Chapter II:
October
They were trying a new drug this time. Percy's body rejected the last one outright, causing him to miss an entire week of school.
He hated it. Honestly, he wanted to not take the drugs so that his parents weren't burdened with the exorbitant amounts of debt that came along with them. He was going to die anyways, what did it matter?
But they refused his proposal, so here he was, back at the hospital. The white gown that they had him wear did nothing to keep him warm.
"This is going to hurt for a little bit, ok?" The nurse said with a strong, but sweet voice.
Percy nodded his head and watched as she slipped the needle underneath his skin. The murky liquid from the IV bag began to flow almost immediately.
Dr. Solace said that these medications weren't the ones that would cause hair loss, but if they didn't work then they would have to switch to those. At that point, he would either have to buy a wig, make up a good excuse, or come clean. Percy hoped that it would never have to come to that.
They did advise him to start taking days off from school regularly to rest, even if he was feeling somewhat fine. At least he could still swim on a semi-consistent basis , and he had his friends. And his new friend, Reyna.
Percy didn't quite know what to think of her yet. He found himself surprisingly nervous around her most of the time for no reason at all. He suspected that there was a secret Reyna hidden underneath her hard persona, waiting to be unlocked.
So maybe there were some reasons to keep smiling in life.
-Ω-
Reyna quite liked the neighborhood that her family had moved into. It was a little bit larger than the one they left in California, with a lot more open grass in the backyard. Hylla, her older sister, loved the nearby park and the two of them often took long walks with their family terrier, Ella.
She was so grateful for their hard working single mother, who had paid off God knows how many loans for them to live a stable life. She worked for the Navy as a physician's assistant. Their dad had died while serving his second tour for the Army in Afghanistan just after she was born.
"Reyna, can you let Ella out? She needs to poop before we leave." Her mom asked from upstairs.
Reyna lifted herself off the living room couch, and the dog followed her to the backdoor with her tail wagging.
The weather was quite nice today, so Reyna decided to go outside with Ella and enjoy the cool fall breeze.
Across the fence directly in front of her, she spotted another girl that seemed to be doing the same thing, letting her dog out.
The girl gave her a friendly wave, and Reyna waved back. She had already met both of their nextdoor neighbors. The ones to her left were the Stolls, and the two boys Connor and Travis also went to Goode. The right house was occupied by a snarky old grandma that went by Heatherann.
Ella sensed the presence of the girl's yellow lab, and the two dogs ran to meet each other in the middle. Naturally, Reyna walked over to greet them.
"Hey, nice to meet you." Reyna said once she was within earshot. "I'm Reyna."
The girl smiled and tried to restrain her dog from jumping over the fence. Reyna really loved the way her golden hair curled. "Hazel, how was the move-in?"
Before Reyna could respond, Hazel's dog broke loose from it's collar and frantically cleared the wooden barrier. The resulting chase scene was more than enough to make her laugh for the rest of the day, and give her a mild hamstring strain.
"You're pretty damn quick." Hazel exclaimed as the two of them sat down on the grass and caught their breaths. "Do you run?"
"Just for exercise, never really considered competing."
The only sport Reyna had ever played competitively was soccer, but she stopped after middle school.
"Well, we could use somebody like you on cross-country." Hazel extended her hand for a fist bump. "Interest meeting is this Wednesday after school, hope to see you there."
"I'll definitely think about it, thank you."
-Ω-
Reyna couldn't understand Percy's odd attendance behavior. He missed a random two days here, and another three days there. The teachers in the classes they shared never asked him where he'd been, so obviously they knew why.
Even Dodds seemed to act somewhat kinder to him, but she was still an absolute drywall to the rest of their class. Well, except for Annabeth. But let's be real, what teacher didn't like Annabeth? The girl was a flat-out genius.
"What's your number?" Reyna asked Percy straight up as they walked out of Mr. Brunner's class. Thalia and Piper were being held back for being their usual disruptive selves.
The boy's eyes oogled wildly at her question. "Huh? My number?"
"How else are we supposed to coordinate when we are meeting up for the group project?"
Percy blinked twice. "Oh, yeah I didn't really think about that."
"We aren't off to a good start here." She said sarcastically. "Buckle up, I guess."
After slogging through math, they made it to Reyna's personal favorite part of the day. Lunch.
"Check?" Percy said, totally unsure of himself as he placed down his rook two squares from her king.
"Mhm. Not bad, Jackson." Reyna mused before positioning her bishop in front of his piece to block the attack.
He tilted his head oddly. "Are you trying?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"I don't know, that's the first time thats happened. Figured that you might be taking it easy on me for once."
Reyna won the match ten moves later to prove her point. But hey, he was getting a lot better.
-Ω-
They mutually agreed over the phone to go over to her house so that they could have the third floor all to themselves. And because Percy's little sister was allegedly an absolute menace to deal with.
The project required them to plan out a massive road trip. Mr. Brunner had given them a fake budget of ten thousand dollars, and they had to decide the major colonial sites they wanted to see in a two week time period.
It was a lot harder than it seemed on the surface. They had to be quite frugal with booking their hotels, rent-a-car rates, and choosing between the fifty bajillion battle sites.
"So, how many days do we want to spend at Jamestown?" Reyna considered the ticket prices from the comforts of her favorite beanbag. "Maybe two?
Percy, who was laying flat on his belly, shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, that sounds good."
They worked diligently for a couple more minutes, before he spoke up again.
"Hey, uh." Percy paused to clear his throat. "Reyna?"
"Hmm?" She said, not looking up from her laptop.
"Would you… like to go to homecoming with me?"
Reyna tilted her screen at a comedically slow rate, like they were actors in a corny 80's style sitcom.
"As friends." He added quickly.
Reyna actually wouldn't have been opposed to going as an actual date, but going as friends was definitely going to make the experience a lot more enjoyable. And a lot less stressful.
She gave him a smile and told him, "Yes. That would be great."
Percy breathed a very loud sigh of relief, which coaxed a fat laugh out of her. "Sorry that it was pretty informal, you didn't seem like the type of girl that wanted a poster or anything."
"You hit it right on the head, Jackson. I would've beaten you up if you showed up to my house holding a bunch of petunias."
"I'd like to see you try."
Now, Reyna wasn't famous for being a very touchy person. But she took the opportunity to flop onto his defenseless back like she was Amanda Nunes. Platonically of course, because they were just friends. Yes, just friends.