A/N: PJOBookWorm: Here's the second chapter! I just wanted to thank everyone for taking the time to review! It really does mean a lot to us and we really appreciate it. :D Thanks so much and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Noowww take it away carameltootsieroll!
carameltootsieroll: Yaaay! Hey guys, so this is the second chapter of our co-authored fanfic! This is honestly really exciting for me as currently, I have no other stories posted on my account! Yeah, but the good thing is, I'm really happy that I got to work with PJOBookworm, who is an amazing writer by the way! So I won't delay you guys any longer, here's Chapter 2!
Disclaimer: We don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
The Quest for the Golden Fleece
Chapter 2
Meriwether College Prep. That was the name of Percy's school, though I had to question it. It was misleading. The school didn't help prepare students for college at all. Meriwether was a progressive school, so instead of desks, there were bean bags, and the students didn't even get grades! I was sure Athena would be repulsed.
Percy's English class was reading Lord of the Flies by William Goldling, which was a book about a group of kids who were marooned on an island and went crazy. It was a good book to teach, but not quite the way Percy's teachers were teaching it. I thought the teachers would talk to their students about the symbolism of the conch shell, or even analyze some other images and figurative language. Gods, was I off.
The teachers got this bright idea that for the final exam, they would send the students out into the break yard without any adult supervision. What would happen? I guessed it was the whole "Hands-On Experiment" that people said helped kids learn better since they'd be able to apply it to their own lives (apparently, kids these days "only think about themselves"). However, I was pretty sure this wasn't the kind of experiment the experts were talking about. Especially when I got a better look of Percy's classmates.
I easily pinpointed the class bully and his followers. He wasn't bigger than his followers—or stronger for that matter—but he definitely acted like he was. He gave off an air of arrogance and violence, and also a bit of stupidity. His followers were all bigger and stronger than him, and they followed him around and did whatever he did. It made me wonder: if the followers were so much stronger than the bully, why didn't they just beat him up and stop obeying his every command? It was probably because the bully had a ton of money and his followers got shares of it.
There were fights and wedgies spreading around the playground, and the bully was the ringleader of all of them. Looking around for Percy, I spied him near the jungle gym with an extremely tall boy. The boy had to be at least six feet. He had a scary and tough look to him, completed with crooked teeth. When I tried to study him further, I found it hard to look at his eyes and knew there was something off about him. But now wasn't the right time to dwell on the oddities of Percy's friend; I'd already lost a lot of time having to follow Percy to his school instead of catching him before he left his apartment.
While making my way towards Percy, I tried to think of a way to get rid of his friend so I could talk to Percy alone. But the bully got to Percy first.
I easily saw that Percy's friend wasn't popular, and by being his friend, Percy was put at the same level as him. I also saw that students enjoyed picking on Percy's friend. That was what the bully was doing—or trying to, anyway.
Percy's friend was actually defending himself, which was good for him since all the other kids the bully picked on had just burst into tears. The bully tried to give Percy's friend a wedgie, but Percy's friend panicked and swatted the bully away with super human strength. Instead of stumbling back a little, the bully ended up flying back fifteen feet in the air and became tangled up in the tire swing.
I blinked. What just happened? I glanced over Percy's friend again. I knew there had to be something off about him. Nobody, not even a demigod child of Zeus, could swat someone away that hard.
"You freak!" the bully yelled, angered as he tried to untangle himself. But through the bully's tough façade, I could see in his eyes that he was a bit freaked out over having flown through the air. "Why don't you go back to your cardboard box?"
I didn't know what that meant, but I guessed it was an insult because Percy's friend started sobbing. Sitting down on the jungle gym, he buried his head in his hands...and made a dent on the bar.
Wait, what? He made a dent. He was strong enough to… I blinked, then stared at Percy's friend and the dented bar. I stepped back and rewound everything I had just witnessed, playing through the major details in my mind. Percy's friend… strong… abnormally tall… something off… he must live in a cardboard box… oh, gods, no… Slowly, the gears in my brain turned. The puzzle pieces finally fit together, and it all made sense to me. Percy's friend wasn't just any regular person. Zeus, forbid, he was…
"Take it back, Sloan!" Percy shouted.
Cringing and narrowing my eyes, I slowly looked over Percy's friend again—truly looked at him this time, with analyzing and hesitant eyes. Something was blocking his face: mist. If there was mist, it meant he was definitely involved with our type. I blinked and stared at him… and then I saw it… his eye. My eyes widened and I stepped back, suddenly feeling nauseous.
Sloan just sneered. "Why do you even bother, Jackson? You might have friends if you weren't always sticking up for that freak."
Percy's fists balled. "He's not a freak. He's just…"
…A Cyclops.
I felt sick just thinking about it. I mean, I had had some really bad experiences with Cyclopes. Specifically, experiences that included near-death situations. I stared at Percy, then at the Cyclops, then back at Percy. Why was Percy friends with a Cyclops?
Sloan and his corpulent minion friends were too busy laughing to notice that Percy couldn't find a word to describe his own friend. "Just wait till PE, Jackson," Sloan called out tauntingly. "You are so dead."
And with that cliché departing sentence, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. A middle-aged teacher came out to look at the mess made on the playground. I tried again to call Percy's attention, but it didn't work. I couldn't get close while a teacher was around. Not even with my invisibility cap on. And there was no way I was getting near that Cyclops.
"You understood Lord of the Flies perfectly!" the teacher gushed, looking extremely proud, as if his students had invented a working time machine and made him a millionaire. "You all passed my course. Congratulations to all of you! And remember: never, ever, ever grow up to be violent people. But with you kids, I doubt that'll be a problem."
Really, such good students they were, very hard working and dedicated to learning. I was so sure no one in the class would grow up to be violent.
Gods, how dense was this teacher?
Sloan nodded like an innocent kid, then turned and grinned at Percy, revealing a set of chipped-teeth, almost making me want to punch him and his annoyingly smug grin.
The playground emptied out as people headed to their next class. Percy was still standing next to the Cyclops, trying to comfort him as tears kept streaming down the Cyclops' face.
"I…I am a freak?" the Cyclops asked Percy.
I restrained myself from running over to the Cyclops and shouting, "YES!" right at his face. It wouldn't do any good; it wouldn't change my previous experiences with Cyclopes and make everything horrible that happened fade away no matter how much I hoped. Besides, I did not want a Cyclops to know I was here and about my plans.
Anger flamed in Percy's eyes. Looking furious, he clenched his hands. "No," he said firmly. "Matt Sloan is the freak."
Percy's friend sniffed. "You are a good friend. Miss you next year if… if I can't…" He broke off, his voice trembling.
"Don't worry, big guy," Percy said, looking pretty worried himself. "Everything's going to be fine."
Everything's going to be fine? There was huge trouble at camp that was endangering the campers. I don't think so, Percy.
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After I found out Percy's friend was a Cyclops, I subconsciously distanced myself more from Percy, not wanting to come near the Cyclops. But I still followed him, knowing I needed to take Percy to camp with me. I was determined to get to Percy alone. But as it turned out, getting to Percy while he was alone wasn't too easy. Especially with that Cyclops following him around.
I lost Percy after his English class and spent some time wandering around the halls. As I walked down the halls, I looked at the bright, kiddy posters plastered on the walls and raised my eyebrows. The posters weren't even about learning, nor were they related to education in any way! Really, what kind of school was this? At the end of the hall, I stopped to peer through a window into a classroom. Inside, I saw kids lounging on their bean bags, some even sleeping, as the teacher, wearing a shirt from a rock concert, sat on a stool in the front of the room and texted.
What. The. Hades.
I continued through the school, shaking my head dumbly.
Finally, I spotted a group of kids standing along the hallway of the science lab. Two people, a tall guy and a dark-haired boy, were leaning against the wall near the door. I inched forward, still wearing my invisibility cap, of course.
Smoke—bright orange smoke—was coming out from inside the science lab, and a bunch of hazardous waste removal people was hurrying in and out of the room. The members shouted to each other, "Code Yellow! Code Yellow! Brace yourselves!" The scene was weird enough, but the weirder thing was that the teacher was praising Percy and the Cyclops.
"Congratulations, you two!" the teacher squealed. "You kids have a future in the chemistry business. You're natural chemists! You know, you're the first ones to ever ace my exam in less than thirty seconds."
Percy just stood there, smirking and looking satisfied with himself.
I frowned. Seriously, now. I was a daughter of Athena and I couldn't even ace a science lab exam in less than thirty seconds. What did Percy do? What was even the exam? How did acing an exam equal having to call the hazardous waste removal squad?
But I was soon distracted from my thoughts when the group of students started running down the hall to their next class. I quickly scrambled to the sides. Invisible or not, I was still vulnerable to being stepped on by seventh graders.
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Percy's next class was social studies. I silently prayed that he would finally be alone in the corridor, but I guessed today just wasn't my day. He zoomed straight from science to social studies, not bothering to stop to do anything, like tie his shoelace—which was loose, by the way.
As soon as Percy took his seat, I made a move to get to him, but I was too slow. The teacher arrived and asked the students to bring out their notebooks, saying they were going to learn about longitude and latitude.
I cursed silently and dropped into an unoccupied bean bag at the far end of the room, slouching down, restraining myself from suddenly getting up and dragging Percy out of the room. In my bad mood, though, the bean bag was actually pretty comfortable and did help placate me a little.
From my place in the room, I could see the distraught expression Percy was wearing on his face. He seemed troubled, and for a second, I wondered if he had the same nightmare as I had, too… Didn't he seem to be having a nightmare when I peeked in his bedroom window this morning?
Percy opened his notebook and I spotted a colored picture inside of it. He stared at the picture for a while with a small, sad smile on his face. I got a funny feeling about that photo, like it should be familiar, but I tried not to mind it. He was just about to close his notebook when Sloan, the bully, reached over and ripped the photo out.
"Hey!" Percy protested.
The bully studied the picture and his eyes growing as big as saucers. "No way, Jackson. Who is that? She is not your—"
A girl was in the picture? Was that…?
"Give it back!" Percy cried, his face becoming as red as a tomato.
Sloan ignored Percy and passed the picture around to his weird friends. They had on the nametags visitors got, and on the tags they wrote names like MARROW SUCKER, SKULL EATER, and JOE BOB. No human being would name their kid that. If Sloan's minions thought it was funny to do pranks like that, they had no sense of humor. Seriously, they should meet the Stoll brothers.
Sloan's friends snickered, too, as they glanced at the picture, and my funny feeling about the photo grew stronger.
Okay, maybe I knew who was in that photo. I stood up and made my way to Percy's seat. My eyes widened as I stared at the picture, shocked at being proven right. Sure enough, the girl in the picture was blond-haired and gray-eyed, standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, her arms crossed, a small proud smile on her face. Oh my gods.
I seriously felt like dying right on the spot, invisible or not. Percy kept a picture of me in his notebook? I had sent him the pictures a few weeks back, but I hadn't expected him to print it out and stick it in his social studies notebook! I sent that picture of me to, well, keep in touch, but also to show him that I definitely could be an architect and design memorials and structures as great as the Lincoln Memorial. I almost wanted to smack Percy on the head for printing it out and putting it in his notebook where anyone could find it. Thank the gods I was invisible. My cheeks were burning and I knew I must have turned a very undignified shade of red. It was like last year on the Tunnel of Love all over again.
Sloan's friends began tearing up the picture of me, and my eyes narrowed into slits as I glared at them. Even though I wasn't exactly floating and thrilled with Percy's keeping a picture of me in his binder, how could I not get offended by someone ripping up my picture? Real smart of them. I almost ran up and hit them with their textbooks.
"These guys are moving here next year," Sloan bragged to Percy, as if expecting Seaweed Brain to run screaming from the classroom as soon as he heard the news…which would actually be pretty helpful for me. "I bet they can pay the tuition too, unlike your retard friend."
"He's not retarded!" Percy replied angrily, subconsciously clenching his fist and raising it up.
"You're such a loser, Jackson," Sloan sneered. "Good thing I'm gonna put you out of your misery next period."
Sloan's minions finished tearing up the photo, leaving the remains on the floor and using the other remains to chew and make spit wads. I glared at them. That nerve! I couldn't believe they actually ripped up my picture and chewed it right in front of me. (…Well, it wasn't like they knew I was there, but it's still the same.)
The bell rang and the students filed out of the classroom. As I made my way towards Percy and his Cyclops friend, I was having doubts over whether or not to talk to Percy while the Cyclops was around. For all I knew, the Cyclops could pounce on me and chew me to bits. I mean, Cyclops were monsters.
(So maybe I was overacting and over-exaggerating with the "chew me to bits" part. But you couldn't blame me.)
But I decided against it. I had to talk to Percy, Cyclops or no Cyclops. Cyclopes weren't smart monsters, anyway, and all of the rest of the class had already almost left. Just as Percy and the Cyclops started for the door, I whispered, "Percy!"
For a second, I thought I had him. His face looked shocked, and he turned around towards the direction of my voice. I was about to call out for him again and reach out to pull him aside, but he seemed to have lost his interest in finding invisible people and turned away, a throng of kids filling the space between us in the hallway and running away.
I silently cursed, putting my hands to my face. Gods, I was so close.
A/N: carameltoosieroll: I hope you guys liked it! Please do review, it will make our day. And I will try to personally thank all the people who reviewed through PM. Haha, thanks guys, and I hope you guys press that review button! And do come back for the next chapter…chapter three!