Perspective of Maximilian
Out of my seventeen years of being on this planet, I never thought that going to school would change my life.
I woke up in a motel bed, seeing the brown, cracking ceiling above him. It was truly a disgusting place to stay, but it was pretty much all two demigods could afford.
I yawned, looking around to see my best friend, Tanner, laying in the other bed on the other side of the room. He looked no where near ready to get up, his long, brown hair shooting in all directions I decided not to wake him up, slowly getting out of bed and looking at the ratty old alarm clock that the motel had so graciously supplied us with. It had 6:22 printed on the front. I cursed in Ancient Greek- and yes, Ancient Greek- before walking to my dufflebag, pulling out normal (or so I hoped) clothing for a high schooler; a zip-up sweatshirt and normal jeans to go along with my orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. I went to the bathroom, taking the quickest and coldest shower of my life. I slid on my clothes, walking back out of the bathroom to see Tanner still snoozing away.
"Get up, you lazy sloth,' I said, picking a pillow up off my bed and throwing it at him.
Tanner immediately jumped up, shouting, "somebody help! Napoleon is here and he's trying to take over America!" He said, looking around and seeing me, "oh, wait, its just you. How'd you sleep, Max?"
I rolled my eyes, ignoring his Napoleon comments. I was born in France, living there for eight years before moving to Quebec, not exactly helping my French accent. I stayed in Quebec for another two years before moving to America with my dad. "Maybe if I didn't have to put up with your snoring all night, it would have been better. Now go get ready for school, got a demigod to rescue." I told him, watching him get up and quickly change for the day.
"Max, when was the last time you were at a school?" Tanner asked me, a worried look on his face.
"About two years ago?" I replied, not too sure, "when my dad moved back to Canada. He let me stay at camp but didn't care if I went to school or not."
"Were you popular?" Tanner asked me, sitting on his bed, "I mean, you obviously were when we were twelve, but, um, were you popular in high school?" He had a nervous tone to his voice.
I shrugged, "I didn't really talk to people in high school, but it's not like I was harassed or anything."
Tanner rolled his eyes, "of course not, you're a son of Aphrodite. All the girls just stare at you and the guys don't mess with you cause the girls would hate them."
I stayed silent for a few seconds, not being exactly fond of what came with my parentage. After a few more seconds of silence, I put my hand on his shoulder, "listen, you'll be alright. trust me."
Tanner's expression immediately brightened up, evidently pushing the sad thoughts out of his mind, "so, Demigod Rescue Force 101 is ready for the mission."
I couldn't help but let out a laugh. Almost as soon as Chiron, our head camp counselor centaur, had come to us with this special mission to find a demigod who was long past due to be claimed, Tanner had coined the term 'Demigod Rescue Force 101' to describe the two of them. I nodded, walking towards the door and opening it, "let's get this done and get back to camp."
The taxi dropped us off at a normal school building. I payed the driver, handing him some mortal money and pushing Tanner our of the cab.
"Why can't you just do that special voice thing of yours? Why pay when you don't have to?" Tanner asked me, talking about my charmspeak, or my ability to be extremely convincing.
I shrugged, "he didn't do anything to deserve it. You know, he doesn't get a rent free year round camp like we do."
Tanner rolled his eyes, and the two of us were standing in front of New York City Area High School. It seemed to be made completely of orange bricks, almost in a perfect rectangle with the exception of a weird slant on the left side. It had plenty of windows, each seeking to go to a single classroom. I turned my attention to the kids shuffling around the outside of the building, each mingling with their social groups.
Some big ugly kid walked up to us, a few of his friends standing behind him. His nose was bent, as if he had gotten into quite a few fist fights in his days. He looked like a senior, but only because that was the maximum class for kids in high school. He couldn't have been younger than 20, I mean, the kid was huge, and ugly, did I mention ugly? His mom and dad were probably a pig and a manatee, because I don't see any other way that this kid could have been made.
He held out his big, ugly hand, a disgusting smirk on his face. "New kids, eh? Well, how bout that? Guess you gotta pay the entrance fee. Twenty bucks, both of you."
I glanced at Tanner, and his face looked an awful lot like a Vietnam veteran suffering from a PTSD attack. I could tell he wasn't having the most fond of memories, so I figured I could handle a bunch of big ugly brutes by myself.
"I don't really want to do that," I replied to Mr. Ugly.
Mr. Ugly and his army of disgusting soldiers all let out a collective laugh, "French? This'll be easier than I thought! You're all a bunch of pansies!"
Ugly raised his fist, bringing it down quickly on my face. Maybe messing with a well trained demigod wasn't a good idea, maybe Mr. Ugly was really stupid, but probably both. I grabbed his hand as it was a few inches from my face. I pushed him back away from us, shaking my head, "perhaps, but that's not important right now. What IS important, however, is that you and your beautiful friends here practice your ballroom dancing. If you don't, you might fail the test!"
Mr. Ugly's eyes glossed over, along with his comrades. Each of them immediately grabbed a partner, placing their hands on each other and dancing as if some fancy music was playing in the background. They gave it their best shot, but they looked like a bunch of cows tripping over each other.
"Seeya in class, you ugly bastard!" I said, patting him on the shoulder and walking past the cows who had suddenly gained dancing skills. I grabbed Tanners arm, who was still looking rather stunned.
"Thanks.." He mumbled quietly.
"No problem." Ismiled down on him. "Those guys? THEY deserved it."
I went to the principles office, getting the schedules that Chiron had managed to set up for us. I looked over it, shaking my head at the classes I was taking. French 1? Shouldn't I be in, I don't know, French 10 or something? I don't know, maybe English would be a better class. There's still a few words that confuse me. The rest of the classes were typical high school courses; science, history, math, whatever. I noticed that Tanner didn't have any classes with me, besides lunch. That was probably a good idea on Chirons part, if we were to find this demigod, dividing and conquering would be a good strategy.
As we walked down the hallways, I noticed a few girls looking my way, but they all began to think the ceiling or the floor was pretty fascinating when I looked back. I kept looking at my schedule and at the numbers on all the doors, until finally spotting my French class. Me and Tanner walked next to the door, scanning the area before speaking
"Okay, you know the plan? If you see anyone, anyone at all that you think could be a demigod, tell me at lunch, and I'll do the same for you. Got it?" I asked him.
"Got it, coach," he responded, "any special requests."
"Just have fun. It's high school, make the best of it." I smiled at him, hearing the late bell ring and seeing the hallway suddenly very empty. I told him to go find his class before turning into mine, opening the door to hear a collective gasp.
