YA High

Percy Jackson's POV

I chose a seat in Ms. Matthews's homeroom. There were posters all over the class, about math and Romans and other crap like that. I remember her name from the electives, as learning about Ancient Greek and Roman history. It's one of my electives, I think. I guess I'll be in this room quite a bit. The class was filled with other freshmen, and I hoped it would stay that way. The second bell rang, and the last girl came running in. She was a brunette, with pink clothes and a sparkly backpack. She took the only seat left, the seat right next to me. She looked flustered, but as soon as anyone looked at her, she was quite composed. I kept looking at her from the corner of my eye. She was interesting. She played with her hair while keeping her eyes locked on the teacher. 

Ms. Matthews got up from her desk and stood, her back facing the whiteboard. She had straight blondish whitish hair, that went down to her shoulders, and wore a blue suit. She pursed her lips and looked straight at the 20 students in front of her, and took a deep breath.

"Welcome freshmen," she began, turning her back to us. "I am Jeanine Matthews, but you must never call me by my first name. I will be your homeroom teacher this semester, and if nothing goes wrong, next semester as well." She wrote her name at the top of the whiteboard in black. I glanced at the girl next to me and she looked over at me. I winked, and she ignored it. 

"Now, I would like to get to know all of you," Ms. Matthews said. "I'll call attendance, and when you hear your name, tell me something about yourself. And stand up, my hearing is getting worse by the hour." She pulled on some reading glasses and took her clipboard. It was silent for a moment. All you could hear was steady breathing and the clock tick, tick, ticking.

"Percy Jackson?" she said. I looked around and then it occurred to me. That was my name. What was I supposed to do again? She looked up from her clipboard straight at me. 

"Stand up," the girl next to me whispered. 

"Oh uhh-" I fumbled to stand. Everyone looked at me. It's fine, I love the attention. 

"Oh, hi. My name is Percy," I said, as loud as I could. I fidgeted with the end of my shirt. "I love to swim and ride horses... and I'm dyslexic." I sat back down as fast as I could, so no one could make any rude comments or laugh. The room suddenly got very cold, and my feet tapped against the floor. Ugh, why did I say that! People don't need to know I'm dyslexic. Ms. Matthews continued.

"Piper Mclean?" she looked up. The brunette next to me stood up as fast as possible, her hair bouncing. 

"Hi, My name is Piper, I am native American and I live with my dad on a ranch just down the road," she said, a matter of factly. She sat back down and smiled. I rolled my eyes. Why tell everyone where you live? Ever heard of confidentiality? A couple of names flew by, and I didn't pay much attention to them until she stood up. 

"Hello, my name is Annabeth Chase, I am also dyslexic and I hate spiders," the blonde girl at the front of the class said. She turned and looked at me before she sat down. It was the grey-eyed girl. I couldn't stop looking at her, even when she turned away. Annabeth Chase, I thought. I'm not a stalker or anything, but I will definitely find out where she lives by the end of the week. 

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare?" Ms. Matthews said. She looked tired of this. Rachel stood up, from the seat next to Annabeth. 

"Hi guys, I'm Rachel Dare, and I love to paint. I'm a freshman too, but I feel like I've been at this school forever because I already know so many of you," she said, sitting back down. She was so confident, and I loved that about her. I don't think she would care if anyone made fun of her. She turned and looked at me and the girl Piper. I gave her two thumbs up, and she returned the favor. Piper just looked bored. 

The rest of the homeroom went by fast, as Ms. Matthews named the rest of the people. Remarkably, some of the other kids here were dyslexic too. It made me feel not so out of place. Ms. Matthews sighed every time someone said they were dyslexic. I kinda felt bad for her, to have so many kids who didn't read very well, forgot most things, and got distracted easily. As soon as the bell rang she dismissed us and we all left. 

Piper walked out before anyone, and went up to a group of older girls, and started talking. A popular, maybe? The girl, Clove, I think went up with her too. Rachel found me, as I was looking for the blonde one, Annabeth. 

"Sup Percy?" Rachel asked. 

"Oh uh, nothing I guess," I said, looking over the crowd, not really paying attention to her. Rachel sighed.

"Looking for Annabeth," she said, reluctantly. 

"Yes!" I said.  I might have sounded too eager. But I really wanted to find this girl. 

"Alright," Rachel said, grabbing my arm. "Follow me."