Thank you any reviewers/followers!
Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.
When the bell rang for lunch, there was an immediate stampede for the door. Silena yelped, and jumped back, which made Thalia smirk. When most of the class had left, my friends and I packed up our stuff and headed out the door.
The fifth graders sit outside some bathrooms and second-graders classrooms. The lunch area was almost like a mini courtyard. It had some benches and picnic tables, along with some trees surrounded by planter boxes that you could sit on.
We headed over to an empty table in the sun, and began unpacking our lunches. The fifth graders had thirty minutes to eat, before we head down to a large blacktop area for another thirty minutes where games of flag football, handball, basketball, and four square are played.
If you don't play any of the games, you can just sit down or walk around and talk. My friends and I have mostly just done the last option, except for some days when we're all hyped up. The fourth and fifth graders have to share the blacktop area after lunch, so about sixty kids are in the yard at a time, so it isn't too crowded. When we eat, there is zero adult supervision, which is both good and bad.
The four girls and I started discussing our morning and what we thought of Mr. Brunner. Then, I heard some shouting coming from one of the planter boxes. Rachel Dare was smirking at Grover, holding a binder in her hands. Grover was tripping over himself, trying to get the binder.
"Give it back Rachel!" he yelled. I looked for Percy and Nico, but I couldn't find them.
"No way cripple!" Rachel taunted, getting Luke to smirk.
"What are you gonna do loser? Tell a teacher?" One of Luke's other cronies scoffed.
Rachel began flipping through the binder, observing some of the paperwork Brunner had given the class. She yawned, looking disappointed that she hadn't found any good papers to steal or torment him apart. Just as she flipped the binder over, looking ready to throw it back to him, her eyes flashed on something on the back cover.
She looked a little shocked, but recovered quickly.
"Aww, look what little loser has on his binder. Looks like cripple misses his old friends, even the little blondie. How cute…Too bad you and the freak girl are too pathetic to hang out with them anymore." Rachel said, sneering. She handed the binder back to Grover, and I saw Luke catch a glance at the paper (maybe a picture?). He looked pretty stunned too, but then he just turned around and continued eating his lunch.
"Grover!"
Looks like Percy and Nico finally decided to show up. They jogged over to Grover, and the three of them started talking. Both of their expressions turned to outrage, and they glared at Rachel and Luke. Grover just shrugged it off and started looking around the lunch area.
"Hey, girls, did you see that?" Thalia hissed. We all nodded in response. Clarisse had her eyes locked on me, but nobody mentioned that I was the girl Rachel mentioned.
"Would you be okay if I called them over to sit with us?" I asked. After getting a positive result, I caught Percy's eye, and waved, beckoning them towards our table. He grabbed the two boys, and led them to where we were.
"It looks like you guys need a place to sit." I said, raising my eyebrows. The three of them nodded, and then took seats next to us.
Grover still looked a little discouraged, and I poked him across the table.
"You okay?" I asked.
"I don't know. I'm still just floored at their behavior. Lukes, I mean, not Rachel's. She's always been a jerk to us." He responded.
"What was Rachel looking at anyways?" I asked.
"A picture from last year." Grover said, and then passed me the paper Rachel had been teasing him about earlier.
My heart stopped when I saw it. The background was a park that our grade had gone to the beginning of last year. But what had shocked me were the people in the picture. Luke, Charles, and Chris were all smiling, acting as if they wanted the day to never end. In front of Charles and Chris, Grover was on his crutches, laughing at something. He looked so happy to be hanging out with his best friends at the time. Next to Grover and in front of Luke, was a skinny blonde girl holding a book and grinning ear to ear. Her grey eyes were shining and it looked like she was immensely proud of herself.
The girl was me.
This was before everything had changed and had taken a turn for the worse. But no matter how much I hated Luke and his friends now, I couldn't help but miss the old times.
I sighed, and handed the picture back to Grover. He smiled a sad smile, and I know he missed the old times too.
"Don't let it get to you Grover. Those guys are first-class idiots." Percy said.
After that, we let the subject drop and we started talking about school sports. Grover couldn't do any with his disability, and Nico wasn't a sporty kind of guy. Percy did swimming outside of school, so he was going to continue doing that.
Percy nudges my arm from his spot next to me. I looked at him, raising my eyebrows in a questioning way.
"So…um, well, doyouthinkyou'llbewalkinghomealotthisyear?" Percy muttered, blushing the whole time.
I laughed, getting a sheepish smile out of him.
"Yeah, I mean, unless I get onto the track team and have practices after school; I think I'll be walking back and forth from school this year." I said.
"Well I was wondering if you'd be interested in walking together 'cause we live so close and stuff?" Percy asked.
"That would be cool! Thanks Percy!"
He looked pretty shocked that I said yes, but also very relieved and happy. Last year, we hadn't walked home with anyone and I think we could both agree it was quite boring without someone to talk to and joke around with. And Percy and I knew each other enough to have it not be awkward.
"Percy!" Katie called from the end of the table, "Why did you and Nico stay so late in Mr. Brunner's classroom?"
"Oh yeah- I forgot!" Percy said. "Well he was wondering if I could help clean his classroom every morning before school starts. He said he would tell me where he puts his keys to get in and that I could choose three friends to help out with it. And the four of us would just wipe down desks and cabinets. And we would get extra-credit for the year."
"So, who's going to do it with you?" Clarisse asked.
"Well, Nico and Grover obviously, and I was actually hoping that Annabeth could help us." He said.
I looked up, surprised.
"Glad to help! And anything for extra credit!" I said happily. Looks like I would be gaining three new friends this year.
The bell rang for the second half of lunch and we packed up our food.
Clarisse had sprinted ahead, grabbing something from the ball rack. When Katie, Thalia, Silena, Percy, Nico, Grover, and I caught up to her, we saw she was holding a red rubber ball.
"Handball anyone?"
We laughed, and then the eight of us ran to find a court together.
Yeah, I know, bad ending. So...a little Percabeth friendship and some stuff about Annabeth's past. Hope you enjoyed and please review!
-lunaclovegrimm