I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday. I was kind of in a bad mood, and I'm still in a bad mood. So sorry if this chapter seems like trash.

Thank you for those who followed/favorited this story. I didn't get as much reviews, but that's fine.

ICECREAMROCKS don't dis me- I'm going to be skipping some time for the next chapter, so you'll be seeing Annabeth more. At least, that's the plan. :)

Enjoy!

I walked into the cafeteria with my head all soggy from the toilet water. It wasn't as bad as that other girl, but I still smelled pretty bad. People stared at me as I found Grover sitting alone at a table.

"I really can't leave you alone for a minute, can I?" he said rolling his eyes.

He gave me an enchilada that he gotten an extra of because Juniper was volunteering in serving lunch.

"Hey, nothing bad happened!" I protested. I took a bite out of my cheese enchilada.

"Nothing bad?" Grover scoffed. "You got in a fight with Clarisse, one of the worst girls at school! And you're drenched in toilet water!"

"It's only my head!"

"Still stinks."

I sighed. He beat me.

"I'm sorry, Percy," Grover mumbled through his enchilada.

"What are you sorry for? There's nothing to be sorry about," I said.

"It's just that, I feel like it's my fault for you getting into all that trouble. I mean, I'm one of the biggest losers in the school!" he said, sounding close to tears.

I felt sad all of a sudden. I've been a loser in school for so long, I didn't even remember what it was like to just be a regular student. "Hey, Grover, it's fine. Don't call yourself a loser. You're my best friend."

I know, it seems kind of stupid to call someone you've only known for a day your best friend, but he was fun to talk to, and seemed so much better than my other school "friends." And he was all I had. And maybe I was all he had.

Grover sniffed. "Thanks, Perce. You're the best."

I looked over and saw the girl with blond hair and gray eyes talking to another guy with blond hair. "Who's she?"

Grover wiped away his tears and followed my gaze. "Her? She's Annabeth Chase. She's like the brain of our school, but she's kind of strange. She's sometimes seen sneaking around, and sometimes just doesn't come to class. She doesn't really have any friends, but she's not a loser. People just think she's a bit… well, unique."

I frowned. "Who's the guy she's talking to?"

"Luke Castellan," he said. "He's a year older than us. He's also kind of a strange character. He's often seen talking to Annabeth, and he's a smuggler. Somehow he seems to be able to sneak out of the school unnoticed, and smuggle in banned items like drugs and whatnot. I'd advise you not to interact with him too much, but then again, how bad can he be?"

I shrugged and finished my enchilada. Grover was looking at the lunch line, as if he was wondering if the wait was worthwhile for another enchilada.

"What are we doing next?" I asked.

"We have therapy time," he said, and I groaned. "It's not as bad as you think. We just gather around and share about who we are and why we're here. And then we just do whatever."

I raised an eyebrow. "Just whatever huh?"

I stood up, and I heard someone yell, "Perseus Jackson!"

I flinched and turned around and saw a teacher that looked like a hag.

"How dare you come in to the cafeteria smelling like a pig?" she said. "Detention for a week."

My jaw fell open. "You can't just give me detention for that! And I don't smell like a pig! The toilet maybe, but not a pig. I'm not the only one either. There's—she's not here."

I stared around in disbelief, but Clarisse wasn't here. Neither were her goons.

"Yes, Mr. Jackson," the teacher said smugly. "Only you. It's not appropriate for the cafeteria. Note all the students that have left because of your smell."

I looked around. People gave me weird looks, but only a few had left. "But classes haven't even started," I tried.

"That's beyond the point, Mr. Jackson."

I rolled my eyes.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Dodds," someone said walking up to us. It was Annabeth. "He's right, and I can prove all your points wrong."

"Would you like to accompany him in his detention, Miss Chase?" Mrs. Dodds asked, but Annabeth didn't waver.

She kept her confident stance. "I know as well as you do that you can't give me detention. It's not fair that you won't give the same treatment to everyone equally. We're here because we did wrong in the world outside, and you're just teaching us more wrong. You're not doing us any good."

Mrs. Dodds huffed and stomped away.

"Percy, you should've known better," Grover trembled. "She's one of the worst teachers here at Goode!"

"Well, I'm meeting a lot of bad people today," I muttered. I looked at Annabeth. "Thanks."

"Don't expect me to do it too often," she said. "Nice meeting you, Jackson."

She walked off. She was one of the few people I didn't manage to get into a fight with. Actually, scratch that. She just beat me up today.

"What did she mean by 'you can't give me detention?'" I asked.

Grover shrugged. "Like I said, she's a bit strange."

The bell rang, signaling that lunch was over.

"So, therapy?" I asked.

Grover nodded. "Room 21."

He led me back to the other building and showed me the room so I won't forget.

"On breaks or vacation we have it once a week, but once classes start, we have it every day for about thirty minutes, kind of like homeroom," Grover said.

He showed me the classroom. It was pretty plain with white walls. It was spacious with some white chairs placed in a circle and a few tables placed in random places throughout the room.

There was a man in a wheelchair taking part in the circle. He had thinning brown hair and bushy eyebrows. His intense brown eyes bore into me, but he seemed pretty nice.

"Hello Grover," he greeted. "Nice to meet you too, Perseus—though I'm sure you'd rather be called Percy."

"Yes, sir," I said.

"Just call me Chiron," he said kindly. "Please sit."

Grover and I took two seats on the other side of the circle.

"You two are early," Chiron observed.

"Yes, I wanted to show Percy around," he said.

"How nice of you," he said. "Percy, if you don't mind, why don't you tell me about yourself?"

I was a bit hesitant, but I started telling him about my family and Smelly Gabe, and how I used to do drugs. Chiron was patient and understanding.

"Well, looks like the others are coming," Chiron said. "You're going to need to tell them about yourself too. You don't need to tell them everything, but open up to them a bit."

I nodded as the others came in. I saw Matt Sloan, Juniper, Rachel, Clarisse, and a few other people. Juniper sat next to Grover, and Sloan and Clarisse cast me dirty looks as they past.

Annabeth came in a bit later, without Luke, I noticed, and sat next to Chiron.

"Is this it?" Chiron asked. No one answered. "All right then, let's get started. For those of you who are new, or forgettable," he said, smiling at Connor, "I'm Chiron Brunner, your vice principal. But please, just call me Chiron. Let's start from the right around. State your name and your reason for being here."

"I'm Charles Beckendorf," a buff African-American guy said. "I came here for accidentally blowing up a bus." The girl next to him let out a laugh.

"I'm Silena Beauregard," a pretty girl with black hair said. "I came here because I kept talking back to people who saying that women should be treated equally, and it got a bit intense after." She lightly laughed it off along with a few other kids.

It went along like that, some clapping for others, and some laughing about it. Some of the reasons were common like doing drugs or illegal activity and whatnot. But some, like Juniper's, who got sent here for people repeatedly reporting her for talking to trees, were interesting.

"I'm Grover Underwood," Grover said. "I got sent here for being held responsible for someone's death."

Grover nudged me, but I stayed silent, in shock. I didn't speak until Chiron said, "Percy?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry," I mumbled, and everyone laughed, but Grover. He looked down at his feet, not looking at me. "I'm Percy Jackson. I came here for doing drugs, being in one of those bad street gangs, and blah blah blah. And my stepfather didn't like me." They laughed.

"Okay," Chiron said. "Next."

And it went on. But I couldn't shake off the fact that Grover was responsible for someone's death. He seemed too peaceful to be here for that kind of reason.

Finally it was Annabeth's turn.

"My name's Annabeth Chase," she said. She had a confident voice. "I'm here because I ran away after an attempted murder of my stepmother."

After everyone's turn, my reason for coming here seemed like one of the least worried about ones. Everyone else's was so much more serious.

"Well, now that we're done with that," Chiron said. "We'd usually do a few more rounds with a different topic, but I'll make it a bit easy for today because we have a new student. All of you may socialize and do whatever as long as you don't wreck anything."

Everyone cheered and got off their seats.

"I'm sorry, Percy," Grover mumbled. "But the way you felt about me, I think, was the same way I felt about you when I found out more about you."

"Why are you sorry? There's nothing to be sorry about," I said. "You'll still be my friend, no matter what."

"I'll talk with Grover for now," Juniper said. "Come on."

Grover walked away gloomily.

"Percy," Annabeth said, and I jumped.

"Don't do that!" I said.

"Sorry," she said. "Chiron wanted me to talk with you."

"Why?" I asked.

"To socialize more," she said rolling her eyes. "Apparently that involves talking with you."

"Um… Yeah," I said awkwardly. "You're not going to beat me up again, are you?"

She smirked. "I wish, but no. You must have humiliated Clarisse bad. She's constantly giving you dirty looks."

I looked over and saw Clarisse with a Hispanic guy named Chris. She saw me looking and glared at me. "I can see that."

She smiled, but it faded away quickly. "Did you hear? Someone's being released today."

"Released?" I asked. "As in, leaving the school?"

"Yeah. What else did you think it meant?" she said. "But it's weird how they decide who's getting released. Some students aren't allowed to leave, even after finishing high school, yet there's some who are allowed to leave. And there are the ones who get released randomly from time to time."

"Why?" I said.

"Well, that's what I'm trying to find out, along with some other things," she said.

"Like…?" I questioned.

"I'm not going to say," she said, "at least, not yet. Chiron's coming over. Pretend like we're just talking and having a fun time."

Chiron wheeled over to us, and I laughed. "So, that's the story behind it?"

She shrugged. "Yeah. Weird, I know."

Chiron smiled at Annabeth approvingly and wheeled away.

"Can I talk normally now?" I said.

She laughed and nodded. "I don't talk to many people usually. I'm not trying to, I'm just too busy."

Trying to find out something, I guessed. I changed the subject. "Why'd you beat me up earlier? I mean, you were the girl who beat me up at the library right?"

"Beat you up?" she said. She stayed silent for a moment, probably trying to remember. I wondered if she beats up people on a daily basis. "Oh yeah. I was afraid that you were going to tell someone that I was there."

"And how is that a big deal?" I said, secretly a bit miffed that I'd gotten beaten up.

"Not important," she said dismissively.

"Everyone, class is over!—if you can call it a class," Chiron said lightly.

We laughed and ran for the door.

"I'll see you around Percy," Annabeth said. Her face had a mask of seriousness over it again. "Try not to get into detention. You'll regret it."

She ran along with the mob.

"What was that about?" Grover asked.

I shook my head. "I don't even know."