I wasn't exactly sure the redheaded girl was taking me, but I didn't object to being led around any. My mind did wander a few times back towards the pale but dark haired girl, Bianca. I hoped that she wasn't upset or anything about Rachel's intrusion any. I must have gotten a bit more lost in my thoughts of things than I had realized, as I felt a pinching tug on my arm.
"What're the thoughts swimming behind those pretty eyes of yours?" Rachel asked in a half teasing tone.
"I just can't really believe I'm gonna be living here."
"It's pretty amazing, huh?" She smiled back softly. "I wish I could stay here as well, myself."
I blinked a few times in a mixture of disbelief, confusion and uncertainty. It took me a few more moments to collect my jumbled, swimming thoughts and form a response.
"You don't stay here?"
She giggled lightly, as we had walked the edge of the woods and began to circle around towards the seaside of the campus. I mentally noted that the sports training stations would be coming upon before much longer. It was easy to admit and admire at how beautiful the campus was, possibly far more than anything else I'd seen.
"I'm actually enrolled at an all girls school, Clarion. It's not so bad really. During the week, I come stay the nights here and return for my classes in the morning." Rachel explained, though I'd have to confess that I wasn't exactly able to follow her completely.
"So if you're only here in the evenings, what do you do?" I asked her, puzzled.
"Oh, I'm actually like the guidance counselor. I use one of the back rooms, but we keep a lot of things up in the attic, so I tend to spend a bit of time in there as well."
"You're not then, like some grown women or anything are you?" I couldn't help but stammer lightly with the thought. "I mean, you're very pretty, but don't counselor's have to be.. well, older?"
Rachel Elizabeth Dare giggled more and playfully gave a light push against me. "Don't be ridiculous, Percy. I'm the same age as you. Sixteen."
A smile broke out across my face, the warm feeling of relief accompanying my returning ease. Rachel told me a little about the campus store and the few other places I'd yet to see or encounter. A storage shed, a military style bunker that was in the woods and used for some more extreme shop class experiments. She stopped eventually as we reached the edges of a large, lush field. It was the baseball field, as it held a noticeably different grass than the rest of the campus.
"Well, this is where you most want to see today, right?" She asked with a playful smile.
"How did you know?" I began to ask of her, before we were interrupted by a short, stocky man who was jogging directly at us and shouting loudly.
"Hey! You two there, don't you dare think of stepping onto my field!"
I turned and scrunched my nose as the overly hairy man stopped just feet from us, scanning us over carefully, almost as if we might be either gardeners or were responsible for bringing lunch.
"Coach Hedge." Rachel started in, to the short, burly man. "This is Percy Jackson, the new transfer student."
He eyed me over even more carefully this time, looking me up and down suspiciously. It took him another moment before he yelled for someone in the group of young guys out on the field, practicing.
"Underwood."
A young, pale man with reddish brown hair ran up with a slight limp. Like coach Hedge, he had on a cap over his mop of hair. The younger man was out of breath when he reached us, the coach giving him a bit of a frustrated glare.
"What's up, coach?"
"You remember anything about a Percy Jackson?" Coach Hedge asked sternly.
I studied them both, while the younger man fidgeted as he thought. He looked familiar but I wasn't sure from where or how. That was until he jogged my memory for me.
"Oh yeah, it was in Junior High." He started with his reply. "Yancy Academy had a young, talented infielder with that name. I had scouted him a couple times before, but lost track of him last year."
"You!" I pointed at the man, Underwood, while gaping slightly with my mouth open.
"You?" Coach Hedge repeated back in question.
"Grover, wasn't it?" I asked, ignoring the coach.
"Yeah. We tried to get you to enroll here last spring, but you were going to someplace in the city." Grover responded, the coach's eyes lighting up.
"Goode High." I replied back, which caused the coach to smile even bigger.
"So you're the infamous Percy Jackson." He said with a smile.
I felt Rachel squeeze on my hand for a brief moment, catching my attention as she was smiling as well. I felt like I had just walked into a bad joke, that everyone was aware of but me.
"I'm Gleeson Hedge, coach of the boys sports around here. Grover is my assistant." The older, short man continued to talk.
"Did he just say his name was Gleeson?" I whispered lightly to Rachel, who had to fight the urge to giggle.
"Well, as you can see, this is our baseball team. Not a whole lot here today, but we should have around fourteen players or so this year."
Coach Hedge just continued to talk, oblivious to the whispers passed between Rachel and myself, or the concerned fidgeting of Grover, who was tugging at the coach's sleeve.
"I believe you played third base, correct? Aside from being a skilled pitcher, so I've heard."
Coach Hedge kept rambling along, while I leaned in again to Rachel to whisper. "Two minutes ago, he had no idea who I was.. and now he's a big expert?"
"Well, we have some practice time left in the day. Enough for you to meet and greet some of your teammates." The coach finally started to turn around, as I stared at him blankly,
"Um, sir.. I didn't say I was here to play baseball or anything."
"So hurry up and c'mon, Jackson." Coach Gleeson Hedge was walking further away, back into the outfield and towards some of the players. "Fletcher, Nakamura. Get over here and meet the new guy."
Rachel gave me a sympathetic look but nudge me towards Grover. "Go on then."
"But I said I wasn't here to play baseball." I tried and replied back, but was caught off guard by Grover's bleating laugh.
"Right. One of the best infielders and pitchers on the east coast, and you don't wanna play now."
I stood there for a moment, my shoulders sagging a little before shrugging and following Grover towards the ball field.
"Good luck, Percy. See you tonight." Rachel called to me, as I headed to meet my new team.
"Tonight?" I asked Grover blankly, making him just bleat some more.
"Seems she likes you."
"She's not, not cute or anything.. just didn't expect any girls to like me or anything already.." I trailed my sentence off as we nearly reached the edge the rest of the team.
Coach Hedge led a a small group of players over and introduced them each. Ethan Nakamura and Lee Fletcher, the two senior captains. Ethan with his glossy black hair and dark eyes and Lee who had shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes. Both were outfielders and pitchers. I quickly realized that I'd seen them both before at the New York state playoffs.
"Ah, you must be the new kid." Lee started to say, before Ethan quickly cut him short. Coach Hedge was rounding up the others.
"Perseus Jackson. I played against you a couple times before, had some friends who faced you as well last year."
I gulped as I recognized the Asian youth across from me. Before I could respond in kind, Coach Hedge came back with the rest of the team. He quickly began introductions as Ethan and myself stared each other down.
"Well, here is our newest member and starting third baseman." Coach Hedge began into his round of meet and greet.
You had the nearly identical second baseman and shortstop, Travis and Connor Stoll, both with mops of curly brown hair that hangs in their blue eyes. The other outfielder, a freshman, Will Solace who had sun-kissed blonde hair and blue eyes. The rest of the infielders, Mark, Sherman and Austin. That left the two catchers. A smaller freshman, wiry and unlucky looking, Jake Mason and a tall, muscled, and imposing older kid, Charles Beckendorf. Beckendorf had dark chocolate skin, black hair and brown eyes.
He slapped me hard on the shoulder, making me wince lightly, as he laughed about me arriving with Ms. Dare. "Seems you might already have a fan club building. Welcome aboard."
After the entire round of introductions were over, I started to head over to my side of the bases for fielding practice. Grover stopped me for a brief moment though first.
"All that stuff with Rachel, don't worry too much. Get used to it."
