Absolute Mortality

Chapter 9

I have a problem. I'm falling for Annabeth, hard. When I first saw her, I thought she was just a pretty girl. Then we started becoming friends and then all I thought she was was a friend who happened to be attractive. Now, two weeks after I'd met her, we were hanging out every day and I found myself wanting to be with her as more than friends.

What's the problem, you say? I have no idea whether she likes me back. Sure, there are some signs that say she may want to surpass our friendship. Like that time she seemed to have been staring at me while my shirt was off. Or when she looked kind of disappointed when I'd asked her out then told her it wasn't a date. But without a girl straight up making a move on me, I have no idea what her intentions are.

Just ask her out, you say? I can't ask her out. If she does only see me as nothing but a friend, then asking her out would completely ruin our friendship and I can't have that. I know it's only been two weeks, but I can't bear the thought of not having her as at least a friend. We've grown quite accustomed to each other for just a short amount of time.

Now I just have to bide my time, wait for her to reveal whether or not she likes me. Until then, all I can do is pretend there's nothing going on in my tiny, seaweed brain.

But I can't help stealing glances at her. I wanted for time to freeze so I could take an eternity to memorize every detail about her. How great her cheekbones are. Those few loose strands of hair that escaped her ponytail to fail in front of her face. Those eyes. Those stormy gray, beautiful eyes.

"Mister Jackson?" I heard a female voice say loudly. I looked up to see my Oceanography teacher staring at me expectantly.

"Sorry?" I said. A couple kids snickered.

"I asked you," she said, "what the difference between a nautical mile and a regular mile is."

"Oh. A nautical mile is used at sea, and a regular mile is used on land," I said. "And a regular mile is longer than a nautical mile."

"We got that," she said. There was more snickering. "But why exactly do we have nautical miles rather than just continue using regular miles?"

"I don't know," I said.

"I figured." More snickering. "I'll explain it again since Mister Jackson wasn't paying attention. The equator divides the Earth into two halves called hemispheres. The equator wraps all the way around the planet forming a circle, or the circumference of the planet. So we can take the equator and divide it into three hundred and sixty degrees. We then take a degree and divide it into sixty minutes."

"Why not an hour?" someone said, which earned more snickering.

"Minute as in unit of distance," said the teacher. "We then take a minute of arc and we call it a nautical mile. So that should make the Earth's circumference a perfect twenty-one thousand six-hundred nautical miles by multiplying sixty times three-sixty, correct?"

"No," I said.

"No?" said the teacher. "Why is that?"

"Because the Earth isn't a perfect sphere."

"You are correct. The Earth's circumference is twenty-one thousand six-hundred and thirty-nine nautical miles. Now that you are informed of the unit of distance we use at sea, I beg you pay attention in the future, Mister Jackson."

I nodded.

Class ended twenty minutes later and I went to English with Mr. Blofis. I didn't care too much for the class, but I didn't hate it. The teacher was pretty nice. He was patient and made the class bearable.

But I constantly found myself looking forward to P.E. in fourth period. Annabeth was in it, as was Grover. I didn't mind working out. I actually kind of enjoyed it. But one of the best parts about it was getting to see Annabeth in nothing but short shorts and a sports bra. I constantly scolded myself for looking at her like that, but I couldn't help it.

"Alright, cupcakes," said Coach Hedge. We'd already run a lap around the track and done our warmup. "We'll be doing tennis this week. I've already set up the rackets and tennis balls on the court. We're going to do a little bit of a tournament. The winners get a free day next monday. You'll be in teams of two. A boy and a girl per team, to make it even."

Grover looked disheartened. I shrugged and said, "Sorry, G-Man."

"Get to the court and pick your teammate," Coach Hedge said.

We began walking to the other end of the school where all the sports fields were.

"Guess it's you and me then," Annabeth said to me.

"Well," I said, pretending to look thoughtful. "I've got so many other options."

Annabeth's eyes flared dangerously.

"But you're clearly the best candidate," I said quickly. She gave a sarcastically sweet smile.

"What about me?" said Grover.

"I'll be your teammate, Grover," said a high female voice from behind us. We turned to see a pretty, petite girl with amber colored hair walking up to us. She had green eyes, but not sea green like mine. They were darker, almost plant-like. She was wringing her hands nervously.

Grover suddenly looked shy. "Uh, you will?" he said.

"Sure!" she said. "I'm Juniper."

"I know," Grover said. She blushed.

"Well that's solved," I said.

When Annabeth and I separated from Grover and Juniper, Annabeth turned to me.

"Grover has a crush on Juniper," she said.

"Oh," I said. "That's why he acted so strange. He told you?"

"No," she said. "But it's a pretty easy inference. He doesn't act so shy around any other pretty girl."

"So you can just tell when people have crushes on other people?" I said, suddenly nervous.

"Not anybody," she said with what sounded like annoyance in her voice. "It was just a deduction."

"Ah," I said. "Wise Girl playing the detective."

"Whatever, Seaweed Brain."

The next day, Annabeth, Grover, and I were walking from gym to lunch when a large bald guy walked up to us. He looked about the age of a senior, but didn't appear to have the wit to have made it that far.

He stared straight at Annabeth. "Hey there, beautiful," he said. "Why don't you ditch these two faggots and you and I can find some place private?"

Annabeth opened her mouth but I stepped in front of her protectively. "Stay away from her," I said dangerously.

"Try and stop me," he said.

"I am," I said. He swung his fist and I caught it. I twisted it and he winced in pain. I twisted it some more and he fell to his knees.

I stared into his eyes menacingly. I let it go, expecting him to leave. But he stood and swung with his other fist. Man, this guy is stupid, I thought to myself. I grabbed his wrist mid punch held onto it while I slid between his legs, making him flip forward, hit his head on the ground, and end up on his back. I let go of his wrist and got to my feet in one quick motion.

He lay there, stunned for several seconds before getting to his feet. He took the hint this time and staggered off, rubbing his head and looking dazed.

Annabeth and Grover stared at me in shock.

"I could have handled that," Annabeth said.

"Where'd you learn to fight like that?" Grover asked with amazement in his voice.

"I took martial arts as a kid," I said.

"So did I," said Annabeth.

"Really?" I said, perhaps a little more surprised than I should have.

"What?" said Annabeth defensively. "You don't think girls can take martial arts?"

"No," I said. "I just—" I stopped when I saw the look on her face. "Oh. You're joking."

"Yes, Seaweed Brain."

"Seaweed Brain?" Grover asked.

"Long story," I said.

"Short story," Annabeth corrected. "He fell into a river and got seaweed in his hair."

"It was moss, Wise Girl," I said.

She laughed. Grover still looked confused.

The following Friday I was walking the track with Grover.

"Do you want to hang out this weekend?" I asked him.

"I can't," he said. "I, uh. Have a date."

I stared at him. "Did you finally ask out Juniper?"

"How—?"

"Come on. You don't think I didn't notice the way you look at her?"

He stared at the ground. "Yeah, I did." He looked up. His face was a mixture between nervousness and happiness. "But when are you going to ask out Annabeth?"

"What—?" I said.

"Come on," he said with a grin on his face. "You don't think I didn't notice the way you look at her?"

We turned around the edge of the track and I had a clear view of the dining pavilion. Annabeth was sitting at a table with Piper. She'd freed her hair from her ponytail sometime between the end of school and now. She looked just as beautiful as she always did.

I couldn't bear it anymore.

"Now," I said, answering Grover's question.

A/N: Alright, so I did to AM chapters in a row because the last chapter was centered around Caleo already.

I was also too anxious to get this chapter out. Hope you all are pumped for Percy and Annabeth's date.

Also, it says there's twenty reviews on the story yet I can only see the first seventeen. So if you wrote one of those three reviews that I'm unable to see, you know why I haven't responded to it.