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Chapter Text

It had been about a year since they'd won the war against the Giants, but the demigods at both Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter weren't sure what that meant. This included Annabeth.

Once they'd finished clearing the scattered debris from Camp and burned the shrouds of the fallen heroes, everything should have fallen back into place. Annabeth fully disagreed, of course, because ever since she came back from Tartarus, things were different—things didn't have a place anymore. After falling into the pit, Annabeth doubted that she would ever feel normal again. Even now, a year later, she still woke up in the early hours of the morning in a cold sweat, clawing her way out from under the sheets with the newest Tartarus-related nightmare on the forefront of her brain. Granted, these nightmares were nowhere near as bad as they'd once been, but they were enough to ensure that she adjusted her schedule to make use of the extra time she had in the mornings, since she could seldom fall asleep after these nightmares.

Her and Percy tried to work through their trauma, of course, but Annabeth had exited the Doors of Death with a slightly longer short-list of fears. She was terrified of spiders, her mother, and now Percy. She wasn't necessarily afraid of Percy, but she was terrified of what he was capable of. He'd choked the goddess Akhlys with her own poison, drawing out her suffering. His features were twisted into a look of sick satisfaction, and Annabeth was afraid because Percy looked like he was enjoying torturing her. He was still her best friend, but after seeing that, she couldn't kiss him like there was nothing wrong. She would still lay down her life for him in a heartbeat, take a poisoned blade or even play a mean game of karaoke together, but she couldn't pretend like it never happened.

The air outside was warm but light, without a trace of humidity. She made her way towards the dining pavilion for breakfast, stopping to glance at the activities on the go that morning. On the volleyball court, there were six people playing.

On one side, her best friend Piper McLean seemed to be dishing out serious trash talk to the opposing team, and her two best friends Jason Grace and Leo Valdez were egging her on. The two boys attempted to hold in raucous laughter, but ultimately failed, nearly falling over each other. Piper always got very competitive, and Annabeth had learned that it was best to team up with her, rather than go against her. 

The opposite team housed Nico di Angelo, who bristled at Piper's aggression. Behind him was his boyfriend, Will Solace, who was gearing up to serve the ball. He looked over at Annabeth and nodded in her direction, and she smiled warmly at him with a small wave of her hand. The last team member was Katie Gardner from the Demeter Cabin, who had a real knack for volleyball. They'd learned this fact when she absolutely pummeled Travis and Connor Stoll into the ground in a tournament last summer.

Will served the ball, which soared over the net towards Leo. Leo hit it back over, and Nico spiked it, sending it in front of Jason. Jason's glasses rested atop his head, instead of on his eyes, and he likely wouldn't make it to the ball. 

"Out of my way, Sparky!" Piper shouted, diving for the ball. She hit it back over the net, where Will fumbled it out of the court. 

Piper quickly got up and held out a hand to Jason, who spat out a mouthful of sand. He laughed, grabbing her hand and pulled her down onto the sand as well. They stared at each other, laughing raucously as they threw handfuls of sand at each other. Katie ran off to retrieve the ball from where it landed a few metres away.

"Alright, y'all. Breakfast is in ten minutes, and you'd better get cleaned up before you're late again." Annabeth said, glancing pointedly at Travis and Connor, who were sneaking up behind Katie with what looked like a bucket of very cold water. "Incoming."

Katie quickly spun around, slam dunking the volleyball into the bucket, causing water to splash all over Travis' shirt. He smiled sheepishly at her, pointing accusatively at Connor.

"Uh, he bet me twenty drachma that I wouldn't do it. I was trying to prove him wrong so I could uh... buy you something nice?" Travis' voice got quieter with each word.

"Come on, you dork." Katie rolled her eyes at him, grabbing his hand. "Let's go get you cleaned up." She dragged him off to the Hermes cabin, scolding him the whole way. Connor ran after them, demanding Travis paid up.

"I'm going to go wake up Percy." Leo announced, dusting the sand off of his knees. "If someone doesn't wake that boy up, he could sleep through the apocalypse."

"Alright, and don't forget," Annabeth warned, fixing each of her friends with a harmless glare. "We have a meeting with Chiron after breakfast."

"Right, I'm going to go change," Piper stated, grabbing Annabeth's hand. "Come with?"

"Fine." She rolled her eyes, walking towards the Aphrodite cabin. "If I were you, I'd make sure to brush off all of the sand. Otherwise, you'll be getting your daily intake of iron through the sand you'll be shedding into your food." She snickered, plopping down on Piper's bed.

"Ugh, choices." Piper groaned, digging through her clothes in her storage chest. "Help?"

"With what?" Annabeth scoffed, looking at her friend with one eyebrow raised. "Fashion? Piper, I've been wearing nothing but Camp shirts and shorts since I was like eight." 

"Annie, seriously?" She pouted, tossing her pillow at her. "Humour me."

"Fine." She rooted through the clothes, pulling out a few pieces. "Uh, is this okay, your majesty?" She grabbed a black t-shirt, beige cuffed jeans, and a pair of black sandals.

"Perfect!" Piper exclaimed, stripping down to change. "So you're a whiny bitch, and a liar! You told me you were no good at this." 

"I'm not, Pipes." She laughed, throwing her pillow right back. "Now, it's breakfast time. I'm hungry."

Once breakfast had ended, Annabeth made her way to the Big House, running into Percy along the way. She bumped her shoulder against his, smiling brightly at him.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain! I thought I'd have to come wake you myself." She teased.

"Sorry, I accidentally set my alarm to go off tonight instead of this morning." He said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "My bad."

The two demigods walked into the Big House, sitting down around the ping-pong table. Annabeth looked around the room, taking note of who was there.

Jason and Piper sat together, beside Annabeth. Leo sat next to Jason, fingers moving a mile a minute as he tinkered with a small music box. Chiron sat at the head of the table, in his wheel chair. Nico and Will walked in after Percy sat down, bickering about the results of their volleyball game.

"Settle down," Chiron said, voice echoing around the room. "That's enough. Now that we're all here, I have an announcement that I would like to make."

Will and Nico plopped down into seats beside Percy, fixing their gaze upon the centaur.

"The gods have consulted with one another and have made a decision regarding your future. You've saved the world once again, and for that we believe you deserve a chance at experiencing some normalcy in your lives. There is only so much that we can teach you here, and we believe that getting a mortal education would give you a better fighting chance at beating the odds and doing something aside from killing monsters until you die."

"Wow, heartwarming." Nico mumbled. "Are you telling me that we're supposed to what? Go to school? That's the big idea?" He scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "This sounds more like a punishment to me."

"Oh, come on, Death Boy." Will put his arm around Nico's shoulders. "It can't be all that bad, can it? Granted, I haven't been to mortal school in a long time, but if I want to become a doctor, then I'll need to."

"At least give it a chance before you decide you hate it." Chiron sighed, exasperatedly. "You will be leaving tomorrow, so be sure to pack up your things. You will be staying in a house that was created for you by your parents. You'll be attending Goode High School, in New York." Chiron clapped his hands, and Percy paled drastically.

"Oh, great. Just fantastic." He threw his arms up in the air, hitting his head off of the ping-pong table. A few stale cheetos fell off of the table, cascading onto the floor. "If Sloan's still there, he's going to want me dead."

"Percy, you fought in two wars, and you're worried about a school bully?" Leo asked, setting down his trinket for the first time since he sat down. "Somehow, that's funny to me."

"Well, yes. You see, Leo, I can't kill Matt Sloan, since that's considered murder." He retorted, voice muffled from the table. "There are laws against that."

"I know what murder is, thank you." Leo rolled his eyes, blindly searching for something in his tool-belt. "I'm just saying, you could totally intimidate him into leaving you alone. You probably wouldn't even have to say anything to him. Just give him your meanest look and send him running to his mom. Or," He grinned mischievously. "You could let me have a crack at him." He cracked his knuckles.

"Cool it, Repair Boy." Piper commanded, rolling her eyes. "We're going to high school—to learn. At this rate, you'll have us expelled before we even start."

"Hey! You don't even know what I was going to say!" Leo pouted, crossing his arms over his chest. He sunk down into a position that mirrored Nico's. "So unfair."

"To be fair," Jason began, eyeing Leo carefully. "Your first suggestion was murder."

"I didn't suggest the murder!" He threw his hands up in disbelief. "Percy interpreted it wrong!"

Chiron sighed and clapped his hands twice. "Alright, I'm officially dismissing you all now. You are all excused from your activities tonight. Ms. McLean, Mitchell will take over Cabin inspections until you return for the holiday break."

"Sweet!" Piper grinned, grabbing Jason and Leo's hands. She saluted to her friends, before leading the two boys out of the Big House.

"Well, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth grinned, hoisting him out of his seat. "It's time to Iris Message your Mom and Paul, let them know you're coming." Annabeth waved goodbye to the remaining demigods and Chiron, before stalking out of the Big House, dragging Percy towards his cabin.

Taking another look around Camp, at Katie chasing Travis around with a wooden stick; at Malcolm waving to her from the window of the Athena Cabin; and the satyrs and dryads laughing amongst themselves in the strawberry fields, she realized that she was going to miss her home. Annabeth hoped to every god she could name that it would be a good year for her and her friends, and wondered if trouble would stop following her and her friends for just one year.

It didn't seem possible.

Chapter Text

Piper was unbelievably nervous, despite the fact that she refused to show it. The last normal school she went to didn't exactly go as she'd hoped, resulting in her having false memories of her ex-boyfriend implanted into her brain. She'd also almost died when she fell off the sky-walk at the Grand Canyon because of Dylan, her crazy-obsessive storm spirit stalker. While the ending had ended up being remotely happy, she still had some reservations about attending mortal school. Mostly, she was worried that people would assume things about her, considering the fact that her father was a world-famous movie star, and she really didn't want to draw that kind of attention to herself this year. She wanted to be the normal kind of weird new kid, where instead of being the kid of a goddess and a movie star, she could just be the sort of hipster skater kid type of kid who she'd always hung out with in the past. 

Even though she hadn't been showing it thus far, Annabeth still glanced at her with a look of concern on her face. Of course, the daughter of Athena could read her as if she were one of her own battle strategies and she had a magnifying glass. It was a stupid analogy, but she almost snorted at the thought of it. She gave her a double thumbs up, trying to convey that she would be okay.

Each of the demigods had piled into the back of one of the Camp's Strawberry Delivery vans, with only a duffel bag for each of them strewn across the floor. Argus was driving them to wherever they were staying. Knowing the gods, they would probably be sharing a tool shed in some unsuspecting neighbour's back garden, and paying thousands of dollars a month in rent expenses too. Unbeknownst to her, the van had stopped, and Piper didn't realize this until the back door was yanked open. Leo hadn't been wearing a seatbelt, and tumbled out onto the asphalt with a startled yelp. 

Her friends all hopped out of the van after him, and Jason offered his hand to her for support as she climbed out. She carefully looked over the building in front of them, and gasped in amazement at the pristine archways, beautiful landscaping, and marble columns.

"Oh, this is amazing," Leo gaped at the beauty of the architecture. "Is everyone else seeing this, or did I totally just give myself a concussion? This so couldn't have been there before." He rubbed at the back of his head, soothing over the spot where he'd connected with the asphalt. 

"Well, I'm sure you have lasting trauma from when you were dropped on your head as a baby the first time," Nico quipped, crossing his arms. "But yes, we see this too."

"Rude!" Will scolded, gently smacking the back of his head. "Be nice, Death Boy."

"Yeah," Leo stuck his tongue out at the boy. "Be nice to me." He laughed.

"I'll race you!" Annabeth challenged, and then took off towards the front door at a sprint. Hot on her heels, Percy and Leo sprinted after her, nearly toppling Nico over as they passed him.

"Oh, and I'm the rude one, huh?" He muttered, grabbing Will's arm. He dragged him towards the house after their friends, grumbling unhappily. "This is fucking bullshit."

"Language." Will scolded, a small smile on his lips. 

Piper grinned at the two of them, before sprinting after her friends. She launched herself at Annabeth's back, toppling the two of them over onto the ground. Percy stopped in his tracks, laughing obnoxiously as he helped them up off of the ground. Leo kept going, winning the race. He shouted with glee, only quieting down when Annabeth shot him a withering glare. 

The house in front of them was a beautiful Greek-style building, with ionic style columns on either side of the door. Annabeth approached the keypad on the door, quickly typing in an extensive series of numbers. The panel with the buttons popped out, and inside laid a single golden key. Piper hoped that more of these keys would be inside, otherwise Annabeth would be holding onto it.

Once they entered, she immediately noticed the grand staircase inside and grabbed hold of Leo's arm. She dragged him off to go explore the house, despite Annabeth's groans of frustration. Ever since Leo returned from Ogygia, he and Piper had become even closer than before. Once they'd saved the world, her false memories of Jason were wiped, and she realized that all of those things happened, just with Leo. She wasn't sure if maybe they had been dating before Jason was zapped into the picture, but she knew he had feelings for someone else, and she wasn't entirely sure that she still liked men.

After they toured the base floor of the house together, they met back up with the rest of the demigods to ascend the stairs. There were two floors of bedrooms, split up so that there were four on each floor, with an extra guest bedroom on the third floor. Annabeth, Piper, Percy and Leo were on the second floor, with Jason, Will, and Nico on the third floor. The second floor was also home to a gym, with gymnastics mats, training dummies, and some archery targets. Any other activities, such as rope climbing or track, could be done at the school's gym facility.

Piper searched the second floor for her bedroom, stopping in front of a dark oak door with her name engraved on it in gold lettering. She grasped the doorknob, taking a deep breath as she braced for Aphrodite Cabin Two: Electric Boogaloo. When she finally opened the door, however, she was pleasantly surprised. In fact, she liked this room. The floors were a laminated hardwood, with a fluffy teal rug on top. Her walls were painted white with one black accent wall, which was covered in photographs of her and her friends, her dad, and even some artwork that she'd made during the art therapy elective at the Wilderness School. Her bed was queen sized, with a modern-looking black bed frame. Her sheets were black, and her duvet was teal. She had a few throw pillows, one of which was shaped like Festus the dragon. On the opposite wall of her bed was a TV, hung at an angle that would make it possible for her to watch TV while lying in bed. 

Her desk sat against her photo wall, made of a dark oak wood. A stack of notebooks and binders lay neatly in the centre, and she had a pencil case filled with every writing tool she could think of. A printer sat on the far right corner of the desk, and was fully loaded with fresh ink and papers of all kinds. On the same wall as her desk, a door lead into her private bathroom, complete with a set of teal towels and various skin-care items, no doubt from her mother. 

She investigated her closet, noticing that all of the clothes inside seemed like something that she would pick for herself.

Thanks, Mom. You totally killed it, she thought to herself, before returning to her desk. She grabbed the teal and brown-striped jansport backpack hanging off of the chair, examining the insides. A bronze-coloured laptop with an omega insignia on it peaked out of the bag, filling her with delight. The case on it was the same teal colour as the backpack, which matched the case on the omega insignia cell-phone inside the bag as well. She grabbed the phone, turning it on. Her lock-screen was a picture of her and her dad at the beach, smiling for the camera. 

Piper realized just how exhausted she was, and quickly grabbed a hot shower. She changed into a pair of fuzzy pajama pants and a black t-shirt, before falling into bed. She immediately fell asleep, relishing in the comfort of the soft mattress beneath her spine.

Maybe things could be different for once. Maybe Piper could enjoy school and being a normal teenager, especially when she would be surrounded by her best friends. 

Chapter Text

Leo was dreaming. He was peacefully walking along the beach with his mother, and she had been smiling at him.

"I'm so proud of you," She'd said, a sparkle in her eye. "So very proud." He could have cried, and he likely would have if he hadn't immediately been drenched in water.

He gasped and rocketed upwards into a sitting position, groaning in discomfort at the water that coated him and seeped into the mattress under his legs.

"Jesus, Piper," He wheezed, shivering. "Normally I like to shower after I get out of bed." He glared at her, shaking the water out of his hair. "But really, thank you. You've introduced me to the life-changing practice of showering while in bed. I'm going to install a shower head on my ceiling, now. This is revolutionary thinking." He deadpanned, scooping up a handful of water to throw back at Piper.

"Ew, Leo." She stuck her tongue out at him, tossing a towel at him. "Now, get up! We leave for school in an hour. If we're late on our first day, I'll kill you." She stalked towards the door, before stopping in the doorway. "And don't you fucking dare lay back down."

"Yeah, there goes my plan of taking an ice bath in my bed, Pipes." He snarked, before getting out of bed. He walked to his bathroom, turning the water in his shower on to scalding hot. He sighed in relief as the warmth from the water cascaded down his spine, making him feel less like the undead and more like a normal kid who dreaded going to school.

Leo was seriously dreading going to Goode. He was perfectly happy being laughed at by his friends, because they did it from a place of love, but frankly he was terrified of what other people would think of him. Leo wasn't the most conventionally attractive, sure. He was what Piper called A Short King, standing at five foot five, and his muscles weren't super noticeable. His ears were pretty pointy, and his hair was too long, usually tied back with a bandana to keep it out of his eyes while he worked. He wasn't ugly by any means, of course, the godly part of his blood made him look surreally pretty in his own way, but that would make him an easy target. He was a short, pretty boy who liked other boys, and he was sure that he wasn't going to be at the top of the food chain anytime soon. He was also pretty smart, which concerned him, because he didn't want to be labelled as a nerd. So, unless he and their friends became hot shit on the first day because of their striking good looks and winning personalities, he had to consider cementing his reputation as the class clown, again. 

Ugh, he thought. Been there, done that.

Of course, Leo had all of his friends with him. Hazel and Frank couldn't join them, since the two of them needed to remain in their posts as the praetors of New Rome. He knew his friends would have his back if he got picked on, which was slightly reassuring. Leo could totally stick up for himself, but he didn't want to set someone's locker on fire, or brain them with a socket wrench before lunch. That wouldn't look too good on his permanent record, and he'd rather not get himself expelled on the first day. Piper was his best friend, sure, but gods was she scary.

Leo opened his closet, rooting through his clothes before settling on a pair of ripped black jeans, a faded orange t-shirt and a bomber jacket. He tugged on his Doc Martens, before shoving his school supplies into his black jansport backpack. He slipped the phone in his front pocket, and fastened his toolbelt around his waist. It's form shimmered, until it resembled a normal belt. Leo grinned at that, happy to have one less reason to draw negative attention to himself. He tied his unruly curls out of his face with an orange bandana, keeping the wild strands out of his eyes. 

Leo trekked down the stairs, grabbing a muffin off of the counter. He took a bite, before slipping two clementines into his backpack for later. Piper came down as Leo sat on the couch in the living room, grabbing a bagel before reaching into the fridge. She was wearing a pair of ripped blue jeans, with a cable-knit sweater tucked into the front. She'd elected to wear her vans, and her hair was down but pinned away from her face.

"Think fast, Leo!" She exclaimed, launching a brown paper bag at his face. He caught it an inch before it hit his face, wide-eyed.

"Watch it, Pipes!" He pouted. "That's my money maker." He laughed, putting it in his backpack. "What's in this, anyway?"

"What does it look like, man? It's your lunch." She shrugged, taking a bite of her bagel. "Apparently Annabeth and Jason had a late night last night making food for us all, so we'd have lunches. They're such mom-friends, right? Anyway," She took another bite, washing it down with a sip of cranberry juice. "How are you feeling about going back to school? We probably can't get away with nearly as much as we did at the Wilderness School... it's strange to say, but I miss Coach."

"Can I be honest with you for a second?" He sighed, putting down his muffin. He leaned in closer to Piper, lowering his voice drastically. "I'm super nervous. I don't want to draw a lot of attention to myself, and I'm sure that I'm going to be that new freak, and then I'll have to reinstate myself as the class clown again. I'm not sure I want to do that, you know? I'm sure the kids here won't be as shitty as they were in Texas, but I'm worried about running into that Sloan kid that Percy talked about." He sighed, leaning his head on Piper's shoulder. "Percy's like super intimidating. So if he's scared, then I'm terrified. I don't want to be a delinquent, Pipes."

"Leo, Kelphead was like thirteen or something back when Sloan was still relevant. If he's still shitty now, you could probably send him running in the opposite direction with that crazy smile you get when you're about to make a gods awful pun. Plus, if you don't want to be the class clown, then don't. Don't be a troublemaker if you don't want to! We're all there to support each other and make sure nobody blows anything up. You're not getting rid of me that easy, you know. Make your jokes, whatever, but don't become something you're not." She ran a comforting hand through his hair. "Fuck it, join the robotics club. Be a cool kid with nerdy interests. It's 2019, Leo. People have absolutely seen weirder!"

Piper pulled him into a hug, nearly crushing the life out of him. She finally released him, and handed him back his half-eaten muffin with a stern expression on her face. He readily began to eat again, watching as his friends began to trickle down the stairs. They all packed their lunches into their bags, grabbing breakfast and sat down together in the living room.

"Alright, how do we get to school?" Percy asked, after swallowing the world's largest bite of blueberry muffin. "Anyone know how to drive, aside from me?"

"There's a bunch of bikes and skateboards in the garage, and one car." Annabeth noted, filling up her water bottle from the filter inside the fridge. "The weather's pretty nice, so I was going to bike."

The rest of them nodded in agreement, and Leo walked into the garage. He grabbed a bronze-coloured helmet off of the wall, deciding on the black skateboard with orange flame details. Piper grabbed a teal board and a bronze helmet, grabbing Leo's hand. She gave it a squeeze, before saluting to the rest of her friends.

"Hell yeah, let's do this!" She fastened her helmet around her chin, before putting the board down on the ground. She hit the button to open the garage door, quickly taking off once it had opened all of the way. 

They took off in the direction of their new school, laughing together as they continued to wipe out. Leo absolutely did not fall, no matter what Jason had to say about it. Will forced Leo to let him patch him up, so Leo looked like a crazy person. He walked in the front doors of a new school with a skateboard in one hand, and the forearm of his other one wrapped tightly in bloody gauze.

He could only imagine what this looked like to everyone else. Six new, intimidating teenagers walk through the doors of the school together, three days into the term. One of which is bleeding profusely, and another of which is the long-lost Percy Jackson, who has a look in his eyes that says Don't fuck with me, because I've killed before. I've held the weight of the world on my shoulders, and you couldn't imagine what that's like! Percy had also blown up a portion of the school in the past, and his body was covered in gnarly looking scars. The front segment of his hair was a stark grey that contrasted the normal black colour, and it matched exactly with Annabeth's grey streak. Annabeth was also very intimidating with her calculating grey eyes and resting bitch face. Yeah, this couldn't have looked great.

Nico pushed past them, trudging along to what Leo believed was the main office. They still needed to acquire their schedules and be formally welcomed to the school. After receiving his schedule, Leo noticed that he had Math first period with Annabeth and Piper, which meant it would be a breeze. He strode over to his locker, which happened to be right next to Piper's. He gently put his skateboard and helmet in, dumping a few of his books and his lunch inside to grab later. He shut his locker door, heading off to class with his friends.

Once he got there, he chose a seat in the back row, dumping his bag down on the ground under his desk. He slid into the chair, with Piper on his left and Annabeth on his right. They compared the rest of their schedules, noticing that they all had English together at third period, Ancient Greek at fifth, and Gym at seventh. Piper was signed up for a communication studies elective, Annabeth for an architecture elective, and Leo for an integrated tech elective, which he was certain he could ace with his eyes closed. 

The teacher entered the classroom and pulled out her lesson plan, taking attendance. She immediately launched into an explanation of logarithms and trigonometric functions, and Leo sat up with interest. He took a few notes as she spoke, but he already knew all of the information, and could do it quickly in his head. He had always been exceptionally good at math, even as a little kid. He was doing college level math as an eight year old, but his teachers never liked that. 

Right as the bell rang, he quickly wrote down the homework for the class, and scooped up his belongings. He dumped them into his bag, laughing at a joke that Piper made. He said his goodbyes, before splitting off to go meet up with Will and Nico for their US history class.

They joined up at a group of tables on the left side of the classroom, and Leo took the time to set up his brand new phone, demonstrating to Nico how to use it. 

"So, you can set up a passcode here so you can open it, or you can use fingerprint ID to unlock it." He explained. 

Nico cocked his head to the side, a thoughtful look in his face.

"So, if you spend so much time in the forges," He hummed, raising an eyebrow. "Do you still have fingerprints?"

"Do I still—" Leo put his head in his hands, barking out a laugh. "Yes, I still have fingerprints. I'm kind of fire proof, hello?"

Will and Nico bust out into laughter at this, and Leo noticed a strange look they received from another student. She turned to her friend and made a motion implying that she thought they were smoking something.

"I have a lot of history to catch up on, don't I?" Nico sighed, tapping his fingers against the desk.

Leo nodded, before paying attention to the instructor who had begun her lesson plan. Of course, he found history to be very boring. It didn't have anything to do with what he wanted to do with his life, but he'd need the credit in order to graduate. He couldn't start his mechanics shop without his GED, and he was hoping to go off to college as well.

If he took it all one day at a time, his goals would become possible. He needed to appreciate this chance he'd been given at a normal life, because there was no guarantee he'd be given another one. He was going to make the most of this year, no matter what.

Chapter Text

Percy had totally forgotten that Matt Sloan was going to hold on to his grudge against him. By the time it was too late, Percy was already within the line of fire. He was at his locker, dumping in his textbooks from his first few classes. He grabbed his lunch as fast as he could, aching to sprint to his friends so they could chat about the day and compare notes. 

"Hey, Percy?" Annabeth asked, eyebrows scrunching together as she frowned. "Isn't that the guy I punched when we were like thirteen?" She straightened up from her relaxed position, pointing down the opposite end of the hallway. Her eyes were cold and calculating, like she was considering every outcome of a puzzle. She didn't seem thrilled about this puzzle. 

"Oh, fuck me." He groaned, slamming the locker door shut. "I can't believe I forgot about him. This can't be good." He finally took notice of Matt Sloan, who was strutting down the hallway with a disgusting little smirk on his face. His black hair was much longer than when he'd last seen him, though his face remained pretty much the same.

"Would you look at that," He smacked the brown paper bag out of Percy's hand, letting it hit the floor. "Percy Jackson has returned. Tell me, Jackson. Have you gotten detention yet?" He crushed the bag under his heel, kicking it down the hallway. 

"Not yet," Percy frowned, staring dejectedly at his lunch on the floor. "If you keep at it, I'm sure I will. I was going to eat that, you know." Percy shouldered his backpack, a sigh escaping his lips. 

Sloan grabbed Percy by the fabric of his shirt, slamming his back into the lockers. He jammed the length of his forearm against his throat, trapping him in place. Out of the corner of his eye, Percy took note of Annabeth rapidly typing away on her phone, likely texting Piper for damage control, should the need arise. 

"Listen up, Jackson." Sloan said, getting up in his face. "I've heard talk all over school about you and your friends. This is my school, so stay out of my way."

Annabeth tore his arm away from Percy, the zipper on the sleeve of her grey leather jacket tearing at his skin. Angry red lines danced across his skin, a thin line of blood forming in it's wake. 

"And who's this little bitch?" He smiled much too widely, a predatory gleam in his eyes.  "You seem familiar." 

"Don't you think it's a little counter-intuitive for you to warn us to stay out of your way, after specifically approaching us? You're sending very mixed signals." Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest, eyes stormy with unbridled rage. "I've kicked your ass once, and I'll do it again. Maybe you remember getting your ass beat by a little girl, say five years ago?" Percy used to love those eyes. He used to get lost in them, but now they just provided comfort to him above all else.

"No, how about you listen to me." Percy shoved Sloan backward, hard enough that he stumbled and tripped over Percy's demolished lunch. He landed flat on his ass, with a loud thump. "I don't really care who's school this is. I'm not letting a weak school bully like you push anyone around." Percy gave him a perfected wolf-glare, one that guaranteed that Percy was a lot rougher than he let on.

"Oh, yeah? What—What are you going to do about it, huh? What makes you think you're hot shit?" Sloan demanded, but his confidence faltered from the weight of Percy's glare. It seemed to say I've been through Hell, are you sure you want to try me?

"I can make you wish you were never born." Percy bent down, grabbing the smushed bag off of the floor. "How many mistakes are you willing to make today?" He tossed the bag into the nearby garbage can, heading off with Annabeth in the direction of the cafeteria, where they were supposed to meet with their friends.

"Don't worry, Seaweed Brain, we can share my lunch." She laughed, ruffling his hair with one hand.

"Thanks, Wise Girl." 

By the time they had reached the cafeteria, they were ten minutes into the lunch period. They sat down at the large picnic table with their friends, launching into an explanation of the events that had just happened.

"So, did he cry when you glared at him?" Will reached out a hand for a high five, grinning when Percy happily obliged.

"Listen, the murder option is still on the table," Leo offered, without looking up from the fortress he was making out of goldfish crackers. "Hypothetically, I mean."

"I actually might have considered it," Percy said, sheepishly. "He looked at Wise Girl like she was fresh meat, and I didn't like that at all. Of course, Annie can handle herself so I don't need to step in, but all I could think about was how punchable his face looked." Percy sighed, leaning his head on Jason's shoulder.

"Sure, Percy, I'll hold you." Jason spoke sarcastically, patting him densely on the top of his head. "There, there." At this, Nico snorted loudly and rolled his eyes.

"Listen," Nico sighed, leaning forward as he spoke. "As much as I would love to see a big fight scene between you and Sloan, you know Chiron is going to be disappointed in us if we get in trouble this early into the semester."

At the mention of the centaur's inevitable disappointment, they all winced a little, especially Annabeth.

"Oh, I know. That's not going to stop me from telling Sloan to eat a dick, though." Piper slammed her hand down on the table, a look of determination on her face. Leo put a hand on Piper's shoulder and shook his head.

"Alright, but I'm saying this as like, your best friend. Please, please do not use charmspeak when you tell him that."

The whole table erupted in raucous laughter, and Percy had tears streaming down his face.

"Oh, that was a really good one!" Percy shouted, clutching his stomach in slight pain as he continued giggling. 

"I—I don't even wanna think about what would happen." Annabeth wheezed between laughs, leaning on Percy for support as she reached into her bag to grab her lunch, which she was now going to share with Percy, since Matt Sloan had destroyed Percy's innocent lunch in his need to assert dominance over her best friend. 

"You know, you'd think that since my name has been all over the news and I'm like a nationally recognized delinquent or something, that he'd back off? Wasn't there like a manhunt for me when I went missing?" Percy wondered, shoving a forkful of pasta salad into his mouth. 

"Yeah, I'm going to say this with all of the love in the world, but you're like, mad intimidating. Like, you look like you could kill someone with very little remorse." Jason admitted, shrugging his shoulders.

"Bro... you love me?" Percy smirked, and gave Piper a high five when Jason got flustered. "You make it too easy, Jason." Percy snorted. 

"No, but really," Leo started, closing the lid on his own Tupperware. "You really are intimidating. You've got this whole punk vibe going on, you look either like a seasoned killer, or a detention veteran." 

"Well, you're sort of right." Percy shrugged, and then laughed at the look on Leo's face. "I meant about the detention! I've never killed a person. But my mom on the other hand..." He trailed off, snorting when he remembered how much money they'd made off that statue of Gabe. "She's quite the badass." Annabeth and Nico both nodded at this. 

The bell rang out and echoed within the cafeteria, causing their little group to start packing up their lunch so they could go to their lockers before class. Percy bunched the sleeves of his plaid shirt up to his elbows, showing off his SPQR tattoo, and a number of gnarly scars from where monsters had gotten him over the years. 

Percy and Annabeth walked back towards his locker where he grabbed his Introduction to Ancient Greek textbook out of the locker. This was going to be a breeze. He wandered into the classroom and looked around at all of his best friends, smiling to himself. He wondered if maybe, for once, he could be better at school. He wanted to make his mother proud. Of course, she was already so proud of him, but he wanted to be more. He wanted to go to college in New Rome with Annabeth and the rest of their friends, and he wanted to stick up for the kids who got picked on. Life as a demigod was far too short for Percy's liking, and maybe that's what made him so reckless—He didn't know how long they'd have together, before one or more of them died.