CHAPTER 2:
Author's Notes:
Hello there, Alex here. Thank you so much to the people who followed, favorited and reviewed this story, I love you guys! And a shout-out to Luishunter65 for being the first one to favorite the story.
Anyway, I finished the second chapter, it was later than I had planned but school got in the way. Anyway I might have another chapter by tomorrow or Monday, and I'll try uploading twice a week.
I hope you enjoy reading this.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of the Percy Jackson series, just the idea of the story.
More notes at the end of the chapter, And now to the story….
The next morning Percy followed Grover into the English classroom; it was a medium sized room with windows lining the left wall, 4 rows of double desks each with cushioned chairs, and a whiteboard on the end of the room where the professor stood writing some quotes. They sat in the closest desk to the door and proceeded to take out their own books and notebooks while the rest of the class came into the room.
"I hope you all finished your weekend assignments" she said still busy writing down on the board. "If you did you can turn them in at the end of the class, if not remember you only have until tomorrow morning to do so." She nodded to the whiteboard, clearly satisfied of her work and finally turned around to look at the students.
"You there, who are you? And why are you in my classroom?" She suddenly asked looking straight into Percy, causing everybody else in the class to turn around in their seats to look at him.
"I'm Percy, I just transferred here" he said, blushing a little from all the attention "I have my schedule here"
"Come here, let me see it" she demanded, so Percy had no choice but to go to the front of the room and hand it over to her, standing awkwardly while she read the page. "Ah yes, Perseus Jackson, I heard about you. Very well welcome to Greek Hill, now go take your seat and after class we'll talk about the previous assignments"
He grabbed his schedule and as he was making his way to his seat he caught a glimpse of a girl with blonde princess curls tied into a ponytail, he smiled and waved at her as he kept walking, finally taking his seat next to Grover.
Grover looked curiously at him before leaning in and whispering "Do you know her?"
He shook his head and whispered back "I crashed with her yesterday while looking for the dorm. Why do you look shocked? What's wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong, it's just that well… Annabeth is kind of famous here at GH, but she usually doesn't speak to many people, except her best friends of course, and is usually really hard to approach her." He said while trying to take notes of what the professor was saying, giving him curious looks.
"So she basically gives the cold shoulder to everybody, but still manages to be popular? Sure that makes sense" he said sarcastically, that's high school for you "Come on! I don't think she is really like that, maybe you are just misunderstanding her?" he said trying to believe it, but remembering the coldness and loneliness he had seen in her eyes the day before.
"I don't know about that, but the whole school thinks so, but I'm telling you, she doesn't even care about being popular, THAT is what doesn't make sense, since when a teenage girl doesn't want that? Anyway, she is really smart, highest scores in the year, champion of the academic decathlons, and she is good at sports too, especially athletics. She is famous because all of that"
"Mr. Underwood, Mr. Jackson, do you have something you want to share with the class?" asked the professor suddenly, causing for the boys to jump in surprise, shaking slightly their heads. "Be quiet then!" she snapped and went back to her teaching.
"She might be a little angry" Percy whispered giggling to Grover and finally putting attention to the class for the rest of the period.
Through the rest of the day Percy went to his different classes, but he couldn't shake the feeling that people were looking at him. Well yeah, he was the new kid but it felt different; in the other schools he had been to he usually didn't got more than a few glances, here everybody seemed to be looking at him from the corner of their eyes, and some even staring.
"Do you think people are staring at me?" He finally asked Grover when they had class again together on last period.
"Of course they are! You are new, and what's more, you arrived 3 weeks late and got a spot on a team. People are curious, and there are a lot of rumors going on" Grover answered.
"Rumors? What kind of rumors?"
"Well things like you are some rich kid who bought his way in, or that you were actually supposed to be here from the start of term but you are rebellious, or that a scout went to your school and got you a place in here, things like that." He said.
"Oh man!" That's the only thing Percy could say, he sat lower into his desk and stared at his notebook. People were starting to get really curious, and he wasn't sure he wanted them to know the truth; he really didn't want to be labeled as a "troubled kid" anymore, one who always ended up getting expelled.
For the rest of the class he was silent, and he could see Grover giving him worried looks. When class ended and he was about to leave, Grover stopped him.
"What's going on with you dude? One moment you are all cheerful and excited and the next one you are all gloomy and anxious."
Percy wasn't sure what he should answer, and pondered for a minute if he should lie about it, but the real concern in Grover's face made him decide to be honest with him.
"I just… I'm not sure if I want people to know I've been expelled from so many schools, and that I practically begged for a chance to apply to this school" He said finally, quietly so only Grover would hear. "And I have no idea how to stop those rumors before somebody finds the truth."
Grover gave him a pat in the back and led him out of the classroom and into the hallways. "That must be really tough, but I might have an idea, you just have to show them how awesome you are at swimming, so people won't have any doubt it was because of your talent."
"Maybe, but what about me getting here until now?" He said unsure.
"We'll figure something out" Grover assured him. "I'll help you think of something"
It was comforting knowing someone had his back and was trying to help him. "Thanks man, I really appreciate it" Percy said grinning.
"You have practice now, don't you?" Grover said, and Percy nodded "So let's go show them then!"
When they got to the pool, they found out it was really crowded. "Is it always like this?" Percy asked astounded.
"No, it just seems like there are a lot of people who are curious about the new kid" Grover said chuckling.
As it turned out, many people had come because of all the rumors that had been spreading all day through the school and they wanted to see for themselves what was really going on. At least that was what he got from passing conversations he overheard. Percy got into the locker room, found the number he had been assigned and quickly got changed.
"This looks more like a competition than a practice" he thought when he got to the pool and saw the amount of people sitting on the benches.
"Jackson!" He heard the coach yell, so Percy went to meet him. "Good to see you kid; I guess you do remember me?"
"Yes I do Coach Hedge" He answered. Coach Hedge had been the one to overlook his demonstration while trying to get into the school. He was a tiny man with beady eyes and a goatee, and seemed to always be carrying a whistle around his neck.
"Good, now I expect to see more of what you did on the try outs, we could use your speed for the next competition" He said patting him in the back. "Gather 'round cupcakes!" He yelled to the other kids who were coming out of the locker room.
"Okay so, this is Percy Jackson, he'll be your teammate from now on, I guess you already hear about it" They all nodded "Good, now get into the pool!" He yelled again, blowing the whistle and they started practice.
Annabeth was sitting between her two best friends, Piper and Hazel, in the bleachers in the pool. They had ended up here after playfully arguing (mostly them) about the new boy Percy. She was pretty sure her friends had started a couple of rumors without meaning to while trying to find a reason for his mysterious late arrival.
It had all started in English class on the first period when Percy arrived; having a new student is guarantee of some speculation, but it had gotten worse when he had waved at her. It was that moment when Piper and Hazel started with their theories involving her in them. But it got worse when they were going over the idea that he looked kind of like a rebel so maybe he had just decided to show up until now, it was then that she said that he was clumsy and quite nice for a "rebel", letting it slip that she had met him already.
She had to tell them about their run in the day before, which only led to more speculating and excitement from her friends, who were now starting to devise a plan to get them together. And now she had been dragged into the pool to watch the practice, but it turned out that they weren't the only ones with that idea, apparently many students had decided to come as well.
"He is really fast" Piper said looking at the swimmers in the pool, and pulling her out of her thoughts "I might even believe the rumor of the swimming scout."
"I think so too" Hazel replied, "although the idea of him being kind of a rebel was fun too, but Annabeth here doesn't think he is like that" she said trying to sound innocent but failing miserably.
"You should meet him then if you think so, I'm telling you he is really friendly, or at least that's the impression I got from him" Annabeth said.
"Then it's decided, you would introduce us to him then" Piper said clapping her hands together and looking determined. She knew that look, it meant she wasn't changing her mind, and Annabeth would be forced to do as she said.
"Fine, but it's not like I actually know him" She sighed.
"I'm sure it'll be fine" Hazel said.
They stayed there until practice finished and were amazed by how good Percy was, sure he needed some training, but he was doing better than most people on the team who had been training for a long time with coach Hedge, one of the best swimming coaches in the state.
"Just who is Percy Jackson?" Annabeth thought while leaving the pool and heading to her dorm.
Author Notes:
Well I hope you liked this chapter, as I mentioned earlier I had a bit of trouble this week so maybe it seems rushed, but please tell me what you think, feedback is really important to me. And now I'll answer to the reviews from last chapter:
PaperJonez: Thank you so much! You were the first reviewer, and to know there was someone out there who had liked it made me really happy.
Guest: I'm sorry to disappoint you :( I'll try to upload chapters as fast as I can! Thank you very much! And greetings from Mexico!
Dobby99: Thank you, I'm glad you like it! :D Yes there will also be Annabeth's POV, but they will be a few, mostly Percy. And no worries, I think your grammar is good :)
Please Review, all comments are welcome just please be nice. And if you see a grammatical error, please point it out to me.
Goodbye, and until next chapter!
