I am wondering… How does an author know how many reviews his/her story gets? I am new to the story-writing family here in FanFiction, and I can't seem to fully understand its system for publishing stories. Could someone please explain this to me? I'd really appreciate it.

Disclaimer: I do not own any Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus characters except for my OCs

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-Angela-

It feels weird to be in a new school once again. I should be used to it by now — moving to a new house, new country, new school, new friends — but somehow, I don't. The feelings of nervousness and the churning of my stomach never seem to go away whenever I enter a school for the first time.

The fact that I also skipped orientation day didn't really help. My mom convinced me to stay at home instead of going to the school to practice a piano score for an upcoming recital next week. Although it had gone well — I placed in first and would be attending the finals in Hong Kong next year — I would not know the facilities of this school, or my classroom for the matter.

Taking a deep breath, as I always do before a nerve-wrecking piano concert, I stepped inside the huge building.

Goode High School was packed with students milling around in the hallways. The walls were plastered with posters saying We are all a family or Goode is good, as if the school housed primary students instead of middle schoolers. A teacher was greeting students as they passed the hallway.

"Welcome to Goode!" he said, shaking my hand. The teacher looked like he was in his mid 40s. On his denim shirt was a name tag that read Paul Blofis. With his leather jacket and salt-and-pepper hair, I could've sworn he was an actor I saw somewhere before. "We hope that you would have a good time here in this school!"

"Uh… Thanks," I said. Paul walked over to greet another student, leaving me to stand alone in the hallway filled with a cacophony of noises, alone, and wondering where the hell is the classroom for Homeroom 9C.

"Hi!" A girl said in front of me. I jumped back in surprise; I was pretty sure she wasn't there before. Her frizzy red hair reminded me of Merida, the Scottish princess from the movie Brave, if Merida happens to wear a maroon t-shirt with tattered jeans marked with doodles and carrying an assortment of art supplies. "I'm Rachel! You look lost, so I'm guessing you didn't go to the orientation." She grimaced. "Good thing you didn't. That is one memory I want to erase. But anyway, since I have nothing better to do before the bell rings, I thought I'd give you a tour around school!"

I did not know what to think of Rachel and her overly bubbly personality, or the thought of having her as a tour guide on my first day of school, but it would be impolite to say no, so I nodded. It's better than having to wander around aimlessly and make a fool out of myself.

Rachel smiled. "If you think I'm one of those cheerleader girls who is excited over everything, like, Today is such a great day I feel like frolicking on sunshines and rainbows, I'm not one of those girls. Trust me. I'm pretty nice once you get to know me."

"Oh," was all I could say. We walked in silence through the mass of students for a while before I asked her, "Do you know where's Homeroom 9C?"

"Supposedly, it's right next to the band room on this floor," she said slowly. "But the band room caught on fire during orientation day, so right now, until that section of the school has been repaired, it's been moved to the third floor, in the laboratory." Her green eyes grew darker, as if she had known what caused the fire that day.

My heart deflated a little. If the band room was destroyed in the fire, that means the piano there would be too — if Goode did have a piano. "That's too bad, really; I was hoping to practice my piano there someday."

The red-haired girl gave me a lopsided grin. "A lot of people are upset when the band room burned down. You'd be surprised with how many musical students there are here in Goode. Me," she hefted her canvases, "I'm more of an art person."

Rachel continued talking about her artworks as we walked up to the third floor, showing me some of her drawings in her sketchbook. I was amazed at how life-like they are; they seem to come out of the pages and connect with the human soul. I know a few people from my previous schools who are amazingly talented at art, but Rachel made them look like kindergartener drawings.

"Well, here's your classroom," she said. I've been so interested in listening to her talk about her passion in art I did not realised we've stopped in front of a room with a simple white door that says, Science Laboratory. Inside, I could see a few students making weird objects using a human model depicting the digestive system. Girls were talking in soft voices in the corner, probably gossiping about how immature the boys are acting.

I smiled at Rachel. "Thanks for showing me where my classroom is. I think I'll still be roaming around the school if you weren't there."

Rachel laughed. "No problem." Then her eyes grew wide, as if she realised something that I don't. "Gods, I'm an idiot. I forgot to ask for your name."

Strangely, the question never popped up in my head. I guess we became accustomed to each other to the point where we forgot that she haven't asked for my name yet. "It's Angela," I said.

"Well then, see you later Angela," Rachel said. "And if you don't know where to sit in lunch, feel free to sit with me and Percy. I'm sure he wouldn't mind the extra company." Softly, she added, "Do not question about the blue food."

I raised an eyebrow. "Ooo-kay. Percy… He a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, something like that," she said. The bell rang. "See you at lunch time?"

I nodded. "Sure." Rachel gave me one last smile before skipping off to her classroom, her paint bottles and paintbrushes rattling inside its box.

—

I did not really like the ending for this chapter — it doesn't feel right —- but I do not have anymore ideas on how to end it. Writer's block sucks, and this is just the second chapter!

Shoutout to dizzydaisy37, the first person to review in this fan fiction! Seeing your review makes me feel so happy, and it is heartwarming to know that somewhere out there, a person would want to read more of my fan fiction.

This was set after the Battle of the Labyrinth. There's not that many fan fictions about Rachel, so I decided to write a chapter dedicated to her, and to my best friend, who inspired me to write this chapter.

Have a great day everyone! :)

- anonymousgirl23 -