#asoy

yep. 

Grover was trying to convince himself that Percy wasn’t acting weird, but it was getting harder and harder by the second. He seemed more on edge than usual, almost jumping at the sight of a pile of leaves Mrs. O’Leary had run into, and Grover was sure he’d only heard half of what he’d told him in the past hour.

He’d gotten to Beckendorf’s apartment before Percy had, and he seemed to share his suspicions. Grover chewed his lip anxiously as Beck told him about his grumpiness all weekend. “He has a test coming up,” he told Beckendorf, “he's probably nervous is all.”

Beck shrugged, clearly not convinced. They both were thinking the same thing: Gabe. Percy wasn’t exactly known for brushing things off, but it was the arguments he had with his stepfather especially that got to him. At the end of last year, things had started escalating. Grover had felt the change in his best friend. Percy had finally started sticking up for himself around his stepfather. Grover and Beck alike had encouraged it, but then Gabe walked in on Percy and his mom talking about him.

The fight had been so bad Percy had to stay with Beck for two weeks and he’d ended up taking his frustration out at school, finally earning him the boot from the institution. Percy had barely been allowed back to the apartment when Grover left for camp that summer. When he came back, Percy had gone back to keeping his head down around his stepfather. But it was only a matter of time before things blew up again.

His behavior was slightly different than before, though. There wasn’t as much anger, he just seemed frustrated, confused.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Grover finally asked.

“What?” He leaned down to calm down Mrs. O’Leary as a small chihuahua walked by and barked at her. “What are you talking about?”

“You’ve been acting weird all day.”

“No I haven’t…” He sighed, looking away from Grover. “I’m sorry. I’m just tired, Grover. It’s nothing.”

Grover wasn’t convinced. “You’ve been tired since I met you, Percy. You’re going to have to do better than that.”

Percy rolled his eyes at him but knew better than to try to lie to Grover again. “Fine! If you must know, Annabeth and I got into a stupid fight. I don’t know what’s gotten into her! Now, I’m sure I'm going to flunk that stupid test!”

Annabeth? Grover bit back his smile as Percy went on and on about how impossible she was. He’d had his suspicions since they’d started hanging out more and more without him needing to be there.

“Are you laughing?”

“What? No!” Grover quickly fixed his expression to something more sympathetic. “Annabeth means well, Percy. I’m sure she has a good reason, but she’s not great at expressing her feelings.” Quite like you, he thought to himself. “Just try to talk to her.”

Percy looked slightly panicked at that suggestion. He seemed like he was going to answer but then something behind Grover’s head caught his eye. Grover turned around to see what it was but all he saw was the busy New York skyline being lit by the last rays of sun. He turned back around to ask what all the fuss was about, but Percy appeared hypnotized.

“Seriously, man. What’s going on with you?”

Chapters: 7/? Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson Characters: Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Grover Underwood, Thalia Grace, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Charles Beckendorf Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Slow Burn, Fluff, Swimmer Percy Jackson Summary:

I reached my first 1k a few days ago so, as promised, here’s the next chapter. Prepare for a lot of swimmer!Percy and some throw backs to my own swimming days (this was our actual stretching ritual). I can’t believe I reached 1k! That’s just crazy! Thanks once again to @san-penedo for being my beta and enjoy!

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

Blue

/bloo/

Adjective

of a color intermediate between green and violet, as of the sky or sea on a sunny day.

Annabeth pinched her nose as she squinted through the brightness of her phone screen. Between green and violet. She guessed that meant that she was moving through the color spectrum. As of the sky. Yeah, she’d almost had a heart attack yesterday when she’d looked up, bracing for the recently bright green leaves of the trees, and was slapped with a clear, blue sky looking back down at her. Was this the color of Luke’s eyes? Was this what Thalia had seen all those years ago?

She sighed as she locked her phone’s screen and settled back down onto her pillow, sparing a quick glance to her roomate to make sure she hadn’t disturbed her. It was now obvious to her that she couldn’t keep ignoring this. Grover had tried to hang out with her more the past couple of weeks but she had guiltily denied in fear of Percy being there. Now she made the colossal effort of putting her pride aside and unlocked her phone once again, sending Grover a text asking if they could meet up tomorrow after school.

Even though it was around 12 am Grover answered right away. Sure! Where?

I dunno ur the new yorker, she answered back.

I know a great enchilada place.

She was about to answer but noticed the ellipses that told her Grover was still typing.

Tell thalia to come?

Sure thing. Annabeth knew that Thalia had been avoiding Grover longer than she had and felt guilty all over again about ghosting Grover for the past couple of weeks. She didn’t know if Thalia would agree, but it was worth asking anyways.

Annabeth walked to the address Grover had texted her this morning, self-conscious of her stupid, plaid school skirt. She spotted Grover right away and walked towards the booth he was at, careful to avoid tripping over the crutches he had propped beside him. “Those new?” Annabeth asked as a form of greeting. She hadn’t seen that particular pair before. Grover had EDS (Ehlers-Danlos syndrome) which meant he had pretty bad hips and chronic pain that fluctuated day to day so he didn’t always use his crutches.

He looked up from his menu and smiled at her. “Yep.” Grover looked past her hopefully, but Thalia had politely declined her invitation to come. She’d been acting a bit distant with Annabeth too now that she thought about it, ever since she told her about Percy and brought up Luke.

“So what’s good here?” She asked as a way to keep his spirits up. “I mean besides the enchiladas.”

He took a second to answer but collected himself quickly enough. “The guac isn’t bad,” he told her. “Percy approves of it even though he says his mom’s is way better.”

Annabeth ended up ordering the enchiladas and they fell into an easy conversation about school. She did a lot of the talking. Grover had never had a good time at school. She’d hoped things had gotten better with Percy there. She voiced her concern once she felt his guard go down.

He smiled a little to himself, he wasn’t nearly as proud as Thalia or Annabeth but she could tell the question still made hime bristle a little bit. “It was definitely better with Percy there. He got too worked up when people, you know,” Acted like assholes, Annabeth wanted to say but nodded instead. Her mind focused on the ‘was’. “He could give Thalia a run for her money with the temper he’s got.”

“What do you mean was? I thought you guys went to school together.”

By the way Grover stiffened she could tell it was a touchy subject. “He’s going to a different school this year.”

“How come?”

“It’s not really my place to say.” Grover had always been a sensible person, careful with how he handled his friend’s personal business. Annabeth could respect that, but she still wondered. By the way that Grover referred to it she could only guess that Percy’s departure wasn’t amicable. The mention of Percy’s temper also struck her as odd since he’d seemed pretty friendly when she’d met him. “It wasn’t really his fault,” he added hastily at the sight of Annabeth’s face. “He’s just got pretty rotten luck to be honest.”

Annabeth nodded, understanding that that was as much as Grover was willing to share about that particular matter. It eased her mind a little bit that Grover was quick to defend him though, he’s always been a great judge of character. Mostly.

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

Percy couldn’t believe he’d let Rachel talk him into trying out for the swim team. He knew that Beckendorf held some of the blame as well, practically guiltying him into doing it. No doubt he’d also spoken with his mother since she just happened to know the date of the try-outs as well and had casually asked him if he was going to go for it. Percy knew that Sally had loved the fact that he’d joined the swim team at his last school. His grades had gotten slightly better and he had a good reason to be out of the apartment. Percy had even started considering the idea of college as an actual possibility for a while. Then people started asking too many questions. It was almost impossible to hide the bruises. It all fell apart pretty quickly after. He hadn’t forgotten the utter look of disappointment his mother had worn as the principal told her he wouldn’t be welcomed back to the school and that the other student’s family was likely to press charges. He couldn’t bare to do that to her again.

What am I doing? He asked himself for the millionth time that day as he walked out of the lockers, cap and goggles in hand. His heart was beating pretty fast, partly from nerves at the memory of what had happened the last time he’d been close to a pool, and partly in excitement at getting back in after so many months.

He was one of the first ones there. The blond guy he’d seen earlier in the week was there with three other freshmen-looking guys. He joined them wordlessly and got a brief nod from the blond captain. After about fifteen minutes, more boys started shuffling in. Percy could see the girls gathering around a tall brunette on the other side of the pool. Both captains signaled their groups to gather into one bigger group in the middle. “Alright! I believe this is everyone because if not you’re late!” Percy would never admit it but he actually set up about five alarms on his phone for particularly that reason. It was hard to keep track of time with his ADHD and he was known for being late. “My name is Lauren!”

“And I’m Cole,” chipped in blondie behind the taller girl.

“Right now we’re going to go through a standard warm up. If you’ve been on a team before you’re going to use the lanes on the right, if not use the ones on the left. The warm up is on the whiteboard behind me.” She pointed back and Percy started reading the routine. 400 free, 400 combined… Nothing fancy. “We’re not going to split you off into boys and girls just now but we will be walking around and rearranging some of you guys.”

“But first,” Cole chipped in once again. He was holding a CD player for some reason. “We stretch.” He hit play and Mulan’s ‘I’ll Make a Man Out of You’ started playing. He didn’t seem to notice the various eye rolls and groans that followed and happily started to lead the stretch. Percy had to bite down on his lip at the sight of Lauren doing windmills to the beat of Shang singing about honor and defeating the Huns with a completely stoic face. Both captains couldn’t be more different from each other.

Percy was moved three times throughout the warm up. By the end he was in a lane with two other guys and girls beside him. He’d always hated packed lanes both because he got kind of claustrophobic and because the constant brushing of his toes and having to slow down because of the person in front of him got on his nerves. One particular guy -he could only tell he was white behind his expensive goggles and cap- insisted on cutting ahead of him even when it was pretty obvious he was going extra hard to keep up with Percy’s pace. Percy forced himself to let it go since this was still only the warm-up.

After about twenty minutes they had them line up behind the diving blocks. “Okay! You’re all going to get two jumps! We only want to see your dives right now!” Lauren yelled over the commotion of about forty teenagers getting out of the pool. “Wait for my whistle!”

Percy waited for the five people in front of him to go. He felt his nerves mounting up in his chest as he got on the block. He almost realized too late that he’d actually failed to put his goggles on and barely had time to adjust them before the whistle went off. He landed smoothly in the water though, his hands touching the surface before anything else and letting himself glide for a couple of seconds before doing a dolphin kick to breach the surface. Braving a peak before ducking under the rail to the other lane, he saw that he’d reached just a little over half of the 25 meters. He swallowed his disappointment, last season he ate up more than three quarters of the pool with his dive.

As he lined up for his second dive, he made sure he had his goggles  were securely fastened, so by the time he was on the block again he felt much more confident. This time he reached his usual length. Things went pretty well from then on. They had them do a lap or two in each style, full speed, in medley order. Butterfly had always been Percy’s favorite style and he noticed some impressed nods as they noted his time of fifty four seconds for his hundred meter. Next came backstroke, followed by breaststroke, both of which Percy performed nicely at 58 and 57 seconds respectively.

They gave them some time to cool down before going for the fifty and one hundred meters freestyle. Percy’s nerves resurfaced as he waited for his turn to go for the fifty meters. He hadn’t missed Cole and Lauren talking to each other while sparing a few glances his way when he completed the hundred meters in 51 seconds. Even though he’s tied his personal best for the hundred everyone knew that the real show was in the fifty.

His heart started beating wildly when the guy in front of him completed his lap in twenty-four seconds. The girl afterwards swam it at twenty-eight earning an actual cheer from Lauren. Percy could tell she was pretty young, maybe even a freshman. His nerves were turning into actual nausea at this point. His arms felt heavy at his sides as he climbed up the block and he gave them a small shake before brushing his fingers against the ledge, toes curled around it. He let out a deep breath, tensed, and was off the block the second Lauren blew the whistle, his nerves vanishing the moment he hit the water. Percy’s only thoughts were faster, harder, keep it up, don’t slack. Before he knew it, his feet were kicking off the wall, his lungs begging him to come up but him waiting so as to not cut off his glide. That extra boost of speed that he always managed in the last couple of seconds kicked in and he was reaching, reaching…

“Nice!” Percy looked up at Cole as he broke the water, breathing heavily but looking expectantly at the chronometer. “Twenty-two point five!”

Happy Birthday to Percy Jackson! This is super fluffy so it commemorates the Percabeth anniversary as well too I believe. Thanks as always to my lovely beta @san-penedo and enjoy the small lifeguard!Percy i managed to sprinkle in there! (please search #ramwfics or #ASoY for previous chapters)

Percy groaned as he attempted to read the same passage of his history textbook for what appeared to be the hundredth time. The exhaustion that weighed over him thanks to swim practice two hours prior didn’t help either, nor the fact that he had to wake up early tomorrow for his dog-walking gig. He would have little time the rest of the weekend to catch up on homework since he’d taken on extra shifts at the local pool where he worked as a lifeguard to make up for what he couldn’t work during the weekdays now that he was in the swim team.

He got halfway through the passage once again but it was no use, the words just taunted him from the page, dancing around in weird, curvy waves. Frustrated, he slammed the book shut, immediately flinching at the sound. He hadn’t heard anyone come in but Smelly Gabe would give him hell for making any noise during his precious “TV time.” Percy slowly poked his head out of his room and was relieved to find he was home alone. His stepfather was probably out drinking with his buddies and his mom should’ve been heading home from the candy shop. He felt his phone buzz. It was a text from Sally.

Will probably get there in a few hours. Had to close up late and I stopped to get some groceries. Don’t wait up. Love you

Percy texted back a quick reply, knowing full well she was probably closing up but at a new job. She had not wanted to admit it when he’d asked, too concentrated on congratulating him for making the team, but this definitely put a strain on money. His school tuition had already been too much even when he was working more frequently. He wondered once again if this was worth it, if he was worth it. He knew his mom wanted him to have what she didn’t, to finish high school and make it out of this neighbourhood. But he’d only managed to screw up every chance he’d gotten so far, and college just seemed too out of reach. His stepfather seemed to agree with it all being a waste. I won’t waste a dime on your little delinquent kid, Sally! Percy had heard him and his mother arguing after she’d gotten Percy the interview at Goode. As if Smelly Gabe had ever contributed anything but anxiety to Percy’s life. He’d silently prayed he wouldn’t be allowed into the school, didn’t really see how considering his record and poor grades. But, somehow, he’d made it in.

Here’s chapter one of this ColorSoulmate! AU! Will probably update weekly from now on. Hope you enjoy!

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

Annabeth couldn’t believe Grover had talked her into meeting this Percy kid that he always went on about. She started school tomorrow! She didn’t have time for this, she need to catch up on whatever they’d covered last year. Her private school back in San Francisco wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t even close to the level of The New York Institute of Science. Annabeth had left the summer reading to the last minute because it gave her a migraine. She couldn’t help but think how stupid she’d been as she sat beside Grover at the park. Reading with dyslexia was already hard enough without adding the stress of a time constraint.

“Is he going to take much longer, Grover?” She asked, hoping she didn’t sound rude. “I’ve really got to head back to my dorm soon.”

“Yeah he said he’d be here like five minutes ago, but he’s not answering his phone. Can you try looking around for him while I try to calling him again?”

“Sure. What does he look like?”

“He’s probably walking like five dogs. You should be able to spot him easily.”

Annabeth scanned the park, her eyes fleeting from an old couple to a little kid and his mom and finally to a boy that looked around her age indeed walking a large group of dogs. He was struggling to keep the largest one, a rather large rottweiler, away from a tiny chihuahua that didn’t seem to realize he was much smaller. “There he is,” she told Grover.

“Where? How can you tell?” He scrunched up his dark eyes trying to look at where she was pointing.

“There. With the dark hair right? He’s the one. He must be.”

Akhirnya salah satu wish list saya kecoret juga, naik gunung! Sebelumnya paling pol cuma ke Bromo, tapi itu juga gak dihitung ‘gunung’ kan? Dan di hari jumat (18/08) kemarin, akhirnya saya dikasih kesempatan buat naik ke gunung Merbabu bareng dua teman SMA saya. Sebenernya rencana naik gunung ini gak dipersiapkan bener-bener sih, spontan aja gitu rencananya. Kadang kan emang gitu, yang spontan malah justru kejadian daripada yang cuma wacana. Tapi, sepertinya rencana spontan buat naik gunung itu sangatlah gak dianjurkan, apalagi buat pendaki pemula seperti saya kan.

Jadi ceritanya gini, berawal dari liburan SP yang saya pake buat pulang ke Malang awal Agustus kemarin. Niat awalnya emang sekedar pulang aja, gak bawa apapun yang berhubungan sama naik gunung. Sampai akhirnya ada notif di grup wasap SMA yang intinya ngajak ke Jogja buat naik gunung, itung-itung sekalian liburan karena emang lama juga gak pernah main bareng. Juga mumpung teman saya, Herdi, sekarang lagi tinggal di jogja. Jadi ya, saya okein aja. Sekalian ke Museum Sonobudoyo buat nyari bahan penelitian dan setelahnya bisa langsung cus ke Bandung, gitu pertimbangan saya.

Akhirnya saya berangkat hanya berbekal tas ransel (bukan tas gunung), sandal gunung (yang akhirnya terpaksa harus beli dulu, daripada harus pake sneakers), tas kamera, jaket parka + sleeping bag + head lamp (dipinjemin mbak adin), dan semua barang-barang yang harus saya bawa sekalian ke Bandung setelahnya. Sungguh, bukan starter pack anak gunung. Malah mirip anak-anak endorsan kekinian yang mau cari tempat bagus cuma buat foto, kata Bagus, teman SMA saya yang satunya lagi. Pret.

*Starter pack yang salah, kan?

Kamis (17/08) malam saya sama Bagus berangkat dari Malang menuju Jogja. Sesampainya di Jogja sekitar pukul 3.30 pagi, kami langsung cus ke kosnya Herdi. Nah, disini terjadi perubahan tujuan. Tiba-tiba Herdi malah ngajakin ke Merbabu, bukannya Merapi. Merapi tracknya curam tapi sebentar, Merbabu tracknya lebih panjang tapi lebih tinggi daripada Merapi, gitu kata Herdi. Bagus setuju, ya karena emang dia udah sering naik gunung jadinya gak ada masalah mau lebih tinggi atau lebih susah tracknya. Saya sendiri? Ya ikutan setuju lah. Pengalaman cuma sekali naik Gunung Bromo gak cukup buat adu argument sama mereka. Tapi di dalam hati tetep sih, “duh, semoga kuat, semoga iso”.

So, setelah browsing tentang Merbabu serta rute perjalanannya gimana, akhirnya sekitar jam 10 pagi kami bertiga berangkat ke daerah Selo, Boyolali, sebagai titik pertama menuju Merbabu. Perjalanan dari pusat kota Jogja menuju Selo memakan waktu sekitar 3 jam, itu udah kepotong kami berhenti dulu buat Jum’atan. Berbekal tanya sana-sini, akhirnya kami sampe juga di Gancik, buat pendaftaran untuk naik ke Merbabu.

Disini kami bertiga sama masnya dikasih info kalo ternyata ada 2 jalur buat mendaki Merbabu. Yang pertama via Selo, tracknya memutar dan memakan waktu sekitar 4-5 jam. Yang kedua, via Gancik, tracknya lebih cepat 2 jam daripada Selo tapi lebih terjal sedikit dan lebih landai. Rutenya, basecamp-Pos 1-Pos 2-Pos 3-Sabana 1-Sabana 2-Puncak Merbabu. Karena kami sampenya udah siang dan juga harus menghemat waktu, akhirnya kami pilih jalur Gancik. Semua motor bisa di parkir di basecamp terakhir, biayanya Rp. 5000. Di Gancik juga ada mas-mas ojek yang bisa nganterin kita sampai batas cor-coran/tanah plesteran (apa se bahasa Indonesianya?), biayanya Rp. 10.000. Atau bisa juga sampe di bawah pos 1, biayanya sekitar 30-40rb tergantung keahlian kita nawar aja. Track awal buat naik ke pos 1 emang beneran berat sih menurut saya. Tanah cor-coran yang harus dilewati itu kemiringannya ada kali sekitar 600 dan emang curam banget. Herdi aja sampe menyerah dan akhirnya ngojek sampe bawah pos 1. Sedangkan saya sama Bagus memutuskan untuk jalan kaki dari awal. Masak gini aja ngojek, pikir kami berdua.

Kenyataanya, saya lebih banyak minta waktu buat istirahat daripada Bagus. Maklum, pemula. :P

Setelah ketemu sama Herdi di Pos 1, kami bertiga akhirnya melanjutkan perjalanan sampe Pos 3. Butuh waktu sekitar 3,5 jam hingga akhirnya kami bertiga sampe di Pos 3. Itu udah ditambah tragedi kakinya Herdi yang kram kiri-kanan, yang akhirnya memutuskan kami untuk mendirikan tenda di Pos 3. Karena kakinya si Herdi lagi gak tenang butuh istirahat, dia memutuskan untuk di tenda aja dan gak ikut naik ke puncak. Soalnya track sabana 1-sabana 2-Puncak emang terjal dan menanjak sih. Bisa butuh waktu sampe puncak 2 hari kalo Herdi ikut, kan. :P

*ekspresi nahan kram. Sakit banget kayak e ya.

*Tolong menolong adalah koentji.

Saya sendiri, Cuma bisa sampe sabana 2 aja, gak kuat lagi buat naik ke puncak buat ngejar sunrise. Maklum, pemula (alesanmu, mid!). Jadi ya saya biarkan Bagus dengan hasrat petualangnya buat  lanjut ke puncak, saya titip absen aja sama dia. Ohya, di perjalanan ke sabana 2, saya ketemu 2 orang dari Surabaya yang juga lagi summit ke puncak, Pak Anang dan Pak satunya-yang-gak-sempet-saya­-tanyakan-namanya. Bagus lanjut summit ke puncak bareng Pak satunya-yang-gak-sempet-saya­-tanyakan-namanya, sedangkan saya sama Pak Anang (55th) berhenti di sabana 2 dan memutuskan untuk duluan balik ke Pos 3.

Yah, walaupun saya gak bisa dapet sunrise di puncak Merbabu, karena kebetulan pagi itu agak mendung, saya masih bisa menikmati keindahan gunung Merbabu. Jadi ini, yang bikin orang-orang ketagihan naik gunung. Ya emang pemandangan dari ketinggian itu waksi banget sih. Apalagi kontur tanah serta perbukitannya, perpaduan antara puncak-puncak gunun dan awan, serta kabut yang perlahan-perlahan masuk itu emang waksi pol! Meskipun saya dapet jekpot ngglundung 2x waktu perjalanan turun ke pos 3, itu gak mengurangi kebahagiaan saya. Alhamdulillah akhirnya saya bisa merasakan momen seperti ini.

*Konco SMA, @bagus_akbarr & @herditami

*savanna Pos 3

*Pos 3 dengan view gunung Merapi

*mencari semak-semak buat beraksi

Rutam nuwus, Merbabu, belum 3142 Mdpl. Sampai jumpa lagi. Gak tau juga kapan saya akan melunasi PR mu untuk sampai puncak. 

Bukan tentang seberapa jauh dan seberapa berat medan yang ditempuh. Tapi tentang seberapa kuat tekadmu untuk melalui itu semua. Itu yang lebih penting. – dimazfakhr