Human nature had always been truly strange and complicated, Percy had always thought so anyways. He once studied true crime, wondering if he'd ever meet someone so cruel and heartless as to take a human life so mercilessly and brutally. So far, he hadn't, which was a relief, he supposed.

  It had been an hour since they arrived to the hang out spot, he'd barely spoken. He felt guilty, he knew what he said was harsh and yet he'd said it anyways. He didn't really know why, either.

  "So," Annabeth began, brushing some of her hair behind her ear, "What should we do? Uno is getting pretty boring."

  Jason sat up and set his cards down, "We could show Percy the the river."

  "The river?" Percy repeated, he hadn't remembered seeing a river, though he hadn't been fully paying attention during the tour, so that would make sense.

  "You got a bathing suit? Cause we gotta swim in the river!" Leo exclaimed, standing up and sloppily dropping his cards. Piper and Hazel rolled their eyes as they cleaned up the game. Percy helped collect all the cards and handed them to Hazel, who held the box in her hand.

  Frank sighed, "Do we have to? It's a school night.."

  "You don't have to, you can just do something else," Leo smirked, "We'll have all the fun while you sit in your dorm and pout." Leo pouted his lips and make a crying gesture.

  "Don't guilt him!" Piper grabbed a pillow and hit him, which caused Leo to pout even more. "Alright, Let's all get in bathing suits and meet up at the river." 

  They all nodded and went to their dorms, Percy now knowing where his dorm was and went there on his own. Jason was making out with Piper and he really didn't want to awkwardly stand there and wait.

When alone, the nature surrounding Percy actually seemed rather peaceful. Not to say it hadn't been peaceful before, because it was, but now there was this silence to it that calmed his anxieties. Tranquility, maybe.

He opened the door to his cabin and took out his bathing suit, something he hadn't even thought he'd need. He remembered his mom making sure he brought it, saying that he's gonna want to swim again. He didn't want to swim again, he really didn't. It didn't do any good for him before, what good could it bring him now?

"You gonna sit there all day?" Percy glanced at the doorway to see Jason standing there, he stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

Percy stood up with his bathing suit in his hand, "Nah, just thinking about something, that's all."

Jason walked over to his own dresser and opened a drawer, taking out a swimsuit and beginning to undress. Percy looked away, but he heard Jason laugh. "Jeez, have you never been in a locker room before?"

Percy began walking to the bathroom, "Yeah, I spent my life in public school, but it just feels weird right now."

"Do what you want, I won't stop ya."

Percy nodded and entered the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. He put on his swim trunks and kept his hoodie on, which he didn't plan on taking off. He left the bathroom and saw Jason leaning against the wall, he was staring at the floor deep in thought.

"You ready?" Percy set his sweatpants and boxers in his hamper, then approached the door.

Jason nodded, "Yup."

  ——

  "So tell me, what makes this river so special?" Percy inquired as he approached the others. "Just looks like any other river."

  Leo snickered as he approached Percy, who towered over him, "Why don't you come find out?"

  "That sounded vaguely sexual," Percy smirked, causing Leo to roll his eyes and yank Percy towards the river. The ground was not at all soft, the dirt surrounding the river was covered in rocks and litter.

  "So Percy, how are you liking boarding school?" Piper grinned, she was fully in the water, the river was surprisingly deep.

"Uhm, it's a school? I guess?" Percy wasn't really sure he was fond of boarding school, it had its perks, but it just wasn't something he was used to.

"Give it a few days and you'll like it, trust me." Jason splashed water in Percy's face, getting his hoodie soaked.

Percy sighed as he gazed at everyone. He felt out of place, which wasn't unusual for him, but this occasion just felt different. For once he actually wanted to fit in with people.

"Right," Percy responded as he sat down on the dirt, his feet resting in the water. Hazel and Frank were swimming together and giggling, Piper, Jason, and Leo all had a splash war, Nico and Thalia were sitting down in the shallow area, and Annabeth was swimming towards Percy.

"I thought you liked swimming?"

Percy looked at Annabeth and shrugged, "I used to. I mean, I still kind of do, it's just complicated."

"You can tell me if ya want, I like knowing things," Annabeth stood up and out of the water as she sat down next to Percy, hugging her knees.

"Well," Percy began. He wasn't going to tell the whole truth, but he felt bad not telling her anything. Besides, she would've tried to keep prying it out of him anyways. "I used to do competitive swim, it was my whole life. I did it for maybe seven years until I found out my dad died. He was a marine, died at sea kinda thing."

Annabeth frowned and softly smiled, "My mom passed away when I was six, she got shot in a mugging."

Percy gave her a soft smile as well, he stared at her soft blonde curls.

  "GROVER! YOU MADE IT!" Hazel exclaimed as she waved her arms in the air. Percy turned around to see him walk over, though he wasn't wearing a swimsuit.

  "Don't get good excited, Mr. Chiron wanted me to get Percy for him." Grover looked over at Percy with an unreadable expression. Percy decided not to think too much into things, he stood up and followed Grover to wherever he was taking him.

  "What'd Mr. Chiron need?" Percy finally asked, they were walking through the forest in utter silence, which wasn't great for his ADHD.

  "He didn't need anything," Grover stopped walking and turned around, looking at Percy with a frown. Before Percy could say anything, Grover pulled him into a tight hug. "I missed you, dude!"

  Percy frowned as Grover pulled away from the hug, "Why?"

  "You were my best friend Percy, of course I missed you! You know how worried I was when I saw you that day? And then I never saw you again! For all I knew, you were dead." Grover kept rambling, tears threatened to fall down his face.

  Percy didn't know what to think or say, his mind wanted to yell at Grover and hate him, but he couldn't find himself able to. "You told them about me? A group of random teenagers?!"

  "Not exactly," Grover looked at Percy's face and sighed, "I didn't mention names or anything. And plus, it was like a year ago that I told them. I didn't think I'd ever see you again, especially not here!"

Percy nodded, "I guess that makes sense, but now we have to pretend that we don't know each other."

"Well," Grover bit his inner cheek, "It doesn't hurt to open up to them, they're really understanding people if you gets to know them. We all always talk about our problems, and none of us judge."

Percy leaned against a tree and shook his head, "Yeah, but I'm guessing none of them snuck up to the school's roof in an attempt to kill themself and got caught and then expelled because they were apparently 'trying to vandalize the school.'" Percy stared Grover in the eyes and frowned, "Or was only caught because their best friend told the principal that they were on the roof in the first place, but neglected to mention why."

"Percy," Grover stepped closer to Percy, "I was twelve! All I knew was that my best friend gave me his prized possession and then left without saying anything, and then I saw him breaking into the stairwell! I was terrified and worried and I just couldn't calm down, all I was able to say was that we needed to get to the roof because you were up there!"

Percy didn't know what to think, for years he harbored hate for Grover because of how he snitched on him, but Percy would've done the same for Grover. He couldn't hate him, he really couldn't.

Percy slid down the tree until he was sitting down, he stared down at the dirt.

"Did you ever get help?"

Percy didn't look at him, instead looking more intently at the dirt. "They never found out, I let Gabe think I was trying to do some criminal shit."

—-

Hi

I'm starting to remember the idea I had for writing this story

So this'll start to get better? Maybe? Idk

See ya next chapter