Percy

  Even before Percy got detention, he already knew it was going to be a terrible day. The first day of school always was, yet, there he was, dressing himself in his school uniform for Goode High.

  "Percy, honey, you're going to be late for the bus. Did you pack your calculator?" His mother, Sally, asked through his closed door.

  Percy pulled his grey cardigan over his white button up. The only reason he somewhat liked this uniform was because it let him imagine that he went to a fancy boarding school, like in the Dead Poet's Society (it was his mom's favourite movie, so he's very familiar with it).

  "Yeah, mom. Don't worry, I'll be fine, the bus doesn't come for another fifteen minutes!"

  "I'm just making sure you're prepared, honey. Don't forget to invite Grover over for dinner tonight. I'll see you after school."

  Percy left his room and smiled at his mother before giving her a kiss on the cheek. Since finding out that she was pregnant, he didn't want to hug her— he didn't want to hurt his baby sibling. It was a bit too precautionary— he knew, but he didn't want anything bad to happen— to his mom or the baby.

    So there Percy was, two minutes prior to the school bus' arrival, waiting in front of the nearby deli. The streets of New York weren't as busy as usual at seven thirty in the morning, so Percy could hear nearly everything happening around him— especially the weird rustling noise that was coming from the alleyway behind him.

  Percy sighed. Honestly, couldn't the monsters just leave him alone? He had already defeated so many of them, especially last summer, when he and his friends had travelled around the world on a quest to stop Gaea from rising— and on his trip to Tartarus. Gods, he did not want to think about that place right now, especially since he was going to be spending the entire day in its mortal equivalent— highschool.

  Percy reached into his pocket and gripped Riptide. He didn't want to have to use it— he just wanted a normal day— but demigods didn't have 'normal days,' so he rushed into the alley, and pulled out his sword. He immediately recognized a telekhine. This one was most likely full grown, its seal-like body was nearly seven feet tall, and its dog-shaped head was snarling and foaming at the mouth.

  "Perseus Jackson," The monster scowled. "You have mudered many of my relatives. You shall perish."

  Percy snorted. How many times had he heard that phrase before? "No," Percy replied. "I don't think I will."

Percy rolled as the telekhines attempted to claw at him. He landed under the monster's round belly, and thrusted up with his sword. The telekhine erupted into gold dust, landing all over Percy's face and clothes. He spit some dissolved monster out of his mouth before standing up and shrinking riptide back into pen form.

As he wiped gold dust off of his cardigan, he watched as the bus drove by, not noticing him in the shadows of the alleyway. He swore and ran into the street, but it was too late— the bus had already turned the corner and drove away. Percy looked around in his backpack for cash— maybe he could hail a cab. He sure as hell couldn't let his mom know that he had missed the bus on the first day back. No luck— all he had— besides his school supplies— were a few golden drachmas, his drivers license, and a coupon for a free pizza— he would have to use that later.

  Percy had a crazy idea. Walking around the corner to a secluded area, he looked over both shoulder before throwing a golden drachma into the empty road. "Stêthi 'Ô hárma diabolês." The drachma sank into the pavement. 

Then he waited.

It took less than thirty seconds for the Gray sisters to arrive in their beaten up taxi. Percy got in the back, and reluctantly told the sisters to bring him to the back entrance of Goode High.

As he buckled himself onto the lumpy, cracked back seat with the large black chain that replaced a government-approved seatbelt, Percy wallowed in self pity. He couldn't believe that he had to hitch a ride to school in the taxi from hell— at least the driver had the eye this time.

"Wasp, give me the eye!" Shouted the sister closest to the passenger side window.

"No! I'm driving!" Wasp replied, elbowing the one in the middle in the face.

"Give me the tooth!" The one in the middle shouted. "I need to eat!"

Percy shuddered in the back seat. Just the thought of having to share one eye and one tooth with two other people made his insides squelch. Well, that and how fast the car was going.

When he was sure that they were going to flip if they stopped, Percy spoke up. "Hey, uh, can you maybe slow down a little?"

The three sisters cackled. "Slow down? What a baby!"

"I just don't want to crash!"

"Relax, hero, we've done this plenty of times. Just sit back in your seat and keep your chains on."

Percy sighed and sat back. He was sure that he would lose circulation to his legs if he tightened the chain any more, so he held on to the armrest for support, knuckles white.

Finally, they arrived at Goode, and the car squealed to a stop. Percy threw his remaining drachmas at the sisters and got out of that car as fast as he could. He could hear them arguing until they drove out of earshot, which was far considering how loud they were.

  Percy let out a sigh of relief before sending a text to Grover.

Percy: Hey man. I'm out back. Let me in?"

G-Man: no worries, I'll be right there.

  Percy only had to wait a minute until the back door swung open and Grover looked out at Percy with a grin.

  "Where've you been, Perce? I didn't see you on the bus."

  "I missed it," Percy said with a roll of his eyes. "Telekhines."

  After hearing that one word, Grover pursed his lips and nodded his head in understanding. "Do you think it's the phone? Leo said that he had perfected the design, but maybe there's a mistake in yours."

  "I'm not sure," Percy admitted. "I trust Leo's handiwork. Maybe it's because I've got a strong smell. Like bacon."

  Grover shuddered. "C'mon man, don't talk about the pigs in their cooked state. You know I hate it the mention of my friends being roasted."

  "Sorry, man."

  Percy and Grover made it to their lockers— they were side-by-side, locker neighbours. Inside Percy's locker, a picture of him and Annabeth from two summers ago was taped to the inside of the door, as well as a group picture of Percy, Grover, Annabeth, and Thalia from the last campfire of the summer after the titan war. Percy reached for his neck, but his camp necklace wasn't there— jewellery was not part of the new dress code at Goode High— actually, Goode Academy, now that there was a new leader of the alumni committee.

  Percy sighed and stared at the picture of Annabeth. He wished they could've spent more time together, but Annabeth had decided to go back to San Francisco to stay with her dad. He admired her for that— she had had many falling outs with her dad and stepmom, but no matter how many times they fought, or how many times Annabeth ran away, she always went back and tried to reconcile.

As Percy got lost in thought, the first bell rang. He cursed before picking up his English textbook and lead Grover to Paul's classroom. They walked in, and Percy saw his stepfather sitting at his desk, he was telling people where their assigned seats were.

"Hey Pau— Mr. Blofis," Percy smiled. Before you ask— yes, it was a bit weird having your stepfather as your teacher, but Paul was a good guy. He reminded Percy of Chiron a bit, when he was posing as Percy's teacher at Yancy. Paul always expected the best from Percy, and, of course, it was annoying sometimes if Paul assigned homework, because Percy couldn't leave it to the last minute. But, the upside was that he could always ask Paul what to do when he couldn't understand (or decipher) the question.

"Hello, Percy, Grover. You two go right to the middle of the class, your seats have sticky notes on the desk with your last names on it."

Percy and Grover sat in the dead center of all of the other desks, but at least they sat next to each other. Percy didn't bother to check who sat on the other side of him, he didn't care— just as long as it wasn't Amber— or Justin.

Amber and Justin were two of the most annoying kids at school. Justin, the captain of the football team, was a bully, Percy hated him more than any else in the world, maybe even more than Nancy Bobofit. Amber, in the other hand, was a typical mean girl— but her biggest victim was Percy. She didn't even bully Percy— she just had a crush on him, and Percy was not flattered.

Practically every class that he had with Amber was spent trying to avoid eye contact. Whenever she tried to slip him a note, he would pretend not to see it, and slide his arm so it would fall to the floor. One time he had made the mistake of opening it— inside was filled with bright yellow and pink hearts, and a letter written in sparkly green gel pen so horrifying that Percy refused to look at it. He had glitter on his hands for days afterwards.

Behind him, Percy's friend Liam sat down. Liam and Percy met in their freshman year, they were both on the competitive swim team, and had even jokingly auditioned for synchronized swimming together in their junior year.

"Perce! What's up? Didn't see you all summer, how've you been?"

"I'm pretty good, I spent the summer travelling." Not a lie— just not the whole truth. Liam didn't know that Percy was a halfblood, actually, nobody did— with the exception of Grover and Paul, of course.

As Percy turned around, he caught a flash of bright red hair. There was no way— but he could recognize her in a crowd of a thousand people— what was she doing here?

"Rachel?" Percy asked as he stood up, a grin plastered on his face.

The girl turned around. As he suspected, there was Rachel Elizabeth Dare, in the flesh— well, in the Goode Academy school uniform. Rachel flashed a smile at Percy before giving him a hug. "How are you?!" She asked.

"I'm great, now that you're here! I thought you went to Clarion Academy for Rich Assholes— or whatever that ridiculously long name is," Percy said.

"I transferred! My dad became the head of the alumni committee for Goode, so he enforced enough rules to make this school as 'prestigious' as Clarion."

"But— I thought your dad went to—"

"Yeah— uh, just don't mention that. He might've went to a different high school, but money can get you to wherever you want to go. He just paid off the school board and voilà, here we are," Rachel said as she looked around nervously. "Anyways, I guess I sit right here," Rachel said, sitting down right in front of Grover, giving him a grin and a wave.

The seat next to Percy remained empty throughout the rest of the class, but he didn't put much thought into it— the kid was probably still on vacation, or was sick. Just at least it wasn't Amber or Justin.

The day was going as normal as it possibly could until lunch started. Percy, Grover, Rachel, Liam, Alanna, and Kate stood in front of Percy's locker, all eating their lunches, swapping stories from their summer.

Kate and Alanna went to Kate's cottage, up in Canada for all of August; Liam spent his summer working; Grover and Rachel talked about camp; and Percy told the group that he had gone travelling with some friends. Eventually, they were all making plans to go get pizza after school, with Percy's coupon, but were interrupted by someone clearing their throat from behind Percy.

Percy rolled his eyes. He knew exactly who it was that wanted his attention. He turned around to face Amber.

"What do you want, Amber?"

"That's no way to talk to your girlfriend, is it, Babe?" Amber said, placing her arm on Percy's shoulder.

"For the last time, I already have a girlfriend. If she knew you were touching me, she would undoubtedly kick your butt across the planet," Percy said with a menacing tone. A scowl was plastered across his face as he shrugged away Amber's hand.

"Well, honey, I just came by to invite you to my start of school party! Emma— give him the invitation!"

The girl behind her— Emma, pulled out an invitation from her purse. The envelope was pink and sparkly, and made Percy want to shield his eyes as it glittered and shined from the new LED lighting in the hallway— or did they have to call them corridors, now that this school is 'prestigious' or whatever?

Amber gave Percy the envelope and smiled at him coldly. "You'll be there, right, baby?"

Percy fumed. He was ready to tell this girl off, but Grover stepped in front of him. "Actually, Percy and I are busy that night."

"Sorry, Sesame Street, but you're not invited. And I didn't even tell you what night it was."

"Actually, were busy every night."

Amber rolled her eyes. "Let Percy do what he wants. He's a big boy, and he's my boyfriend."

"I am not your boyfriend. I have a girlfriend. You want to see?" Percy opened his locker and pulled out the picture of him and Annabeth. Annabeth looked perfect, her princess curls were loose, her orange camp shirt was covered in scorch marks from the climbing wall, and she had a smudge of peanut butter on her cheek from their picnic earlier in the day.

"This is your girlfriend? Who even dressed like that? She's way too ugly for you, babe."

Percy went to put the picture back in his locker, but Amber snatched it out of his hands and ripped it in half. "Oops!" She exclaimed, an innocent smile pulling at her lips.

"Are you serious?!" Percy shouted. "Just because you didn't get what you wanted, you had to go and— and— I cant even look at you, you disgust me! You're honestly the worst kind of person, and trust me, I've met some terrible people. So why don't you go and crawl into whatever hole you came from, because I do not want to see you. Not now— not ever!" Percy was shouting by the end, and many students were now crowding the hallways to watch the encounter.

The vice principal, Mr. Gibbons, a short old man who was very unpleasant to converse with, barged down the hall at the sound of the commotion. At the sight of Mr. Gibbons, Amber started to pretend-cry. She was really overdoing it, she let out wails and howls, and she held her hands over her face. Everyone could tell that it was a facade, but Mr. Gibbons never liked Percy, so he knew right away that he was in trouble.

"Mr. Jackson! Detention, tomorrow after school. Mr. Underwood, no hats in school!" The man continued to shout at Percy and his friends, pointing it flaws in their uniformed appearance, and they all ended up getting a detention, except for Rachel, and Grover, who had shown a note written by Chiron, pretending it was a doctor's note stating that he had to wear his hat at all times.

As the old man left, escorting a smirking Amber to the office, Percy was practically steaming from the ears. He hated bullies, and Mr. Gibbons was the biggest bully of all. By the time lunch was over, Percy had spat out so many insults about Gibbons and Amber that he had resorted to creative insults. "She is a sock headed, blueberry brained, mushroom toed, purple donkey-faced devil."

"I hear you, man," Grover said, patting him on the shoulder supportively.

Percy and Grover sat down in their Greek and Roman studies class. Out of all his classes, this was Percy's favourite. The teacher, Professor Darcy, was previously a university professor, and had a PhD in Greek and Roman studies. Percy had thought that she was a demigod too, which was confirmed by Grover's satyr senses, but they decided when they found out that they wouldn't confront her. She deserved to teach her students without having to fear that something bad would happen, or that someone would discover her secret. Percy had always wondered who her godly parent was: she was very smart, so he was guessing it was Athena, but when she taught them how to do archery, she proved excellent at it, so his second guess was Apollo.

After doing a round of icebreakers, the teacher started going over the syllabus for the year. Percy, bored out of his mind, ended up falling asleep on his.

Percy woke up with a start as the schoolbell rang. Head shooting up, he peeled the syllabus off of his face, which had stuck to his cheek from drool. Nobody had noticed that he fell asleep except for Grover, who had watched his back. He was grateful, he didn't want a second detention.

The rest of the day went by smoothly, and eventually, Percy was meeting Alanna, Liam, Kate, Rachel, and Grover at the front of the school. The five of them split into two groups to get to the pizza place. Percy and Grover went with Rachel in her car, Kate, Alanna and Liam in Liam's.

The pizza place was close to Percy's apartment building. He and Paul would order from there when his mom had meetings with her publishers, or had a late class. Anthony, the owner, knew him by name.

"Percy, what's up?"

"Not much, Anthony. We just came for some pizza, I've got a coupon." Percy handed Anthony the slip, and he grinned.

"Not to worry, Percy. This is on me," he said, Handing the coupon back.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah! It's the first day at school, right? You guys deserve it."

Percy smiled and shoved the coupon back into his wallet. "Thanks, man!"

The group took their usual spot— the semi-circular booth in the corner of the room. For as long as Percy could remember, they sat at this exact spot. He smiled, and when the pizza arrived, the group dug in.

"So, Perce," Alanna said, mouth full of pepperoni and cheese, "what was your favourite place that you went?"

"Probably Rome. They had this amazing pizzeria that we went to— not as good as Anthony's of course— but still pretty good. Annabeth and I went, and it was great, but such a culture shock! did you know that they don't serve their Coke with ice?"

"Warm Coke? Gross! How'd you even drink that?" Liam asked, sauce dripping down his c

"They put ice in it for me— they definitely knew I was American."

"Well no shit, you speak english like one," Kate laughed before taking a bite of her vegetarian slice.