Chapter 2. The School Band Room Incident

I knocked twice on the door and entered a square room with a table in the middle that has two chairs on each opposite side. The room was well lit and I was able to see clearly the boy seated on the far side of the room. He was probably not more than fifteen years old. He was looking down on his hands and I was not able to see his face. His hair was jet-black but disheveled. His white T-shirt was tattered and either torn or ripped apart in several places. He wore jeans that I cannot tell what shade of the original garment was. It was speckled with several colors that I cannot easily point out.

"Hi, My name is Dr. Alex Rose." He didn't attempt to look up as I sat across from him on the other chair. He seemed to be playing with a gold ballpoint pen in his hands.

Whoa! A pen? I have watched too many mobster movies when the thought of being stabbed with a pen crossed my mind. I quickly erased that thought. After all, he was just a teenage boy.

"Um, you might want to keep that in your pocket. I'm not about to ask you to sign anything yet." He stopped playing with the pen and shoved it inside his pants pocket.

"Great! We don't need any deadly weapons around here, right?" I made sure he could follow the playful sarcasm in my voice.

He looked up and I thought I saw a faint smile appeared briefly in his face. His eyes stared into mine as if he was trying to size me up like we were in a fight or competition. It was hard to analyze what he was thinking. I stared back and realized that his eyes were indescribably unique. They were deep blue-green in color but they changed hues when they reflected light. I started to feel dizzy as if I'm riding the waves on a boat. I averted my eyes from his gaze before I could be completely mesmerized by them. I then opened the blue folder clumsily in my hand. Thankfully, I remembered to place my recorder on the table and turned it on.

"Please state your name."

"Percy. Percy Jackson."

"How old are you Percy?"

"Fif… Fourteen. Well almost fifteen. It's my birthday in two months."

"You do realize that whatever you say is being recorded and can be used against you."

"Um… Ah…" I waited patiently for his full response.

"Yeah."

"Do you know why they brought you here Percy?"

"Well…" He swallowed hard before speaking again.

"I… No, We…They thought I blew up my school band room."

"Is that true Percy?" He looked down again as if the answer was written on the table before him.

"I don't know. I mean, it was not really me but … I don't think you will understand." I just shook my head. I have heard a lot of teenagers used this excuse before.

"Why did you think I will not understand?" I said softly, trying to sound sympathetic.

"You see things differently than me. You will never understand what I see from my own perspective."

"Why would that be?" Maybe a part of me wanted to believe that this boy might not be lying after all.

"I just know!" He sounded exasperated and annoyed.

"Well..." I sat back and glanced at the folder again before I continued.

"You were seen by more than a dozen witnesses, running away from your burning school with your girlfriend…"

"Who? What girlfriend?" He cut me off before I could finish my sentence.

"Annabeth Chase. She's your girlfriend, right?" I answered dryly, without looking up.

"She's not my girlfriend!" His voice was suddenly stern and angry. I looked up. His eyes were glaring at me and he was half-standing from his chair. Curiously, I must have struck a nerve. I made a mental thought of that.

"Alright, no need to raise your voice at me. I was just quoting a statement from one of the witnesses." He must have remembered what triggered that statement because he sat down abruptly and blushed.

"S-She's just a friend. No, I mean, she's my best friend." His voice was softer, like more of a whisper. He sounded like he was trying more to reassure himself rather than stating a fact.

"She was just on her way to visit me at school today." He said that as if he was regretting what had happened.

"Were you supposed to do something with her today?"

"We were going to watch a movie downtown after my orientation."

"Oh, so you have a date with her?"

"Date? It wasn't a date! I just told you she's my best friend! Jeez!" I noticed his knuckles were all white from clenching his fists on the table. For a second, I considered changing the direction of my line of questioning. But I just shrugged the thought and asked anyway.

"Do you know where she is right now?"

"I don't know. She must have ran away." There was a look of concern in his eyes I almost took pity on him.

"I hope nothing bad has happened to her." He quickly interjected.

"Why is that, Percy?" I now realized I did pity him. I thought he should be more worried about being a prime suspect for blowing up his school rather than worrying about his "run-away best friend".

"I'm just worried about her. I don't want anything to happen to her. I'm so sorry she ran away. It was my fault! I should have not talked to Rachel!" He really looked so helpless, my heart immediately softened.

"Who's Rachel?"

"She's just somebody I ran into, literally, last winter but I don't really know her and she had been hounding me since she saw me at school this morning. I didn't even know she went to the same school."

"Why would it be a problem to talk to her then?"

"What?"

"You said a while ago that you should not have talked to Rachel."

"Oh, that. I didn't want to be seen with her."

"Why not?"

"I told you already that Annabeth was going to meet me at school."

"Why would that be a problem if you were just talking to Rachel? I thought you and Annabeth were just friends."

"I didn't want Annabeth to get the wrong idea. Besides, I should not have told Rachel what she didn't need to know."

"And what might that be?"

"It's complicated. Just take my word for it. It's better that I don't tell you."

I have to admit that he has been more than polite to answer my questions without getting too angry or annoyed. This observation confirmed my gut feeling earlier that Percy Jackson must be a really nice person at heart.

"Tell you what. I'll go easy on you. Why don't you write down everything that happened today and then we can talk about it later when I come back. The sooner you're done, the earlier you can get out of here. How about that?" I took out a yellow pad from the folder and handed it to him.

"I need a pen to write." He asked sheepishly.

"I thought you have your own pen?"

"Um… that one does not write." I thought I saw him smile faintly again. What was that? Did he just roll his eyes at me?

"You better write your statement quickly because I'm coming back here in 30 minutes. Now get to work!" That caught his attention as he reluctantly took the pad and pen from me as I turned off the recorder and placed it back in my pocket.

Juveniles! I thought as I headed for the door.