Fangirl School (Percy Jackson)

Lucas's Story

"Wait, so, let me get this straight. In the friend group, you had Emma Smith, Jodie Wade, Brie May Douglas, Elias Jeminez, and Connor Clements?" I asked, counting off on my fingers.

Lucas nodded.

"And Brie May, Elias, and Connor all knew each other from their old school?"

"That's right," Lucas said.

"And Emma and Jodie are best friends?"

"Yup."

"And Brie insisted on being called Brie May for some reason?"

Lucas laughed. "Yeah, you've got it. Emma and Jodie transferred in from the Harry Potter fandom two weeks in. They almost joined your group, actually, but decided not to."

"Huh. I didn't realize we had so many friend groups in our year."

And truly, I didn't. Our group mostly kept to ourselves, since we were big enough as it was. I knew Freya, Fiona's sister, had her own group of girls who'd only enrolled in Fangirl School because they were flanking regular school, but I didn't realize there were that many.

"Yeah. Can you imagine? So many people, each with different stories and inside jokes. Don't worry, though. Your group stands out because of you. And Fiona, of course."

"Why do you keep calling it my group?" I blurted, then immediately regretted it- until Lucas shrugged and said, "It's your group, isn't it? You sort of started it. I'm the new guy. You guys are all super tight."

"Lucas, we are your friends," I said firmly. I wanted to reach out and take his hand but refrained, reminding myself that Delphine likes him. I settled for scooching a bit closer to him. "It's our friend group, okay?"

He smiled. "Okay."

"Great," I said. "So do tell me- what happened with this group?"

"Well," Lucas began. "You know Fangirl School is completely free, right? Everything is provided by the founders."

"That we're going to go fight," I added. "Yes."

"Well, Emma Smith turned out to be really poor," he continued. "Like, doesn't even sleep on a proper bed poor. She never read the books. She met Jodie at the entrance exams and they cheated."

"How could they cheat?" I asked, remembering how secure the entrance exam room was.

"Your guess is as good as mine. That whole group was sneaky as anything. It should've been my sign to walk away on my own, but no," he said. "Anyway, I made friends with Brie May, Connor, and Elias on the first day. They knew stuff. They were in close cahoots with Janet Lee. Exchanged 'business stuff.' At least that's what they called it. Basically, from what I've been able to gather, Janet paid them to smuggle stuff in for her. Most of her 'pranks' weren't even pulled off by her."

My eyebrows furrowed together. I knew Janet was a terrible person, and she tended to have lots of surprise pranks we'd never even seen her set up, but I had no idea she'd been paying people to do those.

"Exactly," he said, seeing my expression. "Of course, I had no idea until I was far too deep in to leave. Emma and Jodie showing up made things even worse. They dragged me into doing some things I shouldn't have. Nothing like drugs or drinking or anything," he said hastily once he saw my expression. "Just some stuff a goody-two-shoes like me wouldn't do. At least that's what they called it. They copied my work, they made me keep secrets, bunch of stuff."

"Oh, Lucas," I said quietly. "I'm so sorry. How did you get out of it?"

"Total accident. Around February I was telling a friend from my old school all about it. My mom overheard. She told the school board. Got everyone in trouble except me. They kicked me to the curb and would've beaten me if I hadn't sworn it was an accident. I sort of wandered around by myself for a couple of weeks until I remembered you and how nice you were to me when we did the project together."

My expression softened involuntarily. Just because I'd been kind to him during a school project, he'd been able to find friends. I had highly doubted I'd ever speak to him again after the project, yet here we were. I just got major butterfly effect. What if he'd gotten assigned somebody else?

"I'm glad you decided to come sit with us that day," I said quietly.

"Me too," he said, in the exact same tone and volume.

We sat in silence for a minute.

I had helped him after all. I wasn't completely useless to him.

I stole a glance at him. His blue eyes stared at the floor. I wondered what was going on in his head.

"I should probably go home," he said, getting up. "It's late. My mom will kill me if I'm out past curfew."

He stopped for a moment. "Thanks for listening, Y/N," he said. "I really needed to let that out, but I didn't know who to trust."

"You can always trust me," I said, getting up too. "Just like I can always trust you."

He smiled. Why did Delphine always complain that she couldn't ever make him smile, when i could do it so easily?

I walked him to the door. If he was a girl, this was the part where I'd hug him and maybe blow a kiss depending on who it was. But he wasn't, so I ended up awkwardly opening the door and standing there while he put his jacket and shoes on. (As an arab i will write Lucas with manners and make him take his shoes off at the door, because i swear only americans wear shoes inside the house. *grumbles* americans.)

"Thanks again," he said as he stepped out the door. "I'll see you, right?"

"Yeah, I said, stuttering a little from the blast of cold. Lucas smiled, waved, then shoved his hand back into his pocket as quickly as possible.

I went back up to my room, opened my phone, and just stared at it.

I knew I couldn't keep this experience to myself. I had to tell someone. I wouldn't tell them the story because that was Lucas's thing to share. But something in me screamed at me to tell someone that Lucas had surprised me at my house, and that we'd had a conversation he wanted to have with someone he trusted.

But who? Delphine? Heck no. She liked him. I couldn't do that to her. Fiona? She was my best friend, but I didn't want her to convince me to tell Delphine. I made a mental note to tell Fiona, but not now. Not yet.

The only options I saw in front of me were Jacqueline and Theone, but I didn't have Theone's number. So Jacqueline it was.

I found her number and hit dial. Her voice came on moments later.

"Hello?"

"Girl, I have to tell you something," I said excitedly.

(A/N: chapter dropped sooner than expected, considering it's the first day of school and all. This one may have taken the longest time to brainstorm and write because up till now I've had ZERO pre-friendship backstory for Lucas. But here it is, and I've managed to drop Janet lore since some of y'all seem to hate her so much. We've built firm trust between Y/N and Lucas, but maybe there's some other people we need to get to trust us...)