We Olympians (A Percy Jackson AU) || BOOK 1

Chapter 4 || Annabeth

Annabeth waited in the halls with Thalia and Nico, looking through the crowd for any signs of Percy. Nope.

"Annabeth, he might not be coming to school," Nico said.

"Yeah," Thalia agreed, "He normally comes ten minutes before now. For what reason... I don't know."

"No," Annabeth shook her head, "We have to wait."

That's when Percy came stumbling through the door, wearing a black hoodie and black sweatpants. His hair was messy as ever, but his sea-green eyes were dull, there were dark circles under his eyes, and he was paler than the last time Annabeth saw him. He almost walked right past them, but Annabeth grabbed his sleeve, yanking him back. Percy turned to them with a tired look before pulling up his hood and trying to walk off again.

"No," Thalia said, "You're gonna stay here and tell us why you're late."

"Leave me alone," Percy sighed, trying to walk out, but Nico had grabbed his arm this time.

"It's not like we're gonna just let you go," Nico said, "You've been acting weird since the Broadway show."

"Can you just stop worrying about me?" Percy grumbled, trying to make it out of their grasps.

"No, Percy," Annabeth said.

Percy seemed to freeze at her voice, turning to her. His sea-green eyes were still dull, but they at least turned to face her.

"What's going on?" she asked softly. "You've been really distant lately and we're your best friends. You should tell us at least!"

His mouth opened and he was about to speak when he closed it, looking away.

"I can't," his voice cracked. "Because I'm a crybaby."

With that, Percy walked off, his untied shoelaces trailing behind him in a saggy, unenthusiastic way. Thalia stared after him, guilt obvious in her electric blue eyes.

"He took it hard," Nico said after some silence.

"Yeah..." Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Thanks for stating the obvious."

The bell rang and Thalia sighed.

"We'd better get to class before Mrs. Dodds kills us."

"I can't believe she has a husband," Annabeth scoffed.

The moment they got in the class, they noticed Percy sitting in the back, his hood up, head down, not looking at anyone. And Annabeth thought she could see a teardrop fall onto the desk, but it could've been her imagination.

"Good morning, everyone," Mrs. Dodds said, pacing around the room. "I hope you've had a good weekend. And I also hope you're in for some more Pre-Algebra."

Everyone groaned, even Annabeth. And Annabeth actually liked school because it was far away from the she-demon of a stepmother she had, and the awful father she also had. Helen and Fredrick. Heldrick. Annabeth shivered thinking about it. Ever since it became a reality, her life was hell. It already was hell.

"Now, can someone tell me what the Pythagorean Theorem is?"

Percy stayed silent, as if he was asleep. Annabeth's hand shot in the air. Mrs. Dodds's eyes scanned throughout the room before they landed on Thalia, who was busy doodling with her pen.

"Thalia Grace?"

Thalia froze and Nico snickered slightly. Annabeth sighed. If Thalia didn't answer the question, Mrs. Dodds might force her into doing Math Club with all the other kids who couldn't do math. That'd mean every Friday, they couldn't go places. So Annabeth quickly took her shoe, a sticky note, and wrote the answer down, sticking it out for Thalia to see.

"A squared plus B squared equals C squared," Thalia answered.

Mrs. Dodds nodded before Annabeth took the sticky note off of her shoe, crumpling it into a ball. Thalia took out her pen and wrote on her hand, showing it to Annabeth.

Thanks, Annabeth.

She gave Thalia a little nod in return before Mrs. Dodds was watching them again, not allowing them to talk.

___

"Your topic will be why people judge others by their covers. The idiom. Get writing."

Mrs. Herring wrote it up on the whiteboard, underlining the capital letters. Each stood out, as if to taunt the students. Annabeth took out her notebook and her pencil, beginning to write.

Judging someone by their cover is an act that should be excluded from society. Doing it is unreasonable.

Annabeth stopped there, erasing her pencil marks with a pink eraser. No. That wasn't right. It wasn't unreasonable. It was normal. She glanced over at Percy, who was busy writing down words, his eyebrows furrowed as he tried desperately to read. The struggle was real. They often made Annabeth's brain hurt, but she did it anyways.

Judging someone by their cover is an act that should be corrected in society. While judging someone based on how they look and the stereotypes that come with them is normal, it isn't accurate if you try to get to know them, which is more important. What is important that people are taught to ignore their first impressions and get to know the person better before they can judge.

When Annabeth had her first paragraph written down, she glanced back over to Percy, who was still busy writing his essay down. Her gray eyes flickered over to Thalia, who was biting the butt of her pen, trying to concentrate. But having ADHD and dyslexia wasn't easy for her. Not for Nico, not for Annabeth, and not for Thalia. Very hard for Percy.

Annabeth proceeded to write her next paragraph.

The act of judging someone by their cover can also be the brain wanting to know what the person is like before actually meeting the person, mostly out of anticipation, or references they've heard elsewhere. The tendency to know something can be detrimental to reality, which is why patience should be taught from a young age to destroy these bad habits. However, it is a natural process. But humans must take the time to learn and observe.

It was true. Everything she wrote down was true. Like when everyone expected Percy to be really weird and dorky. Sure, everyone thinks he's dorky, but being his best friend, Annabeth thought he was fun and goofy, and always brought a smile on her face. Thalia. Everyone thought she was mean. She wasn't mean. She just had a tough sense of humor. Everyone thought Nico was an emo goth boy. He was... in a way. But he wasn't too emo. He still talked.

And her. Annabeth. They all thought she was dumb because she was blonde. They thought they were all dumb because they had dyslexia and ADHD. ADHD didn't affect their intelligence. And dyslexia just made it harder to learn. But it didn't mean they were dumb.

"Class dismissed!"