His Lifeline

Chapter 11: I'm Cursed With Morning Strength

I woke up from my dreamless sleep to the blaring of my phone alarm. Groaning, I sat up and shut it off. I looked around and tried to remember what happened. Annabeth, dinner, Gabe's texts, library.

It snapped into place as I stood up. I checked the time, 6:02 am. I stifled a yawn and walked out of the library. The only people in the school would be either the janitors or teachers with a zero period.

I walked into the nearest restroom, seeing that they were unlocked. I didn't think I would be able to pick the lock with the curse of morning strength present. I slowly blinked as I looked at my reflection.

My makeup was still there but a bit smudged, so there were places where you could see the dark places where my bruises were peeking out. My hair was still a wind-swept tousled mess. I took a small breath in an attempt to prepare myself for tonight.

I went over the important things that were happening this week, tonight I would struggle to survive, and Friday was my math quiz. I groaned as I felt pain shoot up through my limbs. Almost like they were waiting until I was fully awake.

I walked out of the restroom and pulled my hood over my head. I started towards my locker until I heard a gasp. "Percy?".

I froze. Wasn't it still too early for people to be in school? Refusing to turn around, I turned on my phone screen and saw the time 6:46 am; guess not. I turned around to look at who recognized me.

"I didn't know you had zero period!" Annabeth.

"Um, I don't" I quickly tried to think of something to give her a reason as to why I was early." Um, I come for breakfast" a lie, but she didn't need to know that.

She nodded and started walking beside me. "So, what class do you have now?" I tried for conversation to dispel the weird tension in the air.

"Architecture! They didn't have it for any other time, so I had to take it during zero period," I nodded.

She looked sideways at me and then paled. She stopped, confused, and I stopped and looked at her. She slowly reached her hand towards my face, and I flinched.

"Sorry, what happened to your face?"

"Um, I have a habit of falling down stairs" I figured she would see through the lie; it was fast and completely untrue. The school and the fake house both didn't have stairs; neither did my actual house. The only stairs I've fallen down recently were the ones at Annabeth's home.

She looked at me skeptically, and I just wished that she wouldn't ask the questions popping up in her head.

"Anyway, why don't you want to try to audition for the competition?" Thankfully she changed the subject. But it still took me a minute to figure out what competition she was talking about.

"Oh, um, I'm not a big fan of being the center of attention, and I don't think I'm that good," I mumbled.

"Well, maybe we could put you under an alias, get you a cool mask and then you could just audition and see if the teachers think you're any good" a lump grew in my throat. Half of me wanted to jump on board her plan that had basically taken care of all the issues I had with the competition. But the other half was still apprehensive. Why embarrass myself, even with a mask on, when I could just lay low and not draw attention.

"I don't know. I guess I'll think about it" I didn't want to completely break Annabeth's spirits by telling her no. Still, I was surprised to find that I was actually considering following her plan.

No, Percy, no. This isn't the time to get selfish. Keep your head down, finish the last few months of high school, and help your mom get out of the house with Gabe.