Percy Pov

I awoke to my phones alarm. It was blaring a song from Greenday that Thalia had shown me. I groaned, it was the first day of school. It was hard to believe that I was a junior in high school. Especially since I missed my entire sophomore year, somehow my stepdad Paul had worked it out with the school to advance my grade.

I turned the alarm off looking at the time; it was six in the morning. I groaned again, this was going to be a long school year. My friends from the war had all returned to camp or went to different schools, so I was alone again. Annabeth wasn't even going to school this fall, she was going to stay at camp with the others. They had asked me to stay buy I couldn't leave my mom alone again, especially since the year I had just had.

After taking a shower, brushing my teeth, and getting dressed, I joined Paul in the living room. Now you might think it would be awkward to have your stepdad be a teacher at your school but Paul was a pretty cool guy. I looked in the kitchen and he had left me a piece of toast for breakfast.

"So Percy, you ready to take on school again?" Paul asked after I had put some jam on the toast.

I smiled, "Paul to be honest this is going to be the easiest thing I've done in a long time."

Paul chuckled, "Of course it is. Though your friends are going to have lots of questions for you."

Crap I hadn't thought of that, my mortal friends had no idea why I disappeared for half the school year. I had no idea what I was going to tell them.

Paul walked over and patted my shoulder, "Don't worry about it too much, they'll just be glad to see you're safe and sound. Though they may wonder why you're in better shape since you left."

I smiled, "Well almost dying every day of your life will provide some benefits I suppose." Hopefully I could come up with some reasonable excuse as to why I missed most of last year. If not then my friends would hate me. Then I would be completely alone this year.

"Hey lets hit the road jack, I gotta get my class ready," Paul said tossing me my backpack.

I got in the car with Paul, now I know what you're thinking how lame is it that a seventeen year old kid has to rely on his parents to drive him around. Well let's see you be able to afford a car after missing a year and fighting for your life almost every day.

On the drive to school I realized that I was actually nervous. The thought almost made me chuckle. I had faced down two of the worst beings in the universe and I was scared of stepping foot in a school full of harmless mortals. Actually now that I think of it, I'd rather face the Minotaur again than go to school.

We arrived at the school and Paul parked the car. I took a deep breath trying to calm my nerves.

"Hey Percy, it's okay to be nervous, you're only human," Paul said patting my shoulder.

I chuckled, "I'm more scared of going to school than fighting a monster that could potentially kill me. How messed up is that?"

"Look Percy, I don't know what you've been through and I won't try to and understand, but it's normal to be scared of something you're not sure of. I mean, with monsters that are trying to kill you they attack and you kill them, it's pretty straight forward. School you can never predict what will happen; each day has its own struggle. So for you to feel like you would rather fight monsters than go back to school isn't weird, you've been out of the mortal world for over a year, so it's foreign to you. Don't worry about it." Paul said with a smile.

"God Paul you sounded like Annabeth there for a second," I told him smiling.

He chuckled, "Well when you were gone for awhile, we saw her quite a bit. So I guess she rubbed off on me a bit."

"Thank you Paul, it means a lot, you trying to help me."

"Hey Percy, you're like a son to me so I would do anything to help you get better." Paul told me a little hesitantly.

I smiled at him, "Paul you're definitely the best father I've ever had." With that I got out of the car and walked towards the school. It wasn't until that I realized how lucky I was to have Paul there for me. Sure he took care of my mom and made her happy, but Paul was there for me too. He even accepted this crazy world of gods and monsters for us so he is a really good guy.

I arrived at the front door of the school and I could already see a few kids walking around the hallways. School didn't start for another half hour, why are there so many people here? I sighed, might as well get it over with. I pushed open the doors and the little pinging sound went off drawing everyone's attention. All of them that were there stared at me, like I was some kind of ghost. It was unnerving to say the least. I felt like a piece of meat thrown in a shark tank.

Slowly they all went back to what they were doing before I got there, thought they still cast me suspicious glances every now and then. This was going to be a long day I thought as I walked to my locker. I put my combination in and when I opened the locker I was surprised to find it had the things I left in it last year when I disappeared.

There were pictures of Annabeth, Grover and me in there from when the Titan war had ended. I looked at it and realized we had all changed so much from the day that picture had been taken, not mentally but physically too. There was a picture of me and Thalia from Christmas after we had returned Hades sword to him. The final picture was all of Camp Half-Blood after the Titan war. We all looked tired but we were all smiling, and for some reason they had pushed me up front and I was tripping when they took the picture. It brought a small smile to my face, I missed those day. I wouldn't change anything though, the friends I'd made since then and all that we had done was unforgettable.

I closed the locker and decided I needed to update those pictures in there. Though how I'd get pictures from the rest of the seven was beyond me. It would be kind of weird to be like; hey guys, can you send me some pictures so I can look at you every day in my locker? I chuckled to myself, I would have to find a way.

As I was turning away from my locker someone pushed me with all that they had. I was about to use all the training I had received when I remembered these were mortal, no reason to harm them. So I let the force of the push bring me to the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL JACKSON!" The guy who pushed me yelled.

I chuckled when I realized whose voice it was, "It's nice to see you too John." John was on the wrestling team for the school and he was pretty muscular. He was one of the best in the state but he was like five' six". I picked myself up and brushed off the dirt from the ground.

Apparently John wasn't done being mad, he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and pushed me against the lockers. His face was red with anger.

"You're gone for a year and you think you can just walk back in here like nothing ever happened? We all thought you were dead! Paul wouldn't tell us what happened, but every time we asked he always had a pained look on his face, so we assumed the worst." John growled in my face, he occasionally spit on my face. And no, as son of Poseidon I can't control spit.

"Hey buddy can you put me down and we can talk?" I asked patting his shoulder. John pushed me one more time and set me down. I chuckled, I was still at least a head taller than him and I let him man handle me.

"You best get to talking 'buddy'," John said air quoting buddy.

I sighed, what could I tell him?

"Look John man, I had some complicated stuff going on last year."

John scoffed at this, "Man you don't think we know you're always lying to us about the things you do? Come on bro, be straight forward for once. Usually we can put up with you being a little secretive but disappearing for a year without any word from you? That requires a legit explanation."

Wow, they knew I lied yet still stayed friends with me? I still didn't know what to say.

I sighed, "Like I said it's complicated and I'm trying to figure out what to tell you."

"Meaning you're trying to come up with an adequate lie to tell us?"

"No, what I'm saying is it was weird for me too, you think I wanted to get abducted for over a year?" I said with a little bit of an edge in my voice.

John softened up a bit, "You were abducted?"

Woops, I wasn't supposed to say that, but it could be a good cover story…

I wiped my face with my hand, "Yeah, some crazy dude took me to California and held me there a while."

"Wow you're lucky to be alive bro. I'm glad you made it out alive, but how are you bigger now than when you left?"

Of course the wrestler would be interested in muscles, "Well being a captive you don't have too much to do, so instead of cry at night I worked out." Luckily John seemed to buy this as he was nodding his head.

"I can respect that, but how did you get out?"

"Well, um, one night the dude was gone for a little bit and there was a window in my room so I kicked it out and I ran away. I spent most of my time trying to find out where I was, they dude had trapped me out in the woods." John was wide eyed after I told him what had happened. I have spent way too much time with the Stolls.

He gave me one of those man hugs, "If you ever need anything bro don't hesitate to ask."

I chuckled, "Don't worry, I should be good. But hey where are the others at?"

"Tim should be here in a few and Kayla she should be here right before the bell." John put a little emphasis on Kayla.

Kayla was a good friend but she didn't want to be just friends she really liked me, she probably took me disappearance really hard.

I sighed, "How did she take my 'absence'?"

Johns smile melted off his face, "At first she wasn't worried like the rest of us, but when weeks turned into months she started freaking out. Every day you weren't here she would cry, so the last few months of school she cried every single day. And she constantly went to Paul's classroom to ask about you, you could hear her screaming halfway across the campus."

I felt really bad, Hera had messed everything up even the mortals cried for me. I really needed to talk to her. Though if she hadn't taken me we might have lost the war so I could see the reasoning, didn't mean I had to like it.

"So bro you still gonna string her along like you have since freshman year?" John asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

"Bro we both know you don't have a girlfriend and you keep toying with Kayla making her feel bad. You finally gonna cave in and go out with her?"

I shook my head, "I have a girlfriend, why would I lie about that?"

"Whatever man," John said walking to his locker.

I followed him over there and was surprised to see when he opened it a picture of me in there. It was a picture of the four of us John, Tim, Kayla, and me. We had went to the bowling alley the night before I left to camp to get abducted. I had a piece of pizza in my hand laughing cause Tim had said something stupid. John was holding up bunny ears behind my head while Kayla was leaning into me laughing as well. That had been a fun night.

John noticed me looking at the photo, "Yeah I put that there to remind myself of the fun times and to keep my hopes up." He said chuckling.

I threw my arm over his shoulder, "There's nothing wrong with having a picture of me in your locker man, don't worry about it."

I was about to say something again when someone tackled me out of nowhere. I was getting tired of this, couldn't my friends just yell? Why did they have to hurt me? The dude who had tackled me stayed on top and started swinging on me. Now Chiron says to never hurt mortals but I mean I needed to protect myself. So I used something Clarisse had actually taught me, I grabbed his shoulders and got a leg underneath him in his stomach, then I pushed with all my strength and got him off me. I stood up and looked to see where the kid had gone, I had an idea who it was already.

Lying a few feet away was my friend Tim. He was taller than me with a slightly muscular build, with blonde hair wavy like mine and green eyes. He was a corner on the football team which explained the tackling. I looked over at John and saw he was staring at me in shock. Then I realized they didn't know I could fight; well I guess they are going to learn a lot about me today.

Tim got up and glared at me, "So you finally decided to come back Percy? That's good, I hope you enjoyed your little vacation. Your friends here didn't really enjoy it too much though, I guess were nobodies to you, didn't even have the courtesy to call and say hey I'm having a blast, hope you guys don't mind the sudden disappearance."

"Can you let me explain what happened first?" I said slightly annoyed.

"Yeah explain, I'd like to hear how you learned to fight like you did, cause nobody and I mean nobody can do that to me. I've been trained in all sorts of mixed martial arts and you threw me off like I was a toy."

So I told Tim the same story I had told John about being kidnapped and taken to California, and escaping and running away in the woods. Tim had the same reaction as John, turning real serious in a second and not mad anymore.

He scratched his head awkwardly, "Yeah, sorry about attacking you over that, I was just kind of pissed."

"Don't worry about it bro, no harm done."

"You know bro the football team missed you last season," John said recovering to normal.

I sighed, I had joined the football team cause I lost a bet and it turns out I was pretty decent and actually started for us. I played quarterback and I was one of the tops in the state.

"Yeah I wished I could of played, trust me."

Tim threw an arm over my shoulders and then one over Johns, "Don't worry about it, this year were going to the championship." He began to steer us off to our homerooms as the bell was about to ring.

I chuckled, "You might b-,"

"PERCY!" A girl screamed and you could hear running, I barely had time to turn around before the girl ran into me nearly knocking me over. The girl who could only be Kayla was hugging me and I realized crying into my chest.

I hugged her back, "Hey Kayla, long time no see, huh?"

She pulled away and I could see her mascara running from the tears, "Yeah, you know only a YEAR!" She screamed as she slapped me across the face.

I was getting pretty annoyed with the physical abuse my friends seemed to like handing out to me.

"Look I'm sorry okay, I didn't plan this," I told her grabbing her shoulders. I told her the same story I told the other two. After I was done she began crying again. "Hey no need for tears, I'm here now." I said wiping the tears off her face.

She hadn't changed much since I'd last seen her, she still had the straight brown hair and the startling blue eyes. She still wore hardly any makeup which was because of me, she knew I didn't like makeup on girls. She leaned back in for another hug.

I turned to my other friends, "You guys wanna join in too, I mean we can get this all over with right here." They both just smiled and came in for the group hug.

After a minute they got off and so did Kayla, she seemed to be in a real good mood.

"I'm so glad you're back Percy, we have so much to catch up on," She said with a sparkle in her eye. I didn't really like what she was implying there. We began walking away and she slipped her hand into mine.

I was about to pull my hand out of hers when I heard, "Perseus Jackson!" I couldn't help but get a huge grin on my face, there was only one person that voice could belong to.

I broke my hand free of Kaylas and ran towards the person who had yelled my name. I scooped her up and kissed her, I was so happy it didn't even occur to me that she wasn't supposed to be here.

"Hello Annabeth," I said resting my forehead against hers.

"So Percy you care to explain your little girlfriend over there." Annabeth said with a slight blush on her cheeks. I smiled, glad that I could still do that to her.

"We're just friends, you have absolutely nothing to worry about," I said pecking her on the lips. I looked behind her and nearly had a heart attack. The entire prophecy of the seven were there. They were all looking anywhere but at me and Annabeth. I spun her around so they would know that I was done embarrassing them in public.

"So guys, you just wanted to come and say hi?" I asked looking at them all.

"No seaweed brain, were attending Goode with you this year." Annabeth told me.

Something inside me must of burst with happiness because I was hugging everyone of them. They were all kind of disgruntled by my sudden outburst of happiness but I didn't mind.

"Gods Percy, it's good to see you too," Jason said fixing his shirt. I was finally about the same height as Jason now so that was good. His usually close cropped hair was grown out a bit, thanks to me persuading him to let it grow for a while. I found it funny that he was wearing a purple shirt to the school, I guess old habits die hard. Piper didn't look too much different either she was still pretty without trying to flaunt it. Her hair was still choppy and uneven but it was her and it was kind of cute on her. Hazel still had those piercing gold eyes and brown curly hair. Frank was the most different he had grown at least three or four inches since I had last seen him. He still had the close cropped hair. Leo had put on some muscle but not much but he still had that mischievous light in his eye.

Then there was Annabeth. She looked like a million bucks, she had her golden hair loose falling around her shoulders with owl earrings on. She had absolutely no makeup on and I didn't think there was a prettier girl anywhere in the whole world. Even if Aphrodite came down to earth right now all I would see is Annabeth in her. Those eyes that I had fallen for were still just as pretty as ever on her. Even the clothes she wore were amazing on her. She had on white skinny jean with a black belt. Her shirt was black as well, it almost looked like something Thalia had given her.

I slipped my hand into hers, "You guys wanna go meet my other friends?" They all said why not so I took them over to them. I noticed Kayla looking between me and Annabeth and she looked about ready to cry again.

"Well guys this is John, Tim, and Kayla," I said and when I said their name they waved at us. "And this John, is my girlfriend, Annabeth." I said bringing her up to him.

"Okay fine I believe you gosh." John said pushing me away. "So who are the rest of these guys?" He asked.

"The blonde one is Jason, the one holding his hand is his girlfriend Piper,(Tim groaned at that one) the tall Asian guy is Frank, holding his hand is his girlfriend Hazel, then last but not least this little elf boy is Leo."

"Well it's nice to meet all of you. A friend of Percy is a friend of mine." John told everyone.

"So how do you all know eachother?" Kayla asked us.

"Umm…," was all I could manage to say.

Luckily Piper was there to save the day, "We all go to the summer camp with Percy." Why didn't I think to say that?

"Oh so the summer camp he won't tell us about?" Kayla said giving me the evil eye.

"What do you want to know about it? It's a regular summer camp," Annabeth told her.

"Well I want to know why Percy can't tell us where it's at so we can go with you guys."

"Well you see the thing is you don't really sign up there, they more or less go find you and ask you to go." Annabeth told her.

"So you mean like Hogwarts?"

"Yeah if you want to compare it to that,"

Kayla didn't look too happy with the answer but figured it was the best she was going to get. Luckily the bell rang for us to go to homeroom. I had never been so happy to hear a school bell in my entire life.

Please review and tell me what you thought. I don't own PJO or HOO Rick Riordan does.