Hello! I'm sorry it took so long to update. MoA came out last week! If you haven't read it, you need to! It's amazing! I got the most reviews for the last chapter than any chapter! This is the tenth chapter! *cheers* Wow! I can't believe its already the 10th chapter! Thanks for all the support so far!
Thanks for all the favorites, follows, and reviews!
Enjoy!
Percy:
We had arrived at school and it was chaotic!
"2024, 2024..." I repeated my locker number to myself.
Yes! I found it and it's a top locker! It was very difficult to try to move through the mob of people also trying to get to their lockers. There were like 300 people in the hallway. It took me a few minutes to try to get to my locker. Once I finally touched it for the first time, I started spinning the lock.
I have always had trouble with my locker combination. It combines numbers and my left-and right's, the two things I'm worst at. I have gotten much better at t because I have used it every day for multiple years, but the dyslexia problem always stays.
"First turn it to the left, then turn right and skip one turn, Wait! That's the left," I said as I tried to guide myself through the locker-opening process, which always seems so complicated to me.
Suddenly, I heard the first bell ring. I didn't panic. There was still many people in the hallway. Everyone else seemed like they were also having trouble with their locker because hallways looked as if they hadn't cleared up at all.
I was confused. I had tried my locker, like, ten times. I knew I was bad, but I didn't think I was this bad.
"That's my locker," A guy behind me kept on repeating until I realized he was talking to me.
I looked at the locker number, 2204, then looked back at my schedule. My locker number is 2024, not 2204! No wonder I couldn't open it! I really hate having dyslexia sometimes.
I tried my best to get out of the way, so the guy can get to his locker, but even that was hard. It was so crowded. I felt like I was swimming through a ocean of students.
I started walking quickly down the hallway, scanning the locker numbers as I walked. I could only make out 50% of the locker numbers because so many people were crowded against the lockers.
"2018, 2019..." I said the locker numbers out loud as I saw them. I was getting very close to my locker. "2028, 2030..." Wait! I passed it! This is ridiculous! First period started two minutes ago and I still haven't touched mylocker!
Then suddenly, my eyes spotted a clearing in the hallway, locker 2024! Bad news: I got a bottom locker! WHY!?
I sighed and I got on my hands and knees and started crawling my way through the mob as many of the people standing stepped on my hands and tripped over me. I saw that the locker on my left had its door wide open and was covering my locker, so I had to push it out of the way, which didn't make the person next to me too happy, to finally, start opening m I was probably going to hear the same thing in every class. As I was spinning the lock, the person above me opened their locker and hit me in the head hard. I could hear the sound of footsteps, lockers slamming, lockers opening, and other chaos happening around me. It's time like this where I'm actually jealous of Grover, who has a top corner locker. There is nobody on the right of him, and he doesn't have to get on the floor to get his stuff. I sighed this was going to be a very long day.
Once I finally got my locker open, I quickly shuffled my things in, grabbed my supplies, and started clawing my way through the crowd. I probably lost 25% of my pencils in the mob.
I glanced at my schedule and saw that I had Math with Mrs. Kane for first period, so I started walking to my class. I didn't know exactly where to go, but I have an idea because i have been at this school. Unlike a familiar facing i saw as I was walking down the hall, which was looking confusingly at a map of the school.
"Annabeth!" I called out trying to get her attention.
She didn't look up from her map. She looked too overwhelmed to care.
"Are you looking for the orchestra room?" I asked remembering that she had that for first period.
"Yeah, where is it?" She demanded finally looking up from her map.
"Go through the cafeteria, turn right and walk to the end of the 12th grade hallway, and take a turn toward the fine arts section," I said while drawing a trail on her map with my pencil.
"Thanks!" she said before dashing down the corridor.
I looked at the clock on the wall and realized that first period had started over five minutes ago! I quickly ran into my Math class.
I looked around the classroom and noticed that only about half of the seats were taken even though class started about five minutes ago. This took a lot of panic off of me. I can choose where I wanted to sit, and I probably won't be counted late. Everyone was probably having trouble gettingto their lockers.
I started debating with myself, trying to decide where I wanted to sit. I didn't want to sit in the front because I'll get a lot of attention from the teachers, which is something I tried to avoid at all times. Maybe I should sit next to the widow in the back. Natural light is good for you, right? Yeah, I'll sit there. I hesitated; I don't want a bunch of sun in my eyes! I'll sit there anyway, I decided.
I looked at the board to see if she had written down anything:
Welcome!
Monday, August 27
I'm Mrs. Kane. Choose a seat anywhere. Class will begin when everyone arrives! We will not be counting tardiness for the first week of school!
Mrs. Kane wasn't in the classroom. She was probably in the hallway trying to help the students open the lockers. All the teachers had a key that can open all the lockers in the building. I saw nearly all of them using it.
I looked out the hall, and there Mrs. Kane was fiercely opening lockers with her key as fast as she could.
As I was sitting in my seat, I saw someone standing in the doorway. NO...
I felt vomit come up my throat as Salon and his friends came in. Salon has been bullying me since the seventh grade. Salon isn't really intimidating. He's actually kind of small and skinny. He just thinks he is so cool because he is rich. He friends are a different story... They are probably the meanest, biggest, and biggest kids in Manhattan...except for Clarisse and her crew.
"Hey, look Prissy is in this class!" Salon said as he and his friends walked over, and sat in the chairs next to me.
Salon started throwing pencils at me. Wow, he is immature. What are we in, the third grade?
I ignored it until it actually started to hurt. "Can you stop?" I asked him
"Make me, Prissy," He replied.
I didn't scream insults at him. I didn't hit him. I didn't reply. I don't retaliate.
My mom always said that we were like fish, the bullies were the fisherman, and insults were hooks. When a fisherman (bully) threw a hook (insult) at the fish (you), you (the fish)
would have to decide to if you (the fish), would bite the hook back (retaliate) or not. She always said that if you bitted back, you would be the one in trouble in the end. I understood this very well. Maybe because it's relates to the sea...
Salon pushed me off my chair. I casually got back up, sat back down, and he pushed me back off again, and again, but I kept on standing back up. Don't be a stupid fish.
"You just don't give up, do you?" Salon said pushing me off again.
I stood up again, probably for the fifth time, and said, "That's the difference between you and me Salon. When I get pushed down, I stand back up."
Salon gave me and ugly look, but didn't push me off again. Instead, he and his friends stood up and sat at the other side of the class room.
"Good morning, class!" Mrs. Kane greeted us cheerfully as she came into the hall.
She told us a little bit about herself and the class rules. She told us that this was her eighth year teaching. She taught six grade science for the first three years of her teaching career, and this will be her fourth year teaching 10th grade math.
I kind of zoned out. I tried to focus, but I figured it wasn't really important. I was probably going to hear the same thing in every class.
She told us some of the rules of the classroom, until the bell interrupted her.
"DING! DING! DING!" The bell rang."Good luck! Have a great day, "she told us as we swarmed out of the room.
The hallways didn't look as bad as they did for first period, but they were still very crowded.
I looked at my schedule. I have science with Mrs. Sim next. Don't I have science with Annabeth? I think I do. We'll find out. I started walking around the hallway looking for my classroom. When I walked I saw Annabeth sitting in the back. She was pretty early. Even though, second period was about to start, most of the students weren't here, yet. The teacher wasn't in the classroom either. She was probably doing the same thing Mrs. Kane, my math teacher, was doing, and helping the other students in the hallway.
I went to the back row, where Annabeth was sitting, and sat in the desk next to her.
"Hi," she said while writing something down in her notebook.
"What are you writing?"
Annabeth pointed to the board with her pencils without taking her eyes off of her notebook.
I looked at the board:
Monday, August 27
Mrs. Sim
TO DO:
1. Pick a seat.
2. Pick up handout on the corner of my desk and read over it.
3. Take out your notebook and write a paragraph about what you want to learn this year.
4. Wait until I say class starts. Please remain quiet until further directions.
I stood up to get the handout on the corner of the teacher's desk. It was a copy of the important information from the Goode High School Handbook like dress code, grading process, BYOD(bring your own device),electives, tardiness and absents, and etc. I already have a handout from first period, but this one had some of the class room rules of Mrs. Sim's class added to it.
After I finished reading the handout, I took my notebook out and started thinking about what to write.
"What should I write about?" I whispered to Annabeth.
She snatched my notebook out of my hands, wrote a few words, and gave it back to me. She wrote: I'm hoping to be able to learn more about marine biology, marine ecology, and marine geology...Come on, Seaweed Brain! Well, duh! How did I not think of that?! I am really stupid sometimes. I erased the "Come on, Seaweed Brain!", and continued the sentence that Annabeth had started for me. I explained why I wanted to learn it, how I got interested, when I got interested, when I want to learn it, and etc, until I had written well over a paragraph.
When I looked up I realized that everyone was already in class, including Mrs. Sim. Everyone was really quiet. I didn't even notice them. Everyone is always very quiet on the first day of school. There is a lot of tension and awkwardness on the first day. No one wants to say much.
"Okay, let's get started," Mrs. Sim announced while standing out if her chair. "Let's have everyone introduce he or she! Raise your hand if you want to go first."
No one raised their hand.
"Well, let's just introduce in the order of our last names," Mrs. Sim said. "First up, Beatrice"
My last name is Jackson. That starts with a J. Is that the ninth, tenth, or eleventh letter in the alphabet? I will probably be the ninth, tenth, or eleventh person to be introduced. I still had a lot of time before I was going to get introduced, so I decided to start thinking about what I should say.
"Next is Ryan" said Mrs. Sim.
I didn't really listen to most of the introductions. I zoned out, but they really weren't important because I knew most of the students already. They were too quiet, probably because they were shy, so no one could really hear them anyway.
"Annabeth Chase" Mrs. Sim said.
Annabeth should up next to me, and told everyone her favorite subject, what she was looking forward to this year, her old school, and etc. A few more people introduced themselves the same way.
"Percy Jackson," I heard Mrs. Sim call my name.
"What do I say?" I asked the teacher stupidly.
"Do you play a sport?"
"Yes, I do"
"What sport do you play one?"
"Tell us about that," she insisted.
I said a little bit about swimming, but it didn't really matter if I sounded stupid or not. No one was paying attention.
After all introductions were finished, Mrs. Sim brought us to the science lab, which was right next to our classroom.
"This is the safety shower," she said waking toward it. Oh, I know what that is... Didn't I tell you that I got in a lot of trouble?
"I have never had to use this shower before and I better not have to use it this year, understand? This is not a toy! If a chemical is spilled on somebody, I'll will pull this handle, and it will turn on. This shower is not like the shower in your house. It doesn't have a gentle sprinkle. When I pull this handle down, buckets of old and gross water will shoot down and basically flood the entire room. A very loud alarm turns on as soon as you pull the handle. Nobody touches it!" She said very seriously.
She moved on, "Right here, is the eye wash station. If a chemical gets into your eyes, this is what we will use to get it out. This is also not a toy! You will have to hold your eye open for 15 minutes with water gushing into your eyes! I don't think you would like that so, be careful!"
I think she is trying to scare us.
XXX
I was walking with Annabeth to third period, P.E., which we also had together.
"This school is really big," Annabeth imputed as we walked to the other side of the school to try to get to P.E.
I nodded my head in agreement.
We entered the gym and saw very few students sitting on the side lines. Annabeth and I sat in the corner waiting for instructions from the coaches, who were obviously waiting for everyone else to get here.
Once everyone arrived, which didn't take very long, the coaches split us up by gender and sent us to the locker rooms to change.
"To open you locker, you have to stop a little bit past your numbers, and once you put in the last number, you'll pull it to the right, the lock will get very tight so make sure you get a good grip, and pull it open. Now go change!" The coach told us.
The lockers were horrible. It took me forever to open. The 10th grade lockers are completely different to the ones I had last year, so it was really bad. I got really tight, so you would have to pull really hard to open it, but I was able to get it open and change. We took about have of the period to open our lockers and change.
After all the boys finished changing we went back into the gym and started waiting for the girls, who took forever.
We didn't do much for gym. They just explained the rules, what we do, how it's going to work, and etc. I didn't really except to do much on the first day of school, though.
XXX
Right after P.E. ended, we had lunch. I would have sat with all my friends, but we had assigned tables for the first week. The school wanted everyone to get to know each other for the first week of school. It was really quiet. Nobody was really talking to each other because no one really knew each other.
The school had put a sheet of paper in the middle of the table that had questions we were supposed to ask each other, but no one did. I read the questions and I understood why:
Questions to ask everyone at the table:
What's your favorite color?
What's your favorite food?
What is with all the 1st grade questions?
About 15 minutes into our lunch, the principal wanted to make an announcement about dress code, which I noticed about half of the students have broken.
"Your shorts have to be past mid-thigh," He said first.
Seventy-five percent of the girls wearing shorts broke that rule.
He continued the rest of the ruled, but I think that he really just wanted to talk about the shorts, since so many people broke it. No one got dress coded, tough. It was only the first day of school, so the teachers wanted to be easy on us. Our first period teacher usually checks us every morning for dress code, but they didn't today.
I didn't really eat much. Lunch passed too quickly. I felt like I didn't have enough time to eat. The food tasted better than it did last year, so lunch wasn't that bad.
XXX
The rest of the day was basically a cycle that repeated itself over again eight times. We get dismissed, I get trampled in the hallways while trying to get to my locker, I get to class, teachers told everyone the rules, and the cycle starts again.
My favorite teacher was probably Mrs. Kane. She seemed really caring. I didn't really dislike any of them, except for my English teacher, Mr. Boring. I'm not joking that's his actual name! His name suits him.
I didn't think it was boring. I wanted to get to know my teachers. Annabeth was not bored at all. She grinned all day. She was just so happy to finally be at school. Thalia and Grover were pretty bored the entire day. People always say the first day is always the worst day, which seemed to be the case for Grover and Thalia. This was a really long a day. I felt like trying to get to my locker for first period could have been a day by itself. It's because so much happened. It made life more exciting. I was starting to get tired of the summer. The same thing happened every day. I was glad to be back at school. You get to be around other kids. I didn't feel like an..., orphan.
I've always hated that word, Orphan. That's the word that people use to describe adolescents that didn't have someone to care for them. I do have someone to care for me, she just can't right now. Everyone someone says that word it reminds me that my mom is gone and I have no one to take care of me, no one.
"Let's start walking home," Annabeth said, jerking me back to reality.
"Okay," I said standing up trombone bench I was on. I had been waiting for Annabeth to get her violin from the orchestra room. I guess she's back. That was fast.
"We better get going. It's a two mile walk, now come on," Annabeth called to me because I was taking too long.
Yes, we had to walk to and from school for over 40 minutes.
It didn't bother me or Annabeth. We understood that there were many kids in the foster home, so they can't drive us. Annabeth and I wanted to walk. We are pretty independent, so we wanted to take care of ourselves.
"Wasn't today the best day ever!?" Annabeth exclaimed after we excited the building.
"I'm assuming you had a nice day, "I replied.
"Unbelievable day," Annabeth corrected me.
"I'm glad you liked it."
"Did you have a good day?"
"Yeah, I had a great day. I haven't even got detention, yet!" I said pretty proud of myself. This is first time I haven't gotten detention on the first day of school!
Annabeth didn't seem very impressed, and rolled her eyes.
How was it? This chapter was a lot longer than the others! I wanted to make it longer in celebration for the tenth chapter! Next chapter will be Annabeth's POV. Please review to let me know how you thought! Sorry it took so long to update! I accidentally deleted thousand words, so (after I had a meltdown) I had to rewrite all of the parts that I deleted. I had a really nice time writing it. Please make the tenth chapter special! Let's try to make this my most successful chapter so far! Please review, favorite, and follow!
Thanks for reading!
-h0a4l2e1y