Chapter Two - Day One
I stared up at the imposing brick building with no small amount of reservation. Despite my assurances to the contrary, I was really nervous about going to school. Of course I was! It would be my first time in an actual classroom - not counting any errant dreams. Was it as bad as the T.V. shows made it out to be? Better? Worse? I hesitantly turned to ask Percy what I should expect, only to find he'd vanished on me. Looking around, I noticed a scruffy looking kid sniffing the air and walking with an odd gait - as if his shoes didn't fit quite right.
Glancing around to make sure I wasn't being watched too closely, I blinked to activate my aura sight. Immediately the colors around me faded to black and white. Looking back to the scruffy kid, he was glowing a solid shade of earthy, muddy brown that I had come to associate with nature spirits - in particular, he was a satyr. Chances were good that he was on the lookout for demigods like me and my brother to bring back to Camp Half Blood.
Speaking of my brother, I managed to spot his sea green glow among a crowd of monochrome grey kids not far from where I was standing. That would certainly make tracking him down easier in the future. Making a mental note of that, I went back to crowd gazing. My attention was grabbed by a gleam of gold shining against the stark grey backdrop of the rest of the world.
"Penny!" I turned around to see the familiar purple-black and off-white colors of Andromeda and her brother Andros approaching me. "There you are... Whoa! Stop doing that!"
"What?"
"Making your eyes glow," Andromeda said. "The mortals might notice."
"Plus, it's really freaky," Andros chimed in.
"They're mortals," I shrugged. "They never notice anything. Well, the satyr and the demigod that I spotted might notice, I guess."
"What demigod?" Andromeda asked.
"What satyr?" Andros asked.
"The satyr went that way," I said, pointing in the direction I'd seen him walking. "And the demigod..."
I paused, looking around. Aside from theirs and Percy's auras, the rest of the world was as monochromatic to my sight as it ever was.
"That's weird, I swear I saw..."
"It's not important," Andromeda said. "Just... Turn off your eyes or whatever. Please?"
"Alright," I said, blinking my sight back to normal and getting a proper look at the Johnston siblings.
Andromeda was wearing a brown and gray flannel with the buttons undone over a black MTV t-shirt, khaki cargo pants and black, heavy soled boots. Her leather backpack was slung over one shoulder. A mass of skull and star shaped beads wound around her wrist while the clay beads from camp hung on a leather cord around her neck. Her hair was a mass of tangled curls haphazardly pulled back into a ponytail that was straining against the tie.
"I thought that Olympian hair product was working for you," I said, curiously.
"It was," Andromeda huffed. "Until Andros used the last of it this morning."
"Hey, I needed the extra help," Andros said, drawing my attention.
He was wearing an old Rolling Stones band t-shirt worn over white long sleeves and blue jeans with a checkered racing stripe down the side of the legs. Unlike his sister's heavy-soled boots, his shoes were faded red converse chucks, and instead of a backpack he carried a leather book bag. He too was wearing his camp beads around his neck, but none around his wrists. In place of beads there, he wore a black leather cuff on his left wrist while his right wrist was tightly wrapped in a bandage.
"What happened to you?" I asked.
"I don't want to talk about it," he scowled.
"He lost a fight with his blankets,and fell out of bed," Andromeda supplied, smugly.
"I don't have to put up with this," Andros grumbled. "Where's your brother at?"
"He's over that way," I said, gesturing in the direction that I'd last seen Percy. Andros mumbled a thanks and stalked off. I turned back to Andromeda; "Do you need help with your hair, or...?"
"Promise not to do anything weird to it?" She asked.
"Define 'weird'."
"No different colors or radical styles," she clarified. "I just want it to fit into my ponytail."
"I can do that," I grinned, reaching out to run my fingers through her hair. Instantly, the frizzy strands began to untangle and fall into order. When I was done, her natural curls were showing through as if she'd gone to a professional hairdresser. Either I was getting better, or she was just naturally perfect.
"Thanks," Andromeda said. "So what do you have first period?"
"Um... Hang on, let me check," I said, reaching into my bag for my class schedule.
"Is that the sheathe?" Andromeda's eyes widened. "Why do you have that?"
"It's a backpack," I said. "My backpack. As I understand, one is supposed to have a backpack at school."
"Yeah, a normal backpack. Not a magical backpack," Andromeda hissed. "And definitely not the former sheathe for what amounts to a weapon of mass destruction!"
"I don't see what the big deal is," I said. "Right now it's just got my school stuff, a change of clothes, my sword and a few other odds and ends for when I have some free time later."
"It's cute that you think you'll have free time," she said, shaking her head.
"I've watched plenty of shows set in school," I said. "They're hardly ever actually in a classroom."
"Well, this is real life. The fist day of classes will mostly be full of things like ice breakers, getting to know you exercises, and 'here's all the paperwork your parents need to sign', and 'all the supplies that weren't on the list'," Andromeda let out a long suffering sigh. "I've done this first day thing. You might not actually be doing anything today, but you wont have time to do anything else either."
"Well," I said, finally looking at my schedule. "It looks like I've got P.E. first thing. Maybe I'll get to make up for missing my usual morning run."
"Ooh, that sucks," Andromeda made a face. "You're gonna be all sticky and sweaty for the rest of the day."
"Nah," I shrugged. "I've got the whole Blessing of Aphrodite thing going on, so that will take care of any sticky sweat. Plus, as previously mentioned, I do have a spare set of clothes in my bag. If it comes down to it, I can just get changed."
"That blessing still hasn't gone away?"
"No, it did," I said. "But it was convenient not having to go through so many alcohol wipes to get cleaned up, so I prayed for another. Now I'm practically a self-cleaning stainless surface."
Andromeda said nothing, but I swear I could feel the full weight of her judgement in those amethyst eyes.
"What?" I asked. She didn't reply, just shaking her head as she started walking away. I stood there for a moment, watching her go before running to catch up. "What?"
After the first bell rang, the teachers rounded up all the students into the main auditorium for a welcoming assembly. The room was large, but the amount of people inside made it feel much smaller. It was crowded, loud, and uncomfortable. It also felt more than a little surreal to me since, even at camp, I'd never been around this many other people my age before.
Andromeda and I had met back up with our brothers along the way, and got a place to stand together somewhere near the middle of the crowd. At a signal from one of the faculty on stage, the noise level quieted to a few shuffling feet. A moment later, a severe looking woman with grey streaks in her auburn hair took to the microphone stand at the center of the stage.
"To our new students just now joining us, we welcome you," she said, her magnified voice echoing in the auditorium. "To our returning students; Welcome back! We are privileged to have you all! For those of you that do not yet know, my name is Principal Creed."
I barely managed to suppress a yawn as I shuffled in place. Was this what school was? Forced to stand at attention while someone droned on about inconsequential things into a microphone? No, I reasoned, this couldn't be all there was to it.
I turned my attention away from the speaker and began looking around at the vast sea of bodies around me. A quick glance let me know I was hardly alone in not paying attention, but luckily nobody else seemed to be paying me any attention either. I blinked to activate my aura sight and once more saw the colors of the world fade away to black and white.
Ignoring the glow of my brother and the Johnston siblings, I scanned the rest of the crowd as casually as I could while trying not to draw too much attention to myself. After a moment, I managed to pick out the satyr that I'd seen earlier standing near the back of the room. Then I spotted the golden demigod. It was a different shade from any of the residents of Cabin Seven - the children of Apollo - but that didn't mean the kid wasn't the child of some other god who shared a domain. Suddenly, I felt a quick jab in my side. Hissing slightly, I turned to see Andromeda scowling at me.
"Knock it off," she half-whispered.
"But..."
"Not here," she shook her head, turning back to the stage.
I sighed, blinking the world back to technicolor normality, and turned back to the principal.
"I know that coming back to school after a break is never really easy. After a fun-filled vacation, you might not be excited to fit back into the daily schedule of a new academic year, am I right? Well, let's try to carry that energy forward into the new year instead.
"It's your attitude, more than anything, that enables you do great things, and we will do everything it takes to help you develop the right attitude that will allow you to be more creative while also discovering yourself. Let us provide you with the support you need to help you reach your fullest potential. So, let's gear up to have a blast this school year. We promise that you will have an enriching experience while learning new things."
After the assembly, classes started for real. My first class was Physical Education with Coach Carter - a noticeably tall and fair-skinned woman with straight waist-length black hair, blue eyes, and broad shoulders. She had an almost timeless beauty, sporting a slender and athletic frame with a well-toned yet muscular build.
We spent the first ten minutes going through various stretches and warm-ups before we were told to run two laps around the quarter mile track. After that, we split up into groups for basketball. Percy took to the court like a... Well, like a fish to water. Shockingly, I did not.
After P.E., we had ten minutes to get to our next class, so I ducked into a restroom and quickly changed into something less sweaty. Andromeda was certainly right about that. I'd have to make sure I remembered not to wear my nice looking outfit out the door tomorrow.
My next class was History with Mrs. Cooper, and she looked old enough to be teaching us from first hand experience. It was also my first shared class with Andromeda. Thankfully, she had been right when she said the first day would be all about going over the syllabus for the year and what forms our parents would have to sign because my brain must have been rattled from running the track last period. I couldn't concentrate on anything.
After that was more of the same in English - a class I shared with Andros and Percy. Our teacher was a small, balding Hispanic man named Mr. Martinez who likewise went over our core syllabus - even letting out a self-deprecating chuckle when most of the class groaned at the mention of Lord of the Flies.
Lunch was served in the same auditorium that we'd had the assembly in earlier, and while the food was edible, there was absolutely not enough of it in the serving they gave us. I heard Andromeda mutter something about 'definitely a bring your own lunch school' as Percy and I approached their table. When we got there, the Johnston twins looked up, and Andromeda immediately seemed to choke back on a giggle.
"What's so funny?" I asked.
"You two," Andromeda said, barely suppressing her giggles. "You're SharkBoy and LavaGirl."
"Huh?" I asked, confused as Andros and Percy both groaned in unison.
"Like the movie," Andromeda said.
"There's a movie about a kid with a shark tooth necklace?" I blinked, trying to connect the dots.
"What? No... Wait, have you really never seen SharkBoy and LavaGirl?"
"I haven't seen a lot of things," I said. "Mostly I watched whatever was playing on the window display TVs at the pawn shop. What's it about?"
"It's kind of a super hero movie," Percy said.
"Maybe you can come over this weekend and we could watch it together," Andromeda suggested. "We have it on DVD."
"Th-that would be awesome," I said, fighting not to sound over eager. Andromeda was inviting me to her place? If I didn't already know for a while that the gods were real, I'd definitely be made a believer now!
After lunch, I had Math class with Andromeda and Andros. Mr. Bailey immediately came across as strict and no-nonsense. I could tell right away that I wasn't going to like this class, despite being decent with the material. It was a shame that he wasn't a monster, so I couldn't just stab him with my sword and be rid of him. I checked.
Science class with Miss Carter came next. She was an attractive, physically fit white woman with short blond hair. Her large grey eyes and friendly expression projected warmth and openness while conveying that she was someone to be respected. When asked if she had any relation to Coach Carter, she just smirked and said, 'Yes'. It was also the first class I had without anyone I knew.
Finally, my elective class was the last class of the day. Art with Mr. Saunders. I wasn't the best at drawing, but I noticed Percy's sketchbook and convinced him to take the class by telling him I'd take it too. Thankfully, the first class was the same as all the others, but with a discussion of theory in place of syllabus. After the final bell rang, I slumped out with Percy to find mom waiting for us in the parking lot. Andromeda was right, doing nothing all day was exhausting!