(Not) An Almost Normal Life (A Percy Jackson-Avengers Crossover)

Hang On A Minute

Peter's pov:

Hang on a minute.

Why wasn't anyone except MJ, Ned and me asking themselves, how Lester had been able to get into the school?

The year had started two months ago!

"Why is he only getting into our school now?," I asked Percy, while skeptically eying the curly headed teenager, who was eating the cafeteria food with a disgusted expression.

Just like this, the boy had joined Percy in all of his classes and was introduced as the newbie 'Lester Papadopoulos'.

No one seemed to be asking themselves how he was able to get into Midtown during the middle of the school year, and I really started to worry, until I saw Ned's and later MJ's questioning glance towards me.

Percy sighed. "He's my cousin and his father kicked him out. He was travelling from Texas to here, just to get to my mom's and my place, and he's living with us now... until his father comes down."

He carefully peered at the ceiling, as if to make sure of something, and continued. "And he has to go to school here, now. The principle thankfully was quite... understanding."

"Oh," I said. That was harsh- who kicked his underage son out, just like that? "I hope you don't mind me asking, but what happened?," I asked Lester.
The teenager looked up from his plate and opened his mouth to answer, but Percy beat him to it. "An argument that isn't A-Lester's fault, but my uncle has quite a temper and it was enough for him to kick Lester out."

Lester glared at Percy. "Thanks coz, but I can speak for myself!"

Percy glared back. "I know, sunshine, but I'm sure the wound is still too fresh and that you don't want to talk about it, right?"

Lester looked deeply offended, snorted and mumbled something that sounded like "Kodakureas mokasal jo pisertus."
(A/N: That's just random letters. I did it like this because Peter can't understand ancient Greek and only hears gibberish- so he wouldn't be able to make out what they say. Peter only hears gibberish so I only wrote down gibberish. It will always be like this if someone speaks ancient Greek while the story is from Peter's perspective. If it is from Percy's pov I will translate it instantly or use curses that are already used in the pjo/hoo books.)

I didn't have a clue what that was supposed to mean, but Percy turned around quickly. "Dude, what are you getting at?! Be grateful that we're helping you!"

Lester continued to eat quietly.

Ned and I exchanged quick glances, then my best friend let out a fake chuckle. "Well, how long have you guys known each other?," he asked with a smile on his face.

Percy wore a gloomy expression. "Three years. None of them were bearable."

Lester wrinkled his forehead. "Heey, nonsense! We've had a lot of fun and family-bonding-time!"

"You mean that one time with grandpa or great-granny?"

Lester remained silent.

And MJ, Ned and me were really feeling out of place. We didn't have a clue about what the heck was going on there, just that the cousins obviously didn't have the best relationship with each other.

"I'm sorry, Percy," Lester broke the silence after some minutes.

"I'm sorry. It wasn't your fault. That time with grandpa was my fault, anyway- and it would've been over much sooner if I hadn't woken up T- ...Thomas."

"Naah, he would've woken up sooner or later, anyways."

Percy shrugged his shoulders.

Wait a minute, what was going on here?
"Am I the only one who's interested in what's happening right now?"

MJ answered my question. "Not one bit. The atmosphere right now is just as strange as that one time in history class, where I said- although it really didn't have have anything to do with the topic- that the god Apollo once skinned a half-goat because he felt like it."

"That's not trOOW!" Once again, Lester looked at Percy reproachfully, but the latter shrugged, before giving his cousin a warning glance. He whispered something into Lester's ear that I could easily discern as "Careful."

MJ and Ned looked at me questioningly and I shrugged. I didn't know what Percy meant with that.

Lester looked at me and my friends. "We're sorry if our conversation and behavior confuse you, but Percy and I haven't seen each other for a long time and we have to get used to each other again."

Percy looked impressed. "Respect, man. Couldn't have said it better myself."

Lester grinned. "You-know-what of poetry, what else am I supposed to say?"

Percy snorted. "I'm pretty sure that this isn't attributable to that. Everybody who knows you would agree with me, trust me."

Lester seemed to be taken by surprise. "Wha-"

"That's a topic for another time!," Percy interrupted him. "We have to return to class, now. Was nice talking to you, Ned, Pete, MJ. Wasn't it, Lester?"

"Ehrm, yeah, sure," he agreed.

Percy smiled exaggeratedly, before pulling Lester onto his feet and dragging him away from us. "On our way to chemistry, Lester!"

The teen just sighed, and that was the last thing we heard of them.

Ned was the one who broke the silence. "What the hell was that?"

I shook my head. "No idea, dude."

We stood up and started to clean up our and Percy's and Lester's stuff.

"I think they just don't know each other well enough and didn't really have to deal with each other before," Ned thought out loud.

"Forget it." MJ shook her head, her curls bouncing. "That doesn't explain their tense behavior towards the other. If they didn't have to deal with each other before, we would've understood why they were so angry after some insults. But the two of them were arguing because of seemingly nothing! We didn't understand how the insults were insulting, and that's suspicious."

Both of my friends looked at me, and I knew that they wanted to know if my spidey sense told me anything.

"I know their behavior is more than weird and suspicious, but they are both alright. I don't sense any danger coming from both of them, neither from Lester and especially not from Percy. They may be weird, but we can trust them. I think everything will make sense after some time has passed. We don't even know Lester. We should give him a chance, he's having enough on his plate as it is."

And I would be proved right about that. The first lunch with them had been the weirdest of all. Every other meeting with Percy and Lester in the following weeks were completely unsuspicious. Both of them made jokes and got along well.

I think they'd just had starting difficulties.

Lester was a weird guy, but nice and funny as well.

And hey, I was the last one who was allowed to complain about weird personalities.

I saw the trailer for Shang-Chi and I'm so exiteeeedddd

Thanks for reading :)