Chapter II Meeting and Matters

I slide into an empty seat besides Annabeth Chase. I watched her from the corner of my eye. I swear upon all that is sugary that I've never seen her in my life! I wonder if it's all just a weird prank. On top of all that, she belonged to the Outsider's! Now that was a real head scratcher. I particularly know all the members of the Clan and I know for a fact it takes a lot to get in. Annabeth definitely didn't look like Outsider material.

Mrs. Campbell, our creepy math's teacher entered the class room. She was middle – aged with an inch thick coating of make up with clothes to match. All I can say about her is flashy. Flashy would probably be an understatement.

Was it just me or was Mrs. Campbell glaring at Annabeth?

Annabeth put her book down and started to glare back at her. Mrs. Campbell blinked and looked away. I have to say, the Blondie's got guts. It's not every day, that you see a student win a glaring contest against a teacher.

Mrs. Campbell wrote something on the board and turned, then asked in a raspy voice "Alice, please come and solve this equation?"

I sighed and thought

"This day couldn't get any worse."

I was about to be proved wrong.

X-X-X

"Ugh, it's like I've been to hell and back again."

I said to myself, massaging me fore head as I walked through packed corridor towards the cafeteria.

"You have no idea." said a voice beside me.

Surprised, I turned and saw Annabeth walking with me. I met her gaze and saw calculating stormy grey eyes looking at me as if she was thinking how to take me down in a battle. Freaky kid.

Not wanting rude, I replied "No kidding." [A/N: It's more of a statement than a question.] The awkward silence was painfully long. Thankfully, we reached the cafeteria. I pushed open the door and grabbed a tray and filled it with some of my favorites. As I sipped my carton of apple juice, I saw Annabeth standing alone, looking for a place to sit. I sighed and then said "Annabeth, come over here."

She turned with a surprised look on her face which quickly disappeared as she started to walk towards me. She slid into the seat next to me and started to eat.

I broke the awkward by saying "So I hear you like books?"

Okay, Okay. It's not the best conversation starter but it's all I got.

Annabeth looked at me and replied "Yeah."

I thought of what to ask her next. Suddenly on a whim, even though I knew the answer, I asked

"Which clan do you belong to?"

Annabeth stiffened and looked at me confused.

"What are clans?"

It was my turn to be confused.

"Wait, you don't know?! You've been in our school for more than four months and you haven't heard of the clans?! Is that even possible?!" I cried.

Annabeth, getting more confused, said "The Clans? Who are they?"

"You're really not joking." I said, disbelieving. "But Amelia said you were a…" I paused.

Annabeth seemed trust worthy enough but there was something about her.

Annabeth stared, seemingly waiting for me to continue.

"The Clans are basically a group of girls who are similar to each other. It can vary from their likes and taste to what type of person they are." I explained to her.

"Which clan do you belong to?" Annabeth curiously asked.

I, surprised, replied "The Outsiders. A pretty laid back outcast clan, compared to the others. The others are just waiting for a chance to fight."

"This school pretty messed up, isn't it?" she said.

"Yeah but you should already know that. I mean. You've been in this school for four months and you definitely couldn't have missed the month long war between the Cheer Girl's and Sugary Sweet's that ended just last week. The Outsider almost got dragged into that one. How could you not know about that?" I blurted all at once.

Annabeth gave me a weird look and didn't answer and then lapsed into a thoughtful silence.

Whoever this girl is, she isn't normal.

The rest of the day was spent switching classes.

As I stood waiting for Aunt Kelly to come and pick me, when I got this creepy sensation like someone was watching. I spun around and saw one.

"Okay, now I'm getting pretty freaked out." I thought to myself.

I glanced at my watch. Aunt Kelly was thirty minutes late. That was so not like her. She loved being exactly and precisely on time.

Some part of me was getting very anxious.

She must have been up at work, Right? There's nothing weird about that, Right?

It's normal.

So why do I feel like something horrible just happened?

"To Hell with it." I thought and started towards my home. It wasn't far but it wasn't close either. As I ran, a little voice in my head kept screaming at me to go faster and faster.

I don't know how long it took me to reach my home but the time I reached there my chest was heaving and there was a painful stitch on my hip.

I ran up an old style porch and rang the doorbell. No answered. I tried again but no answered again. My hand touched the doorknob and automatically, the door opened.

As I soon as I stepped in, I noticed that the familiar scent of flowers and cake was missing and it was replaced by a very strong smell that made my eyes water.

I looked around the room, horrified. The room was a mess. The sofa had one large rip through it. The pictures on the walls were on the floor, broken. The blue display sword that usually hung above the fireplace was missing.

A shiver ran down my spine. I ran to living room.

As I neared the room, the feeling of dread started to weigh down so heavily that my legs started to feel like jelly.

Suddenly I heard a snarl behind me. I whipped around and almost immediately felt like a train ran into my stomach. The blow was so hard that it threw me against the wall.

I saw black spots but then I shook my head to clear it and looked up.

The first thing I noticed was a thick scaly body of a snake. Above it was the torso of a woman.

The next thing I saw was enough to give me nightmares for the rest of my life.

It was Mrs. Campbell.

Her face wasn't covered with make-up but that only made her scarier. Her eyes were small, each pupil was aslit. Her mouth was black, wide with jagged teeth. She kept running her purple tongue along her lips like a snake.

"Hello Rae."

"WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON?!"