I'm No Cinderella

5. My Dignity was the Size of Drew's IQ

"That's cool. I do it every other day." I replied. Percy nodded with respect.

"I can see. They all love you." I blushed. He saw that. Of course he did. All the kids practically tackled me screaming my name. I smiled bashfully.

"Yeah. I volunteer here sometimes." I answered honestly.

"Annabeth," Diana said softly tapping me. She had to pieces of white paper in her hand. Percy respectfully turned his head the other way minding his business. Wow. I most likely would have eavesdropped, but it's not like it's a big deal. It's just their teacher.

"This was their work, and I'm concerned," My eyes widened at their papers. Bobby was more of an artist than Matt was so I could distinguish his picture better. I could easily spot myself in the picture as well as Helen. My hands were in fists and Helen had her hands on her hips. Even a child could tell we were having a yelling match at each other. What looked like Bobby and Matthew was the two of them sitting in between us as they watched dreadfully.

My heart felt heavy.

Our house is noisy. We watch them fight. I was sad. I breathed in shakily as I read Bobby's words. I switched the papers to look at Matthews. They were stick figures but I could distinguish what was my blonde curly hair and Helen's straight black hair, and again we were yelling at each other. Matthew's small penmanship labeled it Annie and Mommy. Another stick figure was in a corner with a box in his hand. He labeled it, Daddy. But the bestseller was the stick figure in the sky by the clouds, with angel wings and a Halo. Annie's mommy.

I held back tears, not wanting to cry in front of them. I bit my lip. Diana looked at me with concern and great interest.

"Is everything alright at home?" I felt eyes burning into the back of my head and I dared myself not to turn and look at Percy.

"Yeah. Just fine, why wouldn't anything be?" I spoke quickly.

"Annabeth, I think-"

"Annie!" My brothers ran up to me. I put on a smile to not worry them.

"Hey guys, how was your day?" I asked getting on my knees to hug them.

"Good." Bobby said.

"Did you bring us..." Matthew leaned closer to me, intending to whisper though it came out loudly. "The stuff?" I chuckled. I pulled the candy out of my pocket and handed to the both of them while putting a finger to my lips.

"Shhh." I said, referring to out 'secret'.

"Shhh." They both followed me and dug in. I stood up.

"We should get going," I said, still with the fake smile on my face. Diana gazed at me sadly. "Can I keep these?" I asked referring to their pictured.

"Of course." she said. I took the pictures and put them safely in my bag.

"Put your hoods up, it's raining," I said. They put them up.

"But we don't have umbrellas," Bobby pouted. I smiled.

"You can have mine." I said. I put my hood up and walked them out the door. My heart wrenched. I never stopped to think about how much Helen and my arguing affected Bobby and Matthew. They had to watch every single moment of it and children don't deserve that. They were just kids. They shouldn't be drawing and writing things like that. And don't even get me started on my mother. I knew Bobby and Matthew knew that we were only half-siblings, but I never told them my mother was dead. They shouldn't be open to these kind of things at their age.

When I stepped out the building, I mentally cursed. The rain was much harder than it was twenty minutes ago. Seriously Mother Nature? You're a bitch to me for a week in each month and you still manage to make most of my days shitty? Okay. I huffed.