Hey, Guys!

This is my first fanfiction, and I am open to constructive criticism. Tell me what you think!

CW

One Day Before Museum Field Trip. . .

Slam!

I jolted awake, my brain struggling to remember where I was. My algebra teacher, Mrs. Dodds, was standing over me, a textbook clutched in her talon-like fingers. She wore her characteristic scowl on her face, and she had lowered her gaze. I had fallen asleep in class, again, and she had just dropped her textbook on my desk to wake me up.

"Well, Miss Williams, since you think you are above this lesson, why don't you answer this question?" Mrs. Dodds's shrill voice got rid of any leftover drowsiness as I gazed at the chalkboard, a long list of numbers and letters trailing off. As I gazed at it, the letters seemed to swirl off the board. I shook my head, trying to clear it.

"I can't, Ma'am," I lowered my head in defeat. The class erupted into snickers. I had tried to hide my dyslexia in the past years, and no knew. Past teachers and principals had assumed that I just would refuse to answer the questions given to me. They knew I wasn't stupid because if anyone had given me the question verbally, I would've been able to answer it. Mrs. Dodds refused to read the questions out-loud, so I was currently flunking sixth-grade algebra at Yancy Academy.

I tried to shrink back from the judging stares of my classmates, but one boy caught my attention. He wasn't laughing at the others. He was scowling at the board. Not in frustration, but in extreme concentration. I had the same look on my face every time I tried to read. Mrs. Dodds followed my gaze and whirled around.

"Mr. Jackson!" the boy flinched and hesitantly turned his gaze to the woman. "Maybe you can answer this problem?" The boy looked again at the board, and turned back to the angry teacher.

"No, ma'am. I'm sorry," the boy lowered his gaze past Mrs. Dodds to where I was sitting. I slunk back in my seat. The boy held my gaze like a tractor beam, his sea green eyes boring into mine like he could see into my soul.

"It's bad enough I have one who refuses to answer question, but two?" Mrs. Dodds complained, gesturing at the boy and I as the class howled in laughter. The bell rang and I quickly grabbed my back and hurried out of my seat with the others. A hand clenched into my shoulder and kept me from leaving.

"Miss Williams, if you want to pass this class, I suggest that you start answering questions," Mrs. Dodds's voice had a hidden warning in it. I looked in her eyes and they flashed red. I suppressed a shudder as I mumbled a "yes, ma'am," and left. The boy was waiting outside the classroom. He was talking to a scrawny kid with acne and a wispy goatee that I recognized as Grover, the class's adopted "crippled." He walked with a limp and was typically bullied. He was nice enough, but we rarely talked. Grover caught my gaze and nudged the boy from Algebra. He turned around, but I walked towards Latin before he could talk to me.

"Welcome, Miss Williams!" Mr. Brunner rolled towards his desk, a blanket draped over his legs as his wheelchair rumbled over the linoleum.

"Afternoon, Mr. Brunner," I mumbled as I took my usual seat at the back of the class. There was no assigned seating chart in Latin, so students frequently changed seats, but none of them sat anywhere near me. Ever.

"Ah, Mr. Jackson!" Mr. Brunner's cheery voice brought me out of my book. I was shocked anyone was in the classroom yet, considering that I ate lunch in Mr. Brunner's classroom. The boy from Algebra greeted Mr. Brunner and walked towards the back of the classroom and, much to my and Mr. Brunner's surprise, sat and next to me.

"Hey. I didn't get a chance to introduce myself earlier. I'm Percy," the boy had shaggy black hair that was crazily messed up. He had a perfect tan and wasn't necessarily scrawny, but wasn't ripped, either. He had the troublemaker's smile, and his eyes looked like the sea itself.

"Cleodora," I mumbled, shoving my book in my bag. I know. What's the dyslexic doing with a book? Well, my friend, the book is actually in Ancient Greek, which is the only language I can actually understand.

"Wow, that's a mouthful. Can I call you Cleo?" Percy laughed and his eyes brightened, and I slowly sat up from my typical hunch.

"Do whatever you want, Perseus," I mumbled, taking a bite from my sandwich. Percy froze beside me. I flinched.

"Sorry. I'm obsessed with Greek myths, and he's my favorite," I fiddled with the foil my sandwich was wrapped in.

"No, it's fine, it's just, that's my real name," Percy relaxed a little, but still seemed to be tensed, like a cobra waiting to strike.

"Oh, and my names a mouthful?" I laughed, handing Percy an apple from my lunch. He spun it over his finger, and I realized he played basketball.

"Hey, Percy, in Algebra, when you didn't answer the question, well, forgive my rudeness, but do you have dyslexia?" I said the sentence in one breath and Percy took a moment to digest it.

"Yeah. Dyslexia and AD/HD," Percy seemed to be ashamed to admit this, and I finally started to trust the boy.

"Same. You're the first person I've told, though," I said, taking Percy's hand. He looked at our joined hands in shock and finally smiled. Grover walked in at that moment and cleared his throat. Percy and I let go of each other and blushed, looked everywhere except at the other.

"Am I interrupting?" Grover laughed, his voice bleating. Percy laughed, and I realized that Mr. Brunner had left. The bell rang startling all of us into laughing. Grover sat next to Percy. Mr. Brunner had arranged the desks in a U, and often rolled on the inside of the U during class on terminant days, when he dressed up in Roman armour and sword-point against the chalkboard, challenged students to name every Roman person who ever lived, who their mother was, and what god they worshipped. Students filed into the classroom as I heard shouting outside.

"Nancy! Kiley!" Voices outside the classroom shouted in anticipation, and I realized that there was a fight outside. Percy glanced at me as I shot out of my seat and ran out into the hall. Two girls were struggling around, surrounded by a circle of students, each chanting the name of the girl who had the other girl in a headlock. Nancy Bobofit, the school bully, had started a fight with Kiley Gardener, a popular girl. Now Kiley was purple and gasping for air. I ran into the circle of kids and pulled Nancy and Kiley apart.

"Go!" I shouted at Kiley, and she ran for the nearest classroom, which just happened to be Mr. Brunner's. Nancy pulled back her arm to punch me, and as soon as her fist came flying at me, I ducked and used her momentum to flip her over. Mr. Brunner wheeled through the students and surveyed the scene. Kiley stood next to him, her eye already starting to swell. Nancy groaned from the floor, and I winced. I helped her up.

"Sorry, Nancy," she growled at me, and Mr. Brunner cleared his throat. Now Nancy flinched, and headed off to the Principal's office with Mr. Brunner and Kiley.

"Who is that girl? How did she do that?" Whispers surrounded me as I turned, blushing to head to the dorms. Percy was behind me in an instant.

"How did you do that?" Percy pulled me aside before I climbed the stairs to the girl's level.

"My dad was in the military. He taught me how to defend myself before he died. My mother committed suicide a month later. She told me before she died that I had been adopted, and right after the state of Maryland shipped me to some sister my mother had and she shipped me here," I gesture to the dim hallway, as the afternoon sun went down over the mountain. My ADHD worked like that. If something interesting happened, I felt a few hours pass in a few minutes, but if I was in a fifty minute class, it would feel like six hours.

"Are you going on the field trip tomorrow?" Percy asked leading me back to the stairwell.

"I wasn't aware I had a choice," Percy laughed in response, and we split up as the hallway branched off, one leading to the boys' hallway and one leading to the girls' hallway. I sighed to myself, glad that I had made a new friend.

I walked toward my room, and Nancy Bobofit and her gang of goons stepped out of the shadows. They surrounded me, and I felt the last fleeting glance of hope shrug off my body in waves.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" Nancy chuckled, her red hair glinting maliciously in the moonlight.

"Looks like a nerd who has no place stepping into places where she doesn't belong," Nancy chuckled to herself as she tried to punch me. I ducked, but one of her goons hit me from the back, and soon I was being hit from all sides. Nancy clocked me in the jaw, the nose, and my left eye. They left laughing as I crawled into my dorm room, wishing that daylight would come faster. . .