Rick Riordan and Disney own PJO, not me. Le sigh.

In regards to the last chapter's question, I think Percy made it clear his favourite would be pancakes and waffles with syrup (and blue food colouring, of course). But mine would definitely be the bacon and eggs. I doubt Percy would say no to that either. Anyways, on with the show...

Chapter 2

My Not-So-Goode Start To High School

Percy's POV

I turned around and saw Annabeth walking toward me with Thalia. My heart started to beat just a little bit faster as I replied, "Wise Girl."

Perhaps I should explain. Annabeth Chase has been my friend for longer than even Grover. My mom and her father went to school together and, when my mom was pregnant with me, ran into him in the supermarket. They have been friends ever since and I have been Annabeth's friend for as long as I can remember.

She is tall and athletic with her blonde hair in a ponytail, striking grey eyes, and a California-style tan.

Was she beautiful? Yes.

Was she the smartest and funniest person I knew? One hundred percent.

Have I had the biggest crush on her for years? Definitely.

Would I marry her right now if she asked? Do I even need to say?

Only one thing ruined her perfect image… the fact that she was a Yankees fan and always wore her Yankees cap. It was given to her when she was three by her mother as a last gift before she passed away.

Anyway, she's called me "Seaweed Brain" since that time when we were six and at the beach with our parents. A huge tidal wave had crashed into me and a loose clump of seaweed had hit me and attached itself to the top of my head. I call her "Wise Girl," because, well, quod erat demonstrandum.

"So, do you have Mr. Brunner for homeroom as well?" Annabeth asked with a smile.

"Of course," I said, before acknowledging the Thalia-on-the-wall. "Hey Thalia. How are things?"

"Fine. Great. What's it to you?" she replied in a voice with a steel edge.

I put up my hands in surrender as she glared at me with her fiery blue eyes.

Thalia was the type of woman who would wear thick black eyeliner, kept her dark hair short and spiky, and resented the quote-unquote establishment. But she was also Annabeth's best friend and I made every effort to always get along with her.

Annabeth cleared her throat before asking in a voice that was far too innocent, "So, Percy, you catch the Yankees-Mets series this weekend?"

And there it was. The gloating that always happens whenever the Yankees beat the Mets. And the Mets had been swept… again.

"Ugh, you had to pay the umpires. The strike zone was changing every pitch," I replied, though in my heart knew that we were lucky to even get a run.

"It's okay, Percy. All you have to do is admit, 'Annabeth, you cheer for the superior team and are clearly the greater baseball mind.'"

"Ha, fat chance of that," I snorted.

We continued the bickering all the way to our homeroom, where Mr. Brunner was waiting for us. The first thing I noticed about him was that he was in a wheelchair. He had greying brown hair and a beard that looked like an homage to ZZ Top. He also had eyes that made me certain he had seen just about everything there is to see.

I sat in a row of five with Grover and Nico on one side of me and Annabeth and Thalia on the other.

A few minutes later, the bell rang and the national anthem was played and the announcements began. They first welcomed all the students back, but after that, it was a string of bulletins about tryouts for teams and information for when clubs would be having their first meeting. As soon as we heard about an architecture club, all of our little group looked over at Annabeth, whose eyes lit up with the gleam she gets whenever something she is passionate about comes up. Did I mention that Annabeth is smart?

After the announcements ended, Mr. Brunner looked around the room before saying, "Everyone grab your Latin textbooks from the front of the class."

Everyone looked around confused before one of the kids I didn't recognize raised his hand.

"Yes?" Mr. Brunner inquired.

"Um, usually we don't do any work on the first day of school," said the kid.

"Hmm… what's your name?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Connor Stoll, sir," he replied.

"Well, Mr. Stoll, this is not middle school. We will be starting our course work now so that we can get through it all by the end of the term."

Annabeth was the first one to stand up and grab a textbook and shortly, everyone was turned to page i of our Latin textbooks.

The class carried on and we soon discovered that Mr. Brunner was very kind, but would not tolerate any nonsense. Connor and his twin brother Travis very nearly got kicked out of class on the first day. However, Annabeth was already emerging as an early favourite of Mr. Brunner's. When she answered a difficult question correctly, I muttered under my breath, "show-off." Her response was to turn and stick her tongue out at me.

When the bell finally rang, we had been assigned two readings and five short answer questions due tomorrow. So much for an easy first day.

My next class was Math with Ms. Dodds. As it would happen, this was the class I did not have with Nico and Grover. But that was alright, because I did have Annabeth.

When class started, I realized one very important thing: Mr. Brunner was a fluffy kitty compared to Ms. Dodds. She was short, but she could intimidate you just with a glare in your direction. She also had this annoying habit of calling people "sweetie" or "honey" when she would chew you out. In my opinion, if you're going to get angry with me, at least have the decency to be less patronizing about it. I thought I would be able to talk with Annabeth during class, but that was a mistake.

By the time the bell rang for lunch, we were exhausted and overloaded with homework. When Annabeth and I arrived at the cafeteria, the group was already waiting for us. Nico, Grover and Thalia were there, but a couple other faces joined them. Nico's boyfriend, Will Solace was there and he waved at me when he saw us. Juniper Connors (Grover's girlfriend) and Rachel Elizabeth Dare were also present. Finally, there were two faces I did not recognize.

"Annabeth, Percy," Grover said, "This is Silena and Beckendorf."

Silena was a slim girl with pale skin, dark hair, and seemingly perfect makeup. Beckendorf was a dark-skinned guy who was about half a foot taller than me and had a friendly smile.

After we were done introducing ourselves, we got to talking about how our first day was going. Apparently, their Math class had been just as difficult as ours with two small differences: their teacher was a nice lady named Ms. Amphitrite and they were able to work in groups on their homework assignments. Well, that's just my luck for you.

As we ate, I discovered three things about our new companions: Silena can talk for forever about nothing, Beckendorf doesn't really talk too much about anything, and these two were madly in love.

The afternoon proceeded pretty much exactly like the first half of the day: lecture, work, end of class.

Well, I said earlier that first days suck because we don't do anything but sit around. Well, first days still suck, but just for completely different reasons now.

So that's the first day of school. Next time, we get to see the world from Annabeth's perspective. Huzzah!

For your review question, you may answer either what school subject fills you with excitement or which fills you with the fear of a thousand suns.

If you're enjoying the story so far, please let me know what you think. If you're not, then absolutely let me know what you think.

Until next Thursday at 5pm ET then, people!