Chapter 2: My First Swim Practice

The first three days at NRU flew by a bit faster than expected. I hung out with Nico, revisited Late Nights to see Piper and Jason, and even made my way to one of those student center parties Piper warned me about. I hated to admit it, but she was totally right about those things. Don't get me wrong, I love a good party, but by 11pm everyone was so drunk that I felt like I was having to bob and weave through rubber zombies just to get to the bathroom!

I was really glad I had those few days to acclimate to the school and meet new people because Monday started a whole new world. My alarm went off at 6 am, but that wasn't what woke me up. I instead had the pleasure of being woken up by Nico's pillow flying across the room to meet my drooling face.

"Turn it off waterboy, not all of us want to be up at the crack of dawn to try and not drown competitively." Note to self, Nico was not a morning person. I jumped down off of my lofted bed and threw in my suit, shorts, and shirt.

I had to admit that I had put a lot of thought into what I would wear to practice day one. A normal t-shirt? The NRU shirt my mom got me when I was accepted? Something with a fuzzy cat on it to solidify myself as team clown? The options were endless, and each seemed to feel like the perfect shirt to wear to show off who I wanted to be. The final shirt of choice was a blue dry fit that read Goode Swim Team across the front, and State Champions on the back. If you asked me a week ago if I would be wearing the shirt of my high school swim team to my first college practice I would have laughed in your face, but hey, it meant alot to me and I was proud of what I had done. If what Luke had said about Coach Hedge was true, the whole team already knew about me anyway, so no reason to try hiding who I am.

Pride in the shirt I was wearing turned to fear as soon as I snapped back into reality. I had already slept a little past my alarm, as Nico had so unceremoniously expressed, and only had 10 minutes to make the walk from my dorm room to the gym. Coach hedge may have told everyone about me, but from what everyone told me about Coach Hedge, he was a real stickler for being on time. I grabbed my keys, water bottle, and swim bag and ran out the door towards the pool.

Turning the corner of the world-famous Asclepius School of Medical Science, I saw a car pull into the gym parking lot. Luke and two other boys wearing matching team gear climbed out of the car and started to make their way inside. I'm not sure why, but I instinctively slowed down my pace and tried to get my breathing under control. After all, I didn't want to make it look like I woke up late and had to run a quarter mile to get to practice on day one.

"Hey, Percy." Luke had seen me right before he went inside and was waving for me to catch up with them. I hustled up to a jog again to meet him and his two teammates at the door. Luke had a huge smile on his face as he introduced me. "Connor, Travis, this is Percy Jackson."

"So, you're the kid who the coach won't shut up about. Nice to finally put a face to a name." He punched my shoulder playfully like we had been friends for years. People got really comfortable here fast! "I'm Travis, and this is my younger, smaller, less handsome brother Connor." He leaned over and rested his elbow on Connor's head. Connor rolled his eyes and shoved his brother.

"If I remember correctly" Luke interjected "That younger smaller brother of yours kicked your ass in the 400 Back by, what was it Connor, 2 seconds?"

"Well actually it was 2.09 seconds," Connor said, stepping over to Luke's side. "But who's counting really? It only broke the school free record by 3 hundreds of a second." Travis realized he had been bested by Luke and his little brother, so he did what any logical person would, and lunged in to put Connor in a headlock. Luke laughed and pulled Travis off, pushing him inside the door to go get to the pool. Connor followed in after him and Luke then turned and gestured for me to go in next. He followed in behind me to the locker room and he sat down next to me on the bench as we got ready.

"So, Percy, what is your best stroke and please say it's freestyle." I look up to see Travis sitting down across from Luke with Connor right behind him. He looked at me expectantly while he continued to get ready.

"Uh, yeah, I was actually the anchor to my school's relay team when we won the state finals last winter." I sat up to show off the Champions shirt I had on. I knew that was the right choice this morning, but I couldn't help but laugh a little at the coincidence.

"Oh please, Mr. Jackson, you're being too modest." A new rougher voice came from the door to the locker room. We all looked over to see a shorter man with a goatee wearing a red NRU hat and a whistle around his neck. I recognized him immediately as the man I had spoken with in the spring, Coach Hedge. "Percy not only won the state championship for his school but made up a 1.1 second deficit in the last 50 meters to set a new state record for fastest freestyle 50m in a relay." He smiled at me while Connor, Luke, and Travis all looked around like they could already see a trip to nationals in their future.

"Now, we know he is fast in the water," Coach Hedge continued, "But apparently not so fast on land, I will assume these clowns made you late today, but I expect this to be the first and last time you will be, now get your hind parts into my pool!" Hedge blew his whistle far too loud for being in such a small room and pridefully marched out towards the pool. Reeling back in my seat I reached up to see if any blood was pouring from my ears. Luke, Travis, and Connor just laughed.

"Don't worry man, you will get used to it." Luke reassured me. We all stood and started walking towards the pool.

"No, you won't." Travis hit his ear to try and stop the ringing. Time for the first practice of the year!

"Man, I can't wait for you guys to come to our first meet, you should have seen Percy flying out there!" Connor was very excited waving around his slice of Pizza while he explained to the table how our first practice went.

Luke had suggested we go to the students center to get some lunch to refill on all our burned calories, and if you know one thing about me, it's that I will never turn down a chance to eat! We all made the decision to grab a slice of pizza from Hestia's Pizza Kitchen. I remembered my dad telling me about it as one of the must try areas on campus. He wasn't wrong, this was almost as good as the pizza from home, not that anything could ever top a New York Slice. It centered around this massive oven that allowed for cooked-to-order custom slices in 2 minutes flat. Word around campus was that the oven was never actually turned off, but always on, pumping heat and light into the student center like an eternal flame.

We had met up in the line with Travis' girlfriend, Katie, and Luke's girlfriend, Drew. In just the short time that we had been having lunch together, I gathered that the two girls were not friends. In fact, I don't think I saw either of them make eye contact since they had arrived, much less speak to each other. It made some sense, Katie showed up to lunch in a Save the Planet t-shirt with old dirt cover converse on. Drew, on the other hand, was wearing a Kappa Delta sweater, who were the sorority best known on campus for "promoting friendship" by throwing raging parties. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that those with a green thumb can't part with the best of them, or vice versa, the split just seemed unlikely.

"Wow Connor, I don't think I have seen you this excited since Travis fell off his bike and broke his hand last year." Katie laughed. She was eating some broccoli from a bag she had brought with her, something about pizza ovens killing the planet.

"Don't remind me," Travis buried his head in his hands. "Connor called our mom to tell her so fast and was laughing so hard that he could barely get anything out except 'Travis fell' and 'broken.' She drove down from Seattle in a panic that I was dying!" Travis shot Connor a glare, who was getting red in the face.

"I told her I was sorry, but I couldn't help it! Who in their right mind would think it was a good idea to ramp off of a plastic milk crate into a grass hill?" Connor put on a small smile just thinking about it.

"And to be fair," Katie added, "Who in their right mind wouldn't think the immediate karma wasn't funny?" Everyone at the table let out a laugh except Travis, but even he smiled at the memory.

Looking around the center I saw Piper and Jason walking down the stairs and into the common seating area. I caught Jason's eye and waved at him, and he turned lime he was going to come over and join me. His smile quickly faded when he caught sight of someone at the table. I couldn't tell who, but it was clear that there was a real distaste for whomever it was. He turned back to Piper and the two of them made their way to a table on the other side of the commons.

"So, Drew." Luke leaned in closer to her but was speaking loud enough for all of us to hear. "I have seen a lot of posters for back-to-school parties that different groups are throwing, but none from ΚΔ yet. Don't tell me you're not having one." He lifted his eyebrows to her with puppy dog eyes.

"I'm glad you brought it up actually, because we are having one, but it's invitation only this year. We don't want another Ethan Nakamura incident again." The entire table groaned but said nothing, I assumed that meant it was too painful to talk about. "We are also throwing it on Sunday night rather than Saturday, that way all of the lame parties can split the fun people one night, and then they're all free to come to our's the next, you're all invited of course." She sat back and crossed her arms like she had created the perfect plan and was waiting for applause.

I knew you guys wouldn't leave us hanging!" Luke sat back from his hunched position. He turned to face me and grabbed my shoulder. "Percy you have to come! Their parties are the only thing other than swimming that make coming to this school worth it." He smiled at me and gazed into my soul. I was starting to think he did this often enough to practically be a snake charmer. I couldn't say he wasn't convinced, or that the party didn't sound like fun, but that was the night before my first day of classes, and I knew it would be hard to wake up if I was out all night.

"I don't know man; I don't want to miss the first day and start behind. You guys are all upperclassmen who can get away with that, but Hedge barely knows me and I don't want to get on his bad side."

Luke's big smile was slowly turning into a bit of an annoyed snarl, his gaze had darkened, and I thought he might actually be trying to charm me. Then he patted my shoulder, stopped his hand to his side, and the smile returned to his face.

"I understand man, but you have to come to the next one, promise?" His question sounded a little more like a command, but I saw that he was giving me my way out. I was starting to think that maybe I was just nervous, and Luke had been smiling the entire time.

"Definitely, I wouldn't miss it." I turned back to finish my heavenly slice of pizza; I was 100% going to gain my freshman fifteen on this stuff.

After lunch I decided to head back to my dorm to get a little rest before heading down to the cafe to see if Jason was mad at me or not. I opened the door to see Nico, still in bed in his pajamas, furiously typing away on his laptop and eating some kind of chips.

"Oh, hey Percy, how was practice?" He closed his laptop and sat up in bed. He offered me a chip, but I was so full of pizza that just thinking about anything else made me feel like throwing up. I shook my head and sat down at his desk.

"You know it's like, 2 in the afternoon, right?" I looked up at him and saw his eyes get a little wide.

"Oh…so it is…maybe I should get some lunch." Nico threw his covers off and hopped down from the lofted mattress. He slipped on a pair of all black low top converse and headed for the door. He paused after opening it and looked back, "Care to join me?"

"Actually, I just ate with the team, but I highly recommend Hestia's!" He looked slightly disappointed that he was going alone. In response he walked back over to his bed and grabbed his laptop and headphones. I guess everyone needs something or someone to listen to while eating in a crowded area. Before he was able to fully get out of the room I stopped him, "But hey, maybe we could go to the cafe later tonight and grab some coffee. I think you would really like Jason and Piper."

He considered his answer for a moment before flashing a small smirk back at me. "Sure, but those are prime live stream watching hours, so it better not be lame or I'm never letting you live it down." He walked out of his room and into the hall, leaving me sitting alone at his desk. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself a little. Even though I had known Nico my entire life and considered myself a people person, I still had no idea what was going on in his head.

Nico and I made our way through the dimly lit middle of campus. I had told him that we should wait until after dark to hit up the cafe because that's when the place is the most quiet and calm. As we came up to the small building next to the library, I couldn't help but feel like I was exposing my secret hideout to someone. I know it was just a building, but over the first week of being here it had become a real comfort to me, sort of a home away from home, and it felt special.

"See, what did I say, if you weren't looking, you wouldn't even know it was there!" Nico let out a small laugh at my enthusiasm. Even I had to admit that I was a little too energetic to be going into a coffee shop. Maybe it was because I was just excited to see my new friends, or maybe a little nervous. I didn't know why, but the small interaction with Jason earlier in the student center had really bothered me and stuck with me all day. I had thought back to everything I had said last time I was here and nothing came to mind as rude or disrespectful.

As we crossed the threshold into the warmly lit and comforting environment of the cafe I was struck with a small wave of calm, like I hadn't potentially upset the only friends I had on campus. The cafe looked like it always did at this time of night, deserted other than a few patrons lounging about. As we made our way to the back of the room, I noticed Piper and Jason were already talking to a different student at the table where I had sat the first night I came in. I recognized her as one of the two who had been sitting on the bean-bags in the corner.

From what I remembered and could tell at the moment she was pretty short, even more so than Piper, and she had flipped the chair around and was straddling it, leaning back and rocking like a small kid on a seesaw. She had a huge mane of red curly hair that almost made it impossible to see any other part of her from behind.

I was feeling more and more nervous with every step closer that we took to the table. I was about to open my mouth and come up with some kind of apology when Jason looked up from the table and smiled,"Hey Nico!" I froze.

"Hey Jason, Piper, Rachel" he said hello to everyone while sliding into a booth just adjacent to them like it was his personal seat. He opened his laptop and began typing like he didn't just shatter my understanding of reality.

"Wait a second, you guys know my cousin?" I was still standing where Nico had left me, jaw firmly on the floor and eyebrows knit in confusion.

"Yeah, he comes in here all of the time, even before he was a student." Piper turned and smiled at me, gesturing for me to take a seat next to her. "I told you we did have a few regular faces around here; Nico is one of them." I took a seat next to Piper and looked over at Nico in his booth, my fear of rejection being replaced by a new sense of lost as the only one not in on the joke.

"You never once thought to mention that you already knew this place or Jason and Piper when I was going on about how cool it was?" I was tempted to go over and close his laptop on his fingers if I didn't get some answers. Nico started to chuckle and looked over to meet my gaze.

"To be fair Percy, you never asked. Plus, I didn't want to spoil your 'my secret place' fantasy by telling you I already knew about it." I slowly felt my small rage turn into a stinging embarrassment. He was right after all, I had been so excited to show off my new secret club that I had never thought about the fact that maybe other people knew about it too.

Luckily for me, my embarrassment was interrupted by the sound of a chair squeaking, a table being pulled, and ceramic shattering on the floor. The rocking horse diner chair had rodeoed a little too hard, leaving the redhead on the floor next to her now broken coffee cup. I shot out of my seat to go help her up, but Jason and Piper just sighed and started to laugh.

"I'm okay!" She threw one hand in the air like she was an Olympic skier informing the crowd that her neck was indeed not broken after a horrific high-speed crash. Jason got up from his seat and walked towards the kitchen to grab a broom. Based on everyone's reaction to her fall, I felt as though this was not the first crash or broken cup. I bent down and offered my hand to help her up.

"Thanks, I'm Rachel." She looked up at me as I helped her pick up her chair and retake her now normal seated position. I couldn't help but notice that not an inch of embarrassment seemed to be living on her face. Not a second of nervous laughter or anything, like falling on your butt in front of a perfect stranger was no different than walking down the street. I was honestly kind of impressed.

"You owe me another cup Dare, that's 3 now." Jason had moved over to sweep up the broken mug and throw it away.

"Put it on my tab, I told you I will replace them with interest as soon as I can think of a cool theme for each cup. The all white is boring, but I could make them all so personal and cool that people would steal them from you faster than you could clean them up!" Rachel's gaze was darting around the room while she talked, like she could see the cup designs in the air. Jason came back to the table and placed a snickerdoodle on Piper's plate. She blew him a kiss as he sat down. He had a second snickerdoodle in his other hand wrapped in a napkin and passed it to me. Maybe he wasn't as mad as I thought.

"You see Percy, Rachel here fancies herself to be a bit of an artist, she thinks my little shop here needs her touch." Jason smiled at Rachel.

"Probably because she is an artist." Piper chimed in between bites of her cookie. They looked warm and fresh; I couldn't help but join her by biting my own.

"And a damn good one at that, you would be lucky to have my work on your cups. You should consider yourself lucky to have originals for free before I make it big back in New York." Rachel sat back in her chair and crossed her arms matter -of-factly. Jason let out a small laugh and bowed mockingly in his seat.

"Apologies oh great Rachel Dare, I would be honored for you to bestow such a gift on such a humble working-class man" Rachel punched Jason in the shoulder as he sat back up. The two shared a smile.

"You're from New York?" I couldn't help but interject into their banter. "I was beginning to think everyone here was from the west coast. Nice to meet someone from my city." I took another bite of my snickerdoodle as soon as I finished my sentence, Jason seriously needed to sell his recipes to Betty Crocker.

"Yeah, technically I grew up in Manhattan where my dad works, he has a big building over there where he practically lives, but all of my childhood was spent running around the Bronx on my own learning to paint and meeting fun people." She didn't sound super excited to be talking about her dad, but a big building in Manhattan? My curiosity got the better of me.

"Wait a second," I remembered Jason had called her Dare when she so gracefully fell to the ground, "Is your dad the owner of Dare Enterprises?" Rachel almost looked annoyed that I asked, but that didn't stop her from making her explanation as colorful as possible.

"The one and only!" She stood up from her chair and started to wave her arms around like spotlights as a movie premiere. "The mall man, the family home fellow, the neighborhood neanderthal, the great leader of Dare Enterprises, my dad." Piper clapped and shouted for an encore. Rachel took a bow and retook her seat.

"That's awesome! I have been to your dad's Mall like 1,000 times with my mom, she actually used to work at "Sweet on America" there.

"Wait!" Rachel was out of her seat again; I was beginning to see a pattern. "Is your mom the "free candy" lady that always used to put extra in the bags after weighing them?" She stared deeply into my soul like my next words were going to completely alter the way she felt about me as a person.

"Um, yes?" I was worried this is where she would flip out her phone and call her dad. I could imagine her whipping out a pair of aviator glasses like an FBI agent and informing her father that she had finally solved the case of the great candy bandit. Instead, she danced around the table to me and grabbed my arm.

"Well, first off, I need to buy your mom a Birthday present, Piper don't let me forget, and second off," She let go of my arm and ate the last bite of my snickerdoodle off of my napkin. "If you're even a little bit like her, then I am glad we met."

I had to admit, I was going to miss that snickerdoodle, but hearing someone speak so highly of my mom always made me feel good. She worked hard for everything we had and hearing someone who appreciated her as much as I do, even if it was for breaking some rules, brought a warm feeling to my heart.

I looked over at Jason with puppy dog eyes, then back at the empty napkin, then back at Jason. Piper and Rachel both saw what I was doing and leaned in to join me.

"Okay okay," Jason said as he started towards the kitchen, "Three more cookies coming up."

"Better make it four, sitting in this booth makes me hungry!" Nico called back to him. The four of us broke out into laughter to the sound of Jason firing up the oven. I really did like my new friends.

A/N -

Wow, I honestly thought no one was going to find this! For those of you that have, Hello!

I have been considering posting for a while now and eventually worked up the courage to let everyone see it!

I hope you like Chapters 1 and 2, and sorry if updates take a few weeks. I like to make sure each chapter sits around 4,000 - 4,500 words to make them worth reading and full of detail.

Leave a Review to let me know what you think so far or where you think the story is headed! As I'm sure you can see, we're 2 chapters in and we still have yet to meet our lovable curly blonde haired love interest, so we have a ways to go in this story!

Thanks Again for reading!

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