I do not own anything of Percy Jackson and the series, Rick Riordan does. I follow the books and the plot and I do reuse some dialogue, but I alter them and fit it into my story. Again, copyright is all Rick Riordan's, I repeat, I do not own anything.

Description: Alternative Universe from the very beginning of the PJO plot in which Grover never tracked down Percy at Yancy Academy and Jade was sent there to find a missing satyr protector.

This chapter is a scrapped draft that never saw the light of day.

To be perfectly honest, my only reference for satyrs was Grover from my past memories, which didn't inspire a lot of confidence. Nothing personal against Grover, since he was the most committed, loyal friend anyone could have, but his early character disposition as an anxious aluminum can-chewer hadn't impressed the previous eleven-year-old me. So, when a satyr found me as a child, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that satyrs were generally highly resourceful, determined, and resilient to difficulties.

My satyr protector had been a veteran named Archie and he reminded me of a scout leader for the Boy Scouts. Quick and efficient with manhandling defiant demigods while dodging nosy mortals, Archie was good at his job.

And so, when Archie called for assistance for his located half-blood, it raised a few eyebrows. Satyrs usually had to manage the task by themselves, but they could request back up if the circumstances were out of the ordinary. The supposed 'unordinary' had to be unusually strange since dealing with half-bloods was generally an 'unordinary' affair. He specifically requested for me, a camper who specialized in magic and could manipulate the Mist.

I stepped up to the front doors of Yancy Academy, nodding at Argus who had dropped me off in the red truck labelled 'Delphi Strawberry Service'.

I pressed the buzzer at the entrance, saying, "Visitor for Archie Mendez."

The entrance unlocked with a heavy click and I pushed past the tall wooden doors, wondering why Archie, one of the most seasoned protectors at camp, asked for help. He must be dealing with some tricky stuff if he was having trouble with the situation.

I walked into the main office and went up to the secretary at the front.

"Hello!" The man greeted me with a forced smile. "Are you the visitor for Archie Mendez?"

Tilting my cap away from my face, I stared into his eyes and snapped once. The Mist immediately swirled around the two of us.

"No, I'm a current student here," I said lightly. "And I need a copy of Archie Mendez's class schedule."

The man's eyes blinked slowly. "I see. You are a current student and you need a copy of Archie Mendez' class schedule."

After a minute, I was out of the office with a printed class schedule in my hand. I scanned the paper with my nose wrinkled in disgust.

High school. Gross.

Going down the hallway, I glanced at the classroom numbers and found Archie's math class. I did a quiet snicker at the thought of a forty-year-old satyr attending pre-algebra.

"Pre-algebra," I muttered. "Shouldn't be too bad."

I pushed my way inside and with another snap of the Mist, I sat in a spare seat as if I'd been a student the whole time. As I watched the teacher resume the lesson, I caught sight of curious bright sea-green eyes peering over a shoulder in front of me.

In this universe, green eyes reminded me of one thing: Percy Jackson.

Yancy Academy. How could I forget? This is Percy Jackson's school.

Percy POV

Percy hated how alphabetical letters started popping up in math. He was having a hard time figuring out if he was seeing a 'b' or a 'd' on the chalkboard when a girl entered the classroom.

He guessed that she was a new student and Percy wondered if she had an actual learning disorder or was just 'troubled' like the rest of his peers.

The girl said something to the math teacher, who checked his computer. When the teacher looked away, the new student snapped her fingers with a loud crack. A thin veil of white fog whooshed through the class.

Percy blinked and did a double-take. No one else seemed to notice what had just happened.

The teacher turned back to the girl and tutted. "Your bathroom break took too long, young lady. Go to your desk and finish your classwork."

Without pausing, the strange girl took the empty desk behind Percy's left side. She seemed to notice Percy's confused expression because she raised an eyebrow at him.

He turned and whispered in disbelief, "Are you a new student?"

No, she mouthed back.

Percy frowned. Well, that's a lie.

No longer bothered by the 'b' or 'd' letters on the chalkboard, Percy stole glances at the new girl. She had Asian features tucked under a blue baseball cap that had the LA Dodgers sewed on the front. It was a bold fashion choice in the state of New York. A long, dark ponytail fell past her shoulders with bleached tips.

She scanned the classroom with a disinterested gaze. From his seat, he could see the boredom and exasperation flicker across her face. The period was ending in just fifteen minutes and they had lunch next, but a quarter of an hour had never felt longer. The entire time, Percy wondered impatiently as to why none of his classmates seemed to be bothered. New students were a source of gossip and entertainment in his secluded school. There was no way his peers wouldn't have noticed a new kid.

When the bell finally rang, she got up and asked him, "Is the food here good?"

The food at Yancy Academy was definitely good, almost gourmet. All of his spoiled classmates' overbearing parents insisted on having the best meals for their precious children, so a considerable portion of the school's budget went towards quality multi-course lunches. Percy would enjoy the food better if he wasn't getting picked on in the cafeteria.

"Um, yeah," Percy grudgingly admitted. He didn't like how she ignored the elephant in their conversation and acted as if she knew him.

"Lead the way," she said with a gestured wave.

For a second, Percy hesitated. Firstly, he didn't know this person and his mom had taught him, 'stranger danger'. Secondly, he didn't want this new girl to see how he was getting bullied at school. Even though she was a complete stranger, he was still afraid that she might think less of him and that her gesture of 'friendship' would retract once she saw how the school treated him.

"Perseus Jackson, I have not eaten in four hours and I would like to eat some good food," the girl reiterated in her forceful, monotone voice.

The way she easily rattled his full name made him pause. Again, it was like she already knew of him.

"How do you know my name? I didn't tell you my name," he said with suspicion.

"The teacher said it when you were distracted in class," she said easily. That was another lie. "My name's Jade, by the way."

Reluctantly, Percy took the lying-new-girl to the cafeteria, feeling highly conscious that some of his peers had noticed his new companion. Since the beginning of the school year, Percy had always been alone, which he preferred instead of being surrounded by people who picked on him under the guise of 'friendly teasing'. But, everyone knew that Percy wasn't part of any friend group, so the sight of him with company was an uncommon one.

They entered the cafeteria line, grabbing trays and loading them with the hot meals at each station. Jade seemed to be enjoying herself as she took a piece of lasagna and roasted chicken thigh. She also filled up a bowl with tossed salad and chose a glass of apple juice from the drinks bar, and then followed him to his self-designated table at the corner of the cafeteria. It was where all the other 'loners' congregated and every kid sat at a measurable distance from the next. Percy, however, had an entire table to himself.

Before Percy could ask again Jade's purpose at his school, she asked, "So, what are you?"

Percy scrunched his face in confusion. "What do you mean?"

She pointed at each table filled with students and named a stereotype. "Jocks. Nerds. Popular kids. Troublemakers. Oh, look, there's punk and emo, too. So, what about you?"

"I don't like labels," he muttered with hunched shoulders.

"Delinquent?"

"No."

"Loner," Jade decided. "No wonder everyone is staring at us. You're usually alone, but I'm sitting with you."

Against his better judgement, Percy flicked a baby carrot at her in retaliation.

Jade didn't flinch when the little vegetable hit her chest. There was a flicker of anxiety and regret when Percy realized that he might have screwed up a rare chance of making a friend at Yancy. He was sitting with someone during lunch for the first time in forever and he probably messed it all up. He was about to apologize when Jade cracked a grin and picked up the baby carrot from the cafeteria floor. She tossed it back at him, lightly bouncing off his shoulder.

Relief flooded in when she showed no indication of being offended. Without another word, Jade began tearing into her lunch. Percy raised his eyebrows as she stripped her chicken thigh of the bones and enthusiastically bit into it. She wasn't kidding when she said that she wanted to eat.

They enjoyed their lunches in relative silence and made some small talk, like hobbies, any interests, and if anything crazy happens at Yancy Academy. It resembled a very normal conversation that two normal kids would have at school and it was kind of nice to not be alone during lunch. Their talk was simple and flowed without a hitch.

Jade was super chill, Percy noticed. A weird stranger, but a chill one, nonetheless.

The easy chatter led Percy to nearly forget that this girl had some sort of hypnotizing ability that made everyone ignore her and accept her as a regular student, when she wasn't. Either that, or Percy lost his marbles, but he was betting the former. He was about to ask about the fog thing when Jade finally said something that might explain why she mysteriously showed up at his school.

"I'm looking for a friend," Jade said while she ate a second plate of food. "His name is Archie and enrolled here as 'Archie Mendez' about a month ago, does he sound familiar?"

He shook his head. "No, I haven't heard of a new student here."

"Could it be your loner status prevents you from-"

"No, there hasn't been any new students since you got here," Percy insisted. "And I would've noticed him if he did the weird fog trick that you do."

He half-expected her to deny the fog thing when instead, she said, "It's called the Mist."

"The what?"

"The Mist, spelled m-i-s-t, like a fog in the air," she said again. "Speaking of which, I should check it, actually."

Jade turned around and scanned the cafeteria. She snapped once and a wisp of faint white fog floated amongst the lively students until it seemed to freeze.

Percy pointed at the air with his fork and asked, "Okay, what is that? How are you doing that?"

Jade ignored his questions. He was beginning to think that this dynamic wouldn't change and he'd have to figure out the answers himself.

"Huh. Interesting. Someone else is casting Mist here," Jade observed. "Or something."

"What do you mean 'something'?"

"Let's just say that some dangerous non-human creatures can also cast the Mist."

That didn't seem promising.

"Uh, are you human?" Percy figured that he should check.

Jade cracked a grin. "Good question. I'll answer that later, but don't worry, I'm not a monster."

"Not a monster, got it," Percy repeated in a flat tone. "That is reassuring."

Before they could discuss more about the potential threat, a new voice popped up behind Percy.

"Aw, Percy. Did you pay someone to be your friend?"

The snarky voice made him roll his eyes. Turning around, it was Nancy Bobofit, a mean, redhead who took occasional jabs at him whenever there was an easy opportunity.

"Oh wait, I forgot. You're not rich," Nancy giggled. "Your mom can't afford something like that, right?"

The dig at his mom made Percy want to tackle her to the floor when Jade grabbed the back of his shirt over the table. She yanked him down and kept her grip on his shirt.

"He didn't pay me," Jade interjected. "And why would you say that about his mom? What about your parents? They have to spend a lot of money for you to have friends, they're the real victims here. If anyone knows how much to pay for a friend, it'd be you, so tell us. How much does one friend cost?"

The bully snapped at her, "I'm not talking to you-"

"I know, I know," Jade said with fake concern. "You want to talk to Percy, but if you want his attention so bad, you shouldn't be saying mean things. It just makes him hate you instead."

Nancy's freckles darkened under the hot flush of her cheeks as she took a quick, furtive glance at Percy.

"I'm not trying to-," Nancy stuttered. "I just-"

Jade waved her off with a fork. "You can go now."

"You're weird!" Nancy blurted out in panic and walked away, an invisible tail tucked between her legs.

Percy watched his bully return to her lunch table with wide eyes. His head slowly swiveled back to Jade who had brought over multiple lemon squares for dessert. The new girl was both the source of today's chaotic confusion and his savior, and she was simply eating her lemon squares without a worry in the world.

"You want a piece?" She offered.

He shook his head. He had so many questions.

"Hey, can I at least ask if your friend, Archie, is human?"

"No, he's not. He's a satyr," she answered.

"What's a satyr?"

"Half-human, half-goat," she stated as if it was a normal thing. "The upper half is human, to be clear, not the bottom half. If it was the bottom half, that'd be weird."

"And this satyr is supposed to be at my school?" Percy was so confused. "Wouldn't the school notice something like walking around here? Don't goats have hooves?"

"Shoes cover the hooves," Jade said in an obvious tone. She didn't give any more details, but Percy didn't know if additional information would have helped his bewilderment.

He cradled his forehead in his hands and groaned, "What is happening right now?"

Without looking up from her dessert, Jade said, "Also, you should know, that girl who was bullying you has a crush on you."

Percy gingerly lifted his head. "What?"

"Yeah. Anyway, we need to find Archie. I'm guessing that whoever or whatever cast the Mist is the same reason why Archie is missing," Jade said as she finished the rest of her dessert and collected her trash. "We have fifteen more minutes of lunch. Come on, let's go see if we can find some clues."

She got up from the table without looking back, fully expecting Percy to follow her.

There were so many reasons as to why he should just go the other way. He had barely gotten any answers about Jade, she said crazy stuff about a possible monster, and the "Mist", and apparently there's a missing half-human, half-goat person in Yancy Academy that no one knew about. All the signs pointed towards not going after Jade, but the most interesting part was that Percy realized that he didn't mind.

Percy stuffed the rest of his food in his mouth and drained his water cup before catching up to her. People kept taking glances at the both of them, but he didn't care as much. The new girl, Jade, was definitely strange and not right in the head, but she defended him from Nancy without hesitation.

She defended him like he was worth something to her and she acted like she knew him. And something about the way she looked at him showed that she thought of him as someone important.

Percy usually wasn't on the receiving end of that kind of gaze. Only his mom looked at him like he was great. Everyone else stared at him like he was never good enough, or too poor, or too dumb.

Jade saw Percy for him.

So, even if she turned out to be crazy, Percy decided that he'd like to be around her for a little longer.

x

I scrapped this because I knew it would be too much work to start a fic that completely derailed the original plot and I didn't know if I had the capacity for that. I also wanted to write something that seemed to follow canon for some time and then slowly diverge without anyone noticing too many changes until it's too late.

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