Hi I am back with another chapter. Sorry for not having been around I have been busy with other things going on in my life right now. I hope you enjoy the chapter.
Liam played sharks with Percy for a while before they finally switched to something else. They eventually decided to play hide and seek which was both good and bad. Bad because the break room was small. Good because there were a bunch of small hiding places they could both fit in. It took about a minute for them to find each other every time.
Sally poked her head through the door to see them.
"Are you boys doing fine in there?"
"Yeah" Percy yelled from his hiding spot.
"Found you." Liam said while moving a bin full of candy to find Percy behind it.
"Aw man. I thought I had a good spot" Percy grumbled a little while crawling out from the place he hid. It was behind a bin that was in front of a rack full of supplies.
"It was… until you talked."
Sally smiled at the scene then looked at her watch. "Are you boys hungry at all? It is about lunch time."
"Yeah!" Percy said, forgetting his loss in hide and seek moments before.
"I'm hungry too Miss. Jackson." Liam mumbled quietly. He didn't want her to feel obligated to feed him.
"Okay, Maria and I will take our breaks and we can all eat in the back here." Sally said while walking back through the door to the front of the store.
Sally and mom returned a little while later.
Maria had a little green stain on her apron that she wore. Probably from making some sort of green candy. She was tapping her thigh with her fingers while her arms were at her side. Something Liam knew she only did when she was rather nervous about something. What she was nervous about Liam didn't know. After all, he didn't think she had anything to be nervous about, it was only eating lunch.
Sally and Maria went into a little makeshift office connected to the break room that had lockers for personal belongings and other things. Sally grabbed two little paper bag sacks, one for her and one for Percy.
Maria only grabbed one sack lunch. Liam had a gut feeling he knew why she was a little nervous now.
There were only two chairs in the small break room so Sally sat in one chair while Percy sat on the blanket on the floor. Maria grabbed the other chair while Liam sat on the blanket while leaning a little on her leg for a back rest.
Percy's lunch was a peanut butter sandwich and some goldfish. Sally's was a ham sandwich and an apple. Maria's was a turkey sandwich with a bag of peanuts. Liam's was nothing. His mom forgot to pack lunch for him.
"Here." said Maria, handing him the bag of peanuts with a frown on her face and her eyes not meeting his eyes.
"Thanks." Liam answered as he started to grab at the peanuts with his little fingers.
"Did you forget to pack lunch for Liam?" Sally asked with a small frown while holding her ham sandwich.
Maria shifted her legs a little and started tapping her legs while looking at anything except Liam and Sally. "Yeah I was in such a rush this morning that I forgot to grab him something." Maria said.
Percy as a silent observer in all this finally took action and looked at his sandwich then at Liam's peanuts. He then grabbed the sandwich and ripped it diagonally in half and stuck his hand out to me.
"Here you go!" Percy said while trying to give Liam the other half of the peanut butter sandwich he had.
Liam was rather caught off guard by the act. He knew Percy was a nice kid, but honestly this seemed like a little much even for him. How Percy didn't have any friends as a kid Liam wouldn't be able to tell you. Percy was practically a little ball of sunshine.
"Thanks." Liam said while taking the sandwich.
"You didn't have too." Maria said while looking even guiltier than before. A five year old up started her by giving Liam half of his sandwich which was more than the bag of peanuts Maria had given.
"Well you didn't, so I had to." Percy said with no mercy towards Maria and then he promptly took a bite of his sandwich acting like he didn't just embarrass Liam's mother.
"Percy!" Sally scolded, looking a little horrified at what he just said. "You apologize to Miss. Gray right now."
Percy looked up from his sandwich at Maria. "I'm sorry Miss. Gray." Percy blankly stated not looking guilty at all.
"It's fine." Maria answered with a small clipped tone.
"Oh my God. Is my mom literally having beef with a five year old?" Liam thought in bewilderment to himself.
Lunch passed a little awkwardly after that. There was a quiet that filled the space as everybody was silently eating their food. Percy and Liam had a little less so they started playing with sharks again since they had nothing better to do. Unlike last time Liam had bubbles this while Percy had the smaller shark.
During that time Sally and Maria finally started talking, having just finished their own lunches.
"So Maria, what daycare does Liam go to?" Sally asked while walking toward the trash can with her and Percy's brown paper bags.
"Oh, I believe it is the one on Traveler's road." Maria answered while sitting in the chair with her legs crossed.
"I know that one." Sally answered." I considered taking Percy there, but it was a little farther than I would have liked, so I inevitably picked the one on Sea street. It's a little more expensive, but it is worth not having to travel the extra distance I think."
The irony wasn't lost on Liam how Percy of all places attended a daycare on Sea street.
"Can I go to the daycare where Liam is going?" Percy asked, looking at his mom.
"No, sweetie you just heard how it is a little too far and there is nothing wrong with your current daycare." Sally answered with wide eyes and a shocked face. She hadn't been expecting the question to come at all.
"B-but all the other kids at daycare are meanies." Percy said while putting his bottom lip over his top and balling his hands. "None of them ever want to play with me and Liam is the only one who wants to play sharks and I like him a lot."
Liam was extremely touched by the words and his heart felt bad for Percy who considered Liam a friend even though they had only known each for about a couple hours at this point.
Liam wasn't the only one touched by his words because Sally, who initially had a small stern look on her face, softened at Percy's words. Sally sighed a little.
"I'll think about it." she answered, holding her hand to her forehead.
"Yay!" Percy answered while running to his mom's leg and hugging her. Sally yelped a little and jumped a little not expecting the small kid to run at her leg, but she quickly got over it and hugged him back.
The rest of the day went by and Percy and Liam played the rest of the time while the ladies went back to work in the front of the store. Nothing eventful happened and eventually they exhausted themselves and both took a nap while on the blanket.
(A couple hours later)
Liam was woken up by a tapping on his shoulder.
"Wake up." his mother said to him while holding his coat he had taken off earlier since it had gotten hot in the break room.
Liam sat up and took the coat from his mother, putting it on. He looked down and saw Percy similarly being woken up by his own mother. He had a little drool on his lip from the nap they took and it hadn't been wiped away yet. Sally was handing him a light blue coat.
They all got ready and started to leave the store at the same time.
"See you tomorrow Maria." Sally said.
"You too Sally." she answered in response.
"Bye Liam." Percy cutely waved at him.
"Bye Percy." Liam returned in kind.
Thus ended the day that completely changed Liam's view of the world he now lived in.
(a week later)
After meeting Percy and Sally, nothing really changed for Liam. There weren't any more cancellations so Liam didn't see either of the two again. At least not until a week later when as his mother was dropping him off at daycare he saw a familiar pair of people.
"Liam!" Percy said while waving wildly at him. He had his two signature sharks of bubbles and whatever the other one was called. Liam still hadn't learned the name of the other shark during their entire time playing sharks the other week.
"Percy!" Liam said, waving back at him. He was happy to see Percy since he enjoyed hanging around him a lot.
"So he finally broke you down?" Maria asked while looking at Sally.
Sally sighed at this and looked tired at the mention of it. "He did. I initially said no because the distance was a little too far, but he kept begging and I got tired enough that I eventually said yes."
Maria chuckled a little at that delighting in the annoyance Percy had caused Sally.
(Around a week later)
Liam got rather close to Percy during the next week. Wherever Liam went Percy went also, almost following him around like a baby duck that follows its mother.
Liam, although not the biggest people person, didn't mind Percy. He was a sweet kid who didn't whine that often so he was okay having him around.
Liam started to understand why Percy didn't have friends though. It wasn't because he wasn't nice. All the adults loved him for how sweet he was.
It was oddly enough that he was a little too strong and fast for the other kids. He would play tag with the other kids and would be just too fast to get tagged and when he was when he would try to tag other kids he would accidentally knock them over HARD. Sometimes hurting them. Suffice to say the other kids avoided Percy after those incidents.
Percy just simply couldn't control the strength and speed he was blessed with by being a demigod.
Liam didn't have the same issue with his strength since he knew how to control his extra strength enough to not hurt the other kids. His speed on the other hand was a major struggle for him. He was extremely fast even compared to Percy. One of the times Percy was IT during tag he tried to get Liam, but he didn't even get close and eventually ran out of breath chasing him.
Suffice to say Percy was devastated knowing the other kids didn't want to be around him. He was hoping to get other friends at this school besides Liam, but it seemed fate had it out for him.
"Why don't they like me?" Percy asked sniffling while looking at the ground. He was fiddling with his fingers in his hands. They were currently sitting in the corner of the room with a half finished puzzle in front of them and the two shark bubbles and the smaller Liam still didn't know the name of.
Liam brought Percy into a hug which the boy quickly reciprocated. Come to find out Percy was a big hugger. It wasn't too surprising, Sally always looked like she gave good hugs, not that Liam would know.
" I don't know Percy." Liam responded while rubbing his friend's back to hopefully comfort him. He did know, but Liam doesn't think Percy would understand the explanation on why.
"You won't leave me alone, will you?" Percy asked with tears in his eyes. Liam's heart broke seeing it.
"Never" Percy hugged him harder after hearing that.
"Are you two boys okay?" said a voice interrupting the sad moment.
Liam looked up and saw it was one of the new ladies who worked the daycare.
"We are fine." Liam responded. She glanced at him, but then looked at Percy who was trying to rub the tears away.
"It's okay to tell us if someone is bullying you?" She said looking at Percy while giving glances at Liam.
"Does this bitch think I'm bullying him?" Liam thought angrily. Liam was absolutely abhorred at the thought of him bullying Percy.
Percy just gave her an odd look with his puffy eyes he had. He was still sniffling a little, but the tears had ended by now.
"Are you confused?" Percy asked the lady.
"Am-m I confused?" the lady asked, pointing at herself.
"Yeah cause I guess I don't know that I am being bullied." Percy responded looking at her.
The lady stared at him bewildered until a commotion at the other end of the room took her attention. Some child had just started choking on a grape or an M&M.
"Excuse me." The lady got up and ran to go help the choking child.
Percy looked away from her and back at Liam.
"That was weird." Percy said
"I know." Liam answered. He grabbed Bubbles and held the other shark up as well. Ignoring the puzzle they had been doing.
"Wanna play sharks?" Liam asked Percy while sticking out Bubbles.
"Yeah." Percy answered with a smile taking Bubbles from Liam to play sharks with him.
So Liam becomes best friends with Percy. I don't know if it is true, but for some reason I thought that Percy didn't have good friends as a kid. Not sure if he did or not, but in this story he doesn't, except for Liam. Also some questions I just want to ask. First, what should I name the other shark? Second, who do you think Liam's godly parent is? I have left hints though I am not sure if they are too subtle or too obvious. Finally, please let me know what you think of the chapter. You're feedback is always appreciated.