Time to Meet Percabeth

Zeke Tilley

Zeke Tilley.

I stood beside the teacher's desk in the melancholy English classroom at Goode High. My teacher, Mr Blofis had insisted that I speak to him after class concerning my grades. Honestly, I wasn't doing too well and I was pretty sure that he was going to tell me that I needed a tutor.

"Zeke Tilley," Mr Blofis sighed. "I've warned you about your grades before. If you want to stay in this class, you're going have to work harder."

"I'm sorry, sir," I said.

"You don't need to apologise to me, Zeke, you just need to make sure you don't let yourself down. You're a bright kid and with some help, you could be doing really well."

"So you're assigning me a tutor?" I asked.

He thought for a moment. "I was going to drop you in to the school's tutoring programme but I don't think they'll be able to help you properly."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"I have found you a tutor, but payment is required," he told me. "It's completely optional, but I think this could be really good for you."

"Okay." I think about it. My parents were pretty rich, so the payment wasn't an issue and I really needed good grades if I wanted to go to college next year. "I'll take you up on that offer."

"Brilliant!" Mr Blofis smiled. "After school tomorrow, Percy- you know Percy, don't you? - will drive you to where you need to be."

Everybody knew Percy Jackson. He was quite possibly the best guy you could ever meet. He was modest, sweet and hilarious- he was really good looking too. But he was well-known for skipping classes and getting bad grades himself, so maybe we were both being entered into this tutoring programme thing. So, the next day, I asked him.

"Percy, are you being tutored here too?" We were in his car, a simple blue Prius, on the way to tutoring. I didn't know that much about Percy, but we often spoke to each other in lessons and sometimes hung out at lunch if we couldn't find anyone else around.

"No, not really," he laughed. "Not today, anyway."

"So how come you're driving me?"

"Paul didn't tell you?" He looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

"Paul? You mean Mr Blofis?"

Percy nodded. "Yeah. Well he's my step-dad and I'm just driving you to our apartment."

"How come nobody knows he's your step-dad?" I asked him as he pulled up on to the curb outside of a small apartment complex.

"It's none of their business, I guess." We both climbed out of the cars and Percy reached into the backseat to fetch his backpack and also pulled out what looked like a bag of groceries. At my questioning look, he said, "My mom needed more ingredients to make her cookies. They're amazing- she'll probably make some for you."

Percy led me up the stairs to his apartment and I happily trotted behind him.

"Mom?" Percy called as he entered the apartment.

A woman replied from somewhere else in the apartment and Percy followed the sound of the woman's voice- probably his mom- to a kitchen, where a woman with long brown hair stood beside the stove chatting to a beautiful teenage girl who had honey-blonde hair. The girl was trailing a hand across the edge of the work surface and her forehead was creased in thought.

She looked up and smiled at us as we entered the room and I awkwardly stood in the doorway of the kitchen as Percy handed the bag of groceries to the blonde who promptly placed the bag on the table and he bent down so that his mom could place a kiss on his cheek.