Chapter 2-The Beginning

"Don't tell me the sky the limit, when there are footprints on the moon."

Let's get right to it. I guess it all started one brisk October day as I got on my bus. I sat in my regular seat waiting for my friend Piper. Instead my arch nemesis, Drew Tanaka, sat next to me. She starting talking and I was immediately annoyed. A couple minutes later she said something that surprised me I more ways than one; she said "I have a crush." I suddenly got a mischievous and prideful glint in my eye. Mischievous for finding out her crush and prideful for knowing that I could.

"Who is it?" I asked politely, gagging on the inside. I really wanted to know who her crush was but I didn't want to be polite to be my arch nemesis. She had been my arch nemesis since 4th grade when she spread a rumor about why I had been spending a lot of time at Peter's house. She said that we were secretly dating even though I was dating Evan Parks. He broke up with me. Then she started dating him. I mean talk about girl drama. Well anyways back to the point.

She answered "I like Luke Castellan." Yes I found out, wait what did she just say. I have a crush on him, not her. Too bad we got to her stop before I could strangle her. Then we got to my stop.

When I got off the bus I ran as fast as I could to my house. Then I dropped off my book bag on the front porch and I walked and walked until I ended up in front of my best friend of five years, Percy Jackson's, house. When I got there I knocked until Percy opened the door. As soon as he saw me, he sat down with me in his front yard. I cried on his shoulder for a long time but when I looked up I saw the lush green grass and the pinkish sunset. The beautiful day that in no way matched my mood.

I didn't stop crying in time for me to walk home for dinner. He told me to come in. I didn't want to though because I hate coming in unexpectantly. Of course he gave me that stone cold stare which means come in, then we both walked into his house for dinner. His father saw me and said "Hello, Annabeth, this is the third time this month, right."

"Yeah" I said shyly. That night they were having steak and baked potatoes. That did not make up for the silence. I wish they would talk more. The first time I came here in fourth grade his parents thought I was Percy's girlfriend so they talked and talked to me until they found out I wasn't.

The next day I skipped school with Percy. Whenever I stay home from school he skips too. That is just how it always works, although sometimes I wonder why the teachers never became suspicious. Well I guess that doesn't really matter. I am glad actually because we never got in trouble and probably never will. That's a good thing. Well, during our "sick" day we watched all our favorite television shows and ate homemade baked goods. Of course we baked them and washed the dishes so my parents wouldn't figure our system out. That would truly be terrible .Although the only reason they would figure it out is because I can't cook.(anything.)

After our "sick' day, we found out about the school dance coming up. It was a Sadie Hawkins dance. That means girls ask boys. I wondered if anyone had asked Luke yet. If Drew has asked him, I'm going to kill her, figuratively not literally. I'm no murderer. You must be crazy if you think I am. (If I were I would kill her with poisons and then bury the poisons so there would be no evidence of me killing her). I did not just say that.

At lunch I tried to gather up the courage to ask Luke out. That was before I heard Silena say to Thalia that she was going to the dance with Luke. Apparently they have been dating since third grade. I wish I knew before I started to like him. Well I heard that Silena is going to move at the end of the year anyways so I only have to deal with them being together until the end of the year or until they "mysteriously" break up.

In gym that day had to do 350 jumping jacks. They must want to kill all of the kids going to this middle school. Then they made us run for 25 minutes. That plus the jumping jacks equals very sweaty tired 7th graders. I mean we're not in the military, but try telling the gym teacher that. The first (and only) kid to do that had to do 175 pushups and 379 pull ups. He didn't come to school for two weeks after that. Even after he came back he walked funny. Truly that gym teacher is crazy. Don't you tell him I said that though, I couldn't catch up on that much school work.

I didn't go to Percy's that afternoon. That means I had dinner with my family. They were so surprised to see me at the table when I wasn't sick. They are such drama queens (and kings). We had a perfectly good dinner but they ruined it by asking me questions about why am I here the whole time.

After dinner I played Legos with my little brother Leo. His shaggy blonde hair fell over his eyes whenever he laughed. It was just so cute to watch him laugh at his own jokes. I have to say though they were pretty funny.

Before I went to bed I wrote in my journal (that Percy gave me for my 12th birthday) about the last few days. Then I read it over and cried myself to sleep. It was that sad to me. It least I don't sleep walk (or sleep run) because if I did, I would already at Percy's, sadly.

The next day in Language Arts we had to do our book reports. During Luke's oral report Drew was talking to Hazel about him. He heard her talking but not what she was talking about (sadly). I really want him to know how she obsesses him. After he finished he told Mr. Blofis, our teacher. Well he told on Drew, not Hazel. So now she has after school detention. Again I meant Drew not Hazel. That is very strange especially for this classroom. Our teacher has best ears in the world. I guess Hazel didn't talk back (but I think she did).

After school I went to Percy's house for band rehearsal. All band rehearsals happen at his place. That is because he has the biggest house and the best neighbors. Band rehearsal was great because everybody was right on time with their notes and it sounded terrific.

Then I went home to find my little sister, Briar, arguing with my mom and dad trying to convince them that she should be able to go to a dance class. She loves dancing and singing. That and everything else exciting to her like surfing, skating and diving. My little sister is adventurous at 4 years old. I guess she watches a lot of people doing those things on television and wants to do it too. She doesn't understand that they are fiction shows. Of course one day she will find out and still want to do all those things. That is the way of Briar.

That turned out to be the very moment Hazel rang the doorbell. I slapped my forehead in frustration because I forgot that she was coming. We had planned to study for a math test because she totally needs help with it, and I don't mean cheating help. Then after studying since it was a Friday she was going to stay the night and Thalia was going to come too. They both were at the door even though Thalia wasn't supposed to come until later. Thalia said that she was going to help Hazel too.

We studied math while eating pizza all kinds of sweets like cookies, chocolate and chips. After studying we watched sad and funny movies like Frozen, our favorite movie. Then we played some truth or dare games. It was mostly truth but once I a while someone chose dare. I chose dare once and had to eat a whole pizza in five minutes.

That night, around midnight, we thought my brother was asleep so we walked carefully upstairs and opened his door quietly to see him waiting for us in his bed. He didn't even look tired. How crazy is it of him to wait up all night knowing we would come to visit him with some warm and cold water? , (the trick doesn't work without cold water.)

Saturday morning we ate breakfast (chocolate chip pancakes) we went to town and I saw one of my enemies Khione at a fashion store. She was trying out the latest make up at the counter. She was wearing a yellow top and bright red lipstick and white shorts. That was subtle for her. Even with the unnatural curls falling over her shoulders. I pointed her out to Hazel and Thalia and quickly left the store. It's not like we were going to buy anything there anyways. Those clothes are way too flashy for our styles. Instead we went somewhere else and bought nice comfortable clothes.

We stopped at the food court for some pretzels and ice cream for lunch (at the mall we're allowed to eat anything) and then we went to the book store and saw the new girl, Mary Ferdinand. We went over and talked to her. She pointed out some great books likeThe World in My Book by Serenity Maxwell. We spent almost a whole hour in the book store and 47.59 on books we bought.

When we walked out of the mall we split ways. I went home for dinner, there was two half empty pizza boxes on the stove and I grabbed a few slices with a napkin in my hand. Then I went to my room and pulled out my lap top and opened it. It was on a stupid racing game. Of course my brother had been on it; I just exited it out and started working on my homework. Thirty minutes later I was done with everything so I got under the covers with one of the new books, Magic Island by Dallas Roberts. Ten minutes into that I put it down, turned off the light and slept.

On Sunday I went to church by myself. No one else in my family wanted to go. When I got there I sat by my friend Reyna. We don't see each other often because we go to different schools. We were early so we started talking about anime. She loves it and got me addicted to it. When the service started we stopped talking. Today's service was about how Jesus walked on water. After the service I walked home for lunch.

My brother was cooking when I got home. Yeah I got the smarts and he got the cooking skills. We had grilled cheese and chicken soup, we have that every Sunday. After lunch my brother headed out to hang with his friends at the basketball court, leaving me with a 6 year old and a 4 year old. So I set them up with game of Chutes and Ladders while I watched Dr. Who. I know I said I was addicted to anime but I have a Dr. Who shrine in my closet. I even have a T.A.R.D.I.S. necklace. It went on like that until about 5 p.m., which was when my brother walked in the house and went straight for the kitchen to make dinner. He made a pot of macaroni and made some Salisbury steak.

At school on Monday Khione said to me that she might skip to 8th grade. I did not believe her. Especially since I have seen her report cards, some of them had Fs on them. I mean wow. How can you fail art?

At lunch and I talked to my friend Gwen the whole time. She loves making comics and once one of hers got in the newspaper. We were talking about Mary. She seemed nice and smart but she was sitting with the popular girls. We don't know what to make of her.

While Gwen and I were talking when my old crush, Grover, and his girlfriend Juniper interrupted us and told us more about Mary. "She has three brothers, all younger than her. She skipped 4th grade so she is really smart and younger than us. She's scared of lightning because her father was hit by lightning and died. She loves all kind of books." he said

That was when Drew of all people walked over to our lunch table and was really annoying. Gods, if Luke saw me with her he'd basically hate me. He already hates her. She thinks she looks like the most beautiful girl in the world. She isn't, not in the least. Oh, I just thought about if she read this. I'll talk to my publisher, wait what you won't let me erase it. Maybe I should get a new publisher, oh right there are no more publishers in Starlight Grove. I should think before I write.

Gym was sheer torture again of course but this time it was worse. They made us play dodge ball which means lots of ducking and jumping. One of my friends, Jessica, cut her hair and I just saw in Gym. I'm guessing that helped in Gym. With shorter hair there must be less sweat. One of the boys started flirting with her. It was the new boy, Dakota.

Art was after gym and one my best friends Jenna, Jessica's twin, is in art. I always sit by her and we laugh and talk. Today we had to do a line project. It was boring but I lived through it. So did everybody else.