A n n a b e t h
☼
The first day of school always seemed to have a strange feeling in the air. While many people woke up with this feeling of excitement over starting a new year and seeing their friends again, there was also this underlying feeling of dread when people remembered the overload of assignments and inevitably horrible teachers and people they would encounter. The first day signified a major change, but it also usually meant saying goodbye to relaxation.
Annabeth Chase had never really enjoyed the first day of school. Sure, it was a refreshing change of pace from her monotonous summer routine that mostly consisted of her studying for the SATs coming up that year, working a part-time job at a clothing store, and spending the rest of her free time reading. There were a few moments of brightness when she got to hang out with her best friends, but those were often overshadowed by the rarity of them and the absolute bore that had been her summer vacation
But even with that, she would take a dull summer vacation over her high school any day.
When she woke up that September morning, her small bedroom filled with sunlight that shone through her thin white and grey curtains. Annabeth rolled to her side in her bed, furiously punching her phone to turn off the alarm that was obnoxiously blaring and ruining what little peace she had woken up. Annabeth had made sure to set her morning alarm to give her exactly enough time to complete her minimal morning routine and meet Hazel and Thalia outside her home so they could walk to school together.
As she began to get ready, Annabeth quickly realized that it probably wasnt the best idea for her to stay up until the late hours of the evening to read and text her friends. Her movements were sluggish, and Annabeth often found herself almost falling asleep as she was getting dressed.
Annabeth caught her reflection in the small mirror that hung by her door, wincing when she saw how frizzy her blonde curls looked that morning. She attempted to calm them down, but eventually settled for pulling hair back into a ponytail.
A set of leather bracelets sat on her dresser and Annabeth grabbed them, pulling the bracelets over her wrist. After learning that part of her tattoo contained a blue cookie, Annabeth had decided at age thirteen that keeping her tattoo covered up was probably the best option for her.
Annabeth wasn't the only one who did this. Most people chose to cover their tattoos for a variety of reasons. Many did it because they simply didn't want to deal with their tattoos and just let fate intervene. Some, like Annabeth, did it out of embarrassment of what their tattoo contained. There were a select few who didn't believe in the concept of soulmates at all, despite the universes wishes
After bounding down the stairs and ignoring her step-mom's annoyed yells as moved past the kitchen, Annabeth pushed open her front door and waved eagerly at two of her best friends Hazel and Thalia, who were standing next to each other at the end of Annabeth's driveway and grinning at the girl.
"Despite how wonderful it is to see you guys," Annabeth laughed as she gave the two girls a quick hug. "I really dont want to go to school right now."
Thalia, who knew better, nudged Annabeths shoulder in a teasing manner. "Aren't you like the biggest nerd ever? Stop lying to us and just admit you're excited to go back to school."
"Admittedly...the school part is pretty great. What I don't like is 90% of the people there. Our friend group is like a rare exception to that rule."
Goode High was a small high school, which allowed Annabeth to get to know too many people at her school that she didnt necessarily want to. She tried to avoid most of her classmates at all costs and keep to herself most of the time, but the small environment made even that difficult.
"Well dont I feel special," Hazel responded with a little smile before talking excitedly about her art class that upcoming year and what projects she was looking forward to.
Fall had seemed to arrive early in New York that day, because despite it only being the beginning of September, there was already a chill in the air that morning. The leaves were just starting to turn varying shades of yellow, orange and red. As the girls walked, they would often hear the crunching sounds of brittle leaves beneath their feet.
A large brick building eventually came into view that had crowds of teenagers around it, all meeting up with friends after the summer apart and catching up before they headed in to start the year.
Annabeth spotted a large familiar group of girls near the entrance of the school and pointed them out excitedly to Hazel and Thalia. The three of them shared a knowing look before practically bolting towards their friends. Piper, Reyna, Rachel, and Calypso, however, seemed to not realize the trio was coming towards them until they were practically right in front of them.
Annabeth approached Piper first, as she was the only one she hadnt seen once over the summer vacation. "I haven't seen you for ages! She laughed as she pulled Piper into a hug. There was seriously no way you couldve stayed home for at least a little while this summer?"
Groaning but still finding herself smiling over being able to see her friends again, Piper hugged Annabeth tightly before doing the same for Hazel and even Thalia, who normally hated hugs but had decided to make an exception that day. "Dad insisted that I come to Los Angeles with him this summer while he filmed, and for some reason, staying home with Mellie wasnt even an option. It was so stupid too. I seemed to spend most of my time sitting at home."
"Well, we're glad you're home." Rachel replied with her vibrant emerald eyes dancing with excitement. With her vivid red hair and constant energy, Rachel Elizabeth Dare was a powerful force of nature to be reckoned with. She was the one who always seemed to be bringing life into the group, the new ideas when things got a little boring. "Who's mentally and emotionally prepared to start off the school year?"
"I don't think Reyna even is, and she's always the most prepared out of all of us. Besides Annabeth, of course." Thalia joked, turning to look at the two girls with a raised eyebrow. And thats saying a lot.
Reyna had always been the most determined one out of the group of girls, and school had always been her top priority ever since Annabeth met her freshman year. Annabeth, Hazel, and Calypso were all people who loved academics and doing well in school, but Reyna was always on a completely different level from them.
The first bell for the school day rang out, signaling to the girls that they had to say goodbye and head to their first classes of the day. With a small nod and a wave goodbye to the girls, Annabeth and Hazel began walking down the hall to reach the English class on the second floor. The halls were swarmed with an assortment of people, from the tiniest freshman to the tallest senior. In the middle of the hall stood the group of junior girls who didnt seem to care that they were blocking most of the traffic.
Annabeth swore those girls could give Satan himself nightmares Normally, Annabeth didn't have a problem with the basic girls. As long as someone was a good person, it didn't matter to her how they dressed or anything like that. The problem was, however, that these girls seemed to torment just about everyone they met, except for people they considered to be on the same level as them.
There were only a few people who were at that level, and Annabeth was thankful that she wasnt anywhere near that. She didnt like the idea of people who constantly tore others down respecting her in any sort of way.
Farther down the hallway, laughing loudly as they walked down it, were the only popular group of friends that Annabeth actually didnt mind. The five guys all appeared to be really kind people and were an extremely close knit group, despite how vastly different their personalities were.
There was Nico, who honestly Annabeth still couldn't get a read on because he honestly didn't talk much. He could, however, crack some pretty hilarious jokes and always had me having to hold in laughter when we were lab partners during our Chemistry class the year before.
Then there was Percy, the guy with the troublemaker smile and sea green eyes that made almost every girl in the school swoon. He was captain of the swim team, and always seemed to be restless, like he was itching to be doing more than whatever he was doing at the moment.
Jason was the golden boy of the group, and Annabeth honestly liked to refer to him as Troy Bolton. Incredibly smart, super involved with theatre and choir departments, and one of the top basketball players. Teachers and half of the student body praised the ground he walked on, and for good reason. He was always helping out anyone who needed it, whether he was asked to or not. He was always kind to Annabeth despite the fact theyve only ever spoken when shes at Thalias house.
Frank was the especially kind, almost quieter guy, of the group, which was always a bit of a surprise given his tall, powerful stance and football player status. Annabeth remembered him in middle school, a bit on the chubbier side and always had this sort of awkwardness to him. But sometime between freshman and sophomore year he grew, both literally with his height and metaphorically with confidence, and seemed to be much more sure of himself.
And then there was Leo, who honestly was a bit of a wild card. He was an engineering genius, but always seemed to channel that power into crazy contraptions that didn't make sense to anyone but him. Leo was even more restless than Percy, always bouncing around and making comments that made everyone in the nearby vicinity crack up with laughter.
A few minutes later, Annabeth opened the door into the English class and was greeted with the sounds of people grumbling in annoyance. When she tried to see what the source of it was, Annabeth found a seating chart on the digital board in the front of the classroom. Apparently, Annabeth had been assigned to sit next to Percy Jackson, which she didn't mind. It could've been worse. She could've been assigned to sit next to Kelli, one of the rude popular girls who was also in the class.
Annabeth found her desk and noticed that Percy had managed to get there before her. Upon closer inspection, she came to realize that Percy was sleeping there. She wondered how someone could fall asleep that fast, especially on the first day of school. One side of Percys face peaked out from beneath his ebony-colored hair, and Annabeth couldn't help but laugh when she noticed a line of drool coming out the corner of his mouth.
Across the classroom, Hazel was having less of an entertaining time, as she had learnt that she was assigned to be seated next to Kelli. Annabeth caught her eye and sent her an apologetic look, and Hazel winced in response. Thankfully, the exchange went unnoticed by Kelli, who was more focused on her phone to pay attention to the girls silent conversation.
"Morning class!" Mr. Blofis walked in, grinning. "Welcome to AP English Language and Composition and–" He paused, staring in Annabeth's direction. He checked the seating chart on the board before speaking. "Annabeth, can you please wake Percy up from his nap?"
Annabeth poked him once and he didn't budge. A second time, nothing. Even with Annabeth shaking his shoulder, Percy didn't wake, seemingly in a deeper sleep than Sleeping Beauty.
At that point, Annabeth had decided enough was enough. She grabbed her Physics textbook out of my backpack, lifted it high above her head, and let it fall on the desk right next to Percy's head.
At this point, Percy finally jolted awake, his eyes wide open with shock. "I'm awake, I'm awake!" He yelped, causing the rest of the classroom to burst into loud laughter.
"Well good," Mr. Blofis said with a grin. "Because I'd like to tell you all that this seating will stay this way for the semester." The entire class began to protest in response and Mr. Blofis chuckled as if he almost expected this reaction. "Hey! There's a reason for this, which I will explain later in the month. Now, I'd like to go over the syllabus before we start getting to know each other."
As Mr. Blofis turned to face the digital board, Annabeth could feel Percy lean towards her. "Was that really necessary?" He hissed.
Annabeth felt herself smirk. "You drool when you sleep."
She now had Percy's full attention. He turned his head towards her, and Annabeth couldnt help but notice the tops of his ears turning a light shade of pink. "I what?"
"You drool when you sleep," Annabeth repeated firmly in an attempt to make sure what was going on inside my head didn't show on my face.
Percy grinned his infamous "troublemaker grin", the one that had girls falling head over heels for him, and stuck out his hand. "I'm Percy."
"I know."
"And you are..." Percy trailed off as he leaned into Annabeth's once more, clearly expecting her to say something.
Sighing, Annabeth finally gave in and shook his hand. The smirk that was once in his face to change into a genuine smile that made Annabeth's stomach turn in on itself. "Im Annabeth Chase."
☼