Chapter Sixteen

Annabeth

"Are you sure you don't want breakfast, sweetie?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." I start trying my shoelaces.

"Are you really sure?"

"Positive!"

"Is Thalia picking you up?" I ignore my stepmom and rush out of the front door. No, Thalia is not picking me up. I never contacted her throughout the whole summer.

My shoes scuffle against sidewalk. I wonder what high school is like without friends. What if we have partner projects in class? Who would be willing to be my science partner? Everyone probably hated me.

Does Thalia feel guilty for spoiling this whole thing?

Probably not.

I sigh and adjust my backpack straps. My legs walk robotically, hearing a scuff from the sidewalk rubbing against my shoes every so often. I hear a car park by the sidewalk I was walking but ignore it. Probably some middle aged woman checking to see if her tires are still in tact.

"Yo, Annie!"

I stop walking and glance over my shoulder. It was Thalia. Hazel, Leo, and Frank are also stepping out of the car.

For some reason, I felt anger as soon as I saw them. Probably because I bottled up all my emotions the whole summer. I hardly made any human contact other than my family and seeing them made me feel bad. They ignored me for two and a half months!

"What? Are you going to egg me?" I snap at them.

"Egg you? Why would we do that?" Hazel asks.

"I don't know. Maybe because I'm the most hated person in all of Goode High? For gods' sake, Hazel, even the incoming freshmen know about Goode's Anon!"

"Well, we're not here to egg you. We're here to give you a ride to school," Thalia says. "Get in the car, Annie."

"Don't call me that." I say and cross my arms. "Don't you guys hate me, too?"

"Hated. We hated you. We really despised you. But then I realized: what's my best friend going to do without me? And what am I going to do without her? So the hate went away. And I miss you. We planned this whole road trip this summer but didn't go because it wouldn't be the same without you." Thalia said.

I scoff. "You could've told me earlier. I was lonely this whole summer. God, Thalia."

You could imagine what happened next. There was a bit of crying, a ton of hugging, and a load of apologizing. It was mostly me constantly saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry." In the school parking lot, we met Piper and the tears just wouldn't stop. But they were happy tears. I was just so glad we finally made up.

It was terrifying the whole day. I could sense people pointing at me and whispering to each other about the kind of bitch I am. I didn't like being gossiped about. When lunch came, my friends had some sort of a protective barrier around me.

"Are you sure?" Thalia asked when I was about to go to the lunch line to buy everyone ice cream.

"Yeah. I'll be fine by myself."

It was sort of expected for Drew and the popular girls to attack me as soon as I left my safety zone. "So, it's anon," Drew said, twirling her black-brown hair. "You talked a ton of shit about me."

"I know," I said. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't make me feel better. I say we report this to the principal."

I was about to beg them not to but decided against it. "Sure. If that makes you happy."

Drew scoffs. "Bitch. You're such a bitch."

My cheeks were heating up and I felt the lunch line become quieter and quieter.

"You think apologizing will make everything better? Think again. I'm gonna report this right now," Drew says.

"Sure," I say. I feel like I'm choking.

"Stop it, Drew."

I look up to see Percy. His eyes were glaring down at Drew. She cowered back a little and sighed. "Oh look, it's your fake-boyfriend."

"We're not fake-dating. We're real friends. I know your secrets and you better not report Annabeth unless you want me to expose yours," Percy says.

He's defending me.

Drew couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Fine, I don't care." She turns around and rushes to her table where the rest of her friends were sitting.

"Thanks," I say to Percy as soon as Drew left.

"No problem."

I sigh. Am I really going to apologize?

Yes.

"Listen, Percy, I'm really sorry about everything and if I could, I would eradicate this memory and-"

He shrugs. "It's fine, Annabeth."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I guess. The summer gave me enough time to kinda cool off, you know."

"Really? I spent my whole summer hating myself and worrying that everyone's going to bully me or something."

Percy smiles. "Really? Man, that makes me feel bad. I should've hit you up before school so you wouldn't have to freak out." Suddenly, he furrows his eyebrows. "Annabeth, your hair..."

"My hair?"

"There's a small streak of grey. It's really unnoticeable, though. All that worrying probably turned your hair grey..."

I self-consciously touch my head. "Does it look bad?"

Percy laughs a bit. "Not at all."

"So, Percabeth's back together." Thalia says. She's lying down on my bed, playing with my pillow covers.

"You guys are so cute," Silena adds in. She was digging through my makeup bag. "Annabeth, you need more than just six things."

"Annabeth's pretty without makeup," Hazel mutters.

We were all at my house for a sleepover. Normally, my parents would've disagreed to a sleepover on the first weekend of the school year but they were just so glad that I was being social, they agreed to one.

"So Piper's the only one not here?" I ask.

"She's with Jason," Thalia answers with a rather suggestive tone. Hazel's mouth is slightly open and she gently fans herself.

"God, Hazel! It's not the 1940s! Two teenagers being together on a weekend night is completely normal. They could be watching a movie for all we know," Silena laughs.

"But they're alone...and it's the weekend..." Hazel whispers, the fanning become more rapid. We all laugh at her innocence.

My phone starts ringing. Thalia snatches it immediately.

"Thals! Give it back!" I say but she already answered it.

"Right now?" she says to the caller. "Sure." She hangs up.

Before I could get a chance to tell Thalia how rude that was, she says, "Percy's outside. Right now. He wants to see you."

Percy was standing outside the willow tree on the lawn.

"Hey," he says.

"Hi. What're you doing here?"

"Felt like seeing you."

I walk towards him. "It's like eleven p.m. Isn't that past your curfew?"

"It is but my parents aren't home. So I thought I'd see you."

Oh.

He smiles before closing his eyes and leaning closer and closer...

His lips reach mine. I close my eyes and push myself closer to him. It's a nice and sweet kiss. So gentle, not demanding. His hands gently hold both sides of my face. My fingers entangle around his hair.

"Ooh, how romantic!" A voice calls out from the window of my bedroom.

We immediately break away. "Sh-shut up!" I say, my cheeks turning red.

End

So how about that for an ending? Sorry for not updating in a long while. Thank you for the support until the end! I honestly thought this fanfiction would lose most of its followers after a couple of months since my last update, but here we are!

Questions for my other story: I am not exactly sure how I will continue it. I'm stuck with a rather bad case of writer's block.

Again, thank you so much for the support.