Life's Complicatios

School

Percy's POV

"Hey Percy! How was class today?" Grover asked loudly as he ran towards me.

"Oh, the same as always. Physical education was fun, and maths lesson rocked, but the rest was boring as usual." I said in a cheerful tone from my seat. It was recess time, and my class was released early, thus I was the first few to get a table.

"You only love Physical education because it's swimming! Now I bet if it was running or Frisbee..." Grover said with a grin as he sat down on my right, his tray filled with so many types of food that I can't even count. Well, if that were anybody else but Grover, it would have been weird, but if it is Grover...let's just say I'm surprised he's not obese yet.

Oh, I forgot the introductions. I'm Percy Jackson, a 16-year-old teenage boy who attends half-blood school. Don't ask me why the school's name is so weird, as the only assumption I can give of why it's so weird is that considering the fact that our principal is one of a kind, I would not expect a normal name for the school.

"Don't even mention it..." I grumbled as I scooped a spoonful of rice into my mouth. Last year, physical education consisted of running and Frisbee. I hated Frisbee. It was so damn boring. All we had to do was throw and catch and throw and catch and jog a few steps, and adding the fact that I'm ADHD, jogging a few steps was not enough for me, and I had to constraint myself from going into a full sprint around the whole place.

Running was fine, until I slipped on a banana skin and fell, which caused me several bruises and dislocated my arm, and if these injuries sound too unbelievable, know that I was sprinting full speed when I slipped. Why was I sprinting at full speed? Blame my ADHD, obviously.

Oh, did I mention that I love swimming? It is so far the best sport that I have ever played, and personally I think it should be the top sport in the world. Well, maybe that opinion is idiotic, considering the fact that swimming just consists of no action, just swim your fastest and try to win the guys beside you, but seriously, swimming is the only sport I am very good in. When I say very good, I mean it. I got first in school for all the levels last year. Which means I had beaten even the top for the 18-year-olds. I must have gotten the genes from my father...

"Hi, kelp face. Mind if I sit here?" a voice asked me from behind. I didn't need to know whom it belonged to. There was only one person in the world that I allowed to call me kelp face.

"Sure, no problem, pinecone face." I replied, emphasizing the words 'pinecone face'. The person merely sniffed and set her food tray down on the table, and sat on my left. That person is none other than Thalia Grace, one of the strongest and toughest girl in school. Even though she's strong and tough, she doesn't use her strength to bully others, unlike some other girls I know, which likes to be feared and act all tough. Those types sickens me.

I turned my head, looked at her in the eyes and asked in a soft tone "Did anything happen yesterday?" She looked at me with cold, guarded eyes, but it immediately softened as she saw mine.

"No, she was already asleep when I reached home. I guess I got lucky.." She replied, equally soft. She tried to keep the sadness and pain from her voice, but failed miserably. I won't explain into detail, but let's just say that even though she acts like a normal 16-year-old teenager, her life is far from being normal, and as I said earlier, she only acts like a normal teenager. Her life is actually pretty messed up. There were very few people who can actually see pass her facade of toughness and coolness, and even fewer people actually knew about her messed up life. I'm both, in case you're wondering.

Seeing the pain in her eyes as she replied, I grabbed her hand and squeezed it lightly. I know, not your typical way of comforting someone, but for Thalia, it was what she really needed. To know that she had someone there for her. Just so you know, I treat her as a sister, not a girlfriend, so squeezing her hand was just a brotherly act, not some sign of teenage love. I'm sorry if you thought that that was unnecessary, but hearing gossips from others in school about "toughest girl in school actually got a hug from Percy!" or "He must be her girlfriend, if she actually allows him to hold her hand!" does not help to ease my mind, and instead makes me kind of paranoid.

She gave me a watery smile, the pain in her eyes easing somewhat. I smiled back and let go of her hand as Grover, who was another one who knew about her, said a few words of comfort. She smiled at him too, then turned back to her food and started to eat. We all followed her example, and silence ensued. She didn't say thank you, but the smile she gave showed it all.

After a while, a wiry, lanky boy quietly sat in front of me, setting his tray down, which contained at least three times less food than Grover. He was none other than Nico Di Angelo, a pale, quiet boy who only talks to us, and nobody else. He noticed the tense atmosphere, and glanced at Thalia who had her head down, eating her food, though I think she was doing that just to avoid people looking at her face, which was most probably tear-stained.

After staring at her head for a few seconds, he turned towards me and gazed at me questioningly.

"Did something happen yesterday?" He mouthed the question.

"No, nothing happened. What about you?" I mouthed back, seeing his weary look, and also carefully concealed hurt in his eyes, though I spotted it easily. That was one of the abilities I had – I could read almost everyone's feelings through their eyes, no matter how good they conceal them. It's an unnerving ability to many, including me. Knowing almost everyone's emotions was not in my "top ten things I want to do" list.

Nico frowned at me, and shook his head and went back for his food. I sighed mentally. Why does all our lives have to be so difficult? And the fact that Grover had not tried to break the silence means that he had problems and dilemmas of his own too. Usually, when we had this kind of situations, he would go all "Bla-ha-ha!" and then start talking about something that happened in his class.

"Bla-ha-ha! Hey guys, something totally weird, happened in chemistry class today! Not only that, it was epic! Well, you see, we had to add some dangerous chemicals together and then Mr. Ong accidentally...." Grover started talking suddenly in a cheerful tone... I stand corrected, though I'm not really sure about him having troubles or not as he is one of the few people who could actually hide their feelings from me.

Glad for the topic change, I immediately laughed when he said about a chemical exploding in Mr. Ong's face. Slowly but surely, Thalia and Nico cheered up and started to add in to our conversation, and we started talking and acting as though what had just happened five minutes ago did not happen at all. We talked all the way till the end of recess, and then went to Greek class. We were all very good in Greek, and always got top four, and usually I was the fourth...but that's good enough for me.

Looking at them talking happily when we walked towards class, I wondered about each and every one of them. Each of them had their problems, and very messy ones. Even Grover had problems in his life. They hid their problems in facades that can only be thrown away when we were alone, and they had each other and me for comfort...I can't help but envy them.

They don't know, they don't know about me. My past life before moving here, before coming to this school, but I plan to make it stay that way, no matter how much I envy them or how jealous I am towards them. They had their own problems to deal with, and I will help them solve it. Whatever my problems are, I'll leave it for later. Right now, they are like brothers and sisters to me, a family I lost years ago, and I will help them.

I had made a promise so many years ago, a promise to the two most important people in my life eleven years ago, and I'm determined to keep it.

The promise was to always protect those that I cared for, to be able to help them through their troubles and needs, to care for them before I care for myself. It was the promise I made in front of their graves that changed my life, and also the promise that will keep changing my life.

It was a promise to my deceased parents, who died right before my eyes.