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"Tired yet, Jackson?" smirked the girl sitting next to Percy. He had joined the school's gaming club after near-constant prodding from his mother ("I heard it helps kids with ADHD!") but now he was regretting it. What this girl- Annabeth, he thought her name was- lacked in hyperactive energy, she more than made up for in strategy. "Yeah, you wish, smarty-pants," he retorted, looking at Grover for moral support. Grover had been Percy's best friend since his first day at this school, and had joined Percy in gaming club since he had a bad leg and couldn't do any sports. Grover grinned meekly. "Uh, good job, buddy! Eleventh place is pretty high in Mario Kart, right?" This provoked yet another round of laughter from Annabeth. They, Grover, and the librarian, Mrs. Green, were the only people in the computer lab that afternoon. So far only one other kid, a senior named Luke, had joined, and Percy was fine with it being like that. Or he would be, if he could stop losing every match. "It's four thirty. I'm going home," Percy said shortly, shoving his laid out books and papers into his backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and walked out into the school corridor.A moment later, he heard someone running up behind him. Looking back, he saw it was Annabeth. "What do you want?" he asked, glowering at her from under the hood of his sweatshirt.She wasn't smiling anymore. "Percy, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings, I just get too-" she waved her hands around vaguely "- competitive sometimes. I'm trying to work on it, but I got really carried away back there." Percy looked back at her. He understood her struggle; he'd always had anger issues himself. "Okay, it's alright," he replied, and felt himself blush slightly. She grinned back at him. "If... if you want, you could maybe come back to my house Friday afternoon? I just got Fable Two and maybe we could play co-op?" "Yeah, that sounds cool. I'll meet you out front when school is over, then?" he confirmed. Annabeth nodded. "See you then, I guess," she said, running out the front door. Three days later, Percy was standing on the school steps, lost in thought, waiting for Annabeth. "What's up, Percy? Wanna come back to my place and hang out?" asked Grover, sidling up next to him. Percy started. "Huh? Oh, uh, no thanks, G-man, I'm going over to Annabeth's place today, sorry." Grover looked crestfallen. "That girl? But she was so rude to you on Monday!" he complained. "But she apologized!" Percy said indignantly. "Plus, I can have friends other than just you, yknow." He spotted Annabeth, and walked towards her, muttering a quick goodbye to Grover. Two hours later, Percy and Annabeth were sitting in her living room, the "no signal" message flashing on the screen. "Sorry for sucking at it, I've never played Fable before," Percy apologized.Annabeth looked up at him. "Seriously? You kicked those bandits' butts!" she grinned. Percy blushed and smiled back. "So.... would you like to do this again sometime? My mom is going to be here in a few minutes." "Yeah, of course! We can work out the details at school on Monday," Annabeth said. As Percy got up to leave, Annabeth quickly moved over to him and planted a kiss on his cheek. "See ya then, okay?" she said, and ran upstairs to her room. Percy stared up to where she had been, his mind completely blank, until his mother honked her horn to get him to leave.