#but as more of a silena and beck backstory fic

[demigodsanswer]

So, what was Annabeth thinking about Percy? Specifically during their past together (the dance competition, when they danced together at school?)

She has no memory of him from SAB, which is either going to come up in chapter 13 or will be a little bonus scene I post after (still working out the pacing of the chapter). She also doesn't remember him from that competition. She might not even have seen him dance. Because the girls went after the boys, she might have been back stage warming up, getting ready, etc.

I think her first real memory of Percy was in the summer performance of Romeo and Juliet. She'd just done it in the Spring for the first time, and they were reprising it for the summer tour (I actually need to go back and correct some of these details in earlier chapters, because I changed my mind about certain things mid-stream.), and Percy is brought in for his first role as an apprentice as one of the page boys in the ballroom scene, and for corps roles wherever else they need him.

This is right around Annabeth's 20th birthday, and about a month and a half away from Percy's 19th birthday. This is the point where her relationship with Luke "starts" (really, goes public) so she doesn't really think much of him when they are introduced, because her mind is completely elsewhere.

Her clearest memories of Percy before they do "Diamonds" together is of him in Nutcracker, because he would frequently do Candy Canes (corps and lead), and she would frequently do Marzipan (corps and lead), which goes on after Candy Canes. So she's gotten used to watching him literally jump through hoops from the wings, while she waited for her entrance. And she always thinks he's talented and kind of cute, and she knows he's nice and has a good reputation. But Luke keeps her pretty isolated from other people, so she never gets to know him.

They actually somehow never end up doing Sugar Plum and Cavalier together. I think she just does that with Lee and Beckendorf so much, and Percy doesn't do it as often as she does (is not a principal, and there's so little for the guys to do in Nutcracker that they need to spread the roles out more), that they never get put together. They will be given at least one show together in the Nutcracker season that follows the end of this story.

So it's not until "Diamonds" that she really notices how talented, kind, and handsome he is. And she's like "Oh my god, where has this guy been? Why is no one talking about him?" And everyone else (read: Beck, Silena, and Piper) are like "Girl, he's been here. He's on rising star lists. We all love him. You're the one who's been totally asleep at the wheel, completely blind to him."