Author's Note:
Hello readers, if this story looks vaguely familiar, that's because it is. This is Const3llations on his burner. I've begun re-uploading my previously deleted stories onto this account. I've changed nothing, and left the writing as it was; I will not continue them either. I promise you I write better stories now. Maybe.
Memento Mori
Chapter 1:
September
Percy knew what the doctor was going to say the moment he stepped into the room. You could figure out a lot of things by studying one's body language, and Dr. Solace was nervously clicking his pen and had a slight slouch in his posture.
He was going to die.
The fragile words came out of the doctor's mouth in slow motion. "I'm so sorry, Percy, Mr. and Mrs. Blofis."
He felt his mother and step-father squeeze his hands tightly in support, tears running down both of their eyes. Even though he had been told to expect this outcome, hearing it was still a suckerpunch to his already weakened gut. Reading the hundreds of pamphlets and websites had done nothing to prepare him for this.
This was real.
"Your condition is terminal. We were unable to stop the spread of the cancer, we caught it too late. Best case scenario we are looking at is one year. I can prescribe medications in order to make it less painful for you. I know you hate these but here's a pamphlet with the side effects should you choose to take them. We can also offer in-person chemotherapy treatments to slow down the process. Again, I am so sorry. Percy, I'll be here for you every step of the way."
Dr. Solace placed the pamphlet on the table, and silently stepped out of the room. He knew it wasn't the doctors fault. He was a very nice man, and Percy knew his son, Will. They were good people.
There was nothing he could have done. Plain and simple.
Percy had been feeling ill for the past six months, but he just shrugged it off as nothing more than a seasonal cough. This morning, however, when he woke up and immediately threw up a pool of blood, was when they realized it was something much worse.
The cancer had already spread from his liver to his stomach. Treatments were only effective in five percent of cases, and that was when they caught it early.
He had just turned seventeen years old, and he was already burdened with the knowledge of knowing when and how we would die.
Percy felt a wave of numbness wash over him as his mother broke out in ragged sobs. His step-father stood up and began to pace around the room rapidly, tugging at his salt and pepper hair.
"Promise me that you won't tell Estelle." Percy said shakingly, his voice barely above than a whisper. "Promise me."
"We promise." Sally sobbed into the side of her firstborn child. Her son.
Paul sat down on his other side and embraced all of them tightly, squeezing Percy's shoulder. "It's going to be ok." He said in between heavy breaths. "We'll be ok."
One year. Twelve months. Three hundred and sixty-five days. Eight thousand, seven hundred and sixty hours. Thirty-one million, five hundred and thirty-six thousand seconds.
The hands of his doomsday clock were now in motion.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
-Ω-
Reyna had never been more nervous in her entire life.
She stared at the concrete walls of the massive building through the window of her mom's pick up truck. This would mark her first day at Goode High.
"You ok?" Her mom asked gently, fully aware that it was because of her job that Reyna had to switch schools right before her senior year.
Reyna brushed a strand of her dark hair behind her ear and nodded. "Yeah, I'm good. See you at four."
Being the new girl meant that she was going to draw attention from everybody in the hallways. She might as well have been walking around with a massive neon sign. Honestly, what were they expecting from her? To suddenly turn into an alien from outer space?
It didn't help that she hated New York. The weather was nasty all the time. The people were extremely rude, acting almost as if you didn't even exist. The food was greasy and stale. Literally everything was terrible. Reyna belonged in California, where the Sun always shone and the waves never stopped. Oh, and their schools started a bit earlier. This was the American equivalent of Antarctica as far as she was concerned.
Reyna knew right of the bat that it was going to be a long day when she stepped into her first class, AP US Government. The chatter in the room immediately disappeared, and they all turned around to soak in the new arrival.
She immediately became self conscious of her outfit. She had on her trusty grey Allbirds and blue jeans that complimented her purple and gold hoodie. Did she look stupid?
"Welcome!" A hearty voice announced from the front of her class. Reyna made eye contact with the middle-aged man in a wheelchair. "You must be our new student!"
"Hello." She said back timidly, which made her internally cringe. "I'm Reyna. Reyna Ramírez-Arellano."
The teacher gave her a kind smile. "Glad to have you, Ms. Ramírez-Arellano. My name is Mr. Brunner, your seat is right in between Ms. Grace and Ms. McLean."
Reyna located the only vacant spot in the classroom, and slipped into the hard plastic chair. Thankfully the chatter resumed after that, but she could still feel plenty of eyes glued to her.
One pair was from the girl on her left, who was wearing a cute denim skirt and a white t-shirt that showed off her cleavage underneath her own cardigan. She had bronze skin to go along with her golden brown hair.
On her right was the polar opposite. The girl had shaggy black hair that was colored with bright blue highlights. Her skin was pale and freckly but was completely drowned by her loud all-black outfit. Reyna had never seen anybody wear a leather jacket with spikes before.
"Nice to meet you, Reyna." The girl on the left said and stuck her hand out. "I'm Piper."
Reyna returned the gesture. "Nice to meet you, Piper."
"I'm Thalia." The other girl said with a gruff voice. "Nice to have you, this school is a shit show."
Piper snorted and adjusted the length of her braid. "Nice one, Thals."
Reyna couldn't help but laugh too. Piper and Thalia were the last two people she would've expected to be friends, the preppy school girl and the rebellious teenage punk. This was a group dynamic she wanted to be around.
"Where are you from?" Thalia asked.
"I just moved from San Francisco last week." Reyna said mournfully.
Piper let out a low whistle. "Damn. I would kill to live there."
She was about to respond, but caught sight of a pair of sea-green eyes from the boy two seats in front of her, causing him to immediately whip his head back around.
He was wearing a soft looking dark green hoodie and khaki shorts. From the back Reyna could see that he had a total mess of raven black hair.
She looked at Thalia for an explanation, but she only yawned and rolled her eyes. Piper was much more helpful.
"Percy Jackson." Piper whispered. "None of us know what's wrong with him. He's never acted this way before."
Reyna watched Percy intently as he leaned forward, and rested his chin on the desk. An audible sigh could be heard.
"What do you mean?" Reyna whispered back. Mr. Brunner was now booting up his powerpoint presentation and writing something on his whiteboard.
Piper gave her a plaintive expression. "He's usually talkative and sociable. He's good friends with Thalia and I. Hasn't spoken a single word since we got here this morning. Actually, he's been like that for the past two weeks."
She studied the silent boy in front of her again, watching the way his chest expanded every time he breathed.
"All right class." Mr. Brunner said, cutting off her train of thought. "Can somebody tell me when the Declaration of Independence was written…"
-Ω-
The first day of class was always the most boring. It was just teachers going through their yearly syllabus and how their class would be graded. Such was the case in Mr. Brunner's class and now AP Calculus.
Thalia wasn't taking it, but Piper was, and so was Percy Jackson. This time, however, Percy sat across the room from them. She could already tell that the teacher, Ms. Dodds was going to be a problem. Her nasally voice was enough to give Reyna a headache after fifteen minutes.
The ring of a bell signaled the start of Reyna's lunch period, unfortunately neither Thalia or Piper had the same one. After a minute of loitering, she decided to avoid sitting in the cafeteria, and headed over to the library to eat.
As she passed through the crowded lunchroom, she felt a pair of green eyes lock on to her from a table. She found Percy sitting in the midst of a crowd of crazy-looking boys, but he was the only one not talking. Instead, he was focused on her as she moved through the crowd. Reyna's didn't change her facial expression, giving him no crumbs to nibble on, and disappeared down the hall.
She was delighted to find out that the library had a chess board. Chess was by far her favorite game. It combined her best traits: patience and strategy. The game kind of reminded her of the old Roman war movies that she used to watch with her dad, where the soldiers were taught the values of positioning and sacrifice.
She sat down alone at the table and began to set up the pieces. Even though it was the unpopular choice, Reyna's favorite piece was the pawn. A pawn could be...well just a pawn, but it had the ability to become a queen if played correctly.
Once both sides were set up, she began to play through different openings while munching absentmindedly on her BLT. From the corner of her eye, she saw Percy observing her from outside the library window. When she looked up at him, his face turned a brilliant shade of scarlet and he raced off.
Percy Jackson, so far, was the strangest boy she had ever encountered.
Reyna liked a challenge.
-Ω-
The rest of the week felt like it went by slow and fast at the same time. She couldn't tell you a single notable thing that she learned, even if you held a gun up to her head. Percy was seemingly absent from school as well. Perhaps he had gotten sick.
Everybody else seemed to be settling back into the monotony that was high school. Reyna didn't even realize it was Friday until Thalia slapped her back on their way out.
"Hey, usually a couple of us go to the mall and hang out on Friday's. Wanna come?"
Reyna tightened the straps on her backpack as they rounded one of the hall's. "Sure, I don't really shop or anything."
"Me neither." Thalia agreed. "Usually it's only Piper that ends up buying something."
To their left was the Mr. D's office, the principal of the school. Reyna wasn't sure what to make of the strange man. He looked athletic and unathletic at the same time. It probably had something to do with his ugly beard and abnormally large calves.
As they passed by his window, they saw Percy standing inside with what looked like his parents. Mr. Brunner was also there. Everybody's faces were dead serious, like they were discussing the end of the world. Percy himself looked absolutely terrible, there were massive bags underneath his eyes and his skin was pale white.
Reyna and Thalia quickly shuffled away, as to not be caught snooping, and exchanged confused looks.
"What was that about?"
Thalia shook her head and chewed down hard on her piece of gum. "No idea, he hasn't responded to any of my texts."
Reyna furrowed her brow and pushed open the heavy door, exposing them to the fall breeze. "Weird."
-Ω-
The next Monday, she was back in the library, and setting up the pieces when she heard a new voice clear their throat.
"Hello."
Reyna knew it was him without even looking up. Although, his voice was a little lighter than she thought it would be.
"Hi."
Percy awkwardly scratched the back of his neck while avoiding hard eye-contact, which was a shame. He looked a lot better than when she last saw him. Up close, his green eyes were actually sea-green, and they were beautiful. But she would never tell him that.
"I'm Percy." He said timidly.
Reyna placed the black bishops down and brushed a couple strands of her hair out of the way. "Nice to meet you, Percy. I'm Reyna."
"I know."
She couldn't help but laugh, and look down while shaking her head. "You're quite the conversationalist, huh?"
"Depends on the day." Percy paused for a moment. "Do you mind if I sit here?" He said, pointing to the seat directly across from her.
"Sure, nice to have some company."
Percy didn't say a word for the rest of lunch, which was fine with Reyna, progress had been made in their relationship. They ate in a surprisingly comfortable silence as he watched her move the chess pieces across the board with brutal efficiency.
When there were two minutes left in lunch, Reyna finally resumed the conversation.
In the back of her mind, she was dying to ask him about why he was absent the week before and why he was in Mr. D's office, but she knew that wasn't any of her business. She would let Percy tell her if he wanted too.
"Do you know how to play?"
Percy almost choked on the remains of his crustless PB&J. "Huh? Oh, chess? No."
Reyna naturally asked the next question. "Would you like to learn?"
"Yes." He answered while vigorously nodding his head.
As fate would have it, the lunch bell rang. Reyna didn't want to be late to physics, Mr. Buford had almost given her detention for the same reason the day before.
Percy extended his hand outwards, offering to throw away her trash, which Reyna gratefully accepted. "Can I sit here tomorrow?"
"If you want to." She said passive aggressively, playing a little game with him. She guiltily enjoyed the way he squirmed before shuffling off to class.
Maybe she shouldn't have done that. Oh well.
-Ω-
"Thalia." Reyna hissed. "Wake up."
No response. Classic.
"Thalia." Reyna said louder while tapping the sleepy girl's shoulder. "Thalia."
Thalia finally showed signs of life when she emitted a deep groan. "What."
"Pop quiz."
Mr. Brunner began wheeling his way down the aisles, handing out the dreaded sheets of white paper. Reyna thanked her lucky stars that she had read the passages from the night before. For Thalia, it was a different story.
The girl's electric blue eyes lit up in fear. "Huh?" She looked at Piper for confirmation, who was more than happy to give it to her in the form of a thumbs up. "What the fuck!"
"Language, Ms. Grace." Mr. Brunner chided from across the room, eliciting a wave of nervous laughter across the room. "You have fifteen minutes. Your time starts...now."
The quiz turned out to only be five questions long, and Reyna was done in no time. On her way back from turning it in, she made eye contact with Percy, who gave off the clear impression that he was struggling. He had the most adorable seal eyes. Surely he used them as his key to a girl's heart, but Reyna's wasn't so easy to unlock.
"Nice try." She mouthed before walking back to her seat.
-Ω-
It was finally lunchtime. An hour of trying not to fall asleep during math, despite her best efforts, was extremely exhausting.
Reyna didn't know how Percy had done it, but he had managed to arrive at the library before her and was already setting up the pieces.
"Looks like somebody did some research last night." She said as she sat down. "Should've studied for that quiz instead."
The tips of his ears turned light pink. "Yeah, I probably should have." He admitted bashfully. "I watched a couple YouTube videos."
Reyna disliked—no, hated the fact that there was a little flutter in her chest.
"Goode High School Swim Team Captain is seen playing chess in the library." She said sarcastically. "What would your friends say?"
Percy squinted at her and stuck his tongue out. "Looks like somebody did some research last night." He said, mimicking her deep and serious voice.
Reyna was not one to be embarrassed. No way was she going to admit to having a multi-hour long text conversation with Piper and Thalia that lasted till three in the morning, trying to gleam every bit of information about him. Now that she had time to think about it, that was probably why Thalia had been so drowsy. She owed her some coffee.
"Saw your picture on the athletic board earlier." She said nonchalantly, expertly recovering from her slippage. "And I don't sound like that."
By now, Percy had finished setting up the board, and leaned back confidently. Reyna checked to make sure that he had put everything in its rightful place, and was impressed to see that all the pieces were correctly positioned.
"Not bad, do you know what each piece does?"
Percy pointed at both the far left and right pieces in the back row. "Those are the rooks, they move up and down, or back and forth, as long as there's space to move in."
His pointer finger then landed on top of a pawn. "These can only move forward."
"Not a bad start, is that all you know?"
"Yeah, it's a lot different when I'm looking at them in real-life."
She gleaned that the only way to teach him was trial-by-fire. In the span of a couple weeks, he had become her personal project. She was going to make a concerted effort to get to know him.
"Give me your hand." She said sternly while reaching out.
Percy took an exaggerated sip out of his water bottle. The sassy, sarcastic version of him was revealing itself to her. Reyna wasn't sure if she liked it or not. "Excuse me?"
Reyna gave him a deadface. "The Percy Jackson I remember from before used to be shy, what did you do to him?"
"I—I don't know." He stammered. "You're just so easy to talk to, I guess?"
That wasn't usually what people would say to Reyna after first meeting her. Generally it went more along the opposite lines (and maybe some tears shed).
She just brushed the compliment off and repeated her command. "Your hand, please."
Percy begrudgingly put his right one out, palm facing upward. "Ok, what now?"
Reyna, being the alpha that she was, grabbed and maneuvered it as if it were her own. "We are going to go from your left to right, naming the piece ok?"
She waited for him to nod before continuing. Reyna couldn't tell whether the build up in temperature between their skin was real or an illusion. "You already told me what the rook was. The piece next to it is called the knight, it moves in an 'L' shape."
Reyna moved both of their hands around the board, displaying the different directions the knight could take.
"Now, the piece next to the knight is the bishop, it can only move on the diagonals."
They repeated the same process for each and every piece, with Reyna guiding his hand through the motions. It was like a mother teaching a stubborn child.
The evil ring of the bell sounded by the time she had finished explaining what a checkmate was. Their lunches had remained virtually untouched, which she was surely gonna pay for later on during gym. Coach Hedge was no joke.
"You going to remember all of that?" Reyna questioned on their way out the door. "I don't want to have to hold your sweaty hand again."
She slightly enjoyed the way Percy rolled his eyes. It was nice to see him a lot more open. She could get used to it. Maybe.
"I'll try, see you tomorrow morning."
One month of being at a new school, and Reyna had already found herself a group of friends. Not too shabby.