~~EDITED CHAPTER! NEWER VERSION OF CHAPTER ONE! ~~

Personally, I think school is just a waste of time. It's tedious, boring, and, over-all, the worst place to be. What, with all the drama, fights, and time wasting lectures, it's a not a shocker to which my feelings to it are pure hatred. It also happens to be the place in which I'm currently stuck.

Well, I should introduce myself. My full name is Alexandria Marie Stewart, though it is not what I am called. People usually refer to me as Alex and nothing more (unless you count pest… or fish). I'm tall for my age, which is 13. I have sleek, pin-straight black hair that reaches the end of my ribcage and shocking emerald green eyes. My skin is fairly tanned, and I have freckles scattered across the bridge of my nose. I have only one friend that I can actually count as a friend, and her name is Violet. I'm currently rebellious of the school, as it is the habitat of foul, vile, wicked creatures.

Violet and I get along quite fairly, even though it seems that we wouldn't. She's rebellious against the school, like me, but she has a way different personality. She is a short tempered, slightly dangerous preteen with major anger issues. She is a fan of the color black, and is hardly seen without such color covering one part of her body. Violet has deep violet colored eyes, which is where she got her name) and shiny, curled brown hair that reaches her shoulder blade. She is in the middle of tan and pale, an apricot color you may call it. Her nails are either painted deep purple or black, sometimes a creative mix of both. Well, back to the story.
I was headed in the general direction of the gym when I received a sharp punch in the shoulder. I knew whom it was before I even turned around.

"What do you want, Clio?" I said, aggravated. Clio had long blonde hair that reached her waist with the undercoat dyed black. Her skin what slightly darker than Violet's and her eyes were a clear, diamond-like blue. I turned to face her, only to see her followers behind her. I can honestly promise you that she is not preppy. She's far from it, actually. Clio could possibly be the most feared girl in the school. No one could look her in the eyes without cowering in fear. Wearing her hair in an over the shoulder, low ponytail, with dark blue ripped jeans, she stood there in all her frightful glory. She had on a black undershirt, with a blue and grey striped half shirt. And even the principal made her wear the undershirt. She had on black combat boots that went up to about her shins, and they wear aligned with spikes at the top. How she wore those killer shoes, I didn't know. She also wore these black fingerless spike gloves, two four-inch spikes sticking out at the knuckles. She had on a spiked black belt. Now that all was against school rules, but Clio didn't care at all. The principal was scared of her, because one the first day of school she would've sent her to the hospital if she had not agreed to Clio's "dress terms." I'm not just saying that to scare you, she truly did do it, considering I was in the office and actually witnessed the terrifying scene. Well, as I was saying.

I glared at her and she said with a smirk adjourning her face, "Fish, we have P.E together. Don't get in my way and I won't get into yours. Sound easy enough?" They tenderized my arm once more before sauntering off. I walked a little ways ahead, until I felt someone's stare on my back. I turned to look behind me, only to see no one was there.

"Violet, come out," I replied. She stepped out of her hiding area and looked at me. Wondering how I knew she was there? She always did that, even before I met her. She would hide in the shadows and keep a watch on her enemies or fiends. I just learned to know when she was there and when she wasn't.

She stepped along beside me and we started heading towards the jail we would call a gym. You see, our coach, Coach Max, is horrifying! And to top it of, he replaced everyone's favorite coach, Coach Daniels. No one had a problem with Coach D. He let us play all of the sports we enjoyed, like soccer, volleyball, hockey, and stuff like that. He didn't scream at us, and let us off the hook for practically everything.

Coach Max, on the other hand, well he is, I guess you could say… the demonic version of Coach D. He tortures us most of the time. He does the sports that are stupid and everyone usually ends up hating them, except for the ones who do it perfectly because they try to suck up to him. No matter what you would do, though, he would scream at you. Not staying in sync with the other classmates, not staying in position like two seconds before he blows the whistle, not having your hair up, or if your uniform isn't on the way he likes it. You name it. It would always be stupid little things like that. Jeremiah Hedgewood, the owner and operator of the school, thought it would be better if we had a strict coach, to keep us in line and all that. So he went off to hire him, who seems to be like a military sergeant!

We walked in the gym, and the stupid demon of a coach started screaming at us for being two minutes late. He then looked at our uniform and sneered.

"You two," he barked, "your out of uniform! Your shirt is not tucked in and where did you get that thing from?"

"Do you need to be in our business," I asked bossily. The over dramatic idiots in the class gasped. The coach glared at me, his eyes full of hatred. And that resurfaced one of my worst memories…

Flashback:

I walked into the house, coming back from kindergarten. My mom was drinking out of another brown bottle, and I finally got to see the label of her 'medicine'. Bud Light it had said. 'Funny,' I thought, 'that's a weird name for medicine.' She looked at me with a look filled with hatred, and I immediately ran upstairs. 'Well, time for homework,' I thought. After I wrote my e's a few times, I decided to draw a picture of a flower for my mommy. I sat there drawing something that was supposed to look like a flower, but instead it came out as a bunch of colorful dots stuck to a green stick with a big yellow and black circle flying around it.

I ran downstairs to give it to her, screaming 'mommy I made you something' the whole way down. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I dashed straight towards the kitchen, where my mom was still taking the 'medicine'.

She sent a hatred filled glare my way, and growled, "You worthless, good for nothing, disgrace of a daughter! You're the reason your father left! You should have never been born!"

She then hit me repeatedly with empty glass bottles, smashing them one by one over my head, face, arms, and all. She then proceeded to choke me, and I cried.

"Mommy, mommy stop," I cried when I had seen her coming towards me with a butcher knife in her hand. She stabbed it near the end of the left side of my ribcage, and brought it down to my right hip. I screamed out in agony as she laughed at me.

"Pathetic," she spat. I then heard a woman scream, and a frantic clicking noise. My mother threw the knife, and I heard a crunching noise. The wails of a five year old filled my small ears, and the arguing of my mom and an unknown woman.

The clicking noises occurred again, and I heard, "911 what is your emergency?"

"Hello, yes, this is Bethany Anderson. I just witnessed a child abuse, and said abuser threw a bloody butcher knife at my five and a half year old sister and lodged it in her right arm. Please send the medic and police as soon as possible!"

A pain filled voice spoke next to me, "Hi I'm Viowet. Everything wiww be awight. The mean pewson will go wiff the cops soon. She won't huwt you anymore. Sissy Bethany called to cops. "

Soon after that, I heard sirens, and the sound of my mother screaming at someone, and a husky voice replying calmly but sternly. I felt myself being put onto something soft and plush before I drifted into unconsciousness.

By the time I was eight, I had heard that my mom and her boyfriend were both locked up, the boyfriend for killing Bethany in cold blood, the only family Violet had left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~0~~~ End Flashback ~~~0~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The cold look that Coach Max had given me reminded me exactly of the one my mother gave me that night, and I flinched. He smirked, finding my weakness… He just didn't know how deep he had hit with that one little expression.

"Principals office, now," he said, and Violet and I trudged down the hallway, until we reached Principal Cristlyn's office. When we reached her, she looked at us and just rolled her eyes.

"Have you been sent in here for the skirts again?" she asked.

"Skirts again," we replied. You see, in attempt to make our skirts look better, we cut about two- three inches off of them and dyed them pitch black. They originally were a plaid design of colors like gold, black, and red. They may seem to be cool colors, but the skirt was hideous. The top consisted of a tight cotton shirt with a back blazer and a tie that matched the skirt.

"Well," the principal said, "No one can send you another uniform at the moment, so head back to class. If one more person sends you in here for the skirts, or if you wear them again, I will not hesitate to write you up."

Once we were excused, we walked slowly to the gym, trying to waste a bit of time. The whole walk back was spent talking, annoying the other teachers and staff.

The only teacher that I really like, Mrs. Granger, walked passed us in the hallway. She looked at us and shook her head playfully.

"My, my. What do we have here? Two ditchers," she said, with a ghost of a laugh on her face.

I gave her a guilty look and said (playing along, of course), "Vi, we're busted."

"Well, ladies, I'll have to take you to Principal Cristlyn."

"Yes ma'am," Violet and I said together, before all three of us busted into fits of laughter.

"Come on, girls."

"Where are we going?" We looked at each other, confused masks covering each feature on our face.

"I'm getting you two out of P.E., of course!" Now you see why I like her.

We traveled to the teacher's lounge, where Mrs. G bought us refreshments and something to snack on. She knew how cruel the gym teacher was to us and didn't want us to endure him of she could help it. Violet and I talked, mostly about one topic.

"Did you see her hair?"

"It was like, hideous!"

"I know, right!"

"It looks like a chimpanzee tried to fix it!"

In case you're wondering, we were talking about the second worse chick in the school, Chasity, which happened to be the same name as my mother. As the assistant principal walked in, she noticed Vi and I sitting there with Mrs. G. Mrs. G was told by the assistant principal to send us back to fifth hour, and she had no choice but to obey.

"You wouldn't want me to get fired, would you," she said when I asked her why she was making us go back. After she said that, Violet and I scrambled back to P.E so she would stay. As we walked in, Coach barked at us, demanding for us to change. We immediately complied with what he said, not even bothering to annoy him anymore. As we caught up to the class, who was playing volleyball by the way (the only sport I actually like), I slipped while doing push ups, and he caught it with his hawk eyes. He smirked and demanded for me to see him after class. I glared at him, but I said 'sure' anyway. I then turned to Violet and mouthed, 'Why did he have to see that?' She shrugged and continued her exercises. After exercises, we practiced serving, the overhead pass, and the forearm pass. After the bell rang, I tried bolting out from there, but Coach 'Demon' Max, grabbed me by my wrist and tugged me back in, almost dislocating my shoulder.

"Now, Alex," he said, "You know that wasn't the right thing to do. Lacking on your exercises and trying to run away from a teacher, disobeying the demands of said teacher. Didn't your mother teach you right from wrong? Probably not, by the way you act."

"Why should you care," I said, seething.

"Alexandria, respect your teachers," he said, slapping me. I out of his vice-like grip and ran towards the commons area. As I ran to the common area, I literally ran into Clio, tears of madness rolling down my face. Her idiotic followers, Amii and Kassi were laughing at me.

"You know that wasn't the right thing to do," Clio said, mocking Coach. "Didn't your mother teach you right from wrong? She probably didn't, Stewart. You were unwanted, unloved. What did your mother say? You were a pathetic, good for nothing, disgrace of a daughter that should have never been born!"

The one thing I wondered was, 'How did she know that?' The only person I had told was Violet, and she would never tell that to Clio… would she? The words that Clio said had finally registered, and anger flooded my body and fuelled my actions. I punched Clio in the stomach, and while she was doubled over, tried to knock her to the ground. She grabbed my ankle before I could hit her, and flipped me onto the ground. She took my leg, and threw it against the hard ground. Amii and Kassi kicked my sides before they all walked off, laughing like hyenas. Violet jogged over to me and helped me up, acting like a true friend should. The vice principal had seen this, and told me to start heading towards my room.

You see, I was sent to the Orphanage of Hedgewood, which is run by, you guessed it, Jeremiah Hedgewood. He connected the orphanage to the school, and that is where Amii, Kassi, Clio, Lydia, and I currently stayed. Others stayed in there as well, but we never were around to talk to one another. Violet's mom had been killed in a car accident, along with her stepdad. Her real father abandoned her, sort of like mine did. Clio had run away from her family, not really caring about how much grief it would cause them. Kassi and Amii, I don't really know why they were there.

I trudged to my room, and lay down on my uncomfortable bed. I started to do homework, until my ADHD and dyslexia got the better of me, and I threw everything, extremely bored and frustrated. As school began to end, I dozed off, having a weird dream.

I was running down a long, winding corridor, Lydia, an unknown dude, and some animal beside me. What I was running to or from, I don't know.

An eerie voice said in my head, "Yes, child, run to me. Help me return and topple Poseidon from his throne!"

"NO," I screamed, "I would never help you! You abandoned me, left me with a torturous mother! Made me the outcast of the camp, then you ask for my aid? NEVER!"

I ran more, and realized that the ground was shaking violently. A husky voice screamed behind me.

"Demi-god and demi-titan lunch! The unknown dude fell, and something cackled murderously. I frantically ran to him and screamed. Blood was running down his head, and a throwing dagger was lodged in his back.

"Gavin, no! Don't do this to me! Stay alive! Lydia, ambrosia, now! He will not die on me, not today," I screamed. A loud roar erupted, and- I jolted awake, sweat running down my forehead. Another sound erupted, jolting Lydia awake. That's when I realized that the roar in my dream… well wasn't actually in my dream.

Sorry for leaving you at that sort-of cliffhanger, but it builds suspense, doesn't it? Big thanks to greystarz18 for helping me with Clio's appearance and for telling me to write! Without her, you wouldn't really be getting this chapter… and I beg all of my readers to read her story, The Last of My Days. It is a very amazing story, and some of my inspiration comes from her… okay, well most of my inspiration comes from her. And heads up if you read it, I DID NOT RIP OFF HER CHARACTER TEX! Well, here is my new and awesome story! I'm pretty sure you will like it better than my previous one.

Please review! Oh, and I do not own PJO, Clio, or Gavin…