Chapter Five
Wake Up Call

I was so stupid.

The last time I sang was in my preschool Christmas program. So what if I could make my oboe crow at a perfect C pitch? Mr. Sol had no idea what he was talking about. Me in jazz choir would be like a jock on the chess team.

And that's why I'd showed up. Yeah, it didn't make any sense. I hadn't even told my parents that's why I needed to be dropped off at school early. Dad believed me when I told him I had a tech ed project that needed to be finished.

So here I was, standing in the doorway with ten or so people all staring at me.

"This is who you found, Mr. Sol? Really?" Becky Nakamura groaned. "He's not even in regular choir."

Kasey Forester rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Now we have 15 people. That's enough to compete in the music festival."

I took a few tentative steps in the door. "Umm…" Very eloquent, I know.

"You can sit next to me," Silena Beuregaurd said brightly. She was wearing bright pink sweats and a state volleyball shirt. "Well, for today."

Lightning could have struck me dead at that moment and I wouldn't have been any more surprised. I dropped my backpack in the pile that had amassed by the door and took the empty seat next to her.

"Anyway, as we were saying…" Bianca di Angelo cleared her throat. I really didn't know her; she was one of the seniors, and from what I saw, she wasn't very nice to anyone besides her brother. "We have to sing the Star Spangled Banner for the Veterans Day program. Then there's the Christmas program, and I swear if we sing Jingle Bell Rock again, I will go home and kill myself."

I couldn't tell if she was kidding or not.

Mr. Sol stepped in. I hadn't even noticed him sitting at the front of the room. "I think what Bianca is trying to say is, we need to figure out what you guys are going to sing for Christmas."

"I hate Christmas music," Jeff Salvator grumbled. A few people muttered in agreement.

Everyone was silent for a few minutes, besides the assorted conversations between a few people. "Well, looks like you guys are singing Jingle Bell Rock again," Mr. Sol said. "That is, if no one has any better ideas." I swear he gave me a look right then. Really? First he assumed I could sing, and now I was the walking iPod?

"The Nightmare Before Christmas," Silena piped in. "It's Christmassy in a way, but not all virgin mother and child."

"I am the clown with the tear away face," Josh Hendrickson boomed in a deep baritone. Carrie Friender laughed next to him.

"It'd be perfect," Silena kept going. "The guys could sing What's This, the girls could sing Sally's Song, and then we could all sing Making Christmas." Her eyes lit up. "It'd be so perfect. We could do our makeup all fancy and look amazing."

Bianca sighed. "It's better than last year. But just barely." I was picking up on a diva attitude.

"Okay, well, you guys are free to go. I'll start looking for music," Mr. Sol said. "Remember, next practice is Wednesday. We have to run through the Star Spangled Banner a few times."

A few people groaned. Others got up, grabbed their backpacks, and headed for their lockers. Silena took her time, slowly uncrossing her legs and standing up.

"Good idea," I said. The words almost caught in my throat.

She smacked her lips and faced me. "Okay, listen. We give every new member this talk, and it just so happens to be my turn to dish it out. We're nice to each other during jazz choir. You might even say we like each other during jazz choir. But when we walk out of the music room, that's all gone. You're just a freshman loser, and you don't ever dare talk to me. Understand?"

Well, then.

"Yeah. Understood."

So much for the popularity dream.

This was my chance. I could do this. All I had to do was walk up to him and start talking. Then everything would just flow from there.

I was pretty sure he even remembered me. One day when I was walking down the hall, he'd looked at me for a second longer than socially necessary. If I had any friends to gush about it to, they'd probably say I was being over analytical.

Too bad I didn't have any friends.

We had a break in between third and fourth hour. It was only fifteen minutes – not really long enough to do anything, but it was the only chance I had to talk to him.

He was trying to find something in his locker. I was pretty sure there was a hickey on his neck. What if she was home and he had already hooked up with her? Then I'd seem like the dumb little kid who was the last one to know everything – like I'd always been when we were younger.

Here goes nothing, I thought, walking up to his locker. "Hey, Luke."

He looked down at me. "Oh. Hey…Annabeth."

My heart sank. He didn't remember my name. "Did you see…in the paper…Thalia's mom died last week," I stuttered, suddenly nervous even though I'd rehearsed this.

"Oh, wow. That sucks."

Was that…sarcasm? No, I was just reading too far in to things. "You think she'll come back?"

"Don't know. Don't wanna know. Can't say I really care."

I tried to keep my jaw from dropping. Thalia and Luke had always gone together like sine and cosine. "Oh, well…ummm…" I couldn't think of what to say.

He gave me a bored look. I tried not to take it personally. "She's just like her mom – a first-class bitch."

Again, speechless. I was so stupid. This hadn't even made the list of 50 different outcomes I'd made in my head. OCD? Not even close.

Luke's face softened. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I mean, yes. Wait, no. It'll just be so weird if she comes back. And what are we supposed to say? 'Hey, sorry your mom died.' She hated her mom…" I decided it was well past time to shut up.

"I know you look up to her and everything, but don't get your hopes up. She's different now," he said, sounding slightly bitter. "Just remember that, okay?"

"Yeah," I choked out. He was looking at me so intensely with those gorgeous blue eyes that I thought I might melt.

He smiled. Oh. My. God. He smiled. "See you around, Annabeth."

"You can have Charlotte's old room," Nell said quietly. "And…Thalia…the extra boxes…"

"My mom's things," I snapped.

"Your mom's things can go in her old room. We can go through them one day when…"

"Yeah. Whatever. I'll grab my stuff."

Before I go on, let me give you the crash course on the Grace family.

We were one of the first families in Shallow Lake. Hell, we might even have been here before Shallow Lake was established.

See, Thomas and Caroline Grace rounded up a bunch of horses from the west, moved to Shallow Lake, and made a fortune breeding and selling their stallions and mares. Bringing the fire of the South to the Midwest, as the slogan goes. Their original house was still on the property – now renovated and used strictly as a guest residence.

Now the horses made good money, but that wasn't how my family became as affluent as we are today. My great-grandfather had decided to test his luck and do some investing in the stock market. In just a few short weeks, my family went from being wealthy to completely loaded.

Richard Grace decided there was no need to keep the horses around commercially. He sold all except a few, built the giant manor we live in today, and wisely distributed the money between stocks and the bank so future generations of Graces would never have to work a day in their lives.

Charles, being the eldest in his generation, got everything: the wealth, the house, the cocky arrogance that goes along with having everything in your life handed to you. He married Adrienne when they were both 18. She was a rich little heiress – I think that's what helped Charles overlook her many, well, imperfections.

Charlotte was born two years later. Three years after that, they had Mary. And two years after Mary came my mom, Diana. Now Penelope is the funny part. When my mom was 15, Adrienne got pregnant again. How it happened, I will never know. Charles was excited – he might actually get his son. But no, it was just another damn girl. His words, not mine.

Adrienne was never happy with anything her kids did. Charlotte married a rich doctor and had four kids. Well, she could have at least gone to college. It's no longer decent for a woman to just sit around and raise children. Mary graduated top of her class and got her master's degree in nuclear science. It's not wise for a girl to be that smart. She'll never find a decent husband.

Now, Diana almost had Adrienne satisfied. At the young age of 21, she'd managed to get a recurring role on Days of Our Lives. She was getting calls left and right from directors, offering her the leading role in their next movie.

Things were great, until she came home for that year's Christmas party. After a few too many fruity drinks, she started saying things about the cast and producers of the show that had made her so famous. A few guests, eager to make some quick money, sold the story to every magazine that would listen.

That's when it came time for Samantha Clandestine to die in a car accident. It would become prophetic in the years to come, but at the moment, it was nothing more than a young woman throwing away her life.

Oh, and there'd been a little more going on at that Christmas party than just badmouthing. That's right, just three weeks after being axed, Diana found out she was pregnant.

The tabloids were interested in her for about a month. Then some new star became infamous and they my mom was nothing more than yesterday's news. People did a little article when I was born, but that was it.

We stuck around in California for a while, my mom working odd jobs while taking online classes to get a degree in nursing. We moved around a lot, pretty much living with whoever my mom's boyfriend was at the time. I didn't remember a lot of it; thank God.

I wished Mom would have just asked Adrienne for money. Adrienne wasn't going to offer anything to the daughter who'd disgraced her the most, and Mom wasn't the kind of person who asked for help. Whatever. We lived through it.

Mom was dating this guy, and they'd been together for three years. I can't say he was that bad – we'd lived with worse. Mom had finished up her degree and was working at a little hospital. She wished she could still be the star she once was, but maybe, just maybe, she'd finally given up on the dream.

Then the shit hit the fan. Mom's boyfriend caught her in bed with another guy – some up-and-coming director who hadn't found a leading lady for his movie. We were kicked out of the house before mom could throw her clothes back on – literally.

Mom was defeated. I think she'd really hoped to marry this boyfriend, and the other guy had been a temporary lapse in judgment. But what did I know? I was nine at the time.

We moved back to Shallow Lake, living in the aforementioned Grace guest house. I'd only been there for a few holidays over the years. My impression of the town was less than favorable. It looked like we were going to be stuck in some shitty dump that you could drive through without stopping.

And that's where we were until a few weeks before the start of my freshman year. Mom one day decided we were moving back to California. No explanation. If I didn't want to come, I was welcome to stay with my grandparents.

Hell would freeze over before I chose to spend a minute more than I had to in Shallow Lake.

But when my mom died, I didn't have any other choice. Grandpa Charles had moved to Florida right after Adrienne died, and the Grace estate had fallen to Nell. She offered to take me in and be my legal guardian for the next year.

So generous. She was only six years older than me. This whole relationship was going to be a joke. Nell was timid, emotional, and about as pretty as puppy dog missing an eye. You could tell she was supposed to be attractive, but no matter how hard you looked, you just couldn't see it.

Speaking of the devil, she was hovering in the doorway. "Thalia?" she said softly. "Are you okay?" Her eyes were teary. Oh God, I would not be able to take it if she cried.

"Yeah. Fine." I unzipped one of my bags and started throwing shirts into the dresser.

She didn't move. I think I heard her start sniffling. God help me. Mom didn't even like her. "I enrolled you in the school, but you can start whenever you feel comfortable. I explained the circumstances, and they said that-"

"I'll start tomorrow."

Anything to get out of this damn house.