Child's Toy
Chapter 1: I'm an Eighth Grader, With An Agent
Let's start! :D
Annabeth's PoV
My eyes fluttered open and I lazily gazed at the clock which read 7:30. And then I let them flutter closed again.
You know those moments when you have homework, and then you forget and the second you get into bed, you remember? Yeah I hate those moments, but that's exactly what I had at that second. I mean, if the clock said 7:30 then that could only mean. . .
I'm late for school.
I shot up in my bed and grabbed the alarm clock to get a better look at it. It really was seven thirty. I darted down two floors into the family common room where my mother, Susan Chase was resting, reading yesterday's newspaper. Wait, did I mention that my mother is the Susan Chase, award-winning novelist?
Susan Chase adopted me after finding me in some random bush on the side of the road. She always wore these crazy hats and today day she just happened to be wearing a little model of a tree for Miko, our pet chipmunk, to sit in. So she's weird, but I love her.
She also had these little red and yellow plastic hammers which are perfect for hitting me in the head. They scrunch up when they hit you, so they don't hurt, but with enough force behind them, they can leave this dull pain that is really annoying.
Anyways, I ran up to her and immediately started yelling.
"Mom, Mom, why didn't you wake me up!? Now I'm running late for school! You could have just woke me up, Just five minutes early. . ." I kept ranting while she didn't even look up from the out-dated newspaper.
When I finished flailing my arms and giving my throat a run for it's money I stormed away, leaving her alone in the living room and not wanting to hear a word of her author-like philosophy. I caught a glimpse of her just talking and talking and then she looked up to find no one there. It was actually kind of funny, but not funny enough for me to laugh because I was late and there was no time for that.
I ran back up to my room and hurriedly washed my face, brushed my hair, put it up into a messy, curly ponytail, and got dressed. I wore a grey shirt that had my name and a picture of me printed on it, and baby blue white-wash jeans. As soon as those pants were over my hips, I half sprinted half slid down the halls of my mansion past my maid, Thelma, who I greeted with such volume that she dropped the vacuum and covered her ears. I never stopped sliding until my mom showed up with her little red and yellow hammer plastic hammer and hit me right in the forehead.
Okay so more details about my mom. She has her little red hammer, her hats, and then her car. Like those little cars that little kids use that don't need pedals? Yeah, she has one. Except a mechanic souped it up and it could go really fast. Kind of like a real car, but for inside. I wasn't allowed to use it though because apparently it would make me 'lazy' and I would ruin my 'acting body'.
Anyways, she took me by the hand and stuffed me into the car with her and drove me all the way back into the kitchen.
"Mom, I'm already late please don't make me stay!" I screamed and tried to squirm myself out of the car, but no such luck.
When we made our stop in the kitchen I saw a huge plate full of food.
"Annabeth, it's your choice to get up late, but your mother is responsible and therefore it is my job to make you stay here. At least until you eat a proper breakfast," she said.
This was crazy. I could just skip breakfast for one day, one day! I'm an actress! My life will inevitably be filled with long sleepless, foodless, nights that are just chock-full of coffee and Red Bull! But no, she has to sit me down for freakin' Frosted Flakes!
"Alright, fine. I'll eat it then I'll go." I grumbled.
I basically shoved all of it down my throat. And then showed her my clean plate.
"Alright. You're excused." Mom said before I bolted down the hall to the garage, where I picked up a pair of white converse to start my walk to school. Until I saw Malcolm, my manager, chauffeur, and boyfriend, I might add. I started babbling to him about my lateness before he said, "Uh, I can drive?" I gasped.
"Oh. My. God Malcolm!" I jumped up and wrapped my arms around his neck. " You're a life saver! I love you so, so much!"
"Yeah. Okay." he replied. For a minute, I felt like was forgetting something, but then I figured out I wasn't, so jogged to catch up to Malcolm, who had already started walking to the car.
"Be careful Malcolm, I know how much of a demon you are behind the wheel." Mother called out to us as Malcolm clicked the button to open the garage door. The door lifted and the sunlight came pouring into the dark garage. Malcolm held open the car door and I climbed in, he walked around the front of the car and climbed in himself. He turned the key and heard the engine start. And we started moving very, very slowly.
What the heck? I asked him to drive because thought he would get me there faster, but he moving like, 1 mile per hour!
"Can you go faster? There is exactly 74 seconds until school starts and we've barely backed out of the driveway." I glanced out the window. "There are literally people walking outside faster than us!"
"Annabeth, I'm your manager, which means that it's my job to get you to and from school on a safe and reliable manner. And I take that job very seriously." I paused and stopped complaining.
"Oh Malcolm." I smiled before grabbing his neck and pulling his into a hug. "I really do love you."
Except Malcolm didn't want that. He crashed the car. Well, not really, but let's just say it was a really bumpy ride. And when we arrived, the car screeched to a stop and I hopped out.
"Thanks for getting me to school in one peice Malcolm."
"Yeah, well, you know it's my job to endure things like this," he panted. His suit was sliding down his shoulder on one arm and his tie was completely undone.
I had already started walking toward the building at Olympic speeds before he stopped me.
"Wait, Annabeth!" I whipped around. "Remember you have a live broadcast of Child's Toy after school. Once your last class is over I'll meet you here to drive-"
"You got it!" I cut him off with a kiss on the cheek. I turned around and, once again, fast-walked towards the building.
~Linebreak~
~In the hallway~
Everything had been fine up until a month or so ago when I changed up classes and became an eighth grader. However, my class in had a bit of a problem. I opened the door to find the usual chaos of our classroom.
"Please stop! At least just put your desks back on the ground!" Mrs. Hestia yelled uselessly at the rowdy students.
"It's math time! Well, actually we're thirty minutes late, come on kids just stop throwing things!" she whined again, but it was lost in the sea of airborne desks and loud laughs. After that she just started full-out crying.
I walked around the perimeter of the classroom to avoid the drama that was going on in the middle. This was how it always was. The boys were always picking on Mrs. Hestia and it looked like it was getting worse by the day. She cried like a baby, but everyone still deserves at least a little respect. Especially if it's your job to boss kids around.
"Oh look it's Annabeth," Thalia turned around from comforting the crying Mrs. Hestia.
"You're here," Juniper yelled over the noise.
She was standing in the middle of all of it, catching boys and throwing them on the ground in attempt to stop the drama. But the boys on the ground just got back up again and joined the nonsense. They both ran up to me and started speed-talking.
"It's happening again. In fact, the boys are being worse than before," Juniper said.
"This has got to stop, we're the only class that's like this and we're getting nowhere with our lessons," Katie, who had just joined the little huddle told me.
I kind of zoned out for a while and looked to the usual spot at the back of the classroom on the counter. And there he sat. He was listening to some music on his earbuds and looking off into space. Percy Jackson. That was him. The one. The scoundrel.
He was wearing his orange sweatshirt with the letters 'CHB' printed on it in these little tiki-hawaiian letters. He always wore that sweatshirt, which was annoying because I bet her never washed it.
But, in his defense, when the AC turns on in this school, you will seriously freeze. Like, don't get me wrong, I know how to handle the cold, which explained my flowy, slightly short, t-shirt I had on right now, but seriously, this school is like Antarctica in the summer.
We should get back on topic now.
Percy was the one who started picking on the teacher and the other boys follow everything he did like it was the law! That kid was pure trouble. Nothing else.
I walked through the middle aisle of the classroom with my hands up like I was some sort of crossing guard, pushing any boys that got in my way aside. I checked the side of the desk Percy had planted his foot on. It was just as I thought. The desk I personally autographed. My desk.
"Good morning Percy. It smells to me like your foot landed in something your mouth left behind so I guess that explains the ugly look on your face." He just rolled his eyes and looked at me like I was dog poop on the bottom of his shoes or something, not even giving me a thought.
"Ignoring me, are you?" I looked at him in the eye, which was really hard judging that his eyes were closed. I got no reply, and I snapped.
"Get your lousy foot off my desk! You cause enough trouble in this classroom and I want it to stop! Am I even getting through to you? I want you get all these idiot boys who follow you like monkey to stop and-"
I was cut off because I started tumbling away with the desk in my grasp. I had pulling on the desk with all my body weight and the only thing keeping me attached to the floor was Percy's foot. And when he took off the said foot, I fell.
I shot death glares into his ugly face, well his face wasn't really ugly it was actually quite attractive, he had these thick, dark eyebrows and this sun kissed skin, but that's besides the point. I picked myself back up and stole Percy's MP3 player and threw it into the crowd of boys. They all stopped to catch it, and once they did, I literally round-house kicked every one of them. And if not for the fact the Mrs. Hestia was still crying, I would have been expelled.
I weaved my desk around all the lifeless bodies, and planted it where it would have been if not for the fact that Percy had put his old worn out converse on them. I raised my hand and coughed a little, which got Mrs. Hestia's attention. Though I'm not sure which it was, the coughing, or the silence around me. Either way she called on me in between sobs.
"Ahem." I cleared my throat authoritatively. "Mrs. Hestia I had a question about the last lesson because I had to leave early for work yesterday."
I rummaged through my blue backpack. I was actually not the best at math, I mean, I like it and all, but I always have to miss class at about math time, not that it mattered, I mean math time technically was let's-play-catch-with-desks-like-monkeys-time in this class. But before Percy started his reign of terror, and it was actually learning time at school, we used to do math at 1:30 and that's when I had my weekly Child's Toy meeting to discuss what's going to happen next in the show.
The meetings usually turned into the cast and I stealing food from various commercials airing in the studio and having a junk food fest. The show was pretty much a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. And it didn't help that Mrs. Hestia passes out homework without teaching at the end of the day. The girls always end us as the only ones who do it anyway.
"O-Okay, what are they, Annabeth?" Mrs. Hestia blotted off her tears with a hankie as she spoke.
"Well, in this equation is saying that p - 1 = 5p + 3p - 8, right? What I didn't understand was why-"
I didn't get to finish because I was so rudely interrupted by the sound of loud laughter coming from behind me.
"Hey teach, my stomach hurts!" Ethan laughed.
"Ignore them," I whispered loudly, and inched closer to Mrs. Hestia, showing her the math book, and continued.
"Does p have to be on one side? Couldn't be on both?" I continued but Mrs. Hestia diverted her attention from me to the boys, who were in fact, still laughing. I couldn't lie, I got really irritated by that. I mean, if they were just going to bully her, why pay attention? It's kind of like cyber-bullying. I get hate on the internet all the time. All you have to do is shut the computer down and *poof!* just like that, it's gone.
"Stop that, you know they're just trying to freak you out again! Why can't you just ignore them? They're stupid!" I said sternly.
"Oh, sorry."
"Anyways, back to the problem! I think you know what I'm talking about," I said.
"Oh, well I got it. What you're asking has a simple answer." She sniffled.
"Oh great! Well show me!" I said enthusiastically.
She was actually teaching and writing stuff on the board which I thought was great, and I was momentarily really, really happy for her until we heard all the boys in the classroom chorusing,
"Three, two, one, fire!" Balloons filled with chalk dust exploded all over the board, covering Mrs. Hestia while she just stood there, dumbfounded.
All the girls coughed and waved books, while I turned around and yelled, "Dumb boys!" I was ready to totally cut them all down when I heard sobbing from the front of the classroom. Of course, it was Mrs. Hestia. Her chocolatey brown hair now looking more blonde with chalk dust.
" , stop crying, dont show them you care!"
"I c-can't help i-it I-I can't. . . can't. . ."
"They're just going to push you harder, you know."
"Achoo!" She sneezed.
Some of my girls went to comfort her while Percy's boys laughed and chorused, "Laughter is the best medicine!"
Then walked in and started scolding them. "Will you kids keep it down? We can hear you all the way at the end of the hall!"
"Mrs. Hestia and Mr. Bacchus sitting in a tree! K- I- S- S- I- N- G!" They sang the rest of the song while Mr. Bacchus walked over to Mrs. Hestia and put his hands on her hips. It would have been a really cute and romantic moment, if it weren't for the fact that they were teachers.
"Come on hun, you gotta try to keep it together for me, okay?" he whispered and stroked her hair.
"B-But they're so mean!" she sniffled back, her head in her hands. He walked up in front of her and spread his arms out like a shield.
"How long do you little punks think you can get away with this kind of behavior?"
"That's it, Mr. Bacchus! You tell them what's what!" While I cheered, the rest of my girlfriends jeered.
"You're supposed to be in the eighth grade but here you are acting like twelve year olds! I mean-"
He stopped when Percy pulled out something from his jacket pocket.
"What's wrong Mr. Bacchus? What happened to all your enthusiasm?" I questioned, looking from him to Mrs. Hestia to Percy and back.
"I don't get it. This is really odd." I looked at the teacher's again.
"Um, I'm kind of at a loss here. . ." I looked at Percy. What was that sly, confident smile all about?
He just stared at them until they quieted down and slipped it back into his inside jacket pocket.
Wait, what if he had something against the teachers?
After that little thought crossed my mind and that little fiasco ended, the boys picked their desk-catch game back up and continued to be be loud and stupid. Mrs. Hestia ran out of the room crying, and I was left there in a mess of. . . well, mess. Percy just munched on something blue in the back row. That was funny, I didn't think there was blue food.
And that was when I terribly evil, yet terribly beautiful idea bloomed.
~Linebreak~
~On the set of Child's Toy~
Sometimes, I use my hairdresser, Mitchell to vent about my school. Is that bad?
"Oh. My. God! Three days ago, the day before yesterday, yesterday, today, and tomorrow and fifty years from now, I'm still gonna be the dumbest girl on the planet! And it's all because of this kid in my class and I'm gonna make him regret that he messed with the likes of me. . ."
I ranted on for hours on.
Anyways, this was the Half Blood Studios makeup room. Today, the popular TV show called Child's Toy, which I am lucky enough to be a part of, is airing a live broadcast. So all these kids are pretty nervous.
Okay, back to the main topic.
"He is evil I say! Percy is simply pure evil!" I yelled some more while, Mitchell kept brushing my hair. I glanced at my hair in the mirror to find two braids sticking out from each side of my head.
"Um. . . Mitchell? Is this how my hair's gonna look when I go on set today?"
"It is if you don't sit still for me, sweetheart."
Just then there was a couple of camera flashes and I looked up, expecting some crazy paparazzi or something, to see Malcolm taking a picture of me with my wolverine impersonation hair.
"Ugh, Malcolm why are you taking pictures of me now?"
"Some behind the scenes, for your webpage." Malcolm replied, holding up the two pictures he took.
"That manager of yours something is something else. He's got a reputation around town for being nicer than almost anyone in the biz," Mitchell continued combing my curly mess of blonde hair.
"Sounds like a crush," I pointed at him behind me and he flushed. So it was a crush, I was assuming? Or is he just embarrassed that I accused him of being gay? I've always been a little awkward with the whole 'taking a hint' thing.
"Oh no, just an observation, it's what the rumor mill says."
"Well you can tell that rumor mill of yours that Malcolm is my boyfriend and a very taken man."
"Boyfriend?! He's much too old for you, sweetheart."
"But he's a gentleman, and he sticks around as long as I can pay him. Right, my darling?" I glanced at at Malcolm out of the corner of my eye, because apparently pigtails take two hours to make, he was sitting on a chair at the far left corner of the room and sifting through the pictures he took.
"Whatever you say, my dear Annabeth." He didn't even look up.
~Linebreak~
~In the halls of the studio~
I stomped through the beige colored halls with Malcolm close on my tail.
"That big dummy needs someone to show him what a knuckle sandwhich tastes like, and I'm gonna be the one to do it!" I fumed.
"Oh you told me, are you referring to that rowdy kid in your class? Percy, was it?" Malcolm asked.
"Rowdy sounds like he's a cowboy. And cowboys are nice, but he's not!"
"Well let's just try to keep that temper of yours under control. He's a lot bigger than you." That wasn't necessarily true. I mean, Percy didn't tower over me, he was actually like, the same height as me.
"Don't worry about me! Using ancient sword fighting techniques that I learned in my stage combat class, I'll cut him apart, cut him apart like meat! Like this-"
I jabbed out my rolled up script and instead of hitting the air, I hit a guy. Whoops. Oh look. It was that guy from that band. Niall was it? I think we met was that award ceremony a while back.
"Nice to see you again, Annabeth," he choked out.
"Hey! Congratulations on the new album, Four! It's become a big hit, huh? I know it's really hard with Zayn and everything."
"Thanks, yeah it's going really well. Hey aren't you doing your live show thing, Child's Toy?" he wheezed.
"I sure am."
"Break a leg. I always watch, it's one of my favorites."
"And thank you for watching."
I only then realized that my script was still jabbed into his stomach. That must have been why he was wheezing. I finished up the cut with a hard swipe and sent him tumbling to the floor in a coughing.
"I couldn't resist," I said.
"Hey, I understand, see ya." he walked away.
~Linebreak~
~On the set of Child's Toy~
"Smell the scent of a great school year. So kids, how 'bout you? Tell me, is your term going swimmingly?" Zach, the host of Child's Toy said.
"Are you stupid?" I muttered. I know I seem a bit bitter, but you can't blame me. I was have a crappy day, and I did not need and overly-charismatic TV show host in my life and this moment.
"Have you made any new best friends?" He completely ignored me.
"What about enemies?" I grumbled.
"But what about your teachers? Do any of you have fabulous teachers who have opened your young eyes? Let's hear it." Again, completely ignored.
"Not in this world."
"How great! I new world to explore for all you kids." continued wistfully, as if thinking that the student life was amazing. Which he was TOTALLY WRONG about, obviously.
"Oh, please." I mumbled again.
"What a life it would be to be back in my boots as a kid again and I-" He kept at it. Was this guy deaf?
"Are you an idiot?" I grumbled.
This time the guy finally noticed me. I replied like 3497 times. Well, not really, but it was definitely some number close to that!
"What's wrong there, Annabeth? You seem a bit wound up today." He walked up to me and put his elbows on my desk and his chin in his hands.
"Well, duh." I made why voice sound stupid, just like he seemed to be acting right about now.
"But it's freetime!" he argued, I didn't care.
"Like I care." I voiced my thoughts.
"So you're just not having any fun, kiddo?" he was truly concerned, which made me feel a little pang of guilt because I liked Zach and I was being rude. Then I stopped caring.
"No. It's a nightmare." I couldn't lie.
"What? Why?" he asked. This guy sure is curious.
"The life of a kid these days isn't the blissful dream you keep thinking about, Zach. When in fact, it just plain stinks." I told him the truth, because again, I couldn't lie.
"Wow."
"It's an untamed jungle where if you're not the hunter then you're the prey!"
"Jungle, huh?"
"That right, it's a vicious place where someone with curly Q's in their hair and buck teeth like you couldn't survive a minute!"
"Ouch."
"Today, my teacher cried so much that she almost flooded the whole entire floor! During class the kids kicked balls around, threw food, set off fireworks, and they all sounded like animals! Are you listening to me!? That is not a school! That is not the way to teach kids." I took a deep breath.
"That place is more like a zoo and all the dumb boys are nothing but monkeys, swinging all around their stupid monkey mountain! And every single solitary individual monkey is to blame. But it's mostly his fault! He started all of it! It was him, him, him!" I was panting like a dog after I finished my little spiel.
"Woah! Calm down there Annabeth. Who is 'He'?"
"Well I'll tell you!"
"O-Oh, well then go ahead."
I walked over to where the camera had been filming the look on another one of the people's faces. I took hold of it and swivelled it so it was only my face in the shot.
"I'm talking about you Percy! Perseus Jackson, are you listening you dumb stinking monkey?! Percy Jackson, 8th grade, class 3H, Half Blood Junior High! Every morning I wake up hoping it'll be a normal day for once, but then you're there!" I took a deep breath. All that talking really wears you out.
"And if you weren't there then the world wouldn't be a disgrace! It's all your fault, you're the one to blame! You!" Then two burly men took hold of my arms and dragged me off the set.
"Wait. What are you doing!? Get your hands off me! Let go of me!" Security dragged me away, and I didn't even get to finish the speech I so carefully planned out.
Little did I know that the whole time I stared into that little camera, Percy was staring right back.
~Linebreak
~Home, day of broadcast~
"That felt great! Like I've been trekking through the desert for days without water and then- BANG! I find an oasis." I said as I began dancing on the couch.
"Quite an outburst, we haven't seen one of those in a while, Annabeth, but could you have worn a dress while doing it, dear?" Mama asked quite uselessly.
"Still, I hope that 'Percy' kid doesn't try to get revenge on you when he sees you at school tomorrow. You might want to keep your guard up." Malcolm worried.
"Oh, no need to worry about that. I'm not afraid of the spoiled brat! And after all, he can't do anything for himself! He needs his little monkey goons to do all his dirty work. And I can take them easy."
"But Annabeth, what if they all came at you in a group? Do you think you can take on all the boys at the same time?" Mama asked, all the while she sipped on her cup of tea.
"Mama. . ." I warned her not to ruin the moment
"'Mama' is only stating possibilities. Just keep in mind that because of your words, the ill repute of this young boy, Percy, has spread beyond your school, straight into the eyes and minds of millions of people watching TV today. Now if this boy really is as evil as you say, and you exposed him to millions, shouldn't you expect a retaliation?"
That's it. I knew she would say something philosopher-like. Great, now there's awkward silence. But still, she made a pretty good point. I mean, what if. . .
"Well, if it comes down to that, I'll be there for her. I mean, I'm her bodyguard right?" Malcolm spoke into the silence.
"Oh, Malcolm," I cooed, looking all big-eyed and lovesick at him. Before I jumped and gave him a hug.
"Oh, I love you Malcolm! You're going to smash their bones into glitter and then pack them and ship them coach class back to their families with only the regret that you'll have to spend money on stamps!"
"Well, I'm tired. And I think it's also time you two get some sleep." Mother stood up and walked off while Malcolm walked me to my room.
"Time for bed!" I yawned before hurrying off to my room ahead of him. Before I had felt like I didn't want to sleep, but suddenly, the idea of sleep sounded really good.
~Linebreak~
~In Annabeth's room~
I stood up on the bed and yelled into my recorder: "Oh Annie's sweet mood goes up and down!"
The recorder replied in an octave higher: "Oh Annie's sweet mood goes up and down! Oh Annie's sweet mood goes up and down!"
I waited for it to end and then started my awesome rap song thing.
"I slept in this morning, I broke a major rule, though!
I made it to school which has become so brutal!
All because of Percy the monster, my nemesis,
I'll put him in a room and wait till spring to see how he did!
Makes the teacher cry, no work gets done,
The class is a monkey house and he's the lead one!"
Malcolm kept snapping to the beat next to me in bed. While I pulled out my keyboard and started playing out a weird retro song.
"He makes me feel crazy, like I'm Slenderman. . ." I started up my upbeat song again and jumped onto the bed.
"Now I feel better because I got it all out!" I tapped my recorder and it replied, in my voice which sounded a bit echo-y. "Now I feel better because I got it all out!"
"Yeah I feel so much better because I let it all out!"
"Yeah I feel so much better because I let it all out!"
"And that's your bedtime love song, Malcolm!" I whirled around to see him looking right at me, not really affected by me singing him such an awesome spiel about that no good rotten little brat. I mean, I'm a terrible singer and lyricist, but I like to do it, so I do it anyway.
"For a love song it was kind of bitter," he said to the beat.
I flopped down and put my head on his chest. "Yeah, okay goodnight." He tucked the blanket up to my chin and since I'm such a light sleeper, I felt him slip out from under me and shut the door when he thought I was asleep.
~Linebreak~
~Annabeth's room, morning~
I dreamed of me running onto a hill and planting a flag that said 7:30 and yelling, "Hey! It's time for school!" For a second I couldn't breathe. I mean if it's seven thirty then. . .
I'm late for school. Again.
"Late again!?" I screamed, clutching my alarm clock and yelling at it for not being loud enough.
I washed my face, brushed my hair and put it up into another messy ponytail. So much for trying to make it look good today. I put on my clothes. Today I wore short, plaid, baby blue dress and I put a big baby blue bow right on the tie of my ponytail. The dress looked kind of like a really short shirt and a skirt. The top being white with a tinge of blue and the bottom being baby blue with plaid grey stripes. I ran down stairs to find my mom already at the table with breakfast. . .
"Oh my, Annabeth, you're two minutes faster today." she said as I shoved everything down my throat and showed her the spotless plate. I gave a quick nod and Lucky-Charm-colored grin and then-
"Madam, your editor is here now and waiting." Thelma peeked her head into the doorway and spoke to mom.
"Oh thank you Thelma, and oh, good Annabeth. That's a nice clean plate."
"Good morning, ladies! Susan, I'm here to collect your manuscript Today's your deadline and I-" mom's editor, Will, walked in and greeted us.
We both jumped up and started sprinting out the door. Oh, I forgot to tell you! Mother is never ready by the deadline. We left him in the dust yelling, "Wait, where are you going? Your manuscript!"
~Timeskip~
Malcolm stepped on the accelerator we eased out of the garage. I ushered him to hurry the whole time we drove.
"Thanks for the ride! It was safer than yesterday!" I hopped out and fast-walked just like yesterday.
"Annabeth, wait."
"Yeah?"
"I was wondering if it would be safer for you if I walked you to class."
"Oh, how cute! Are you worried about me?"
"Yeah. It's sort of my job." He shrugged.
"Don't worry. If anything should happen to me. . . I'll use my ancient sword fighting techniques that I learned in stage combat class and I'll destroy my enemies!"
"Right. What do you say we try these?" Malcolm pulled out two weird blue little pager-looking things with surprisingly cute keychains attached to them.
"Okay, but what is it?"
"It's Barucha, the shaking walkie-talkie."
"Bara-ru-cheetah what?"
"You just have to hit this button here," He pointed to a trident shaped button on his, and I touched my owl shaped one. "And the device will vibrate, sending me a sign."
"So it's basically my vibrating hotline directly to you."
"Yep. Now lets give this thing a shot."
We both pressed the button simultaneously and I heard a faint humming sound before we both started violently shaking.
"I-I t-t-think they work p-p-p-p-p-pretty well."
"W-When th-th-th-this happens y-y-you can count on me to b-b-b-be right there by y-your side."
"Thanks M-Malcolm. You're the s-s-sweetest for thinking of i-i-i-it." I bit my tongue and winced. Maybe talking while shaking wasn't the best idea.
We stopped shaking and he drove away. I sped up the steps. Before a line of boys appeared before me.
"You should all fear me! I have kung fu moves!" I started posing all kung-fu like before I realized that they weren't boys at all. They were girls. To be specific, my girls.
"What are you doing?" Juniper asked.
"Uh. Nothing!" I straightened myself up.
"You know you really shouldn't be here today." Piper said.
"What? Why?" I asked. I was truly confused. And I'm a pretty smart girl, so that's saying something.
"The boys saw you on TV, and the said they were gonna pound your face in." Hazel spoke up.
"Ha! Those simple minded loser boys. You guys relax. I've got those popcorn heads right inside my back pocket. If they were gonna try anything at all today, I've got a plan. Malcolm gave me this wonderful shaky thingy. If I could just find it." I fished through my new, grey backpack. "Where did it go? Come on, come on, come oooo-" Then I realized.
I had handed it back to Malcolm after trying them out.
"Great. I gave the thing back to Malcolm." I remembered how he just drove back without a care in the world. "He didn't even notice he took it!" I threw my backpack over my left shoulder again and sighed, which made my bangs fly up from my head.
"Behind you." Thalia said.
I turned around to find the real crowd of boys all shooting deadly glares at us. Metaphorically of course. I mean if they were real deadly lasers I would dodge every single one of them just the way I learned in stage combat class.
"Just the rotten eggs we were looking for." Frank said. Frank was the biggest boy. He had short, black hair and squinty eyes. He always wore this baseball cap backwards, which annoyed me because one he's breaking the rules, on top of breaking all the other rules he does in class. And two, no one wears a cap backwards anymore. Accept Superwoman. She can pull it off.
"Yeah. We all heard everything you said yesterday," Ethan said. Ethan was Percy's lead monkey. Most would say Grover was, but he wasn't really a monkey. He never really did anything bad in general, actually. He would just kind of hang around Percy and fiddle with his glasses.
Ethan also had black hair similar to Frank's, but was long and overgrown. He always wore an eyepatch which I thought looked ridiculous but all the boys thought it looked cool, so he kept it on.
"Little Miss TV thinks she can say anything she wants," Jason spoke. Jason had blonde hair and blue eyes and he was actually okay. Every once in a while we would talk, but most of the time he was just as monkey-like as the rest.
"Oh yeah? Well this Little Miss TV said exactly what she wanted and you couldn't do anything about it," I huffed.
"That's enough." Ethan spat. I turned to my girls.
"Get out of here." I said firmly.
"We can't leave you." Piper said.
"You girls don't want to get caught up in the middle of this. Now go!" I ordered. They all jogged away from the scene.
"We're gonna go get Mr. Bacchus," Juniper said, before jogging ahead of the rest. I whipped back around to see Jason, Leo, Frank, Ethan, and Nico, who didn't even notice was there, all turned to me, fists drawn.
"You know, I'd love to take a picture of this whole scene here. You five brave boys facing up against some weak little girl." I said, a smug smile written all over my face.
"Shut your mouth, you little-" Ethan growled.
"You boys remind of that story where the donkey buried the lion without his skin." I cut him off. Honestly, at this point, I didn't even know what I was saying anymore. I just had to two goals. To make them mad, and to stall.
"What does that even mean?" Jason asked no one in particular.
"I don't know, but it makes me all mad inside." Leo half-whined.
They all ran at me, and I yelled something like, "You wouldn't you dare touch mmph!" Before they all pummeled my face in, leaving my face deformed.
"Ahh! I'm gross! I can't go on the air like this!"
*ANNABETH'S DAYDREAM:
Is Annabeth absent today?" Zach said, looking at my empty seat.
"I heard she got the crap beaten out of her," Shane, my co-star of Child's Toy said.
Suddenly I walked in with a mummy costume and bandages over my blob-shaped face, and don't forget sunglasses for style. Everyone on the set screamed, and my acting career ended.
But then again, a bold new image could be just what brings new life into the show. The ratings would spike like a rocket and and the TV show and Half Blood Studios would soar to infinity! And amidst all the excitement, I escape to Hawaii with Malcolm where we would gaze at every romantic sunset.
"Annabeth," Malcolm would say, while leaning into my face for the kiss just like I've always wanted him to. "My darling, I adore you."
"Oh Mal-" I would say before being ambushed by a ton of flashing lights. No matter our efforts, we'd never escape the invasive paparazzi! The headlines would be everywhere! 'Hideous Creature Discovered With Handsome Agent in Hawaii'! The name Annabeth Chase would be forever recognized throughout the world as the beautiful, bumpy faced, entertainer! Ahaha!
*END OF DAYDREAM*
"Haha! I'm pounded and proud!" Wait, did I just say all that out loud? Even the part about Malcolm. . . Oh yeah, this is embarrassing. I felt my face, which was perfectly Annabeth-shaped and not covered in tissue paper, or whatever mummies use to be wrapped up.
"Dont worry we'll show you what it means to be pounded!" Both Ethan and Jason came at me, with their fists raised and I got into position one combat mode. Then we were stopped, you already know by who. The monkey boss himself
"What's going on?" Percy said quietly. Percy's voice was low, smooth, and slow. It was always kind of quiet, but it had this intimidating factor to it.
He had shown up on the steps of the school early, like always. with Grover, his best man, at his side. He had longish raven black, messy, sea swept hair, murky sea green eyes that were always clouded with millions of unreadable emotions, and tan, Greek skin. He'd be quite attractive, actually, if it wasn't for his terrible personality. But I gotta say, his looks have always seemed to take my breath away. But you get past it once you know him, you know?
"Percy. . ." Ethan faltered.
"You know, she bad mouthed you all over television yesterday," Leo piped up, watching as Percy strode past them, his hands shoved into his pockets.
"Just leave the girl alone guys, okay?" he said quietly, as he retreated towards the building. How could he even do that? I'm Annabeth Chase, like the biggest star of today I just let some things slip out about him and the whole public probably hates him now and- Oh. I really am a terrible person aren't I?
"Yeah, but uh…" Ethan trailed off. He gaped at Percy in this sort of way that just screamed 'What-the-heck-are-you-doing-missing-out-on-this-chance' I bet he really hoped that he could pummel my face in. Like, for real this time.
"Just leave her alone," he didn't look back as he disappeared from sight into the building. Grover looked back at us and just shook his head firmly, some kind of emotion burning in his eyes before speeding up a little to catch up with Percy. Grover was actually a nice person, but he never leaves Percy's side. It makes me wonder why good people are so badly wasted.
The boys and I just stood there, staring after them, kind of dazed that Percy just denied watching me going on an all expenses paid trip to No Career Town. Ethan was the first to snap out of it. Even then, he just kicked up some dirt from the ground and cursed under his breath.
"Whatever." The eye patched boy said before the boys dispersed. What was Percy even thinking?
"Hey Perce," Jason spoke when they finally caught up with Percy, who apparently had stopped to let them catch up. "what do you got in the bag there?" he asked.
Of course not schoolwork, because I mean, how crazy would that be? (Note the sarcasm)
"It's a surprise," he replied with no emotion.
~Linebreak~
I was walking down the hallway, my mood dampened a little, but not enough to put me in bad tenor. I lightly hummed some random tune and swung my backpack around in one hand when suddenly Mr. Bacchus ran down the hallway with my girls trailing behind yelling something like, "Annabeth I'll save you!" I didn't really think much of it until they stopped right in front of me.
"You look fine to me," Mr. Bacchus said, grabbing my face and checking it all around for bruises or burns or whatever.
"We thought you were dead!" Piper sighed.
"They just let you walk away without a scratch?" Juniper walked around me, as if looking for some secret scratch I was hiding or something.
"Annabeth, did you get hurt?" Mr. Bacchus stopped checking me and just looked into my eyes.
"Nah. I'm just running late to class like always," I said.
I brushed past him and continued my humming while they followed. I opened the door, hoping and praying to the gods that maybe the boys had found the error of their ways are were currently sitting politely and with good posture in the classroom learning arithmetic and raising their hands everyone had their notebooks out and they were taking notes and all the desks were as if they were glued to the floor.
And I wish that Percy was actually sitting in his desk for once instead of the back counter and he burned whatever he had against the teacher and the girls and boys were communicating and having small amounts of fun but still working hard to be educated. But then I opened the door.
I saw an array of colors flying through the air. That could only mean one thing. . .
Water guns.
They had Water guns.
Except they weren't filled with water.
Paint.
They were filled with paint.
Every single boy except for Grover had a black water pistol. Whizzing paint into the air. Each line of the thick liquid finding it's way to Mrs. Hestia.
"Children stop it! No! Please don't!" The teacher yelled between each squirt. Then one landed in her mouth and she stopped talking, which was followed by the sound of claps on and the backs and multiple people yelling 'Bullseye!'
"How that for target practice?" Ethan chuckled, causing both Leo and Jason to burst into a fit of laughter.
"What are those?" Mrs. Hestia asked, apparently, she swallowed the paint, which was actually really bad come to think of it. I wonder if she'll be okay.
"They're water pistols." Nico said.
"Yeah, we got them from Percy," Leo piped up. "He a genius. He the one who thought of the idea of filling these things up with ink instead of water."
Okay, so it was ink, not paint. That's even worse. Ink doesn't even wash out! Well, neither does paint but, whatever. They shouldn't be spraying anything!
Percy just stood there in his usual spot at the back of the room, the only blue pistol in his hand. He didn't do anything when the boys approached Mrs. Hestia, forming a half circle around her, pinning her against the wall.
"Please kids, no more. I've had enough," she pleaded, but they didn't let up.
I sighed. "This is never going to-"
"No, stop!" Mr. Bacchus jumped up in front of Mrs. Hestia, which earned him 11 good squirts all over his body. The boys laughed, he didn't.
"This game is over, boys! Gimme those water guns and sit down, or you'll all be sorry!" he yelled over the noise, which gave me a nice trip to Headache City.
"Is that so?"
Everyone quieted down at the voice that was never often heard in the classroom. All boys, and the girls, and the teachers, and well, me, turned around to see Percy, his earbuds finally out of his stupid head and strewn across his shoulders.
The whole scene was actually quite attractive, but saying that would technically be cheating on Malcolm, so I didn't. He stood up, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips curved down into this really cute frown that made him look like a rebellious little. . . monkey! A rebellious little monkey. Heh. I was totally going to say monkey.
"Are you gonna. . . do something?" he asked, his eyes clouded with basically every bad emotion. Anger, betrayal, intimidation. Insanity. He held up two polaroids, both turned around so that all you could see was the white backside.
"Because, I don't mind going public with these, if that's fine with you." His voice, was quiet and low and slow, and smooth, yet gravelly, it was like drugs on my ears. I loved the sound of it. I snuck a glance that teachers, and saw that their looks of anger and authority disappeared and had been replaced with looks of utter horror.
"I'll just expose you adults for what you really are. Is that what you really want to do?" He aimed his gun to take another shot at the teachers but just before he could pull the trigger.
Except he didn't get to. Suddenly, a bright blue splotch appeared on his eye and he dropped the gun. Everyone looked towards the direction the shot came from, but I knew exactly who it was.
It was me. I picked up an extra gun and shot him, and thankfully I hit my target. Everyone looked at him, then at me, then back at him, and then back at me, who just squirted the school's scariest bully in the face. He glared at me and I looked right back at him with the same scary look he only reserved for me and wiped some of the ink of his face with his shirt sleeve.
"Now then," I said. "Let's start with you shutting up."
Ok so this chapter clocked in at:
Pages: 21
Words: 8366
Ok, so my objective for this story is to bring anime to the book world, so yes, this is Kodocha for those who noticed. But relax, I don't own it and I'm gonna change the ending because it sucked and inserted some different parts. So yeah.
Ok. You guys are probably really confused so I'll explain.
Malcolm is Annabeth's chauffeur, manager, and boyfriend. He always wears sunglasses and never takes them off. You'll find out more about his past and who he really is later.
Annabeth is an outgoing child TV star. He thinks Malcolm is her boyfriend because she's still kinda childish and doesn't seem to notice that one, Malcolm is way too old. He's about 24. And two, she's way too young. She's thirteen.
Percy is a rebellious hellion. He has rough past. He has some family I'll tell you about later and right now everything is kinda a mystery for him. Percy does not have a secret crush on Annabeth. They are truly enemies right now.
Annabeth is really OOC right now but don't worry, she'll chill a little later on. And it's an AU anyways, she can be as different as I need her to be.
Okay guys, please review even if it's to criticize me. But please don't hate, it can take 'Oh fix your sentence structure' but I can't take 'You freaking suck!' Um, I'll answer questions next chapter in the beginning AN, and people follow and favorite! Thanks!
I don't own Percy Jackson or Kodocha.
Follow your dreams.
BaiBai!
-CeCe
