SURVIVING HIGH SCHOOL

Chapter 1 - Annabeth

Annabeth stared down the West Brookfield Boarding School with trepidation.

The cab behind her drove away with a skid of the wheels and a puff of smoke. Her plain grey suitcase was pulled up against her leg and her old ratty blue duffel bag was strapped over her shoulder.

She took a deep breath and crossed the pavement to the large iron-wrought gates. Her rolling suitcase clicked over the sidewalk loudly. Neatly trimmed bushes lined the brick walls. She crossed the gate threshold – noting the geometric wire design – and into the school courtyard. There were three buildings she noticed immediately. It was a symmetrical layout; identical five-story structures on the right and left –the dorms, obviously. The center building was larger for most of the classrooms. A fewer smaller buildings loomed in the background. It was simple, nothing was totally extravagant.

In the middle was the courtyard. There was a large fountain directly in the center, which many people milled around. They were the people who were obviously comfortable in this setting – kids, goofing off, chatting with old friends. They must be returning students.

She would be the new one, a curiosity. Even the freshmen had probably met each other before from orientation. She had been shoved into the school at last minute, so she knew no one.

Annabeth was nervous. She admitted this to herself. This was the first time she had been in a school setting since she was seven. Though she was excited she came, for two different reasons. The renowned architecture program was a big plus. But even more important than that was the fact that it was located on the outskirts of New York City. New York City, where she worked as Official Architect of Olympus, and where Percy lived. Percy, her beloved boyfriend. They had only been dating for a month and a half, but they had known each other since they were twelve.

"Can I help you with that?"

A male voice broke through her thoughts. Annabeth blinked, and cursed in her head. Being distracted so easily would have killed her in battle! She turned to the boy, who was standing there with his hand outstretched. He was cute, she supposed, with windblown blond hair and blue eyes. Nothing compared to Percy, of course.

"I'm fine."

The boy shoved his hand into his pocket. He smiled at her.

"You new? Haven't seen you before."

Annabeth sighed. She could see this becoming a future trend.

"Yes. I just transferred in recently."

He nodded like this made a lot of sense.

"So what's your name?"

"Annabeth. Annabeth Chase."

"I'm Nathan Cooning. But you could call me Nate." He winked at her. "You have a very pretty name, Annabeth."

"Um, thanks, your name is very interesting too." She said and it came out a lot more awkward than it was supposed to.

"Glad you approve." Nathan smiled warmly. A bit too warmly.

Time to change the subject.

Annabeth suppressed a smile. "Well, I'd better be going." She turned and headed towards the main building, assuming that was where she could get checked in.

Nate's smile faltered, but he still shouted after her. "See you later!"

At this exclamation, half the courtyard turned to look at her. She ignored their curious looks and strode confidently towards the office, hoping that's what it actually was.

She opened the door wide enough to get both her bags in, tugging the rolling suitcase over the rubber door threshold. In front of her was a straight hallway, which was deserted of students at the moment. On her immediate right were two doors. The one door had a small window and plaque which, to her, read SURNE. The next door was identical, except it read ENGICUED FFOIEC. Damn dyslexia. To her left were large windows into an office area. The sign above the door was completely unreadable. Okay, not completely unreadable, but she simply did not feel like exerting the effort just to get a bunch of mixed up figures that wouldn't make any sense anyway. Sometimes – no all the time – she really hated dyslexia.

The office room had cushioned red chairs and the brown haired older lady looked out expectantly from behind tiny oval glasses. Her hair was short and curled in tiny circles. Annabeth could only assume she was the secretary. She had that sort of office look.

Annabeth propped open the glass door with her foot and pulled her gray bag over the bump. Unfortunately she misjudged the height and as the door closed, it banged against the back of the suitcase, which, due to an unfortunate law of physics, banged against her ankle.

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" she cursed under her breath.

"Are you okay, dearie?" The secretary leaned over her desk concernedly as Annabeth jumped up theatrically onto one foot, holding her ankle. She'd definitely had worse injuries, but it had hit her right on her bone.

"Just wonderful." She muttered. The woman must have missed he sarcasm in that statement because she said. "Well, that's good then!"

She settled back into her chair. "Now, what can I do for you?"

Annabeth straightened, though her ankle was still throbbing. "I'm Annabeth Chase. I'm here for my room key and dorm assignment."

The woman looked surprised for a moment, and then crinkled her face into a warm smile. "You must be the new student. I'm Mrs. Hirsch, the school secretary." Annabeth mentally stopped herself from saying, Well who else would you be? Too many bad habits picked up from Percy. "You must be really smart to have been accepted so late. Brookfield never accepts applications this close to the start of the term."

She seemed the overly helpful, way too cheerful, grandmother type. Annabeth gave a polite smile. "Thank you."

"Well, it's no problem, dearie. Let me just find your file. I know I put it somewhere…" Her voice trailed off as she began digging through piles of papers on the front desk.

Annabeth hand started twitching and drummed her hands of the faded material of her jeans. Stupid ADHD. After what seemed like hours, Mrs. Hirsch finally pulled a thin manila folder out from the bottom of the pile. She really needed a better organization system.

"Here it is!" Mrs. Hirsch said triumphantly, chuckling to herself like this was one big joke. She flipped open the folder, blue eyes scanning the page.

"Let's see. You're in room 328. That's on the third floor, in case you were wondering." She said, winking at Annabeth. "Oh, look at that! You'll be rooming with Mika Hessler. I think you'll do very well together. She's very nice, quiet, stays out of trouble, though a little…gloomy, I'm sure you'll do just fine." She said, handing over a small silver door key. The engraved block numbers 328 stood out on the shiny metal. Gloomy? She could handle gloomy, right? For all she knew, anyone who wasn't smiling all the time like Mrs. Hirsch was gloomy.

"Thanks." Annabeth said again, looking doubtfully down at the key.

"Don't mention it. Oh I almost forgot! Silly me, here's your schedule, be sure not to lose it. Oh, and here's a map, in case you get lost. If you need anything, just come right here and we can help you."

"Thanks." Annabeth said yet again and tried to get slowly inch towards the door. "I should probably be going now."

"Oh, well, it was nice meeting you! Have a good first day of school tomorrow!" Mrs. Hirsch smiled and waved as Annabeth walked out the door, dragging her bag behind her.

There was no one else in the hall yet again and Annabeth took a second or two to admire the older architecture of the main building. The ceiling was high and the walls were a darker smooth stone, most likely granite or some synthetic supplement. At the very end of the hall was a large wooden carpeted staircase, sweeping up to the next level. Simply beautiful.

Another student came through the main door, dislodging her from her thoughts with a gust of wind from the outside. She had curly brown hair and skin the color of toffee. She was clearly athletic, lean muscles on her arms and legs. When she spotted Annabeth standing outside the office she grinned and walked right up to her.

"Hi, I'm Becca." She said jauntily smiling up at her with bright hazel-green eyes.

"Um, I'm Annabeth." She paused. "I'm new." She stuck awkwardly at the end as if to explain her appearance.

"I guessed. I mean, I've never seen you here before. I didn't think they accepted people this late, though. Hey, do you need help finding your room?" Becca spoke really fast and it took a moment for her to catch up with her scattered thoughts.

Annabeth smiled her first genuine smile since she came to West Brookfield Boarding School.

"Sure."

A/N: I really shouldn't be starting another story, but I really like this chapter and had to get it out there. I probably won't be updating very often, with mostly Annabeth, but a few Percy chapters in there too, of course. I also promise that I will not abandon this story, no matter how long between updates. Please just bare with me.

Almost forgot – Disclaimer: I am not the author of the Percy Jackson series. There, satisfied?

Reviews make my day and encourage me to update faster!

-Dov5e