EVAN
We had a week left of school before winter break, and we were having finals. I'm not the most studious person, so off course I bombed most of them. What can I say? I really don't care about Geometry, Shakespeare, or the Cold War. It was Monday and all of my friends were hanging out on the front steps to the school before homeroom started. Percy wasn't there though. I looked around and saw the Mr. Blofis' car was here, so Percy should be here. I was about to ask my friends if they saw him, but the bell rang. I didn't realize how late I was and had to just say a quick "Hey" to them. My locker wasn't near theirs so I wouldn't be able to talk to them until Period 4. After I got all the things I needed from my locker I went to homeroom to try to get some of my math homework done.
….
The rest of the day went by uneventful and at lunch Maria and Cole, who were in his homeroom, said that he wasn't in homeroom. With all of my other friends, I wouldn't be worried, but Percy doesn't get sick. Period. I went to my class and my thoughts drifted to who would be leading practice today. Percy was the captain of the swim team and the faculty advisor, Mr. Smith, just sat on the bleachers and graded papers. I guess we would just do laps, as many as we could, or go to the weight room. I was shaken from my thoughts when the person next to me, Peter, dropped his book and the noise 'woke' me up. I looked at the board and realized that I had no idea what those numbers and letters related to those random formulas on the board and decided who cares how to find the volume of a pyramid with x missing. I looked at the clock and saw that class ended in a minute. I quickly packed up the supplies that I ignored all class and laughed at the teacher's disappointed face when he was cut off by the bell mid-sentence. I left the class and got to English as fast as I could. Mr. Blofis was my teacher and I wanted to ask him about Percy and see if he left us any workout plans. I walked into the classroom and dropped my stuff off at my desk in the back of the class. Then I walked up to the salt-and-pepper haired man.
"Umm… Mr. Blofis?"
He looked up from his computer and I could immediately tell that he didn't get any sleep last night. He looked exhausted and had bags under his eyes.
"Yes Evan?"
"I was just wondering where Percy was." I said. "And if he left us anything to do."
"Ohh. You're on the swim team too." He clearly wasn't that zoned into to this conversation.
"Yeah..."
"Percy. He, uh, he won't be in school for a little while."
"Oh, what's wrong?" I asked, a little worried, partly because he was my friend and the other part was that we had a meet on
Wednesday and he needs to compete.
"We don't know yet." He looked really worried.
"Do you know when he'll be back?"
"We don't know."
"Oh. But did he leave us any workout plans?" I asked.
"No." I could tell that he really just wanted me to sit back down, so I said a quick 'thanks' and went back to my seat and waited
for class to start.
We ended up just watching a video of the performance of The Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. It was a little weird cause we read that book like 2 months ago, but hey, it meant no class, so I'm good with it. I zoned out most of the class and just doodled on the last page of my notebook. The final bell rang meaning we were free for the day. I left the classroom and went up to my locker. I met my friends on the stairs outside the school because I didn't have to get changed for practice for a half-hour. As I was listening to Cole tell us about how a kid in his History class fell out of his chair, I saw Paul at his car.
He was talking to a blonde girl. At first I was confused but I remembered that it was Annabeth, Percy's girlfriend. They were talking in hushed tones and she looked like she was crying a little. She looked really worried and upset. Mr. Blofis just sighed after she said something and ran his hand through is hair. She whispered something and he gave her a hug. It was weird watching that. We never saw Annabeth again after that bizarre meeting in the parking lot, so I didn't realize how close she was with his family. Annabeth stepped back and Mr. Blofis said something and she nodded her head and walked around to the passenger seat of his Prius. He took a deep breath that he was clearly using to try to get rid of his evident worry. He pulled a cell phone out of his coat pocket and hit a button and whomever he called picked up immediately. He said something that was clearly trying to calm the mystery person down. He sighed and hung up. He got in his car and drove away with Annabeth, both looking very worried and tired.
I couldn't stop wondering what happened to Perce. Mr. Blofis, his step-dad, was clearly worried and left these cryptic answers that left me really worried.
But that stopped fast. I realized that no matter what happened, he could handle it. Just like last time in the parking lot, I saw Percy's other life. Those people were all in synch, they acted like they've been through so much together, and after this little episode, I realized it must've been through. I stopped worrying about him because I knew that those people had his back. I knew he could handle it. The scars all over his body proved it. He never answered where he got them, but I felt like he left more than he got. It stills makes me wonder how he got those, he's practically invincible.
Clearly, Percy had enough people worrying about him. So I stopped. I knew he would come back whenever he gets over whatever is happening to him, because he got over whatever happened to him in the past.
I stopped looking at him and returned to the conversation with my friends, knowing that Percy would be back with us soon enough.
Thanks for reading!
I'd like to thank Foxbracken - Phoenix Everren for reviewing these chapters before I post them.
-T