the pit of her stomach, where it bubbled, waiting for her to metaphorically burp it out. "Uh, well. I mean, he skipped again, but other than that..."

She sighed. "I know he skips. I hate it, but I can't do anything about it, he won't listen to me or his counselors. And if he gets detention, he just flops during it. Doesn't do anything. And we can't suspend him- he'll sleep all day. But that's all that happened?"

God knows you can't miss a math lesson. "Yeah, that's all. Does this always happen?"

"No, not usually. He doesn't get outbursts like these."

Annabeth sighed, wiped her hands on her jeans, and looked at Sally. "I'll go talk to him."

Sally smiled sadly. "Be my guest."

She nodded and turned away, looking for the room Percy disappeared into. It wasn't hard. The door was marked with black caution tape, a few posters of his favorite bands, and a string of guitar picks across the top of the door frame like mistletoe. She knocked twice and stepped in.

His room was not what she'd expected it to be. The walls were a lovely light green, a shade that complemented his eyes, though she'd never tell him that. There were two guitars, both black, one acoustic and one electric on stands by his desk, which was covered in rolled up pieces of paper and guitar picks, pens and pencils, rubber bands and Nerf gun bullets and a picture of him and his mom on a beach in a small blue frame. 

He was sitting in one of those round chairs that Annabeth always thought looked like mini trampolines on stands, facing the window. Outside you could see to the river, and she realized that his room smelled like salt water and sand. It wasn't a bad scent.

She sat down uneasily on his bed, a waterbed with a blue duvet and crisp white sheets that smelled faintly of Tide detergent. She knew he knew she was there, but she said nothing. They sat in borderline-uncomfortable silence. She didn't want to speak first.

He did. "Did my mom send you in here? Or are you here because of your dazzling good-girl personality."

She bit her tongue, forcing her to think before she spoke. "I'm here to talk to you, Percy. Not to be insulted."

"Sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of me not caring."

She tried her best to do that teacher thing, the I'll wait  that they give out when kids are talking during the lesson and they shouldn't be. Percy stopped fidgeting in his chair, fingers tapping wildly against his leg. He sighed, and Annabeth knew he was done.

"Why won't you let me help you?" She asked. "I won't even stay for dinner, if you don't want me to. Just let me help you try to understand what's happening in the lesson."

He rubbed his hands against his eyes, then turned in his chair to face her. "Annabeth, you don't understand. I'm trying  to learn. I'm trying really hard. But the numbers don't add up, the words swim off the page. I can't sit still long enough to try and regroup, and I don't have the attention span long enough to care about regrouping. It's an every day struggle, and I've just given up."

She sat back and listened to him talk. If she could understand what he felt, how  he felt, she might be able to help him.

"And, and it's not just that. It's the fact that math is so impossibly boring. Like, they couldn't have given me a more horrible subject or a more horrible teacher. Ms. Ross is, like, ancient. And she talks...like...this...all...the...time." He was grinning now. "I just, it's so boring. Music is way better. You can create your own songs and your own rhythm and you don't have to sit still and-"

"But math is like that," she said, and he almost glared. But his smile seemed to overload the want to be mad. Music made him happy, she realized. And she also noted that she liked when he smiled. "You can make your own equations and they don't have  to add up and you can mix up numbers like ingredients in a recipe, and you can add until infinity and beyond that, and-"

"But it's not the same," he said, eyes lighting up to match the color of the walls. "Because music can make you feel  something. Math can't."

"You can use math to help you make sense in a situation-"

"You can use music for that, too." 

They stared at each other. Percy was slightly out of breath from talking so fast, and it had steadied his fingers. Annabeth slowly let herself smile, and Percy let loose an ear-to-ear grin. Annabeth understood him now. He needed things to make him feel something, something to catch his attention and hold it. And numbers didn't do that for him.

"Thank you," he said, at the same time she had said, "I get it."

They laughed, and Annabeth glanced quickly at his desk. Then back to him. 

"I have a deal for you."

"Hit me."

She blushed at the thought of her actually  hitting him, something she had wanted to do earlier today. "If we get through a page of math, you can play me a song."

His eyes glinted with the sun coming down through the window. "Okay," he said, and then he started nodding. "Okay, okay." He stood up. 

"Where are you going?"

"To dinner," he said, as though it were obvious. "And you'd better come, too. Mom'll flip it if you start ditching things as well."

She let her small grin fly ear-to-ear, like his. "Okay, I think I can do that."

"I'm glad."

edited. july 18th, 2017