Percy Jackson

School started the following Monday and I still hated getting up early for it.

Some things never change.

But getting to board to school was so much fun. It's my favorite mode of transportation and it's might as well be a middle finger to any governing system AND any old "traditional" (racist, homophobic, sexist, etc...) people.

Walking into Goode felt weird, though. Like, sure, I've been here for practice already but... Now there's a lot more people.

Now the people we're looking at me.

"Dude, is that..." was one of the things I heard as I walked over to my locker to put my skateboard away. It's the only thing I use it for besides my jacket in the winter when I can't skate.

"But didn't he die?"
"Well they never said for sure."

"Didn't he like, run away in the middle of night? How embarrassing do you think it was for him to go home?"
"Dude, shut up, he can probably hear us."

"Well at least the swim team will do better again this year."
"Yeah, unless he leaves again."

As I walked into my first hour class, I couldn't not hear them. I really hoped I had friends in this class.

What class is it? I don't even know but I think it's either English or whatever social study course we have this year. History or something.

The teacher had been talking to somebody when I walked in and so I looked around at the people who were already here and saw that none of my friends were here yet (although I came early in hopes of talking to my teacher so they're probably not here yet) and elected to a desk that didn't have anyone surrounding yet.

Actually looking around the room and peaking at my schedule revealed that this was my English class, althought it was going to focus on historical works which... Was almost bad.

And then I noticed the name written next to the class. The teachers name: Mr. Charles Bruner.

So you can imagine how alarmed I was at seeing that name um... Chirons mortal alias for another like 40 or so years I'm sure.

But you can really sense my panic when a kid comes over to me telling me that the old man wanted to talk to me.

Which, why would somebody call him the old man if they didn't...

It was Nico.

"Nico?" I questioned, because why is he here?

"Yeah, dumbass, the old man put me in school because I need the socialization or whatever," the son of Hades insisited, which... Yeah. That did check out. "Plus there might be a recruit? Grover's in the school somewhere along with Rachel, but she already went here, right? That is how you two met?"

"Um, yeah but she transferred out last year so... She transferred back," I responded. "And cool, good to know. I'll go talk to Bruner."

"You wanted to talk, Mr. Bruner?" I said as I walk over to his desk, wondering what kind of things he'd be doing for this class.

I remember his Latin class being mostly fun. On the days we didn't have tests, really. Every other day was a pretty good day in 6th grade latin so... Hopefully high school English will be similarly so.

"Why yes I did!" He said as he put down his pen. "The school technically wanted me to talk about about how you felt with school after being gone and... All of that, anything I can do for you but all things considered you're having that talk 6 other times today I'm sure you don't want to have it right now."

"Yeah no, that'd be appreciated."

"Okay, perfect, then that's done," Chiron remarked. "I know that within these last couple of days, communication's have fallen. I don't know if you had noticed because you've been busy readjusting, but just so you are aware, they're down and we're trying to figure out why."

"Okay."

"And also, probably more importantly so," the centaur informed me as he took a breath. "Zeus and Apollo had... A disagreement."

"A disagreement?" I questioned because like, that happens all the time and half of those times I get thrown into the middle of them."

"Yes," Chiron confirmed. "And the outcome was that, after everything Octavian did, although he is no longer with us in any sense of the phrase, Apollo has been cast down as a mortal. He's currently tied to a daughter of Demeter named Meg who I'm sure you'll meet next summer if nothing else. They've just arrived at camp the other day and informed us of what's happened so I thought it was important you know that."

Why do I never get a break?

"Do I have to like..."

"Go anywhere? No," Chiron reassured me, which was good news. "We just wanted you to know because usually it's an IM or a letter but those aren't all that reliable currently. We're also looking at a possible recruitment, but we already have Grover and Nico on it and we have others on call unless you want to help with it."

But I'm a nosy bitch, so I asked.

"Wh... Who is it?"

It was Logan and Quinn.

Which, they're brothers, so that checks out that they'd both be but...

"Do you know them?" Chiron asked me and I sighed.

"Yeah," I assured him. "they're both on the swim team. I can help out."

Thanking me for the offer, Chiron told me that he would keep me updated on both things he told me about and then told me to go sit down because class starts soon and it looked like my friends were waiting.

Turning around, I saw Rachel and Rome talking to each other as Rome was next to my desk and Rachel was in front of him, next to Nico and to the other side of my desk was Grover.

If we have identical schedules...

Well I guess Nico can't have one being in a lower grade but... Still.

"So you weren't going to tell me that you're back at Goode?" I asked Rachel as I walked back to sit down.

"Well I mean..." She began. "we weren't able to convince my dad until like, last Friday so... It was kind of last minute and he's definitely not happy that it means we get to hang out but..."

"Oh, because I'm a bad influence and will definitely make you gay?" I questioned and chuckled as she rolled her eyes. "As if you weren't out before I was."

"As if... Wait," Grover said. "I missed something, when did you come out, Rachel?"

She shrugged.

"I don't know, never officially really did," Rachel Dare figured as she sat on her desk, currently scribbling on her jeans as she usually does in class. "I had a girlfriend a while ago but like... Now I can't date so it doesn't much matter. Now they never have to know. They really want grandkids. My parents do."

"That must suck," Grover responded. "Bruner may as well be my dad so..."

"Yeah, what happened to your parents?" Nico questioned. "I've never heard of or about them."

Grover's shrug did not reassure my boyfriend.

"I don't know, they probably died," my best friend figured. "Like most others who had their searchers license, they went searching and... I don't know, they never came back. My uncle Ferdinand raised me for a while until I was old enough to like, recruit, and he left to search and well... He got stoned. Found out a few years later on a quest, actually. It was wild."

"Stoned?" Rome asked Grover, picking up some things and not others drom the like, code words we try to use in public."

"Medusa," I clarified and saw his immediate concern.

"It's fine," Grover sensed it as well, being a satyr and all. "It's been a long time and it was a pretty common date for searchers to uh... Not come back."

"And yet you still fought the council to get yours." I reminded Grover and he scoffed.

"And did I or did I not actually find him?" He reminded me of that addition, though. "You can use that excuse against me, Mr. I'll go to the underworld to save my mom even though nobody's ever come back alive before."

"Don't forget the quest he snuck out on after I was recruited." Nico added on.

"Oh, he did that twice." Grover agreed with Nico. "that winter and also the summer before but was partially on me."

"There was also-" Rachel would've added more I'd I didn't cut her off.

"I get it."

•••

I only had that one class with all of them, but after that I had two others with Grover, three with Rachel (we have art together), one with Nico, and then four with Rome because he's smarter than me with math and science and also takes a foreign language.

I take a foreign language, but it's latin because I already know Latin.

There was also two classes with Quinn and five with Logan.

Luckily they both have other friends so I only sat by Logan once and Quinn was like three seats from me because there was a lot people he hangs out with in one class and then we sit by each other in one class. The other ones... He's near but with others.

Having my own friends also helps with that.

And we all have lunch together so we're sitting together, minding our own business in the lunch room since we can't go off campus for the first week and just because it feels important for context: Nico, Rome, and I are gay, Rachel's a lesbian, Grover is pan (in a couple different senses of the word), Logan is bi, Quinn is queer just... Generally speaking? He says he's not straight and doesn't know if he's cis but he's not comfortable with what he is now so like... He dresses fluidly. He was currently wearing eyeliner and a skirt so like... You get the vibes. Leo was here as well, I didn't have any classes with him, though. He's, you know, extremely bi. Proudly bi.

It's just not a straight table. At all.

So while Rachel is talking about and telling us about this art project she worked on last week with her mom, I could just sense the close minded assholes coming from behind because they're all fairly big because they have to compensate, I guess.

So, coming up from behind me, I could see that Logan was not thrilled to see the people approaching us and I braced it for it.

"Aw, did the pansies poison recruit more faggots?" And while I don't think Nico recognized pansy, he didnt seem to handle faggots all that well and I guess I don't blame him. The person in question that said it was Dominick Anderson, who would probably join the confederacy if it were still around today. But he recognized Rachel and also recognized that she wasn't here last year. "what are you doing back here, dyke?"

"Getting more girls than you," she retorted and damn I missed those retorts. Made school all the more interesting. "What do you want?"

He slides his Latin book over to me.

"Do my latin homework."

So I look at him likes a dumbass because I'm pretty sure he is.

"No."

"No?" But he didn't like that answer.

"No," I repeated myself, sliding the book right on back. "You just called me a faggot and a pansy, I'm not doing your fucking homework, dumbass."

And you know, maybe I shouldn't have called him a dumbass.

He deserved it. He's a dumbass. They all are.

His friend, whose name I didn't care to know, did feel the need to defend Dominick, however.

Already standing behind me, this dude just grabbed me by the back of my shirt like I was a small child. Against his luck, though, I was not afraid of him or his strength.

It did scare my boyfriend, Logan, and Quinn. That he just grabbed me like that because they've never been physical before and we're outside so... There's no teacher.

"Aw, I'm so afraid," I said to mock him because this is laughable. "You're his bodyguard now? Got a promotion? What are you gonna do, punch me?"

That was a correct guess on my part. He did try to punch me.

I say try because he wasn't holding down my arms so it was pretty easy to block the punch and shove him by his jaw so he'd let me go and stumble back.

"If you need friends to be your bodyguard, you're pathetic," I told Dominick because I don't care if they swing at me. "now if you don't want to be expelled for using hate speech on your first day, I'd suggest leaving. I don't have time for you."

And of course they're threatened both physically and verbally so they leave. To have Quinn just... Shocked.

"Did you just..." Quinn questioned as I sat back down with the others. "Threaten Dominick and... I thought they were going to murder you."

Nico has the audacity to chuckle.

"What?" Logan asked. "I know you're new to Goode but like... They can get mean and brutal. They threw a kid in the dumpster last year. Alive, but still."

"Have you seen Percy get mad?" Nico asked as I just rolled my eyes and dismissed myself for the bathroom.

•••
Rome Ramirez

Percy leaves for the bathroom but Nico's words have my attention because like... Nico's a demigod. So he's seen Percy as a demigod.

I just want to know things, okay? I'm curious but also know that he doesn't like talking about it a whole lot.

"N... Not really," Logan figured, shrugging. "he's never had much of a reason to be, why? Have you?"

I nodded my head.

"Yeah, it's fucking terrifying," I reassured him. "that's nothing compared to Percy. That's just intimidation."

Rachel nodded her head in agreement.

"It's scary when he's actually mad about something," she told us. "I've only ever seen it once, though, so... And it wasn't directed at me."

I've only seen him frustrated, though, so I couldn't speak on the anger. Never seen pure anger out of my boyfriend before.

Not sure I ever want to for a variety of reasons, but this might be one of them.

He's a demigod, and I think he has powers so like... How would that play into it?

He can talk to marine life and horses but can he like... Control water or something, too? Because that would be a super cool but also potentially super dangerous and freaky power to have, depending on how much you can do.

"Okay but he gets mad once in like, never," Grover added on which was good to know. "I've known him since like sixth grade and I've only seen it, what? Three times? All times were like completely warranted and you saw it coming. If anything, he gets frustrated and that's never too extreme. The most extreme that I've seen lately is like, the whole Annabeth thing on his birthday. It's not like you should be afraid of him, he would never be hostile towards anyone here."

"Yeah, true," Nico agreed, shrugging in response. "out of literally anyone here that he would hate it'd probably be me and he doesn't so like... You guys are more than fine because he still offers me help for like, dates and stuff."

So the conversation changed after that and after lunch I had a class with Rachel and I'm curious, as I said earlier.

"So," I began as we sat down together in our study hall, which we decided to do outside because it's nice out and nobody can bug us. "When you said you saw Percy angry once..."

"Rome, it's not my story to tell," Rachel knew what I wanted to know, though. Of course. "i was barely into camp and everything by then. I was like... I had known for a while but I wasn't an oracle or anything yet so it was new. I'm sure that if you ask, he'll tell you. He opted to stay home all summer to be able to hang out with us and his parents instead of go to camp like he was supposed to, among various other things, I'm sure if you ask he'd tell you. Maybe not in public but... Duh."

"Okay but he doesn't like to talk about it," I insisted in my response as I laid in the grass. "Even if it's a good story, it just... He'll talk for a little bit but after a while it's not hard to see that he doesn't like talking about it. Like... Before it made sense because he said he didn't really know his dad so talking about him was weird and stupid because he didn't know anything but... He does and like... I feel like being a demigod would be super cool, wouldn't it? You see them all the time, don't they have like some cool powers or just..."

My voice drifted off.

"The only thing besides a couple small, old stories that I got out of him was that demigods insult don't live as long as mortals," I explained to Rachel and saw her expression drop. "like he told me about this dude that died lasr year named Luke. Just like, how they met and how he died but... He was talking about how he like, had accepted the reality of it a long time ago and it was kind of very scary to listen to but there has to be some perks, right?"

She thought about it for a minute before shrugging in response.

"I mean, a lot of it is dependant on your parents obviously," she began as she had taken her sketchbook out and had taken to drawing in it. "but a good amount of demigods have powers to an extent. Most of them have ADHD because they're hardwired to jump from battle to battle and that's what's keeps them alive and also dyslexia because their brains are hardwired for ancient Greek and Latin but like... I mean Percy has a shit ton of power because he was Poseidon's first kid in like... Decades. At least. Nico's also super powerful. Leo's one of the firet of Hephaestus kid to have fire power in a while, I guess, too, but I'm not close to Leo."

She stopped for a moment.

"I think it's the idea that while it's cool to have powers and make friends that are like you, it also sucks because you're probably to die soon, your godly parent probably sucks, and like..." it took Rachel a moment to find the right words, which felt ironic considering she's an oracle. That's their whole thing, I think. "Training at camp can be fun until you have to go on a quest or charge into battle or just... Not do it as a fun camp activity. It used to be fun and cool from my understanding and for some kids it will be, in the future. But Percy just... Has been so traumatized from all of it that I have a feeling that the day he graduates and finishes his last summer, he's going to walk out and never acknowledge that most of it happened. If anything, he'll talk to me, Grover, and like, maybe Nico."

"He wouldn't cur everyone off," I insisited. "He couldn't."

"Maybe not immediately, but he already doesn't like camp and feels like most kids don't really like him all that much."

But that felt like it was hard to believe.

"What? Why not? He's like the coolest person I know, that's why I was so nervous to ask him out."

Rachel just shrugged and told she didn't really know that answer, though. Percy's never gone into it with her, just said that he only really has a couple actual friends from camp. That arent just mutuals.

Grover would probably know, but I'm not close enough to ask about stuff like that with him.

I just can tell that something bothers him and I wish he'd be more open about whatever that exact thing is.

I want so badly to help him so he can be really happy and I don't know how to make that happiness long term without him first opening up to tell me what's going on up in his brain.

A lot of people call him dumb and it bugs me to no end because he sucks in s lot of school stuff because of his ADHD and dyslexia, but he's so smart in so many others ways that don't get enough acknowledgement and I just... Know that he knows.

He's still adjusting to being home and I get that.

I just wish it'd be faster sometimes.

____________

Drawing done by me! @ artbybeck on ig!