Prologue
"A 16-year-old girl has been found in her home, beaten, almost to death by her father. Evidence suggests that this is not the first time this has happened, but it has been an ongoing issue in the household for several years now. Police are investigating the crime scene as I speak while the young girl is in the hospital. So far, no sign of the girl's father have appeared."
…welcome to my life.
*6 months later*
"Technically, you can't MAKE me go," I argue while sitting at the table eating breakfast.
"Well, no, but it would make me very happy?" my mum offers and flashes me a sweet smile. I roll my eyes and stand up.
"Fine, I'll go, but I'm not making any friends!" I shout as I run off to the bathroom to have a shower.
The steaming hot water calms my anger, not to mention my nerves. The first day at a new school is
always a teenaged girl's worst nightmare. And I'm gonna try to make mine bearable. To do that, I
need to look good, which means cutting my shower short. I grumpily turn the shower off and reach
out for a towel…only to find there aren't any there. Loving the way my day is going so far.
"Mum?" I call out but when I get no response, I figure she's already left for work. I grunt in
frustration. I try to use my clothes to cover myself up, even though there's no one else home because my brother already left for school, and make a run for my room. Unfortunately, I slip on a puddle of water and bang my head on my bedside table.
"Ow." I stand up slowly and curse under my breath at the pounding of my head. My wardrobe
doesn't consist of a very extensive variety of clothes so I just grab a pair of jeans and a dark green T-
shirt that says 'I understand, I just don't care'. I glance at the clock on my wall and get caught in a
brief moment of panic.
"Shit!" I grab my bag and sprint back down the stairs to the kitchen. I don't have time to organise
lunch so I decide I'll grab something from the cafeteria. I jump in my car, put her in drive and head to
my new school.
I stumble my way through the mass crowd of students in the hallway. Everyone's pushing and
shoving each other, one couple is even making out against a locker door. I look at my information
sheet then back at the locker. Ew, it's mine. I shuffle over to it and clear my throat to get their
attention. They ignore me.
"Excuse me." I say as politely as I can. When they ignore me for the second time, I grow frustrated.
"Move!" I scream them and shove them away from my locker. The girl glares at me while the guy
smirks at me and looks me up and down. I can tell I'm gonna have problems with these two. They
walk away, probably to find some other poor, innocent new girl's locker to make out on. I try the
combination for my lock but it doesn't open. Well, this is great. I start pounding on the door to try
and get it open but it won't budge.
"Hi!"
I jump out of my skin and turn in the direction of the voice. A tall girl with blond hair is smiling
brightly down at me. I look at her, confused.
"You having trouble getting your locker open?"
"No, not at all!" I reply sarcastically. She smiles sweetly and pulls on the lock. It comes right off. I
look back at the girl with my eyebrows raised.
"You're new."
"Is it obvious?"
She shrugs.
"A little."
I grab my books and start to walk off to class but she stops me.
"I'm Annabeth, by the way."
"And I'm late for class." I snap and walk away.
As I walk down the hallway to my English class for first period, I start to think that maybe I shouldn't have snapped at her. She seemed nice, like she just wanted to help. I run into something hard and drop all my books.
"I am so sorry!" I scramble to pick up my books, not looking up the whole time because I'm too scared to face the person I ran into. They start helping me pick up my books. The bell rings for first period and I groan because I'm going to be late. We both stand up at the same time and smack into each other again but I keep a firm grip on my books so I don't drop them again. I look up and almost pass out. Standing in front of me is a guy who's really tall, almost 7 feet, with tan skin and brown eyes. His jawline is so defined that it could be used to cut diamonds. He smirks at me and I realise I'm staring.
"See something you like?" His voice is deep and sexy but I don't give him the satisfaction of telling him that.
I scoff and grab my books from him.
"Definitely not." I stalk past him towards my classroom.
"I'm Leo, by the way!" he shouts after me.
"And I'm not interested!" I shout back without turning around.
I stumble into my classroom and everyone turns to look at me. The teacher gives me a death glare.
"And you are…?" everyone leans towards me.
"Uh, I'm Cammy, I'm new here."
"Ah, Ms Jackson. Nice of you to finally have joined us. Take a seat Camille."
"It's just Cammy, actually."
She glares at me again and indicates to a chair next to a pale guy with black hair.
"Take a seat, Camille." She growls with extra emphasis on "Camille". I grumble and drop into the chair, slamming my books on the table. The guy with black hair turns to me with a shy grin.
"Hey." He whispers.
"Hi." I whisper back.
"I'm Nico." He holds out his hand for me to shake.
"Cammy." I shake his hand. We turn back to the teacher as she gives her lecture then he turns to me again.
"Are you Percy's sister?" he mumbles.
"Yeah, he's my big brother. He's a year older than me. Do you know him?"
"Yeah, he's one of my best friends."
"Oh, great."
We don't talk for the rest of the lesson. Some time later, the bell rings and Nico walks me to my locker.
"So, do you wanna hang out with our group on break?" he asks as he fiddles the hem of his jumper. I close my locker and readjust my books against my hip. I have history next and Nico has photography.
"Uh, sure. Will my brother be there?"
"Yeah, Percy always hang with us on break." He smiles a little and I can't help but smile back.
"Okay, I'll see you guys at lunch then."
"Sure thing." He gives me an awkward hug and runs the opposite way. I frown a bit but can't stop the giggle that escapes me.
I walk to history and get there on time, finding a nice seat at the back so I don't have to socialise much before lunch when I'll be surrounded by people I don't know. Besides Percy and Nico.
I have to say that Nico intrigues me a bit. He's got the whole, silent type thing going on for him which makes him more mysterious. Like someone could learn a lot from him if they got to know him.
The bell rings for break and I jump in my seat. I gather my books and bolt from the classroom.
I fill my tray with food when I get to the cafeteria then scan the room for Nico. I find him sitting at a long table with 10 other people, one of them being my brother. His eyes find mine and he waves me over. I smile and head over to their table. I sit down in an empty seat next to him and look over the table to Percy.
"Hey, bro." I say and he looks up, smiling.
"Hey, Cam. I see you've met Nico." I nod and Nico looks at me.
"Anyway, meet the gang. This is Will, Grover, Juniper, Thalia, Piper, Jason, Hazel, Annabeth and Leo." My head snaps up at the last two names.
"Camille and I have actually met already. I helped open her locker."
"Thanks babe." Percy kisses Annabeth softly and I facepalm. Of course. I completely forgot Annabeth was Percy's girlfriend. Now I feel like a jerk for being so rude to her before.
"I've met Cam before, too." Leo says as he takes a bite of an apple. He stares down at his phone and doesn't even look at me.
"Yeah, you ran into me and made me drop all my books." He looks up at that and I smirk.
"As I recall, you slammed into me and you dropped your books due to pure clumsiness."
"Yeah, clumsiness on your part." I retort.
"I can tell you two are going to have a lot of problems." Percy mutters and drops his head into his hand.
"I'm fine so long as your buddy here can behave." I snarl at Leo.
"Is that a threat, Jackson?"
"Not a threat, honey," I bat my eyelashes, "it's a promise."
"That's enough, both of you." Nico steps in and puts an arm around my shoulder. Leo growls at him and he lets go. Weird.
"Can we please just eat in peace?" I beg with my hands up. Everyone else nods and we start eating. Leo doesn't take his eyes off me the whole time, even when he has spaghetti drizzling down his chin. I do my best to avoid his gaze but he's pinning me down with it and I just can't seem to look away. It's like he's mesmerising me. Nico holds my hand under the table and while I feel slightly uncomfortable, it's an easy way to distract myself from Leo's unyielding eyes. Oh boy. This is going to be a long year.