“Annabeth, when’s that new boyfriend of yours going to show up?” Mrs. Chase questioned after swallowing her respectable portion of spaghetti.
Annabeth’s fork full of spaghetti froze in mid-air. Jutting out her chin, and widening her eyes, “B-boyfriend?”
“Yeah that one boy you keep on telling us about whenever we ask about your love life?”
Annabeth put down her fork, “Right!” she snapped her fingers multiple times, a nervous tick she had when she was gathering her thoughts. “He’s um, he’s on his way!”
“Really!?”
Annabeth kicked herself for the stupid, outright lie, because she didn’t have a boyfriend and hadn’t made any close friends at school besides her female roommate, Piper. “Yes, apparently so.” What was she thinking? She had put herself in a corner.
“Well, when is he going to arrive? It’s almost 7!”
“You know,” Annabeth glanced up with a distressed look on her face and turned and gave the biggest fake smile to her mom and said, “I don’t know. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go call him right now.”
Panicking, she stepped outside and called Piper. The line ringed three times before her friend picked up the phone.
“Yello”
“Help, my mom wants to meet my fake boyfriend.”
“Just tell her he can’t come tonight.”
“I can’t” Annabeth bit her lip, “I already told her he’s on his way.”
“You what?!”
“Shhh! I know! I’m bad under social pressure, and we can talk about how I need to react better under pressure, well at least from my mom. But right now, I need a boyfriend.”
“What if you called an enterprise car like in that commercial?” Piper giggled.
“Piper! This is no time for jokes. Plus, I already thought about that with an uber but there’s no way of knowing if the driver’s going to be someone who my mom will see through or someone who will go with the charade.”
“Okay, don’t panic. I’m gonna see if Jason can send over one of his friends to be your savior.”
“Keep me posted!”
“I’ll text you, but right now you need to go in and tell your Mom that your BF is stuck in traffic and might not be here for an hour. I need time to find someone, and then also time to convince them, and then time for that person to drive there, and also time for them to learn basic facts about you, so they don’t look like a fake?.” Piper trailed off in thought, “Should I make a quizlet about you?”(ok, that was pretty funny)
“No! Just make sure he knows my name, my mom’s name, my major, and at least one story, made up or real about me.”
“I gotta say, you’re kinda bossy. If you treat your fake BF like this, I’m not sure he’s gonna want to stay around.”
“Piper!”
“I kid, I kid,” Piper laughed, and Annabeth could hear her get up and start to look for Jason, “Now go lie to your mom. Wait!! One more thing, you need a pet name..”
“A what?!” Annabeth said trying to be as un-obvious as possible with her panic.
“An affectionate nickname, okay he’s going to call you Wise Girl, and you’re going to call him Seaweed Brain(i’m also triggered that piper gave percy his nickname).”
“Why?”
“Because all of Jason’s friends surf together and it’s really cute.”
“It kinda is,” Annabeth said blushing.
“Annabeth, you haven’t even met the guy yet.”
“Whatever! You’re a lifesaver Pipes, I love you.”
“I love you too! Now, go stall! I’ll text you his name and basic info.”
The line ended, and Annabeth went in to stall her mom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Piper brushed the hair out of her eyes, and called to Jason in the next room, “JASON!”
Jason came running in, frantic-looking, his hair puffed up like he had stuck his finger in a light socket, “What?! Are you hurt?”
“No,” Piper snickered, “I just needed you to come right away.”
“Be careful, or you’ll end up like the boy who cried wolf.”
“Oh shut up, Annabeth needs to borrow one of your surfer friends to be her fake boyfriend.”
“What?!”
“Just shut up and do it, she walked herself into a corner with her mom, and needs our help.”
“Okay, I think Percy is free tonight,” Jason scratched his head, “Let me text him and see.”
“K cool,” Piper said while attempting to fix Jason’s spiky hair, “Just tell him that I’ll pay him 20 bucks and then give him Annabeth’s number to text her the basic information about him. Also! His nickname is Seaweed Brain, and his nickname for Annabeth was Wise Girl.”
“Wow, you’ve really thought this through.”
“Yeah, you know whatever I can do for Wise Girl,” Piper laughed, “Now hurry!!”
Jason ran and tripped on his two feet on the way out, and Piper giggled.
“Oh my God, you’re so clumsy.”
Jason ran across the co-ed dormitory hall and knocked on door 6789, and a white male with jet black messy hair and sea green eyes opened the door.
“Percy,” Jason said, “I need a favor.”
Percy was shirtless, with a towel wrapped around his waist, and a toothbrush in his mouth, “What?” He gurgled spitting toothpaste on the carpet.
“My, oh my, Percy it’s a good thing you’re cute.”
Percy grinned, and put one finger up, and slammed the door coming back a minute later with sweatpants on.
“How can I be of assistance bro?”
Jason took a deep breath and explained the whole situation to Percy, starting with Annabeth’s slip up.
“Yeah I’ll do it.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, I mean she seems like a nice girl, and I don’t have anything happening tonight, and wouldn’t mind twenty bucks.”
“Great” Jason hopped up, “I’ll text you the address and the details.”
Jason started to walk out the college dorm, “Oh, one more thing!”
“Yeah?”
“Piper wants you to call her Wise Girl, and Annabeth is going to call you Seaweed Brain.” Jason left the room, almost tripping again on his way out, shutting the door behind him.
“Wise Girl,” Percy muttered under his breath, “I like that.” Blushing, he put on jeans and a button up shirt, grabbed his keys, and went out the door, pulling up the directions Jason gave him.
The text from Jason read,
“Annabeth Chase, architecture major, likes the smell of lemons, hates spiders, and is very intense. She’s dyslexic, and her dad has never been a consistent figure in her life, so don’t bring that up. Her mom is named Athena, yes like the greek goddess, and judges quickly, so your first impression is extremely important. Her address is 9876 Pumpkin Run Lane.” Jason took a deep breath and rambled the last sentence before Percy could change his mind, “Good luck, you should only be there for two hours max, and also the two of you have been dating for about a month.”
Percy ran to his car finding himself somehow looking forward to the date.
“Annabeth, are you sure he’s coming?” Athena asked inquiringly.
“Yes, don’t worry Mom, he’s on his way.”
A silver Prius with two hoof print shaped dents in the hood pulled up to her house.
An about 6 foot tall boy with obsidian hair and an athletic build got out of the car. Double checking her text from Piper, Annabeth said, “Look Mom, Percy is here now.”
Annabeth’s beauty glued Percy to the ground and did a double-take at her spectacular golden curls cascading down her shoulders.
All this happened while the two looked at each other through the glass storm door.
“Well, let him in Annabeth, you can’t just leave him standing there.”
Simultaneously, the pair blushed and smiled. Annabeth opened the door, and let Percy in.
“Hey Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth said trying to sound as not awkward as possible, “this is my mom, Ms. Chase.”
“Hello Mrs. Chase, it’s so great to finally meet you,” Percy said expanding his hand to shake hers.
“Yes,” she said, “you as well.”
Annabeth could feel the awkwardness in the air.
“Well,” she snapped her fingers thinking, “There is still some stromboli left. Would you like some?”
Percy stuck his hands far in his pockets, his nervous tick, “Yes, sure. I’d love some.”
