Chapter Text
7:30 am, Wednesday, September 1st 2010
When Percy Jackson first came to Goode High, everyone knew something was off about him.
Before people even met him, there were rumours about him. About how he blew up the band room during the summer. About how he had been kicked out of every school he had ever stepped into. About how he was the same Percy Jackson who blew up the gateway arch a few years back. Everyone braced themselves for a punk, a delinquent.
But nothing could prepare them for the actual Percy Jackson.
He was not a punk or a delinquent, he was something else, something worse. There wasn’t a name for what he was, but whatever he was, it set everyone the wrong way.
He didn’t look like much. He always wore hoodies with the hood always up, jeans with rips that didn’t look like they were originally part of the jeans and a pair of well-worn converse. He was tall, yes, but he wasn’t ridiculously tall.
But despite his outward appearance, it was blatantly obvious that he was a lot more than he seemed. When he passed people in the hallways, power seemed to ooze out of him, sending chills up everyone’s spine.
But as the months passed, people forgot about Percy Jackson. He faded into the background. He was no longer an enigma, he was just another student in Goode High.
That was until Percy Jackson disappeared almost halfway through his sophomore year.
He didn’t return until his junior year, and when he did, Percy Jackson was again thrust into the spotlight. Over the months he was gone, he had gotten taller, and so much more intimidating.
And the strangest thing was, he didn’t return alone.
It was on the chilly morning of Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 that he had driven in on a black motorcycle, flanked by three other people also driving motorcycles. Immediately heads turned at the sight of the motorcycles, due to the rarity of them at the school.
And people felt a chill run up their spines when the person on the front of the procession removed his helmet. It was Percy Jackson. But...it didn’t really look like him.
First of all, this guy was at least 6’ 5”, which meant if this was Percy, he would have had to grow at least 8 inches in the time he had been gone. Additionally, his hair was longer, being tied in a small ponytail and the nape of his neck. There was also a streak of white hair that stood out against his black hair.
People at first didn’t think it was him, instead of his doppelgänger. But when he looked up and they saw the green eyes, they were certain it was him.
The rest of his crew removed their helmets as well, revealing another guy and two girls. Together the group walked into Goode High for their first day of school.
———
Kate Reeds was an integral part of the flow of Goode High. While she didn’t run any clubs, didn’t captain any teams, she was one of the most important people to be on the good side of.
The reason why was a simple one; she could figure out everything about anyone. Many people used her services to get dirt on school rivals, and multiple times the popular crowd would use her to get info on others.
While many used the junior girl for their own personal gain, she had her own agenda and motives. There were a handful of people who Kate was determined to get more info on. At the top of the list was Percy Jackson.
Her info on her mysterious classmate was frustratingly sparse. She knew that his stepfather was the English teacher Paul Blofis. She knew that he’d been kicked out every school he’d been to, and was the subject of a nationwide manhunt back in the summer of 2005.
But besides those facts that were pretty much common knowledge, she knew almost nothing about him. He didn’t show up on any social media platforms, which made her think he didn’t even have a phone. She couldn’t even use his friends to judge his personality, because as far as she knew, Percy Jackson didn’t have friends.
So when he rocked up on a motorcycle flocked by three strangers, after being missing for months, she knew that her time had come. This was her chance to learn everything she ever wanted. One last hurrah, her final conquest. Well maybe not final conquest, or last hurrah but close enough.
The first thing she did was learn who his companions were. That was easy, all she needed to do was ask around the school to learn the names. After a bit of hassle, and thorough investigation she got the names from a junior who had been in their homeroom. Annabeth Chase, Jason Grace, and Piper McLean.
Her investigation had to be held off till lunch, seeing as she had no time to research the new kids until then. But as soon as she finished her meal, she bolted to a secluded corner of the school where she could research in peace.
She first looked up Annabeth Chase. After a bit of searching, she found an article about the manhunt from 2005. It talked about how Percy Jackson had been kidnapped along with two others; Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase. Bingo.
Then she moved onto looking up Jason Grace. The only thing she found was an article from nearly 14 years ago saying how the two children of Beryl Grace, a famous TV star who’d died a few years back, were missing. There were two photos attached, one of a girl Kate presumed to be Thalia, and a boy who was probably Jason. She zoomed in on the photo of Jason, and after a moment of consideration decided they were one and the same.
Finally she researched Piper McLean. The last name sounded vaguely familiar so she was sure she was bound to get a lot of information. And she was not disappointed. Hundreds of articles popped up, talking about the daughter of Tristan McLean. She tapped on the first one, which was an article about how Tristan's daughter had been sent away to a school in Nevada.
In the middle of the article there was a photo of her, and Kate felt happiness burst inside of her because that girl looked exactly like the girl who had pulled up this morning.
She mulled over her discoveries during the third block. Percy Jackson was apparently friends with a missing person, who happened to be the son of a dead and famous actress, the daughter of the most famous actor in the world, and a mysterious girl who had been kidnapped with him when they were 12.
Kate grinned deviously. Oh she could work with this.
———
Damien Mills wanted nothing more than to graduate from Goode High. He was more than ready to move on from the private high school with its stupid uniforms, and its even stupider rules.
Unfortunately for him though, he was only in his Junior year, so he still had almost two years left at this hell hole. He silently wished that God would speed up time, and get him out of here.
It wasn’t that Damien hated school, or even learning. In fact, he actually really liked learning things, especially when it came to band and playing the drums and guitar. It was that he wanted to forge his own path, maybe make some music and get loaded off of the back of it.
It was September 1st, the start of his third year at Goode High, and already Damien was ready to graduate. Despite being apart for almost three months, absolutely nothing had changed. Everyone still had the same attitude, there was still that feeling of everything sucking.
Damien was unloading things from his bag when his best friend Cameron Dales came up to him, blushing furiously. “Dude! Guess what! I finally asked out Sydney last weekend. Sorry, I didn’t get to tell ya sooner but yeah!”
Damien laughed. Cameron and Sydney had had crushes on each other for months, and it seemed that Cameron had finally had the guts to ask her out. The two fist-bumped and Damien told Cameron, “That's great man. Glad you finally confessed your love for her, I don’t I could suffer through you guys saying that you don't like one another anymore.”
Cameron shoved him “Says the guy who’s had a crush on Kate Reeds since he saw her.”
Damien felt his cheeks heat up “She doesn’t like me back man, it's a lost cause.”
The two fell into friendly banter complete with a few shoves here and there whenever the other said something stupid or embarrassing. Halfway through Damien telling Cameron about how he had gone to Germany over the summer to visit family, Cameron sucked in a breath then spoke, “Holy shit. Is that who I think that is?”
He turned the way Cameron was pointing, to see a slightly familiar guy walking through the door. There was a blonde guy and girl with him, along with a Native American looking girl. It took him a moment, but then he recognized the teen. “Is that Percy Jackson? I didn’t think he was coming back here.”
He saw Cameron nod out of the corner of his eye, looking as dumbstruck as he felt. He saw Kate Reeds, who was directly in front of him, look up in interest and smirk when she saw Percy.
Damien felt slightly jealous. He had always thought that Kate had a crush on Percy, although Percy definitely didn’t reciprocate those feelings. And judging, by the way, Percy was holding the blonde girl's hand, he was taken.
Damien watched the group, who were laughing and shoving one another in the same way he and Cameron had been not five minutes ago, walk down the hall.
Damien had never really paid attention to Percy Jackson. But when Percy walked through those doors and walked through the halls, it was almost as if that was all he could do. Power and danger radiated from that group and all Damien could do was stand frozen in place as they disappeared down the hall.