"Do you have any questions?"
The pink-haired girl stared lazily at Annabeth. "Nope, think I'm good. Hey, do you know where I can bum a smoke?" She smirked. "Not with you, of course."
It took all of Annabeth not to rip out the girl's nose ring and tear off brightly colored extensions. It looked like a unicorn barfed on her head.
"Smoking is not permitted." Annabeth said placidly. The girl rolled her eyes before slinking off, Doc Martens clunking against the ground.
Annabeth leaned against a nearby locker, and took a long sigh. The stupid school tour guide thing that Mom had signed her up for sucked, especially because of that bitch she had been paired up with.
So far, the girl had ignored her and replied to Annabeth's faux-friendly questions with blase remarks like: "Cool," and "Whatever,".
But, as her mother, Alice told her, it would look fantastic on a college application along with French Club, Debate Club, and almost all Honors classes. Almost all, a little voice in the back of her head nagged. Thanks to Annabeth's dyslexia, she was in "dumb" people English, or otherwise known as non-honors English.
It wasn't that she was stupid. Annabeth knew she was smart-she had gotten all A's in almost every subject, and was fantastic at trivia. But every grammar or spelling quiz when she saw a familliar red C or B in the top of the paper, she felt a familliar sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Before, her mom had been disappointed, but never cared as much. But when high school started, she had started yelling whenever her grades were not a perfect A plus. She left out out college brochures on the wooden coffee table, and forced Annabeth to flip through hundreds of stacks of flash cards. Annabeth would go to bed every night exhausted and stressed, her head a flurry of vocabulary words and Alice's frequent yells of "Jesus, Annabeth, do you even care?"
"There's my favorite little princess!"
Annabeth smiled as she saw Thalia besides her, dressed in her usual black-on-black attire. Her dark hair was in a high ponytail, and was streaked with electric green. She handed Annabeth a Starbucks cup.
"You're a lifesaver," Annabeth said before gulping down the coffee. It burned the back of her throat, but she swallowed the last of it nevertheless. Thalia shrugged. "No prob, dude. Besides, I know you get like a zombie without your caffeine."
Some people didn't get why Annabeth and Thalia were best friends. Thalia was cynical, goth, and had a slightly unhealthy obsession with Sally Hansen skull-printed nail strips. Annabeth was the slightly nerdy, Stanford bound "princess" who loved Doctor Who and long games of Monopoly. But somehow, they clicked.
"Hey Thalia, nice outfit. Where's the funeral?" A nasal voice spat. A group of brunettes in matching denim miniskirts strutted by, sneering. Thalia raised her middle finger daintly and waved. "Hey clones, where's the tea party?" The nasal one bit her lip and stomped away, and Annabeth chuckled into her coffee.
"What do you have first period?" Thalia asked, taking a swig. "Um, English," Annabeth said, heart sinking. Thalia frowned. "Shit, I have History. I'll see you at lunch though, right?"
Annabeth swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded. "Kay, bye!" she waved and started down the hall when someone bumped her and her notebooks splattered to the ground. "Crap," she muttered and started to gather her books. She sent an icy glare at the unknown person.
A fantastic start to her day.
"Fuckshitcrapfuck!"
Percy swatted Grover on his beanie-capped head. "Pottymouth!" he smirked. Grover narrowed his eyes as she shoved the remainder of his rainbow Pop Tart into his stubbly mouth. "Listen, It's the first day, I can't be late on the first day!" Grover explained with his mouth full.
Percy wrinkled his nose at his best friend. "Ewww. Come on, let's go. We are way over the line for fashionably late." The two grabbed their backpacks and raced out the door and over to Grover's dark blue sedan. Grover switched on the radio, and Justin Timberlake's high pitched voice filled the car.
Percy shook his head slowly as Grover turned out of the driveway. "Dude," he said slowly. Grover held up his hand and started driving down the street. Percy snickered to himself and leaned against the window. The air outside smelled salty, like the sea.
For some weird reason, Percy loved the it was due to the fact that his dad was a fisherman, but nevertheless, he always felt oddly calm and peaceful. This morning, the marina was especially busy. A bunch of forty-something dudes in rain boots all were prepping the boats and gulping down tall cups of coffee.
They screeched up to the school. A few slackers and emo kids hung out by the front, smoking and lazily listening to screeching rock. Grover kicked open the door and ran furiously to the front, Percy right behind him. They slid into the office, breathing hard.
"Grover Underwood and Percy Jackson," Grover took in a deep breath. The receptionist gave them a look. She handed them both a tan file with the Orange County Prep stamp on it. "This has your schedule, locker number and combination, and a map of the school." Percy smiled gratefully, snatched the file, and darted down the hall.
"What you got, Perce?"
"Algebra," Percy shouted and darted down the hall. Grover did a quick salute and ran off in the other direction.
By the time he reached the classroom, he was 15 minutes late. He knocked on the door and walked in. The teacher stopped mid-sentence and narrowed her eyes.
"Late."
"Yeah, sorry. Better late than absent though, right?" Percy said. The teacher, a dowdy woman in a gray blouse, stared at him stonily.
"Take a seat, Mr. Jackson." He sighed and dumped his bag down onto a chair next to a brown-haired girl in a tight pink camisole and a barely there miniskirt.
"Hey, Anika," He leaned over to her. Anika was one of the most popular girl in school-hot, rich, and had a great ass. She wasn't really Percy's type, but he figured that he should at least start off the year well.
Anika whipped around, lip curled, and gave Percy a quick-once over. Then, her lip relaxed into a seductive smile. "Well, well, well, someone looks different," she purred. "Much, much better, I must say." she ran her hands over his wrist. Percy forced on an uncomfortable smile.
"Such a dramatic entrance."
"Eh, I've done better," he replied. Anika giggled and placed her hand over Percy's. It was warm, and little devil horns were painted on her thumb nails. "I missed you, Perce. You were always so cute," She whispered into his ear. Percy had a faint memory from freshman year when Anika frequently called him "Kelp Balls", referring to his dead fisherman father. He shook off the memory and tried not to blush.
A sharp coughing noise interrupted them. "Refrain from osculating in class, Mr. Jackson and Mrs. Rosen." The teacher snapped.
"It's hardly my fault, Mrs. Beaumont, I don't know was oculating means!" Anika said innocently. "I'm sure that Annabeth must know, though. She really has no life, so she has plenty of time to study!" The class giggled. Percy's stomach twisted. He hated when people got bullied.
"It means to kiss," a voice snarked. "Although I'm surprised you don't know what it means. You've certainly done a lot of it with the varsity football team."
Percy laughed, then looked around for the voice. It belonged to a blond girl with flashing gray eyes, a smirk on her lips. A memory flashed through his brain. He and a little blond girl were playing in a sandbox with a sea-green Tonka truck. A smear of apple juice was smudged on his cheek. He widened his eyes.
Was that Annabeth Chase? He hadn't spoken to her since middle school. They had been best friends when they were little-having hundreds of sleepovers where they would watch marathons of Ben Ten and Scooby Doo, and rode their bikes furiously down the driveway. But when middle school started, and puberty hit, Percy started to feel awkward around her. He blushed whenever she was around, and his palms grew sweaty when he talked to her in the classroom. He started to not return calls and IM's, and started hanging out with boys at school. By the time 8th grade started, he had completely forgot about her. Only sometimes in the hallways he would meet her eye and she would turn away.
The bell rang, and everyone started to get up. Annabeth quickly gathered up her books. Percy took a step towards her, but she rushed out the door before Percy could saw anything.