PERCY POV
Percy sat at his desk in his room, not really focusing on his homework. For the first week at school, he had quite a bit. Even if he was a senior. A short story about what he did over the summer, another essay about himself, and how "he got here." was a bit excessive wasn't it? What did that even mean? He considered being a smart ass and starting it off with "Well, when a Mommy and a Daddy love each other very much," etc.
Then he remembered that was a lie. A child could most definitely be concieved without your parents loving each other. His hadn't even been married. Yep, he was a bona fide bastard. He always snickered when he heard Gabe call him that. Not that it happened often at school, or really anywhere except for home. Kind of ironic. Most kids his age had home as their refuge. For him, it was where he ran from.
It wasn't like he was abused or anything. He had a pretty good life, and his mom was amazing, that's why she worked so much. She had one day a week to sleep and stay at home. And she usually kept it for Percy. It was just his stepdad, Gabe, that he never understood. He treated his mom like crap. She most definitely stay with him for the love. Maybe the money, Gabe was loaded, or at least his family was, but Percy had never wanted to believe that about his mother, maybe because she wasn't that kind of person. Unless it would help Percy.
And that was it. Everything single thing she did was for him. And Percy had no choice but to feel responsible. What good son wouldn't? And she raised him great. He had so many great memories that Gabe seemed a fair trade off. For him. But not when he yelled at his Mom. Then Percy didn't think it was so great. He was waiting for the day where he could just sock Gabe once, then he wouldn't feel so guilty for letting him be so mean to his mother. He knew he was stronger than Gabe, he worked out just so that if he ever had to beat Gabe, he could.
Not that Gabe was that big of a guy. Unless you counted the beer belly. He was tall, and he might have been muscular at one point, but now he was all flab. Dark hair, and dark eyes and other plain features kind of set Gabe up for a meaningless life.
At least Percy worked now, so his mom only had to work obscene hours for one job instead of two. Yep. Life. Kinda screwed up.
Then Percy remembered what happened Tuesday. Annabeth came back from the hospital later the same day, in the last period no less, and finished school. Percy, if he had been her, wouldn't have bothered to show up for the last period. But that was just it. Annabeth was something else. Something else entirely.
That much was evident by her... "conversation" with that girl on the way to the office. The wierdest part was that the teacher didn't do anything, and he knew that the teacher had known what was going on. It was as if no one really cared what happened to her. But then Annabeth had smarted back. That had made Percy smile. He could tell from looking at the girl that she didn't get a smart reply back to a lot of her jabs. But it looked like Annabeth was not only quick, but subtle. And the smirk that she had sent back to her? Possibly one of the hottest things Percy had ever seen.
But why did it seem everybody, teachers and students alike, couldn't stand her. From their first brief meeting, he had guessed she was shy, not cold. It seemed like she had wanted to be alone, which was at odds with her expression when no one was looking. It looked so sad that Percy had had to hold himself back from hugging her and telling her everything would be alright.
But the rumors. Damn, whatever happened when Annabeth and the rest of their grade were in middle school had to have been bad. And he had a feeling everybody was keeping the worst of it to themselves. What was that accident that the girl had been talking about though? Or the attention grabbing thing? Percy could usually tell when a girl was playing him for a sucker, and Annabeth had seemed more real than any other girl he had met near his age. She gave off the same hoplessness that his mom did, and that only made Percy want to help her more.
But she hadn't even looked at him since the incident. He had two or three classes with her, and the same homeroom, but she just looked forward for the whole class, and then walked away. He had noticed something that worried him a bit. She always wore long sleeves. He knew what scars on wrists meant, and he hoped that Annabeth wasnt like that. But it could be a coincidence, he knew that. But he also remembered the accident Drew had talked about. Had Annabeth tried to kill herself?
Arghh... He held his head in his hands and tried to stop thinking about it. They'd only met once, and he needed to forget about her, or he'd go crazy, because he didn't believe rumors, and he knew, even if he asked, she wouldn't tell him.
As he sat there softly pounding his head on his desk, he heard a soft voice. "Homework is already frustrating you sweetie?" His mom. He looked up and smiled.
"Hey, oh no, it's fine," he said, looking at his desk. "It's just that I kind of got sucked into the drama that is high school." He frowned. It felt describing what troubled him as small as drama. But he guessed that was the best way to put it.
"Drama? You usually don't get so invested that you attempt concussions." she said, leaning against his doorway. She was still wearing her oufit from work, black slacks, a proffesional looking gray top, and matching gray high heels. She was a secretary for a tyrannical boss, in some company. But that was New York.
"Yeah, I know, but with what happened to her wrist, I feel kind of responsible." he said. Then remembered that he had conveniently forgotten to tell his mother what had happened.
Her eyebrows went up. "Her? What exactly is going on Percy, and why am I just hearinng about it now?"
He knew he looked guilty. "Um, well I accidentally ran into a girl at school on Tuesday. Literally. She snapped her wrist after she landed on it wrong. Anyway, I felt really bad, and got her ice, and was taking her to the office, when some random girl starting talking to her." Here, his eyebrows drew together, as he still didn't quite know what had happened. "She said something about and accident, and then Annabeth just stopped and said something really snarky back, then kept walking and ignoring her. But then the girl starting yelling about how Annabeth should stop being an attention grabber, and stuff like that, and telling some really horrible stuff. But the wierdest thing was, from just the few minutes I had known her, she didn't seem like that kind of girl. I don't know, Mom, it's wierd." He shook his head, trying to forget the whole incident.
His mom looked shocked. "Did you say the girl's name was Annabeth?"
Percy was confused. "Um, yeah. Why? Do you know her?"
"Percy she was on the news a few years ago."
"What?! How would you even remember that, anyway?" he asked.
"Because I remembered her name, it was so unique and I thought it was really pretty."
"Well, what happened to her?" For her to get on the news was concerning.
His mom walked to his bed, and sat on it, thinking. He knew because he got the same wrinkles between his eyebrows. "I think she was attacked by a famous rapist and killer." She saw Percy's face, and hurried on. "She was able to escape relatively unscathed, but he had given her many deep flesh wounds, and to escape, she had to, well she killed him to save herself."
Percy was shell shocked. Annabeth had been kidnapped? Annabeth had nearly been raped? Annabeth had had to kill someone to save herself? Annabeth... Oh God.
Percy felt his mom fold him into her arms, and she said only one thing. "Percy... either leave her alone, or be as gentle and kind as you can to her. You are the most amazing son, and you will grow into an amazing man, but that girl has a lot to deal with. I would bet she has a lot of scars, inside and out. If you want to try and get to know her better, then you will have a really hard time. But don't try and get her to tell you what happened, just offer her one thing." She looked into his eyes. "What she needs most is a restart button. If you think you can help her, you have my full support and encouragement. If not, I wouldn't hold it against you. Just remember, what she does not need it to get over what happened, well she does, but that's not what she needs most. What she needs most is to forget. Because that is the fastest way to mourn. Learning how to forget about what happened is the first step to not letting it affect you." Then she walked out.
Leaving him to his thoughts. God damn. Just what he needed. He went back to banging his head, but on the wall this time, until Gabe yelled at him to stop. Then he flipped off the wall.
ANNABETH POV
"I'm here." Annabeth said, to her empty apartment. She sighed, throwing her backpack onto the crappy couch. She went to her bathroom,, popping back a few painkillers that she had gotten for her sprain. Luckily her boss had understood, and had given her easier jobs until she recovered.
Annabeth looked around her studio. It had two rooms. The kitchen/living room/bedroom, and the bathroom. Maybe she should get a cat or something. Of course then her place would smell all the time. Dog? Maybe, but she didn't know if she had the time for one, and if you left dogs alone, they got bored and destroyed your stuff. Bird? Same problems.
No pet then. She took her hair out of her ponytail and combed her fingers through it. With her left hand, of course. Of course it was her right wrist, her dominant hand, that broke. Or fractured. Whatever. Either way, it would take a few weeks to heal. At least she healed quickly. Something about her immune system, blah blah blah. She was smart, but medicines and the how the human body worked never interested her. Architecture, though, that fascinated her. She wanted to come up with brand new types of engineering, and math had always been her strong suit.
One more year. One more long, miserable year of high school, and she could be in college. She already could be. If she hadn't been held back for that one year in 8th grade...
No. Don't think about it. Don't go into the memories. She closed that door, before she had a panic attack. Again. Ugh, she hated this, hated being weak, hated that just some simple memories could cause her to be as utterly defenseless as when it happened. She shook her head and looked at the clock. Eleven thirty.
Finish the little bit of homework, and then bed. She held back the dread that came at the thought of sleep, and took her backpack the six feet to her bed, flopping down.
What got me here? Huh. That's original. What does that even mean? Not that the teachers didn't know exactly what brought her to this high school. Hell, no one in the vicinity of two states didn't hear my name and think, "Hm, wait, I've heard that name somewhere, oh right, from that one news story, oh that poor girl."
Fuck 'em. They had no idea what the hell happened. She had had to change her last name and her address, her whole life, just when she thought that she might have been okay for the first time in a while. Then she got thrown head first into hell.
Ugh. She finished the essay, then threw it all back into her backpack,, not caring about organizing it for once. Usually she got everything ready for tomorrow before she fell asleep, but she just threw off her clothes, and threw on a big t-shirt, and turned off the light.
She ran and ran and ran and ran. He grabbed the back of her shirt, pulling her towards him, towards her fears. NO! She couldn't let him win! She kicked and clawed and punched and thrashed, but her limbs moved as if in slow motion. She tried to scream, but he gagged her. Then pain in her head, he stands over her, his face unseen, a bat in his hand, a decripit grin. A familiar face. He raises bat again. Lights flash in front of her eyes. Then blackness.
Annabeth jerked up, sweating, a scream dying in her throat. God da- Not again. The nightmares can't be coming back again. She shoved her hands through her hair again. A bad habit. She should stop.
She should also stop reliving that every night. There was a lot she should have done.
She laid back down and cried herself into a miserable, dreamless sleep.