Annabeth Chase leans her head on the cool glass of the car window. She squints and looks up, annoyed at the weather. It was a sunny, beautiful day, and it seemed to be mocking her. Here she was, sitting in the passenger seat of a mid- sized sedan, driven by a father who doesn't care about her, with all of her things packed in bags in the back seat, about to be dropped off at a madhouse… and the sun had the audacity to shine un- hindered by any clouds whatsoever.
Oh, excuse me. Not a mad house. A 'friendly and safe environment with a helpful staff devoted to helping troubled adolescents and getting them on a good track'. Annabeth knew those words by heart- she'd read the pamphlet at least a million times.
And the real meaning behind all those words? A mad house. A looney bin where parents ship off their unwanted and messed up kids for the summer.
Friendly and safe environment my ass Annabeth thought. She'd heard the stories. Her father was driving her directly to hell.
Still, a voice in the back of her head thought, it can't be any worse than life back at home.
Annabeth told that voice to shut up.
She felt the speed of the car start to slow down as they turned into a parking lot. Annabeth tried to ignore the ball of dread she felt in her stomach, but it was no use.
She watched her father park the car, and swiftly unbuckle his seatbelt before opening his door. All broad, concise movements. Her father was a man of few words, and even fewer unnecessary movements. Everything he did had purpose.
Annabeth got out of the car as well, and pulled out her suitcase while ignoring her dad's offer to help her. She didn't want his help. She slowly walked towards the entrance of the building. It had a brick façade, and the entire complex was comprised of 3 buildings; two smaller ones flanking the larger, main one.
Annabeth glanced once more up at the sun. While she was angry at it for being so cheery, she still closed her eyes and allowed her skin to soak up the last few rays she had a feeling she would be having for a while.
As soon as she walked inside, she was blasted by cold air. Pulling her baggy gray sweatshirt even tighter around her body, Annabeth's stormy gray eyes surveyed her surroundings. Everything was painted white, and reminded her of a hospital, which, she supposed, wasn't such a far stretch- although it didn't smell like a hospital, which was good. She could also tell they tried their hardest to make it feel homey. Paintings hung on the walls, a crackling fireplace surrounded by a couch and loveseat that looked like they haven't been sat on in about 30 years.
Coming back to reality, Annabeth saw her dad was already up at the counter, talking to the receptionist.
That tended to happen to her a lot. When you pair high intelligence with extreme depression, let's just say that the result isn't a very friendly, sociable one. A lot of times Annabeth just felt detached from the world. The less friends she had, and the lonelier she felt at home (and everywhere else), the more reason to shut your mouth and keep to your daydreams.
She strides up to the counter, admiring the smooth sound the wheels on her suitcase made as she rolled it behind her, and the echo the large with room and linoleum floors gave it.
She kept as much distance between herself and her father as he signed some forms. Annabeth briefly wondered why she didn't have any forms to sign, but then remembered why. She was here, standing in this very place because she's crazy. Her judgment's screwed, and she's a danger to herself. It was a bit of an insult to Annabeth. As someone who is very proud of her intellectual achievements, the fact that she was being treated like her opinions didn't matter was slightly degrading.
Of course, her 'opinions' were a part of what landed her in this place. Right.
She would have sighed to herself upon coming to this conclusion, but she saw the way the receptionist was eyeing her. She obviously was trying to see what was wrong with Annabeth, (because what else would you do if you worked at a place for crazy people?) and sighing after having an argument with herself in her mind wasn't going to do her any favors.
Seconds passed, and she still felt the receptionist's eyes on her. Irritated, Annabeth stared her straight in the eyes, and looked her up and down, hoping she would feel what it was like.
Annabeth's dad appeared to be finished with all his signing. The receptionist, whose nametag indicated was named Natasha, grabbed the papers, and stapled them all together. She picked up a beige phone with a curly cord on it and said, "Grover, please report to the lobby"
Natasha warily eyed the large gap between father and daughter, and cleared her throat. "Um, your guide should be here any minute to give you the tour…" She looked down at the papers, searching for her name "…Annabeth. Uh, and then you'll have to be going. So say your goodbye's now. We'll notify you of any upcoming visiting days"
Annabeth snorted out loud. Visiting days, yeah right. No one was going to come for those. Her dad looked her over and sighed.
"Annabeth, we've been over this. It's for the best. A smart girl like you should kn-"
Annabeth was suddenly so done with all of his crap. He's said that a million times, never without that patronizing tone that irritated her so much "Stop." She said sharply "You can't wait to leave, I can tell. So just go."
Natasha seemed to be used to arguments like this. She didn't even look up, and just kept typing on her computer with those ridiculously long finger nails that every single receptionist seemed to have.
When Annabeth looked back up, her father was gone. Of course. She thought bitterly.
She heard a loud ding echo around the room, and carefully watched as a fairly young boy stepped out of the elevator. He had rusty red- brown hair that was tucked under a Rasta cap.
"Hi" he says cheerfully. "My name's Grover. You must be Annabeth." The aforementioned cheerfulness, surprisingly, seemed to be genuine. "I would give you the upbeat and happy welcome speech that they made me memorize, but you don't seem to be in the best of moods."
The blonde laughed bitterly "How could anyone possibly be in a good mood when they were just dumped off at a building full of crazies by a father who never cared?" Annabeth instantly regretted the words as soon as they fell out of her mouth. "I'm sorry, that was a lot to dump on yo-"
Grover stopped her. "It's ok, I get it." They were in the elevator now, and Grover presses the big shiny 2 button. " No one is ever happy to be here. But I swear, it's not as bad as you think. Sure, there are a lot of different people with a lot of different illnesses and diseases and disorders, but…"
Annabeth glanced at him with her calculating gray eyes. He was choosing his words carefully. As much as she enjoyed quick, witty retorts, there was something to be said about people who always try to say the right words.
"But, the whole purpose of this place is to heal. We wouldn't be ranked as one of the top in the country if our methods didn't work." Little did he know, the last thing Annabeth wanted was for their 'methods' to work "Instead of grouping people up by the type of disorder they have, we purposefully split them up into groups. The point is that you make friends. And like it or not, friends can really help each other out."
Grover must have noticed the unsure look of Annabeth's face. All this talk about friends was making her anxious.
She'd never been any good at making friends. "And I swear, this isn't some speech they make me memorize. I really mean all this stuff I'm saying"
Despite herself, she cracked a dry smile that disappeared just as soon as it came. Annabeth wasn't used to smiling anymore. She tried to speak, but her throat was so used to not speaking, it took her a few tries to make her words sound coherent. "This is great and all, but shouldn't there be a meeting or something with the director? So I know how all this works?"
"Uh, there was a meeting… your parents must have come without you." Grover says uncertainly. He was giving her that look.
Annabeth hated that look. Almost everyone who knew about her 'issues' looked at her that way. It was full of uncertainty and fear. They looked at Annabeth as if she were a bomb about to explode, or that she was so fragile that if they said the wrong thing, they would break her.
"Parent" she corrected softly. "Susan is my step mom." Of course he would go to the meeting without her. Wouldn't want Annabeth to know what rules she would be forced to live by for the next few months.
They had been walking through a rather short hallway that was painted a light green. Grover led her to a door near the end that had a rather dull looking 4B on it. Grover hesitated before knocking on the door. "I'm gonna warn you now: she's really awesome, just… be careful."
He left Annabeth to ponder those words while he knocked, and hearing no response, Grover opened the door.
The first impression of the room was that it was small. There wasn't much to it, really. Two twin beds on either corner of the room, each accompanied with a small nightstand and a dresser respectively. On the right, there was a closed door that Annabeth assumed to be the bathroom. In another corner accompanied by a lamp, was a small reading chair. The room was painted dull beige that was probably supposed to be calming, but it just looked like every other neutral shade every other wall in this place was painted.
One half of the room was clearly inhabited. Rumpled sheets, a few items on the night stand, and a general disheveled look to one half of the room. Lost in her stupor of examining the aesthetics of the room, Annabeth had almost missed the fact that there was a person sitting on one of the beds. Lost in her thoughts, once again.
"Annabeth, this is your new roommate Thalia." Annabeth nodded at the other girl. She had dark, choppy hair and wore mostly black, with the exception of a silver bracelet on her wrist. The most shocking part of her was her eyes. When Annabeth looked at them, the startling contrast between the sky blue hue of her iris and the thick line of black eyeliner was, for lack of a better word, eye catching.
Instinctively, just being in the presence of another person was making Annabeth anxious and self- conscious- it was a habit. So when Thalia energetically hopped of the bed to give Grover a hug, she couldn't help but be a little nervous.
"Long time, no see Grover" Thalia smiled and Grover affectionately patted her back and nodded.
"This is Annabeth. Can you show her around and help her get settled?" As Thalia nodded, the two girls looked at each other. Annabeth looked at her critically, trying to figure out what was wrong with her.
That was worded a bit harshly, but it seemed necessary when everyone there had something that was at least bad enough to get them sent away. She seemed perfectly fine, though. Her black shirt was short- sleeved that showed no visible scars on her arms. She wasn't deathly pale or thin, and her social interaction seemed to be fairly normal.
Annabeth, wanting to make a good impression on the person she will undoubtedly be spending the better part of her summer with, put on her best smile and said hi. Show your teeth, look happy, be a good girl. The usual when it comes to dealing with people. "I can take it from here." Thalia says in a pretty bold statement basically telling Grover to leave.
As soon as he is gone, the smile vanishes from Thalia's face. Not in a sinister way, but more like an 'it's just you and me, so I'm going to stop being fake' kind of way.
Good Annabeth thought. She was so used to pretending, that it was getting easier and easier to notice when other people were, too.
"I'd ask you what you're in for, but I know how uncomfortable is to have to repeat all that, so I'll wait and let you say it in front of everyone." Thalia says her voice full of candor.
"In front of everyone?" Annabeth asks. Traumatizing images of her standing in front of a room filled with people, telling everyone how screwed up she is flashed through her mind.
"Nah, not everyone. Though everyone will know eventually. I just mean to our table." Thalia says, as if it's obvious. Which, clearly, it isn't.
Table? It frustrated Annabeth when she couldn't figure out what people were saying.
".. Okay, you look confused. So you know how they group us up? To make friends?" Annabeth nodded slowly. "Well, considering you're my roommate, that means that we sit at the same table for meals."
Annabeth's stomach dropped when she heard the word meals.
Thalia, unknowing of this, continues "So, since we're supposed to build trust and become friends and all that, I have no doubt they're going to ask you why you're here."
Annabeth nods, once again. This must be a new record for the most head nods in a day, she thinks.
"Right, so lunch is pretty soon. We'll leave in a few minutes."
Annabeth nods and slips into the bathroom for a second of peace. Never in her whole life has this much happened to her in a single day, all before noon. Annabeth notices the lack of a lock on the door. She was going to have to get used to living in such sheltered conditions. She turns on the tap and splashes cold water on her face, then slowly lowers herself into a crouching position on the cool tiled floor. For once in the whole day, she felt calm. While there were undoubtedly some people in this facility that were claustrophobic, Annabeth was one of those people who enjoy tight spaces. They made her feel secure and calm. She could always rely on a cool bathroom corner or the back of a coat closet to calm her down, help her get control of herself (or as much control as she even had anymore; which, admittedly, isn't much)
While she had been complaining about being slammed in here with a bunch of crazy people, that really wasn't the main issue. The thing was, she got put here to get better. And she doesn't want to get better.
There bathroom door was softly eased open. "Annabeth? Are you ok?" Thalia's voice was surprisingly soft and gentle. It was a stark contrast from the energetic and bossy person that Annabeth could have sworn was behind the door a few seconds ago.
She blonde haired, gray eyed girl squinted up at Thalia. "Yeah… yeah, I'm fine. It's just, uh… a lot to get used to." She said shakily.
Thalia nodded, understanding. Anyone there could probably relate. Thalia eased Annabeth up and led her out to the hall, toward the cafeteria. "It is really different. Suddenly being treated like some crazy puzzle, not a person. And being stripped of trust, too; No locks, regular bag checks, weigh- ins, blood tests and therapy almost every day."
Annabeth let out the shaky breath she didn't know she had been holding in. That was a lot to digest all at once.
Speaking of digestion, they were nearing the cafeteria. The smell of garlic bread and spaghetti made Annabeth feel delirious, but not in a good way. Thalia pushed open the big double doors, and immediately started walking towards a table in the very back.
Annabeth wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but whatever it was, this certainly wasn't it. The cafeteria wasn't as loud and rowdy as a typical high school cafeteria, but it wasn't that stale quiet you would expect from a mental hospital.
Thalia plopped down next to a small, dark haired boy (thankfully, without getting food first) There were only three people besides Annabeth and Thalia sitting at their table, and Annabeth wondered if this was their whole group. A pale girl with jade green eyes, a sprinkle of freckles across her nose, and frizzy red hair was the first to notice Annabeth. "Ooh a newbie" She clapped her hands excitedly. The combination of those two gestures caught the attention of the other two boys.
"Guys, this is Annabeth." Thalia put her hand on Annabeth's shoulder "Annabeth, this is Rachel, Nico and Percy." Sitting next to Rachel, the boy Thalia mentioned as Nico, immediately reminded Annabeth of Thalia. They both wore dark clothes and had dark hair, but that's about where the similarities end. Nico had obsidian black hair and dark purple bags under his eyes. He nodded at Annabeth but seemed to be fairly disinterested with the entire thing.
The other boy, though, he was a different story. He also had black hair (a freaky trend Annabeth was beginning to notice) and wore a crooked smile. Thalia seemed to be a bit surprised at his smile, as if he didn't smile much. Annabeth didn't understand why, because his smile graced his features quite well. Whatever the case, his smile instantly made Annabeth smile back, which was weird.
His eyes were a strange color. They were green but not like Rachel's. Instead they were a bright sea green, which happened to be Annabeth's exact favorite color.
A/N Lame ending, I know. But go easy on me, I'm still getting back into the swing of writing again. I don't want all the Percabeth to develop right away, though, because what kind of a plot it that? If you liked it, comment, favorite and follow :)
Hopefully the next chapter will be up sometime this week….