Chapter 4: The Contest
Keep GuessingBy: PercabethPrincess393
A/N: PLEASE READ!!! I need to tell you a little detail about the video contest but I could not figure out where to put it so here it goes… Each video shown can only be (at the most) 10 minutes long. Oh, and please read my author’s note at the end of the chapter. Ok. Now you may go on and read my ‘masterpiece’. :)
Chapter 4: The Contest
Annabeth’s POV
It has been a week since Thalia accepted the forms for the video contest and turned them in. It is now time to get ready for said contest, as my digital clock reads 7:00pm. I flip through all of the clothes in my closet and finally find the dress that I want. It is a silver, sleeveless dress that hugs all of my curves at the top but the skirt flows out a little bit. It stops right above my knees. It is my favorite dress, though I don’t wear it often. I am also told that it bring out the color of my eyes.
After I slip the dress over my head, I head to the bathroom to do my make-up. I put on some mascara and then apply some smoky eye-shadow. When I am done with that, I put on some faint blush and smother on a little bit of light pink lipstick. Wow, I think to myself. I don’t think I have ever put on so much make-up! It’s true. I almost never put on make-up, and when I do, I put on very little. I wonder what made me apply so much on. Probably because Percy might be there, my subconscious whispers. I gasp silently. Where did that come from? I mean sure he’s cut and is great at singing, but he is still a total ass!
A honk outside snaps me out of my thoughts and I hurry to get down stairs. As I am slipping on a pair of silver sandals on, Susan comes down the stairs. “Where do you think you are going young lady?!”
I sigh to myself. I had told her that I was going to leave for the video contest yesterday. “As I said before, I am going to go to a school contest today. I’ll be back before 10:00pm.”
Susan glares at me and purses her lips before answering, “Fine, but not a moment after ten. If you are late, you are going to be severely punished!”
“Yes ma’am,” I grumbled before opening the door and stepping out.
“Well don’t you look sexy in that fancy dress of yours,” was what Thalia greeted me with.
“You don’t look too bad yourself.” It was true. Before me stood (sat) my best friend wearing a skin-tight, black dress that had an electric blue colored ribbon tied around the waist. She looked stunning.
“Are you going to keep gawking at me like the goddess I am, or are you going to get in the car so we can get to the video contest?”
“Sorry.” I hopped into the passenger seat. “It’s just that, I didn’t expect you to clean up so nicely!”
“Yeah, well, I was just thinking, that when we won the contest- don’t say that we won’t because others are better than ours, that’s bullshit- I didn’t want to go up on stage to collect the money and look like a hot mess.”
“Good reasoning,” I commented sarcastically.
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We got to the school with about 10 more minutes to spare. I looked around the auditorium (where the contest was taking place) and observed all of the people there. They were all dressed in fancy clothing but I could not recognize a lot of the faces. I don’t remember anyone mentioning that other schools were going to participate, but then again, if it were only our school, the contest would be tiny!
Suddenly, a voice that I recognized as Nico’s, Percy’s best friend, greeted us. “Hello pretty ladies. How is your night so far?”
“Well, what a charmer,” Thalia said sarcastically.
“I am not trying to charm anyone. I am simply complimenting and greeting two gorgeous girls.”
“Whatever.” Thalia and I say at the same time. Gasp! “Twinning time!” We both yell at each other-excitedly, before high-fiving each other.
“You guys are so weird.” I hear from Percy. I jump in surprise. “Sorry,” he says chuckling, “didn’t know you didn’t know I was here.” He then paused. I took that time to check him out (but I would deny it if anyone asked). He had a black, button down shirt on with a sea green tie around his neck. He wore black jeans and for shoes, black dress shoes. He looked good! “Did that make sense to you, because now that I am over-thinking it, it sounds confusing.”
I laughed at him quietly before saying, “You are such a seaweed brain, Seaweed Brain!”
“What did you just call me?” He asks, surprised.
I blush in response and stutter, “We-ell, your eyes are sea green and you can act pretty idiotic sometimes…” I trail off.
“I guess so,” Percy shrugs his shoulders. “But how do you know that I can act stupid
sometimes?”
“Well,” I say slowly, “if you have forgotten, I have been in at least one of your classes since the beginning of high school, and this year, we share all of the same classes, so I know a lot about how you act.”
“Oh yeah…” was all he said.
Mr. Blofis suddenly walked onstage with a microphone in his hands. “Hello everybody. Welcome to this year’s video contest. Today we have some people who have shared great videos with us in the past, but we also have some new contestants too. We are pleased to have you all here, no matter if you are new or not.” The audiences clapped. “Now if you would all take your seats, for the first contestant is about to present his video.” We all sat in some random seats in the middle of the auditorium. The perfect spot to see the videos about to be presented. We sat: Percy, then me, then Thalia, then Nico. “First person up is the winner of last year’s contest, Todd Lemon.” Loud clapping filled the air.
“Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Todd Lemon, and I am from Milo High School. (A/N: I do not know if that is a real high school or not. I just made it up.) Last year I won with a video about family and how strong and unbreakable their love is.” I snorted at this, and Thalia patted my hand softly. “This year I am going to show you the sequel to it…” The lights went dark, and the video began.
Video:
A family was having dinner when suddenly, a teenage girl (probably the daughter), stopped eating and said, “Mom, Dad, Brody, I need to tell you something very important.”
“What is it Kelly?” asked the mom.
“Yeah. What is it? If you didn’t tell me, your twin, then it must be really bad!” Brody called.
“Well,” Kelly sighed, looking down, “I wanted to tell you that…I’m pregnant.”
“You’re pregnant?” the mom chimed in.
“Yes.” Kelly said quietly.
“How far along are you?” she enquired.
“Pia, how can you ask such an innocent question like that, when your daughter is PREGNANT at 18?!” the dad yelled.
“Tim, I know, but what can we do about it?” she replied smoothly. “Now how far along are you, Kelly?”
“3 weeks,” was her short answer.
“Does your boyfriend know?” Her mom asked
Flash back (in video):
“Sup babe,” the boyfriend came into view.
“Hi, John. Um, I need to tell you something.”
“K. What is it?”
“I’m pregnant…” Kelly trailed off,
“What?! You stupid slut! You slept with another guy and got pregnant?!”
“No! It’s yours.”
“How? We used a condom,” he yelled.
“Well, condoms can break.”
“Whatever. I was going to break up with you anyway. Now is just more of a reason to do it!” John said fiercely.
“What?!” Kelly was shocked.
“I said we are over you witch!” With that, he stormed off.
End of Flash Back
Kelly’s eyes welled up with tears. “He knows,” she whispered. “But he doesn’t want it and he broke up with me.”
“That bastard!” Brody, who was quiet throughout the whole exchange, yelled.
“Yes. He is.” Kelly said. Tears were running down her face. “I don’t know what to do. I’m all alone, don’t even have a job, and I’m 18. I don’t think I can do it, but I want to keep the baby so bad!”
“Who said you were alone?” The mom said. “We will all help you. Right Tim, Brody?”
“Yeah,” Brody said. “I would never leave you!”
“I agree with Brody. I will never leave you either. It is just so hard seeing my baby girl all grown up…” The dad’s eyes misted. “We will all help you!”
THE END
The video ended and every one applauded loudly. “That was great!” I spoke to Thalia as I blinked back tears.
“Yeah,” she agreed.
Mr. Blofis walked on stage again. “Thank you for starting off our contest so well, Todd. What a great and heart-warming video!”
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All of the other contestants had shown their videos, except us, so we were obviously the last ones to present. The other videos were all over the “good scale”. Some were great, others were in the middle, and some just plain sucked. (No offence.) “To wrap up our evening, please welcome Thalia Grace and her video!” Mr. Blofis called. The lights dimmed.
After the Video…
After the crowd cheered, clapped, and whistled loudly for our video, (I am not even exaggerating) Mr. Blofis came up the stage and said into the mic’, “We have a winner!” The crown cheered. “It was a tough choice, but the winner of this year’s video contest is…Thalia Grace and her video!” The crowd went wild- as did I. “Come up her Thalia.” I gave her a huge smile and pushed her a little for her to hurry up. Once she reached the stage, Blofis started talking once more. “Congratulations! Here is your prize money.” He handed her an envelope. “Now that you have won, do you want to tell us who the girl that you interviewed is?” The crowd seemed to all lean forward in anticipation. Especially Percy. Why did he want to learn who she was so badly?
Thalia bit her lip, looking like she was thinking about it, though I knew she wasn’t going to do it. She would never betray me. Her face suddenly lit up like she had made her decision. She paused slightly for suspense. Then leaned forward. “…No!” The crowd groaned in unison, though I think Percy’s was the loudest of them all. She walked down stage with a smirk and when she met my eye, she winked. I winked back, just from happiness and for the hell of it.
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Thalia and I were walking back to the car when I groaned, “Ugh. I am so tired!”
“Me too!” Thalia agreed. We had finally made it outside after like three hundred congratulations and pats on the back. “Tomorrow I’ll give you your half of the money, K?”
“Ok,” I replied. I slid into the driver’s seat and called “I’m driving!”
“Fine.”
I started the engine to Thalia’s car and looked at the time. “Oh shit!” I yelled. It was 9:55pm. I had to get to the house (apartment) in 5 minutes.
“What?” Thalia asked, alarmed.
“I promised Susan that I would be back home by 10, but that is in 5 minutes! It takes at least 8 minutes to get there! If I get there late, Susan said she would…punish me.” I shuddered in fear. Now I wasn’t scared of a lot of things. The only things I was afraid of were spiders and Susan’s punishments. I have multiple scars of when she would punish me. She would sometimes use knives, forks, or scissors, other times, pots and pans to bang me with. It was scary as hell because she was unpredictable. “Hopefully she won’t be too bad tonight.”
Thalia grimaced because she knew. I would sometimes go to her house bruised and battered after punishment. “Why don’t you just call the police already?”
“I wouldn’t be able to do it because: First of all- Mathew and Bobby. I wouldn’t want to take their mother way from them. I know how that feels like. Second of all-my dad would probably hate me (more) and disown me!” I paused. So no; I can’t call the police.” While I had been explaining this to Thalia, I was driving with all of my might. Luckily, I t was not one of those days that all the stop lights would turn red when I was in a hurry. But even so, as I stopped the car, said goodbye to Thalia, and unlocked the front door, the clock read 10:01.
“I thought I said not a moment later than 10.” Susan’s voice called. I shivered in fear, for her voice sounded so soft, so calm it was frightening. “Now it is time for your punishment.” That was the last thing she said before she pulled my arm towards the kitchen…
CLIFFY!!! Oh my gosh, I wrote this chapter in a day, and for that, I am proud of myself. I just felt that I had to make it up to you all after not updating for so long. I also wanted to tell you that just to clarify to you, when Annabeth said that she had a lot of make-up on, she really didn’t. She just had the amount of make-up that a normal person usually wears for a party or something, not a shit-load of make-up. She was just over exaggerating since she is (and never has been) a girly-girl. :)
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