Absolute Mortality

Chapter 6

After the first day of school was finished, I'd headed to the track to get a few laps in. I was surprised to find out that my new grey-eyed friend had the same idea. It shouldn't have, seeing as her letterman jacket literally said "track" on it.

"Mind if I join?" she asked me. I nodded in response.

We lined up together at the starting line and both took off simultaneously.

Annabeth was fast. Really fast. She passed me several times only for me to pass her again. It kept on seesawing between me in first place and Annabeth in first place.

Finally, the finish line was in front of us and Annabeth passed me again. I put on a burst of speed in an attempt to pass her, but it failed. She passed the finish line ahead of me and stopped so abruptly that she tripped and fell. I was just close enough behind her that I tripped as well, and then we were on top of each other.

Our faces were inches apart and we were staring straight into each other's eyes. I realized what was happening pretty quickly and got off of her, but that one second was enough to send butterflies through my stomach. I definitely like this girl.

I stood and offered her my hand, which she took. I made sure to let it go pretty quickly.

"Not bad, Chase," I said to her, trying to act nonchalant.

"You're not so bad yourself, Jackson," Annabeth said. She smiled.

"Want to run another?" I asked.

"Not after that fall."

"It wasn't that bad."

"Not for you. You used me as a cushion."

"Not intentionally." The hormonal side of me wanted to say, how about we do it again and make intentional? I suppressed that thought. I actually liked this girl. We're becoming friends and I don't want to push her away.

"I think it was a little intentional," Annabeth said with a smirk.

"How about we use the term, 'convenient'?" I said, returning her playful smile.

She laughed. Then she touched her side and made a sliver of a wince, almost unnoticeable.

"I'll see you later, Percy," she said and began walking back to the dorms.

"Seeya," I said. "And sorry for falling on you."

I ran another lap then walked back to my dorm room. I had no extra pair of shoes, but the ones I wore were perfectly good for running. I grabbed a pair of shorts and a tank top as well as a spare stick of deodorant and body spray then made my way back to the gym. I opened my newly assigned locker and stuffed them in and closed it again.

I walked out into the gym to find it nearly empty, except for a few people who were actually working out. I decided to give the bench press a go.

Thirty minutes later, my arms were properly sore and I was pretty sweaty. I went into the locker room and applied a layer of deodorant and a spritz of body spray and went back to mine and Nico's dorm.

Nico was wide awake when I got back and was drawing. I looked at his paper to see a roughly drawn outline of a sword. He looked about ready to start adding detail.

I sat at my desk and began playing a game I'd downloaded on my phone.

I found myself not hating math for once. Annabeth sitting right next to me made it a lot easier to not feel bored.

Mrs. Dodds wasn't as bad as I thought she'd be either. She was strict on noise while she was talking, but as long as we were working, she didn't care.

For the first half of class, she had us taking notes while lecturing us. Then she gave us an assignment about what we just learned to work on until the end of the period.

Annabeth and I worked together on it She didn't have a fraction of the "dumb blond" stereotype in her. Everything came so easily to her.

I had a difficult time understanding a lot of the stuff, but she explained it to me pretty well.

I was actually saddened when class ended.

I enjoyed my second period, Oceanography, and third period, English, was okay. But I still found myself looking forward to fourth period.

I got to the gym and headed straight to the boys' locker room. I got dressed and then waited on the track for class to start.

Annabeth walked out wearing a pair of short shorts, a sports bra, and tennis shoes. Her hair was tied into a ponytail.

When she spotted me, she gave a smile and I returned it, forcing myself to look at her face instead of her body.

Goddamn. She's smart, beautiful and now sexy too?

No. I didn't want to think about her like that, no matter how true it was. I liked her. It felt wrong to think of her as sexy, I don't know why.

She stopped walking and stood right next to me. Coach Hedge trotted onto the field and blew his whistle.

The entire class took off around the track. Me, Grover, and Annabeth were at the front with a couple other kids.

After the final person finished the lap, Coach Hedge gave us a two minute break.

After that, he coordinated stretching. That man was far more flexible than I'd expected.

About five minutes of stretching and then he lined us up on the ground to do coordinated pushups.

"One!" he yelled. We all did a pushup and said, "one!" at the same time.

"Two!" he yelled. Same routine.

We'd done fifty before he told us to flip over onto our backs and we did synchronized situps.

"One!" he yelled. It was the same gist, but we stopped at a hundred instead.

"Okay, cupcakes!" Coach Hedge said. "I have a timer here," he reached in his shirt and pulled up the cord hanging around his neck. It had a small yellow box attached to it. "We're going to run the mile. That's four laps. I don't want any of you cheating and just doing three. If I catch you saying you're done when you clearly aren't, I will call you out on it and you'll be pretty damn embarrassed.

"Now, line up on the line. I'll start my timer and blow my whistle, then you take off. I'll shout your times when you come across the line. When you're all finished, come tell me your time so I can get it written down." He blew his whistle.

After gym, Nico, Grover, and I found an empty table in the dining pavilion and ate our lunch.

Sometime near the middle of lunch at a nearby table, Annabeth and her friend got into an argument. She took her lunch and stormed to our table to sit down.

A curly-haired latino boy who was also sitting at that table seemed to have been a part of the argument. He too came over and sat by us.

"What was that about?" Grover asked.

"Jason broke up with Reyna," the latino boy said.

"Who?" I asked.

The curly-haired boy looked at me questioningly. "Jason is Annabeth's roommate's brother. Piper, Annabeth's best friend, likes him but won't admit it."

"Oh," I said.

"I'm guessing you're Percy then?" he said.

"Yeah."

He gave an odd sideways glance to Annabeth, whose cheeks tinged ever so slightly pink and her eyes stared at her food.

"Leo Valdez," he said, extending his hand, which I shook.

"Percy Jackson," I said.

We sat there in silence for a couple of seconds.

"So," I said. "Jason was dating this Reyna, now he's not. So you two were trying to get her to ask him out? I don't think it's right for you to meddle like that."

"We weren't meddling," Annabeth said exasperatedly. "We weren't telling her to ask him out, not right away at least. We just wanted her to admit her feelings."

"I think if she wanted to talk about them, she would have. Prying is kind of rude," I said flatly. Nico looked at me strangely. I couldn't determine his expression.

"Alright, look, Mr. Romance Expert—" Leo started.

"Leo," Annabeth interrupted. "Percy's right."

Leo looked absolutely baffled. "What? You, Annabeth Chase, are admitting you're wrong?"

"What?" Annabeth said defensively. "I can be wrong sometimes."

"That's new."

"Look," said Annabeth. "We all want Jasper to happen—"

"Jasper?" I said.

"I came up with it," Leo said proudly. "Jason plus Piper equals Jasper."

"Creative," I said sarcastically.

"—and making Piper made at us isn't going to achieve anything," Annabeth continued.

"So you're saying we need to apologize?" said Leo.

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch and everyone flooded off to their fifth periods.

When seventh period came around, I sat in the same seat I sat in yesterday next to Nico.

Annabeth entered the room and sat next to me. Not long after, Piper entered and sat next to Annabeth. Evidently they'd already made amends.

Annabeth introduced me and Piper and the four of us chatted easily.

The rest of the week glided just as smoothly. Annabeth, Piper, and Leo continued eating lunch every day with Grover, Nico, and I. Leo invited Jason over and he too became a part of our usual group.

Nico appeared uncomfortable being part of such a large social group, but didn't object. He was actually a frequent part of the conversations too, for someone who was so dark and distant.

The odd thing is though that he acts far more distant around me. I couldn't figure it out. He actively tried to spend as little time in a one-on-one conversation with me. It was as if he were hiding something.

I didn't want to mention anything to him though. The poor kid always seemed so depressed. I didn't want to put him in any awkward situations.

Friday morning, after Dodds finished lecturing and passed out our assignments, Annabeth and I began to talk. We'd already become pretty good friends for just a week.

"Hey, do you want to do something this weekend?" I asked her.

"Why, do you guys have plans?" she said.

"No, I mean just you and me."

She seemed surprised by this. "Oh. Are you asking—?"

"Strictly platonic," I hurried out.

"Oh," she said. Was that disappointment on her face? "Yeah, that'd be fun."

"Cool," I said with a smile.

A/N: Alright, so apparently you're all happy with the current story title. So we'll be sticking with that for now. But still, if any of you have any amazing title change ideas, feel free to suggest them.

Oh, and just a head's up: There won't be a chapter out tomorrow. Chapter 7 should be ready the day after tomorrow. But I am hoping to get in Chapter 3 of Oath Kept, Now Eternal Breath, so look out for that.

And review to tell me what you think of the story at this point. I'm open to criticism.