Ah ha ha! This is what I call almost speedy updating!

And anyways, word of early warning, this story is a bit darker and more violent than my other one-shots. But Percy does get to show some of his talents, so that's a bonus!

Just don't expect him to be as… nice as he usually is this time.

"Jackson! What did I tell you about that form of yours? Chin down, back straight, and none of that wishy-washy arm movement that you're giving me!"

Internally, I groaned as I finally finished my 5th lap in the school pool. Knowing that I had done nothing wrong, I leaned against the side of the wall as I took off my goggles and rubbed the water out of them.

Theatrically of course.

Swimming for me was about as easy as breathing, being the Son of the Poseidon and all. Honestly, I think the coach was just envious of my aquatic skills, and the fact that I seem to always be taking out the competition without a single care in the world.

"Jackson!" Coach Gammon yelled at me again. "Are you hearing this?"

The kids besides me who had finally caught up snickered. I don't know why, but for some reason people have idolized the fact that being the best at something (in my case swimming) causes you to be a star among your peers.

Far from it.

Blinded with jealousy, the kids on the team have never missed a chance to taunt me, to tease me, or to more or less make me feel unwelcomed. It wasn't exactly my fault that I could control the water to propel me forward, or not have to worry about breathing because I could already do that in the pool itself. I just…swam.

"Jackson!" Mr. Gammon repeated once more, his voice dangerously calm. I stared at him blearily.

"Yes sir?"

"Are you by any chance deaf, Jackson?" the dear coach said quietly. I shrugged nonchalantly.

"There might be some water in my ears, yes, sir."

The pool went quiet as the rest of the team processed what I had said. Mr. Gammon's face slowly turned beat red. Then purple. And then blue.

Just as I started wondering if he needed medical attention, he hissed, "Meet me after practice, Percy Jackson."

"Yes sir." I muttered, slowly pushing myself out of the pool to get my towel.

Jake Adler, the mortal that relished any chance to torture me, finally recognized the opportunity by taunting, "Oh no. Little widdle Percy Jackson just got called out by the coach. Now he looks like he's gonna cry." The rest of the Adler gang snickered.

I rolled my eyes, ignoring the scoffs from the rest of my team as I grabbed my towel, casually flicking off the wad of hair Adler and his gang obviously put on it earlier. Gods, why could they just learn their lesson and give me a break? For once? I mean, come on! I totally creamed them in this exact swimming pool only a few months ago!

Without meaning to, my gut tightened, and all the water in the pool suddenly rose, catching everybody getting out of it off guard and sending them toppling back into the bleached water below.

Including coach Gammon.

"What the-" he choked as water suddenly went up his nose. And then, for no reason at all, he turned and shot dagger eyes at me.

"Perseus. Jackson!" he screamed, finally losing the composer that he never had in the first place. "What the flip are you doing to the pool?"

I nearly chuckled when he said "flip", (It was a school after all. Every teacher has to follow the rules) but it immediately faded to something closer to dread when the coach ordered every other teammate out of the pool. An early dismissal.

There was only one problem. Mr. Gammon never dismissed early.

"See ya in Heaven, twerp." Jake whispered under his breath as he passed by me on the way out. I gulped. Even after battling countless of monsters, turned demigods, and Kronos himself, it couldn't compare to the look Mr. Gammon was giving me as he slowly climbed out of the pool, swearing like a fiend the whole time.

Which reminded me. How on earth was I supposed to get Riptide out of the locker room if the coach happened to pull one of those famous Annoying-citizen-turned-raging-monster stunts on me? I'd had enough of those for a lifetime. And yet it never seems to stop them. Strange…

"What were you trying to pull in there Jackson?" Gammon demanded as he finally came to a stop in front of me. I gave him my best, innocent child look as I tried to steer my impending doom into something less…impending.

"Look, if it's about the whole ear-in-water thing, I'm sorry…"

"Not that you idiot!" the coach said impatiently. I was stunned to silence. Did he just call me an idiot?

"How the heck did you manage to get the pool to do that whole…water rising thing?"

I simply stared at him as I tried to think of a reasonable, yet obtuse excuse. Was this man another clear sighted mortal? Surely a monster would have already been all "Puny Son of Poseidon." on me and attacked by then.

"Um… coach, why are you blaming it on me? I was nowhere near the pool when it happened."

"Oh don't give me that excuse again. I know you did it!"

Internally, I groaned at the fact that Chiron still hadn't taught me how to manipulate the Mist yet. If he had, we probably would have already been done with this argument by now. Or never have had it in the first place.

"What do you mean you know I did it? You were there falling into the pool with everybody else." I countered, trickles of anger beginning to build up in my chest.

Mr. Gammon's face reddened. "Jackson, I'm warning you…"

But that was just the beginning. "And, even if you hadn't fallen in, why would you blame it on me if I was just standing there holding my towel. Nowhere near the pool's water controls."

"Jackson, if you keep that tone with me one more time…"

"And last of all, what do you have against me Mr. Alfred Gammon? What have I ever done to you that make you hate me so much?"

I could tell that I struck a sensitive nerve, whether it was the whole Alfred thing or my accusation, but before I knew it, the coach's fist slammed into my face, propelling me directly into the pool from the momentum.

"Jackson! I warned you!" the coach screamed as I managed to reach the surface, my face breaking through the water. The curse of Achilles (which at the moment I wouldn't call a curse) was the only thing that was keeping my nose from separating from my skull and the rest of my head from a nasty concussion. That old man could hit hard.

"For gods sakes, what was that for?" I yelled back as I willed the water to push me near the edge of the pool. He had just crossed the line between angry coach and raging lunatic. Almost instinctively, I prepared myself for another attack, just like I would have during camp training, or a monster attack.

Chiron would be proud.

"That was for being a lazy, selfish wimp!" the coach powered on. And then he walked up to the pool and tried to kick me in the water. I just barely managed to avoid it.

"And that was for being the worst trainee I've ever known!"

I was really starting to get ticked off now. For starters, the coach of the swim team just so happened to have punched me into the pool. Didn't teachers have some sort of oath that read: Thou shall not attack students for fear of angry parents and losing thy job? They simply weren't supposed to do that sort of stuff!
Secondly, that exact same teacher had just called me a wimp, and the worst trainee he'd even known. I was even beginning to doubt his sanity. I've heard kids had called him harsh before, but this was downright abuse!

So then, with all the force I could muster, I willed the water to propel me up and out of the pool, surprising both myself and the coach. But that was nothing compared to when I willed the water to rise up into the air like some demented liquid beast come to life. All coach Gammon could do was gap in awe as thousands of gallons of H2O swirled around his head like a funnel, threatening to burst at any moment. I even managed to force all the water in from the drinking fountains and locker rooms to trickle out of their original home and merge into the storm cloud I was holding with just the sheer force of my will.

The coach's expression was priceless. "You…you-" he stuttered, his eyes wide as saucers. He stared back at me, expression in full panic mode.

"You! You s-s-stop that! Right this instance! Whatever you're doing…"

"Or you'll do what?" I taunted, dropping the funnel a foot and causing Mr. Gammon to squeal like a pig. "Report me? Yeah right. They'd never believe you even if you did."

The coach immediately lost whatever composure he had left and tried running for the exit door, but I managed to maneuver the water to sit in the way of it before he made it. Now he was trapped, left to face my wrath for all the times he'd taunted me for no good reason. All the times he'd teased me.

Everything.

"W-who are you?" the coach stuttered, eyes darting around for any other exit route. I sneered menacingly, the words flowing out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"Who am I?" I chuckled mockingly as I marveled at my own power. Even now, despite the tons of water I was holding, I wasn't tired at all. No sign of fatigue even flitted through my body. It was as if I had become the water itself. Water filled with anger and a need for major vengeance.

"I, Perseus Jackson, am the Son of Poseidon, god of the seas, storms, and earthquakes. Savior of Olympus and New York and all of Western Civilization. Conqueror of Kronos, the titan king and lord of time. Bearer of the previous Great Prophecy. Leader of all the demigods of Half Blood Hill.

"And you, Mr. Gammon, have just ticked. Me. Off."

The coach, finally unable to stand it anymore, fell down in a dead faint. I was just about to do him the favor of waking him up by dumping my water load on his head when out of nowhere; my stepfather Paul came running in through the door.

"Percy!" he cried, his hands waving frantically for my attention. "Percy, I saw the whole thing. Percy, no! Don't!"

My expression must have been frightening because Paul immediately winced and took a step back when I turned my attention on him.

His words managed to reach me though, and I reluctantly lowered the funnel of water back into the pool, leaving no trace of what I had managed to do.

Paul, on the other hand, was soon goggling at me as he tried to catch his breath from running.

"So…Percy." he finally said after a minute of awkward silence. "The whole water thing…that's pretty…pretty powerful…"

I was still staring regretfully at Coach Gammon as the words processed in my head. "Thanks, I guess." I muttered.

Paul must have finally found his courage, or at least determined that I wasn't a threat, because he slowly came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder comfortingly.

"Don't worry about Alfred." he reassured me. "The rest of the staff hates him anyways."

I chuckled humorlessly. "I wonder why."

Another minute or two of silence, and then I turned around to see Paul staring at me expectantly. I frowned. "What?"

He grinned. "Well? Are you coming?"

I stare at him. "Coming where?"

"Back to your house. I thought the only thing you kids thought about during class was going home."

I couldn't help but grin back at the indignant tone Paul was using. It made him sound like a guy who just had his whole aspect on the world changed.

And trust me. I know exactly what that sounds like.

But as I turned to walk out the door, I caught site of Mr. Gammon again, who was just starting to wake up. I signaled for Paul to stop as I stared at him regretfully. If only I could have done one little thing, one last mark of vengeance…

I turned back to see Paul nodding at me. "Don't worry." he said, smirking. "I didn't see a thing."

I smiled. And then, with a slight twinge in my stomach, a giant spout of water shot out from the pool, hitting Coach Gammon full on on the head with the force of a real life water hose. Only ten times harder.

"Splurg!" Mr. Gammon choked as he swallowed the sudden entourage of water. And then his head fell back down again; his second faint in a day.

"Huh…" I said, staring at the coach, and then at Paul questioningly. "I thought having water dumped on your face usually wakes the person up."

Paul chuckled, shaking his head. "Obviously not for Coach Gammon."

And then we both left the room, leaving a soggy Mr. Gammon lying on the floor, unconscious, and unbeknown to the fact that I had just revealed one of the biggest secrets of the world to him.

What a lucky guy.

But then again, if he ever asks, I could always just call it a dream, right?

It's an abusive coach versus an angry Percy! Haha!

I still have no idea how I came up with this plot, though. It was originally just gonna be Percy on the swim team, but then Mr. Gammon came along, and it changed the entire story.

Oh, and before anybody comments on how Paul can seemingly see through the Mist, think about it this way. His vision is being manipulated by the Mist, so he's probably seeing random water pipes blowing up and other un-godly stuff. But due to his knowledge on Percy's heritage, he can easily assume that Percy's behind everything. Mist or not.

But despite that, if anything seemed too fast, or too OOC, or just downright wrong, don't hesitate to review and I'll fix it as soon as I can.

Actually, any sort of review would be nice. I like seeing what you guys think.

:) Emma