"You don't get it! What all this means for me! I've let myself down again and you don't know how that feels! To be so ashamed of yourself to the point of feeling completely worthless! No matter how hard you try, I'll never be what you want! They say that hard work pays off. Well guess what! It doesn't! And I'm the living proof of that! You don't know how hard I've tried, all the days that I've spent-…" Percy's voice cracked as he wiped off the tears streaming down his face.

Chapter 2

Four hours of mathematics went as slowly as Percy could remember. During these hours, Percy tried his best to wrap his mind around the information that he was receiving.

It wasn't easy of course. But nevertheless, Percy tried his best. He really did.

As Percy got out of the classroom towards the school cafeteria, he was greeted by Nico, one of his best friends.

"Hey Perce, how was your day?"

"Oh you know, terrible as always."

That's when Percy felt it. It came out without warning. Literally. Beads of sweat were starting to form rapidly in his hand.

"God damn this blasted disorder"

Percy never got used to it no matter how much time he spent living with it. He was suffering from a condition called hyperhidrosis, commonly known as excessive sweating. It was truly a miserable condition to bear. Sweat would form randomly on one's hands making it impossible for the bearer of the curse to touch anything without soaking it. Consequently, Percy always had to bring handkerchiefs and plastic files to tests so that he could place his palm on them while writing. It didn't help that Percy didn't have much of a neat handwriting. Another side effect was that people constantly frowned at you and shied away from you, however polite it may be, if you were near them while the disorder was active. It still hurt Percy in some way. It's not like he had a choice in whether he wanted to be born with this disorder.

"Oh it's starting again ain't it." Nico asked with sympathy in his voice

"Yeah…damn my life…." Percy sighed.

Lunch wasn't bad to be honest. Spaghetti was on the menu.

As he started to much on his food, Michael, one of his classmates, sitting by his left groaned.

"For whatever reason, spaghetti from this school is hard to digest. I swear, I couldn't stop puking the last time we had this at school! The flour they use is just terrible!"

Reyna, a smart girl, the best student of his class actually, laughed loudly and said something that made Michael pout.

Percy smiled. It was nice to see people enjoy themselves.

As Percy got out of the cafeteria. He went to the student's resting room and opened his bag to grab a pack of cigarettes along with a lighter.

Reyna, who was right behind him, spoke up with a disapproving tone.

"Percy. You do know that they are bad for you right."

It annoyed Percy, but it was still comforting to a certain extent to see that she actually cared about his health.

"Yeah yeah…"

Percy sat on the ground of a pretty isolated place where he knew that people didn't pass by often. Calmly taking out a cigarette out of its pack and placing it between his lips, he brought his lighter out and lit the Marlboro.

Inhale. Exhale.

Percy sighed as he observed the smoke gently float away. If only he could be as free as the smoke drifting away to wherever it pleased.

Slowly but surely, the drug was starting to its effect and Percy's muscle started to loosen.

Smoking was a habit he picked up recently this year. He knew without doubt that it was bad for him. You could lung cancer, respiratory arrest, seizures… the list went on and on.

But Percy couldn't bring himself to stop….or he didn't try. His life events were becoming too much for him to bear. They were so heavy that his only way to cope with the misery rested solely on drugs. It became a part of his life now. And a part of him knew that he wanted it to stay that way.

Suddenly, Percy heard thick footsteps echoing throughout the ever-travelling wind. Percy could make out two shadows approaching him. Soon enough, just around the corner appeared Nico with Travis. Travis was of Arabic origin and was muscular. He was nice to Percy but they didn't talk much. However, since Travis hung out with Nico a lot, they would bump into each other from time to time. Overall, they were on good terms.

"Ah I knew I would find you here! Mind passing me a cig?" Nico asked with a beaming smile and a single Airpod fit into his right ear.

Unsurprisingly, the missing one was on Travis' left ear.

"Sure. Travis you want one?" asked Percy looking at the tall boy.

"Yup"

And so they inhaled and exhaled the smoke for the next 10 minutes or so.

This was a common sight. They would head to the same place during pauses from time to time and find each other there. Sometimes, Percy encountered Nico's recently-found girlfriend, Helen, with her group of friends. It was an awkward occurrence to say the least. Helen was two years younger than Percy and he didn't exactly know them. They exchanged a simple Hi and Hello from time to time but other than that…Yeah.

Another weird thing was that one of Helen's best friends, Drew, was Nico's ex. So there was some weird tension amongst the group and Percy for the moment, didn't have any intentions to interfere with their business..

As Percy put out his cigarette, he headed back towards his school. Expecting another tiring hour of English. Oh boy...he hoped that Zoe was in a good mood today...or else...Percy would have to endure a very interesting hour with her.