Ship in a Bottle

Second is the Best

(Edited)

Making great impressions on any first day of school was not his specialty. That morning, not only did Percy sleep through his alarm, but his younger sister was hogging the bathroom to get ready for school as well.

When he was finally ready for the day, Percy instantly grabbed his backpack. It was basic yet stylish in his fashion taste, but that wasn't the current issue at hand.

"Have a nice first day, Percy." Mom kissed her son's cheek lightly before retreating into the house. Slowly, he raised his hand to wave at her as she ushered his little sister onto the patio. "Remember, I won't be home until late tonight. I have a long shift."

"Love you, mom!" Percy shouted out before he and Estelle went on their way.  Gabe was always a stickler for goodbyes, especially since his step-children always came back after he thought they were finally gone for good.

Without a mental GPS, Google Maps was the only way he'd be able to find his way to his new school. It most likely wasn't very far because a few other high school kids seemed to be walking in a similar direction.

Percy caught one of them on their phone scrolling through Instagram. He looked up, and he identified his dirty blonde hair and crooked, square glasses. A smile erupted on his face as he extended his hand to meet Percy's. "Oh hi, you must be one of the new kids. I'm Jason Grace."

Proud of his accomplishment of already making a friend, Percy shook his hand confidently. "I'm Percy Jackson. You're right, by the way. I just moved in yesterday."

"From where?"

"New York City," Percy responded coolly, starting to trust the guy with his responses. "It was far away, but I'm already getting used to the time zone difference. Plus, I already met one of my neighbors."

"Oh, who?" He wondered. "If it was the Stoll Brothers, I'm sincerely sorry for you."

"Stole?"

A chuckle burst from his lips. "S-T-O-L-L. Connor and Travis Stoll are the class clowns of the 12th grade."

"Hm, I'm glad I don't live near them, then," Percy scowled. "I actually met a blond girl named Annabeth, I think her name was?"

"Oh, Annabeth!" Jason nodded his head excitedly. "Yeah, I know her. Annabeth and I are good friends. Our entire friend group kind of lives near each other, coincidentally. You can come and hang out with us!"

"Yeah, that sounds fun," Percy agreed while handing Jason his phone to type in his number. "As long as you guys aren't into smoking or drugs, or something."

"No, we aren't like that. We just sit together at lunch and have group hangouts a lot." Jason assured him. "Sleepovers, too. We all get high on each other's presence, not drugs or anything."

"That's good."

"Yeah, there's me, Piper Mclean, Annabeth Chase, Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, and Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano. My sister, Thalia, sometimes joins us, although she's a year older than us." Jason explained.

"That's a lot of people," Percy remarked.

"Yeah, but we always find a way to have fun together."

"You guys sound a bit like my friends at my old school in New York, except they were rude and alcoholics. They would manipulate people to join their 'group' and fake being friends with them." Percy scoffed, remembering the old 'friends' he hung out with at his old school. It was good that he distanced himself from them. "They would make the Freshmen get into trouble through dares just to get revenge on them."

"Really? That sucks."

"Yeah, I'm just glad I moved away before they could rope me into that mess." Percy wiped his forehead with relief.

"Hey, the school's over there." Jason gestured to a large brick building in front of their eyes. Vines grew up the sides of the walls, only adding more of a design to the sides. There were students everywhere placing their backpacks into their lockers and taking books to their classes.

"What's your locker number?" Jason asked.

"Um, I think it's 24." Quickly checking a few school-related texts his mother had sent him earlier that morning, Percy nodded. "Yeah, 24."

He cringed.

"What's so bad about the locker?" Percy wondered.

"Your locker is next to Drew and Rachel's, the two worst girls in our school. Have fun with that." Jason waved his new friend goodbye as they parted, even though Percy desperately needed directions to all his classes. Cluelessness was another one of his fine qualities.

First Period History–Mr. Hart

Second Period PE–Coach Hedge

Third Period Biology–Mrs. Katz

Fourth Period English–Ms. Laiton

Fifth Period Greek–Mr. Brunner

Lunch

Sixth Period Algebra 1–Mr. Raven

Seventh Period Marine Biology–Mr. Poseidon

Locker 24 didn't seem so bad at first glance. There was nothing in it at all, unlike his old lockers when he used to change schools back in New York. They weren't as spacious as Percy assumed they'd be, but he could deal with a small space.

Just as Jason had warned, either Drew or Rachel walked towards him in a strut. In New York, Percy encountered girls like that all the time–Each one of them pretended to be fake either because they wanted to be influencers or because they were broken inside. From the looks of it, the girl seemed to be all of the above.

"Drew Tanaka." The girl outstretched her hand to meet his, the smell of Citrus radiating off of her hands. "Nice to meet you."

He pursed my lips. "Percy Jackson."

"Well, Percy, I'll see you around."

Percy made his way to his first-period History class, where he laid eyes upon a thin, middle-aged man in the middle of the room. "Class, this is Percy Jackson. Our new student." Percy held his hand up and waved, which was also kind of embarrassing on his part.

Mr. Hart gestured towards the only empty seat in the classroom as Percy sat down. The other students took their time to stare at the new student menacingly, which sent a shiver down his spine.

"Alright, open your books to page 352."