A/N: Hi. I like to start stories, and probably never finish them, but let's try! Welcome to Torn! I will start by saying that this first chapter is a little slower, but it's mainly to introduce some characters before I start with actual Percabeth stuff. It's also a tad bit long, but I love longer fic's, so I have no regrets. Most chapters will be close to the same length, but with probably be switching between characters. Seeing stuff through Percy's eyes on this first chapter is a must though. But yea, let's hop right in!
PERCY
We walked in the front gate and I instantly wished I was back in my bed. Today was the first day of high school and I was already bored.
"C'mon, dork!" my cousin Thalia screamed at me. Thalia Grace has spiky black hair, is around 5'4, and is constantly threatening to cut me. If looks could kill, her lightning blue eyes would do the trick. She says it's how she was born, I say it's all the metal music she listens to. She wore a black hoodie, black jeans, and black combat boots. She was dragging me along to meet her friends. Mind you, we just transferred to this school, so I have no idea where these friends came from
"Leave him alone, Thals," my other cousin Nico countered, "we just got here, how do you even know where your friends are?" Nico Di Angelo was a year younger than us, but he was in the same grade as us. His sister, Bianca, is even smarter than he is. It's a little weird. Nico also had onyx black hair, is a little taller than Thalia, maybe 5'5, and we all think he is emo. His dark brown eyes don't help that fact either. He was wearing a black zip-up, black sweats, and black running shoes.
Though they are kinda crazy, they're family you know? We've always been close.
"Best friend intuition," Thalia stated matter of factly, "that, and I texted them." She held up her phone giving Nico a 'duh' face.
"Can I at least go to my locker first?" I whined. Not that I couldn't carry my bag, it was just heavy you know? Useless weight… Stupid books.
"No, Percy," Thalia said, looking at me like I was stupid, "You are going to meet my friends, and then you can be free."
Before we continue, my name is Percy Jackson. I had messy black hair, green eyes, and was around 5'10. I play guitar, piano, I can sing, and can swim. I also love the ocean and fish. I was I'm also dyslexic and have ADHD, but that's beside the point. I was wearing a blue pullover, black sweats, and a pair of black running shoes. Other than that, I'm an open book. No, not an open book, books are boring, I'm awesome.
The three of us have been living together for the past year because our fathers decided that 1, we get in too much trouble alone, 2, it'd be good for us to watch each other's back, and 3, they could keep an eye on us. We got pretty much anything we wanted because they moved us into a huge mansion and gave us all hefty debit cards, but we didn't really like to use their money. They weren't there when we were younger, so not using their cash to move ahead feels like we have some power, you know? We make our money on the side, doing off jobs, or doing what we love. I played music Where was I going with this? Oh, yea.
I looked at both my cousins and realized that we could pass as a family. Well, we are family, but I mean like brothers and sisters. I guess the only different things we had were our eyes… and taste in music… and hobbies... and-
"Kelp head, focus," Thalia looking at me pointedly. I snapped out of my thoughts and gave her a sheepish grin, scratching the back of my head.
We walked for what felt like 2 minutes before I heard Thalia squeal. Thalia never squeals, and I've known her for my entire life.
All of a sudden, a blonde blur clashes with black, like a tiger attacking a jaguar. Looking Closer, I notice that the "blonde blur" is actually a blonde girl, and not gonna lie, she's pretty cute. She was wearing an orange t-shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of white Converse.
"Thalia!" the girl exclaimed, "It's been so long!"
"It has, hasn't it, Annie?" Thalia said happily. The girls' smile dropped and she glared at Thalia. I don't know how much she knew Thals, but you don't challenge her to a glare off.
"Don't call me Annie!" said Annie. I don't know her name, so it'll stick for now.
"Yea yea, whatever," Thalia said, brushing her off, laughing. A moment later "Annie" joined her. I was beyond confused. If I did that, Thalia would castrate me.
The new girl looked at us with a smile. It looked pleasant, but it felt calculating as if she was studying us while we spoke. One wrong word, or phrase, and we meant nothing to her. Nico and I smiled back.
"Hi, I'm Annabeth Chase, you must be Thalia's cousins," the new self-named Annabeth said.
"Yo, my names Nico Di Angelo," Nico went first, "and despite what these two nimrods say, I'm not emo."
"I understand, people sometimes think I'm just another 'stupid blonde."
The two laughed a little after that, then she looked at me. It wasn't till now I realized she had grey eyes. It threw me off for a second. And for a second too long, because Nico elbowed me in the side because I was staring.
"Sorry," I said while slightly blushing, praying Annabeth didn't notice, "Hi, I'm Percy, and I like to swim, and play guitar."
"I see," she said, "I always wanted to learn how to play but never had the chance."
"I can teach you if you want," I offered with a smile, "It's not that hard, and I've taught Nico, though he decided he liked to play bass more." Nico and Thalia were snickering in the background at this, though I'm not sure why.
"Maybe, we'll see," she said, still looking as if she was trying to break me down like a chemical equation.
Thalia cleared her throat. "As much as it sucks, we gotta head to class," Thalia says glumly. I looked at Thalia and Nico's schedule when we got them, so I knew I shared Math with Nico, and chemistry with Thalia -god help me. My first class, however, was PE. My schedule went PE, Math, Chemistry, English, History, Sword fighting (cool school, right?), then Choir.
I headed to the gym where a stocky man stood with a baseball bat. He looked about 5'5, and I didn't think I wanted to be on his bad side. "Listen up Cupcakes," he started, already sounding annoyed, "My name is Coach Hedge, and I teach about every sport we have here at Goode. Normally, we'd be doing PE right now, but I have to explain what this class is and yada yada. If you're looking to sign up for a team sport, we have try-outs today. Swimming meets by the pool at 2:30, track at the track at 4:30, and all other sports are tomorrow."
I pulled out my phone and wrote a reminder to go to tryouts today. While waiting for class to be over, I was going through my Instagram, looking at fail videos, I heard someone come to sit next to me. I looked up and saw two guys, both looking equally odd.
Guy number one looked like a blonde superman, and the other a Spanish elf.
"Uh, hi?" I say curiously.
"Hola mi amigo," the elf says with a crazy grin, "My names Leo, and blondie here is Jason."
"Percy," I said with a smile. Leo was short, probably a tad smaller than Thalia, had crazy black hair and a fire in his eyes. I liked him. Jason was around my height, had a small scar on his lip, glasses, and looked built as if he played football.
"Nice to meet you man," Jason said with a warm smile, "Mind if we sit with you? Wanted to meet someone new this year and you seemed chill."
I chuckled at this, as I was anything but chill. "If you call have ADHD chill, then sure dude. Though I do warn you, bad luck follows me like a lost puppy."
"Me too!" Leo exclaimed, earning a few looks from the surrounding kids.
"Leo, shut up! People are staring!" Jason said with an annoyed look.
Leo looked around and gave his best flirtatious grin he could muster, and very cool-ly said "Sup, ladies." Normally, this would have had girls swooning. Leo's voice was smooth, and energetic, it showed excitement. But this time, it was anything but normal. In the middle of him saying "ladies," his voice cracked, and raised two octaves. This got a laugh out of everyone in the gym, including myself. Leo looked embarrassed, but it quickly washed away and he started laughing too.
I looked at Leo with a wide grin and tears in my eyes. "Leo, what compels you to do these things?"
"I dunno," he said shrugging, "Someone has to be awesomely funny, why not me?"
This made us all laugh, and we began to talk about ourselves. Leo apparently was in Woodshop and metalworking for his electives and was great in math. He had a white V-neck on, jeans that looked like they were once blue, some work boots, and a tool belt. He was also a pyromaniac. Jason was a straight-A student who played football (I knew it!) and loved to play the drums. He had on a white sweater with two black bands on the sleeve, black joggers, and black high-top converse. We exchanged numbers and said we'd hang out over the weekend.
"And then my brother, Beck, he was covered in soot, it was gr-" Leo was finishing, but was interrupted. A girl had come up with long black hair, wearing what looked like all designer clothes, and I couldn't describe it if I tried. (AN: I just don't know enough designer clothes, I wear parkour clothes lmao)
The girl cleared her throat and we all looked at her, but she was only looking at me. Leo was smitten, Jason looked up with a friendly smile, but I could tell it was just that, friendly. I looked up with a confused look on my face.
"Hiya, I'm Percy," I say kindly, yet still confused as to why she came up to us.
"Drew Tanaka," she started with a sly grin, "but I guess you could call me any time."
Jason snorted, covering his mouth, Leo was still smitten, and I thought she was being friendly.
"Oh, sure," I said, pulling out a pen and piece of paper to write my number down, "Here's my number."
"Thanks," she said with a wink, "I'll call you later, Eye-candy." And with that, she walked away in what looked like 4-inch heels. That looks painful.
"Dude," Jason looked at me in disbelief, "did you really just get hit on by Drew Tanaka, and give her your phone number?"
I looked at him with my eyebrow raised. "She wasn't hitting on me, she just wanted to trade numbers. For homework and stuff."
Jason scoffed with an even more unbelieving look. "Percy, its PE."
"And?" I really didn't get the point he was trying to make.
"We don't have homework for PE."
"... Oh…"
Jason facepalmed and laughed, and I joined him, though laughing more nervously. We looked at Leo and he was still in a trance. I flicked his head and he jumped into action.
"Hola mamasita, my names Leo Valdez, and I-" he said, stopping midway, realizing that Drew was gone and that he was trying to put the moves on me.
Jason and I were rolling on the floor laughing. Leo looked even more embarrassed than ever. After about 5 minutes, we had calmed down and started talking like normal again.
Leo had just told us about his plans to build a crazy ship named the Argo II when the bell rang. We picked up our stuff and started walking, talking about plans for when we got home when we got to my class.
"This is my next class, math, or should I say hell?" I joke, waving goodbye to my new-found friends. I walked into Math and was greeted by a fairly boring looking class. The walls were bland, and the teacher just looked angry. I saw Nico in the back and decided to sit next to him.
"How was your first class?" I ask, not bothering to pull out a notebook. Nico would help me later, why take notes?
"Eh, it was alright," he says looking bored. I understand that feeling wholeheartedly.
"Yea, I gotcha," I say in agreement. Class starts and ends slowly. The most eventful thing was the teacher, Ms. Dodd's, yelling at Nico for falling asleep. I couldn't blame him though, math sucked, and he was a genius.
My next class was science. I walked in to see Thalia talking to Jason.
I walked up and pat him on the back. "Hey," I start excitedly, "I didn't know you had this class, Jason!'
'Jason' turned and looked at me. It wasn't until he turned around that I saw that it wasn't Jason at all. Where Jason had a scar on his lip, this guy had a scar next to his eye, and instead of sparky blue eyes, I was met with cold, icy ones.
"Uh, the names not Jason, but what's up?" he said with a small smile. Thalia started laughing and I instantly felt myself grow red with embarrassment.
"Heh, sorry," I said, feeling ridiculous, "My name's Percy."
"Luke, and it's nice to meet you. I'm gonna go, Thalia, talk to you later?"
Thalia nodded and Luke waved goodbye, walking out of the classroom. I'm not sure why, but Luke put me on edge.
I look at Thalia with a sly grin. "Soooooo," I start, "who's Luke?"
Thalia flushes and gives me a glare. After seeing Thals blush, I deemed that maybe death wouldn't be such a bad thing.
"I met him in my last class," she says, annoyed, "Also known as 'None of your business.'"
I give her a light laugh, but she holds her glare strong. Death was becoming less and less inviting.
"I'm just pulling your leg, Pinecone face," I tease, calling her by her least favorite nickname, "It isn't every day my dear old cousin finds someone she likes."
Thalia grumbled and put her head between her arms, looking at the board. Science, much like math, went by pretty slowly. On the plus side, Thalia didn't blow anything up, so that was nice.
We left the class and talked about how boring school had been. We had laughed about some stupid joke when we heard someone yelling.
"Get off, Ethan!" what sounded like a girl's voice exclaimed. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
"Don't be like that," said who I'm assuming was Ethan, "You know you want me."
Thalia and I looked at each other and had a split-second telepathic conversation.
Should we...? I thought
Yep, why is it always us? She thought back. I don't know if she really thought that, but she did in my imagination.
We took off towards the yelling, sprinting full speed to try and stop whatever was happening.
When we got there, we saw a guy with an eye patch, again I think it was Ethan, I could be wrong though, pushing a girl against a wall. The girl had long curly red hair with a beanie on, a green and black flannel, black skinny jeans, and a pair of Converse.
"Hey!" I yell, getting Ethan's attention, "get off of her!"
Ethan grunted and glared at me. "Mind your own business."
Thalia goes up to him and pulls his shoulder, effectively ripping him off of the redhead.
"I know you don't see things like we do, 'Eye patch,'" Thalia taunted, "but to everyone else, no means no!"
Ethan roared at this and charged Thalia. To anyone else, it would be scary to see a 6-foot tall dude, who looked like he played basketball, charge at a girl who was 5'5. To me, it was a typical school year with Thalia.
Ethan tried to jab at Thalia, but she blocked his punch and swiped his leg out from under him, making him fall into the splits, ending the fight.
Thalia straightened out her hoodie, looking confident as ever. "Huh, thought that would have been harder." She then pushed him back so his legs could go back to being straight, but the damage was done. Thalia grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and gave him a death glare.
"I see you messing with another girl again and you're dead," she said, dripping with anger, "Got it?"
Ethan nodded quickly then limped off.
I turned my attention back to the girl. "Hey, you alright?"
She looked at me and was a deep red. Maybe she's sick? Who would pick on a sick girl? I thought.
"Y-yea, I'm fine," she started, taking my hand as I helped her up, "Thanks for that. My names Rachel Elizabeth Dare, but everyone here just calls me R.E.D."
"I'm Percy," I say with a warm smile, "no problem, why was - Ethan right? - Ethan acting like that?"
"He's an ex and we didn't break off on good terms," she said, looking kinda sad.
"Ex or not, he better watch it," Thalia starts, joining in the conversation, "Thalia, nice to meet you."
"You guys really don't need to go through the trouble," she tried, "Ethan usually backs off for a while after the second time I tell him no."
I frowned and crinkled my eyebrows. "There shouldn't need to be a second time though."
"Yea, well, what are you gonna do?"
I looked down and realized that there were a bunch of drawings scattered on the floor. I picked them up and sifted through a few of them. I saw symbols like a trident, a skull, a lightning bolt, a flame, an owl, and a few more, but I didn't pay too much attention. Some of them were really in detail though. One was what looked like a hill at a camp that Thalia Nico and I would go to over the summer and train at. It was a really inclusive place where they had sword fighting, and archery and stuff. I thought it was awesome. I missed it though. Maybe I'll visit next weekend.
"Hey," I start while still looking through the pictures, "These are really good."
"Thank you," she said, blushing again, "I have these really vivid pictures in my head and like to draw them."
The minute bell rang a right after Thalia finished.
"Oh shoot, I gotta go," Rachel starts, picking up all of her stuff, "Here's my number, text me guys, bye!"
Me and Thalia waved then shrugged at each other. We took off towards our classes, me barely making it to English.
When I walked in, I saw looked around, seeing a bunch of curious eyes, and a pair of grey ones in particular. The teacher gave me a small smile and went back to prepping for class. I walked back, sitting next to Annabeth who had gone back to reading her book.
"Hey, Annabeth," I say, giving her a smile.
"Hiya," she says, returning a smile, but she seems focused.
"How were your first few classes?" I asked, trying to start a conversation.
"They were alright, just a bit slow."
"I gotcha," I say, pausing for a second, "So what's the food like here?"
"Really, you're in class and you're worried about food?"
"I worry about what's important."
"And your education isn't?" Annabeth looked fairly annoyed at this point.
"I didn't say that-" I start but get interrupted by the teacher.
"Alright class, today we will go over..." the teacher started, but I had quickly lost focus. I looked around to see Annabeth taking notes. I thought it was weird, as the teacher Blowfish, I think? Was only covering the curriculum, and we got one to take home, why take notes?
"Hey, what's with the notes?" I ask aloud.
"I want to study it."
"Why?"
"So I pass the class."
"Doesn't he give us one to take home?"
Annabeth turns to me and glares something fierce. "Shouldn't you be paying attention?"
I instantly recoil at this. I was only trying to make conversation, no reason to snap at me. "Fine, sorry I guess," I say coldly, turning away from her. I don't dare look at her again. Not because I'm scared, but because I'm mad. I hadn't done, nor said anything bad, had I?
"... one of the first things we will be doing is an essay about…"
I sigh a little loud. I see Annabeth raise an eyebrow at me.
"What's wrong with essays?" she asks, seemingly annoyed.
"Not my thing," I say boredly, "They aren't fun or easy for me."
"So you don't like anything challenging?" she tries, attempted to catch me up in my words.
"I like challenging things, I just don't like essays."
She signs, shaking her head, looking back at the board.
"... and this semester we will be reading The Catcher and The Rye, and a few more classics you all should enjoy."
I groan upon hearing this. Annabeth scoffs and turns to me.
"What, too good for books too?" she says, words laced with venom. The entire class is looking at us now, teacher included. They stared at us like viewers at a coliseum fight, waiting to see the next move. I instantly flush and get embarrassed.
"No, it's just that-" I try, but get interrupted.
"Is it too boring for you then?" She tried again, standing up.
"No, I just-" I tried once more, cowering, but it was in vain.
"You might think you're great, Percy, but grow up. It's a book, what's so scary about it?"
The entire class starts to laugh, or snicker about what Annabeth says. I look around, and the only person not laughing is a giant Chinese guy. I feel cornered, trapped, alone.
"If you'd let me-" I tried a final time, but it didn't work out.
"Does Thalia know her cousin is afraid of reading?" she taunted one last time. I stood up quickly, pushing my chair and table back. Annabeth looked shocked, but any sign of fear disappeared a moment after, getting replaced by her normal glare.
It's not that I was afraid, it's that I've always had a hard time reading. My teacher, Mrs. Barr in the 5th grade ridiculed me in front of the entire class because of my dyslexia. And I thought she was cool when I first met her, I thought to myself.
"No, Annabeth, she doesn't," I start, voice about to shake with anger, "What she does know is that I'm dyslexic, she knows that I have ADHD, and she knows that I was relentlessly bullied for it in school." I was fuming at this point.
Annabeth's face looked like I had just punched her in the gut, as if the air from her lungs was ripped through her throat, leaving her wide-eyed and gaping. She looked sorry, apologetic, sad even, but the damage was done.
"If you think for a second that because you're Thalia's friend I will let you bully me, you're beyond wrong," I said, turning away from her.
Annabeth's mouth opened and closed, again and again.
I picked up my bag and moved, deciding to sit next to a giant Chinese dude. He had all black hair that was clean cut, a purple t-shirt, black shorts, and black running shoes. Although he looked scary, he gave me a kind smile. "Mr. Blofis, can you continue, please?" I hear him ask.
"Yes, Frank, where was I?"
Class continues as usual, slow, boring and drab. I fall asleep around halfway through, putting my head between my arms. Frank shakes me awake 5 minutes before class ends.
"Hey man, I'm Frank Zhang," he starts, "I'm dyslexic too, want to join my study group?"
I open my mouth, then close it. He was dyslexic too? And he didn't think I was weird? "Sure, I'd be happy to."
After getting to know Frank more, I realized we had a lot in common. Frank's mom and dad are both in the military, so he lives with his grandma, so he understood what it's like to not have a dad around. We both loved sports, though Frank insists that he moves like a bull in a China shop, and turns out, he also was a swimmer. We traded numbers and, like Leo and Jason, promised to hang out over the weekend.
"Hey, so about that Annabeth girl," he started, eyes taking on a wary look, "for the first 10 minutes after you walked away, she was staring at you. Then after she stopped, she'd take the occasional glance back at you, and still looks like she hates herself for what she did."
I looked really quick, trying to disguise the fact that I was looking at her as me looking around the classroom. She was staring intently down at her notepad, scribbling hard on it. Her face carried a worried look.
"Nah, she's best friends with my cousin," I say simply, denying that she feels this way because of how she acted, "She's just worried about what Thalia will say."
"I don't know man," he starts again, "she looks like she really feels bad about it."
"Who knows, who cares," I question rhetorically. The bell rings after this, and I grab my stuff, waving Frank goodbye, and walk to my next class.
AN: Ah, drama. Gotta love it. It looks bleak right now, but I promise that it'll get better!
I PROMISE THAT NOT EVERY CHAPTER WILL HAVE EVERY SINGLE CLASS, (This one still didn't but it's getting long) AND WILL BE A BIT BETTER. On the plus side, you met a majority of the characters I'm using for right now, and I'll add more later, but these are the base group. Thanks for reading, leave a review!
ALSO, everywhere there was a =-=-=-=-, I felt I could have ended the chapter. You don't gotta worry too much about it, but it helps me see where I am in my writing.
-Rocke