~ Hey Angels ~

Sorry for the long wait but I'm giving you guys a double update anyways.

I thought you deserved it especially because this chapter is pretty short.

Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the fact that the new season of RIVERDALE comes out today! (Actually, as I write this it's out tomorrow but I'm updating this tomorrow which means when you guys read this it'll be 'today' - that made no sense whatsoever...)

Anyway,

jughead x betty and archie x betty

4EVER!


Chapter 29

Deep and Meaningfuls

Annabeth POV

Wednesday 23rd September

It was Wednesday. Another awful day in this God-forsaken place. I hadn't spoken to Percy or any of the populars at all. The weird thing is that staying away from someone who said they wanted me to burn in hell, only made me feel even worse. Burning in hell seemed like a better option than this.

If you can understand what it's like to sit through three Chemistry lessons next to someone you're trying to ignore then you can understand real awkwardness. Every minute was cringier than the last, I couldn't even shift in my seat without flinching. He must think I'm so messed up.

I had gone comfy today, in loose grey jeans that were messily rolled above my ankles and had massive rips at the knees and lower thighs. I wore a thin woolly, white jumper with a very plunging v-neckline so that you could see my white lace bralette underneath it. I wore Old Skool black Vans and some indie silver necklaces and rings. And finally, my hair was tied up into a high, messy bun.

Picture perfect… as Helen would say.

Another lie I was disguising myself with.

I still got the odd glance in the corridor, even now. Having passed Rachel, I noticed how very pleased with herself she was, in a stunning black dress as she smirked at me. She'd wanted to do this ever since Percy and I became friends. She'd wanted to rub it in my face that I would never have him the same way she did...or does. I sighed, pulling my bag strap up more and walking past her as she giggled to herself.

"What's wrong, Annie? Cat caught your tongue?" She called but I didn't turn around, I just carried on walking. I just let her mock me. I didn't do anything... I never do anything.

~xXx~


"Hey, Annabeth, wait up!" Luke called as I was walking to the library at lunch. I cringed hearing his footsteps and reluctantly turned to meet him.

"Hey, where have you been? We haven't spoken since Monday and I'm getting worried." He frowned as if he actually cared about me which I didn't believe for a second.

"I'm okay." I mumbled, not looking in his eye and turning to leave.

"Whoa, hey." He said grabbing my arm. "What's wrong? What did I do?"

"Look...I appreciate everything you've done for me..." I started, not really sure what he actually had done for me but it seemed like an easy way to start. "But now I would like it if you just kept your distance."

"Why?" He frowned.

"Because you lied to me about Thalia and your mother. And I can't be around someone like that... I don't particularly want to be around anyone right now." I murmured softly, not wanting to cause an argument.

"Wait, Annabeth—"

"You don't have to say anything. I'm not asking for an apology. Just let it go." I cut him off turning to leave.

"But I've changed!" He called after me. "Really...I have. Don't leave me too, Annabeth. I need you." He begged.

"Nobody needs me." I replied weakly before stepping into the library and leaving him stricken in the middle of the corridor.

I greeted Miss Daniels half-heartedly as I perched on the edge of her desk. She smiled up at me.

"You doing okay, sweetie?" She frowned worriedly and I sighed giving her a nod. "I just overheard something about you and Percy having an argument or something."

I sighed. "Well, that didn't take long."

She smiled softly. "Gossip spreads like a disease."

"I might as well tell you now that everyone knows." I shrugged. "You know Luke?"

"Castellan?"

"Yeah...well, he and Percy have a kind of messy past. So basically, they hate each other. In fact, the entire popular group hate him. Anyway...I guess you could say I kinda became friends with him and Percy was trying to warn me about him but I wouldn't listen and he got angry and then Luke accidentally hit me in Chemistry and everything just got out of hand."

"Oh my Gods, Annabeth, are you okay? What do you mean accidentally hit you?" She looked horrified.

"Oh, it's nothing I just got caught up in a fight between him and Percy and it just kinda happened. I'm okay though, don't worry. Anyway, Percy and I argued in the corridor and then we kind of just decided to end our friendship I guess and now he hates me." I sighed.

"Just because he told you to stay away from someone? Sounds a little possessive to me." She frowned.

"No, it wasn't like that." I sighed. "Percy had every right to do that." I looked away. "Luke ruined his life. He nearly got Thalia to overdose and it's his fault Percy got involved with some bad people again all so he could save Thalia who got caught up with them because they were dealing with Luke."

"You're not making sense."

"Trust me, I know. It's complicated." I sighed. "But you just don't understand...Luke isn't as good a guy as I thought he was and he manipulated me into thinking everything Percy and the others were telling me about him were all lies. So when Percy warned me, I didn't believe him... I'm such a terrible person."

"Hey, come on, you know that's not true." She sighed, leaning forward to take my hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. "I'm sure it can be fixed."

"That's just it...I thought so too but I saw him kissing Rachel on Monday and he told her he didn't care if Luke and I burned in hell and that he's done looking after me. Of course, he denied everything later, saying he didn't mean any of it but I wouldn't listen." I murmured and she was silent at that.

A few moments past before she sighed and finally spoke again. "Sounds to me that Rachel is just a rebound."

"What do you mean?"

"Well...this might just be wishful thinking but...he said he didn't care if you and Luke burned in hell. He made the connection there. I think maybe he thought you liked Luke and he was jealous."

"That's ridiculous."

"Is it?" She raised an eyebrow and I gulped.

"But he was full on kissing Rachel." I protested.

"Well, are they going out now?"

"Well...no."

"Have you seen them kissing or even talking?"

"No but—"

"Rebound, definitely." She nodded as if that was the only answer and no one would sway her.

"Percy doesn't like me. I've just been his charity case this entire time."

"Well, has he tried to apologise?"

"Yes but—"

"Why would he do that unless he actually cared about you?"

"Well—"

"I don't know about you but if I didn't like someone I definitely would not try and apologise to them for kissing someone else and I definitely wouldn't act all miserable and gloomy around school."

"What are you talking about? He's not miserable and gloomy." I frowned.

"Isn't he? Have you actually seen him lately? He came in the library with Piper this morning and wouldn't even pay attention to her when she was talking about going to the beach this weekend and you know Percy loves the beach. It's like talking about candy in front of a five-year-old."

"Maybe he was upset about something else..."

She sighed. "Maybe...maybe not..."

"Can we talk about something else...please?" I pleaded and she smiled.

"Okay...how's your dad? You're visiting him this weekend, aren't you?" She smiled excitedly and my heart sank a little deeper. I hadn't spoken to my dad since that awkward phone call on Saturday. I had presumed that the trip was off since I had hung up on him, leaving things in a very bad state.

"No..." I whispered.

"No?" She frowned. "What? Why? I thought—"

"We had an argument over the phone." I sighed. "I kind of just told him everything I've been angry about over the past few years about him leaving me and mum and then I just hung up." I gulped. "I don't think he's gonna want to see me after that."

She sighed. "Oh, Annabeth I'm sure he understands. He's your dad Annabeth, he loves you no matter what."

"You don't know my dad." I shook my head sadly. "If you did...you wouldn't say such things."

"I might not know your dad, but I do know you...and I know that anyone who doesn't love you is crazy." She stroked my hand soothingly and I managed a smile.

"Thanks, Jess." I murmured and she reached up to wipe a small tear from the corner of my eye.

"You are a wonder, my dear Annabeth." She whispered. "I know you want to be like your mother but I can tell you this...you already are." She smiled, furrowing her eyebrows in a proud, loving fashion. "You're beautiful, you're smart. Honey, you are so strong."

I smiled feeling the happy tears flooding my eyes. "You really think so?"

She gave me a warm smile. "I've never doubted it…not even for a second."

I giggled a little at that and she pulled me down onto her lap where we hugged and I felt whole again. For a moment I felt like I had a family, one that cared for me. I felt safe.

"I wish you really were my sister." I whispered.

"Sisters in spirit and heart." She murmured planting a kiss to my forehead and we spent the rest of lunch talking about random things and I forgot about every bad thing happening in my life.

~xXx~


I sighed, slumping into the kitchen to press a cold glass of water to my head. Zoey bounded into the room excitedly, waiting for me to feed her. Helen had stopped taking her out with her recently and so I'd been looking after her more and more. I didn't mind so much anymore though, Zoey was being a lot nicer to me nowadays.

"Here you go, girl." I smiled placing her food bowl down and she attacked it instantly.

When I slowly got up, I found myself looking out the window cautiously. I just couldn't shake the feeling that Rafael was out there—watching me.

I shook my head, pulling on my apron and using my chores and homework as a distraction but I couldn't stop thinking about Percy. Things had taken a turn for the worst after lunch. I had spent both of my free periods with Luke in the library, mostly because he wouldn't leave me alone and I was too nice to tell him to go away. But even if I didn't want him there, Percy saw us leaving together. We'd been walking out into the corridor and Percy was walking towards us. He'd only just glanced up before he instantly span around and marched off like his life depended on it.

I suppose that's for the best.

Later, I began taking the boxes of junk that Helen had left at the bottom of the stairs up to the attic. It was dark and creepy but I managed to find a light. I really hated going up here because it was full of spiders; the dwellers of my dreams-turned nightmares. With the last box deposited, I turned to go back down when my eyes caught on something. There in the corner, was a small shoe box sized jewellery box with my name carved into the glossy wood surface. I frowned, beginning to crawl over and take it in my hands. It was light and something rustled inside it.

With curiosity surging through my veins, I took it downstairs with me into my room and placed it on my dressing table. I shut all my curtains and quickly pulled on my pyjamas before going back to the box.

With a deep breath, I sat down and lifted it open. I gasped as I peered at what was inside. It was full of photos, shells, pebbles, the odd lollipop and more random objects. It was a memory box. With a shaky hand, I carefully lifted out the photos. The first one I looked at was a picture of me with my mother. She was in a gorgeous nude pink summer dress and white cardigan and she was holding me in her arms in what looked like our garden back in London. I was so tiny in her arms. I must have been two or just turning three.

I was smiling up at her with such love and admiration in my eyes and she was stroking my nose gently with her index finger. She had such a beautiful smile on, like she had been giggling at the time. A tear slipped down my cheek and I began to look at the others. There were more of her with me, some at the beach, some on holiday, some at home. There was one of me and my dad. I was standing on his toes and we were dancing in the kitchen. He didn't look like me in the slightest apart from the fact that we shared the same colour hair, the very same light blonde but his was straight and mine was wavy like my mothers.

We were both laughing and the way he looked at me...there was so much love in his eyes. I suddenly remembered him looking at me like that in person and then I started thinking about how he hadn't done that in such a long time.

I sighed, carefully placing the photos back inside when another one caught my eye. It was stuck in the corner, folded tightly into four and I began to unravel it gently so as not to rip it. I looked at the crinkled ratty picture in front of me and instantly recognised the two people in it. There was me in a blue summer dress standing next to the very same boy from my visions. I could see they were holding hands and I was smiling up at him but his face wasn't in the picture. Literally...it wasn't in the picture because it had been scratched out like someone had gotten a sharp object and completely scratched his face off.

I gasped a little. What had he done to make me hate him so much? Why would I scratch his face off but still keep the photo? And why is this in the attic? Why haven't I seen this before? Then it hit me. Maybe Helen kept this from me on purpose. Maybe she didn't want me to remember my old life so I wouldn't want to go back to it. She wanted to keep me here as her personal slave.

The thought drifted away for a while as I lifted a small blue flower hairpin out of the box and peered at it. It was beautiful with baby blue petals and a diamond centre and a long silver base. It reminded me of the one in the movie 'Bride Wars'. I smiled having a flickering memory of my mother giving this to me for my seventh birthday.

Suddenly, a light flashed across my eyes and after days and days of no more flashbacks, I broke my streak.


~oOo~

There she was again, wearing cute smart clothes that my mother always bought for me when I was a child. Her hair was flowing down her back in waves with two French braids entwined at the sides and flowing around to the back. I smiled, my mother had always been rather good at hair styling. A blue flicker caught my eye and I saw the very same hairpin that had been in my memory box tucked into the side of her hair.

She wasn't alone though, there were other girls with her. One of which I recognised, it was the same one who had ripped the bow out of her hair in a previous vision—the pretty one—the one I still didn't know the name of.

I frowned as she began yelling at me...well her.

"I told you to stay away from him!" The glossy black-haired girl cried. She was way too pretty for her age and evil too.

"Please, can't we just talk?"

"No." She said stubbornly. "Stay away from him or I'm telling on you."

"But I didn't do anything." She whimpered. "Please. Don't do this."

"Why not?" She screeched in a nasty, stuck up little girl fashion. "You stole him from me, now I'm stealing him back."

"He's not a toy. He has feelings. We can both be friends with him."

The girl lunged forward pushing her into the sand beneath them, it was only now that I realised they were all at the beach. They all laughed at her as she looked up at them in shock.

"You're so ugly." One of them laughed.

"Your hair is so gross. Ever heard of shampoo?" The other giggled.

"Stay away from him or we'll make your life a living hell." She sneered. You would've thought a seven-year-old girl wouldn't have been capable of looking scary but she managed it.

"What are you gonna do?" The girl in the sand challenged.

She smirked at that. "You know that cheat sheet somebody slipped into your desk, that got you sent to the Principal's office?"

"That was you!" The girl gasped while the other girls laughed.

"Oh, I can do much worse than get you done for cheating. Maybe I'll make 'you know who' think you kissed another boy in class. It wouldn't be hard. He'd hate you for it."

"No—you can't!"

"Don't test me then!" She sneered, her eyes glinting. "Either you break it off with him, or I'll do it for you."

"We'll make everyone hate you." Another girl added. "People will spread bad rumours. You could even be expelled."

"Cassie's mom's the Head Mistress, you don't wanna be on our bad side." The leader sneered. "Come on girls, let's leave Annie to decide."

One of them kicked sand in her face and she whimpered, rubbing her eyes and spitting the sand out of her mouth. They all laughed before they turned and left her crying in the sand. I gulped, wanting nothing more than to go and show those girls a piece of my mind but the vision was already blurring now and then everything went white.

~oOo~


I threw the hairpin back into the box, gasping and spluttering. Snapping awake, I slammed the lid shut and shoved the box into my closet where no one would ever find it again.

For a few moments, I just stood there—breathing heavily and trying to take it all in. That's why I had told the raven-haired boy to stay away from me in that previous vision. It wasn't because he'd done anything wrong or because I didn't love him, it was because I did love him but I was too scared to.

I sighed thinking about how I was practically reliving the past right now and it sucked. Why did I have to be such a coward?

With a sinking feeling, I crawled into bed, turning the lights off and curling up in my duvet. The wind howled outside as I buried my head into the pillow, forcing myself to go to sleep. I was so exhausted that I welcomed the darkness with open arms and it swallowed me whole. I sank deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit of darkness and for once I didn't retaliate, I just let myself drift away. Drifting. Drifting.

~xXx~


So yeah, that was just a mini chapter - kind of a filler but it was important for the background, flashback stuff.

It's nice to focus on other things besides Percy and Annabeth as well. I really like the sisterly bond she has with Miss Daniels.

Now you know why Annabeth left Percy in the first place. That was when her anxiety started to appear but it was dramatically heightened when her mother put a halt to all contact.

Questions? Leave a review.

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Review Responses:


Jessica L chapter 27 . Oct 5

Sorrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyy! Also sorry they didn't makeup in this one either, it's the next one.

Evil things. ;)

Oh thank you so much! I checked her story out and I think I already read it a while back, great story! I don't remember much though, I might reread it.

Thanks for the amazing support Jessica! Lots of love xx


Ericahall490 chapter 28

Thank you so much! I know, this story can be a struggle bc of the drama. Yeah, Percy has a bit of a pride issue in this story but I promise he gets over it in the next chapter. No not weird at all, I love that you appreciate that! Okay, can we just talk about this epic song for a moment! I can't even believe how much it fits their relationship. The bit about the 'dad relationship' left me shook. It's kinda annoying that it's not a girl singing bc it's describing Annabeth's situation in the song but I love the guy's voice anyway! Will definitely use this one! As for the other one, it's odd, I wouldn't usually describe that type of rocky/Nickleback like tone as my thing but I did actually like it. If you have anymore song suggestions, feel free to PM me. Thanks again Erica, you definitely put a little sunshine into my day!


Supremespeed220 chapter 28

Yep. They do! What did you think of the flashback? Yeah, I liked adding that bit in to show Annabeth's progression in her social life. As far as I know, I wont. ;)


The chapter you all really want to see is the next one ;)

Lots of love,

AWG xx