Found Family (HoO, Mortal AU)

ANNABETH CHASE

Beep beep beep.

Monday morning. Again.
Annabeth's alarm went off for the third time. She knew she'd be late if she pressed 'snooze' again, so she rolled out of bed. Mondays were always terrible.

She made her bed and got dressed quickly, then tried to fix her hair, before going into the kitchen. Her dad was drinking coffee in the kitchen, already ready to go to work. He was a history professor, meaning he wasn't home often, especially not when Annabeth was younger.
"Morning, Dad." Annabeth said tiredly, pouring coffee into a cup for herself. 
"Good morning sweetie. I have a lecture this morning, so your mom will leave you into school."
"She's not my mom."
"Sorry dear," Frederick kissed the top of her head and grabbed the keys for his own car. "I have to go now. Tell Will I said hi!" He walked out the door.

• • •

Annabeth got into her stepmom's car, her half brothers fighting in the backseat. They were twelve years old twins who were constantly fighting, leaving Annabeth late for school multiple times, which is why she wished she had her own car. She could drive, but couldn't afford a car. She waited for her stepmother, watching other people leaving the apartment block. Katie Gardner from apartment four was walking quickly, away from Travis and Connor from apartment eleven. Katie and Travis were also in their senior year, but Annabeth wasn't exactly friends with them and didn't want to walk with them.

Mrs.Chase finally got into the car, quieting her sons and not talking to Annabeth. Their conversations usually ended in a fight. Mrs.Chase wasn't a bad person, she just didn't understand Annabeth. After Annabeth ran away when she was just seven, her dad and stepmom had gotten into a lot of trouble with police and social workers. Even after ten years, social workers often came to the apartment to check up on her.

Annabeth stared out the window, watching many people walking. She seen Grover Underwood walking with some other students. At Reyna's party, Grover and her talked again for the first time in forever. After that, they made plans to hang out again. Annabeth was glad, Grover had always been one of her best friends until high school. She was hoping she could get that friendship back.

Reyna's party was probably the most fun Annabeth had in a long time. She'd spent most of the time with Piper, Will and Leo. She tried not to laugh thinking about it.
She was so deep in thought she didn't realise her stepmom had arrived at the school.
"Are you going to get out?"
"Oh, right- sorry. Bye." Annabeth got out of the car, thankfully not being late.

She walked into the school, knowing Will wouldn't be there yet. He was always late. She went to her locker to sort out her books, when Piper and Leo approached her.
"Hey," Piper said. "How are you?"
"Well, I mean it's Monday, so things could be better. How about you?"
"Honestly still have a pain in my head from Reyna's." Piper laughed.
"Tell me about it." Annabeth put some of the books into her school bag.

They talked about their weekend for a while until Will came, doing some sort of karate-chop dance moves. He was finally wearing a hoodie. It was freezing outside.
"Hey, hey, hey. How'd y'all do?" Will said, throwing his bag at his locker.
"Don't you care at all about your personal belongings?" Annabeth sighed.
"Nope! I binged Star Wars last night so life is meaningless."
"Someone died?"
"Yup."
"Is the seasonal depression hitting, William?"
"Yup!"

• • •

The first two classes, history and physics, was boring. Annabeth was glad when it was time for classics.

Classics went well, as usual. Mr.Brunner was Annabeth's favourite teacher. He was patient and understanding. Annabeth was at the top of the class, making her like classics even more.

The bell rang, meaning it was time for gym. She liked the subject just not the students. Obviously she liked Leo and Piper. Frank and Reyna were alright. Pollux didn't really say much. Drew was a bitch. Travis never knew when to shut up. Everyone knew Jason was an asshole. And Percy Jackson was.. well, Percy Jackson.

Coach Hedge was already giving out to the students for being late, although they were all early.
"You all need to be here early! The first sports day is on Friday!" Coach Hedge yelled.
Sports day wasn't so bad. There was two every school year. One at the start of the year and one before summer break. Annabeth preferred the one closer to Summer. It wasn't as cold and they left the school to go to a small sports centre, which had better equipment and a swimming pool. Although Percy always won the swimming competition, it was fun to try beat him.

"Meaning all of you have to win at least one medal! Do you hear me cupcakes?!" Coach Hedge continued.
Annabeth heard Leo whisper something about a three-legged race to Piper. There was a mumble of 'yes sir's and 'yes coach's in the small class.
"Now go do laps of the field!"

Annabeth ran with Piper and Leo, who were both surprisingly fast. The only person ahead of them was Reyna. Leo kept looking behind him, so Annabeth looked back too. Travis Stoll was running while talking to Percy Jackson, Pollux and Frank a bit ahead of them. Jason and Drew were furthest away, talking to each other. Annabeth remembered the rumours of them kissing at Reyna's party.
"Match made in hell." Piper said, also looking back now. "Aren't they just perfect for each other?" She rolled her eyes.
"Hah. Absolutely perfect." Annabeth said.
Valdez stayed quiet.

• • •

Computer class was next. She sat beside Will, as usual, who went onto Google Maps to stalk people. You know, the usual.
"Look! It's your apartment block."
"Thanks, Will. I forgot where I lived." Annabeth said, typing her English homework.
"Did you find out who the new people who moved in are?"
"Nope, they only moved in yesterday. Haven't seen them yet." She'd only seen moving trucks and heard Silena, who lived in apartment ten, talking about a new person moving in.

"Hm. I can ask Lee-" Will said. Lee Fletcher, Will's 23 year old cousin cousin, also lived in Annabeth's apartment block, in apartment 7. He only moved in two years ago from Texas.
"It's okay. I'm sure I'll find out who the mystery people are soon."
"Hm. Alright. I'm going to my old house." Will said, typing a location in. "Okay, Solace Street tour."
"Solace street?"

"Not an official name because we apparently aren't allowed to name it that. But where all my family live, you know. There's Lee's parents' house. My grandparents'. Austin and Gracie's. Kayla, Yan and Jerry's," Will said, pointing at each house. "And my old one, which my aunt moved into. She's younger than Lee. Ha. Imagine being younger than your nephew."
Annabeth let Will rant about 'Solace Street'. She knew he missed his dad's side of the family. He had no cousins on his mom's side, though.

"Anyway, wanna play Animal Jam?"
"I'm supposed to be helping Malcolm setting up the school website." Annabeth said. Malcolm Pace and Annabeth were both on the school council, though neither was running for head of the student council. Being the 'computer nerds', they were left to set up the website during their computer class. Malcolm was in most classes with Annabeth. They were pretty good friends, though they didn't talk outside of school.
"Please. Please. Please. Whoever gets the highest score on Subway Surfers wins."

That did sound tempting. "Fine. One game."
Malcolm, who was sitting at the other side of Annabeth sighed.
"Sorry, Pace. Subway surfers is too important."
"Fair enough." Malcolm nodded. "But you need to help me after one game."

Will won the first game, meaning they just had to play another. Which Will won. Eventually, Will had won every game and the bell rang. Will had sore kneecaps. Malcolm probably had a sore head. Annabeth had a sore ego.

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Word count: 1335

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A/n: I just think... Malcolm Pace supremacy. Man, I love Malcolm Pace. 🥰🥰🥰