Chapter Text
I never noticed Percy Jackson until he disappeared. He was just the boy in the back of the class. A little odd, sure, but nothing to be concerned about... other than that time he blew up the band room. Simply put, he was just another student with behavioral issues. Then he just up and disappeared for months in the middle of our junior year.
Rumors exploded after that. They included, but were not limited to:
- He blew something else up and was arrested (somewhat plausible)
- He was on the run (from what we didn't know)
- He enlisted (He was underage)
- He was in the mafia (what?)
- He was killed (This is NYC its not that unlikely)
- He was visiting his no-contact dad (wasn't that guy "lost at sea")
- Lastly, he was abducted by aliens (really???)
Frankly, I didn't believe any of them. His step-dad was our English teacher; wouldn't he have told us if something had happened to Percy? I assumed he had just moved schools or had dropped out. The rumors were just because of some stupid thing that happened years ago that wasn't even Percy's fault.
After a while, the rumors died down, and people forgot all about Percy Jackson. Until he showed up in first-period US History on the first day of senior year.
***
I'm sitting at a desk at the back of my first period at eight am on a Monday morning, already trying to fight off the Senioritis, when the most interesting thing that has happened since Percy Jackson disappeared occurred: Percy Jackson walked into the room. Even our teacher looked shocked to see him. He walked over to her desk and just whispered something to her before walking to the back and plopping down in the seat next to me.
He looked different. The Percy from before was scrawny, of average height, and had a troublemaker grin. He had been a little guarded, but overall a nice guy. This was not the same person, at least not in any way that mattered. This Percy was tall, at least 6'3, and he was buff with a swimmer's build. He had a tattoo on his right forearm that was noticeable when his sweatshirt shifted. Another weird thing, who wears a sweatshirt in 80° weather? This Percy was heavily guarded and armed with a glare that made anyone who looked at him wither a little. Overall, though, he just seemed- tired. His shoulders were slumped, he kept his head down, and he tried to make himself as small as possible in his seat. Most noticeable of all were his eyes, previously a vivid sea green, similar to the Caribbean, which were now the dark green of a sea storm that drowns anyone who falls beneath its waves, not out of malice, but out of nature and necessity. Something happened to Percy Jackson, something bad.
I tried to pay attention to Mrs. Roberts, I really did, but my eyes kept straying back to the boy beside me. He was tapping his desk with a capped ballpoint pen while he took notes with a mechanical pencil, weird. His notes were weirder, though; they looked like they were written in some sort of European alphabet, Russian, no; Polish, no; maybe Greek?
Over the course of the day, I observed Percy as often as I could. I saw the way he looked over his shoulder and how he jumped when a locker slammed. I saw the way he picked at his food in lunch, and how the rumors that had begun to spread just rolled off him like water on a duck. Nothing seemed to bother him, not even the rumor that he had been adopted by a mafia boss (seriously, guys, try to come up with something at least plausible).
Nothing was enough to come up with any theories, but it all pointed to something horrible that he had been put through.
Soon enough, the day was over, and Percy was seen walking with his step-dad to his car, which was the most normal Percy had looked all day.
***
The next morning, the rumors had spread like wildfire; they included all the old ones and some more ridiculous new ones. None of them were founded in any sort of truth, except the ones that were about his appearance, and those were just observations passed on by the girls who had decided to take a crack at the mysterious bad boy.
Percy either didn't notice the rumors or didn't care, because he just went about his day, moving through the crowded hallways like a soldier finding his way through a chaotic battlefield, although with high schoolers instead of enemies, locker doors instead of grenades, and spitballs instead of bullets.
Everything continued as usual until lunch, which, because it was the second day of school, meant club rush.
Every club or sport in the school set up a table and then bombarded people like it was a Greek Village during rush week.
Everything from chess to Beta, to late (extremely late) football signups.
My friend Kelsey and I were signing up for the cheer squad when Kelsey started excitedly chattering in my ear,
"OMG, we should totally follow Percy to see what he's going to sign up for!!"
I side-eyed my best friend - hard.
"Why?"
"Because have you seen him. That boy is smoking hot,"
"For God's sake, Kelsey, keep it in your pants."
"Why should I? I'm single, and he's hot, so let's goooooo!!!"
"Fine, but only because I want to see what he signs up for. He seems lonely."
"Seeeeee, there's the stalker spirit."
I just rolled my eyes. Kelsey has always been like this: loud, proud, and more recently, unashamedly sexually active. But, Percy really did seem lonely. Yesterday, he ate lunch by himself in the library.
We began tailing the dark-haired boy from a distance and watched as he approached five different tables: the swim team, the fencing team, the track team (how athletic is this guy), the enviornmental club, and finally the Mytomagic team (why are they a 'team'?). By the time he reached his final stop, Kelsey and I had gotten close enough to hear him talking to the Mytomagic "team" captain. He had actually put his name down for all four of the previous clubs, though it appeared they all competed in the same season, but with different practice and competition days, with only a few overlaps, and the environmental club only truly met once a month.
We were approaching the mythomagic table in time to hear Percy say,
"My cousin is transferring here in about a week; he would absolutely love this."
"That's good to hear. We're a little low on members, and despite what people think, we do actually compete in tournaments."
"Cool, how does that work?"
"Same as any sport, we have a bracket, and whoever wins advances; there are team and individual events too."
"I'll have to let him know."
Then he walked away.
Kelsey turned to me with wide eyes, "Do you think his cousin is hot?"
"Shut up, the real question is, how do we get Percy to be friends with us? He needs friends, he's interesting, and we might actually solve his mysterious disappearance."
When did I become an amateur slouth? Well, if the shoe fits.
"And he might date one of us."
"Oh my gosh get your head out of the gutter."
"Calm down, I'm joking... mostly. It's simple, just invite him to sit with us at lunch."
Kelsey had a point, it's not like he was sitting with anyone else, plus if she's right about the other thing, I wouldn't exactly say no.