Out Of My League | Percabeth | Completed

Chapter 16

Percy's POV

I ran straight home after excusing myself. I rang the doorbell, Estelle answered the door.

'Please tell me you were exxagarating,' I said.
'She's better- but she's...' she gestured to the floor, a vase was broken and a plate of burnt cookies was kept on the table, all of them half eaten.
'Okayyy...' 
'Yeah,' she sighed, 'I think you can calm her down. I'm failing- miserably.'
'It's fine.'

I walked to Mom, who was sitting in the next room. I approached carefully, like you have to when you are approaching a wild animal.

'Mom?'
No answer.
'It's okay, you can speak.'
No answer.
'Mom?' Estelle sighed, 'Percy wants to talk.'
No answer.
'Mom-'
'Leave me alone, Percy,' 

I thought of what to do. I walked across the street to Paul's school. My sneakers were very picky about wanting to be yanked on to my feet.

'Where are you going?' Estelle asked me.
'To call Paul,' 
'Are you sure Dad can help?'
'I'm not sure,' I admitted, 'But Mom loves Paul- and, well, however much we both hate to admit it- we're not adults yet- I think it would be better that they both talk it out- adult to adult.'
'Whatever,' said Estelle, 'Don't make me the one to babysit Mom.'
'Estelle!'
'Not in a bad way, but then... you know, it's not that easy to stop a crying lady from crying...' she muttered.
'I'll be back in five.' I said, finally managing to yank the sneakers on. 

The school Paul taught at wasn't Goode. It was good but it wasn't Goode High- it was just any high-school, but they taught well there. The school was big with brick walls. I've picked Estelle from here, because she's still in Middle School and she can't go to Goode High until High school starts for her. I knew where Paul's bench was. I would have texted him, but I doubted he checked his phone at work. I thought about it. Paul had to teach extra classes for a handful of students. Which class would he be teaching? He was teaching Middle School, after all. I peeked into the maths room, he was there and was teaching students some algebra equations. I didn't see how they could have been getting extra classes, some students got all of the answers right.
I knocked. No answer. I knocked again.
This time, Paul looked up.

'Percy?' said Paul, standing up swiftly, 'What are you-?I- Class, I'll be back in a minute.'
We walked to his desk outside.
'What are you doing here?' he said, 'Is everything okay?'
'No- mom's crying over- Tyson.'
Tears glistened in Paul's eyes as I mentioned the name. I averted my eyes.
'I was wondering,' I said, 'If you could come?'
'Of course!' Paul practically yelled, 'Come on, I'll be there in ten minutes, I'm almost done with this class- take care of your mom for a while.' he said; he was passionate about being a teacher- he was worthy of Goode High.

I nodded and made my way across the street. Some pretty girls looked in my direction and blushed, some giggled. I didn't care, I didn't have eyes for them; all I wanted to do was call Annabeth and lean on her, crying my heart out while she stroked my hair, comforting me more than she thought she would. Sighing, I found Estelle watching something on the TV. It wasn't Tellitubbies, like she would be watching when Tyson was still alive, she was watching a show that she actually would enjoy watching. Was this her way of trying to accept the fact that he was gone? I didn't know. But Estelle was a realist, it could be that she did use this as a way of accepting the death. I didn't always understand Estelle. The doorbell rang, Estelle got up to answer it. I held up a hand, she sat back down. I opened the door.

'GABE?!' I screamed, 'What are you doing here?! What do you want?!'
'Hello, how are you? Oh hi Gabe! Long time no see! Gabe! Come on in man!' said Gabe with a dismissive wave of his hand, 'All of those could be appropriate welcomes- but No, of course not I-'
'I asked you something.'
'When you were younger,' said Gabe, 'You always wanted to be like one of my colleagues at work- I used to hate him, to be honest.'
'I asked you something.' I repeated.
'My colleague never had an attitude,' Gabe said.
'I'm-Not-Him,'
'Percy who is it?' Estelle said, 'And why are you screaming about Gabe? Wasn't that your old step-dad?'
Gabe, uninvited stepped inside.
'Who are you?' said Estelle, 'And where is Dad, Percy?'
'And this must be that foolish girl Sally follows on Facebook.' Gabe said, flipping out his phone and in a matter of seconds showing a profile called "BTSARMY_Stelle", 'Yes, I guessed- considering Sally doesn't follow just anyone on Facebook- Instagram... yes, but not Facebook.'
'What's your point?' Estelle asked, with a tone of sass, 'Fan of me? I'm on Insta with the same username'.
Gabe growled, 'My point is that Sally never beared me a son worthy of me. And she beared Paul a foolish daughter, like you and a son with autism- who deserved to die. I suppose Paul is worthy of two such warts-'