Chapter 11: Alone

"I'm going to miss you guys so much!" Annabeth threw her arms around Kevin, and then Kenzie.

"You'll still see us after school," Kevin pointed out.

"I know, but it's lonely without friends at school."

"Hylla will be there. I know you aren't really in the best relationship with her right now, but she's not so bad. She probably isn't even mad anymore."

"You obviously don't know Hylla as well as I do."

"You don't even know her that well."

"Touché."

"Ok go! Have fun! Have a great day sweetie!" Kenzie pushed her out.

"Bye mom."

"Haha."

Annabeth trudged through the halls. It was a mucky, muddy sort of day. You know, when it's rained the night before? That kind of rain kept Annabeth up really late, and when she woke up it was all gross outside.

And she was alone.

But that was beside the point. And she really wasn't, right? She still had Hylla and she could make new friends. Right?

So when she got to the locker, Jess was there.

"I'm not moving, Uglybeth."

"Oh great. You clan be alone outside of school too."

"I meant like, I'm not going to get out of the way of your locker."

"Oh, that's ok. I cleared it out yesterday anyway."

Oh, if only I could enclose a picture of that mean girl's face at this proclamation.

"Well, then, I'll see you in class!" Annabeth smiled cheerily and sashayed off.

And the next day, the day was just as mucky and gross.

"Hello, Jess."

"Hey Uglybeth. I saw you put some things back in your locker. You're homework, your folders, your notebook…"

"Yeah."

"Too bad you can't get to it!"

Annabeth gave her a weird look. She opened the locker next to Jess and pulled out her things.

"Yeah I can."

Jess cursed. Really loudly. And it was a pretty bad one.

And was walking by.

So, this kind of routine repeated for a week or so, but then Jess found the right locker.

"I found your locker, Uglybeth."

Annabeth swore in Ancient Greek.

"What's that mean?"

"I can't say. Too much information for your tiny little brain."

Jess stomped her foot.

But the next day, Jess had given up the locker. She and her friends circled around Annabeth.

"Hello, Uglybeth. Are you having fun?"

"Your breath stinks."

"Ugh! Answer the question."

"Not really."

"And why is that?" They circled closer.

"Could you guys not? It's disconcerting. Stop."

" won't save you this time. I've got him covered."

"So...you like…uh…" Annabeth trailed off.

"Ew! No! He's way too old."

"...Not what I meant…" Annabeth was just trying to figure out if she had done something against school rules.

"Ugh! Whatever. Anyway, Uglybeth, we have decided to start doing some community service!"

"And this matters to me because?"
"We are going to help you find a boyfriend!"

"I already have one. Unlike you," Annabeth sighed. "I'm getting tired of this, honestly Jess."

"Well, I've got - you don't - I-"

"Hey, get back to me when you think of something, alright?" Annabeth pushed past them. "And community service should actually be hard."

"Uh-"

Annabeth stalked off. Better find Hylla and hang out with her instead of these... things.

"Hey! Hylla!" Annabeth ran towards her. "I'm sorry I burned Circe's spa down and made you stay with the pirates I basically gave you a death sentence but can we agree that that was actually a good decision maybe because you are the Amazon queen (and this she said very quietly) and I know you are such a strong woman and empowering women everywhere and Reyna defeated Orion so your plans for world domination are safe enough and-"

"Oh my gods, hush Annabeth!" Hylla grabbed her arm and dug her fingernail in.

"That freaking hurts!" Annabeth hissed, prying her arm out of Hylla's grip.

"Let's start from the top. What's got you so worked up? Oh wait, don't answer, is it Percy? What did he do, other than chase you to this school over here, huh?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Not Percy."

"Who, then?"

"Jess."

"Oh, that - UGH!" Hylla slammed her computer on the table. "Let's make a nice little plan, how about that?"

"Um, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna get me expelled."

"Well, it might."

"Then I can't do it."

"Ok, I'll just do it myself."

"Don't do anything stupid!"

Annabeth went to class.

So something like this pretty much went down everyday. Sometimes they were a bit more or less interesting, but pretty much everything was along those lines.

Jess made sure Annabeth couldn't make any new friends except for Hylla, who technically already was her friend (kind of) so Annabeth and Hylla were kind of both alone. Hylla refused to abandon Annabeth and her friends refused to hang out with Annabeth, so long story short, Annabeth ruined Hylla's life. Again.

Why did Hylla even hang out with her?

That really bugged Annabeth. Hylla was awesome. She could probably have any friend she wanted. The only thing holding her back was Annabeth. Lately, it had almost seemed like everything was her fault.

"Hylla," Annabeth said slowly. She sipped her chocolate milk. "Why do you hang out with me?"

Hylla laughed. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. You could be friends with anyone in this school if it weren't for me. And I ruined your life again because I talked to you that day."

"You think these people and their opinions matter to me?" Hylla smiled. "Almost everyone here is a hormone induced, insecure, dumb idiot who doesn't have even the slightest idea what you and I and everyone have done to keep them safe. Their worried about their phones getting taken away while we fear for our families. And some of them actually do have plans for the future, but those people are belittled and labeled here. But strangely enough, those kids that are supposedly nerds - as a bad thing - are the ones I want to befriend."

"What a surprisingly good way to phrase that."

Ey random question: If Jason and Thalia fought against Reyna and Hylla, who would win?

I think Ramirez would totally win because Reyna is praetor and Hylla is amazon queen and won against Otrera, an AMAZON LEGEND 2 but Thalia is really good with a bow and arrow and Jason is like one with the wind and stuff. It would be a pretty even fight, but Ramirez would totally win in my opinion. Everybody answer in the reviews!