The next week passed by quickly without any significant altercations. I began noticing my surrounding peers more, especially Annabeth. The more I noticed about her, the more things I had to fall in love with. I knew it was hopeless for me as I watched Percy and his friends pick her up from school every day, but maybe one day I would have a chance. Maybe their relationship wasn't as perfect as it appeared to be. I just had to be patient. Although I didn't want Annabeth to be hurt by Percy, I would be there for her when it inevitably fell apart, as nearly all high school relationships do.
I tapped my pen on my desk impatiently as my AP Chemistry teacher passed out the lab assignment for today and assigned everyone partners. She wasn't a great teacher and was especially slow when it came to tasks like this. It would have been faster if she let everyone pick their own partner. I let my thoughts drift to ways I could get Annabeth to notice me more as Ms. Brown worked her way up the aisle to my desk. I tried to ignore the way her pants swooshed under her dress or the way she peered at the roll through the hair that covered her face as she slapped the lab papers on my desk. "You will be working with… let's see… I believe I put you with Alaina, yes, you and Alaina will be partners today."
I walked over to the brunette flirting with one of the football players. She was certainly different from Annabeth, not just in looks. Alaina had auburn hair and golden brown eyes that seemed to compliment her naturally tan complexion. She wore just enough make-up and stylish clothes to compliment her natural beauty, unlike Annabeth whose gray eyes clashed with her California girl looks and tried to downplay her beauty by wearing casual tee shirts and jeans. Both girls were pretty in their own right, but there was just something alluring about Annabeth that I didn't see in Alaina. "Ehem," I cleared my throat to get Alaina's attention, "Ms. Brown said that we were to work together."
"Mmkay," She said hopping off the desk she was sitting on. She held her hand out to me and I just looked at her, confused. "The papers. You don't expect me to do the lab from memory. I might be good, but not that good," she was grinning at my dumbfounded look as I shoved the papers into her hand, forgetting to keep one for myself. I followed her to the lab table as she looked over the instructions.
"Um, do you think I could look at one of those? I, um, kind of gave you mine." I said embarrassed at my mistake. She looked down at the papers in her hand just now realizing that she had two of the same and burst out laughing.
"Yeah, yeah, here you go," She said between laughs. Irritated and embarrassed, I glared down at my paper and tried ignoring Alaina as much as possible, which was rather difficult as she wouldn't shut up the whole time we worked. After a few minutes, she had calmed down enough to help me, when she wasn't getting distracted by the other students in my class.
"Okay, so now we just need to combine 10 milliliters of this with that yellow liquid in that beaker over there," I said pointing at the corresponding materials.
"Yup," Alaina said, moving the beaker closer to me. "Hey Brice?"
"Yeah?" I said not really paying her much attention.
"You're friends with Annabeth right?" She asked, "You've been to her house?"
I was so startled by her question that I nearly dropped the test tube I was holding. "What?" I asked turning to look at her.
"I know because she told me you guys were working on a project together or something. I don't really care; I was just wondering." Her face was the most serious I had ever seen it.
"Yeah, I guess I'd consider us friends," I said eying Alaina curiously.
"Annabeth… she doesn't have many friends at this school. She is friends with me and a few other girls, but she doesn't seem especially close to any of them. It worries me sometimes, especially because of the people she is friends with outside of school. Her boyfriend and his friends… they're trouble."
"Percy and his friends? What's wrong with them?" I asked cautiously, but in the back of my head I was reminded of my first impression of them and that night Percy was injured.
"There isn't anything wrong with them per se, but they are what teachers might call problem children. Her boyfriend alone has been kicked out of nearly every school he's ever attended, and he's attended over eight of them. The other kids, well, I don't know much about. She doesn't talk about them a whole lot, but every once in a while she lets something slip. None of it's good. I am worried about her associating with these kind of people."
I nodded as I took in this new information. I felt like a rock had settled in the pit of my stomach. There was really so much that I didn't know about Annabeth. Percy had seemed like a good guy, a bit strange, but he was well behaved and cheerful. He didn't seem like the kind of kid to be expelled from that many schools, other than maybe his tattoo. Suddenly Percy's words from my last visit flashed into my head 'Annabeth is the one keeping me out of trouble'. Alaina might be telling the truth I realized with a shock.
"I was wondering if you'd noticed anything? If you could keep an eye out, make sure Annabeth isn't getting herself too deeply involved in something bad, that would really mean a lot."
"I haven't noticed anything worth mentioning. Annabeth is smart and I'm sure she wouldn't do anything to jeopardize her future. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye out."
"Okay, yeah. Just watch for any signs that she might be too blind to see. You know how love is," Alaina said. She quickly perked back up after our conversation was finished and wondered over to the other side of the classroom to goof off with some friends. She seemed unfazed by the worry that was ailing her no more than two minutes ago. Groaning, I went back to work gathering data for Alaina to copy from me at the end of class as I thought over our conversation.
After school on Wednesday, Eli suggested we get pizza again. Although I wasn't particularly in the mood for pizza, I went with them knowing that Jaden would tease me if I didn't go. "Pizza is the greatest invention of mankind," Jaden said somehow fitting half a slice of pizza in his mouth.
We were sitting in our usual booth by the window overlooking a crowded New York street. Eli and Jaden sitting across from me seeing who could eat the most pizza while I nibbled on mine. My eyes wondered over to look out the window. Across the street, pushing their way through the crowd was a group of familiar faces. It was the friends that would come with Percy to pick Annabeth up sometimes. Recalling Alaina's request, I watched them as they waited at the crosswalk. They pushed each other playfully and were smiling like normal kids, but they were also very tense looking. They kept eying their surroundings as if they were looking for someone but didn't know who to expect. Cops? I wondered, that seemed to fit based off the information from Alaina.
"Earth to Brice," Jaden waved his hand in front of my face interrupting my focus.
"What?" I said pushing his hand out of the way and turning to face my two friends.
"What were you looking at?" He asked peering out the window to get a glimpse of whatever had caught my attention.
"Nothing, what did you want?"
"We need you to figure out who won the contest. We had the same number of slices, but mine were bigger." Eli told me.
"They were not. Mine were definitely bigger, right Brice?" Jaden claimed.
"If it's the same number of slices then it's a tie," I was a bit annoyed with them now because outside the window, Annabeth's friends were nowhere to be seen. I had lost them.
"Eeeh, you're no fun. Let's get another pizza and then we'll see!" Jaden exclaimed.
"Seriously guys, another one?" I asked. I was stuffed with the few pieces I had, yet they could still eat more.
"Brice is right. I don't think I can eat anymore."
"Hah, then that means I win!" Jaden shook his fists in victory. Eli just rolled his eyes, but didn't argue anymore. I wondered if Annabeth's friends had moments like this where they just play around and relax. Every time I'd seen them picking her up they seemed on edge, just like they did earlier when they were crossing the street. What are they really like? I wondered as the word troublemakers reverberated in my head.
I couldn't get over Alaina's words, they kept echoing in my head like alarms. After tossing and turning over the issue, I decided that the best way to confirm for myself whether Annabeth was friends with good people would be to confront her about it directly. She had a full scholarship to some school in San Francisco and was in the top of our class, I couldn't let her waste all that hard work by hanging out with the wrong crowd. Annabeth was an amazing and intelligent girl, but even she could be deceived by being too naïve.
I didn't speak to Annabeth again until Friday. Up until that conversation with Alaina, I had been staying afterschool to talk to her until Percy got out of school and picked her up. I knew if I talked to Annabeth I would have to tell her about my concerns, so I had been putting it off by avoiding her. When it reached Friday, I knew I couldn't put it off anymore. The second the bell rang, I nearly sprinted out the door to the front of the school. After taking a moment to catch my breath, I spotted the tree that Annabeth usually waits under.
I was surprised to see Percy waiting under the tree instead of Annabeth with another familiar looking boy in a Rasta cap. They looked like they had been waiting there for a while as they were both sound asleep when I approached. "You're here early." I said to him.
He looked up at me a bit startled and confused from his nap. His eyes were a darker shade of green "What? Oh, yeah."
"Waiting on Annabeth?" I asked him even though the answer was obvious.
"Yeah. My school let out early," He grimaced slightly at this but it quickly turned into a sly smirk.
"Percy!" Annabeth came running up from behind me and hugged him. "What happened? You're here early. Everything okay?"
"Calm down Wise Girl, everything's fine. There was just a bit of a… flooding incident at school today so we got out early," Percy explained.
"Percy," Annabeth scolded. Her startling gray eyes looked as if they could shoot daggers at him.
"I swear it wasn't my fault…entirely. Paul is working it out with the principal so that I won't get into any trouble over it. Chiron is doing what he can too. I promise it won't affect me getting into New Rome next year."
"It better not. I swear you are hopeless Seaweed Brain," She smiled at him.
I was lost. The school flooding wasn't his fault entirely? That means it was at least partially his fault. Is this why he gotten kicked out of so many schools? He impulsively does things like flood the school? I had to talk to Annabeth about this soon before I started making too many assumptions.
"Hey Grover, wake up Annabeth's here," Percy said as he waved a tin can in front of Grover's face.
"Food," Grover moaned.
"Yeah yeah, wake up Goat Boy, and we'll get you some food," Percy said.
A few minutes later Grover was fully awake. He formally introduced himself to me and Annabeth explained that I was a classmate friend of hers. Grover seem especially interested in that.
"Wait, you have normal friends? I didn't know you had friends outside camp." Grover said.
"Of course I have other friends Grover. I have to come here nearly every day," Annabeth rolled her eyes.
"No, I just meant… never mind. It's a good thing though. You should hang out with other people more often. It's not often you get to hang out with people outside camp, plus it will help camouflage your scent." Grover eyed me cautiously and sniffed the air a bit. I didn't really understand what he was talking about, but Percy and Annabeth both seemed to understand it fine. It was strange.
"You think it'll hide me?" Percy asked doubtfully.
"No, not you. But Annabeth maybe. I don't think anyone can cover up your scent anymore," Grover laughed a bit, but it sounded fearful and nervous. He began to get very fidgety and looked around at the other students much more than before. "The same reason you guys went to different schools applies here, except the scenarios changed."
"I get it. If we stay close to mortals, it will be harder to tell which one of us is which." Annabeth explained.
"I'm sorry, but I am so confused. What are you talking about?" I broke down and asked. As hard as I tried, I couldn't keep up with their conversation.
They all grew silent and looked at each other, having a silent conversation with their eyes.
"You know nothing," Percy snapped his fingers in front of my face.
"What are you doing?" I asked him. Things just kept getting weirder.
Percy looked disappointed and snapped his fingers a few more times as if expecting something to happen.
"Looks like someone needs lesson from Thalia, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth laughed, "You want to join us, Brice? We are going to get something to eat."
"Burgers. And then we are stopping at the beach, I need to talk to my dad if he's available," Percy added.
Annabeth nodded and looked at me questioningly. "Yeah, I'll go."
This would give me a good opportunity to spend time with Annabeth and learn about her friends outside of school. I'd be able to look more into Alaina's story.
