A/N: Whoa! Fastest response ever to one of my stories! Thanks, I really appreciate it. Just FYI, I don't normally update this often, I'm just in a great mood.
Percy, Annabeth and Paul all woke up the ungodly hour of 5:30 in the morning, so that Percy and Annabeth could carpool with Paul. Paul drank his coffee and read the newspaper in silence as Percy and Annabeth dined on toast and orange juice. The two tried not to be awkward, but they both had a feeling that Paul had heard Percy's screaming the night before.
"Well, I'm going to go get ready. Half an hour, and we're leaving." Paul informed them as he got up from the table and headed towards his room. Annabeth finished her juice before doing the same, smiling at Percy. Percy sat in his kitchen, scarred out of his mind. Normally, he shouldn't be scared as something as silly as the first day of school. After all, he'd taken on monsters from the pits of Tartarus…but this time it was different. After Hera had 'kidnapped' him, and he lost his memory, he really lost all of it. And of course, after drinking the gorgon's blood, he slowly regained all of his memories. Or so he had thought. When Chiron had brought up the subject of Goode and high school the day before, Percy's mind called a blank. He knew it was a school, and he knew he had attended at one point, but other than that, he remembered nothing- no friends, no teachers (except for Paul) and no bullies. It was like an empty white building that didn't belong.
Eventually Percy headed over to his room and threw on an old shirt and a pair of jeans- it's not like he was trying to impress anybody- or should he be? He set that thought aside and walked to the bathroom, which was taken by either Paul or Annabeth- either way he wasn't getting in. Whelp, good thing I have an extra toothbrush from camp Percy thought as he brought out his extra toothbrush, as well as tooth paste. Percy ventured back into the kitchen and brushed his teeth over the sink, getting white foam all over the dishes. Once Percy was done with his teeth, not even bothering with his hair, he gathered up his backpack and some lunch money and waited for Paul and Annabeth. Minutes later, both of them were done, and all three of them headed off to Goode. It was 6:20.
"Alright, you two. Go get your schedules from the main office. Classes start at 8:00, but you don't have to be in the classroom until 8:10. I'm pretty sure both of you are in my fourth period, so I'll see you later. Oh, and try to make friends." Paul informed the two as they walked through the front doors of Goode. Between New York traffic and Paul's insane driving, they made it in 10 minutes-6:50 inside a high school, not a soul in sight. The three went their separate ways, as Percy and Annabeth took an immediate left and Paul continued down the hall. They walked up to the secretary- an older lady with white hair and glasses connected to a chain.
"Hello, dears. What is it that you need this early in the morning?" she asked, smiling.
"We need our schedules. We're kind of new…ish. My name is Annabeth Chase, and he's Percy Jackson." Annabeth told her, pointing to herself and Percy.
"Percy?! Is that you? My…you look so different." The lady was shocked.
"Um, right, Ms.…uh…" Percy drew yet another blank.
"Ms. Farnsworth, dear, Ms. Farnsworth. Do you honestly not remember me? Why you were in here, all the time, saving more and more freshman from their torturers." Ms. Farnsworth told him, sounding like they were great friends.
"I had an accident, that's why I left for a while. I don't remember much about this place. I'm sorry." Percy apologized, lying about his memory loss.
"Oh, it's okay, my dear." She said, sighing, printing out their schedules, and a map of the school for each of them.
"Curious- you both have the same schedule. Maybe it's just coincidence. Anyways, you two, have a nice day. Oh, and Percy, be careful." Ms. Farnsworth remarked as she handed the two their schedules and they left. Annabeth practically dragged Percy to the cafeteria, where she then plopped both of them on one of the many long empty tables.
"You don't remember this place yet, do you?" Annabeth asked his as soon as he sat down.
Percy shook his head. "No, not really. Like, at camp, when Chiron told us about school, I knew we were going to go here, and I knew it was the school where Paul taught at, but after that, I don't remember any of this. I have no idea who my friends are, no idea about demon teachers, and I certainly don't remember any of the bullies. I'm walking into this just as blindly as you are." Percy admitted, folding his hands on the table.
"Well, at least with the amnesia thing, you have a 50/50 chance of being okay." Annabeth pointed out.
"What's my other possibility?" Percy asked.
"Being used by people that are supposedly your friends, and then you rejecting your real friends." Annabeth said simply, inspecting her nail.
"Oh, well that's just great." Percy deadpanned. Annabeth laughed, and placed her hands on top of his.
"Don't worry, if anybody messes with my Seaweed Brain, I'll just have to show them some of my mad skills." Annabeth reassured him. Percy laughed, and leaned in and lightly kissed her- thanking the gods that he remembered to brush his teeth.
"Thanks, Wise Girl." Percy thanked her, after it was over, mussing up her hair I a playful manner. Annabeth laughed and fixed her hair. As they sat there, and more and more people started to flood in, Percy and Annabeth studied them carefully, trying to sense if any of them were monsters- Percy certainly didn't want another Kelli and Tammi incident. At about 7:40, the doors blew in and in walked a boy and a girl, obviously fighting. They looked like they were Percy's age- seniors. The cafeteria became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
"You know what Mikayla?! I don't ever want to see you again!" the guy yelled at the girl, Mikayla.
"Well, that's going to be kind of hard, dumbass! You're in all of my classes!" Mikayla yelled back at the guy.
"Well! Well! Oh whatever! I'm out of here!" The guy yelled, storming back out of the cafeteria.
"See 'ya later, ass wipe!" Mikayla called after him. He flipped her off, not even bothering to turn around. Then Percy did a very Percy thing to do. He laughed. He laughed loudly and all of the heads in the cafeteria turned to look him, including Mikayla. She progressed towards Percy and Annabeth's table, Annabeth trying to get Percy to stop laughing. Percy couldn't help it- the irony of the situation was so, well, ironic. Here was a young couple, who was supposedly 'in love until the Earth stopped spinning', calling each other names, and saying they never wanted to see each other again. Normally, Percy knew it would be rude to laugh, but after his trip to the deepest, darkest, Hell, he just couldn't begin to fathom the differences between the meaning of love to a demigod, and the meaning of love to a regular mortal. The differences were so funny to Percy- call it dark humor if you would. Percy's laughing decreased to merely a giggle or two when a shadow cast over him and Annabeth.
"What's so funny, skinny-ass?" Mikayla asked, glaring daggers at the two of them, but mainly Percy.
"Oh, it's all just so ironic to me." Percy giggled. Percy noticed that Mikayla was wearing some jeans and a dark green long sleeved t-shirt, which complimented her natural red hair beautifully. Percy shook his head, he needed to stop hanging out with Piper and the Aphrodite cabin.
"Yeah, well I don't know what your pale skin finds so funny about that, but I'll cut you some slack. You seem too stupid to even remember your own name." Mikayla commented, crossing her arms.
"Hey!" both Annabeth and Percy chorused. Percy narrowed his green eyes, and glared at her, looking straight into her eyes.
"I am many things, but I am not stupid. I may be idiotic at times, but I'm not stupid! And unlike you, I'm smart enough to know the difference!" Percy said, his voice getting louder with each word. Instead of looking scared, Mikayla's eyes softened, but she looked shocked.
"P-Per-Percy?! Percy Jackson?! Is that you?!" Mikayla asked, her jaw wide open. You could hear the entire cafeteria take a collective gasp. Oh great, so apparently I'm popular Percy thought.
"Yeah, I'm Percy. Do I know you?" Percy asked, his glare softening slightly. Percy could hear a few people getting up, sort of in slow motion, you could say, but he set that aside.
"It's me, Mikayla! Mikayla Owens! By George, what the hell happened to you?! You're so pale and…and skinny!" Mikayla asked, still shocked that 'Percy was here'. Interesting choice of words, considering hell happened to me Percy mentally snorted. The people that were standing up were starting to run, their footsteps getting closer and towards Percy. Annabeth grabbed Percy's hand, probably trying to warn him of something, but Percy shook it off.
"Um, I'm sorry I don't remember-"Percy started, before he was tackled from behind in a group hug, his head hitting the table. Luckily, Annabeth moved her hands just in time, so his head didn't hurt her.
"Percy! Percy! Oh my god, I can't believe you're back! Ah you're back!" the group cheered. They let go of Percy and the four of them moved next to Mikayla. They were all smiling, even Mikayla, who moments before had just broken up with her boyfriend.
"Um…who exactly are all of you?" Percy asked, scratching the back of his head.
"What do you mean, who are we?! We're your best friends!" a boy with brown curly hair yelled. He looked like Connor Stoll, which just made Percy sad. Travis will never be the same. At Connor's wreath ceremony, he said he'd never prank anybody again without his brother Percy though, depressed.
"Um, no you're not. Seriously, who are you?" Percy asked again, getting back on topic.
"It's us. You know, me-Jacob, him- J.D., him- Radio and her- Jess." Jacob pointed out. Jacob was pretty tall, almost as tall as Percy used to be, before he shrunk a few inches after…Tartarus…due to malnutrition, with brown hair, and blue eyes. J.D. was a short guy, about Leo-sized, but a little taller, wearing a white t-shirt and black pants, with hair like Percy's. Radio looked like he was well built, but spent a lot of time in garages, with a grease smudge on his shirt, his brown hair sticking up everywhere. Jess was a blonde girl, about as tall as Annabeth, but not near as beautiful as her- her blonde her straight, blue eyes, staring at me.
"I'm sorry, I still have no idea who you are." Percy said. He looked over to Annabeth and his eyes read help me.
"Percy suffered from memory loss this past year, that's why he doesn't know who you are." Annabeth explained.
"I'm sorry, who are you? And how do you know him?" J.D. asked, using his pencil as a pointer.
"I'm Annabeth, his girlfriend." Annabeth said, sticking out her hand so he could shake it. J.D. took it, shook it, and the let go of it like it was on fire. "Right…well then. Does he really remember nothing?" J.D asked, scratching his head with his pencil.
"You know, he is right here, and can speak perfectly." Percy sassed.
"Sorry, dude. So you don't remember anything?" J.D asked. Percy shook his head.
"You don't remember your pranks?" Jacob asked.
"No."
"Or your heroism towards the freshman?" Jess asked.
"Nope."
"Or your swimming records and captain's position?" Radio asked.
"What part of no don't you- wait swimming records? What swimming records?" Percy cut himself off.
"You don't even remember that?!" Mikayla, who was quite for a while, asked.
"Do we really need to go through this again? No!" Percy yelled.
"Come on, man! Really?! Come on, get up. Come with me! Field trip time." Jacob said as his supposed friends started walking towards the door. He looked at Annabeth, who shrugged, and they got up and followed, taking their backpacks with them.
Oh, I'm so cruel! No, I just want the next chapter to be longer. So, what do you think? Review to your heart's content :)