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Every trimester there was a parent-teacher conference. One before Thanksgiving, to ruin your holidays, one before spring break, to ruin your spring break trip and one before summer. In your senior year the one before Thanksgiving was extra … complicated. They would discuss what happens after high school. Percy didn’t think he was going to live past 16 and then he did. After that he got kidnapped, disappeared a bit, came back, went on an impossible quest and lived. So yeah, school was not a top priority.
The only upside to the Giant war was that the Romans and the Greeks met each other. So, now he could go to a university made for demigods. The parent-teacher conference would be fine as long as no one asked Percy what he wanted to study and where.
His leg kept shaking in anticipation. These things normally didn’t go so well for him. Softly, Sally shifted her hand from her own thighs to her sons, pulling him out of his thoughts.
“I have seen you slay monsters without a nerve in sight, but sitting here makes you vibrate out of your chair?” She smiled warmly. “Are Paul and you hiding something from me?”
Percy laughed at his moms joke. The halls were mainly empty, he could just see a few other students with their parents waiting for the last time slot of the conferences. Which made the squeaky noise of shoes speed walking across the linoleum all the more unsettling. Paul paced towards them with a binder in one arm and a coffee mug in the other. A bit of the brown juice spilling out of it. When he arrived he kissed Sally on the cheek and ruffled Percy’s hair with his elbow. Going to sit next to PErcy he took a last sip of his not steaming coffee, dropping the files in his lap.
“You ready, Perce?” He asked while opening the files to write down a few more notes about his students.
“I guess.” No, he wasn’t. They couldn’t kick you out when you were in your senior year, right? Right?
“I am sure it will be fine.” The man said with a small knowing grin.
The muttering in the hallway stopped as a couple walked by laughing. The sun seemed to shine brighter around them, which was ridiculous considering they were inside, in november, at 8 pm.
“Dad?” Percy asked, shocked looking at the man that stopped in front of him.Poseidon was wearing navy blue cotton pants with a white dress-shirt and brown shoes. Next to him stood Amphitrite in an elegant white satin sundress with golden heels. Both outfits looked straight out of a overpriced hollister catalogue.
Sally, unbothered by her son's shock, stood up and took Poseidon in a hug. “Po, I’m so glad you could make it. I was starting to worry.”
“Po?” The teen asked shocked.
The murmurs around them only seemed to escalate with every move that happened. Once Sally was done hugging her ex-lover she turned to his wife, giving the woman a hug aswell.
“Amphitrite lovely for you to join us.”
Percy looked bewildered at all of them. Because sure lets not address why his godly parent came to a parent teacher conference, or why they looked like them came straight from a private plane, or why his mom seemed bff’s with them?
“What is going on? Did you know they were coming?” Percy asked his mom and Paul accusingly.
Paul looked at Percy with a smile between humour and pity. smart. If he didn’t show remorse he would have blackjack trample his car again. “I only knew about Poseidon coming not about Amy.”
“Amy?” Percy asked in shock. “What happened to lady Amphitrite and Lord Poseidon?” He hissed at Paul.
“Well you did ask us to be more involved in the life of our demigod children.” Poseidon told with a small smile.
Percy could not counter that argument and Poseidon knew it. He only managed to sputter out a few words while his parents kept on chatting.
Mr. Smith stood in the doorway watching the scene unfold, eyes shifting from one couple to the other, to the teen in the middle. The demigod could see the doubt in his teachers eyes. A couple more seconds passed. “Jackson?”
“That is us.” Poseidon said with a smile.
—
The conference couldn’t have started worse. There were not enough chairs. The family before them had been with 3. A child and 2 regular normal parents.
Mr. Smith offered his chair to both Poseidon and Amphitrite at the same tide. Luckily Paul, and Percy who was forced to help, went to get the waiting chairs from the hallway. Why they couldn’t just sit at the desks behind them was beyond him. It seemed that those weren’t good enough for parents.
Somehow in that whole mess, Percy ended sitting in the middle. His biological parents next to him and his step-parents next to them. Poseidon had his hand on the back of Percy chair and his mom a hand on his knee.
Mr. Smith looked at the rag tag group of parents. His face going from left to right and back. The man made the same face as Percy when trying to understand calculus. Noting his confused dazed, Poseidon let a light cough escape his lips.
“Right. So you are Percy’s father?” The teacher started, getting out of his daze.
“Yes.” Poseidon answered simply.
“And you are his wife?” Mr Smith asked unsure pointing between the two.
Amphitrite lifted her eyebrow. “Yes.”
To which God did he have to pray to make him disappear? Could someone arrange that for him?
“Who else would I be?” The goddess asked, slightly insulted.
“No of course."The teacher said hastily, waving his arms. “I have never seen you before. I mean I just have never seen you, not that any teachers might have never seen you. Not that we have talked about you. We know of you!-” The teacher’s face became paler with every sentence he spoke. The man should consider joining a construction company with the way he was digging a hole right now. “- so it is not that we think you are not involved in Percy’s life.”
“John.”Paul said in a soft voice. “Maybe we should get started with the conference part of this parent-teacher conference?’
“Yes please.” Percy groaned. He never thought he would care so much about grades as he did now.
“Of course.” The man replied while going through some notes. “So Percy. Senior year exciting, no?”
“No” The teen answered which earned him a pointed look from his 4 parents.
A force laugh escaped the teachers mouth. “Percy here, always the jokester.”
After the lack of reply he swallowed and opened his files. His back straightened while looking over his grades. “ Okay, so overall Percy is doing good in his classes.”
Poseidon hand’s moved from the back of the chair to his son’s shoulder. “Nothing we need to worry about?”
“No. He has a B average which good considering the circumstances.” Mr. Smith replied.
Circumstances being kidnapped by your godly aunt on your dad’s side and then having to save the world again. In his opinion an F would still be an amazing grade considering the circumstances.
His mom gave him a small squeeze. Yeah the circumstances were still sensitive for him.
“His SAT-score and grades might not be the best, but he is our best swimmer. Coach has already had multiple inquiries and interested schools. NYU came to two practices and a swim meet. They seem very interested. Olympic level coaching.”
Before Percy could express himself, Poseidon spoke. “Percy will probably go to a private college in San Fransisco. Most of my family has gone there.”
“Oh that is interesting.” Mr.Smith started, and really should have stopped there. “Did your aunt go there as well?”
“The one that kidnapped me or the other one?” Percy asked innocently. In the corner of his eye he could see the smile on his dad's lips while his mom just looked exasperated.
“The other one…” The teacher whispered in mortification.
“Yeah, she did.” He smiled.
“Okay…” The teacher said quietly, silently relieved at the reply.
Paul just sighed, helping his fellow teacher out. “He wants to become a marine biologist.”
“Okay, okay, …” The man muttered. He shuffled through some papers. After a couple of awkward seconds he fished a paper out of the stack and put it on top. “So, we did discus that with all of us teachers. We think it is an ambitious option.”
"Ambitious?" The sea god asked dangerously sharp.
“Well it comes with a lot of theory. We think that the ADHD and the dyslexia might make it to challenging for him, right Paul?” Mr Smith said, looking over to Paul with a look that screamed help.
“I don’t think so.” Paul simply replied. “I know Percy. I know how he is with sea animals. He has the touch. Yeah, studying might be harder for him but not impossible. He is passionate and I know he can do it. Didn’t I say this already at the meeting beforehand?”
“Well, I probably missed that.” The teacher coughed.
“The dyslexia will be less of a problem in university.” Poseidon declared. The poor man looked confused at his father. “ You see, they teach in his mother tongue.”
Percy groaned. How was he going to explain this? Hey teach I actually speak ancient greek, yeah never mentioned it. Crazy right! Also Latin, while more difficult, easier than English.
Suddenly the teacher seemed to have a light bulb moment. “Oh, because you are from Greece right? So the classes will be in Greek?”
“Yes.” His mother answered, smiling while giving a little white lie. “It is a legacy type of college. Keeps the kids close to the roots, right Percy?”
Thank god that his mother could lie. “Absolutely, I already visited the campus and the town. Felt really connected to my ancestors. It almost felt like they were walking along me.” More like shouting in a square.
Amphitrite smiled through the comment while her husband had a suspicious coughing fit. “It will be so great to have him closer to home. Triton will be so excited to see you again.” She said smiling and putting her hand on her husband's lap while looking at her step-son.
Percy was certain that he could hear Paul mutter “don’t ask” over and over again.
“Triton?” Mr. Smith asked while a of-course-he-asked was muttered from Paul’s side of the room.
“Our son.” The woman explained. “He loves his little brother a lot but doesn’t get to spend a lot of time with him. He wanted to be here today, but we thought it would be a bit much. I am certain though he is waiting outside of the school to get the whole debrief.”
While Amphitrite might have been smiling, Percy looked horrified. “Like a fucking creep.”
“Percy.” Sally chided him.
“What? It is creepy. He is and adult lingering around a high school. He can be glad if no one calls the cops.” the demigod defended himself.
“They are very close.” Poseidon claimed.
“I notice.” The teacher said unconvinced.
—
After the conference, which lasted another awful 10 minutes of awkward jokes and feedback, they could finally leave. Percy felt like Argus was watching him but it were just the teachers
“Thank you so much for coming Po.” His mom said while hugging his dad a bit to close and long.
He looked over to Paul, cause sure the man would be jealous. Instead he found him hugging his stepmom a bit to close to long. “Thanks for coming, Amy. Percy might not say it, but we know he appreciates you guys coming.”
“Paul.” Percy hissed.
“Calm down sweety.” his mom said softly, petting his back. She walked over to Amphitrite. “Thank you so much for coming. Next time we will go for dinner after.”
“Absolutly.” The godess replied, again hugging for too long.
He looked over to his dad and Paul. Sure, they wouldn’t be hugging… as tight as a sea clam. “It was nice to see you again Paul.” Again? again? again? “You look out for my boy, alright? Don’t let those NYU-admissions tempt him.”
“Not even a full scholarship will get passed me.” He replied laughing.
Then he got a long hug from both Gods who then take their leave. Probably flashing away the second they were out of sight.
“What was that?” He asked his mom and Paul while they were walking to the car.
“What do you mean Percy?” His mom asked.
“You two seemed really close with Poseidon and Amphitrite.” He replied.
“The success to a good co parenting relation is communication and acceptance of the other.” She simply said.
“I might be obvious, but not that obvious.” He countered. “Even you were weirdly close with my dad. Like shouldn’t he hate you or you hate him or whatever?”
“Or whatever?” Paul repeated smiling.
“You know what I mean.” Then muttered annoyed.
“Were you glad that they came?” His mom asked.
“Don’t change the subject.” Percy exclaimed, only to receive a small look from his mom. “Yeah, it was nice,” he sighed.
–
“No, Mark you don’t understand! It was so awkward. Whatever I said, just made it worse.” Mr Smith groaned on Monday after the parent-teacher conferences. Only to receive more laughter from his colleagues. “ Yeah, yeah laugh all you want. Next time I am sending them to you.”
“What could have possibly been so bad?” The swimcoach asked the man.
“Well, for one your star swimmer isn’t going to swim for NYU.” He started.
“What” the coach asked dumbfounded. The kid was a New Yorker through and through. No way was he leaving for another college.
“Yeah. He is going to college in San Fransico.” The teacher said a bit more unhinged.
“Why?” Mark asked surprised.
“It is a private college. His whole family has attended it.” The man explained, raising his voice in a mocking tone at the second part.
“Also his aunt? Like kidnapper aunt?” The coach asked, worried.
“I asked the same thing.” John replied.
“Idiot.” He heard the math teacher Jennifer mutter under his breath.
“Yeah, idiot indeed. Apparently the fact that your kidnapper aunt might have gone to the same school is a sensitive subject. Who would have guessed? Not my stupid ass.” The teacher exclaimed loudly. “But that wasn’t the worst part!”
“How can it be worse?” The swimmer asked. While more and more colleagues gathered around.
“I told them that studying for marine biologist is a bit of an ambitious goal for the kid. I have never felt as threatened in my life. It was 4 against 1.” He explained.
“Well obviously Paul talked some sense into them? I can understand that Pe-”
“No, Percy was the one on my side. Well, if my side was him wanting it to end as quickly as possible. Paul agreed with them, saying that Percy got the touch.” Mr Smith said ending in a groan.
“Damn.” The coach said.
“Yeah so I just pissed off some very powerful people and a fellow teacher.” The man
“ Yeah they did look… impressive.” Jennifer muses out loud.
“They could be models with those looks.” The swimcoach contemplates.
“Do you think Paul ever…” Another colleague questioned.
“No…” Mr Smith crows.
“I am just saying you never know. More and more people are being polly now a days.” Jennifer laughs.
“Goodmorning” Paul smiles while entering the room.