Monday

Percy didn't know what to expect when he was dragged into the girl's bathroom by his girlfriend. She checked each stall to make sure that no one was in there with them. Then she pushed him up against the wall, pinning him. Percy grimaced as the cuts on his back got agitated.

"So, what'd you do this weekend?" Zoë asked. "Anything interesting? Anything super cool?"

"You know, don't you?" Percy resigned himself to what was about to happen.

Zoë nodded. "I was on the train."

Percy stared at her, waiting for something. Anything.

Zoë sighed. "I think it would be better if we broke up."

Percy sighed too.

"It's just... I think it would be safer, for both of us."

Percy nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, sure." He could feel tears starting to prick at his eyes.

She kissed him one last time, before backing away and running out of the bathroom. He fell to the ground, and put his head in his hands. Tears started to fall. Why wouldn't he cry? The girl he loved dumped him because she didn't feel safe. An entirely perfectly valid reason to leave him, but it didn't make the pain hurt less.

The bell rang, signalling the start of the school day. He wiped the tears away, before walking out of the bathroom. He got weird looks from the kids in the hallway, but he didn't care. Maybe one of them would report him and he would get sent home for the day.

He walked up the stairs to his first period, not ready for what the day would give him.

The day went by fast, and Percy didn't really pay attention. Lunch came, and any hope that Zoë would come sit with him was dashed as she sat with some group of girls.

"What's going on? Trouble in paradise?" Grover asked.

"Hm?" Percy asked.

"You're staring over at the group of girls like a sad puppy. Also, Zoë is sitting over there and not with us. What happened?"

Percy brought his gaze back over to his untouched food. "Uh, well, it's kind of complicated..."

"Uh-huh." Grover said slowly.

"It is! And I don't... uh, really feel comfortable sharing it."

Grover stared, unimpressed. "If you say so. Anyways, are you gonna eat that?"

"Eat what?"

"Your enchilada, dude!"

"Oh, uh, sure."

Grover reached over and took the enchilada. He bit into it, his face showing nothing but pure delight. Percy smiled a little bit.

Lunch ended with Percy feeling a little bit better. But it seemed that the universe wasn't done yet, as it threw another curveball.

He walked into his greek class. It was standard for every student to take a language other than English class and Percy chose greek. He thought it was neat, sue him.

The class went well, until the bell rang.

"Percy, can I see you at my desk?" His teacher, Mr. Brunner asked.

Percy glanced at the door, before back at Mr. Brunner. If he ran out he could make it to his next class on time. But that would upset Mr. Brunner, and he didn't want to do that.

See, Percy actually liked Mr. Brunner. He was a middle aged man who was paralyzed from the waist down, and sat in a wheelchair. His brown hair was thinning out, and his beard was starting to grow out. He had intense brown eyes, ones that looked like he had seen centuries, and had wisdom to boot.

He actually made class fun. Between the games that he held to help his students review for exams, and the times he would bring in legitimate swords, it was easy to see why Percy liked him. The only drawback was that he had an unwavering amount of confidence in Percy to succeed. He didn't expect Percy to be as good as everyone else, but instead, better.

Percy sighed lightly and walked over to Mr. Brunner's desk.

"Do you know why I wanted to talk to you?" The teacher asked.

"Um, no."

"Have you seen your grades recently?"

Percy shook his head.

Mr. Brunner turned around his computer monitor and showed Percy his grades. He was failing every class he had. And it wasn't by like a couple of points, he had 30's and 40's, with no sign of it getting better.

"At the start of the year you had B's, and now all you have is F's. You haven't turned in a single assignment in a month. To be completely honest, I don't know how your grades are even this high."

Percy stared at his grades. Had he really not turned in any assignments in a month? How did he not notice his grades taking a suicide jump? He knew that being a superhero was taking up a lot of his time, but something like this? He was even failing band! Makes sense considering he hadn't shown up to a football game or competition.

"Percy. I know you can do better than this. I have faith in you. You aren't like everyone else. You have an extreme amount of untapped potential."

Percy looked down at his lap.

"Percy. Look at me."

He looked.

"I believe in you. I know you can do better than this. And if you're going through something, you can always talk to me, or to someone else about it. But I don't want you to be unsatisfied with yourself, and not doing the best that I know you can do."

Percy took in a deep breath as the warning bell for the next period started.

"I'll write you a note so you won't get counted tardy." Mr. Brunner said, pulling out a notepad and writing a note on it. He tore it out and gave it to Percy. "Think about what I said."

Percy took it and nodded, before standing up and walking to the door of the classroom. Right before he opened it, Mr. Brunner spoke up.

"Remember, you're not like everyone else."

Percy opened the door and walked out.

LINE BREAK

The pen was a gift. It had appeared on his nightstand the previous day, Sunday. There had been a note attached.

I heard you got in a fight with a couple of Blemmyae yesterday. I figured you could use a weapon that would actually hurt them and other monsters from the mythological world.

It's made from a metal called Celestial Bronze, mined straight from Mount Olympus itself. It can cut clean through monsters, but it will not harm mortals. You, being my champion, can be hurt by both celestial bronze and regular mortal weapons.

Take the cap off of the pen, and please, point it away from you when you do so.

-Poseidon

Percy had done as the god asked of him, and when he did so, the pen turned into a sword. Inscripted on the cross guard was an ancient greek word, 'Anaklusmos'. Roughly translating to Riptide.

The sword itself was three feet long, weighing about 5 pounds, balanced perfectly. The blade was double edged, with a leather wrapped hilt. It was leaf shaped, like an ancient Greek xiphos.

When he put the pen cap on the tip of the sword it shrank back into a pen. And it was this pen that he spun around in his hand as he thought about the day's events. From his breakup with Zoë to his talk with Mr. Brunner, one thing was clear.

The whole superhero gig was not working out for him. It was destroying his personal life, and who knows how long until that took a toll on his mental health. There couldn't be a superhero, if said superhero killed himself.

So it was with a bit of difficulty that he put his superhero suit into a chest. He put Riptide in there too. He put in a notebook, the one with all of his drawings and ideas that he was going to add to his suit. He had just added some new ones, shame that they would never get used.

He looked at the lock and key, before taking the key and putting it in the chest too. He closed it and put the lock on. With only one thing standing between him and freedom, he closed the lock.

New York had just lost its first, and only, superhero.