C H A P T E R O N E
" we were the kings and the queens "

Content to be resting in the afternoon Sun, Annabeth Chase laid out on the soft grass, her hands laying flat on the ground beside her. Thalia Grace and Luke Castellan, her two closest friends, laid next to her on either side, a familiar silence accompanying them. It was a Spring day whose promise of warm weather rode on the occasional gentle breeze.

Through half-closed eyes, Annabeth watched as Thalia plucked a dandelion from the ground. She picked the white fluff off the wiry stem before dropping it back onto the ground.

"Did you make a wish?" Luke asked with a smirking smile on his face.

Thalia made a face back at the boy, her tongue sticking out. "Wishes don't come true, idiot."

Annabeth released a soft puff of laughter as she closed her eyes. "If only all Summer could be like this," she murmured.

But it wouldn't be. It couldn't be. Because Luke had been hired as a guard, and he would be working at the Palace for, possibly, the rest of his life. Several new guards were being hired everyday in order to have maximum security for when the Selection took place. And Luke was now one of them.

Annabeth could hear the grass rustle as Luke sat up. "I don't have to leave for a few more days, Annie. We still have time."

She released a small sigh. "I know. It's just not the same, knowing that you'll be gone soon. You'll be a Two. That will change everything."

Annabeth's eyes flew open as something prodded her leg. Her vision adjusted to the sudden brightness to find Luke grinning at her. "But not forever. It'll probably be a temporary job, anyways. Once the Selection's over, they'll send me right back here. Speaking of which-"

The groans of both Annabeth and Thalia cut him off suddenly. Luke gave them a wide-eyed exasperated look.

"Would you let me finish? What do two you have against it, anyways?"

"I never said that I have anything against it-" Annabeth started to say.

"I do," Thalia bluntly interrupted. "I think it's a stupid, misogynistic game constructed by men who have nothing better do to than to ogle at young women. It's condescending and disgusting, honestly."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Everything is misogynistic to you, Thals."

Thalia shot a glare in his direction, her electric blue eyes full of a self-righteous rage. "Yeah? Well, find me when everyone has equal rights. Then we'll talk."

Annabeth smiled as Luke rolled his eyes again, causing Thalia to once more shoot daggers at him. It was a consistent pattern, one that had repeatedly proven to have no natural ending.

"Even if you haven't been insisting on us filling out the application," Annabeth continued, "I would've done it. And I did, before you got all on our case," she added with a smirk.

Annabeth had nothing against the Crown family of Olympus. On the contrary, they were one of the least corrupt monarchs to ever rule this country. And, though she highly doubted that she would ever be Selected, Annabeth had nothing against the Selection. It would provide her with money and a different Caste all together. It would improve her life drastically, as well as open up her future immensely. By just being Selected, Annabeth would become a Three.

Currently, Thalia, Luke, and herself were all Fours. They lived in the very faint middle ground between riches and poverty. Many Fours were businessmen and owners, and they managed enough money to make do. Nothing more, nothing less. Annabeth's father worked for a failing real estate company, seeing as he was unable to fulfill his life dream: studying and teaching history. Those jobs belonged to Threes, and Fours such as her father could never take them.

"I did it because Luke made me," Thalia grumbled, her arms crossed over her chest. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have."

Annabeth sighed. "Why do you have to be so pessimistic all the time?" she asked exasperatedly.

"This isn't pessimism, this is realism," Thalia insisted while tucking a piece of her black hair behind her ear. "If you want optimism, then you'll have to pay me. Besides, there's a really small chance of us both being Selected. It's a lottery, selected at random."

"A small chance is better than none," Luke said with a smile. But Annabeth does not look at the smile. Instead, her eyes drift to the scar that was slashed across his eye. The scar that would forever be her fault.

Luke's past was filled with darkness and demons, and he rarely discussed it. He had ran from something when he ended up here with Thalia. Annabeth had only ever caught glimpses of his hidden past that leaked through the cracks every so often.

Like the scars that were etched around his wrists in the shape of chains, and the ones that were splayed across his back.

There was little he could do about his wrists except by using a concealing makeup. Luke rarely went anywhere shirtless in order to hide his back. And when Thalia and Annabeth did catch a glimpse at it, they remained silent. They knew better than to mention it.

Then again, Thalia's past was equally as dark. There was something haunting the girl, something that flickered behind her blue eyes. Something that made her wake up screaming in the night. She claimed to be orphaned, and it wasn't like Annabeth had ever met either of her parents. Thalia's past was a closely-guarded secret that no one except her knew.

Her friends kept secrets. And Annabeth kept secrets from them. But that was what friends did; they helped each other forget who they really were.

"Don't worry," Thalia spoke, "even if we are Selected, it's not like the Selectiom will change either of our lives."

Luke grinned at the both of us, and Annabeth couldn't help but smile back at him.

"We can still be a family," he told them both, sincerity spilling out of his blue eyes. "I promise."

And as he reached over to grab Annabeth's hand while she wrapped her other hand around Thalia's, Annabeth believed him.

Annabeth closed her eyes once more, and allowed the sunbeams to soak into her skin once more. With Luke and Thalia by her side, there was nothing to fear, especially not the future.

And Thalia was right; the Selection wouldn't change her life.

author's note
i hope that you enjoyed the newly revised first chapter of The Demigod Selection! now i am editing, revising, and rewriting this book and it's sequel. i've got my hands full, but as long as i have all of your support, i think i can manage. until next time!

-marlene young
02/26/18