Percy walked into school. He was dreading it, since he had to repeat a year. Rachel wouldn't be in his class, so he would be the freaky new kid again, but it would be worse since he figured everyone would know that he had repeated a grade. Annabeth was still at her school, Piper and Jason were with Piper's dad, going back to camp with Coach Hedge every month or so, Nico was just wandering, wanting to recover alone, and Hazel and Frank were staying at camp since they weren't really welcome at Camp Jupiter. Percy didn't know what Leo was doing, but the younger demigod hadn't known either, last time Percy saw him. He had promised to IM him, once he knew and whatever might happen was settled, so Percy wasn't too concerned. He dumped his books in his locker, only keeping his backpack, since he didn't have his schedule yet. He walked to homeroom, glad to have gone with Paul since it meant that the halls were empty. He claimed a seat in the back corner of his classroom, and pulled out his binder, where he had a picture of the Seven and Nico right after the quest, all bleeding and sweating, but smiling in relief. They had done it without any losses, but they knew that they still had to get back to camp.

"Mr. Jackson," a voice shouted. Percy grabbed Riptide, not uncapping it, but being ready to, and looked up. He sighed in relief, it was his homeroom teacher, the same one that he had during his sophomore year.

"Yes?" He asked nervously.

"I hate to ask you this, since I know that you've apparently had a tough year, but could you be a guide for the new student? Apparently he's also had a very challenging year, so I was hoping that you might be able to help him feel more comfortable here."

Percy shrugged, knowing that he didn't really have a choice, "Sure."

"Great, thank you." Percy shrugged again, preferring to study his schedule. He groaned when he saw that he had first period math, but before he could think too much of it, people started filing in. He hid his picture, no need for questions about why a bunch of bloody teenagers were standing outside the Parthenon. The answer was, of course, by Annabeth's insistence. Instead he pulled out a different picture. Hedge took it when none of them were looking. They had all showered and were sitting around the table, all half asleep, eating pizza and smiling because they had made it, they were still alive. Annabeth was asleep, curled into Percy, who was rubbing his hand up and down Nico's arm to comfort both of them after their individual experiences in Tartarus. Hazel sat on Frank's lap, glancing worriedly at Nico, looking like she wanted to go to him but not wanting to leave Frank. Jason and Piper weren't touching, just staring at each other, worrying about how Jason would react to the fight they were going to and Leo, Leo was trying to isolate himself, but Jason had thrown an arm around his shoulder, keeping him there, knowing that the Latino felt left out and unwelcome. If anyone who knew them saw the picture, it would be easy to tell that Percy wanted to be able to offer comfort to him too, but he only had so many limbs.

"I know you love me, but having a picture of me? Your girlfriend might be jealous." A voice laughed. Percy turned around to find a grinning Leo.

"Leo!" Percy exclaimed, grinning back. "I thought I told you to IM me as soon as you knew what would be happening? What did happen, anyways?" He grabbed him in a tight hug, relieved that, whatever had happened, at least he would be able to help him out.

"I'm back in the system," he groaned.

Percy reluctantly let him go, ruffling his hair sympathetically. The younger boy had become like a brother to him, and he felt bad that he was always sent back into the foster care system, even after something like the war.

"Class, settle down, now! My name is Ms. Albert."

"Don't worry about her, she won't call you up or anything." Percy reassured Leo, who was looking nervous.

"Oh thank gods," he grinned, before grabbing Percy's schedule. "Same classes," he told the older boy.

"Oh. Cool. She told me that I was supposed to be the new kid's buddy, but this works too," they shared a quick laugh, quieting when Ms. Albert glared at them.

"Is something funny, boys?" she asked.

"Probably," Leo answered.

Percy rolled his eyes, cuffing Leo on the head. "Ignore him, Ms. Albert. This is Leo Valdez." While both boys would have once made a more sarcastic comment, the war had changed them. It had changed them so much that Percy would only really talk to Nico and Leo. He and Annabeth were trying to keep their relationship working, but every time they looked at each other they were reminded of what they had gone through in Tartarus. Neither wanted to put their best friend and soulmate through that pain, but neither could really give the other up. While Annabeth had fallen back on her friendship with Piper, and formed friendships with Hazel and, to a lesser extent, Reyna, Percy had, in typical Percy fashion, become extremely protective of the younger boys. He was protective of Jason, but least so since the boy had been trained and had a support system. He was most protective of Nico, since he still felt responsible for Bianca's death and for the boy ending up in Tartarus. Leo had just wormed his way into Percy's heart, when Percy accidentally caught him crying, feeling guilty about getting possessed, and putting too much pressure on himself. The boy had had a complete breakdown and Percy had felt responsible for him ever since.

"So where to?" Leo asked at the end of homeroom.

"We're in CH2," Percy told him, leading to one of the buildings.

"Will I ever figure out what these things stand for?" Leo asked, gesturing to the building codes.

"CH stands for Cambridge house. Cambridge was an old head of school or something…" Percy explained.

"Oh, okay." Leo shrugged, not overly interested but glad that he wouldn't appear stupid.

Their math class was a bit of a challenge for both of them, since the numbers were easy to mix up, but Leo was clearly a lot better than Percy. Then they headed to English, and sat in the back corner to wait for Paul.

"Alright class, books away," Paul started.

"That's Paul Blofis," Percy told Leo.

"Blowfish?"

"Blofis. He's my stepdad, actually. He knows about us and is surprisingly chill about it."

"Mr. Jackson, who's your new friend?" Paul asked.

"This is Leo Valdez, Mr. Repair," Percy teased, dodging the punch to his arm.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Valdez," Paul nodded.

Percy turned to Leo and whispered, "Don't worry, now he knows what you are."

Leo nodded, somewhat relieved. One less teacher judging him based on things he couldn't control.

"Alright class. We're actually starting the year off with an interesting unit. We'll be studying mythology. Specifically, Greek Myths," Paul announced, winking at the demigods. Percy and Leo smirked at each other. Both were relieved that their dyslexia wouldn't be a problem. "You will be working in groups of two to focus on two major gods or goddesses of your choice. You will be talking about their families, their powers, their histories, and one myth about each of them. Who wants first pick?"

Leo and Percy exchanged an almost non-existant look, then raised their hands. "Poseidon and Hephaestus." They chimed. Paul nodded and wrote it down.

The boys worked quickly. They were just finishing writing out the myths, and then they would just have to make it into a poster. From there, they went to the locker room to change for gym. A tall jock, one Percy recognized from being on the not-so-talented part of the swim team (and for hating Percy for being so good) walked up to Leo, who was almost as scarred as Percy, thanks to the war.

"Hey, kid, what's with the scars? Parents ashamed of having a useless son?"

Percy saw Leo's eyes darken, and knew that he would either lose control over his fire or cry.

"You're an expert on useless, aren't you Carelton?" Percy asked, subtly placing himself between the two boys.

"Says the boy who had to repeat a year."

"You can never stop talking about yourself, can you? We all know you had to repeat grade seven because you failed. At least I didn't fail."

"Cupcakes, get out here before I have to make you!" An annoyingly familiar voice shouted from the gym.

Leo groaned, and Percy rolled his eyes. "Well, Coach calls," he said.

As the boys walked out, the short man waved his baseball bat threateningly.

"Hey Coach Hedge," Leo smirked.

Hey, this is random fandom writer (just come up with random nicknames if that takes too long in your head). I'm also Artemis GoH, but I started a new profile. This story will be on both accounts, but I might decide to only post the updates on one, I dunno. Either way, I owe this whole fic (and I'm sure some future ideas) to the awesome Darknight179/Might of the Light because he's great and he gave me the idea and you should all be on the look out for his new fanfic because IT IS AWESOME!

Love,

Arty/RFW