Previously on Iris Message - "Please Zeus let me get through this crap day, especially with Jackson stepping on my every move." She left, gently closing the door behind her. She had no more strength left in her."

**One, I'm sorry for the lateupdate for this. I've been really busy, with finals and everything.
Two, thank you for all the reviews on this story. Honestly, I did not expect this to be a huge hit. A shout out to YourLogicIsFlawlessand Geek Without Glasses for their dedication to this story. The amazing reviews from all of you guys help inspire my writing! Again, thank you! Enjoy!

Percy sighed as he walked through the school's main entrance doors. He wasn't looking forward to the day at all. All he could think about was Clarisse, his guilt ate him alive last night and now, his mind was being overtaken by the sounds of Clarisse's short gasps for air. He could hear the kicks she was giving out from under the water. He heard her uncontrollable shrieks that echoed throughout the pool. He could see clearly how her hand rose from the water, gripping the free air while her body stayed underneath. He shook his head; he had to somehow shake the memory out, before it ruined him completely. He wasn't prepared to see Clarisse for first period; in fact, he was more worried that she'd break down in class. The only things that were keeping him going were that he had practice after school, and it was a Friday. He was glad that the school had decided to have the first day on a Wednesday, seeming as though the past three days were overwhelming enough as it is. He felt defeated; he just wanted to make it through the day with no problems whatsoever. He gave up on his negative thoughts, and proceeded on and walked over to his locker. It was his second time opening it, and he had no clue what the combination was. He dug into his backpack and searched for a bright blue sheet where all of his information was on. "There it is." He thought to himself as he reached and snapped his fingers onto the paper. It was crinkled to the max, and he had a tough time deciphering his combination through the water stains and grease from his chips. After a couple minutes he made out the numbers 00-07-12. He twisted the lock to the assumable correct combo and tried to open it. The locker wouldn't budge. He repeated the process over and over again until he gave up. He slowly headed to his class muttering the numbers under his breath. "Zero, seven, twelve. This is ridiculous; I can't even open my locker." He huffed. He continued to mumble the numbers. His eyebrows scrunched together, the last two numbers seemed familiar. He stopped and leaned against the wall, the answer behind the numbers were slowly coming to him until his train of thought was interrupted.

"Hey Percy."

He looked up to see a friendly face, it was Paige.

"Paige." he said, smiling hugely at her. "Hey, how're you?"

Her face reddened at the sight of Percy's smile. "I'm fine, you alright? You seem a bit pale.

Percy smiled, "No, just thinking. Where you headed off to?"

"I have study hall, so basically I'll be sleeping for 50 minutes."

"Better than Chorus," He sighed.

"You sing?" she gaped her mouth.

"Not well, I didn't even sign up for it."

"They do that when they don't have enough children in an elective. I'm sorry it happened to you." She laughed. "Well count me in to one of your concerts; I want to hear your awful voice." She teased again.

"Shut up." He joked while smiling. "5 minutes till the bell, want me to walk you?"

Paige nodded. Inside she had butterflies flying around in her stomach. She tried her hardest not to be obvious, she was completely smitten. She prayed that Percy didn't see through her and know that she likes him. She couldn't help herself, she normally didn't become immediately attached to someone she met three days ago, but something about Percy just hit her. Maybe it was his skater-ish black hair, or his engaging green eyes. He was gentle, and kind. His art skills were also extraordinary. Now, her train of thought was interrupted by Percy's sudden action, and his soothing voice.

Percy grabbed her backpack and threw it over his shoulder. "Don't want you to bruise your shoulder or anything, Paige." He smirked and walked ahead. As they walked through the hallway, Paige and Percy's hands accidentally touched due to her swinging her arms. She blushed, but Percy didn't seem to notice what had happened. They made their stop upstairs at Paige's study hall.

"In the auditorium? Fancy." He smiled. His eyes peered inside the room.

"It's not the prettiest sight, I mean, it needs to be repainted." She laughed. Percy handed her the backpack and replied, "I should get going, don't want to be tardy on my third day."

She nodded, "Thank you." She whispered.

"Not a problem. See you in Art?"

"Of course."

Percy began to walk away and a few seconds after; Paige was confronted by a guy who was obviously interested in her. He was a bit taller than Percy. Anyone could tell the dude worked out, his muscles showed through his shirt. His head a bit bigger than his body was highly noticeable. He wore a football jersey, with the number one on his back. His eyes practically coming out of its sockets determined how huge his eyes were. "There's my girlfriend." He snickered as he grabbed Paige's wrist. She attempted to grab it back, and finally made her way out from his grasp. She held her wrist and rubbed it.

"Don't even think about it."

"Who was that guy you were with? You cheating on me?"

"It's none of your business."

"Sure it is, you're hanging out with some nobody, I at least need to know who it is."

"He's not a nobody, he's Percy, not that it has anything to do with you." She growled.

"Fish boy? You're cheating on me with fish boy over there?" Percy overhead the weak insult and from the stairway, he turned around to listen.

"I'm not cheating, nor am I your girlfriend. Don't you have somewhere better to be or something?"

"What's better than spending it with my girlfriend?" he sneered.

"Hopeless case you are." She scoffed, and walked away.

"Where are you going?" he snapped, he grabbed her arm once again and forcefully brought her towards him.

"OW! What the hell, Tyler! Let go!" she shouted. She began hitting him with her free hand. The incident began to form a crowd of people, cowards who wouldn't step up to help her. Percy walked towards them and calmly said,

"Let go of her."

Tyler sneered, "Are you ordering me to?"

"The only smart thing you've asked so for, man." He replied.

He let go and stepped towards Percy, being an inch away from his face. "I heard you were pretty popular in try outs the other day. That doesn't change who you are, to me, you seem like a spineless little bitch."

The crowd let out an "ooh" in shock. Paige's face looked extremely pale, whitened by what's happening. She managed to shout, "Shut up!" to the crowd. The crowd silenced.

Percy firmly replied, "You have big eyes, don't you? Since thinking isn't your strong suit, can't you see she's not interested?" In the corner of Percy's eyes, he could see some girls in the crowd covering the mouths. The boys turned white. He understood why, no one had ever insulted Tyler like he had just done.

Tyler's ears became scarlet. "What's it to you, huh? I don't think it's any of your business."

"Didn't she say the exact same thing to you before?" Percy asked. "What she is doing isn't any of your business, so leave her alone." He walked over to Paige and touched her hand, "C'mon, let's go." He held her hand.

"Over my dead body." Tyler shouted, grasping Percy's shoulder, he turned him around to get a good punch in. Percy pushed Paige out of the way, ducked Tyler's ginormous fists, and punched him right in the stomach. Tyler let out a gasp.

"Walk away with your dignity man." Percy pitifully recommended.

He turned again once more, but he heard Annabeth's sweet tone in his head. "Watch out Seaweed Brain!" He took her warning and ducked once more, and Tyler missed his shot again. Percy sighed, and punched him straight on his jawline. Tyler fell backwards, and fell upon the floor screaming in agonizing pain. The crowd stood still, and slowly they began to cheer and shout Percy's name. Claps too were heard loudly. Tyler's friends pushed through the crowd and snarled, "What happened?" their eyes bulged as they saw Tyler on the floor crying and whimpering. "You." One of them said, pointing their fingers at Percy.

"Me." He replied.

Tyler's friend rolled his fists into a ball and ran towards Percy. Only moments away from another fight occurring, a loud, uprising voice bellowed.

"ENOUGH!" Everyone quickly adjusted their head to see who had shouted. It was Mr. Gear. The vein popped out from his neck line which seemed to spark fear in everyone's hearts. The crowd vacated faster than Charybdis could swallow up boats. Percy gulped, his teacher, too scared him, but he held his ground. "Miss Shaw, please escort Mr. Jackson to his class, and anyone escort Mr. Furgress . . . to the nurse. He'll need assistance immediately." The 3 friends of Tyler's and Paige and Percy just stood there. "NOW!" he shouted. Tyler's friends grabbed Tyler by his arms and legs terribly, and helped him up. Paige quickly grabbed Percy's hand and ran down the stairs together.

"Percy, are you insane?" She angrily asked. Her hair had begun to match her skin tone.

"What?" he asked confused.

"You could've gotten hurt!" she exclaimed.

"Did I get hurt?"

"Well- no. . . . "

"Then what's insane? All I know is that some random guy I don't know at all grabbed you!"

"You shouldn't have hit him!"

"He tried to hit me first! What was I supposed to do? Take it?"

"I don't know! It's just that, no one's stupid enough to face Tyler!"

Percy's anger and annoyance rose, "Did you forget I'm new here? I don't know anything about anyone, or what I'm supposed to stay clear of!" he angrily shouted back. He stopped walking and let out a frustrated breath. "I'm sorry for interfering, what else could I have done?"

"Nothing, I'm sorry. Thank you for helping." Paige replied with a shaky tone. Percy's shouts gave her heart a wrong turn. It had an irregular beat to it.

Percy grunted as he continued to walk.

"What try outs?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"Tyler, he said you went to try outs."

"Nothing, look, I can't talk right now, I have to get to class, I'm already late. See you." He turned his head and left before Paige could reply back. She was left standing alone. Her wrist was slightly bruised from Tyler's tight grasp. She felt guilty, because of her, Percy had fought Tyler. Because of her, Percy would soon be in trouble. Because of her, Percy was angry. She looked to the floor and closed her eyes. She wanted to go back just a couple minutes before, where she saw him leaning against his locker. If she had just left him be, nothing would've happened. She knew what Percy had said about not talking right now wasn't true. He could talk, but he just couldn't talk to her.

"Why's Jackson so pissy?"

Paige turned around to see Clarisse standing by the stairs. "Pardon?"

"What's wrong with Percy?"

Paige raised her eyebrows, she didn't have to answer this strange girl appearing before her, but to her surprise, she did. "He had a bit of trouble with someone else."

"Who?"

"Uh- er this guy named Tyler."

"Did he at least win?"

"W-win what?"

"The fight?" Clarisse rolled her eyes. "This girl is so slow." She thought to herself.

"I never mentioned a fight." Paige cleared up.

"You didn't have to."

"I uh have to go, nice talking to you, I guess." She mumbled, starting to turn her back on Clarisse.

"Next time," Clarisse shouted.

"Huh?" Paige responded.

"Next time," Clarisse said while walking toward her, "fight your own battles, and leave Jackson out of it."

"Excuse me?"

"Cut the crap, I mean it. Don't let others fight for you, that's just being weak." She said sternly.

"I didn't have him fight for me!" Paige snapped.

"So you're saying if you weren't involved, he would've fought this kid?"

Paige opened her mouth to speak but no words left her. This girl, out of nowhere, comes up to her and blames her for what had happened. The anger boiled inside of her, and she couldn't control it.

"You don't know anything, so stay out of it!"

Clarisse moved suddenly closed to Paige's face and whispered, "Don't talk to me like that. He's my friend, and you're not. It's pretty simple that I would want to defend him, and not you."

Paige suddenly felt 10 times smaller than she was. She moved her lips and mumbled out a few letters, but could not seem to face Clarisse. She was scary, a Mr. Gear kind of scary. She bit her lip and they stayed in silence for 30 seconds.

"This is the part, where you turn around, and leave." Clarisse said in a hushed tone. Paige did exactly as what Clarisse had said, and left her presence. Clarisse watched, glaring at Paige's back, waiting for her to turn around and look at her again. She didn't, and Clarisse walked to Chorus, hoping her and Percy wouldn't make eye contact.

**Intense chapter, hope you liked it!