Chapter 1
Annabeth walks cheerfully after taking her regularly scheduled medication.
“Good morning!” She said as she skipped to the washroom.
“Why is she so damn happy?” asked Paul.
“Haven't you heard? She’s finally getting out after 3 years here” said Mark.
“Finally, I feel like she should have been released last year. She has been very good” Paul says, almost falling while reclining in his chair, flipping through the newspaper.
Mark snickers a little looking at Paul. Paul tries to balance himself looking annoyed.
Annabeth takes out her scrunchie and let down her red curly hair. She starts to hum her favorite song “Uptown girl” as she undresses. She turns on the water and gets into the shower. She washes her hair. After showering, she get out and hear Mae scream her name.
“Annabeth, your family will be here any second hurry up!”. Mae is the only person she trusted with anything.
“Okay I’m almost done!” Annabeth replied.
She grabs a towel and dries herself and put on her clothes Mae left on the sink.
Annabeth screamed “thank you!’ as she scrambles to put her clothes on.
After getting dressed, she sat patiently on the bench near the entrance.
She starts to get very excited as she heard footsteps down the hall.
“Beth! We missed you so much!” Her little sister jennifer exclaimed with tears running down her face. “Aww Jen! I missed you too! You’re always over dramatic. I saw you just a few days ago” said Annabeth. “We missed you honey” said her parents as they hugged her tightly. She said goodbye to everyone. It was exceptionally hard to leave Mae. She hugged her and said, “I'm gonna miss you so much. Call me whenever you can and I’ll answer.”
“I’m gonna hold you to it” said Mae with tears running down her face. The ride home was tediously long and boring. She occasionally stared out the window to see the world she missed the past 3 years. Her mother broke the silence. “So your birthday is coming up soon, is there anything you wanna do?”
“Eh not really, I just wanna stay home and chill. Maybe we can all go out to dinner.” said Annabeth.
“Aww honey I’m sorry but i’m working that day. I thought maybe we can do something the weekend before.”
“No it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
Obviously hurt, Annabeth turned her head looking out the window the rest of the ride. “I thought maybe just maybe my family would remember and treat me a bit different but nothing has changed” she thought. The rest of the ride was silent and awkward. As soon as they got home, Annabeth sensed something different.
“Hey honey, we have to tell you something” said her mother. “We converted the hobby room to Jansen room.”
“What do you mean!?” yelled Annabeth.
“I'm sorry honey but I couldn't let your sister share her room, she's about to be a teenager.”
“But that's where I kept my designs and the sewing machine” she shouted. “Where are they now?”
“In the basement” her mother replied.
“Why did I think anyone would change” she mumbled.
“Honey you haven't been in that room in 3 years and your brother needed his own room.”
“It's fine, I'm going to bed.” Annabeth replied.
“It's only 7:30pm, aren't you going to eat dinner?”
“I'm not hungry.” she said as she walked up the stairs.
“That went well” said Jen
Her mom gave her a look that changed her attitude.
When morning came, things were calm.
“Anna! Breakfast!” yelled her mother.
She had woken up very early and started on a new project.
“Coming!” Annabeth yelled back.
“What are you doing down there so early?” asked Jen.
“Nothing stop being nosey” said Annabeth.
Jen looked at her and stuck out her tongue.
“I hope you face get stuck like that” said Annabeth.
“That means I'll look just like you” replied Jen.
That day she decided it was time to go back and meet people. All she had to do was be brave enough to step out of the house to meet the world outside again. It's not easy considering her past. She was briefly in public before the big incident that ended her up there. It was 2009 and she was a freshman in high school.
It was a glorious morning and Annabeth was ready to start the day off great. That was until she saw Austin with Ashley when she walked into school. Her heart sunk so far down her stomach she thought she was gonna throw up. She got dizzy and ran to her homeroom. "How could he?" she thought to herself. She found her best friend then told her what had happened. When she saw Harriet and told her, she had a confused look on her face. She couldn't believe what her best friend said next. “You two were never together!”. “You only worked together for a few days on a group project but that was it. Anna, you remember they've been together since the eighth grade” she said. How could she? She knew I’ve liked him since we were in middle school. “He asked me out the day we started working on our group assignment.”
“Anna, that never happened. You two worked together for the project but that was it.”
“He hates her and he told me so.” replied Annabeth.
Harriet still had a confused look on her face but she was running late for class.
“Come on let's go to class before the bell rings.” “You know Mr Wrightwood will not hesitate to give us detention.”
Harriet saw a little twitch in Anna's eye.
“Okay go ahead I'm going to use the restroom, I'll be right back.” said Annabeth
“Okay hurry” said Harriet as she turned to go to class.
“Mr and Mrs McFarland, I called you here today because there was an incident with Annabeth.” said Mr Adams the principal.
“She got upset and destroyed the school's trophy case and the girls bathroom.”
“There's water everywhere and thousands of dollars worth or damage”
“We called the police because she was threatening to hurt people so she's in custody at the moment.”
“What will people say? What will people think?” asked Sharon.
“I don't care if people find out” said Richard.
“But honey you know we have a good reputation”
“Reputation has nothing to do with our daughter's life”
“Richard, we'll discuss this later”
He looked at her in a way that made her think.
“She does no wrong” said Sharon
“She's the sweetest you'll ever meet”
“Well it doesn't matter now, because she destroyed half of this floor”
They lived in a small town so they knew everyone would find out what happened to their daughter. They did not want to be judged by their neighbors and nosy friends.
“Officer, we were looking for our daughter Anna.”
“Okay please come with me” said officer Harold.
“I just need you to fill out some paperwork”
“Okay”.
“We think you should think about taking her to Oakley.”
“Anna is not crazy!!”
“Maybe you should see her then think about it?”
They were very offended that officer Harold would recommend that as a solution. To them their Anna was perfectly fine.
“The school said they’ll drop all charges if you pay for all the damages.”
“Yes we’ll pay for everything if we can take her home today”
“They suggested Anna be homeschooled.”
“What?!”
“So they’re going just kick her out like that?”
“Well she did a lot of damage there and also I wouldn’t recommend she go back there.”
That is how she ended up estranged from her then best friend to the hospital.
She decided to go back for her senior year regardless of what anyone might think about her. After all Harriet will be by her side just like old times. Right after she re enrolled, she called her to tell her the news. She was extremely excited and worried about Anna.
“It’s not an easy transition but I know you can adapt!”
“How did you manage to come back? I thought you were expelled?”
“Well my parents and the school came to an agreement.”
On the first day of school, she woke up bright and early. She was ready to face the day head on using strategies she learned from Oakley.
Her optimism grew stronger when she saw Harriet. It almost felt like old times.
They became a shoulder for one another to lean on during rough times. As time passed, their bond only became stronger. The betrayal that followed was too great to bear.
