I've edited the story a bit, nothing big though, but don't be surprised if it isn't the exact same thing it was before. I hope you like it. And if you would like a follow up, DM me; I'm considering it.
International Week: Greece
International Week was an every year tradition at Goode High School. The first week of October, every single sophomore student was obligated to learn about different cultures around the world. Students loved it. For them, it meant skipping boring classes and eating free food, no matter how weird-looking it seemed. Teachers, on the other hand, absolutely loathed it It caused them to fall behind on the class schedule, plus, losing their own personal time rearching about countries they didn't really care about. They even had to learn some words of whatever language was spoken on the nation they were investigating and find some interesting video to complement their presentation. To sum up, absolute torture. And, to make things even worse, the school assigned two teachers per country, so besides having to waste time, they had to make sure each one found information that complemented what their partner had.
Due to a school week only having five days, five countries were chosen. Ten teachers, selected randomly, would have to present about a particular nation- its history, language, typical food, etc- in the first two classes of the day. When the week was over, there would be a quiz about what they had learned and the top five students got an A. The teachers of the best country, judged by the school administration, won a bonus, which was not nearly enough to make them happy about the extra work.
Paul Blofis had never been one of the unfortunate selected teachers for International Week. The others resented him, saying it was totally unfair that after five years teaching at the school, he still hadn't been sentenced to take part of said torture. Not that Paul minded. Luck was on his side, he supposed. The responsibilities were decided with straws; the ones that took the shortest were the losers. And maybe because the universe loved him, or just because the gods took a liking of him because of his stepson, he always got one of the longest ones.
That's why the English teacher walked confidently to the meeting where the countries, and the people in charge of them, were decided. After greeting his colleges and preparing himself some coffee, he sat down next to the Biology teacher and took one of the straws she had in her hand. Paul looked down at the little piece of plastic with shock. Key work: little. He had taken one of the smallest straws, and that meant he had to present on a country. The smirks the History teacher-that hated his guts-only confirmed it. Miserably, he took a sip of his coffee and waited for the principal to announce the selected nations.
"Well, now that we have the lucky professors in charge, I'll reveal the countries," said Mr. West excitedly; he was probably the only one feeling that way. "Chile, Zimbabwe, Greece, Cuba and Portugal. Are there any requests?"
Paul hand shot up immediately. "I'll have Greece, please, George."
Maybe International Week wasn't going to be so bad, he thought as his smile grew bigger. He did live with a Greek demigod, after all. Besides, Paul had always thought the Greek myths were really interesting and he could ask his step-son's girlfriend about the language, history and more. He had a feeling Annabeth would be happy to help him.
….
He entered his apartment after the meeting and found Annabeth, reading a book in the living room. Over the past few months, since she had started dating Percy, the girl seemed to have been spending a lot of time in their apartment. Not that Sally or Paul minded; after all, she was practically family.
"Hey Paul," she greeted him. "How was the meeting?"
He thought about it for a moment; it hadn't been as bad as it could have.. "Surprising," he said at last. "Where are Sally and Percy?"
"Percy is napping in his room, shocker; and Sally is locked away on her studio in an intense writing session."
"Thanks, Annabeth."
He walked to his wife's studio, where he indeed found her sitting on her desk, her fingers flying through the keyboard. She was so caught up on her story, she didn't even hear him until he coughed lightly.
"Hi, honey," he said, making her jump from her chair. He gave her a quick peck on the lips, but Sally barely looked up, too concentrated in her writing. He took his own computer from the desk and went back to the living room. He figured if Sally wasn't going to pay any attention to him, he might as well start investigating for his presentation about Greece.
He found his son's girlfriend in the exact same position he had left her a few minutes ago.
"Annabeth, could you help me with something?" he asked, sitting in an armchair next to the couch where she sat and opening his laptop."
She closed her heavy-looking book and left it on the table in front of her. "Of course. What do you need?"
"I don't know if Percy has ever mentioned the International Week at Goode." She nodded. "Well, I'm in charge of one of the presentations and it's about Greece. And so, I was wondering if you could help me prepare for it; after all, you do know a lot about this topic."
Annabeth's face brightened. "I would love to help you."
For a whole hour, Paul asked the blonde questions about the Greek's history, language, architecture, mythology, and everything else he could think of. She answered every single question easily, not pausing to think for even a second. The English teacher was impressed; he had heard Percy talk about the daughter of Athena's intelligence but, even though he didn't doubt it, he had never experienced it first-hand.
Their conversation ended when Percy arrived, yawning and dressed in a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt and pajama bottoms. Paul immediately stopped talking and motioned Annabeth to do the same. She seemed to get what he was trying to say and opened her book again. Percy plopped into the couch next to his girlfriend and kissed her cheek.
"Hey, I didn't know you were here. You could have woken me up."
"I thought the seaweed in your head could use some rest."
"Shut up, Wise Girl." He glared at her for a second before setting his hand on her waist and giving her a kiss on her forehead. "I can never get mad at you for long. It's so annoying."
"But you love me anyway."
"Yes I do," he leaned to kiss her when Paul coughed softly. "Oh, sorry. What are you doing, Paul?"
"Just talking to your girlfriend and grading some essays."
As soon as he said it, Paul realized he actually did have to check some essays about Hamlet; he figured why not and started reading one of them in his computer. Percy and Annabeth turned on the TV and started watching Catching Fire. Apart from the noises of the movie and the occasional 'I could survive those Hunger Games easily' comments from his stepson, the living room was completely silent.
"I want food," said Percy suddenly, half an hour after the movie had started. He stood up and went to the kitchen, leaving Paul and Annabeth free to finish their conversation.
"Why didn't you want to tell Percy about International Week?" asked the blonde as soon as her boyfriend left the room.
"I want it to be a surprise. Besides, West–the principal–asked us not to tell anything to the students. Please don't tell him, either."
Annabeth opened her mouth to answer when Percy reentered the room, a piece of cold pepperoni pizza on his hand. She nodded almost imperceptibly towards Paul before resting her head in the son of Poseidon's chest and continued watching the movie.
….
Ten days later, Paul was ready for his presentation. With Annabeth's help, he managed to gather lots of information and interesting fact and she even taught him how to say a few words in Greek, although he couldn't pronounce them all that well. He was pretty excited about his lecture and that was something he never thought would happen. But he had gotten lucky with a country like Greece. He just hoped his students wouldn't fall asleep while he talked.
"Hello students. Today's International Week country is Greece. We will be learning all sorts of interesting facts about it, though I'm sure you don't believe me."
There were a couple of claps, some boos, cheers and snores. Paul immediately looked for his step-son's reaction; he smiled at him happily, but didn't say anything. The teacher started talking, first about history and the legacy of the Greeks. He accompanied his words with a PowerPoint with pictures and games; as interactive as possible. The students seemed to be listening, which encouraged Paul immensely.
"You guys should know that the Greeks are responsible for a great variety of myths. They were polytheist, meaning they believed in many gods. Could someone name the three biggest gods on the Greek mythology?"
Paul frankly expected Percy to raise his hand right away; even though he had never done something like that before, this was a topic that concerned him so Paul thought it would be different. Apparently, he was wrong. A few hands rose in the air, but none of them was his step-son's. He was looking at the whole scene with an amused grin on his face.
"Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, sir," one of the students answered.
"That's correct. In Greece, they believed in twelve Olympians, the main gods and goddesses of their religion. But they also had hundreds of other minor deities, though they didn't worship them as much. Could someone tell me three minor gods or goddesses?"
The whole class had confused looks on their faces; nobody knew. They all were evading his look, trying to avoid getting picked. Except for Percy. He looked around his classmates and after seeing no one knew and that Paul was begging him with his eyes to answer, he raised his hand.
"Hypnos, Hecate, Hebe. If you think about it, minor gods tend to start with H," Percy said and all the other students looked at him as if he was an alien. They all started to whisper, shocked.
"Correct, Percy," said the teacher, cutting the murmurs going through his class.
He talked some more about the mythology and then about architecture. While he talked, Percy rested his head on his table. He probably knew everything Paul was talking about. However, he didn't raise his hand once, only answering the questions asked personally to him. And even though that should have disappointed Paul (as a teacher and everything), it only made him want to smile. His step-son was so completely humble; he was never about to show off, even though he could have kicked Paul's ass with his knowledge.
After he was done talking about temples and statues, it was time for the language. First, Paul said the phrases Annabeth taught him ('hello' and 'how are you?') the best he could. The wink he received from Percy indicated him that he did well enough.
"Now, I'm going to show you a recording of a family friend speaking in Greek. And afterwards, I want you all to try repeating what she said."
He turned the speakers on and played the audio he had recorded the day before. As soon as it started, Percy lifted his head off the table and looked at Paul with a confused expression in his face. The teacher just smiled at him.
The voice in the recording said one phrase ('Do you speak Greek?') and then Paul paused it so the students could repeat it. They result was a weird noise that didn't sound remotely like the language Paul had tried to teach, but at least they had tried. Everyone had, except for Percy.
The son of Poseidon, still looking confused, just asked: "Annabeth?" Paul nodded. "When did you two record that?"
"Ask her yourself later."
Then Paul continued with his class carelessly, not minding the weird looks he was receiving from his stepson. After a couple of minutes, the surprise in Percy's face washed off and he listened happily to the audio with the rest of the class; he wasn't actually paying attention to the words, just listened to his girlfriend's voice was enough. He hadn't seen her in four days, thanks to her job and her school, and he missed her.
"Does someone want to try saying something in Greek?" asked Paul when the recording ended. Again, all the students looked away; making themselves as invisible as they could. "Percy, would you do us the honors?"
"Is is really necessary?"
"Absolutely."
"Okay" Percy stood up from his chair and said in Greek: "Hello, my name is Percy Jackson. Also known as Seaweed Brain. I love my girlfriend and Finding Nemo. Bye."
It was a really dumb phrase, but his classmates looked at him with awe. The whispers started again and that time, not even Paul could stop them.
"He speaks another language; that's so hot!"
"Is this the same Percy that falls asleep in every class?"
"How did he learn how to speak like that?"
"I can't believe a C- student overcame me in something besides Sports!"
After some time, Paul managed to calm his students down and shut them up. He ended his presentation with a quiz about what they had learned. Percy finished it in approximately five minutes and walked to his teacher confidently.
"I can't believe Annabeth didn't write a special test just for me. She taught me all of this when I first arrived to Camp."
With that, he exited the classroom.
….
That day, everything the whole sophomore class talked about was Percy Jackson, the hot guy with dyslexia who appeared to have some secret passion for Greece. People were making theories everywhere and exaggerating what had happened in class ridiculously. By the end of the day, there was a rumor that said that Percy had entered class in a toga and danced a prayer to the Sun god. And that one was one of the good ones.
Percy just laughed. He told his friends and the other students that had asked that his dad came from Greece and that was why he knew so much. That didn't stop the rumors from spreading, though, but the son of Poseidon didn't mind. He preferred people thinking he had a secret fetish on mythology rather than finding out he was a demigod.
