Percy was not used to fitting in, that was the first thing I had noticed about him when he'd first been placed as my science partner. He was quiet, unusually kind and faultlessly loyal, unfortunately the ladies were also a bit too fond of him but so far nothing had come of it.

I punched Percy on the arm and nodded towards the group of freshman girls that hadn't quiet learned yet that asking the infamous Percy Jackson out wouldn't get them anywhere "Looks like you've got yourself some more admirers, Perce." He blushed and rolled his eyes, just like I knew he would.

We both watched with a mixture of equal parts humor and embarrassment as a petite blonde girl broke away from the group and hesitantly scuffed her way towards us, glancing sidelong at Percy every few feet.

Naturally, Percy didn't notice until she had tapped him on the shoulder. It was the same every time; the girl would hopefully walk her way over, her friends silently cheering her on. They would get his attention; he would blush and ask what they wanted, like he didn't know, which was stupid because he should have been expecting it by now. The girl would ask what he was doing that Friday, he would blush harder and say that "sorry, he had a girlfriend", the girl would blush and mumble something incoherent before returning back to a group of dejected friends. In general there was just a lot of blushing and mumbling.

As usual the events unfolded just as I had expected. As the girl walked away Sean rolled his eyes "When are you goanna stop pretending you have a girlfriend and finally say yes?!"

Percy threw up his hands "I do have a girlfriend!"

I patted him on the back "Sure you do, Perce."

"I do, I've already told you! Her names Annabeth, she's 6 months older than me, she has blond hair and her birthdays July 12!" he insisted

"Then how come you never text her?" asked Kai.

"Because she only uses her phone for emergencies!" Percy said, exasperated. We all rolled her eyes, what girl had a phone and only used it for emergencies?

"Then how come she never comes to visit?" asked Liam

"She does!" he insisted

"How come we've never seen a picture?" I asked

"All my pictures are at camp!" he snapped.

"Then we'll just have to come visit you at camp." I teased. And there it was, it happened every time we mentioned visiting him at camp, I wasn't sure if I was the only one who saw it, but there was this tiny flicker of panic.

"You know that you can't. It's for dyslexic and HDHD kids only." Percy explained.

"We'll this summer you'll have to get some pictures with your 'girlfriend'." Teal put air quotes around girlfriend. Percy only had two pictures on his bedroom wall; one was of Percy and two blonde boys with identical glints of mischief in their eyes. They were all standing in the middle of a jello covered volleyball court, arms thrown around each other and heads tilted back in laughter. The other was of Percy standing next to a large, African-American guy, who was built like a wrestler. The guy was holding the hand of pretty blonde girl with blue eyes and a baseball bat in one hand.

Kai had once asked who they were and if the girl was free. I'd remembered taking a step back when he'd replied, his voice had gone flat. There was no emotion in his face as he'd answered, "That's Charles Beckendorf and Selena Bolrigard, and no she is not available." Kai had knitted his eyebrows together at Percy's tone but hadn't pursued the subject; we'd all learned to steer clear of Percy when he was angry.

During the first month of the school year we'd all made fun of Percy for his even temper and easy-going attitude. That was until Taylor, a junior who was notorious for beating up freshman and new kids, had finally grown the balls to confront Percy. We were all surprised it had taken this long for him to try riling him up; we'd all just assumed it was because he was friends with us and Taylor had always stayed away from anyone in our group.

It probably would have never happened if Kelley, a girl Taylor had openly had his eye on for a while, asked Percy to the Fall Formal. Percy had turned her down but Taylor had seen the whole thing, he'd gotten so close to Percy that they were chest to chest. Id expected Percy to pull away or at least flinch, after all Taylor was nearly a half a foot taller than him, not to mention he was the head of the wrestling team, with arms the size of my thigh, but Percy hadn't even blinked. Teal, Kia and I had stepped forward but Percy had waved us away "Don't bother guys, I'm fine. Taylor just doesn't understand that there's nothing going on between Kelley and I. Do you Taylor?" We glanced at each other, he was dead, but we steeped back into the surrounding circle of pitying bystanders who all assumed that Percy was going to be put in his place. Percy hadn't backed away, if anything he was leaning forward, the florescent school lights making his eyes look like the ocean in a storm.

Taylor stared down at Percy, his tiny brains trying to process why on earth this tiny kid had audacity to stand up to him. It wasn't that Percy was small; actually he was rather well built. We'd had a school project in History class on Greek and Roman culture, I remember laughing at Percy when he'd gotten so bothered that the teacher was giving a lecture on them both, as if they were connected. We'd had to look up a bunch of pictures for out power points and I'd found one of Neptune, Percy had corrected me and said that it wasn't Neptune but Poseidon. "What's the difference?" I'd asked.

I'd never seen Percy more serious than he was in that moment. Percy was never serious, even when he fought he had this creepy smile that made the whole thing look like a sick game but he'd shook his head as if it had been the stupidest thing he'd ever heard. "There's a huge difference. For starters the Roman and Greek eras were completely separate. The Romans adapted the Greeks beliefs but the personalities of the gods changed as well. They were more militarized, disciplined. It's not necessarily a bad thing but the Greeks were just fine before the Romans came along."

I'd only stared, Percy was unbelievably perceptive, it had taken me awhile to get that, but he just wasn't school smart. The speech he just gave was completely uncharacteristic of him. In the end Percy had done the entire project, he hadn't even needed to look anything up, the only problem was that it took him almost twice the amount of time to finish because the words kept jumping off the computer screen, or so he said. Anyways the point was that the old sculpture of Poseidon, or whoever it was, looked almost exactly like Percy. Id pointed it out and he'd sat there for a minute before bursting out laughing, he never said why he thought it was so funny besides to say "You're not the first person to tell me that."

I was surprised to see people passing money to one another, betting on who would win, unfortunately there wasn't much money in Percy's favor. Percy had nodded at Taylor and turned, I couldn't help but think that was incredibly stupid to walk away from him, it would only hurt his pride. I had no clue how he'd seen the punch with his back turned but before I could blink Percy had Taylor's arm in a death grip; his wrist turned backwards between Percy's fingers. Nobody said anything, we were all to shocked. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a few students' frantically withdrawing money, now in favor of Percy.

It hadn't taken long for him to recover; he ripped his hand out of Percy's grip and tried to punch him in the face. Percy ducked with ease and came up below his guard. "Just leave it Taylor." Percy said, still as calm as ever. No matter how brutish Taylor was it wasn't a match for Percy's speed or precision.

"Stop dodging you little pussy. Are you afraid you can't land a punch?!" Taylor gasped, his breath coming hard and fast, opposite him, Percy was barely winded. That had been his mistake; Percy could never ignore a challenge. That anti-light, and I call it that because when he gets like that there's this blackness that rears up in his eyes. It sucks up all the boyishness that's left on his face and he gets this manic smile that isn't the least bit humorous. Percy didn't bother to answer, he side stepped another of Taylor's wild swings and punched him square in the jaw. There was nothing fancy about Percy; he got it done, plain and simple, and the one punch had knocked him out cold.

As his friends it was our duty to fill up the awkward, awed silence that followed as Taylor's body hit the ground. We cheered and patted him on the back, it wasn't the last time I wondered if I was the only one that could see the darkness on his face as he just stood there looking down on Taylor; like it wouldn't be so out of the way to kill him right then and there, but then he would shake his head and smile, no worse for wear.

"I still don't understand why you keep trying to tell us you have a girlfriend, we know you don't!" interjected Sylvia as she walked past us.

"I do!" Percy yelled after her, he was smirking as he stared at the parking lot to our backs. We all turned and watched as a sleek silver car I'd never seen before, pulled into the parking spot in front of us on the far side of the school's lot.

The engine stopped and the door was unceremoniously pushed open. Out tumbled a goth boy around 14, with shaggy black hair, equally black clothes, a skull ring on his left hand and a... black baseball bat strapped to his side? Next, and more gracefully, followed a tall girl around 16, she had spiky black hair, pale skin, a silver parka and jeans. The girl said something to the boy before lightly brushing her fingers to his forearm. In any other circumstance I would have though it to be a gesture of affection but the boy only jumped and glared at the smirking girl.

The two people stood there talking for about three minutes before the black haired girl sighed and knocked on the driver's window. The door opened and she said something with someone inside before the last remaining passenger exited.

Kai whistled underneath his breath and I didn't blame him, although Percy gave him a warning glance. She was beyond hot; she had long, tan legs, blonde princess curls, a gray T-shirt and shorts, if it weren't for her calculating, gray eyes I would have mistaken her for a modernized Sleeping Beauty.

"Damn!" Teal almost whispered in reverie.

"Back off, dude." Said Percy

"Hey! I called dibs first!" complained Teal

Percy smirked "She'd take you down in a second."

"Hell no, I could take her!" defended Teal, I could tell he thought Percy was making fun of his manliness, or whatever, but for some reason I couldn't help but think that wasn't the case.

Percy looked at the girl and then back at Teal, weighing their worth, he threw his head back and laughed "You have no idea who you're dealing with."

"Oh, and you do?!" Teal's eyebrows were raised skeptically.

"Ya, actually, I do." Percy retorted confidently.

"Fine then, if you're so sure, go and give it a try." He dared

The smirk on Percy's face was plastered on full force "Ok then, I will."

Teal's jaw hit the floor as Percy began his way towards the small group. Percy wasn't known for is forwardness, especially when it involved girls but here he was, voluntarily putting himself on the line. "Hey! What happened to you having a girlfriend Jackson!?" Teal yelled at his retreating back.

Percy didn't bother turning around "I do!"

I was sure the moment he reached the group he'd be blown off but as he invaded the tightly knit circle they willing made room for him. My eyes just about popped out of my head as he leaned in for a kiss with the blond. "He's goanna get slapped." Teal said with certainty but instead she more than happily obliged.

"I never knew…" whispered Kai

"Knew what?" I asked

"That Jackson has moves!" he answered. We all rolled our eyes but silently agreed. I watched in fascination as he walked towards us, an arm slung over the blonds shoulder, in an animated conversation with the black haired boy.

"Guys," said Percy, his lopsided grin stretched from one ear to the other "meat my girlfriend, Annabeth."

"Now I know why you turned down all those other girls, Perce!" said Kai, already eyeing the spikey, black haired girl.

"Kai, Teal, Josh," he pointed at us each in turn "these are my friends Thalia, Nico and Annabeth."

"Hey." Kai said, smiling flirtily at Thalia, who rolled her eyes and turned to Nico.

"Hey." We all said, mutually ignoring Kai's antics.

The blonde girl leaned up to Percy's ear and whispered something. His eyes darkened and his lips pursed in a line. "I have the stuff at my house." He answered quietly, I got the feeling we weren't supposed to be hearing any of this. He nodded again "No, they don't know." Percy glanced at us quickly, I got the feeling he was talking about us but that made no sense, what didn't we understand? His face continued to deepen more and more into a frown "Alright… I have it, you know I can't lose it." Percy's eyes widened "At my house? Right now!?" He nodded one last time before Annabeth pulled away.

"Well guys, looks like were needed at camp early. I'll see you next year!" he waved as Annabeth took his hand and led him away. As the foursome walked away I couldn't help but realize how completely odd they looked next to the public school background but somehow there exotic quality's brought out their equally odd attractiveness.

I couldn't even begin to guess at what Annabeth had been telling Percy and why in the world I had the sneaking suspicion it had something to do with us. All I knew was that for the last year I had tried to figure out Percy Jackson but each time I thought I had him pinned down he'd do something crazy and I'd be just as confused as ever.

I had this uncle who had fought in the Vietnam War, he'd been my favorite extended family member. When he'd come back, wounded in action, nothing ever seemed to make him happy for long. He'd had this look I his eyes, it wasn't right on top but underneath all these layers. I'd seen the layers peel back once and I'd had nightmares for months; there was this man that had tried to rob us on the street, held a gun to his head. I didn't know what happened but he'd snapped. The only reason the thief had gotten out alive was because I'd thrown myself in front of my uncle as he'd tried to beat the life out of him. Id lain there, between my uncle and this bleeding man, and for a minute I wasn't sure if he would kill me just to get to the him. Percy reminded me of him sometimes, the way he acted, the way he spoke.

I'd insisted we call the police. A week later I'd walked to the hospital and asked to see him. I'd never learned his name but the man could never walk again.

Learning about Percy's life didn't help to solve any of the problems that were swirling in my head. I trusted him with my life, he was just that kind of person, but what if someone tried to harm me? Or worse, his mother… I saw the picture of the bloodied man again and shivered. I had a lot to learn about Percy Jackson and maybe I would never know.