Disclaimer: I do not own anything from either the PJO or the HOO series.
Spare Seat
Bag – Check
Phone- Check
Wallet – Check
Right, that's everythi- nope no its not
Bus fare inside Wallet – No
Percy groaned, he was sure that he had all of his stuff when he checked last night, where had he put his bus fair. 10 minutes and an almost completely destroyed house later he was back at the front door running through the checklist again. He was annoyed as well as stressed now, he had to get this bus on time, even he knew that being late on the first day of sixth form at a new school was an incredibly bad idea.
He wasn't usually this stressed about going to school but at all of his previous schools he was close enough that he could walk, or at least get lifts with friends who lived near to him. For this school though there was no chance of anything like that, his new school was miles away, at least 50 minutes on the bus. It would take hours to walk there. Percy sighed and wished he could have stayed at his previous school. Francis Academy had been the school he'd stayed at the longest managing over 3 years in the place, he hadn't even been expelled from this one like some of his previous schools, he had to leave so that he could study the subjects he wanted.
The problem with his bad history with schools meant that a lot of the local ones wouldn't accept him, which explains why he is now standing just inside his door making sure that he hadn't forgotten anything.
Percy glanced at his watch and almost had a heart attack; it was 7:00, his bus was due to leave in 5 minutes. He dashed out the door and sprinted through the park reaching the stop at almost the exact same time the bus did. He stopped at the back of the queue and doubled over, breathing heavily. The queue moved slowly and just as Percy began to think he ran for no reason he was finally allowed on the bus.
After paying the driver his fair Percy turned and felt his heart fall, there where no spare seats. The idea of having to stand for the whole journey to school made him half wish that he never got out of bed in the morning but as he edged alongside the bus he saw there was one spare seat next to a blond girl who was in the St. Michaels girls school uniform. With no other options available I walked up to her and sat down beside her.
She looked up and gave him a strange look before putting her headphones in and looking back down at her phone. They rode along in silence for a couple of minutes before he got bored and decided to make conversation.
"What's it like to go to an all girls school?" Percy kicked himself before he even finished the sentence, what a stupid way to open a conversation with a stranger. Why was it whenever he was near a pretty girl his brain seemed to completely stop working, although if you would ask his friend Rachel she would tell you that his brain never worked properly but that was beside the point.
The blonde was looking at him like he was some sort of alien creature at this point, staring at him with those blue – no grey eyes. Percy stayed there sweating under her gaze for a couple of moments before she replied.
"Alright, its annoying that we have to still wear this uniform when were in sixth form though."
Percy glanced down at my own suit, that was one positive about leaving the lower reaches of school, year 12's only had to wear formal business wear rather than the uniform that lower school students had to wear. It was then when he realised what she said.
"Oh so you're in sixth form too then?"
"Yes, I start Year 12 today."
She put her headphones back in, the universal signal for saying the conversation is over. Percy didn't care though, he was feeling strangely excited at the idea that she was the same age as him. They rode along in silence for another few minutes before he decided that he wanted to continue their conversation.
"So what's your name then?"
She glanced back up at him before sighing and replying shortly "Annabeth".
Not picking up on her mood Percy replied happily.
"That's a nice name, mines Perseus but everyone calls me Percy, I'm staring Year 12 as well today but at Combeham, what subjects are you studying?"
She pulled her headphones back out of her ears and glared at Percy,
"Do you every shut up!"
Percy grinned slightly sheepishly back at her, "Erm, no"
"Figures," she muttered under her breath before replying in a normal tone, "Well could you for a while please I'm trying to revise."
Percy gaped at her completely and utterly shocked, "Revise, but it's only the first day!"
"I like to get ahead." Annabeth replied defensively.
Percy continued to stare, it was one thing revising early but before school even started. "That's weird" he decided, and then kicked himself for saying it allowed.
Her eyes narrowed and before Percy could backtrack she snapped at him,
"Sais the person who seems unable to stop talking to a complete stranger on a bus."
"I didn't mean it like that," Percy hurriedly said attempting to escape "I just meant it's not something that most people don't do."
Annabeth rolled her eyes at him as he continued to attempt get out of the hole he had dug himself.
"Can you move please"?
"Why? Percy replied worriedly, " I really didn't mean to offend you or anything."
He was relieved when she laughed, "No, Idiot this is my stop."
Glancing up Percy realised the bus had indeed stopped and all the other St Michaels girls had now left. Just before Annabeth stepped off the bus he shouted after her.
"Nice meeting you, see you later."
She scowled before stepping off. Percy spent the rest of his bus journey relatively happy and got to school a whole 20 minutes early.
. . . .
As first days at a school go it wasn't too bad, Percy was assigned a form whose room was on the ground floor – Result. His form had some genuinely nice people in it that he was sure he could make friends with. The school had a Starbucks; yes as Starbucks in a school and most importantly the place had a pool, something that was incredibly rare in schools here. The day had been so busy that he ha pretty much forgotten the girl on the bus until it pulled up to the stop outside St Michaels on the way home.
Percy watched out for Annabeth as about 30 girls got on the bus and he tried not to feel disappointed when he didn't see her blonde hair amongst them, why would he be disappointed anyway, its not like they knew each other well. He settled down putting his bag back down on the still empty seat beside him and prepared for the journey home. It was then when he saw the flash of blonde hair run up to the side of the bus. A slight grin made its way onto his face as he saw her stagger through the doors.
She glanced up, and seeing that the only spare seat was next to Percy, groaned. Despite holding what looked about 30 books she remained sanding by the door, desperately looking around the bus. Percy raised his eyebrow at her and she scowled, turned around and looked out of the front window as the bus moved off.
Barely 5 minutes later she turned round and started walking down the bus towards Percy. When she asked him to move his stuff he smirked.
"Why didn't you sit here when you first got on?"
"Because I didn't want to sit next to you" she deadpanned.
Percy clutched his heart, "You wound mean Anna," he declared dramatically.
"Don't call me Anna," she retorted in a bored voice, as if she had said that multiple times already.
"Why not?"
"Maybe because its not my name."
"I suppose, its just I hate my name,"
"Well that's what you get for having a name like Perseus"
Percy grinned, "You remembered my name."
She looked at him shocked for a moment before rapidly recovering, "Well so did you.
"Yeah, but I wanted to talk to you so of course I would remember", Percy explained as if talking to a toddler, "You on the other hand didn't want to talk to me, I must of left a big impression," he smirked as he finished.
Annabeth hit his shoulder muttering something before replying, "Someone's got a high opinion of himself."
You have no idea, that's what it sounded like she said, what did she mean by tha – Percy was knocked out of his thoughts as Annabeth hit him again.
"You blanked out," she explained.
"And I thought you where the one who didn't want to talk to me" Percy grinned back at her.
"Well you're a good distraction," she told him.
Still grinning Percy asked the question that he had been begging to ask ever since he got on the bus, "Why the hell have you got so many books"
Annabeth cringed slightly before replying, "Well, about 5 of them are textbooks and the others … are wider reading for my personal statement."
Percy gaped at her, "Your Personal Statement … but that's for uni applications, we don't even think about having to apply for another year."
She grasped her books more tightly, "As I said earlier, I like to get ahead"
"Well," Percy said looking into her face, "Like I said earlier it's definitely weird."
Percy was shocked when she burst out laughing, but couldn't help but think what a nice sound it was. "Sorry," she choked through her laughter; "I haven't had a completely meaningless and stupid conversation in so long."
Percy smiled back at her, a genuine smile full of warmth. "Well if it's stupid conversations you after I'm your man, I'm the expert of stupid conversations."
She smiled back at him. "I will have to keep that in mind."
Percy glanced out of the window and gasped realising where he was, he hit the bell with one hand and immediately started gathering up his stuff. "As delightful as this conversation has been, I really need to get off now."
"What's the rush, its another couple of minutes until the next stop," Annabeth enquired.
Percy scratched the back of his neck, "Well that's the thing, I was too busy talking to you I kind of missed my stop,"
Annabeth pinched her lips together, trying to prevent herself from laughing.
"Well Percy I guess I will see you around," she said moving to let him out of his seat.
"I'm sure I will," he replied, " See you soon Anna".
Percy was sure he heard her say "I'll look forward to it distraction as he walked away." The thought of it made him feel happier than he had done in ages, and even made the thought of the 20 minutes extra he had to walk seem less annoying.
If he could keep up regular conversation with Annabeth the extra walk home would be so definitely worth it.
A/N
Right, well that came out weird. Before any of my Evacuated followers panic I an 100% still going with that story and it will be my primary focus, however when ever I've had writers block for that I have been chipping away at this and now that a whole chapters ready I decided to publish it.
I haven't got a clue where it came from and know that its rather odd but I've written it so I might as well share it.
Updates for this won't be on a schedule, my primary focus is Evacuated as I have a pretty good idea where that story is going, this is just a strange idea that I'm allowing myself to work on when I have time.
Everything in the story will follow the British school and bus system so I'm sorry to any readers in America who don't understand anything but it would be impossible to write it set in the U.S as I don't have a clue how it works over there either.
So anyway thanks for reading, I hope to get the next chapter of Evacuated out before Monday but I'm afraid I cant promise anything.
Until then,
UKPJOFan
