iii. Annabeth
Annabeth doesn't really know how she went from a nerdy, prepubescent girl to one of the popular, smart and athletic students at Goode High.
She reckons it has something to do with her being a transferee on her second year of high school from a private all-girls school in California to a passably decent school like Goode High. The mystery of the sudden transfer created quite an uproar in the school plus her outstanding academic achievements, caused her to rise on the ranks of the school's social ladder in a span of almost a night.
In all honesty, Annabeth doesn't really care about these ranks at all. All she wants to do is to attend a good class, learn from her teachers, ignore her annoying classmates, and forget about the fact that her dad is now building a new family of his own, excluding Annabeth.
But what she gets instead is an eyesore like Drew who has evidently swore to make Annabeth's life a living hell, an armful of annoying boys who can't get a hint that she doesn't want to date, and a top place in the social ladder that she really doesn't want to be a part of.
Plus Jackson. Of course, never forget Percy—let's-ignore-I-used-to-be-friends-with-Annabeth—Jackson, who went from an old childhood neighbor/best friend to a class enemy real quick.
All of these things, despite giving her constant headaches, are what gives her boring days quite a charm and lets her ignore the fact that she's now being replaced by Susan and the twins in her dad's life. It definitely hurts a little (okay, a lot), but she has learned how to manage her emotions and her pain; so every time it happens it only feels like a finger accidentally touching a hot kettle, and not a hand being doused in boiling water.
All in all, she thinks high school is treating her okay, up until she goes back to her house.
As soon as she opened the door to their house, Annabeth's ears are quickly met with booming cackles and heavy thumping of footsteps from her step-brothers. There's also Susan's voice shouting for the kids to lower their voices and a bunch of other random sounds that makes Annabeth's head pound. But before they can even see her, she quickly bolts up the stairs to her room. She passes by her dad's study room and knocks thrice before opening the door a little.
"Dad, I'm home," she says to him. He only grunts in acknowledgment, his eyes still focused on the papers in front of him.
Shrugging his lack of response, Annabeth walks towards her room and then—
"Aw, fuck," she grits out when she accidentally steps on a stray Lego piece. She scans the floor to see several Lego pieces scattered randomly near the door of her room.
It takes all of her patience to not scream bloody murder. The Lego piece actually feels like a fuc—fudging small knife stuck on her foot, and she briefly considers cussing out the twins, taking them into a deserted road and leaving them for good. But then she decides that they're not worth it. They can play pranks on her all they want but she won't give them the satisfaction of getting her angry over petty things.
Also, she doesn't need a murder and kidnapping case on top of her already growing stressors.
Remembering her lessons from her yoga class, Annabeth takes a deep breath, counts 1 to 10 and holds into the ring sitting on top of her collarbone. "Breathe," she whispers. "Breathe."
Then she enters her room and drowns herself into finishing a week's worth of homework.
It's already 30 minutes past 8 when Annabeth finally comes out of her room. She has only managed to tear herself away from her laptop when her stomach had finally grumbled out its demand for food. Glancing at the clock, she's surprised to see that it's already past dinner. That means she no longer has to see the little devils and suffer an hour of awkwardness with Susan and her dad.
When Annabeth goes down to eat her dinner quietly, she discovers that there's no food left on the fridge. She searches the cupboard and the oven but to no avail. Disgruntled, she turns to head back to her room to order herself some pizza when the front door creaks open. Her dad's and Susan's voices flit towards the dining room, together with the twins' boisterous laughter. They're all dressed up like they had just come home from a fancy dinner in a restaurant nearby. Which explains the lack of leftover food.
They had a family dinner. Without her, apparently.
Immediately, an immense sense of anguish fills her empty stomach. She feels like there's hand holding her throat; squeezing and choking until she's nothing but a quivering mess.
Standing in their kitchen, she feels like a stranger. She feels like an outsider looking over a picture of a perfect family. But insert her into the picture, the cracks start coming and the image of a perfect family shatters into fragments.
Just then, her father notices her standing awkwardly in the kitchen. He walks inside and fiddles with his glasses as he stands in front of her.
Fredrick has always been an eccentric man. He knows a lot of things about history and war planes, and can tell you the breakdown of the events during World War I and II, but has a bad habit of not paying enough attention to other things that matter more than books. As a young child, Annabeth thought of him as her mentor and protector, and a man with a brilliant mind ready to take over the world. But then he slowly slipped away from her grasp as he worked longer hours, failed to prepare food for them, and forgot how to be a father to Annabeth. He is a brilliant man, but he was not ready to be a father.
"I-uh. We thought you weren't home," Fredrick says. "We took the twins to dinner."
"I was doing homework in my room." She doesn't even tell him that she went to his study right after she got home. It's better not acknowledging the fact that he forgot about her.
"Oh, okay. Here, um," he reaches into his pocket for some cash. He hands her a couple bucks with a sheepish smile. "Buy yourself some food."
Then he awkwardly bids her good night and retreats back to his room. Susan and the twins go back into their rooms without so much a glance in her direction.
Annabeth doesn't bother to go out or order some food for her dinner. She figures she can't eat when there's pain choking and filling her chest anyway.
She isn't surprised to see Percy Jackson's face in the morning. They are, after all, part of the same mythology class that she attends every 8 in the morning. She's familiar with that smug grin he always has on his face, and his unruly black hair that begs to be brushed.
What she doesn't expect is him standing before her desk with that determined look on his face.
"What?" she barks. She doesn't really want to deal with his antics at this time of the day, and after what happened with her dad last night.
"Annabeth Chase," he begins. He adjusts the frame of his black specs. "I need your help."
"You're kidding, aren't you?"
"No. I really need your help."
Annabeth huffs and turns back into her book. She can get another chapter done for her book review if she'll start reading now. "You must be out of your mind if you think I'll help you."
Percy sits on the chair opposite hers. He normally sits somewhere near the back, but since they are the only students present at the moment, nobody dares to tell him off. "I need you to teach me how to charm a girl."
She drops Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Surely, she must have heard him wrong. "What?"
"I need you to teach me how to flirt," he says, straight-faced.
"If you're joking Jackson, I need you to stop right now."
"I'm not joking!" He then looks down and fiddles with his hands. "Okay, so yeah you're right that I do have a thing for Rachel. And I want her to be my girlfriend. But first, I'll need your help."
"That's sweet Jackson. But I don't think that I'm the right person you need for that."
"Uh, yeah you are."
She rolls her eyes and continues reading. "There's Drew," she suggests with clenched teeth.
"Um, I need a girlfriend, not STDs."
"You're very funny."
"I try," he says with a sheepish grin.
She resists the urge to smile. He's not very funny at all. "Okay. How about Silena?"
"You do realize that she has a boyfriend, right? Beckendorf would beat me up once I go near her!"
"Calm down, okay. Look, I'm sorry but I no longer have candidates in mind who can help you with your problem."
"That's because you're the perfect candidate!"
Annabeth sighs. He's very determined, she'll give him that, but she'll have to drown first before she'll say yes. "I'm very flattered that you think I'm perfect, but no, I can't help you, Percy."
"Not even when I say I'll let you trash talk me without retorts?"
"Tempting, but no."
He drops his hands in his lap and sighs heavily. "Fine. Thanks for hearing me out, at least."
Then he stands up, goes back into his seat and does not make any remarks until the class ends.
Lunch is much worse.
Annabeth has just ordered her lunch and is going back to her table when a body just appears out of nowhere and slams into her. Her food spirals into the ground, but she catches herself with an extreme amount of balance.
Drew stands near her, her hand placed near her chest. There's an apologetic look on her face, but her eyes tell a sarcastic remark. "Oops, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there."
"Oh, that's probably because of your fake eyelashes. You know, they kind of poke your eyes," Annabeth retorts.
The cafeteria stops. Everyone watches, their mouths hanging in anticipation for a cat fight.
Drew reaches into her pocket and throws a bill at Annabeth. "There, take it. You probably don't have enough to buy yourself another lunch."
"You're so generous, but I can buy myself another lunch, thank you very much," Annabeth says. She bends down to pick the bill and hands it over to Drew. "Here. I'd hate for you to lose your make up just because you don't have enough to pay for them. After all, they do the job of covering your hideous personality."
"Well, at least I didn't have to cover my messed up family," Drew taunts. Annabeth stiffens and glares as Drew realizes she struck a nerve.
"Oh, it seems I'm right. What is it? Mom and Dad paying not enough attention, or maybe—" Drew catches sight of the ring sitting on top of Annabeth's collarbone. She eyes it.
"What's this? A ring? Who's dumb enough to give you a ring?"
"That's none of your business," Annabeth says quietly.
"Yeah?" Drew smirks and yanks at the necklace. Then she pockets it. "But I can very well make it mine."
Annabeth clenches her teeth hard. She hates this bitch with all her being.
"Take it. See if I care," she lies. She cares for it so, so much. But she has to reign back her emotions, pretend that she doesn't care.
"Well, you said it. This is mine." With that, Drew struts off back to her table.
Shoot, shoot, shit.
Her mother's ring now is gone.
God, Annabeth really hates herself sometimes.
Water is something Annabeth can't understand. Most of the time, it is a beautiful sight to behold: calming and endlessly blue. And when the sun strikes the water just right, it gives it a strange, sparkling glow that gives the impression that precious diamonds are scattered all over its depths. During these times, Annabeth wants to wade in, to surround herself with water until she can no longer see past the blue waves. Until she can no longer hear the noise of the city.
But other times, it is a violent beast: raging and destroying things that come across its path. It destroys life and leaves no survivors behind.
The pool in the school premises right now looks like the former. The water is bluish but clear, and the refraction of light makes it seem shallower than it actually is. Even though Annabeth knows better, it doesn't really reassure the thundering of her heartbeat against her chest.
She peers through the water. There's no sign of the ring and she can barely make out the tiles at the bottom of the pool. She really hopes that what Piper said was right.
A girl with unevenly cut hair leans onto the locker next to her. "Drew threw it into the pool," the girl says.
"Excuse me?"
"Your ring. I saw Drew threw it into the pool."
Annabeth lets that information sink in. The pool. She can go there after school hours. She glances at the mysterious girl still hanging by her locker. "Why are you telling me this?"
The girl shrugs. "That ring looks important. And I also want to annoy her."
"Thanks," Annabeth says gratefully. "What's your name?"
"I'm Piper."
"Annabeth."
Hesitantly, Annabeth dips her toe on the pool. The water isn't that cold to give her hypothermia, but still cold enough to give her shivers. Then, she starts lowering her right leg on the pool ladder.
Slowly, she climbs down until the water is at level with her neck. By now, her heart is trying to jump out of her throat, and she just wants to forget her mother's stupid wedding ring and climb out of the pool.
'Climb out, climb out, climb out,' her mind says.
Just as she's retreating from her mission of finding her mother's ring, her right foot slips from the railing and her grip on the handle loosens. Then, she tumbles into the water.
Dumb, dumb, dumb! What are you thinking, going into the pool knowing that you can't swim?
Her hands flail out, and water quickly fills her lungs. "Help," she thinks she shouts. "Help!"
Her eyes burn—and something dark seeps into her vision until it all fades into nothingness.
A/N: So I really didn't like how this chapter turned out. There's a lot of line break and too many scenes for one chapter. There's supposed to be another scene right after this one, but I decided to move it into the next chapter. This was the reason why I took so long to update. But we do get Annabeth's POV, and with the turn of events, everything is now set in motion.
[NOTE: I updated the rating from a K+ to T, because there will be some swear words every now and then.]
Please don't forget to review because these push me to write more! And follow me on Tumblr for some fanarts: thisisawesomeness1825
Lastly, thank you to SPQR-Alan, AnnabethGinevraJacksonPotter, johncahill, and Guest for reviewing! Your means so much to me!
Also, school starts on Tuesday (Pacific Time) and that greatly reduces my writing time. I plan to write as much as possible, but please review to remind me to write!