I do NOT own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, nor the title, which belongs to Rascal Flatts(LOVE them!). Also, this is not a songfic.
Pretend the Heroes of Olympus series didn't happen, it will make this story make so much more sense.
I apologize for any OOC-ness.
I'll stop babbling now. On with the story!
My day started out like usual.
Nap time in first period, due to monster attacks the night before. Then getting sent to the office for napping in class. Annoying girls gossiping all of second period right behind my desk, causing one of the worst headaches I had ever experienced. And to top it all off, a monster attack in the girls locker room during third period gym. I didn't exactly mind that one, but the P.E. teachers and girls in my class yelled at me endlessly.
By lunch time, I just wanted to go home. My head pounded and I was anxious to talk to my Wise Girl again. It had been nearly three days since I had seen her grey eyes, and heard her voice. Every time I tried to IM her, a pleasant voice would say "This person is unreachable. Sorry for the inconvenience, try again later." After six tries in one night, Iris had officially gotten on my bad side.
Walking through the lunch line, I grimaced at the food selection. Carrots that were packed by the dozen into a plastic package, apples that probably fell off the tree and got run over by a tractor, and some pink stuff that looked kind of like applesauce. Then the lunch lady dropped something onto my tray that looked like something they would serve in the military to torture their prisoners. I swear it moved on my tray.
"Hey Per-cy!" someone shouted obnoxiously. I grinned to myself, looking over at the table where my friends usually sat. Sure enough, my broad-shouldered best friend (at school) was sitting with his arm around a brown haired girl, giving me a wolf-like smile. Nick, the loud mouth, was also a junior, like me, and on the football team. Wherever he went, trouble followed. Not like trouble followed me, but still. The girl sitting next to him was Sierra, his long-time girlfriend. She was reserved, quiet, and not very outgoing. Basically, they were polar opposites, but if you hurt one of them, you would have to deal with the other. Trust me, NOT a good idea.
"Hey Nick. You know, my name is Percy, not Per-cy." I said with mock seriousness. He looked at me for a second, and then busted up laughing. I just shook my head and smiled to myself. Sierra grinned at her boyfriend.
I looked at the rest of the table, all three people. Mikey, a blond haired kid who looked so much like Luke it sometimes scared me, was wolfing down food. Trina was Mikey's sister, and had the same blonde hair and blue eyes. She gave me a bright smile as I sat down. The last person in our little group was Zack, a kind of geeky boy with large glasses and sandy brown hair. He was one of those kids you couldn't help but feel sorry for. I smacked him on the back and he lurched forward.
"How are you doing, Zack?" I said happily. He smiled at me. Zack rarely ever smiled.
"I'm doing okay, Perce." He answered honestly.
"V.I.B. at two o'clock." Nick stage whispered across the table. I groaned. Here we go, again. V.I.B. was our code for Janelle Rodgers, lead cheerleader and Percy Jackson stalker extraordinaire. As for what it stands for, it's not exactly appropriate for all audiences. Not one minute later I felt an ice cold hand and fake nails on my shoulder, causing shivers to roll up and down my spine, even though it was nowhere near my Achilles spot.
"Hey Percy." Janelle said above me, trying, I assume, to sound seductive. I held in my laugh at how ridiculous she sounded.
"Janelle! When did you get here?" Mikey said, taken off guard. He wasn't the sharpest guy ever, and he actually wanted Janelle to like him. He furiously tried to wipe the school lunch off of his face, looking like an idiot. Janelle didn't even look at him. Poor guy.
"Janelle." I said coldly. I didn't bother to hide the ice in my voice. One day she shoved Zack in the hallway and walked away laughing when he had to grab all of his books, then later she tried to pick up on me. Generally, I don't like girls like that.
"So, are you free this Friday?" She asked, trying to shove her rather large and rather fake chest in my face. I almost gagged.
"Actually, I have to do something." I said, not bothering to tell her what it was.
"What about Saturday?" I could tell she was trying not to sound desperate.
"I gotta babysit my sister." I said immediately. My adopted sister, Emily was four and the center of my family's world.
"What about next weekend?" Janelle tried again, squeezing my shoulder so hard it probably would've hurt if I didn't have the curse of Achilles.
"Funny you should ask. Next weekend I have a date. With my girlfriend." I said, emphasizing the last part.
"So, are you free Saturday next weekend?" She asked again. By now, I was mad.
"Janelle, stop. Did you not hear me? I have a girlfriend. And I plan on staying with her for a long time, so back off." I growled. "You are not her, and you never will be, so go away. Now." Janelle stared at me blankly, batting her fake eyelashes. Nick chose now to stand up.
"You heard the man, go fix your make up. Per-cy here has better things to do than deal with the likes of you." He said with a weird smile on his face. Janelle glared at him.
"You're one to talk. Back in seventh grade-"
"Was seventh grade. Now go away, I want to eat my pink applesauce without catching fleas." Nick said without missing a beat. Janelle glared at him even harder. I could practically see her running through everything in her pea-sized mind to find a comeback. Not surprisingly, she found none.
"You better watch your back, jock." And with that, she huffed and whirled away, leaving behind the suffocating smell of too much cheap perfume. I broke out into a huge grin. I turned to Nick and high-fived him.
"Thanks, man." I said appreciatively. He gave me his signature wolf grin.
"Anytime."
Fourth period came and went. One more period to go and I was home-free. But this period was the worst period of the day. Drama.
See, my teacher didn't teach drama like everyone expects. He taught drama through silly games and weird activities no one understands.
"Mr. Jackson, late again I see." The teacher exclaimed as I ran inside. I grimaced.
"Sorry, sir, I have fourth period across the campus." I tried to lie. I knew it wouldn't work.
"Oh sure, it doesn't have anything to do with say, napping during class due to lack of sleep last night from reasons I still don't know about?" He exclaimed. I grinned like a child.
"Nope, not at all." I lied.
"Sit down; I'll talk to you after school, since you're obviously not going anywhere else." He said sternly. I grinned again, trying my best to imitate Nick. The teacher obviously didn't buy it. Let me clear something up here; my drama teacher is none other than Mr. Paul Blofis, my stepdad. Technically, drama is an English subject at Goode High School (where Goode is Good!) so Paul (Mr. Blofis during school hours) teaches it as an elective.
"Yes, sir." I said sarcastically, giving him a mock salute. He shook his head, pointing to an open chair while trying to hide his smile. Some of the students were giving us weird looks, going back and forth like a tennis match. We normally didn't advertise that we actually lived together.
"Class, today you will be reciting your two-person plays for your finals. Grab your partners and scripts and get working!" Paul summarized. I reached in my backpack and started searching for my script. Annabeth always said my backpack was a disaster, and now I could see why.
"You ready to start reading, partner?" I heard from over my shoulder. I inwardly cringed. That's right, my partner for the super-duper important final was none other than Janelle Rodgers.
"Hold on, let me grab my script." I said, rooting through my backpack. After I found my script I kept digging around in my backpack, just to make the V.I.B. wait. "Okay, here it is." I announced.
For the next half hour I alternated between wanting to kill her and wanting to drop dead myself.
"It's not 'she looks like a weasel' Janelle!" I snapped, head throbbing even more than before.
"Well, it's better than 'she looks like the wrong side of a donkey'." Janelle tried to defend. A vein popped out on my forehead. This was like trying to teach Drew how to do long division. I know what I'm talking about, I've seen Malcolm try before.
"The line is 'she is beautiful, what do you think my friend?'" I said, desperately trying to keep my cool.
"But that sounds so lame." Janelle whined, sounding more like a four-year-old than Emily. I pinched my nose and closed my eyes.
"Just read the script." I said, sounding deflated. Janelle whimpered—like a dog—and looked at the script.
"She is beautiful, what do you think my friend?" Janelle said, sounding like a recording.
"She is beautiful. Her smile is brighter than the stars and her hair is similar to gold." I recited, not even looking at the script. I couldn't help but think about Annabeth, and the way she looked in her battle armor as she faced off against a monster. Her grey eyes narrowed threateningly, and her smirk gave no sign of fear. She never showed it, but she scanned the situation around her, laying out a plan in her head of how to defeat the monster. As soon as it was prepared, she acted. Annabeth struck with deadly accuracy, never once breaking a sweat.
"Do you love her?" Janelle recited, interrupting my thoughts. She was giving me a look that I couldn't describe.
"Love her? What would make you think I love her?" I said, sounding incredulous.
"The way you look at her. It tells me everything." Janelle recited, sounding like a recording again.
"I do not love her. It is not that simple. She is my true love. The one person in this God-forsaken world who can make me smile when I want nothing more than to be angry. She's the one person in the world who knows more about me than my own mother." I recited. Janelle looked down at her script again.
"What about me?"
"You are a friend. Nothing more, nothing less." Oh yeah, she's a friend. Right.
"But I could be more than that." Janelle recited. At that moment, Paul walked up.
"Mr. Jackson, you have been summoned." He said in a fake medieval accent. I chuckled at him.
"Thanks Pa-Mr. Blofis." I corrected when he glared.
"You need to go to the office." Paul said in his normal voice. I grabbed the note from his outstretched hand and walked out of the classroom.
The rest of the school day was definately...unexpected. The principal wanted to see me for something about napping in class and how 'sleeping in class every day is not something we tolerate at Goode' and I needed to sleep at home. The visit took almost the rest of the period, and I was released with only five minutes until the bell rang. I stepped out of the office with a paper in hand for my parents. I skimmed it momentarily, seeing if it said anything about expulsion when something caught my eye. The parking lot was right outside the office, and there was something out there besides cars. Out of reflex, my hand went to my pocket where Riptide was stashed away.
There was nothing out there, but I didn't want to take any chances. I glanced behind me in the hallway and saw no one, so I opened the front door to the school and walked out. The doors led out to an awning supported on one side by a wall that blocked part of the view of the parking lot. Uncapping Riptide, I crept forward. Around the corner of the wall, I heard something slide against the concrete, like someone losing their footing. Out of reflex, I darted around the corner with Riptide ready to swing.
What I found was not a monster. Not even close. The person I was about to slice right down the middle held up her hands, grey eyes wide with surprise.
"Percy!" She shouted.
"Annabeth! I could've killed you!" I exclaimed. I capped Riptide and shoved it in my pocket, grabbing her into a hug. "You're losing your touch." I teased. Annabeth hugged me for a second before pulling back and punching my shoulder, hurting herself more than me.
"Jerk." She growled. I just laughed.
"I missed you too." I said happily, smiling like crazy. Annabeth smiled back. "Why haven't you responded to my messages for the past few days?" I asked, smile falling. Annabeth glanced at the ground.
"I wanted to surprise you. I was planning something out." She explained. I just looked confused. Annabeth smiled sheepishly.
"Okay, what's going on?" I questioned.
"I'm really sorry, I've been extremely busy and my dad banned Iris Messaging and...Well, I'm transferring schools again." Annabeth said cautiously. Uh-oh, this is definitely not good.
"Are you moving away?" I asked, my voice croaking. Annabeth smiled and shook her head.
"Nope, I'm staying in New York." She said. I was confused again.
"Okay…" I said stupidly. Annabeth laughed.
"I'm transferring to a different school in New York. But there's this guy going to this new school. He's really annoying, and he doesn't always know when to shut up." Annabeth explained.
"Oh really, do I know this guy?"
"Yeah you do. We go to camp together, and he seems to hang around me a lot. He thinks he's some kind of big shot, just because he saved the world and everything." This guy was starting to sound a little bit familiar.
"What does he look like?" I asked. Annabeth smiled, tapping her chin as if she was pondering something.
"He has black hair that always seems like it's windblown, green eyes that are the color of the ocean, and he's pretty tall." Annabeth described. I grinned.
"Is he handsome?" I asked. Annabeth nodded.
"I've seen better though," she said matter-of-factly. I frowned.
"Hey!" I said. Annabeth laughed.
"You're such a Seaweed Brain." She said snidely.
"You're such a Wise Girl." I said lamely.
"That's still a bad comeback."
"I know." I grinned and hugged her again, pressing my lips to her forehead. Annabeth grabbed my face and kissed me in the lips. I don't know how long we stayed like that, but soon we were aware of someone staring at us as other students milled around us. We didn't even notice the bell ring. Janelle was standing nearby, my backpack in her hand. Her jaw was on the ground. I gave her a polite smile.
"Hey Janelle, thanks for bringing me my backpack." I said; voice calm. She handed it over.
"You're welcome, Percy." Janelle glared at Annabeth, who was holding my hand protectively. "I'll see you tomorrow." And with that, she stormed off. I turned towards Annabeth and smiled. She gave me a questioning glance.
"Who was that?" She asked. I smiled genuinely at her.
"Nobody. Don't worry about it." I answered simply. Before she could ask more, I kissed her. When we finally came back up for air, I put my forehead against hers and looked into her bright grey eyes.
"Welcome to Goode High School."
I know this has been done before, but I tried to keep it original. Honestly I did!
Anyways, thank you so much for reading! And please review! Was it good? Bad? Terrible?
~Wizgirl
