Ship in a Bottle

First is the Worst

(Edited)

The next morning was a complete chaos-fest. Annabeth meant that in the most unbiased, bullshitty way possible.

The sound of her blaring alarm awoke her from her regular nightmares, only adding to the daily torment she pushed through.

"Wake up!" The sassy voice belonging to Annabeth's hideous stepmother, if she could even call her that, rang through the hallway as if she needed any more agony. "Annabeth, I heard that alarm! Get the fuck out of your bed!"

Helen and her father were to be wed in approximately two months. Annabeth was appointed the maid of honor, although they all knew Helen would much rather not have her in the wedding at all. Nonetheless, she helped out with wedding plans. Being the ignorant wretch her father was, he just swept all the drama between his future wife and daughter under the carpet to establish peace between the factions.

"-Annabeth, did you hear me?" She barked through my door. "I'll take this door off if you choose not to listen!"

"I'm coming," Annabeth responded meekly, kicking the comforter off of her legs just as the solace really kicked in. "What time is it?"

"7:00! Be down by 7:35 or we'll leave without you." With that, Helen seemed to skip away innocently to awake the twins from their sleep–peacefully.

Annabeth's morning routine was never very extensive due to Helen's inevitable cheapness when it came to hair or skincare. A cheaply made hair tie would have to do. After all, she never felt the need to go all out for her appearance. If she did, Helen would surely call her out for it.

Clomping down the stairs in her run-down Adidas, Annabeth spotted my father in the kitchen. Unlike her, he seemed unbothered by Helen's bride-zilla attitude in the morning.

"Have a good day, Annabeth," He greeted, his eyes not leaving the newspaper in front of his bowl of cereal. "Remember what we talked about, alright? This is very important to us."

"Yeah, but not for me," She mumbled under her breath, quickly grabbing a yellow banana from the fruit bowl. Annabeth didn't have enough time to eat a full-scale breakfast with Helen's awakening.

Her hand wrapped around the doorknob, opening the door to leave their house. A refreshing wave of wind blew through her loose ponytail as she trailed onto the patio out front.

Helen stood there with the boys, who were all suited in their private school uniforms.

Bobby and Matthew went to a different school than Annabeth did. Being mere second graders, they didn't see each other all the time. Their age gap was 18 to 8, meaning they'd never be at the same school together. That was a dream come true, even though she had no beef with the boys.

"I'm driving them to school today," Helen decided, sending her stepdaughter a glare at the corner of her eyes. "Looks like someone decided to look like a dumpster fire today."

Bobby stared up at her, his eyes glossy. "What? But you picked our outfits! Do we look that bad?"

Annabeth burst into a fit of laughter while Helen attempted to say the insult was made for her and not her biological kids.

Walking down the sidewalk towards her school, Annabeth's eyes scanned over the sight of her best friend, Piper Mclean, running towards her. Her tan-colored face glowed crimson red, almost as if she'd been sprinting from her house.

She placed her petite hand on her best friend's shoulder to catch her breath, silently commanding her to stop walking.

"Piper, what's wrong?" Annabeth tilted my head in confusion as she bent over and grasped her stomach. "Period cramps, or something?"

Piper wheezed through a laugh. "Connor...Travis...chasing me..."

"Again?" She grumbled, rolling my gray eyes towards the clouds. "Piper, we've talked about this. Stop running away from them, and they can't chase you. Ms. Katz told you this after the first time."

"I know, but-" Piper cut herself off, pointing the side of her head towards the alleyway. "They're only around the corner. Please help me this time."

After a moment of contemplating her decision, Annabeth sighed in defeat. "Alright, fine. Just this once, Piper."

As they whipped around the corner, Annabeth realized just why Piper was evading their presence. In each of their hands, a pile of what seemed to be shaving cream lay.

"Oh, Piper~" Connor Stoll hummed as the girls hid behind a wall silently. "I know you're there!"

"You can't hide!" Travis added psychotically.

Annabeth's palm rubbed against her forehead as she realized just what she was getting herself into.

They hopped right in front of the girls, attempting to slap the shaving cream into their faces. Before they could do that, Annabeth grabbed Connor's left arm and judo-flipped him onto the ground.

"Get the fuck away from us!" Piper giggled as her friend repeated the same action on Travis.

"Aight Annabeth," Travis smirked. "I see what's going on here."

"Nope. Goodbye, Stolls."

Leaving them to eat their dust, Piper and Annabeth continued their daily walk towards the school. The girls both lived fairly close to the grounds, so it never took long. With their usual conversations and dramatic tea spills, everything was easier with Piper.

Annabeth's schedule was fairly simple, fortunately gaining access to her favorite classes.

First Period Algebra--Mr. Raven

Second Period Biology--Mrs. Katz

Third Period History--Mr. Hart

Fourth Period Spanish--Mrs. Meyer

Fifth Period Greek--Mr. Brunner

Lunch

Sixth Period PE-- Coach Hedge

Seventh Period Architecture-- Mr. Hephaestus

Annabeth darted towards her early algebra class and spotted Mr. Raven leaning back in his chair. A newspaper rested in his hand, a coffee clutched in the other. Unlike Helen, he slurped it quietly.

Without a simple greeting, he gestured the newspaper towards her assigned seat. Since a few of the boys decided to mess with a few subs, he put a seating chart into place. Annabeth sat near Rachel Dare, who wasn't exactly a good friend of hers.

As if she needed one more reason to bleed through her ears, the bell thundered obnoxiously.

Mr. Raven stood from his chair abruptly, clapping his garish hands together to catch the teenagers' attention. "Alright, class! You know what that means!"

The Senior class groaned.

"That's right! Let's dive deep into graphing exponential and logarithmic functions!"