Chapter Thirty-Three
The Party Scene

Driving to Degis with Luke was the very definition of terrifying.

I guess things started off well enough. He was waiting for me in his car, but didn't say anything once I got in. Wordlessly, he pulled out of the school's parking lot and began the long drive.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. "Doctor Zatari is going to do an ultrasound. Should we find out the sexes?"

"It's up to you."

That was all he said. I wished the radio worked in the car – anything to get rid of the suffocating silence. "We're going to have to tell people eventually," I tried. "I mean, eventually it's going to get obvious that I'm pregnant."

Luke didn't even look at me. "You can tell people what you want when you want to."

"Aren't we in this together?" I demanded.

"I don't know. Are we?"

I didn't know how to deal with this side of him. I'd seen Luke angry, snarky, even terrified – never so apathetic. "You told me that I'm going to agree with whatever you do, so I'm done caring. Pick what you want and I'll support you, but that's all I'm going to do."

"What happened to getting married?" I asked.

"Like you said, it would never work."

And on that note, we didn't say anything until Luke got to Degis and asked for directions to the OB/GYN's office. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. "Something else is bugging you. You can tell me, Luke."

With all the emotion you'd use to talk about the weather, Luke answered me. "I've missed too much school and my grades are terrible. I have to redo my junior year."

"What? You can't control that you were sick with chickenpox."

"I can control the fact that I'm failing six of my seven classes." It didn't seem like he even cared.

"Even if you do well on your finals?"

"Acing my finals would only bring my grade up enough in four of my classes." He didn't have to tell me how improbable it was that he'd score that well on any of them.

Luke pulled into the parking lot of the clinic and miraculously found a spot close to the doors. "Are you ready for this?" he asked me, his voice still carrying next to no emotion. Without waiting for an answer, he stepped out of the car.

"What is wrong with you?" I demanded. "You're going to be the father of twins and you have to retake your junior year. You're going nowhere in life, and you don't seem to care at all!"

Luke shrugged and stepped out of the car. "Getting mad doesn't do anything."

"Neither does giving up," I said, glaring. He only shrugged me off. "You're a real ass, you know that?"

"Yeah. Let's just get this done with."

Since each of us had a mom who worked at the clinic, I was surprised that the woman at the front desk didn't know either of us, even when I gave her our last names. However, when she looked at our ages, she didn't refrain from giving us a condescending look. "You can take a seat. Doctor Zatari will be here shortly."

"Is the doctor going to be like that?" Luke whispered to me once we took our seats. I could tell how uncomfortable he felt with everything.

"She's nice. The nurse might be a total bitch, though."

Luke put his head in his hands and groaned.

"It's only going to get worse, you know. Once everyone at school knows – just think what it'll be like when your mom finds out." I gave the words time to sink in. "Look, I have a plan so we can avoid all that. My grandpa lives in Florida – he'll let me stay with him for the rest of the year. I'll have the twins and give them up."

Luke stared at me blankly, no expression in his face whatsoever. "When would you leave?" he finally asked.

"Two weeks – right after the Valentine's Day dance."

"That sounds like a great idea," Luke said.

The appointment went as well as it could go. Doctor Zatari was cold and unfriendly to Luke, but he was passive and apathetic towards her. We decided not to find out the sexes of the babies. I realized that if I went to Florida to have them, Luke might never find out.

I wonder if he realized that.

Annabeth had agreed to spend her study hall helping me get caught up in algebra. I couldn't tell her how much I appreciated the effort, especially since finals were only a week away and I'd missed most of class due to being kidnapped.

Wow, my life sounded messed up.

"Okay, so now you have a quadratic expression so you're going to have to factor it," Annabeth said, pointing to the sample problem in the book. "And then because of the zero product property, you know that one of them will have-"

"Annabeth, can I ask you something?"

"Of course. Am I going too fast?"

"No, you're doing really good. I actually kind of…understand this stuff. I was just wondering if…" She was staring at me with those piercing gray eyes of hers. It made me completely lose my nerve. "…if you could help me with the next couple sections, too."

Annabeth shrugged, like she'd been expecting to anyway. "Yeah, I can do that."

I wish I could have just asked her. There was a dance – apparently Shallow Lake always had one the week of Valentine's Day. Grover told me just about everyone who went brought a date – he'd also told me I should take Annabeth.

I guess the idea had kind of stuck. I just couldn't find the right way to ask her.

"Okay, this section is about graphing quadratics. Remember, a negative value on your quadratic term will flip the parabola upside down, but the signs of the linear and constant terms don't matter."

I wondered how she could remember all this math that she'd taken last year. I could hardly remember what we'd done in the first quarter. "Did you hear about the party tonight in Rein?" I asked her.

"Percy! Are you even listening to me?" she demanded.

"Yeah, negative value on the quadratic thing flips the paragraph-"

"Parabola."

"-upside down. I can think about multiple things at once." And I usually was. It was a side effect of having ADHD. "So did you hear about the party?"

"Yeah, but it's for upperclassmen. And anyway, it's going to be a big booze fest. You know what happened at the last party like that."

"How do you know all that?"

Annabeth shrugged. "There are a couple junior guys in my tech ed class. Anyway, to find the vertex of your parabola, you take the opposite of b and divide it by two times a. Then you just have to plot points and draw with a smooth curve."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're way too smart?"

Annabeth gave me a perky smile. "Yeah, but it doesn't hurt to get reminded now and again."

"Are you stressed about finals?"

"Not really. In most of my classes, I could bomb them and still get an A in the class," Annabeth said. I don't think she realized how much she was bragging. "Finals next week, and then the Valentine's Day dance," she said, almost like she was thinking out loud.

I couldn't believe she'd brought it up. "Yeah…are you going to that?"

"Well, Grover and I thought it would be good for you to get out, so we agreed to take you. You're not allowed to say no – it's not healthy for you to just hole yourself away in your house."

I hoped my mouth wasn't hanging open. Why would Grover agree to something like that after he told me to ask Annabeth myself? There was no way I could ask Annabeth if just the two of us could go now.

"Yeah, uh, that sounds like a good idea…I guess."

"Awesome! Okay, now here's the section about the discriminant. This is kind of hard, but if you remember the quadratic formula, it's not that bad…"

I would have killed for half of Annabeth's brainpower.

As much as I pretended that I didn't care about everything that was going on, it really felt like it was eating me alive. When Thalia told me she was considering leaving to Florida, didn't know what to do but encourage her.

Like moving the problem a few states away was the same as getting rid of it.

When I got a text that night about a party a few towns away, I was ready to do anything to get my mind off everything that was happening. I gave Mom some vague excuse about a science project and was out of the house as fast as possible.

It was exactly the kind of party I'd been hoping for – the music was loud, the girls were slutty, and the alcohol didn't seem to have any end. After half an hour, I was completely wasted, making out with some girl on the couch.

I didn't know her name, and I sure as hell didn't want to find out. Things were fine until a blonde girl showed up. "What are you doing?" she shrieked, shoving the girl off. "He's mine."

Before I knew what was happening, the other girl was gone and the blonde had taken her place. "Luke?" she asked. "Are you drunk?"

I tried to focus on her face, to figure out who she was since she obviously knew me. "I'm not drunk," I protested, though the slurred speech kind of contradicted my statement. I pulled her closer, kissing her hungrily.

"You know you usually quit doing this after you break up," the girl said, though the places she was putting her hands showed she didn't have a problem with it. God, why couldn't I remember who she was?

"Why stop now?" I asked her. She laughed and pulled me off the couch, to a more private room where she made sure to shut the door.

By that point, I was so drunk that I don't think I could have stopped what happened next if I tried. I remember getting undressed, and her telling me she always knew I'd come back to her.

And from there, it's all kind of a pleasure-filled blur. That is, until I woke up with a pounding headache and a feeling of déjà vu. My head was resting on her naked chest…

Silena's chest.

She laughed, running her fingernails over my shoulder blades. "I thought you would never wake up. Don't worry; it's only been a few hours."

"What the hell?" I demanded, getting out of bed and throwing my clothes on in record time. "I didn't even know who the fuck you were a few hour ago. What were you thinking, Silena? We broke up for a reason."

Silena grinned at me and stepped out of bed. God, she looked amazing, and she wasn't doing anything to hide the fact that she was naked. "We did? Because you were here single, and so was I, so I just thought it seemed perfect…" she said, pressing herself against me.

"If it makes you feel better, I made sure to make you use protection," she said, running a hand through my hair. She stood on her tiptoes, pressing her mouth right to my ear. "And I'd do it with you again if you wanted to," she whispered.

"God, no…shit…" I said, pushing her off and pacing to the other side of the bedroom. My head was pounding, which made it really hard to listen to when my body was sending me a completely different message. "I just slept with you."

Silena bent down and grabbed her jeans off the floor. Instead of putting them back on, she reached into the pocket and pulled out a condom. "Wanna do it again?" she asked, giving me a seductive smile.

I guess I was screwed either way. "Why the hell not?"

I had wanted a distraction, after all.

Notes: High School Never Ends is back! I'm feeling inspired like never before, but reviews are always love and a great motivator. Next chapter is the Valentine's Day dance. Be prepared for some coupling up!