Author's Note: I hope you guys like my…fifth Pernico fanfic. I haven't really started the other fanfics except for The Violin That Started it All and The Risk in the Choice. Well, hope you guys like this new fanfic I came up with!
Oh and also, this is in Percy's POV. Just a note so you guys don't get confused.
My prologues are pretty short, so my chapters are actually a bit longer than this. Just a heads up.
Note: Sorry for any kind of mistakes! I do not have an editor/beta reader, so this fanfic isn't perfect in terms of grammar, punctuation, etc. I am all on my own on this fanfic…how sad.
Warning: Bullying, violence (I'll add more along the way)
Disclaimer: Pshh, you think I'm Rick Riordan? Please. Also, "Yancy" for the school name is from the first book The Lightning Thief. The actual school name is "Yancy Academy".
Depression
Author: Loving Healer
Prologue
"Percy, is there something wrong?" My best friend, Grover, asked me.
I was on high alert. I felt something wrong was happening around the small elementary school, but I couldn't place what.
"I'm going to go check." I got up from my seat on the swing and raced off without hearing Grover's consent.
I was Percy Jackson: sixth grader at Yancy Elementary. I had one best friend, which was Grover. I was always teased by this girl named Nancy Bobofit from my class, but I never paid her any attention. I just tried to ignore her as best as I could. Which wasn't my best because I was ADHD, and I really wanted to beat her up and teach her a lesson. If Grover wasn't there with me, then Nancy Bobofit would've been renamed to Nancy Bobo-unfit. She would have been really unfit after I was done with her.
I sprinted from the swing set and set my destination to a place where none of the upper graders of the elementary school were allowed to go: the lower graders' playground. It was a large, blue playground with three slides about three or four times my size. There were steps leading up to the second floor of the playground, which had the entrance to the three slides and the "get the ball through the maze" game installed into the wall of the playground. There was a smaller slide at the front of the playground, and underneath the playground there was a fake steering wheel and a fake stick shift. And that was the source of my bad feeling.
There were three kids from another sixth grade class kicked at a boy on the floor. I couldn't really see well from the three bodies that were currently kicked at him and stomping around, but I didn't care. Rage washed over me and before I knew it, I punched the closest guy across the cheek.
He stumbled backward and immediately brought a hand up to his cheek. He glared at me, and his other friends stopped kicking the poor guy that was curled up on the ground. I glared back at them as they all turned to me.
"Well, who are you?" One lean-back sixth grader said with a cocky grin. I wanted to wipe that cocky grin off of his stupid little face.
"None of your concern," I snapped. "What do you think you're doing to him?" I gestured towards the guy on the ground.
"My mom was too busy going to work, that she forgot to pack me lunch," The cocky guy huffed while crossing his arms over his chest. "So, I decided to take this guy's lunch."
"That doesn't mean you beat him up for it!" I yelled at him, even though I could sense his obvious lie. "Who do you think you are?!"
The cocky guy shrugged. "It's three sixth graders against a scrawny little fourth grader. Who do you think is going to win?"
"I am."
I ran towards the cocky guy and punched him square in the face before he could even react. He staggered backward as well and fell on his bottom.
He gritted his teeth and glared up at me from the ground. "Who do you think you are?!"
"Percy Jackson, who is also a sixth grader," I finally answered before kicking him in the chest.
After I beat those guys up and they ran away, my attention turned to the boy on the ground. But he was no longer on the ground; he was standing by a tree, staring at me with astonishment.
He had short, black hair and big, dark brown eyes. He had olive-toned skin and he was pretty scrawny. But, he was just a fourth grader, so I shouldn't blame him. He wore navy blue jeans and a plain gray T-shirt. He had a black watch on his wrist which looked really expensive.
I gently smiled and walked up to him and held out my hand. "I'm Percy Jackson, nice to meet you. Do you…want to be friends with me and my other friend?"
He frowned in confusion. I guess it was rare for him to have others show kindness to him.
"Um, I'm Nico. Nico di Angelo," He timidly replied.
I continued to smile at him. "Do you want to be friends with me?"
"Do…do you really want to?" He asked for reassurance, shifting his weight between his feet.
I raised an eyebrow. "'Course I do." I stretched out my hand towards him and cocked my head to the side. "Do you want to be my friend?"
He smiled brightly at me and nodded. "I really do!"
And he took my hand and our fingers intertwined.
I brought Nico over to where I ditched Grover—the swing set. He was still there, aimlessly swinging back and forth. He didn't seem to be thinking of anything in particular. He just looked straight ahead in a world full of nothing. As I like to call it, he was zoning out.
"Hey, G-man!" I called over to Grover, startling him out of his world of nothing.
He turned to me and attempted to glare at me, but it didn't work. He always had a light mood to him, so it was almost impossible for him to be angry; especially at me.
"Where'd you go, Perce?!" He exclaimed at me. "Yes, just go right ahead and ditch me. That is absolutely fine!"
I chuckled. I just loved Grover's constant ramblings. "Sorry, dude. I just had this strange feeling, and it turns out that these jerks were beating up Nico."
"Nico?" Grover raised an eyebrow. His gaze finally landed on the olive-skinned boy next to me. "Oh, so that's Nico." He chuckled in embarrassment and casually shoved his fist into his pocket "I'm Grover, but you can call me G-man if you want. Percy does anyway.
"So, these jerks were just beating Nico up? For what?" Grover asked.
I shrugged. "I have no idea. Nico, do you know?"
Nico rubbed his right forearm. "They wanted my watch."
"Your watch?" Grover raised an eyebrow again. He glanced at Nico's wrist and his eyes widened. "Dude, that is an ex-pen-sive watch! Where did you get that from?"
"My dad got it for me for my birthday," Nico replied.
"That is some birthday," Grover muttered. "So, are we adding a new addition to our group?"
I laughed. "Two people can't even be considered as a group. But yeah, I want to be friends with Nico. You want to?"
"I'm all in, Perce. But, we need a nickname for him."
Nico knit his eyebrows together. "A…nickname?" He cocked his head to the side.
"Yeah," Grover said, "like how I'm G-man and Percy is Perce. What about…Neeks?" Grover grinned. "Yeah, Neeks will be perfect for you. How about it?"
I nodded and mirrored his grin. "I like it."
Nico gave us a small smile. "It's fine."
"Come on," Grover patted Nico on the shoulder. "You don't have to be so polite, you know. Are we your first friends that you've ever had?"
Nico slightly nodded. "Yes, actually, I've never had friends before."
"Then, I guess this is an honor of being your first friends ever, right, Perce?" He glanced at me.
I nodded. "We better make this friendship with you something special."
Today it was now promotion day. Grover and I were moving to intermediate school. We made a huge bond with Nico, and both of us didn't want to leave him alone. He didn't have any other friends, and we felt pretty bad for leaving him. But we didn't have much of a choice. We didn't want to stay at elementary school forever until Nico got promoted when he was in sixth grade.
"Man! Why can't Neeks skip grades or something?!" Grover complained after the promotion ceremony was over.
"Well, he is smart," I pointed out. "But he can't just skip grades, you know."
Grover groaned. "This is so unfair!"
"I'll be fine."
Both of us whirled around to find the topic of our conversation, Nico di Angelo. Or Neeks the Angel, which is what Grover called him when he found out his last name.
"You sure, Neeks?" Grover asked with a hint of concern lacing his voice.
Nico nodded and fidgeted with his fingers, which was what he did when he was nervous or lying. Don't call me creepy, but I learned that over the few months I had with Nico. He fidgeted with his feet or his fingers whenever he was nervous or when he was lying. For instance, he was fidgeting with his feet when we first met. In this case, he was lying to us. Nico could be too nice for his own good.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Nico reassured us, but I now knew that he was lying. I decided against bringing it up.
"Be careful, Neeks." I smiled at him. "We'll see you in high school."
"Yeah, promise us that you'll be going to the same high school, alright?" Grover said. "Yancy High School, that's where we'll be. Woah, Perce." He glanced at me. "We'll be juniors in high school by then."
My eyes widened. "That seems too far from here."
"Don't say that!" Grover playfully smacked me in the shoulder. "That means the time to see Neeks is far away! And I do not want to think of that."
I laughed. "True, true. We'll see you there Nico. In five years, we'll see you again. Promise?"
Nico nodded, a smile gracing his features. "I promise."
"We will see each other again." Grover added. "It's destiny. I know it."
