Summary: Annabeth Chase is a no one, spending her time studying, hiding from others, and burying herself deep into her past. To top it all off, this anti-social loner has the biggest crush on Percy Jackson—the most popular guy in school. Travel through the pain of high school with Annabeth as she watches her beloved one, hidden in the shadows.

Dedication: Annabeth Brady, whose birthday was on the fourth! :) And Jacksonluver101 who is a cool kid :D And LongLiveLaughter who seems to be really sweet… and whose birthday is today! And pjoperson who was the closest to guessing what I am… a Martian

~oOo~

HIDDEN IN THE SHADOWS

Chapter Twelve

Petty People

~oOo~

Two weeks later…

As much as I love English class, it's kind of a drab to start out with it every single day of the school year. Learning about grammar and interpreting literature, first thing in the morning? It's not the most fun.

I stare into space as the teacher shuffles papers around on her desk, both of us waiting for class to begin. The bell rings, and as Ms. Kimble clears her throat to officially start first period English, the door opens, a girl walking in. This causes Ms. Kimble to become frustrated, although the girl doesn't seem to care.

Her electric blue eyes scan across the room, and she makes eye contact with every single one of them, intimidating most. She turns back to the teacher, pulling her hair out of the ponytail it was in, so it falls to her shoulders in black layers.

Ms. Kimble fumbles under the new girl's gaze, but she maintains a somewhat decent composure. "May I help you?"

The girl holds a slip of paper out to the teacher, saying: "Thalia Grace. I'm new here."

Murmurs erupt from around the class.

"Is that Jason's sister?"

"The Jason Grace?"

"They look nothing alike!"

"Except for their eyes, though."

Ms. Kimble clears her throat, and her face looks like it's gone long sour. "Ah, yes. Have a seat," she says, peering intensely at the slip in her hand. Thalia looks around the classroom for the second time, before walking down the front row and slipping into the seat beside me.

There are a lot of other seats here… and it's not like she's not pretty… I think to myself, surprised, but somewhat grateful that she's sitting next to me.

"What's your name?" Thalia asks at me, her voice softer and less demanding than when she had previously introduced herself to the class.

My eyes flicker up to her face, meeting her eyes for a second, before they fall back to the desk again. "Annabeth."

Thalia offers me a grin and a hand, which I tentatively shake. She's about to say something, when Ms. Kimble cuts her off with an irritated cough.

"Now then, I'm going to call roll," she announces, and Thalia turns her body so she's facing the front once more. As she starts to drone off names, I doze off, not even realizing my name being called.

"Annabeth Chase is here," Thalia says, knocking me out of my reverie. I look up at Ms. Kimble, who continues to call off names, rather than marking me off as absent. She gives me a sideways look, and I try to express my gratitude through my eyes.

Ms. Kimble assigns us a task to do, and I turn to Thalia. "Um… thanks about earlier."

She shrugs nonchalantly. "It was nothing… really. It really was nothing."

I smile at her. "So uh, are you related to Jason Grace?"

Thalia turns around to glare at the person behind her, who seems to be eavesdropping in on the conversation. After an intense look, they turn away, blushing, and she faces me again. "Yeah, that nimrod's actually my brother."

"Oh… okay."

She nods, changing the subject. "What's your schedule?"

I pull out my schedule that I had kept in a folder since the first day of school, and hand it to her. Thalia gazes at it, her blue eyes flickering back and forth between the two papers in her hand. After a moment, she hands it back and grins at me.

I look at her expectantly, curious about the reasoning of her grin. "So?"

"So it seems that we have all our classes together, Chase."

~oOo~

When lunch comes around, Thalia follows me to the lunch line, without even a glance at all the other people in the cafeteria.

Why doesn't she try and make friends with the others? Does she feel like I'm suffocating her too much, where if she tried, my feelings would get hurt? I shake my head to myself. No, that's not it… Thalia doesn't seem to be too soft of a person.

"What'chu thinking about?" Thalia questions as we search for a table to eat lunch at, and sit down. Confused, I stare at her, wondering why she suddenly would want to know what's in my head. She shrugs. "You were shaking your head to yourself."

Self-consciously, I look at the ground. "You can go socialize if you want," I say, not sure if that's the right way to let out what I was thinking.

Thalia's eyes train on me with an intense gaze. She takes my shoulders, spinning me around in the seat to face the rest of the cafeteria. "The people here are too materialistic," she states firmly.

My mouth opens, but she cuts me off and points at a group of people. "Look. Over there, the cheerleaders. They obsess over their looks, popularity, flexibility, and boyfriends."

I have to bite back a reply, even if her observation is mostly true. Thalia points in a different direction. "The classic nerds: Grades, college, parents, latest version of Minecraft." That gets a small laugh out of me, and my tense shoulders begin to relax as Thalia lists out the obsessions of a bunch of different cliques.

She points to the jock table, and when I look, I see Percy sitting there. My cheeks flush as she analyzes them. "Jocks. Sports, "coolness", popularity, girls... Most of them probably switch girlfriends weekly, if not more."

"Not all of them," I blurt out, before bowing my head in embarrassment. I look back up towards the jock table Thalia had previously mention, and see Percy looking in our direction; probably wondering who the new girl is. He catches my eye, and sends a quick smile, before he is engaged into a conversation.

Thalia follows my line of sight, her eyes landing on Percy. "He must be the exception?" she asks slyly, with a teasing voice.

My face becomes flustered and I shake my head. "No no no, I was talking about um. Jason, your brother!"

She rolls her eyes playfully. "Sure." Her tone turns into a much more serious one as she says, "But that's why I'd prefer to sit with you, than anyone else here."

"I'm not popular, though." The words fall out of my mouth, and I stare at my food in discomfiture.

Thalia waves off my comment. "Popularity isn't everything in life… you just get trained to think that from being around so many people who earnestly believe that. Those who only care about petty things like that are petty people themselves. You, Annabeth Chase, are not one of them."

I nod mutely, taking a bite of my sandwich.

"However," Thalia adds, "you do need to work on your confidence, considerably. You can't just let people control you all the time, or bypass you without even noticing you were there."

She motions for me to copy her. "Like now, for instance. C'mon, back straight, shoulders back. Look confident in yourself! Let the world know that you are here to stay; that you're Annabeth Chase."

I do as she says, probably growing a couple inches, just from sitting up straight. A smile breaks out on my face, and for some reason, I already feel much better.

Thalia glances at me for a second, before giving me a soft smile. "Be confident in yourself, Annie, like you are truly existent in this world. Only then will others begin to believe it too."