black winged angels // pj

two

Chapter Two
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Awake and Unafraid
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"Kill Your Dreams"

Today was a tiny bit better. Well at least the first few hours were. Considering the weather was a slightly nicer, I put up my hood and shoved both of my earbuds into my ears. I mean, it was mid-October, so the weather wasn't absolutely beautiful, but it wasn't as miserable as it was yesterday; so some incredibly optimistic people would be walking outside to enjoy this. Are you wondering why I'm walking?

Haha.

I'm only walking because my 'parents' have decided that the bus is too expensive.

Why the quotation marks?

Because they really are not my parents. My dad is, but I don't like to think of him as my father. And my stepmother, well I have a gut feeling that you don't want to here about her. Well, at least from me. It will probably be explicit.

If you don't want it to be explicit, ask my father, in which he will tell you that she is an 'Angel that can do no wrong' and how she makes us dinner every night and only takes care of us. Haha. Yes. Because she treats me nicely. In a way she treats me nicely, because she only beats me up some days.

I reached the school, rubbing my numb fingers together, and cursed my windbreaker, which was doing anything but breaking the wind. I went in, and didn't even have to look up to notice the sneers from the older kids, and the stares from the younger ones. I think they were staring at my nose piercing, but they could also be staring at my sweater, which actually had a tiny bit of colour, unlike every other piece of clothing I currently own.

Hey, my Dad didn't approve of my cute clothing. Can't a girl live a little? Nope. No way.

Still got them though.

ANYWAYS onto my life currently, I reached the stretch of lockers where mine was, and could instantly tell which one was mine; from the hate notes written in Sharpie on the front of it. Bit rude, don't you think?

It's not like the latest notes were hurting my feelings though. I'm fairly sure I hit my max level of depression about 6 months ago. Not much has changed. It's not like I have anyone that cares about me to help it either. My 'parents' like to pretend I'm perfectly fine, or decide I'm a monster and don't even look at me. And my brothers know better than to ask.

Helen will just look at them with her most motherly concerning eyes and say "Oh don't worry. She's just dealing with teenage stuff."

Oh yes. Of course. Normal teenage girls are beat by their parent often and only friends are in prison. Well, friend is in prison, other friend is dead.

No. Shut up Annabeth. Do you want to have an anxiety attack?

Just pay attention to class.

Yea. Like that worked out.

Sure. I can get the work done. But when the entire class is glaring at you, and then when they get called on it, they whisper? I get distracted okay. I can't pay attention. I only would be able to pay attention if my teachers let me listen to music, but of course, with the way my life works right now, we're not allowed to listen to music during class.

That just causes me to doodle music lyrics down the side of my notebook. You should see all the Halsey lyrics scribbled down. It's not even funny.

So, after 3 painful hours of Math and Physical Education (yea, that's right I do gym); I grabbed my textbooks and shuffled into the cafeteria.

No one was beating the others up; which is good news, but you could see the awkward tension between the popular kids.

I didn't get involved, but the old me brought out some curiosity. What the hell had happened?

Drew and Chase were smugly sitting at their table, while Lacy tried to look confident within Ethan's arms, at the table close, but a fair distance away. And Haley? I have no idea where she went.

Something clicked within my memory, and I started to look for that boy again. I hadn't seen him all day. Actually, I didn't really see him ever. What classes did he do? I continued to numbly chew on my ham sandwich, which currently tasted like cement. Why am I still eating it you ask? I don't know.

I heard someone behind me stand up, and clear their throat as in they were preparing a speech. Did somebody get married while I was away?

"So, Annabeth."

Ah. It was Thomas' turn to insult me.

"How's it going with your family? I hear they bought a pet toad. Oh, wait. That's you."
Snickers were heard from all over the lunchroom.

"You know, Luke will be back for you. You always had a soft spot for him. He'll pick you up as a pet. Like he did with Thalia." Thomas continued

If someone was sitting across from me, they would now be able to see my eyes water. Sure, call me fat, ugly, call me a slut for that matter. But Thalia? She was the nicest human being on the Earth. Don't offend her. Or I'll end up breaking your face. Of course, not today, but just wait in a couple years.

I heard Thomas come up behind me.

"Thalia's gone, loser. Stop pretending she's fine."

Well, actually she's not completely gone- I started to think, but I was cut off by my unexpected sobbing.

This sent the entire cafeteria into roars of laughter.

Damnit Annabeth. You broke again.

I continued in this state for a good 15 minutes; with everyone staring at me, and then for a good 20 minutes felt the punches and kicks aimed at me.

I didn't bother deflecting the insults thrown at me. I absorbed them. It was my fault. Thalia gave everything up, and here I am crying about my life. She's dead because of my dumb mistakes.

I guess eventually they all got bored, because soon later I was the only one in the lunchroom. I turned on my phone to check the time, and through my blurry vision managed to figure out that it was quarter past two. The bell rang fifteen minutes ago.

I wiped my eyes, and was about to walk off into my next class; when I noticed that boy sitting at the table beside mine. Where did he come from?

I cocked my head towards him.

"Are- are you ok?" He stuttered

I shrugged. "Yea. I guess I'm fine." I said, although I knew I wasn't fooling anyone. "But thanks for asking."

"No problem. I'm Percy."

"Annabeth."

And for the first time in a very long time, Annabeth smiled. A real, warm, happy smile.