Never Be The Same chapter 1

Jason POV

When Jason got to his first day of senior year, he couldn't help but be relieved. Let's be honest: high school is a pain in the ass no matter how smart you are. Jason was on the more intelligent end, but that just meant he had harder classes that challenged him like everyone else. Thankfully, he had loaded his Junior year with an abundance of APs, even foregoing a study period in order to take as many APs as possible so his senior year schedule was as easy as it could be for him. He was ranked 2nd in his graduating class, only being beat by his good friend Annabeth. That girl was nothing short of a genius and made calculus-based physics look easy (she DID take the class and pass the test with a 4 as a sophomore!).

Jason was popular, if you could call it that. Yes, like all high schools there was a hierarchy, but at Goode it was a very loose hierarchy. Jason was well-known, well-liked, well-rounded, and well-respected. As were everyone he surrounded himself with. So they were "popular." He was a state and regional champion, excelling as a decathlete, and was almost secure in a D1 recruitment seeing as several schools were already vying for his attention, hoping to nab him before signing day. If he was being honest, he was hoping to be recruited by Harvard (he always was an in-the-closest Red Sox fan).

The ultimate goal was to cruise through senior year, earn a few medals and titles, get good grades, get into college, and have fun. No drama.

Easier said than done, of course.

Jason stepped out of his 2017 Chevy Impala (blue, of course), slinging his bag over his shoulder and locking the car with the fob key. He let out a sigh as he gazed at the beauty that was Goode high.

Goode was small by no means. The campus was quite large and beautiful. That was to be expected since most people who went to Goode had a decent amount of money and taxes basically determine how good a school is. Jason's family was pretty well-set, his father owning an airline company and all. That doesn't mean Jason didn't work- over the summer he would intern with his father, and had a part time job during the school year at the local gym.

"Yo, Jason!"

Jason turned around to see his best friend Leo running up to him, accompanied by his other friends: Annabeth, Piper, Nico, Reyna, Frank, and Hazel. They were just about the best people he could ask to be friends with, even though they didn't seem to go well together.

Annabeth was nothing short of a genius, even proving to be one of the smartest in the country. Surprisingly she never skipped a grade, although Jason had no doubt in his mind that she very well could have graduated college right then if she so chose. Piper was probably his closest friend of the bunch, excluding Leo. They dated for over a year but mutually ended it in the middle of junior year (they still went to prom together though). Nico was Jason's brooding younger cousin. Not that he didn't have a reason to brood: his sister had died in a car accident when he was young and he never fully recovered from the loss. Reyna was captain of the girl's volleyball team and one of the most terrifying girls Jason knew. The only one that rivaled her was Annabeth when you took her book away from her. Frank was a big burly dude, though his stature didn't match his baby panda face. His girlfriend was Hazel. Hazel was a shy wall-flower for as long as Jason could remember, until she got into activism and found her voice.

Jason smiled. "Hey guys, did you enjoy summer?" Piper released a sob and wiped a tear from her eye. If you weren't close with her you'd probably think she was really crying. She was the daughter of a famous actor and president of the drama department for a reason.

"Please refrain from mentioning the loss of summer, my true love. May he rest in peace. Oh, how I miss him so!" Jason smirked at her acting and held his hands up in surrender.

"Fine fine, I won't mention him until he comes back in a few months. Come on, we need to go grab our schedules."

The crew walked in, ready to take on whatever was beyond those doors. Or so they thought.

0()0()0()0()0

The school was just as busy as Jason remembered and suddenly he felt like he never left. He held his schedule firmly in hand, walking with his friends to the outside cafeteria. They still had about 15 minutes until the warning bell rung and figured they'd enjoy the nice weather before they were trapped inside a school for nearly 7 hours.

After being somewhere for a while, you tend to find a spot that you end up claiming as yours just because you're there so much. For example, a seat in a class. After you choose a seat on the first day, it's basically yours unless the teacher rips it away from you. You'd think, by this logic, the same could be said for a lunch table.

Jason and his friends had been sitting at the same outside table for lunch or as a morning meeting spot. You'd think that the spot would be secure and safe from scavengers, but he was wrong. What surprised Jason more was who was there. At first, he assumed it would be a freshman who just needed a nudge in the right direction, but he was wrong.

At the table was Grover Underwood talking to a boy that Jason did not recognize. Grover barely talked to Jason since freshman year- only when necessary. The boy was somewhat crippled, needing crutches to get around. His situation would be worse if his parents didn't have money. A few years ago, Grover was heavily bullied due to his condition, but in only a couple years, Goode went from a place of complete intolerance to the opposite. Jason liked to pretend it was by some miracle that it happened, but he really knew the truth.

The boy, on the other hand, was unrecognizable, especially from the back. Yeah Goode was a big school but Jason wasn't aware of any black hair, sun-glasses wearing, tan skinned guy that wore a white romper with a paint-splattered print. Though, from the conversation it seemed that Grover did.

Jason and his crew approached cautiously, hoping to not seem imposing to Grover or his friend. Really, they just wanted their table.

Grover stopped talking completely when he finally took notice of Jason and the group when they were a few meters away. His face morphed into a glare. Grover wasn't known to be mean, either.

"G-man, what's wrong?" the stranger said, taking notice of Grover's changed expression. Jason froze at the name. He hadn't heard it in years. The group seemed to also take notice. Grover nodded in Jason's direction.

Without question, the strange teen turned around to see what Grover was gesturing to. Almost instantly his mouth formed into a frown, matching Grover's, and his eyebrows furrows. His eyes were still covered though and that gave Jason hope that it wasn't who he thought was in front of him.

"Jason," he said emotionless.

Said boy swallowed the rock in his throat, taking note of the familiar marks on his tanned arms. "Yeah, and who might you be?" Jason asked, feinting ignorance and hoping for the best.

The boy reached up and removed his sun-glasses.

Sea-green met sky-blue.

"Percy." Jason said. He felt like vomiting.

Percy smirked, but his eyes were cold. "And here I was thinking you didn't recognize me. You can't get rid of me no matter how hard you try, Jason."