Percy was in detention. His calculus teacher was tiny, old, devilish thing, and she hated teenagers. She treated them like vermin. And one thing she did not tolerate, not at all, was tardiness. She detested it. Because of that, she hated a certain fellow named Percy Jackson.

Every time Percy failed to show up on time to her class, she would point a bony finger at him.

"Mister Jackson, do you have a problem with arriving on time to my class?" she would snarl, a sour expression on her face. Despite her small stature, she still managed to look down on him, and Percy, who would be panting on his knees, would secretly wonder if she was a Fury in disguise. And every time, Percy would shake his head hurriedly, not wanting the same thing to repeat itself.

"No ma'am, I'm sorry, it won't happen again." he would say, pasting a what he hoped was a sincere smile on his face. And every time, she would hand him a small pink slip, and he would groan and fall into his seat.

And every afternoon, after school, he would find himself in a room full of delinquents throwing paper at each other.

Every. Single. Time.

A ball of wadded up paper hit Percy in the back of his head, and he turned around in his seat, glaring at the culprit. A boy twice his size gulped, slowly turning his head to avoid Percy's piercing stare. Percy harrumphed, satisfied with the reaction and turned back around in his seat, only to release a high pitch yelp of surprise.

Because sitting on his table, picking at his nails, was none other than Zeus himself.

Percy scrambled back, a cry of surprise leaving his open mouth as his chair tipped backwards and hit the floor. He climbed back up, clutching his throbbing head and glared at Zeus, who was still sitting on the table, blinking innocently down at him. Percy opened his mouth to shout at him, only realising that the normally rowdy detention room was still. He glanced around, finding all the students staring at him suspiciously, not knowing the reason for his unexpected, um, performance, courtesy of the Mist. Percy chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, uprighting his chair and sitting down awkwardly. He folded his arms and gave Zeus a look.

"What are you doing here?" he whispered out of the side of his mouth, hoping no one noticed and thought he was a crack-o. They probably already did, though. Zeus glanced at him as if only realising he was there and went right back to cleaning his nails. Percy groaned under his breath.
"I said, what are you doing here? I'm at school! If you need something, can't it wait?" he said through gritted teeth, not making eye contact with Zeus.

Zeus paused for a moment, looking at Percy thoughtfully.

"School?" he said, brow furrowed as if he was solving a particularly hard problem.

"Yeah, high school, where teenagers are forced to go to receive an education so they aren't completely stupid. It's also known as living hell." Percy rolled his eyes.

"Yes, sea-spawn, I understand the concept of this, school, you speak of. However, why don't mortals enjoy it? It is where they congregate, no?" Zeus quipped. "Wait, don't answer. I'm thinking." His face smoothened out, and he suddenly grinned down at Percy.

Percy frowned, taken aback by Zeus' sudden mood change. He shook his head, watching as Zeus waved at him.

"Well, toodle-oo, I must be off. Lot's of important things to do." And with that, he started glowing. Percy covered his eyes, and when he felt it was safe to look, Zeus had vanished. He shook his head and relaxed in his seat, shaking off the nagging feeling that something strange was going to happen.