ONCE AGAIN, I ONLY OWN MY FABULOUS OCS, RICK IS THE SUPER SIZED MCSHIZZLE THAT OWNS ALL ELSE

-Shania-

I hated Canadian jokes. How idiotic did you have to be to tease someone about being born somewhere different. Plus, the Canadian stereotype was so incorrect that I couldn't even fathom how any of them could've possibly started. I was also FRENCH Canadian, meaning that I didn't say eh after everything as Quebec spoke French. I always hated telling people I was Canadian. I know, I should've said something different, but I was caught on the spot and said the first thing that popped into my head. Blame my ADHD, I guess. All I could do once the damage was done was shrink in my chair and hide behind my long brown hair. I could feel myself shake with anger and I just wished they would shut up. I could've said something, but I never knew how to act in these situations.

I couldn't stand up to bullies, angry teachers, or my father when he went on an angry yelling streak. He only ever yelled at me, never my brothers. Just me. And my mom never even did anything. Not when he hit me, not when pushed me up the stairs and I ended up spraining my ankle. Never. All I ever did then was shrink away, and that's all I did now.

I looked up at Percy in front of me and saw that he was the only one trying to stop the laughter, him and Annabeth. I watched as he focused on something in front of him and saw his shoulders tense. Just as the old fish bowl flew to the floor, seemingly without provocation. I looked over at Annabeth to see her smile sympathetically and knowingly at Percy. I knew Percy had something to do with the bowl crashing. That's insane. I told myself. He must've just seen it be on the edge and tip over. Some people are good at noticing those things you know. My mind was refusing to accept that there might've been something else going on, something not usual.

-Percy-

After the whole disruption, the teacher had trouble getting back on track. As hard as she tried to seem strict and hard, I could tell she was relatively new to the whole teaching thing. The bell rang and everyone rushed out the door, leaving me, Annabeth and Shania behind as stragglers.

"Percy." Shania said as we exited the room. "I want to thank you for at least trying to do something. You to Annabeth. I could tell you guys were the only ones who actually cared. Well, and Ivana, but she already left." She rushed out her words, slightly blabbering.

"We didn't really do anything." I shrugged, wishing I could've done something better than smash the fish bowl. "What class are you going to now? I have Marine Biology and Annabeth has Architecture."

She looked at her schedule and smiled. "I have Choir next. I'll see you at lunch thought!" She smiled, seeming very happy, whether at the thought of choir or lunch, I didn't know. "You could sit with my friends and I if you wanted. Or not. I mean, whichever you want. You probably have tons of friends to sit with, or you might want to be alone or-"

"Shania." Annabeth said, interrupting her rambling, "We'd love you eat lunch with you. Right Percy? Owh!" She asked me pointedly, mean while kicking my shin. It didn't hurt because of Achilles, but it mustve hurt her a little and was still unnecessary.

"Oh course. The kick was unnecessary though, wasn't it, Annabeth?" I smirked at her irritation and laughed when she slapped my chest, again with no avail. Shania simply looked between us in confusion before shrugging and walking of to her class. I kissed Annabeth goodbye before we each walked of to our separate classes.

I walked into Marine Biology and sat down just as the bell rang. I looked around and was extremely happy to see tanks filled with all kinds of sea life. Of course as soon as they realized I was there, they all began their excited chorus of; Son of the sea god! Son of the sea god! I groaned quietly, wondering how long it would take for me to be completely annoyed with their chant. After about 30 more seconds, I was done. I mentally asked them to be quiet, and their chatter slowly died. Only then did I realize that, thought the bell rang about 5 minutes ago, the chatter in the classroom hadnt stopped. I looked toward the teacher's desk, but there was no one there. After another couple minutes, a frazzled looking middle aged man stumbled in, his briefcase hastily closed with paper peeking out and his coat misbuttoned. Everyone giggled as he set his papers down and tried to straighten up.

"Yes, yes, I know I'm late, but honestly! You students are late all the time! Don't I get a reprieve this one time?" He smiled at us, obviously joking. I could already tell I would like this class a lot. "Alright. My name is Dr. Celp. I know, I know, a marine biologist named after kelp? Ha ha, very funny. Very original too." Everyone in the class laughed, already favoring this teacher. "Also, all of you who signed up for this class only hoping to gut some fish, out now." He dramatically pointed to the door, signaling to exit. "Because this will be a non dissection course. Sorry" Everyone groaned at this, but I only smiled. I hadn't even though about the dissection part, and I wasn't sure if I could've gotten myself to cutting open a fish after hearing them talk and praise me.

"And lastly, today you will be having a pop quiz. No grade, just seeing how much you know." He started walking around the class room giving everyone a numbered sheet. "As you've probably noticed, there are numbered fish tanks all around the class room, just as there are numbers on this sheet. I want you to go around this room and attempt to identify as my creatures as you can. Yes miss...?" He trailed off as a girl with short dark hair raised her hand animatedly.

"Wrengers." She answered happily before continuing. "And I was just wondering if we were ever going to study turtles because I dont see any."

Dr. Celp smiled and nodded, smirking at her eagerness. "Rest assured miss Wrengers, we will study sea turtles near the end of the year. No need to go into cardiac arrest." He added as she was still bouncing in her seat. The class laughed, but not rudely and the girl laughed along. "Alright, enough dilly dally. Get to work."

Two dozen chairs starched the ground as everyone stood up from their desks and hurried over to the tanks. I started with the last tanks as everyone was starting with the first ones and I could avoid the shoving. As I approached the tank and took a look at the bright blue and gold fish, something clicked in my mind. Azure Damsel. I jumped slightly, startled that I automatically knew what kind of fish it was. Hello son of the sea god! The fish greeted excitedly. Um... Hello? I mentally answered hesitantly, unsure of proper fish conversing manners. The fish, however, seemed pleased as it swam in a little circle and jumped.

I moved around the room, automatically knowing each fish name and having a small conversation with each. Since I was going backwards, I soon passed the large mob of students arguing over whether a Gar was an Eel or Pufferfish. I finished identifying all the fish and went back to my seat, unsure what to do as we still had 15 minutes of class left.

"Is there a problem? Do you not like the activity?" I looked up to see Dr. Celp looking down at me, concerned.

"Umm...no..." I said awkwardly. "I'm just finished..."

A slightly shocked expression passed his face and I wondered if anyone had ever finished his "test" at all, let alone in so little time and with every answer correct. He checked over all of my answers with his answer sheet and looked back up at me, startled. "These are all correct mr..."

"Jackson. Percy Jackson."

"Well Percy," He smiled at me, "Since you are done so early and seem to know so much about marine life, would you like to be my... " He thought for a second, seeming to have to find the words. "Teaching assistant?" He ended finally.

"What? What do you mean Dr. Celp?"

He laughed at my unsure expression. "Don't worry Percy. I'm not asking much, just helping out in class demonstrations, helping me with lab project, perhaps coming in after school to help once in awhile. What do you say?"

I thought about it for barely a second before happily responding. "Y-Yeah! I'd love to."

He smiled at me kindly, almost reminding me of Chiron except, of course, he wasn't a centaur. "Well then, for the last 10 minutes, feel free to just walk around and examine the fish more." He waved me to toward the fish then turned back to help a hopelessly confused student.