Percy POV
Starting at a new school was beyond annoying, and I should know. Before i went to Goode I was kicked out of at least 5 schools, to be completely honest I lost count. Half of the reason I was even kicked out of the schools was because I would stick up for Grover, which apparently didn't matter. Yeah sure, let kids pick on my crippled best friend, but when I stepped in then it was a problem. Grover was part of the reason I even transferred to California in the first place, sure I missed him a lot and wanted to see him, but he also boasted about the schools football program. At Goode I was an all league safety and running back, and even though I was a 4 star recruit I only got small D1 scholarships from schools in New York; probably because of my criminal record when I was a kid. Anyway, Grover called me, my Mom overheard, thought it was a great idea, and shipped me out to live with my "dad". Otherwise know as Poseidon, my father that left before I was born, and "living with" was a stretch. He was rich and was rarely even in San Francisco and if he was he surely didn't want to see me, so he bought an empty apartment for me. Now, I know what you're thinking, an empty apartment, what kid wouldn't want that!? I don't know, maybe a kid who didn't own furniture or a bed, heck I didn't even bring a blanket. All I brought was the clothes that could fit in my suitcase, and even though Poseidon was going to give me an "allowance" I still had to figure out how to get furniture as soon as possible. You see, after my Mom divorced that abusive douche Gabe, we weren't really well off. A single mother trying to work in a candy store and become an author? Yeah, very little money to go around. So here I was, after being shipped across the country I finally, "settled into" my apartment. Ergo, I just laid my clothes on the floor and put my bubble coat under my head as a pillow. At least I had soap to shower with, as well as the basic hygiene necessities like toothpaste, deodorant, and cologne. If I didn't, well, I probably would have skipped the first day.
I was awaken by my phone alarm blasting besides my head. "Ahhhhhhh FUCK!" I yelled as I tried to sit up from the carpeted floor of the apartment. I then began to stretch and crack my back, as well as my neck, trying to loosen up from the stiffness I felt. "Gonna be a long day Percy," I said to myself as I headed toward the shower. I felt my stomach growl, a common occurrence, no food for breakfast. Again, very limited money, which means sometimes me and my Mom would skip meals, but knowing the importance of food and nutrition and all that good stuff, I started stealing. I would steal from the school cafeteria as well as some stores a couple blocks away, even getting arrested one time for burglary. I stole so much food that I was sitting at a lean 205 Lbs, which in my eyes, is perfect for my positions on the field. I continued to think about my food predicament as I showered, and even more so as my stomach rubbled as I got dressed. My apartment was close to the school, but it was still over a ten minute walk, and seeing as though I didn't have any food to eat I left early. As I walked through the neighborhood I couldn't help but have a scowl on my face, I would be going to school with people that owned places like this? We used to have metal detectors at our school, fights everyday, and now I assume it'll be completely different. Good, but weird, and still different. As I approached my new school named South Central, I studied the kids driving last, and coming out of their cars. They all, and when I say all, I mean all; drove expensive cars. Shit I would see in the movies to be completely honest, and then there was the school itself. It was a huge building that reminded me of Hogwarts, and as I stepped inside I only felt more uncomfortable. Marble floors, huge lockers, and a bunch of white people. Yes, I know I'm white but as I stated I went to a city school and grew up in the slums of New York City, yeah there was white people around. But they weren't dressed in fucking khakis. I clutched my Goode football back pack tighter walking down the hall trying to find the main office, until I finally saw a familiar face. Grover, thank gods.
After talking with Grover, my day flew by in a blur. It was a total culture shock, from how everyone talked, to how they dressed, to the school work. It was like I was on a different planet. With lunching nearing by I immediately bolted to the cafeteria and explained that I didn't have money, they gave me a break because it was my first day, and even gave me extra food. Maybe this place wasn't so bad, I thought as I brought my food to the library, quickly shoving food in my face before even trying to understand some of this work. After quickly eating my two portions, I finally was getting ready to look at my work, but then my phone went off. I huffed in annoyance until I saw who was calling, oh thank gods, "Mom!" I answered with excitement. "Thank god, this place sucks!" She laughed on the other end of the line, "How bad is it? You miss me yet?" I laughed too, gods I missed her. "Of course I miss you Mom!" I then proceeded to tell her all the problems I've been facing and the adjustments I'd have to make. "Percy I know it'll be a shock but give it a chance. Reach out, who knows these CEOs might surprise you. Now I have to go, I miss you, and be good! Love you bye!" I smiled, "I know, I'll be good, miss you, love you bye". After I hung up I put his hands in my head muttering curses to myself. I than looked up, feeling someone's presence near. There was that girl, from class, Annabelle? Fuck. I'm not sure, but I can't just shout out the wrong name, "Ayyo blondie", I shouted toward her. She quickly turned I assume she wouldn't be happy for the nick name so I looked back at my papers. As I built up the courage to speak I finally looked at her showing a smile, "Sorry I didn't catch your name, I just needed your attention. I saw you in class earlier." I glanced away, rubbing the back of my head, her piercing grey eyes and beautiful face was really throwing me off. "You mind helping me out?" Her eyes grew large, fuck did I say something wrong? She opened her mouth to respond but I quickly cut her off, staring at her beautiful eyes. "Sorry I know this is annoying I'm just." I blew out a breathe, this was so annoying. "Really, really culture shocked." She stared at me for what seemed like forever, I could practically see the gears turning in her head. "Of course I'll help, Hi I'm Annabeth. Nice to meet you."
As Annabeth moved toward the table I quickly moved around some papers to give her some space, "I'm sorry about all this," I turned my head away from her again before taking a deep breathe. By the time I turned back I saw her already looking at me, as if she was looking for some sort of answer. "It's fine, it's not like I wasn't going to study anyway." She gave me a shy smile and I could feel myself almost instantly relax. "Yeah but I feel like you don't even need too. Meanwhile, I feel like I'm behind in almost every class already." She scrounged her eyebrows, before raising a single one, "Percy, we pretty much went over introductions." I looked at the table, "Introduction my ass, the last 10 minutes in every class was a lesson. Way too much work for the first day." I grumbled out, embarrassed. To my surprise I got a small laugh, "Here let's take a look shall we?" Annabeth helped a lot, in more ways then one. For one thing, I learned something's regarding school work, which was always good. But I also just felt like myself for the first time since I came to San Francisco. Mind you we didn't have any deep conversations, besides the brief adhd bonding, it was just light and fun. "No Percy, just because we both have adhd does not mean we will start a club for it." She said rolling her eyes. "Awww come on! Itll be fun!" I said laughing. She soon joined before her face turned to horror, "What is it?" I asked looking around. I looked back at her to see she was staring above my head, so I followed her gaze, we already went through study hall and were currently missing our current class. I chuckled and looked at her, "Time flies when you're having fun, besides I only have gym right now." She looked back at me as I spoke, her eyes still frantic, "So do I! But I've never missed a class! Ever!" I rolled my eyes as I gathered my stuff, "Relax, Annabeth, I'll take care of it. Just come on." She gave me a once over before she narrowed her eyes, but to my surprise she didn't protest she just quickly packed up and stood up. "Okay let's hurry there is still half a class left." I laughed, hard. Back at Goode I couldn't even imagine someone going out of their way to go to a class that is already half over. I quickly pulled myself together, mostly because she punched me in the arm, but I still got it together. "Alright here's the plan we enter the locker rooms, get changed, but meet back in the hall. Don't got out to the gym" she glanced at me from her periferial vision. "Okay..." she said as she stopped in front of the locker rooms, "just hurry up." She said as she quickly turned into the ladies locker room. Wasting no time I rushed in and threw my backpack down, rummaging through it for my gym clothes. If I'm being completely honest, I was happy we missed some of gym, yeah I enjoyed spending some time with grey eyes, but I also didn't have to change in-front of the other guys. You see Gabe abused me, so add that to some nasty fights, and getting shot 3 times in a failed robbery, let's just say I had some scars. I gave my self a once over in the mirror before slipping on a shirt, yeah that's gonna be a hard one to explain. As I ran out of the locker room I bumped right into Annabeth. "Ayyy the fuck you doing standing infront of the door!" She just looked at me with her eyebrows raised, as if to say, excuse me? I gave her a smile. "Sorry just surprised, but that does set up for how we are going to get through this Scott free." She looked at me, and I could just see the doubt in her eyes, "What are you talking about?" My smile grew larger as I put my hands on her arms, leaning closer to whisper, "Okay we are both going to slam the doors wide open, and pretend like we are arguing, like so caught up in it we don't even care who hears. Now this is going to go great because I'm new, and we will just argue about who's fault it is, okay?" Again, I could practically see the gears in her head turning as I spoke, before she gave me a wide smile of her own, "You know I think this could work, especially because everyone knows about how don't miss classes," this got me to roll my eyes, "Yeah, yeah we get it princess. Just remember to keep looking at me, pretend no one else is there. Got it" I saw a flash of competitiveness flash in her eyes, "Oh don't worry about my performance." I laughed, "Okay I'll start the, 'continuing argument', ready? 1, 2, 3,.." I pushed open the gym doors with as much strength as I could, the sudden movement slammed the doors against the brick. I could feel my face becoming the blank mask of anger that I usually held as I walked around New York, " Oh it's my fucking fault because I'm new? Sorry I don't have a fucking map in my brains like you princess!" I shouted angrily looking only at Annabeth as I walked in, "Well maybe if your dumbass didn't forget their gym clothes in their locker we would've been here 15 minutes ago! I mean who forgets where their locker is," she glared at me as we continued to walk in, "Like I just fucking said, a new kid. Can your brain not comprehend that other humans might make mistakes? I bet your robotic ass has all the combinations to the lockers anyway, you ever stop to think maybe that's why I grabbed you for help!?" I snarled at her grabbing her arm to stop her. We were halfway across the gym, a perfect spot to make the finale happen. "Maybe if you even had a brain in the first place we wouldn't be here!" I gave her a subtle wink, "Fuck you Chase, don't make me spill water on you and cause a malfunction! Or maybe you'd just melt, like the witch you are." She glared at me and was about to retort when I heard someone clear there throat, we both turned quickly and at the same time yelled, "WHAT!" Everyone was avoiding our glares, even the coach who was the one who cleared his throat. "It's fine really" he let out a shaky chuckle. "Just don't let it happen again, and you know maybe avoid each other? I don't know I'm not a counselor." Annabeth looked at me up and down, "Gladly!" She said with some edge still in her voice. "Oh get your broom stick out of your ass" I rolled my eyes and began to walk away from her settling into the crowd, right next to Grover and some other guys, who happened to be glaring at me.
Come to find out those guys were in Annabeths friend group, and on the football team. Let's just say they were not too happy about the whole argument. "You ever disrespect her again and you'll be sorry!" The blonde kid with blue eyes was yelling at me as I was making my way toward the football field. They probably would've yelled at me earlier but I changed into my gear in another bathroom. I turned my head toward him, "What position do you play again?" I asked, in a very calm way. He looked taken aback, "Quarterback why?" I grinned at him. "I'd shut up if I were you." Come to find out he was the starter, which wasn't too fun for me, I can't hit him, the last time I hit a starting quarterback was in little league football and I almost got kicked off the team. Let's just say it was an unwritten rule, don't hit your own quarterback. The people he was throwing to though? Completely fair game. Since I was new, even though the coaches were excited to have me, I had to play on the second string defense. Which was fine with me because we had to go up against the starters, making my first practice at South Central one to remember. As the safety I pretty much start in a farther position from the ball and drop back into pass coverage like a defensive back, and come up to stop the run like a line backer. The players at this school however have never seen me play before, so they had no idea how much ground I could cover and how hard I hit. Now usually during practice I take it easy, but I needed to take my frustration out. The new environment was annoying, school was annoying, and how they talked to me was annoying, and that's why I was going to show them who they were dealing with. I'm not one too brag but I'm obviously going to be on the starting line up by the time the weeks over, so this was really one of my last chances going up against the starters. As we came onto the field we warmed up and went through many drills and stations. I purposely held back during said drills and began to hear whispers about me being, "overrated" and "not that good at all". Perfect, I thought as I jogged out onto the field to face the starters for a, "scrimmage", they're underestimating me. What do they say, chess not checkers? Needless to say the whole field went quiet after the first play I was out there. They started with a basic run play to the right side, I quickly saw this and sprinted from my position. Seeing the hole one up in the line I ran to it like I was playing running back and lowered my shoulder as soon as I saw their running back come through the line. The contact of the pads made a sound similar to a gunshot, both the line and the running back were not expecting me so it was a clear shot. As the running back fell I stood over him, the field was dead quiet, "Oh yeahhhhhh!" I yelled at no one in particular, "Ima show y'all today!" I trotted away from the line of scrimmage, where the running back was still on the ground, "Thought your school day was over huh!?" I turned locking eyes with the blonde quarterback, "Fuck no! Y'all still got a lot to learn !" And they did learn, I was all over the field, knocking down passes, making tackles on the running back and wide receivers, and I even had a couple of interceptions. Every play I made(which was almost every play), I would talk shit, and continue to lock eyes with all of them while doing so. They needed to learn that whatever they said to me throughout the day, was going to be handled on the football field. It always has been that way, and it will always be that way.