It was any normal day after school in Manhattan. The only abnormal thing was that Annabeth Chase was walking home as rain pitter-pattered on the sidewalk around her. She wore a smooth blue trench coat with little gold designs over a simple gold dress. Her navy blue heels clicked quietly on the ground as she walked with her hood up and her hands in the pockets of her coat, trying to stay out of the rain.
Normally, the girl would've hailed a taxi to her penthouse, but that day had been a particularly bad one. All of the money she had taken to school with her had fallen in the hallway, and some sleazy kid had grabbed it and run off before she could tell them to give it back. Thus, she had no money to pay a taxi driver. She also had been purposely tripped in the hallway by none other than the school's star jock, Percy Jackson, putting a runner in her tights and a scuff on her left shoe, as if she needed something other than just the rain to ruin her outfit.
So Annabeth was stuck in the position of a lowly Brooklynite, walking briskly home and trying to get there as quickly as she could, lest someone from her school should see her and pick fun at her; which, of course, would be just her luck.
As one of the elite of Manhattan, Annabeth dressed in designer clothes and went to one of the most prestigious schools. She had carried her head high through most of middle school and high school, being one of the most popular girls around. To make it better, she started dating Luke Castellan in her freshman year, a dreamy junior who was quarterback of the football team and in all honors classes to top it all off. Annabeth had everything in the palm of her hand.
She couldn't pinpoint when her fall from grace began. Maybe it was when the school caught wind of her struggle with depression, or maybe it was when Luke left her at the end of her sophomore, his senior year, because the "distance would be too much of a problem," when in all reality, they both knew it was because if her image fell then his image would fall too. Or maybe it was after that, when she didn't come to school for a week after the breakup.
All she knew was that she was now the laughingstock of the school, especially Percy Jackson, who had transferred schools during their sophomore year and had quickly become captain of the swimming team and Luke's substitute quarterback; though now that they were juniors, he filled the full role of quarterback. It was all too easy for Percy to become popular. He was attractive, and he was great at sports; then, when Annabeth hit her downfall and became all the gossip of the school, he was head of the make-Annabeth's-life-hell committee, always spreading rumors he heard about her and teasing her whenever he had the chance, which boosted his image even more.
Just as she was thinking about how he had tripped her in the hall earlier that day, gritting her teeth, and clenching her fists, she heard a loud honk of a sports car to her right. Groaning internally, she turned her head just slightly to see who was driving the car. Sure enough, there was none other than Percy Jackson and his squad; Jason Grace, Leo Valdez, Grover Underwood, Frank Zhang, Hazel Levesque, Piper McClean, and Calypso Sands, all lounging haphazardly in the sports car clearly much too small for all of them, but with the girls practically on top of the boys, it really didn't matter much.
Annabeth quickly looked away from the scene and fixed her gaze straight forward, her mouth forming a straight line as she refused to make eye contact with the driver of the sports car, who was deliberately honking, turning up the bass so that it shook the sidewalk, and jerking the car forward and then stopping each time she managed to get ahead of it.
This went on for a few minutes before the window finally rolled down and Percy yelled out, "Chase!" When Annabeth once again refused to look at him, he tried again. "Hey, Chase, look over here, slut!" This time, she turned and met him with a glare. He grinned, knowing he'd gotten to her, and continued, "Isn't it true that Castellan broke up with you end of last year because you slept around with our entire class?"
"No." Annabeth snapped, her eyes glaring daggers into Percy's. "That's not true. Maybe you should get your facts straight. After all, you didn't even go to this school until last year. So you have no room to talk." She turned and tried to walk again, but he once again jerked the sports car up next to her. She could hear the roaring laughter and suggestions of insults to say drifting from the back seat of the car, and she felt anger boiling under her skin.
"But yet I'm more popular than you, how is that so?" Jackson went on, his voice sounding all too pleased with how the situation was going. "I think I'm right, honey. So why did you sleep with everyone, hmm? Was it because you had an inferiority complex and needed reassurance that you were still good in bed? I heard Luke didn't sleep with you at all towards the end of your relationship. It's probably because he didn't think you were good enough. Is that why you needed the reassurance? You know, I think that-,"
"Shut up!" Annabeth snapped her voice nearly a shriek. Her gray eyes, lately dull, like a slab of silver left unattended for a while, suddenly full of life like raging storm clouds. "Stop making stuff up, Jackson! You know none of that is true, so shut up! No one knows what happened but me and Luke, and that's all that matters, okay?! So stop making up lies, because none of it is true!"
Percy inched the car closer to her and turned up the bass more so that the boisterous people in the back seat wouldn't hear him. He leaned out the window with a smirk, seeming to get quite a kick out of messing with her. "None of it is true, but who are they going to believe, me or you?" Deepening his cruel smirk, he drew back and swerved the car back out into the lane, leaving Annabeth glaring after him and seething. He looked like he was going to yell another jab at her when a car behind them honked angrily, forcing Percy to drive like a normal person.
Annabeth huffed, crossing her arms as they drove away and continuing on her way, realizing by now that her attempts to get home without getting too wet were futile, because she was drenched from the rain which was only pouring down harder. The car that had forced Percy to speed up flashed away, leaving the backroad dull as usual until Annabeth reached the main road that led to her penthouse.
When she finally got to it, she opened the door to find one of the Chase family's two maids, Leona, standing there looking worried. Annabeth brushed past her and kicked her heels off into a corner, dropping her bag next to them as Leona hurriedly helped Annabeth get her coat off and rushed it over to a bin of clothes to be washed and dried.
"Where have you been, mistress?" Leona asked concernedly as she darted around Annabeth like a hummingbird, glancing at her and her belongings quickly for clues. "You never arrive home this late. Did you not hail a taxi? Your coat is soaked! And your shoes are scuffed!" She fixed Annabeth with a worried look, her bright blue eyes glimmering. "Should I have Margaret make you a spot of tea, or have Hestia prepare the fire for you mistress?"
"I'm fine, Leona," Annabeth said, forcing her voice to sound calm after her encounter with Percy Jackson. It wavered slightly and she swallowed to suppress her anger with him. "Someone took the money I would've used for the taxi today at school. I dropped it, and they picked it up and ran off. But tea does sound nice right now."
Leona nodded quickly, seeming to think it better not to push Annabeth when she was angry, and scurried off. Annabeth sighed, walking across the lavish parlor into a large room with a big, blue couch in it. She fell onto the couch, listening to the sound of black character shoe heels clicking as Hestia, the other maid, brought her a white blanket and draped it over the lower half of her body.
Hestia, much less energetic and talkative than Leona, walked away in silence just as she had come, nodding only in response to Annabeth's thanks. Shortly after, Margaret came out, wearing a gray dress as opposed to the maids' black dresses, indicating that she cooked for the family, and set a cup of tea on the table next to Annabeth.
"Have you been having trouble at school again?" Margaret asked, as though on second thought as she had nearly turned to walk out, her voice sounding soft and motherly as she spoke to Annabeth. "Your mother would be very worried if she knew you were going through another bout of depression. Are the kids still being mean to you?"
"No, it's not that, Margaret," Annabeth lied easily, knowing the last thing she needed was to 'worry' her mother. "But I appreciate your concern. I just dropped my money today, that's all. It wasn't anyone being mean to me."
The cook nodded and walked off, accepting the teen's answer and deciding that she would press further only if Annabeth showed more signs of depression again. In her mind, Annabeth hadn't even lied; lying came naturally to the blonde, as was necessary if she were to hold her place among the rest of the elite of the city.
Once the staff of the house finished their flurry of checkups on Annabeth, which happened every day when she got home from school, she relaxed and pulled out her phone, checking it but knowing full well that only one person would have texted her, if at all.
Sure enough, only one name popped up on the screen.
Thals: Hey, bitch.
Annabeth smiled slightly, typing back a response.
Annabeth: Hey.
Thals: So, there's this party tomorrow…
Annabeth: No.
Thals: Please Annie? Everyone in the school is invited, even you.
Annabeth: Great, so literally everyone can make fun of me.
Thals: No, what I meant by that was there'll be so many people that they won't even notice you.
Annabeth: Yeah, okay. Sure they won't.
Thals: They won't! Come on, Annie, please! It'll be fun!
Annabeth: I don't like parties.
Thals: You love parties!
Annabeth: I don't like people.
Thals: Duh, that's why you have me.
Annabeth: is typing a response.
Thals: Hurry up bitch you've been typing for almost five minutes.
Annabeth: Fine, I'll go.
Thals: Good, because if you said no I was going to knock you out and drag you.
Annabeth: And it's tomorrow…?
Thals: Yep. Be there or be dragged there.
Annabeth: The term is 'be there or be square.'
Thals: Don't tell me how to live my life.
Thals: Cya, hoe.
Sighing, Annabeth set her phone on the table and sipped the cup of tea that had been set down next to her. 'Great,' Annabeth thought, running a hand through her loose blonde curls, 'Now Thalia's dragging me to a party with literally everyone who hates me. What could possibly go wrong?'
Finishing her tea, she took the cup out to the kitchen and put it on the rack of dishes that needed to be cleaned, then turned and went up to her bedroom, where she fell on the queen-sized burgundy-colored bed, turning on Netflix and putting on Silver Linings Playbook while she pulled out her homework and started to complete it.
And that was how most of her evenings went. She got home, the maids attended to her, she talked to Thalia (though it was usually about Thalia beating someone up, not asking Annabeth to go to some social event which to her meant asking her to go through hell), and then she went, did her homework, and watched Netflix, occasionally going to a café or diner with Thalia for dinner and maybe going to a bar or club.
She had no reason to go to parties, as she was never invited, or to throw them, as no one would show up. Her life in middle school and the beginning of high school seemed just like a dream to her; something unattainable and unbelievable. How could she have ever been so popular? How could all of her 'friends' have liked her so much, only to leave as soon as something bad happened to her, rather than stand by her side through it all?
That was how most of the elite of Manhattan were, though. They just stuck with whoever was the most popular. Everyone else were unimportant, merely targets for the school's jeering and hatred. You were either liked by everyone or liked by no one. Annabeth often thought that she was lucky to have befriended Thalia, the only person who seemed to hate everyone but love the person who everyone hated, which was ironic in its own way.
The evening passed uneventfully. As usual, no one came home; Annabeth's mother, Athena Gray, was on a business trip that was sure to last at least two weeks, sending a check every week with a large sum of money to keep Annabeth going as usual. Her father, Frederick Chase, lived with her stepmother, Helen (which was the only name Annabeth knew her as) and her two half siblings, Bobby and Matthew, in a small apartment in Brooklyn.
Annabeth often thought of that side of her family with contempt. Her father hadn't even fought for custody over her; she assumed it was because her stepmother had never liked her. Bobby and Matthew hardly knew she existed, thinking of her more as a distant cousin than as a sister. Annabeth and her father's side of the family hardly spoke, and when they did, it was usually Frederick begging one of the maids to send some money, and then Annabeth would take the phone and tell Frederick that a couple thousand dollars were on the way, and that eventually they would stop sending money and he'd need to get a sufficient job (which never seemed to happen.)
Although it upset Annabeth that her mother was almost always gone, she knew she was better off living with Athena than she would be with Frederick. If she thought life was rough going to Goode and being the main target for hatred, she didn't want to imagine what it would be like going to a large public school in Brooklyn under her father's care. That would be a whole new level of awful.
The rest of the dull, average evening slipped by, and Annabeth went to bed, waiting for the next day with a feeling of dread.
In the morning, Annabeth got up bright and early as usual; despite despising school, she still kept her orderly routine, and worked to protect what little image she had left. Leona came in exactly ten minutes after Annabeth got up to make the bed and tidy up a bit. Meanwhile, Annabeth went into her bathroom and changed into a pale blue dress with quarter-length sleeves and a white bow on the back. She brushed out her loose blonde curls and put on a pair of white character shoes.
Then, she headed downstairs, where a small croissant was prepared on a white plate, and a cup of orange juice was next to it. Annabeth cast a sidelong glance at Margaret, who was pretending she didn't notice Annabeth's presence. Clearing her throat, Annabeth said in a soft yet stern voice, "Margaret? You know I always eat fruit for breakfast."
"You need to eat something substantial, young lady," Margaret said in an equally as stern voice. Annabeth frowned and the two had a short stare-down before Annabeth finally sighed with resignation and sat down at the dining table, eating the croissant with a slight attitude in her movements to show that she wasn't happy about it. Margaret was the only staff member of the house who Annabeth would obey. The motherly cook had practically raised her since Athena was always away. Margaret watched her for a few moments before heading back into the kitchen.
When she finished eating the croissant, Annabeth left it on the table for Margaret to pick up. She felt a slight sense of defiance, so she didn't take it out to the kitchen like she normally would. Gathering her things for school, Annabeth pulled on her royal blue jacket and hailed a taxi, both ecstatic that it was Friday and dreading the fact that it was Friday.
The blonde walked into school with her head down, awaiting the insults, jeers, and jabs that always came from the people around her. When none came, she frowned and looked up. People were whispering and nudging each other, but they weren't casting glances at Annabeth. Instead, their attention seemed drawn to a girl with straight red hair and emerald eyes, who was practically hiding in her locker.
'Rachel Elizabeth Dare?' Annabeth thought with a frown. She was grateful that they weren't whispering about her, but at the same time, she wondered what the ever-popular RED had done to make everyone talk about her behind her back—and to make her hide by her locker in shame. Quietly, she sped up, going to her own locker before anyone could remember that just the day before they had been making fun of her and not Rachel.
Quickly grabbing her things for her first class, Annabeth headed to first period, where her best friend Thalia was sitting on a desk and preaching to a huge group of people about the rumors about Rachel. Annabeth frowned, wondering if Thalia had been the one to start all of this. She had been complaining about all the people making fun of Annabeth, and she had never particularly liked Rachel, but Annabeth couldn't see Thalia making up rumors about RED.
The blonde walked over to Thalia, clearly unnerved by the large group of people around her best friend, though they didn't even seem to notice the girl who had been their target for gossip for the past year. Annabeth tapped Thalia on the shoulder, and the dark-haired girl turned to look at her friend.
"Hey, Beth; did you hear about RED too? Man, it really is hilarious!"
"Thalia," Annabeth said quietly, her eyes flicking nervously toward the group of people gathered around them, "Did you start the rumors about her?"
"No," Thalia said, frowning for a split second. "Of course I didn't. But listen to this! Apparently she got knocked up by Solace—Will Solace. You know, the kid who is obviously gay for Nico DiAngelo? Yeah, it's definitely not good for her reputation. And she's not even denying it, either, which means it must've been true."
"That's nice, Thalia, but I don't think I want to be involved with this particular gossip."
Thalia's eyebrows furrowed. "What's the matter, Beth? It's just gossip."
"Yeah, and even though I hate RED as much as you do, I know how much 'just gossip' can hurt. And the fact that they're all coming onto this from hating me… it just feels weird. So can we please not get involved with this?" Annabeth's eyes were pleading, and Thalia sighed, waving off the group of kids who seemed to be hanging on her every word. They pouted, clearly yearning to hear more about the ironically hilarious scandal, but obeying Thalia because she was terrifying.
Thalia leaned down next to Annabeth with a grin, seeming to forget the serious moment they had just had, and asked excitedly, "You're going to the party tonight, right?"
"Even though I don't want to, yeah, I am going." Annabeth replied, sighing slightly as she sat down at the desk next to Thalia's. Thalia grinned wider, sitting in her seat as opposed to on the desk as she had been before.
"Good. It'll be fun, I promise." Thalia said, flashing her signature grin at Annabeth, though her captivating electric blue eyes made it look intimidating. Scratch that; everything Thalia did looked or seemed intimidating.
The period went by quickly, and the day wore on. Annabeth heard more and more about RED and heard less and less about her, which was both relieving and a little unsettling. It relieved her that they were off her back, but it was unsettling how quickly they had jumped from one ship to another—and RED was NOT handling it well.
After their lunch period ended, Annabeth managed to catch Rachel in the hall. "Dare!" she said, grabbing the taller girl's arm. "Hey, Dare, I'm not going to make fun of you." The redhead turned and fixed her with an unreadable expression.
"Look, I wanted to tell you not to let it get to you. They've made fun of me for the past year. It's awful, sure, but they just need someone to make fun of all the time. Just ignore it, okay?" Annabeth said, hoping the ginger would take her words to heart. Rachel's eyes flickered with something and she looked almost grateful for a second, but then she whipped away.
"Great," Rachel said in a miserable sarcastic voice as she flipped a lock of red hair over one shoulder, "Now I have the biggest loser of the school trying to give me advice. What could be worse?" But as the redhead brushed past Annabeth, she said softly, so softly that Annabeth wasn't sure if it was real or if she'd imagined it, "Thanks, Chase." And with that, Rachel was gone.
The second half of the day passed by much like the first half, and soon enough, they were heading out of the building. Annabeth felt lighter than she had in months, and she walked with a newfound spring in her step to the edge of the road, where she hailed a taxi. Unfortunately, just as she waved her hand to get the taxi to stop, another hand went up as well.
"Jackson?" she asked incredulously, turning to look at the dark-haired boy with one eyebrow raised in questioning. "What happened to your fancy little sports car? And your pack of idiots?" the blonde crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow at the jock as the taxi pulled to a stop next to them.
"Mom told me I can't drive again until tomorrow," Percy said, grinning in a teasing way, "and since it was because we got a ticket for the way we drove next to you yesterday, we can act like it was your fault. As for my 'pack,' they all have other ways of getting home." He started to open the door to the taxi when Annabeth stuck out an arm blocking him.
"No way, I got this taxi first!" she snapped, and he rolled his eyes exasperatedly.
"Guess we'll just both have to take it." Percy shoved ahead of Annabeth and got in the taxi, and though she looked beyond annoyed, she plopped into the seat next to him. After closing the door, she scooched over to the window and practically pressed against the inside wall of the car, not looking at Percy as they told the driver where they were each headed.
They rode in tense silence; at least, it felt tense to Annabeth. After what felt like an eternity, the driver pulled up outside of Annabeth's penthouse. She slid out of the taxi and went to hand the driver her money, when she noticed his hand moved more toward her skirt than the money. She slapped it away and tossed the money in the passenger's seat, snapping, "Pervert!" before she slammed the door shut and headed inside.
Had she stayed a moment longer, she might've seen the angry look that crossed Percy's face and heard him tell the driver off for being such a creep. But she never would have stayed a moment longer, and he never would've allowed her to see that.
Walking quietly and shaking off the disturbing encounter from the taxi, Annabeth managed to slip into her penthouse without the maids noticing her, and went to her room before they could talk to her. She kicked off her heels and fell onto her bed, her mind buzzing with the day and a million different questions and wonderings whirling around her mind. Like, how had RED become the target of the school seemingly overnight? Did this mean everyone would just stop making fun of Annabeth? Could she finally rise back to popularity? And what would this mean for RED?
Sighing, Annabeth rolled over and stared at the wall, contemplating how the day had gone. On one hand, it was great. On the other, it was a little unnerving. Annabeth wasn't sure how long she'd just stared at the wall thinking when her phone rang, jolting her out of her thoughts. She picked up the phone and frowned, seeing she hadn't gotten to it in time and that she had a missed call from a blocked number.
Not even thirty seconds had passed when a text popped up on Annabeth's screen, also from a blocked number, and which she assumed was from the same person who had called her. She stared at the message for a while, her mind not fully comprehending it at first.
BLOCKED: Hey, Chase… better watch out for little RED. You may be used to it, but under the pressure, she's as good as dead.
Annabeth hastily deleted the message and made sure the hidden number was blocked and wouldn't be able to text her again. 'What a creep,' she thought as she set her phone off to the side and shook her head in disbelief. 'I guess some of them haven't forgotten that I was always the person to make fun of prior to this.'
She considered texting Thalia about the mysterious message, but decided against it, instead opting to check social media quickly and read up on the rumors about Rachel, since she still hadn't heard all of them, or at least, she hadn't heard any that she could determine to be true or not. Scrolling through posts, Annabeth worked to decipher which rumors seemed to stick the most, and which seemed the least ridiculous.
By the end of her search, she had concluded that Rachel was seen making out with a boy who looked similar to Will Solace in the back of a truck, but no one knew for sure if it was Solace, or if it was Rachel that they were even seeing with him. They just assumed, and so the whole issue began. Then, someone had started the circulation of a rumor that Rachel was "pregnant with a gay kid's child," which made no sense since the supposed make-out session had occurred the night before, yet everyone seemed to be sharing that one a lot, too.
And all the while, people were digging up more and more dirt about Rachel and just adding to the pile on top of her. Annabeth thought it all seemed strangely familiar, slightly amused at how people did the same things to make fun of people and put them down, and the same things to push themselves up closer to the top.
Noting the time, the blonde stood and began to fish through her closet for something to wear to the party. She looked specifically in the part of her closet which held dresses that still had the tags on them; things she had never worn before. It was practically taboo to wear something to a party twice, after all. And now that she actually had a chance to rise back to popularity, it was a risk she wasn't going to take.
She finally decided on a pale pink chiffon knee-length dress with little crystals forming a pattern of swirls over it and a pair of lace pink flats the same color as the dress. She placed a matching bow in her hair and touched up her makeup before leaning back with a sigh. Although she was excited to rise back through the ranks, she was nervous as well; something about the evening felt wrong, though she just couldn't put a finger on what.
Just as she finished getting ready, her phone buzzed, and she needed only to glance at it to know that Thalia was outside waiting for her. She pulled on a white coat and left her room, going to the elevator and calling out to any of the maids that could hear that she was leaving for a party. She could just barely hear Leona's response as she went down to the lobby of the building and out to her friend's car.
Thalia was wearing a suggestive black dress that was mostly lace and tall black stiletto heels. The intimidating girl always wore black, regardless of what type of party it was. Somehow, she got away with the rule about never wearing the same outfit twice; although it was always a different outfit, the black still fell into that category to some extent.
"At least you weren't a no-show," Thalia commented, revving the engine and pulling out to drive to the party. She threw a glance in Annabeth's direction. "And I see you haven't forgotten how to dress to the nines either. I guess old habits never really die, huh?" Turning her head back to the road, she smiled slightly.
Annabeth shrugged with a little sigh. "I guess not. I just didn't think I'd make my reputation any worse than it already is, you know?" The only response she got was a nod from the now-focused Thalia. They drove in silence for about fifteen minutes before pulling up outside the party venue, a hotel owned by one of the seniors' families.
The two girls got out of the car and headed inside. Thalia, a few inches taller than Annabeth normally, was about half a foot taller than her in the heels she was wearing. She drifted closer to Annabeth as they headed in, fixing anyone who glanced in their direction with her icy blue glare, sending them looking away. It was a habit which she always had, and which Annabeth never really commented on. Thalia was like a guard dog of sorts, though with all the attention being on Dare, it wasn't really necessary at that time.
They entered the party upon seeing the nod of the girl who, no doubt, was roped into making sure no one who wasn't wanted at the party entered by being told that she would be able to go to the party for doing so. It was classic for people to do that to the freshmen; in all honesty, she'd never get the chance to leave her post outside the doors until the party was practically over.
Annabeth looked around when they got in, immediately seeing all of the people who, up until that day, had completely hated on her for no reason other than that her kingdom crumbled and rumors were pulled out of the rubble. And, right front and center, was Percy Jackson, a girl with way too much makeup on hanging from one of his arms, and his pack of pals lounging around him as he told a story about how he had gotten into one of the best strip clubs in Manhattan with no ID.
The blonde sighed. It was going to be a long night.
I hope you all are enjoying this story so far; I have a really great plot in mind, so please review and give suggestions!
Thanks so much!
BaNanaKittie