The Olympian Of McKinley High

Chapter 13: Jumping

"So have you made up your mind about joining glee club yet?" Quinn said when she had caught Percy at his locker after lunch.

Percy held her gaze for a moment before he shook his head. "No, I haven't decided yet."

Quinn's eyes grew questioning as she leaned against the lockers. "Why not? Come'on, glee is fun!"

"Then why don't you just rejoin then?" Percy rebutted back a little fiercely. In front of him Quinn shook her head.

"I'm not joining without you." she stubbornly as she crossed her arms across her chest in defiance. Percy felt like punching the wall. 

"You make no sense! One minute you want to join and the next you don't! Make up your mind!" Percy's voice had risen in volume and was starting to attract attention from passing students in the hallway. Quinn subconsciously looked at her surroundings before turning back to the raven haired boy.

"My mind is made up. I will rejoin the New Directions, but only if you join with me. I told you Percy. You are part of my family now." Her eyes had grown soft as she spoke about family. Percy felt a little lost in them. He had no idea why she felt the way she did about the prospect of family.

Percy shrugged as he slung his backpack over his shoulder and closed his locker. "Well I'm not sure if I'll be joining the club. It does sound pretty amazing, but I can't sing and I'm actually kind of interested in joining the swim team."

The storm was Quinn's blue eyes. Percy was briefly reminded of how stormy Annabeth's grey eyes could get sometimes. He quickly shook that memory from his mind. He didn't want to get homesick again.

"You know what, it doesn't matter!" Quinn shouted back. She was angry. Before Percy could say anything again she had spun around on her heels and had walked off only to disappear in the girl's bathroom. Percy stood frozen out of shock. As he stood and stared at the bathroom door, he became even more surprised when Puck entered the lady's room too.

The ringing of the late bell woke Percy up and out of the haze he had found himself in. He scurried off to his history class in the hopes of not getting in trouble for being late. He already had detention for showing up late to his first class earlier that morning.

***

The rest of the day flew by and before he knew it, Percy was sitting at a desk in the assigned detention classroom. He sat with his head on the desk as he tried to doze off and take a nap. This plan backfired when he jumped awake to the sound of a ruler hitting the desk right next to his ear. He looked up to find a manish woman in a track suit looking down at him.

"What do you think your doing?" She questioned with an air of fake curiosity. Percy sat up as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He jumped slightly again when the teacher spoke once more. "On second thought, I have a better question. Who are you?"

"Percy Jackson. I'm new to the school this year." He said easily as he looked up at the blonde woman.

She smiled coldly before she answered. "Oh, good. For a moment I thought I had just overlooked you for the past couple of years. I'm Coach Sue Sylvester, cheerleading coach."

"It's nice to meet you." Percy said bleakly as he looked around at the other kids in the room. There were only three other kids present. One was Jacob Ben Israel, the other was a tall boy with darker skin sporting a varsity jacket, and the third was a young girl that appeared to have something like Downs Syndrome. She was also hearing a cheerleading uniform. This confused Percy a little.

Over the PA system, a loud beep occurred. This made Percy jump again.

"Awe! I was hoping to spend some time getting to know you and your weaknesses, Champ. Sadly, detention is over. I guess I'll have to find you and torture you another day." With that, Sue got up and left without another word. Percy sighed heavily as he got up out of the desk and headed back out into the halls.

Percy hated how jumpy he had been that day. He wanted to do nothing more but go for a swim. Ironically, he happened to pass the pool hallway and decided to check it out.

The pool was exactly as he had suspected; long and narrow. The water called to him. He ached to jump in and relax in the refreshing pool. His desire was to strong and it wasn't a moment later that he had dumped his bag and shoes and had jumped into the deep end of the pool.

He allowed himself to sink towards the bottom and just relaxed. He felt all of his muscles and nerves release the tension that had been building since he had arrived in Ohio. The water felt so good on his skin.

He stayed below the surface for a few minutes until he'd had enough. When he felt better in every aspect of his being, he used his powers to propel himself towards the surface of the water. When he reached the side of the pool, he pulled himself out and sat on the edge for a moment. He was startled by the sound of a voice echoing though the pool room.

"Boy, what the hell do you think you were doing!" Percy looked up to find an angry woman staring back at him. The woman had darker skin and bleach blonde hair.

"I was going for a swim." Percy said as he stated the obvious. The woman only seemed to grow more angry at his response.

"I saw you jump in and I was going to wait until you came back up for air before I yelled at you. Only, you didn't come back up for air. You stayed down there for almost five minutes and that's only counting the minutes I actually timed you. You were under there for almost three more before that." 

Percy felt his face grow a little red under the eyes of the girl in front of him. It was obvious she was the swim coach. Right when Percy thought he was about to get into even more trouble, the coaches frown turned completely upside down.

"Have you ever considered joining the swim team?"

***

Happy Monday! I had to get this chapter done for you guys. I stayed up late to finish it and post it. Off to bed now... ZZZzzzzzz