The Valedictorian and
the Delinquent
Preface
As Annabeth Chase sat in the window of her favourite coffee shop, shoulders hunched over, loose hair covering her face, and one sleeve hanging half from her shoulder, she scrawled the last line of her valedictorian's speech and bit the end of her pen.
She glanced over it once more and lifted her head to gaze out of the window.
Of course she would be valedictorian. She didn't expect anything else. She was class president and had managed to maintain a steady 4.0 GPA throughout the entirety of her school career. But she had a feeling that that wasn't the real reason behind her being chosen. It was probably a little closer to the fact that her mother was the school principle, and had also been valedictorian in her time, so she therefore held a biased opinion towards her daughter continuing her legacy.
She watched the bustle of New york outside, and became thankful for the glass windows that managed to keep the honks of horns and deafening sounds of traffic out of her favourite writing spot.
Her eyes caught on the two men stood at the mouth of an alley way directly across the street, and she sat up properly in her seat, removing the pen from her mouth. The conversation between the two looked pretty intense, and she bit her lip as the stouter man suddenly siezed hold of the others wrist, before whispering something in his ear.
The boy, all tanned skin and messy black hair, shook off the mans grip and grasped the front of the mans shirt, shovinng him into the alley behind them.
Once he believed he was fully hidden from view, he wrapped his hands around the mans throat, and forced him back against the bricks of the dirty alley wall.
She gasped and stood up out of her seat, ready to intervene, but she remembered everything her mother had ever told her about the people of New York and sat back down. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialled 911 just in case.
She turned back to watch the pair. She couldn't hear the words the boy whispered, but she could tell from the fear within the mans eyes and the way his hands shook ferociously at his sides that the words had a more severe effect on him than he was willing to admit.
Still, despite the obvious shaking of his hands, the man sneered and attempted to stand straighter - even if he had not been restrained, the boy in front of him was easily a foot taller than the smaller, balding man. Even standing as tall as possible, he could hardly be considered intimidating compared to his assailant.
Except there was something in his marred smile, and the way he seemed to spit his words gently like venom into the face of the raven haired boy. He spoke, and by the movement of his lips, even from this distance, Annabeth Chase could tell the words were smug - They seemed to twist with blatant hostility as they left his mouth.
With one swift movement the slender teen struck the mans head against the wall behind him. He forced it into the brick again and again, cracking the fragile skull and dirtying the grey bricks to crimson.
Annabeths heart found its place in her throat, and her lungs froze as her breath abandoned her lungs.
She dashed out of the shop and stepped into the road, jumping back and cursing when a taxi sped passed and honked at her, the driver showing her what it really means to curse.
She took a deep breath and hastened across the road, manuvering around cab drivers and frustrated business men, ignoring the verbal shelling and focusing her eyes on the darkened alley across the way.
By the time she reached the and of the grubby street, standing in the last patch of light before the darkness, the man, now obviously unconcious, lay crumpled on the floor, the younger teen towering over him.
His head snapped around and she stepped back. She would have liked to say his eyes were green - maybe a dark green, maybe the exact shade of the deepest depths of a haunted forest. But they weren't quite that; they weren't quite colourful enough to be that.
They were black... almost. Black flecked with tiny streaks of green fire, or light, or maybe all the stars held within a distant galaxy... all held inside of his iris. Maybe they were just a green so dark that they almost appeared black.
But maybe, in that light, with death in his eyes and blood on his hands and a body at his feet, maybe they were not truly as she was seeing them in that moment.
She bit her lip. Just as she began to near a conclusion, he stepped backwards and lifted a finger to his lips, his eyes imploring for her silence.
As she opened her mouth to speak - to maybe even call for help - he spun on his heel and sprinted down the alley, disappearing into the light at the other end.
That was the first of many times Annabeth Chase would meet Percy Jackson.
Please be chill with me while I try to work out the description and the name!
Thanks for reading!
FailedGuardian