𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐀'𝐒 𝐁𝐎𝐗! heroes of olympus²

iii. her mark

chapter three!
003. her mark

annabeth.

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    WHEN REYNA ASKED Annabeth to leave the forum with her, she hated how she was confused. She almost didn't hear her, watching her friends leave the table▬making sure she remembered what way they left in case something happened. She was on edge, going over every escape plan she might need if today went downhill; she noted Jason and Piper leaving to the right, and Claire being led away by a troubling stranger left▬she had glanced back to meet Annabeth's eyes, letting herself show just how scared she was in a moment where no one else would see. There was something about that stranger▬that boy; they all knew. She knew. Percy knew, but he hadn't told them anything. Annabeth also eyed him, stern and brooding as she tried to examine all that has happened since he was gone▬what the Roman's changed, what had stayed the same. It distracted her from the strange fear that pained her chest, seeing one of her closest friends after so long. She couldn't quite describe it, but after everything they have all gone through, the thought that Percy▬her best friend; someone who was her family, her brother▬was not the same boy she had known since she was just twelve-years-old.

     She was so distracted by her troubling thoughts, Reyna's offer▬or order, Annabeth still hasn't quite decided which one it had been▬brushed past her. Until she asked her again, her voice clipping with an annoyance that told her she was not prepared to ask a third time.

     Annabeth had been startled▬taken aback. She had glanced at Cain, finding herself suddenly concerned ... for why would Reyna want to talk to her? Of course, her pride was thinking: why wouldn't she? But if her ability to read people was any. good, she saw a lot of herself in Reyna's cold stare. This meant she had an angle as to why she chose to talk to Annabeth. Talk to her, and not to Claire.

    She does not want to be that friend. She never wants to be that friend, and usually, she wasn't. She and Claire were sisters▬not by blood, but they might as well be. Ever since they held each others hands at just seven, terrified and with their knees trembling▬realising that they were just the same: children whose parents' didn't want. Their past was too rooted deep into the earth at their feet for Annabeth to let her pride get in between them. But it was her fatal flaw, and no matter how hard she tried to ignore it, it came back like an unwanted whisper in her ear, telling her: well, why shouldn't you be the leader? You are smarter than all of them. You have led your own quest before.

    It was stupid, she knew this. But she has had enough experience to know that she wasn't the demigod to be pulled aside and talked to. She wasn't the Light's Kin nor was she the Son of Poseidon. She was Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, with no special powers (and not even an invisible cap that works anymore). She had no amazing stories of how she killed a Titan. She had a story where she held up the sky, but that was because she got kidnapped by a Titan, was tricked and manipulated by the boy she used to have a crush on, and then had to be saved.

    (She had to be saved. That was the worst part of it).

    Annabeth also wanted to hate New Rome. But as she followed Reyna through its streets, she couldn't help but marvel at the terrace gardens, the fountains and temples; the winding cobblestone pathways and gleaming white villas. After the Titan War last summer, she had gotten her dream job: she got to redesign the palaces of Mount Olympus. Now, walking through this miniature Roman city, all she could think about was: I should have made a dome like that. Or, I love the way those columns lead into that courtyard▬Why didn't you think of that, Annabeth? Whoever designed New Rome had clearly poured a lot of time and love into the project▬and they were clearly better at this than her. She hated that, too.