Fear and pain
Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO or HOO characters so, please calm down... if you're freaking out... which is unlikely, you've read hundreds of these.
Summary: Annabeth is the average girl; she's smart, funny, caring, beautiful and a killer sportsgirl. Overall, just perfect... On the outside. At home she's brutally abused at home by her violent stepmother. But, when a boy called Percy Jackson enters her life, what chaos will corrupt?
"Annie..." a muffled voice rang through my ears. I felt sharp contact on my cheeks. There was only one solution, my step-mother was slapping me awake. "Get up you fucken...lazy girl..."she slurred, her drunken tone rich. She kept on slapping me until I could no longer tolerate it. I aggressively pushed her away. Suddenly, I knew what I had done. She fell back onto the wall, sliding down it, laughing psychotically. After about a minute of terrifying cackles, she used my dresser to haul herself up, tipping it over, smashing my fragile jars and glasses. But, that was far from my biggest worry right now. My step mother was walking toward me, murderously. "Oh, Annie..." she growled, stepping toward me slowly. My heart was beating impossibly fast. I was petrified. She laughed deeply "I think we both know what happens when you do that..." She was right. I did know what was going to happen. As if on cue, she punched me, right in the left eye. I yelped in pain as the wave of agony coursed from my eye to the pit of my stomach, making me feel sick. I clutched my eye feeling the warm pulses of bruising touch the senses of my palm. I started to feel the wetness of tears drain from my eye before my stepmother brutally grabbed my face "you useless bitch!" she screeched. I could smell the unpleasant stench of beer and vodka on her breath. As if that wasn't enough, she spat in my face and pushed me back so hard, I could hear my neck crack. All of a sudden, I couldn't focus on anything other than pain. Not my stepmother sneering at me. Not the fact that some of my most sentimental items were smashed on the ground. Just pain. My stepmother scoffed and stormed toward the door, opened it violently and screamed deafeningly "Get up!" and slammed the door of my room or, what I like to call it, my dungeon. The door locked from the outside, so I could never have privacy. The room was small, so small that you had to kick the door in because it hit my bed a quarter of the way in and everything was cramped. The room was very cold. The floor was concrete and stained with blood from past abuses. The roof was cracked and occasionally, huge spiders crawled out from the cracks and scare the life out of me. When I recovered my senses, I got up and changed into a black hoodie, jeans and black converse. I brushed my hair and pulled my hood as far over my face as I could so, no one could see my black eye. I never could tell anyone about this abuse. My friends would kill her. Literally kill her. But, my worry was that if they tried, they would fail. My stepmother can kill anyone if she finds the motivation. I couldn't do that to my friends. I slung my backpack over my shoulder as I walked out of my room. As I turned the bronze painted door knob, I caught a glimpse of the thick, white scar running up my left shoulder, crawling up my neck to the left side of my jaw line. I brought my hand up and brushed my fingertips against the scar, flashing me back to the painful memory.
I sat there, unable to even think of anything apart from dying. I was bleeding profusely. Every breath stung and burned like was on fire. My mother was scowling at me, Swiss army knife in hand, covered in my blood "Die. Die, you useless rat." She hissed...
I flinched at the memory, my other hand brushing away from the doorknob. I regained my senses and twisted the doorknob and pulled it in strongly. I braced myself for more abuse but, when I squeezed through the narrow exit, I found my stepmother, passed out on the floor, a few meters away, a bottle of Smirnoff in her hand, the clear liquid spilling everywhere. She snored like a pig. Her stringy red and grey hair was wet and stuck to the floorboards from the alcohol. Her fat and stinky body was lifeless and vomit stained. She wasn't the ideal stepmother, at all. I silently stepped over her drunk self and when I was out of the apartment, I ran as far and fast as I could. I took off past starbucks and walmart. I was running out of breath but, I didn't stop until I stepped within the school gates. I stopped within the safety of the school. Puffed out, I put my hands on my knees and steadied my breathing. Suddenly, I felt a firm hand on my shoulder. I freaked out and jumped away. My heart was racing. What if she came here to abuse me? I was extremely scared until I heard the friendly laughter, I knew wasn't my stepmothers.
"Scared you, huh?" the voice said. I turned and saw the girl who was my best friend, Thalia Grace. I put on a fake smile, which seemed to work pretty convincingly. I put up with my stepmothers abuse for nine years. It started when I was seven. I don't remember my real mother. She left when I was four years old and my dad went looking for her, keeping me in the "care" of my stepmother. She was kind and loving at the start, but that was all an act. As soon as my father left, she changed into an alcohol and drug addicted psychopath. My father never returned. I always wondered where he was. Was he even alive?
"Annabeth?" Thalia asked, snapping me back to reality. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow
"What?" I asked. She laughed.
"You were like MIA for about two minutes." She replied, smirking. I couldn't think of anything else to do so, I just smiled sheepishly. She laughed again. I grunted.
"Will you stop laughing at me?" I yelled. She looked at me in shock "I'm already having a shitty day!" after that, I realised how harsh it was. She looked at me with narrow eyes.
"what do you me-" she started. Then it came to me that my hood was down. She could see my black eye. "Shit! What happened to your eye?" she asked as her eyes went from narrow to wide. I blanked. What was I going to say? I couldn't think of anything.
"Um... uh" I stuttered. She looked at me expectantly, her hands placed on her hips. I had to think of something, fast. I looked around the school yard, desperately seeking an excuse. I saw a kid falling over. Without thinking, I blurted out "I fell!" Thalia looked hesitant.
"You... fell?" She said, unsure of what to believe. I sighed.
"I fell into..." I started. I looked around again. I saw a railing. Perfect! "I fell into a railing this morning." I said, proud of what I came up with. She narrowed her eyes.
"Are you sure?" she asked. I nodded frantically. She raised her eyebrows.
"Alrighty then..." she said. I felt the tonne of bricks being lifted off my shoulders, now that she had dropped the subject. "Anyway," Thalia started, turning my attention to her "um, my cousin's starting today. I think he'll be in our class since my dad and uncle wouldn't let him be in a class with no one he knew." Thalia said. A smile played on my lips, thinking about how protective they were of him. Then I wondered what it would be like having someone protective of me. Not someone who wanted to kill me.
"Yeah. what about him?" I asked. She turned to me, smirking.
"Just... You know..." she said and nudged my arm "letting you know..." I looked at her, unamused. She rolled her eyes "No, but seriously." She said abruptly "He's cool, funny and he's pretty good looking. But, don't be fooled by his looks. I know you hate the popular crowd, thinking they're better than everyone because they're hot but, he's really sweet, funny and caring." I looked at her, eyebrow cocked. She returned the look and began talking again "Also, he's probably going to be around us a lot so, just giving you a warning before you judge a book by its cover." I nodded slowly, signifying that I knew what she meant.
"Look. If he doesn't get on my nerves, I'll be nice to him." I said, giving in. She smiled from ear to ear.
"Thank you so much!" she said and hugged me. I flinched but, returned the hug, patting her back. She pulled away "That is why you're my best friend." She said, walking toward her locker. Then, her cousin popped up, out of nowhere
"Thalia!" He yelled, obviously aggravated. Thalia jumped.
"Oh my gods, Nico!" She yelled "you scared the crap out of me!" Nico smiled, clearly proud of his work but, it was short lived. His smile turned into a teasing frown.
"You said I was your best friend!" He said and pouted teasingly. She chuckled.
"Nico," she started; placing a hand on his shoulder "I said you were my favourite cousin!" she smiled as he shot her a glare.
"Oh, that's fabulous!" he said, sarcastically. We laughed "I'm your favourite by family! You know you can't choose your family!" he yelled. Thalia gave him the sympathy eyes
"And that's why, Nico." She said as she pinched his cheek. He slapped her away
"Ouch!" he yelled as he rubbed his cheek "You know that being one year younger than you doesn't mean I'm inferior to you!" he glared at Thalia
"Oh, Nico." Thalia said, pitifully "that's exactly what it means!" She grinned
"Yeah, yeah." He said, rolling his eyes. Thalia laughed "Where's Percy?" he asked. Thalia shrugged.
"I dunno. Probably getting enrolled. He should be late for math because of it as well." Thalia replied. Nico snorted
"Lucky him!" he said. Nico was in the same grade as us but, since he was much more smart than his grade, he had to get bumped a year. Nico was in our classes and in our homeroom. (to you people who don't know what homeroom is, it's a period where you bludge and get notes and such. It had never occurred to me as being a class because you do nothing apart from play games on your phone or iPad or iPod, whatever device of your selection. My database is outdated by 117 days now... L0L. Anyways... Back to the story!) Nico was okay... I guess, I mean apart from his really dark and gloomy personality. Thalia scoffed.
"Toughen up, Nico!" she said, punching him on the arm. I shuddered at the sight. Thankfully no one noticed. Nico grabbed his arm in pain.
"Hey!" He yelled, rubbing the spot Thalia had punched. She turned to the lockers and clicked in a combination. I didn't know she changed lockers. The code was accepted and Thalia opened the locker, reaching in and grabbed a candy bar and locked the locker again.
"I didn't know you changed lockers." I said. She looked at me and laughed.
"I didn't." She replied.
"But...how?" Nico asked
"It's a little trick I learned. This locker..." She slammed on the locker with her hand "Is Wendell's." She said and burst out laughing. Nico and I exchanged looks. After a while of laughing, she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and looked at us "Why are you acting like that?" She asked. Nico looked at me and then Thalia.
"A number of reasons and how did you know Wendell had candy in his locker?" He asked. Thalia chuckled
"Have you seen that kid? He looks like a bowling ball! Having candy in his locker is a guarantee." She said. I raised my eyebrows
"Alrighty then." I said. "Do you need to go to your locker at all?" I asked.
"Hell no! It's maths, Annabeth. You of all people should know I don't try in that subject!" We all laughed and made our way to homeroom.
Yes, I know it was a shitty chapter but, maybe I'll improve if you give me a little "Constructive Criticism" I'll improve! It wasn't really that exciting but, I'll build up the excitement on the way! Please stay with me fellow reader(s). I really want some of my stories to be read! This is my first Fanfiction published so, cut me some slack if you're really good. If you're bad, like me... You ain't alone, brah!
Love you all, Abbey xoxo