#ASoY chapter 6

[rainagainstmywindow]

All Shades of You (Chapter 6)

Finally it’s here! Thanks as always to my lovely beta @san-penedo and enjoy some more swimmer!Percy 

(please search #ramwfics or #ASoY for previous chapters)

Purple, Annabeth had recently learned, was a color between red and blue, a combination of both. It was the color that peeked beneath Percy’s sleeve as he absentmindedly scratched the arm he was using to lean on her dorm bed, a bruise. Apparently she’d stared for too long because his cheeks flushed and he pulled down on the sleeve, burying his head deeper into the highlighted flashcards she’d made. It was clear to her that he didn’t want to talk about whatever had happened, but she couldn’t help worrying about the hand-sized mark on his arm for the rest of the hour. Percy was also quieter than usual and he looked like he’d gotten even less sleep than he normally did.  

Over the past couple of weeks, Percy and Annabeth had met up more frequently. She’d gotten to know him better. She still wasn’t sure about the whole “soulmate” thing, and, to her knowledge, Percy’s world was still very much in black and white, but she definitely considered him a friend now. She wondered if he considered her enough of a friend to talk about whatever was going on. He clearly needed to talk to someone.

“Your first meet is in two days, right?” Maybe he was just nervous about competing. It didn’t add up with the bruise but she decided not to push it.

“Yeah,” he didn’t look up but she could see his shoulders relax a little, “Coach put me in five events.”

“Do you usually swim that much?”

“Actually, I swam in all the events in my last school.”

“Oh excuse me I didn’t know I was talking to an all event swimmer.”

He finally looked up at her, green eyes rolling but laughing. He couldn’t hide the slight blush that had crept onto his cheeks. “Oh yes the Olympic committee is practically begging me to join the team, didn’t you hear? I’ve told them maybe due to my busy schedule.”

Annabeth snorted. She didn’t actually know if Percy was any good. She assumed he was good given all his Couch was doing to let him swim. Percy was apparently thinking similarly to her because he finally asked her if she wanted to go to his meet on Friday. Once again, he couldn’t help but blush a little. It sent a steady stream of butterflies into Annabeth’s stomach, but she ignored it and agreed. He quickly added that Grover was also going to be there.

They continued in mostly silence after that. Percy’s short burst of a good mood slowly dissipated, choosing to only talk to ask her about the notes. She still preferred this over the latter of hanging by herself in her room until her roomate Kacey got back from her boyfriend’s. Kacey was nice and all -she didn’t mind Percy coming over to study and had even covered for her once when the Dean almost found out (there was a strict ‘no boys’ policy in her dorms)- but she wasn’t Thalia or Grover or Percy. She wasn’t a friend. All the drama of meeting Percy aside, she was glad Grover had introduced them, she was sure she wouldn’t have made too many friends if he hadn’t.

She still couldn’t get the bruise out of her head after Percy left though.

*****************

Rachel knew that Percy’s relationship with his stepfather was rocky, to say the least. After a few months of hanging out with Percy, he’d finally let slip that his stepfather was being a pain but never more than that. Whenever Rachel had tried to pry a little further into what could possibly be going on, he always got defensive or made sure to quickly switch the topic. She could respect barriers, she always put up her own when he tried to ask about her own parents, but it wasn’t until she saw the fresh bruise in his arm that she finally felt the need to push further.

“How’d you get that?” The only reason she’d noticed was because the seatbelt had caught his sleeve as he pulled it over him. He’d been given her driving lessons for the last two weeks since his mom had taught him how to drive last summer and Rachel refused to let her parents pay for yet another driving school.

“Get what?”

He clearly knew what she meant. “C’mon, Percy.”

He adjusted his shirt and tried to mask the annoyance he clearly felt. “It’s nothing, Rachel. Mrs. O’Leary saw a poodle and ran off and I fell.”

The thing about Percy was that he really sucked at lying if you caught him off guard. “And what? You just so happened to fall into a hand-shaped rock?” He was avoiding her eyes. “If you got into a fight you can tell me, y’know?”

His jaw stiffened. “Is that what you think happened?” Rachel knew he was meant to look angry but his eyes looked mostly hurt when they finally turned to her. “I just went and picked a fight while I was on probation because I’m that much of an idiot?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Just whatever Rachel. Let’s get this over with.”

Rachel wasn’t going to let this go that easily. And she wasn’t going to let Percy jump to his own conclusions either. “Of course I know you’re smart enough not to pick a fight, Percy! Are you kidding? I’ve seen you work your ass off to get to swim tomorrow! You know that’s not what I meant.” In response, he got out of the car.

Rachel’s heart was beating furiously as she slammed her own door and met him on the other side of the sleek, black, expensive car her Dad had let her ‘borrow’ when he found out she was giving driving another shot. “Just don’t!” Percy said before she could even catch her breath. He was properly angry now, it made him look scarier than Rachel knew he was. She knew Percy was harmless to her, but she still felt her body tense. Guilt flooded her the moment it happened because his anger vanished as soon as it had flared, his scowl settling into a tight-lipped expression that she didn’t think she would ever see in someone as goofy and playful as Percy. He tried looking away from her but she’d caught it nonetheless and it broke her heart.

She shouldn’t have pushed it. She needed to fix it. If Rachel was being honest with herself, Percy was the one friend she had. Sure she hung out with kids at school and she liked them, but Percy was the only one that seemed interested in what she actually liked, not what she pretended to. He didn’t have to hang out with her, he didn’t have to like her. He chose all of those things and that made it all even more valuable to her. Rachel reached out for his hand in a desperate motion. When he turned back she found she had nothing to say, wanting to fix things -to make him feel better- wasn’t enough. So she did the first thing that came to mind, she rushed forward and kissed him.

*********

The thing Percy liked most about being in the water was how he didn’t have to think about anything else. He could concentrate solely on the rhythmic pattern of his hand breaking the water, reaching, gliding, doing it again. His whole world was his timed breaths, the muffled noise beneath the surface. Most of the time, he didn’t even look beside him to the competitor in the next lane. He just pushed himself to his limit and sometimes found that he could go beyond that. It was exactly what he needed this week.

     It had all started when he didn’t hear his alarm Tuesday morning. Coach had kept them almost an hour longer the previous day, so he didn’t have time to catch up on homework like he usually did before work and ended up going to bed way later than he should have. His phone just kept going until it woke Gabe up. Sally had already left for work so it was only the two of them.

     Percy jolted awake at the sound of his bedroom door being thrown open followed by a stream of obscenities from his stepfather. At this point, Percy had perfected the art of tuning it all out, but the combination of no sleep and the sudden realization that he was definitely going to be late and would have to skip breakfast culminated in him losing his temper and talking back to Gabe. The older man had immediately taken a swing at him, which Percy had dodged by instinct. Percy hadn’t been able to escape his grasp though as Gabe shook him until he screamed himself hoarse. It had killed him to finally apologize to the older man, but Percy knew that if he didn’t de-escalate the situation quickly, Gabe would truly lose it and Percy didn’t have time to come up with something to cover for that. He’d felt the soreness in his arm for the rest of the day but hadn’t actually noticed the bruise until it was time for practice. There wasn’t anything he could do to cover it so he just decided to not mention it, people’s need to appear polite almost always prevented them from asking any questions. Of course Coach had noticed it, but by the time he pulled him aside he’d formulated his “dog-walking” story. He didn’t look as convinced as Percy would’ve liked but it did the trick.

     Percy made sure to cover the bruise up with sleeves the rest of the week, but he should’ve known Annabeth was too smart to not notice. He knew she had, but she hadn’t pushed him or patronized him. Still, in her own way, she’d tried to make him feel better. Something about the way she’d asked him about the meet and teased him had made him feel so comfortable, it almost freaked it him out a little bit. It’d been a very brief moment but he couldn’t get it out of his head, not even after Rachel had kissed him.

      Percy liked Rachel, he liked her a lot. He definitely hadn’t stopped her from kissing him, but he wasn’t sure he would’ve ever initiated it himself. The rest of the afternoon after she’d kissed him, he’d debated the whole idea. He hadn’t really come up with any good reasons not to take this next step with Rachel. It was just that…

Percy tried to keep his mind blank through Coach Hedge’s pep talk, focused on tuning out the noise from the people on the bleachers as they stretched. He cursed Gabe for the millionth time that week as he tried to ease the still lingering soreness in his arm. He hoped Percy’s mom couldn’t see anything from her place on the bleachers. Sally waved at him when he caught her eyes. She looked a little self-conscious surrounded by all the rich swim moms, but Percy still felt they were no match to her dazzling smile and sparkling eyes. Seeing her calmed his nerves a little bit. He caught sight of Annabeth and Grover a few minutes later, for the first time he was painfully aware of how little clothes he was actually wearing.

He’d actively ignored the group of kids at the very front. Percy recognized some as the art kids Rachel hung around with and he was sure she was there because they’d talked about it yesterday. Neither had brought the kiss up again though.

It hadn’t been Percy’s first kiss, that happened in sixth grade at the only birthday party he’d been invited to, but it’d been his first real kiss. Maybe it was because he lacked experience, or because he’d romanticized the idea of soulmates so much, but it’d been pretty underwhelming. No butterflies or rush of excitement. He mainly remembered desperately trying to figure out what to do with his hands and then it was over. There was the other fact, something he’d talked himself out of believing for weeks now, to consider as well. The main reason why the kiss making feel nothing didn’t make sense in his mind.

Cole clasped his shoulder and he was once again brought to the present. If anything, at least the kiss had diverted his worry for the meet elsewhere. He hadn’t even put his cap and goggles on and he was going to start the two-hundred free relay. Couch had been mildly impressed with his times during practice, but not enough to let him anchor the relays. Percy needed to concentrate on starting them with an advantage. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, any other thoughts besides the race disappearing as his fingertips touched the block.

*********

Annabeth hated admitting it, but she was impressed. The water had caught her eye immediately upon entering the school. Since meeting Percy, she’d encountered so many shades of blue and green that she thought she’d finally seen them all, ocean water, after all, had been the first sign of color she remembered. But she hadn’t thought too much about it since coming to New York. Then there was Percy himself, he cut across the water so gracefully and with such precision, that he was out of the pool before she could process it all. She turned to Grover as the rest of his team swam their corresponding fifty meters, asking if that was it. No, Percy was set to swim in four other events. Right, Annabeth thought, he told me that.

Annabeth didn’t usually go to sports events. Not because she didn’t like sports. On the contrary, she was actually thinking of trying out for her own school’s volleyball team and had started going to the gym with Thalia. She was just aware of how competitive she got and felt embarrassed about getting too passionate in front of a bunch of strangers, and Grover. Not to mention Sally Jackson (Sally, she had insisted Annabeth call her), Percy’s mom, who’d hugged her warmly upon being introduced by Grover and thanked her profusely for tutoring her son for the past few weeks. Annabeth liked her right away and felt herself get a little jealous of Percy for having such a great mom.

Annabeth’s relationship with her mother, a respected business woman who’d divorced her father before she was even born, had always been strained. It’s not that Annabeth didn’t love her, or that her mother in turn didn’t love Annabeth back, she just would’ve never felt comfortable enough with her coming to her sports events and doubted she would cheer her on as passionately as Sally Jackson was doing for Percy at the moment. Not to mention Annabeth’s lingering resentment towards Athena for refusing to take her in after things with her stepmother got worse. Athena’s argument had been that she traveled all the time and would never be there to look after her, but, considering Annabeth had still ended up without the supervision of a parent, Annabeth had taken that as another excuse for Athena not taking responsibility of her.

Percy was now swimming his third event, by himself this time. He came a few milliseconds behind his other team mate but still appeared to have an advantage over the other swimmers. Sally and Grover were only getting louder and louder, to the point that it was becoming infectious. By the time Percy was getting ready to swim the two hundred meter butterfly -which Annabeth remembered was Percy’s favorite event- Annabeth was cheering right along with them. This time Percy completely dominated from the start. His pace didn’t falter for a second, if anything it got faster each time he hit a wall. He ended up winning with almost a five second lead, getting a pat on the back from the Coach himself once he exited the water.

The last event, the four hundred free relay, was mayhem. Everyone around Annabeth was yelling just as loud as them now, the boys from all teams stood at the opposite end of the pool, yelling words of encouragement as the girls swam their hits. It was the closest out of all the races, the Goode girls winning by a last superhuman stretch of the anchor’s arm. The girls, along with the rest of the school and spectators, outdid themselves when it was time for the boys to swim as well.

One specific girl at the very end of the stands caught Annabeth’s attention. It was her hair, to be exact, that caught her eye. It was closely related to the red Annabeth was getting used to spotting, but warmer somehow. She remembered seeing glimpses of it during sundown a few days ago. A red-head. Annabeth could tell she was covered in paint even from her spot even thought she could only pick out a few of the colors that caked her expensive Goode High School uniform. She didn’t seem to know a lot about the sport, yelling Percy’s name even when he wasn’t in the water. Annabeth hadn’t really heard anyone but them call Percy by name.

“Who’s that?” She asked Grover, who was now jumping like a maniac as Goode’s anchor jumped in the water. Annabeth had to ask again to get a response, practically yelling in his ear.

“Oh! That’s Rachel! She’s cool!”

Annabeth did remember Percy mentioning someone called Rachel once or twice. She cheered along with everyone else as Goode’s anchor repeated the feat of the girls, but couldn’t shake a feeling of uneasiness as everyone began to file out, waving back at Percy robotically and then following Sally and Grover to the parking lot. Not before, however, catching a glimpse of Rachel jumping over the stands and pulling on Percy’s hand to whisper something in his ear. Something in Annabeth’s stomach stirred as she watched him nod to whatever Rachel has said to him, a small blush tinting his cheeks pink.

Sally left almost right away, regretting not being able to congratulate Percy but having to go to work. Annabeth decided to leave early as well, Grover had mentioned pizza earlier but now she didn’t feel too hungry. She couldn’t get the image of those fiery curls and Percy’s blushing face out of her mind. Just a few days ago she was making him blush. She scolded herself for even thinking about it for so long. Why should she care?

That night she looked over the color book her father had given her so many years ago, reviewing like she now often did all the colors she could now see. Blue. Purple. Red. Orange. Her eyes stayed on the page describing green. One word in particular jumped out at her. Envy.