[ the fact that clarisse needs to be tutored at all is, frankly, embarrassing — unfortunately, it's entirely unsurprising. she almost never pays attention in class when she's actually in it, and most of the time she's not. she's a serial skipper; it's a wonder she hasn't been kicked out just for ditching all the time. she's a "truant," as they say, but she's also the best damn quarterback they've seen since beckendorf. he graduated before clarisse even started at this school, a real high school legend, and it's her responsibility not to tarnish that legend. figuratively and literally, since he won them four straight championships in a row — they've got the trophies to prove it.

the only problem is, well, clarisse sucks at school. she's really only here for the sports and occasionally history class when they're talking about war. otherwise, she doesn't give a flying fuck. it's honestly a wonder she managed to make it all the way to senior year without flunking a year or two. it probably had to do with the nerds she forced to do her homework for a few years until they grew some balls and threatened to turn her into the principal for cheating. now she actually has to do her own work and she sucks at it. what's worse, she's stuck with percy jackson of all people, at his stupid swim practice. the smell of chlorine makes her want to punch things and she's not sure why.

at least she's not missing football practice, which isn't until tomorrow. technically, she should be benched from the team entirely because her grades are so low, but coach hedge might have made an exception in her case because, well, she's the star player and he likes winning. she also likes winning, so it's a win-win for both of them — as long as she gets her grades up by the playoffs, they'll be golden.

unfortunately, that involves spending time with percy and studying and generally doing school things. she doesn't really have that much of a problem with percy anymore — if she's going to be perfectly honest, it's because somewhere their junior year he suddenly got ... well, really hot. he's still an annoying pain in the ass, but the gods be damned, he looks damn good without a shirt. especially when he's wet and his hair hangs in his face... it's really the only thing that's making this afternoon tolerable, which is something she never thought she would say, ever. percy jackson making something tolerable.

and yet, just the sound of his voice makes her want to punch things all over again. it's not necessarily his voice, exactly — there's something about it, something about the way he enunciates things that makes it so distinct — just the fact that he's harping on her about her homework. which ... to be honest, she isn't actually doing. she's mostly just been staring at him the whole time she's been here, because watching percy swim is far more engaging than her geometry homework.

no, she wants to say, i've been distracted. but like hell she's about to admit that. she glares over at percy like she's offended he's even questioning her, when he actually has every right to question her. she's really just offended that they can't scrap this whole tutoring thing and find something better to do with their time. they're hardly even friends, but like that really matters when it comes to making out in the locker room. ]

Maybe. [ not. she stares down at the workbook page that's currently open on her lap, entirely blank except for a few doodles of stick figures dying horrible deaths in or on top of various different shapes. she scribbles at one of them furiously, making it look it's on fire, then she glances back at percy, entirely unenthused. ] You've been having fun. You know, it's not exactly fair if I'm suffering and you're not. Aren't you supposed to be teaching me, not just neglecting me for your stupid swim thing and hoping I do my homework? Because it's working out really great so far.

[ the thing about percy is he doesn't know when to shut up. she's lost count of how many times she's wanted to shut him up in ways that don't involve a swift punch in the arm. silena likes to give her that look like she knows something — but it's not exactly a secret between them that she'd sometimes like to fuck percy jackson. some way or another, silena dragged it out of her or maybe she just guessed, clarisse can't remember. that girl has a weird sixth sense when it comes to relationships and shit. she's like a walking, talking cosmo magazine, and while normally that would turn clarisse off, there's something different about silena that has always drawn clarisse to her and somehow they ended up best friends. she guesses it makes sense, at least a little, because how can the quarterback and the head cheerleader not be friends? half the school thinks they're secretly lesbians. (which isn't entirely untrue — there was that one okay a couple times they fooled around when her dad was away on business and they had the whole house to themselves, but, you know, that's normal, right?)

she opens her mouth to interject, but he keeps on steamrolling and all she can really do is sit there and look unimpressed with him. she could just talk over him if she wanted or roll her eyes (well, actually, she does roll her eyes) and make that gesture with her hand that means "blah blah blah" because she isn't really listening to him, but she will admit she's intrigued by this idea of a rewards system. they're on the same brainwave for about five seconds because she's just sitting there thinking, what the hell do i want? from percy, no less. she doubts he'd go for "i'll finish my homework if you make out with me."

except he does, sort of, actually takes it a step further, and for a moment clarisse is so floored she doesn't even have a witty comeback. (he's joking, right? he has to be joking. but part of her is really hoping he's not.) and, really, the first thing out of her mouth should have been excuse me? in the most indignant tone she could muster for him thinking that propositioning her for sex is even remotely funny or that it would even be enticing enough for her to agree to do her homework in exchange — what actually leaves her mouth is the exact opposite of that, even if she is still a little shellshocked. it's a damn good motivation, she'll give him that.

but it isn't until he's walking away that she manages to snap out of her "did he seriously just say that" stupor and accept his challenge. it doesn't actually matter if the answers on her homework are right, right? she just has to do it. which ... she thinks she can attempt. even if he was joking — which he probably was; why would percy want to have sex with her? — she'll get something out of it, but it's not like she's really getting her hopes up. if it did come to that, though ... well, she's nothing if not fair when it comes to sex — she'd make it worth his while as much as he'd make it worth hers. ]

You're on, Jackson!

[ it'll be a challenge trying to ignore percy swimming, but there's nothing she doesn't like more than a good challenge. she looks back at the geometry page she hadn't been working on and attempts to focus on the questions rather than percy diving into the pool. ]