Chapter Text
“See you!” Annabeth pecked Percy’s cheek.
He pouted. “Are you just going to leave me for the wolves?”
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly, “C’mon Seaweed Brain, I don’t think Lupa would appreciate that. Pretty sure she hates me too and... I wouldn’t do that to you. Anyways, Goode shouldn’t be that bad.”
Annabeth sat up on the hood of the beaten up Prius, golden curls bouncing along her back as she did so. “And if it is… well, you could always try Midtown.”
They held each other’s gaze for a moment or two before collapsing into laughter. Midtown was a prestigious high school, smack dab in the middle of Manhattan, practically full of a bunch of nerdy rich kids. No way he was going there, especially after attending Yancy Academy and his past school record.
(He physically shuddered at the thought of sixth grade with its prepubescent preteens and constant voice cracks.)
“Just one year in hell and I’ll be out of there,” Percy huffed. “Just one year till New Rome…”
Annabeth smirked, “That’s the spirit! Just 180 days.”
Percy groaned, banging his head on the hood of the car, “Just kill me now.”
Goode, unfortunately, was the only school that was willing to accept Percy, even if he had allegedly blown a part of their band room when fighting off a couple of empousai.
(Kelli really was a pain-- she even spelled her name with an i instead of a y . Who even did that? That was like spelling Percy with an i which would be Perci. Disgust rolled through his body whenever someone spelled his name like that. Yeah, that was right, he was looking at you Starbucks .)
His stepdad Paul, who worked at Goode as an English teacher, had managed to convince the school administration that he didn’t blow up an entire room and he was just a normal kid who just happened to have a terrible school record and didn’t kill monsters in his spare time.
Unfortunately for Percy, he had disappeared for a large remainder of junior year and had to play catch-up with Annabeth over the summer. Anyways, where was he? Oh right, wanting to die.
“That could be arranged.”
Annabeth and Percy quickly swiveled around. hands over their weapons. They relaxed their stances once they saw who it was. “Piper!” The two exclaimed in unision.
Piper grinned wickedly. She’d seemingly appeared out of nowhere, no car or any sort of transportation in sight. “Fourth time and counting-- guess you guys are getting a bit rusty-- next time you guys swing by camp, I’ll be sure to put you in with the new campers.”
Despite winning a literal war, both Percy and Annabeth didn’t have time to relax. Annabeth was busy helping the Hephaestus and Ares kids rebuild the cabins that had been lost during their fight at Camp Half-Blood and was also occupied assisting with repairs back in New Rome via IM. And well Percy had the unfortunate task of studying for his stupid SATs.
“All I had to say was that Leo’s hiding around here somewhere, so don’t be surprised when you find him hiding in your car hood or something.” She held out her hand for a fist bump which Annabeth happily complied with. “So what’s up with you guys? Where are you headed?”
“School,” Annabeth replied. “And this one,” she said, ruffling Percy’s hair, “doesn’t want to go.”
Percy pretended to faint dramatically behind Annabeth, falling back onto the car hood. “The nerve of me!”
“At least it’s not me,” Piper groaned, plopping down next to the blonde girl. “I’ve been kicked out of like four different schools.”
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. “This idiot’s,” (with that she tilted her head gesturing to Percy), “been kicked out of one every year.”
Percy wiggled his eyebrows, “Sup.”
Piper made an impressed face. “You know what? I shouldn’t even be surprised at this point. How’d you do it?”
“Try to guess at least one,” he smugly shot back at her.
Annabeth leaned back on the car hood, “This is going to take a while.”
Piper raised her eyebrows, smirking, “Is that a challenge Chase?”
The girl in question lifted her hands in surrender, “I didn’t say anything. By all means try!’
Piper’s face split into a grin, “Loser has to wash all the dishes back at camp.”
“ Deal .” Annabeth leaned forward with anticipation.
“Cursing.”
“Try bigger,” Percy said from the side.
“Fighting with mortals.” He made a face at that one.
“Pulling out your sword on a mortal.”
“I’ve certainly been tempted too.”
“Leading a school uprising against the teachers because of the unfair treatment of students because of double standards?”
Annabeth blinked. “That’s oddly specific.” But before she could say anything else, Percy mouthed something to Piper.
A beat of silence. “A cannon?” exclaimed Piper incredulously, gaping at Percy. Meanwhile the blonde sighed exasperatedly, “I guess I’m stuck on dish duty.”
“It was taking too long,” Percy whined. “Plus, the suspense, the rising actions! You can’t draw it out for too long before the audience get’s bored-- where’s your sense of drama?”
“Someone’s been paying attention to Paul lately.”
He stuck his tongue out. “I have my moments.”
Annabeth scrunched up her face (adorably, Percy added in his mind-- but if he said that out loud she would probably murder him in his sleep). “Seaweed Brain.”
“Wise Girl.”
“Doofus.”
“You wound me!” Percy gasped dramatically.
“Alas,” Annabeth said dryly, getting off the hood to sling Percy’s backpack over her shoulder. “Pipes?”
Piper, who had been watching, grinning (no, not because she thought they were cute, that was totally ridiculous-- it was all for blackmail later on), jolted into action. “Gotcha, yeah. Me and Leo--” she paused at Annabeth’s squint, “fine, Leo and I , were headed to restock the camp supplies from the shop nearby.” She paused. “Alice’s Secondhand Goods,” she added as an afterthought. “We thought we’d just stop by to say hi. Wanna come with?”
Annabeth looked at Percy, who was right next to her, giving his best impression of a small baby seal, frowny face and all, practically begging for her not to go. Then she turned to Piper who was pouting just as seriously. “You two are ridiculous,” she sighed. “I’m going to go with Piper.”
The brunette’s face split into a large grin, “Ha! Take that!”
Percy blew a raspberry at her, then turned back to Annabeth pouting again.
Annabeth laughed, “I’m sorry. We're still meeting up at the cafe, right?”
“Yep.” The son of Poseidon gave a sigh of defeat and shook his head and gave a mock bow to Piper who was grinning smugly.
“You win this round. But I’ll win the next one.”
“Oh, I’m not sure about that.” Piper tackled a smiling Annabeth into a hug. “I give the best hugs.”
Annabeth cocked an eyebrow, “I’m sure Percy would like to argue with that fact.”
Percy nodded as confirmation. “A hundred percent reliable, Percy-full hug.” He flashed a smile that could rival a salesman in the middle of an infomercial, “No refunds given.”
The grey-eyed teenager tossed his bag over to him, “See you soon Seaweed Brain!”
“Bye!” Percy raised his hand to wave back at Piper and Annabeth, who were now walking to the curb.
He opened the door and got in the driver’s seat about to start the car when someone behind him shouted, “ Boo! ”
Percy shrieked loudly (later on he would deny such facts), jumping in his seat, Riptide ready in his hand.
“Percy used Pout! It was not effective.”
Leo Valdez was sitting in the back seat, all stretched out, fiddling with some sort of small drone in his hands. He grinned, “Was that a shriek I just heard?”
Percy flushed. “Shut up Valdez.”
“Ooh, no need to get touchy.” Leo kicked open the car door and got out. “Heya Pipes!” Percy turned back to see Annabeth holding back laughter and a snickering Piper. He flipped off the other boy, before starting the car engine and hitting the pedal, yelling a quick goodbye, and driving off to Goode.
***
Like any proper highschooler attending Goode, Kayla Blumenthal was aware of two things: the hierarchy and the daily gossip.
Kayla Blumenthal was a small girl, you probably wouldn’t notice her on the first day of school. Or the second. Or the third, or perhaps even by the fourth. But she commanded attention and sooner or later you would notice her. She was thin, but not reedy, had a couple of horn-rimmed glasses and shallow light green eyes. Typically a person of such small stature wouldn’t be noticed, but she was just attractive, in the ‘ what can you do about it? ’ way.
The first day of school was always a dreaded one for most. Reintroducing yourselves to teachers, starting coursework again, and the impending pop quizzes were always bothersome. So, Kayla Blumenthal has gotten out of bed, determined and full of energy.
(Well not that much— she was a teenager, what did you expect?)
She had raced past the door after grabbing a bagel to stuff into her mouth and pulling on a quick outfit. Maybe the dress wasn’t exactly conventional for the first day you might think, but the way she saw it, she was trying not to be as scared anymore— to stop running from the past.
Pull on the dress and everything will be fine , she thought repeatedly. Everything will be fine. Just breathe. As she focused on inhaling and exhaling, her gaze strayed to the forgotten makeup set on the counter. She breathed out with a huff and grabbed the lip gloss. “You can do this, just…” her words had sputtered to a stop as she turned around and looked in the mirror.
Pale stringy hair was swinging loosely at the side of her face. One, two. One, two, three. One, two. One, two, three.
( Screaming, someone. Heart pounding. One, two. One, two, three. One, two— she needed someone — where— more shouting. She— help— )
Kayla shuddered as she held the counter to steady herself. She took a shaky breath and leaned closer to the mirror, pushing away from the counter. Uncapping the lip gloss tube she slowly applied the lip gloss. Slow steps , she reminded herself.
She leaned back to observe her work. Her upper lip glinted in the light from the lamp near her and she closed her lips to rub the gloss onto the lower one. Good enough. Her eyes darted around her reflection, from the annoying zit near the top of her head to her form-fitting dress to her ankle socks. She wiggled her toes. “Okay. Okay. Okay . Let’s— let’s do this.”
( Let’s do this. )
***
“Hello! Welcome to Goode!”
Percy gave a tight smile to the secretary right up at the office. Did he realize he fit every stereotype for a secretary so far? “Hi there,” he offered, trying to muster up any excitement he had so far (zero to none). “I need my schedule. I’m kinda new so… yeah.” He tried not to wince as he awkwardly ended the statement.
The secretary nodded eagerly, “Great! What’s your name?”
“Percy Jackson.”
The guy nodded eagerly again ( what was up with that? ) and clicked a tab on his computer mouse. “Jackson, Jackson, Jackson,” he muttered under his breath. He squinted, his glasses almost falling down comically to the very tip of his nose. Weirdly enough, he seemed to be a little older than Percy… maybe in his early twenties? “Aha!” he exclaimed. “Jackson.”
Percy waved, “Yeah that’s me.”
He nodded absentmindedly. “Aaand print .” The secretary clicked the screen with his mouse and glanced up at Percy and frowned at the screen. “Perseus is your first name?”
The green-eyes boy gave a lopsided smile, “After the Greek myth.”
The secretary oh ed. “Like the guy who killed Medusa, right? The snake lady?” he asked while walking over to the printer which was slowly printing out his schedule.
Percy snorted. “Yep. The snake lady.” He thought back to Medusa, voice sickly sweet and crooning, begging for his twelve-year-old self to come out, she didn’t want to hurt him, she only wanted to greet him, she only wanted to not feel alone, she only wanted to help, for him to open his eyes and see—
“Perseus?”
Percy jolted back to reality, whipping out Riptide from his pocket. For an awkward moment, the two of them didn’t move. The secretary looked at him oddly, with the sword grasped firmly in his hands, his hands itching to swing at something. “Well, I’m not sure what you’re planning to do with the pen, but you should pocket that for class, otherwise, someone might steal it,” he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Percy flushed and put the ballpoint pen back into his jean pockets. The man handed his schedule to him. “There should be a student guide coming up this year. There’s always one to escort the new students,” he hesitated. “Or so they say… this is my first year working here,” he explained at Percy’s quizzical look.
Percy gave a thumbs-up. “Cool! Uh…” he glanced at the door. The student guide didn’t look like they were coming out any time soon. “Good luck, man.” Percy winced at the pun, but the man took no notice.
The secretary tilted his head at the computer screen. “Your name kinda sounds familiar actually…” Percy tensed, maybe the guy hadn’t heard of him from blowing up the band room the other year, but there was always the looming fact that he was considered a national terrorist for several weeks back when he was twelve. (He supposed he couldn’t exactly write that on his resume.) There was also always the possibility that he was a monster in disguise, but other than his weirdly peppy behavior, nothing else seemed to hint at that fact. The secretary shook his head and scrunched up his nose. “I’m probably just remembering things though…” his voice trailed off, leaving them two in awkward silence. Percy backed away from the desk to sit down on the wooden chairs lined up against the wall, fiddling with Riptide after taking it out of his pocket again.
The secretary sat back in his chair, his energy gone, but still oddly reminiscent of Leo Valdez. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before the door to the office burst open.
They both jumped at the noise. The older of the two greeted the newcomer. “Hello, welcome to Goode!”
The first thing Percy noticed about the girl was that she was small. She was about as tall as the eleven-year-olds back at Camp. She had a backpack slinger over her left shoulder and was tapping her foot constantly on the tiled floors. She said hi to the secretary, her voice loud for her small stature and turned to face Percy. As soon as she glanced at him, she froze, shock on her face.
Confused, Percy just looked back at the secretary, who didn’t notice her freezing and started to talk about the schedule. Percy took the opportunity to introduce himself. “Hey, I’m Percy, I’m guessing you’re the student guide?”
Her eyes flickered upwards. “Sorry, what?”
“The tour guide.”
“That’s me,” she said. She snatched the schedule from his hands, scanning it. She looked down the rows of classes, ordered in small neat boxes. When she was done, she looked up, back at the secretary. “Thank you, Mr. Rodriguez.” Oh right, the name plate. In his defense, it was stacked on a small pile of papers out of his view.
“No problem!” the peppy secretary sat back in his desk chair. “Don’t forget to call the office when you have any problems.” She nodded absentmindedly before walking out the door with his schedule. Percy followed her, unsure.
“I didn’t get your name?”
She looked back up at him like the teachers he had beforehand, right as they caught him getting in trouble. It was the face he had seen on guidance counselors and principals alike. “Kayla,” she replied shortly. She shouldered her bag and hugged the schedule to her chest.
Okay then… “So where are we headed?”
“ I am heading to Latin,” she stopped glaring at him. “And you ,” she emphasized, poking him in the chest, “are heading to…” she glanced down at the schedule, reading what was written in the top row. The girl glanced back up at Percy and pursed her lips, “... also Latin.”
Kayla started speed walking down the hall. “Follow me!” she snapped irritably. Did he miss something? Because he hadn’t remembered meeting her before. Unless she was part of the band and she was somehow offended because he had supposedly blown it up. Which was not his fault by the way— how was he supposed to know that Kelli could explode?
He jogged up to the small girl, who seemed to have a personal vendetta against him. “Y’know I actually attended this school last year,” he said in an attempt to make small talk. “So it’s fine if you want to—”
The girl spun around and stopped in place again. Percy belatedly noticed one of her hands had been clenched in a fist the entire time. “I don’t care if you already know your way through here,” she said angrily. “ I ,” she stamped one of her feet to emphasize the point, “was assigned to show you to your first class so you might as well shut up and—” a huge shrill noise rang throughout the hallways. The bell. Right, that explained the empty hallways. Her eyes widened, “Shit, I’m late.”
“Actually we’re late,” Percy corrected offhandedly, then widened his eyes, realizing what it meant. Oh, gods, Annabeth was gonna murder him. On the first day?
Kayla tightened her bag straps and smoothened the back of her dress down. “Okay, we have to take Stairwell C up to the fourth floor and the third door to the right will be the Latin classroom.” How in the world did she memorize that?
She rolled her eyes and darted up through the double doors in front of them, labeled with a large painted white C . Percy followed her and caught the closing door she had pushed away.
( Up, up, up and away. )
He jogged up the steps, two at a time, as Kayla sprinted up to them, her long dress swishing around her ankles. Percy had had enough experience running from monsters chasing him and judging from the way Kayla ran up the steps, he would say she was pretty desperate to avoid him.
What a great start to the year-- already late on the first day and the only student he had talked to so far hated him for some reason! Great.
***
The classroom was silent as the teacher walked into the room, papers collected in his hands. He was average height with a scruffy beard, collared shirt, and plain black hair.
If Benjy had to guess, the guy was in his early thirties and relatively new (he would have heard otherwise). There were about a total of fifteen students cluttered in the language classroom. He took note that some people had dropped out from sophomore year.
Understandable considering last year the school couldn’t have afforded a Latin teacher last year because the teacher who was scheduled to teach for Benjy’s junior class had disappeared at the start of the term and the Board of Education wasn’t able to find anybody new in time (complete bullshit, if Benjy had any say in the matter). He leaned forward in his seat as the teacher began to set up his desk.
The door creaked open painfully (seriously, they needed to replace that) again as the teacher opened his mouth.
Most students, pretty bored already, turned to see who the newcomer was. The first head peeked through the door, a small girl with pale hair. Kayla Blumenthal , his mind supplied. Benjy remembered her older sister from when he was a freshman and he had of course heard what happened to her last year when she died. But he was completely sure she wasn’t a senior, maybe she was moved up a grade or two?
The blonde girl slipped through the door and smiled pitifully at the teacher. “Sorry, we’re late, I just had to show a new student around.”
The teacher nodded understandingly, “I was just about to introduce myself--” he frowned. “We?”
The door slammed open, hitting the wall adjacent to it, opposed to how Kayla had just slid silently into the classroom. The classroom spun a little as Benjy stared at the person standing in the doorway and... what? He took a moment to squint because there was no way that was-- holy shit it was.
Because standing there, from the pair of his faded pink Converse shoes to his ruffled black hair was Percy fucking Jackson.