At around eight in the morning, the cabin first began to stir. It was also the time when Annabeth received a nasty shock. She and Malcolm where half asleep, leaning against the wall behind them, and were awoken by one of their siblings shaking them roughly from their stupor.
"Guys?" A disembodied voice said. Annabeth opened one eye. "Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't we be?"
"Well anyhow, you have school, I believe. At nine."
"School?" Annabeth's thoughts were sluggish as she tried to make sense of the word. Her brain was numb like ice, the word hacking fruitlessly at it like a saw. And then there was a click like someone turning on a light switch and the realisation came crashing down around her. Annabeth shot up as fast as lightning and let out a stream of colourful curses. Whereupon, in the corner of her eye she saw one of her siblings cover the ears of their youngest brother at such profanities.
"School. Oh gods." Annabeth groaned and bounded off the bed to her wardrobe. She flung open her closet and pulled out the clothes she had brought with her yesterday, then ducked into the bathroom to get changed. She scrubbed furiously at her teeth, washed her face and raced out of the room, grabbing her hoodie on her departure.
"See you in a month," she said to her siblings. "Enjoy your life of canoeing and sword fighting as I struggle through spelling tests."
"We will!" Someone yelled, and she closed door to her cabin with a bang.
Annabeth ran up to the dining pavilion, and was met with the faces of Mr D, Chiron and Percy, sitting at their respective tables.
"Am I late?" She asked. Chiron nodded, which did nothing to Annabeth's welling discomfort. "A little, child, but if you eat quickly we can still make it on time."
Annabeth made to her cabin's table, and stared down at her plate. What did she want? Waffles would be nice. Immediately, such pastries appeared onto her plate, along with a refreshing glass of juice, which she drained in a matter of seconds. The waffle was warm in her mouth, and brought her happy memories of picnics in the park and the sun against her back. Annabeth devoured it, relishing in the beautiful, glorious thoughts that came with each bite. When she was done, she set the plate aside and waited for her companions to finish with their own meals: a sliver of toast for Chiron and a stack of pancakes for Percy. With a contented sigh, Annabeth leaned back and pulled out her book.
Ten minutes later, a party made up of Annabeth, Percy, Chiron and Argus piled into the van that was to take them to Goode. Chiron pulled out a collection of Frank Sinatra's, and in a matter of seconds, an awful melody resembling squawking birds was filling the vehicle. Annabeth and Percy glanced at each other and grinned, repressing laughter. Argus winked one of his many eyes on the back of his head and presently, the three of them were stifling fits of giggles. Once the chuckles had quelled, Annabeth took out her mobile phone. Her messaging icon read she had fifty messages. Annabeth bit her lip. For her, that was an ungodly amount. Tentatively, she pressed the app and opened up iMessage. What surprised Annabeth the most was that only two of those messages were from father: one asking her to congratulate Grover on his behalf, and the other wishing her a good time. The next surprise was Helen, asking her opinion on wether or not they should do a family day not to the beach the next Sunday. Finally, Sally, asking how she was doing. The rest of the forty six were either spam, or messages on the Seven's group chat. They all wrote in it a lot, making the most of the novelty of having phones after Annabeth had urged them to damn the monsters and purchase a mobile. It made organising days out infinitely easier, but there was always that annoying buzzing in her pocket when Jason shared a ridiculous meme, and Hazel would immediately text back, asking what it meant. But to be fair, Annabeth did enjoys those satires Frank posted. There was never a day when Donald Trump drawn with an even bigger head than he already had wasn't needed.
After little more than thirty minutes, the van pulled up outside Goode High School. Percy and Annabeth climbed out of the back, and helped down Chiron, who was in his wheelchair form. Then they waved to Argus, who wished them a good day, and watched the familiar van disappear into the metropolis. Lost among the endless array of yellow taxis and beeping horns.
"Well," Chiron said, yawning widely. "I'm going to go to the staff room, and have a nice cup of coffee."
"Oh nice. Can I have a cup please?" Percy asked.
"Sorry- staff only."
"That's too bad."
"See you later, have fun." Chiron said. Annabeth snorted and watched as he wheeled away into the school building. Then she turned to Percy and rubbed her eyes.
"Home room?"
"Bell's about to go- yeah."
It was about as easy, to get to home room, as it was crossing the desert bare-footed. The throng of beefy teenagers was thick, like trying to elbow oneself through a solid wall of muscle. But Percy and Annabeth did their best. They'd fought their way through hell after all- they should be able to conquer this crowd without a struggle.
The first stop was the locker room. Annabeth pulled out her books and emptied them into her Nike rucksack. Then, swinging it over one shoulder, she went to join Percy, who was struggling with trying to cram all of his supplies into the tiny bag he had picked up from camp.
"A little help?" She asked coyly. Percy smiled mischievously: a smile that made her heart ache and die and yet dance and feel so alive all at the same time.
"I'm good," Percy tucked the last book into his pocket- an even tighter squeeze than his bag - and sighed deeply. Then he entwined his finger's through her's, and tugged her into the corridor, where Paul's classroom and rest of the world awaited. Once again, they stepped out into the battle. Into the war zone of whooping boys and laughing girls, and laughing boys and whooping girls and the kids who pushed aside their peers as they sprinted through the crowd and the children and the youths and the teenagers and the ones who had their whole life ahead of them and knew it. And in their knowing of such thing, they prowled the halls like tigers, exchanging insults and banter, and even surreptitiously, though not as discreetly as they may have thought, packets of cigarettes which they slipped to each other like trading cards. Annabeth would never understand how people chose to smoke- to intoxicate themselves with drugs or even a circus act like drinking fire. It was bad enough to everyday face a threat to your life- but to do so will fully. It didn't make sense to the daughter of Athena that people, save the, to put it blatantly, suicidal, should endanger the precious, fragile shard of life their mortal lives were.
Just at that moment, the bell pealed through the corridors, indicating very surely that Percy and Annabeth were late. Annabeth frowned, biting back on the numerous profanities rising up on her throat, and shoved aside a petite girl who was leaping into the paths of freshmen to make them jump. The girl cursed Annabeth, but the demigod made an obscene gesture with one hand, and continued to forge ahead to the outraged shouts of the girl and her clique, and Percy's guffaws. Annabeth just deflected the piece of scrunched up paper that came her way, and with a final push, broke free of the dense mob and almost toppled into the foyer from the momentum, bringing Percy down with her. But reflexes from ADHD, training and being a demigod alike saved her, and Annabeth allowed herself to be moved forwards. Once steady on her feet, and ensuring Percy was too, the pair darted up the final flight of stairs, down the corridor and tumbled into home room, to the slightly bewildered looks of their companions. Paul looked up from his computer screen and smiled wryly. "You're late."
"It would seem so, sir," Percy proclaimed.
"And why would that be?"
Percy smiled winningly. "Late start without you herding me to get up."
"That, I can believe." Paul responded, looking down fondly at his step-son. "Any how, you and Annab- Miss Chase have detention after school."
Percy gaped. "No!" He protested, "Oh come on, you can't do that. You're my step-dad. Besides, it's not our fault if the school can't afford bigger corridors and everyone just kind of melds together in an impenetrable walk of iron."
"There's your English class for today." Paul said, "Now go an sit down, before I triple your detention."
Percy sighed somewhat melodramatically.
Hours later, Annabeth, Percy, Freddy Krueger, The Joker, a guy called Felix (nicknamed quite simply, 'Cat') and two other girls - which Annabeth was glad for, for she rather wanted female company - called Natalia and Annie (Cinderella and Harley Quinn), sat in a circle under a large tree, devouring their respective lunches.
"So you're Annabeth?" Natalia, alias Cinderella, asked.
"Last time I checked," Annabeth replied, looking up momentarily from the slice of pizza she had bought.
"Nice to finally meet you. The way Percy talked about you, we figured you just be some kind of goddess."
Annabeth raised her eyebrows, if not at the remark, but the eeriness of how near to the truth they had come. Like a knife just missing its mark by just a hairbreadth.
"Can't imagine why." Annabeth said, glancing sidelong at Percy who was a fierce shade of puce. Annabeth playfully kicked his foot.
"Well," Natalia said, "You need a nickname."
Annabeth sigh, and looked at them skeptically. "Annabeth's fine."
"Nah. Let's call you Hera."
Annabeth just about choked on her sandwich. "No. Please not that."
Harley Quinn raised an eyebrow, but no one except Percy who was trying hard not to laugh, commented.
"Well she can't very well be Cinderella as well," Krueger said to the clique. Cat shrugged. "Aelin Galathynius."
Annabeth grinned. "That's fine with me."
Percy looked between them, confused, as did every one else. "Who's Aelin Galathynius?" He asked.
"She's from Throne of Glass," Cat and Annabeth said in unison.
"Nerds," muttered Percy. Still, he extended a hand to his girlfriend.
"Pleasure to meet you, Aelin. My name's Jack Sparrow."
"The pleasure is all mine, sir."
(A/N: Sorry for the slightly shorter chapter ?)