I was wrong.
Not about the friend making, that happened without issue. Grover and I were the definition of best friends, not that I had any previous experience. 12 years of not having any friends and another 20 that included magical friendships like the one he had with Sasuke made it pretty hard to judge this new one with any objectiveness. Regardless, I liked him, and as far as I could tell he liked me. Probably not as much as he liked anything with cheese on it, but I'd long settled for 2nd place on that totem pole.
I'd struggled pretty hard with my sense of self after that chance meeting with Naruto. The huge jumble of conflicting memories that had been shoved into my admittedly already strained brain were hard to pick up and file, but I had eventually gotten there. The experiences remained, and I still had frequent bouts of strong feelings toward one of his memories, but I could at least take a step back and tell myself that I was Percy Jackson, not Naruto Uzumaki.
You'd think that having thirty-ish combined years of experience would make me wiser, or at least less boneheaded. I'd laugh if it wasn't somewhat depressing. I still found myself proven wrong on multiple occasions, like the fact that I thought this this school year could be anything but evil.
To start, the school itself felt like it had it out for me. From the bell ringing right when I was about to enter the class, resulting in detention, to a chair splitting from the desk I sat in the second the teacher left the room, causing me to fall in the middle of class. That had been a fun, failed explanation. It seemed the comparison I'd made between Yancy and a magicless Hogwarts was incorrect because this place was definitely cursed.
Evil and full of malice it might be, but Yancy Academy was beautiful, I couldn't deny that. The old architecture gave off such an imposing vibe when I'd first seen it, but it had grown on me quickly. The giant arched doorways and vaulted ceiling hallways gave off the aura of a medieval castle. The building seemed to be built with natural light in mind, because I hardly noticed any fixed lighting. The way the light curved around the gray walls amplified the layers of texture that gripped them. I was basking in that same warm glow the sunset granted through the ceiling windows when I was pulled from relaxation.
"Hey," Grover nudged me with his elbow. "Heads up, demon approaching.", he nodded in the direction of the cafeteria entrance and I audibly groaned. There she was, gracing the common folk of the school with her legion of gremlins at the heel. Nancy Bobofit, princess of darkness, bringer of detention, lover of peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches.
"I'm not here, if I just believe that hard enough she can't influence me with her black magic." I mumbled while sipping my chocolate milk. Grover chuckled and bumped the table to get my attention. "Doesn't look like you're the inductee today, poor Nelson." he said with no small amount of pity. I looked back to find a pale boy with a shy aura getting mercilessly harassed. Wincing I decided to block it out, harassed he might be, but it wouldn't do any good for me to get harassed as well.
Nancy was unstoppable. She was intelligent, vindictive, and had the teachers eating out of her black tipped fingers. Her and I immediately bumped heads the second we met. It was hard not to. I had never liked bullies myself, and adding Naruto's thoughts to that? We were practically born to rival each other.
Rival might've been a projection. I certainly felt that way, however, there wasn't a chance that the road went both ways. To Nancy, the factory of the world spit out new people face planting so they didn't have to bother adjusting their position before they groveled. That was part of what made her hate me so much. I might've not bothered getting up and defending every poor soul she crossed paths with anymore, but she knew I disagreed, and to her that might've been worse than a slap to the face.
She clearly had some psychological issues. I'd called her the fakest queen to ever sit on the throne the first time I'd seen her badgering a kid a grade below us, and she looked taken aback that I would even address her. She then gave me that sickly sweet smile she gave the teachers, accused me of lèse-majesté, which I somehow understood was French for insulting a monarch, and added that she didn't think I could hold the position of court jester in said kingdom.
I told Grover about the confrontation that evening and he paled, saying that he heard the last person to speak up against Nancy stopped coming to school. I guess he thought that would make me shut up and let her continue ruling unopposed. Clearly my new friend hadn't yet grasped how stubborn I was. Ever since that chance meeting in the hallway I took time out of my day to pick at her as much as I could get away with.
Sure, I disliked her, but at the end of the day I was technically 20 years older than her, and I couldn't really have that much fun bickering with a kid, could I?
"Jackson? Gracing us with your presence after that magical presentation in Latin? I heard Brunner let you off easy despite it being clear you were winging it the entire time." I looked up as she crossed her arms and snickered. It seemed she peeled off and left the grunts to continue pestering Nelson. Wonderful.
"What do you want, despot?" I bit back without any real malice. I'd learned that she reveled in the chaos that our back and forths spawned. It was fun to bicker with her when I felt like it, but returning fire was the last thing I wanted to do after said magical presentation in Latin. I'd always hated disappointing Brunner. The only way to disengage her was to starve the fire of any oxygen.
"Oh you know, just the world," she quipped back with a grin before looking over at Grover, who was clearly trying to make himself small so as to not draw her attention, "How's the weather down there Peep?." she added. I knew Grover hated that nickname, she'd apparently caught him snooping around after curfew one night and accused him of trekking to the girl's dorm hall. Of course he'd told her he wasn't, and wouldn't, but he also couldn't tell her what he really was doing. So she continued to pick at him about it.
I also didn't know what he was doing, I assumed he was making a break for the cafeteria. It was locked up sure, but nothing could keep a hungry Grover at bay. Regardless, she made it known with that comment that he wasn't welcome here anymore, and while Grover might've been one of the nicest people I'd ever met, the glare he gave her before picking his tray up and walking off held the power to bring a fantasy alive and turn her to stone.
She seemed pleased with herself as she turned back to me. "You fled the class the second the bell rang before Brunner finished the group placements." She looked at me expectantly and I gazed back confused. Why was she telling me this- oh. Oh no.
"I'm going to talk with him." I started, grabbing my tray and bag before standing up. The smug look drained a bit from her face as she looked oddly annoyed that I wasn't happy with this nightmare of a situation. Grover and I had been excited for this field trip, Grover more so than I, as he'd never caused massive property damage on any of his past school outings, but still.
"Suck it up Jackson, I won't have you dragging your feet at the museum just because you dislike me." She grunted out without the air of superiority that normally laced her words. Weird, Nancy was normally more committed than that, the whole Royalty vs Peasant thing had been a running line of banter between us, something to fall back on if either of us ran out of new insults.
She was acting out of character, that much was obvious to me. In the entire time I'd known her she'd not once dropped the holier than thou attitude she oozed in droves. This, for obvious reasons, put me on edge.
In the beginning I'd often compared Nancy and I's relationship to the one Naruto and Sakura had when they were younger, but those thoughts were shot down from orbit the longer I spent bickering back. Sure, strong willed girl with a temper fit Sakura to a tee, especially at that age, but the problem lied with the fact that I wasn't harboring a massive crush on Nancy, and the crush aspect was at least 70% of why Naruto had put up with Sakura's constant beratement and snide comments during their childhood.
"Anyway," she shook me out of my inner thoughts, "Brunner said the group placements were non-negotiable. I'm sure he won't make an exception even if you are his favorite student." she finished begrudgingly.
Okay, now I knew something was up. Nancy couldn't even stand the thought of being 2nd place. To admit, without pressure, that I was preferred over her in anything was unprecedented.
"Who are you and what have you done with Nancy?" and although I asked it in a joking manner, the tone was still ripe with confusion.
The annoyed look returned and her face reddened slightly. She dropped the backpack off her shoulder and sat down on the cafeteria bench next to me. I looked down at her with tray and bag in hand ready to leave, but the look she sent my way promised untold torture if I didn't join her back at the table. With a sigh and a silent prayer to whatever ruled over this place, I sat back down.
She was silent, which was also new. Nancy, despite being despised by the majority of the student body on the lower part of the totem pole, never missed an opportunity to speak her mind to anyone that would listen. If the words that she wove weren't so often full of malice I'd wager to say I'd find her endless talking somewhat fun. Like I'd said, she was intelligent, it was just the viciousness that bogged her down in my eyes.
"Listen up Jackson, because I'll only be saying this once…" she trailed off and I leaned in to hear the words that had caused her to become this demure. "Do you hate me?" she whispered.
I almost fell off the bench. I quickly looked at her face to gauge the effort she had to expend to keep the laugh she clearly had to be holding back, but it wasn't there. I only saw a girl with red hair and cheeks that matched looking away, at anything but me.
I was so lost I didn't even experience the time I'd spent zoned out, by the time I'd gathered myself, I was greeted by an expectant but still very clearly uncomfortable Nancy staring at me behind scarlet bangs. "Well? It's not like you'll be telling me anything I don't know, I just figured I'd ask." she trailed off again, awkwardly.
"What? Isn't this like, a violation of the class system or something?" What was I doing, this was obviously not a joking matter to her, yet here I was, continuing with this stupid royalty theme. She obviously expected as much, as her shy demeanor shifted back to the girl I was used to seeing.
"Forget about it, like I said, I won't be failing this report on the museum just because you wanted to goof around with your friend. I don't mind having you along for the ride, but if you do anything that costs me a perfect grade, I'll dream up something that'll make Mrs. Dodds' detentions seem like recess." she finished with a serious amount of bite in her tone. I'd pissed her off with that response, though I didn't know what I was supposed to reply with.
She hated me, didn't she?
After spending the remaining time I had after the evening cafeteria time and that trainwreck of a conversation walking the halls I'd gone back to the dorm to find Grover laying on his bed, I figured I'd take a page from his book and crash onto mine.
"So, what did she want?" he asked, not really bothering to look away from the ceiling.
"I have no idea, she came over, shooed you away, asked me if I hated her, then threatened me." I replied with a groan.
Grover laughed and reached for the light, cutting it off before turning over.
"What's so funny?" I asked.
"Goodnight Perce." was all I got in return.
Great, clearly he hated me too.