CHAPTER ONE – Two months later…

I've been alone before. Countless times. After my parents were killed. After I escaped from Luke with Thalia. After I pushed almost everyone away because they could hurt me.

Before I met Percy.

But I've never been alone like this. It breaks you inside, you know. One horrible, vicious cycle where I'll find something – someone – but then life will screw me over and I'll lose it.

It happened with my family, almost 9 years ago. Mum, dad and Bobby, one of my twin brothers, all died in that house fire. And then Matt, the foster system took him away from me almost the second the ambos cleared us as "okay". I haven't seen him since. Haven't even heard from him. Apparently they don't exchange letters from one sibling to the other in the foster system.

Then it happened with Thalia. I had finally found friends at this one foster home. It was Thalia, me… and Luke. But I was young and naïve and weak, and Luke took advantage of that. Twice. As well as hitting me, for "good measure" as he used to say. It was enough to make me fear him and feel terrified of what might happen if I told anyone – which was exactly what he wanted. When I finally fessed up what had happened to Thalia she wanted to bash his face in. I stopped her then and convinced her to escape the place with me. We were then split a part.

Three weeks later Thalia was in a freak accident. I thought I was going to really lose her then. I wasn't allowed to go see her or send flowers or anything, even though I gave my social worker, Rachel, hell about it. Thalia was in a coma for a long time – months. I didn't get to hear from her or about her until kinda recently.

This was a low point in my life. I admit, I'm not that low at this moment… but I'm a hell of a lot lonelier now than I've ever been. That's saying a lot too.

Percy is the most recent to be taken from me – or really, me taken from him. In a way, he kind of saved me. He knew everything about me. He wanted to know everything about me. He was different from the rest and at first I thought that it was because he was so freaking persistent about talking to me and getting me to open up. But then he told me his story and I realised that we weren't so different. He'd had a pretty bad life as well, but he was moving on. He was getting on with his life.

And that's what he helped me do. I told Percy my story. Everything. Percy didn't judge or give me those stupid sympathetic looks that everyone gives orphans. Instead he stood by my side and protected me. More than protected me; he made me feel again.

And now I feel a lot – especially for him. I don't know what this emotion is called, but I do know that I think about Percy almost every second of every day. I miss the comfort of his arms and those green, ocean-like eyes. The messy way his hair fell. That stupid grin he got about anything. The crease of worry between his eyebrows that was like an hourly occurrence. His big hand wrapped around my own smaller one. The way his body shook when he laughed, usually at me. The feeling of his lips on mine…

Oh shit I'm daydreaming again.

Percy found Thalia for me. She had changed… but it was for the better. Not as moody and likely to lash out. She was even engaged and in love. Young, engaged and in love with a nurse named Will. He wasn't the nurse assigned to look after her at the hospital but he saw her this one time and couldn't stay away. He sat by Thalia every day, all those months and all the therapy, until she was released from hospital. I was supposed to be Thalia's Maid of Honour.

Percy's mum, Sally, the nicest, kindest person I've ever met – and I've met a fuck load of people thanks to the foster homes and all the schools – also got engaged to Paul. He is like a father to Percy, even before the engagement. Sally was pretty messed up from her ex-husband, Gabe, but Paul helped her through. He's nice, caring and stable, and you can see that his world revolves around her; she deserves someone like that.

It all seems so long ago.

Even Percy. That last kiss from him. The way he fought through the guards escorting me out of the court room just so that he could kiss me.

But if he saw me now, he'd be disappointed. I've gone back to the girl I was when I first met him. Except now, I feel empty inside. Empty beside the hurt.

Two months I've been in here; Baldwald's Juvenile Detention Centre for Troubled Girls. Not a very catchy title, I gotta say. My new "home" is cell number 309, a 4 by 5 concrete room, with tall iron bars making up one whole side. It has nothing but a bunk bed with thin mattresses and two blankets. We don't even get the privilege of having a toilet.

My cell mate is a quiet, petite girl by the name of Bianca. I have no idea why she's in here. She doesn't talk very often and says very little when she does. And she stays to herself, clear of everyone. Including me.

I guess maybe she doesn't like the attention I get. Mind you, it is unwanted. But like the guards say: I'm a magnet for trouble. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that since day one in here whenever there has been trouble or a "disagreement" I've been there. Usually not on the sidelines either.

I know that Percy wouldn't want me to be like this. But when life screws me over again this is just the side of me that comes out in order to survive. There's no way people like me get out of here unscathed. Hell most come out with some type of scar; physical or mental.

"Number one-oh-three-three," the guard called out.

I stood and made my way over to the line of girls being organised by more guards. It was visiting day.

Ever since I've been here I've always had a visitor every few days – unless I've been thrown in isolation which has only happened once. It's the same visitor every time.

The guard was done after a few minutes and our little line traipsed on. It's like a maze in here. At first it confuses the fuck outta you, but then I think that's what it's meant to do. We made our way to the massive hall-like room where our visitors would be waiting. They get there before us.

We stopped at the door. The line slowly trickled forward until I was at the front with a massive, mean looking guard in front of me. He held a clipboard (this place was pretty old school).

"Chase. One-oh-three-three," I said with a sigh at the end. I knew this routine too well.

"Seat eighteen," he said in his gruff voice.

I walked past him until I saw the number 18 in big black font at the top of the cubicle. These seats we get to talk to our visitors, well they were designed exactly like you see in the movies. It's a whole rectangular room with these cubicles. There are boards either side for a bit of privacy, although that's kinda hard considering all the guards in the room, mostly on our side. A phone is attached to one of the side boards – one on each side. This is how we talk to people of the "outside" now. Like a phone call without the dialling.

I sit down and pick up the phone, looking through the thick, clear plastic between us.

"You're getting predictable," I state, emotionless.

"You should think of it as dependable," Rachel replies. "How are you, Annabeth?"

I put my elbow on the desk and rest my head on my hand. "You ask the same question every time. You get the same answer every time. I think you should think of that as dependable."

She signs and her frizzy red hair seems to deflate a little more than usual. "Okay then, have you been in anymore fights?"

I just shrugged. She glares at me through the plastic but I still outwardly look bored. I've had ten year olds with a more piercing glare than hers. Rachel's had a bit more frustration laced into it though.

"Annabeth, you know they can reduce your time in here if you behave. What are you doing, Annabeth?"

"How is everyone, Rachel?" Now I lift my head, totally ignoring her question. "How is Percy? And Thalia?"

Rachel sighs, studying me for a few seconds. I begin to glare at her, alerting her to my building impatience. She leans back a little to get more comfortable while tossing her head back a bit to shake her hair out of her face.

"Thalia blames herself still," Rachel admits. I knew that this would be the case but it still sucks to hear it actually confirmed.

"And Percy?"

Rachel chews her lip before going on. "He's worried about you, Annabeth. He looks awful. He doesn't sleep and you can tell. He's dropped in weight. He's going literally crazy without you."

My heart contracts painfully. I bury my face in my hands, breathing hard. Don't cry. Don't do it. Don't show them your weakness.

Finally, when I think I've gotten myself back under control, I look back up at Rachel. Now the worry she was feeling for me is evident in her eyes. I hadn't really noticed it before.

"You still tell him about me, don't you? Even though I've asked you not to."

She doesn't even look guilty. "Yes. Annabeth, you haven't seen him. The fact that you are here and he is helpless – it's killing him. I don't know what relationship you two have, but can't you see it's killing you both when you get yourself into fights? When you get hurt? When I told him about your black eye the other week he just sat down and put his head in his hands, like you just did but for a lot longer."

"Then stop being the bearer of bad news. You see what it does to him, so why do you keep telling him?" my anger started to seep into my words. Deep down I really know that it's not Rachel's fault and that Percy would get the information out of her either way. But I have to snap at someone.

"You know he wants to know and he'll find out somehow," her words only confirm my thoughts. "He wants to see you-"

"No," I glare. This wasn't the first time we'd had this conversation.

"But Annabeth-"

"No, Rachel." I don't want him to see me like this. I don't want him to see me in this uniform or see the bruises that I have from the fights. I don't want him to see the old me again.

"What about Thalia? You know that I won't be able to stop her for too much longer," Rachel says, her voice a little wearier now.

I rub my eyes. "I know," a sigh. "But try. I don't know how, but she'll tear herself a part if she turns up on one of my bad days."

"So you're saying there will be more fights?" she quickly caught on.

"Did you think there would be less?"

"Actually, yes. I saw the different you that Percy encouraged to come out. But now you're the old you who used to give me a lot of headaches and stress," she said honestly, with a hint of a smile creeping at the side.

"Which is exactly why you can't let Percy and Thalia see me."

Giving her a stern look I wait for the argument she's sure to put up. Rachel opens her mouth but the buzzer on top of my cubicle goes off. As the guard steps up behind me I sigh. With a tearful look from Rachel, and the blank look I shot back, I got up and moved back to the exit of the hall.

The kitchens' was where I was lead. I say "kitchens" because there is more than one. There has to be in order to feed three hundred and something girls.

Internally I groaned when I spotted the all-too-familiar gang of girls in the corner. They weren't your typical high school clique; they were a bit more blood thirsty than that. Although they were led by a Queen Bee: Drew.

Drew was definitely not like a cheerleader or whatever you would expect a high-and-mighty teenage bitch to look like. Instead, she was bigger, butch, had a mop of dark hair with freckles scattered across her nose. There were scars all over her, including a rather large one that ran down behind her ear. The girl was confident and cocky and downright crazy.

My job was to take the tomatoes off the vines. Not an exciting job but one that will leave you with blisters at the end of the night. Keep the good ones, chuck the bad ones.

It took forty-five minutes until I heard the drone of Drew's voice behind me. Ignoring her like I usually do at the start of our confrontations, I continued to pluck off tomatoes. Keep the good ones, chuck the bad ones. I was hoping that luck might be on my side tonight and she might have gotten assigned to somewhere else. Or at least another kitchen.

"Was that your sister talking to you today?" There was no response from me; this was only the beginning of her spiel. Her snotty voice went on. "Or was it your mum, hey Barbie? Was your mummy a teen slut?"

Squeezing my eyes shut tight and staying turned away from her, I tried to block out the sound of laughter from Drew's groupies.

Deep breaths, Annabeth. Just keep them occupied until one of the guards' notices. Maybe we can avoid this fight.

"Your mum liked to sleep around, didn't she Barbie? Could she even remember which one was your father?" this brought about more laughing. My hands curled into fists.

Or maybe this fight was inevitable.

I spun around to them, putting on an innocent smile. "Is that so? Are you sure you aren't getting our mums confused there, Drew?"

She glowered at me, caught out.

"You think you are so much different than us, don't you Barbie? You think that you are better," she took a step closer and I saw the anger behind her eyes. "But there's a hierarchy here. We've been lenient to you since you arrived-" oh now that was compete bullshit "- but it's time you stepped back into your place. You're the bottom of the food chain, bitch."

"Then we have reached an impasse," I took a step towards her and with a tug at the corners of my mouth said, "because I don't like the bottom."

Drew's eyes narrowed. Her body shifted and I knew what was going to happen before it actually did. The fist came at me from my left. Ducking I hit out, connecting with her stomach which had her doubling over, winded. One of her friends grabbed me. As I went to hit her away, another of the girls grabbed that arm. The two of them held me tight between them.

I struggled and scratched and kicked, landing a few blows. Almost free of their grasp something in the corner of my eye caught my attention. Drew had recovered and stood back up. She came directly in front of me and I made an executive decision to stop the struggle for freedom. Instead I looked right at her and smiled as sweetly as I could.

It worked and Drew blew her fuse.

The next punch caught me in the jaw.

THERE IS MORE THEN JUST THE JUVIE THING TO THIS STORY.

Hi, I'm Cassie, for all you new readers, and to my old ones, Sorry I took so long to upload and thank you for reading this.

This story is a carry-on from What You See Is Not What You Get. Still has Percabeth! Annabeth doesn't stay in juvie for too long really! That would make it boring otherwise :)

All I'll say is that I listened to what my lovely readers said they wanted to see I their reviews! There will be people coming and some going. If you stick around you'll find out :)

Thank you all for being patient and I wish I could tell you that I will update sooner but realistically, I probably won't...

Thanks for reading the first chapter guys! You're all amazing!

- Cassie.