Disclaimer: (I'm only going to say this once) Everything belongs to Rick Riordan! (excluding the plot)
Everyone has two sentences tattooed on their wrists. No one knew where it came from or how it happens. On your left wrist, the first words your parents said to you. On your right, your soulmate's first words to you.
Annabeth Chase had none.
Well, she had a little star on her right wrist, but it was probably a weird birthmark or something.
According to the orphanage she lived in, her father left her mother when she told him she was pregnant, and she herself passed away in childbirth.
The age that your soulmate's words appear on your wrist was written on the third section of your fourth finger - which was also the place where people had their wedding rings. Annabeth wondered if fate had done that on purpose.
Her number said 7, which early for most people.
She had hoped her soulmate would be able to help her, to get her out of situation, but her dreams were crushed on a young age of seven. On her birthday she was so waiting for, she yanked away the blanket covering her right wrist, only to find nothing. (Well, except the weird star thing. That didn't count.)
She didn't have anyone.
A few months after the depressing incident, in which she had holed herself in the bathroom and cried, she got a pleasant surprise. She had a family wanting to adopt her! The social workers told her they were the Graces.
A strict-looking man named Zeus Grace came to get her. The car ride was silent and awkward. At least, to her. Her future father seemed to have no emotions whatsoever.
When they arrived, she couldn't stop a gasp from escaping. The house was beautiful.
As they walked in, Annabeth couldn't help but admire the architecture. Even though she was only seven, she loved architecture and wanted to be an architect when she grew up. The beams and the poles to the sharp curves of the house were an amazing sight to her.
Mr. Grace introduced her to her new sister, Thalia, who apparently hated her last name. (Her death glare was enough to prove it.)
Thalia was 6 years older than her. She looked very scary to her 7-year-old self, wearing all black and a bit of silver and thick black eyeliner, but there was a pain that Annabeth could clearly see in her electric blue eyes. She was very good at reading people.
The first few months were consisted of her getting used to her new house and routine.
One day, while she was exploring, she saw a picture on the corner of a guest bedroom. A younger Thalia was smiling and had her arms wrapped protectively around a boy much younger than her by about 7 or 8 years. He had blond hair and the same electric blue eyes as her.
Annabeth had never seen someone like that around in the house. Then who was-oh.
Oh.
She suddenly understood why Thalia was so closed off and their family had decided to adopt her.
She asked Thalia about the boy in the picture. She looked furious for a moment, swiping the picture off from Annabeth's hands. Thalia glared at her with so much intensity that it made her back away, when she suddenly looked away from her, tears in her eyes.
Thalia told her that the boy in the picture was her younger brother. Jason, she said. His name was Jason. She said that they were walking home from the park 4 years ago, with her father calling his co-worker (someone named Poseidon) up front. Thalia had told Jason to stay right where he was, because she needed to wash her hands. She came out of the bathroom, only to find that someone named Hera, according to a piece of paper on the ground, had taken him. Nobody knew why or the where he was.
Annabeth, although very sad for Thalia's little brother, was happy because she had gotten closer to Thalia, her only friend. Nobody in her school wanted to play with her. Was it because of her weird grey eyes? Or her obsession with architecture? Even her teacher, Ms. La Rue seemed to hate her. Well, she seemed to hate everyone, so…
But good things always seemed to come to an end in Annabeth's life
One day, when she was a week from turning into 12, she received devastating news. Thalia had been in an car accident.
She had been walking home from school with a boy with Luke Castellan, who was her soulmate, when a car came from nowhere. The suspect was caught, and was later confirmed to be Alecto Underworld, who was driving in a drunken state, and wasn't able to see them. She was thankfully not dead, but in a coma which no one knew when or even if she'll wake up. It would also affect how she aged; about twice as slow.
Annabeth and Luke had cried together after they got told the news.
They seemed to be the only ones impacted deeply by the news.
One day in seventh grade, there was a new boy called Leo Valdez. He seemed to understand some of the stuff Annabeth went through. He had no friends, the people who brought him in the classroom were social workers, and had a strange interest but also fear in fire. But by the time Annabeth worked up the courage to talk to him, he was gone. The teacher told them he wouldn't be returning.
After that incident, Annabeth had tried to get friends, but never could.
A girl named Nancy Bobofit saw her bare wrists which she so tried to hide, and spread it to everyone. That was when the sort-of-bullying started. Freak, they called her.
Annabeth was perfectly capable of defending herself physically, but her pride didn't let her beg to get friends.
And so the years went on, until she was 16 years old.
Until she met them.