Hey guys, cheers for reading :) Reviews would be great, I'm always running out of ideas on what to write, so just let me know if you want to see anything specific and I'll do my best to add it :). Love you all x
Annabeth's POV
Leo comes storming in through the cracked glass kitchen door, knife clutched in hand. His ratty, dirty hoodie's zipper clatters and gets stuck when he tries to pull it up.
"Oh for fucks sake!" he shouts, voice breaking on the last syllable. "For fucks sake!" The bloodied knife that's clutched in his shaking hand slips from his grip and falls onto the red and white chequered floor. It slices his finger as it falls. He swears and then sinks to the ground, groaning.
"Leo, what the Hades is going on? Are we in danger?" I hurriedly ask, abandoning the greasy bacon I'm currently cooking.
"Oh for gods sake Annabeth! That's the first thing you ask? If you're in danger, not about me. Oh Gods!" He punctuates his hostile sentence with a kick to the overflowing garbage bin that's in the corner of the room. Pointless, if you ask me, because he's going to be the one to pick it up later. I say that, and he whips round to glare at me.
"Oh I know, Annabeth I fucking know!" he shrieks, "I'm so sick of this! This- this- fucking life. This godsdamned awful job, our crappy, mouldy apartments and especially you, you machine. You think you're always right, don't you? You and your- your" He cuts himself off here, pausing to take a deep breath, fighting back tears. "Your brains and your boyfriend and your- Ugh! Gods, you're so perfect. It's boring, Annabeth. Just breakdown, do something, do anything that shows you're ACTUALLY LISTENING TO ME! Even now, you're just standing there!" He stands up, walking towards me "Do something, come on, Annabeth. Just do anything. Tell me you hate me, punch me, hurt me. Just show that you're here." he grabs my shoulders. "Please, Annie, give me something."
I wrench his hands off my shoulders. "Leo, what the fuck. Are you fucking insane? What the hell's going on? Are you oka-"
"Finally. Someone asks me how I am. Gods Annie I'm so sorry. I just needed someone to ask. I needed someone to care." He sinks to his knees and runs his grimy hands through his greasy hair.
"Leo, of course I care about you. All of the Seven do. You need to tell me what's going on; you're scaring me." I say.
"Oh, Annie, I'm so sorry. I've had a shit day, but I shouldn't take it out on you. he says back "I'm just so sick of non-Fractis judging us for where we live. I ran into this little girl, and helped her find her moms. It was going great, and then they figured out I was from Fracti. I know it's not an excuse, I'm so sorry, Annabeth. Everything's just so crap."
Well. That was a mood change.
"Leo-" I sigh "I'm pissed at you, I'm not going to lie to you, but, I get where you're coming from. This sucks, we're hungry, tired and overworked. Let's just-" I run a hand over my face "Just calm down. Now is not the time to be having a heart to heart." In an attempt to lighten the mood, I joke "What shit day, anyway? It's barely morning." I point at the clock, which reads 8:04 am.
"Shit! I've got to clean the coke from earlier, and the whole place, and I've only got 20 minutes! So sorry Annabeth, really. I love you, but I gotta go wake up Liam and clean the rank couch he's napping on." He yells as he bolts upright and runs off to the breakroom.
I let out a shaky breath. Right. Supressing our emotions it is then. Lovely. The stink of burnt food permeates the air. Oh gods, I forgot the bacon!
Hazel's POV
It's still dark when I drowsily drag myself awake. I can hear Reyna shuffling around our apartment, the unmistakeable clank of her swords ringing through the space. I groan and press closer to Frank, who's snoring next to me in the bed. Frank wraps an arm around me, pulling me closer. I live for mornings like this. I think I would crawl inside our bedcovers and lie here forever with Frank if he'd let me.
"Hazel?" He mumbles blearily "Whass goin on?"
"We've got school, Frank, and I've got the paper round. You can keep sleeping, I'll be back before school starts." I reply.
"Nahhh it's ok, I'm up, I'm up." He says, stretching and rubbing his eyes. He sits up, and grabs the glass of water that's set on the bedraggled knitted rug next to the bed. He drains the glass and grimaces "That water is older than the Gods, by Heracles." He coughs. "what the Hades is in that thing? Holy Hera!"
I reach out and grab the bottle next to it and read: "Brian's Pegasus Feed- not fit for human consumption." Frank goes green, before rushing out the door to the bathroom with a mumbled "Oh Gods!"
Laughing, I roll onto my side. The bed creaks beneath me. I must remember to ask Leo to fix the springs. He's good at that kind of stuff, being a kid of the God Of The Forges and all.
I stretch and crack my neck. A quick glance at the clock tells me it's 6:00, so Leo and Annabeth will have left long ago. I had been hoping to see Leo before he left, it's been a while since we've had a chance to talk. Ah well I guess I'll see him at school.
The bed lurches ominously as I get up and grab my hat and surgical mask. Annabeth had the idea of covering our faces more often, since I'm technically dead, and mortals are beginning to see through the mist more frequently. The Mist does such a good job of hiding my death aura, that even I forget it's there sometimes. Even though mortals can't see it, they still notice that something's off. My hair appears thicker, my face twisted or hidden from view completely, and voice completely changed into the howls and sighs of the souls of the Asphodel. It's... inhuman, to be honest. Me and Nico are probably the least human seeming of the Seven, due to our father's unusual powers. Death seems to hang around us, like butterflies to a corpse. That's another thing that marks me as dead. Butterflies flock to me, twisting round my hair, burying themselves in my clothes. I've grown used to it, but it earns me a few strange looks in summer.
Frank yells my name and I step out of our dingy room. He passes me a bottle of water and an apple, kissing my cheek as I walk out the door. I walk the dark streets, dodging the junkies that roam the underpasses and bridge shadows. On occasion, they can be quite nice, but not at 6:15 am on a Wednesday morning. I look up and notice a security camera ahead of me. Pulling, my tattered coat further around myself, I reach out and feel. The Mist that's gathered passively around me jumps to attention, and I pull it over me like a cloak, hiding my face and posture. Dark hair pushes up through the skin of my arms, and my sword twists itself into a lump of scrap metal that scrapes loudly on the road. There. Now I look like any other junkie, searching for their next hit, or some money to trade for a quick high.
Once out of range of the camera, I breathe out and let the cloak drop. The hair on my arms recedes, skin returning to it's usual smooth self.
Soon, I arrive at an old dilapidated building. Weeds push themselves through the cracks in the once cobblestone path, scurrying noises emanate from the hollows of the crumbling walls. The building is a condemned block of flats, with ugly beige-painted peeling walls and cracked, half boarded up windows. Clank. Clank. Clank.
The noise of a chain knocking against the gate startles me. I push my way through the fallen down storage unit at the back of the apartments and jump over a rotting tree branch until I reach an indent in the thick brambles that obscure one of my most treasured objects. There it is. My bike. Dark blue, with rusted handle bars and a rotting leather seat; my bike is a necessity for my jobs. I managed to fit an entire 3 person seat couch on the back of it once. We'd been saving money for so long, and when the others had presented it to me for my birthday two weeks ago, I'd felt like crying. My very own bike. I kept it hidden in the dense brambles to protect against thieves. When I had the energy, I used the Mist to make it look useless and broken, to further deter any would be robbers.
Hauling myself up onto the slightly too high seat, I manoevre through the nettles until I reach the open road. I set off. The wind whips in my hair, the bitter taste of hunger burns a hole in my stomach and I'm the happiest I've felt in a while. Adrenaline races through my body. My adventure stops all too soon, as I have to stop to collect the papers I need to distribute around the wealthier part of town.
I cross the invisible divide between Fracti and our much posher neighbour, officially called 'Divitias et Potentiam' or, riches and power in Latin. Unofficially, it's called Dipet. Unofficially, unofficially, it's call Div, cause everyone there is a massive divhead.
My shoulders relax, I breathe out and I take my mask off. Dipet is a safer place, and I whistle as I toss the newspapers onto the doorsteps of the large, two story houses that cover the lush, grass lined streets. I smile at a little girl, who's elaborately beaded hair I'm jealous of, and she smiles back and shouts to her parents that the paper girl's here. Her moms, a tall Black woman and a strong Asian woman take the paper from me with a smile and generous tip.
Once I've finished up working, I store my bike back in it's hiding place, get several large scrapes for my troubles, and return home at 8:00 am to find Frank napping on the couch.
"Get up, you lazy lazy man." I laugh, attempting to haul his 6'3, strongman body off of the couch. He starts awake, half-shifted into an eagle, before he realises it's me. His face lights up. "Hazel!" he says, leaning down to kiss me. I grin and push him away,
"Come on then, we've got school." I say. We grab our rather sparse lunches, our third hand budget textbooks Thalia had scrounged from an older member of the hunt, and headed out the door, Frank tripping over the pile of knives Reyna's left in the middle of the doorway on the way out. We grab two each, 'accidentally' ignoring the note she's left attached saying that she'll break our ribs if we take more than one.
Hand in hand, we wander down the peeling wallpapered hallway, stopping at room 213.
"Gods, what is that smell?!" Frank says.
Leo's POV
I arrive at school, smelling vaguely of coca cola and Mormonism. I have History Class first, which I usually hate, but since we're starting an Ancient Civilization unit of work today, I'm unusually excited for. What? It's an easy A, sue me. Oh wait, please don't we're broke.
Once I arrive in class, I'm greeted by the cheering sight of Hazel and Frank. This is the only class, aside from English, that I have with them, so it's always nice to see them.
They grin at me, waving the hands that aren't tightly grasping each other's at me. The teacher, Mrs Bradbrink, bustles into the room. She's a large woman, adorned in flowy scarves, colourful dangling nose piercings, an assortment of golden bangles, and a colourful hijab wrapped wrapped around her large halo of hair. She has a booming laugh, the kind that makes you want to join in with her, her dark brown skin is smooth like she sleeps for hours every night, she smells pleasantly of rain and washing powder. She's a complete and utter bitch and I hate her with every bone in my body.
If she were on fire, and I had a glass of water, I'd drink it. If she were drowning I'd ignore her. If she asked me for water, I'd give myself liver damage drinking all the water in the world, so she couldn't get it. To me, she radiates off-ness and danger. If you asked anyone in the class, they'd say the same.
She slaps a huge pile of textbooks on the desk, startling the half asleep class. She laughs and her eyes flash malevolently. The class laughs nervously with her, she soaks in the attention, drawing in the laughter of her half hearted admirers. What. A. Prick.
She walks to the board, pulling a thick black whiteboard pen from one of the deep recesses of her many pockets. I wonder what else she's got in there. Probably the bones of her previous students, the stupid cow.
'Ancient Greece.' she writes on the whiteboard. She draws a huge circle around it and asks us what we know. Me, Frank and Hazel exchange looks. Do we play dumb or show up the rest of the class?, our looks say. I sigh and shake my head at Hazel's pleading expression. She sticks her bottom lip out more, and tilts her head to the side, putting on a dumb mockery of puppy dog eyes. I shake my head again. She playfully glares at me and I smie back. Frank, who's been watching this whole exchange with an amused grin on his face, suddenly widens his eyes and mouths something to us. His eyes expand to the size of plates, and alarm splashes across his features. I whip round to see Mrs Bradbrink an inch from my desk.
"As Mr Zhang was trying to communicate there, Hazel and Leo, you are in the middle of a lesson. Despite the fact Mr Zhang's expressions look like those of a constipated goldfish, I expect better from you two. Was my lesson interrupting your conversation?" She barks.
Hazel flushes and shakes her head frantically. I inwardly roll my eyes at Mrs B.
"What was that, young man?" Mrs Bradbrink "Did you just roll your eyes at me!" Shit. Not so inward after all. "Immediate detention, Leo Valdez! See me in L7 after school on Tuesday at 4pm sharp! No excuses!"
Josh, a rather dickish boy who Percy vaguely knew at some point, laughs at my misfortune.
"I heard that, Mr Atting!" Mrs B shouts "Detention for you as well!"
"What the hell! I didn't even do anything, Miss B" Josh whines "Oh God, my dad's gonna kill me.."
The class erupts into whispers.
"ENOUGH!" Mrs Bradbrink screams "Everybody, sit down, shut up and listen to ME! God, you're all acting like you're from Fracti or something!"
Ah. Right. People like her are part of the reason us and the others try to keep our living situation.. under wraps, so to speak. Not everyone at New New York High is like her, but most are, hence our reluctance to reveal the extent of our poverty.
She turns back to the board and begins asking if we know anything Ancient Greek Mythology. When no one answers, she groans and assigns us all a research task to do for homework. We need to choose one negative aspect of modern life - racism, homophobia, homelessness and contrast it with Ancient Civilisation's attitudes towards the problems. I'd rather shit in my hands and clap not gonna lie. It sounds boring as fuck.
Besides, you can sum up Ancient Greece and Rome in a sentence: would crumble if they got off their arses long enough to stop relying on slaves, and don't care who you boe as long as you top. When I said this, Hazel turned bright red and squeaked loudly, and Frank laughed so hard he fell off his chair.
For those of you thinking I'm immature: sue me, I like making my friends laugh. And who wouldn't Hazel looks so pretty when she smiles and Frank being so strong he just picked Hazel up to move her from where she was trying to block his chair was hot as Hades.
Wait, where the fuck did that come from? I'm bi, but I refuse to be the bi stereotype who lusts over their friends. Mind you, Frank's muscles are definitely...
No. Stop. I do not like Hazel and Frank, I can just appreciate attractiveness where I see it. Obviously.
Oh Gods, I need to clear my head, I'm gonna go to the bathroom.
I step out the door, grabbing a bathroom pass on my way out.
"Oh Demigod..." I hear a voice hiss "Come to me, Fire-Bringer."
Shocked, I whip around, hand reaching for my sword that sits as a ring on my right hand. My hand comes up empty. Shit. I left my sword-ring in the classroom with Hazel.
A perfectly normal girl is standing in front of me.
"Oh Gods, did you hear that?" she asked "We demigods need to stick together, hide in the janitor's closet near L3 with me. It's soundproofed so It won't be able to hear us."
Still confused, I turn to follow the demigod.
"My name, by the way, is Kelli."
BOOM! 3100 word chapter done! I hope you guys are proud! I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda losing motivation for this story, and I hate to be this person, but please review. They keep me going, and I love and appreciate every one 3 ALSO! Completely unrelated, but I got asked out today :))) It was by my friend, and I kinda like her back, but like idk if I REALLY like her or if i'm just like fooling myself, so I rejected her. I'm seeing her tomorrow tho, so who knows what will happen? Idk i feel like its not fair to me or her if we're both not fully invested in a potential relationship so like idk. She's really nice tho :) And pretty ngl.. Oh gosh I literally am turning into Leo what on earth. Alright, pls review, Byeee lovelies 3
