Chapter Three - Paranoia

I slowly got a handle on my new routine over the course of the next week. I'd wake up in the morning and get ready for school, making sure to wear a more casual outfit for first period before changing in the restroom after class into my nicer clothes. I resolved the lunch issue by taking Andromeda's suggestion of a home lunch to heart, and began preparing meals ahead of time - usually in the form of leftovers from whatever I made for dinner the night before.

The classes weren't too difficult - I think when Uncle Joe was homeschooling me, he was assigning material at a higher grade level than what I was meant to be taking. Either that, or the standards of education in the American school system was well below average. Of course, this caused a minor disagreement between me and my teachers. Their insistence on assigning class material to be completed in my free time was met with my insistence that if they couldn't teach it in the time we had in class, then it wasn't worth learning. I don't think my mom was very amused by the call she got from the principal. At least I wasn't grounded from going to visit Andromeda for a movie night this weekend.

"Come on, Penny," Percy called, breaking me out of my thoughts. "We're gonna be late if you don't hurry up."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," I shouted back, tossing the spider-shaped auton into my backpack along with my notes on enchantment. The plan was to go with the Johnstons after school, so we wouldn't be coming back, and I wanted to be sure I had everything. "Sorry, I needed a couple extra things packed."

"I still can't believe you can fit all of our overnight things in that thing," Percy said, gesturing to my bag as I carelessly slung it over one shoulder.

"It's magic," I grinned. "It can hold all that and so much more."

"How much more?" Mom asked, locking the door behind us as we left the apartment.

"No idea," my eyes glinting with excitement. "I haven't been able to find a limit to what can fit inside, and I've tried. If I could figure out how the enchantment works, I might even be able to replicate it. How cool would that be?"

"No dangerous magical experiments without proper supervision," Mom said. "That's the rule."

"I know," I said, resisting the urge to groan. Her definition of iDangerousi was taken to mean a broad range of things that I personally considered well within the category of acceptable risks.

Of course, I immediately couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt at that line of thought. Of course, she wanted me to be safe - she'd spent the better part of the last six years thinking I was dead.

"I'll wait until I have someone more knowledgeable around in case something goes wrong." I promised.

"That's all I ask," she smiled. "Well, that and you not antagonize your teachers any further. At least this week."

"This week's almost over," I pointed out.

"Then you shouldn't have any problems."

This time I did groan.

Immediately upon stepping onto school grounds, it felt like I was being watched. At first I tried to write it off as being under the ever-present supervision of a staff of teachers and hundreds of other kids, but as the day went on, the feeling persisted. I wanted so badly to activate my aura sight and scan for monsters, but I stopped myself.

First, I was sure if there was a monster around, the satyr would have warned our little group of demigods. Second, I knew if I did, and Andromeda caught me, she'd be very disappointed. She might even call off movie night if it came down to it. By the time lunch rolled around, I was still feeling incredibly jumpy.

"Hey, Penny." I jumped, spinning around to see Andromeda looking at me wide-eyed. "Hey, whoa, are you alright?"

"Not really," I admitted. "I've had this feeling of being watched all day, and it's wearing on my nerves. Like everything inside me is itching for a fight that's not coming, you know?"

"Well, have you noticed anything out of the ordinary at all?"

"No," I shook my head, taking the opportunity to glance around - though without activating my Sight, there was no chance I'd spot anything out of the ordinary unless it was blatantly obvious. "Just teachers and students. I was going to track down the Protector during lunch break, and see if he's noticed anything."

"About that," Andromeda grimaced. "He's not actually a full time student. Turns out he just showed up for first day on the off chance that there was a stray demigod around. Since we're here, he's moved on to a different school."

"But, we're demigods," I pointed out. "Isn't that, like, explicitly his job? Protect demigods?"

"We're considered 'in the loop'," Andromeda's brother said. "Protectors are usually only assigned to keep an eye on and protect the unaware demigods."

"But with us here, it's kind of unnecessary as we're able to do all that anyway," Andromeda said. "It really helps them out, too, since there's not a whole lot of Protectors on call, so they tend to be stretched thin."

"But what about the demigod I'd spotted before?" I asked.

"I know you said you saw one," Andromeda said, "but we haven't noticed anyone that fits the mold, and even the Protector said he couldn't smell anyone but us."

"Right," I said, a touch of sarcasm coloring my tone. "I'm sure that the scent of three children of the Big Three plus another powered demigod wouldn't be a little overpowering compared to a lone unaware demigod."

"Why don't we eat lunch?" Percy chimed in before Andromeda could retort. Instead, she fixed him with a withering glare and stalked off toward the tables. "What did I say?"

"You interrupted her," Andros said. "Never a good idea. So, what ridiculously over-the-top meal did your sister prepare for your lunch today?"

"Over the top?" I blinked. "Ridic... I feel like I should be offended!"

"Ten layer lasagna with homemade mozzarella stuffed Parmesan crusted bread sticks and a side salad," Percy said, barely concealing a smirk as we followed Andromeda to the table.

"Over the top," Andros said. "Homemade bread sticks?"

"And the lasagna," Percy clarified. "It's all made from scratch."

"Okay seriously, when did you have time to do all that?" Andromeda asked, flabbergasted.

"I got started once we got home," I said. "The bread sticks really only take about three hours, and most of that is sitting around waiting which leaves plenty of time to roll out the pasta and get the sauce made."

"What about your homework?"

"I do the assignments," I said. "During school hours."

"You can't do that!" Andromeda squeaked, her voice raising two octaves.

"Homework is unethical," I said, sticking to my guns. "If they can't teach us in the time they have us here, either it's a problem with them or the material. In any case, home time is not school time, and I refuse to treat it as such."

"You're going to get in trouble."

"My mom doesn't care as long as the assignments are done," I pointed out.

"I mean with the school," Andromeda said. "It's considered a disciplinary issue, and they might kick you out. Trust me, I've been kicked out by plenty of schools over disciplinary issues."

"Yeah, most teachers don't like being told they're wrong in front of the whole class," Andros pointed out with a smirk.

"That's not... I mean, yes, it's true, but that's not what I was talking about!"

"I mean, my own track record more than speaks for itself. This is my seventh school in as many years," Percy said, speaking up. "It's almost inevitable that we'll probably get kicked out of this school by the end of the year also."

"So... What, then?" I asked.

"Try not to stick out so much," Percy said. "The best thing to do is not draw attention to ourselves."

"But the squeaky wheel gets the oil," I said. "If enough people join my homework strike..."

"It wont happen," Andromeda said. "Even when our mom went to school, she staged a homework protest. You know what happened then?"

"What?" I asked.

"She got detention," Andros answered. "And everyone else kept their heads down to avoid punishment."

"The nail that sticks up gets hammered down the quickest," Andromeda said. "Honestly, I'm surprised this is the hill you're determined to die on."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it's weird seeing you with black hair all the time," she said. "Sure, you probably kept it 'natural' on the first day for some reason, but after that I figured it would have been back to blue at the very least."

"Talk about nails sticking up," I said.

"Solid blue or whatever you did on your birthday with the spots is still less out of place than what Mosinger's got going on with her hair," Andros said.

"Who?"

"Cleo Mosinger," Percy said. "She's in at least all the classes you and I share."

"Same here," Andromeda said.

"Well, what about her?" I asked.

"Well, see for yourself," Percy said, gesturing behind me.

Turning, I followed his direction to see a dark-skinned girl with hair that could only be described as 'radical'. The left side of her head was shaved close to the scalp while the rest hung in loose waves down to her shoulders in two-tone blue and teal. I blinked. Twice.

"How have I never noticed that before?" I asked, stunned.

"You're just not that observant?" Andros hedged.

Before I could respond, the other girl looked up and we made direct eye contact from across the room. She turned away first, but for the briefest of moments, I could have sworn her eyes glowed gold. Reflexively, I blinked to activate my Sight. She was the demigod that I'd spotted on the first day of school. I opened my mouth to say something about it when I suddenly felt someone smack me in the back of my head.

"Ack! Why?"

"Don't do that!" Andromeda hissed.

"You just got on my case about disciplinary issues and then you hit me," I grumbled. "Pretty sure that's a bigger thing than doing homework in class."

"I don't care. Turn it off."

"Fine, fine," I grumbled, blinking as my eyes adjusted again. "But I found that demigod I saw before. It's that Chloe girl."

"It's Cleo," Andros said. "And no, she's not. Trust me, we'd know."

"Besides us, she's the only person around with any color to them," I said. "She practically shimmers gold - like the residents of Cabin Seven."

"If it gets you to drop the subject, we can just ask Apollo about it over the weekend," Andromeda said, only to clap her hands over her mouth, her eyes going wide.

"Huh?" I blinked. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh no," Andros said when Andromeda looked to him. "I'm not letting that cat out of the bag. You'll just have to wait and see. Now, come on. Our lunch break's already half over."

"Speaking of," Percy said. "Isn't the lasagna cold?"

"Don't worry about that," I grinned. "There's a reason it's packed in aluminum containers and not plastic or styrofoam. This way I can just do this..."

I concentrated for a moment, willing my inner flame to rise just below the surface of my hands. A couple moments later, the cold leftovers were steaming hot. Noticing Andromeda's disapproving glance, I decided to cut her off; "You can eat yours cold if you don't want me reheating it."

She blushed and looked away, muttering her permission for me to go ahead. After that, we enjoyed our shared lunch - discussions of gods and monsters put aside as we got ready to face the greatest threat to our collective sanity; Mr. Bailey's math class. All paranoid thoughts of being watched long forgotten.

"Hello, class," Mr. Bailey greeted as everyone got seated. "Since you've been back a whole week at this point, and are facing a three-day weekend, I figured I'd surprise you all with a little pop quiz."

The class groaned, and I swore I could see the corners of his lips twitch in a smile that didn't quite reach his bespectacled eyes.

"Books away, pencils out, and no talking," he continued, turning to grab a stack of papers from his desk. "Front row, take a packet and pass the rest back. You have until the bell rings. Begin."

I sighed, opening my work packet. At least compared to what I was doing figuring out how the mechanical spider worked, this level of math was ludicrously simple. Which of course made it boring - leading my mind to wander freely. Was it any wonder I only got about halfway through the worksheet before the bell rang?

"Pencils down," Bailey barked. "Leave your pages on your desk, I'll collect them myself. Class is dismissed."

I sighed, knowing I was probably going to get a failing grade for the day. At least he didn't assign homework.