Annabeth was wrong. It took Grover two days to come back to school. But she was right about the fact that when he did the boy was seated in a dark green wheelchair, carefully covered with nature stickers and slogans. His book bag and water bottle had the same slogans like "Save the Bees" or "Proud Tree Hugger" slapped all over it. Percy figured in his efforts to ignore Annabeth he must have ignored Nature Boy too.
His tablemate visibly sat up when Grover wheeled himself into the room and for a moment Percy wondered if all of this meant Annabeth would go back to ignoring him. The past two days at school had gone smoothly. Annabeth was one of those students in school that the teacher would sigh at and ask "Anybody else?" before ultimately returning back to her because she was the only one paying attention. She was either a teacher's pet or loathed by them but none of it stopped Annabeth's passion for learning.
It had been a weird contrast to his past couple of weeks when he'd hung out with guys who were determined to be at the bottom of a class but he slightly enjoyed it. Annabeth got her work done fast and would help him out if there was extra time, or slide him the answers if there wasn't. And it was kinda funny to see how mad she got when something finally stumped her. Personally, Percy had never enjoyed school. Bullies and his disabilities all made it harder, but it was nice to see her try.
When he reached the table, Grover and Annabeth went into a subtle but elaborate handshake, and then without missing a beat the other boy turned to Percy, sticking his hand out to shake.
"Hello Percy, it's nice to meet you. Annabeth talks about you a lot."
"What?" Percy sputtered, trying not to make Annabeth regret letting him sit with them. She couldn't have told Grover anything good, it seemed like she'd just started tolerating him two days ago, but Grover didn't seem deterred.
"Oh yea. I heard about the fight too." Grover leaned in closer and made a terrible attempt at whispering. "Between us 3, I really don't expect much from Leo in a fight so it's impressive you hel on your own." Percy almost took offense for Leo's sake before seeing the twinkle in Grover's eye and the exasperation on Annabeth's face. He figured there wasn't any malicious intent and the more he thought back on the fight he remembered his foster brothers flailing limbs and missed punches.
"I mean, Leo tried to hold his own." Percy admitted. Grover just cackled loudly and wheeled himself over to the edge of the table. Just how Annabeth said things would go, and it was kind of creepy how she always knew how things would work out. She had barely moved from where she had been glaring at Grover when he started talking again.
Grover added a new mix to the dynamic Percy and Annabeth had slowly built over the past couple of days. Percy didn't talk much, and Annabeth only talked a lot about the things she was passionate about. Grover talked about everything under the sun, but just him talking isn't enough. He pulled answers out of the two of them, asking their opinions and not resting until they responded. If it was something Grover and Annabeth cared about? The volume reached decibels above what Percy thought was legal. It was weird. But Percy was content. He didn't want to admit anything more.
"So Percy, what are you into?" Since he actually had someone to sit with at lunch, Percy had stopped skipping it with his unhelpful counselor. They had a brief meeting where she asked him the same questions about his father's letter. Percy didn't tell her that he opened it, but it felt lighter in his bag as he carried it around. Going to lunch left him across from Annabeth's stack of books and next to Grover's weird veggie food.
"Me? I'm not into anything really. I guess." Grover frowned and took another dip of his hummus.
"That can't be true. Everyone has something. Annabeth like's learning. Mine's is conservation efforts, which you should totally get into by the way. You gotta have something, I mean, how about skating? Annabeth mentioned-OW!"
Wheelchair be damned Annabeth was not discreet about kicking Grover's leg. It was concerning, but Percy was also wondering why Annabeth kept talking about him, and how much Grover knew. Had she been making fun of him before changing her mind? Or was all of this an attempt to get more information. Grover only gave himself a couple of seconds to recollect himself before continuing, "I mean, really, if you could do anything in the world right now, what would it be?"
Percy would probably regret not hesitating before opening his mouth. "Talk to my mom. See her. I miss her a lot. And I've been really craving this candy from the store she worked at, cause she'd always sneak me the blue ones. It's the only candy I eat because it's my favorite color." Surprisingly, Grover's face didn't waver at Percy's answer. Most people got awkward when they found out he was in foster care. And they either tried to ignore it or asked invasive questions. At least on Grover's face you couldn't tell.
"You know, I stayed at Delphi too. When I was way younger though." Grover smiled widely when Percy's confusion showed on his face. "Seriously? Annabeth didn't tell you?"
Annabeth had the nerve to look slightly guilty as Grover laughed boisterously. But Percy was just doing his best to try and figure out why someone like Grover would have had to stay at the group home. Already through his ramblings during the morning he'd mentioned an extensive array of family. And he hadn't done any of the typical tactics Percy knew of that signaled something was wrong at home. Percy was a master at picking out other peoples lies to save for himself. But instead Grover just nudged Annabeth playfully.
"You're supposed to carry on my legacy. Do the same for what I did for you all when you first came to the house." Annabeth rolled her eyes hard but let herself smile at her friends' antics.
"It just never came up in conversation." Grover burst into another round of giggles that infected his two tablemates. "I was there when Annabeth, Luke and the Grace's got to Delphi. In fact Chiron was so worried about the trouble they'd cause he helped rush my case to get me home faster.
Now confused, Percy did his best with mental math. He knew Delphi was a home for siblings mostly, but the first part didn't make much sense. Considering the varying looks between the two Percy figured he was wrong but had to ask, "You and Luke are related?"
Annabeth's eyes widened, her embarrassed stuttering covered by Grover's face down in veggie food laughter. His vegan sunbutter embedded itself in his curly hair and he laughed into his sandwich.
"Percy your killing me-"
"Oh my god. Percy, no." He felt the tips of his ears burn as his new friends laughed at him. Sure, it had been a dumb question but they didn't have to laugh that hard.
"I met Luke when I ran away when I was seven. Eventually we met Thalia and Jason and we all lived together on the streets for a while. Until Jason got sick. They tried putting us in different homes for a while but we would always end up finding each other again. And eventually Chiron was the only place that was willing to take all of us so we'd stop running through social workers."
The whole time Annabeth spoke she held intense eye contact with Percy. As if daring him to look away or judge. He wondered what made her run away from home so young. Sure he had thought about it. Especially when his mom had been forced to leave him home with Gabe more often but deep down he'd known he could never do that to her.
"Have you ever spoken to your family since?" Percy asked. Had she really had no one at home that she missed. Annabeth shrugged and finally looked away.
"My dad calls, sometimes. But his wife is always there. And besides all the family I need I have now." Grover, who had finished collecting himself through the sudden solemn conversation, nudged Annabeth with his shoulder.
"And then she became a pain in my butt until I left." Annabeth smiled softly and brushed the remaining crumbs out of her friend's hair as the lunch bell rang, but remained oddly quiet for the rest of the day.
At the end of the school day, before he and the rest of the Delphi kids were due at the van, Percy asked his friends about the swim team. Grover offered to take him to find the coach while Annabeth ran ahead and let Argus know he needed a couple more minutes, which left Percy shuffling his feet next to Grover's wheelchair.
The middle school swim coach, who went by Coach Eudora, was a short athletically built brownskin woman with salt and pepper curly hair that reminded Percy of the 1920's movie stars his mom used to watch. She looked the opposite of Coach Hedge, but the sounds of her barking out orders to the lazy milling about kids made him see the similarities. And something he couldn't quite pinpoint reminded him of his mom, and he had to shake his head hard to clear it. Coach Eudora stopped yelling at the kids, probably realizing it was useless, and turned around to greet them.
, nice to see you again." Grover grinned and exchanged pleasantries. Percy had noticed throughout the day that when it came to adults Grover often treated and was treated like one of their own. Percy wasn't sure how he did it, but it was funny to watch the same kid that choked on his own spit turn around and ask the principal "How do you do?"
"Yes, my friend Percy here," Grover aggressively nudged Percy out of his thoughts without breaking eye contact with the coach.
"Oh. Yeah. Grover said "you run the swim team." Percy tried not to ruminate on how dumb he sounded. "And uh, I'm interested in joining."
"You got a trunk kid?" Coach Eudora asked, motioning for them to follow her. Percy's heart dropped to his stomach realizing that if he didn't have any gear he probably couldn't join. "Got goggles? Towels? A cap?"
"I- uh, no sorry."
"That's fine. Just bring these papers to your guardian, get them all filled out. I'll figure out the rest." Coach Eudora pushed a heap of papers into his chest, winked, and marched off blowing her whistle.
On the walk back, Grover stopped Percy from going straight out the dismissal door.
"Percy, you really should try talking to Annabeth more. You two are more similar than you think." Grover smiled genuinely, one that made Percy want to actually listen too. "Plus I think she could use another friend. That's her age, y'know, besides me."
Not really knowing what to say back, Percy nodded, said goodbye and headed out the door. As he headed to the van he noticed a man across the street in the stretch of trees that separated the school from the freeway. A familiar fat walrus shaped man, who lacked a neck, with eyes like a rabid pug and a shitty goatee. He felt his body start to ache. Like he was just getting out of the car accidents or a Guy Talk with Gabe, and rushed to the van without looking back. By the time he had finished throwing himself onto one of the seats and peeking out the window it felt like his heart had stopped beating. When he peered at the spot where Gabe had been standing it was empty. Undisturbed like no one had even been there.
~~~~~Authors Note~~~~~
Okay so y'all have two more chapters before yall are caught up with ao3. And then theres a lil side piece that I've written thats posted up there as well that I'll probably post here after I post chapter 7. I'm aiming for this story to have 3 arcs with 10 chapters each. So our total count would be 30 and that means we're coming to the end of this first arc. I may take a little break between 1 so I can have a backlog of chapters but the entirety of the story is planned out and I am very excited for you all to read it.
Leave a review pm me whatever if you have any request because the bones of the story are written out but I love adding in little fun things. Stay safe!