Chapter 2:

Percy POV-

Right after I had finished unpacking, I went out of the room to explore the rest of the ship. I opened my bedroom door and nearly ran into Zack, or at least I thought it was Zack until I saw how he was dressed and what I had just knocked out of his hands.

"Oh, sorry," I said and helped him pick up a stack of textbooks on…theoretical physics?

"No problem," he replied in a voice that was only slightly higher than Zack's voice, "Are you new?" he asked finally getting a good look at me.

"Yeah, I'm Percy Jackson," I extended my hand which he shook with the hand that wasn't weighted down with the textbooks.

"Cody Martin," he introduced himself, "Are you staying with Zack?"

"Yeah," I sighed.

"I'm so sorry," he apologized to me.

"Nah, it's okay, we just haven't gotten used to each other yet," I shrugged.

"I'm not sure you'll ever get used to the smell," Cody muttered making me laugh, "My girlfriend, Bailey and I were heading down to the Sky Deck, would you like to come with us?" he asked me.

"Sure, sounds good," I followed him to the girls hallway to pick up his girlfriend. Cody rapped his knuckles on the door and a cheerful girl with light brown hair opened the door.

"Hey Cody," she greeted him.

"Hey Bailey," he replied, "This is Percy, he's a new student. Percy this is my girlfriend, Bailey," Cody introduced us and Bailey let out a very unflattering laugh when he said 'girlfriend'.

"It's nice to meet you," she said finally, shaking my hand.

"Nice to meet you too," I replied.

"Oh, and this is London," Bailey pulled a girl to the door, who obviously didn't care to meet anyone right now and was dressed with enough sparkle to be a daughter of Aphrodite…maybe she was. Of course, the problem was, that, at least until a monster attacked, there was no way I could possibly know if she was actually a demigod or not.

"Yeah, hi," the girl named London said, pushing passed us to leave. I arched an eyebrow at Bailey.

"She's London Tipton," she shrugged as if that explained it, which I guess it did, her father owns this boat along with another chain of hotels. To put it simply, she was rich and definitely thought she was better than us…also an Aphrodite trait.

"It's okay, I'm used to it," I answered, honestly, before we all left for the sky deck. In the time it had taken to get here from my room, I guess Zack had left because he was now working at the smoothie bar next to the hot tub.

"Want a smoothie?" Cody asked. I watched Zack glaring at me from the corner of my eye.

"Umm…I'll pass," I told him, afraid that Zack would spit in my smoothie.

"Okay, suit yourself," he shrugged, going to the smoothie stand to get a smoothie for Bailey and himself.

"So, Percy," Bailey asked me from one of the lounge chairs on the deck, "Where are you from?"

"New York City," I replied, taking a seat as well, but leaving one for Cody next to his girlfriend.

"Oh, that's cool," she smiled.

"What about you, where are you from?" I asked her.

"Kettlecorn, Kansas," she smiled again, but more fondly this time.

"Kettlecorn? Never heard of it," I told her sheepishly.

"Yeah, it's a really small town," she agreed, chuckling lightly. It was then that Cody returned with the smoothies.

"One, Berry-banana blitz for you, and a Mango-pineapple explosion for me," he said, distributing the drink to Bailey and taking the open seat.

"So, Percy," Cody decided to make conversation, "What school did you go to before this one?"

"Umm.." I rubbed my neck, sheepishly, "I've actually been to a lot of different schools. And then, expelled from a lot of different schools."

"Oh," he laughed, "Really?"

"Yeah, well, a lot of the time it actually wasn't my fault. I was framed," I defended, "I just hope I don't get expelled from here, I'll have to walk the plank."

Cody and Bailey both laughed and I seemed to have successfully removed the tension.

"What about your parents," Bailey changed the subject, "What do they do?"

"Well, I live with my mom, I don't see my dad very often, he works in the empire state building and is always really busy," I told them, which was partially true.

"I can relate, I live with my mom too, my dad is always on tour with his band," Cody told me.

"Oh, that's cool," I nodded.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Bailey asked innocently, although Cody still shot her a weird look.

"Yeah, she's awesome, her name is Annabeth," I told them, smiling, just thinking about her.

"Where did you meet her?" she asked, wanting to know more about our relationship.

"We go to the same camp," I told her, still only partially telling the truth.

"Aww, that's sweet, do you think we'll ever get to meet her?" she asked.

"I don't know, maybe," I replied, not really having considered it before, technically, Annabeth could meet up with the ship when we dock and maybe spend the day on the ship with me, but I wasn't really sure.

Then the dinner bell sounded.

"Oops, dinnertime, we better got to the main dining hall before Mosby gets on us for being late," Cody chuckled, "You can meet the rest of our class there too." I nodded and followed them to the main dining hall where a large buffet was spread. The had everything, the exception being blue Coca Cola, of course. We sat down at the student's table where I met Woody, Maya (who I found out was Zack's girlfriend by the way he protectively put his arm around her shoulder), Addison, and Reina. For the most part, with the exception of Zack, they seemed very friendly and welcoming.

About halfway through our meal, a woman, who I'm assuming is our teacher, Emma Tutweiller, came over to meet me.

"Ooh, you must be my new student, Perseus Jackson, right? I'm Emma Tutweiller," she introduced herself and I practically choked on the soda I had been drinking at the mention of my real name, which is mostly just used by monsters (or my mom when she's really mad).

"Yeah, that's me, but I actually go by Percy," I told her.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized.

"It's okay," I replied, "It's nice to meet you." We shook hands and she made her way back to the teacher's table.

"Perseus?" Zack scoffed, "What kind of name is that?"

"Actually Perseus was a Greek hero who killed Medusa," Cody spoke up, I stifled a laugh because that was true of me too.

"Yep," I said simply, hoping that the conversation would drop, it felt weird that people were having a conversation about the significance of my name right in front of me.

Thankfully, it worked, unfortunately that led to a very awkward silence afterward. When we had finished dinner (and dessert, which was also amazing) we were sent back to our cabins for 'study-time.' I hadn't started class yet so I had nothing to study, so I just laid on my bed, staring at the ceiling, with Zack snoring loudly in the bed beside mine.

Tomorrow I had to start class.