My first day here. Great. Where am I, you ask? Juvenile. Prison. Jail. Whatever you want to call it. I was taken by this burly guy into an empty room. He started questioning me.
"What's your name, lad?"
"Percy."
"Your full name."
"Perseus Jackson."
He snorted. "Ok, fancy pants. Age?"
"15, 16 in two months."
"You're second oldest here then. I'll take you to your cell."
I was led away to the cells. I had my own cell, with two other cells either side of me, two girls in one and no one in the other. I turned to the one of the girls in left cell. "Hey."
She spun round. Her eyes were a wild blue. Her hair was black and spiky, like a feral animal's, except with bright blue highlights. She was wearing lots of eyeliner, a skull necklace, a leather jacket and combat boots. She grinned at me. "NEWBIE!" She shouted, almost deafening me. The cells clattered to life. The guards had left to let us get "acquainted", basically meaning they could get their coffee and ignore us for a while as we were locked up. The punk girl looked at me. "I'm Thalia. You?"
"Percy."
"Cool."
I looked at the other cells. There were twin boys in one, a dark-skinned girl with an affliction for jewels, the cheeky arsonist dude, Thalia beside me, Thalia's cellmate (a kleptomaniac) and a few others. It was weird enough being in an orange jumpsuit, but with everyone wearing the same thing, except the girls (who wore dresses), was just freaky. I pointed to the empty cell. "Who was in there?"
Thalia grinned. "Oh, a guy named Luke. He's my best mate. We were put in prison together – we kinda set fire to some old guy's mansion. (Halcyon Green, remember?) Then we ran from the law. We we were caught eventually, and taken here. Luke got freed months ago because he played innocent and obedient. I'm too rebel-y to be taken as innocent. But y'know, he visits." I nodded, not really having any answer to that. All of a sudden, a guard yelled, "VISITING TIME!"
Thalia smiled. "Yippee!" I laughed at her. She dragged me to meet her friend, as my mom wasn't here.
The guy seemed nice enough. He had sandy blond hair, blue eyes and a scar running down his left cheek. He smiled politely when he saw me, before hugging Thalia tightly.
"Who's this, Thals?" He asked. Thalia grinned, raking her hands through her dark hair.
"Oh, that's Percy. He's in your cell. Just got here, I brought him over 'cus no-one's here for him."
"If he's got no visitors, he should be in that room with..." Luke frowned. Thalia sighed sympathetically.
"Yes, but she's in there. It's his first day; she'll beat the stuffing out of him." I stared at the two, not understanding a word. Just my luck, a guard came over and dragged me to "the room".
There was only one other person in there. She had her back to me. She was wearing the standard orange dress, but the sleeves were ragged and ripped at the shoulders. Her blonde curls were cascading down her back. She looked about sixteen.
"We got a friend for ya," The guard told her nastily. She didn't respond. I was pushed inside and the door was locked.
"Um, hi?" I tried. The girl turned round. She was pretty – she had a stereotypical Californian tan which matched the hair, but she had stormy grey eyes. When she saw me, her face and eyes hardened into a mask, like rock. She grabbed me by the neck of my jumpsuit and pulled me closer, her fist against my throat. I stood trembling, terrified.
"Why are you here?!" She demanded, her face inches away from mine. She glared at me with her piercing eyes. Before I could even answer, she threw me on the floor (literally threw me) and spat ferociously. She kicked me, hard, and slapped my face. I was shocked. No guards? She hit me again, making me curl into a ball. Desperately I hauled myself upwards and swung my hand. Somehow, it connected and slapped her in the face. She stopped, frozen in shock, her hand on her cheek. She stared at me, her eye twitching. Her jaw tightened. She balled her fist and punched me, smack in the nose. I felt the crack of it breaking, and the force sent me flying. My back hit the wall and I slumped in the corner. The blonde turned away, and went back to staring out the window.
"Ow-ow-owww!" I screeched as Thalia tried to dab away the blood from my (now fixed) nose.
"Hold still!" She admonished me. I stuck my tongue out at her, but she simply tutted at me. When she was done, I thanked her. She muttered that it was nothing.
"Who was that?" I whispered fervently. Thalia bit her lip.
"It's not my place to tell you, Percy. She...she'll probably introduce herself at break. (These aren't real, I made up these prisons) We get 10 minutes outdoors, to get some fresh air. You can meet the gang, and...her.
So I sat in my cell, quietly afraid, dreading the echoing ring of the bell announcing break.
"EVERYBODY OUT!"
We were pushed along outside into a prison yard. It was covered in metal walls and barbed wire. Looked kinda painful. I was stood with Thalia, just about to be introduced to her cellmate, the pretty Cherokee girl, when she approached, her face still wearing that mask, but slightly softer, more like rock than steel.
"Hey." She said. Thalia slipped away, damn her. I swallowed.
"Hi."
"Sorry about your nose." She said, not looking sorry nor happy. She was speaking emotionlessly, like a robot.
"It's fine."
"I'm Annabeth." She said tunelessly. "Percy, right?"
I nodded. And when I heard how expressionless she sounded, how impassive she was – I was determined to prove that she had feelings. Everyone does, right?
CLIFFY!1